October 8th 2013

Wow general conference was amazing right? It was busy for us sisters with a 7:30 am start Saturday and Sunday and a 930 pm finish each night but man was it worth it! My favorite highlights from watching the Saturday morning session was: Elder Bednar's talk on tithing:

"Sometimes we may ask God for success, and He gives us physical and mental stamina. We might plead for prosperity, and we receive enlarged perspective and increased patience, or we petition for growth and are blessed with the gift of grace. He may bestow upon us conviction and confidence as we strive to achieve worthy goals. And when we plead for relief from physical, mental, and spiritual difficulties, He may increase our resolve and resilience..." 

The best part is when he throws down (in a Christ like way) and invites the world to repent:

 " [Tithing is] Not just a duty but an important step in the process of personal sanctification. For those who are obeying this commandment I comment you... those who are presently not obeying I invite you to consider your ways and repent... The windows of heaven will be opened to you... please do not procrastinate the day of your repentance."

The other talk that pricked my heart was by Elder Edward Dube (of the 70). His words inspired me not that I am reaching the half way mark of my mission and can help many others I believe in any stage of their lives:

"As a boy working in the field with my mother....we had been working for along time...I stopped to look at what we had accomplished and said to my mother look at what we have done! She did not reply finally she turned to me and said 'Edward, never look back look at what we still have to do.'....To be a disciple of Christ (baptized) is a life long commitment."

I announced and messed up so badly but i did manage to say "hi there! my name is Sister Nelson your neighbor from Canada! as a missionary and a member of the church I have felt the peace and joy that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Although I am large in stature and may be intimidating i would love to help you with your missionary work! thank you." It was fun but i don't know if I like that many people staring at me...as I mess up haha.

It was great to see some friends too! (Katie and Dan Baradoy, Laura Dunford, Carlos Rojos, Heidi Halsted, Tyler Henry, Tanner Hopkins, Kent Harker, Sister Simpson & Sister Garner, David and Peter Blomfield, President Craig, any Canadians! and many more!)

My favorite part was uplifting members on the square and in the beehive house (we covered for 3 hrs.) One member in particular I will never forget. This brother was sitting outside of the Assembly Hall during Priesthood session. As we casually talked with him he told us he was a recent convert and from what we sensed with the help of the spirit he was struggling with  understanding and applying the gospel of Jesus Christ and his marriage. We invited him to read Sister Stephens talk from the Saturday morning Session. It is about the important role of men and women and how working together to keep our covenants is the way to attain salvation and true happiness. He seemed a little shocked and than explained how him and his wife were having  problems with seeing eye to eye and struggling. We than promised him as he did this and followed the gospel of Jesus Christ with his wife they would be able to be happy again. Heavenly Father really does place people in our paths and guides us in what to do to help them. In that moment through really listening and discerning through the spirit we were given the words what to say, just like in D&C 100:6. 

 Love you all!

CTR 

Sister Vicbic Nelson

  

Hadley made and gave me her art work of 

President Eyring talking in General Conference

 it will be worth big bucks some day!

                    Elder Skanchy

Sister Takahashi so pretty!

Sister Gee and Mee

                           

 A most scrumptious present left on my bed you even could call it precious!

Sept. 24th 2013

This email is going to be a little scattered because people keep on coming in and out of our office, but if you don't mind neither do I!

Hearing about Uncle Frank in the letter mom sent me was so sad, he will be in my prayers along with the rest of the family. (Uncle Frank and Aunt Vickie helped me a lot when I was making important decisions, I am so grateful for what they did for me). SHOUT out to Aaron for contributing to my mission. I appreciate it so much! This is the happiest I have ever been and it is only possible because the support I have back home. SO thanks I love you.

WOW tell ROBBY HEY! and i miss his stinkin guts. lol its so weird its been 2 years since he left

I was reading a scripture that goes along with that the other day:

Mosiah 5:15 "be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his" 

"Seal you his" To live with him and our families forever. The importance of temples are really manifest through this.

