10.23.17

525,600 MINUTES....... ONE YEAR


HOLA TODO!!!

  HOLY HEREFORD COW I AM AT ONE YEAR ON MY MISSION AND IT IS UNREAL!!!!!! I literally still feel like a baby in the mission field, but ahhhh that's so crazy. I never thought i could grow to love a place like the lubbock texas mission, but i do, i love being a missionary a whole lot. So here's to another 6 months :))

  This week was so fun! It actually went by really fast, but we had some good times. We were teaching an investigator the law of chastity lesson this week, and WOW she got way to personal. And then the same investigator lectured me on how i need to cook so i can be a good wife and all this and that (cause shocker i still can't cook a year out) and so she said "I'm going to teach YOU how to cook" in her cute little spanish accent hahha. 

  ALSO, Y'ALL. THERE ARE ACTUAL POPCORN BALLS. I literally thought popcorn balls were a myth from that song "Popcorn popping", but they're like a legit thing! A member invited us over to help set up for the Halloween Branch party, and she was like "Do y'all want to make popcorn balls or sugar cookies" and i thought she was joking, but we literally made popcorn balls! AH it was so cool.

  Anywho, it was a good week filled with lots of Skip-Bo, lots of door knocking, and lots of laughs. I love my companera hahha sis. linford is the bomb. but anywho, i love y'all mucho and i love the emails each week, they make my life! ok byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

con mucho amor,

Hermana Neilson

 

 

10.16.17

Tour de HEREFORD


HOLA TODO!

  So this week went by so fast! But there was so many fun things :)) Well to start the week we got permission to go hang out with other missionaries (FINALLY) because we are seriously stranded out here in hereford by ourselves, so we drove up to canyon, and hung with all the sisters there. And then we started exchanges! I went with sister Hewitt (cause me and sister burbidge have had 5 transfers together of exchanges lol) and it was so fun! They are the sisters on WT's campus so we just contacted YSA people all day. It is so weird to proselyte on a college campus. I feel so weird talking to kids my age about the gospel. But it was fun to be in the city. 

  On Thursday we had zone conference up in Amarillo, and we're seriously like the ugly step children in our zone. Everyone else is in the city, and then we're wayyyyyyy out in hereford with all the cows, so we didn't really relate with any of the goals they were setting for the zone, and they kept saying things like "Well what about hereford?" "Hereford doesn't have that many people" "Hereford can't come". It was kind of frustrating, but I think the Lord is trying to teach me that it's ok to have FOMO of other people. and he's trying to teach me to love cows more. 

  But I had my interview with President Hales, and I brought up how I am a spanish missionary, but I've been in english areas my whole mission. (there hasn't been an hermana spanish area in a year) and so he said that this next transfer he is going to pray over whether i should white wash a spanish area. EVERYONE PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need mucho prayers, because that would be a dream come true if I got to finally go to a spanish area :')) 

  As for hereford, the work is kind of slowing down, but we're still working our bootays off. We biked a TON this week. We were low on miles, but it's kind of fun biking everywhere. I just like being outside. But it's fun. I've got a good comp.

  OH we also found out the stats on our mission. So for every 29 investigators we get here in the texas lubbock mission, we get 1 baptism. on average. not too bad! haha so we just need to find 20 more investigators and then we might have a baptism soon! WOOT! 

  Anywho, that is my week. Nothing too exciting, except for that christmas is in 70 days!!!! haha we are already jamming to christmas music, so it's a blast. Ok love y'all mucho. Hope you help the missionaries some how this week ;))

con mucho amor,

Hermana Neilson

ps. here are some pics of my week :))

 

 

10.9.17

Homecoming in Hereford, TX: Exchange of the MUMS


HOLA TODO!!!!!

  Wow this week was so fun! I am so so so exhausted though. It was homecoming week here for the high school, and they are not lying when they say "Everything is bigger in Texas". Ok so there is the weirdest tradition here, and i seriously cannot get over it. So in Texas people wear these flowers with a ton of ribbons and beads and bells on their shirts like ALL day on homecoming game day. The boy makes one (or buys one if he's smart) and gives it to the girl, and then the girl makes him one that he wears around his arm. IT IS BIZARRE. haha so friday night we walked around the football stadium for "proselyting moments" lol, and EVERYONE and their DOG were wearing these "mums". Like 5 year olds, teenagers, parents, grandparents, everyone!!! And so that morning the ladies at the Senior Center made us mums to wear hahahha so of course, we wore them! But yea, there are some strange traditions here. If you want more of a visual just look up "Texas tradition exchange of the mums"

  We also celebrated my 20th birthday this past week, and it was a fiesta!!!!! Seriously so fun. We ate lots of ice cream and cake and it was a great way to start our 6 months to sexy!!! So yea, sister linford is the bomb. It was also her year mark that day so we celebrated extra hard haha. 

  But mission life is good. Hereford is like basically underwater, we've had horrible flooding here like the past week, so we have our rain boots out! We're always soaked in mud at the end of the day, but hopefully it will dry up soon????

  Ok well that's all for this week, sorry I am so boring! We are working with some investigators to get a baptism coming up, so stay tuned. LOVE YALL!

con mucho amor,

Hermana Neilson

 

 

10.2.17

CONFERENCE and 2 decades later...........

HOLA MIS AMIGOS!

  This week was so amazing!!!! I LOVED conference!!! Also shout out to Brayden Chase for making the big screen! When I was watching Elder Rasband's talk and then he started talking about his grandchildren seeing each other while his grandson was on a mission, I was like that's brayden!!! and then they showed a picture and i jumped at the member's house and was like "I KNOW HIM!!!" bahaha the members were dying. Such a small world in the church.

  But this week was so good because I FINALLY UNDERSTAND SPANISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So a little background info to those who don't know how the spanish thing works here, basically there's 10 hermanas and 40 elders who speak spanish in our mission. Well there's only 9 branches, so all of the elders get the spanish branches and all the hermanas don't. So most of the time we have an english companion, and then if we find spanish people (aka all of Hereford) we have to  teach them ourselves. So it takes FOREVER to learn spanish. And sometimes you have to cover the whole zone if you are the only spanish missionary (like my last area). So this week we went to go see a member of our congregation, and i was super nervous because she only knows spanish, and i'm still learning ya know? Well we got there and i understood EVERYTHING!!!! It was a gift of tongues miracle!!!!!! It was so exciting hhaha. This never happens!!!! So that was awesome. 

  Also something sad, but kind of funny happened this week. We went to go see our investigator Bryson (who was progressing like crazy) and we biked over to his place in the rain. Well when we got there he came out and was like "I have some bad news, my family thinks we should take a break" we were SHOCKED so i was like "What? We've only been seeing each other for 3 weeks!" and then he was like "I know, but I'll text you when this all blows over" so then we started biking away, and me and sister linford just started busting up laughing on the way back because it totally felt like we were being dumped. bahahha worst than any break up i've had. 

  Anywho, I can't believe I turn 20 this week. I'm so old!!!! haha but Im glad that I am able to spend my birthday in the service of our Lord. I really do love being a missionary so much, and i love that I have the opportunity to share this message in this little ghetto town of Hereford. Thanks for all y'alls prayers and emails. I am so lucky to be #blessedwiththebest (shout out to Tiersha and Tahnee) 

  See y'all next week!!!!!

con mucho amor,

Hermana Neilson

 

 

9.25.17

"Are they chunky?"

HELLO Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!

  So this is officially transfer 9. AKA 4 more transfers. WHAT. time is seriously flying by. But this is my last full week as a 19 year old, so that's exciting ;)) On tuesday we had our last district meeting of the transfer, and the STL's wanted to make food. So while we were doing our role plays with our companions, the FIRE ALARM started going off, and we all ran out of the building, and then the STL's  realized their food was on FIRE. hahahha so the alarm was going off for about 45 minutes until we got someone to come turn it off, but all of our district pictures were taken as the alarm was going off, so it was hilarious. It was a good way to celebrate Sis. Carlisle's birthday hahha

  Then we were meeting with our investigator Bryson, and we have been debating if he is accountable or not, and the other day we were teaching him about CTR, and we said "So Bryson, it's important to choose the.......?" and then he said "The atonement?" bahahhaha we were both like, well yea i guess so! He is a funny kid.

  Funny story: Ok so we had been trying to contact this less active for awhile, and then we got to her house on saturday, but she wasn't home. So then her aunt was outside and she texted her saying "There's 2 church girls here for you" and the less active responded "Are they chunky?" bahahahhaha we were like, "have we gained that much weight on a mission??" we were dying. 

  This week was so interesting. I was getting down on somethings, and then when we went to the general women's broadcast, and WOW i loved Joy D. Jones talk, she is such an inspired woman. I was crying through like the whole talk haha. us women, so emotional. but I am a daughter of God gosh dang it!

  Ok anywho, that's all for this week, I hope y'all have great weeks and enjoy that UTAH SNOW! hahaha we are under flash flood warning right now, so that is comforting ;)) LOVE YALL!

su favorita,

hermana neilson

 

 

9.18.17

ELDER DUBE IN LUBBOCK

HOLA TODO!

