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