2 MONTHS!!!

Ahhhhh today I hit my 2 month mark! Can you believe that?? Time is seriously flying! This week was super crazy...long story short- one day we were walking down the road and a man was standing in a pit yelling at us in Guarani...hahaha the people here are so great! They are crazy but I love it.

I got sick this week with a really bad cold I think..I took lots of DayQuil and ibuprofen and I'm pretty much better today #blessed. I woke up on Friday night and legit thought that I was dead but hadn't made it to spirit paradise yet because I couldn't breathe through my mouth or nose...I am better now though and don't ever want to slow down!

I keep getting questions about Paraguay so I'll try and answer them and hope that whatever I write makes sense...Right now we are in a cyber, it's a little store where you can go to use the computers and it cost like a dollar an hour...everything here is super super cheap. My area is a dream!!

Parts of it are exactly what you would think South America would be but we also have some city parts so we can buy pretty much anything we need and still feel a little bit civilized. I think we are like an hour away from the mission home but we don't have to go there hardly ever, so that's really nice.

There are dogs EVERYWHERE. Sometimes the follow us around and right now they're pretty much the only living things I can talk to so I like the dogs. The people here are really loving and kind! We have lunch with members almost every single day and the food is great! Sometimes a little sketch but an eggshell or two won't hurt, right?

We had some miracles happen yesterday...One of our investigators CAME TO CHURCH and he can get baptized next week! His name is David and he's so great!

We also have another investigator Blanca that is so awesome! She talks our ear off so much but she has been really prepared to hear the gospel. She just brought her family to church last week and wants to hear from us all the time! I love it so much! We have people to teach every single day and we are trying really hard to help the inactive members here in Reducto come back to church and remember why they started coming in the first place.

I really love missionary work! Teaching the basic doctrines of the gospel every day has really helped me to understand what is most important in life and in the church. The fact that we know that Jesus Christ lives and that we can be saved is the most glorious message ever. Don't ever forget the simple truths that are so powerful. 

I love you all so much! 

Love, Hermana Nielsen :)

Semana 2

This week has been crazy! I feel like I have already gained a lifetime of experience in one week. This week my companion and I got to try pig tongue! It was somebody's birthday party after a ward activity and they asked us if we wanted to try it so we went for it! It tasted pretty good but it was like eating a sponge and it was weird to think about it.

It's been a really cool week; we have been teaching an investigator named Blanca that is so prepared to hear the gospel! She moved here and has been looking for a church to start going to so obviously Heavenly Father put her in our pathway! She came to church with her family yesterday and that was really exciting!

The members here are incredible. They are super faithful and willing to help us all the time! They are incredible examples to me. I've realized that being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ doesn't just include going to church and weekly activities, it is helping the missionaries and less active members and everybody else, we should be doing daily things to strengthen our wards and stakes because they are incredible blessings.

Paraguay just keeps getting better and better and hotter a hotter :)

I just read this email and it is all over the place...sorry! The more I try to learn Spanish, the worse my English gets. I am going to sound like a hillbilly by the time I get home.

Have a great week! 

Love you all, Hermana Nielsen

Best Week of My Life

Hi everybody!!! I am in Paraguay!!! I already love it with all of my heart! Being a missionary is the greatest thing on the face of this earth!! I wish I could tell you everything that has happened this week, oh man. 

I met my companion on Wednesday, Hermana Porter. She is from Logan, Utah!! Yeahhhhhh, she ran track at BYU before she came and wow she is the best trainor ever!!! Seriously, her and I get along so well and she speaks English so that is a solid bonus!! 

My first area is called Reducto and it is gorgeous! It is super hot here and they are just finishing winter....I know that in about 2 months I am going to be dying!! I seriously cannot tell you all how happy I am! A lot of returned missionaries told me before I left that the first 3 months are the hardest and that you just have to "push through it." That is not true at all! It is definitely challenging but so fun! 

I am having the time of my life! Teaching people about the gospel in Spanish, what more could I want? I have been meeting so many new people and the members here are incredible! They are so kind and loving and they make the most delicious food! 

Here´s a funny story for the week, we were walking in the street and started talking to some kids about the gospel and it was my turn to teach them about baptism and invite them to be baptized and this 11 year old named Cesar was just laughing at me hahahah it was so funny! So many people here love to call me the North American and I think Cesar was laughing because he has better Spanish then I do hahahaha oh man, I have been able to teach this week a little bit but it´s really hard to understand people because they literally talk with their mouth closed so my companion tells me what to say or what to bear my testimony on and then she continues to listen and do most of the teaching, it´s quite the experience. 

We were in the middle of a lesson this week and just started laughing (don´t worry mom, it was controlled laughter and the investigator didn´t see it) because sometimes when I take a step back and look at what I´m doing, it´s so funny. I´m just this 19 year old in a whole new country trying to teach people in a language that I don´t know and it´s seriously just a good time. 

I love the people here already and I love this language. I am so grateful for this opportunity. I am already doing things I never thought I could do (I asked my companion to go running this morning....) and I am having so much fun. I love Paraguay!!!!!

Love, Hermana Nielsen

The Spanish Fork missionaries in the CCM together! 

We met these little girls and their 

puppy is named "Poopy"

 so of course we had to take a pic! 