I had a prompting to call a member who was preparing for his mission when I met him at last conference, even though I didnt know why I called him anyways and explained why i was calling. Turns out he leaves for Tahiti in January!! Ye-haw. Than he explained how he was having a lot of temptation thrown at him lately. As we talked more, we realized his temptations were the same as mine before I left. I was able to advise him on what to do to defeat it. :) heavenly Father knows us all very well.

I have been having miracles in being able to have time to teach this week (because sister bahr is amazing) and because the Lord is merciful. I have reached 3 people I have been trying to teach for weeks now and received many referrals from people themselves that are interested in learning more! One man was on one of our tours was baptized a member when he was 8 but because his parents were not he fell quickly into inactivity and has little to no experience or knowledge of the church. He was however recently with his wife (former catholic) looking for a religion for their little young family of 4. I was able to get the information needed to send him the Book of Mormon, a finding faith in Christ video and the missionaries. I am praying for his family every prayer I have now.

These are a few of the miracles that have been pouring out. I love temple square so much! I am so happy to tell everyone I was told by president Gillette today that I will not be going outbound untill nov 27th!!!!! (mostly because renewing my passport is taking soooo long. But I am excited to have at least one more transfer here while the presidency is the same and the work is great. Also I can't imagin not being in the shadows of the SLC temple this is my home.

Today in Deseret book I ran into the actors from Ephram's rescue! the woman who played the pioneer "Elizabeth" talked to be for almost 15 mins! It was so neat hearing the behind the scene info from TC and now the actress herself. The scene she played where Elizabeth Nearly drowned was a very emotional one.

I had a break through while studying:

1 Nephi 14:14 I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were ^aarmed with ^brighteousness and with the ^cpower of God in great glory.

"Armed with righteousness" stood out to me. I have heard that many times in primary with the little diagram of the person in actual armor that represents things like "prayer, scripture study , CTR/......" I felt like there was more so I read the reference it has which is "Mission of Latter Day Saints". It spoke of our mission as members of the church, these Covenant people. We are to be missionaries and help others make it. This made me refer to my patriarchal blessing and realize through inspiration through the Spirit of my particular mission and how to accomplish it. I am so grateful for the power of the Book of Mormon, Prayer, and pondering. Now my mission in life is much more clear, worries are gone and I am more focused. I will never forget my personal study on Monday Sept 23, 2013.

On a funnier note, I bumped my head pretty hard on the office dividers in the phone teaching center while on exchanges with my districts. Now big blue has a a friend, Little red lol.

WE FINISHED the TREE of LIFE!!!! Hope yall like it! LOVE YOU CTR

 Moroni preaching the good word

Sister Todd special speaker for Relief Society. She is a publicist for General Conference and the church! she taught us the importance of our calling and appropriately talking with others on difficult questions that will come up at this conference and how to speak to people of a firm strong faith. It was very useful.

4.The tree of life crew (Sister Friend Takahashi -love this girl so much, Sister Lee -same and she is much more Asian-, Sister Bahr, President Seppi who provided the shop for metal work and the moral support :) and myself)

Sept. 17th 2013

The tree of life for General Conference. The theme this conference to focus the sisters is:

1 Nephi 8: 10-12

"And it came to pass that I beheld a ^atree, whose ^bfruit was desirable to make one ^chappy. And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the ^afruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted....And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great ^ajoy; wherefore, I began to be ^bdesirous that my family should partake of it also."

We are all children of God so we want to as Lehi did to have our family partake of this fruit and be filled with joy. We are focusing on reactivating less active members and finding new investigators. I really like this , I have always seen members as a high priority.

This week we had some pretty crazy things happen...like our car battery die on the way to walmart. Power steering was gone and i dont know how we made it but we did even though the break light turned on as well. I know we were protected because the breaks completely worked when everything else didnt. We had a strange investigator lesson where even though we cationed the elders who wanted to show a family "Gods Plan for the family" even though they had experienced domestic abuse. It didn't make them feel the spirit needless to say because they felt bitter they neverhad a family like that. We taught them about the power of the atonment which helped. It just goes to show we really need to be careful and teach to the needs of the poeple.