  Ok wow this week literally FLEW by. The highlight of the week was mission tour! We got together with the North half of the mission, and got to hear from..... ELDER DUBE! He's a general authority and wow he is hilarious! He really focused on exact obedience and getting up on time. Me and my comp thought it was a little strange cause like why wouldn't you get up at 6:30 am, but apparently our mission is having like tons of disobedience issues right now! Who would have thought??? haha but his wife gave us some counsel, she said "If you see an attractive person you say 'The Gospel is True, goodbye' but after your mission you say 'The Gospel is true, now come with me'" bahahha she is so funny. But it was fun being able to see other missionaries that haven't seen. I literally don't know anyone in the mission still just because i've been serving in branches the whole time. So I knew like 10 missionaries there! But I got to see Trevyn Zobell and Maddie Seamons. So woooo yay for friends from home haha. But then our mission president let us go to Target after, literal blessings. So Friday was super fun. And Saturday we had a ton of success with tracting and finding new investigators, so it's been a great week!

  We have transfer calls this week, and i'm really hoping i get to stay in Hereford, this place just grows on ya. And WOW i love sister linford, ah she is so awesome! haha i could just serve with her the next 5 transfers. But the branch is really starting to like missionary work and they are trusting us now! SO YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. I seriously love branches, so hopefully the call this Saturday will just say everything is staying the same. :)))) in a perfect world haha. 

  anywho, that's all for this week. I hope y'all have a great week and give the missionaries lots of referrals. no joke. i cried one time because we got a referral. They are the best, especially if you help the missionaries teach that person. LOVE YALL MUCHO!

con mucho amor,

Hermana Neilson

 

 

9.11.17

HOLA TODO

Hello from Hereford!

  Well I think I really have experienced TEXAS. This past week a girl in our branch gave her farewell talk, because she's going to Bakersfield, California, and so she invited us over to her family's house for the farewell dinner. Well we walk in and WHOA. Cowboys literally everywhere. And everyone was like 6'6" and taller. I felt right at home. But they all wore the cowboy boots and hats and had lassos. It's like what you see in a movie or something. But I got the girl HYPED for California, and I told her to hit up in-n-out when she gets there. And she kept commenting on "California accents" haha i didn't know we talked that different! But compared to Texans, it's like another language. 

  So me and Sister Linford thought it would be a good idea to have an FHE activity tonight at the chapel. So we decided to do a "popluck" movie night and watch 'Meet the Mormons'. Well yesterday after church, we decided to start setting up for it, and so we started working on the projector (and there's like 12 cables) and we were there for FOUR hours, trying to figure out the projector. So finally we called a member and he put it together in like 5 minutes. We were dying haha.

  OHHHHHHHHHHHH AND WE HAD OUR FIRST INVESTIGATOR AT CHURCH YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The branch was flipping out. It was so awesome!!! So we are slowly moving the work along here in hereford. Very slowly...... 

  That's all the news for this week. Not too much since we emailed on Wednesday. But I hope y'all have a buen dia! Thanks for everything :))

Hermana Neilson

ps. all these pictures are from bike day. We ended up walking 5 miles to our appointments, and it was a lot longer than we thought, so we got some powerade along the way, and then all of our appointments cancelled right when we got to the apartment complex. Blessings. 

9.6.17

COLLEGE CAMPUS PARTAYYYYYYYYYY

HOLA TODO!!!

  So I sadly don't have that much time to write today, but the library was closed on monday, and then we were on exchanges all day tuesday, so Im here now! But not much happened this past week in Hereford, but we did get 7 new investigators!!! WOOT WOOT. We found ONE family, so 9 more to go lol. But for exchanges we went to the Canyon YSA area, and we proselyted on a college campus. Oh my word most terrifying thing of MY LIFE! haha you just walk around BY YOURSELF (within sight of the other missionaries) and go to talk to people. I seriously probably looked hilarious trying to get people to talk to me with their ear phones in and tweeting and snapchatting. All those "worldly" things that i have no clue about. (jokes jokes) But we actually found 2 new investigators with the STL's yesterday, so that was way good! But it was super fun, and I went with Sister Bess and Hermana Acosta. They are awesome sisters! We all go home pretty close to each other so that's exciting! But OH!!! Happy Septiembre!!!!! I SURVIVED A TEXAS SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Literally most accomplishing thing of my life. Anywho, love y'all mucho!!!!!!!!

con mucho amor,

hermana neilson