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!

Winter Wonder Wisconsin Land!

Hi there!

Life is good here! IT IS FREEZING! I mean we know cold but this is entirely different! When you look out the windows and it looks like a sunshiny day you need to bundle up because you get outside and it is unbearable! When there is snow you know it will be warmer. It is so weird here! But no worries I am smart I wear 3 pares of socks, a warm scarf, 2 undershirts, a sweater, my big parka jacket, gloves inside mittens and "hot paw" warmers in my boots! I am set :) nothing can make the warmth of the spirit leave me!

The Jones's are the couple we live with, they really are my mission mom and dad, they take care of us and even took us tree shopping and let us decorate it with them! I loved it!

We met two incredible people this week. One was while we were "mall contacting" his name was Tom. At first it didn't seem like he would even listen but as we talked with him, his heart poured out. He has been receiving treatment for cancer for the past several months and he didn't know how much time he had. We taught him briefly the Plan of Salvation and left with a prayer to bless him and give him peace. My heart goes out for tom. We have not been able to reach him yet but I know that was an answer to our and his prayers. Another was Susan a woman we ran into at the library. She ended up pouring out her heart as well. Her grandson only 2 years old just passed and although she was very religious she was not sure what happened

 to him. We were able to bear witness again of the fathers plan for us and leave her with a prayer and pamphlet of the plan before she had to rush away. I love the people here so much. I want them to find this peace.

I love you all I gotta go! We are having a second discussion with our investigator at the church for a church tour tonight where we will invite her to be baptized! I'm so excited!

LOVE YOU CTR

Sister Nelson,

PS here is my new address

7111 W Edgerton Ave. Ste 100

Greenfield WI 53220

(if you send packages they must be priority or first class)

HELLO WISCONSIN!

It feels so right being here! I love it hear I feel right at home with the ward! My flight left SLC at 830am. I flew to Georgia atlanta than to Milwakee. In georgia I asked if there was a smoothie shop to a lady. Her ascent was so thick and her drawl so crazy I said "okay thank you very much!" and walked in the general direction she pointed in I had no clue what she actually said! hahha It felt so weird be on my own while traveling. It was such a relief so be greated by President Cutler and Sister Cutler at eh airport. They took me to the mission office there where I did some driving tests and got approved! Than they took me to there house where I was interviewed and had dinner wither their family. They are so nice and young! They still have a 15 year old daughter at home. They moved from SLC to Wisconsin in July to serve this past summer. Than they took me to meet my new companions! I am loving my two comps Sister Reed (she is a hippie and I love her, and she loves essential oils). She is also the very kind and considerate of others needs at all times. I have no clue how she does it so much and all the time. And sister Brewster (who is the sassiest shortest diva in the funniest way possible who loves food I call her a Buffalo nugget cuz she is bite size and spicy!) She is so short like 4.11" I swear she reminds me of the dwarf character on the Chronicles of Narnia hahahahha. She also connects with people and our ward very well.  The first full day I got there was Thanksgiving! We had four meal appointments! (don't worry Aaron I refused to eat deserts or stuffing and paced myself so I didn't get a stomach ache!). It was great to meet the ward members some investigators and recent converts. THe  people have funny accents but they tease me like im suppost to have an accent its so funny. The work is slow becasue we are in a ritzy and highly catholic / lutherin nabourhood but its good. We have a new finding stratigie (? I can't spell) that is using a youth talk given to us by our mission president by Diane Holster. She talks about 2 different types of conversion that everyone needs to be sucessfully and continually converted. 1. Social 2. Spirtual. It helps teach how members can do the social and missionaries the spiritual. It is really good, her parents did it with their kids because they were promised in blessings that if they had their whole family work together in missionary work they would never fall away. Since than her family has had over 50 missionary discussions in their home and 30 baptisms. WOW. It is all through simple means as well. I will send a CD home with the notes sheet. Its great too because she is from Wisconsin and has a funny accent! I love you all But got to run! BYE LOVE YOU!

