From irmã to 姐妹

Olá beautiful people! This week has been a marvelous work and a wonder. So many changes, so many lessons and even one baptism! Last Wednesday morning President Cutler (president of the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission) called me to inform me I had missed my 8am flight to SLC neither of us knew about! He than informed me that my next flight was leaving the following morning at 9am. This gave me just enough time to say goodbyes:


 Alex (the sisters recent convert)


the elders  in my district

Sister Training leaders (Hurst & Zebly)

packed my belongings, do some good old fashion door knocking and mall contacting, part from my companion sadly and hop on a plane. It was so quick, that day and serving in Wisconsin. I am so greaetful for all that I learned and experienced there. I learned from the best missionaries I know in the world (believe me I know, this was my 3rd mission people!). I also learned to rely completely on the Lord, the spirit and my companion. I feel blessed to have that experience. King Benjamin can explain it much better than I can:

"as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have ^atasted of his love, and have received a ^bremission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own ^cnothingness, and his^dgoodness and long-suffering towards you and humble yourselves even in the depths of ^ehumility, ^fcalling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing ^gsteadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel."

-Mosiah 4:11

I really feel it was necessary for me to be humbled and rely on Jesus Christ more fully not only in this service but also in my life. I am also greateful for the many people I met and even though I may have only taught them once or had brief contact with them I know both sides were effected.

Well when I got off the plane I was greeted by sister Garrick! It was a joyous reunion! (we served together in the mission office 6 months ago.) And seeing many other sisters I have missed. Walking back to the Square from the apartments I felt at home and peace. Not only have I grasped my purpose as a missionary ( To invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.) but now I have the knowledge of how to do that here on Temple Square. 

 
After a long day we got a well deserved milk shake at chick-fil-a! It had been too long :)
  

This week I had some interesting lessons over the phone and on the square with Sister Barros (from Brazil in her 3rd transfer. She is one of the most soft spoken yet powerful missionaries I have ever met, she has taught me so much in this little time we have had together). We called one of our chat investigators (anna from the UK) from the summer and recieved the lovely news she had been baptized that past sunday! She is so sweet and it took awhile for her to know the church was Christ's true church today restored, but once she started to actually read the Book of Mormon she knew. Every single conversion I have heard always has to do with the Book of Mormon. Once we actually read the book, think about it and pray to ask Heavenly Father about the teachings in it we are more converted. Its that simple and its that true!

On thursday after relief society I recieved a text from the Assistants that they want to see us. THey than asked me if I would go back to the office for 2 weeks while Sister brock recoveres from being sick. So back to the office I go! I am happy to help, I have an amazing Companion there and I will be back to regular missionary work in 2 weeks. So that is why I am emailing on friday now! another zone has a different p-day!

 Sister Yeung is from Hong Kong! Yeah! back to the Asian life for me! We had an investigator lesson with Zhu Yue (PHD student at U of U) from Taiwan. She struggles with comparing Budhism to the doctrines of the church but when we explained she can gain wisdom from the Holy Ghost by praying and studying the scriptures she became more convicted in her faith in Jesus Christ which is HUGE!

Love you all! 再见 (bye!)

February 10th 2014

Miracle Day for the WIN!!

No pain no gain right? We are frrrrreeezing but we had a neat experience right before debbie's appointment. We were driving to her house and I felt prompted to stop at certain complex of apartments. Sister reed and I felt strongly a miracle was going to be there waiting for us! We prayed that we would be able to have the spirit to help us recognize it and be given the words to say when it did. We knocked the WHOLE thing and nothing! So disappointed we headed back to the car. As we were getting in we heard a young man calling us back saying, "did you know on my door?". We ran back to the door and started teaching him. As we did sister reed connected right away with some of the issues he was currently struggling with and I was prompted to share the account of Jesus praying for the children in 3 Nephi 17. Christian, standing in his shorts and a T-shirt almost freezing to death stayed outside adn talked with us for at least 20 mins. After we said a prayer with him and were about to leave he tld us that he took awhile to get to the door because he was nervous to answer it. When we knocked he had been praying to God that if he really wanted to help him that he would send a miracle to his front door. WOW. We told him of how we ended up knocking on this apartment building. The spirit was very strong as we bore witness to him of his worth and How Heavenly Father really did love him and that's why he sent us, to share with him the restored Gospel! IT was by far one of the coolest experiences I have had while serving. The church is true! Christian is heavily involved with his church right now so we are doing what we can to meet with him and teach him.