We had our first official district meeting! it was so neat. After sharing our "accountablity" (we share the people we will focus on for the next week and discuss what we can do to help them come closer to christ), I gave instruction on how to help people experience the gospel to believe it. I used Julia Gulia gross as an example ( I hope you dont mind :). i used the story of how when you were little you were told by D to not touch the fire place because it was "HOT" and would make you go "OUCH!" Than one day you leaned your bottom against it...talk about hot crossed buns! lol As sad as that experience was you (julia) learned to not touch it because you experienced what your mom had told you and believed her. This is the same with poeple ablut the gospel and the Spirit. You can talk people's ears off about how belief in Christ and how feeling the spirit will change their lives for the better but until they experience it for themselves it means nothing. Than we did a role play where each sister using one verse from the book of mormon would teach their comp. according to what they needed. Which is possible because the companions know each other but also more importantly because Heavenly Father knows each of us. That meant they would have to listen,  to the sister and the spirit to discern the needs of each other. It was a great experience, one which I have not tried since the MTC. Praying and planning for the sisters this way helped me re-discover this principle of teaching people not lessons.  I love my District.

Okay ran out of time love yalllllll PEACE be unto you...

"Lets Lay some Sod!" *check* seeds planted!

 

                                                        President and SIster Gillette 

This is a string of confussion because office service, though I love it, caused me to start late on emailing:

•  Several 11 hour office days straight & with the help of yogurts on the go WE MADE IT THROUGH TRANSFER WEEK- "YEE-HAWW!"
• My companionship was truly inspired. This week has been...difficult. Senior Companion is scary in the office :) BUT I am so grateful for this stretching and spiritual growth and I had SIster Bahr, she is everything I lack and more, sorry for the cheese, but it is true. It truly was an inspired decision, I know this because I have the inside scoop: The Ap's told they had me paired with a couple different sisters until a week before transfer conference President and sister Gillette returned from the bountiful temple with the inspiration to have sister Bahr as my companion. WOW I cannot thank Heavenly Father enough for that. She is a sweet, kind and fun missionary! The important qualities she possesses as a missionary is: Want to be obedient, caring for others, able to have a clear mind and knowledge for office service and missionary work. Sister Bahr is everything I needed to strengthen my weaknesses.
• Getting pictures of the new sisters with each other is like herding cats, 2 sisters where still missing from the pic so I had to photoshop them in with out the use of photoshop lol it was brutal
• Stuck in Costco for a half hour when the mission card did not work for the lunch in the next day
• Investigator lesson with Elders from the SLC mission was so boss. Mostly because the spirit was so strong, and it made me feel like a missionary and not just an office missionary.
• Secondly I am learning balance and to multiply my love for others I sound like a mom when I say that...weird.. for my district/companion, office service, and investigators. I am still working on it but I know through consistent council with my Heavenly father and following the spirits promptings I can do my best. 
• I might be extending! I asked president a couple days ago so if its approved I will be home Aug 6th and if not June 25th fingers crossed!
• Man this week has been hard but I learned a really good lesson through much tribulation, many prayers and a few tears: life is meant to be hard, heaven is for rest and thats ok, as long as I am following Jesus Christ, it's ok.
• sister bahr and I: realized americans have no clue what "zed" is
• had my first district meeting! and got to hang out with my district. They are all the best and I love how we are all so unique but we all love each other and are so hard working!
• We have a progressing investigator who we were teaching over the phone and just before we invited  him to meet with the local missionaries and attend church he said, "sisters I love learning from you and plan on continuing to, is there also some people like you who live close by that could meet with me in person? And is there a church near by I can go to this sunday?" DING DING DING! YES!

LOVE YOU ALL!

CTR SISTER NELSON

Dropping off Sister Gerrrick at the airport.

A Marvelous Work and a Chaos!

pic: Ensign Peak 

A Marvelous Work and a Chaos!

This week was intense. So many things happened, I loved it! I will break it down by each day:

Monday

2nd All day P-day!! We did everything from hiking in Mill creek canyon, so tie dying for zone activity! Tiring but worth the memories.

Tuesday

Early in the morning Elder Jeffery R. Holland spoke to our mission! I've known for several weeks now from staff meetings but it was so fun to see all the sisters so shocked and excited. Elder Holland is an amazing apostle. The spirit was intensified when he entered the room. I will never forget the way he started his address to us. He started by saying how much he loved and cares for us, you could tell how he said it that he really did. He continued on to talk about our calling as missionaries, how it is similar to the commission the Lord gave his apostles just before he ascended back to heaven. The importance of our calling is that of the last words he spoke to His apostles. Every prophet and apostles commission has been the same since than and before than.

