Hola Momma!/Everyone

With My Trainer

This week was way good. It´s still frustrating because I cant speak spanish, but its all good. Its weird, because when I left the MTC I felt like I could teach basic lessons in Spanish that wasnt too bad (I can hear Hno Humbert and Hna Pullan laughing at me.), but now I cant say anything. I teach very very basic parts of the lesson in really bad spanish. I dont understand how, but my spanish has gotten worse since leaving the MTC. Anyways.

With Cousin DeeAnn at the MTC

By the way Hermano Humbert, the very first person we met and contacted on the street was named Manuel and also we are teaching a family with a little boy named Manuel. But they are both nicer than your Manuel..haha

This week.. We had to stop teaching Alberto and the lady he is living with, Susana. That is sad. But we have lots of new investigators. 2 with Baptismal dates. So thats good. I already told the family a whole bunch of stuff on Christmas, so I cant remember what isnt on the blog yet..haha

To see why this is funny - see Annie's blog here http://hermanaanaleece.blogspot.com/2013/10/another-fun-week-in-san-marcos.html

We ate tamales for christmas eve with the Bishops family. We watched the kids do fireworks for a while. It was pretty fun. There are a few kids that are learning english, so they like to practice with me. That was nice. I like to hear

 

 

 

 

english because I dont get to very much. Its funny. Im right on the border, so youd think more people spoke english, but they dont. There are a bunch of spanish words that dont exist in other parts of Mexico because they are influenced by English. Like wachar (i dont know how to spell that) means to watch a movie. Mopar is to mop. Basically, if I dont know a word, Ill say the English word with a weird Spanish accent, and about 1/2 the time, Im right. 

I assume this is the apartment

The Facilities

On Christmas day, we hung out with our Zone and ate food and watched Rise of the Guardians in Spanish of course. It was a cute movie. I liked it. Then we got to talk to families. That was my favorite part. 

The next day we didnt know what to do. Everyone slept all day because they had been out late partying the night before. No one was home and the streets were dead silent. It was weird.

New experience of the week: I bought bread out of a car. These cars with bread and pastries drive around playing this really obnoxious song and it drives us crazy. So naturally, we bought some one day. And it was delicious!

We dont get as lost as we used to. But sometimes I forget Im in charge of the map and we accidentally get off the bus like 4 blocks too late..Oops

Sunday we were asked to speak in Church. Well They asked Hna Bautista to speak and me to bear my testimony. It was still nervewracking. Hermana B. spoke about miracles-she used a Neil L anderson talk. It was good. So when i bore my testimony afterward I said "I know that what my companion said is true and that God is a God of miracles. We are all going to witness a miracle when I learn Spanish." Apparently I said everythign right because I got a good laugh with that. Oh and there was a drunk guy at church. So that was interesting. A new experience for sure. And I accidentally became the ward/choir pianist. Should be fun.

Anyways. I cant really think of anything else right now. Things are good. My companion is great and very patient. Love her to death. We got your package and loved it. She says to tell you Thanks very much! She says its very thoughtful for you to include her. 

Love you all. Miss you lots! Send me letters! ;)

Hermana Nielsen

MTC

So, I'm in Mexico!

Hna Nielsen con Presidente and Sis Carreon

So Im in Mexico. Thats cool. Its pretty muhc nothing like I imagined. I wish I had more time to tell you everything. Our casa was trashed when we got here. We spent hours cleaning it. But its not too bad to live in now. Except its freezing. I dont understand. Its warm outside but freezing in our house. especially at night. I sleep with 3 blankets and 2 sheets and still freeze. We have hot water in the shower...for about 6 seconds. 7 if youre lucky.

We have a few investigators. Alberto Garcia. I invited him to be baptized and he accepted. Teresa. Familia Pacheco. Vicky. and Rafael. Vicky and Rafael we found, but the others were people the elders were teaching before they left.My companion is Hermana Bautista. She speaks 0 english..wait. that{s a lie. She speaks a little english. Like 4 or 5 words. haha She is from Distrito Federal, shes 26. Shes pretty nice. we get along pretty well. 

I understand a lot of spanish. My problem is that my brain works so hard to translate that someitmes it gets tired and i accidentally stop listening. but I cant talk to anyone. Its so frustrating. i know that people cry on the inside when i teach my parts of the lesson or pray because im slaughtering their language. Stop signs might as well not exist. people dont use them. it scares me to be in cars with people. especially on buses. the other day our bus driver was texting. no big deal. 

Can I just tell you how funny it probably is to see me and my comp walking around the streets of mexico trying to navigate the map. You can imagine it and laugh, because its ridiculous. I have to figure out where to go because my comp, bless her heart, cant use the map very well. Also, she doesnt remember names of people or streets. So thats my job too. can you imagine how bad of shape we are in because of that. But its good. We will learn. They play american songs on the radio all the time in public places. but they dont censor the swear words, so thats fun for me. haha

Theres a zoo in our backyard. And Im not joking. The Mexicali Bosque y Zoo is right behind our house. And we hear the elefante all the time. Especially early mornings and night time. haha Its great.

