#BecauseofHim

Hello my dear Brothers and Sisters,

So this week there isn't much to write about which is actually good because I really wanted to spend this email focusing on the Savior.

So here's a quick recap before we get to the good stuff:

Sick missionaries. 

No investigators. 

No contact with Sienna. 

Bike was stolen. 

Zero mail. 

In 95 degree weather.

But, still happy livin' the good life.

Okay now before you continue reading, please remove any distractions, take a deep breath and watch this video:

 (For more info go to www.mormon.org/becauseofhim)

It's fine. You can watch it 100 more times. I get it. I'm obsessed too.

Isn't it so good!? The church really rocked it this time. I don't think I've seen a better Easter message in my entire life.

It gave me a whole new outlook on Easter. Normally, I am full of gratitude for Christ dying for us and that through that sacrifice we are able to be made whole by the cleansing power of the Atonement. 

Which I still feel 100%, but this video reminds me that the sacrifice was for each one of us, no matter our religious beliefs. 

That we are all here because of Christ. That nothing would be possible without Him. He is our greatest gift, our greatest blessing. It is through Him we can have eternal peace and joy. It's through Him that we can start over and over and over again.

And do you know what's really cool? He lives. And we will too. We will all be reunited once again, in perfect bodies after this life.

But, we can't take that for granted. We have to act now. We've been given all the tools that we need to be the most successful in this life and the life to come, but we must use them every day. 

We need to be on our knees morning and night pleading with the Lord, trying to align ourselves with His will. We must diligently study the scriptures every day to receive answers and to nourish our souls with the word of God. We must be humble and change, repent of the things we've done wrong and strive to become more like our Savior.

Most importanly, we need to make partaking of the sacrament our number one priority. 

Those 15 minutes are vital to our week. That's the fresh start. That's being born again. That's our second chance when we partake of the bread and water in remembrance our Master and King. 

I don't think that we will ever fully comprehend what the Savior accomplished during His earthly ministry, especially in the Garden of Gethsemane, but I do know that we have the chance to come closer to Him each day by applying His teachings to our lives.

And do you want to know the best part? The Atonement doesn't just cover our sins, it's so much more. 

In The Book of Mormon we read "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

Seriously, it just keeps getting better. And that's the purppose of the gospel. It's the hope that we all need in mortality.

I know that my Redeemer lives and it is because of Him that I am here today. I know that the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the same one that He Himself established here on earth, is found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that He will come to earth once more and that is the day we are all preparing for.

I invite all of you to really ponder your personal testimony of Jesus Christ and how His Atonement has blessed you. I then invite you all to share this video with your friends and in it include your testimony of Jesus Christ.

We are all children of God. We all have trials and heartbreaks. We are all brothers and sisters. And we will all live again.

I leave my testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

With all of my love,

Sister Nelson

(email received April 14, 2014)

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)

Love. Compete. Serve. Repeat.

First things first… 

CONGRATULATIONS TO MR AND MRS TRYON!!!!!!!! 

I died over the photos. I literally could not stop crying. I'm still crying. 

SO, SO, SO happy for my two best friends!! 

Sealed for all eternity what a beautiful thing :) 

I can't lie though, when people ask me what was the hardest part of my mission, I will hands down say missing #MalAndTyguy'swedding... Love you Pally.

Okay now on to the less depressing…actually it could definitely be more depressing. Yesterday I sent in the worst numbers of my mission. 8 zeros ... I can't believe I just wrote that. We dropped  A L L  of our investigators yesterday because no one came to church and so no one is progressing and so Sister Tucker and Sister Nelson just about died. It's fine.  

So this week is going to be straight crazy. We've got MLC on Thursday, ZDM on Friday and TRANSFERS on Saturday and we are just going to be finding ALL week!! #PrayForUs

However, I decided to try and make this week's email sups exciting since I didn't send one last week and I've been kind of lame… 

Here. We. Go.

Monday: Lame sauce. Haha Jk. Well sort of, it was just P-Day so nothing too cool happened. Except I was writing little notes to some of the sisters in the mission and I thought I was being SO funny by writing "HAGS" at the end of them. When I went to show Sister Tucker how lucky she is to have such a funny companion she looks at me and goes "Did you mean to write HUGS?" 

I looked at her for a really long time and said "Pleaseeeeeee tell me you know what HAGS means!" 

Dead silence. So obviously I texted everyone in the zone making sure I've still got my cool. Don't worry, I've still got it. (If you are one of those who doesn't know what HAGS means, please see photo below.)

Tuesday: Also nothing super cool except to explain the next photo... (sorry I'm officially boring). Sister Tucker and I get really tired from meetings and exchanges all week so we frequently take little napsies at lunch. Well after Sister Nelson eats she gains all sorts of energy and gets a tad immature…it's fine. 

