HEY there!

So I was finally able to get in contact with the Espinels! They called us and they didnt know their address very well so they passed the phone to Renalto, not gonna lie that felt reeeeeallly weird talking to him on the phone, i just kept thinking wait im talking to someone i went to high school with! epecisally in English! and they kept saying my name... ah it almost hurt it felt so weird. But we havent been able to set up a time to go over and teach them. Can you tell them to call us again, we dont minutes so i havent been able to call back... But im super excited to see them and be able to teach them IN SPANISH! 

So for Jaime... I had a long chat with President on the phone and we both agreed our vision in the mission is the temple so if we were to seperate him and his wife so he could be baptized it would be breaking a family so he isnt gonna be baptized soon, we are gonna be patient and wait til his wife agrees to listen to us because we have the hope that they can be an eternal family and make this decision together! So that was a lot of relief on our part. and i feel alot better about this decision.

As for maurico he was working and studying allll week so we werent able to teach him, then he didnt go to church, and said he wasnt reading and we kind of were super worried but we were able to see him sunday afternoon and he had tons and tons of doubts about the book of mormon we read with him 3nefi 11 then 2nefi29 then the scripture that finally just made everything click for him was 2nefi33:10 and he got all excited and was like its true!! It was so cool! And the spirit we had been lacking was defintely there in this lesson! THE SPIRIT WORKS! But we still had to move his baptism back to the 30 cause he isnt ready with everything we have to teach him. Also we have a super cute single x misionera we are gonna invite to the next lesson ;);)

well i looove being a missionary and i you guys tons! have a great week!!

Love

Hermana NIelsen

ps. So i got a surprise email from Elder Bleazard, I guess Pam sent him the email about my lovely fall at the temple.. haha of all the emails... ;P

pss Also Kelly Lopez is the recent convert that we are teaching, and her son is Jorge that isnt baptized that we had all those super hard lessons with, I LOVE HER SOOO MUCH and we are going to the temple with her and her husband this week to do baptisms for the names we helped her find, also her family is gonna be sealed in the temple Dec 8!!!

ANd sonia is the bishops wife, she is also suppper awesome. haha they asked why you were a blue image and i laughed, still havent decided to use a profile picture i see.

well well well... this week when by suppper fast, holy smokes. First off i forgot to tell you guys I FINISHED READING EL LIBRO DE MORMON like 3 weeks ago, I now know its true in spanish too ;) 

so some sad news.. flor our lessactive/investo told us she wanted some time to think about if this is what she really wants. so we are giving her a break, I was super sad.. She was doing sooo good! she went to church 3 weeks in a row and was reading the BOM and praying.. she said she just wished she could take all the things from our church and have then in the cathlotic church... meh.. but we will visit her in a few weeks and hopefully she will feel the difference with this break.

Jaime is doing awesome! He fasted with us and payed a fast offering! I talk to president today about his situation with him wife, and we both agreed we needed to work with trying to get them to get back together and married, because our vision is the temple with an eternal family not just baptism. so we are praying for a miracle with him! He is doing so awesome though, the atonement is soo real! and has completely changed him!

So with Maurico this week he has been struggling with knowing he has recieved an answer that these things are true, he knows they are good but he wants to be more sure. So as I was praying for him saturday night i was praying to know how we could help him, and then as i prayed that the spirit would testify to him that these things he is hearing and learning are true it just kind of hit me! He needs to feel the spirit, i literally just stopped my prayer and had to end it cause I couldnt contiue any more thoughts about anything else so i just sat there thinking about it and the role of the spirit, then I was just kind of meditating over my thoughts and i looked at the picture of whiteny and i on my wall, and i started thinking back to the lessons we had with her. And how her big thing was the spirit, thats why she progressed so fast is cause she felt the spirit, then i started thinking about how every lesson we had with her the spirit was suuuuper strong, probably the strongest ive ever felt it in my whole life. And that alone was the answer, i remember those feelings perfectly. Then it started to bother me how every lesson we had with whitney the spirit was over whelming but here in my mission Ive yet to have a lesson THAT powerful, I couldnt stop thinking about it, and i couldnt sleep all night. I talk to my companion in the morning and said we have to make sure we do everything we can to have that strong spirit we havent had a lesson with him yet, but thats our goal. The spirit is so key, and its not something we are lacking, its there but its not as powerful as it was with whitney,. so thats been my new goal to have those lessons be like how they were when we were teaching whitney. 

 TOOONS of thoughts this week, and thats not even the beginning of it.. Im learning sooo much! I LOOOOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Everything about it! 

