To anyone that may still be checking the site for more updates, etc,

I'm home from my mission! Clearly, since things stopped happening here haha.

The holidays with my family were wonderful. I'm now back in Provo, being a student and trying to make it through things :)

For my everything-blog, check it out here!

HIIIIIII FAAAAMILY

Yay! Thanks for Dad's talk, I'm excited to read it. :)
I'm glad you got the pictures, too! I don't remember what picture I sent of Stacy, haha. But I'm sure it was a good one :)

Thanksgiving sounded fun! I don't know the Paradise's. They must've moved in after I left. They must be cool if you had them over to the house, tho. :) Our Thanksgiving was nice! Stuffed to the brim tho, @_@ tho we didn't get any stuffing DX I was upset haha. Most of the afternoon we spent at Stacy's house, actually. SOO funny haha. The Weavers (our ward-mission-leader and his family) came over with us and we played Uno and enjoyed the afternoon together :D I think Stacy was happy, since her only family closeby is her sister up in Rocklin. So, she got to entertain. Happy times :) we tried to teach her pinochle... but she wouldn't have any of it haha. I'M SO EXCITED TO PLAY CARDS AGAIN holy moses I can't even.

Doesn't dad usually get Thanksgiving Friday off? Glad it sounded like the Black Friday craziness didn't affect Craig too poorly lol.

@movies: I heard Frozen was amazing. Ack, so many things I need to catch up on and I'm NOT going to start talking about them here! *brick'd*

I'm glad the weather sounds happy. Is there any snow expected next week? I'm sure it'll be fine (it typically is), but I'm wondering how warm I'll have to dress when I get off the plane XD long sleeve, sweater, scarf. So far, that's all I have on my priority list haha. And comfortable shoes that I can run in if I have to. Haha I hear bad things about the Atlanta airport, but that might be cos my Floridian companion has been through it four-thousand times. But... we'll see!

Did Stacy send you a letter back? Cos I don't remember anything about her calling Illinois "snow country". Tho I guess compared to Cali, everywhere else is basically snow country hahaha.

When is the ward Christmas party?? Woodside's party is the 13th so I'll miss that one (it's polar express themed! PJs and all! It's a cute idea) so I'm hoping N2's isn't before I get there! I hope the Sisters can come too, I want to help them if I can :D and meet them. If the online thingy is up to date, it looks like one of the sisters has been there for a while... when are their transfers??

hahaha Payton got a haircut same as me! No pictures tho... you'll just have to wait and see ;D

So this week was good! Not a lot happening of yet; mostly just prepping and inviting and trying to get everyone out to the Christmas party in two weeks. I told most of the ward yesterday that I was leaving next week (I've been hiding it from them for the most part up 'til now)... but I said it a still roundabout way that only about half of them realized I was talking about leaving. (I have a good knack for being cryptic, don't I??) So most of them are happy for me. Stacy is sad, but happy that I'll get to be with y'all again. I told her when she goes through the temple I'd have to cart one of you out with me :3 but that's another year away, hahaha.

Still nothing with Caleb. I feel like with the holidays pending and such, it may be a while 'til we hear back about anything decisive. So we'll wait and see.

I'm still waiting to hear if Jessie is getting baptized on saturday, as well... If she is, I'm hoping to go up and get pictures and see her :) she was such a sweet lil' lady, I love her! On the edge of greatness.

Not much else; not much time either. D: never enough time.

THANKS FOR BEING GREAT!! I report to the mission office EARLY next week, so I'm not sure what will happen with emails. You may want to try just in case haha. But yeah, any letters sent past Thursday will prolly not get to me in time. In case anyone was wondering.

Excited for the last week! We're going to make it as productive as we can. Onwards and upwards!

LOVE YOU ALL!!

LOVELOVELOVE,
Sister Nelson

More pictures!

HAI FAMILY

I can't remember all of what I sent. Did you get a box I sent a few weeks ago? I'm afraid it may have been taken T__T since you hadn't said anything about it. :s

I sent a letter last week too, and I said thanks for the CD in it, but I can say it again! THANKS FOR THE CD!! I LOVE IT, IT'S GREAT :3 anyway, yes! I have a picture of Stacy! uhmm let me attach one! :) I guess Sister Owen's email didn't make it to you? merp. I'll see what I can do about that, unless you deleted it, haha.

Yes, we sang for Stacy! Pretty much everything we do, she loves. She's so sweet :)

@Pres Clark- I will do that! We should visit him after I get released, too. I'm sure Sis Clark would love that, too. 

