Isn't there a Taylor Swift song about being 22?

Editor: yes Nat, there is such a song: 

Hello!

Seriously, soooo much to do today and not nearly enough time to do it! I'm going to send a quick email with pics of the highlights from last week...

Thanks for all of the Birthday LOVE!!!!!!!! It honestly meant the world to me. Garett and Hill brought tears to my eyes. I love you all so so so much!

On my birthday we were on exchanges with Sister Todd which was fun! :) Brother Mckee paid for a nice dinner for the 3 of us at Taps. I had never heard of it before, but it was really good. We had homemade pretzels, salads, steak, potatoes and cake!

Sister Boden, Nat and Sister Todd (Nat's MTC companion)

When we were exchanging back that night we were waiting for the sisters to come at the Grand building in Riverside. I had my seat reclined so I could take a little rest while we waited when Sister 

Boden says "Oh, there are the Hermanas" 

I sat up so fast and said "which one?!" 

She said "Oswald" (remember she was JUST transferred) 

I drove over there as fast as I could and parked our car right behind theirs so they couldn't back out and then jumped out and ran over. 

As soon as I was out of the car Hermana Oswald jumped out too and needless to say it was quite the embrace. I was SO HAPPY to see her, but it was also special because WE HAVE THE SAME BIRTHDAY!! 

We were so bummed when she got transferred because we wouldn't be together on our birthday. 

Again…tender mercies of the Lord brothers and sisters. :)

"Me and Sister Oswald on our Birthday. 
She's one of my best friends in the mission. I absolutely adore her."

I was well taken care of on my birthday. Lots of love through post it notes and letters and gifts. 

"Sister Boden left this for me and then hid 22 sweet notes all over the apartment for me to find"

One of the BEST surprises was coming home and seeing "we love you Nat Nat" and "Happy Birthday Nat Nat" all over our front door. I was dying. I told Sister Boden there is only one couple who calls me that…and what do you know, Hillary and Garrett came and heart attacked me!!!!!

(Editor: Hillary sent me this pic)

There were only a few tears. Weird to think that they were here, but I LOVED it :)

At Garrett and Hillary's wedding reception May 2012 in Rancho Cucamonga, California

MERRY CHRISTMASSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL AND TALK TO YOU IN TWO DAYS:):):):):):):):):):):):)

Love, 

Sister Nelson

(email received December 23, 2013)

"Proof that I really did help change the tires last week!"

For my thoughts are not your thoughts…Isaiah 55:8-9

Hello!

So, this whole STL thing is making for CRAZY weeks, but it's a good thing…it really is.

We went on two exchanges this week. The first was with my VERY BEST FRIEND IN THE MISSION SISTER ANDERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Seriously, I can't even tell you how excited I was! We were so giddy in the car…we just laughed the entire time. 

I miss her.  

She's an excellent missionary, but she's in a difficult area so I feel bad for her. She has been trying really hard, but unfortunately, there isn't much support and as a result there's very little work. 

When I left she had a few solid potentials so hopefully there will be some progress. 

We spent the whole day trying to find people, went to dinner and then went to the mutual activity. Normally, we wouldn't go to mutual, but the week before Sister Anderson and her companion had taught the young women how to "street contact" and so the leaders wanted our help for the actual activity.

For the activity we went to see the lights at Mission Inn. It reminded me of temple square..the whole place was covered in lights and there were tons of people walking around. We went with a HUGE group of youth. I think it was mulitple wards. I don't know. 

Anyway, we ended up caroling all over the place. We would sing a few songs then move to the next spot and as we would move the youth were suppossed to pass out "Joy to the World" DVDs. It was super fun. Sister Anderson and I were singing at the top of our lungs and dancing so of course, I LOVED every minute of it. 

No one really wanted to hear our message though. But the youth did pass out lots of DVDs!

