HIIIIIII FAAAAMILY

Yay! Thanks for Dad's talk, I'm excited to read it. :)
I'm glad you got the pictures, too! I don't remember what picture I sent of Stacy, haha. But I'm sure it was a good one :)

Thanksgiving sounded fun! I don't know the Paradise's. They must've moved in after I left. They must be cool if you had them over to the house, tho. :) Our Thanksgiving was nice! Stuffed to the brim tho, @_@ tho we didn't get any stuffing DX I was upset haha. Most of the afternoon we spent at Stacy's house, actually. SOO funny haha. The Weavers (our ward-mission-leader and his family) came over with us and we played Uno and enjoyed the afternoon together :D I think Stacy was happy, since her only family closeby is her sister up in Rocklin. So, she got to entertain. Happy times :) we tried to teach her pinochle... but she wouldn't have any of it haha. I'M SO EXCITED TO PLAY CARDS AGAIN holy moses I can't even.

Doesn't dad usually get Thanksgiving Friday off? Glad it sounded like the Black Friday craziness didn't affect Craig too poorly lol.

@movies: I heard Frozen was amazing. Ack, so many things I need to catch up on and I'm NOT going to start talking about them here! *brick'd*

I'm glad the weather sounds happy. Is there any snow expected next week? I'm sure it'll be fine (it typically is), but I'm wondering how warm I'll have to dress when I get off the plane XD long sleeve, sweater, scarf. So far, that's all I have on my priority list haha. And comfortable shoes that I can run in if I have to. Haha I hear bad things about the Atlanta airport, but that might be cos my Floridian companion has been through it four-thousand times. But... we'll see!

Did Stacy send you a letter back? Cos I don't remember anything about her calling Illinois "snow country". Tho I guess compared to Cali, everywhere else is basically snow country hahaha.

When is the ward Christmas party?? Woodside's party is the 13th so I'll miss that one (it's polar express themed! PJs and all! It's a cute idea) so I'm hoping N2's isn't before I get there! I hope the Sisters can come too, I want to help them if I can :D and meet them. If the online thingy is up to date, it looks like one of the sisters has been there for a while... when are their transfers??

hahaha Payton got a haircut same as me! No pictures tho... you'll just have to wait and see ;D

So this week was good! Not a lot happening of yet; mostly just prepping and inviting and trying to get everyone out to the Christmas party in two weeks. I told most of the ward yesterday that I was leaving next week (I've been hiding it from them for the most part up 'til now)... but I said it a still roundabout way that only about half of them realized I was talking about leaving. (I have a good knack for being cryptic, don't I??) So most of them are happy for me. Stacy is sad, but happy that I'll get to be with y'all again. I told her when she goes through the temple I'd have to cart one of you out with me :3 but that's another year away, hahaha.

Still nothing with Caleb. I feel like with the holidays pending and such, it may be a while 'til we hear back about anything decisive. So we'll wait and see.

I'm still waiting to hear if Jessie is getting baptized on saturday, as well... If she is, I'm hoping to go up and get pictures and see her :) she was such a sweet lil' lady, I love her! On the edge of greatness.

Not much else; not much time either. D: never enough time.

THANKS FOR BEING GREAT!! I report to the mission office EARLY next week, so I'm not sure what will happen with emails. You may want to try just in case haha. But yeah, any letters sent past Thursday will prolly not get to me in time. In case anyone was wondering.

Excited for the last week! We're going to make it as productive as we can. Onwards and upwards!

LOVE YOU ALL!!

LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

More pictures!

HAI FAMILY

I can't remember all of what I sent. Did you get a box I sent a few weeks ago? I'm afraid it may have been taken T__T since you hadn't said anything about it. :s

I sent a letter last week too, and I said thanks for the CD in it, but I can say it again! THANKS FOR THE CD!! I LOVE IT, IT'S GREAT :3 anyway, yes! I have a picture of Stacy! uhmm let me attach one! :) I guess Sister Owen's email didn't make it to you? merp. I'll see what I can do about that, unless you deleted it, haha.

Yes, we sang for Stacy! Pretty much everything we do, she loves. She's so sweet :)

@Pres Clark- I will do that! We should visit him after I get released, too. I'm sure Sis Clark would love that, too. 

Lookit you, being a friendly neighbor missionary. So proud! :3

"Penni and Kathryn were impressed. But then they are kind." oh please. I'd be impressed too! Give yourself some credit! You are just so cool, I can't even. :3

No, I don't think I was ever told that story D: pretty funny tho. Sure, I'd like a copy of the talk! Bruce would do a thing like that, haha. They were thinking of moving soon, weren't they? I can't remember where they were going tho. Hopefully closer to Provo so we (being craig and me) can see them more and get delightful blackmail. Muwahaha. I mean, WAT

Yaay, company on Thanksgiving! We're going to go over and be with Stacy for a lot of the day, 'til dinner in the late afternoon. Then, I don't really know yet. But we'll see what happens. A lot of the ward is going out of town, so we'll see what happens .___. it may be a very empty and sad evening haha. glad I don't have to go through another Christmas tho, that's for sure. Phew. :)

Anyway, let me know if you got the box and letter (separately). I should probably start sticking trackers on these. o.o

This week was okay. We had a conference with Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the 70, tho! That was cute and inspiring. His wife is the most adorable thing ever, and they're basically BFFs with President and Sister Weston, so I'm sure he'll be a 70 someday haha. Anyway, they talked a lot about faith and really earnestly striving to be open to the spirit to prepare his work. Elder Ellis asked us that if every miracle we prayed for was granted, how many more baptisms would occur this month? Or next month? We should be striving to have miracles in our lives every day (cos they are more certainly there), especially cos the more we live the gospel, the more we are, in affect, entitled to them. Just in the way that as we live worthily of the sacrament, we can have the spirit with us each week. Such great promises :) however, this week I was a little overwhelmed by the whole 2-weeks-left thing, so I burnt out for the latter half of the week. I think I'm better now though, so I'm back to sprinting to the finish! One day at a time, one step at a time. Thank goodness for the Father's patience for us, we are profoundly blessed :)

I love you all SO MUCH! I'm grateful for your reassuring words and kindness. Stay great! I love you LOTS!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

HI THERE :D

How are things? Things are GREAT! :D The baptism was AWESOME! This weekend was so happy for all of us. We set everything up, and got the font ready and whatnot and we got the water HOT! Usually fonts are known to be freezing cold, but ours was steamy :D we're hilarious. When everything was all said and done and she came up out of the water, she came up saying, "Yaaay!" It was adorable!! I love her so much :3 everything went reaally really well, and the spirit was so strong. After she got confirmed yesterday in sacrament, she turned to us and said, "You know what? This may sound crazy, but I feel different now. But that's totally crazy, isn't it?" Nope, definitely not crazy- totally normal :) I'm super tired now tho from all the busy and smiling and such. Did you get an email with pictures? A lady who was there said she'd do that. :) 

Yes, Stacy got your letter! She thought it was adorable and loved it a lot :) She showed it in class after sacrament, she was so pleased with it. It must've come Saturday afternoon. But about it, she said, "I feel like I know them, but I don't know them!" Aha aww I loved it. I hope one day you get to meet her. You would love her :)

But yep, now it's official. She's a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, restored to the earth from when Christ himself was here :) and she loves it!! I can't wait for her to get to the temple someday. ^__^

No news on Caleb yet. We're trying! 