I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Hermana Nielsen

ps, Shoutout to Chelsea Decker and Elder Steflik, thanks for the letters!!! :)

Como estan ustedes! 

The weeeks are flying by and  OOOH wow was this a greeeeat week! So first off a little background to my GREAT NEWS! Mauricio.Our miracle. We met him while walking with a member to her house,  he was just sitting in his motortaxi as we passed and out of no where she starts indroducing us to him, saying these are the missionaries listen to them! so we shared a folleto with him with the direction to the church and said he was welcomed to come. Just a simple contact. I guess she had met him once in the market but the member didnt even know his name.This was like a month ago. And the following sunday he actually came! All we had was his address and so the following week we passed by but never could contact him again. so time passed and we dropped him. Well the other day we saw him again in the street and planned another visit with him, we had it the home of the member that introduced us. And it was one of the BEST lessons we have ever had! HE was sooo prepared! He understood everything and before we even asked him to be baptised said he wanted to follow christ in his life and that he wanted all of this in his life. I had to privledge to invite him to be baptised and it was one of the coolest moments ever! Ive invited tons of people to be baptised before but this time i could just feel so much power, cause we both knew how ready he was. He accepted and will be getting baptized the 23 of august!! WE are sooo excited. He came to church again this week and is doing soooo well! I looove being a missionaries! I love seeing so many miracles! LOVE Ya´ll bunches!

Love

hermana Nielsen

Today is the independence day for Peru, and I'M SUPER EXCITED! we are having a fiesta in the church with the whole stake and all our zone! Its from 10am- until late late in the night, but we wont be staying the whole time. But they are gonna have all the Peruvian dances that they have been practicing for months, I'M SUPER STOKED! VIVA PERU!

So for last Pday we made TACOS! since hermana jimenez is from Mexico. it was super fun. hna Jimenez and I went shopping with the zone leaders to buy all the stuff, then we met at the church and we taught all the elders how to cook, haha. THEY WERE SO GOOD! Mmm.. Then we also had Peruvian hot dogs. which is a normal hotdog just covered in every type of sauce and avacado. Mmm Mmmm. Oh and to answer your question, masamora is made from the purple corn. The drink that Marlene made for us Its called Chicha. Which I've also learned to love. :) Hey do you know what part of Peru Marlene and her family are from?

Oh hey i think mom  asked me this a few weeks ago, but ITS COLD HERE! I dont know who made me think that peru was gonna be some super hot humid paradise, but no its freezing! Well not like Elko freezing its just constantly raining but its just like mist so we are always wet and freezing. Thank you mom for making me bring that big ole coat! ´Mother knows best´ Its been put to use :)

SO we had a MIRACLE MIÉRCOLES this week! President came to talk to our zone and afterwards my companion asked for a blessing, i had no idea why so we went into the other room and he talked to us, and it was just for strength to keep going she said. I didn't mention this last week but we had a poopy week, everything just fell to the ground, we have been here for 2 months and haven't had anything happen. no one has progressed, and we fell back down to where we were when we first started this area with nothing. so he gave us a little pep talk and it helped a ton. Then he gave hna Jimenez the blessing she asked for, then asked if i wanted one too. So i got one, and it was sooo incredible, he said and promised me so many things that i didn't even know i was struggling with but as soon as it came out of his mouth everything just made more sense and what i needed to be doing better and just everything, afterwards all i could say was just wow.. and he laughed and said yeah i felt impressed that you needed to have one too. I LOVE PRESIDENT!

Then that night we had a great lesson with a new investigator that we have been trying to contact for months now! and he came to church and things are loooking good for him!

THEN! we had a lesson with Jaime who we have been teaching for a while, and we taught the Sabbath day and he told us from this day one he would not miss a day of coming to church, we were in total shock! and he kept his word and was there EARLY for church! YAYAYAYAY! 

Thats all i have time for LOOOOVE YA¨LL!!! 

Hermana Nielsen

I find myself becoming more and more latina or peruvian everyday. First because I saw Hna GALO this week! I was so suprised! (oh i forgot to mention, i was told that hna galo was deported to another mission because something happened with all the hondurous visas) Turns out because her passport was stolen ( when we were together) she gets to be here for 2 or more transfers and maybe even the rest of her mission. Everything really does happen for a reason. ha! But it was great, we talked for about 40 minutes nonstop, and i was able to rattle on about everything! She has been with 3 other gringos since were been together and before she left told me that i was still her best baby and that my spanish was way better then all her other gringos. so that made me really happy ;) Next because yesterday I decided that hna jimenez and I would say our night prayers in English so she could practice. It was my turn, and it was SOOO hard, i litterally had to stop and think and all my words were jumbled, and my english sounded like the latinos when they pray in english because i now translate my spanish to english so all my sentences are backwards or just sound awkward. It was so weird. A couple words i couldnt remember what they were in Enlgish so I had to say them in spanish haha. My companion thought that was funny. And finally because i now love masamora. Its like purple snot and i couldnt stand it my first couple months, but now its grown  on  me and i eat it like a real peruvian! haha.

