Monday, December 31, 2012

:D

Familyyyy!
 
Firstly, we're moving! The lady we live with wanted us to be out by the end of the transfer (Jan13), but the mission office decided we needed to be out tomorrow. So that's the plan!
 
Secondly, Christmas week is the worst; everybody goes out of town T_T.  But there are a lot of investigators that are SO CLOSE! A few even really really want to be baptized, but due to circumstances outside their control they can't :( So we're praying for them and putting their names on the temple roll. We'll manage.
 
I did get to see the corner of the mission today, too. Cross the street and you're done for! *dundundunnn* I took a picture haha.
 
Cool story though! One of our investigators, Sean, just got married to a member, Debbie, in November. (She's the one who helped me find a bassoon.) We've been going over to their house periodically and having a lot of contact with each other, which has been great. This week we asked if we could come over, and she said sure! Unbeknownst to us, her two daughters and their non-member hubbys were also there. We visited, played a scripture game (and one not.... *brick'd*), said a prayer, and left. The next day after sacrament, Debbie came up to us and told us about how one of her NM son-in-laws had visited with the missionaries in his area before (they're in Kansas normally) and he'd been turned off before by the missionaries. Too much pushing, he claims. So when Sean told him that we were coming over, he was understandably nervous and said he'd leave and come back later. But Sean stuck up for us and said that we were nice, friendly, and not forceful. Hurrah! So he really likes us and we are really excited! I think he knows the church is a good thing and he doesn't have any qualms with it, but it's one of those things where I think he'll be friendshipped into the church better than convinced into it. Kinda what Elder Oaks said in stake conference way back in May - "No one is ever threatened, forced, or blackmailed into the church - but they are all loved into it." I think that'll be key with Sean, and it's obviously working :) Plus, bringing that added measure of the spirit with us doesn't hurt either ;D
 
Other than that, it was a quiet week. We only had one to sacrament this week cos the rest were out of town :C so that was sad. Next week should be awesome though!
 
In terms of New Years, we need to be in by 6 tonight, unless we have a dinner appointment or a lesson, in which case we can be out 'til 7. Muhar! XD
 
I think that's about it. I'm frequently hitting the Panic Button every day... :) best present ever! hehe. I'll be sending a box home full of stuff, soon. And a letter. :D
 
I love you all! Thank you SOO much for your prayers for me, my companion, and our investigators! We really can feel them working in our behalf, and there is a lot of good things forthcoming! Thank you thank you ^_^
 
LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

P.S.

here's the new address for the next two weeks:
 
5953 Mareta Ln
Loomis, CA 95650

Monday, December 24, 2012

Family!

Hurrah, Eagle Scout! *pompoms* Yeah, we did a service project after our missionary conference on Friday. We did service after that and it was raining :D I forgot my gym shoes though so I did my best in my church shoes haha! We mulched. I did my best with a rake, but it didn't work super great. There were a lot of us though so we got everything finished quickly :)

Tell the Stradlings hello! I saw pictures of them in the ward box (yes, I know, I opened it already. I'm a terrible person. I LOVED the scriptures on the presents though! That was super cute and clever and awesome!). Also the top picture was of Bro. Halliday and Larsen. That cracked me up. XD I got your box too, but that remains unopened under our tree :)

Speaking of presents, the ward spoils us SO BAD. It's funny and humbling and holy moses I can't even. *brick'd* I have a particular present I have to tell you about on skype tomorrow, XD be sure to ask me about a necklace lol.

Did you get my Christmas card??

I did get Paca and Granna's card! <_< 

Anyway, we have a half p-day today so I gotta head. But this week has been super happy and great! We've been so busy I haven't been able to think about even missing home or anything. I still do miss our nerdiness and card games though. *brick'd*

But hey, I'll talk to you tomorrow! Literally :D

LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

Monday, December 17, 2012


Seasons greetings! :D
 
Good luck on the Christmas program this week, mom! You'll be great :D We met the ASL sisters from Sacramento a few weeks back, that was really fun. I tried my ASL skills and then remembered I have none. Too bad, haha. (Tell Holly Merry Christmas for me!)
 
@Craig telling the difference between fudge and cupcakes: that cracked me up. I'm looking forward for my possiblity of fudge in my box too :o yum.
 
YAY! Christmas boxes! Thank you :3 Are they both to be saved 'til Christmas? This'll be the longest week ever.
 
We had our ward Christmas party last weekend and I was able to acquire a bassoon to play! So I played "Far Far Away On Judea's Plains" in the shepard scene we had (it was really cute - they played out the Christmas story in several rooms. One of them had Samuel the Lamanite, and they had all the kids make paper airplanes and throw them at him. Hilarious! Especially cos none of the non-members that came [there were 23 of them] had any idea what it was about, cos the ones we're teaching haven't read that far in the Book of Mormon yet, haha). Super fun and cute! It was a really great program :) I'm also playing the same bassoon in our Christmas mission program on Friday, and then again for sacrament on Sunday. Busy busy! But it gives us a good excuse to invite people to church to see what a bassoon is... and have a spiritual experience, but you know. Missionaries aren't ALWAYS sneaky.... just sometimes. Haha!
 
I was also going to ask if there's any possibility I could change my mission scripture on my plaque? I think 3N 5:13 works a little bit better :)
 
On Saturday, we met the Meteer family, and we discovered that the mum (Mary Ellen) knows Dan Brown! And I go, "Hmm, I think I know him..." :P Apparently she sent a message to Tressy and she said she'd pass it along to you. Small world :)
 
Have you seen the "Forget-me-not" book by President Uctdorf? It is a cute little book! I think you'd like it. I like the pictures of the flowers in it; do forget-me-nots grow in Illinois? I can't even remember.
 
As far as this week goes... well, there are some weeks that Satan just tries really hard to just get us down. Other weeks he goes crazy and tries to get everyone else to fall off and get sick or whatever, so this week has been a really humbling week for us. Everything outside of our control went against us, so we weren't able to teach a lot of lessons this week.... We've been staying as optimistic as we can, and by the end of it we've been laughing a lot at the bad things that've happened. For example, Friday we were supposed to have a lesson with our sweet investigator Jacqueline, and when we called to confirm our appointment she said her youngest son [he's 2] started throwing up everywhere. ¯\[°_O]/¯ Not much you can do at that point. We laughed, we cried a little, and then we went to a meeting with the Elders. When a lot of bad things happen in a row, you start to really see the tender mercies of the Lord in everything - for me, it was getting to places on time, getting a lot of touching mail this week, and having people stand up for me when I wasn't even aware they were watching or paying attention. The Lord is ever mindful of us, and we just have to remember that the trials and things we go through are specifically for us and our refinement. Elder Anderson's talk this last conference talks a lot about that, and I've found strength in that this week.
 
Hm, I think that's everything. I love you all! Thank you for your prayers, they have strengthened me especially this week when I felt nothing was going right. It helps to know that people love you and pray for you always, and know that I do for all of you :)
 
LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

Monday, December 10, 2012


Well, the saying goes that when it rains in California, it pours. It's true! And instead of snow for Christmas, we'll likely get rain. Oh well, I don't really mind so much. Aside from the fact that I'm the junior companion so I get to stand in the rain and back my companion out of the driveway.
 
Yay, daffodils! Did I tell you there's a huge amount of hydrangeas here? except they're all blue. it's weird.
 
