Christmas isn't about giving it's about receiving...

*contrary to popular belief, Christmas is about giving* 

I hope y'all had a great Christmas!

  

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Big 21!

Christmas time is the most amazing time to be a missionary! Christmas here in Bowling Green was so wonderful! It was definitely very different for me to have a warm and humid Christmas (75 degrees on Christmas Day)! But Christmas on a mission is an experience that I am so grateful to have and will always remember. I have felt so close to the real Christmas Spirit. I seriously just love Bowling Green more and more every day! Big things happening here! 

We saw so many miracles this week.

 

First Miracle: So last P-day, we were shopping at Walmart and there was a Hispanic lady with her two kids, so we went up and talked to her. We introduced ourselves and asked her if we could come to her house and share more with her! We found a member to come with us, and we got there and her, her husband, and her two kids all sat down, turned off the tv, and listened to us and really paid attention.  It was such an amazing lesson. We scheduled a lesson for later on this week.

 

Second Miracle: On Monday night this past week, we had planned to go to the home of some less-active members, the P---- family, and act out the nativity together, but they ended up cancelling on us. So we decided to knock doors. We knocked quite a few doors, and we got to this one door I had knocked before (yes, I've been here long enough I've started repeating doors). We knocked two times, and usually we leave after two times. But we knocked a third time, the celestial knock. And someone answered! His name was E------, and we started talking to him. We introduced ourselves, and he said, "Hey! My uncle is a member of that church! His name is Hermano P----!" And it was just like...definitely not a coincidence. Long story short, he is prepared to recieve the gospel and has questions. 

Third Miracle: I don't know if i mentioned Y-------. She fell through after a couple lessons and failure to come to church, but we decided to try her one more time before we dropped her. We knocked on her door and she let us in. After some small talk, we asked her if she had been reading in the Book of Mormon. And she said yes. We asked her if she had prayed about it, and she said yes. Then we asked her what she thought about it, and she said that she knows that it is true. It was a moment right out of Preach My Gospel. We scheduled an appointment, and we went back and reviewed the Restoration with her because it has been a while since she had that lesson. At the end we invited her to be baptized and she accepted. So we scheduled a date with her. Tender mercies. 

We also had some fun service opportunities this past week! The sisters have an old couple that they are teaching, and they invited all of us to come to this Christmas party at the senior center and cheer up the people there.  Then we also went with all of the missionaries from Bowling Green to an adult daycare and sang Christmas hymns. I have done a lot of singing this year, like a lot... hasn't been pretty but did bring the Spirit. 

I had a great birthday! it was also a day of way too much food. I have never been so full in my life. We got invited to breakfast by the Spanish group leader. Then that was when we all went and did service with Sister Painter's alpaca farm. Haha! We fed them and filled up their water. It was awesome! I got to pet them and feed them, and one of them even spit on me. Then she made all of us lunch. A family from Nashville was up here in Bowling Green celebrating Christmas, so they called us, and we got to see them! It was seriously the best thing. But, she wanted us to eat her cookies and drink her punch. Because in the Hispanic culture, they make this fruit punch. They boil a bunch of fruit together and that makes a cider-like punch, and then it has a bunch of fruit you eat. It's good but crazy filling. Then we had a dinner with, the G------- family. And she had us eat four tamales and punch. I might've slipped into a little food coma after that! Then we visited M-----, and we shared a spiritual thought with him, and by the time we were done, his girlfriend had made us two sandwiches each. We both looked at each other and about cried. But we did it. We somehow ate the sandwiches and the dessert she gave us afterward. The saying "stuffed to the rafters" has a new meaning to it. We drank Martinelli's cider with the sisters from real champagne glasses, and I felt so old. It was a great birthday.

 

CHRISTMAS! We woke up early and opened all of our presents! Then we went to a sweet old couples house for a southern breakfast! Complete with biscuits and gravy, as well as chocolate gravy, which was SO GOOD. That was definitely my first really southern food and it was so good. Then we had church. Later, we skyped our families. BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER. Man. I just love my family so much. So much! That was the best hour ever. Then we went over the J----' home for dinner. They live in the beautiful countryside on a farm.

