Allergic to water?

So this week was awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

The baptisms were incredible.

First, was Hector. He was so nervous it was adorable. He got there an hour early so that we could show/explain everything that was going to happen. He was great. He was smiling so big the whole time. 

Sister Pyper sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and it was beautiful. 

After the baptism, Hector went up to Sister Pyper and said "my whole body is tingling all over...what is that?" 

And cute Sister Pyper said "are you allergic to water?" Hahaha 

When he said "no" she said "OHHH! Hector that's the spirit! That's Heavenly Father telling you he is proud of you."

He smiled and said "Really? I feel so good!" :)

Sister Pyper, Nat, Brother that baptized Hector, Hector, and Sister Anderson

Afterwards, we went out to lunch with some ward members then back to the church for Skylar and Shaylee's baptism. 

They arrived early with us so that we could take lots of photos. They asked one of the youth to give a prayer and another to give the talk on baptism, which was awesome! 

I love the spirit that the youth bring when they bear testimony of Jesus Christ. 

Then it was time for the baptisms which were immediately emotional. 

Dakota baptized both of them. 

Edwards family with Bishop Louden

Skylar was first. The spirit really hit me then. I could feel the Savior's love for him and how excited He was to be able to bless him with the happiness of the gospel.

Next was Shaylee.  This little girl is very near and dear to our hearts. She texted us the day before her baptism and said that she had a writing assignment in class and the question was about who they look up to and why. 

Shayee said "I put you three. I wrote that I look up to my three sisters because they are nice and respectful and have so much knowledge." 

We were so touched.

Since her mom didn't go to the baptism, we watched her be baptized next to the font (instead of out front) so we could wait for her with a towel. As soon as she came up out of the water she looked at us and started crying. 

I love her so much.

Natalie, Sister Pyper, Shaylee and Sister Anderson

This is going to be mom's favorite part....

After we helped Shaylee get dressed there was a musical number....yep, Sister Anderson and I sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" a cappella! 

Shaylee asked us to sing and of course, we couldn't say no! I have never been so nervous in my whole life.  

It was fine. 

Now the bishopric wants the three of us to sing in sacrament meeting. 

Nat, Dakota, Skylar, Shaylee, Sister Pyper and Sister Anderson

Anyway, yesterday was awesome as well. Dakota blessed the sacrament for the first time, Hector, Skylar and Shaylee were confirmed and Hector and Skylar received the Aaronic Priesthood!

Seriously the best weekend of my life. I was floating on air.

I know this email is short and I am sorry. I ran out of time really quick today and I have lots of pictures to send.

But, I love all of you. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be an instrument in the Lord's hands.

Love,

Sister Nelson

(email received August 26, 2013)

Representatives of Jesus Christ

Good afternoon familia!

This. Week. Was.  A W E S O M E E E E E !!!!!!!!!!

Like most days, I don't have very much time and I want to make sure I get some pictures to you so this may be a tad rushed.

Now just to remind you, Hector is getting baptized on Saturday... Sups excited.

But, here is the best part of the week....

Every Thursday we have weekly planning. It takes us at least 3 hours and for one of those hours or sometimes maybe two, we have companionship inventory. I love companionship inventory. It lets us get everything out and then we set goals on how we are going to have a better week than the last. 

I always leave feeling so motivated, but this week was a bit different. 

I knew that missions are hard, but this week I really understood why... being a trainer is the hardest calling in the mission. 

I am not just saying that either. President Smart even said so. 

This week I really struggled. I felt like I wasn't doing anything right. 

Either I was too bossy by saying exactly what we were going to do or I was not being "a trainer" when I would ask the sisters what we should do. 

On top of that, there was a lot of complaining from everyone (including myself) and everything that went wrong was on my shoulders whether it was my fault or not. 

So, when we started companionship inventory it ended up not so motivating. It was pretty contentious and Sister Anderson and I ended up in tears. 

After a long awkward silence, Sister Pyper offered a prayer and that's when I really lost it. I just felt like I was trying so hard and that there was nothing more I could do.  

Sister Pyper prayed for Heavenly Father's guidance and asked for us each to be able to feel the Savior's love for ourselves and each other.

Once the prayer was over Sister Pyper and Sister Anderson came over and hugged me as I buried my face in my hands and sobbed.