"Mission Inn with Lil Mama"

The second exchange I went on was with Sister V. (Her name is spelled super weird, but it's pronounced Vanay so I'm going to call her Sister V for the sake of this story.) Sister V came here to Corona with me and Sister Boden went to Menifee (to be with Sister V's companion) which is a bike area for sisters. 

It was kind of a weird exchange because Sister V had only been out a week and so she didn't really have any questions or need any help with anything specific because she's new to everything.

Normally I like to role play with them of an investigator that they are struggling with and have them be the investigator so they can get different ideas. Since she didn't have any, I just acted as the missionary and OYM'd her TONS of times. Hopefully, it helped! :)

Most of the day we were pretty much just trying to get into the homes of our potentials…no luck though let me tell ya. 

I thought the holiday season would be easier because people would be home and their hearts would be filled with joy and they'd love nothing more than to have some jolly sister missionaries come and leave them a message about the Savior…but that was wishful thinking. 

California is all about the "hustle and bustle". 

We did have MCM (missionary correlation meeting) with Brother Mckee (our new ward mission leader, I love him) and that was a solid 2 hours and REALLY good information! 

On Wednesday, Sister Boden and I had dinner at Brother Mckee's which is always a good time because there's a lot of teasing...even though all conversation is about missionary work. 

Anyways, since he is new to the "job" we decided it would be good to leave a harvesting blessing with him and his wife so they have a better understanding of what we do. 

I left the blessing and before I did that I told them that they will have names come to their minds of people who are ready for the gospel, so they need to pay close attention to that. 

I guess the blessing was pretty good (I rarely remember what I say) because they were both crying and Brother McKee said that he was impressed. 

Sister Mckee didn't have any names come to mind, but Brother Mckee goes "well, I have two names, but I'm not sure I want to tell you." That's a common response. Elder Ballard hit it right on the head…the number one reason members don't share the gospel is fear.

But, Brother Mckee and I are pals so I said "Brother Mckee you have to! Those are not your thoughts, they're the Lord's. You must tell me!" 

He laughed and then told us about two of his neighbors. As we were discussing one of them (Carlos and family) he said that he feels like he should go over and invite them to feed us…. 

(Uh yes, please go do that!!)

He was scared, but since we told him we were coming back in a few days, he didn't really have a choice.

Sooo….we are having dinner with Carlos and his family on Friday!! 

And the Mckee's are invited too! :) 

Seriously sooo stinkin' cool. We are very, very excited. This doesn't necessarily mean that Carlos is prepared, but I bet someone in that house is.

Well I better go, so I can include some pics.

"Happy Holidaysss!!" -Nsync

Love,

Sister Nelson

(email received December 16, 2013)

"I forgot to tell you this week Sister Niihau had TWO flats tires! I helped Elder Wood change them. Yes, I know it doesn't look like I'm helping in this picture, but I promise I made him let me do it" :)

"Christmas Party with my girl Amy Saunders, Sister Jenskins and Sister Boden"

Challenge Accepted

Okay party people,

I feel like I say this every week, but there isn't much to write about this week. I miss my Eastvale days…those were good times.

So this was my first week as an STL, which was also the first week of the transfer and the beginning of the month which means LOTS of meetings for leadership. We seriously had 3 full days of meetings. So the work is beyond slow right now, but Sister Boden and I are determined to work really hard. We are praying and fasting like crazy over here, but we need all the help we can get... hint hint ;)

Since Monday is P-Day, we moved into the Elders apartment. It smelled SO bad I can't even begin to describe it. 

Hermana Oswald and I walked in and the front room is the living room/kitchen area however, the Elders had made it into a bedroom. There was a huge bunkbed and two desks as soon as you walk in and obviously that was not going to fly. 

We have one bathroom, which also came with all sorts of problems, and then two bedrooms in the back. In the smaller room there were two twin beds (that's serioulsy all it could fit) and the bigger room had 2 desks, 4 dressers and a huge closet. 