Lookit you, being a friendly neighbor missionary. So proud! :3

"Penni and Kathryn were impressed. But then they are kind." oh please. I'd be impressed too! Give yourself some credit! You are just so cool, I can't even. :3

No, I don't think I was ever told that story D: pretty funny tho. Sure, I'd like a copy of the talk! Bruce would do a thing like that, haha. They were thinking of moving soon, weren't they? I can't remember where they were going tho. Hopefully closer to Provo so we (being craig and me) can see them more and get delightful blackmail. Muwahaha. I mean, WAT

Yaay, company on Thanksgiving! We're going to go over and be with Stacy for a lot of the day, 'til dinner in the late afternoon. Then, I don't really know yet. But we'll see what happens. A lot of the ward is going out of town, so we'll see what happens .___. it may be a very empty and sad evening haha. glad I don't have to go through another Christmas tho, that's for sure. Phew. :)

Anyway, let me know if you got the box and letter (separately). I should probably start sticking trackers on these. o.o

This week was okay. We had a conference with Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the 70, tho! That was cute and inspiring. His wife is the most adorable thing ever, and they're basically BFFs with President and Sister Weston, so I'm sure he'll be a 70 someday haha. Anyway, they talked a lot about faith and really earnestly striving to be open to the spirit to prepare his work. Elder Ellis asked us that if every miracle we prayed for was granted, how many more baptisms would occur this month? Or next month? We should be striving to have miracles in our lives every day (cos they are more certainly there), especially cos the more we live the gospel, the more we are, in affect, entitled to them. Just in the way that as we live worthily of the sacrament, we can have the spirit with us each week. Such great promises :) however, this week I was a little overwhelmed by the whole 2-weeks-left thing, so I burnt out for the latter half of the week. I think I'm better now though, so I'm back to sprinting to the finish! One day at a time, one step at a time. Thank goodness for the Father's patience for us, we are profoundly blessed :)

I love you all SO MUCH! I'm grateful for your reassuring words and kindness. Stay great! I love you LOTS!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

HI THERE :D

How are things? Things are GREAT! :D The baptism was AWESOME! This weekend was so happy for all of us. We set everything up, and got the font ready and whatnot and we got the water HOT! Usually fonts are known to be freezing cold, but ours was steamy :D we're hilarious. When everything was all said and done and she came up out of the water, she came up saying, "Yaaay!" It was adorable!! I love her so much :3 everything went reaally really well, and the spirit was so strong. After she got confirmed yesterday in sacrament, she turned to us and said, "You know what? This may sound crazy, but I feel different now. But that's totally crazy, isn't it?" Nope, definitely not crazy- totally normal :) I'm super tired now tho from all the busy and smiling and such. Did you get an email with pictures? A lady who was there said she'd do that. :) 

Yes, Stacy got your letter! She thought it was adorable and loved it a lot :) She showed it in class after sacrament, she was so pleased with it. It must've come Saturday afternoon. But about it, she said, "I feel like I know them, but I don't know them!" Aha aww I loved it. I hope one day you get to meet her. You would love her :)

But yep, now it's official. She's a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, restored to the earth from when Christ himself was here :) and she loves it!! I can't wait for her to get to the temple someday. ^__^

No news on Caleb yet. We're trying! 

Nooo not Pres Clark! :( I knew his time was coming soon, but I was hoping to get BACK first :C Alas. I'll have to go see him anyway when I get back. He'd like that, wouldn't he? :3

But yay, President Holyoak! Bahaha bless his lil' heart haha. Guess I'll never see him again huh, hahaha, since he'll never be at church. Bless his wife for putting up with that, again. *headpat*

*pompoms for signing* my companion (who took several semesters of sign) recommends ASLpro.com . Tho, I suppose if you ask Holly she would know, which I'm guessing you would. Is she not so proud of you? Do you have a name sign yet? Would my namesign be connected with yours? I think a namesign would be so cool :3

I'm proud of your ASL! I knew you could do it ^__^

waitwait, Elder who? Did you mean Christensen? Haha. Christofferson is another big name, but you didn't mention an apostle coming, haha. Who decides new Stake Presidencies, anyway? Is it the 12, or a 70? (I think I should postface that with the comment that I'm directing that question to Dad. lol)

Yeah, someone around here mentioned there were bad storms back there. They asked me if you were near there, and I was like ¯\[°_O]/¯ people think I pay attention to the news or something haha. The only storm I've heard of is the one in the Philippines, so, y'know. Glad to hear that all is well and safe!

*headpats new Elm tree* I'mma miss the big fluffy thing in the front :(

Did Dad give an endure to the end talk recently? He's been writing me about one forever in his letters, are we talking about the same talk?

and as far as getting tired of hearing from you, I'm sure Holly never gets tired of hearing from you :) *is smack'd*

Anyway. More miracles!! Ready...

