Mi Familia Eterna

So..

I can´t really believe that a whole week has come and gone, it was fast, but it also sort of feels like forever? I have no concept of time as a missionary!

Ah man, so many miracles to share.. I´ll have to choose wisely! However, this week, I gotta say I´m most grateful for the chance to remember Whitney yesterday, of course, I knew the day was coming up, but Sunday we´re walking to our capilla (church) and I´m like, ¨Shoot Hermana, I forgot to wear pink.¨ And I¨m really embarassed to say that I didn´t have a touch of pink of my person in this moment of time. Whitney will forgive me, because I got to honor her in a better way! We got to teach the Plan of Salvation to Genny and Jose and their sweet 3 year old, Arelles. Genny is a member and has been trying to smack some faith into her husband for lots of years, they´re from Ecuador and have lived in Spain for years.. Pero, I´m thinking that this is Jose´s time. We were reading over his history in our Area book and the Hermanas had visited their family like 15 times, over a year ago, but Jose wasn´t present in most of the lessons.. And then a couple weeks ago Genny had this dream that we told her if we could have a Noche de Hogar (family night) it would change everything with JOse.. So no pressure, we went and taught last week about the atonement and how we can only become clean through Christ, and we invited them to start reading in the bom everyday as a family. Welp, we went over yesterday and guess who hadn´t read?!!! JOse!! But, we taught the Plan of Salvation, and bore testimony that families really can be together forever, and we said ¨guess what Jose, right now you´re wife is on track for the Celestial Kingdom WITHOUT you!¨Ah man, we´ll see, but he says that he will come to Gen Conference next Sunday!

 

IN Murcia, we´re heading into the rainy spring season, and we had a couple pretty chilly and wet days.. One in particular, last Tuesday night, we had about an hour and a half left in the night, it was rainy and wet and I was shivering in my boots.. Ha, but Hermana Ross and I were just having a gay old time. We were trying to get in contact with an old investigator but he wasn´t home, so we ended up toqueing the rest of the doors in the apartment building, and then we had to head back into the cold again! Ahh! It felt useless, not many people were out, and who wants to stop and talk in the rain right? But I just kept praying and praying, please just let us find one person, somebody that will listen. And H Ross turns to me at this corner, ¨K Hermana, which way should we head?¨ OH no, I didn´t know what we were supposed to do, I´m thinking, ¨Greenie here, you tell me where we should go?¨Ha but I´m like, that way? Ha, don´t worry, it was down that street in the last ten minutes of our freezing cold night where we encountered, not one, but 4 new futuros (future investigators). It was just a testimony to me, that we work, and we work till the very last minute, rain or way too hot shine, and then the Lord provides. Also, as we headed into our piso (apartment) we got this call from some lady who was frantic and asking if we could come visit here the next morning, H Ross asked her how she got our number? And she told us something about how she called Jesus and her friend had a pass along card with our number on it.. So we visited her the next day, her name is Maria,and she´s ready to drink up anything we have to tell her. We get to get teach her again tomorrow, so we´ll see!! ´

Okay, I just got to fill you in on something, as you may have heard, southern Spain is quite the melting pot, so as I jump around with investigators from Africa to Bulgaria to Ecuador, bolivia, Spain... Don´t be all to surprised. Hermana Ross and I have this little game, when we´re out visiting in different pueblos or neighborhoods ¨What country are we in now... ¨¨Hoy Estamos en Bulgaria, Estamos en Italia, o... Hoy, Estamos en Mexico or whatever.. It´s crazy. But, I gotta tell you about our Investigator, Omar. He´s from Mali, Africa, and he´s Muslim, for now at least, and we met contacted him in the street my first day here and decided to call him up last week. H Ross, hasn´t had a lot of good experiences with the Africanos, just because there´s often a language barrier, cuz they don´t speak Spanish often, and whatever. So although we had a cita (appointment) with Omar in the capilla, she wasnt really thinking he´d show up or anything.. But I was super excited, the glory of green perhaps?? Ha so we were just street contacting in the meantime, and don´t worry the time for his cita had come and passed, and I felt bummed out.. But all the sudden we find 3 missed calls and call back and it´s Omar. He just got the wrong time, so we meet up with him, because he didn´t know how to find the capilla.. And then we walked over to the church. And part of me is like, ah this is a bit dificil, he´s a guy, we´re girls, we gotta be super careful not to give the wrong idea. And that´s part of the reason we had to meet up in the capilla. But in turns out Hermana Ross and I were both eating our words in regards to Omar. He´s genuinely seeking to know if there is a God. We only had like 10 minutes before we needed to leave for our apartment. BUt we were able to kind of get to know some of his concerns, talk a bit about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ and then at the end we taught him how to pray. And this has just really hit me this week, what a blessing in our lives to be able to talk directly with our Father in Heaven, this man has never prayed to God before or really heard much more than the name of our Savior, but he genuinely wants to learn. I just can´t describe the joy of kneeling in prayer with someone for their first time EVER. Coolest thing in the world.

