DÍA DE GRACIAS

Holllaaaaaa amigos! ¿¿¿Como están??? Bueno. I´m sorry that I am terrible at this weekly email thing. I always forget to tell you guys what's going on in the missionary life! Sorry....but I am repenting and changing my ways! Here are some good things that have happened in the past couple of weeks:

-We had a Zone Conference with our President and a bunch of missionaries and being with other missionaries always gets me way pumped about life! I always see other missionaries with their nametags and I get so excited because I'm with missionaries and then I remember that I am a missionary too! It's really a good time. 

-It's getting a lot hotter here.....ahhhhhh!!!!! It gets really hot and humid and then it rains a ton after and cools down a little bit #blessings but everybody here talks about December like it's the plague because it's so hot so we'll see if I'm fit to survive or not.

-Last week we helped some Hermana's in our district move and it was so fun and so hot and we ate BURGER KING after and it was sooooo good!!!!!!!! I used to hate Burger King but we had hamburgers and fries and it was amazing! Definitely a highlight of my week/life.

-Raul (our investigator) and his girlfriend (member) are getting married this Saturday and he's getting baptized on Sunday!!!!!!!!!! He's seriously so pumped and we're full with wedding planning and everything! I never thought I'd be a wedding planner in my life but maybe I know what I'm going to study when I get home.....

Hey! This week is Thanksgiving!!! I've got some big plans for our lunch on Thursday but I'll let you know how my cooking skills go next Monday....I've been thinking this week about what I'm grateful for and these are what came to my mind first:

-My family

-My friends at home and on missions

-My friend's families

-The Book of Mormon

-The Atonement 

-Paraguay

It's a pretty obvious list but I've received so much love and support from my family, friends, and their families and it's made all the difference in my mission. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE the Book of Mormon! Greatest book ever. The Atonement has helped me in more ways than I thought possible and has helped me change and learn and grow so so so much! And obviously, PARAGUAY! I'm going to be one of those missionaries that comes home and is obsessed with the country they served in and talk about it all the time #sorrynotsorry

Anyways, life is good here in Paraguay! Hermana Espinoza and I are doing good and she is helping me improve my Spanish so much! It's been a good transfer! I love you all and please eat an extra plate of delicious Thanksgiving food for me, okay?

Ponderize: Last week-2Nephi 2:6-8 This week: Alma 34:38

Love, Hermana Nielsen 

Compañeras 4 life!

We've eaten a lot of cow heart lately...

Missionary Work and the Atonement

Alright fam and friends, sorry I didn´t email last week. Things got a little crazy because MY SISTER IS ENGAGED!!! LIKE WHAT?!?! Feliz Navidad Hermana Nielsen!!! Anyways, today I´m just gonna throw out all of my thoughts from the past two weeks...I hope you enjoy!

Tomorrow I hit my 5 month mark....AHHHHHH time is flying. I can´t believe it! I also still cannot believe that I am in Paraguay teaching the gospel with a lil Peruvian...life is cray cray. I´ve been thinking a lot about what I´ve learned in the last 5 months and everything has been so central on the Atonement.

You guys! The Atonement is the most incredible thing ever!! As a missionary I have had to use the Atonement every single day. I´ve learned more about my Savior than I thought possible in such a short amount of time. One thing I´ve learned is that even though we are commanded by our Heavenly Father to be perfect, He does not expect us to be perfect in this lifetime....like, what?? That's what I had in my head. That we have to be perfect to be righteous...no no no. That is so wrong! Righteousness means that you keep on trying and doing your best. That is all Heavenly Father asks of us-that we try our best! My testimony has been strengthened so much and I know that I would not have been able to make it through these last 5 months without our Savior. We are #blessed!!! Here's a solid quote from Elder Holland that I want to share with you guys:

"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? Why isn’t the only risk in         missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?”

I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work  is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionary’s and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of  that same price.

For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has    ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention  is,nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fallon His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” 11  then little wonder that salvation is not an easy thing for  us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

I´m so grateful for the hard days and weeks in the mission because they bring me closer to Christ and I have been able to change myself in a way that would have never been possible if I didn´t come on my mission. I know that Jesus Christ lives and because of this knowledge I can do anything! Don´t run from hard things, push forward with faith in Jesus Christ and you will find that "The hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing." (Elder Eyring)

I love you all! Thank you for every letter, email, prayer, thought….they have blessed my life every day!

