Monday, December 5, 2016

Perseverar Hasta EL FIN!

PONDERIZE: Acts 18:11

It´s been a really great week and I am happier than ever! 

Thanks for all the love and support, see you THIS WEEK!!!

Love, Hermana Nielsen 



Thursday, December 1, 2016

Hello

Everybody better participate in "Light the World" this month!!! 

It´s been a good week! We had 5 investigators in church and Dagne and Andres are still progressing towards baptizm! So exciting!! 

Have a great week!!
Love, Hermana Nielsen




Saturday, November 26, 2016

Evento Rasband

OKAY!!!! This week has been so so so so so good!! We´ve just been finding a ton of miracles by talking to everybody that comes in our pathway and I love it so much! I am so grateful that I am still doing missionary work here because it makes me SO HAPPY!!!

Okay, here are a few highlights:

Friday- The Spirit guided us so smoothly to a house and we didn´t even realize it until we were at their front door. My companion said "Let´s contact this house" So we walked up and the front door was open and there was a picture frame that said "Family together forever" In English jajaja! So I started freaking out and we were so pumped and we clapped out front (ps the house was really really realllllllly nice) and one of the house workers came out and was being a little sassy when we talked to her but all the sudden the dad came out! YES! He was wayyyy nice and open and loves Christ and his family and we talked to him about the picture frame and how families can be together forever and he was way pumped and we have an appointment with them this week and I am peeing my pants because it´s way scary talking to rich people here because they literally never let us in!! He gave us his cellphone number and everything jajaja. After we left we were both so dang happy and we thought about how the spirit guided us there and it was so cool. 

Saturday- ELDER RASBAND CAME TO OUR STAKE CENTER AND WE GOT TO SHAKE HIS HAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay it was just one big spiritual bomb. He was there with some other area seventies and Elder Christensen from the Presidency of the 70. They all talked to us but Elder Rasband talked for like an hour and it was so good. He talked to us about how we can do more. He said that President Hinckley is famous for saying "Do your best" but he was in a meeting with him one time and President Hinckley said "We have to do our very best" He explained it way cooler than I can in this email, but he talked to us about how we have to give the best of our best to the Lord always. We´re not perfect but it´s what the Lord deserves from us and we can always do more. If we are true disciples of Christ, we have to give all we have to building up His kingdom. SUCH A COOL DAY. And we were there with all the missionaries from our mission and the other mission in Paraguay so it was way cool! 

Sunday- We had 2 investigators in church!!!! One named Andres that is like 70. He was just a random street contact that we gave a pamphlet to and he came to church holding onto that pamphlet for dear life!!! He was really excited and learned a ton. We showed him the baptismal font and he wants to get baptized so obviously we´re going to help him with that! We also had another named Dagne! She´s 17 and went to young womens and loved it! She´s really cute and the other Hermanas are working with her! Her dad is really Catholic and has some problems with her going to a different church but we´re trying to teach him too! 

So all in all it´s been a way good week! We are so happy and excited to keep doing the best of our best! 

Ponderize: Alma 38:8-9

Con mucho amor, Hermana Nielsen


Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Hello!

Okay this week was crazy! But way good! Just a ton of spiritual feeding! We had an area 70 come to our stake conference and it was way spiritual and I got a ton of my questions about life answered! He talked to us a lot about the power of fasting and doing our fast the right way. There is so much power that comes from putting of natural man things and giving ourselves more to God. God is so good to us and gives back to us wayyyyy more than we deserve. I have really felt that this week.

I just got out of my final interview with my mission president and it was so sweet to talk about the experiences I have had in the past (almost) year and a half. The Lord has taken what I´ve offered Him and given me so much more. It´s really cool what the Lord can mold us into when we just give ourselves to Him!

I love my mission so much! I am really excited to just enjoy the last few weeks!!! Not trunky though jajajaja Have a great week!


Ponderize- Mosiah 5:7-8


Con amor, Hermana Nielsen




Sunday, November 6, 2016

Happy Halloween

This week has been so great! I love my new comp so much! We get along really well and she is the sweetest, cutest missionary!

Transfers were really crazy because we had to help the 3 hermanas that left our house and get the 3 new ones. But after a lot of taxis and colectivo rides, we are good! We live with two other Hermanas, Hermana Basile from Argentina and she is training a brand new missionary from Manti. Hermana Cluff. We all get along great and we are having a lot of fun! The Argentines are trying to change my accent though and idk how to feel about that....

We wear pants now!!! Jajaja it´s weird and fun. But it rained a lot this week so it was nice to put my rain boots on with some pants!