Now you should know that this is the first time this has happened on my mission and that I am not writing this for pity or for praise, but because we were greatly blessed because of our faith after that prayer.

As soon as I was able to be composed and they stopped hugging me, we received a text message. 

I looked at it and said "Oh my gosh" and began to immediately sob again.

We had texted Brother Edwards earlier and asked him what he wanted us to teach Shaylee and Skyler on Friday. 

The text was from him and it said  "Hi this is Shaylee I would like to learn more about baptism and I picked a date to get baptized on August 24th if that is okay?"

We all wept.

It was uncontrollable. For me it was Heavenly Father saying "You are doing great. You are not here to be perfect, this is why you're here."

We ended up going to dinner with them that night, but only Brother Edwards, Shaylee and Dakota were able to go. We asked about Skyler (because we haven't seen him in two weeks) and they said that he's struggling and is unsure about being baptized in the middle of September. 

We were sad, but not surprised. Skyler is really close with his mother and we knew that baptism was going to be a very difficult choice for him to make.

So, on Friday we went over and didn't prepare as much as we normally do, but knew that we needed to teach Shaylee more about baptism so that she understood the covenants she will be making with Heavenly Father. 

As we started talking, we ended up talking to Skyler, very directly. I thought that we should try and focus the discussion towards Shaylee, but even when I testified it was directed toward Skyler. 

Halfway through the lesson I looked over to Sister Anderson and she was sobbing. That automatically chokes me up so I sort of turned my back to her so that I wouldn't lose it as well.

Well, that lasted a whole two minutes. 

Sister Anderson began to speak and was beyond bold with Skyler. It was probably the most powerful missionary moment I have ever witnessed. 

After she sobbed to Skyler and bore her testimony she said "Skyler, I know you know this is true. So, I am asking you this now, as a representative of Jesus Christ, will you be baptized with Shaylee next Saturday?" (Goodness even just typing it now makes me cry.)

Skyler didn't say anything for a little bit, fought back tears and simply said "yes."

Everyone cried.

I know that this is where Heavenly Father needs me. I know that I was called here at this specific time with these specific people. 

My testimony grows every single day. 

I am going to be a missionary for the rest of my life and the life to come.

But trust me, I miss you....a lot.  A lot, a lot! 

But, this is why I am here. This is why we are all here...to remember who we really are and then to help our brothers and sisters remember too.

Love you all! 

I hope you have a great week!!!

Sister Nelson

(email received August 19, 2013)

"Missionaries are really proud of the tan lines on our feet.  Mine might be the best or something"

"Can she rock it?"

Baptism, blessings and mail

Holla!

So this week was much, much better than last week! 

I'm pretty sure I told you that we are focusing on getting more investigators on date right? Well, on top of inviting everyone to baptism and doing harvesting blessings, we are also focusing on getting all of our investigators to church... 

Well this week we had 6 investigators at church! The most in the zone. It's fine, NBD.

Haha, but seriously, we were enormously blessed this week, it was insane!

This is the most exciting thing.... HECTOR IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON THE 24TH!!! 

WAHOOOO! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!

We met with him again on Saturday and talked more about baptism. He still feels like he doesn't know enough and that he needs to be more spiritual. Of course, we explained that we are always constantly learning, but to get baptized you just need to have a testimony of the gospel and commit to keeping certain commandments for the rest of your life.

He said "really?" 

So we asked him if he wanted to hear what the questions for baptism were.  I told him I would go through them with him, but he didn't need to answer them. As I asked him the questions, he kept nodding his head saying "yes." 

After we finished, he said "wait...that's it?" and we said "yes!" and he said "okay, so what day can I get baptized?" :)

We tried for this Saturday, but since we can only meet with him once a week we thought that next Saturday might be better.

He went to church yesterday and LOVED it! Dakota and Brother Edwards were awesome and really took him under their wing. (I love that family so much.)

The other huge blessing this week was meeting a sweet, short, old man named Jerry. Thursday night Bishop Louden received a call from a Stake President in Utah saying that he had a good friend that just moved into the ward and that he has had 3 discussions and wanted to know if he could get the missionaries over there ASAP. 

Well Bishop Louden is AWESOME and was already out doing visits and decided to stop by right then. He ended up talking to Jerry for 2 hours and told Jerry that he would send us over. 