Love, Hermana Nielsen 

What a life!!!!

Well my dear amigos, this week has been awesome!!! Here are some highlights:

-We had exchanges with the Hermana Leaders and I was with Hna McDougal from AZ...she is so awesome and helped me sooooo much!!!

-We had a ward mission activity and the little youngsters left with us to go teach and give away Books of Mormon and do contacts, it was so fun!!! Most of the kids that went with us aren´t even members hahahahaah 

-We are teaching Raul and he is so prepared for baptism! He wants to get baptized so bad but he and his girlfriend have to get married first....they want to do it the first week of December so we're teaching him and planning everything right now!!! Yay!!!

-Hermana Espinoza is awesome! She's my little Peruvian and I'm her big American hahaha we are getting along really well and the language barrier isn't as bad as I thought it would be....most days #blessed

-We're still trying to get to know the other area really well and we're finding a lot of miracles with the less active members...Sergina CAME. TO. CHURCH. She is literally the sassiest person I have ever met and she calls me her little gringo hahaha she told me she was only going to come to Relief Socitey but with the Spirit of the Lord I convinced her to come to our gospel principles class and Sacrament meeting!!! 

I LOVE WHAT I AM DOING SO SO SO MUCH!!!!

Everyday I go to bed with a huge smile on my face! La obra misional es la mejorrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

Ponderize this week: 1 Nephi 13:37

The Lord needs our help in this work!

I love you all :)

Love, Hermana Nielsen

Whoops, forgot to tell you that I´m in the most beautiful place ever #blessed

We dressed up like missionaries for Halloween!

Everybody deserves a chance to hear the gospel <3

Eating homemade tortillas con la familia Colman

Rainy dayzzz in Paraguay

Mission activity!!!!!

WOW.

This week has been so crazy. We had transfers on Wednesday and Hermana Porter left :( :( :( It seriously feels like one of my best friends left me and I can't talk to her at all ahhhhh!!!

Our district leader called us on Tuesday and told us that she would be leaving and I would be staying, we were expecting it but it is still weird without her. We spent Tuesday packing and cleaning everything for Hermana Porter to leave Reducto. When our district leader called, he also told us that the elders in our ward would be leaving to and their area would be added on to ours..........................WHITE WASH!!! Ahhhhhh so now we have two areas and it's huge but we're figuring out how to manage the two!

Also, I GOT A NEW COMPANION!!!! Hermana Espinoza, she's from Peru :) she's about 5 feet tall and as latina as they come hahahahaha she's really great and it's fun to learn new things with a new companion! If I had a dollar for every time she said "wow" I would have a lot of dollars hahahah #blessed

It's raining cats and dogs here right now! (Literally there are a million cats and dogs here) I love this weather so much! The streets are flooded and it's been a good time trying to cross the streets!

Sorry this letter is so random, I'm not good at rough drafts and ain't nobody got time to go back and fix things! 

My ponderize scripture this week is 1Corinthians 2:9

I know that if we truly love the Lord, we will do what he asks of us and when this life is over we're going to be surprised at how worth it it all was. 

I love you all, thank you so much for your letters, emails, love and support-it means a lot to me <3

Love, Hermana Nielsen

Sorry, no pics this week, I didn't want to bring my camera in the rain!!

BLESSED

Wooowwww this week has been so wonderful!! Every week is filled with a million things, I wish I could share them all!!! I am just going to share a few highlights from this week :)

-Today we went to the mission office in Asuncion to do immigrations and driving around the city in a taxi was suuuper fun! It's so weird being in the city area, but I love it! We also got to talk to President Wilson and his wife for a minute and that is always a treat!

-Hermana Porter and I had been planning an activity for our ward and the other ward that meets in our building. There are Elders in both wards with us and the helped a ton! Activities are sometimes not the greatest success but we filmed a video of the members saying I am a Child of God in English for the past few weeks and a member helped us put them all together to show and we planned soooo much.....the activity was a HUGE success!!!! We had more the 15 investigators there and they were all families and it was so incredible!!! It's one of those moments where you can see all of your hard work and efforts really paying off! We played some minute to win it games and had the Elders cook foods from their countries. We ate food from the United States, Honduras, Peru, and Bolivia, it was so fun! I love my area so much!