The food has only made me nauseous one time. And it was when our ward mission leader bought us cheap tacos at a restaurant. So we wont be doing that again. I hear that some of the hermanas that came with me from the US have been really sick adjusting to the food. But i havent had problems with any of the food they serve us at members houses.

The only embarassing thing that has happened so far happened at the ward christmas party. A lady asked where <i was from, so i told her Utah. Then she said that Utah is really beautiful, so I said Yeah! I know! I agree! Then my companion told me that the lady was telling me that I was beautiful. So i felt stupid...apart from yesterday, ive seen someone painting their house every single day. apparently you can just do that whenever you want. 

Mom! Theres a lady here that comes every week from California for Young Womens. She says to send the letters and packages to her house and i will get them every week. Other than that, ill get them once a month. and i missed this months time. so i wont get that package you were talking about until sometime in january. (Note from Sherece: Email me if you want her address sherecenielsen@gmail.com)

I think that's all. Things here are hard, but good. Love you all

Ill be on to skype on wednesday at 6 my time. for 45 minutes.

Love you all! Thanks for everything 

Hermana Nielsen

 

My days are numbered..​.

Selfie from this morning

Hola Everyone!

As Grandma would say, my days here in the MTC are numbered. We finally got our flight plans on Friday. And we went to Vegas yesterday to get visa stuff figured out, so we are for sure going to be in Mexico on Monday! Crazy huh? I can't believe that time has gone by so fast! So here's the quick weekly update:

Friday: Happy Monthiversary to me! If that's not a real thing, I just made it one. Also, we got our travel plans this day, so that was great and a good way to end the day. We have to meet the shuttle at 6:30 am, which is so much better than 2:30am like a lot of people. We stayed home from class the first half of the day because Hermana Muir was sick. It was nice to just lay on the couch and study scriptures and not be stuck in a desk for hours on end. But we went to class in the afternoon and taught our investigator, so it wasn't a full day off. haha We tried 4 square in gym instead of volleyball like usual.  4 square is pretty intense. The elders take it so seriously; it's hilarious.

Saturday: We had another teacher from our zone help teach Brother Humbert and I think all the Hermanas fell in love with him. He was super nice and pretty attractive. I think I'm gonna ask him to wait for me. Haha just kidding. I got to practice the piano this day. Lori would be so proud. The Elders from the departing district asked me to accompany them when they sang in church. So that was fun. It was so nice to play a real piano. I play the piano in sacrament meeting, but it's a keyboard and it doesn't count as a real piano.

Sunday: Saw Hermana Costello at breakfast. Then we studied until Music and the Spoken Word and Relief Society.  I was called on to give the talk in Sacrament meeting. So I was up in front of the ward most of the time either playing the piano or speaking. Good times. Sat by DeeAnn at the Christmas Devotional, which was super good by the way! We said goodbye to our favorite district. There were tears. :(

Monday: The district that left had their flight cancelled so they had to come back for a few days! They were so mad, and it was hard to say goodbye again when they left for real, but it was so great to have a little more time with them. We got our travel plans to go to Vegas. We started getting to know the new district of elders better. They are so funny. And the play volleyball with us during gym, so we have full teams again.

Tuesday: Tuesday was hard. Way hard. I felt like I was doing really well with the language and with teaching and Hermana Pullan (our teacher) told us again that we aren't where we should be with Spanish. She pretty much told us she was disappointed and really stressed us out. Plus the stress of everything just caught up with me. The devotional was good though. Elder Cook came! That's 3 apostles since I've been here. And we were scheduled to have 4. But Elder Ballard couldn't make it last week. 

On the plane to Vegas

Wednesday: Longest day of my life. We woke up at 3:30 am and got ready. We had to meet the shuttle to the airport at 4:30. We left the MTC at 5. Got to the airport by 6. Ate and hung out until our flight boarded at 8:15. Then they said the plane had to "de-ice" or something, so we didn't even take off until 9:15. We were supposed to leave at 8:35. We got to Vegas, met with the guy who was chauffeuring us and got some lunch at Del Taco. Then we hung out in the Institute Building listening to him give all his "knowledge" about Mexico. I'm not sure I should actually listen to him though. He told us the water in Mexico isn't actually bad. It's just tradition to not drink it. Also he told us the most important thing was to work on our accents. Apparently, even if we don't know much Spanish, if we don't have American accents, the people will be more willing to listen and they will understand us better. Around 1, we went to the Consulate, got our fingerprints and pictures taken. That's the entire reason for the trip and it took us each about 2 1/2 minutes to get that done. Then we went back to the airport and ate and hung out until our flight boarded at 5:45 (6:45 our time). We got to the Salt Lake airport and as we were coming down the escalators, there were huge crowds of people welcoming missionaries home. They got excited when they saw us coming and we felt kinda bad when their missionaries weren't with us. haha. We got back to the MTC around 9 that night.

Guess where we are?

Today is pday and it's been great but we are so so so so so tired. It was great to get Dearelders from Tai and Derick. I miss you guys! Love you all. Can't wait to talk to you at the airport and again on Christmas.

