2.19.18

A week in Lubbock


HOLA TODO!

  So this week was so great! We had zone conference down in Lubbock and it was so good! I got to see a ton of my mission friends and Maddie Correlli! It's always fun when people from the "real world" come to your mission ;)) We had a lot of instructions though, and it was so weird to see the departing missionaries give their farewell testimony, because that is literally me next transfer! AH. I like started tearing up when they were giving their testimonies because i just love being a missionary so much! President and Sister Hales also put together this game during lunch, it was like a mix of 4 square and VOLLEYBALL! So of course me and my companera joined and played. 

  After that we had exchanges with the sister training leaders and I went with sister montgomery! She came out a little after me, so we had a ton of fun. We saw a lot of less actives and of course finished the exchange with my fav, bahama bucks. That place is seriously too good. A member had all 4 of us plus another companionship come over for valentines dinner, and holy cow SO MUCH FOOD. She made heart shaped pizzas, which were bigger than my face, and then she brought out CHEESECAKE, AND chocolate strawberries. I seriously was soooooo full. SO much good food though. There was a sister there who was on her first transfer in the mission, and i asked how she was doing, and she was like "I'm doing better, haven't cried too much this week" aw. training days.... 

  As for an update on our Jehovah Witness girl, things are going great! We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ this week and the spirit was so strong! At first she was really hesitant to learn about our church and stuff, and like the first lesson she brought up a lot of doctrine things in the bible, but this lesson was just like so good! We talked a lot about finding peace through Christ, and we used the Book of Mormon a ton! It just confirms my testimony that the Book of Mormon really is the only thing that can convert us .

  Well that's all for now, I love y'all mucho and I'm so happy to be out here in Clovis NEW MEXICO!

Hermana Neilson

ps. i also put a video of our zone at zone conference doing the "hurrah for isreal" chant

 

2.12.18

I feel FRUMPY oh so FRUMPY!

HOLA TODO!

  Well to keep y'all updated in our biking adventures, we have officially biked 111.2 miles in 6 days! Wow I am so sore, but we are doing so great! 

  ALSO!!!!! PRESIDENT BALLARD IS COMING TO OUR MISSION ON THE 23RD!!!!!!!!!! We got a text from the AP's and the entire mission is getting together to hear from president ballard and elder whitney clayton! I am so excited! It will be so fun!

  This week hasn't been TOO hot with the work haha 6 of our investigators dropped us. But It's kind of nice just having people be honest with you that they're not interested, rather than they just keep leading you on (kind of like a relationship LOL). 

  BUT we had an awesome lesson yesterday! We invited a member who is preparing to go on his mission to come with us to a lesson with one of our younger investigators. Well when we got there, our investigator Christian was all in a suit and everything! so our member (Kayden) drove him over to the church and we ended up doing a church tour and we taught the plan of salvation in the chapel! It was so amazing! The spirit is just so strong in the church building, I wish we could do all our lessons there haha. 

  Also, we had a ward relief society activity. YOGA NIGHT. We realized how out of shape we are when they started doing the crow and alll those fancy things. BUT I did a bridge, I'm muy proud of myself haha. It was fun to meet and mingle with all the sisters though, I always thought of the relief society women being like older? But there's some who are like my age! and my sister's age, and so it was just fun to talk to them.

  Well that's it for this week, thanks for all the emails and letters and everything. Happy V-day to you people all in love. I LOVE Y'ALL MUCHO!!!!!!

Hermana Neilson :))

 

2.5.18

Tour De Clovis & Jehovah Witnesses


HOLA TODO!!!!

  Ok so this week was so good! We have been biking a ton!! We actually biked 60 miles in 3 days! So WOOOOO. We are SO sore. But we've actually seen a ton of miracles from being out on bikes more! 

  We have been doing this thing where "A block a day, keeps Satan away!" Aka. We pick a block to knock every single day! It's kind of a harder area here to find people, but every single time we pray before and go, we always find at least ONE potential! But this past Saturday we felt prompted to go see this man name Joe that we had previously met while knocking. So we biked over there, and we caught him just in time before he was about to leave for his trip! So we taught him the Restoration and he LOVED it. And so at the end, we both felt prompted and we invited him to be baptized! So that was such a miracle! AH i love being a missionary. 

  Ok so another cool thing that we did was we taught a Jehovah Witness!!!!!!!! I had never done that before so it was a really neat experience. She had a lot of questions, but she also learned a ton! Like for example, the priesthood!!!!! Apparently they don't really have anything like that in their church. But she wants us to come back and keep teaching her. Her main interest was in the Book of Mormon. So that was definitely a testimony builder. But it was a really good lesson :))

  But that's all my updates for now, I love you all so much and I'm so grateful to be a missionary! Ah i just love it :)) LOVE Y'ALL!!!

Hermana Neilson

303 Innsdale Ter #B

Clovis, NM 88101

ps. we were preparing for a basher

1.29.18

Transfer 12 = Staying in Clovis!

Hola todo!

  Well we got a text from President Hales on saturday saying that he was going to be in Clovis on SUNDAY, and that he would like to interview us.... WHAT. So after church we had our interviews and he told me and sister Goodmansen that we were both staying for the next transfer in Clovis :)) so that was a relief!

