Heylo! :D

Yay, Sister missionaries! With your own set I know you'll be seeing them a lot more :D do they have a lot of work going on? I was looking at our ward boundaries and it's actually a smaller area than I thought. Huh. But good for them! Sometimes, with all the stuff that I know now, I wish I could help them more. But Sis. Flinders said her husband was the new ward mission leader, so per his request I sent my two cents. Hopefully that'll do for now :) 

Ah! Grilling! We've been having that pretty much all weekend. It's still not as good as Dad's, but it'll do. I'm glad you mentioned that picture! That's one of my fav's :3 d'you think you could send me a copy via email? Mine's a little whitewashed. :D I was thinking about this day a year ago, even just yesterday! It's crazy it's been a year already!! We went to the parade, came home, grill'd (the Smiths came over, didn't they?) and yes, I did get set apart on Mondaynight. Pres. Clark was late since he was working on his youth conference talk and spaced it. So we got ice cream before I was set apart, haha! ThenTuesday was our flight. I still remember Matt and Craig in the garage watching us leave, and Craig was in tears and Matt was being all stoic... haha. Then we flew off, got in late, stayed at Greg&Marlenes, and reported on Wednesday! And laughed at all the people crying in the park across from the MTC, bahaha. We're such sadists. *brick'd*

I heard about the hawks. I'm flailing a little bit, but thank goodness it's Monday! I'm sure I'll hear if they're booted! *flail* *dodges tomato*

Zone conference was soooo good! It was really neat, we actually talked a lot about repentance and how critical it is for us as missionaries, people who are learning about the gospel and members as a whole. An important point I thought about was how repentance is supposed to be a daily thing- it's possible and totally okay to have to repent about something more than once, just as long as you're sincere about it. If we say we're sorry and then go off to do it again, how sincere was it? So that was an important thing that I picked out from it. Also the fact that repentance is just a change of heart- if nothing's changing, you're doing something wrong. And we have to remember that the Atonement covers ALL THINGS- literally, everything! and as stated in D&C 88:33- "For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift." Repentance is a gift the Father has given to us, and He rejoices when we use it to be able to be better! That's the point of this mortal life- to learn and to grow. We don't have to feel sorry for everything all the time- it's already been paid for. Why not?

If you couldn't tell, it was awesome. Basically. :)

ALSO, d'you remember that sweet referral we told you about, like a month ago? His sister is a member in San Diego I think, and she texted and asked us to go see him. His name is Les and yeah, he's been coming to church every week since we met him :D but we've had a hard time meeting up with him until this week! and it was AWESOME! Holy cow I can't even begin to tell you!! We went over to the member's house that he's pretty much best friend's with, and we taught him about the Restoration, the priesthood, God's love, the whole bit. (When you see the Sisters next, you should ask them to give you a quick version of lesson 1. Or in that nifty PMG that Matt has now. Muhar!) Anyway, so we got to the end teaching him about the Book of Mormon and how to pray to know of it's truthfulness, and how that's the convincing evidence of the restoration, and he said he would! And- this is the thing with new missionaries, they get to basically extend all the commitments so they can be awesome- Sister Smith asked him to be baptized and he said YES! We set a date for him for June 22!! SO GREAT! So that's the goal! And before we ended he said, "And Mormons don't like the whole drinking and smoking thing, so I'll get right on quitting that." We nearly fell out of our chairs we were so excited :D :D SO prepared, SUCH a miracle!!

And then yesterday was awesome too... I was teaching the gospel principles lesson on repentance (hah?) and in the middle of the lesson he said, "I'm 61, and I feel like my whole life I've been like a ship out at sea- going in circles and not getting anywhere. But now there's the church in my life and I feel like it's a compass, giving me direction for my life." Aaaah! He's so AWESOME! :D *stoked*

SO, yeah. Also, there was an earthquake here last week! We didn't feel it tho cos we were driving at the time. Phooey. Kinda bummed about that.

In terms of that "busy Sunday" I was telling you about last week, we basically had another earthquake- figueratively, of course :) all the RS, YW and Primary callings got mixed up and reassigned. So that was an adventure haha.

how do I end up writing so much? meep.