I started this new thing that when Tuckdaddy is either sleeping or praying I take the lamp and shine it right above her face so she thinks she is about to have a miraculous vision... Let me tell ya, she sees that pillar of light, exactly over her head.

Wednesday: Oh man I only have 20 minutes and I'm only to Wednesday! You can blame my momsie for that. ;) Well Wednesday was super fun because we had to go to Menifee to take care of some STL business, but we had no miles to do that. So! We called up my main girl Amy and she spent the whole day with us! 

It was super fun. Sad though because we tried to stop by all of our investigators houses to get a MPL and we got nothing... It's fine though. 

Thursday: This was a rough day because it was weekly planning. I don't loveee planning for the week because it takes 3 hours and it's really boring. So we decided to take a break and check the mail… 

Tucker got a package, an envelope and a letter. Nelson got nothin'... It's fine. 

Just a reminder: I'm over here in the HOT sun serving the Lord! And I LOVE getting LOVE!! 

Well Tuckdaddy's mother was kind enough to send all sorts of fun things including silly string. I think you can see where this is going….

Tucker has to go to the bathroom.

Nelson see's the string and get's all giddy. 

She hides around the corner all excited to scare Tucker. 

Get's a little too excited and starts to doubt the funniness. 

Decides to stay seated at the table with the string underneath. 

Tucker comes back and is interrupted mid-sentence with a mouth full of nasty. :)

It's fine…it was funny.

Friday: We went on exchanges! I went to lake Elsinore to be with Sister Staker and we had so much fun!! She's such a sweetheart. We put someone on date, got all excited, had some laughs, then went back to normal life... Haha "normal life" that'll be the day.

Saturday: Now I only have 11 minutes and I really need to send all these photos I'm talking about. We were able to volunteer for the Stake Youth Conference which was the Special Olympics!! It was such a blast. Those athletes are the sweetest spirits. So happy no matter what happened. All we had to do was ask their name with a smile and they were jumping on us telling us we were their best friend. 

I loved it. 

Sister Tucker and I were quite emotional the whole time... #sisterproblems 

Okay so the whole spiritual aspect of my life is missing in this email…so sorry. But, just know that we are full time servants of the Lord and we LOVE it. We are coming closer to Christ each day and pray that all of you are too. :)

Mucho grande love,

Sister Nelson
(email received April 7, 2014)

"Could ye not watch with me one hour?"

So we had multi zones this week which was awesome!! I seriously love President Smart so much!! All sorts of inspiration flowin' out of that man.

The Temescal Valley Zone

Sister Tucker and I got a phone call the night before from the ZL "Brown" Wood and ZL Randell (we are really into referring to missionaries by their titles) and they said that President wanted us to roleplay a bad companionship inventory for multi-zones. Oh and to add more pressure he wanted it to be funny…I'm not funny.

Obviously, I am pretty dang nervous to roleplay in front of all of these missionaries and President and Sister Smart, so I decide the best thing to do is to just call out missionaries. We pretty muched just had comp study, but went WAY off on tangents that had absolutely nothing to do with what we were studying. 

It was pretty funny. 

I talked in a British accent (which is funny enough considering I can't), made fun of Sister Anderson and sang a line of the star spangled banner…seriously, I can't even believe I am writing all of this… I am so embarrassing.

But, we had a really good training from the APs about teaching the importance of church attendance and the Atonement to our investigators. We broke off and did some roleplays with each other and I used my favorite Atonement scripture, wanna hear?

We sit there and talk about an investigator who didn't come to church and then we are supossed to act as the missionaries and address their concern and get them to comitt to coming to church. So I start out with Matt 26:38-39 which I believe (that could be wrong I don't have my scriptures right this second) is when Christ has His disciples wait for him and then asks Heavenly Father to remove this cup from him… 

There is lots of pausing, lots of emotion and testifying. We talk about how Christ suffered for all pains and afflictions and we relate it to their lives. Then we go to 3 Nephi 18 and talk about when Christ instituted the scarament and how that is our way to show Him our remembrance and gratitude for His sacrifice.

Okay now here is my favorite part…

We turn back to Matt 26 and finish the story. I say "Christ went to check on the disciples to see if they were keeping watch as He was suffering for them, for you and for me. Will you read verse 40 to see what happened?" 

Verse 40 says that when Christ goes to check on them He finds them asleep and turns to Peter (my favorite apostle) and says "what, could ye not watch with me one hour?" 

I pause, turn to the investigator and say "Christ is asking you the same thing he asked Peter. Will you attend church this Sunday, sacrifice one hour to partake of the sacrament and show Christ your gratitude for His eternal sacrafice he made for you?"

It's powerful.

