"Forbidden fruit makes the best jam"

You know how some churches have those signs that say the darndest things? We saw one that said that this week. We were dying. I wish I would have taken a picture. 

People crack me up. 

I saw a picture on a church sign once that said "Don't read The Book of Mormon that's how they get you"......……yep, that's true. :)

This week was a life changer. 

In my email last week I was going to tell you about a girl named Sienna, but I ran out of time. 

We received a call from one of Brother McKee's sons, Brian, who lives in the Citrus Hills ward. He asked what we were doing the next day because he scheduled an appointment for us. He said that he met a girl in Taco Bell and had testified to her of a few things and asked her if she wanted to meet with the missionaries which she agreed.

Just open your mouth, that's all I'm sayin'.

Well, unfortunately we had MLC with President the next morning and there was no way to get out of it. :( Sienna doesn't have a cell phone or any way to contact her so rescheduling wasn't an option either. We called Sister Tucker and Sister Young and asked them if they'd be willing to go for us and to make sure they schedule another appointment and put her on date. Not saying that they wouldn't have done that, we were just making sure. :)

The next night the sisters called and told us about the lesson. They said that it went great!! They got there and met Brian's co-worker who said "I hope that she shows up!" which right as she was saying that Sienna walked in and says "I always show up. I never miss an appointment." 

The sisters said that she is adorable…short, tiny 18 year old girl with thick curly hair that's cut like a fro and the sweetest face. They said that she has had a really hard life and is desiring to find some hope. They taught her the Restoration, which she cried through the whole thing and said "I can't remember the last time I cried in front of someone". 

They asked her to be baptized, she agreed and scheduled an appointment with her the following Wednesday, which was this last week. We asked them if they knew where she lived (because that will determine which missionaries teach her) they told us that she said she lives with her cousin behind the lemon trees…then Sister Tucker goes "I don't know if that's true though based off of the things she says and the clothes she was wearing, I bet there's a good chance she's homeless".

I can't even tell you how anxious I was to meet her. We had talked with Brother McKee about her and after hearing some of the details of her life he asked if he could come and said "I want to help her" which Sister Boden and I knew meant "I want to help take care of her". 

So FINALLY Wednesday came. We met at 10:30 AM at Taco Bell. Sister Boden and I spent all of companion study roleplaying the lesson. I don't know why, but I was sort of nervous. I knew that this was going to be something.

We ended up leaving the apartment a little late and riding our bikes there fast wasn't really as fast as we thought. So we showed up about 10 minutes late. :( We walked in and Brother McKee was sitting at a table with Brian, his co-worker Tiffany and Sienna. She's adorable. Not what I was picturing when I heard "homeless". 

Brian had bought her "breakfast" I guess if you call tacos and burritos at 10:30 in the morning breakfast, and then we were ready to start the lesson. I sat closest to her and Sister Boden sat next to me and Brother McKee was behind her. I turned to her and asked her to tell me about herself, which is when Brian and Tiffany excused themselves and it was just the four of us.

Sienna started telling us about her life. How she was born with FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) and that she was adopted and never knew her birth parents. Both her and her sister had issues because of things that happened to them, but that it changed her sister into something bad that she couldn't control and could no longer try and parent.

She also said her adoptive parents were abusive in every way and that she couldn't handle it anymore and ran away to her cousin's house. But, living with her cousin is also hard because her cousin is only 20 and can't parent, but has kids. Sienna said all she wants is a mother and family who loves her.

Now that was the shortest version of what she said and trust me I left out many many awful details. She cried as she spoke and I promise you've never heard anything like it. Or maybe you have on like those crime shows on TV, but never face to face from an 18 year old girl in Corona California.

I cried the whole time she talked. It didn't even phase me that this was all going down in Taco Bell, I was totally zoned in on her. As missionaries, we are told a lot that there are certain people just for you. We sort of look for those people in each area, or at least I do. 

Eastvale, it was the Edwards family. I promise you I knew them in the premortal world. And I have met a lot of people here in Corona and a lot of them have had an impact on my life, but none of them did I feel like were for me….until I met Sienna. The spirit testified to me as she spoke that she needs me. Or maybe not me, but us. And that I am here in Corona to love her.