  This week has been so crazy but so many funny things happened. On Friday we decided that we wanted to bike that day, and so we decided to take another street on our way home. Well the street was covered in construction stuff, and when we were riding our bikes on the side walk we saw a member of our ward working on the construction, so we both turned and waved to say hi, and then BAM sand pit. So both of our bikes were like stuck, so that was kind of embarassing hahaha. And then once we get out of the sand pit we had to go back onto the side walk. Well I thought, I could probably just make it over the curb if I pedal fast enough. So my companion was behind me and i pedaled super fast and then when i got closer to the curb I realized that it was like 6 inches high! Haha so little to say i hit it dead on and my bike biffed it. But I'm ok!!!!

  Also when we were eating dinner at this member's home, they asked us what we missed from like "real life" and I said "I just miss sleeping in.... and the bachelor" and the wife looked at me and she was like "YOU WATCH THE BACHELOR TOO?!?!?" Little to say I have a new friend out here in Clovis ;)) 

  We started a challenge with the elders in the area with our bikes. Who can bike the most miles in the month of February? So we are going to sign a contract today. It's gonna be great! 

  Well that's basically all for this week. I think I am going to finish my mission in Clovis, I still can't believe I go home next transfer! But for the next 12 weeks I seriously just want to give the mission everything I have :)) Thanks for all the support and love and letters. I love y'all so much :))

con mucho amor,

Hermana Neilson

1.22.18

Month 15 Already?!

 

HOLA TODO!

 

Wow I hit 15 months this week and it does not feel real at all! So here's to my last 3 months as a missionary :'))

This week was awesome!! We went to the temple and ah! I love that place! I hadn't been in 10 months for an endowment session, so the spirit was so strong being able to go back :)) We also stopped at other spiritual activities while in Lubbock (aka Old Navy and Target) and it was great!

ALSO. We committed a FAMILY to be baptized on February 17th!!! A legit family!!! And the dad and daughter came to church yesterday! Ah so many miracles over here in Clovis. I am so excited about the work going on right now. 

We have transfer calls this Sunday night, so I will let y'all know what happens, I think I am staying another transfer here cause most likely I'll finish my mission here :)) 

Something that has helped me a TON this week is the mormon message by Russel M. Nelson "Men's Hearts Shall Fail Them". It talks a lot about how we can't give up on God when trials come. I know trials are a part of life, but sometimes when they come it's at the most unexpected time. I have done a lot of prayer recently on this topic and scripture study, and I always come back to the scripture "Thy Will be done, O Lord, not mine" . Jesus Christ suffered all things for us so that he could run to our aid according to our own individual circumstances. We aren't alone in this life even though a lot of the time it feels like we are, but in reality, if we are choosing the right, we are walking with the Savior to eternal life. 

I love this gospel and I love y'all too!!! Peace and blessings :))

con mucho amor,

Hermana Neilson

1.15.18

Nuevos Investigadores


HOLA TODO!

  This week was great! We are getting some new investigators and things are really looking a lot brighter for missionary work! I am so happy! Ok coolest story. We were out knocking on saturday, and literally no one was home. But after about an hour of knocking empty doors, we knocked on a door and this lady opened up and she started talking to us and immediately i recognized her accent and i was like "You have such a cool accent! Where are you from?!" and she said she was from MANCHESTER ENGLAND!!! The place where my dad served his mission! So I was like freaking out! Well she explained to us that she loves reading, so we gave her a book of Mormon, and she said she would read it! So we have a return appointment with her this week, I seriously am praying it goes through! She is so awesome!

  Also we found a new investigator named Alan. We went with a member to teach the Restoration, and the lesson went so well! When we were leaving the member brought up church, and the sacrament, and he was like "WAIT! MORMONS TAKE THE SACRAMENT?!" and we were like "Yea of course we do!" and he explained that he had been lied to his whole life that mormons don't take the sacrament. So he came to church on sunday and LOVED it!!!! So we are going to go back this week and teach him more, it's seriously amazing how some people are so prepared by the Lord!

  We are going to the temple this thursday and I'm so excited to do a session because I haven't done that since MARCH! So almost 10 months later! Haha so stay tuned for those pictures. I really am enjoying the work here in Clovis and it's been so fun working with members to do the work! It is seriously SUCH a BLESSING! Ok well I hope y'all have a great week, I love y'all mucho!

Hermana Neilson

 

1.8.18

Busy, busy, busy


HOLA TODO!

  This week was great! We had zone conference on tuesday, and I loved President Hales instructions! He instructed on "Dealing with missionary stress" and "Apologizing" you would think those are kind of weird, but he really showed us the importance of taking care of yourself and your companion in this work. So i really enjoyed it. 

  We also had exchanges this week, and I got to go with Sister Allart! She was my companion in eastland for 2 transfers, and now she's my sister training leader. It was so cool to see how much we've both grown in the mission, and it was just so fun being with an old comp for 24 hours. We stayed in Lubbock and then sister goodmansen and montgomery went to Clovis together. But I had a lot of fun in Lubbock, we had like a ton of success!

  The rest of the week was good too. When i got back to Clovis we had a lot of lessons fall through which was kind of frustrating, but then sunday afternoon we went to go see a potential investigator with a member here who is trying to prepare for his mission, and we got inside! His name is Christian and we taught him the Restoration! And it went really well. Member missionary work is just the bomb haha. 

  We also had dinner with a spanish family this past week and I was talking about "Haz lo justo" which means "Choose the right" in english. Well i didn't say "Justo" I said (in spanish) "Choose the gay". My spanish skills are just a little ratchet right now. 

  Anywho, that's all for this week, i love y'all mucho and pray for y'all daily. Thanks for all the emails and letters :))))))

con mucho amor,

HERMANA NEILSON