                                                                                                                     pic: Elder Holland

 "Isiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Alma, Amulek, peter, James, and John all knew they would not succeed in their time. They kept on going because they saw you. Your hour, your day, and your face is what kept them going. Ours is the dispensation that will succeed. It is your day. Your mission. Ours is the day that every Prophet, Priest and King would dream of. You are shoulder to shoulder with us. You have been sent with a message."  

He went on to encourage us to to not miss a minute of it. "It will never come again (He said with emotion in his voice). I have thought about my mission everyday for 50 years. You are never supposed to be the same." You are guaranteed one devoted convert, and that is you. You are God's investigator. You want your investigator(or kid or friend or family member) to read the Book of Mormon, well He wants you to read the Book of Mormon. You want your Investigator to repent to relieve burdens of guilt and sorrow, He wants you to repent to relieve burdens of guilt and sorrow.Change what ever you must change, walk away from who ever you must. You think you are going back to real life? This is 'Real Life' you are on a mission for the rest of you life. God wants you to come and stay. You do all you can. Pledge this day and everyday to commit to that."

                                     pic: Christ teaching Peter how to love him and Heavenly Father

As I type his words I am filled with that spirit he came with. I know that God has called prophets and apostles in these days to lead us in His great work to bring all to His happiness. I hope these words also inspire or lift any others who read them. I know they made me turn to action in these last few days I get in this transfer.

Wednesday

The dreaded day of doing mission numbers. The only reason I dread it is because I feel like a mom (no offense mom haha). I have to nag everyone to hand them in who is late and correct people when they don't do it right. Yuck I don't enjoy that part. It especially was frustrating this week because several days prior to the deadline I reminded the sisters through: email, texts, face to face and typed out and printed inserts for their planners as reminders of the specific guidelines in how to successfully hand in their numbers on time. Some still forgot or didn't even use the resources I gave them. Sisters always come into our office asking for help with this and that and we happily help them. With out a doubt they always leave saying "your the best we love you! Is there anything we can do for you?" This is where I want to kick and scream and say "YES just do what I have asked you to." This is when my spiritual ears perked up and made the connection. Heavenly Father must feel similar to us (although He is perfect with much more patience and love then I have, I'm still a long shot from that kind of charity and patience). He gives us everything we need to be successful in this life, and is always there for us when we need His assistance. I can recall many occurrences where I have been in need and prayed, received an answer or comfort and than carried on my marry way with a "thank you so much! is there anything I can do for you?". The words I felt repeat in my mind, "Yes, just do what I have asked you to." Heavenly Father has given me very specific commandments to help me be successful and happy and all I need to do it heed to his reminders: the Holy ghost's promptings, the scriptures, the prophets, my mission president, companion, the white handbook and so on. He loves us so much and just wants us to be happy. We must do our part. 

Thursday

While I was fixing the mission finding source chart, Sister Garrick turned to me and said, "Can you smell that?" and I said, "Oh my gosh couldn't you have gone out of the room!" than she said "No, no Sister nelson it smells like BBQ propane!" Sister Garrik's sense of smell is strangely so powerful but than I smelt it as well. Soon all of us were popping our heads out of our office's like gophers. Soon enough the fire alarms went off. We were all evacuated to across the street and were checked by paramedics and firemen. We were all fine, I wasnt effected other than a small head ache that could have been from the fumes or the alarm, and Sister Garrick's eyes were watering a bit. On the mission blog ( http://slctemplesquaremission.blogspot.com/ ) there are pictures and another link to a local news broadcast (which hams it up a bit, it wasn't bad at all I promise, don't worry). It turns out is was a Chlorine Cloud evacuation. We were medicated with Chick-fil-A so we were well taken care of :)

Friday

it was a very officey day. We almost didn't see sunlight. The best part of it though was the miracle Heavenly Father sent us. Her name is Rachel. Rachel came on chat 30 minutes before we had to go home at the end of the night. She asked us some questions about attending church (what to where, which chapel to go to, would people notice her or could she blend in? lol sorry new comers stick out especially on the east coast of the states where there are few members but are warmly welcomed). Turns out her best friend is a member and she has been secretly investigating the church on her own so she is not pressured and does it on her own time. She saw the example of her friend for years and always wanted what she had. We have been praying like crazy for her to have the courage to go. We will check up on her tomorrow to see how church went. 