I LOVE YOU ALL! Great things are happening- the Lord seems to be requiring more of us now than he did before, that's the conclusion I'm coming to. Hopefully we'll be steadfast enough to keep up :) Thanks always for your prayers and support! They mean everything!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

p.s.- look what I did to my hair! no seriously- I did it :)

May 2013

May 2013

G'day

HI!!! <3

So as I said to Matt in his letter today, the Elders and lady who lets us email are all entertained that within seconds of opening up my email, I'm in giggles. Apparently they think it's hilarious. But I don't care! I'm just trying to make a point here :3

I hope so about Dottie. It was just beyond devastating. Boo. Someday... but probably not while I'm around. 

Yes, you told me that you found a lot of volumes for Bro. Hawe! He told me yesterday he doesn't think he'll be able to swing out near Chicago, but hey. Good effort :) hope those high-place friends work out! Off topic, but yesterday we were talking to him about some records needing to be moved, and offhand he said, "Okay, I'll get this figured out this week, just don't come to me with more of these next week, it's going to be busy in here!" We were confused and asked him why it was going to be busy, and he said, "Well, everyone's going to be busy. Trust me!" so... we'll wait to see what things are awaiting us next week. ;D but don't spread that around, hahaha! 

yay, hive! glad it was warm enough to get it in. And that's good it's nice and close, too. :) and booooo bunnies. at least you don't have to deal with deer. I happened to mention to people we had bunnies die in our window wells all the time, and they all said, "and you didn't save them??" and then I realized we sounded like terrible people. :D I still regret nothing!

ooh! self-defense! I had a companion teach me a move, where you got out of a stranglehold and then grabbed the back of their knee and sat down. takes the wind right out of their sails! I didn't get to practice it much, but it was fun while we did it haha. ohh man I would've LOVED to see you and Sis. Holyoak go at it :) hahaha you're like heads above everyone else too, so that doesn't help her much hehehe. oh well. good for her to be so enthusiastic!

... speaking of seminary graduation, did I even go to mine? I feel like I didn't. Or if I did, I was really not paying attention. I don't think I've ever really been at one of those. Man, how noncommittal do I sound like I was when I was a teen? sheesh XD

I hope Dad isn't sad I didn't send a card D: I'll have to rectify that.

SOOO this week was SO GREAT! Well, not all around great, but here's a super awesome experience! Cos it's awesome! Okay, so there's Jessie, my mom-type-experience-investigator. Woo! Anyway, we had a great lesson with her this week about prayer and scripture study, and basically she has the best member friend EVAR and we want to be her someday. But we had a great lesson and commited her to pray about something specific and then look to see how God would answer. Well, she texted us the NEXT DAY and said she had an answer!! So great!! She's our ray of sunshine :) I love her so much, and I want to see her baptized! Unfortunately her aunt (whom she lives with) is putting up kinda a fight about her being Mormon or associating with them and everything, so we'll have to wait 'til she turns 18 in July. SO CLOSE! Mar :) but she's awesome. And so is the Lord. He hears and answers our prayers, and I know he answers them ALL! Sometimes it takes lots of time for us to hear it, and sometimes he says "no" or "wait". but he DOES answer! What a blessing to know that and apply it in our lives, and exercise great faith in feeling that he's there. LOVE it!!

This week we have a zone conference, so Pres. Weston will be there and will teach us :) So excited! I love that kind of thing. And I'm finding that I like to drive, so... yeah. Haha! Who knew. XD

I hope all is well with you! I'm grateful for your continuous support and love- stay awesome! Remember who you are and how that can help you through it all :) he's there, just waiting to talk to us- if we'll listen!