Yesterday we had a meeting about the new curriculum for Sunday School next year. Have you had much time to look at it or hear much about it? It's really cool! The comparison we've all made was it's like the flip-chart missionary discussions way back in the day to Preach My Gospel. Much more like teaching people, not just lessons. It's going to be awesome! Something the Bishop said yesterday was the new outlines for the lessons in church is designed to give the youth of the church as many spiritual experiences as possible. I'm excited for it, and I think it'll be a really great change. The transit will be strange, of course, but we'll all get the hang of it soon :)
 
Another Christmas idea, if you haven't sealed it shut yet, is to send me a copy of your testimonies! I would really enjoy that. Also (this doesn't have to be done for Christmas; it can be sent later if you don't have a whole lot of time) - Mom, I'd really like a copy of your conversion story! As many dates and names and events as you can remember. I don't know I could accurately put it together if you'd asked me; I just know the part about you wanting to go to a school that had values, and then the search for a Book of Mormon in regular bookstores... haha. That'd be fun to read, especially on my mission :)
 
Is it selfish to ask for more mail for Christmas? Ward, friends, all you peepsicles out there reading this? My companion gets a lot so I'm honestly a little jealous <_< but, y'know. There's that. (Thank you, Sister Flinders & Sarah! Your card made my week!)
 
Final random thought - have you asked the missionaries what they're doing for Christmas??? You could have them over in place of me and Craig! CHRISTMAS! Our ward out here spoils us rotten, and I hope that the Sisters out there are doing good too. Have you found anyone for them to teach?? I want them to be taken care of!
 
COOL STORY! *brick'd* This week there was an investigator we went to go visit to see if she was still progressing, had prayed about being baptized, etc. We went in and talked to her, and she said she got a bad feeling about being baptized (and she was being pretty stubborn about it). We realized we needed to stop seeing her since if she wasn't progressing, we weren't fulfilling our purpose. We left a short message and when we eventually were walking to the car, Sister Ripplinger looked at me and said, "Well, I guess we have to trust that the Lord will put someone else in our path who's prepared." He always does, y'know? But not even five minutes later we got a phone call from Elders in another area with a referral! We called her and she was almost jumping out of her seat to get to church, and she was reading the Book of Mormon and was loving it! We were both blown away that Heavenly Father blessed us that quickly with another person to teach!
 
Another great thing this week was I finished the Book of Mormon! Again! :D The challenge for the mission was to finish it in 85 days, but I just love the Book of Mormon so I read it faster. (In 21, to be precise.) It's been a really great experience and I'd recommend it. That morning before studies, I prayed and told Heavenly Father that I was planning on finishing it that day, and that I expected and experience from the Holy Ghost to know if it was true. (I don't think that's too much to ask, do you?) When I finished the last few pages I had, I knelt down and prayed, "Okay Heavenly Father, I finished. I already know it's true - I've always known it is, but help me to know again, just for myself, that it's true. Help me experience something." I waited for a moment before President Weston's voice floated across my mind, saying "Pay very close attention to how you feel." So I did - I felt the presence of the Spirit deep in my heart, a comfortable, light pressure almost. It started small, and as I focused on it the feeling grew bigger and bigger until it seemed to flow throughout my whole body. It was like the feeling you get when you drink hot chocolate after coming straight inside on a blustery winter day - Mmm! And then the spirit seemed to keep going, emulating through the whole apartment and leaving me feeling giddy and like I couldn't stop smiling. The Book of Mormon is TRUE! And I have such a testimony that if we ask Heavenly Father for the truth with the real intent we're going to do something with it, the heavens won't be constrained from helping us experience something!
 
It's been a great week! There are TONS of opportunities waiting around us, but we have to be the best we can to be able to be trusted by our Father in Heaven to take those chances when they come to us. Don't be afraid of sharing the gospel!! What's the worst that could happen??
 
I love you all and I'm so grateful for your prayers! I feel their influence in my life and I know that He is blessing you for blessing me! <3
 
LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

Monday, December 3, 2012


Hello! <3
 
Yay pictures!  We went out to eat with the Johnsons, and that's ice cream! It's some kind of Italian kind; pistachio, cherry, and chocolate. It was delish. :3 They were mission presidents in Connecticut before, so it's always a pleasure to be with them. ^_^
 
I laughed about moving the snowblower from the shed to the garage. That's always how it works, isn't it? Haha! Also, funny story about the rain we've been having! Yesterday was the worst of the storm (in the morning at least) and we had to go out driving in it to get to church. Oh, the sacrifices we make. Anyway, we woke up and the power was out, but luckily the water heater was powered by propane, so I still got a warm shower. Phew. But we went out and the rain is nearly going sideways it's coming down so hard - and it's crazy windy so everything is just flying around. So we drive down the street and splash through some puddles before we find that the only road we know of to get out of the subdivision has a big ol' pine tree across the street! I gave up pretty fast and suggested to Sister Ripplinger that we go home and study and wait for the tree to be taken care of, and she says, "No no, it's okay! We'll park the car somewhere, climb over the tree and stand on the corner until we can call a member to come pick us up and take us to church!" She's enthusiastic, y'see. I was not happy at this solution though, so we call another member who lives by us and had left earlier, and he gave us alternate directions to get out. Phew. Except, this way was over a dirt road, so we went off-roading to get to church! There was a gate in the middle too, so I had to get out and open and shut it, so by the time I got back into the car I was drenched and dripping and my companion was perfectly dry. Typical. XD But we made it to church! And, despite the rain, we had five investigators there! Yahoo! So it turned out okay in the end. XD
 
@Transfers: we're both staying! thank you for not sending things to the mission home, they're holding things hostage to deliver it all at once for Christmas. Haha! So basically nobody gets mail for the next three weeks. Yay. *brick'd*
 
Oh! So yesterday was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and when we were watching it I saw Bro. Smith! On bassoon! So I was really happy about that :) We watched it with Rose, the lady we live with, and when I told her that he was my teacher, her eyes got kinda big and said, "You must be really good then!" It was funny. You should write him and tell him I said hi! And that I saw him! And also our non-member landlady! :) It was really good though. n_n
 
Okay, so hysterical story. As missionaries we're not allowed to hold children, which is totally fine cos I don't really like children anyway. But my companion LOVES children, so she's been struggling every time we go to someone's house and there's a baby around. XD This week we were helping Mama Rose and her sons (they're older; like 23 & 26 or something) decorate the house for Christmas! So we went through boxes and sifted through stuff we needed to take upstairs (side story: we found a dead rat in one of the boxes. It was just a skeleton left. Creepy and gross! Sorry Lindsay. *brick'd*). In one we found this old baby doll that one of her sons used to play with when he was young, maybe 5 years old or something like that. Somehow it ended up in Sister Ripplinger's arms, and she cradled it and took care of it like it was real. In a second we thought about what would happen if we took it to district meeting with us and see all the Elder's reaction. So we do. :) We walk in and Sister Ripplinger has baby Jerry (that's his name) in her arm, and all the Elders start looking at it and each other like, "... ummm.... why's she have a baby....?" But we continue, regardless, until the middle of the meeting one blurts out, "Why do you have a baby?" My companion smiles and says, "I can't tell you yet!" Truthfully we just didn't have a reason, other than wanting to see how they do. Haha! So they drop it for a little while until we have to practice teach, and Sister Ripplinger says to the person who's evaluating, "I have to teach now. Will you take care of him for a second?" He's all, "Oh, yeah, sure!" So she carefully hands him over and he carefully takes it in his hands and sits with this baby doll while we teach about the birth of the Savior. Too hilarious :D Eventually all of them got to hold it, and it was really obvious which ones were comfortable with children XD So yeah. That's our exciting lives when we're around other missionaries. Haha!
 