Seriously, Elders have no common sense sometimes (sorry if you're reading this Elder Snyder, but you know I'm right).

So if you know me, you know that I like to think that I'm pretty handy, which I am…just ask my mom or Pal (Mallory). They'll tell you. 

So I look at Hermana Oswald and say "No, no, no…this is not okay." 

We both start to grin and she says "let's do this".

We started with the bunkbeds. We took the top one off so they were separate beds (they're not light btw) and we tried to shimmy one down the hallway. We seriously tried every angle we could think of, but it was a tiny hallway and a really big bed. 

We may or may not have scrapped off some paint and took out some corners. But, we were determined to get them in the back. 

The other sisters with us told us "it's impossible, they just won't fit". 

The Elders even said the same thing. Which was just what I needed…some Elders saying there is no way to get them back there (especially since they couldn't)…challenge accepted. 

Hermana Oswald and I just kept yelling "No! We are going to get this back there. We have the faith!"

Longgg story short (seriously it took 2 hours) we got them back there. We ended up borrowing tools from our neighbor, taking them apart and putting them back together. 

In the most humble way I can say this, it was impressive. 

So now we are working on making it all nice and cozy. We have 5 different airfresheners in there so it isn't too bad. I honestly love living in an apartment. Some REALLY good times. :)

Tuesday was the trainer/trainee meeting. I LOVE seeing the new greenies. They are so precious. We as STL's have the privilage of welcoming them in and giving all the new sisters their driving tests. 

So we walk in and my dear friend Elder Snyder was sitting on the couch! I was so excited. He was going home that day and so I literally got to see him right before he left. Tender mercies of the Lord. He was one of the Chinese elders I served with in Eastvale. I look up to him a lot as a missionary. I learned soooo much from him. He's great. (Don't freak out. I'm not in love with him. Just a dear mission friend :) )

Nat and Elder Snyder

The rest of the week was full of leadership training and trying to find investigators. Sister Boden and I are trying so So SO hard to find. We literally have no one, but we do have tons of potentials! We have been trying to visit at least 10 families a day. Just about zero success, but we did have one really exciting miracle...

When the Elders left they gave us a list of all of the less active members they visited and notes about how it went. One of them was Brother Ham. The note said something along the lines of "Such a cool guy! Is trying to bring himself out of inactivity. Loves to have missionary visits." 

Sister Boden and I were so excited to meet him. The fact that he is bringing HIMSELF out of inactivity is huge. We prayed before we went in and in the prayer we called down angels to prepare and soften his heart. 

So we knocked on his door and he answered (a miracle in itself let me tell ya) and he was happy to see us. 

We asked if we could come in and visit with him and he said "I can't right now because my wife isn't home, but I'd love to have you over. Let me talk to my wife (non member) and I will tell you a time you can come over on Sunday. I am planning on being at church, but I know my wife is interested!"

Seriously so exciting! He didn't come to church though as far as we could tell. We tried to visit him and call him after church and we got nothing. :( Not giving up though. Angels are preparing him for sure.

Well I am out of time, but I love you all so very very much. I seriously think about you all the time. Everyone. Even those who think I have forgotten them, I promise I haven't, be patient with me. ;)

xoxo

Sister Nelson

(email received December 9, 2013)

Farkle Anyone?

Okay, okay. Transfer calls were on Saturday. It was around 9 PM when President called. I answered the phone and he said "Sister Nelson, I have a new assignment for you. I want to call you to be a Sister Training Leader!" 

He was driving so it was hard for me to hear so my reply was "I'm sorry, what did you just say?" He laughed and said "I'm calling you to be a Sister Training Leader in Corona. You'll be great!" 

I replied and said "Okay President, I can do that."

Really, my heart sank. I honestly didn't see it coming. He continued to tell me about meetings and things and not only was it hard to hear, but my mind was going a million miles a minute so I couldn't tell you anything he said after that except that my companion was going to be Sister Boden! 

