I cant imagine just stopping working

Buenas tardes!

I may have accidentally forgot that I was supposed to write the blog letter...so I may not have much time. But I will see what I can remember quickly.

It was a very very short/long, happy/sad week! Crazy how that works, but it does. Trust me.

Me with our Christmas tree.

Monday was a very rushed day. They called us Sunday night to tell us that we were going to be splitting up our Pday this week. So Monday we only had Pday until 2, then we started working. That is not enough time to wash clothes, clean the house, buy food, and write the family. But we figured it out. We were able to visit 2 investigators and an active member.

Tuesday we had our District meeting. They made me practice in front of everyone, which i hate doing, but whatever...It went pretty well. Then we ate with an hermana that cooks fantastically! It was super delicious, we visted a menos activo, found a menos activo family and then visted our investigator that is kinda progressing very slowly.

Christmas Pancakes

Wednesday we only worked until 6 pm. After that we had permission to eat with some members. Here, Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) is the big holiday. They usually start having their dinners with everyone between 10 and Midnight. But we found a couple familes that invited us to eat earlier. We ate so much food! 

Thursday, we had planning in the morning, but after that was all day PDay. It was fun. We ate even more, cleaned, hung out. Made snowmen with the fake snow Hna W's dad sent her. And made cookies. That was awesome. It was a really good day. Very quiet in the streets. Almost no one was awake in the mornings. Even the dogs were sleeping because everyone was awake until 6 am! haha

Christmas

Friday Busy day. Found some good new investgators, taught some old ones. Not too much out of the ordinary.

Saturday. Feliz Cumpleanos Derick! I thought of him a lot, but there wasnt really anything I could do to celbrate. Sorry! Just a normal day. Kinda slow. Not too much going on.

Sunday we had 6 investigators in church. Even the husband of one of our investigators came. He has said that he doesnt really believe and doesnt want to listen. But its the 2nd time he showed up on his own.Thats a good sign. We finally got a menos activo to come back to church. She felt really great and was super happy.

Sometimes we climb down and up this giant ravine to save time.. Its not really worth it..

I'm loving the Mission Life. Every time someone asks me how much time I have in the mission and I tell them 13 months, they always say that I'm almost done. But its not true. 5 months is a long time! Which is great. But even after the 5 months, the mission isnt something that just ends. Once a missionary, always a missionary. Haha. I hope the missionaries there need members to accompany them because I cant imagine just stopping working. that would make me really sad.

Thanks again for everything. Hope everyone had a Great Christmas and this week have a great New year!

Hermana Nielsen

 

 



Our Christmas Tree

 

 

 

it involves 6 elders in giant boxes

Bueno pues..

This week went insanely fast. Way faster than normal. I dont have many pictures to send this week. I'll have to see if my comp will let me borrow hers. Pretty busy week too. But it was pretty good. Lets see if I can remember. I'm really glad I have my agenda. I feel like I would never remember anything if I didnt have it written down.

Monday. In the morning we had the Practice with the missionaries. It was long and kinda frustrating, but after a while, we got things figured out on what we wanted to do. We later went to the Macroplaza to buy boots and some others stuff we needed. Super glad we bought the boots though because they helped a lot this week. Later we just had a normal day. We were only able to have one appointment though. With an investigator that is really struggling. She has a lot of personal problems and we are trying to help her out.

Tuesday we had our normal District Meeting. We ended up getting out a little early, which was cool. We had super delicious Fish Tacos. I think that is one of my favorite foods! Then visited some menos activos and investigators. We had our ward Christmas party that night. We took some investigators and ate tamales. It was a good night.

Wednesday, we refound an investigator from a while and turns out she is still interested, so we are gonna start teaching her again. Found a menos activo, taught some investigators that arent really progressing and one who is.

Thursday. We found 2 new investigators in the morning. They are pretty funny. Its an older couple that cant hear very well, so they both were talking at the same time and telling us their own versions of their lives. It was awesome. They seem pretty interested. They even came to church this week. We found another new investigator that seems skeptical but wants to listen.

the elders dont know how to spell...

Friday we had the Cena Navidena with the President. It started at 9 am. haha We had a conference first, learned some good stuff. Then at like 2 we had the dinner. We had a gift exchange, I got socks..like almost all the hermanas that were there. Then we put on our skit and the other zone sang. I cant really explain our skit. Just that it involves 6 elders in giant boxes dressed like presents that spell out CRISTO. Also a giant snowman...good luck figuring it out. :) Then we hung out for a bit talking and then we went and visted an hermana in our ward and then an investigator.

Sweet place where you can just grafiti all you want.

Saturday. We had a bunch of lessons, and did a LOT of contacting, but didnt have much success finding new people. We kind of decided this week that we needed to drop a lot of people that arent progressing and start picking up new ones. So its been a frustrating week, but good for us. 