Nooo not Pres Clark! :( I knew his time was coming soon, but I was hoping to get BACK first :C Alas. I'll have to go see him anyway when I get back. He'd like that, wouldn't he? :3

But yay, President Holyoak! Bahaha bless his lil' heart haha. Guess I'll never see him again huh, hahaha, since he'll never be at church. Bless his wife for putting up with that, again. *headpat*

*pompoms for signing* my companion (who took several semesters of sign) recommends ASLpro.com . Tho, I suppose if you ask Holly she would know, which I'm guessing you would. Is she not so proud of you? Do you have a name sign yet? Would my namesign be connected with yours? I think a namesign would be so cool :3

I'm proud of your ASL! I knew you could do it ^__^

waitwait, Elder who? Did you mean Christensen? Haha. Christofferson is another big name, but you didn't mention an apostle coming, haha. Who decides new Stake Presidencies, anyway? Is it the 12, or a 70? (I think I should postface that with the comment that I'm directing that question to Dad. lol)

Yeah, someone around here mentioned there were bad storms back there. They asked me if you were near there, and I was like ¯\[°_O]/¯ people think I pay attention to the news or something haha. The only storm I've heard of is the one in the Philippines, so, y'know. Glad to hear that all is well and safe!

*headpats new Elm tree* I'mma miss the big fluffy thing in the front :(

Did Dad give an endure to the end talk recently? He's been writing me about one forever in his letters, are we talking about the same talk?

and as far as getting tired of hearing from you, I'm sure Holly never gets tired of hearing from you :) *is smack'd*

Anyway. More miracles!! Ready...

-We had a lesson with a less-active lady named Tysha this week. (pronounce her name tee-sha) IT WAS AWESOME! Typically we go over there and it doesn't turn into much. But this week, I don't even really know what happened. All of the sudden we were talking about church and going to sacrament, and she said, "I know I need to get back to church, and I'd really like to. But I just have some things I need to overcome, first." So we talked about that for a while and determined that she's afraid to come back because she doesn't want to be judged for anything. I guess there were things that happened in her past that she felt like the people of her ward had turned on her, so we are definitely going to try to help that smooth over. (It was a different ward, but her feelings are the same.) So we're SOOO grateful about that spiritually progressing time we were able to have with her :) She can make it!!! 

-Okay, this story sounds Ensign worthy. We got a referral from Salt Lake this week!! They told us she was super into family history, and she was really enthusiastic about meeting with us. Awesome! So we set up a time to meet her and whatnot. HOLYCOW. I've never met a more prepared and spiritual person, despite the cruddy surroundings she's living in. It's intense. So, a few weeks ago she woke up in the morning and decided she just needed to know more about her family's history. So she did some research and traced things back to Notre Dame circa 1330's. (That's impressive in it's own right!) Then she found a giant box left by her grandmother with tons and tons of different versions of the Bible... so she started to read, and read, and read. Several copies later, she decided that the King James version was most right out of any of them! Then, as she kept digging through the box, she found a Book of Mormon and decided to give it a go. She described it that when she was reading it, light just seemed to fill her and her room, and she knew that it was from God! Somehow she got connected to a phone in the church office building somewhere, and along we came. :D :D So we came and started talking to her. She's super enthusiastic, it's hard to keep up with her haha. But basically she was all, "I want to do what you do! Help the women and children, and share about God's love. How do I do that?" We told her that to be a missionary like us, she'd need to be baptized... and she started to cry. The spirit was SO STRONG! It was amazing. Simply awesome. Then, as we got further into it, we found a picture from a Restoration pamphlet (that we give out some times) hanging on the wall! And in her room, a passalong card! And on the shelf, an LDS version of the KJV, footnotes and all! We were having a hard time keeping our jaws from hitting the floor. O_O! So we will see her again this week and are hoping to set a specific date for her to be baptized!! YAAY!

Oh, yes, and also? Remember Jessie I would talk about in Paradise?

... she wants to be baptized :D :D

Holy hannah there are so many miracles happening! It's gotta be a dream, hahaha. Everything exploded this week, it was fabulous. But MAN. I love this work! I love the converting power of the spirit, and of the scriptures! They truly testify of each other, and I know that they speak of truth. Christ is our Savior and He LOVES US!! and He wants all of us to be happy. Commandments are not restrictions- they're instructions on how to be the most happy we can possibly be in this life. That doesn't mean hard times and bad things will happen to us, but it will give us perspective and joy throughout them! I love it. The gospel could not be sweeter!

That's all for this week! I love you oodles and oodles! Thanks for being amazing and helping me all along the way :)

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

Nov 2013

With Sister Zoumberis

Nov 2013

FAMILLLLLY <3

HI! Things are peachy here this week! Sorry to hear you got sick, that's never fun :( at least it was nothing like what you had to do this time last year haha. 

*headpats OEHS* maybe next year. being from Chicago I feel like we're really good at saying that lol

When I read about the "going to the dance alone" part, I thought you meant Matt. I didn't know you meant Dad XD hahaha. I could just imagine you writing about Hjalmarsson for the whole game XD

speaking of texting, we should get a family plan. *just saying*

YAA stake conference! you will be great :D do you get a copy of the talk to prep? or will he fly by the seat of the spirit, d'you think?

Hum. Just realized you answered a prayer of mine. Neato. :3

STACY GETS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY1!!!! I'm so excited :D :D It's going to be amazing. This week the whole ward seems to be getting going for being there, so we're planning everything and just about everything is set. Last of all we get to clean the font and fill it up and find a jumpsuit. :D we're excited. She's excited. It will be fabulous :3 we'll take tons of pictures!! and Sis Tanner gets to come back, so that's happy too ^__^ partay! can't wait!

otherwise, things are going smoothly. Nothing about Caleb yet, but I'll keep you posted. :)

also, it still cracks me up how Dad was anxious about hearing about my travel arrangements. What's going to be the plan with Matt's concert and such? Or are we going to have to wait and see, for a bit?