On a more spiritual note, this week we had a really solid lesson with an investigator Lola. We were talking about the Plan of Salvation; where we came from, why we're on Earth, and where we go after we die. It was a really deep lesson, but since she's come to understand more about the Priesthood from our first lesson, she really seemed to take it to heart and really think about the message we were sharing. At the end we asked her to pray, and she said something like this: "Father, I'm glad the Sisters came over. I ask that you will protect them, for I know they have a supreme purpose in spreading your word and in coming to me. Help me to be more faithful, cos I know I need to be." And then it was like a bombshell of spirit :D It was so cool! We had no idea she'd thought that much about it, if at all, since we'd been there last (it'd been a while cos of Thanksgiving). But we were really excited about that!
 
Hum, I think that's about it. Thanks for your love and support! I'd ask y'all to send me letters since I'm jealous of all my companion's mail (*brick'd*), but even if you did write it wouldn't get to me cos it's being HELD HOSTAGE!!1 Very sad. But I'll get it eventually! <_<
 
Anyway, I love you all! Thanks always for your prayers, I know good things are on the way :)
 
LOVELOVELOVE
Sister Nelson

Tuesday, November 27, 2012


Hello hello!
 
Happy belated thanksgiving to YOU! Ours was great fun! We had a waffle breakfast with the Elders and Sisters in the morning, played a couple hours of basketball, and then we started going to dinner! We went to Bishops house for a bit and then we went to a family's house in the ward that have 9 kids, the youngest being 14. That was fun :) they have a missionary out right now so they felt happy to have us. then we played a couple more hours of basketball with them after that, haha! We felt good and exercised that day, and very sore the next. Hehe. It was a great day!
 
Also, if you see Paul again soon, tell him I met his cousin Elder Taggert! He was initially really confused why I was talking to him, haha.
 
Hello, ex-Elder Seibach! Haha. There's a guy in the ward here who just got home from his mission to Chile, but he was... I forget. But he can't have been in the same mission since he only just got home four weeks ago. In other news, senior missionary? are me and Craig the only missionaries out now? O_o
 
Yes, transfers are this week! I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm hoping to stay, but we never know. As of now I adore my companion so I want her to stay. Basically everything can just keep going the way they're going. 
 
As far Christmas, I thought of two more! A Hoops&Yoyo panic button, and rechargeable batteries! I'm not allowed any other books than what I have... but music is always a welcomed change. We listen to a lot when we're driving to the other side of the stake for meetings x_x.
 
So this week we had a super awesome lesson with our investigator Veronica. She's been taught by missionaries for a long time (since Feb.) and she wants to be baptized, but can't until she gets married and all that. It's a tricky situation. But we were teaching her about the priesthood and everything, and it was a really strong, great lesson. The cool part was at the end, though - she said, "My ancestors are telling me to get them sealed. How would I be able to go about doing that?" So we had a brief lesson on the temple (she's been taught it before; we'll go over it in depth again this week) and the member we brought with us said their mom was super into family history and would be able to help her with that! So this week she's going to prepare names and we're going to see if we can't go and help with all that :3 It'll be sweet! And then they can help with the softening of hearts, hooah!
 
Also this week we picked up 3 new investigators! Hooray! We visited a part-member family and they said they'd be willing to learn more about the church since they're looking at trying to incorporate more of God in their lives. Yay! They're the Schweig family :)
 
ALSO, we were able to commit Barton to baptism! Hooray! He struggles with smoking right now, and in the lesson we were asking him about committing to quit and he went on and on about not wanting to break promises, so logically (to me) I asked, "So what's the difference between a promise and a goal?" and all at once he, his wife, and my companion went, "..... huh!" It was pretty funny. But then we committed him to the goal of Feb. 9th. Yay!
 
Those were the highlights this week, and I can't think of much else that's going on. There were a lot of people gone this week, so it was harder to catch/find people. But it is what it is. One of the companionships in our zone scheduled a baptism this last weekend and found that to be true, so they asked my companionship to sing (well, me to sing, Sister Ripplinger to play piano). It was fun! Able to use my talents and things after all :P 
 
Yep. Good times! Not much else, and I've got to get scooting soon. Hope all's well out there! Good on the 60°, it's been like that for the whole of November. I keep thinking it'll get colder, but most people are saying it won't. Oh, that's what I need! My black coat, if it's around - I can't find a light jacket I like, so if you could just ship that out, that'd be great. (in the Christmas box would be fine; I've gotten a few sweaters at Ross to help last me. and it won't get much colder than this, I'm told. so I'm hopeful.)
 
I love you all!! Thank you for your prayers, both for me and our investigators! <3.

LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

Sister Nelson and District

Tuesday, November 20, 2012



" 'We believe that man must be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.' Except for me, cos I'm Adam." <- kid who graduated from primary last week
 
So basically Sister Ripplinger and I are having the best time ever here in Loomis! Remember how I was telling you about Stephanie and her awesomesauce lesson a couple weeks back? Did I ever tell you about what she thought about it? If I have, disregard my redundant-ness. Basically the way Stephanie described it was the spirit was so strong it was messing with her vision, and the lights were doing weird things and she described the whole experience as "electric". Her husband Scott said he felt the spirit so strongly it felt like there was an extra person in the room. It was incredible! And in our lesson this last week, she said she's ready to be baptized!!!!!! WOOO! She hasn't set a date yet, since her husband's a less-active member and she wants him to baptize her, but that'll come along soon, I just know it! So we're really excited for them and looking forward to what Heavenly Father has in store for them, b/c obviously there are great things coming for them!
 
Also something cool that happened yesterday: in this stake they like to have open houses at the chapels to try to introduce people to them (and to get them to feel the spirit, obviously). They have them four times a year and rotate around to all the different buildings. This time it was at our building, but it wasn't publicized a lot so there were some people... but mostly members. it was a nice evening regardless, but at the very end I notice in front of us one of the stake presidency sitting with one of his friends. After the tour of the building there was a musical number, a conversion story shared, and more music. We talked to this man once everything was done, and we learned that he lives down the street from us and just moved in! In the conversation we asked him what his favorite part of the evening was, and he said he enjoyed the pictures of Christ that were all over the building. (That was his 9-yr old's favorite part too.) But then he said, "I just really like that it's so comfortable here, like I feel like I'm at home." We thought it was so cooooool! So we're trying to have his friend invite him to take the lessons, since he's been to lots of church events over the years. Miracle!!
 