Yo sé que el Evangelio de Jesucristo está en la tierra ahora. Yo sé que el Libro de Mormón es verdadero. Jesucristo sufrió por nuestros pecados. Podemos ser feliz y recibir perdón! Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y Él tiene una grande plan por nosotros. El Evangelio nos ayuda vivir con feliz y paz. Nos muestra el camino a volver a Dios y ser feliz para siempre! Le amo la Iglesia de Jesucristo con todo my corazón. 

Love you all!

Talk to you soon!

Hermana Nielsen

Hna M's Mom sent us a tree!

 

 

Just another normal week at the CCM

A picture from yesterday from elder B's camera

Hey everyone!

Just another normal week at the CCM. If normal is a thing when you're on a mission. Here's the "journal entry" update:

Friday, after we talked it was a pretty normal day except during additional study, one of the Hermanas had a panic attack. It was super scary because none of us knew what was happening so we didn't know what to do. The elders gave her a blessing and I pretty much sat and held her/ comforted her until they could get the security guards there. They were a big help in calming her down. Then they took her to the ER to be safe. She got home that night about 12:30. So all is good. 

A bunch of people in our zone

 

Saturday: We taught Elders from another district and they gave us pointers on how to teach better.

Elder B likes to have his picture taken.

Sunday: Love Sundays! Hna Muir and I are the new music directors so I get to play the piano in Sacrament Metting. Still having sacrament in the Bubbles. Fast sundays are good, but hard because we don't eat until 5. But Mission conference was pretty good.

the bubbles where we have gym and sacrament meeting

Monday: Nothing special.

This is what the Elders do during Films on Sunday. That's where we watch movies after the devotional. We watched Legacy and they were bored so they drew in my notebook.

Artwork done by Elders B, B and R. One would draw the head, someone else would draw the body, and so on

 

Tuesday: Our devotional was supposed to be given by Elder Ballard, but it snowed a LOT this day, so they asked Bruce C. Hafen to come instead. It was still good. We've had to make a new rule in our apartment to keep the toilet lid closed all the time...because I may have accidentally dropped my nametag in there...it was gross

 our view on Tuesday morning on our way to class.

Wednesday: Today, our teacher, Hermana Pullan told us that we are not where we should be with Spanish. So that was sad and frustrating. Especially because we've been working a lot harder on HSI (hable su idioma/speak your language) recently than we have. She has been pretty tired and upset lately too, so she wasn't very nice about it. :( Oh well.  I was super excited all day that DeeAnn was coming. I looked for her at dinner and was really upset that I didn't see her. But, when we were heading back to our apt to get ready for Gym, the New Missionaries Meeting was just getting out. So we creepily waited outside until I saw her. I attacked her with a hug and it was great. Then gym was great. 

Hermana R during planning time

 

Today: The temple is closed, so we had a lot of free time this morning. We started our laundry around 7:30 and cleaned our apartment while our clothes were washing. Super gross story for you all. I know that you don't want to know this, but you'll be fine. haha. For this last week, our shower has been clogged. So whenever we shower, the water doesn't drain very well and it's super slippery. It's gross. Well today, I unclogged the shower drain. and it was NASTY! It obviously has been collecting hair for a very long time. So that's gross. Anyways, then we had study time. Then lunch. Now here we are. :) Oh yeah. I saw DeeAnn again about 15 minutes before I started emailing. She says to tell everyone "hi" and that she's doing good. When I saw her last night, she had the deer-in-the-headlights look. She was kinda confused about everything. I would not want to go back to that day. Today, she seems a little better. But she's still in that "what is going on" stage. It's all good. She'll be fine.

 

Ignore the weird look on my face. I really was having a good time. this is at lunch today at Burger Supreme

My lunch today. We get to go off campus on Pdays

 

I can't wait to get to Tijuana if only to be warm! It is SOOOO cold here. And icy. I haven't fallen down yet. But I'm sure it'll happen. Things are good. Still haven't got our travel plans. Hope they come soon. I'm getting nervous.

Love you all. Thanks for the letters and emails. 

Hermana Nielsen

 

 

I'm in week 4!

Thanksgiving Night

I can't believe I've been here for three full weeks. It's a little crazy that time is going so fast. Okay. I brought my journal, so I can remember back what happened this week. Let's see:

Friday: We taught Manuel again and it went 1000000 times better than the first time. I was patient and we got to know him better and he didn't fight back with us. So that was super good. Brother Humbert even told us "Good Job" afterwards, which he never does. So that boosted our self confidence. Then Brother Humbert went out of town, so we haven't taught him since then. Silvia committed to be baptized after we taught her the Plan of Salvation. 

Saturday: Got your package Mom. We love it. My swedish fish are almost gone and we're working on the cookie dough still. We had a substitute teach us. His name is Brother Mcghie. He was super nice and we like him a lot. 