Things are going good! I'm in Jacob now, again :) I love Jacob! he's like... Elder Oaks. *loff* I'm just a fangirl. aha, Sis Zoumberis and I were reasoning this week that this is probably the only group of people on the earth that fangirl about old people XD but hey. it works out. :) 

happy happy happy! I still can't believe it's week 3 of the transfer already x____X *cough* yep. scary.

anyway, I LOVE YOU!!! thanks for the card, it was flippin' cute :) stay great! keep yo' chin up!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

HIIII Y'AAAAAAAALL :3

How's it hanging? Sorry I scared you, I think *I'm* just scared. So, y'know. Support. I has need.

Sister Zoumberis actually transfered from the ward next door, surprisingly. So we've had lunch together every week since I got here. So we've spent near about 3 months around each other already :) So we're peachy. So far so good! It's funny how our prayers are answered unexpectedly, though... before the transfer, I was praying really hard for someone to transfer here who could help me work hard for my last 6 weeks, and so far that's been the case! She's helping me a lot to focus on the last part of my mission, and she's wanting to help me finish strong, also. So we're working. :) 

@Stacy I will tell her that! I told her you want to meet her someday, she said she would love that :)

@coming home: Aah, um. So, I was in the mission office last Monday, so I asked about it because... just, reasons. Anyway, they let me look at the copy of my itinerary! From my faulty memory, it looks like I will fly from here to Atlanta, transfer to another plane there, and then up to Chicago. My first leg leaves at 12:15 or something like that, and I think I saw that I get into Chicago around 9:20pm? Or something near that. So THAT'S GOING TO BE FUN. *headdesk* apparently there's somebody I need to teach the whole of Preach My Gospel to on the plane ride home. Hahaha. 

So yeah. dunno how we'll schedule that all around with Matt's concert. I was gonna say I hope he plays near the front, but since he's a senior he'll probably be last. T__T unless they break up all the groups again, then it might not be so bad. But anyway. We'll see!

We'll also wait and see when the mission lets you know about all that, haha. Dad's like me- likes to plan ahead :)

*pompoms for OE* seriously. Like I told Matt in his email, that was completely unexpected. XD

What is it with failsauce trumpets in YSDP? They didn't know when to come in with my group, either. Geez Louise. They try to be such showoffs and then fail at the basic stuff. *judgemental* *cough* anyway. Hooray for Mr Tham mellowing, though! He was a feisty little squirrel when I was there, haha.

I don't think I know Sister Paradise. That's a *sweet* name though. I'm excited to meet her :) CONGRATS for your new calling!!! :D That should be amaaazinnng. You'll be good at it. You get to teach then! YAY! So how many callings do you have now, anyway? Do you still teach 2nd hour? Apparently you are a very capable lady! :3 I'm proud of you! Hope you know that. I tell a lot of people about you and Dad, and many of them say that they would like to meet you someday. It's like Stacy says all the time- "I'm sure she's proud of you!" So there's that, but also a lady in Rocklin I remember saying to me once- "You must be proud of them!" and I very much am. Just so you know :)

<3

So this week was good! We got a lot done, and it's only a little crazy cos I know the area and Sis Z doesn't. So that's stressful. I'm also still trying to keep my go-home date a secret from the rest of the ward.... sometimes unsuccessfully. I think the only people who know are the WML and his family, and then the ward chorister (cos she's trying to prep the show for the Christmas week and I figured I'd owe it to her to tell her not to count on me haha). So yeah. Not sure what I'm going to do on that front yet. A couple RMs in the ward have asked me, and when I answer vague they tell me to at least give them some notice. <_< so we'll see what happens. I don't know why it is people can somehow sense when somebody's about to finish up their mission, but it's stressful! Bah. But yeah. Peachy.

Stacy is stressing about her baptism, but I think it's cos she's trying to plan it all without being able to plan it all. Haha. I'll pass that along about the bean dip, though :) I'm sure she'd think it's awesome, haha. 

Something cool did happen yesterday, though! There's an 11yr old (Caleb) that we've been trying to teach and get baptized for a while, but because his mom and dad are divorced, we have to get permission from both parents for him to move forward. Well, we talked to the dad at church yesterday, and we told him about our predicament and how we're actually not supposed to be teaching without permission from his mom. (The way they do it for missionaries is permission for teaching and baptizing happens at the same time. So, yeah. Complicating, sorta.) So he said that he would have a good talk with Caleb's mom this week and try to get that going for us. YAY! He thinks that when he talks to her she will likely say yes, so I'm stoked about that :) We're praying hard! That would be an amazing miracle for this area, I tell you what. :D Caleb is really cute, so we're just hoping this works out for him. 

Nothing too crazy this week. Hope all is well at home! I love you all :3 Have a happy week!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

p.s. I got the contract for BDA 17 again, right? I just wanted to make sure before I start telling people that's where I'll be living. :)

HAIII

I am staying in Woodside! Sis Tanner is moving to Paradise, though. Weird, that she's going where I just came from :) she'll love it. She's heard me talk so much about it, so she thinks it's bizarre that she's actually going to MEET these people that I talk so much about. So funny :) She will be great.

My next companion is Sister Zoumberis! (It's Greek, if that helps your pronunciation at all.) It was weird cos she was serving in the ward next to us, so that will be interesting. 

Stacy IS amazing!! I hope you do get to meet her someday. She listened to the bassoon cd you sent her yesterday, and she called us all in a rave about how awesome I was. She said you were probably so proud of me, and I think you are :) she did ask though, "how did you have enough air to do all that??" it was cute, and quite funny. Maybe someday when she goes through the temple you can come with me :D

Her family (a sister and a daughter are all that's left) are pretty confused, and ask her frequently if she "knows what she's doing". And also remind her that they come from a long line of Catholics. But Stacy is firm and tells them that she believes it's true and that her whole life has, for some reason or another, been leading up to this point. She's had Mormons around her for her whole life, and she's truly committed to following the gospel. She believes in Joseph Smith, President Monson and the Book of Mormon. I'm so proud of her and all the steps she's making :) She's quite independent though and keeps trying to plan her own baptism (and thereby gets stressed out), but we keep telling her that we'll take care of everything XD so basically, she's adorable. And I love her. :3

speaking of "just do it", I found a talk you might like on that subject! I was impressed with it as I read it, so that was cool that you referenced Pres Kimball :D

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1975/10/do-it?lang=eng

@OE: no way! Crazy. I think just making the finals is impressive, now they can go home and be content that they made it haha. Props if they win, but Southern IL? Those are crazy farmkids down there, we haven't got a snowball's chance in Hades haha.

Aha, Mr Tham. I played Finlandia when I was there. I'm sure you remember that. Matt's group will hopefully play it better than ours did- the trumpets blew out halfway through the song in the concert when we did it. *facepalm* so either way, it will probably be better. :)

This week was weird. Just, weird. But we're excited about Stacy's baptism on the 16th! It'll be great. Sis Tanner will be able to come down from Paradise to attend, so that will be excellent. 

