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

8.28.17

We saved ONE soul....a dog

HOLA TODO!

  Another week in Hereford, TX! Well me and sister Linford are doing a lot better this week than we were last! Haha we have cleaned up the area a ton and have been working hard to get a teaching pool, so we are saying lots of prayers. We have been receiving lots of phone calls from the Assistants, and our zone leaders and everyone, "checking up on us" (aka getting the juicy gossip about Hereford), so it has been so weird. Apparently this is one of the hardest areas in the mission, why I was put here, i have no clue! hahaha 

  So last Monday we were driving around, and i accidentally hit a ditch and popped a hole in the tire. Well when we went to go to district meeting (which is 45 minutes away) and we were trying to fill up the tire, but of course it wouldn't hold any air. so then these 2 police cars pull up, and they said "Follow us, we know a tire guy" haha so we got escorted through Hereford to this tire guy and they fixed our tire for free! Tender mercy! haha

  When we were walking on Thursday all over, this cute little chihuahua was following us, so we named him Ammon. Well, when we were parked on that same street on Saturday, Ammon found us! So we picked him up and brought him back to the car and fed him some granola and water. We didn't have anything else! haha so then he fell asleep, and we were like "Great, what do we do......" haha so we drove to the animal shelter, but it was closed! So we were outside the animal shelter for like 20 minutes debating what to do, and then that SAME POLICE MAN drove up and offered to take the dog till the morning when the shelter would open up! What are the chances!!! haha so we saved one soul, a dog named Ammon. 

  Other than that it has been pretty chill here in Hereford the past couple of days. But that's ok, we are going to find, teach, and baptize, and everyone will be happy. We asked our branch president what we could do to help the branch, and he said and i quote "Find 10 new families" no joke. he literally said that. So here goes to finding 10 new families? hahaha 

  I hope y'all have a great week and find miracles in everything. I am so grateful to be a missionary! I don't how 10 months have already passed. TIME FLIES. 8 more months in the service of our Lord ;)) LOVE Y'ALL MUCHO!!!

Hermana Neilson

8.21.17

Little Mexico

HOLA MI FAMILIA Y MIS AMIGOS!!!!

   So Hereford, Texas...... Well haha it is a LOT different than Eastland. There has been elders here for the past 10 YEARS basically, and we are the first sisters, so we are white washing. It is so hard! Haha we got to our apartment on Tuesday, and oh my word (imagine the song "Murderer" in the movie pyscho) we opened the door and it was horrendous! Everything was broken or not clean or missing, so we spent the first 3 days just cleaning our apartment. It was SO bad. And then we looked in the area book to get information on the people here, and it hadn't been updated since APRIL! I about died. Our mission president pulled me and my companion aside and told us that this area would be hard, because it's basically dead and me and my comp need to resurrect it. Oh boy. So we have been working as hard as we can! 

   A little background info on Hereford though, it's the beef capital of the world. Aka there is seriously cows EVERYWHERE. so everything smells like cow poop. No joke. BUT 90% of the people here all speak spanish!!!!! only spanish!!!!! So it has been amazing to be able to teach in spanish and find and everything!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH I'm in spanish heaven!!!!!! The branch is half english half spanish, so i, along with our branch mission leader, am in charge of translating sacrament meeting, teaching gospel principles (in spanish), and translating relief society. I am getting this language down! haha 

  We went out knocking on Thursday for 6 hours, and we found 2 new investigators! so that was good. But we are trying to find other ways we can find people, just cause knocking is only fun for so long ;)) The members here aren't really fans of the missionaries, just cause elders have burned bridges in the past, so we are working a TON on gaining the trust of the branch back. Cause missionary work is kind of miserable if the members aren't in on it (hint hint be nice to your missionaries). This place just has lots of damage control, so we are going to fix it! 

  Ok something to lighten the mood. So on Wednesday, when i went to go shower, i could find the nob to turn on the shower head, so i asked my comp, and she couldn't find it either! So i found this weird switch behind the toilet and it didn't do anything, so i just kept flicking it. Well we walked outside to go ask our neighbor what to do, and she was like "Y'all keep setting off the alarm!" and we were like "What alarm???" and she said "This used to be an old person apartment complex, so there are switches behind the toilet in case they fell and couldn't get up!" bahahahahahha i had set off the apartment alarm like 7 times! It was too good. 

  Anywho, my new comp is Sister Linford, and she is awesome! We are laughing all the time so we get along great :)) She's from spanish fork Utah! All my comps are from Utah out here haha but it's good. We share the some love of missing cafe rio and swig ;))

  Thanks for the emails and updates! I love and miss y'all mucho! Eat some in-n-out for me :))

hermana neilson

8.14.17

The weirdest WEEK of my mission, and I'm going to HEREFORD (Cow Country)

HOLA MI FAMILIA Y MIS AMIGOS!!!!

