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

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!!