Saturday

For a couple of weeks the relief society (temple square sisters run it) presidency has been planning for the mission enrichment activity. We were all so excited for this particular one to hike "Ensign Peak" and listen to different speakers along the hike. For those of you who are unaware of what that hike is like it is comparable with "Bears Hump Hike" in Waterton in elevation and steepness but is only 0.6 miles. Not difficult at all but for those who are not used to physical exertion it can be hard. Sister Garrick and I were at the end of the pack taking our time when we heard commotion near the top of the peak. We ran up to see sisters circling Sister Barret, a brand new missionary to the mission. She had blacked out and hit her head on a large rock. Without a good cell signal or anything to cool her down Garry and I booked it down the trail to get help. Grabbing supplies and calling the senior missionary couple we turned around within minutes of reaching the bottom and ran back up the trail. It was so hot, steep and without much water I know Heavenly Father helped me make it back up quickly. When we had reached her there where too many sisters crowed and too much chaos. For some reason after she had come to Sisters and tried to stand her up right away so she blacked out again and started convulsing. This happened a total of 3 times by the time we got back up. I wrapped my jacket that I drenched in water around her head and shoulders to help her cool down. We got her in a comfortable recovery position and in shade. She was coherent and talking to us, but I was afraid she had a concussion. Another Sister and myself helped her down the mountain when she was stable enough to stand up. We took her to the hospital for treatment right away. She is doing really well now and even back to work! I think she had heat exhaustion and was dehydrated. It was a crazy day but I was glad to have remembered a little bit of first aid.

Sunday

Yet again another Office day but we did get to meet our returning member we talk to on a regular basis at music and the spoken word!

Monday

Today we had a meeting to find out who is going outbound...turns out Sister Garrick is going next week :( I will miss my bestie of 6 weeks. I really love her and it will be tough without her experience in the office!

 P.s. I had a couple of people come up to me while emailing and say "your from Canada EH?! hahaha" people think its so funny and I don't get it. I love you all! I am trying to write all the nieces and nephews this week, I will send the ones I don't have the addresses of to mom and Dad and than they can give them to them all. I hope that works! Thanks for all the love and support!

CTR,

Love Sister Vicbic Nelson

1. Returning member friend

2. 8am desk duty we found a fashion forward fanny pack

3. Finding out Sister Garrick is Out ward bound

4. Baking cooks!
 

 

Just thought I would post a few pictures of some fun things Vickie has been up to!

 1)  Brighton Girls Camp! mission wide activities the presidency took us on! So fun!!! it was in Beautiful Cotton Wood Canyon (you know where the stone for the temple came from!)

2) Sr couples Elder frost adn sister frost. I love them 

soo much! they work so hard and love us so much!

3) "Best District EVER! and i would have to say the best looking!!" -Vickie

A delicious milkshake from a place called "Blue Plate" featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. 

 If you would like to check out the Temple Square Mission blog here is the link:

                                           http://slctemplesquaremission.blogspot.com/

July 28th 2013

Hello Everyone!

Serving as OA is a very different way to serve. I feel as though I have an office job. The difference is that my boss is Heavenly Father and manager is the president. Both of them are very patient (thank goodness, because I am a shmag but learning) and I have my wonderful comp Sister Garrick who is fun and is a great teacher. I am using Microsoft excel, word and outlook (for email) to organize and run the legistics of Temple Square. I am so grateful I was in graphic design at the U of L for a year and a half. I know that was something that really helped prepare me. We do daily numbers, scheduling for the presidency, anything to do with paper work for the sisters (baptism reports, other numbers) and odd ends. It is very busy and piles up but I know that Heavenly Father is truly helping me. I don't get stressed or frustrated. If anything I became more calm when sudden things pop up or must be changed. I've had maybe 3 hrs of teach time on the phone, a couple hrs of square time, 2 personal studies and zero companionship study this whole week. But I love serving the sisters. That is what this assignment is all about. Helping the sisters serve. I know it will become less busy over the next week or so as well so there's nothing to complain about. If anything I am just am thankful Heavenly father trusts and supports me in such a large task.  