There´s so so much more I wish I could say, but I gotta report to my President too! I just want you all to know that we are so incredibly blessed. We have the truth, God is our Father in Heaven and he loves us so much, he wants the best for each and every one of his children on this earth, he gives so many chances, again and again, he anxiously awaits for us to come to him. I´m so grateful that I can pray, something so simple but so powerful. I can have my own personal relationship with my Heavenly Father, I know why I´m here on this Earth and I know where I am going.

I love you guys, you´re in my prayers and I don´t doubt that you are all being taken gentle care of!

Hermana Nelson

 

Murcia!!‏

AH man Ah man

NO mucho tiempo, pero. Yaáll gotta know, I¨m in the best city in the best mission with the BEST Mission President and Mom, and the BEST Companera with the BEST barrio (ward) full of member missionaries on fire! And all I gotta say is that Murcia doesn´t know what´s hit her... I¨m in Murcia (pronounced Mor-thee-uh with the lovely Spanish theta).. I can´t even believe it, gotta meet President and HErmana Clegg on Friday and my companion, I pegged her from the first second. I´m most grateful for her, she´s just like me, 5 10´´, we have the exact same birthday, we both love basketball and running, country music, missionary work and... We are the same person. Okay, not really. But I gotta say, we do have a bit of an intimidating factor together, with our height.. Ha, two contactos en the street with these teenage girls alone, that were both quivering, all we said ¨HOla, we´re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ, do you believe in God? And they looked like they were going to cry.. Ha it´s so hard not to giggle, because we´re the furthest thing from harmful, but we´re just both so tall and excited and... Yeah.

Entonces, Ah Hermana Ross, seriously, she´s so great, she´s encouraging, she´s patient with me, and she lets me participate, even though I havén´t got a clue of what I¨m doing right now. She´s well seasoned as a missionary, shés been out a year, she´s awesome in the language, and we´ve only had a couple lessons so far, but she´s powerful as a teacher and a representative of Jesus Christ.

Our sweet little EUropean apartment has got serious character, and it´s actually pretty big, 4 rooms. But.. Anyways, our ward is incredible. I can barely keeep all. the names straight, like I said, member missionaries, I don´t know what we would do without their help. All of our investigators right now, except for a couple, are friends or relatives of our members. It´s powerful, The members are all ready, with their sleeves rolled up! Por ejemplo, Saturday, my first day, Carmen (member) shows up to the R.S. activity with a friend she met on the street, Rafaela, (Carmen told us that she has been praying for weeks to find someone she can share the gospel with and then she meets Rafaela whose struggling with various things in her life).. Welp, Rafaela came to church and this activity and we have a meeting with her this week. Tender mercy.

I don´t have time, so I just want you guys to know that ͨm so overwhelmed with all of the things that I have to learn, but I have to much hope and excitement, because I know this is the Lórd´s work and he´s gooing to help me do it, I just gotta give him my heart and obey every little rule and commandment and it´s all going to buff out ( in the words of Brooke Maples). I know that Christ is our Savior, he´s the only way we can return to God again! WE just need faith in him. I love you guys, thanks so much for your love and support, I don´t get a single second to think about you and then I come read all of these emails and I just have chills all up and down my body because I can feel your love and I´m so grateful for that.

Have a great week for me,

HErmana NElson

P.S. TAsh, Happy 24th bday.. Haha I know it´s more, but You look 24! LOve you.

Just for those of you that send letters to Kelsey, here is her apartment address:

Calle Acsiclo Diaz 7, 2A

30005 Murcia

SPAIN

Mision Campo, Here I Come!!!

Hola and Adios....