I was in the same zone as her in Jurupa and I have been on exchanges with her before. She is a VERY GOOD missionary. Extremely hard working and exactly obedient. I can't lie, I'm a little intimidated, but I think it will be good. We are moving to an apartment with two other sisters which will be really nice. 

There are a few sad things about this transfer… 

The zone split and all my sistas are leaving me. Sister Oswald is being transfered to Riverside and she will be training which also means she will be doubled in (when both missionarys are new to the area). 

Sister Jin is going to La Sierra, also being doubled in with Sister Allen. 

Sister Bateman is also an STL, but will be serving in Norco with Sister Busk (SUPER jealous, I adore Sister Busk) and Sister Niihau is staying, but in the other zone. 

Just about EVERY companionship got switched around in some way. A few missionaries were endzoned (they are staying in the zone but moving wards) which I am really grateful I am not doing because that would be hard. 

I have the same District Leaders, but new Zone Leaders...Elder Wilkinson and Elder Johns (I don't know Elder Johns, but here good things) so I'm excited. 

Corona is STACKED with missionaries right now. I think this transfer will be a good one. Lots of miracles are comin'. :)

This week was a little weird. Thanksgiving was right in the middle which is practically a "day off" for missionaries. I say it in quotations because we still had to get all of our OYMs in.  

Thanksgiving wasn't as hard as I thought that it would be. We ate at Sister Charlot's house (she is Samoan and her husband is black, non member) and they had a TON of people over. 

The food was good…a little cold, but people were sitting around everywhere so it felt more like a party than a holiday. There was a member family (the Coy's) who we ended up sitting next to and talking to the whole time. 

After we were done eating Sister Coy says "Sister Nelson, have you ever played Farkle?" 

I can't  tell you how happy I was to hear that dumb word. 

I said "YES! My grandma loves that game. I've played it A LOT!" 

She was quite excited and said that her family has been playing it and so she brought it in case anyone was interested. We played for 2 hours. It was really fun. That's probably when I missed the family the most. It was just like when we play Monopoly or Scrabble or Presidents. Okay maybe not as intense because nothing was wagered, but you get the point. 

I do miss playing the same game 100 times with everyone. Goodness, new topic. Getting a little trunkie.

Another exciting thing that happened this week , which I can't believe I haven't mentioned yet... I WENT ON EXCHANGES WITH PACKIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

"This is what exchanges look like with Packie!"

It was seriously a blast and a half. I was able to go to Hemet with her and we seriously laughed our whole way through. The night I arrived, we may or may not have stayed up until 12:30 AM catching up (there was no getting around it…no matter what, there was going to be a little disobedience).  

We were together on Wednesday so EVERYONE canceled on us. We still taught a couple lessons, but mostly we just tried to visit people in the ward, which really just lead to lots of talking and singing and jokes and memories…a fun time was had by all let me tell ya. :)

I love and miss you all so very much! 

Happy Holidays!!

Sister Nelson

Ps. I told Sister Jin that we are only listening to Christmas music from now until New Years (hopefully Sister Boden will be okay with that). So we've been listening to all of the favorites...N'sync, Jackson 5, Kenny G and Glee….don't judge me, it's actually a good one! They sing just about every Christmas song. I'm loving it. 

(email received December 2, 2013)

"Hermana Oswald and I at the temple…I LOVE her!"

"Look who I ran into at the temple! She took me and 5 other sisters out to lunch at Cafe Rio.
It was SO fun seeing her."
(Kathy is the mom of Kaitlin and Paige, Natalie's friends who are both serving missions in Italy.)

"We babysat Max while the Boyes were out of town.
He just wanted to cuddle while I read Katlin and Paige's blog posts."

"I sort of love him which is weird because he's a skeleton yappy chiwawa,
but he was like my child for a weekend... I can't believe i just said that."