Jesucristo es el Senor

Sunday we had 4 people come to church. It was good. We ate with a family in the ward and the elders. They gave us ham, potatos and gravy, corn, and salad. it was awesome. super delicious. They told us how our schedule is going to be this week. Today we only have pday half the day, then we work. Wednesday night we have pday after 6 so we can eat with a family. Thursday is Pday all day. ITs gonna be great.

Gotta go. Thanks for reading this. Hope you are doing well.

Love youall.

Hermana Nielsen

 

 

My week has been excelente!

Hola hola hola!

 

One day we came home and didnt have light.

Hope the week there has been fine. My week has been excelente! Its been cold and rainy here which is not always fun, but so much better than heat! We are kinda loving it. It was kind of a crazy week because we ran around getting everythign ready for some very special events this week.

Monday in the morning we got to go to the Temple site and give a devotional. Very cool experience. Then later we had 2 Noche de Hogars with different families/investigators. It was pretty successful.

Tuesday was my companions birthday. I didn't really have time to buy her anything..and she is always with me so I couldnt really give her a surprise, but I secretly arranged with some members to do something for her at the Ward activities that night. In the comida, the Hermana made her favorite food and gave us cake, and then one of her converts bought us cake too. Then at the ward activities, can you guess what we ate? Yep.. cake. We got a little sugared out. haha 

Wednesday we visited some investigators, found some menos activo families and had a pretty normal day.

Thursday was plannin in the morning. We had to empty, clean and fill the baptismal font for the elderes who had a baptism that night. It took all morning but we had fun with it. Note to all missionaries everywhere: the baptismal font should be emptied and cleaned after EVERY use. haha. But we got everything ready and good for them. The herman athat was going to feed us was running late and didnt get a chance to make stuff. So she just took us to Peter Piper Pizza instead. It was kinda great. Then we had to take 2 of our investigators to the chapel to meet with our district leader for their BAPTISM INTERVIEWS! They passed. :) They were so nervous but excited to get baptized.

Friday was crazy. It rained really hard all day! Also, We were making all the arrangements to empty, clean and refill the font again, finding the baptismal clothes and everything. But we managed to have a few lessons in the morning. We had comida with the cutest old lady in the whole world. She is so sweet. Then we had the baptism. The boiler for some reason wouldnt turn on so they had to get baptized in freezing cold water. But they were so ready. The practically jumped in there. It was so amazing. It has been a really long time since I have been able to be there for a baptism of one of my converts. It was just what I needed. It is something that reminds you why you are here. So incredible!

Then another day we had a baptism..i mean 2

Saturday was good. We had a couple lessons in the morning, then went to the house of the Hermana who was going to feed us. We knocked and knocked and called and called and she didnt answer. When we got a hold ofher she told us she forgot...so we had to go eat pizza. And on the way there...I tripped and fell down.. I don't know what it is about Tijuana that makes me fall down. Probably the really horrible roads and sidewalks. Its the 2nd time I have fallen here. Also the 2nd time in my entire mission. haha. Also the pizza we bought was horrible. So that was great. 

Sunday my knees were a little swollen and bruised, but I can still walk, so the work goes on! We hadent been able to find many new investigators this week so we prayed in the morning that Heavenly Father would help us find 4 new investigators. We went to Consejo de Barrio, then had church. Before church started a lady found us and told us that she hadnt been to church in a while and wanted us to visit her...and her 15 year old son who isnt a member. So after church and after we ate, we visited her in her house. Her son was there (1) and so was her cousin that also went to church that day but isnt a member (2). Right before we started, her nephew came in and told us he wants to learn more about the members (3) and right behind him was another cousin that also had a lot of questions (4). It was so amazing. We literally found 4 new investigators and felt so blessed. They all are super interested and I am excited to see where this goes with them. 

Thats about all I have for this week. Things are good. Love the work. Love the Gospel. Love all of you who are helping me succeed here. Thanks for everything.

Hermana Nielsen

I love this work!

Bueno!

Lets see if I can remember what happened this week. It definitely went faster than last week. I can't believe time is passing so fast. Here in my ward I am the missionary that has the most time in the mission and everyone asks me what it's like, if time has passed fast or slow, how I learned Spanish and all that fun stuff. So this week I have been thinking back on my time. I really can't believe it has already been 13 months since I was home. It feels like only a little bit ago.

I'm still really liking my area. The members are really good. They don't give us referrals when we ask at the end of every lesson, but they randomly show up to church or an activity with some friends or non member people in their family. So we have got some great new investigators that we are teaching. It has been a pretty good week.

Monday: First day of December. We were finally able to start handing out the Pass Along cards they gave us for the He is the Gift Initiative. It has been so fun to work with that. The members are so excited and the people really love the movie. We found a contact that we made a few weeks ago and showed her the video. After 10 minutes or so of internet troubles, we were ableto see it and she cried.