Ps Mormon was 10 years old when he was called sober in heart and commissioned to find the plates of Nephi when he turned 24 and at the age of 15 "was ^{visited of the Lord, and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus." (Mormon 1:15) If he can do it than we can do it now as 20 year olds! YEEEHAWWW church is true!}

 ^{Fun facts:}

•  I have learned to love salads so much that i have 1 or 2 everyday!!!! I even crave them!
• It was colder in Wisconsin than the arctic a couple of weeks ago!
• We found a bird while tracting that was sitting in our path not moving. We thought it was injured and were worried for it. As we tried to pick it up to move it out of the snow and to a warmer place it just flew away. It was bazaar and we know that there is someone on the planet lazier than me! haah

Love you fam and friends!

February 3rd 2014

Chello Family and friends!

                                                                  Milwaukee District 1

This week completely turned around. Through diligence and obedience miracles are a reality. On Saturday we realized that our weekly goals were not going to be met unless we did something about it. We decided to contact at the mall ( yes we walk around and approuch people before or after shopping but we have to, people only go outside for a few reasons here. 1. alcohol 2. Custard 4. foot ball 3. get there shop on) for 5 hrs. Although there were many times we became discouraged we pressed forward. Heavenly Father put many people in our paths we had met before but had not led to anything (Caitlyn the 20 something makeup artist who was excited to learn and become more spiritual along with her mother), other investigators that we had not had contact with in awhile (we helped Melonie and her daughters prepare for her daughters play. We ran into them at Chipotle ate with them and helped the youngest apply her stage makeup because the mom was clueless) or members who were preparing others for meeting with us (the berry family has a close friend who has been reading from the book of Mormon and want those same strong family ties she sees in the berry family). All in all we were able to teach 9 other lessons, receive 3 new investigators (Adam the manager at 5 guys who is really funny and open to learn more, and Michelle the hyper but sweat manager at a bedding store who has been trying a variety of ways to find peace in her life but has yet to try learning about and conecting with God and Jesus Christ, and Dan a friend of another investigator we have), teach 1 less active family, receive many potential investigators and speak to over 28 people (our goal for the day) about the gospel. Wow! We are so grateful for our father in heaven who hears and answers our prayers.

"Think of that one person's posterity - they are cheering for you, eagerly waiting for you to help baptize that one person so they can be born in the Covenant and go on to serve missions where they will baptize many, many people." (-quote from fellow missionary)

This is soo true as we were talking with one person (maria the devout catholic who had gotta be at least 102 years old haha) I was going to give up, I felt it was not going any where.Than I thought of her beloved husband, who passed away a couple of years ago. I knew he was being taught on the other side of the veil. I than was filled with more desire to reunite these two people through the covenants that are essential. As she went on about how the boy who shovels her side walk had tried to scam her out of more money, I asked her how that made her feel in the end. Through this random tangent we were able to teach her how to utilize the atonement to repent and feel refreshed and full of love towards all men. Right than and there I asked her to try it to pray and repent. She said I could ahahaha. So I prayed and repented for her ahhaaha. Not exactly how its done but she did feel the spirit and committed to continue to try this for herself. THis is great I figure she already has immense faith in Jesus Christ, she is now repenting the next step in the gospel is baptism right? hahaha or I can somehow take a picture of her birth certificate and get baptized for her, I would just have to wait a couple years or sooo......hey! it worked for repentance! ahhahaah

Love you all! KEEP CALM & READ  BOOK OF MORMON

LOVE SISTER NELSON :)

                                                     1 YEAR wiser and colder too!

Family and Forever Friends

Hi there!

Sweet! Shawn bought a bike (im either gonna have to get a scooter or bike licence to fit in the family now!), Diana has a new puppy, DAD IS GOING TO AUSTRALIA!!! and Michelle has found her dress! wow big stuff! 

(city branch ward it is the first chapel in Wisconsin, it was bought back from another church several years ago! this was Tuesday and freakin' freezing!)

I am living I survived -45 C!!!! Now its much warmer again! i was shocked this morning when I went outside and I did not have to wear gloves! Lucky meee (lucky my companion too, Ariel she suffers from that thing that you do where if you get cold you swell up and its painful, YIKES!)

