This was one loong week! but first I wanted to tell you more about my area and my day to day life.Mala is pretty small but right on the beach, but all the houses are up in the hills which are just pure sand basically. but since we are up in the hills we have the BEST view of all the houses below us then the farms and where all the fruit is grown so its all pretty and green, then the beach! Its so pretty and the sunset every night is gorgeous too! A Lot of hills but I'm glad we are up high so we can see everything ;) But our area is kind of dirty and gross, which is basically all Peru. Garbage everywhere! dogs everywhere and dog poop everywhere. The houses these people live in aren't houses... they are more like shacks. The walls are like bamboo twigs or something tied together with tarps and ceilings, some if they are lucky have bricks with a sloppy job of being cemented together. No one really has floors its all sand and dirt so everything is just dirty. They all for the most part have electricity and the closer to the bottom of the hill they have running water. But its the way they all live so its normal. And in the windows of every house is little snacks and goodies where they try to sell whatever they can. yep its a totally different world! I've only seen like 3 cars in my area. Everyone either just walks or they have these things called mototaxies that are basically the front of a motorcycle with a bench attached to the back and covered. they only fit like 2 but they are everywhere. Tiny things though.

  ALL they drink here is Inca Kola. its like bubble gum flavored soda or something but it has caffeine so I just tell them pop makes me sick, so i just dont drink any type of soda here. which is probably better because all we eat is rice potatoes and chicken.. every meal. ha. and they serve YOU so its HUGE portions! ughh.. soo.. yes I'm going to get fat. :(

As for our house we have floors and walls and "running" water ha, and toilets that flush so I am very grateful!

Kay now for my week! Tuesday I experience my first real earthquake! It was small but lasted about a minute, I was confused what was going on for about half of it though. So we were planning for 3 baptisms this Saturday but everyone was starting to get kind of iffy and we were having trouble with the parents, so we started a fast Wednesday night for all 3 of them. Then we had mutli zona with the president I didn't understand much.. But then next night one of the girls, Piera that was suppose to be baptized called us and told us to come to her house so we did and they were all happy and said that they all agreed they wanted her to be baptized so we were super happy, then the other kid Valentin we got the signature of his dad which was really scary cause he is like a drunk and doesn't like us. so yeah it was all great and dandy! 

Then the other girl Briza, we go to her house and she says shes not ready and doesn't want to so we change her date, then we run back to the church and our zone leader was there and he says call her and tell her to come her I want to talk to her, so we do, and she comes and he talks to her for like an hour then comes out and announces she is getting baptized the next day, but the only time she could was in morning so we had her baptism at 7 IN THE MORNING! Then that night was the baptism of Piera and Valentin, Piera came with her parents and they were all cute and happy, but Valentin wasn't there so we call him and his mom says oh he is sick he cant come but in the background we hear him saying no I'm fine Hermanas! then she hangs up on us. 

AHHHH I'm out of time!!! to be continued next week promise! sorry!

but as for your question about Kylee's call, I think that is perfect for her, and actually when I was reading Joseph Smith history last week the thought came to my mind I bet Kylee goes there, cause she always talked about her experience visiting there. so yeah I think its perfect! 

LOVE YOU GUYS!!! 

-Hermana Nielsen

This week we now officially have 11 people with BAPTISM DATES! HOLY SMOKES! So we are suuper busy! and 8 investigators came to church!!! WOOHOO! Best day every! This week I also went on exchanges with Hna Rivera from Honduras and Hna Munos from Chile, I was in the area Chincha. OH yeah and my area is Mala peru, not Rala haha oops! But Chincha was super gross and ugly, I didn't realize how much good I have it in Mala til I left. I saw 5 dead dogs! just in the sidewalk, and they were just black and already decayed and people just walk around them, one didn't have a head! no idea where it was... but yeah. But it was good, Hna Rivera only has a month left so she taught me a lot and I could understand her Spanish really well! better then Hna Galo! It was a 24 hour exchange but with a 4 hour drive... so a lot of driving in buses. We spent a lot of time at the Gallegos family this week because the mom is sick.. they are awesome! they have 6 kids which is a ton here! the kids are all baptized that are old enough but the parents aren't yet because they aren't married because it cost a lot and is hard to get married here so we´ve been helping them with there papers. We are also teaching a bunch of kids! There is this huge hill, and at the top tons of mixed friends and families living together, so it started out as a few but now we have a bunch of them interested. from ages 12-18 they all came to church! and they all come to the activities we have! They are all also committed for the 22 of march for baptism. So we are excited about that. 