Keeping the Sabbath day holy is vital. We must make partaking of the sacrament our top priority. Sports, shopping or even family are never good excuses for not attending Sacrament meeting. May we all strive to come closer to Christ by focusing our week toward that one hour?

I am out of time, but love and miss you all. Seriously more than you know.

Later Skaters,

Sister Nelson

(email received March 17, 2014)

#throwback

Since Sister Tucker and I are tight and we think we're really funny, we decided to get hashtags trending in the mission.  I think it's working, but this week was beyond perfect for hashtags because I was getting thrownback allll weeeek long. :)

Oh wait. I just realized that I didn't email home last week and that was the email about transfers so in short….

-Sister Boden and I were doubled out of the Corona ward

-I was transferred to the El Cerrito ward with my homie Sister Tucker (which is still in the Corona stake)

-Sister Boden was doubled into a ward that she's alread served in

-Sister Pyper was doubled into the Corona ward

-Sister Anderson stayed, which means the 3 of us are all back in the same stake together.... #cray

-Sister Pack is with Sister Jin in La Sierra

-Oh! and #APWilkinson took #RIPMoser's spot as Assistant to the President

So this week we started our exchanges. I got Sister Anderson again!! Can you beliebe it?? Haha I am on a roll today…

Anyways, I thought that I should probably go with Sister Cho instead of Sister Anderson because I don't want President to think that I just want to hang out with my homies all the time. Plus I love Sister Cho and really wanted to work with her. :)

So we are going throughout our day trying to visit some part-member families when I get a call from Sister Mason in the ward. She goes "Sister Nelson, what are you doing right now..are you busy?"

I said "We are just going around trying to visit some families, but nothing set in stone, why?" 

She replied "Okay I need you at my house in five minutes. Can you be there in five minutes?" 

I said "yes!" and she said "okay, bye!"

It all happened so fast. It was so exciting, but I'm not gonna lie, I was a tad nervous....

So I pull up to her house and there was a car parked out side with someone in it, but funny me I wasn't wearing my glasses that day so I could barely tell that it was a man. I parked across the street and was putting up my hair when Sister Mason comes running over and bangs on the window. 

I get out of the car and BOTH Brother and Sister Mason said "are you sure you want to go inside?" 

I said "What?? Uhhhh yeah..." and they just kept asking me if I was sure which was making me more nervous!

Then Brother Mason goes "there is a hint in that car" 

I was seriously so confused and I couldn't see who was in the car. Next thing I know I am following them across the street and I finally got close enough to see that President McCall was in the car!!!!!! 

I go "Oh yeah. I definetly want to go inside!"

I walk inside and guess who was there? ELDER MCCALL!!!!!!!!!!! 

Seriously, it was so fun. I smiled so big and said "Uhhhh hi!!" and he goes "Oh my gosh…NO WAY!" 

We walked toward eachother and had a real nice handshake. #missionaryproblems

Elder McCall and Nat
(Aaron is a family friend from home that was in Nat's mission when she arrived, but then got transferred to the Redlands mission when her mission split in July.  He was on his way home, but was visiting friends in the Riverside mission with his parents, President and Sister McCall.)

President McCall, Nat, Sister McCall and Elder McCall

OHHHH NOOOO!! I seriously don't know how this happened!! I only have 10 minutes left :(:(:(:( So I have to stop typing or I won't be able to send any pictures home...

Later in the week I was able to go back to EASTVALE!! :) I can't even begin tell you how excited I was! I got to see some of my favorites. #screaming #tears #lovin'

"Bodnar clan"

"Momma Katey"

(Editor: I received a text from Katey with this pic saying "I love my baby girl!")

"Me and my girl Sista Niihau"

Well I wish that I had time to tell you about all the spiritual expierences of the week... just know that I LOVE being a missionary. I LOVE this gospel. I LOVE my Savior and I LOVE all of you!!

Love you longtime,

Sister Nelson

(email received March 10, 2014)

Bonus post and pictures

There is a sweet sister in Nat's ward, Sister Clemmer, that texts me on occasion and sends pics of Nat, but this week I received a long email from her and a bunch of photos.  Nat was on exchanges with Sister Tucker and they surprised Sister Clemmer with a visit because Sister Tucker had previously served in the ward and was close to Sister Clemmer.  They shared a special evening together and Sister Clemmer emailed me and Sister Tucker's mother about it.  I won't post the entire email, but here is an excerpt:

"I know I've told you both a lot, but your daughters are amazing.  The cream of the crop.  They are such fantastic missionaries.  Their testimonies resonate with them.  I love hearing them share gospel messages.  They are so Christ-centered and their purpose here is so important to them and the rest of us who get to know them.  I've often thought about the prophet's revelation to change the missionary age.  What a blessing that is for us all and will be for the whole church and world.  Having sisters in the ward is such a sweet blessing."