On a funny note, Sister Ripplinger and I were describing traits we liked in each other. Later I was mentioning that I would describe myself as loyal, and she said, "I can see that! You're loyal like a........ loincloth." She didn't put a lot of thought into it, but that's okay cos I thought it was hysterical :)
 
Also, zone conference was this week! Wooohooo! We talked a lot about preparing for the new missionaries coming in, and I'm basically destined to train. *brick'd* We also started this cool thing, we're all taking a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 85 days (that's how long it took to be translated). I started Thursday, and I'm already in 2 Nephi! Isaiah is hard though. We're going through and marking all references to Christ, anything he says (as himself or through his prophets), his attributes, and doctrines and principles in the Book of Mormon (I'm counting that as faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). It's really really great so far! I'd recommend it :D
 
Also we talked about a new thing you'll probably hear about - mormon.org/Christmas! It won't launch until the 26th, but keep it bookmarked cos it'll be cool! There'll be e-cards you can send, you can share feelings about christmas, you can get free christmas songs from the MoTab, and a couple other things I can't remember right now! but that'd be a great missionary tool, so check it out as soon as it's up, okay? :)
 
Hope all's well with you! I didn't get an email so ¯\[°_O]/¯ but know that I love you and pray for you always! Pray for missionary experiences, invite everyone!! The work is hastening and we better not be the ones caught sitting on our hands, that's for sure!
 
LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson


Sister Nelson and Sister Ripplinger

Tuesday, November 13, 2012


So this week we're emailing from a place in town (the member owns a business and said we could come use the compys here yay!) but it's got Windows 8 on it and I'm totally lost. O_o Go figure. Leave the world for 5 months and you're left in the dark. Bah!
 
Aww, meet the Mormons! I'm glad it went well; did the missionaries gain a lot of people to teach from it? I hope so! Missionaries with no one to teach is the worst. Have you invited anyone to have the missionaries meet them and teach them? It's not as scary as it seems, that's what I've learned.
 
This week we have a zone conference! It's with us and the missionaries in two other stakes. I think it's in preparation for the new missionaries coming in. We're expecting the biggest waves in January and February. Should be good times! I'm pretty sure I'll train and I really don't want to, but ack. The Lord knows what he's doing, I guess.
 
I don't have a lot of time today, but I'll share something cool that happened this week! We've been really focusing on finding new people to teach (even though we have lots to do, we're always supposed to be looking for more to teach!), and this week a lady called us and said she was marrying a non-member and moving into the ward. She said that he could be interested in being taught, and he's a really nice guy! He understands a little about who we are and what we know, but there's always room to learn (even for us who've been taught from the get-go)! So it was really interesting that practically fell in our lap. Also, she's friends with a lot of band people around here... so guess who's on the hunt for a bassoon again :) We're thinking a musical thing with me and my companion maybe, since she can play the piano. Huzzah! I'll take pictures this time :P
 
Anyway I love you all and I pray for you daily! <3 <3
 
LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

Monday, November 5, 2012


Hellooooo!
 
I was going to say something cool to start this letter off but I forgot already. ¯\[°_O]/¯ I did remember that I wanted to tell you I'm gonna need another journal by Christmas! Do you remember the purple one I ended up getting at the lds bookstore, mom? I like the scriptures at the bottom of the pages, that's a nice touch. It's been weird how some days it matches up with my life, too. Definitely strange, but nice.
 
Oh! I meant to ask you, didn't I ask for an absentee a few months ago? I'm sad I didn't get it... :(
 
I feel like it's been ages since I emailed .___. There has been soooo much happening this week! but first, to your preguntas!
 
P-day! Some days we play basketball (kinda; the boys don't know how to play with girls XD), or just shooting games on that front. Sometimes we play volleyball, sometimes we do scatterball (which is a kind of dodgeball, but all-for-one type deal) but lately we haven't been doing that so much cos nobody likes it much anymore. Too many Elders being crazy and hitting the Sisters in the head. On accident, of course, but... still. One week we had a nerf-war! We bought a couple boxes of those extra-dart packs and cut up some PVC pipe and used them as blow-darts. It was fun :D I liked watching more than playing, per usual. Haha!
 
Halloween- It was cool, I guess. In by 6, and it was a good night cos since we live at a house there was plenty of stuff going on all night :) It was good. Plenty of Harry Potter-ites still, which made my soul happy. Squee!
 
We didn't really get to sleep in on Sunday...... we have meetings at 7am, so we have to get up at 5:30. It's a little unfair, if you ask me. We already don't sleep a lot. But it is what it is... we're just more cranky on Sunday nights. *brick'd*
 
Huzzah for inviting people to the fireside! When is that? Has the ward council thought about doing a chapel tour? That's another good way to get people to the church! It's amazing how much spirit can be felt in the chapel even when there's nothing actually happening at the time. That's why I think it's a powerful experience. We're having one here in a couple weeks! The stake here does it quarterly, rotating around all the different buildings the stake uses. It's a neat concept.
 
I haven't done anything about my teeth still; with transfers that happened and then AWESOME things that picked up, and then with me getting sick this weekend... it slipped my mind. I'll have to call and ask, though!
 
C'mon, NHL. Get it together, dudes! (Also. Kane? Switzerland? Is that really the only place that would take him? typical).
 
SO. This week was basically awesome! One particular experience we've been raving about all week so I better share it. This investigator's name is Stephanie and her husband is a less-active named Scott. Missionaries have been teaching there for... threeish months, and we were hoping to invite her to be baptized and have Scott prepare to be worthy to baptize her. We found out the day before, though, that the stake president (Pres Perez) had asked if he could come along with us. We got super excited and couldn't help but think that everything was falling into our favor and lesson would just go perfect and awesome!
The lesson took a bit of a different twist than we thought it would (we just ended up focusing on one thing more than we thought) and Pres. Perez was SO awesome. As expected the spirit was incredible (S. Ripplinger noted that I later said it was a "nuclear bomb of spirit") and we had a really powerful lesson about God's love, and also about how Bishops and stake Presidents are stewards of the Lord and also represent Him in the areas in which they serve. It was just reaally really great and we couldn't've asked for better.
We didn't find out until yesterday that before the lesson, Stephanie had told Scott she didn't wanna take the lessons anymore because they were being presented as more informational than spiritual. Now it's a total 180° switch and she's excited for us to come back this week!
 
IT BLEW OUR MIIIIIIIINDS! There is nooo way any of that happened to be coincidence. Everything lined up just right because it needed to. Heavenly Father loves all His children and wants them to be able to have the opportunity to learn the truth and the way - and He knew that she's able and willing and CLOSE to making that commitment. It was SO huge for us to be able to see that intimate working of God in those circumstances.
 
Anyway I don't have much time left so I just wanted to share that awesome experience with you! I know your prayers helped with that for sure! Thank you for all that you do to help me and missionaries everywhereee :)
 