 

Sister Nelson

October 25th, 2013

This is going to be random but long story short BEST WEEK EVER!

Sister Kuo and I are doing swimmingly! We are on track with the 12 week program, tired (like missionaries should be :), Using methods from the "adjusting to missionary life" booklet and preaching the gospel to every Asian from nu skin convention haha. But really we have received many miracles this week. The man Leo (about in his late 20's) was such a miracle. He is from the  Bejing area here with his fiance for Nu Skin. We met him alone awhile opening the Joseph Smith Movie an we could tell he was experiencing the feeling of the Holy Ghost for the first time. As we identified to him what that feeling was he asked how he could essentially feel it more and become more familiar with our religion and join it. We arranged to meet with him after the movie to discuss what he watched and teach him more. When we did we answered many of his questions and taught the restoration. We also taught him how to pray. He told us how he was already Christian, but how he wasn't very familiar with it. We invited him to pray, to read the Book of Mormon and to meet with us the next day. He did and he brought his fiance! He wanted her to experience everything he had. We than taught them both the plan of salvation and the power of praying as a couple relating it to sister Kuo and I how it has strengthened our teaching companionship by involving God in it. They really liked that. Leo also confided in us that he really did know that God existed until he prayed the day before with us. He said he knew in that moment that God did exist and was watching over him. WOW. I feel Leo, jessica and China are very ready for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am going to have to start practicing my mandarin more!

Today on the Square we met a man from china who was trying to get in adn take pics of the temple from the lobby lol. Jian was crazy but he accepted to read the BOM. He also told us he has faith in prayers being answered. This is his story: "I pray for many days to get a paper [Visa] to live in the french. One night I just pray and when I close my eyes I saw a image in my mind. A face with BIG smile was looking at me and nodding!" I wish you could have seen him showing us with his own face so funny and so sinseare. He asked if that was from God. Sister Kuo looked at me... and I said "The Holy Ghost tells us in many different ways that God loves us." He than said "are YOU god?!" Even though I understoud he didnt actually think we were god but he was unable to phrase what he was thinking, I assured him we were not but God sends messengers, and we are representatives of Jesus Christ serving to deliver this message to God's Children. The simple version of the restoration, introduction to the book of mormon and about 30 mins later he had a chinese book of mormon, a large smile on his face and many other materials. He accepted the invitation to read, pray about the book of Mormon (teaching him to pray was a whole other story ahaha) and  to have the local missionaries in Pennsylvania to teach him there. He was one of the strangest contacts I have had on temple Square. The spirit was definitely there though, so all is well all is well.

LOVE LOVE you all

CTR

-Sister V. Nelson

We went to the humanitarian center for explore day!

                                                                  Sister Kuo ("guo")

I hope we get ipads soon, this is just getting ridiculous hahaha

Only in utah

November 15th, 2013

We have been getting a lot of new investigators (about 5 new this week again) but our goal is to help move them to progressing and meeting with the local missionaries.

One of my favorites is Jonni. She is in her 6o's and we met her after the movie "Joseph Smith: the Prophet of the Restoration"  as we were closing the film. We were actually late and when we got to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building everyone was gone. I felt so bad because I know missionary opportunities there are few and far between but when they come they are solid. There was one person studying the timeline of Joseph Smith's Life. For a moment I thought, "oh we shouldn't bug her"  than the spirit firmly prompted me that we needed to speak to her. We went over and the moment i said hello to her I knew why. As she spoke to us her countenance was changed. I had never met her before but I knew it had. Jonni was experiencing the spirit work in her in a way she had never experienced before. Its hard to understand or describe what this is like until you experience it for yourself. I have seen it in every person that is taught a doctrine of truth that rings true to them or just makes sense. I think the best way to describe it was Jonni was radiating the light of Christ, or as sister Kuo would say "there is a 'spack-oh' in her eyes!" We testified that the Book of Mormon was true and that she can continue to feel the spirit in the way she was right now when she reads it. We gave her a copy and exchanged information. She hs been to temple square everyday since that day. She came to hear our mission music fireside (which was so fun and the spirit was very strong), and yesterday we read the book of Mormon with her and taught her to pray out loud (she does in her heart but never out-loud) and ask for specific questions to be answered. Jonni is a choice spirit. We invited her to attend our temple square sacrament on Sunday and to Music and the Spoken Word. We are also trying to get her tickets to "Savior of the World" (which we saw as a mission last night so we can invite people to go to it, it was very good I highly suggest going or looking at it). She is only here for 6ish more days however and we haven't been told when it starts. The best part about it all is she wants to read the Book of Mormon with her Husband and son! To describe Jonni she has grey curly shoulder length hair, glasses, wheres jean button up shirts and is my height, she is sooooo cute. Her personality reminds me of a more laid back version but just as forgetful and sweet as mom!

