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