I LOVE LOVE LOOOVE all of you! <3
 
Sister Nelson <3

Monday, October 29, 2012


I wondered if Sandy was going to get you guys. Mama Rose was talking about it and Chicago, but from what I heard it wasn't going to be too bad for it. (Sans the wind I guess.) She was telling us about how Wall St. was closed for the first time in history, and they were just talking about how it's a fat, slow-moving storm.
@Radio: be safe out there! You too Don, you're likely to get after-effects too!
Anyway, HI! I had heard those statistics, yeah! One of the mission president's counselors lives in our boundary, so we had a chance to talk to him and hear about that. So cool! I'm definitely expecting to see a lot more Sisters come January, unfortunately that means my likelihood of training just about tripled. Aah! I'm not super excited about that. *does not want*
Tell Holly I said hi! I met the ASL sisters out here briefly last Saturday, and I was telling them about the ASL ward out in Wheaton (right? I don't remember exactly). They were impressed :) Except now I'm going to be keeping an eye out for other deaf people to help them out. Plenty of work for them too, just harder to find for them O-o
I'm sure they're related; Sister Pulsipher said she has a ton of family out there. That's her side though... I dunno about his. Tell her hi for me, too! n_n
Soooooo this week was really awesome!! We had transfers again and my companion scooted, so I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Ripplinger, and she's from Idaho. It's only been a couple of days since we started together but there's already a lot of miracles happening!! For example, yesterday we got one of our new investigators, Jacqline, to come to church with us! Yay! But after sacrament she was asking us about if her son (he's 16) could go on a mission. I started off saying "Well he has to be a baptized member..." and she said he already was! That caught us off-guard for sure. XD So we asked her why she hadn't been, and she invited us over later to talk about it. So we talked about baptism and the Holy Ghost and all that awesome stuff, and we invited her to be baptized. She accepted! Woooo! So basically awesome things are happening and my companion is enthusiastic and great things are going to be happening here in the next little while. Thank you for your prayers! They are so effective in helping us realize OUR potential, too! They can only change if we invite them to.
Also, I'm so happy that our ward is super excited about doing missionary work! We can always count on them to help us out in a bind. Sometimes I wonder what my life would've been like if I'd seen more of the missionaries growing up, but I guess that can't be helped. Have you seen a lot of the Sisters at home? Have you invited anyone to take the discussions? Something to pray and ponder. <3
The other day I was looking at 2N 31:20, and it was pointed out to me a phrase that occurs twice: press forward. Now at first glance it's all, "oh, endure to the end, blah long blah." but the interesting thing to me is especially the word press, cos it means there's some resistance involved. So of course it's going to be hard to keep on the path and keep moving, but it's all by design. God created us to grow! Just by two words we can learn all that. I love it! It also makes me think of the movie Meet the Robinsons, just the quote by Walt Disney at the end. I don't remember what it is exactly, just something like "around here we don't stay still for very long, and we keep moving forward!" Definitely the same with us that we can keep pressing forward and work hard in every aspect of life :)
Anyway I love you all! I hope things go well with the hurricane, I pray for you always. <3
LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

P.S. It's really weird to live in a place where they can count on their baseball team to win anything.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Sister Nelson

Sister Fonua and Sister Nelson

Sister Nelson and Sister Fonua

Rose Schembri and Sister Nelson

Sister Nelson

Sister Fonua and Sister Nelson


Monday, October 22, 2012

HAI.

Isn't Rose the best? She's so adorable and I love her :D If you haven't already, you can post the pictures to the blog.

So! Big news here in Loomis - my companion Sister Fonua (foh-nu-ah) is being transferred! Nuuu! She was the Australian one and I will miss her loads. With her I've learned how to not sweat the small stuff, how to overcome big barriers, and how to have a good time despite working really hard! It's been good to be with her and I know that good things will follow her to her next area :3 My next companion will be Sister Ripplinger (sp??) and she actually came from the visitor's center in Nauvoo! We usually have a Temple Square sister in the mission at some point or another, so it's really cool that we have both right now. But she'll be my next companion and I don't actually know where she's from. I think Idaho, maybe. Stay tuned for that!

I'm sorry about Aunt Renae. With what we know about the Plan of Salvation, death is surely not an end! I think that's truly one of the great blessings of the gospel we have today. No wonder Abinidi told the people "the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ" (Mosiah 16:8). I will continue to pray for them, for sure.

 Congrats about the new car, btw! Sounds like a fun adventure. Does that mean there's four cars, now? Not for very long, I'll bet, the Taurus sounds like it's apt to die any minute. ¯\[°_O]/¯ Haha! (also, the comment about the biggest ball of yarn had me in stitches. It's not even that funny, but just how nonchalantly it was mentioned was awesome. Hehe.)

Hmm, what else. Oh! Our Primary Program was yesterday! It was really cool what the ward did, tho - they totally used it as a way to get all the less-active members to come out and see them too~! Cos who doesn't like little kids singing and being cute on the stand? :3 There were a few who came, too, so it was great :D

Woohoo, chapel tour! Those things are the best! This ward does them four times a year, so we're pretty well-known in this area. It's kinda neat, and every time they have new people that come. They combine with the other two wards that use the building too, so it's neat that there's always somebody there who hasn't ever seen it before. It's a great draw :)

It's cold (ish) and rainy here today! All the Californians are kinda weirding out cos it's cold. And wet. I'm quite comfortable, actually. Haven't had to use a coat up to this point, and even now it's just a sweater. No prob! Maybe when it gets into the thick of winter I'll actually get a light jacket to use. Maybe. Haha!

So yesterday I was looking through my scriptures and I found I had a lot of notes in ch.9 of John. In it, Jesus is walking with his disciples and they see a blind man. The disciples ask Him if the man sinned or his parents sinned, that he was blind. Jesus told them, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." So he spits in the dirt, gets clay, puts it on the man's eyes and tells him to wash in the river.

Of course, we can see the physical miracle to this - he gets his sight back. But there's another miracle coming - watch for it.

The man goes back to his house and all his neighbors see him. They ask him what happened and he tells them, and they want to know where he sis now but he doesn't know. Then the Pharisees come and have a big flip-out cos oh no, he healed on the Sabbath. Must be a sinner, they think. They ask the man what happens, he tells them, and then they ask him what he thinks of this man. "A prophet," he says. But the Jews think he'd been lying about being blind, so they call his parents and ask them. They confirm it was their son and that he was blind, but they don't agree to anything about him being healed. They're, of course, afraid to agree to anything in case they get cast out (excommunicated, basically) so they tell the Pharisees, "He's of age, ask him!" So they do, also mentioning along the way that they think Jesus is a sinner for healing on the Sabbath. At this point the man is obviously annoyed with them for not believing him and calls them out, telling them that they must be crazy if they think Jesus is a sinner. He reminds them that if he weren't from God, there's no way he would've been able to heal at all. So the Pharisees get mad and cast him out.

Did you catch it? The 2nd miracle happened. The man not only had a physical miracle, but a spiritual miracle, that he realized he had faith in Jesus Christ the son of God and testified of him! I love that; sometimes we need to be placed in those challenging situations to realize we have faith and a testimony of the things we're being tried on. I really liked that.

 But yeah, I need to go now. But I love y'all and you are wonderful! I pray for you every day and I know good things will happen! Look for those missionary experiences, and remember if you pray for them they will happen!

I LOVELOVELOVE you!

Sister Nelson

Monday, October 15, 2012


A very merry unbirthday to youuuu~!
Yaaay, box! Thank you so much :D I told my companion you were thinking of sending one and she's been as excited for me to get it as I was. Haha! I shared candy with her and we've been munching on the Tootsie rolls... which has already caused issues, we sent some through the washer on accident this morning *brick'd* it wasn't too bad though, thankfully. :)

Woo, Sister missionaries!! :D They're the bomb-diggety! We're thinking we'll see a big spike in 3-5 months, so we'll see. At present we have 25 Sisters in our mission, so we'll see how that goes. Excitement! Btw, I've been keeping an eye out for an Elder Tagget, but I think he may be serving up north somewhere so we'll probably not see each other unless he transfers down here. (There's an Elder Taggert, too. Confusing.) ANYWAY, our Sisters Training/Conference was awesome! I got to see all the Sisters in the mission, which meant I saw Sister Tittle again :D Hooray! It was so fun. We learned a lot about service and compassion, and how by serving the people in our area (and our companion!) more things will come from it! n_n it was really inspiring.