Funny fact: The Mission Music performance held in the Assembly Hall was really good. We have been rehearsing for it for along time. The purpose was for our investigators and other missions investigators to come with their missionaries and feel the spirit through the music. There were violin, choir, harp, flute, acoustic, viola, and ASL. They were great! My favorite song was a group of 6 sisters who sang Joseph Smith's First prayer to the tune of Homeward Bound. I felt the spirit testify strongly that Joseph Smith did see heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. Than there was a traditional folk song written by the choir director that was suppose to be what the pioneers would have sang. It was weird. The worst part of it though is that there was a dance that went along with it. Can you guess who was dragged into participating in it by their precious companion they love so much and would do anything for? You guessed it me! I felt ridiculous we even danced in the audience, which completely weirds me out. I didn't even know the dance so I kind of just followed in the direction everyone was going in when I wasn't laughing or waving at a cute 3 year old girl in the row closest to me. Needless to say i have left my dance career behind long ago when I was 9 in jazz.

Love you all and as I went to the temple this morning I thought and prayed for my family and investigators. 

With BIG LOVE, (hahah) Sister Nelson

November 8th, 2013

Hello!

Funny story:

 

So yesterday morning Sister Kuo and I had Tabernacle duty. That is where we are assigned to greet people who walk into the Tabernacle and use it as a finding and teaching tool its very effective....when there are people. That morning no one walked in for over a half hour! We were walking around, singing songs and chatting when an organist started practicing. He played a song that reminded me of a carnival song. We fought it at first but than we would not take it we started dancing about. All of a sudden we heard laughter from behind us! A couple was standing there watching us bust our moves! We all laughed and we apologized for not being more professional. They assured us that for 22 year old young adults we were doing pretty good. Man I can't believe it, in the tabernacle you can hear a pin drop but you can't hear a door open? What's the deal?

we went to a space museum for our last pday! we are on the moon in this picture! This mission really doesn't have any boundries!
here is a picture of sister Kuo and I! this is her first time experiencing snow! what a hozer eh? she was so excited! She has been one of my favorite companion. She is so strong, fun and has an amazing testimony. I am so sad that on nov 27th I'll be leaving temple square for my outbound mission experience. I really wanted to finish training her and learning from her. I know though that I will see her again when I return to temple Square. I really feel like I will stay good friends with her for a long time or at least I hope so.

thanks a lot dad! I had no idea about Thierry, and as I read about your experience I realized how ungrateful I am for my situation. We get to teach every single day here, people ask for us to teach them. wow I need to repent and get back to work. That's actually what sister Kuo and I did. We recognized that we were not trying to be exactly obedient in all things even the easy little things. we recognized and repented as a companionship and resolved to help each other by correcting each other and consciously repenting daily for our short comings. What a blessing this has been. We have received 5 new investigators since I last emailed! As a missionary here and in general like you said we do not see the fruits or the exponential effect we actually have. I know I must trust in the Lord and his plan more.

 I love ya all and we are falling into winter down here!

PS SHAWNY!!!! MOM TOLD ME YOU PASSED!!!!! congrats!!!!!!!! So prouddd of you, may the plumbing force be with you!!!!!