I love los buses

September 14, 2015

Hi fam!!

So yes we LOVE buses. We have spent the good part of the week in the bus... missing the bus by a few minutes.... hoppin on the next bus... getting stranded in far away cities due to the BUS. Taking busses to go do more divisions... then some more intercambios but we are safe and happy here :)

This week was seriously a blur! We have cambios tomorrow so I guess we will have to see if I stay or go. So bigger news coming next week!

We have been seeing a lot fo progression here in flores so I would be so sad if we go. yesterday we seriously had all of our prayers answereeçd. Aun no estabamos here in our area for most of the week... God is so good to take care of our investigators while we are away in other parts of Honduras. We had 7 of them in church and even 2 of out families came!! There has been this huge change in the way we are focusing on mission work here using the 4 ajustes de Pres Nelson. We are focusing on working with the menos activos to get more references and visting the recent converts and finding ALOT of part member families. Because really when someone feels good in the church... and they feel the love of everyone around them... thats when people really want to progress :) Adn we have been really seeing that!

We had an amazing reunion de zona this week. I mean we were given the informational part to capcitate on but the whole reunion was all inspired. So many of our zone will be headed home this change but it was really focused on our Happiness pack and what we bring with us. also where are thoughts are... if we are negative then there is no way that we will be able to more from day to day! we need to see our infinate potential. We did an activity where we had to write down the first 10 negative thoughts that came to our mind... then (due to math something) we had to write a counterbalance to ever negative thought and had to write 2 positive thoughts about ourselves. Then later that night we had to burn our negative thoughts and the positive thoughts are left as our DECLARATION. When we feel good about ourselves... we have so much MORE LOVE for everyone else!! SO BE HAPPY and THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS :)

Anyway I love you somuch... I promise Ill wirte more later. Remember that the church is true and the best thing in life is a free guava :)

HErmana nelson

ps... Im obsessed with the little boy in the foto... Toñito. We love him. (Joses son)

Noche de hogar with Hna Mariita, jose kenya and the fam!!

Piñatas for Hna platts birthday (and I guess mine too)... la piñata me parece verdad?

Piñatas for Hna platts birthday (and I guess mine too)... la piñata me parece verdad?

Id like to call that one big machete

We love hna platt... it was her BIRTHDAY!! (And my future roommate :)

SOME GOOD OLD BASKIN ROBINS WITH THE GIRLS!

Humbleness is the best medicine :)

September 7, 2015

BUENAS FAM!!!

Ok sorry the inernet is REALLY slow but Ill try to get this out before the computer fries ;)

This week has been so great! Ill try to send some fotos so it makes up for a short email... (ps many are saying that I dont send fotos... I do :) theyre just on my blog! But ill include some here!!

This week I got to go back to comayagua... where I was born in the mission... SO I got to go see some of the people that I really love!! And here are some of them! It was such a blst to be on intercambios with Hna Hurst... I got the best ab workout that Ihave had ALL YEAR.

Yesterday I had the best Birthday present ever! We have been teaching Hno Jose... a son of a recent convert for about 2 weeks now. He never got baptized before casue he never wanted to quit smoking. It breaks my heart to see it... He smokes to be able to last a little longer from the hunger he feels as he is working in the feilds. But he reads. Like really reads. We even tried to look up a scripture yesterday and before he even looked at it he was like... oh yeah I remember taht one... It talks about how much more we need to be baptized and follow Chirsts example!

so we went there on Sunday to pick up his whole family from church but he wasnt there (but his sister and her pareja were!) we were kinda bummed but hermana mariita his mom told us its cause he had to work today... we accpeted it then went to church. And then miracle. Right after sacrament he walks in. I thought you had to work?!? we said... he jsut kinda shrugged and sat down! Woo!! So that night when we visited him we chatted for awhile about how he feels and we brought up baptism. He said... ya know Ive been thinking a lot about this. elder roberts always told me to choose a date and pray about it. I think I chose a date Hermanas... my birthday Sept 23!! We kinda just looked at him (jumping for joy inside) and said well you know that youll have to quit smoking for that right? He said.... oh I know. But if god wants me to do it I can.... Ive been recieving a lot of strength.
 We are so proud of him. Never judge people. Just if they look a little rough around the edges.

Also... be careful what you wish for. ;) Me and Hna niu have been praying to be more  humble. We got an answer... well we call it an answer. We lost our phone right in the middle of all the hermanas needing our help. We were so stressed and we couldnt get ahold of anyone all day but can I tell you. God provides. Yes so we lost our phone and we have been very humbled from that but more than anything the people have been teaching me so much. This saturday EVERYONE taught us the biggest lesson that we could learn. People, that we know dont have much, gave us food... people offered to help us even if we didnt know them too well... We got stuck in an area a little too late but we ran to Jose´´s house and he walked us all the way into town to the light to make sure we got there safe. It was pouring rain and my shoes broke... so when we got to Hno Adalid we walks our with a brand new pair of shoes that he sent his wife about 4 years ago when he was in the US but they dont fit so shes never worn them. These people dont have much. but theres always enough when  you are serving. I have been so humbled and blessed here. So heres my suggestion. Look around and see who needs help. You never know how much a smile... a glass of lemonade... or a new pair of shows... can make :)

LOVE YOU ALL!! And have the best week ever!!

Shout out to my COUSIN EMILY PAINTER WHO GOT MARRIED!! (I got your announcement :) I love you!!

Hermana nelson

my awkward engagement pic.... we love Hna Craner

Just a normal day feeding the goats

we do service... I mean piñata making... I mean both?

LOVE YOU ALL!

August 31, 2015

Hi fam! Dang I wanted to write a lot this week but I just dont know where the time seems to go!

