Here to stay!

Hello all!!! So great news here... I'm staying in Comayagua! Well at least for another 6 weeks! But I'll take what I can get!

So we had transfers this last Tuesday and I lucked out! My companions name is Hermana Vasquez. She is darling! She is from California but her parents are from Mexico so she speaks both Spanish and English perfectly! (So for starters that's definitely a perk! Here goes to improving my Spanish! haha) Just in this last week I have learned so much from her! She is so willing to work and serve the Lord! The funny thing is that we both just finished our training and they put us together to be Companions... that almost never happens. So I guess the Lord has a lot of people ready and prepared to hear the Gospel for us! And let me tell you... We have seen so many tender mercies this week. From the time we started together here in Comayagua we have yet a day to go by that we see the Lords hand in our missions. At the very beginning of the week our one fecha had fell through and my golden investigator just keeps working and now she's in Teguic for a week or 2. But every single day we have found someone put in our path that just wanted to hear the Gospel.

If we are obedient and do our part we are so beyond blessed. Yesterday we were walking around a little far away from our house in the heat of the day and no one was home. We had been walking around pretty aimlessly for about 5 minutes cause we couldn't figure out where we were supposed to go. We had contacted this lady, Marianna about 3 days ago and she had had missionaries before and told us that we could come visit her... unfortunately addresses don't exist here in Honduras! its more like.... Ya I live por this street up 3 blocks then you turn down that road then por alli and you pass a few pulperias along then way then I'm the white adobe house. (not even kidding.) So we were lost and kind of just sat down on a curb to figure where we were going to go next. Next thing we know Marianna just starts walking down the street with all her bags of groceries and we start chatting with her (still sitting on the curb). We figured that she still lived pretty far so we asked for her direction again when she looked at us pretty weird and was like... "Uh I live here in this house." We turned around and there enough was her yellow house that we were sitting directly in front of!! "If you want you can come in and share something with me!" Blessings. That's just one of many stories!! We have been so blessed just a week here in Honduras.

The same kind of story happened Saturday night too! All of our plans had fell through and we were just headed to a house of a less active lady in the ward when we heard this guy start talking to us. We chatted for a bit... learned that he had the missionaries before and the next thing we know he gave us his whole life story... how old he is... he's married with 4 kids and he would love for us to go and visit!

The Lord prepares the way for us... he will never give us a commandment without a way to achieve it. I love this gospel so much! Its so true and if you don't know it I invite you to find out for yourself!

Love you all! Hermana Nelson

PS... If you haven't laughed today (well first off you should laugh everyday but I'll help you out for the day) I was at church and I was trying to ask this man if we could go visit him... Well Hermana Nelson and her Spanish asked him... Well when you are FREED (like from prison) we'd love to come visit you. hahaha... poco a poco :) LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Happy... dia de Friendship

Hey long time no chat!

Wow this week has been such a roller coaster. Today is officially the last day of my training! I am now officially moving on to being a real grown up, official missionary! Yikes! We find out today who goes and who stays here in Comayaqua... They should have called like 30 minutes ago so you can just imagine how I'm feeling! Honestly it will be kind of sad. Almost our entire district has been together for 3 months now and now were moving on to your new areas! But there are about to be a lot of changes here in the mission! It sounds like they are closing a whole zone and opening other areas! So we will just have to wait and see!

This week Elsa and her 3 kids came to church! we found her... or I guess its better to say that she found us at church a couple of weeks ago! She came into our Gospel Pricipals class so Hermana Rojas went to go sit next to her... by the end of church we had talked to her a little about the restoration and she told us that she wanted to get baptized as soon as she could.  Sometimes things just work out perfectly ya know? I think shes distant relatives with the bishop or family friends and they actually live in the same area! So we went over there with the bishop and his wife cause its pretty far into Independencia. She told us that the other night she had a dream that her and her children all got baptized. she is literally amazing and is so willing to learn about the gospel! Then she told us how her friend offered her coffee but she learned that it wasn't good for her she decided! I cant wait to see whats in store for her! And I hope I can be here in Comayagua to watch it all happen!