As far as spanish comes, its about the same.. I kind of had a break down this week cause now its not that I cant talk to anyone its that I want so badly to be apart of the lessions and teach these kids and families but when i try to say something more personal outside the lesson words I cant say much and so its just ends in a mess... So now my motivation is to be able to teach these people, cause now i do love them and want to help them. 

Hope all is well at home. Cant believe amber is with you guys! I hope I have just as a hard time ending my mission as her, she really is the greatest example! Love you guys so much! Its not easy down here, but salvation is not cheap either. I only have 18 months to serve, but an eternity to think about how I did!

- Hermana Nielsen

The computers here are so slow!!  ugh. BUT! this week was A LOT better! We had a baptism on Saturday for alexis. He is Italian and 14, but super acceptive and always comes to all the church activities. He was really happy. :) ALSO in all my complaining last week I forgot to mention that on my second day here we were on a 30 min bus ride to our zone meeting and I got separated from my companera, i sat next to a random guy. I started by asking if he was from Peru (all in spanish) then explained where I was from and who I was and about my mission. then I explained the book of mormon and gave it to him! and all I could basically say was i promise this will change your life. haha. but as the best two years would say ¨ I just placed my first book of mormon!¨ thats for cody! but yeah its getting better, now i can understand my companion so she has to translate everyone elses spanish into my type of understanding spanish so i rely on her a lot! but yeah hopefully I have more time next week! i have letters i wrote that i will send hopefully soon! love you! and I'm so jealous you get to see Sister Nielsen this Friday!!!!! ahh!

Well I made it! And i have never been more excited for p-day since i havent had it in 2 weeks! SO much to say but i have NO TIME like always so Ill try to get in as much as possible. Tuesday morning I said my goodbyes to my district and friends. It was really hard. One of the districts sang God be with you til we meet again for us and it was SOOO GOOD! Oh my! Anyways I left the CCm and met with Presidente Douglas. I got my companion Hermana Galo, from honduras. Who speaks NO ENGLISH! Super cute and super nice and a GREAT missionary but its so hard to figure out what we are both trying to say. The first 2 days I was feeling really overwhelmed, and i was super homesick for the CCM. mostly i think just because i missed being able to talk and laugh with people in english, and i was missing my district a TON, it was really hard. But i just kept praying and focusing on why i was here. Finally i met a girl named karen, who is a member but we still visit and teach her, she is my age and was just super patient and tried to talk with me and would just smile and just loved me and it helped alot and i realized i Love it here I love the poeple I love the gospel, the language is the only barrior I have that is making me feel this way. So ive been praying for patience and working to understand and speak it as much as possible. And now with a week in, im doing so much better. And i know im gonna love it here. Im in Rala, its a tiny farm/ dessert area.very poor. the houses are literally one room made of bricks or straw but dirt floor and one bed. we are lucky we have a bathroom in  our room. Its all hills of SAND! so im getting my work out. But yeah it was a hard adjustment but its getting better, we have a TON of investagators like 28 or something and 8 with baptism dates within the next 2 weeks. so we are always busy. My mind is kind of scrambled and I have no time left. BUt i love you guys! Hopefully i can get more in next time!  My address is the mission home thats in my call packet. and ill get you a scrip and picture next time! Miss you guys! But im glad im here. if i could just learn spanish a little faster everything would be perfect! con mucho amor!

HOLA MI FAMILIA!!!

AH so like always NO TIEMPO! so many poeple email me! and i dont even reply it just takes that long to read! haha but im not complaining. but yeah just another week at the ccm.. This one was kind of fast and unproductive i felt like. I feel like i didnt learn anything new and my spanish was exactly the same so that was super frustrating and with this being my LAST week  in the ccm im trying to go full out!! And not waste any time and learn learn and get my spanish. But its getting there. slowly but surely.

 The next time you hear from me though ill be IN Lima sur!!! YIKES!!

Oh I do have something I can share with you, so two of the sisters here DO NOT get along. LiKE at all! ANd its really bad, and they just yell at each other all day long. So as a sister leader I have been talking to them individually and helping them get over it. So i at first just let her vent it all out and just get everything out then after she had complained as much as she could, i said alright now tell me 5 things you like about her and it completely through her off and she had to think super hard and she came up with only like 3, so i told her okay then tomorrow you have to go about your day and find those other 2 things you liked about her and come and report to me tomorrow. Then i shared with her about how my first week i had trouble with Hermana Sisson and that everynight in my journal I made myself write 5 things I liked about her for an entire week, just so i would have to keep notcing and looking for the possitive in her. Then yesterday she came and reported and came up with her two other reasons and said it helped a ton! I had also suggested to her that she should get a blessing to help her get through all this, and then she said how her companion had gotten one because of her knee and how she so badly wanted one. Then i offered that one of our Elders in my district could do it cause she didnt get along with her either. Then she said that would be super nice. So the next day I asked Elder John and he was like wow, I actually got the feeling ramdonly last night that we should give her a blessing. SO yeah thats how awesome my district is. haha but yeah so she got a blessing and Elder John said it was one of the most powerful ones he has ever given, I wasnt there cause the hermana didnt want anyone there. but yeah cool story!

thats about all I got sorry. Oh and yeah the picture is of the kid who played in college. Elder caprio. Hes way cool and is teaching me some of his skills! ha.