I head for the Mission Home in MALAGA mañana en la madrugada!! (6 15 am ah!!! ) I can´t wait to meet President and Sister Clegg, I get butterflies in my tummy just thinking about it, I remember opening my call packet and seeing their sweet picture, like 6 months ago.. and now I finally get to greet them in person.. Welp, I don´t have tons of time today, cuz I used it writing personal emails.

However, I am most grateful this week for the intricate ways that Heavenly Father blesses my life, I know that when I do what´s right, he can guide me throught he Spirit.

This last week my companion was sick and so I got two full days of personal study time, but to be honest I felt like she got sick so I could have this special time to ponder and come closer to the Lord. It´s kind of crazy to think that my MTC time is over and that my ¨real¨ mission is now beginnning, because I´ve now been an MTC missionary for two and half months, that´s too long!! Ha, but I just want to relate two neat things from this week and then I gotta run becuase we´re visiting the Madrid temple for the last time in 20 minutes!! Yay.

So, I missed the big saturday in the park because Hermana Yardley was ill, but they planned an extra tracting day for Monday afternoon..  wE found out that there was actually an 8 year anniversary from the terrorist attack in the Metro, so we weren´t sure if we´d still be able to go, but the President okayed it. So, thus far with our Park experiences, it has been thee most difficult to talk to people in the Metro, because we enter with like 20 missionaries, somewhat spread out and immediately everybody is ten times more interested in their ipad, nook, book, cualquier cosas... And so we just keep setting goals, we just gotta talk to somebody!! And it´s only like a 5 minute to the park, so not tons of time.. But Monday, H Yardley and I were just so excited because we missed the last park day and we just wanted to overcome these silly fears.. So we´re like doo da doo.. And we plop down next to this 20ish young man, oh no he´s got his earphones in, how do we talk to him.. But we look over and say hi and he´s like super friendly.. Before we know, we´re talking to him about our church and missionaries and we´ve already missed our stop for the park... So we followed him out on his salida (exit) because he was in a rush to get to work, but he wanted to give us his information so we could send over missionaries, ah man, he was SO sweet, and so excited that young people have faith in God. Because he said most of the youth in Spain don´t care about God. Anyways, we also left him with a book of mormon but we didn´t get to say much becaust it was super hard to hear on the metro, I had a hard time understanding his spanish and then after he had to take off for work.. But anyways, we gained a testimony of talking to people on the metro, even though it´s hard and awkward, but awkward can´t exist when people´s eternal salvation is on the line!!!

>Next, k, we got to listen to the coolest fireside last night by Elder Bednar, it was a recording from 2009, but I am so grateful that this was the selected devotional, because I sure as heck needed to hear it. His whole talk was centered around the question ¨how can i know if it´s the Spirit or just my own thoughts¨ Well, his answer was, quit worrying and fussing and stewing and GO to work!! Press forward, the Spirit can´t work through you while  you´re sitting around. I´m so grateful for this message, I´ve got to use my own reasoning and if I¨m keeping the commandments and doing my part I can have confidence that my thoughts are in harmony with the spirit. I know that this is true, I¨ve seen it so many times and in so many tender mercies, the Lord is so involved in the great details of my life, what a blessing. So, as Elder Bednar said, just be a good boy or a good girl and go to work!

I love you guys, and can´t wait to report from my mission field next week

Hermana Nelson

Hola!! Como le va?

Hola familia

Okay, where to start? I feel like I didn´t get to send much of a real message last week, but oh my goodness!!! I´m so excited to tell you guys about some of my experiences in this international MTC! Happy Birthday this week Em, Sweet 15! You´re all growed up ha.

Ooh, I´d have to say that I am most grateful this week for the opportunity to talk about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon with Mecaela (close to Mckayla in English).. Um.. which leads me into my first report.