We went over Saturday night and boy is he a hoot! He is the sweetest, most talkative man. He just told us his whole life story and his relationship with the Savior and then he turned to me and said (40 minutes later) "Can I tell you how I see this thing going?" 

"Of course" I said "please do" 

He said "I think that as you girls come over her every day that the spirit will work on me. That I will know that this is the path that I am supposed to be on and you will help me take my relationship with the Savior to the next level" 

Naturally I asked him what day he wanted to be baptized :) He is going to pray about a date and tell us tomorrow what he decides. He has major surgeries coming up in a few weeks so I think we are going to get him on the 24th as well. :)

He went to church yesterday and everyone loved him! We had multiple people thank us for working with him...so excited to see where life takes him.

Marna (Jamaican) and Amarna (her granddaughter) came to church and so did the Jenkins family (part member, LOVE them).

One person I was really hoping would come, but didn't, is Kevin. He is a boy who just graduated from high school and has had a crazy life, but is searching for purpose. He is very open to everything and feels the spirit every time we are there and he knows what we are teaching him is true. We are meeting with him 3 times this week and hopefully getting him to church and on date. He would be an awesome missionary.

Oh my gosh I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you, and this is probably the best news of the whole week...

DAKOTA IS GOING ON A MISSION!!!!!!

He just told us on Saturday and said that he had been praying about whether he should go or not. He was going to go out on a team up with us, but then it got cancelled so I guess he said "Okay Heavenly Father, if I am supposed to go on a mission, they will ask me again to go on team ups with them." 

I never recommend doing that, but Heavenly Father knows what each of us needs. We texted him an hour later asking him to go to another lesson. :) SO excited for him. He will be THE BEST missionary. :)

My time is running out, but thank you all for your packages and letters!!!! Besides baptism, there is nothing that warms the heart of a missionary more than mail. :)

Love and pray for you always,

Sister Nelson

(email received August 12, 2013)

"When we ride bikes we get really sweaty and my hair is pasted to my head. Sups cute."

"So grateful for her"

Focus on the good things

Okay, this week was the hardest week of my mission so far. 

I was struggling with just about everything and our numbers were A W F U L.

But, I don't really want to talk about that. I want to focus on the good things, so this email could be short this week.... :)

Sister Anderson and I picked up our new companion!!

Sister Anderson, Sister Pyper and Nat

Her name is Sister Pyper and she is really sweet. She is 19 years old and has lived in 35 states (she's a navy brat). She has a sweet southern accent and is very outgoing. She was inactive for 7 years and has an awesome story. Our investigators and ward members love her already.

Each month we have a different zone focus. Our zone leaders pray about what it should be then give us steps to make it happen. 

For August, we want to get more people on date for baptism. So they have asked us to first, do a harvesting blessing referral everyday. Which just means to leave a harvesting blessing with a member then ask them for a referral. 

It's awesome. 

Second, We have to get all of our OYMs every day and invite each person we talk to to be BAPTIZED!! Crazy right?? 

Well, we have already seen the blessing from it...

FIVE people committed to baptism this week!!!!!!!!!!! 

Thursday night both Skyler and Shay (Dakota's siblings) said they wanted to be baptized! :):):):) But, not until the middle of September. There are some hold-ups there (not because of transgressions) and so we pushed the date back kind of far. 

BUT, Brother Edwards said yesterday at church "I know we could get them for the end of this month!" I love that family SO much!! I am so grateful for them. 

We also taught a man named Hector. He is a really nice Mexican man. 

The first time we met with him was Saturday and he said "The reason I want to meet with you is because I see the brothers (Elders) walking around in their white shirts and ties so happy and I just think, I want that for my life! I want to be happy like them!" 

So sweet. 

We taught him about the Restoration and at the end when I asked him if he wanted to be baptized he said "Oh yes of course!" 

He said he would come to church the next day, but was really scared and intimidated because he isn't spiritual and everyone else is. 

We told him that we are all learning and growing and working on being more spiritual.  We made it as comfortable as we could for him and finally he agreed to be there... 

But, he didn't show up and never returned any of our calls or texts :( It's okay though...I still love him. 

The other two people who committed to baptism were OYMs! 