  

Sorry I wrote a novel, but consider it my Christmas present! I love being a missionary. End of story.

Always,

Hermana Nielson

 

P.S. Here are some photos. 

Navideño

Wow okay this week was kind of amazing and really busy!

Ahh where to start! A--- was baptized yesterday! Our little miracle Abel. The Lord's elect can be found anywhere, even in Walmart! He was definitely prepared! It was a simple program, but the Spirit struck us so hard. Also, two children of a less active family were baptized! I just don't really have words to describe it. A--- invited his sister, and at first, she was kind of standoffish and unimpressed. But by the end, she was singing the praises, crying and hugging everyone. She said, "I have never seen anything like this before. It has touched me. 

Other than the amazing service that was the baptism, we had a slew of amazing events this week. On Thursday this week, Elder Jorg Klebingat of the 70 came and addressed our mission! It was very amazing! He is a convert from Germany and is very bold. We didn't get such a bad call to repentance. He shared with us a lot of really good doctrine and scriptures and things to help us improve our missionary work. We came away with a lot of things to help our missionary work and our lives for a very long time!

Another huge thing we did was had a big Nativity Festival! This is usually the biggest event of the year! It was done across a two nights. We had hundreds of nativities set up, a whole hallway depicting the Savior's life, a refreshment room, and live music. We had the opportunity as missionaries to sing a couple songs for the program! It was so great! We saw a lot of miracles come from that and a lot of nonmembers came to it! It really brought in the Christmas Spirit!

The only bittersweet part of this amazing week is that we received transfer calls on Sunday, and my wonderful companion, Hermana S----- will be leaving to better her English in a English area in Nashville. I will receive Hermana P-----, passing my 6 month mark in Bowling Green! 

I am excited to see what this week brings!

Hope y'alls week is great!

Love,
Hermana Nielson

Mission Tour

A--- and the L---- family

















Elder L-------'s funeral

#illuminarelmundo

Happy good day!

Hope y'all's week was awesome! Our was pretty great but pretty cold! This week was pretty chilly. We had on leggings and tights and coats, hats and gloves. We walked to visit with a man we met tracting a few days before, and we were so cold. But when we got ther, he was outside and ready to talk. So as we began to talk with him, we got warm even though we were just standing there in the cold. As my companion explained it, we were warmed by the Spirit. So many tender mercies of the Lord. He is always mindful of us.

We are loving the Christmas initiative #lighttheworld! It is such a wonderful way to contact people! I have only met one woman who didn't like it, but she doesn't believe in Christ so....

We met a man on the street this week, and we showed him the new video. He was like, "Oh yeah. I went that church all the time with the missionaries in Guatemala, but I didn't know it was here too." We are excited to meet with him and his family.

We have a very busy week this next week. We are having a general authority seventy come and speak with us. He will be doing a mission tour. Also Bowling Green is having a giant Christmas festival for the whole town this weekend. It is usually a pretty big deal, and we are excited to help!

The thought I have for the week was from one of our counselors to the stake president. He said, "Helping others become like Christ is how we become like Christ." I really like that because as we help other people come nearer to Christ we ourselves grow closer to Him. I love being a missionary and spreading the gospel to everyone.

Hope everyone's week is great!

Con amor,
Hermana Nielson

P.S. Christmas is in 20 days, but my birthday is in 19 days!

Feliz día de Gracias

Hola!

We had a great week this week! Last Monday, we spent the whole day making tamales and eating tamales with a less active family. People just love giving us food!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving! We weren't allowed to proselytize. Instead, we played football in the morning with the elders, and I found out that I am a half decent receiver... being the tallest on the whole team. Then we went out looking for service opportunities and taking lots of photos along the way! It was definitely a different Thanksgiving this year. We ate two Thanksgiving dinners!  With two of our Spanish member families, but we were always given the table to sit at with the elders while everyone else ate at different places and at different times. It was a very "full" day!