She finished speaking and I said...(pausing between sentences trying to keep my crying under control) 

"Sienna, I have some really good news for you. We love you and we are going to help you. We have a message today that will change your life as long as you are willing to do try. Sienna, Jesus Christ loves you so much. He is mindful of you. He has sent us here to help you feel that. I promise you that as we teach you today and as we continue to meet with you that you will feel of the perfect love He has for you and the strong desire He has for you to return and live with Him and our Father in heaven again."

We then said a prayer and started to teach and testify of the Atonement. I wish I had more time to go into greater detail of the things we shared. Just know that Christ does live and love us. That He desires for all of us to come unto Him so that He can comfort us and lift the burdens from us. Through Him we can be made whole, but we must have the faith to come to Him and trust in Him.

I know that to be true, Sister Boden knows that, Brother Mc Kee knows that and after we taught Sienna, she knew it too. We talked for a little while longer and at the end, with tears streaming down her face she said "I have never felt like this in my whole life. This is the feeling of family that I've been looking for." 

Sweet Brother McKee told her that if she ever needed anything, and literally anything food, clothes, transportation, house, etc. to call any of us and we'll help her.

We closed with a prayer. Gave lots of hugs and started to walk out. She was next to me when I noticed she was fixed on the Taco Bell menu. I said "Sweetheart, are you hungry?" To which she said "a little" and I said "then let's get you something!!" 

I told her she could get anything that she wanted. I had her get some lunch and some dinner to take home. 

As I was paying, Brother McKee was talking to Sienna and Sister Boden and the next thing I know we are all getting in his car to go shopping. He said we were going to Kohls and I said "I didn't know Kohls has food" and I was quickly informed that we weren't shopping for food, but for clothes.

I wish you could have seen her face. She was in heaven I tell you, but my heart broke for her. She hung on me through the whole store like a child to her mother. We went to the changing room with a big pile of clothes. She took off the HUGE sweatshirt she was wearing and I saw what "clothes" she had on. She was wearing a childs t-shirt, tights for pants (and no not leggings, black cut out tights that you'd wear under a dress) and some vans without laces. 

She was so cute as she tried on the clothes. She was SUPER grateful and talked about how beautiful she felt the whole time. She came out with a dress on and looked so dang cute, but it was hard to miss all of the scars all over her body. I ended up asking her about them after she made a comment and she said "I've been beat up a lot" and then walked back into the room. 

We stopped by a couple more stores. Bought her pants, shirts, shoes and two cutesy church outfits.We threw away the clothes she had on and she walked out of the store with a whole new outfit. It was really neat because I remember when I was little and I would do that, Im pretty sure her face looked similar to mine.

We stopped and got lunch and then asked her where we could drop her off. She was super sketchy the whole day about where she lived and asked if we could drop her off at the park. Right before we got there she said "we are meeting tomorrow at 10 AM right?" (We had told her that we wanted to meet with her every day until she is baptized so that we can make sure she's okay and so we can help her.) 

Then she asked "can I leave the rest of these clothes here and get them tomorrow?" Of course, Brother Mc Kee agreed and we dropped her off, said our goodbyes again and drove home.

Time is up and the story is longer than you know, but when we went to meet her the next day she didn't show up. We haven't heard or seen her since. We've all drove around trying to find her, but haven't. I don't know what happened to her and I am praying she is okay. Please keep her in your prayers. I know that Heavenly Father loves her and will look out for her, but she needs all of the help she can get.

I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be a missionary. To feel of the love that our Father in heaven and the Savior have for each one of us. I know that they have a plan for us, and it's the plan of happiness. They desire for all of us to return to Him and it's our responsibility to make sure we do.

I love and miss you all!!! Happy Valentines Day!

Sister Nelson

(email received February 10, 2014)

Ps. I was able to go on exchanges with my girl Sister Anderson this week and of course we were out walking on the only day that it rained. We were out in the ran for an hour, got sopping wet and so we asked Sister McKee to take us home so we could dry our clothes and warm up. :)

You know you're looking at a winner, winner, winner!

Dad should probably change his ringtone back to JT's "Winner" considering….

WE WON!!!!!!!!WAHOO!!!!!!!!SEATOWN BABY!!!!!!!

In all seriousness, yesterday was officially the hardest Sunday of my entire mission.  I was dying ALL day. We had a combined 3rd hour and Brother McKee was sitting behind me so I turned around and said "Soooo, is it okay if we come by around 3, 4, 5, and 6 PM today?"

He laughed and said "It would probably be better if you came around 2:30, 3, 3:30, 4 and 4:30".