The first girl was Elsa. She is a young single mother who has been looking for a church for her and her son to go to. She was raised Catholic, but doesn't want to take her son there because she doesn't think it's right that babies should be baptized when they can't decide for themselves. 

She was really excited about learning more about the church. :) She works at Jersey Mikes and we just saw her earlier today and she wants us to go over tomorrow because she has work off. 

Really excited about teaching her. :) 

Then right after we talked to Elsa we went over to 3 boys hanging by their HUGE lifted truck outside the skate park (normally we don't talk to the kids at the skate park because they're usually high, but we really needed our OYMs). 

When Sister Anderson asked if they wanted to be baptized one of them said "yes, actually I do!"  

We ended up talking to them for 30 minutes and they are really great boys. They are trying to find their purpose in life. 

We had an appointment with Tyler last night and it went for 2 hours! I have a really good feeling about him. He isn't really in our area, but we meet him at the park which is in our area so... it's fine. :)

I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have every day to bear my testimony, especially to people I have never talked to. 

Multiples times a day, the Holy Ghost testifies to me of the truthfulness of this gospel and every day I come closer to my Savior.

I miss you all so much and love you more,

Sister Nelson

PS. This week I called 911 for my first time!! I debated writing home about this story, but it was too crazy not to...

Thursday night Dakota was going to go to a lesson with us, but the guy cancelled so he just went around getting OYMs with us. 

We were walking down the street when we saw a big Mexican family. We went over to talk to them when we noticed their neighbors were outside too.

It was a Chinese family...a dad, a mom and a teenage daughter. 

All of the sudden the dad grabbed the mom by her neck and her wrist forcing her into the house and the daughter yelled 

"HELP! HELP! CALL 911! HE IS GOING TO KILL MY MOM! MY DAD IS GOING TO KILL HER!" 

The daughter tried to stop him, but he pushed her away and went inside with the mother. The daughter ran in after them and then came back out asking for someone to go in and help her. 

So, Dakota ran in while I was on the phone with the police. 

Not 3 seconds later the dad stormed out, got into his car and drove off really fast. We went and checked on the family and everyone was fine. 

Apparently, the parents are getting a divorce and the dad had just received a restraining order from his wife and didn't like it. 

The police finally came and questioned us. He asked who called 911 and when I said I did, he took down all of my information and my testimony of what I saw happen. 

He told me that since I saw the dad put his hands on his wife that he was going to go to jail and if he goes to court I would be called as a witness.... SO CRAZY!!

Love you longtime!

(Email received August 5, 2013)

These people are why I'm here

So this week was rough. 

Emotionally rough. 

There have been lots of tears and let me tell you why...

This is sort of backwards, but we had transfer calls on Saturday and I've decided...I DO NOT LIKE TRANSFERS CALLS! This is the first time I've had to do them (because we had that transfer party last time) and it was awful! 

We were just waiting all day for the phone to ring, checking it every two minutes. 

Seriously, I felt like I was 16 again waiting for a boy to text me. It was ridiculous.

But, finally at 3:30 PM President Smart called. Panicky Packie had the phone and tossed it to me to answer. 

I did and President said "How are you liking Eastvale?" 

I told him that "I love it VERY much" which he replied "good, because I want you to stay there and train a new missionary. Are you willing to be a trainer this transfer?" 

"Yes, I am!" :)

Then he told me information about a training I have to go to and that Sister Anderson gets to stay with me! (Thank goodness because I couldn't do this alone.) 

Then he asked to speak to Sister Pack...she was freaking out! Sister Anderson and I had our ears right up against the phone trying to hear where President was transferring her... 

She is going to Hemet which is really awesome because Hemet is the GHETTO! Just a few days ago our zone leaders were telling us about all the crazy things that have happened to Elders there and for us not to worry because they would never have sisters in Hemet again (they took out sisters a while ago because it was too dangerous).

Guess again Elders...Sister Pack is going to be training a new missionary in the Hemet Eco Hills ward. She will cover half of that ward and half of the YSA ward (which is fun because there hasn't been sisters serve in a YSA ward in our mission before. She got a nice long talk about flirting. So funny.) 

Needless to say, it was quite an emotional weekend. We have accepted it now, but transfers aren't my favorite part of the mission. Sister Pack will ride with us to the trainer/trainee meeting tomorrow then she will leave there with her new companion in a different car. :(

"All of my girls from two zones the day before transfers"

That covers 50% of the tears this week. But, I had an OYM this week that changed my life...