This week we had 2 different transfer weeks. The first we had all 24 of the new sisters from the MTC come. We helped them get all there new things sorted, fed and helped them until they were interviewed and  sorted into companion ships by the AP's and President. After running around trying to get all the paper work done that day the next day we had 13 new sister come from the Mexico mission and all the sisters returning from there out bounds. So we did it all again! It was crazy but fun. We now have 191 sisters serving on temple square! I love them all and are trying to learn all there names, some are super hard though especially some of the Polynesians and Europeans. Those 2 days were a blur, they went by so quickly. Running around making huge group meals, cleaning, doing office work and than making and cleaning up another big meal. We were in Cosco one day picking up food and I envisioned mom doing this very same thing day after day but with little nuggets hanging off of her and her shopping cart. How did you do it mom? 

We got to go to the Pioneer day parade. It was sooo Utah lol. Big fancy floats, hair and dresses :) It was so fun and our lovely presidency covered the square for us, they are so sweet and really work so hard for this whole mission. Our presidency has Pres Gillette who was a lawyer and knows everyone and everyone loves him. President Seppi, who is an architect who did the conference center, city creek mall and many other buildings. He is so kind. President Harman who is also a lawyer and one of the most charismatic people I have ever met. Everyone loves to talk to him and he makes you feel like a million bucks when you walk in the room. Elder Skanchy who is a Judge prosecutor for the State and sooo funny. He has a dry sense of humor but loves this mission so much, he takes care of the financial work and pass ports and documents. After the Parade we ran into  Elder Perry! He was shaking our hands and so sweet. 

Yesterday I met Stevey Wonder yesterday! He practiced with Mo-Tab and I bumped into him while he was leaving through the back of the Tabernacle. He looked so cool! he had a mow-hack in corn rolls, shades and a white long hippy shirt with black pants. Cool eh?! 

I had a bunch of "Sister Vick" moments this week, here are some: I mispronounced several sisters names on the phone while setting up interviews with them on the Phone. the best one was "sister Snee-deerr" she was very polite while correcting me, I now know it is sister Seidere. Its a Latvian name, you gotta cut me some slack on that one. We scared the AP's so bad by hiding in there closet before they got home one night. Just as they were kicking off there shoes to get ready to plan Sister Gordan screeched and did a little scared dance lol. Classic. I was taking a million pizza boxes out of the car for the new sisters and the trunk door landed on my head (softly dont worry) and I couldnt move! lol Sister Garrick came to my rescue after finishing laughing. I love serving with her. Its like I'm with Sister Pickrel again. I get to have fun and serve! (I have before but I think serving with Americans is different, they understand my humor better). We just have a hoot together. 

We were able to help a kid from the Bronx in NY to find a YSA ward near him so he could go back to church on an inbound call. He was excited and kept on saying, (read the following with a New Yorker, Bronxy accent) "oh okayy...okay..oh ya ya...oh thats haaat!" hahahaha goodness I love this mission! I was able to talk to Bryan my Recent convert! He is awesome! He is going strong, has great member friends and is enjoying the summer! 

I ran into Little Diana Torres!!!! SO cool! it was like i was seeing LG, Lauren mark and Diana. They are all so similar with some of there mannerisms. Man I miss those chikas! I haven't seen her since the day she was set apart to be a missionary! I love her and her mission sounded so cool. (PS what is your emails lady's?) I hated saying by to her and I still wanna talk to you miss Torres!

Well I gotta run but I love yall! your in my prayers always. Keep it cool and stay good!

Sister Nelson

 

Pictures:

Calling everyone in the mission to help the phone coordinators fix problems with the important phone list that keeps the square running smoothly! It was actually so fun to get to say hi to everyone and we had snacks!

Elder and sister Uchtdorf in Pioneer day parade (only in Utah)

Diana and I!