"OH CHRISTMAS TREE! OH CHRISTMAS TREE!!
We were able to help Sister Clemmer with her Christmas tree.
It was VERY tricky, but we figured it out.
 It's the most wonderful time of the year :)"

You are called to do this work...go out and do it!

Okay my people.

I only have 45 minutes and a lot has happened since I didn't email last week…sorry about that. [Editor's note: I was able to talk to Nat live through email last week which is why she didn't send a formal letter home.]

I think this week I will just give you a bullet point update and then maybe some of my thoughts as of late... 

• Elizabeth was baptized!! It was awesome. It was a HUGE Tongan baptism so of course, I loved every minute of it. :) She is so special to me. I seriously love her and her family so much! Once every month we have a meeting with the stake leadership and all of the missionaries in the stake on how we can better serve the ward. At the end they always have a "special guest" (recent convert) come and bear their testimony. Well this week they asked Elizabeth! It was incredible. Multiple people came up to me afterwards and said how great she is. Love her.

Nat, Elizabeth and Sister Jin

• Sister Niihau had to go to the dentist to get a tooth pulled and I was lucky enough to go on exchanges and go with her...I LOVED it! :D It was seriously so fun for me to look in her mouth and take care of her and explain what the doctor/assistant said. I took some photos, but I didn't send them because I didn't think everyone would love them as much as I do.

• We had interviews with President Smart! I love him and every opportunity I have to talk to him. He told me how he met Elder Bussey!!! [Editor's note: Elder Bussey is an area seventy that was our former Bishop and Stake President and very dear to our family.] I was so excited…he was too. President said it was really fun to talk to Elder Bussey about me and then be able tell me about it. :)

• We also had another "Sister Gathering Meeting" so I was able to see all of my best girls!!!! :):) Gosh I love being a missionary.

"When President and Sister Smart arrived there were 12 sister missionaries and now there are 64!"

• Courtney was baptized yesterday!!! It was so sweet. Her Grandpa flew in from Oregon to baptize her and he was SO excited. The room was full of youth which was great. Youth from the ward gave the talks and performed a musical number. Courtney had a huge smile on her face the whole time. :)

Sister Jin, Courtney and Nat

• We also found out (through searching with Bishop, President and eventually Salt Lake) that Courtney's mother, Lisa, is NOT a member of the church. She thought she was baptized, but the church has no record of it so we are hoping that we will get to experience that soon. :)

• And the most exciting news....WE ARE GOING TO THE TEMPLE TOMORROW!!!!!!!!! I am seriously so, so, so excited. I love the temple so stinking much. It will be perfect.

I am sure there are more things to update you on, but I honestly can't think of them right now. We've been so busy it's insane.

At the very end of the Sister Gathering Meeting, President got up and had a Q/A (which he does after every meeting) so we could ask him anything we wanted about any aspect of the work. 

The first question was something along the lines of "How can we work successfully with the ward? We have been trying so hard, but we just can't seem to motivate them to share the gospel." 

This question is quite common among missionaries, but lately I think I found the key. 

President said "Well sisters, what do you think?" 

A couple sisters got up and talked about obedience, harvesting blessing and different ways to do spiritual thoughts. 

As I was sitting there listening, I believe I received inspiration on how missionaries can best work with ward members. Obviously more "ward members" will be reading this than full-time missionaries, but I think it can help all of us...

I think there are three things missionaries MUST do to successfully unify themselves with the ward:

1. We must LOVE the ward. That can be tricky to do especially when you feel like they don't care, but when we love them and serve them, they have a much stronger desire to help and trust us with their friends and family.

2. We must be CREATIVE.  Each investigator is different and so is each ward. We cannot approach the ward the same way we did with other wards and expect the same result. It won't work. We must go above and beyond to get them excited. For example "missionary week" was shot down while I was in Eastvale, but here we did it and are now seeing baptisms every week. We relied on the Lord and on each other. The majority of our investigators now come from member referrals, which everyone knows is ideal.