Who's on the Lord's Side, eh? I'd pick 2/4, fast or slow. Once at the beginning and once in the middle. I'm sure nobody minded if you were swapping around though. :P

I did know Alyse was expecting! Yaaay! Congrats to her :D and speaking of the dog I miss him :< Luckily I meet four-thousand dogs every day (not kidding) so I get my fair share of love and shedding hair... Thank you for getting a shed-less dog. (Also, as far as her shower, aren't they "plainfield" people now? Since the ward got shredded and all? lol) And Debbie! Hi, Debbie!

There were a lot of funny things that happened this week. One of them happened while we were doing service! We were at a woman's house, and she has a spinal-leak so she's not able to stand up for a long period of time... so we invited ourselves over to wash her windows! They hadn't been washed in five years though so there were tons of spiderwebs caked on them. Ain't no thang, all the ones we saw were dead. (OR SO WE THOUGHT!) So we start cleaning and whatnot, and all of a sudden Sister Fonua starts yelling, "Step on it, step on it!" So I turn around and see this BIG OL' FAT HAIRY SPIDER (definitely the size of a quarter T_T ) crawling towards me! I start screaming and it stops moving - either it was paralyzed by my lungpower or it was terrified too; potentially both - and I stomp on it. We realized later it was a black widow. *freakout* Sister Fonua laughed at me a bit, she said she'd never heard me scream that loud. And I thought I was a spider-slayer. *failsauce*

Among the other funny things that happened this week (accidental off-roading, being casually flipped off by an old dude [though we think we caught it out of context], having a nerf-gun war), the spiritual things were so great! The Lord is doing great things here through the members, and the longer I'm out the more I realize that it really cannot be done without both sides actively working and looking for people to teach. Two missionaries can do what they can to find and teach on their own, but it goes so much faster and more effectively if the ward's at their back, fellowshipping and finding with them. If the ward helps out, well, that's 100+ people looking for seekers at the same time! If you were out to find someone lost in the countryside, having as many people to help look would get the job done faster - and if there's a small window of time that they could be found, it's more likely it'll happen if there's lots to help. Same with this work! Doors are opening up everywhere and it has been fantastic.

@Dad: I remember you were asking about where we live, and we live with a non-member Rose. (I can't remember what faith she claims.) Through different events she was invited by her bff-Mormon friend to house them, and they've been with her ever since. She loves us and we love her!! She is one of the cutest, kindest, loving people I've ever met, and she takes such good care of us as if we were her own kids :3 That said she has the furnishings of a real kitchen, so that's definitely a plus. Haha! We have dinner with her once a week, and we have good times together. ^_^

I don't think we'll be able to go to our Halloween party :< Pres. Weston wants all the missionaries to be in at 6 so they don't get caught out with all the drunk people (or other crazy things that could potentially happen on Halloween). So, I think we're going to end up staying home and passing out candy to all the chilluns that come to the door (or just eating it all ourselves, whichever happens first). It'll be good though! Mama Rose has lots of cards so we might play. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, I've spent way too long on this so I've gotta be scooting. I love youuuu! Thank you always for your prayers, both for me and our investigators!! Things are changing and going great <3

LOVELOVELOVE and blessings!
Sister Nelson







Tuesday, October 9, 2012


Surprise! It's a Tuesday! (All the libraries were closed on Monday cos of Columbus day. Funny how Monday holidays used to be the best and now they're kinda annoying. C'est la vie.)
 
Anyway - so conference was basically AMAZING! Each session kept getting better and better, don't you think? I was particularly excited when Elder Ballard started talking about bees :) Did you know all of that? I knew about some of the things, like there's several thousand of them in a hive at any given time, and that they produce a tiny amount of honey over their lifetime. Something else I thought about after he spoke was how even though those particular bees might not live long enough to have to use the honey in the winter, they still prep it and make it to be available for the bees that will come after them. I think about that sometimes when I'm out here, that my calling is more than just inviting people to come to Christ but to plant seeds too so another missionary can come and reap that work I put in.
 
I liked that a lot of the talks were about service! Elder Nelson's talk was particularly fun. "Ask the missionaries, they can help you!" Yes, yes we can. It was particularly ironic that when we were watching that talk, Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on our door. :D They saw our tags and wanted to scoot out of there pretty fast though. We invited them to stay and watch with us, but they declined. *shrug* I've never had more experiences with JW's than when I came out here. Haha! Ain't no thang, as Sister Fonua would say.
 
As far as changing the missionary date, we are stoked! Super suprised, but also excited. We'll keep an eye out for an increase in numbers in about three months haha :) We've already heard of a ton in our ward who've attacked Bishop already to start their papers. Haha! Is there a lot looking to scoot in the home ward? We're hoping we get more Sisters out here, that would be the best :D You can't go wrong with Sisters, man.
 
Did you get an email from Rose? She's the lady we live with! She was hoping to hear back from you, but it either must not have gotten to you or it went to the spambox or you deleted it already. She sent her phone number with it too, just in case. *shrug* She's delightful though :D and not a member! Her best friend was Mormon and a couple years ago both her sons moved out at the same time, so she suggested that Rose offer her home that the missionaries live with her. It's worked out really well so far, and she loves us :)
 
With the start of conference, though, means suitcoat season! Yaay. Which basically means that the Elders have to wear their suitcoats everywhere now. The sisters have to have cardigans with their outfits, but that's much better than a fatty suitcoat. I'm still in the market for a light jacket, but with all the thrift stores around here it shouldn't be too hard. I think the coldest it got around here last year was about 35F. Balmy! Definitely not a problem. Lately it's been in the 50s/60s in the mornings and I've been peachy, but my companions have been freezing. This winter will be awesome. :D
 
We're going to have a Sister's conference this Friday! It'll be so fun! I'm excited to see all the Sisters. We only have 24-26 Sisters (I can't remember which) in the whole mission, so we're all gonna go to the President's house to be with them :) Yay!
 
I'm still trudging along in Matthew, but I should be finished with it soon! This morning I read about the parable of the laborers, and I was reminded of Elder Holland's talk in conference in April. "Why should you be jealous because I am kind?" I was impressed by his talk this weekend too, how he's able to take the scriptures and make it that much more real and personable to us and our understanding. I hope to be able to do that for all scirptures one day!
 
I'm running out of time, and things to say. So I hope all continues to go well! 
 
I feel your prayers! And I'm sending some back your way too :D
 
LOOOOOOVE YOUUUUUU! (man I wish I could speak whale.)
Sister Nelson

Monday, October 8, 2012

No e-mail this week.  :(

Might be Columbus Day related and not able to get to e-mail.