-We had a lesson with a less-active lady named Tysha this week. (pronounce her name tee-sha) IT WAS AWESOME! Typically we go over there and it doesn't turn into much. But this week, I don't even really know what happened. All of the sudden we were talking about church and going to sacrament, and she said, "I know I need to get back to church, and I'd really like to. But I just have some things I need to overcome, first." So we talked about that for a while and determined that she's afraid to come back because she doesn't want to be judged for anything. I guess there were things that happened in her past that she felt like the people of her ward had turned on her, so we are definitely going to try to help that smooth over. (It was a different ward, but her feelings are the same.) So we're SOOO grateful about that spiritually progressing time we were able to have with her :) She can make it!!! 

-Okay, this story sounds Ensign worthy. We got a referral from Salt Lake this week!! They told us she was super into family history, and she was really enthusiastic about meeting with us. Awesome! So we set up a time to meet her and whatnot. HOLYCOW. I've never met a more prepared and spiritual person, despite the cruddy surroundings she's living in. It's intense. So, a few weeks ago she woke up in the morning and decided she just needed to know more about her family's history. So she did some research and traced things back to Notre Dame circa 1330's. (That's impressive in it's own right!) Then she found a giant box left by her grandmother with tons and tons of different versions of the Bible... so she started to read, and read, and read. Several copies later, she decided that the King James version was most right out of any of them! Then, as she kept digging through the box, she found a Book of Mormon and decided to give it a go. She described it that when she was reading it, light just seemed to fill her and her room, and she knew that it was from God! Somehow she got connected to a phone in the church office building somewhere, and along we came. :D :D So we came and started talking to her. She's super enthusiastic, it's hard to keep up with her haha. But basically she was all, "I want to do what you do! Help the women and children, and share about God's love. How do I do that?" We told her that to be a missionary like us, she'd need to be baptized... and she started to cry. The spirit was SO STRONG! It was amazing. Simply awesome. Then, as we got further into it, we found a picture from a Restoration pamphlet (that we give out some times) hanging on the wall! And in her room, a passalong card! And on the shelf, an LDS version of the KJV, footnotes and all! We were having a hard time keeping our jaws from hitting the floor. O_O! So we will see her again this week and are hoping to set a specific date for her to be baptized!! YAAY!

Oh, yes, and also? Remember Jessie I would talk about in Paradise?

... she wants to be baptized :D :D

Holy hannah there are so many miracles happening! It's gotta be a dream, hahaha. Everything exploded this week, it was fabulous. But MAN. I love this work! I love the converting power of the spirit, and of the scriptures! They truly testify of each other, and I know that they speak of truth. Christ is our Savior and He LOVES US!! and He wants all of us to be happy. Commandments are not restrictions- they're instructions on how to be the most happy we can possibly be in this life. That doesn't mean hard times and bad things will happen to us, but it will give us perspective and joy throughout them! I love it. The gospel could not be sweeter!

That's all for this week! I love you oodles and oodles! Thanks for being amazing and helping me all along the way :)

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

Nov 2013

With Sister Zoumberis

Nov 2013

FAMILLLLLY <3

HI! Things are peachy here this week! Sorry to hear you got sick, that's never fun :( at least it was nothing like what you had to do this time last year haha. 

*headpats OEHS* maybe next year. being from Chicago I feel like we're really good at saying that lol

When I read about the "going to the dance alone" part, I thought you meant Matt. I didn't know you meant Dad XD hahaha. I could just imagine you writing about Hjalmarsson for the whole game XD

speaking of texting, we should get a family plan. *just saying*

YAA stake conference! you will be great :D do you get a copy of the talk to prep? or will he fly by the seat of the spirit, d'you think?

Hum. Just realized you answered a prayer of mine. Neato. :3

STACY GETS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY1!!!! I'm so excited :D :D It's going to be amazing. This week the whole ward seems to be getting going for being there, so we're planning everything and just about everything is set. Last of all we get to clean the font and fill it up and find a jumpsuit. :D we're excited. She's excited. It will be fabulous :3 we'll take tons of pictures!! and Sis Tanner gets to come back, so that's happy too ^__^ partay! can't wait!

otherwise, things are going smoothly. Nothing about Caleb yet, but I'll keep you posted. :)

also, it still cracks me up how Dad was anxious about hearing about my travel arrangements. What's going to be the plan with Matt's concert and such? Or are we going to have to wait and see, for a bit?

Things are going good! I'm in Jacob now, again :) I love Jacob! he's like... Elder Oaks. *loff* I'm just a fangirl. aha, Sis Zoumberis and I were reasoning this week that this is probably the only group of people on the earth that fangirl about old people XD but hey. it works out. :) 

happy happy happy! I still can't believe it's week 3 of the transfer already x____X *cough* yep. scary.

anyway, I LOVE YOU!!! thanks for the card, it was flippin' cute :) stay great! keep yo' chin up!

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

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. :)