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"