Sunday: I thought about how Deeann's farewell went all day. I hope she's doing really well getting ready. We had sacrament meeting in the gym bubbles (still forgot to take a picture of those sorry). It was interesting. It was pretty cold too. Devotional was by Stephen B Allen. He taught us about having good companion relationships. it was pretty good. It was really really really cold walking back and forth to main campus this day. Makes me excited for Mexico.

Monday: Class was frustrating. Sometimes Hermana Pullan is not our favorite teacher. I feel like she expects us to know things perfectly and teach perfectly the first time. We struggled learning how to introduce the Book of Mormon. But don't worry, because I'm a professional now. 

TRC is where we go teach volunteers-could be members or nonmembers- and practice teaching lessons and stuff. We do this on Wednesday, but on Monday, some nonmembrs showed up to volunteer because they had heard about it through a friend and no one showed up to teach them. They were pretty mad and walking around campus. Two elders from our zone met them and volunteerred to teeach them right then. SO they found an empty classroom and taught this couple. In the middle of their testimonies, the lady started bawling. They asked if they could come back and the Elders taught them again Wednesday. I think they are coming back againg today too. Isn't that crazy? having your first real investigators before you even leave the MTC???

Also we taught Silvia about the commandments today and discovered that she's living with her boyfriend who won't marry her. So until she gets that situation figured out, she can't be baptized...sad. :(

Tuesday: Brother Whittaker is substituting for Bro. Humbert now and we really like him. He's a super good teacher and he's very patient with us. Today, our devotional was Michael John U Teh. He talked about...surprise! being good missionaries. haha Today when we didn't have a teacher during language study, I taught the class how to do Commands, Direct objects, Indirect Objects, and combined in Spanish. They make fun of me and call me "Maestro Nielsen" when we don't have teachers, but it's fine. I like to be able to help. And they ask for it. Also, Hermana E and the girls in our apartment have started calling me the Mom Hermana because I am always asking them how they're doing and if I can help. Also, If she ever has a question, she asks me. Haha that's fun.

All of us in the Laundry room.

Wednesday: nothing special. We did TRC and taught a lady named Misty and one named Sister Rice. She was the greatest. She was so cute and excited about everything we were saying. Because we didn't have a Pday this week, we did laundry during Additional study this day.

Our district can't take serious pictures together

Thursday: Thanksgiving! Lots happened. First, we got to sleep in until 6:30 which was AWESOME! Normally we get up at 5:30. We had breakfast and then were bussed up to main campus. We found our "home room" and then stood in line for the Devotional. Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke to us, which was awesome. He didn't really have a specific topic, just kinda talked to us. Then we went back to our Home Room and waited for our turn for lunch. We wrote letters and hung out with our zone and took weird pictures. Don't worry, I'll send some. Then we had lunch--the Thanksgiving Dinner. It was crazy good. I ate way too much. Then we packed our sack dinner for later and went back to our home room. Again we wrote letters and hung out. At 2:15, we had a mini devotional about the service project we were gonna do. Then 1/2 of us started the project and the other half had a Thanksgiving Program. We had the program. It was a little strange. They had this whole skit and we watched some movie clips. We sang hymns. It was fine. Then we ate our sack dinners back in our home room. Then we did the service project. We put together little sack dinners for the foundation "Food for Kids." We did that for about an hour and a half. Then we watched "Ephraim's Rescue" and went home. It was a long day, but it was good to have a break for a minute. 

Today we have just had class with Hermano Whittaker. It was good. Today after lunch we have class again and Hermana Pullan is gone too. So we have a sub. I swear she said that the sub's name is Hermana Zuniga. Isn't that the name of Annie's first comp? I'm super curious to see who she is. I'll let you know. 

Anyways. I think that's about it. Both of my watches are broken now and the ones they sell in the bookstore range in price from $40-$90. So i won't be buying one here. I'll just get new ones in Mexico.

Oh right! Funny moments from this week.

• During practice on how to teach the Plan of Salvacion, Hermana M and Elder W were teaching eachother. She asked him "How do I get to heaven?" and he said "You have to die." He then took a big pause before trying to tell her that everyone goes to heaven but there are different levels. So it just came out really funny and everyone laughed for a while.
• I've concluded it takes about 2 weeks for missionaries to start going crazy and 3 for them to get there all the way. Elders at least. For about 10 minutes one day Elder W held his water bottle to his ear and moved his head side to side to listen to how cool it sounded. 
• You know you're a missionary when you have dreams about teaching lessons and committing families to baptism. My dreams have changed since being here. First, I dreamed of home every night. Then I dreamed of home but I always had a companion with whatever i was doing. Now I have regular dreams about random things, but I'm always with my district or zone.
• Elder C from another district said this the other day after a long day "Sometimes I turn my brain down to 50% and save it for later." He was saying really dumb things this day.
• Once you memorize the First Vision, it's always in your head. When I'm in the shower or going to sleep, I just think "vi una columna de luz, mas brillante que el sol, directamente arriba de mi cabeza..." It's a fun time
• The elders realized the had to teach Silvia about the Law of Chastity, (Ley de Castidad) and before this had been singing Christmas songs. All of a sudden Elder S started singing "Feliz Castidad." we laughed at him.
  