3. We must use ALL of the ward. Relief Society, Elders Quorum, High Priest Group, the youth, Primary...everyone. Heavenly Father needs every member to help His children come back to Him. People are not only being prepared for missionaries...they are being prepared for ward members too.

One last point on missionary work...(I just received the 5 minute warning)

Missionary work is not TELLING people about the gospel…it is INVITING them to do something where they will be able to feel the spirit. It's really quite simple. Yes, we want to invite them to church and to read the Book of Mormon, but it can also be as simple as inviting them to your home. We take our spiritually filled homes for granted. I promise you a simple invitation can change lives….just ask Laurel. :)

Laurel was first introduced to the church when Nat invited her to attend Seminary.  
She ended up taking the discussions in our home and was baptized the summer before their 
senior year of High School.  She's AMAZING and we LOVE her! 

I love you all. You are all called to this work, go out and do it!!!

Peace and blessings,

Sister Nelson

"Eli's package was PERFECT…I LOVED everything about it!"

"Doesn't Jinny's hair look cute?"

"Sister Jin is always laying in my bed because she says it's more comfy than hers, but really I just actually make my bed." :)

  

Let's play some ketchup shall we?

This week's blog title is specifically for Kaitlin. I sure miss her, but I know she is doing great things while serving the people of Italy.

Well first thing is first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!!!! I'm sorry that I didn't send you a card last week. You can expect one this week fo sho. Miss you like crazy homie.

Okay...I can't believe that I spent my last email talking about the bad stuff when there is SO much good to talk about! We have people walking on water over here!!!! Okay so maybe not like our good pal Peter, but they are jumping in it, still a miracle nonetheless.

Every month (I think I have said this before) we meet as a zone and our zone leaders announce the "zone focus" and the action plan to get there. Then we go through each companionship and talk about the investigators that will be baptized that month and set a companionship goal for baptisms and a zone goal for baptisms.

Sister Jin and I have talked a lot about what we want to accomplish this transfer and we are calling for MIRACLES let me tell you. We have a goal of baptizing EVERY week this transfer! 

That's practically unheard of, especially in the Corona ward. Remember last transfer? Yeah…we know we are requiring a lot of ourselves. It is only possible for us to meet our goal if we work TWICE as hard as we are already working, but we had a quick companionship inventory and are relying on the Lord for this one.

When it was our turn to set a goal at ZDM (zone development meeting) we said 3 baptisms for November. We knew that we set a higher personal goal, but 3 seemed reasonable and we don't want to let anyone down. So, we knew Justin was getting baptized yesterday and Elizabeth this Sunday, but we had no idea who would be our 3rd, 4th and 5th for the month.

Then like magic it all started to come together... 

One of our ward members called us and said that her cousins daughter, Courtney (13 years old) wants to be baptized and just needs to take the discussions....THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN! Courtney doesn't actually live in our ward boundries so there was a teensy little bit of drama about which missionaries were going to teach her. 

After everything that had happened lately, I didn't care I just wanted her to be taught and there to be no conflict. After a few days of going back and forth, we were eventually able to teach her and keep her! :) The only fellowship/family that she has is in our ward so it makes the most sense. 

Our first lesson with Courtney was a very emotional one for many reasons, but when we told them that not only can we teach her, she can also attend church in this ward, be baptized in this ward and continue to go to church after she is baptized in this ward, she was ELATED! Her and her mom both started crying. I practically cried through the whole thing…tears of happiness, of course. :)

Well very long story short, she is getting baptized on the 17th!! It is the most perfect date for her and for us. :) We are VERY excited!

Still...Sister Jin and I didn't know who else we were going to teach. On Saturday we talked about it and realized that we are going to have to find someone solid this upcoming week or else we wont have a baptism on the 24th because they have to attend church 3 times before they can be baptized. 