We taught A--- several times, and he is really progressing. He told us at one point that he has hope of seeing his mother again and has been able to gain a deeper peace because of the gospel.

Another highlight of this week was the #lightheworld video campaign. It's so awesome! It is an amazing way to start a conversation. One night a girl opened the door and it was like nobody was home. We asked to show her the video, and pretty soon ten more kids and a old man came out to watch it too! The first night we showed it was just good experience after good experience! We are excited to share it more as we tract.

My thought from this week was the power the gospel can have in everyone's life.  I was thinking Alma 5:7: “Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word.” This is the change that comes from repentance and can come to the lives of everyone if they have the faith to follow the Savior.

Hope y'all had a great week!

As always!
Hermana Nielson

P.S. my comp likes photo shoots
1 the name badge pose 

2 the mermaid rock princess pose

3 give me a ball and ready to be on the cover WKU magazine sports section

4 that is a hilltopper mascot

5 tamale! Hna Perez!!

Encantamos Servicio

Hola! 🦃🦃🦃🦃Pues.  I hope y'all had a wonderful week!

We are getting so excited for Thanksgiving! It will be my companion's very first Thanksgiving ever!! We have certain rules for Thanksgiving, such as no door knocking, unlimited service hours, extra long dinner appointments. It will be a little different because it's not really a Spanish holiday. I love the holiday season! People feel so much love and are so focused on helping others. 

An amazing opportunity we had this week was to help out with a project with the International Center. Bowling Green is a destination city for refugees from all over the world, usually from warm climates. So this week we were able to help recent refugees prepare for the winter weather! We helped them shop for specific things they would need.  The hitch is that being refugees they don't speak English. The five kids my companion and I helped were from DR Congo, and only spoke Swahili. I picked up some Swahili phrases, such as, unaypenda- you like? The missionaries got interviewed and put on the news. Our Swahili elders were almost the only translators there. I have grown to love service so much in my mission!

Another highlight of the week was we had exchanges, I went back to my old English area for the day! They didn't have a lot planned, so we mostly knocked doors. One man commanded us to confess our sins to him. When we refused, he chastised us.

We also set a baptismal date with A---! He is so awesome! He is someone we met in Walmart awhile back that we have been teaching. He is a middle aged man from Mexico. He is so excited to learn more and more! A--- came with us to the group Thanksgiving party! He was so on top of everything. He was setting up tables and chairs and talking with everyone. We are very excited for him.

That's about it for our week! One of my favorite things to teach people about is how they can listen to and understand the Spirit. This scripture states it very simply. Romans 8:16 - "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." The Spirit is ultimately our own personal guide. It is the most important voice we can listen to because it's the voice of the Lord that can touch us in our own personal way.

I hope y'all have a grand week and turkey day!

As always,
Hermana Nielson

P.S.  These are the cute Africans from DR Congo

P.P.S. I found my mailbox....

P.P.P.S. Tatu and Myendi

P.P.P.S. It has been really cold this week

Bowling Verde

Muy Bien!

This week was great! It was very busy! Life as a missionary is never boring!

The first day of the new transfer we had Zone Conference and surprise interviews with President Stone, which are always so uplifting! One of his big things in his first couple months has been changing our mission culture to be a high love expectations mission. I have definitely felt that shift as President and his wife love us so much. He also expects so much from us! I think that is a very Christlike way to lead in any calling. We have been trying to incorporate that in our area, which only grows our love for the people and the area. I love Bowling Green.

When I switched from English to Spanish again, my meal from member ratio increased 500%. We have eaten a lot this week. It is truly a blessing, but also a curse because I might not ever be able to eat at a "Mexican" restaurant again.

We had two investigators at church; the girlfriend of a less active man, and a man named A--- that we met in Walmart!  But the even bigger news -- we had 50 people at church for two weeks in a row. Which is huge. Needless to say we have plans with the bishop on Wednesday to discuss the logistics of a branch!