  
  
  One of the Elders Got my Camera      
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  Two Elders having a race finishing their water
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Fish Eye lens is fun

  
  
  
  
  

  

  Elder E stole everyone's name tags.

  
  

  

  Elder B thinks he's a gangster.

  
  

  

  Christmas lights on Main Campus. They were playing music too!

I think that's about it. I've got some pictures I'll be sending now.
Love you all. Thanks for everything.

Hermana Alexa Nielsen

This is my mission shirt. Everyone going to Mexico has one. Love it

Hola Everyone!

First of all, thanks to all the friends and family that have sent me emails, letters, packages (thanks for the Pringles mom. The district loved that). You all are so amazing and it's nice to feel so supported. Unfortunately, this week, the Branch Presidency decided we can only write letters on Pdays now. We can't even write them in our free time before bed or our free time on Sundays. So I'm sorry, but you probably won't be getting many handwritten letters anymore family. :( 

The temple today was incredible as always. Sadly, it's our last week. They are closing next week for the rest of the year. So I won't be able to go probably until I get home in 2015. After the temple, we had lunch at Brigham's Landing. It's a little area with a bunch of food places. IT was pretty good. And Jamba Juice gives missionaries half off. So that's sweet.

P.S. mom, I get your DearElders they day you send them now, just make sure that you put the right unit number on them. It's 871. I've got a few letters with 187 crossed out and 871 written in red. I think it takes longer to get them if they have to fix it. No se. But i know the last couple have been right and i've gotten them day of-except when Elder Sipple forgets to hand them out at night. haha

On Sunday, we had a devotional by Mary Ellen Edmunds. Holy Canoli that woman is hilarious. They film all the MTC devotionals, so you should see if you can find that one, because we were in stitches the entire time. Loved it. She forgot her talk when she first got up, so all the sudden she just said "Forgot my talk" and walked off camera. ahah I have some more quotes from that that I wrote down because they were so funny. haha

We're teaching two investigators now. Manuel (brother Humbert) and Sylvia (our new teacher/first investigator, Hermana Pullan). I like teaching Sylvia. She's sad because her mom passed away, but I think we can really help her. Manuel on the other hand....

Tuesday, Hermana J left for the Colombia MTC, so our companionships are all changed now. Her comp, Hna. R is now companions with Hna. E and Hna M and I are companions. It's way easier to have a two person companionship than 3. Three was hard...

Our first full day as a two person companionship

Because we are on the West Campus, and it's temporary, we don't have a gym. We have just been using a grassy area, the volleyball sand area, and the parking lot to play sports. But, they just finished building temporary Gym Bubbles (I forgot to take a picture, but I will this week) that we can now play in. There are 3. One has b-ball and 4 square, one has b-ball and futsol, and one has v-ball and futsol. Oh my goodness. I just have to tell you how funny gym time is. It's nice to get a bit of a work out and have fun. But mostly it's just hilarious. We aren't allowed to keep score, but that doesn't stop the elders from being competitive and "trash talking" eachother. Also, 4 square is a big thing! who knows why, but it's funny. The elders get super into it and almost always come away with bruises. Hna and I finally played for the first time on Tuesday because the volleyball bubble wasn't open yet. It's pretty intense.

This is what happens when we have to play volleyball in the snow before the Gym Bubbles are finished.

One of my favorite things here is that on Tuesday night devotionals, we ALWAYS sing Called To Serve. That is so cool. To be in a room with so many missionaries with such strong testimonies singing that song.

I got one more Elder Cstory for this week. Seriously, this kid is so funny. One day he was saying how when he gets in to teach investigators, he suddenly loses all the spanish that he knows and just can't talk. Hermana Muir said "Yo Tambien" (it means me too) but he thought she meant "Esta bien" (it's okay). So he got all upset and was like "NO! No tambien." It's not really that funny, but it was hilarious at the time. 

Guess I'll tell you about our first time teaching Manuel. It was bad. Really bad. I wanted to cry and give up, I was so upset. We knew ahead of time that Manuel is an older gentleman who runs a shoe store and that he likes to study the bible. So we prepared a lesson on how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together to give us the fulness of the truth. We did not expect him to be mean. It took us ten minutes to get in the door. We told him that his friend Hermana Cecilia had asked us to stop by because she knew he liked to learn about God. He very rudely told us he didn't know a Cecilia and kept asking us why we were there. Everytime we tried to explain, he cut us off and asked us a different question. Finally, we got in the door, I don't know how. But it didn't get any better. He fought back with every question or comment we had and was very rude (keep in mind, this is our teacher and knew how nervous we were about teaching him). By the time we left, I was almost in tears. Then, when he was out of character he told us "I could tell and investigators will be able to tell that you didn't really care if I was happy or not." I was so mad, not at Manuel, but at Brother Humbert. I know that we'll have to deal with that in the field, but I wasn't expecting it from my teacher. But on the bright side. I now know that I have to learn Charity for my investigators even when they're mean. I'm not mad or upset anymore. I've read a lot about Christ's love and Charity and I need to be like him. Brother Humbert is just trying to help. 

