The Parable of the Turtle

Hello!
This week has been a absolutely crazy week! We have seen a lot of miracles here in the Providencia Ward. The Ward Council started a new thing this week; instead of us just us asking people to come out with us, each auxiliary is in charge of finding a person to come out with us every night of the week except Monday. It has been so amazing! Even if we are just knocking doors, we always find someone to teach! The ward has a goal to baptize 50 people this year. And we are just here to help them reach their goals. Because of this, they are so willing to help us. It was a really busy week, we had at least 4 set appointments everyday, plus other activities like knocking, contacting, member visits, less actives. It has been wonderful. 

There was a day we were taking a lunch break (I think it was Tuesday), and we were sitting in the car and Hermana E----- had just finished drinking a milkshake and something I had said earlier was brought back up by Hermana U------ and it made Hermana E----- laugh so hard she threw up all over herself. Sweet girl, luckily we had time to change before our next appointment. :) 

Another fun thing from this week was we now share the car with the YSA sisters, which requires a
couple hour excursion which I wasn't thrilled about. But it ended up being a huge blessing because we had to exchange buses downtown and wait for the next one and we got to take our lunch break in a little Greek food shop in the basement of a skyscraper, so that was fun! And we had so much time to contact people on the bus system!

This week, on the way to a appointment, we found a turtle that had been run over by a car. We rescued it and Hermana U------ stabbed it through the brain to stop its suffering. After our appointments, we were going home and my comps decided to take the dead turtle home and
boil it because Hermana E----- wanted the shell as a symbol. Anywho, the Parable of the Turtle is that in our lives we are given turtles (or expieriences) that help us see more clearly our purpose and remember to find joy in the journey. There are hard days, but then you see the turtle shell hanging on the wall and remember how merciful the Lord has been.

Another awesome experience we had was on Sunday we had 4 investigators at church and 3 of them were new investigators and one of them (D-----) was a friend of a member who wants to know more and was so sincerely interested. We have a lesson with him this next week. The other's name was J-----. He is only 18 and so interested in the gospel. We are blessed with so many awesome investigators who want to know the truth! I can feel the love the Savior has for the people we teach. I am so excited to be here with my companions!

Hope everything is well!

Amor y Paz,

Hermana Nielson

A Blonde, a Brunette, and a Redhead

Hola y'all!
     I swear it's been like a month since I've written! Great news we picked up our new companion this week! Her name is Hermana U! Sadly, she Caucasian, but not sadly she is awesome! She is from Snowflake, Arizona! ️️ She is really happy and a very obedient missionary! She just came from the McMinnville branch! I am really excited for this transfer because we work really well together mostly because we are all very new, and no one is there to dominate in Spanish. On our first day together and our first lesson, we spontaneously taught the restoration lesson with almost perfect sharing without any practice. It am way excited! 

     We have seen a lot of small miracles this week! We tracted a lot this week and got a lot of return appointments! We had a lot of member presence! We taught Per--- this week and she was asking if she could get her patriarchal blessing. This girl is a amazing example of faith and diligence. We taught Ana and Cesar, a wonderful couple with triplets. We laid down the law about marriage, and they realize how important it is. Then they came to church and we spent church chasing 14 month old triplets. That wore me right out.

     Oh, the craziest things happened. We finally were able to have a lesson with Az----- who we met in Walmart like 3 weeks ago, and she seemed really receptive but she lived in the elder's area, but she was always there alone.  So the elders couldn't teach her. So we get to teach her. Anyways, the lesson was interesting, and basically she told us a lot of stuff and and we realized she has issues to deal with from time to time. The elders came over and gave her a blessing and it was really cool to see her countenance change.

      We also had a great lesson with two guys named No-- and Wil--- and had a restoration but based off Cain and Abel, which is their preoccupation with the bible. It was an awesome lesson and No-- died when he said his medio nombre was Noel and I said,  "Huh, what a coincidence. So is mine!" We are excited to teach them!

      Hope everyone is well! 