I don't have a lot to report, other than I anticipate that these last 6 weeks will be a difficult run for me... I'm trying to work hard and be obedient and such, but due to some specific things that I won't disclose at this time, I just think things are going to be a little bit harder for me this transfer than a lot of the others. SO. I just want to put it out there that any extra support and love that can be sent my way, it will be greatly appreciated. Cos honestly, I think I'm quite possibly going to really need it. So even if it's a napkin in an envelope with a quick two lines, I'd gladly take it.

Anyway. On that note, a lot to do today! Lots of packing and visiting to be done on Sis Tanner's end. Thanks for being great! We're in the homestretch now! :)

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

October 2013 with Sister Tanner

HIYAA FAMILY <3 <3 <3

@Music: we could do a horn/bassoon thing. we've done duets at the piano before. we'll shoot for something christmas related, since it'll be that time :P you or matt or both may have to find something, since I'm limited in my internet perusals. search for lds composers or something- sally deford is usually pretty good, although sometimes jazzy. Rosemary might have something too. you know me, I'm flexible. pick something and stick me with a day, I'll get it down :)

I heard about that book! Apparently it's really good. I'd look into it if I could. Elder Andersen referenced it in his conference talk in April, so it must be legit haha. 

Also! I went online and looked at my byu stuff, and it says I'm already endorsed thru Summer of 2015. O_o not sure how that happened. But hey! We'll go with it! Haha. I'mm gonna read the honor code and such again, just because I should. But it's all not too different from anything I've been living in the last year anyway :P

SOOO We have great news this week! (Ohmygosh it was the longest week EVER I felt like it'd never end haha but it was good!) On Wednesday, we took a super-awesome member with us to Stacy's house, intending to teach her about the word of wisdom. As is typical with Stacy, she likes to ask a question multiple times to see what different answers she can get. She asked, "why do I need to be baptized again?" We've explained to her about the apostasy, the priesthood, Joseph Smith being a prophet (and she already knows he and Pres Monson are called of God), and this awesome member just shrugged with a smile, and with all love and encouragement in her heart said, "just do it!" Stacy thought about it for a second and said, "Okay!" So now she'll be baptized onNovember 16th! WOO! We so didn't see it coming like that haha. That morning we had thought about inviting her to be baptized again, so that was just miraculous. We're stoked! And we totally know too, that when she gets baptized I don't think she'll ever go away :) it was awesome. She's been talking a lot too about how she thinks that her whole life has been leading up to this point, and I really think that it is. She's so faithful, and even though her sister and daughter are raising loads of questions about her joining the church, she believes and knows this is the path for her! We love her so much and are so happy for her :D

Also this week was Sister's Training! Yay! So all 62 of the Sister missionaries in the mission got together in Gridley for a conference :) it was so nice! There are a lot of them that I don't know now. But yeah. Lots of insight and awesomeness! And hilariousness. A lot of the Sisters in their lessons took part in President Weston impressions, and they were SO funny. Aha. I love this mission :) It's the best mission I could've ever gone to! Definitely the one for me ^__^

In light of that, there are two big messages that have recently stood out to me. First was to focus on things that are in my control (and results are definitely not in my control, so I shouldn't stress about those). Second, to "just do it"!!! If you think something, and it's good, do it. If you have to decide between two good things, pick one and go for it! Full steam ahead! or "damn the torpedos", as Stacy would say :D so fabulous. But yeah. For the last chunk of my mission, I am going to try to be so much better at focusing what I can control, and then do the very best that I can every day (even - and especially even- when I don't want to!). So. It'll be interesting.

*pompoms*

Nothing else I can think of right now. Transfers are next Sunday, but I don't think I'll go anywhere. We'll see what happens! There's rumblings that Sisters will open up the ward next to us, but we'll see what happens. ¯\[°_O]/¯ always something!

thanks for being great!! I love you muchly and I hope all continues to go well and smoothly for you :) thanks for the support and love, I love it and feel it now more than ever. Thank you thank you!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

HI FAMILY <3

How's it hanging? :3 I am much better- it was a weird sick cos basically my nose just threw a revolution and congested itself up like whoa. But my brain wasn't foggy and I wasn't achey, so I don't really know what that was. Sis Tanner got it as soon as I was on the upswing, so it was a pretty slow week for us haha. Sad times. But we did take things slower than we normally was. It was tough, actually. Bluh.

@Byu stuff- yes, I was looking at mymap. Just for fun I tried to add a class, and it told me I couldn't 'til my allotted day. So yeah. haha.

Yes, that's a typical length between people to register. I think they only take a week to open it up to everyone, and they do it based on the number of credits you have. SO the more credits= the earlier to sign up. Considering they only take about 7 days to open up everything, the 5 days between him and me is quite a lot. So yeah. It's normal. 

*pompoms for Craig*

*pompoms for Matt*

*pompoms for Paca* hey, I'll be able to make his birthday party this year :D right?

This week, like I said, was slower cos we were trying to recuperate as slowly as we'd allow ourselves XD But it is what it is. A crazy thing happened tho!

At the RS broadcast two weeks ago, this lady came up and stood next to me while we were singing the song in the middle. Later she said, "you have to come and sing in our ward!" so we laughed and said we would. Well, this week we found out just how serious she was. She called the mission president's wife to get permission for it on Thursday, called us on Friday to let us know, practiced on Saturday night, and then performed it on Sunday afternoon.

And the kicker was, it was all in Spanish. (*booyah*) So that was a CRAZY adventure, hahaha. All on a getting-better throat. Coughdrops were my best friend this weekend. We sung Lead Kindly Light, or Divina Luz in the Spanish book. IT was exciting, and those two semesters of spanish in HS taught me nothing if not pronunciation! The Sisters were impressed :) so yep. Be proud. Who knew that my average singing skills would outshine my bassoon skills? Dang non-portable instruments :P

Also this week, I was reading some of the talks from April conference of this year. I was reading about keeping covenants, keeping commandments and personal agency. I thought about agency and the choices we make every day, and how- though we make choices- we have no say in the consequences (good or bad) that follow. SO, I was thinking about that and the choices we make to keep the commandments of God. Of course we're promised that we'll have blessings when we follow the things that He asks, so good things will come. In essence, this is saying that when we CHOOSE to keep the commandments of God, Heavenly Father has promised that GOOD consequences will come. EVERY. TIME. It's foolproof! And, from the scriptures we know that when we do what He asks, He is bound to keep His promises. So, keeping commandments invites the assurance that good things will come. I love it! That doesn't mean that bad things won't come, but that's where the faith comes in- that Heavenly Father will make good on His promises no matter what we're thrown into. I really loved that from my studies this week :) 

Anyway I've been taking too long on this so I gotta go! I love you! I hope that all goes well this week :) Thanks for being great! <3

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

p.s. Here's our zone! If you can hopefully open it. It should be fine.

Zone Oct 2013

FAMILY!! <3

yep, conference was AWESOME!!! I loved it all. So so much. Saturday was particularly pertinent, don't you think? :) I was thinking Dad should put more pictures of the temple/Christ/family on his desk or something. I dunno what his workplace is life so what do I know :D *brick'd* I loved the talk by Elder Neilsen, he was so enthusiastic and hilarious :D I loved it. Did you see the fly on the podium on the Sunday afternoon session? I feel so bad for him haha. They were all amazing and awesome and I'm excited for the Ensign, although I don't think I'll get it in time before I leave haha.

Also, yikes, I thought you didn't ever cry? Elder Holland is so powerful, it's great. I thought it was an awesome relevant talk. We all have periods of that, I think, and it's true that mental illnesses are just as real as the physical ones. So I thought it was great that he talked about that. My thought was, it's so awesome that a living church talks about living issues. It's real and we know it! And certainly not blind or oblivious to it. That was comforting to me.

For the record, Stacy is 70. She's a cute lady :) We watched both Saturday sessions with her and she was remarking all over about how they were "holy men" and how much she loved President Monson already. We already had places to watch Sunday with, but she told us she was going to watch Sunday (all day!) also! So... we're anxious to see how she responded to all the messages from Sunday. We'll hopefully see her tomorrow, so we'll get back to you on that :) She's so great though! And, after Saturday sessions, we were talking to her and she said, "Now girls, when I get baptized..." We were flipping out :D I'm thinking she'll likely get baptized in November, so we'll see what happens!!!

So, d'you remember Sister Ripplinger? She was my companion over last Christmas. Well... she's going to be getting married in December! the 20th, to be exact, in SLC. So I'm curious about your input on if/how I can get there? I'm even okay with the train :D that'd be a fun adventure, I'm sure. Still trying to think of who I can take for a travel buddy maybe, but I'll let you ponder on that for a while. 

I got sick this weekend! That was an exciting adventure too. Sunday I had a sore throat, and later in the day I got a stomachache, so I had to lay down for a while. Today my throat is fine but my nose is running a marathon. So we'll see what happens. Boo. I hardly ever get sick, and then I went on a mission. haha. 

Also, I went on exchanges with the one and only Sis Tittle today :) MTC companion woohoo! It was really awesome. We talked a lot about finishing our mission strong, and made a new resolve to be 100% exactly obedient all the time!! So that's been an interesting new goal. Fun times!! We're going to be accountable to basically everyone around us, so that helps. I've found that the more I'm accountable to people, the more I'm influenced to actually get things done. which is a nice find haha :) always something to improve on!

I love you lots!! Thanks for the stamps :) and Dad told me about the email thing, so I'll brace myself in the next while haha. Thanks!!

Fight to the finish!!

Sister Nelson

HI FAMILY

I are good! :) 

Yes, Sister Jones is serving her mission here in this mission also! Nifty nifty :) her family is in Idaho but they'll be moving to Scotland soon, apparently. Yay work! So yeah, haha. Pretty funny.

@cookie dough: well, we stuck it all in a pan and baked it, so we don't have to worry about raw eggs. and truthfully, it's actually super good on ice cream. so yeah. it turned out to be a success after all haha :)

aah! if she sung with the BYU singers I might know her :O at least by sight. How long has she been at BYU? in the ward? maybe she'll be in the ward when I come back :D when are their transfers and such, anyway? when I looked at the online directory there was just one sister listed, so maybe they're having transfers soon? excitedly, when I looked at the site I could access both our stake and the stake I'm serving in! so whoever came up with that had a good idea going. :) anyway. blah ad nauseum blah!

@playing when I get back: uhh, that one's up to you! I'm sure we could figure something out for Dec 29th if you wanted, but I'm not sure my tone will be fabulous or awful since my reeds are so skiwampus old. Yay! another thing to do!

I sorta found a bassoon- the director at the HS we borrowed from last year said I could borrow it again, but I can't call him or go get it, and nothing's happened yet. So... I guess we'll wait and see. Depends how badly they want to hear it I guess haha.

Oh, Dad asked in his letter about the Pulsiphers- when I saw them at the temple, I just saw Scotty (the son). Mom was at work I guess. Still, happy :)

Oh, Sis Tanner wanted to know if you could forward the picture Sis Lundberg (haha ;D) sent to you? If you don't know how to forward, reference your nearest son.  :D apparently they didn't get to the right place. yep. Thanks!

*headpats East* one day.

Yay, Women's Conference! Yay, chinese! I think that's my favorite thing to go out for. And I'd know, cos I've gone out to eat a lot. x_x *pompoms for conference*

Oh, story!!! We brought Stacy with us to watch the women's conference! Yay! This is what she said after the whole thing: "Boy, that Monson! You can really tell he's a holy man! I was a little skeptical of the whole prophet thing at first, thinking we'd see what he was all about, but oh my goodness! He is something else!!" :D it was basically the coolest thing ever! We knew she had a belief in Joseph Smith beforehand, and now she has a testimony of Pres Monson too! So it's really really neat to watch her progress from point to point :) I think she'll just have to decide to it on her own- especially cos she has a fabulous (or stubborn?) way of learning things at her own pace. We experience new realizations with her every time we're over with her, haha. And she told us she doesn't want us out when it's dark, so she basically told us whenever we don't have a nighttime appointment we need to be at her house so she can talk to us. XD sounds like a plan, Stacy. She's the light of our lives right now, I'd be so happy to spend every day at her house if I could haha :)

Things are going well otherwise! I'm also excited for conference and to see what Stacy thinks of it. Smooth smooth :)

Nothing else is coming to mind so I guess that's all for now! Thanks always for supporting me and being great :) It means a lot and I very much appreciate it always. Especially mail, cos that's just a good ending to a day! So thanks for being great and keep being great ^_^

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

HIIIII

How's it hangin'? Matt's birthday was a hit, it seems. This week was peachy :) We got to go to a baptism yesterday with Stacy! (We're allowed to go when we bring someone who's learning about the church- which is awesome, cos going and seeing baptisms are my favorite :D!) She REALLY liked it, and it was really awesome cos it was for a 91 yr-old lady who was Methodist. The lady gave a little speech at the end and in it, she talked about the long long road it took to get to the church (I mean, 91 yrs of floating around would do that to you) and I love what she said. It was a really powerful experience, definitely super great. But this lady said, "I've joined the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Church of Christ, and a couple others. But now I've finally found home!" It was so touching and so perfect, especially for Stacy. I loved it a lot :D 