Monday, October 1, 2012


HI! <3
 
I never knew knowing how to make bread would win me stars in the eyes of... well, everyone. ¯\[°_O]/¯ It's kinda cool though! The Elders in our district are way spoiled. XD (I made 'nana bread today. Yum.) Btw, Craig, do you have Sisters in your zone? If not that's totes depressing... especially cos the Sisters seem to have a way with deciding what happens on P-day :D Or maybe that's just the hierarchy in the Roseville mission... or we don't have any of the sporty guys either. Wish you could come to my p-day activity; there's a member's house we're going to today and they have a game room with pool, pingpong, foozball, and air hockey. And a really big yard if that's not enough for you. It's kinda cool (well, coincidental really), the wife just got done with her rounds of chemo too. We had dinner with them two weeks ago and it was the first time my companion, who's been in this area for 7 months, had met them. So it was like I needed to be there. We talked about you, mum. And your hats. She liked that :) She's doing good though, like you. So it's just an extra connection n_n
 
Speaking of, good luck on your radiation today!! I'll be sure to keep praying for you, as well will President Weston and some of the Elders out here. Aunt Renee too- any news on that front? I only heard what Dad told me in his letter. (Btw, I didn't notice any difference other than your letter came on Friday instead of Thursday. No big!)
 
In our lessons this week we only made 9. I was kinda sad, but then I realized that I'd rather take quality lessons over stressing out about taking a member with us. Also, I thought about the spirit and how it works, and Sister Fonua and I decided that perhaps the investigator needed just us to be there to feel more comfortable. We definitely need to go out and find more though, since the majority of our investigators are at a point where they're just waiting for their confirmation from Heavenly Father about if the Book of Mormon and the Church is true. Not much holding them back from that! Pray that they'll get their answers! And that we'll find more investigators. We've been really bad at going out and finding lately. o.o;
 
@Matt GOOD LUCK AT IMEAAAA!!!! *glomp* mum'll tell you about dynamics to be sure, but my advice is to have fun with the music!! They'll recognize that more than anything else you do, and if you really are enjoying yourself the musicality will come out naturally. I wish I could be there to help out but you will be awesome!! Practice!! (I know you hate hearing that, but if there's anything I wish I would've done better in HS it would be not slacking off on being the best I could be. The power of hindsight is ridiculous. Also perspective. The bar was not as high in HS as it probably could've been, or should've been. Why stop at the mountain when you can reach the sky??)
 
Thank you for that scripture! I really like that. I've been looking for more good scriptures to memorize - there is such power in remembering a scripture whenever you're feeling or down or distracted. Or just because you can! My first one was Psalms 27:1 - "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" (yes, I just did that without looking.) I don't know why I love it, but I do. It also makes me think of the hymn it's based on - #89 I think? Y'know - the looooooord is my liiiiiight~ ♪ <:D
 
@Lyra: I can't remember if I sent a response to you... so I'm just going to say I did and that it's your turn to write. :D?
 
I am definitely having more fun here in Loomis. There are still some days where I'm not really sure where I'm supposed to be going, or how the heck I'm supposed to be able to recieve inspiration for this area cos I don't know the people still (this area is kinda huuge... it encompasses Penryn, Newcastle, and part of Loomis) BUT, I know that my companion knows this area really well, and if I can just ask the right questions about who they are and where they live, the spirit can tell me that it's someone we should see. She's really great at following the spirit and thinking of their needs, so it's worked out well so far :)
 
Halloween is coming up! It's exciting cos my companion is from Australia, right. She's never had one before! So this year will be fun, cos we can carve pumpkins and dress up all for her first time :D Missionaries are supposed to be in by 6 on that day (it's unsafe for us to be out O: ) but our ward party's that night! so hopefully I can ask Pres if we can go and be with the members. If not we can hang at home with our landlady Rose (she's a nonmember! cooly!) and dress up and have fun times. It's still a ways out though so we'll see what happens.
 
So as part of one of our lessons with our investigators this week, we taught them about agency! It was really fun. But something we challenged them to do was at the end of every day, pick one good choice and one bad choice that we did, and then list the consequence of doing it. We told them we'd do it too, and it's been really interesting so far! For example: we were driving back from the General Relief Society broadcast on Saturday (it was really awesome, btw; it's on LDS.org, y'all should watch it!), and we passed this guy walking his bike up the road. It was really dark at that point, and my companion and I looked at each other and was like, "we need to talk to him!!" so we flipped the car around and chased him down. *brick'd* but we pulled up and asked him if he needed to use our phone to call someone (he looked really tired) and he was like, "nah I'm good! thanks though!" and so we tried to give him amormon.org card to check out the site and stuff - I started rambling about how we're missionaries and that our site is really cool and whatnot, and he went, "what church?" I got a little nervous thinking he'd be like, super anti- or something, but I told him and he got this awesome corny smile and went "oh yeah, I'm a member!" and so it turned out to be pretty funny in the end. My companion and I were just super giddy all the way home, and we decided it was because we followed a prompting of the spirit, even though there was nothing really that came of it (from what I can see). I was really glad that we followed it! Maybe it was practice for us, or maybe he needed to see how missionaries can talk to everyone (even if they're members). But that was one of our good choices this week :) I'll keep the bad ones to myself. Haha! They were mostly little opportunities that we missed, like our neighbor was washing his car and we didn't say anything when we could have. *double brick'd* but there's always room for improvement! and second chances!
 
The gospel is great, the church is true, we have a prophet on the Earth today!! And everyone should watch conference this weekend and see the prophet speak! :O Das a big deal, peepsicles. Woo!
 
I hope you all have an awesome week! I love you and pray for you always!
 
LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson!

Monday, September 24, 2012


Family!! <3
 
OoooOOooh, a box?? My family loves me! <3 Also the house number is 3829 - I flipped the 9 and the 8 when I told you it last week, but cool story! Dad's letter got to me anyway! Yaaaay! The postal service continues to amaze me. Haha!
  
Oh yeaah, Dad wrote in his letter Bryson was home. Weird. Thinking about it it feels like it's been long enough, but it's just one of those things you file away for "later" and don't really ever expect it to come. Tell him hi for me!
 
This week was awesomeee! I got a letter from Kathy Jones :3 I sent one back this morning. Yay! There's been a lot of miracles this week and the ward has gotten to calling us miracle-workers cos we keep getting put in the right place at the right time. Sister Fonua says it's cos we're being obedient (which I don't doubt, for sure!), but for me I'm just doin' the same thing I've been doing since I've started. Guess they trained me good! And you have too, for sure. I didn't realize I had it in me to work this hard. Woo! So thanks for that :D
 
Also, I finished the Book of Mormon this week! Yay! That's the first time on the mission~ I'll prolly go through it like five more times by the end. Could be worse, right :D But Sister Fonua and I are both really limited on our New Testament knowledge, so we just started this week on the book of Matthew! I'm already five chapters into it and I've learned a lot! For example, according to the Bible Dictionary, Matthew himself was likely a thorough Jew, which meant he knew the Old Testament REALLY well. So his purpose in writing is to the Jews to show them how Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law of Moses. Within the first 5 chapters he says something to effect of, "and this experience fulfills this prophecy by this prophet!" There hasn't been too much about Jesus' teachings yet, but that starts soon. :)
 
I feel much better about Loomis now. I have seen the outpouring of love from this ward to the missionaries in general, and to us. I feel much happier having seen that! Not that I didn't see it before, I just didn't feel it so directly the last few Sundays. But I'm better now! The adjustment period just takes a while, y'know?
 
Hmm. What else. Oh! My and Fonua's goal for lessons this week (with a member present) is 12! Last week we only had 5, so we're going to try really hard to get members to come with us. Pray for us that we'll get people to come with us! I'm sure we will, but the added safety-net of prayer can't hurt :)
 
Lastly, if you all could send me a list of some of your favorite scriptures, I'd really like that! I've been  feeling more creative lately (buying those colored pencils must've done it) and I'd like to make more of the little postcardish things I sent with Matt's letter. So you can stick it in your scriptures or on your door or whatevs :D
 
Anyhoo, must be going. I love you!! I pray for you all the time!
 
LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Sister Nelson, Sister Brown and Sister Pulsipher from the Rocklin Ward.

Monday, September 17, 2012


Family!
 
My new address is... I forgot the house number! *brick'd* but I'm fairly certain it's 3928 N Lakeshore, and it just occured to me I don't know the Loomis zip code :D So... however you find that out could work. Maybe search it on Googlemaps?
 
Thanks for the picture, mum! I now have one of you. Yay! And I'm glad you heard from Sister Pulsipher! I forgot we took a picture together :D She's the Primary Pres in Rocklin and she's related to President Hinckley. Cool, right?? (She's a cousin/niece of some relation. I don't remember.)
 
So yeah, Loomis! It's a lot more country out here! Nothing's close together and Walmart is eons away T_T means I have to shop at the more pricey places. Lame! There's a Target nearby, at least. But still.
 
The Elders in this zone are so silly. We have lots of fun at our meetings together and we eat lunch afterwards. They're big on teasing, and I'm good at laughing so it gets along well! Something I learned from my companion this week from comp inventory (it's basically the best thing EVR; you tell them strengths and help them with things they could improve on) and she says that I have a countenance that helps people trust me right away. Now that she said that I have seen it - yesterday we went to visit a part-member family (wife's a member, husband's not) and only he was home. Sister Fonua says he's usually pretty curt and silent but I started chatting it up with him about his half-finished porch and somehow went from there to drawing and engineering stuff for mines in Utah. I even got a smile out of him! So, that was good to see what she sees.
 
The adjustment to Loomis has been a little more difficult than I was thinking it would be, though. The area is really big, and it's hard to get my mind around it! And the Sister who just left finished out her mission so everyone misses her and I feel like a fly on the wall. But I will persevere!
 
@Craig: Since we're out and about and working so hard, allow me to suggest something that's helped me! You won't want to hear it, but here goes: eat better! *dodges brick* Srsly though, in the morning instead of having cereal, try to have something with more protein in it. Eggs, sausage, bacon. (I get tired of all that though, so I have greek yogurt and fruit. Yummy!) If you cut out the sugars and starches you'll start to be less tired. Huzzah! It's annoying, I know, but I've felt loads better since I started doing that. And don't worry - getting into the swing of things will help too.
 
@hockey: noes! DX it's okay canada! I still love you! 
 
Uuummm.... yah, so, Craig? Having 9 people is kinda skeewhompis and totally not normal. I'm slightly jealous.
 
This week has just been really weird. But I've been reading in Ether, and it's just really interesting to keep track of how many kings throw around each other. It was pointed out to me when I read over Omni last month how the last Jaredite, Coriantumr, is found by the people of Zarahemla. I had no idea! For some reason they were both separate entities in my head, never bothered each other or anything. I thought that was neat!
 
Anyhoo, I love you all! I pray for you often and I hope all is well. I'll start praying for Renee too!
 
LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

Monday, September 10, 2012


As for the bassoon, it was a black plastic one. And it didn't have some of the "fancy" keys I'm used to. It was okay, though - honestly, you prolly couldn't have been able to tell a difference in the sound. It had soul :D
 
@Small world: Well, when you have an LDS boy serving in Utah, he's gonna run into somebody that we know. Haha! Y'know how there's the six degrees of separation, that anyone can be connected to anyone else through six people...? Yeah, with the Mormons, it's way smaller. Like at 3. Anyway! About half my district (we call it the Rocklin Thunder district, hooah!) is from thereabouts. It's just funny - out here members all guess the missionaries are from Utah, Idaho, or Arizona. And then I come in and tell them Chicago and they go "Woooow!" and then hear South Jordan from my companion and go "Oh, cool." It's kinda sad. XD
 
I'm really happy you're feeling great!! I will be sure to pass along the word to Pres. Weston. (Also, @Craig, Pres Weston mentioned knowing Pres Winn. Small world! :D) I will keep praying, of course. And maybe put your name on the temple roll. Muhar >D (I did when I was in Provo, too. Muhar!) I was gonna say something else about that but I forgot. Oh de wells.
 
Anyway, the big news here is... I'm transfering!! We got the call last night right when we were sitting down to plan, and I was really sad for about an hour until I got that confirmation from the spirit that it's where I need to be. I'll be in the Loomis 3rd ward with an Australian Sister. Sweet :D I met her once already in July on exchanges (where we trade companions for a day), so it'll be fun. Her name is Sister Fonua! I'm really sad to be leaving my amazing companion and the fantastic Rocklin 1st ward though. I love these people!! We're going to try to see our investigators before I leave (which'll prolly be tomorrow morning) and they're really sad too :( One we're going out to lunch with her and her kids, and they're going to have a date soon!! She needs to coordinate with her husband but that's the only thing keeping them: scheduling! They are totally ready and pretty much have been since I got here three months ago. (Can you believe it's already been that long? Wow!)
 
(plz post) @Fang: So you remember how your letter got lost in the mail? It finally found me. Hooray! The postage dates say it got stamped in Texas 'round the 1st of August, then sat somewhere 'til the 28th and then forwarded again on the 3rd. Nice, right? Haha!
 
This morning I finished up reading in Mormon. A lot of it is really depressing! The whole Nephite civilization wiped out. In one battle alone they had 23 commanders and their ten thousand each (that's 230,000 if you're counting) and ALL but 24 people died. Hoo. I can't imagine. But Mormon and his son Moroni still trust in their God, despite their friends, family, and everything getting destroyed and being hunted by the Lamanites. Gives us a bit of perspective whenever we're going through a rough patch though, eh? But I LOVE chapter 9 v.21! 25-27 as well. (Read here) Despite all the destruction around him, Moroni tells the reader to pray and ask the Lord in the name of Christ for help and direction. Of all people, Moroni would have every reason to be angry at God for literally letting everyone die. But he knows that perspective is everything, and he's writing the Book of Mormon for us so that we can be directed. We live in a time where the fullness of the gospel will never be taken again from the Earth - and the Book of Mormon can give us guidance and answers to EVERYTHING we need! What a marvelous promise :)
 
Speaking of, I love Mormon 7:8-9. It very clearly states that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are meant to worktogether to testify of Jesus Christ and his workings and miracles. It's like if someone told you they saw a cat do a backflip - you might think "Oh, they must've seen it wrong. Cats definitely cannot do backflips!" But then if someone else comes and says, "No really, I saw that cat do a backflip!" then you really might start to believe the story. It's the same with the word of God. It makes total sense when you think of it that way, I think.
 
Not much else to report for now. It still blows my mind that it's been three months. Where does the time go? Before you know it it'll be the end of the transfer again. This week was really fun, though. Sister Brown and I made it the most fun we could, and it was awesome! Taught great lessons, had the spirit, taught the gospel and testified wherever we could! And frozen yogurt. Lots of it :) (we're going to be cutting back. haha!)
 
I love you all bunches!! Thank you always for your prayers, I can feel them working in my life. (And praying for our investigators is a good idea too - thank you!!) I adore you all and hope all is well. <3
 
LOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson