By the Grace of God

Hey Y'all!

I am back in Tennessee! Nine months later I made it back to Buena Vista! It has been a wonderfully crazy week. We spent the first week becoming re-acquainted with the area. I had some previous knowledge which has been a huge blessing. The members have received us with open arms and have been so willing to help us this week! We have been so incredibly tired! It has been a week of adventures, that's for sure!

We have a couple of really strong investigators. One is named L---! He lives with a member, but we did not realize this because neither of us have ever met either of them. The member invites us in and starts to tell us that she is a Jehovah's Witness and that she would love to know why we believe the Mormons are true. We were like.... oh great, but in the end she was a member, and we had a great lesson with L--- about the Restoration. He came to church.

E---- is another great investigator. She has just started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning. She has so many great questions and in our lesson this week, she said, "Well it doesn't really matter what you say or what I think. It really just matters how I feel." Her heart is totally in the right place, and we know that she will feel the Spirit as she reads the Book of Mormon and puts in her effort.

The members here have been awesome! There hasn't been a day this week we haven't been fed by a member. Our branch mission leader was in horror that no one had signed up to feed us yesterday, but then later at church three families invited us to dinner. We had to turn down people who wanted to feed us. Where does that happen? My companion turned to me and said, "Wow. I feel like the best fed missionary in the mission."

Buena Vista is an awesome little branch in our mission on the outskirts of Nashville, and we have a decent amount of Spanish people around here to teach! Most of the members remember me since the last time I was here. A couple have made the comment about how much my Spanish has improved. This was appreciated by me because Spanish has improved a lot as I couldn't hardly hold a conversation back then. Now I can, so there is progress there!

I don't know if y'all remember A-----. She was one of my very first investigators I met in my first area. She had two little boys and found out she was pregnant while we were teaching her. She was a solid investigator who knew everything. A couple of months ago, I asked a missionary now serving there if they are still teaching her. They didn't even really know who she was which made me sad that she had fallen away. Well, she came to church in Buena Vista! She blessed her baby last week in the branch and is working toward marrying her less active boyfriend so that she can be baptized. Almost a year later, when she seemed like she had fallen of the gospel path, she had just taken here own way there and is still progressing. It's not how you would normally think it should be done, but in the Lord's time, more that one year later.


So we had a pretty great week!

Love ya Lots,
Hermana Nielson