OHYEAH! And it was fun because I got to see Sister Jones!! Like, Amira Jones from girls camp a bazillion years ago. It was trippy! I wrote her a letter last week and then I got to see her at the baptism- it was awesome. We caught up from the last 7 years of her life, it was way neat. So yeah. What're the odds that we both would've ended up here? :)

ohey family email, why so late? she sent it three hours ago. XD

@Nun: oh my, XD that is so funny. do what you can, I guess!

yay, cryfest! hahaha. speaking of the dough, we tried to add an egg but it didn't change much. it might've been too long or something. so instead we stuck it all in a pan and baked it- but it's still as crumbly as before. so now I kinda wanna get ice cream and just use the dough as a topping. haha. YUMMY. it's like granola, but a whole lot less good for you :D

yaay standards night! (I don't even know what those are anymore) (my high school experience was all soo memorable, can you tell? aha) sounds like he had a rockin' birthday weekend, then. who was the lucky one that suggested a 3ds for him? stinker. Haha!

the kitchen sink sounds like a challenge they have at leatherby's out here- Daddy Dave's Challenge- it's prolly a half-gallon of ice cream. Drowning in toppings, of course. That's typical leatherby's. haha. (also, I seem to remember if you could finish a kitchen sink, you could keep it. is that or was that ever the case? XD)

We sung in church yesterday! It was fun! Stacy told us to tell you that you should be proud, cos it was awesomeness. For real! We took Hymn #235 and the words to #292 and did that. (p.s. easy creativity = look up the meters in the back and play around with the ones with the same meters. winrar.) We did an accapella verse, and everybody was going crazy about it the whole day. It was great :D I've developed my voice enough to become a strong soprano. What the what? ;D yeah, the last verse I sung the alto line up an octave. so great! it was funny tho, I looked around near the end and was like, "oh geez, there are a lot of people crying right now o.o" so... I guess that's a good thing. One of the Sisters was talking about having me do something for the Christmas program.... I didn't have the heart to tell her. I told her to not count on us 'til we pass the transfer, so hopefully we don't break hearts haha. :)

anyway, not a lot of excitement this week. it rained on Saturday! but it was shortlived. loved it tho.

ANYWAY I love you bunches!! Thanks for being AWESOMENESS! I couldn't have been awesome without you guys :D

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

FAMILY!! <3

Hello! Happy days! Transfers were yesterday and Sis Tanner and I are staying together for another 6 weeks :) We're so excited! Things are really starting to jive in this ward and we're so grateful to be able to watch it happen n_n

@honey: local is awesome :3 yes, I said the same about IL honey to CA honey. are the backyard neighbors the ones from uhh... pakistan? or was it india? darnit. Now you know how I feel about basically everything- I just want to keep it for myself XD I need a better attitude, I've decided haha. 

@mike: aha that cracks me up. looks a lot different than he did, huh? I knew he was a music teacher floating around Chicago somewhere, but glad to know the specifics now. I didn't even know he was in the elementary range, so that's cute :3 that IS far. But y'know, it is what it is. We've sent a few letters back and forth, but not much. I'm hoping to mostly catch up with these people in the month timeframe I'll have before leaving the state... again. Haha. Obviously I'm not going to live out much of my life in Chicago XD unfortunately. (p.s. are you?)

@Stacy: I mentioned to her that Dad called her "Sister Lundberg" in his letter, and she laughed XD she's catholic, and she's like "I'm not a Sister, I'm not a nun!" It was pretty cute.

@Sis Tanner letter: yes, she wrote it. promise! she has it in her that apparently I'm awesome, so whatever that means. hahaha! I dunno what she even said, tho I guess she wrote you about our epic fail with the cookie dough. I don't get why this time didn't work out, cos it did at the start of the transfer! so funny. we do still have it, tho we tried to add more peanut butter to get it to stick, but it didn't. we will try the egg and if that doesn't work, we may just take a spoon to it and eat it raw haha. we have no fear :D (did you actually have tears when you read about that misadventure? that cracks me up; our family never cries at anything.) thanks for the recipe! 

@senior parade: now that you say that, it sounds familiar to me. just walking in front of the stands, right? and then we scooted back to the band, so it didn't make much of a difference. good times- a LONG time ago, wasn't it? time is just flying, it's crazy.

@facebook I'm not sure I'm going to want to use it, at this point. there's a lot of details to work out still, and I'm not sure I want to get caught up in it. I agree it's a fabulous idea, but I don't know about it and me, haha. so we'll see, I guess. they still haven't rolled it out to the rest of us. 

Fall is rolling in here, too. Tho, not that it makes much of a difference cos everything is basically green all year round. But, y'know. It breezes are more frequent and it doesn't get up to the hundreds, at least it hasn't for the last few days. So that's nice :) 

Ohyeah! I got to go to the temple this week!! AAH! So awesome!! If you haven't been since the update, you should gooooo! And even if you've been since then, you should go agaaain! I loved it, oh my goodness. I just love the temple. Ah. It was funny cos we barely missed the session by prolly 5 minutes (T__T) so we decided to go and do initiatories 'til the next session started. It was nice to do those, since I haven't since I did it for myself. Good reminders, and to see how all that went with the session that followed. So that was great :) I even got to see some people from my last areas there! Remember Sis. Pulsipher from Rocklin? Her son just reported to the MTC last week to go to the Denver South mission! So neat! There were a lot of people going through for the first time, so it was really cool to see all that. So happy :) I can't wait 'til I can go every week!

So.. we had a really awesome crazy experience this week!! All week we were trying to draw on the spirit to know if Stacy was ready to be baptized. We're going along, not really getting any specific direction so we just went over on Friday to talk with her and read from the Book of Mormon. It was a good little conversation, and we read and prayed with her. The next day during studies, we got this huge specific and almost urgent impression that we needed to invite her to be baptized that day. So we got nervous, of course :D but we decided we were going to be obedient and do it. A few hours later when we could actually catch her at home, we go in and start talking with her about the scriptures. She had been studying baptism for the last few days, and is trying to figure out why she needs to be baptized again. Anyway, long story short I look at her and said, "Stacy, the spirit has told me that I need to ask you: Will you be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" I tell you, I felt like there was an electrical surge going through my entire being. It felt hot, actually, but I knew it was what I had to say. Sis Tanner said later that she didn't think it sounded like me, but that it was definitely the spirit speaking, not me. Powerful. I think it was so intense for all of us that Stacy got scared and said she wasn't ready for baptism yet, and that she needed to know more before she committed to being baptized into the church. We talked about faith, and how if we knew everything there would be no faith, and she just looked at me and said, "You always have an answer for everything!" it was funny. :) but yeah. in hindsight, although we didn't have the outcome we expected after having a specific impression like that, we definitely know that it was what needed to happen. She also admitted to us that she knows Joseph Smith is a prophet! So that was really awesome too :) Honestly, I think she already knows its true, but just needs to feel more secure about it before she makes the transition. Bless! I love her so much :)

Anyway! That was the highlight for this week. Good times, huh? :) It was fantastic to realize that I'm being the mouthpiece that Heavenly Father wants me to be. I'm still imperfect and I'm still making mistakes, but I feel closer than I ever have before. It's AMAZING!