Obviously, we were kidding…well sort of.  I knew that I would be gladly welcomed, but we didn't go. I didn't get anywhere near a TV.  But, you better believe that I called Brother McKee, Sister McKee and Johnny McKee trying to find out the final score.

Lot's of happiness with the result. :)

Oh and SUPER cool that Golden Tate was rockin' SODO during his Super Bowl press conference!!!

"We have the same sweatshirt NBD"

(Editor: SODO is a mens premium sports apparel company that Nat's Dad recently launched.)

Click here to go to sodoapparel.com

Back to the life of a missionary…

We went on two exchanges again which means I didn't get very much sleep.

We also had lots of meetings which means not very much time to teach or proselyte.

AND we received a text message from James that said "Idk my mom says she found a place I can get baptized so now Idk what I should do lol"

I don't know why he said "lol" because I didn't find any part of that funny.

It all means that Satan is working hard over here.  He hasn't fully dropped us yet and we aren't dropping him so we'll see what happens this week.  We are having the Elders fellowship him by inviting him to play basketball with them so hopefully that will help.  It could either be really good or really bad.

I was emailing my mom and trying to send pictures and then had to switch to a really slow computer so now my time is up…so sorry!!!!

Love you all longtime!

XOXO

Sister Nelson
(email received February 3, 2014)

Coastin' on a dream

On the 24th I officially hit being out for 9 months (half way!) and it's not my favorite feeling in the world…being on top of the hill.  However, since I don't go home until November 4th, I'm just coastin' at the top until I start on the downward slope.

This week was a "normal" week of missionary work.  We kicked it off with exchanges and since we're on a bike (the only STL's on a bike) President was nice enough to give us all the sisters in Corona and only a few outside.  Lucky for us, every one of the sisters are in a car which makes it easier to actually exchange.

We planned on going on two exchanges a week, one with a companionship from Corona and the other from somewhere else.

The first this week we were with the Temescal Valley sisters.  Sisters Graff and Niihau.  I love, love, love both of them.  It was so fun.  I stayed here on a bike with Sister Niihau and we had a blast.  She was such a hoot on a bike.

Nat and Sister Niihau

Our area is small, but it isn't the easiest area for biking. Going east to west it's flat, but going north to south it's one huge hill.

It. Is. A. Killer.

On our first day, Sister Boden and I were biking to Sister Clemmer's house which is at the top of the hill.  It was pretty hard…so hard that Sister Boden had to get off and walk her bike (the thought crossed my mind too, but I'm much too proud…yeah I know I'm working on it).

Sister Niihau knew that story and so she set a goal to stay on the bike no matter what.  Of course, we ended up visiting a less active family that from our house to theirs is one straight hill…nothing but up! It was in the evening so it was cooler, but it was still difficult.

I kept turning around to see how far back she was, wouldn't be able to see her so I'd sit, wait and pray and then all of the sudden I would see her scooting herself along the curb of the street.  Hahaha…she literally did not get off the bike!  She said she didn't care how she did it or how long it took just as long as she stayed on the bike…I was so proud of her. :)

I also went on exchanges with Sister Greenwood in Riverside and we also had fun.  It was a pretty hard day because we spent the day finding. We couldn't get any of our lessons to follow through and we couldn't find any members to go with us, but we were able to teach a few drop by lessons and leave some blessings with people on the street.

Always a good time when you're living the good life.

We have a new investigator named Ruben (I don't think I've mentioned him yet) and let me tell you, he is a hoot and a half! He's probably in his late 20's, but he has special needs  so the bet way to describe him is that he's a big kid.  He was a media refer all we received and I am SO glad we did.  Never a dull moment with my boy Ruben.

Sister Boden, Ruben and Nat

He talks and talks and talks so sometimes it's hard to teach him, but it's totally worth it.  We have to really simplify the lessons, but that just makes it more fun.  The first time we talked to him we took Brother McKee (our ward mission leader) with us.  Ruben told us about his member friend who has been teaching him about the church and Ruben said "I already know everything, but can't get my friend off my back!"

So obviously I said "then do you want to be baptized?"

And Ruben said "yes!"

So then we started talking about a date.  He has come to church three times and we knew that it would take a little longer to teach him so I said "well, what about February 2nd?"

I am still embarrassed about it now and I can't believe that I made that mistake because I feel like the 2nd is all anyone talks about these days…

So Ruben replies "Uhhh the SUPERBOWLLLLLL!!"

