Helllolooooooo!!!!

Okay, this week we had interviews with President Wilson and he is seriously so incredible!! He doesn't have to say anything and you can feel his deep love for the Savior and his desire to serve the Lord without recognition from the world. My president is so great. And I could understand him this time and while Hna Porter was in her interview I chatted with his wife and I could understand her and she could understand me! Yay!!!! A lot of progress has happened in the last 9 weeks!!!

Yesterday was Hermana Porter's birthday!! It was super fun! Everybody here is obsessed with making birthday's huge so the family we ate with yesterday gave us a feast and cake and it was all super fun!! I will send pics next week, we are having struggles with the computer today. I also gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday for 10 minutes IN SPANISH!!!! It ended up being super fun and the Lord definitely helped me. I told them at the beginning that I could talk in Guarani or English if they couldn't understand my Spanish and they all loooooved that so I am earning the love of the members hahaha they are like kids in a candy shop when missionaries can speak Guarani so I am buying a Spanish to Guarani dictionary today. #blessed

David and Ino are doing so great! David's whole family is inactive but he lives with his grandparents and they have started coming to church since his baptism, it's so so great!!!

And Ino is so faithful and is just eating up the gospel! They come every week and they always have questions waiting for us when we teach them, it's awesome! They are the real deal!!

I am so sad to hear of the death of Richard G. Scott. I can't believe that 3 apostles have passed away so quickly. Conference is going to be so fun this week! I have literally had a count down for a month now hahaha! We can either watch in English, Spanish or Guarani...I bet you can't guess which I'll be watching!

Hermana Porter and I have decided who we think the new apostles will be. We circled their pictures in our Ensign so I'll let you know next week if we are right.

Love you all! Romans8:35-39

Love, Hermana Nielsen

Miracle Baptism!!

Heyyyyyy everybody!!! 

Guessssss whaaaatttttt!!!!

OUR MIRACLE GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!

*EVERYBODY DANCE NOW*

Ahhhhh man it was such a great week. Inocencio is a new person!! He and his wife are soooo much happier now that they are married and he just looks like a new person!!! It's so incredible to see the miracle of the Atonement working in people! We went to the church on Saturday night and had to put some buckets of water in the font because it was kind of low...and fish out some cockroaches but other than that it was super great! There were some ward members there to support and the best part is just that Ino is so so happy. I can´t tell you how incredible this is to experience, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

Everything has been super great this transfer in Redùcto, Hermana Porter and I are still going strong! She´s seriously the greatest. We are so much alike and we get along so so well.

Have you all started to think about General Conference? Something that I´m doing right now is praying every day to be spiritually prepared to find answers to 2 questions that I chose last week. I think that´s really going to help me be ready to hear and learn what the Lord wants me to! You all better be pumped for it because I am looking forward to this more than I have ever looked forward to Christmas!!!! We get to watch it in our ward building and if we get lucky, we can watch it in English!!! Yessssss!!! 

Love you all, Hermana Nielsen

Ìno´s baptism!!

We had a Zone Training this week!! 

My Zone is also our district so we see each other every week, 

I love it!!!

6 weeks!!!

Okay, my companion and I have been laughing all week because I realized that I have not told you guys hardly anything about the past 6 weeks hahaha I´m sorry! You can all read my journal when you get home I guess....We had transfers this week but nothing changed with our companionship. We weren´t expecting it to because I am in training so usually you keep your trainer for at least 2 transfers and I am so grateful for that!! I seriously have the best companion ever!!!! We are so much alike and we just have so much fun together every day, I really love her! 

Remember that miracle I told you about, when we heard that voice yell "Hermanas!" and nobody was there but we found Lourdes and she said that her boyfriend wants to get baptized? Well we've known them for about 3 weeks now and SO MUCH has happened! Teaching them has been so fun! They are so chill but they keep all of their commitments and read the Book of Mormon together and they have questions and they love everything we teach them! We taught them the law of Chastity like a week and half ago and they were really unsure about getting married...the next day they told us that they talked about it and decided to get married!!!!!! Soooooo.......we planned a wedding in 1 day and they were married on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hermana Porter and I literally ran around on Tuesday and Wednesday like chickens with our heads cut off! We had to call the judge and set up a time for them to get married at the church and invite their friends and family and get decorations and our neighbors made a cake for us (Paraguayans Loooooove cake) and we bought some soda and needless to say IT WAS THE WEDDING OF THE CENTURY. I only say that because Lourdes and Ino were both crying after they signed the papers and when we taught them last night, we could feel the spirit so much stronger in their home! And they are so so so happy!! It's so incredible to see how following the commandments changes lives and brings so many blessings of happiness! Ino can probably be baptized this week, we are really excited for him and he is so ready for this!!

Yesterday, we had stake conference and Elder Ferreira of the 70 spoke. It was incredible! The theme of our conference was keeping the Sabbath day holy....again! We have had the privilege of listening to so many members of the 70 and apostles these past 6 weeks and they have all talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy. It is really important for us to remember that Sunday isn't just a day to go to church, but to really spend the whole day focusing on the Lord and doing everything we need to do to spiritually prepare ourselves for the week.

Everything here is going so great! I love my area, we are working really hard, and learning a new language is the weirdest, funnest, hardest, craziest thing I have ever done! It's a fun challenge to tackle every day!