We had to go help an hermana this week that has chicken pox jajajaja. Her and her companion didn´t have enough food to last them through the week because they didn´t plan for chicken pox so we had to go to their area about an hour away and help them buy groceries jajaja it´s an adventure being an hna leader sometimes.

Well to be honest this week was really stressful, I am stressed and happy for a lot of reasons but it´s a good stress I think¿ We had our leadership council for the transfer and a lot of things were changed and it´s been hard to try it out because I have been so used to doing things differently for my whole mission. I´m trying to have a good attitude and make the changes as best as I can because I know that they come from the Lord and they are what will make the mission better...I guess it´s just hard to teach an old dog new tricks?? But nothing is impossible!!! I´m really happy and enjoying everything that´s going on here! The weather 
has been pretty chill and that is such a blessing! We aren´t dying of heat...yet. 

I have felt a lot of the Lord´s love and guidance this week while it´s been stressful and hard and I found myself really grateful on my knees last night. It´s the best feeling knowing that we have a Savior that loves us and will take care of us especially when we turn to Him and do His will. If we let that happen in our lives, we will be blessed far more than we could have ever imagined. It´s been the best learning experience here in Paraguay.

Have a great week! 

Ponderize: D&C 88:41 Randomely opened to this scripture and it helped me a ton!

Love, Hermana Nielsen

ENJOY THE PANTS PICS




Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Crazy Days

Hey! Things are crazy right now. We just found out our transfers and my companion is leaving. I will probably be crying for days, or months. But we don´t have time for that hahaha.

My new companion will be Hermana Rojas from Argentina! She´s way cute and has about a year in the mission! I am really excited, we are going to have a ton of fun!

Also, Hermana Sweat and Hna Sosa are both leaving the area and we are getting two new Hermanas here so I am way excited!!!

We are in the first week now of my last transfer and I am peeing my skirt. It´s blazing hot and there´s a ton of work to do and I am really excited! We´re just praying for our investigators to go to church so if you guys could pray for that too, that would be AWESOME!

Have a great week! Thanks for all the love and support.


Hermana Nielsen


Monday, October 17, 2016

16 meses HOY

Hey friends! I´m sorry....the more time I have in the mission the less I feel like writing jajaja I´ll just fill you all in on the details when I get home jaja.

This week has been good though! The heat has come back and it´s awful! But it´s kinda fun being sweaty all day even if you are just sitting and not doing anything, because you look like you´ve actually been doing a lot in the day jaja.

We´ve just been trying to help a lot of hermanas and strengthen our ward. And leave our area really strong this last week of the transfer. Yeah, today we start week 6 which means that I will be starting my last transfer next week....aggghhhhh. It´s all good though.

We just made a calendar of all the things we will be doing for the last 6 weeks with our area, hermanas, and the mission and we literally have something every day so there´s no time for boredom!

We are looking a ton for people that will accept the gospel, we´ve found some miracles but they have a lot of doubts so we´re just doing our best to help them be in an environment where the spirit can testify to them of the restored gospel. It´s the funnest thing I´ve ever done in my life! Hardest and most stressful but by far the funnest! 

Sorry idk what else to write, we´re doing good here and we´re happy so I guess we´ll see ya next week jaja


Love, Hermana Nielsen


Tuesday, October 11, 2016

HELLO

Sorryyyyy I don´t have a lot of time today so I´m just gonna send some pics. We´ve had a way good week, found some great investigators and we´re just workin our buns off! Nos vemos en una semana...adiós!

Love, Hermana Nielsen

Ponderize 3 Nefi 18:32 Everybody deserves a chance!

Hna Ardila and I this morning...yeah my face is fried. The suns coming out and I can´t help it,okay?


Sometimes I forget that I am not a latina and that I stick out a little bit jaja


Us with the elders watching Gen Conf in English jaja


Monday, October 3, 2016

WOW GENERAL CONFERENCE.

I don´t even remember what I did this week just general conference because it was sooooooogooooooooood.


We went to our stake center like 15 minutes away (in taxi jajaja) and watched all of it! Both days. They had it in English again in another room so Hna Sweat and I  watched it with a bunch of elders because it´s wayyyyy better when you can hear their voices instead of a voice over.


Every talk helped me a ton but I loved Elder Renlund´s talk. The best for last. It really touched me. And all the talks about knowing the doctrine of the gospel. My whole testimony on faith, repentance, baptism/sacrament, Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end has been strengthened so much. I don´t even know how to talk about them in English anymore but they are my favorite things.