The downside of that is the recent election. Every member, investigator, and contact has their contingency plans to move back to their respective Latin American countries. There is a lot of apprehension from certain political promises a certain politician made. Hermana S----- keeps making a joke that come January, I will be without a companion and without work. Mostly we just praying a lot for the country and our political leaders :)

A huge comfort I felt this week was during the sacrament. I felt the most overwhelming sense of peace and comfort come to me, I just felt like everything was going to be alright. This scripture came to mind.

D&c 64:9 - "For verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do...." We get that subclause as we try to be our best, we receive blessings, help, and spiritual gifts. We get points for trying!

I love this gospel, I love being a missionary!

Have a great week!

Ciao!
Hermana Nielson

P.S. A 200 pound dog got in our car this week. It took us a while to get him out.

P.P.S Zone Conference. I didn't know what to do with my hands.

Aye Chihuahua!

Happy Fall!

The leaves are falling, and the weather is getting cold.

Okay so transfers were his week! Good news...we are not being transferred and are staying in Bowling Green! We are so excited! This transfer will only be 5 weeks long.

We had a great week! We met a lot of great people, and we had some really amazing lessons. But in the end, nobody demonstrated enough repentance to come to church. We met a really amazing YSA kid. We knocked into him and just invited him to church and he showed. We gave him a church tour and a Book of Mormon. Then he found a Book of Mormon in the church bathroom and asked if he could have it to give to his roommate. He really liked church and made a great referral for the English sisters.

Another great thing! We had a full house on Sunday! We had two big families return to church this Sunday! There was not an empty seat in the room, and we were pulling in chair from the hall! The room was overflowing with love and people. I think less active work here has been one of the most rewarding experiences. They are so great and truly love the Lord.

Don't have a lot of time because we did caves and basketball today. Remember to keep the faith and push on!

Hermana Nielson


P.S. Chihuahua with a tortilla!

P.S.S. Only one elder got transferred out of everyone! 

Happy Halloween!

Life as a missionary is pretty exciting! We worked this morning and took our P-Day tonight! We had to be inside by 6 pm! No Trick or Treating. Also if winter is going to be like fall has been, I am ready. 80 degrees and sunny! 

We had a phenomenal week! It was absolutely crazy! We saw so many miracles! Just a quick run down ... we found some new investigators that we are really excited about! Saturday night we met an investigator from the Spanish elders named N-----. She was very exited to meet us and was very interested in our message. She really opened up to us after her sister (a Jehovah's Witness)  left. We have been working with H----- to find his answers. 

This weekend was a notable weekend. Friday morning we got to play Extreme Makeover Home Edition and helped a member redo her rental home to prepare for another member who is moving in. When 11 missionaries go anywhere, we are a force to be reckoned with! After that, we helped the J-----'s move into their house. They are Spanish members who just moved from Utah and are a huge strength to our  small Spanish group! Hermana J----- is actually American like me, so I am not the only gringa (but she speaks perfect Spanish). After that, we had a ward party, The Fall Festival. It had a really great turnout! One of our members brought a non-member family!

On Saturday, bright and early, we had the first Bowling Green LDS Church Tour and Car Wash! The idea is the elders wash the cars and the sisters give the church tours. Well, then it morphed into the youth washing and holding signs and the elders directing traffic and holding signs! It was awesome! We gave tours of the church and even got a Spanish referral! It was a great event! But the biggest miracle is when we ran to get more poster board to make more signs. We met a wonderful lady who worked at the dollar store who invited us to come over to her house this next week to teach her!

After that, we went to a group FHE. Or noche de hogar as we call it. We ate meat. Then they sent us home with an entire bucket of meat. It was wonderful and everyone was so excited to be together and discuss how we can strengthen the group. We had a bunch of less active members come. 

Sunday was the primary program which always warms my heart so much!

Spiritual side- “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the
Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” -- Joseph Smith

I love this and am working on memorizing it in both English and Spanish. It is so powerful and shows the reality of the importance of our work as missionaries. We are truly the instruments to bring about the work of
the Lord.

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Love,
Hermana Nielson 🎃 👻

P.S. Car wash church tour

P.P.S. In the spirit of Halloween and almost no shave November

P.P.P.S. Trabalenguas aka Spanish tongue twisters