Anyways. I think that's all that's new this week. Sorry I write so much. 

Love you all. Thanks again

Hermana Alexa Nielsen

 I accidentally bought a new shirt. But it's cute no?

The day before Keslie--I mean Hermana Reed left.

 

Longest week of my life

At the temple with one of my Comps.

Mom - Friends and Family,

I  know you've got my letters, but I'm going to tell you everything that has happened so far anyway.

 

Wednesday after you dropped me off, the host missionaries helped me get my books and nametags and put me right to work. I got to take all my stuff to the apartment, but didn't get to unpack until that night. And yes, I'm on west campus--all the spanish speakers are on west campus--so we have apartments instead of dorms and basically it's super awesome down here. Everyone is super friendly and we all love and support each other. We had class that night and I met my compañeras. Long story short, we had an extra missionary that was supposed to go to another MTC so we are in a trio. Hermana E and Hermana M are my companions. We had lots of orientation meetings and stuff the first few days so we were pretty sleep deprived. They kept keeping us out late.

Every day up until Sunday had been super super long. But now time is flying. I am sorry you didn´t hear from me for so long. I sent letters every day. Basically every day goes like this, breakfast at 645, class, personal study, language study, lunch, teach investigator, companion study, dinner, gym, TALL (a language program on the computer), additional study, bed. Sometimes language study and gym are switched. But I have some highlights I´ve been writing down all week that I want to tell you.

• Wednesday at our orientation meeting we sang Army of Helamen from the Childrens songbook, but it was super cool because we don´t sing "And we will be the Lord's missionaries" we sing "And now we are the Lord's missionaries." I thought that was pretty cool. 
• We can't call eachother "guys" and that has been one of the hardest things to get used to. I always catch myself saying "Are you gu--hermanas ready to go?" or something like that.
• We pray a LOT. Which was weird at first. When we teach, we pray before we leave the class, pray outside the door, pray to start the lesson, pray to end the lesson, pray outside the door. It was weird, but I had a revelation. Why wouldn't we pray that much? We're doing the Lord's work. Don't you think he wants to be updated on how it's going?
• It's hard to have no alone time or personal space.
• When we first got to our apartment, the fire alarm in Hna J and Hna R's room was beeping because the battery was dead, so we took out the battery. but it still beeped. So for 4 days until someone could get us a new battery, our fire alarm beeped every 30 seconds. it was rough
• My favorite quote I've heard about MTC life is "the days are like weeks and the weeks are like days." so true! it doesn't make sense, but thats how it is
• Friday was the first day that I truly let myself be guided by the Spirit when I was teaching without thinking ahead about what I wanted to say. IT was awesome. I was just teaching Hna M, but it was awesome and I cried a lot. It was embarrassing.

Now here are some of the things that our district says that don't translate well. They don't make sense in spanish.

• Que en el mundo= What in the world? But not really. People who speak spanish don't get it
• Suertes Patos= lucky ducks. haha 
• Quien es su papa= who's your daddy? Only the Elders say this...to eachother..it's awkward

We have an elder in our district, Elder C, that is airheaded but hilarious. I really want to start writing his quotes down and calling them Cs' Quotes. The first time we taught our investigator, Luisa, he asked about her grandparents and she told him they were dead. However, he didn't know the word for dead, so he thought "muerte" meant murdered and he way overreacted. He was like "Oh! No bueno! Lo siento!!!" and she was super confused. He writes spanish words that he needs to study on his hand so he can look at them whenever he wants, and a few days ago, he wrote the wrong definition for a word and was like "Dangit! that's a whole section of my hand wasted today!" We didn't understand what he was talking about, so it was super funny.  Yesterday he was eating ice cream in class--the stopped and got some at the BYU creamery--and all of the sudden he was like "That wasn't ice cream I just ate. I don't know what it was....But it was good." He's just super awkardly hilarious. 

This paragraph is a bunch of things I'm remember I want to tell everyone, but they are in no specific order. sorry. Things are great here. The first few days were pretty hard for my companions; they were really homesick and struggling with Spanish.  But neither of those things has hit me  yet. (keep your fingers crossed and knock on wood) We've taught our first investigator for the last time. We had 5 lessons and she agreed to be baptized. I know it was pretend, but I was still super excited! The food is awesome. Like way good. We've had Chicken cordon bleu, salmon, steak, these super delicious burritos. It's all fantastic. The rumors are true though. Warning to all future missionaries: DO NOT DRINK THE ORANGE JUICE! It's bad. Like way bad. We've had a couple days that we have missed class. Once Hna M had to go get her Tyhpoid stuff taken care of so we went up to main campus. It's no bueno up there. It is like spirit prison. No one talks to eachother. Here on west campus EVERYONE says "Hola" to eachother. We're all speaking the same language, so that helps. But still. West campus is way better.  One day, we had to go up to the Medical Clinic for Hna E. (P.S. we usually call her Hermana Ojo). We've only had one day where the companionship struggled. We all got on eachothers nerves. But since then we've been fine. For part of the day we have a teacher and for part we don't. The part we dont, the elders always ask me a million spanish questions and so far I've been able to answer most of them. It makes me feel good. Sundays are freaking awesome. Except our chapel is like a hundred thousand blocks away so it takes a long time to walk there. But thats one of the good things about west campus, we walk a lot. So the food isn't going to make us fat. :)  Elder L. Tom. Perry gave our devotional on Tuesday and it was super cool. He talked about how important it is to work as a companionship. It was way good. The temple today was awesome. P-day has been great. We did initiatories at the temple because I haven't been able to do them since I received my endowments. I just found out that the temple is going to be closed after next week though. I'm so sad! 