Here is the update with our people we are teaching(or trying to. I have changed the names) We have not been able to meet with Sarah and Megan, although we have tried, but texting daily scriptures has been the only communication they have responded to and are appreciative of. The Smith's family (Megan's fellowshippers) are trying to set up a lesson this week.

We have met with Murray (a less active member of many years now, but has shown some interest in returning in the past couple months) with the ward mission leader and his family which went well. It is difficult for him to attend church because of work conflicts. We have recently built a better relationship with Bishop Nussbaun, He is an amazing leader (while being a young father and an ER doctor) and is striving to work with all of the members especially our recent convert who is fighting depression currently. For her we are scheduling regular appointments again but always having her home teachers, visiting teachers or fellow members leading the discussion to help her build faith. We have been able to teach several lessons through mall contacting and door knocking. It is fun! We also had a pretty funny experience with a Lutherine Family who was referred by members of our ward. Judy and Bob were borne Lutherine and go to Bible studies and hymn singing every week! They love singing the Lords prayer so much that in the middle of our discussion of Romans 8:16-17 how we are literal children of God Judy stood up and started playing and singing! It was lovely and strange. Bless their hearts, we may go back when they get back from snow-birding in Arizona.

All my mission I have planted seeds, never fully able to see the fruits of my labors. It had me down this week a bit until the Elders in our ward sent us this scripture:

1 Corinthians 3:8-10

 Now he [she] that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his ownreward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s ^bhusbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the ^agrace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid   the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

This Gave me so much comfort, I think my expectations for outbound were to finally reap all the rewards of my labours on Temple square. I know this is not Heavenly Fathers way. I also have faith in and have seen many progressions in those around me. This is His work and I am greatful to help build those foundations for Him.

I love you all! I think and pray about you often!

Merry Christmas!

What did Santa get you for Christmas? I got a self heating jacket, fuzzy warm PJs and Davids tea! (herbal tea yum) the best. We went to families houses all Christmas eve and day. We shared the Christmas story from the Book of Mormon with Nephi and angels telling the story!

And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.  - Alma 7:10
Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets. - 3 Nephi 1:13

 It is awesome the spirit comes so quickly because it is Christ himself speaking hrs before he was born in a manger.

Some funny experiences happened while tracting this week so i decided to draw them out.....

A man unhappily answered his door and opening it a crack he said, "cant you see?!" while gesturing up. We were so confused. He continued to gesture up and than said, "just above the door, you see it right?" We finally were able to see a tiny metal fish hung just over his door. We said "oh the fish?" "YES, I'm Lutherine" followed by a large door slam. What is that about? We laughed so hard.

Here's a cool picture (literally and figuratively of us tracting as well..

WE DID IT!!! The Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission reached 300 Baptisms for 2013! This is very great and memorable time for the mission. This is a goal that we have been striving for, for a long time! Through faith and diligence!

 "And now, i ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell? Behold i answer for you; for our brethren [and sisters], the [Wisconsinites], were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest [coldest] abyss, but behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work. Behold, [300] of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of god." Alma 26:2-5 

Love you all family! Thanks for all the cards and presents that were sent (from fam and friedns) LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL

Sister Nelson the Mish-i-cal

Family and Friends!

I'm not going to lie, this week was crazy.

 (Be prepared for this). So on transfer day, we moved from the Jones' house for a few weeks while they have family in town. They need our room for other people! So we are living at the Stake Presidents house while they are on a trip to California! It was a crazy move because we stayed one night at a different members house between moves. The night we were between moves MY COMP got the flu and was up all night sick! So we had to take a day and sleep by order of the mission nurse haha. Then we moved in to the new house and unpacked. Then that night there was a mega snow storm and we got about eight inches of snow! So Church got cancelled for most of Wisconsin, but luckily ours didn't! Sister reed and I are working really hard to find people to teach, but it doesn't seem like much is happening.. yet. It has seemed like every roadblock we can think of has come up to prevent us from fulfilling our purpose. But it's His work, so we will await when the people are ready. We have some really big goals though, so we'll make it through.