Kepp with it!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

FAMILY! *glomp*

Ohhhmygosh it was so awesome to hear from you all last week!! That was the perfect ending to the week. Ahh. Refreshing. :)

I did get a letter from Matt, so that was happy :D I was really happy I got on early so I could at least talk to him for a couple minutes.... *brick'd*

Aah! Star Wars day! That's also the anniversary of my going through the temple for the first time :3 good times. I'm soooo looking forward to lego star wars again. /trunky I promise I'm not this bad all the time, haha. Just on Mondays. ^^; (also, omg wookie of the year. XDXD) 

Yaay, warm weather! I was thinking about that yesterday after I got off the phone and I thought it was a little later than usual for cold stuff like this. Nuts. But it'll warm up soon and then everyone will be wishing for cooler weather. There's always something. 

ALSO, YAY REDWINGS. I'd much rather face them oldies than the Sharks. The Sharks/Kings would be an interesting matchup, I wish I'd be home to see all that. Tivo all the games you caaan! *is having withdrawls* man, this is the most exciting time of the year and I'm missing it all @_@ alas. good sacrifice. And anyway, the long break won't hurt. Even if they lose the first it'll get the fire under them and they'll bounce back hard :D *clapclap!*

As far as the work went this week, holy freak this was one of the hardest weeks of my liiiiiiife. Also depressing. We had a super awesome (and really long o.o) lesson with Dottie this week, and we were able to help her address some of her concerns about baptism and everything- it ended up coming to a point where she said if she didn't have a panic attack in the middle of the night (they're frequent, so it was a legitimate concern), she'd be baptized. SOOOO we were so excited! But the next day she texted and said that baptism was too big of a commitment and she wasn't going to go through with it. (?!?!?) So after much confusion, we texted her back and asked her if she had a panic attack. She said no- she'd had dreams of different colored fabric and buttons and also golden haired people and children. Cue flail and depression. TT_____TT so yeah. That was really hard. Urk. So.... yeah. There were lots of things that we learned from that, but we were able to talk to the other sisters in Chico and get feeling better. Friends are great for that kind of thing. 

That was the major highlight (or lowlight?) of the week. The other was getting honey as the mother's day gift. Coincidence? Mebbe not. :3

So yes. I love you!! Thanks for being awesome! <3 

LOVELOVELOVE you all!

Sister Nelson

Dearest family!

Cute new email, mom :D very fitting. haha! glad your birthday went well! I
was thinking about you that day. It was funny, actually- we have a lady in
our ward (who just recently went through the temple for herself :D :D ) and
her birthday was on Friday, too! so we had dinner with her and had a nice
evening. I was thinking about you the whole time. :3 we're actually going
to go see her again today- they taught us how to play Mexican Train, a
domino game, and it was SUPER FUN! You should look into it, it's way fun :D
They say to make sure you get the double-dot color version, though. I'm
sure you could figure it out :)

I got the package! YAY! Thanks! The CDs are exactly what I wanted :) I saw
they were already opened- did you rip them and include them in your
library? They're good choices ;D the skirt is beautiful! 

RIP ash tree. T___T

Yay! School's out! (Soon.) Sounds good to be busy. Are you and Dad going to
be up to much also?

Hawks Hawks~ <3 it's funny, a couple took us out to eat this last week on
Wednesday, and on one of the TVs where we were eating was pre-game for the
Sharks/Canucks. Oh it was so hard to not have my head glued to that screen!
*fail* I don't know which I'd have, either. D: Is there a possibility of
not playing either? haha!

Yay, Sisters! Are they just over 2nd ward now, or do they still cover both?
(Haha, I had a super funny mental image of Dad grilling with an umbrella.
He could make it work, I'm sure. XD )

@Bro Hawe- Yay! He's a super great guy. He's super into history and loves
digging around- he's been called as a stake historian, which I don't even
know if that's a thing in most places. He's very nice and proper too- he
makes me think of a gentlemanly British man sans accent. His wife is fun
too, very nice :) I think you'd like them! You could definitely ask :)

