No more bucket showers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi guys! It's so good to hear from all of you this week! Some weeks feel longer than the others and when we get to email it's like Heaven! 

Random Notice: I am going to start sending better weekly emails so if I don't email you individually, don't feel bad....I just want to be better at letting you know what's going on in Paraguay!

THIS WEEK!

First of all, WE MOVED!!! Just in time for Hermana Austin to go home on Wednesday jajajaja. Our new house is really nice! Like we have a shower now and HOT WATER!!!!!! And there is a little dish washer that we don't know if it works or not or how to use it but I didn't know that those existed here!! It's a really cool place and the view is fun from our back window! I was too lazy to take pics of the inside this week but hopefully next week I'll send you some pics that will make you all jealous! 

We also had splits this week with the Hermana Leaders and it was way fun! I got to show Hermana Fuentealba around the mountain in Ybyraty! She's from Chile and it was just a fun day getting to konw a different missionary! She's really nice and her and her sister are the only members in her family so it was cool to hear about her conversion and how the gospel has affected her life! It's also fun to see my improvement with Spanish, it's cool being with Latinas because you have to say everything in Spanish so when you don't know how to say something and you don't have a dictionary, you've gotta figure it out!! I love speaking a different language, it's so hard but so much fun! 

This has just been a good week. We've been really busy which is good, I love focusing on the work! One of my favorite things about the mission is coming home at night and realizing that I haven't thought about myself all day. I love thinking about other people and stressing about their needs. It's really cool to watch myself change and grow. Sometimes I feel like I haven't really grown a lot on the mission but Heavenly Father always helps me see how I've changed and improved! Have I ever told you guys that I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY?!?!!

I hope that you're all surviving the cold and going back to school after the holidays..I remember that was always the worst part about Christmas break. We have transfers this week but I have no idea what's going to happen so I guess I'll let you all know next week! Pray for us! 

Ponderize: Alma 5:26 :)

Love, Hermana Nielsen 

The view from one of our rooms!

Infierno

I only have a couple of minutes so I´m just going to let you all know about a funny experience we had on New Years....It´s not really funny so don´t get too excited. We ate a HUGE dinner with a family from the ward that we are really good friends with and then we went home to bed...it´s been really really hot here so we were chillin in our AC and then we both fell asleep. I kept waking up every hour and I couldn´t figure out why until about 2 o´clock when I was dripping in sweat and my body wanted to DIE. Hna Austin was awake too and we realized that the power was out because it was raining really hard so our AC wasn´t working. We laid there for a minute and I was like "Hey Hermana, do you want me to go get a fan?" She replied with "HERMANA WE DON'T HAVE ANY POWER" Hahahahahahaha I was like "Oh yeah jajajaja" Then we started laughing and then we both laid on our beds dying (literally I thought that I was going to die in Paraguay that night no joke) and the power came back on and we had AC!!! I don't think my body has cooled down since that night but we are happy and working hard! And getting Hna Austin prepared to go home next week to a first world country....seeing our families and houses at Christmas really threw us off. We haven't seen anything that nice in 6 months/18 months. 

I love you all! Have a great week and keep working on your New Year's goals!!

Ponderize: Alma 7:11-12

Hermana Nielsen

I'm not drowning

Hi fam! Don't worry, I'm safe and okay! None of the flooding has hit our area....I actually had no idea what was going on until I read your emails.

We have been traveling all day today-4 hours in a bus just might kill me over. We went to Asuncion to do Migrations to make sure my companion can still make it home in 2 weeks. It takes us about 2 hours to get to the mission office and then we had to ride in a taxi to the migrations office and back and it's been a looooong day. We also have to ride a bus for 30 minutes every pday to email so that's why I took so long.

The past couple of days have been kind of overwhelming! It was so so fun and good to talk to everybody on Christmas-seriously it meant a lot to me to hear the voices of the people I love so much (my screen was black after the first 10 minutes but igual no mas jajaja).

After the Christmas festivities we've just tried working really hard. We've had a lot of random things going on this transfer so we haven't had a whole lot of time to work every day which is hard but we are doing the best we can! When we were in the offices today our Mission President asked if my comp and I could talk to him for a minute. Our branch is really struggling right now-the church attendance has dropped about 50 people in the last 2 months and there is no priesthood help, it's really hard! But President Wilson talked to us about things we could change and how he can help us because mission presidents are over districts and branches so it's really nice to know that he's concerned and willing to help. He asked me if I knew the area well and was going to be okay to know how to work with everything because my comp is leaving in 2 weeks, I was like "uhhhhhhh......si Presidente.....espero que si!" I was getting pretty overwhelmed with the work that we have in front of us because there's a lot in this area and sometimes it feels like we aren't even making a dent but Heavenly Father really gave me strength and comfort this week that I would be okay! I've had a lot of questions and concerns this past week and literally every single time I have opened the Book of Mormon and continued reading where I left off, the Lord answers my questions or gives me the strength I need. The Book of Mormon is amazing! 

Thank you for your love and support, I hope you all have a happy new year! I´ll be celebrating about 4 hours ahead of you all! 

Also, I have been praying this past month for guidance from Heavenly Father with the goals that I'm going to make for 2016-I usually make goals that I can just check off but I asked Heavenly Father to help me make some that are really going to help me progress and grow, I hope you'll all consider doing the same and asking Heavenly Father in prayer what you can do to make this year the best one yet! 