PARAGUAY

Hi everybody! I am in Paraguay! We got here at about 11 last night (I think Paraguay is 2 hours ahead of you guys). The plane rides were awesome, I will share my experiences later! Our President and his wife picked us up and Hermana Stewart and I slept at the mission home.

We are at the mission office right now filling out forms, having interviews with the president, and having fun with the Elders in the mission office!

I am safe and sound and my Spanish is definitely improving because that is all we speak here....ahhhhh it´s great but I definitely better learn Spanish very quickly! I think we have transfers tomorrow and the rest of today is getting all of our things in order.

I am happy, healthy and ready to get going! I love you all, I will email more next week! :)

Love, Hermana Nielsen

Final Countdown!

Well we got our flight plans today and I leave for Paraguay in 5 days!!!! We have a layover in Panama and then we'll be in Paraguay! We'll be traveling for about 16 hours #prayforus! I'm really nervous for the airports hahaha but I am super excited to get to Paraguay!! It feels like I am leaving my home again too which is really bittersweet, I can't imagine what it's going to feel like to leave Paraguay after 16 months.

This week I got a little bit discouraged with my Spanish and while I was trying to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish during language study, an Elder in my district was practicing how to say different types of sentences to our district and he looked at me and said "Hermana Nielsen, Heavenly Father wants you to learn Spanish and he will help you." I know that Heavenly Father wanted me to hear that and he sent those words to me through Elder Kidd. So many blessings here, so little time! The CCM is a dream! I know that the field is going to be so much harder but I am so excited!

I am so grateful every day to be a missionary, this is for real the greatest thing ever!! I wish I had enough time to tell you every little detail because it is incredible!

Today we got to eat in the new comedor and it is SO NICE!!! The food is still incredible and my life is the best, I love it! Have a great week and please enjoy Fiesta Days for me!!

Love, Hermana Nielsen

We had to weigh our stuff today..#sad

My comp and I!  

Hello my friends! The past week has been such a blur. I can't believe that I have been here for a month!! That makes me so sad! Time is going by way too fast! We are learning so much about the gospel and my testimony is strengthening so much! Sunday's are my favorite! We have lots of meetings but they are so powerful and we get so spiritually fed! We have to write a 5 minute talk each week in straight spanish and then the  branch president calls 2 or 3 people at a time to speak so you don't know who is going to speak until right before, it's awesome! I haven't spoken yet but I am excited to! We also had a really cool devotional by Elder Holland and he talked about being a missionary right now in the last dispensation and it was a huge slap in the face! Every prophet and missionary and righteous human being since Adam have known that their dispensation would end and that eventually the truth would be gone from the earth again but they still kept on going and working hard and doing everything in their power to spread the gospel but WE ARE THE LAST DISPENSATION. THE TRUTH WILL NEVER LEAVE THE EARTH AGAIN! If Moroni and Alma and Nephi and every great prophet and apostle and missionary before Joseph Smith had reason to keep going and working hard then we have like 10 million times more reason to keep going! We are living in the 2nd coming, Elder Holland said that people always ask him when the 2nd coming will be and he always says that it started in the spring of 1820 when Joseph Smith prayed. What a time to be alive! I've never felt a more burning desire to just yell the gospel to people in a kind, loving missionary way! I am so grateful and humbled that Heavenly Father trusts us to do this work. Thank you for all of the emails, I love and appreciate them so much! Have a fantastic week!

Love, Hermana Nielsen :)

My district just tried to recreate the Dan Jones pic in PMG...it was the best we could do!

Week 3!!!

WHAT A WEEK!!!!! It feels like I have been here for my whole life but at the same time it feels like I got here yesterday!! Time is so weird here.

My district is AWESOME!!! There's 8 of us and I love them all so much! We laugh so hard every day and have so much fun but I've never met harder working 18-20 year olds! My companion is Hermana Stewart, she's from Kaysville! We get along great and she is going to Paraguay as well as two other elders in our district!!

I thought that I was going to be homesick over the 4th of July but everybody here made it seem as close to home as possible! All of the Americans wore red, white and blue and the boys in my district stood up at lunch with an American flag and started singing the National Anthem so everybody else stood up and joined in, it was fantastic!! And at lunch they fed us hamburgers, curly fries, ice cream and apple pie!!!!! I felt like I was still in the USA!!

Today we got to go to the Mexico City temple!!! It is closed right now for renovations but we went to the visitor’s center and got to walk around the grounds. It is so beautiful!!! You can immediately tell when you are passing a church building in the city because it goes from craziness all around to well kept, clean, peaceful grounds. The church really sticks out here in Mexico! We haven't been able to leave the grounds of the CCM until today so seeing the outside world was crazy!!!!

I AM SO EXCITED TO GET TO PARAGUAY AND RUN AROUND EVERYWHERE SPEAKING BROKEN SPANISH AND TELLING EVERYBODY THAT JESUS CHRIST LIVES TODAY AND THAT HE WILL COME AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! We have the best thing in the whole entire world!! I would give up anything to have this knowledge because there is literally nothing greater!! This is the best thing ever!!!

Have a fantastic week and remember the Savior in everything you do. 

Love, Hermana Nielsen

My district!! Elders: Keller, Kidd, Holm and Steenblik

Hermanas: Me, Stewart, Young, Callister

Today at the Visitors Center!

I'm trying to be more like Joseph Smith :)