Thank you so much for supporting me always :) your letters and notes mean so much to me, and I'm so thankful for them. The gospel is true! I'm grateful for your shining examples in my life, and for the things that you've always taught me about working hard and following through with the spirit and the impressions we receive. Everything is just amazing. I can't even express it.

I LOVELOVELOVE YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!! 

<3

Sister Nelson

p.s. could Dad send me a copy of his line of authority? that would be really awesome :D

Hiyaaa, family!! <3

Things are great! :D

@facebook- we'll probably go to the library more, unless we can get a member's business okay'd to use. we'll see. Yes, it'll be using the actual page and hiding all the personal content- I don't personally like it that way, but that'll be the way it's done. I might just opt out, since I'd rather just go without it instead of try to stay away from the closer line. But, y'know. Issues. :D

@Granna- no, you didn't mention! that's interesting. I wonder if I should send her a Book of Mormon now ;D y' never know!

@other Granna- awh. At least she's a little closer to you now. Sounds like it was maybe the best thing to do. Is she in another assisted living place, or what?

@unity: we had that lesson in church yesterday, too! it's interesting, because recently we've felt like we need to have the ward be more connected and more unified in order for the work to go forward. the last few weeks, it's seemed like, has been on unifying ourselves. Also forgiveness, cos that'll keep us together too. Things are really starting to pick up, it seems- we really feel like the ward is turning in the right direction now, which is awesome! we have high hopes for the future weeks, we're really expecting miracles to start unfolding. :)

@hummingbirds: sweet! did you know they're quite territorial? at least they are around here. sometimes you might see one come up to the feeder, and then have another one come and chase it off. pretty interesting, huh? and when they fly close enough, they sound like a little jet plane :) there's a lot of hummingbirds out here too! we see them a lot.

Yay, honey! Did I tell you that my companion things that your honey is the best? (srsly- she hasn't liked any honey until I encouraged her to try yours.) So we're going through it really fast haha!

I asked if I could change my scripture on it- did they ever do that? can you do that? in case I can, I want it to be 3Nephi 5:13. :D

@senior parade: okay, even I don't remember that. was it just a wandering around with my parents type deal? cos I remember doing that. Haha. a magical experience, you can tell. granted, asking me with my missionary brain may not be the best idea either. 

Aw, my mum is so cute :3 you're making me all sentimental now, too. Shucks. (Yay, OE won!) I'm grateful that you're my mom- sometimes I think about the way we grew up and I determined it was perfect for us. Seriously tho- lots of letting us mess up, even though you probably didn't want us to, but you gave us enough to figure it out and learn it ourselves. I really appreciate that! It helps me when I'm with other people to just remember your example, that if it's not hurting you or anyone else, it's probably fine! That's kept a lot of nit-picky contention out of the way :)

It's the last week of the transfer again- did not this one FLY BY? I feel like I just got here. We'll keep you posted about transfers next week, but I'll probably be okay so go ahead and send me letters to the same address.

Which reminds me: the mission office asked that we start having all our mail sent to our house address, to slim down the amount of mail they get in and out of the office. SO, all mail should be sent to this address for the next three months:

6904 Walnut Ave

Orangevale, CA 95662

That would be great :)

Not a lot else. Stacy, our investigator tried to send you an email with a picture of me and Sis Tanner- did you get it? She's doing well - loves us and all we do. Oh! We spoke in church yesterday- it was really fun. You know it's a bad sign when you enjoy speaking in church haha. Um, yes. Sis Tanner spoke on faith and I on repentance. I got to talk about the Atonement too- my favorite subject :) it's fantastico! we got a lot of nice comments, and one gentleman even told me that he could see me talking at a semi-annual conference someday O__O that might be scary. Aha. 

We got to pick up a new investigator this week!! His name is Caleb, and he's 10. Win! His dad and step-mom are both converts who got baptized a few years ago, so now we're going to try to get him baptized too. His real mom wants him to know why he wants to be baptized, so we're going to attempt to help him understand that. :D Things are movin'!

Anyway, that's all for this week! Glad to hear things are going great! Know that I love and appreciate y'all!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

FAMILY!! <3

Okay, I will get to zone conference in a minute cos I'll be going on forever about that. :D

Beekeepers are fun! They actually keep their hives differently; not in a traditional beebox but on a weird triangular pole thing. They're not even inclosed! But they keep them in the backyard, so they don't have to worry about too many predators. I didn't ask about swarming, so I don't know! I impressed them with my jargon knowledge tho, and managed to keep my companion in the dark on accident <_< haha. their honey is way dark tho, and both Sis Tanner and I agreed that IL honey is better :3 (srsly tho). 

wait, when did Matt declare he wanted to do engineering? man, all this musical skill is just being wasted, isn't it. hahaha. 

Is all the applying for colleges coming? Or did that pass already? ¯\[°_O]/¯ haha.

@familysearch I'm not too worried about it yet, considering I can't really use it. But if you want to tackle that can of worms, by all means!

Ahaha if we got Payton involved with obstacle courses, that'd be the most hilarious thing ever. We'd have to get him to stop spazzing so much though, he's still an excitable little guy. Man, I can't wait to see him spring over the futon :D my suggestion is google! google solves everything!

awww haircut. is it way short again? or back to normal length? almost? and it's not that cool white anymore? I thought it looked cool that way.

OKAY 'scuse me while I fan about awesomeness at zone conference this week

basically the biggest thing ever happened this week: our mission is a test mission!!! there are 12 missions total for trying this out, and there are 405 mission in the whole world. (That translates into 2.96% of all missionaries.) AND... it's for FACEBOOK!!! CRAZY. Right now it's just limited to the zone leaders and exchange sisters, but sometime within the next few weeks it'll roll out to the rest of us. So, just in case they want me to modify all my facebook to make it missionary appropriate: if you see me on facebook, I'm not being a disobedient missionary. okay? okay. :D 

I'm not sure if they're going to for sure ask us to use our ones that we had before or make a new one, so I'm not sure if I'll be on mine or what. Personally I think they should just make a facebook page for the missionaries to use so it won't keep moving and floating around and changing. But that's just me. We'll see how it goes! Lots of things to fiddle around with and try, since it is, after all, a test. :D Madness! (Sparta!)

