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