I received this email on Thursday and then Sister Clemmer texted me on Saturday telling me that Nat was getting transferred, but that she was going to be companions with Sister Tucker in a ward still in the same stake!  Nat didn't have time to write a formal email this week (or next) but her and Sister Tucker love being companions (still Sister Training Leader) and they have moved back to the apartment they shared a transfer ago.  (Her address is now current on her blog.)

Here are some of the pictures Sister Clemmer sent:

Below are pics of some special people Nat has written about and had to say goodbye to when she left Corona:

Brother and Sister McKee with Nat and Sister Boden

Nat and Sister Clemmer and her delicious cinnamon rolls

Johnny McKee, Puna and Wusu

(Update for the week of February 24th, 2014)

The bible says we shouldn't covet...

So transfers are this Saturday. This transfer went by super fast. I'm not excited...at all. I really don't want to leave Corona, but I've been here for 6 months so I know that it's time I go. But, maybe I'll be blessed with one more transfer…we'll see. :)

This week was good! I don't really have that much to talk about so sorry if this is a short one, but I should have enough time to send some photos! You're welcome mom.

WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE ON TUESDAY!!!!! 

It's always the highlight of the transfer. I love going to the temple. I can't wait until I can go every week. It seriously is the boost I need. I always feel so at home and so grateful for my many blessings, especially this gospel. 

Since we can't have zone activities with the Elders anymore, we also can't go to the temple at the same time as them. Fine by me! Now we get to go with just sisters, but from multiple zones. It was awesome.

It was super fun too because one of the members of the El Cerrito ward has a huge 11 person van, so we packed it with the sisters from both zones. 

Lot's of laughing. Lot's of Cafe Rio. Lot's of love.

I was also able to go on exchanges with Sister Seiolla. She is from Micronesia and is such a hoot! Seriously all day long we were just laughing our heads off. We were in Jurupa and I can't lie, it made me miss a car. It's crazy how much more you can get done with one. 

"Me and Sister Seiolla…SO funny!"

We taught Ruben multiple times this week because he was on date for YESTERDAY! He didn't make it, but that's okay because he's on date for this Sunday and we are doing everything we can to make sure that that happens. 

He is beyond hilarious. He is just one big kid which makes it hard sometimes, but it's totally worth it. This week we taught him the 10 commandments out of Exdous with Brother McKee and boy was that somethin'. He gets sidetracked a lot and has a little bit of a joking temper, so you honestly never know what is going to come out of his mouth. 

We've been getting on him about his language and guilt tripping him a little bit every time he swears and he is getting much better at it. When we read "Thou shall not take the Lord's name in vain" we said "Ruuuuuben, what do you think that means?" and he said "I know! I know! Im doinggggg itttt!"

A little while later we read about not "bearing false witness against thy neighbor" and Sister Boden made a comment about gossip. And Ruben said (and please forgive me) "Oh yeah I know that one! My mom always taught us not to do that she said if she caught us being mean to someone that she'd beat our a**!" 

Quickly we said "WOAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Ruben, you meant to say butt". 

He says "No that's what she'd say! She wouldn't say butt, she'd say a**, that's how we'd know she was serious". We were laughing a little and tried for a while to help him understand that was not an appropriate word. :)

Then Brother McKee said "So how are you going to explain verse 17?" and we were like "what?"

And he said "I probably wouldn't read the whole..." and Ruben cuts him off and says "Ohhhh! Look!! There it is! It says a** right there!! Thou shall not covet thy neighbors...ox, nor his ass!" He started spanking himself yelling "The bible says we shouldn't covet people's a**!!" 

We. Were. Dying. 

Of course, we explained to him that it was referring to a donkey which he took to mean a donkeys "behind" and so it was one REALLY funny lesson. It seriously got to the point where Sister Boden was trying to move on and bring the spirit back and I would try my hardest not to think about what he said, but then I'd make eye contact with Brother McKee or something and then start laughing. 

BUT, he agreed to keep the commandments and I don't think he'll be checking out anyone's backside so it's a win-win right? :)

I love Ruben. He's such a sweetheart. I called him "homie" the other day so now he only calls me "homeslice" or "homegirl".  He'll be a homie for eternity fo sho. :)

I love being a missionary. Seriously, things get reallyyyyyyyy hard and sometimes I want to scream, but the good wayyyyy outweigh the bad. So many blessings come from giving everything you've got to the Lord. The greatest blessing though is being able to come closer to Christ yourself as you help others do the same.

You don't need to be a full time missionary either. :) Just "remember who you are and what you stand for" in all things that you do. Christ loves ALL of us and died for ALL of us and desires to be with ALL of us again. So, let's help Him out shall we?

I love you all so so so much! I pray and think about you often.

Love you longtime,

Sister Nelson

(email received February 17, 2014)