We were dying.  We ended up putting him on date for the 16th. :)

We have taught him a couple of times, but he doesn't have a phone and his landlord doesn't love us.  So we just show up to our "meeting spot" and pray that he does too…which he has every single time without fail.

This last week was the McKee's anniversary so we asked Sister Behrens if she could come with us. I love the Behrens'!  They're such a sweet family…super missionary minded.

Sister Boden and I show up and Ruben gets there soon after.  While we are waiting for Sister Behrens, Ruben says "Hey, I found a phone!"

We were super excited and continued to ask him about it which we soon realized that he literally had just found the phone on his way to meet us.  I asked him if I could see it and he pulls out a brand new smart phone!  So, we tried to convince Ruben that he needed to return the phone, but he wasn't having it.

After Sister Behrens shows up we start teaching him about the gospel and Sister Behrens teaches him about repentance and then she says "Ruben, I think that we need to talk about your phone".

He was not a happy camper.  For the next HOUR, the three of us were going at it trying to help him understand that he needs to give the phone back.  He had lost a few cellphones himself and was keeping it more because he was holding a grudge towards those that didn't give his back.  Finally, he said that he'd give it back, but that he was going to ask for a reward and that he wasn't going to tell us when he'd do it.

We tried everythingggggg.  There was lots of "what would Jesus do?" kind of talks and "we're not mad at you, just disappointed" and even some reverse psychology, but NOTHING was working. We could not soften his heart.  He just sat there with his head resting on his hand and his eyes closed and he stayed like that for about 10 minutes.

Sister Boden said "did he just fall asleep on us?"

He remained silent a little while longer then Ruben peaked open his eyes and saw that we were still there.  The three of us laughed and said "Yep, we're still here!" :)

So then we tried bribing him by telling him he could go with Brother McKee in his cool old bug or even with Sister Behrens her her convertible mustang…and still nothing.

Finally, Sister Behrens slapped a twenty-dollar bill on the table and said "Here!  Here is your reward...but, only if you give it back right now!"

Ruben looked at it, started to grin and said "Okay!"

Hahaha we all started cheering and were very excited and then we took him to Verizon so they could scan the phone and contact the owner.  Ruben asked the worker to call them right then and wanted them to know he found it, but that he was making sure they got it back. :)

Sister Behrens was so sweet and told him since she was so proud of him that she would take him through the McDonald's drive through for lunch.

He was VERY excited!

Ruben came to church on Sunday and I have to say, I really, really love him.  He is so funny and really does want to learn more and get baptized.  Can't wait to see what happens this week.

Love you all!!!!!

Sister Nelson
(email received January 27, 2014)

"My city's flithy"

Macklemore has a song about Seattle and he says that line which I only think is appropriate considering our beloved Seahawks are going to the Superbowl baby!!! I don't want to talk about it too much because that's how Satan gets to me and I'll get sad and homesick and what not.

Oh and one more sports recognition I'd like to make before I leave the topic... My boy KD had 54 points this week!? That's what I'm talking about.

Well how is it goin over there? Is it nice and cold? I wish I was there. It's getting warmer which I am not happy about, especially if this is preparing us for what it is going to be like all summer…

No thank you.

So, I know last weeks letter was ridiculously ridiculous, but it being Martin Luther King Jr Day (power to the people) emailing is crazy, there are people waiting to use the computers and I had to use a different format of Gmail which is weird... so sorry if this is another lame one.

Well...biking barely happened this week. Both of our bikes needed repairing (thank you Brother McKee) so we were on "foot" until Friday night. I say "foot" because we bummed rides off of everyone. And by everyone I mean mostly the McKee's and the Ludvigson's (senior couple in the ward)…

I can't tell you how much I appreciate them and love them. It's people like them that change your life.

So with all of that nonsense, Sister Boden and I were still able to hit standard this week! WAHOO!! Pretty exciting if you ask me.

It's lookin like another run of baptisms coming up. Yesterday Loralee (I have been spelling her name wrong... whoops) was baptized by Brother Boyes.

It was the best baptism I have ever been to. Not only were there lots of people, but the spirit was SO strong.

I kid you not  e v e r y o n e  was crying at some point.

The baptism talks might have been my favorite part. A few weeks ago Brother Boyes pulled me aside before we talked to Lora about her baptism program. He told me to suggest that Sister Boyes give the baptism talk, but in reality, he had a special family member who would actually be doing it. I knew exactly who he was talking about and almost started crying on the spot.