-This week I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time in Spanish!! My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much and I know that reading it in Spanish really helped me with learning Spanish. I'm so much better than when I started mentally and spiritually, The Book of Mormon is the word of God, READ IT!!!

-We taught Hermana Irene this week, she is a member but has been less active and has been wanting some visits from the members so you know the missionaries were all about that! She speaks mostly Guarani and has 17 children hahaha I think she's the greatest person I know in Paraguay. She's just like my Grandma Emma in some ways and I have been able to love her so deeply, so quickly. She also scratched my back all the way through Relief Society so that's another reason to love her I guess! She's just really special to me and I'm forever grateful to know her!

This week I have been blessed with so much comfort and peace in knowing that no matter what happens in the future, I will be okay. When we stay close to Jesus Christ we don't need to worry about the future. All we need to do is prepare now and trust in His will. I've never been more happy to be doing something in my life.

Ponderize this week! Matthew 4:19

Love, Hermana Nielsen

Our activity SO COOL!!!

A Family that we're teaching right now...they're super awesome and super prepared to accept the gospel!!

The daughters in the Recalde Family...they are my sisters in Paraguay! 

 

Las Familias pueden ser Eternas!

This week the weather has been suuuuper cold! It's so weird! The weather here feels just like fall and it is so fun because I feel like I am at home!!! I want to drink hot chocolate a bundle up every day! But I know that the weather is going to change soon! Everybody talks about December here like it's the scariest thing ever, I am scared!!! It gets super-hot and humid but if that's the worst that can happen then BRING IT!! 

We have just spent the week teaching a lot and finding new investigators! We had divisions and the Hermana leaders came to our house for a day! Hermana Ball stayed in Reducto with me and I was SO SCARED!!!! I didn't think that my Spanish would be sufficient and that I wouldn't know the area well enough but I surprised myself and with the Lord's help, we made it!

We have transfers next week and Hermana Porter is probably going to leave :( I was really scared to have to lead the area but I am working on exercising my faith muscle and trusting in the Lord!

Yesterday I had a really spiritual day. Every day in the mission is spiritual but yesterday I was thinking a lot about my family! We taught our Gospel Principles class about how families can be eternal (hence the title). Then during my personal study I was thinking a lot about my family and studying about them. My family has always been important to me and my testimony of eternal families has grown a lot in the past 4 months (can you believe it's already been 4?!!?!). Our families are the most important thing we have in this life and when we center our families on Christ they are a million times happier. But I realized that it starts with us. We have to center ourselves on Christ in order to help our families and I am working so hard on that! It's such a blessing to be learning so many lessons in such a short amount of time. I am so grateful for my eternal family and the blessing they are to me!! 

Life is incredible here in Reducto! Every single night I go to bed so happy. I have never experienced a joy quite like this.

Ponderize Scripture! D&C 88:119

Love, Hermana Nielsen!

BEST Weekend ever!!

Okay, so I think it's safe to say that General Conference was a dream for all of us!! This past weekend was better than any Christmas I have ever had (sorry Santa). But seriously, WE GOT TO WATCH IT IN ENGLISH!!!! Yayyy! We watched the Women's Session on Saturday before the other sessions started and I was just crying through the whole thing! It felt so good to hear the messages in English and understand every single word that was going on! Ahhhh no feeling can compare!

We rode to the stake center and watched it with all of the other missionaries and a lot of people were there too. We sat in the Relief Society room around a tv and enjoyed a lot of treats!!

I don't think that I have a favorite talk because all of them were incredible but some of the things that really stuck out to me were:

Being worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us, being temple worthy, keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and trusting in the Lord. I am already dying to get the talks and read them every day for the next 6 months!

Oh my, we also got 3 new apostles!! What?!?! Conference was seriously so special, I am so happy to hear so much feedback from you guys about what you liked about conference.

We are so so blessed to have a living prophet that teaches us what the Lord wants us to do.

I would tell you more about my past week but seriously the only thing that I can remember is conference! And Hermana Porter tried Coke for her first time this past week hahaha. There used to be a rule that we couldn't drink black sodas but our President just changed it so she tried coke for her first time!

Seriously, everything is so good. I am so happy and conference helped me take a step back and stop worrying about some little things that I was caught up on. I am just so happy and so happy for all of you! There's always room to find joy!

My Ponderize scripture this week is 3 Nephi 13:33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God!!

Love you all! 

Hermana Nielsen