We as members have to know the doctrine of the church not just to teach and share it with other people but to be able to understand and apply it to our own lives. The basic doctrines and principles are what will save us!

Being a missionary is the best thing ever because the more I study and share these things with other people, the more I understand. I didn´t think the mission was going to be as personal as it has been for me. I thought it was going to be all about other people and helping them, and it has been. But I have changed and grown so much. The Lord has put me with people and in situations that have stretched me and helped me to grow and while focusing on other people I have been able to change.

I was thinking a lot about conference last night and the impact it has had on me thus far and Heavenly Father has shown me how much I have grown and what the gospel has been able to do for ME. I´m really humbled a grateful.

I feel like another big theme was Joy and that if we are going through hard things, it´s okay. With Jesus Christ we are able to have joy even in the hardest times and that is so incredible. I love Conference so much. I´m so pupmed to download it all today. Have a great week!

Ponderize: Just go watch your fav conference talk again.

LOVE, Hermana Nielsen 


Tuesday, September 27, 2016

My Life is Goooood

Hey we have the John Deer factory store thing in our area. I saw it last week and it made me SO EXCITED! I can´t believe it.


Hermana Sweat and I were walking the other night and we walked past some punk teenage kids and they threw something and it hit a tree and then they threw some fruit or a rock at me I don´t know which and it hit me in the back hahahaha we just turned around and then kept walking hahaha it was so funny! That was probably the most interesting thing that has happened this week!

I am getting used to our area, it just blows my mind every day. It is so city and there´s literally no dirt roads or creepy food so I feel like it´s just a dream or something! Idk.

But we are in charge of 6 companionships of hermanas and all their areas are city and it´s way weird to go visit them, but I love it! Our apartment is really nice and we have 2 SHOWERS!!!! So it´s real nice here.


I keep wearing my hair down and I just let it air dry curly and now I’ve gotten the nickname Shakira jajaja that´s what Hermana Ardila calls me....we are having a ton of fun every day! There´s never a dull moment with 4 of us living together! I really like it!

Hna Ardila is so cool! We have the same time in the mission so we go home más o menos together, she´s just going to stop in Colombia jajaja. We´re just working hard and trying to find miracles.

Our ward is kinda lazy so we´re trying to help with that. There are a lot of challenges here and I like it. I don´t like to be bored anymore and there´s always work to do! I feel really blessed to be here and a lot of pressure, too. It´s really fun trying to balance everything and just always having something to solve or someone to help!


We´re pumped out of our minds to watch General Conference this week, I have been waiting for this since April jajaja I´ve got a lot of questions for el Señor that I need answers too and I know that conference is going to answer them! I hope you guys do the same, it´s the best weekend to receive revelation!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Ponderize: Alma 32:27

LOVE, Hermana Nielsen 

My first night here, Hna Sweat and I came out in the same outfits jajajaja



Zone Training...we taught Obedience yahoooo

Hnas Sweat, Guevarra, Ackerman,y yo



Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Things Just Keep Getting Better

Hahahaha this has been the weirdest week of my mission! So Tuesday morning I left San Lorenzo...SO WEIRD. And a way cool member Hno. Suarez brought me here with some Elders that were going home. We just pulled up and there were like 8 Hermanas standing outside and I was like "Oh no" jajaja. But there were just some leaving and some had to stay with us because they were waiting for their companions and all that jazz...BUT here in our area we live with another companionship and it is so fun jajajaja!!!

We have a way chuchi apartment and I keep feeling like I am on vacation in St. George or something idk.  My companion is Hermana Ardila from Colombia and she´s like 5 feet tall and super sassy and so much fun!

But when I got here she had lost her voice and couldn´t talk. She got worse in the week so I was like yeah we gotta go to the doctor. She has bronchitis so we´ve been in the house for a couple of days. It´s been a little hard because I am so excited to get to know my new area and work a ton and I literally can´t sit still anymore!

But the other companionship that lives with us are having troubles too jaja Hermana Sosa (from Mexico) did something cray cray to her leg and hasn´t been able to work fully for like a month. Her and Hermana Sweat (from Heber UT also one of my BFFFFFF´s in the mission!!!!) have only been able to leave for half days so those two would leave for half day and then Hna Sweat would come and get me and we just had so much fun all week! It´s seriously been the funnest week!

The members here are really cool! We live in a way chuchi (fancy?¿) part! The city is called Fernando de la Mora and it´s all just houses and people that own cars!!! We have more than 3 members that have cars it´s crazy!!!


Hermana Ardila and I are Hna Leaders and we are in charge of 6 companionships and they all live like an hour away so it´s going to be real fun doing divisions.....but I am excited! I wasn´t expecting my last few months to be like this but it´s going to be good!