During the baptism, Brother McKee announced that Sister Boyes would be giving the talk and then Brother Boyes stood up instead. He grabbed his iPad and said "There is actually going to be a change in the program. Sister Boyes won't be giving the talk."

Then he put his iPad on an easel and pressed play.

I wish you could all have been there because this is not going to do it justice. As soon as he pressed play you heard Lora gasp and grab her face and start crying. Elder Boyes (Tucker is his name, he is best friends with Lora and is the one who introduced her to the church) had videotaped himself giving the talk on baptism.

It was SOO cool. Lora had no idea, complete surprise (which is my favorite thing ever). He did awesome. It was such a beautiful experience for us all to be there. He taught simply and powerfully and filled the room with the Spirit without even being there.

I loved it.

The rest of the baptism was great. Sister Boden and I tried something new that President had recommended we start doing at baptisms. While Lora was changing we taught the Restoration to the audience.

Now I have probably taught it 100 times, but not like this. We taught it in a little over 5 minutes so it was very simple.

Sister Boden taught/testified powerfully of Christ and the love that he has for each one of us.

I was blessed to be able to recite the first vision. I can't tell you how many times I have done that and every time the Spirit testifies to me that Joseph truly did see God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. But this time was different and I think it was for a lot of people there. I was pretty emotional as I said it and I honestly don't think that I have ever felt the Spirit so strong in one setting.

If there is one thing that I have not one doubt about, it is that Heavenly Father loves every single one of us more than we can imagine. He loves us so much that He Sent His only begotten son to earth to die so that we could become clean and perfect like Him.

But, He also came to earth to establish the gospel so that we would know the path we need to take to return to live with our Father in heaven once again.

I know that God does hear and answer our prayers, just as He did to 14 year old Joseph. We may not have the blessing of a vision quite like he did, but we can know for ourselves that He does live and that He leads and guides this church.

I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the exact same gospel that Christ himself established while He was on earth. I know that is has been restored and will remain on earth until the second coming of the Messiah.

I extended the invitation to all who were at the baptism and I do the same to all of you, to know for yourselves if these things are true. I promise you, as does Moroni, that if you ponder these things in your hearts and pray with sincere desire to know if they are true that the Holy Ghost will testify that they are. That through the Spirit you will know that Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and that He is at the head of the church today and leads and guides us through a living prophet of God.

As a representative of Christ, I testify that these things are true and I do it because I love you and I want you to feel of the happiness this gospel brings.

I miss you all.

BIG hugs and little kisses,

Sister Nelson

Welcome to the biker gang!

When I first came into the mission and President said that Sister Pack was going to be my new companion, she jumped up, ran over to me with arms open wide saying "welcome to the biker gang!" 

That was the first time I found out I was on bike. 

Transfers were yesterday and Sister Boden and I are staying! We are SO happy. However, we are getting our car taken away and will be on bikes! Straight crazy. We are also moving to much nicer apartments that are a lot closer to our area which will be nice, but the other sisters aren't moving with us. :( 

This week was another good one! Except, Sister Boden was really sick. :( None of the missionaries got the flu shot so  e v e r y o n e  is getting sick. And being sick is not really convenient for missionaries, especially when you're STL's who procrastinate and have 3 nights in a row of exchanges. 

We ended up only doing one exchange with Sisters Gowans and Hall in Moreno Valley which was so fun. I was originally supposed to stay in Corona, but since Sister Boden was still sick, I had the privilege of going to Moreno Valley. 

I loved it.

I was praying that I'd run into one of the O'Connor's, but I didn't. :( Still praying that I'll "die" there so I can go on splits with Kaitlin and Paige. :) :)

Even though Sister Boden was out for half of the week, we were still able to teach 20 lessons which was pretty impressive. I went on splits with a girl named Puna from the ward. I love her so much. She is about to leave for her mission to Houston, Texas - Spanish speaking and she will train in the MTC in Mexico. 

She's very excited, but nervous. She's adorable though. She gave her farewell talk on Sunday and the Bishopric asked her mom and me to speak with her! That was fun because of course, we all spoke about missionary work. :)

I was going around greeting people before sacrament meeting and then noticed Bishop making his way up to the stand so I decided to grab Puna to head up with me, but I sort of scared her haha. I walked up behind her, squeezed her neck and said with a straight face "it's time." 