But to answer A LOT of questions yes I did dye my hair. I guess you could say I panicked and the next thing I know my harir was close to black. So thats fun! But no worries... with this sun itll be back to bright blonde in no time ;)

As for here in Flores... it is progressing a lot. There seems to be a whole lot of catholics here. but you know what they say (or maybe they dont say it a whole ton) the harder you get rejected just means that you REALLY close to be finding someone chosen ready to hear you. that motivated us a lot this last week. And I can HONESTLY seay that we saw so many miracles- I can honeslty say that yesterday was probably one of my top 5 best days on my mission.

We have been really tired this last wek from the traveling and more traveling and then well.... MORE TRAVELING. I guess you could say Im excited to drive in a real car on a real normal highway. but if you do want a good experience try to bus sytem in Honduras ;)

But Sunday started of so great. Ok once we got our power back it started off so great! ;) But it started off with us completing our meta for how many people in church. When we have good plans and faith, God provides. Adalid came (our faithful family), another joven came and drumroll..... Jose came too!! He is the 25ish year old son of a recent convert. The elders were working with him a bit ago but kind of dropped him too. We saw him on friday on his bike and invited him to church (they live pretty far away so we werent able to check up before sunday). He told us later that he had no intentions of coming to church but he woke up abnormally early and decided to ride with his mom. So we had ne expectations of him being there... so you can imagine how happy we were to see him driving up on his bike with his mom!! 

The rest of church was delightful. And then all the rest of the day everything just fell into place. We have been visiting Hno Angel and when we showed up yesterday he had not just read the whole restauration pamphlet... he had marked it, cross referenced it and done more research... and by the end was asking us for a Book of Mormon! Then we found the family we had been looking for a la par! And then had a really awesome lesson with Jose (He reads! Like really reads and cross references and shares his favorite passages!)

I honestly can say I have seen the ups and downs of the day to day misison life. Its the best, hardest, most rewarding thing I have ever done. I can truly see how the atonement works and the comfort the gospel brings to anyone that is willing to listen and do thier part.

I love you all so much! I hope you have the best week ever!

PS shout out to my best friend Riley whos getting MARRIED this week!

Hermana Neslon

You´ve got a pretty nice last name!

August, 24, 2015

This week was amazing! And it all started off so great!

On Tuesday we went to Siguatepeque for Divisions. Hna Logan is really sick and so its hard for them to leave the whole day so Hna Niu went out with Hna Balbuena and I stayed with Hna Logan. They both are just about to end their missions so I was able to learn SO MUCH from both of them! We talked a lot of how the mission has helped us and exactly what we can learn from all the experiences that were are so privileged to have here. And what it all come down to is that you just need to teach with love. We left for a cita at night and it was probably one of the most spiritual lessons that I have had here on my mission. I had never met the family before but as I walked in I just felt that I knew them. I felt as if that we had been best friends before. And has we taught about the importance of the spirit and marriage I could honestly see them all dressed up in white being sealed to their family. they have only been investigating for about two weeks but the hermano bore a beautiful testimony on the love of God. And its so true. God love us so much that he gives us the opportunity to have the Gospel in our lives. To learn and grow and to return to Him one day!

Then on Thursday we had intercambios with the hermanas in El Carmen! I got to stay with Hna Gertrudis! I came with ehr and we were actually in the CCM together! It was so fun catching up and see how far we both have come!! (I mean look... she actually could understand me now ;) but I have realized that there really just is no other substitute for work. It you work hard you will see miracles.

Now here's the big news of the week! We had a conference with Presidente Nelson of the quorum of the 12 apostles! And we all had the opportunity to shake his hand. I mean most people had about a half a second with him but he stopped me. Look at my name tag and said... Sister. You have a really nice name. I and told him thanks.... you do to President! so you could say our 5 second conversation made us really good friends!

No but really the conference was absolutely beautiful. Something that I think I loved the most was that there was about about CHOOSE JOY. Everyday you can wake up and decide. What will your day be like today? Its a daily decision. Choose Joy. Choose patience. Choose to be loving. Choose to be optimistic. Choose faith. It you really want to enjoy life that means you also have to enjoy each individual day. Because its the ordinary days and the day to day tasks that make up your life. So choose to be happy TODAY!! He also ended the conference with a apostolic promise to each one of the missionaries. It was an amazing experience!

Now some of the fun day to day activities!

So at the conference with everyone we got lots of good news! The first was from Talanga! I forgot to take a picture of the picture that I got but all of my converts are actually going to appear in the Liahona! (I mean I think just in the Spanish version... but I'm not sure yet!) President of the mission actually went down there and met all of them and was really impressed by their story so they all got dressed up really nice in their shirt and tie and typed up their side of the conversion story and it will be printed I think this next issue!! I am so proud of them! They have come so far. So big news COMING SOON!

This week Adalid came to church again! He has changed so much! He is genuinely so happy and his wife just beams as he talks about the gospel. This week we will be doing a fast with him for him to know when he should be baptized :)

We ate pure coconuts this week :)

Tender mercy... one of our contacts just gave us a huge bag of guavas (my all time fav). We were planning on paying but then she just looked at us and said nope... GRATIS! FREE!

I have basically lost my voice... I would like to say its cause I'm preaching so much :) and we LOVE singing to all the people :)

AND last but certainly NOT LEAST. I took MY SECOND WARM SHOWER that's actually from a shower head... in my entire mission. It was glorious!

I love you all so much! The church is true!!

Hermana Nelson

The before and after....

The before and after....

The before and after....

FOUR GENERATIONS PIC!!!

And a bunch of my fav hermanas... (but not limited to...)

My darling Hija Hna Sequeira

Hna Carnahan

Hna Martinez