Saturday, March 30, 2013

Hiya

FAMILY! <3

No, I haven't heard from Matt. Very sad! </3 Oh well. There's always next week. That means I get two next week, right? ;D

Happy Easter! We'll be putting on another musical program. Sister Brown is spearheading that one too, haha. We don't have a dinner signed up, but that's okay cos even if we did it'd have to be way early. Holidays are nuts, and we have to be down in Chico at ~5, so we'd have to leave Paradise at 4:30. Too early for a holiday dinner, I suppose. We'll make do :)

Yay, warmer weather! Sister Hunt, whom we live with, was talking about how some of her asparagus is ready to be cut already! Life is so much different in California, I'm telling you! And strange, I thought almond honey would've been sweet. I wonder if they process it sometimes and add loads of sugar to it? Not that that's a great alternative, but I bet it'd be yummy. 

Good luck to both of you with your thankless jobs! I've heard some crazy things about the financial world of late, so I'm grateful that we're stable. It brings such a peace of mind! 

We had a great week! Although, we're pretty much devastated for Dottie- everything came to a head to which she needed to decide yes or no, and she's started to sway to no. Aah! HEARTBREAK! </3 but Sister Loveland and I are trying to have good spirits about it, and we think it has to do with timing. We know it will happen, and we're grateful for the fact that we've been able to teach her, but we know that someone else will be able to touch her heart and help her more than we can. We're keeping in contact with her for sure though, we feel like she could change her mind at any minute, so we're going to keep trying. 
Anyway, great things are happening! We had an experience this week when we tried to go see Toni, but she wasn't home. We started to walk back to our car and we saw a lady standing by the fence with a little cage (there was a mouse in it - giving it some sun or something? I don't know). So we started talking to her and she launched off on this thing about how she had always asked her preachers and things questions that nobody could answer. As missionaries, we're fearless and often get ourselves into stuff like this, so we asked what her questions were :) she talked about why God allows bad things to happen to good, innocent people, and where animals go after they die. We share with her Alma 14: 9-11 (pertaining to why God lets bad things happen), and then we were able to give her a Book of Mormon with a commitment to read Alma 40-41 (chapters about the resurrection and the after-life). Woohoo! We're going to go back and see her later this week :D and we are trying to get in contact with another person in Toni's area, so we're convinced we're going to convert the whole neighborhood. Haha! As the Lord wills it ^_^

I love it here :3

Thank you always for your letters! Also for all my friends out there who support me and send letters of encouragement - it makes a huge difference! I'm so thankful for your love and support and prayers for me. This work is AMAZING! It changes us, and if it doesn't, something's wrong. It's amazing to look back at how I've changed, even from two months ago - it's a subtle change, but the worst things about ourselves fall away as we align ourselves with Heavenly Father. It makes ALL the difference! In Relief Society yesterday, the lady teaching told a story (and I'm paraphrasing, so sorry if I mess up details!) about a boy who went out to the beach after the tide went out, and there were tons of sand-dollars there. He started to throw them back, one by one. A man walked by him and noticed, and he came and started to talk to him. "What are you doing? There are thousands of sand-dollars here, you won't be able to make a dent. What does it matter?" The boy threw back another one and said, "It mattered to that one." I LOVE THAT! That's our whole purpose, like in D&C 18:10, 15. Even if it's just one, it makes the world to that one! It's fabulous. That's what I've been discovering these last few weeks <3

I LOVE YOU ALL! Thanks always for your love! I feel it, I definitely do! Stay great, stay safe!

LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

Monday, March 18, 2013

Hiya

FAMILY! <3 <3

*pompoms for the blackhawks* :D

I've said it before, but coincidences are definitely evidences of God's work! I've thought about that a lot too.  I've shared with my companion about the Thursday lunches and some of our MANY inside jokes (it's never as funny when you have to explain it, of course), and she's remarked on several occasions how it makes her happy to hear how close all us kids are. We've talked many times about how we're blown away at how lucky we are that we get to live in a stable, well-balanced loving home. It really makes us grateful thinking about even that basic (to us) blessing. Thanks for your hardwork in creating that for us! We will never forget it and always be indebted to you and Dad for that :3

Does Matt really not check his email that much? Yikes. Well, that sounds like a good time - apparently he's going to Florida? First I've heard of that, XD but that sounds like fun too. Also, thank you for the box!! :D Thank you for all that. Sister Loveland loved the peeps. Was the other matching set for us to share also? I wasn't sure but I think that's what I'm going to end up doing, haha. (Yum, jelly beans. It's what S. Loveland associates with general conference, since Easter is always right around the same time.)

Congrats to Brother Stradling! Haha. XD is he still the YW secretary? That's way more fun. :D Ooh, teaching seminary. Sounds like a good experience. How long is your hair now? I'm looking forward to see if Sis. Severn's friends are in our ward :D Are they members? I might know them already if they are.

As to housing, I would like to be in the same place if possible. I don't mind so much as the people as the location. I'm sure there's a lot going for housing, since everyone and their dog decided to go on missions - it'll just be way bad in two years when they all come back. Yeah, hopefully I'll be gone by the time all that happens. I look forward to Thursday lunches again with Craig :D but that's a long time in the future.

ANYWAY, the work is going OSSUM! We are quite busy, and it's a blessing. I don't know if I told you a few weeks ago, but it's a great experience so I'm going to tell the whole story anyway. A few weeks ago we tried to go visit a less-active family, and we talked to a man that we thought was the husband, but it turns out he's the roommate. Regardless, we talked to him about the Book of Mormon answering all kinds of questions of the soul, and he asked, "Where can I get a copy of this book?" So we gave him one and a chapter to read (Alma 40-41, about life after death and the resurrection and all that).Last Wednesday we went to try and see him again, and we got the wife we were looking for in the first place. She said that he (his name is Mike) read the chapters we gave him, and even a little further! And that he was excited to speak with us again! :D :D! Blessings, everywhere! It's amazing what can happen when you align your vision of an area with Heavenly Father's. Less-active work has helped our teaching to expand - amazing, right?! So we're going to go up to his house sometime this week and sit down and talk about it. YAY!

Thanks for all you do! This week has been fabulous, and I'm so grateful for the opportunities that I've had in my mission this far. It's funny looking back at where I started and where I've come - I feel like I'm a completely different person now than I was before! I'm stronger than I thought and lead by the spirit more than I thought possible. But it's happening! And I'm thankful for this teaching process to allow me to be in a place to learn habits for the rest of my life :)

Thanks for your love, support, and mail! You are all AMAZING!

LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

Monday, March 11, 2013

hiya
FAMILY <3

Ick, colds. No fun! Glad you're better :) Aha, sounds like an interesting experience with the bees for sure. I showed my companion and she was cracking up that you used the word "promiscuous" XD 

Aw, poor hawks. They'll be fine though, having won "half" their season. :D

Well, I gotta scoot real fast, but here's a quick run down of our AWESOME week! (We had something great happen every day!) Tuesday: we had exchanges! I tromped around Chico with none other than Sister Brown :D Hooray! Wednesday: We had zone meeting, so we got together and talking about awesome things! then we went to sushi with the zone. yum. Thursday: We had two fabulous lessons! First was with Iris, who we've been meeting with on and off since November. She had a copy of the Book of Mormon already, and she started asking all kinds of questions and so we launched off into the first lesson. Winrar! We had an awesome follow-up lesson with Dottie too, and she's continuing to pray about being baptized. :) Friday: We had a dinner with the Relief Society! we sang and had so much fun. And our investigator Larry came! Yay! Saturday we had our conference. WOOHOO! Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke to us! We talked about repentance and how that's really the thing we need to help the people understand, that it becomes a pattern of living and the way we truly become converted to Christ. :3 Sunday was ward conference, too! We talked about the temple, and it was great despite not being able to go to the temple ;~;

anyway, I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL! Sorry I didn't have more time, we'll see what great things the Lord has in store for us this week :3

Sister Nelson

Monday, March 4, 2013

HI FAMILY :3

(yay blackhawks! 18-0-3 I heard - the people we used to live with update us whenever they see us. which isn't often, to be sure, but I always get giddy whenever I hear about that 0 in the second column. yayness :3)

oof, braxton is a teacher already? I remember him before... erm... well, when he was little. where does the time go?! also, yay for Matt winning the tourny. I expect nothing less of my lil' bro :D

Funny story, I actually inherited a pair of gloves... but it's not my first thought that there'd be a spider in the waterspout! I guess that lil' nursery rhyme had some truth in it after all. 

If you want spring you could come to Cali... it's warm here :D *brick'd* I didn't hear about the bees, but that doesn't surprise me. My companion was talking about how she'd never known so much about bees or honey in her whole life until she became companions with me. I learn from the best, y'know ;D

This week turned out to be SUPER amazing. On Wednesday especially we had a lesson with Dottie, and she's sweet :) we started talking about her reading in the BoM, and somehow it lead to talking about feelings of love from out Heavenly Father. We've determined that it almost ALWAYS comes down to that - that once any of us fully understand just how much our HF loves us and just how far He's willing to go to help us to be happy, that's when our relationship with God can really truly flourish. I think that's why we as missionaries teach that principle first. When we understand how much He loves us and how all the blessings and everything we enjoy comes from Him because of His love; everything else that pertains to the gospel of Jesus Christ follows naturally and completely. Everything falls into place and the unnecessary things fall away, and we become happier by coming closer to Him. Everything makes sense when we remember that!! But it was amazing how when we went over that principle again and talked about how everything we teach doesn't make any difference unless we know it's because He loves us - oof. That was a powerful lesson! It's one of the few lessons in my life where the spirit has been almost tangible. Super fabulous! Now she's praying about March 23rd to be baptized! (It's not set in stone yet. Pray for Dottie to know March 23 is the day to be baptized!)

We also had a lesson with a new investigator Jessie, and this is really exciting for me because when we learned about her situation, well... see if you can tell why. She's involved with the church by way of her boyfriend, and she applied and was accepted to BYU-I. She's been coming to church for a while, but decided she wanted to take the lessons just so that she would know what she was getting herself into by going to a "mormon school". (Sound familiar??) When we got to her lesson, we hit the ground running and everything went PERFECT! Her boyfriend's mom was at the lesson with us, we covered all the points and asked good questions to understand where she was coming from and to make sure that she understood what we were talking about. She's going to church, she committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and she's SO GREAT! We didn't feel like asking her to be baptized was right, and we realized later that because she's still a minor (she's 17), she'd have to get permission from her Aunt who's very negative and uncomfortable with the church. So we don't have the ability to even ask her yet. But we're laying the foundation now so when that happens (or when she turns 18 - whichever comes first), it can happen :D Heavenly Father has been super involved in our work! He always is, but sometimes it feels moreso than other weeks :3

Well, I think that's all I have time for this week. This weekend (Saturday) we're going down to Antelope to have a special in-person conference with an apostle!!! We won't know who until we get there, but I'll be sure to let you know about all that next week :3

@Dad: I've been getting all your letters! A couple of them got lost, but they found their way eventually :) 

Thanks as always for your prayers and support! I love you and I know that Heavenly Father blesses all his children. As the Book of Mormon frequently says, "Inasmuch as they shall keep my commandments, they will prosper in the land." And how true that is! 

I LOVELOVELOVE YOU!!!!
Sister Nelson