We left the 99 to find the 1

Okay party people,

First things first, uhh was conference not the the greatest thing ever!! I was glued to each speaker. I LOVED it! I can't even say who my favorites were because there were too many to talk about and ain't nobody got time for that.

Okay okay okay, so here it is in 38 minutes. Remember a month or so ago when I told you an awfully sad story about Sienna?

After we met with her and bought her all those clothes (that she didn't take with her), Sister Boden and I and Brother Mc Kee tried to find her.  We searched around the park where we dropped her off, but never had any luck. The only thing we could do was pray and pray and pray and trust that Heavenly Father was taking care of her and that she was in safe hands.

So then I got transferred and am living the dream with STL Tucker (that's what she likes to refer to herself as) and there have been a couple of times that we have made a game plan for the miracle of ever seeing Sienna again (remember that Sister Tucker taught her once too), but we sort of came to the realization that we probably weren't going to see her again. For all we knew she wasn't even in the country.

Now fast forward to GCW (General Conference Weekend) we were super excited because we had dropped ALL of our investigators...we had some hope for one, but we really needed a spiritual boost. So we are sitting at conference having a jolly good time, letting the spirit fill our souls when we get a text from our ward mission leader telling us that our last investigator that had a sliver of hope didn't show up for conference… 

I look at Tucker and she says "what should I say?" and I respond "that we have to drop him…that's three weeks in a row of canceling". :( 

We were pretty bummed. Actually more than bummed. We literally had no one. 

Zip. Zero. Nothin. 

And that's really hard, especially when you're in leadership and are expected to baptize each month and are accountable to the APs in front of President purely on how many you've baptized… 

Okay enough pity.

After conference we decided to search and start with some part member families and some less actives.

So we are driving down this hill, it's actually a real big hill called Masters and every time we see courageous humans either making their way up the hill running or on bike, we look at them and something like "bless their souls" or "get it girl" comes out of our mouths.

So Saturday was a little bit on the warmer side, and so when we saw a cute young girl making her way up the hill we were actually a little more envious than proud… (Another story for another day. It's fine.)

We drove a little further and there was another girl running and she had on those old school Adidas track pants and a big t-shirt. I was driving and said "oh my gosh their are two of them making the climb".

Right before we passed the second girl, I get one last look and go from jealousy to completely flabbergasted and yell "oh my gosh that was Sienna!" 

Now Sister Tucker who is a tad more rational than I am said "no, that was not" and of course, I get all defensive and say "Sister Tucker, yes it is!" #prideproblems

I flip the car around really fast (driving kind of like a crazy person) and have Sister Tucker try and get a good look at her since I wasn't wearing my contacts or glasses (it's fine). She still stuck with her "Sister Nelson is losing it" attitude when my second quick glimpse only confirmed what I knew to be true… 

Yes I am giving credit to the spirit here, there is no other way.

I pull over a block ahead of her and jump out of the car and start walking towards her. Sister Tucker keeps looking at me saying things like "Uh so how are you going to approach this? What are we going to do if it's not her?" Lot's of doubt you know #compunity . 

I just said "I am going to OYM her if it's her or not".

*10 minute warning*

As we are closing in on each other and probably 20 feet away Sister Tucker turns and looks at me with a look of "uh what are we going to do!?" 

I'm focused in on her and like a mad woman stop in the middle of the sidewalk and say "Hi!" 

Now I clearly see her face, throw my hands in the air and say "How are you!?" 

With a not as excited response she says "Good". 

I ask her if she remembers me, which she does and we begin to ask her how she is doing, where she is living, why she is running the Masters hill...and the whole time she is very short, never smiles and is extremely paranoid. Constantly looking behind her.

She tells us that she misses us a lot and she says it quite a few times and with the purest most sincere face. She said she is living with her family again and gives us a looks that we know really means a whole lot of other things. We asked if we could meet with her and she gives us her address… 

Get this…she's in the El Cerrito ward (my new ward). I kid you not. 

That was about it though for our conversation. She told us that we needed to talk to her mom if we wanted to meet with her, but to stop by anytime and runs away… 

Even just writing this now, I'm still shocked.

We honestly didn't know what to do so we creeped on her house (super nice) and of course, expressed all sorts of gratitude to Heavenly Father. 

Both Tucker and I knew after we saw her that we weren't getting transferred.

How cool is that!? Heavenly Father lead us straight to her. We are the two sisters that taught her. She lives in our area. We dropped all of our investigators to find her. We left the 99 to find the 1!

I have 0 minutes left, but I want to testify to you that I know that we are all children of God, he loves us and is ALWAYS mindful of us.

I love you all and miss you like crazy!

Sister Nelson

PS. I have said this before and I'll say it again Homegirl Nelson has a little bit of a pride issue… 

Sister Tucker and I back our car in as much as possible so we don't have to back eachother out. Well, one night Sister Tucker was driving (it's simply a fact that I can back into places that she can't) and there was only one really tight squeeze-of-a-spot left when we got home. So, naturally we switched seats so I could back our baby in. Yeah…it was so close I was unable to get out on my side and had to clime over and squeeeeze out of Tucker's side. I couldn't have fit on my side, even if I could have opened the door. #prideproblems

(Editor's note:  I'm sure the owner of the car next to theirs really appreciated her talent the next morning when he/she couldn't get into their car!)

(email received April 7, 2014)