This week I learned an important lesson... My companion looked at me one night after a particularly long day and said... Hermana Whatever you do, don't change. If someone you're with is sad or angry or mad don't change to lower yourself with them.... help them rise up to the challenge. Its so simple but so true. You can be the change in their life but to do that you have to maintain your happy attitude. And you can always find the happiness!

The church is true! I love you all so much and I hope you have the best week!!

Hermana Nelson

Hello all!

Hi fam!!

The weeks are getting faster and faster here I swear! First things its Monday... then Monday again!

But everything is just great here in the 504 (does that sound cool... probs not) haha... but this week I got all of the letters that were sent to me! Thank you to everyone that sent a Christmas card! It was like Christmas all over again!!

The Saturday Gustavo was baptized! I can hardly believe it... he has been through a lot the last month or so and changed his life around! We hope that he can continue to grow in the gospel! I remember the day that he told us the he KNEW the church was true. We couldn't even finish our question. Did you pray last night to kn... Yeah I did! And hermanas, I think I got my answer! And now he has had the opportunity to be baptized and have a fresh start on his life! Ill attach the picture below!

We had a zone meeting this last week and we are all ready to go to work! They started off by asking why we all chose to go on missions and I don't know I guess it really gets you thinking every time that question comes up and every time someone asks you there's another reason that is added on. I have had so many wonderful examples in my life of people that have served missions and I strive to be just like them. I have had the wonderful opportunity to have the gospel my whole life and now its my turn to share what I know. I have felt the comfort and peace that the atonement can bring into our lives and so much that I cant deny that it is true. I love the gospel with all of my heart. The gospel is home (in the wise words of my sister Amy)... no matter where you are or what situation you are in the gospel can be the rock in our lives.

Love you all so much! Hang in there!

Hermana Nelson

Another Week Older and Wiser Too

Hi Fam!

Wow this week seriously flew by! I feel like yesterday I was writing you guys! But that's a good sign right?

This week we went to Tegucigalpa for a reunion with Elder Alonzo of the 70 and holy cow was it powerful! I think every missionary here in the mission is ready to go to work! No but really it was a lot of great insight of what we need to do and all the faith that we need to have. If you haven't noticed yet I'm pretty sure that's the theme of my mission! In the conference he talked a lot about the story in Luke 8. It is when Christ is walking through the multitude and a woman reached out to touch the robes of Christ and he felt ´the virtue flow out of him.' The woman who had been sick for 12 years was immediately healed. And he says, ¨Daughter be if good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole, Go in peace." Do we have sufficient faith that we can touch and receive the power of the Lord? The woman did everything on her part. She had complete and pure faith that she would be healed, then she acted on it. Its like when Moses parted the Red Sea he didn't just sit there and wait for the waters to part they had to go down into the waters to prove their faith and then they were able to witness miracles. But it is the same in our lives. We have afflictions in our lives and a lot of times we suffer endlessly from them. We may feel like they will never go away and that we will never rise above. But we can... and the key is if we do our part we can rise above it all. Oph... isn't that so great?? Christ is the only way that we can be saved and he has tanto, pero tanto mercy for every single one of us. The only thing he asks us to do is have faith and then act on that faith to live in harmony with our savior. He is waiting for us with outstretched arms. He has done his part about 2000 years ago in the Garden. he knows every one of our aches and afflictions and now it is our job to take the first steps to come unto Christ and taste of the sweet joy!

This Sunday one good thing happened after another. Sometimes our prayers and answered in different ways than we expect. But we got to church right before sacrament just in time to see our convert Nahum stand up to pass the sacrament!! We entered church a little sad cause we were sure why some of our investigators didn't come but when we saw him pass the sacrament all was well! Then right after we looked to our left and one of our menos activos that we had been working with came to church! We've been visiting her since about December and she kept saying that she knows the place she needs to be is in la iglesia and yesterday there she was! And then everything fell into place cause right before sacrament meeting ended Cindy walked in... meaning that she is ready to be baptized this Saturday! Our zone leaders told us that our two zones are going to combine our baptisms this weekend and have noche blano... possibly 16 baptisms! Its just shows how fast the work is progressing and spreading to all of the world!

I love you all so so much! I hope you have the best week! The church is true... if you still don't know or want to know for yourself our Heavenly Father is just waiting for you to ask him.