We were on our way to an appointment and arrived a little early so we rode our bikes around trying to get some OYM's. It was my turn when we saw a big family outside on their front porch. These sort of OYM's are not my favorite because it's extremely awkward trying to talk to so many people at once. 

There were 12 kids, 18 and younger and 4 adults. It was one big Hispanic family, but it was a little odd because they weren't very loud, just quietly talking to each other.

I asked them if they wanted a blessing and everyone just stared at me until one of the older girls said "let me go get Anna." (The adults didn't say anything so I assumed they spoke Spanish.) 

Anna came out and so I offered the blessing again and she said "yes." 

So, we got off our bikes and walked to the front porch. Sister Pack was the one who was going to leave the blessing so she started with the little ones asking their names and what they wanted/needed at this time. 

Most of them said "help with school" or that they are really happy with their life and can't think of anything they need except for the blessings to keep coming. Super sweet, nice kids...I loved them immediately. 

Probably after we had gone through 7 kids we got to a boy named Wesley :) 

Natalie and her brother, Wesley, June 2012

He is a cute little Mexican boy who is only 10 years old. He looked at Sister Pack with the sweetest face and said "I want my dad to go to heaven." 

The whole dynamic changed. It got really quiet and the spirit was moving in. A few girls started to get a little teary eyed, but it wasn't something we were going to ask more about. 

So, Sister Pack continued until she had written everyone's name down and what they needed from Heavenly Father. 
  

(Right before we leave the blessing, we always talk about the spirit and how it will be present and to pay attention to the feelings in your heart and the thoughts in your mind.) 

Then Sister Pack started to pray. This blessing was longer than most so we could hear the kids getting a little impatient as it went on. The front door was opening and closing, but when I peeked (I know, I know) people were coming out of the house to pray, not leaving and going back in.

Finally, Sister Pack got to Wesley's blessing...she asked that Heavenly Father watch over his dad and that He give his family the comfort they need.  She also prayed that they will know that he is happy and that they will be with him again. 

Now, when we pray for things like this I almost always peek (I know, I know) because it helps me to understand what the family really needs. 

Wesley was crying first. Not too hard, just tears rolling down his cheeks (which of course, made me start crying) but then I noticed that there were two others (Wesley's brother who is 14 and his sister who is 16) also had tears flowing. As the blessing went on the tears started to get worse to the point where you didn't have to peek to know if anyone was crying because you could hear them.

Sister Pack closed the prayer and didn't say anything for a while. EVERYONE was crying. I was still wiping away tears so that I could get myself together before I bore testimony. 

Sister Pack then asked "what were the feelings in your heart as I was leaving the blessing?" 

No one said anything for a minute, then Alex (20, who was crying to the point where he was holding his breath) said "we actually lost someone very important to us today and it came out of nowhere. We're sorry we didn't say anything before, but we didn't want to throw that on you."  

Everyone started to cry. I mean REALLY cry. 

Jeffery, Wesley's brother, walked to the side with Alex and cried into his chest yelling "why did this have to happen? Why couldn't anyone save him?? Why was it my dad?" 

I have never witnessed anything like it. I stood there sobbing and bearing testimony about the plan of salvation and how Heavenly Father sent us here to show them that He loves them and is mindful of them. 

All of the adults and older kids stepped back a little trying to get their tears under control, but Wesley stood right in front of us looking at us and crying with a face just yearning for answers. My heart still breaks and I start to cry every time I think about it.

We stood there and testified, gave them a pass a long card with our phone number, hugged them and then left. 

None of us wanted to leave, but there was nothing more we could do. 

As we walked our bikes down the street still crying, we could hear Jeffery crying "Papi! Papi! Why?! Papi please!".

We turned the corner in silence, then I said "can we pray or something?" 

We huddled together and I offered a prayer. I can honestly say that I have never cried so hard and said a more sincere prayer in my whole life.

These people are why I'm here. I don't know what I can do to help them except pray for them right now, but I know that they are prepared for us. I know that this gospel is true happiness. It gives us purpose and answers.

Please pray for the people that I contact every day. We are all children of God.

I love you all so much,

Sister Nelson

(email received July 29, 2013)