  Ok, so first things first, I AM GETTING TRANSFERRED. I am devastated. I seriously love Eastland, so the past 2 days has just been me crying to members, and then members crying to me. It's been great haha. But seriously i love eastland, and i'm so sad i only had 4 transfers there! 6 months wasn't long enough. But yes, you read that right, i am going to HEREFORD. For those of you who don't know where Hereford is, it's ok cause i didn't either. Apparently it's in the middle of nowhere up by Amarillo, and it's world famous for it's COWS. The members here said it constantly stinks of cow poop. So that should be lovely. But I am going to be companions with Sister Linford! So I'm once again the only spanish sister up there haha but it's another branch, so i am SO excited!!! I love serving in branches :)) 

  OK. So we took Michael up to the Lubbock temple this week, and it was a nightmare! So we had to stop at the mission office before we went to the temple, so all the members and Michael just kept going to the temple, and we would just meet them there. Well me and hermana Green get there and Michael had already gone to the baptismal font and was drying off! And we were like "What?! we missed it?!" so we were like super upset, so we told him to get dressed and we'll just do it again. So we were in the waiting room at the temple, and then all of the sudden we saw Michael getting escorted out of the temple, by the temple PRESIDENT. So we ran out and Michael explained to us that he got bored and started taking PICTURES inside the temple. Oh my word. We were speechless. So then we just sat outside the temple for 2 hours while the rest of our group finished. On the bright side though basically everyone from my last area was going to the temple that day, so I was able to see Hermana Melendez (mi madre) and my old Ward mission leader's family. LOVE THEM. 

  So then after the temple madness, we all got on the road, and we were a little ahead of the other car we were caravaning with, and about 30 minutes out of Lubbock the other car blew a tire. So we turned around and went to go help (Shoutout to my old job UVU atuomotive). So when we got there Hermana Green REALLY had to use the bathroom, so we spotted an RV down the road and went and knocked on their door. Well they let us in and let us use the bathroom! They were a cute family going on vacation to Colorado! So of course we shared the gospel with them while we were in there hahah. But we all made it back safely to Eastland :))

  Ok last weird thing. So our neighbors offered to take us out to dinner on Friday night, so of course we said yes! Well we got on the road and kept driving, and driving, and driving, till we realized we weren't in the mission boundaries anymore! YEA. So they took us to this Gospel singing restaurant where they had live singers and it was so cool! But we felt so weird as missionaries there haha. It's in a town called Thurber texas, population : 5 people. 

  Ok wow super long email, but yea this week was SO weird. But yea my time in Eastland has been my favorite so far on my mission, and i'm so glad that Sister Lundberg, Allart, and Green were my companion's here. They're awesome. I really feel like my testimony of Jesus Christ has grown so much here, and it makes me so sad to leave, but I know that the Lord wouldn't assign me to Hereford if i wasn't supposed to be there. So it should be interesting! But thank y'all for all the emails, letters, and updates, they make my life. Tengan un buen semana!

con mucho amor,

Hermana Neilson

ps. Here's my new address! :))

301 W. 15th St. #8

Hereford, TX 79045

8.7.17

The Font has been FILLED

HOLA TODO!

  So this week. MICHAEL AND LATOSHA ARE BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!! AH. Such a good feeling. We were seriously so happy for them! So many tears and good vibes at that baptism. So finally after teaching Michael since April, he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. AND he's got the priesthood now, and will be baptizing his kids at the end of this month! Seriously blessings all around. The baptisms were kind of funny though, the people that were baptizing couldn't really remember how to old someone who is getting baptized, so little to say, there was water everywhere, and we had to dunk them a couple of times, BUT they got completely submerged. So that's all that matters haha 

  ALSO, ok y'all this is crazy. So we were teaching this kid named Isaac, he moved here from KENYA, and loves to talk about Jesus Christ. So when we taught him the Restoration, he was like "I've already been baptized" (shocker) so the next 4-5 lessons we stressed priesthood authority a TON. And finally this past lesson, it clicked, AND HE ACCEPTED BAPTISM!! But then he told us after the lesson he is moving to ODESSA. So that was depressing. Hope the missionaries there enjoy him.... haha we're not bitter at all ;))

  But this week we also went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and I went with Sister Burbidge! She is so awesome! She only has 4 months left in the mission, so she gave me all her wise wisdom haha. And we also had interviews with our mission president and his wife, so that was way fun! They are some of the coolest people. President Hales is very wise, so i'm excited to use his instruction in my missionary work more. Also, our branch presidency got changed this past sunday, and WOW none of us were expecting that haha but it's cool to see how God works. I feel like I'm a member of this cute little eastland branch, I've been here since February! But we get transfer calls this weekend, so i'm praying they'll let me stay :)) I seriously love it here, and all the people. People here are just so kind!!

  Anywho, thanks for all the emails and prayers and support. God only gives us trials we can get through with our Savior Jesus Christ. I KNOW He has a plan for all of us, and life is so hard, but it's not impossible. "Men are that they might have JOY". The purpose of this gospel is to bring joy unto us. I've definitely seen that in the past 9-ish months and I know I'll keep seeing it through my whole mission. I love being a missionary, and i love this gospel!!! I can't stress it enough!

love y'all mucho!

Hermana Neilson

ps. enjoy some pictures of some of the happiest moments on my mission :))

 

7.31.17

They don't know, that we know, that they know

Hola todo!!

  So nothing much happened this week, but we had a funny experience where we had this part member family each individually telling us different things that happened with their son-in-law (even though we already knew) and so it just reminded me of friends lol.

  Michael and Latosha will be getting baptized on the 2nd! President Hales is coming to interview Michael tomorrow and then he will be all ready to go! And LaTosha is seriously so excited!! AHH I love being a missionary. It's seriously the best calling. EVER. We also have exchanges this week so it will be so fun to spend 2 days in Abilene! We also have interviews with President Hales! So this will be my first time talking to him! But they're from California, so we'll get along great ))

  Anywho, thanks for all the emails and love, I love y'all so much! Keep helping missionaries, and give lots of referrals and yea! Tenga un buen semana!

con mucho amor,

Hermana Neilson