Love Hermana Nelson 

Hermana Rojas Birthday

Tita! A member in our ward! She's darling and usually comes to our citas with us! You've probably seen pictures on Facebook!

Marjorie and Dohary got baptized!

We hiked about 2 hours up to las anonas this Saturday! Can you believe it! Members live up there and walk down a mountain 2 hours to church every Sunday! It was gorgeous! They have the strongest testimonies up there.

Foto Elder Alonso

We made it through!

Hi fam!!!

Hows everything going in the States?? I miss you all and love you all!!

So this week has been crazy! Hermana Rojas had her birthday so weve been celebrating all week! With cake and the whole nine yards! but the best present that we had this week was our baptism of the 2 little niñas. But lets be honest... theres never a baptism that goes according to plan!! Hermana Rojas says that every time and Im starting to believe her! We got to the church early and starting filling the pilla but when the elders left they took the keys with them. Thats where the problem started! The mom told us that she had somewhere to be so it had to end at 5 exactly. So the baptism started and my comp was directing the hymn when all the sudden *plash* yeah the door slammed shut and the other elders who had the keys DIDNT COME!! the baptism door was shut. So we ran!!! but no worries we all made it we took like a 20 minute intermission... but most important all worked out. WOOO!!

Remember that I love you all so mcuh and have the best week!

Sorry no pictures... I hear these computers have viruses!

Hermana Nelson

I turned 3!

Hello!!

Ok first off lets start off with the most important. HAPPPPYYY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!! I hope 32 treats you well!! Im hoping all you guys in the states are making it a wonderful day for a wonderful lady!! Im celebrating here and singing as loud as I can!

This week has been so great!! We got the chance to go to the temple this last week on tuesday. We get the chance to go every three months. It was so so great!! It is such a peaceful experience and such a recharge for these next 3 months! What better place to be than the house of the Lord.

Also its been a week of conections. So my district leader is the elder from Cindy Bears stake in Montana, Elder Andrews. And then my zone leader is Elder Long, in the same ward as my cousins in Illinois! I remember the Painter family telling me that there was someone in their ward here in Honduras... and now were here together! And I see Elder Hale like every other week here (From Alta)... AND apparently Hermana Hansen is in our stake!! Connections connections!

This last week we have been working so hard. I think here in Comayaguela we have the best president out of any mission. I will be so sad to see him go in June! But we have been starting with the standards of the mission. Meaning we have to start working super duro. Each day is 3 lessons with a member, 4 others, and then 3 with those whose faith are wavering with menos activos and 100 contacts each week. My prayers have been answered over and over and as we find those people who have been prepared for us. If we do our part the Lord does his.

This weekend we are going to have 3 baptisms... with a whole lot of faith 5. But let me tell you. The Lord leads you to those who are prepared to hear your words. You might have a few doors slammed in your face and maybe one of your golden investigators doesnt come to church... but maybe its not their time. Another missionary in a few years might come along and they will be ready then. We are here to find those who have been prepared for us and we are here to share eternal happiness.

I love you all so so much!! I hope you all have the best week!! Remember Heavenly Father listens to every one of your prayers. Hes wants to and waiting for us to communicate with him... if we can ask in fatih... todo is possible. 

The church is true.

Love Hermana Nelson

Another week here in the mission

Hello!!!

This week was super great here in the mission. I am starting to think that the sun is getting to me... and its getting pretty hot (don't worry daddy... I DO drink enough water!)... But then everyone just laughs and tells me that this is temperate and that if I am in Comayagua for April THEN I will really feel the heat. So most of my nightmares have been the ´heat´that every talks about. Cause some people are still hearing their winter hats here and in on the other side of the street burning. Uh oh.

But everything is super great here!! The biggest news of the week is that a member. Thats right. A MEMBER told me that my spanish was improving. I mean that doesnt mean that I have it down by any means but thought I would share the good news!!

But really I love it so much here in Honduras. I wouldnt want to be anywhere else. This church is true and everyday I see it help people in thier lives. The more I read the book of Mormon the more I know that is the word of God. It can help us every day in every problem that we face.

Sorry its short... but I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! ALL OF YOU!!

ps I think izzy left this last week but if Im off a week will you tell her good luck from me on her mission??

Love Hermana Nelson