LOVE YOU GUYS!! Tell cody to keep it up on the court!

Hola Mi familia

Internet wasnt working yesterday so im emailing today! but dont have as much time. Lets see what happen this week.. Oh i forgot to mention last week that we got to go to the templo! so ive been three times now and I love it! its super small but going with all the missionaries just makes it so special. Really not much happened that was different then the normal schedule. Classes all day teaching new people, eating and playing soccer.  My spanish is getting better I can tell now though, I know a lot more words now its just working on faster at conjegating in my head. Man this week was a blur I literally can't think of anything to say when i know there is soo much!

Fun story! So i guess my soccer skills are a little discracting because one of the latinos i played soccer with had an elder give me a letter after he left this week and he said, oh course in really broken english,how he had fallen in love with me and had never seen a girl play soccer as good as me and when he saw me play he knew i was the girl for him and that when we return from our missions he wanted to marry me. hahahaha oops.I maybe said 3 words to him in spanish, if he even understood them, poor guy.

Another group of latinos have come and gone and now we have another group coming this thursday and the weird thing is WE LEAVE WITH THEM THIS TIME! Yep only 2 weeks left in the CCM. Im sad cause I LOVE it here, but its too fun here to feel like a mission. I came to serve a mission and so im ready to get to the field and start really working. But I  do enjoy every second here at the CCM.

Hey also if you can for family home evening, if you can find it, it was a mtc devo but you might be able to find one similar on youtude about the holy ghost with bednar and his story about the 20marks with Elder Packer. SOOO good! Anyways thats about all the time I have. I LOVE IT HERE! I LOVE PERU! I just love everything about this gospel and my testimony gets stronger and stronger everyday here with all the amazing people i am surrounded by.

Love

Hermana Nielsen

ps, tell ole vernon to Write me!!! (cody)

pictures: I have a Brazilian Companion for 3 days!! Hermana Piava. She speaks portugeese!

llama swagger with my compañera! All my favorite latinas who left this week!

Hola mi familia!

Well this week was about the same as every other week, classes, food, spanish and futbol. we got more norte americanos this week, and one who played college soccer that im super excited to play with! as well as all the latinos as usual. im the only hermana that plays with all the boys. but we´ve become such great friends, everytime I see them around the ccm, they all say hi to me, ´hermana nielsen!!´ Im pretty popular among them now. Cause the first day I played with them when they got here they were all super suprised that I could actualy play with them. Of course they are still alot better then me, but they still have to work to  try to get past me, and they are teaching me some new skills so hopefully I come back pro. haha, but yeah they are my favorite! Sunday was fast and testimony meeting. Everyone started in spanish then ended in English. It was super good! it was just us norte americanos but man missionary testimony meetings are super powerful! These Elders here are the real deal, they are so awesome! I learn so much from them everyday!

 So for the past week I have been praying for my companion and I even fasted for her to have a desire to work and to get the language, and during relief society we had another testimony meeting with the latinas all in spanish. and at the very end she got up and bore her testimony all in spanish, it was soo good! I was so proud! we have been doing alot better since and its been easier to get alot too. We still need work and more effort put into our lessons but we will get there. Im learning to be patient. Also im learning from her too, she is really good at comforting people and knowing when someone isnt feeling well and will go talk to them, things I would never notice. One of the hermanas is from Brazil and has been struggling with spanish, randomly she just went up and gave a huge hug and I was just like okay? and they kept hugging and eventually the Hermana from Brazil just started bawling!, i would have never known she was keeping all that in. So that is defiently something I am learning from her. Another cool thing that happened was we sat in with some elders for there lesson as pretend members to invite her to church, well i guess it wasnt pretend but it was a pretend lesson and my companion and i had to bare our testimonies are the end, and man the spirt was so strong and our spanish sounded like we knew what we were doing. it was the coolest pretend lesson i have ever had here! Thats about all that happened this week. I absoluelty love it here! I love the CCM, I love my teachers sooo much! i love being a missionary! and i love learning and strengthening my testimony daily through those around me here. Its the best place ever!