We were also a bit bummed because we knew we were only going to have 3 investigators at church and we really wanted to hit the standard of excellence this week. We have gotten so close the past few weeks, but always fall short with investigators who attend Sacrament meeting. :(

That night we met as a zone to start our fast together. Our zone goal for baptisms this month is 21 and we all REALLY want to hit it. So, we all fasted for our investigators and that we would find more. 

Well, as you all very well know I love fasting and have a HUGE testimony of it... and just when you think it couldn't get any stronger.... :)

On our way to church Sister Jin and I recieved a phone call. It was from Joseph (a former investigator that we dropped) and he asked if we could find him a ride to church! He said that morning he woke up feeling like he wanted to go to church and that he actually felt like he wants to go to church every week...THAT ALSO DOESN'T HAPPEN! So we were SO excited because we had 4 investigators at church!

But wait, that's not all… 

There was a family, an older couple (mom and dad) and a younger couple (son and daughter-in-law) sitting in the row in front of us during sacrament meeting, but no one had ever seen them before. The parents got up and bore their testimony and in it included their gratitude for their son (who has been less active) and his wife who is investigating the church!!! 

So after the meeting we quickly zoomed around the isle and instroduced ourselves and asked if there was a time this week that we could meet. She said "yes!" and told us that she started taking the discussion in Colorado and was planning a baptism, but moved so it never happened…. 

Okay fine. We will baptize you. :)

Oh yes, there's more...

Last night at Justin's baptism, well first let me say this…Justin is going to be such a strong member. He does the most missionary work in our entire ward. He is incredible. I have a soft spot in my heart for him. But, he invited EVERYONE he knew to his baptism and so it was PACKED and mostly with non-members!! 

Sister Jin, Justin and Nat

One of the very first girls we met was Chance. We had heard from people in the ward that she has asked a lot of questions about the church. So, I asked my sweet friend Amy at the end of the baptism "where is Chance? I want to baptize her?" which she responded "Oh she'd totally let you!" So we have an appointment with her this week! :)

There it is folks. The blessings that come from having an eye single to the glory of God, working with everything you've got and being strictly obedient.

I love this gospel. It is the only way we are really able to get a little taste of heaven here on earth. I mean Lehi even said so! We must partake of the fruit so we can taste of it's deliciousness and then we must share it with others. 

I love you all!! I am so grateful for all of your letters and packages and prayers. I promise you they are working!!

xoxo

Sister Nelson

PS. I have thought a lot about the advice that Luke gave me before my mission "if you are not having fun you are doing something wrong". So this week I have really taken it to heart. Each day we have to read 3 pages out of the WHB (white handbook) and instead of reading them, I sing them... Sister Jin loves it. Oh and I also only talk to her in a British accent. It gets quite funny, but today she covered her ears and said "shut up! you are giving me a headache!" hahaha we are having a blast over here. :)

Natalie's and her cousin Luke when he returned from his mission to Cambodia
(3 days before Nat entered the MTC)

"Sister Jin wanted me to dye her hair blonde…it didn't really work"

"IT RAINED THIS WEEK!! And I mean really rained, well at least for California. I was on cloud nine"

"We got pretty wet!" :)

(email received November 4, 2013)

Happiest hour of my life

Okay so this week was good. We got tons done and there was a lot learned. But, I had an experience this week that completely changed my mission.

This experience had nothing to do with "missionary work" so don't get too exctied...

So I have two major character flaws which have probably gotten worse since I've been on my mission:

1. I do not want people to know how I am really doing so I rarely ask for help and I frequently hide my emotions.

2. I have zero patience.

Communication and patience are very important qualities to have as a missionary and lately I haven' t been able to find them. I've been having a REALLY hard time. That said, you should know that this email alone is kind of unusual, but this experience is too good to keep to myself.

Last transfer Sister Jin and I had a hard time working together. I love her and she is sweet, but the cultures are opposite. I would try and show her love and affection, but apparently that is rude in Korea so it was a lose-lose situation. 