Anyways, as you can tell, life is good. I love the MTC. Keslie--I mean, Hermana Reed is in my zone so I see her all the time and she is so good about taking care of me and making sure all my questions are answered. 

I better go for now. Love you all. Yo se que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdadera. Yo se que el Libro de Mormon fue inspirado. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvador y mi Padre Celestial tiene much amor por todos sus hijos. 

Hermana Alexa Nielsen

Our District

Our Comp Trio
 

See more pictures on the "Pictures" tab!

I'm Alive and Well!

Letter from Alexa written Nov 8 - two days after entering the MTC

Hola Familia!
I'm alive and well.  Can't believe I made it through the first day! It was crazy!  It was amazing though.  After we said adios, I was handed over to a Sister Host missionary who walked me around & helped me get all my books and badges and stuff. 
I am in the west campus - not the main campus.  I love on the 3rd floor so that was fun carrying everything up there.  I briefly met Hermana M. before the Host Missionary escorted me to class.  There I met my other companion Hermana E.  One girl got moved into our district a few days before we got here, so she is now comps with Hermana R. and Hna M. got moved into our companionship.

Anyways, classes are fun - the Maestro speaks completamente en Espanol.  But it's awesome.  I understand so much!  I'm so glad I studied before coming.

So we had class for a million years.  Then a welcome/meet the MTC Presidency thing.  Then we had dinner - I had salmon, it was awesome!  Then we had our first teaching experience.  That was cool.  We were all super tired by then.  Ater that, we went and met our Zone leaders.  They're pretty great.  I ran into Keslie!  She's doing really well in case you see her mom.

By the time we ot home, it was almost 10.  Then we just unpacked and went to bed.

I live in an apartment-style place.  No dorm, sharing showers/banos stuff.  Which I love!  We have 5 Hermanas living together.

Hoy has been good.  I have really enjoyed it.  I understand a lot more Espanol than most of mi distrito, so that's kind of frustrating.  I feel like they get annoyed when I answer all the questions. haha But it's okay. 

It's great here.  It's going to be hard, but awesome.  Mis compeneras son awesome! I cant wait to get to Tijuana where it's warm!

Yo se que esta la iglesia verdad.  Yo se que tenemos un Padre Celestial & El nos da muchos bendiciones.  Tenemos un Hermono Mayor and he loves us.  Estoy agradecica por me family.  Estoy agradecida pro El Libro de Mormon. Es la mas verdad libro in el mundo.

Love you all! I'll pray for you if you pray for me!

Hermana Alexa Nielsen
(Not to be confused with Hermana AnaLeece Nielsen)

PS My P-Days are Thursdays but they didn't think it would be fair to let us have one the day after we got here.  SO I'll email Thursday.

Second Snail Mail letter - written Nov. 9

Hola Familia,
How are things with you? Things here are still pretty good.  Spanish is good.  The Elders are impressed with my mad Spanish skills.  They ask me for help all the time when it's personal or language study because we don't have a teacher during those times.  We taught our investigator again today. It went a lot better than the first time.  Except, she said she was out late last night and so she was falling asleep during our lesson.  To keep her awake, Hna had us do "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in Espanol.  It was awkward, but she laughed and stayed awake for the rest.

The food here es muy delicioso!  I've heard many times to not drink the orange juice though.  Apparently, you only drink it when you need your system cleaned out.  I decided not to risk it.  Sheriously though, we eat so well! I feel like I'm back on the cruise sometimes.  We haven't had lobster yet though. haha

Tell DeeAnn to study a little bit of Spanish before she comes.  Two of the Elders in my district came without knowing any Spanish beyond "Hola" y "Uno, dos, tres.""  They've struggled a lot because we go very fast.  I know it is going to be frustrating when I get to TJ though because they only teach us gospel Spanish words.  It's a good thing I learned conversatonal espanol on Duolingo.  It'll help.  Anyways, tell her to study at least a little or her 1st day is gonna be rough.

I think that's al I have for now.  I better study. 
Herana Alexa Nielsen

La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dios es verdadero!  Estoy agradecido estar en el CCM. Tenemos un gran trabajo, pero estoy. animado a ensenar la gente de Tijuana.