I never thought that the things that would make me most happy as a 19 year old were learning how to say a new word, having investigators or less active members come to church, reading General Conference talks and the Book of Mormon. Every day is a new adventure and I'm loving every second of it!

Thank you for all of your love and support, I would not be here if it weren't for you wonderful people!!

I'm going to eat a churro filled with dulce de leche now! 

Besos!!

Love, Hermana Nielsen 

I also finally bought a camera this week so I will send better pics!!!!

My area is so so so beautiful!....and my companion!

The wedding!!

Where is your heart?

 Here´s my short little thought for the week! I´ve been thinking about this a lot but I only have 6 minutes to explain so here we go:

Matthew 6:19-21

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also"

When we put our heart and mind into the gospel, not just our actions, we will be truly converted. We can put everything we have into Heaven and trust that Heavenly Father will protect it for us and shape our whole selves into what he needs us to be. Sometimes it is hard at the beginning but in the end it will be the easiest and best decision that we could have made. We won't have to deal with extreme guilt or regret, we won't have to look back on our lives and wish that we would have just given it all up to the Savior like we knew we should, and we will have the peace that comes from knowing that we have truly repented every single week during the sacrament and centered our lives around the Savior. The gospel is truly the best-and easiest way to live our lives. 

I love you all so much. Thank you for every letter, email and prayer. They mean so so much to me. Have a fantastic week!

Love, Hermana Nielsen

DAVID!!!!!

Well, this week was fantastic!`DAVID GOT BAPTIZED!!!!`We went and visited him last night and he is so so happy! All of his family is inactive and they all want to come back to church now, it´s so awesome! I don´t think I have told you about him...he´s 10 years old and lives with his grandparents. They aren´t active but they were cool with him getting baptized; it just took the grandma a couple of months to come around. We worked with them a lot this past month and he´s now a member of the church! `He´s very intelligent and can remember EVERYTHING that we tell him! It´s great!

And our miracle from last week is named Ino! He is totally ready to get baptized, we have to tèach him about the law of chàstity tonight because him and his girlfriend live together #yay`but he´s really excited and ready to get baptized.

`This week we also ha`d a conferencia en Asuncion! President Gonzales taught us along with his wife. He´s the presìdent of the South America South area for the church...one of the area 70´s and he is so great! `They talked à lot about The Sabbath Day and keeping it holy.

We also had Stake Conference yesterday but it was broadcast to Paraguay, Uruguay`and Argentina. Elder Oaks, Èlder Hales, Sister Marriot from the general young womens presidency, President Gonzales and another man (I cannot remember his name to save my life)`spoke to us and it was `so fun! It was all in Spanish so I couldn´t understand èverything but I got most of what they were saying and they all talked about DÍA DE REPOSO`aka SABBATH DAY. `They are seriously cracking down on that here. Sister Marriot talked about how the Sabbath Day isn´t a list of things you can`´t do, she said when you are doing all of thè things that you need to do and making it a day set aside for the Lord`, you will `not even have to worry about the things you shouldn´t do. I really liked that! 

Sunday´s as a missionary are super different because we still go out and teach all day ànd don´t have time to take a siesta (ps the siesta is real`here.)`or do whatever we want but I love it! We are putting all of our time and efforts into building the Lord´s ki`ngdom on Sunday´s and it´s really spècial! Don´t worry about what you "can´t" do on Sunday´s`, do what you need to do to make it a day centered on the Lord.

Èverything here is going really great! We´re working really hard and seeing lots of miracles!`Paraguay is literally the best place in the world!!! Love you all!`

Àlso, sorry for all the accent marks, I´m not turning into a crazy Spanish `person, my keyboard is just wacko...

`Love, Hermana Nielsen 

Milagros!!!

Well, this week has been full of miracles!! The craziest thing happened to us this week...we were walking down the road going to teach one of our investigators and we heard someone behind us yelling "Hermanas!" We always hear that, especially from the little kids so we turned around and nobody was there. We started walking forward again and both stopped at the same time and knew that we needed to turn back. I told my companion that I thought somebody needed help or something. We tried clapping at a couple houses that we thought it might be coming from but nobody was home. We felt prompted to turn down another street and clap at a house of a less active family. They have the cutest little boy that is always yelling at us so we thought it might be him. We clapped and he came outside but it wasn't him yelling at us so we decided to leave. Right as we were walking away, the daughter came out who is 20 and lives down the street with her boyfriend. She started talking to us and told us that her boyfriend wants to get baptized and has been waiting for someone to come teach him....WHAT!!! It was so crazy. We were able to teach him on Saturday night and he told us how he wants to change his life. He and his girlfriend were both crying and the spirit was so strong!

We have had so many incredible lessons like that this week! Paraguay is so awesome and the people here are so great! We have been very blessed in this area and I am learning so much.

My companion and I have been talking à lot about the examples of Lehi's family in the Book of Mormon and their choices. Laman and Lemuel saw so many miracles but forgot about them so many times, we all see miracles every day, I think we just forget about them a lot.

Never forget about the miracle of the gospel and how much the Lord has blessed all of us. I love you all! Thank you so much for your emails!

Love, Hermana Nielsen

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 :)