NOOOO!!!!!

Hi family!  How are you all doing?  Congrats on finishing Ragnar!  Next year I want to do the phoenix Marathon with you Papi!!  That is one of my goals!  Woo!!  Well sad news... Changes came and Hermana Butterfield left.  I am with Hermana Bailey now.  is from Utah!  She is from the same group as Hermana Butterfield and Hermana Fogg so now I have been companions with all of them!  haha  Elder Albino left too.... He was one of my best friends!  I'm so sad!  It was so sad to see Elder Sanchez and Albino leave eachother.  Things won't be the same but oh well!  That's the mission!  I can't believe this is my last change!  I really can't believe it.  It hasn't settled into my mind yet and probably won't until the week before I go home.  But I still have a lot of time and am going to work super hard!!!

 

Well this week has been good!  I don't remember what I have told you and what I have not but Liliana came to church!  She is the neighbor of an investigator that we have and she has a date for the 17th!  She is really cute I love her.  Her husband doesn't want to get married though.  We have to work a miracle with him.  But it can be done!  The Duque family have been investigators forever because she has to get divorced to be able to get married and this week we went with her to sign the papers!!  Woo!  Now her ex has to sign and then we have to wait up to 3 months they said for the papers to get processed.  Ugh... But oh well!  I am praying that they go through faster! Juan Carlos finally accepted a date for the 17th!  But he wasn't able to come to church.  We are going to visit him tonight.

 

Well family I know this is short I'm sorry but my mind is spinning and I don't know what to write right now! haha I love you all and am so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to serve here in Ecuador! Have a great week!!

 

xoxoxoxxoxXo

Love forever and always,

Hermana Nelson

Happy Days!

Hi family!!  

How are you all doing?  What did you do for President's Day? I  had no idea it was President's Day!  haha  It's Carnaval here... Basically a country-wide water fight!  I only got one water ballon thrown at me today!  It's not too big in Quito.  I hear it's worst in the coast!  But it looks like a lot of fun and I wish I could play!  Well, another week come and gone way too fast!  Time is FLYING!!!  I don't know where it is all going!  It is scaring me because I don't have that much time left!  And what is left is going to go by even faster! 

We found a couple new people this week.  Jovanna and Lucia.  They both accepted baptismal dates!  We gave Jovanna a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment and when we went back she handed me the book and said that she couldn't read it and she didn't want us to visit her anymore... I'm not sure what happened.  I think maybe her family talked to her but it was really sad.  Lucia has been busy, we haven't been able to visit her again and she couldn't come to church.

The Villagomez family, we haven't been able to see them too much either.  We were able to talk to her one night and she was crying because her and her husband have been fighting lately.  It was sad but we gave her some love and hope!  But they weren't able to come to church either. 

The Aldaz family, we went to visit them on Friday and we found a few doubts that they have.  She is very Catholic and doesn't like that we don't worship Mary.  Juan Carlos thinks all religions lead you back to God and it doesn't matter which one you join.  So it looks like we are going to be teaching the Restoration over and over again until they get it!  Alison is still as cute as ever!  I still need to take a picture with her and send it to you! 

As a zone we do something called a Bufaleada - we go sing to all of our investigators every Sunday and sometimes Wednesday if we need to.  Anyway yesterday we were coming home from the Bufadeada with the zone leaders and the district leaders and their companions and Elder Albino - one of the zone leaders - had been sad all day, well for a few weeks because of all the stress of the mission and being zone leader and he just broke down yesterday.  He was crying and started hyperventilating and zoned out so Elder Sànchez and I were trying to get him to come back to his senses but he wasn't so we sat him down and his muscles were all tense from the hyperventilation.  This is what happened to me is Santo Domingo when I had my little but not so little break down so I knew the symptoms and what to do!  So I got him to breathe normally with me and they were massaging his arms, hands and legs trying to get him to relax.  Elder Taquez gave him a blessing and he started calming down and after a while was able to get to the house!  I called the nurse afterwards and told her what happened and she said it's good to give them milk because the calcium helps!  One thing I didn't know!  So next time someone starts hyperventilating you all know what to do!  Have them breathe in a bag or cover their face while breathing and give them a glass of milk to drink!  Nursing 101!  haha It's experiences like these that I remember why I want to be a nurse!  Oh and Elder Albino is okay now!  He is feeling better today!

I love the mission!  Even though it is still so hard everyday!  I try not to stress myself out because I feel like we take 10 steps forward and 20 steps back every week and I feel like we are never going to lift our program.  3 months without a baptism.  Satan is working very hard on us and everyone in this zone.  Everyone is going through some personal problem!  But trials are to make us stronger!  I am so grateful for the Atonement and the Gospel in my life.  I don't know how I would live without it.  I love you family!!  Have the best week ever!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoXo

Love forever and always,

Hermana Nelson

February Fun!

Hi family!!!  It sounds like life is just as busy as usual!  Things are going well here.  We are still working to try and build us a program.  We have a few people who look like they are going to progress well!  We have been contacting a lot and we have found a few old investigators..  I'm not sure if it is their time yet or not but I keep praying for them!  Sunday a member brought a reference to church, his name is Juan Carlos and he seems golden! I'm excited!  We have an appointment with him tomorrow and we are going to set a baptism date!  Keep him in your prayers please!  Another little miracle!  A lady in our ward came up to us after church and told us that she wants her son to be baptized!  She said her husband isn't a member and he doesn't want to let him but we are going to talk to him this week!  This month is going to be a successful one!  I just have to work hard and have faith!

Fun story!  So there is this crazy man who always rides his bike down the street and he doesn't like the missionaries so he always trys to scare us and the other night we were walking down the street and he rode by and spit in my face!  It was so nasty!  I didn't really know what to do because it surprized me!  So that was my fun experience for the week!  haha

Saturday we had a mini zone conference and it was awesome and just what I needed cause I had been feeling down lately about my sector and didn't know what to do!  But Elder Albino talked about having faith, hope and charity.  And without one we can't have the others.  And I was lacking in all three I think, so it really helped a lot. And Elder Sànchez talked about Pres. Monsons talk in the January Liahona Living the Abundant Life and the three things we need to do to have an abundant life.  A positive attitude, believing in yourself, and having courage. I love that talk! And Elder Sànchez related it to of course missionary work and it was really good! It helped me a lot.  I don't really understand why we have been having such a hard time but I know there is a reason and lessons I need to learn from this.  I love being a missionary.  I love the good times, the hard times, and the confusing times.  I have never felt Satan's opposition so real in my life but I also have never felt the Atonement so real in my life either and I am grateful for it all to be able to understand just a little bit more, the Saviors love. Thank you family for all that you do for me.  I am so grateful to have you.  I hope you all have a great week! xoxoxoxoXo

Love forever and always,

Hermana Nelson