We got to do REAL PROSELYTING and REAL MISSIONARY WORK in the park for our very first time last Saturday.. Can you hear me? Oh my gosh, it was insane. I was shaking in my boots, so nervous and so excited. They split us up from our regular companions and I was with Hermana Williams, we both just came from the Provo MTC, entonces, none of us are fluent, or the trainer, both completely green and vulnerable. I really didn´t know what was going to happen. But our first contact took place in the Metro, her name was Selena and luckily for us, she actually was quite interested and wanted to talk, but she had to exit so we just got her phone number and left her with a pass along card.. Okay, so then they release us into this huge park comparable to Central Park in New York, and although it´s a big park, we´ve got a saturation of about 40 or 45 missionaries who are as eager as ever. So Hermana williams and I decided to veer off in a different direction.. We talked to a couple people along the way, with not much understanding (woh they speak fast here!!) and then we decided this little park with kiddies and mothers watching on benches was where we needed to be. Welp, we pointed out one sister but as we approached her, it just didnt´feel right.. So we continued on, and on, until we saw Mecaela sitting by herself, she was the last person we passed and so I´m thinking, well we came for a reason... Ha, and so I tried to break that first awkward HOla como está?  And before we knew it we were sitting next to her and I can´t even remember how it happened, but we ended up spending the rest of our full hour in the park answering her questions, and teaching her accordingly. Oh my gosh, I can´t tell you how amazing it was.She had three sweet little boys who were playing in the park, and so from time to time, usually during one of those ideal testifying moments.. she´d have to look over and make sure they were still alive.. But I´m here to tell you, this lady is thirsting for more in here life, she´s emigrated from Romania ten years ago, her husband currently lives and works in france because he can´t find any work here and we could sense that they´re struggling financially, not completely impoverished. But she was just pure and as we looked into her eyes and told her that Father in Heaven loves her and wants to be able to communicate with her right now, I just could see her drinking it up. I love her, I couldn´t stop thinking about her and praying for her for days, and I probably will never see her again, it was one of those referrals when we had to hand it over to our maestros at the end of the day, we were like, ¨please make sure the missionaries visit her and bring her the book of mormon in romanian, so she can understand it completely¨ she was hesitant to accept a BOM in espanol because it´s not her native tongue but as we showed her a few passages, it was clear she could get the gist out of the verses. Anyways, she´s so great, she tried to explain to us how she the Spirit speaks to her, ¨I get warm inside and little chills all up and down from my toes to my head¨ we´re like, that´s so great, and we taught about the restauration and Jose Smith and how she can read the book of mormon and know for herself if it´s true and he was a prophet, and I think she was a little bit confused, ¨how can I pray about jose smith if I don´t know him¨? My favorite part was when we were talking about how joseph smith had a question, he wanted to know what church was true.. and so he prayed, and she´s like, ¨¨ I´ve been wondering the same thing for myself¨¨ I just felt like everything we taught her, she already had thought about or was so receptive to. Anyways, the park went so well for all of us that they planned 3 extra visits during our stay here! So I´ve already been back another time, but I don´t have time to elaborate on those experiences.

Today, we´re heading into the city, we´re going to see the Madrid soccer stadium and the Plaza Mayor and other awesome sites in town. But I just want to take the last couple minutes and describe how amazing this internationa MTC experience is. I didn´t realize because I thought we would only have us american missionaries, Spain bound. But we´ve had Itallians, russians, ARgentinans, just got some French and Chilean missionaries.. It´s so great. We constantly have translators and several languages being spoken in every meeting, I have loved getting to know, especially the russians and chileans because it reminds me of Hermana Bosco and Elder Harris.. I know that they´re loving the people of Ukraine and Argentina, if they´re anything like the ones I have met. It´s just incredible, I love this Gospel, it can unite all of us through all of our differences. I´m so grateful for our Spanish teachers, they ooze with love and they are so excited that we can be a light unto their nation. I love my life,

Hermana Nelson

Hola de Madrid!!‏

Hola mi familia en la tierra de Sión!! No puedo decir que extrano la ciudad de Provo ahora por qué Estoy en lo mas mejor parte del mundo, MADRID!