Hermana Nielson

P.S. Those Popsicles are the best Mexican paletas ever!

Transfers!

     Oh my goodness this week has been really amazing! We have seen so many awesome people be accepting. We met with a lot of less actives. We also have met with a lot of people is week and have seen so many wonderful ways we can apply what we learned in General Conference to them. We truly have been guided by the Spirit this week. 

     One experience I would really like to share is about the Liff-----. We had tried to see a recent convert's less active daughter, and when we got there, they were leaving and said our appointment was the next day. We couldn't figure out why we were certain it was that day, but we all felt like we should stay in the area. So we scanned our area book and found two people near by that none of us knew. So we figured we would knock on their door. We could not find the address. So after a while, we approached a house we thought it might be, and as we walked to the front door, a man ran from the driveway. He startled us a bit, but he started talking a million miles a hour. He said he was a member, and he started going on about life, and invited us in to meet his wife and they were just chatting away. Then, mid-sentence , they just paused and said what can we do for you? We asked them if they knew the people we were looking for, and they were their neighbors. They were their original introducers to the church, and they marched us right over there. We had a lesson with them, got a return appointment, and then they walked us around the neighborhood introducing us to all their Hispanic neighbors and friends. It was so amazing! What an example of member missionary work! 

     Now for the big news! Hermana H----- is getting transferred to Columbia.... :( We are really sad, but Hermana E----- and I are staying here. Hermana H----- has been here for more than 8 months, so I think it will definitely we hard because she knows so much more than we do. We are also getting a new hermana! We don't know much about her. The only thing we know is she just finished training. I have one transfer, she has two, and Hermana E----- has three, so none of us have a lot of experience, but we know it will all work out because the Lord would not let us fail!

Love y'all!

Hermana Nielson

P.S. We had trainer trainee this week and look who I saw?  My CCM companion, Hermana W-----!

La Conferencia General‏

     This week was absolutely a blessing. We were walking this week which is always interesting. I feel a little discouraged when it takes us so long to travel to our our appointments on food, but I also feel like we are so much more effective because we get the opportunity to teach so many more people we meet on the streets. 
     First I want to talk about Ivan. We meet him because Sister E------ and I called a wrong number from the area book, and we had been unable to contact him after that. We took an hour exodus to his house that is in the sketchiest part of town, but when we got there, we met him and he is so willing to listen and he even came to conference on Sunday! Did I mention he only has one leg and 2 toes? He is awesome. 
     The other miracle we saw this week was with baptism invites. At the beginning of the week, we only had 1 progressing investigator. We set a goal of six baptism invitations. We had a great training in district meeting on this. We ended up inviting six people with the help of God, and two of our investigators are on date now! C--- and M----. We are so excited for them. 
     M---- really wants a eternal family and her whole family are members. C--- is someone my companions met on the street 2 days before I arrived. He is so earnestly seeking God and so genuine. We gave him a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon when we introduced it, and he read 7 chapters before our next meeting, even though his reading skills are lacking. 
     We have seen some really wonderful things this week. It ended with General Conference! I don't know if this conference was especially good or if conferences as a missionary are so much sweeter. I felt like every talk could apply to me and our investigators. I don't know if everyone could watch it, but if you couldn't, you should. I especially liked Mervyn B Arnold's admonition to rescue the less actives and non-members. Missionaries can't do it alone and no one will ever hate you for helping them. My definite favorite was President Monson. His message on agency is really something I've been thinking about a lot lately. It's so true! If he can address us next conference, that will be a blessing, but his message seemed like it could be his final message. I am also going to strive to help our investigators focus on the temple as the goal. It was amazing, I absolutely loved it. I invite everyone to go back and read each talk. I know I will.
     I hope it was a great week for everyone!
Con amor,
Hermana Nielson

P.S. In honor of General Conference, here is a picture of me shaking Elder Dallin H. Oaks hand when he came to the CCM. I recently just got this photo from the CCM photographer. I didn't know it existed. Please ignore my borderline psycho-manic face. I was just really happy.