Also, I talked to President Weston and he said he'd prefer if all calls
could be on Mothers day if possible. So you have the 1pm schedule now
(right?) and we have the 9am, so... in central time zone, we would be
starting church at 11am, so that crosses out all time from 11-4 for church
and whatnot, so I'm thinking that we could call when you get back from
church. so 4:30ish for you? (Since Matt has a concert, right?) That's
2:30ish for me, and we'll definitely be available. We'll try to ask the
Hunts if we can skype at their house (we live with them :D ) and they have
a computer we could probably use. We'll figure it out. But hopefully that
time works for you? If not, uh... well, if not just shoot me an email and
I'll look at it next Sunday and just hang 'til then. :D

Hokay. This week was good! A couple weird things (mostly having to do with
feeling down about ourselves- sometimes you just want to change the world,
but you can't... and then everything falls through. lamesauce.), BUT! There
were two supah awesome things. Firstly, remember Les? He's the referral
that we went to go contact, and he invited himself to church and has been
coming every week since. Well, this week we dropped by to visit him and in
the middle of the conversation said, "Yeah, I think I'll probably end up
being Mormon. I feel the most peace in your church." We about died, haha!
Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to invite him for a specific date, so
we're planning on doing that this week. Yay! :D So excited!
And then the second awesome thing was Dottie! We were going to try to
invite her to be baptized this week, but... we didn't. HOWEVER, we did
invite her to go see a baptism! We've tried to do that before, but she'd
said no for whatever reason. Well, on Saturday we texted her a reminder
about it, and she texted back to say that she wanted to go! You should have
seen us, jumping around at our house and just being so excited about it :D
There's a special spirit at baptism that has the potential to change
everything, so that's why we try to invite investigators to baptisms.
Anyway, we found out later that she was supposed to dog-sit for her son who
lives in Chico, but she had just gotten a call from him saying he didn't
need her to dog-sit anymore. She was feeling kinda bummed since she was
looking forward to it, but then we texted! She said she wanted to go
because she knew that it would help her feel better, and happier! So we got
her the address and she met us there. (Also, sidenote, she said at one
point she didn't know if it was one way or the other on a street, so she
made a decision and just went with it. Of course she "happened" to go the
right way- we all determined that the Spirit was directing her and helping
her get to the building so she could see a baptism. Sweet!) It was SO
great, and I hope that something that was said there made a difference to
her. We'll try again this week to invite her to be baptized.

Great things are happening! I'm so grateful and happy to be here. And I'm
so excited to TALK to you next Sunday! Hurrah! I can't wait :3 Someday I'll
be able to talk to Craig too... hah. Christmas.

Also, I'm coming up on my year-mark. When did that happen?! Didn't it just
feel like I just STARTED this thing?? Crazy. Time is such a weird thing!

I LOVE YOU ALL! Thanks for being awesome and everything! I'm grateful for
your support, your letters, your love, and your prayers! Keep 'em coming :)

LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

FAMILY~!

I'm glad the basement didn't flood. A few people have asked how the fam's been doing, so I told them to my knowledge the basement was okay. ¯\[°_O]/¯ But I'm glad that everything's intact. That would be such a mess, otherwise. (And yay, the temple didn't drown! *brick'd*)

PLAYOFFS! HAWKEY! *flail* who else made it? I saw Craig asked if the Canuckleheads made it. I got a letter that said the Leafs might have made it for the first time in a while, also- Did they make it, Don!? Also, are the hawks a 1seed like I'm assuming? so many questions, so little time! Did the Jackets make it too? I heard they were oddly close too O__O

See, you already know more than I do about the Pakistani/Hindu culture. Be sure to share with me anything more fun you find out :D

It's funny how sometimes we impress ourselves. I did they same sort of thing in my own musical life with the tenor clef. See Matt? The fundamentals are what help us out when panic happens! (stay calm, stay calm... on second thought, PANIC!) So yes, that's the benefit. Also dictation skillz. That's what helps too. :)

Lame. You'd think you'd be able to pick what to get. Maybe you can just uproot it and stick another one in there like you did the Oak. (Mwahaha?)

Yum, asparagus. There's lots here. I think about you when we have it with dinner sometimes. Are far as chilly across the country, I don't think California got the memo. Which is okay with me!