Haha she has a good sense of humor. As soon as we sat down she leaned over to me and said "were you always this outgoing or did it come on the mission?" 

I said "don't worry…it comes naturally to missionaries." :)

It truly does. I can't wait until I get home and can embarrass mom with all of the strangers I go up and talk to. After talking to at least 10 people on the street every day for 18 months, I imagine that will be a hard habit to break.  

I love being a missionary. It's seriously the best.  

Puna will rock it out there. Her talk was awesome. If you want to hear mine you can just look up Elder Holland's "The First Great Commandment" talk from October 2012 General Conference. I practically just read the whole thing. It's my very favorite.

Elder Holland - The First Great Commandment (click to read)

This week Travis and Amy and their two children came to church!! :)  I can't remember if I've told you about them (I tried to look it up on my blog, but it looks like it hasn't been updated for a while… mother.) They were all so cute! They came in all cordinating wearing black and blue. I think it went well. They seemed really happy.

We have been working really close with our ward mission leader, Brother Mckee. I love him and his whole family. Seriously, they are the BEST.  Friends for life let me tell ya. They are such great examples of Christlike people. I wish you all could meet them. I was going to tell you that we use Brother McKee's sons (Brian and Johnny they're like 38 and 36) ALL the time and we had them visit Travis and Amy, but I'm out of time so I'll have to update you next week.

So sorry! :(

Love you all,

Sister Nelson

New Year Boo Year (not really)

Ello Mates!

Well, I feel like it's been one lame week after the next. Not really, but my emails have been getting more and more lame. I think it's the whole transfer stage. The year is/was ending, the transfer is ending (calls are this Saturday) and everyone and their dog is sick so, it's just been rough all around.

I am going to try my best to give you a work filled email, but I am going to warn you now... no pictures. So sorry.

Last week I mentioned how sick I felt, well it only got worse. I was out until Thursday night. We literally stayed in the apartment ALL day…ALL night.  It. Was. A. Killer.

For New Year's Eve we had to be in by 6 PM and then on New Year's Day it's a mission wide deep cleaning day so we can't leave to go out until 1 PM. Since we were ALL sick we were in much longer than that. 

On New Year's Eve we put together a 1000 piece puzzle (picture coming next week, we are half way done with the second one) and watched tons of movies. 

Mom, have you seen Ephrium's Rescue? It's the sequel or something like that to 17 miracles. We watched it New Year's Eve and I LOVED it. I don't know if it's because I've been on my mission and haven't seen a quality movie in a while, but I seriously loved the whole entire thing. 

The priesthood has been restored. The church is true.

New Year's morning we all got up and cleaned as long as we could, but we got pretty dizzy and ended up passing out after a few hours. We are all feeling much better now though! Thank goodness too because an apartement full of sick missionaries who haven't been able to work for a couple of days is no bueno let me tell ya.

Fortunately, we were able to get up and get some work done this weekend! Let me tell you about our investigators...

LAURA: Well...she is still on for the 19th!! The huge hold up with her was that she had been terrified to talk to her mom. She doesn't need her mom's permission, but since she lives with her and she loves her and wants her approval. 

Well she finally told her…over text haha. She didn't want to do it that way, but she set a goal of talking to her mom by Sunday and she hadn't been able to sit down and talk with her and it was Saturday night so she had no choice, but to text her. 

Her mom didn't seem mad at all. She thought that Laura was getting baptized yesterday (and doing it behind her back) so all she said was "I wish you were doing it when I could be there" which was really great because now she can be! :)

I LOVE Laura. She is so sweet and loves the gospel so much! She bore her testimony on Sunday and was adorable. She did it like a true Mormon, with tears and all. :) Her baptism will be beautiful.

STEPHANIE: Sister Todd actually OYM'd her on my birthday while we were on exchanges. She is really interested and very humble. She is the only one in her house that speaks english so lucky us. :) 

We left her a harvest blessing and taught her about the spirit and The Book of Mormon and committed her to baptism. She is a little nervous about how fast it all seems, but agreed to the 12th. Well she didn't go to church the next day (the 22nd) so we met with her again, taught her the whole restoration and changed her date to the 26th and told her that we would bring someone to pick her up this week and guess what she agreed to it all and came to church!! 