 All that aside, we had a fun experience with a referral we got this week:
     When we went to see the lady we got as a referral, we were welcomed in by her husband before he even knew who we were, it was really funny! Then when she came in, she proceeded to tell us about how she was a Minister for the Lutheran Church.. and gave us a sermon for an hour about circumcision and women's rights! Baaahaha, it was crazy. We tried sharing a Christmas message with her by having her read a scripture in Luke Chapter 2, but she read the verse.. and kept going.. and then went on about the circumcision thing. Oh boy. (her wig was a little crooked so it was kindof hard to stay totally focused on her eyes). Moral of the story is... sometimes we have expectations that seem totally perfect and we prepare all we can, but it still goes way off from what we expected. But that's okay!! These things just happen sometimes, and if we sit and stew in it, thinking "I prayed about this! I felt it was right! I thought that Heavenly Father was leading me..", then we're never going to progress. Sometimes experiences just happen. Sometimes there's something we need to learn from what happens to us, but sometimes we just have to let things go. And maybe that takes learning in itself.

  

   I love you all. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday! Keep Christ close to you. let Him walk with you. He came into the world to do all the Father asked him, so to accept Him, I invite all of you to study His life and discover what He can do for you every day, and then live off what you know. I can promise you that if you will live the teaching He gives in the New Testament as well as the Book of Mormon, you will find Him, and you will be happier. I have been so blessed as a Missionary to stand as a representative of Christ. His name is written on my tag. My prayer is that His name can be written on our Hearts. He loves you!!!

      "Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. … Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’” (C.S. Lewis)

 Christmas is an all year round holiday!! :)

Sister Nelsonthis guy looks like dad!

Dont be a turkey this christmas

Felis Navidad!

                   MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

Here are a bunch of random questions family/ friends have asked so here are the answers!

Are you a missionary that like walks around talking to people now?

Ya i am one of those missionaries now that walk around! Its pretty cool you meet all kinds of people and get to go to chruch with familis adn little nuggets (kids). I found this part oflds.org the other day and it is full of sweet videos about christmas and jesus christ. I really liked the video called emanuel or soemthing, it really helped me feel the spirit.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-00-0120-o-come-emmanuel-christmas-version?category=topics/christmas

And where in wisconsin did you get sent?

Brookfield, it is a city just 15 mins from Milwaukee and kind of a ritzy area. People have really big homes with huge lawns and drive ways which doesn't make any sense with the amount of shoveling they have to do with all the snow but different strokes for diffferent folks! There are also alot of trees! like leafy ones so they look really cool with all the snow it is beautiful.

　

How is your mission so far?

To answer your question my mission is THE BEST! sometimes I get sad but when I have happy moments, like when I'm bearing my testimony, reading the scriptures and something finally makes sense, praying and I feel Heavenly Fathers love for me or I am laughing with my companions so hard I get a stomach work out. Its the best! So I am so happy that I remembered you told me you wanted to serve a mission. Is that still true?:)

　Just today as I did both of those things I came to understand why god allowed Apostasy (when people reject prophets and God) and dispensations (when a prophet is accepted and the people faithfully fallow). I came to know that God loves us enough to let us choose, more so he is loving enough to give us guidence back into our lives. In these days (the last dispensation) we have the fullness of the gospel (temples, the Book of mormon and a prophet today to guide us). I just felt very loved. What clarified it for me was the Bible dictionary oddly enough.

"A dispensation of the gospel is a period of time in which the Lord has at least one authorized servant on the earth who bears the holy priesthood and the keys, and who has a divine commission to dispense the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. When this occurs, the gospel is revealed anew so that people of that dispensation do not have to depend basically on past dispensations for knowledge of the plan of salvation. There have been many gospel dispensations since the beginning. The Bible suggests at least one dispensation identified with Adam, another with Enoch, another with Noah, and so on with Abraham, Moses, and Jesus with His Apostles in the meridian of time. Paul writes of "the dispensation of the fulness of times...The fulness of times is the final dispensation and began with the revelation of the gospel to Joseph Smith. It is a glorious time, the time in which we live today...Although the Bible contains historical information pertaining to the ancient prophets and patriarchs, it is latter-day revelation that makes it clear that the leaders of former dispensations had the gospel of Jesus Christ and that certifies to the divine calling, ordination, and high intelligence of those early brethren."

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/dispensations?lang=eng&letter=d

The thing that helped me understand was that even before I knew all about these things I knew in my heart and leaned upon my faith. Now that I know them I still must lean upon my faith. It remindes me of a talk by Elder Holland a 12 apostle who said: "...remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith." ("Lord I Believe"April 2013 general Conference). In order to gain this faith I must read and pray. This is the same for you. I testify to you, as you do these simple things that can take 10min only per day, you will gain this testimony and feel His love as well.

LOVE YO ALLLLLL!