If you'd like my help with the song, maybe you could send me a copy of the words for part of their world (so I can remember the whole song ^^; ) and a list of things you'd need to include in a 72 hour kit. We have a few from the mission office, but I think those are absolute minimal. But I'll ponder on it and see what we can come up with :) 

This week was good! We had a lot of things happen that didn't allow us to get everything done that we wanted, but considering all the setbacks and whatnot it was a good week. We got to have an extra training meeting with President Weston down in Antelope (2 hours away *brick'd*) and we practiced extending baptismal commitments. President promised us that if we would extend our faith and ask everyone that we teach to be baptized every time we meet with them, more miracles would happen and more growth would be seen. As a companionship we decided that was something that we need to work on, so this week we're going to ask pretty much everyone to be baptized :) We are going to put our faith to the test! So pray for us that we'll be able to keep with it and see miracles as we do that this week.

I wanted to ask, also- it's hard for us to get a copy of the Ensign, although they are available. (It's harder for us to get them cos we're further from the mission office.) Do you think you could possibly send me a copy? :)

And I know you said you'd gotten the CDs- are they on their way? I keep looking for it, but nothing yet.

Thanks for all you do! I love you all bunches! Be great, stay happy, and remember the Lord :)

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

April 2013

DEAREST FAMILY~ <3 <3 <3

I'm doing awesome! We are quite busy, but it's a good thing. Best thing. :3 Training is okay, it's still kind of weird to be... in charge... sorta. It's gotta be both of us, but I know the area better so we're working on getting it to 50/50. It's going well so far! I need to stop talking so much in lessons (wat) but it's goin'. Getting better every day. :) D'aw, isn't President Weston the best? I'm so happy he's my mission president. Is it weird to be proud of that sort of thing? :3

Bzzz Boink. Haha! 

NOT THE ASH TREE! T_________T whatever it is I hope it grows fast. That Ash was the prettiest thing... do you get to pick, or is the subdivision doing that? ¬_¬

Boo, I forgot John and Kathy were moving. But cooly! new neighbors! And holy cow, Indian food is SOOO GOOOD. I don't know much about them either - do they not like beef? I feel like Sister Brown would know a lot, she went over there for two weeks once. 

G'job, Matt! I knew you wouldn't escape from DPYSO :D I like that Kim travels there now too, haha. Good to know there's more Oswego bassoons in the works though :) I'm proud of my lil' brother! I think he'll be great. What did he do that impressed the other horns? We pick up fast in our family :)

*reading inbetween the lines* Did our basement flood?! D: get a sump pump in there! (that's for you, lyra!)

GO BLACKHAWKS~! *pompoms like mad*

@Bro Hawe I don't know that he knows either. All the stuff in there isn't online tho, so it's not something they can research cos they need to physically get the stuff. Y'know. Hoops. 

OKAY, so this week was sweet! Firstly we had 5 less-active members to sacrament this week - yayness! One of them, Cindy, is a super sweet lady with a tough background, but she loves the church and recently changed her whole life schedule so she could come to church more regularly :) She's fabulous n_n the others that were of particular excitement were the HAMNERS! (great name, huh?) omg we were SO excited! He got baptized at the end of 2011, but then could go much after that cos his prosthesis had issues. This week they found pants to fit him (cos without moving around, his waist got bigger :) and they CAME! we've been trying to get them to church for like a year, so that was a feel good end to our week. HOORAY!

Other particular excitement was we got a super sweet referral yesterday! Get this. We got a phone call from a man in one of the other wards, talk about how his mom was living in one of the assisted living homes in our area up here. Well, he said that he talked to this lady that was friends with him mom, and they got to talking about the church. She likes Mormons  and everything's she heard about the church, and- I love this - he said to her, "Shirley, why aren't you a Mormon?" and she said, "Well, I would if someone would ask me!" Sounds like something out of a storybook, wouldn't you agree?? So we're going to go start teaching her soon hopefully. And despite the fact that she lives in an assisted living, this member said she's sharp as a tack but can't get around very well, so that's why she's there. :) Miracles are everywhere! We shouldn't be afraid to share our testimony with ANYONE! Even short little testimonies. God is moving things forward, full-force, and we need to help out as best we can! <3

That's all for this week. Thanks for being awesome! And your letters and prayers- they mean SO MUCH! :3

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

With Sister Tuttle April 2013

Hellloooooo family! :D

Eek, I'm sorry to hear about the hives :( Good thing you're persistent! (Also, I wasn't aware there was a "mean" hive. What made them mean? Did they sting you a lot? I suppose it would make sense they would have personalities, but hey.) Sorry about the snow, too. But you do what you can. 

