Navidad!

Hi family!! 

It was so great to talk to you all yesterday!!  This was the best Christmas ever!!!!  We did a service project at a school and we sang carols, gave out presents and gave them cake and soda!  It was so fun to see their faces and how excited they were.  It was so gratifying being able to make those kids' Christmas special.  They probably won't remember our faces but some day in the future they will see missionaries with nametags and remember that day! 

Christmas Eve a family in the stake invited the zone over for breakfast and it was fun just being together, listening to  Christmas music, playing UNO and eating!  I love our zone!  Afterwards we went with the other Elders who are in our ward to visit the bishop and we went with him to sing carols to his neighbors!  We would decide what song we were going to sing before knocking on the door and one time we chose to sing Away In a Manger.  So we knocked on the door the husband let us in and we walked inside singing and we saw the mom with a newborn baby in her arms!  She was crying and so happy!  It was so cool!!  The next door we sang at was a recently widowed lady and her family and her and her daughter were crying as they thanked us!  Then later that night we went with the stake president and his family to sing carols to the someone who was sick in bed and to a few other families with a child in the mission!  It was fun to let them see that their missionaries were happy like us sharing the gospel with others.  It has been so fun going caroling these past two weeks!  And even though we all have sore throats from singing so much everyone was so grateful and multiple people said that it was the best Christmas present ever!  But really it was a gift to us being able to bring the Christmas spirit to others and to remember the true meaning of Christmas!  It was the best Christmas ever!!! 

I am so grateful for the Savior and His life and I am going to always remember this special Christmas He has given me.  Thank you family for making it possible for me to be here!  I love you all!! xoxoxXo

Love forever and always,

Hermana Nelson

 

Jacque, Hna. Umana and Hna. Butterfield

                                                  

Zone Calderon in our caroling outfits

                                                     

The Zone at the Christmas dinner with the President

The Zone giving service at the School

Feliz Navidad!

MI querida familia!! 
Hi! Are you all so excited for Christmas??  I am!  I can't believe it is less than a week!  Time has flown by!  This week we have been going caroling as zone!  It's been fun!  Even though the Elders love to sing The First Noel and I am sick of that song because we have sang it over a hundred times!  haha But we have been finding a lot of new people!  They are more receptive after hearing a Christmas Carol! 

Last week we recieved a reference of a 15 year old girl, Genesis, and we went to visit her and we met her mom and step dad!  It was an interesting experience. We knocked on the door and the dad told us that Genesis was at the neighbors house in front.  So we crossed the street and she came out with an older lady and the lady started yelling at us telling us that we have a different Gospel and we aren't welcome in her house because we don't believe in Jesus Christ etc.  It was fun!  haha  So we finally got Genesis in her house and we met her mom and dad and aunt.  We invited them all to church and so Sunday came around and church started and they weren't there but during the Sacrament the dad, Abdel,  came!  Afterwards we talked to him and he said he was supposed to go to Guayaquil but that he felt like he should stay and go to church!  And he said he felt the Spirit there like he has never felt in another church!  It was awesome! Oh yeah and he is from Italy and speaks Italian!  He understands a little Spanish and speaks even less.  He is awesome though!  It was our early Christmas present! 

The zone also had an early white Christmas this weekend!  9 people were baptized and confirmed!  Yay!!  We probably won't have any baptisms this month because opening a sector is a slow process but next year is going to be awesome!! I love Christmas time! And I love being in the mission at Christmas time!  We get to focus everything on the true meaning on Christmas!!  Thank you for the best Christmas present ever for letting me be on the mission and for all that you do to help and support me!  I love you all!!  I hope you all have the best Christmas ever!  I'll talk to you on Sunday!!!! AHHHHH!!! 

p.s. Sorry this is a little shorter.. We have a Christmas dinner with President today and we have to leave early! 

Love you!!! xoxoxoxoxxXo

Love forever and always,

Hermana Nelson

Regocijad!!‏

Hi familia!!  How is everyone doing?  haha it sounds like Maddie's birthday party was awesome!  Of course you went overboard Mami!!  I can't wait to see the pictures!  Well this week has been... interesting!  Something crazy happened every day!  First, Monday in the offices we went up stairs to bring down my suitcases and Hna. Umaña got stuck in the elevator!  haha  That night we had two other Hnas with us because the Hna who lived in the house before us came to get her stuff.  And a member was coming to get them to take them and their stuff to their house.  So we helped them out and said goodbye and when we came back the keys wouldn't work!  I had grabbed the wrong set of keys!  This was about 9:45.  We called our district leader to come over and help us break in so we waited for about 10 minutes and decided to ask some people who were outside having a little party in our apartment complex to help us.  So they tried the card thing and that wasn't working.  So they went and got a ladder and climbed through the window and opened the door for us!  At 10:30 we finally got inside and our District Leader never got there so we called and told him never mind.  We found out later that he was walking down the wrong street!  Then Tuesday, Hna. Umaña was showering and Hna. Butterfield was drying her hair and the lights went out!  And we flipped the breakers but it wouldn't come back on!  And then we were waiting for the bus and Hna. Umaña and I got on and then everyone was like wait! Wait! And we turned around and saw Hna. Butterfield running after the bus! hahahahahaha She didn't see us get on!  It was hilarious!  Then that night we got home and we had lights!  But then Wednsday morning the same thing happened... So we found the city electric people and they came and looked at our breakers and said that it was burned so we had to go buy a new one and the guard at the house put it in for us!  Thursday we were supposed to go with our zone leaders to find a family and we told them to meet us at the 4 esquinas!  Well, apparently there are two 4 esquinas because after an hour of waiting we called to see where they were and they were like where are you??  They were waiting for us at one 4 esquinas and we were at the other!  haha  Friday we found out that a lady we set a date with who is basically a member but hasn't been baptized, was ex-communicated!  So she isn't our baptism.  We have a family and another lady with a date in January but they didn't come to church so we will see how that works out.. Other than that we are still getting to know our sector and trying to find new people.  But I have had more success in this week that I had in my 4 months in Vargas!  haha  It has been fun being in a trio!  It's more exciting!  haha  Well family I love you all! Thank you for all that you do so that I can be here on the mission!  Yesterday we shared 1 Nephi 11 the verses when Nephi sees the birth of Christ and she has a son on the mission so we were talking about the love that God has for us to send his Son to earth and the love she is showing to send her son on the mission and I thought of you Mami!  Thank you for the love you have for the people here to send me on the mission!  I know it isn't easy.  I love you!!! Have a great week!! 