Answers to some questions I wrote to her:

In my district - 4 Elders and 3 Hermanas.  We have class in this small living room of a former apartment.
- My 1st 24 horas were crazy. They kept us out late 2 dias in a row and threw information at us like nobody's business.  But I'm fine. I feel good and I love it here.
- The most surprising? How soon they throw you into things.
-Thy just taught our District leader how to get the mail today.  He brings it to us at the end of the day.  So I got 2 letters and a package today.
-My schedule isn't really set yet because we've had to dall the orientation business the first few days.  I'll keep you posted.
- I thought I knew quite a bit of Spanish when I got here - now I know a lot more.
-In two weeks we have SYL week.  They encourage us not to try SYL as much as we can always. (Speak Your Language)
-We have 60 minutes on the computer.  What that entails, I'm not sure yet - we'll find out together.

In the Beginning

Well. It's that time.  Tomorrow, we will be heading up to Provo and I will enter the MTC.  I have already been set apart as a missionary (shh...I probably shouldn't be on the computer).  I've been thinking though, and not a lot of people know the process of how I went from being completely opposed to a mission to getting my call. I know I surprised a lot of people with the big announcement.  So I thought I would share that story with whoever cares enough to be reading this blog...a.k.a. my grandmas.

At the time that Annie got her mission call to Guatemala, I believed that I would be following in her steps as soon as I could.  It was fun to think about the time that I would be able to fill out my own papers and get my own mission call.  However, a few days after Annie left, during General Conference, President Monson made the famous age change announcement.  When I heard that announcement, I'm a little embarrassed to say that I completely freaked out.  I was not excited at all. All of a sudden, it was real. I could have started my papers right then (and now I wish I would have).  I guess I just wasn't ready yet.  People started asking me if I was going to go on a mission and I just told them I didn't feel like it was the right time for me. The truth is, I never prayed about it because I was scared of the answer.  The more people asked, the more opposed to the idea I was. Later, I decided that my justification for not going was that I didn't want to be someone who just jumped on the bandwagon and went because everyone else was.

Fast forward to this summer living with my family.  I had put a mission completely out of my mind and that was fine with me. But one Sunday, in Relief Society, we had a lesson about putting the will of Heavenly Father before our own. It hit me really hard because I realized that was the complete opposite of what I was doing.  To top it all off, my mom told the story about how she decided to go on a mission even though it scared her. So, during the lesson, I opened up my heart just a little bit and said a prayer in my mind really quickly. I simply said, "Heavenly Father, if you want me to go, I'll go." The Spirit washed over me so strongly and I started crying so hard I had to leave halfway through the lesson.  I knew there wasn't any way I could deny that I got a positive answer to that prayer.

About an hour after we got home from church, I walked into my parents' room and told my mom about my decision. She was really surprised, but has always been incredibly supportive of me. If it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't have actually gotten this far in the process.  She is the one that set up the doctor and dentist appointments, made sure my paperwork was done correctly and sent in on time after I got my call.  She has helped me along every step of the way even without knowing it. 

Partly thanks to my mom and a lot thanks to divine intervention, putting in my papers went REALLY fast. The Sunday after I got my answer to serve, I talked to the Bishop and got the paperwork started. That Monday was my doctor's appointment. Tuesday was the dentist. By Friday the papers were done and submitted to the Bishop. A week later, I interviewed with the Stake President and they were submitted.  This has only strengthened my testimony more.  The Lord knows what He's doing.  The process went so fast that I couldn't change my mind.  He also sent me to a mother who knows how important missions are and would help make sure I got here after I got my answer.

Now, I'm not going to lie.  When I opened my call, I still wasn't 100% convinced I was going to go. I was still hoping this was going to be a big test of my faith, and that Heavenly Father was going to pull the same thing He did to Abraham.  I'm glad it wasn't.  The more I have prepared for this mission, the more I know that I need to go. I'm so excited for this experience to serve in Tijuana--and no, I'm not scared of drug dealers or kidnappers or anything else there.

My faith has been tested a lot.  Making this decision to go has been one of the hardest things I've done so far. I know that my mission is going to be even harder. But I'm ready. I'm ready to rely on my faith in the Lord to get me through.  I love this gospel with all my heart and I am excited to share it with others. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me. Even though He answers prayers in ways we don't expect, He answers them.  His plans for us are a million times better than our plans for ourselves.  He's provided us with a way to return to Him after this life.  Our older brother, Jesus Christ, came to Earth and created a way for us to repent and be made clean.  His Atonement is real. It works for all of us. All we have to do is have faith. We've also been blessed with the Book of Mormon.  It's true. All of it. I know because I've read it and I've prayed about it. I'm so grateful for the ways that amazing book has blessed my life. If you haven't read it, please do. If you have, read it again. Study it. Find things you haven't seen before.

I am so grateful for my wonderful family and friends. You have all helped me become a better person and get to where I am today. I am so overwhelmed by the support I have from all the people around me. You guys are truly amazing. Thank you so much! I can't wait to see you all again in 18 months. Be safe. Choose the right. :) Keep me updated about your lives through letters, emails, pictures, or whatever. I love you all. Thanks again.

Hermana Alexa Kay Nielsen