Ponderize: Mosiah 24:12-16 Heavenly Father really comforted me with this chapter this week! 

Love you all, 

Hermana Nielsen :)

This is where I wash my clothes when I have to!

Ypacaraí

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Did you guys know that CHRISTMAS IS THIS WEEK?!?!?! Yay!!!! I'm so excited!! We get to eat so much food this week!!!

This past week we had our Christmas Activity with the whole mission and it was so fun!! I got to see all my mission buddies and play a lot of soccer and sweat the whole day! We did a program at the beginning and I sang with the zone I'm in right now and did a Nativity play with my old zone, it was so fun!!! We've been practicing for like a month now so it was cool to watch everybody do random skits and sing a just relax and enjoy the Christmas season!

The Patiño Family is progressing really well! Their daughter wants to get baptized and they set a date to get sealed in the temple in February!!! We are working a lot with them and they are progressing so much! They have come to church 3 weeks in a row YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love missionary work and Christmas and being a missionary on Christmas!!!

Have a great week and remember that we celebrate Christmas for CHRIST....not the Virgin Mary. 

I love you all!

Hermana Nielsen

Ponderize: Mosiah 2:41

My comp and I :)

My best friends in the mission!

HI!

 Hello again! I'm just going to start off by saying that life is crazy here in Ypacaraí!! We have eaten some weird stuff and walked through the jungle and it´s seriously so great!!!! Sometimes when I am sitting under the shade of a mango tree, or eating HUGE mangos, or riding in a bus for 30 minutes to go email my family and everything around me is green, I thank my lucky stars-and Heavenly Father, of course- for this incredible opportunity I have to be in Paraguay! We are having so much fun and working so hard and it feels so gooood to be a missionary! 

We have been working on reactivating the Patiño family and they have come to church 2 weeks in a row now!! They are preparing to go through the temple and be sealed soon! I am so so so happy for them! They have 3 little girls and they are so great! We have FHE with them tonight and I am so excited! Teaching families is seriously the coolest!

We also did a random contact this week and found a girl named Pabla. SHE IS SO PREPARED TO HEAR THE GOSPEL!!! You should have heard the questions she was asking! She understands what we teach her and the why. It is so cool! It´s refreshing to hear somebody accept what we teach and not follow the traditions of their parents aka Catholic church. Hahaha

I love you guys and I´m pumped to hear about all the festivities you have going on for Christmas! Remember why we celebrate!

Ponderize: Moroni 7:48 True disciples of Christ have Charity!

Love, Hermana Nielsen

My camera won't connect so this is another week without pics...I'm sorry!

Welcome to the Jungle

What a week!! I forgot to tell you guys last week that we would be having transfers....I left Reducto!!! I had a feeling that I was going to but we got the call on Tuesday so we spent all of Tuesday night packing and getting ready to go to the terminal. We got there at 6 on Wednesday morning and I found out who my new companion is.........HERMANA AUSTIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's from Springville and she was my Hermana Leader before and we already love each other so so much! It's been such a crazy week!!! We were going crazy in the terminal when we found out we were companions! She's going home after this transfer and it's so weird to think that she'll be able to eat good Mexican food and walk on carpet in 5 weeks!

Our area is Ypacaraí and it's sooooo cool!!!! It is so huge and we just have the mountains all over in our area! We went to part of our area the other day and it was an hour and a half walk....we were literally hiking up into the mountains hahahahaha I love it so much here!

Here's a fun story of the week:

There was a HUGE rainstorm on Thursday night and the next day nobody had power or water but then we got power back on Friday night but we haven't had water since Thursday......so we walked a mile yesterday to a member's house to take a shower using water from their well. We had a couple buckets of water and a cup :)

Then there's this thing called the Virgin of Caacupe...Caacupe is a city right by us and people come from all over to celebrate the Virgin Mary...there's a lot of fanatics and drunks a crazy people so the missionaries that are in Caacupe have to leave every year and go to other areas but this year, since we are close, we have to stay in our house all day today and allllll day tomorrow.......we are going to have some goooood times!!!! I'm just really pumped about everything that is happening in my life right now!!!! I love being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's my ponderize for the week: Ether 12:6 #Faith

Love, Hermana Nielsen! 

Hola!!!

Hiiiiiii!!! Okay, first of all, I forgot to tell you all to go look up the Mormon Message "In the Spirit of Thanksgiving". Please pretend like it's still Thanksgiving and go watch it, it's sooo funny!!!!

This week was so great! Raul and Johana got married on Saturday night in the church and it was a FIESTA!!!! The ward members helped us so much and we seriously had so much fun!

But I'm lame and forgot my camera cord so I'll send pics next week! Raul got baptized yesterday morning before church and he is so so so happy! We are seriously just loving every minute of being missionaries!

Thanksgiving was good but so weird to not be home! I don't like holidays away from my family!! But I cooked us chicken, mashed potatoes (Thanks Betty Crocker and the expensive American section in the grocery store), rice with corn, and cooked carrots!!! Also we found Heinz BBQ Sauce and now my companion thinks I’m a good cook so life is good down here in South America! We also heard our neighbor playing Footloose this morning so I'm very content with life!

Have an amazing week!!!

Ponderize: Matthew 18:20