xoxoxxXo

Love forever and always,

Hermana Nelson

P.S. I think we are going to be calling, or you are calling me, on Sunday but I'm still not sure what time.  I will let you know next week!! 

December

Hi family!! 

Wow this day has been crazy!!  But first, Happy Birthday Maddie!!!!! I  love you!!!! 

Okay so last night we got our changes and I was going to Chillogallo and Hna. Allen was staying in our sector.  So we packed all my things but I had let Hna. Hernandez use one of my suitcases when she left because everything didn't fit in hers.  So Hna. Allen let me use one of her suitcases!  So we got everything packed and down the flight of stairs to get to the troley station and when we got there the elders told us that the changes got changed. Hna. Allen is going to Chillogallo and I am going to Calderón and they are closing Vargas!  So the elders took all my luggage to the offices, we had to go back home and pack all of her stuff and since I had her suitcase she had to pack in a box and a garbage bag!  haha I felt bad.  So pretty much is has been a crazy day but changes are always like that!  So now I am in Calderón in a trio with Hna. Butterfield from Wyoming and Hna. Umaña from Costa Rica!  Hna. Umaña was here for about a month and then her companion hurt her foot and couldn't work so they took them out.  So there is no program!  Yay!!  But I guess I didn't have one in Vargas either so it's nothing new.  I'm sad to leave though because Edison Cajas has a baptism date for the 27th!  I hope the Elders take care of him. 

I hope you all had fun in Utah!!  Willie and Connie's twins look adorable!!!  Grandma sent me a picture!  What did they name them?  Maddie has two birthday buddies!!! haha 

Well I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time to write but I will talk to you all next week!!!  I love you all! 

xoxoxXo

Love forever and always,

Hermana Nelson

P.S. 

This is the zig zag and the flight of stairs that we had to go up and down everyday in Vargas!! 

The zig zag stairs in Vargas that we climbed every day!

Stairs, stairs and more stairs!!

Goodbye November

Hi family!!  How was your Thanksgiving?  I haven't had time to read the email yet so I don't know!  haha They don't celebrate Thanksgiving here so we didn't do anything special!  But that's okay!  I can't believe November is almost over! T hat means Christmas is almost here and even worse that means that the year is almost over!!  Crazy how fast time flys!  3 Elders are going home next week; both of the district leaders and a zone leader.  I'm sad!  They become like brothers and it's sad to see someone go!  And that means there are going to be a ton of changes in the zone!  Elder Rodriguez, an elder in the zone hurt his knee a couple weeks ago and got sent home to have a surgery but they said he can come back next change.  That was sad too! 

Guadalupe is doing so well!!  She seems so happy I love it!  And I love her mom!!  She makes me laugh!  We went to visit Guadalupe this week and her mom was awake so she was in the lesson with us and she can't hear anything so she was just sitting there.  Well about every 3 minutes she would say ¨It's cold!¨ Or ¨I've lived in this house for 20 years.  My son lives downstairs.¨  Or ¨My husband drank a lot and one day drank too much and was gone.¨  And again ¨It´s cold!¨  haha it was funny.  And in Relief Society there weren't enough chairs left for us all to sit together so I sat in front with her mom and she would ask over and over again Where's Guadalupe?  And I would tell her she's behind us don't worry!  And then she would say oh I thought she abandoned me!  haha The same thing every 5 minutes it was fun!  haha  

We still don't have any progressing investigators right now..  A couple weeks ago and Elder taught in district meeting about antiguo investigators- I don't know what they are called in english... Old?  anyway we decided to call all of the antiguos and futures and we made an appointment with the Cajas family!  The mom Silvia and 2 kids Edison and Irene!  They hadn't been visited for about a year so we went to see them and when we got there they were so nice and friendly!  They told us that that week they had been thinking about the missionaries and everything they had learned and they pulled out the Book of Mormon again and then we showed up!!  They had a baptism date but the day the kids were going to get baptized the dad said no.  Siliva told her mom that she wanted to get baptized and her mom got mad and stopped talking to her for a few weeks so she feels like she can't get baptized because of her mom.  Anyway I think that they might be ready this time!  I am praying for that!  Edison said he was thinking if he would have gotten baptized he would be on a mission right now!  He really wants to serve a mission!  They didn't come to church though.  He feels like everyone is going to say something to them because they haven't been in so long.  But hopefully they will be able to make the change!  They really want to and know they need to they just need a little more faith to do it!  So keep them in your prayers please!! 

Well that's about all that's going on right now.. Things are kinda slow.  Hopefully we can pick it up!  It is always darkest right before dawn!!  I love you all and am so grateful for all that you are doing for me!!  Keep on keepin´ on!!!  Love you!  Have a good week and have fun in Utah!!!  Tell Porter I am praying for him and know he will make it through!  Stay strong!!  xoxoxXo

Love forever and always,

Hermana Nelson