Yep. Other than that, we talked more about being nicer to each other haha. Also, I saw Sister Loveland!! :D AND we got to go on exchanges! Yay! So we spent another day together :D So fun! I just love her. A lot. I'm sad she goes home in two weeks, and she's even more sad. She doesn't want to go just as much as I don't want her to XD But it's a bittersweet thing. Someday we'll be together again in Utah and playing pinochle until we've got cards coming out of our ears. Mm. Looking forward to that. But yeah, so good to see her. It was like... I don't even know what. Like talking to your family on the phone for the first time in 7 months. :D We send a lot of letters haha. Anyway! She's great. 

Otherwise, this week we tried to see a lot of people. It's hard for me to transition still from Paradise where everyone is retired and home all the time, to a normal community where people aren't home all the time. Derp. There's still a ton of people that not even my companion knows cos we just don't know when they're home! Bah. Anyway, that's been an interesting challenge.

Not much else to report, really. One of our investigators, Stacy, has now come to church with us four times! It's been great. She has a ton of questions, and loves how the church is set up and everything. She's still got some things that she wants to figure out for herself, as she rightly should, so that's good. We'll see how things go! Add in an extra prayer for her, okay? :)

Thanks for being awesome! Things are going really good, and tho we have a lot to do there's so much joy! Oh yeah, and while you're at the prayers, throw in an extra one for President Weston. Even though I swear he's perfect. @_@

Have an AWESOME holiday! It's raining here today, so we're enjoying it :D 

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

With Sister Tanner Sept 2013

Sunset Sept 2013

Sunset Sept 2013

It's raining Sept 2013

HIII FAMILY <3

Things are good on this homefront :D and for the record dad, I'm in the Woodside ward; Orangevale has Elders!

Tehe I love that phrase, "galavanting around the countryside". is that from something? I feel like I use it frequently.

"Though I would do it again." take us out of school or go through gradeschool again? haha.

I love that about Payton :D is he gonna be totally confused when you say, "let's wake up Rach"? altho, I'm not sure he could make it up to the top of the bed, but he could surprise me. those lil' dogs can jump better than you'd think o.o

Alma 32 is coming great! I'm on day 7. It's really good! It's interesting how one chapter can apply to your lives in many ways. I think every day this week I've gotten a different interpretation of the same verse! Also, I have a new love for v. 19. go read it! and you should do it too. Just keep lots of notes! Things that came to your mind, things that you found interesting, other things you want to copyreference, whatever. Just have something handy to write on. 

*domestic diva* I like that! I totally forgot we even had a raspberry bush... I knew about the blackberries, but not the raspberries.

My companion's family is in MN. Maybe they'll move into their ward! They live by Rochester. What are they moving up there for?

Yay, family history! I was looking at my familysearch thing and I don't have a granpa. Sad day. I don't think that'll get fixed until... well, you know. Dumb Salt Lake XD

Things are well here. We're getting a lot of direction on the course we need to take, and it involves making a lot of friends. Which shouldn't be too hard, I think. hahaha. 

Also, a member told me that she thought I was awesome, and that it must run in the family. So I thought I'd pass that along :D <3

We have zone conference this week, so I'm super excited :D I'm hoping we find out more about the whole technology-using-stuff, since a lot of people are asking us about it. I'm getting more and more excited for the changes, so that's a good sign I guess :) Yay! 

Thanks for being AWESOME!!! And just fabulous in all ways. Stay great! Stay close to the spirit! 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Sister Nelson

FAMILY!! <3

Sooo as far as the pictures, the first one is just cute and you don't need to post it. The latter pictures are what we did this weekend! WE PARTIED! Yeah :D The ward had an ice cream social this weekend, and it was tasty. Obviously. A lot of people made ice cream and brought it, so it worked out well! There was a really yummy kind, like a chocolate cherry, and it was divine. OOH! I wanna learn how to make that O_O Anyway, a picture of my Sister Tanner, in case you were wondering. :)

I am super distracted by sending pictures and whoever else is emailing me today, haha. Apparently there's another Sister Rachael Nelson serving in Texas somewhere, and people have been sending me emails for her. Pretty funny, also especially since there was a Sister Loveland down there, too! So apparently the Loveland/Nelson duo is a divine one :) Yeah!~

I do not know everyone yet, haha. There's a lot of people that my companion doesn't even know, so sometimes I feel like I'm just paving my own way. We're organizing our area book and whatnot so we can leave more notes about who everyone is and who would be good for fellowshipping and whatnot, but there's a long way to go so we're going to be meeting a loot of people. :) Sister Tanner moved to MN when she was 8, and she's 19 now. So you can math that and see where you were at the time. I knew dad went to school there, but I didn't know if I could accurately count that as a "connection" or not, considering I don't know anyone. But yay! Cool! (literally?)

Seminary and school started this week around here, so people have been stressin' and everything else. I kinda liked the isolation of Paradise. More chill up there!

YAY, MB! Sounds like so much fun :D

"So we don't get attacked when we pick them" this made me happy. also I laughed. :D

@cleaning: I claim my room.

*pompoms for bees* apparently we are having dinner with beekeepers this week. They are, ironically, the Winns. (Not Craig's, and not related either.) They have given the sisters here a lot of honey, so we have some stockpiled in the cupboard. Haha :)

You are hard-hearted, haha! Don't even think about the rabbits. Poor dogs. You think they'd be able to keep each other entertained. I dunno, the Hunts had a cute lil' Terrier (she looked like she ought to be the show-dog for dog-food commercials) that would click on the floor sometimes. I think it just made me feel better cos I miss being around well-behaved dogs (there are very few of them out here. And somehow people go off about how they don't have the finances for xyz and they have a bunch of animals. what? *brick'd* ). How was Payton when Craig came back? Nearly passed out from the excitement, I bet :D

This week was good! Met some more people, and we're getting back into a groove too. Getting to know the ward (a lot of them are hilarious, ohgosh I can't even) and they love us. a LOT. :D We're hoping to go to the temple next week! I haven't been since January, and apparently... well, they do things a little differently. Apparently better. Have you been recently? If not, you should go. And hope there's no one that needs a translation in your session. *winkywink*

So we were talking to one of the other Sister companionships this week (Sister Loveland and her companion, actually) and she talked about how she read Alma 32 every day for 21 days!! That's a lot of Alma 32. She mentioned tho about how her perspective on faith changed a ton because of it, so I think it's a really good and cool idea, so I'm gonna try it! I'm starting tomorrow, since I forgot 'til just now. It'll be SWEET! I'm excited for it :) and I'll be sure to report back on it, too. 

Well, that's about it for now! Sorry it's short. Hope all is well and things are going great :) G'luck with school and everything!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson 

Ward Party Aug 2013

Sister Tanner Aug 2013