We felt bad because during sacrament we promised we would sit with a less active family that is scared to come back to church and then for 2nd hour the teacher of the senior Sunday school class asked me to come in and speak for a little bit about the role of the spirit in missionary work and then we went to ym/yw instead of Relief Society because the yw president asked us to speak on the new theme and how to invite others to come unto Christ! 

But, I think it was good because the ward missionaries took care of her which provided solid fellowship. Sister Boden and I aren't going to be here forever right? :)

(Side note: yesterday when we got to church just about everyone that we wanted to come did! Including less active families/members that haven't been to church in over a year! Pretty cool if you ask me…amen to the new year!)

There is a boy in the ward named Wusu (I can't remember if I've talked about him before or not) but he is the best missionary. He walked into church with someone I've never seen before so I hurried over to talk to them. His name is James and he lives next to Wusu and so Wusu invited him to church and he accepted. 

We didn't get to talk to him much because we were running around a lot, but after church Wusu was running after us saying "stop Sisters!" He was so excited to tell us that James said that he wants to BE BAPTIZED and he gave us his number to contact him!

We called James last night and he had a few questions about baptism. He said that he has been thinking that he needs to be baptized lately and asked what the difference is between our baptism and other Christian faiths. I told him that we are baptized just as Christ was with the priesthood, immersion, covenants and all and he said "well, that all sounds like what I want!" 

So, we are meeting with him again tonight and hoping to put him on date for the 19th. :) 

GOOD TIMES!

I am out of time, but I love you all so so so much!!

Sister Nelson

(email received January 6, 2014)

Sorry for party rockin'

I am sorry for "partying" so hard this week. I woke up really sick yesterday and it's just getting worse. I think I have the flu :(

This week was good! BUSY, but good. Tuesday was Christmas Eve and the whole mission got together for a big talent show. We did more of a silly one, then they fed us lunch and then had a spiritual talent show.

It was a blast and a half! I loved seeing all of my sista friends. :)

"Lil Mama"

"Sister Jenkins, Sister Fia and Sister Anderson"

"Hermana Ruiz"

"Sister Niihau"

"My Jinny Jin"

"My fav hermanas (minus Hermana Ruiz) Luccion and Oswald"

"Elder Schoonmaker"

We came home and decided we'd all sleep in the same room and build a fort :) Yeah it was pretty dang cool. We were having all sorts of fun under there and decided we were going to leave it up until transfers (the 11th) and that lasted a hot second. We took it down the next morning.

"World's. Greatest. Fort."

Christmas Day is our only day off which was super exciting because that meant that we got to sleep in! 

It didn't happen though. 

Our bodies are too used to getting up early and so we were all up and laughing by 6:45 AM. So Sister Tucker decided to play Santa and we each opened one present at a time. 

"Sister Tucker aka Santa"

For my first Christmas away from home it wasn't too shabby.

The first present I opened was the picture frame with the cutesy picture of the family. It was my favorite gift I've EVER received. I was dying over it. So were the other sisters... Thanks mom. :)

Then of course, I LOVED talking to the fam!!!! Seriously, I miss you so much. I could have talked to you all for another 3 hours. Good thing I didn't though because I was a tad homesick after.  I'm fine now. :)

Funny note…all of the ward members asked us about calling home and they asked if we only talked for an hour and my reply was always "well, I talked to my mom for an hour!" Love you mom. ;)

The rest of the week was kind of weird, but we did pick up a new investigator. Her name is Stephanie and she is 23. We left her a harvest blessing and then committed her to be baptized on the 12th and she said yes. She didn't come to church yesterday, so we will have to move that, but I think she'll get baptized the following week. :)

Laura is still on for the 19th. She's excited and I am too. I love her so much.

We went on exchanges which was awesome because I was able to go to spanish land which only made my desire to be switched to spanish even greater... I think I'll mention something to President in my email. :)

I don't know if I can write much more. It's making my head hurt worse and I am getting more nauseous. 

I hate being sick. It's so annoying. Very inconvienient.

Love you all! I recieved so many Christmas and birthday packages/cards and I am going to try to write you all back today! If you don't hear from me this week I will try to write next week.

With all of my aloha (they say something like that right?)

Sister Nelson

PS. President approved 3 movies for us to watch on Christmas, one of them being "It's a Wonderful Life." I had NEVER seen it, but I may have seen it 3 times now... I love me some George Bailey. :) Haha welcome to the life of a sister missionary.

(Email received December 30, 2014)