We had leadership council with President Wilson and the Zone leaders last week and it was really good. Our mission is focusing a ton on Preach My Gospel and I love it so much!

We also had a meeting with President and Hermana Wilson afterwards with just the Hna Leaders and they were all asking me questions because they are all brand new at this and I was just a real nervous mess. And all the Hermana Leaders are Latinas now except me so I was just trying to speak in spanish and not be nervous and act like I knew what I was doing jajaja it´s so funny being a gringo here! But I´m enjoying my time here a ton!

I´m way happy and I thought living with 4 of us was going to be a straight disaster but it´s been really fun and there´s a lot of potential for miracles! The heat is coming back and I weirdly like it (I think it´s because that´s what feeling like a missionary in Paraguay is). But that´s about it for the week!


Ponderize: Alma 8:14-15



LOVE, Hermana Nielsen

Monday, September 12, 2016

Que Fubeca

Hahahahaahaha whaaaaaa we just got our transfers! I am going to a place called Ettienne!!! My new comp is Hermana Ardilla!! She is from Colombia I think??

I am still an hermana leader hahahahahaha I thought I wasn´t going to be and I was way pumped to relax my last 2 transfers buuuttttt......we´re here to do the will of the Lord, right?? I can´t believe it though!

I have been in San Lorenzo for 6 months now and it feels like my home! I am probs going to cry a lot tonight. But we´re on to a new adventure! I have loved this area so much! The members here are incredible and I have seen so many miracles in this place.

This week has been way crazy with divisions and stuff but this weekend was SO AWESOME!!! So much spiritual feeding!

Elder Mark Bragg came on Saturday, he is an area 70, and we had a meeting with just the hna leaders and the zone leaders and it was so cool! He just talked to us about the mission and our calling and the authority we have. It was so cool and so much fun! He asked where we were all from and when I said Spanish Fork he was like, "do yu know the Youd family?" I was like jajajaja yeah one of them was my teacher in High school jajaja and he and I bonded for a moment! Idk how they know each other but if you see the Youd family tell them that I met Mark Bragg and he knows them jajajaja. 

Then Saturday night and Sunday morning we had stake conference and another area 70 came. Elder Krasnoselsky! He was sooooo cool and just talked so much about members and missionaries working together.

The temple prez and his wife talked too and his wife said that one time she was reading her liahona and felt like she should give it to a lady and her daughter that passed by her house selling fruit. A few years later they came back to her house and told her that they had gotten baptized and everything!!! It was so cool.

Sharing the gospel doesn't have to be scary or hard and it has eternal results. Share it with everybody!!!

I'm so excited for this new adventure that I'll have! I'm holding on to every last second that I have!!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Ponderize: Mosiah 24: 13-15

Love, Hermana Nielsen 





Monday, September 5, 2016

Heeeyyyyyyyyyyyooooooooooooo

Mmmmmm not much this week. Except it's been raining A TON. Not a lot of people want to talk to us but we are having fun! And finding out who our real friends are jajaja. And it's way cold so that's fun. I have been listening to Christmas and I feel like it's Christmas time yahoo!

This week I went back to my first area, Reducto, on an intercambio with a way crazy hermana and we laughed our heads off and there was an activity that night in the church and we ate cow liver and heart and it's weird but that's just normal here hahaha.

We're just trying to work so hard! This is the last week of the transfer so we're just trying to find a ton of new investigators and people to help! We have found some miracles in the rain and a really cool family that let us in on Saturday night so it pumped us up!

We went and bought pants today and we're just waiting for the word for when we can start wearing them JAJAJAJA maybe we're gonna feel like Elders but maybe it will be fun for a day or two! I'll send you pics when we start! Sorry I don't have too much new to say!

But have a great week!

Ponderize: DandC 93:24

LOVE, Hermana Nielsen 


Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Whoooo

This week has been way great!!

Here´s a few highlights

I went on an intercambio with Hermana Salgado this week and her and I go home at the same time so we had a wayyyyyy good talk about how we´re feeling and what´s going on with our hearts and heads jaja it was way nice to talk to somebody that is feeling like I am! It´s like we know it´s coming in our heads but our hearts won´t accept that we are ever going to stop being missionaries. It makes me really sad to think about. I love what I do! Maybe they´ll let me go home and be a missionary in Spanish Fork or something.