Tuesday was a long day and we werent able to have many lessons. Tuesdays are hard because in themorning we have our District meetings and at night we have our Coorelacion meetings. And if we eat in the elders' sector, its pretty hopeless to have many lessons because we spend a lot of time traveling. Which is what happend. But we visited a less active family and an investigator that isn't really progressing very well. 

Wednesday. Was a very good day. We were able to have a lot of lessons, we found 4 new investigators and started teaching them. One is the grandma of an active member that is curious but not SUPER interested. The other 3 are a family. On tuesday an 8 year old boy brought one of his friends to the ward activity (Here they have mutual every week but it is for the entire ward, every organization has their activities every week. Its super awesome). So he brought his friend  and introduced us. We made a cita with him thinking that it wasnt gonna lead anywhere because he is just a kid. But Wednesday we met his mom and sister and they are SUPER prepared for the gospel. Seriously, I love this family so much! They are all reading their Books of Mormon and praying and came to church yesterday! I am so excited to keep working with them. They also accepted a baptismal date for the 9 of January.

Thursday was a good day. We also were able to have a lot of lessons and even found one new investigator. I'm not sure how interested she is, but we are gonna keep teaching her and see how it goes. We have 2 investigators that are getting baptized this friday so we started visiting them every day to help them get ready. They are so awesome and so prepared. I'm so excited to see them get baptized. 

Friday was a hard day. It has been really cold and gloomy these days and Friday it kind of got to us. We got a little discouraged because all of our citas were falling through. It kinda affected our attitudes but really quickly we realized that that wasn't okay and we said a prayer and kept going. We werent able to find any new people or have many lessons, but we learned a good lesson ourselves.

Saturday. We got back up and had a better day. We taught the two who are getting baptized this week and a lot of Menos Activo families. And we found one new person to teach.

Sunday we had 5 investigators come to church! I was so excited to see them all there. SEriously the people we have found are so prepared for the gospel and are keeping their committments. I just feel really happy and encouraged this week. After church, (we get done at 3:30) we went with the family who was gonna feed us, but they didnt have the food ready. So we ended up eating at about 4:30 and couldnt even leave their house until like 6. Then we went quickly with the bishop to visit our investigators. Then there was a baptism of a little boy in our ward. The same little boy that invited his friend to church. so we took the family of investigators to the baptism and they kept asking us when they can get baptized! 

Monday. Today they asked us to go to the temple site and give a devotional to the people that work there. The missionaries (an older couple) that work there give a devotional every week and this week they asked us as special guests. We didnt get to tour the temple or anything, but just to be that close, I could feel such a special spirit. I am so grateful for my mission. I love this work!

God has blessed us so much this week. I am learning so many things. I am loving being here in Tijuana and getting to be so close to the temple and see it every day lifts my spirits so much. 

Sorry I dont always have time to write much detail in my letters. 1 hour goes so fast. It is the fastest hour of the week. But I will try harder. Thanks to everyone for your support, letters, Christmas packages...oops.. did I write that?...haha 

Thanks! Love you all!

Hermana Nielsen

Feliz Thanksgiving!

Hola Hola!

Feliz Thanksgiving! Sorry I'm a little late!

Not much time so I'll get started.

Monday. Was my first day, traveling all morning. Got here to Tijuana and got unpacked did some shopping and cleaning. Then we worked in the afternoon. On the way to a cita, I fell down and hurt my arm, so that has given me a little trouble this week. But I'm feeling a lot better now. 

Tuesday was my first district meeting. Our sector is HUGE compared to Ensenada so its a lot of walking. But the meeting was good. We are gonna work really well together in this area.

Wednesday was a normal work day. We walked a lot, contacted a lot, but didn't end up finding many people in their homes. I met some awesome investigators that we have though. So I'm pretty pumped.

Thursday was a great day. We planned, found some new investigators, ate with a great family, found some more investigators, then met the American Couple Missinaries ( I dont think thats right...how do you say that in English?) and they fed us Thanksgiving dinner. We forgot to take pictures of the food, but got one really bad picture of us aftewards. It was so great!

This couple met Tom at the Post Office when they were leaving to go to Tijuana to work on the temple almost a year ago.  They remembered talking to him, and told Hna. Nielsen that her Dad sent his love! 

Friday we found some new investigators and walked a LOT! We also spent the mornign learning about the "Christmas Initiative." I am so excited about it. Look up the video on Christmas.mormon.org. We are publicizing it a lot. If you havent heard of it, I dont know why not. Our church is awesome and is putting a lot into getting it out there.

Saturday. In the night we went to an activity that our stake had. All the hermans had prepared dances and helped us learn about the gospel in other countries. 

 

sunday we had People in church and it was awesome. I felt really horrible because on Friday they gave us flu shots which gave me the flue so i didnt really like that. but It got better really fast. 

And now we are back to today. Sorry that my letters are getting shorter and shorter. I feel like I have less time every week. But One day Ill have a lot of time and be able to write a good letter.

Everything is going well. I'm happy and safe.

Hermana Nielsen