There was also a lot of complaining from both of us and it was getting to me. We rarely ever had the spirit with us and I was very frustrated. One day we were arguing in the car and Sister Jin said "I want to go home" 

and so I responded (not in the nicest tone btw) "Then go home!" 

She looked at me and neither of us said anything for a little bit and then I finally said "I'm sorry, but Sister Jin you don't have to be here. I am not here to make friends with other sisters. I am not here to say I served a mission. I am solely here to bring people closer to Jesus Christ." 

We talked for a while after and there was A LOT of apologizing, but I ended up realizing that I have blamed her for everything and CHOSE to be offended by what she said and did. Heavenly Father has us together for a reason and I know that we have all been promised that if we do our very best that the Savior will make up the rest. 

So now that we are together another transfer, I'm happy I've figured her out. I just need to love her (including hugging and kissing her even though she used to hate it, she has learned to love it) and we have been able to focus more on the work. 

However, I have still felt like a bad missionary. There were multiple times that I would just lock myself in the bathroom and cry. I would get on my knees and plead with Heavenly Father to help me and it would get better and then something would happen and we would be told all of the things we were doing wrong.  (Side note: since Sister Jin is learning english and is quite shy, everytime someone needs to talk to "us" it's really just to me.)

So, I was trying hard to be Christlike and help Sister Jin, while also trying to get the work rolling, but it wasn't enough and so I ended up having a couple of breakdowns which have then lead to fasting (I have fasted every week this month) but still it was getting worse. 

Last Friday night I had just gotten off the phone with our District Leader who "interrogated" me about our day and I looked at Sister Jin and said "I cannot do this anymore. Something needs to change, and I think it's me." 

I decided I was going to fast the next day and it was going to be the best, most heartfelt and prayerful fast I've ever had. I went to the bathroom and sobbed like a baby and tried to figure out what I was going to do when the thought occured to me "be grateful".  That's it. I knew that no matter what happend I was going to be grateful. Even if people were mean to me I was going to be grateful.

I went back to the room, looked at the clock (it was 10:45 PM) and got on my knees to say a prayer of pure gratitude. I wasn't going to stop until I had prayed for literally everything and everyone. It went from all aspects of the gospel to things as little as my toothpaste. It didn't feel like I was praying very long, but I decided that my prayer was sufficient and I felt like Heavenly Father was there intently listening the entire time.  When I got up and looked at the clock it was 11:45 PM exactly. 

I don't know the signifigance of the exactness, but that was probably one of the happiest hours of my life. It seriously changed my whole attitude. 

Saturday morning I woke up and still wanted to fast, but kept it to myself and tried to have the most positive attitude I could, which was really hard considering I was hungry and exhausted not only from crying but going to bed pretty late.  But, I knew that it was just Satan and that I would be blessed for my hard work.

Before we went to dinner at a members house, I broke my fast and was in a really good mood. Sister Jin and I were laughing and singing and having a jolly ol' time. But, I knew that night that we were going to get a call from our District Leader and that he was going to test my patience and I nervous for it. 

When he called, he simply asked how our day went and who we talked to and if there was anything he could do for us. I had a few questions that he helped clarify about Jesse's baptism and then I said "Well I think that's it. Do you have any questions for me?" He said "Nope! I trust that you are doing what you need to. You are a good missionary Sister Nelson. You have really done great work in the Corona ward."

I. Was. ECSTATIC! It was seriosly a direct result from my fast. Now things are AWESOME!! There haven't been any problems and everyone has been getting along. I know it's because of my fast and the change in my attitude. I seriously have been so much happier these past couple of days and everything has been working out!

I love this gospel. I love being a missionary. I love all of you.

xoxo

Sister Nelson

PS. Jesse's baptism was beautiful!!! It was so special…especially, because it was Sister Jin's first one. She finally realized why she is on a mission. She was quite emotional. :)

PPS. So we are not supposed to hold babies, but the Spanish ward doesn't really follow that rule which is fine by me! :)

(email received October 28, 2013)