We found out that Elder Rasband is coming to our mission in November so I will still be here yahhhhhoooooooooo!!!!!!! I´m planning on getting his signature or something cool idk

This week we had a really funny ward night. We have them every Friday night and this week we were in charge with the elders! We had different groups and they had to act out fairytales and idk why but these Paraguayans thought it was so dang funny. There was a group of 4 and they had to go up and act out the ugly duckling and they just stood there and laughed so hard they couldn´t even do anything hahahahaha and they were all old so it was way funny! Idk just the little things ya know? 

Yesterday a missionary that just got home told me that I have an accent!!!!!!!!! Whooooohooooo! I have been working so hard on my Spanish still and people laugh because I can´t speak Guarani but my Spanish is getting better jajaja!!! Don´t worry, I can communicate just fine but everybody always says that the gringos have funny accents so when somebody told me that I have a good accent I was way happy!! 

We have transfers in 2 weeks and I can´t believe it. It´s been really fun teaching Hermana Valdez all the stuff about being an hermana leader, she´s really blonde jajaja but it´s been so fun to work with her and have a new best friend/sister in my life! She´s really goofy when she´s tired and by the time we hit Sunday nights we are wayyyy tired. So Sunday nights with her are the best! She just laughs at everything and she thinks that I am so funny so I always feel good with her! And she always says awwwww mannnn jajajajjaja

Thanks for the love and support!

Ponderize: Mosiah 2:22-24 

We are always always always blessed when we keep the commandments and I love this scripture because we really are blessed IMMEDIATELY when we keep the commandments!!!

LOVE, Hermana Nielsen 

She made us pizza this week and I was FRIED
(the cool thing about sunburns here though is that they don´t hurt at all!!!! Idk why…. maybe the humidity or algo)


Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Woah this week was crazy!

We are still teaching a way crazy less active member that tells us all her prophesies and can see the future jajaja she´s really interesting but is really confused about religion. She looks in all the wrong places. She like goes to the catholic or evangelist churches to ask questions about the Mormon church....we are trying to help her get a testimony of the restoration....slowly but surely. 


We are also teaching a way cool investigator named Gissell! She´s hard core looking for the truth and it´s so fun to teach her! She´s starting to understand a lot more about baptism and the Book of Mormon and it´s been cool to see her testimony grow little by little! She lives with her boyfriend so we are trying to work on the law of chastity but she understands it and wants to change! We had a way good lesson with her last night and she´s going to read the Book of Mormon and pray and decide what obstacles are in her way and the things that are keeping her from reaching baptism and the eternal family that she wants. She´s 21 and super cool! 


Yesterday we had a way intense lesson with Bruno who got baptized in July and he says that he´s atheist again WHAT. Actually he´s not. He says he is but he has the lamest excuses. But I had a way cool experience, when we passed by his house and he told us that he´s atheist the spirit took over and I was just saying things to him that I wasn´t even trying to say. I was like Bruno, you´re not atheist. I know it and you know it. And we were just quiet and the spirit testified so hard to me that it was the truth. Bruno believes in God, he´s just got some challenges that he needs to overcome! It´s so hard to see people change so much and come closer to Christ and then decide to turn away from it but we´re not going to give up on him!!!


I have held a lot of monkeys this week. People just have them as pets and it´s so funny!!!


We just got the news that we need to start buying pants because we will start wearing them soon hahahahaha nnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I´ll do what the Lord wants I guess!


Have a great week!

Ponderize: Jacob 2:21

Hermana Nielsen


 


Monday, August 15, 2016

Monday, August 15, 2016

Okay well here´s the thing. Today is a holiday here and everything is closed and the people just told us that they are closing in 30 minutes so aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh
I was going to update you all on a million things but if we can´t find another computer then next week will have to do. 


Last sunday we got to go to a fireside for our stake and president and hermana wilson talked and they had us and the zone leaders answer questions with them about missions and it was so fun!! We were just trying to pump up all the youths to go on missions and it was a way good time!


My comp is so so so so so great! She is a dang hard worker and we just run everywhere and it´s so crazy and so fun! 


We had one of our hermanas sick in the hospital this week so we went to help with some things and she has like one week in the mission and her comp doesn´t speak english  and she is from Nevada so we just talked in English and our comps were so confused jajajaja 


Hermana Valdez is trying to learn english so we speak a ton in the house and she always says what and yes to me and we contacted a guy yesterday and she accidentally said what in english to him instead of spanish and I died from laughing


We are doing so good here! I wish I had more time. But we are way happy and talking to everybody we see and sweating to death and just loving every second!!! I´m so happy to be here!! 


Have a great week!

Ponderize 2 Nefi 16:8, 11

Love, Hermana Nielsen!!!