Volveré a Inglés... Ah man, this place is beautiful we can see the temple, just outside our window. The CCM is solo tres floors of this building, the others floors are for the hostels that members can stay in when they come to visit the madrid temple. We arrived in madrid this morning at 9am, it is now 3 en el tarde and I am suffering from jet to the lag!!! I didn´t catch a wink of sleep on our flight from Atlanta to madrid because I got to sit by the Spain Consul on the plane and he was talking to me the last 6 hours.. I learned a lot of really cool things about the spanish government, how the church assigns mission calls (he gets to sit in on some of those meetings), muchas oltras cosas tambien. He´s the man who delivered our visas to us last Friday in the CCM. Entonces, the CCM here is increíble. Our maestros/teachers are all from diferente partes de España and have thee coolest accents, theta and all and they just glow with love! I´m so excited to be here, I´ve been assigned to a new companion, whom i knew from the Provo MTC, Hermana Petru. Really looking forward to being with her, and I´ve also moved up into the advanced language district, I thought I could use the challenge. I didn´t know this, but back in the Provo MTC, they had intermediate and advanced language districts for people who had previous spanish knowledge. Entonces, now I get to study with them and we ONLY hablar en Español durante clase tiempo, estará un gran bendicion para mi! We will be in the MTC here until March 16 it looks like, so a little bit more! I am so happy and so zomby tired. But, no mas preopucaciones sobre su misionera favorita! We also just got a new MTC President today, he flew over with us! super excited to be here, even though we haven´t even seen much of spain yet. like I said the temple is fantastically gorgeous and we will get to go there a time or two, the Consul Bambo (no sé su nombre exactamente... pero,) told me during our plane ride that President Hinckley said, that he of course has been in ALL of the temples in the world and the celestial room in the Madrid temple is the best decorated ever. I´m excited, Consul Bambo said it´s very different and very beautiful. So, believe it or not, I´m in Spain and I´m liking the looks of things thus far, especially our 7pm bedtime este noche! Can´t wait for a long and much needed rest, love you all!

oh mom, I must say, that from the drive to the airport to our MTC campus, I was reminded of Zagreb, Croatia, a few high rises, nothing too picturesque just yet, but it was only like a 7 minute drive..

Les Amo Muchisimo!!!

Hermana Nelson

 

Woh.. I don't even know what week it is ?

Hola!

This week has been so crazy, I feel like I've ridden the emotional roller coaster 4 times. First off, exciting news! Today we have a meeting with the Spanish Consul.... What ever that means? Ha, but all of our friends in the MTC that are heading to Spain have been invited (even some of the missionaries that just got here last week, super jealous) so we'll at least be hearing SOMEthing about our visas, whose to say when they'll come but we have high hopes! We only have one full week left, the Elders in our District leave one week from next Monday for Nicarauga, so we're pretty excited for that. Anyways, so if we don't get visas next week then I'm pretty sure they just go off and re-assign us to wherever we need to be! I'll be writing letters after our meeting so if I find out any good news, you'll know soon.

Okay, this week I just gotta say how grateful I am for the Atonement, it's real, I use it everyday as a missionary. Um.. Where do I begin? I just feel like I have had so many highs and lows, I found this scripture in Ether 6 this morning that can help me put the way I feel into words.. these are parts of verse 6 and 7 talking about when the brother of Jared and his people had to travel across the sea in their barges, anyways, "And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea.." " and therefore they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the TOP OF THE WATERS." Whatever it may be, each day this week I feel like I've been "buried" in my lack of faith or in my hardened heart, but I can say that every time this happens, the Lord lifts me back up. He knows my threshold, and he doesn't allow me to suffer past it, but at the same time it feels like a stretch!

This week we, as a District, had to pull together and say goodbye to one of our family members, hardest thing ever, Elder Benson left two days ago, to go take some time at home and further prepare to represent our Savior.  My heart has been so heavy, but as I've turned to the Lord, well, it's been better. Um, that's really put a damper on our week. I want so much to be positive, however in all honesty, it's been one of the toughest things! I am so grateful for his courage, for his example and his pure desire to come closer to Christ. IN fact, that is our sole purpose as missionaries, invite others to Christ. So it's exciting to see this happening in real life!

So, my computer hates me and has frozen after every three words.. So this letter is going to have to be a lot shorter than the rest. I decided to come back now and finish after the temple, because the first computer lab had the worst connection. Anyways, so we just returned from the temple. Wow, I feel SO much better, what a blessing to have a place where I can go and feel peace. Me and my companions are always in the best of spirits after our temple visits, I don't know what I'm going to do out in the field without our weekly temple trip!!

Just one more thought from our Devotional this week.. I'm terrible, but I don't remember their names or want to take time to try and remember. But we were visited by a general authority from the seventy and his wife spoke first. referring to John 15 I think about how the Savior will come to us as we serve, I am so thankful for this time to focus on my relationship with Him and to be able to feel His love every day. It's when I lose sight of this that I get overwhelmed or nervous or feel inadequate. I know that the Lord sustains me through my trials, I know the Savior is real and He I know he loves me.

 I know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:6).

Thank you for the packages, the words of love and support and encouragement, I love you guys!

Hermana Nelson