Yes, I am still in Paradise with Sister Smith! Thank goodness I'm not opening a new area and training also- THAT would be madness. *flail*

The Birds are moving too?? What is this? T_T

Welp, an item of business to start: I still have to ask to see if it would be possible, but would anyone be upset if I called on Father's day instead of Mother's day? Let me know which would be okay.

Also, a comment- if a Duane Hawe emails you, it's cos I'm from Chicago and he has some family history research that needs to be done in Chicago. :D So that might come through and you might have another project that needs your help. ALSO, I can't remember if I told you about Sis. Wyler, but she's fascinated with family history and we talked about getting some things underway. So if you need help, she's willing to go see what she can help you find. Lemme know if you'd like her contact stuff lol. (I told her about something vaguely floating around in my head you told me a while back - something about Granma's or great-granma's father being lost or not able to find him somewhere? So she was intrigued. Haha.) Anyway, so those might be heading your way. :D (family history is awesome!)

OKAY, so this week was le awesome! Sorry for the short note last week; sometimes I feel like ADD-ness just kicks me around since all six of us missionaries email in the same place. Problematic. Anyway, more cool stuff!

This week we had something awesome happen- we got a text from the MTC! All referrals that Temple Square, or any other visitor's center, receives from members, gets sent to a referral center (near the MTC I think) that send things out to us. Since I've been out I haven't gotten very many of them, but when they do happen they generally yield good results. This one was no exception! The text said that his name was Les, he was 61, and he'd met with missionaries before but recently moved. Good signs! So we called him and set up a time to go see him. (Cue freakouts of excitement and nervousness from our companionship. :D ) We decided it would be a good idea to take members with us, so we called up his closest neighbors and went to go see him. Well, throughout the 20-min conversation he was as chatty and as friendly as could be! We barely had to say anything before he said, "Yeah, I think church is something I need to get into again. I'll go to church with you on Sunday!" We about fell over! He came to church with the members we brought (they drove him) and he seemed to enjoy it. AND he said he'd come again next week! Aaah! So yes, miracle, definitely! :D :D :D

Another great thing this week was our lesson with Jessie. We've determined that Fridays are now having to be renamed cry-day, cos we always cry. (I promise, I don't usually cry otherwise, haha.) It's just the spirit! It's so powerful and strong at some lessons, and all the lessons that we have with her and her boyfriend's mom (they're bffs) are phenomenal. SHE'S SO GREAT! She's such a light. They're one of my favorite parts of the week. Oof. I'm so happy and blessed to be teaching her! This week we talked about tithing and fasting, and man- there are some powerful blessings that come from those commandments! It's good to think too about how commandments aren't really supposed to be viewed as a bad thing - they're guardrails on the side of a cliff, y'know? Things to keep us safe, not "restricted". It's one of those things you can't explain unless you experience it. But it's awesome!

ALSO, our investigator Katie got baptized! YAAAY! Picture attached. She's so cute :3 We're so happy for her! So now we'll get to start doing our "new member lessons", which is just a review so they can remember the things they've learned and ask more questions about other things. Hooray :) 

Yes, so, things are going awesome. Also, I know Dad asked: as missionaries we get copies of the Ensign, so I'll be able to read the talks over again. Thanks for asking! :) And thanks for signing my contract for next year, too - an option is to try to sell the fall contract by itself, but I don't know if that's possible what with all the people going out on missions right now. But it's an option if you think you can get it done.

Happy week! Hope it warms up back there sometime. Be happy! We're workin' hard out here :)

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

Sisters Nelson and Smith with Katie April 2013