LOVE YA´LL! 

Hermana Nielsen

so before i say anything more... THE FAMILIA GALLEGOS SE BAUTIZO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got the best letter ive ever recieved last week that they were married and baptized the 28  of June, and even though I wasnt able to be there with them it was the best news ever and I am sooo happy. ALso... I promised them id be there for when they get sealed as a family in the temple. So we might be making a trip to peru after i get home.Kind of like amber, its only fair right? But yeah im so stinkin happy! POR FIN! :)

Alright so i decided I would talk and explain who were teaching because for some reason i never really explain them by name. Right now we are teaching Erica and she is golden! She wants the gospel in her life to raise her kids and loves all the things we teach her but.... Her husband is totally against it. He lets us teach her and lets her go to church but doesnt like the idea of baptism. We invite him to listen to our lessons but he acts like a teenage boy and wont. She is our only investo with a fecha.

Next we have Jorge, he is the son of a family that was baptised last december, everyone was baptised in his family but him, he is 21. His family is AWESOME! The FAmily lopez, kelly lopez the mom is relief society president. But their son is soo hard to teach. He believes in god but we think he is scared to get an answer so when he prays and reads he avoids the answers he could be getting. 

Everytime i teach him though i just get this overwhelming pressure to help him and this feeling of so much love for him even though he drives me nuts cause he wont open up. And the thought always comes to mind this is my brother. Idk he is really special and i want to help him soo bad.It could be because i love his family so much and so I want them to have their son forever, but our lessons are so powerful. Ive never prayed and pleaded so hard.  

Next is Flor! SHe is our in-active/investo. She was baptized at 14 and then never had anything to do with the church since. She is 44, never been married and no kids.No clue why because she is a doctor and just super cute! We knocked on her door one night and it was so cute, we were all super happy and enthustiastic and introduced ourselves and were so happy to meet her and she just had her head in the door, kind of scared of us and said i dont know what im suppose to do, because she literally knew nothin about the church or had any contact with it since her baptism. So we just said well first let us in and well share a message and help you out. SHe then said a little confused i dont know if i want this, then we just pounced and said give us a chance! haha idk it was a funny experience for me. But she is awesome she has come to church the past 2 weeks, and we are started from scratch with her but she is opening alot! 

Well dang thats all i have time for... Hope you all have a wonderful week!!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO STINKIN MUCH! ANd I love love love being a missionary!

lOVE,

Hermana Nielsen

The hastening work just got bumped up a notch, not only personally for me but as a mission. President Douglas is a fireball and things are about to get crazy. We had a mutlizone meeting and interviews with president this week, and I know I've been lacking and have so much more I need to be giving, and the guilt from that has really changed my priorities and I'm feeling a change of heart. Showing emotions is hard for me and I've struggled to know if I'm really giving it all my heart. I had a great interview and am ready to change to really become that 4th missionary. and president has given us a ton of work to do to give us no choice but to do it. 

OKay stories,

last Sunday we ran into a member of the ward and he asked us to come talk his wife into coming to church, they had been having problems and when we got there they were just yelling at each other back and forth, and wanting us to defend and take a side, we just sat there and watched in shock. my companion tried talking to them but they just kept saying but this or that, he did this, it was embarrassing to watch.

I was getting really uncomfortable, and the spirit that we have as missionaries was gone, and that empty feeling of not having the spirit that I hadn't felt in a long time, I couldn't stand to be there any second longer, I felt,like Joseph smith listening to those men talk about the church in the prison and finally it just over took me and I cut them off with my hands and said stop, then I read the scripture about the spirit of contention and I was like shaking as I read it and almost couldn't even talk I was so overwhelmed with, I don't even know how to describe it. and then said that this contention was the spirit of the devil that they were allowing into there homes, and that I couldn't stand to be in a place where that spirit was, so we were going to leave. I asked if we could leave them with a prayer. The husband said it and as we were leaving was bawling. I just couldn't stand to be there, not having the spirit was the worst feeling. Even if they needed help.

Guess what?! I got robbed!!! How exciting is that right? But wanna hear the best part, he returned my money to me! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! so here's what happen we were in a combi, its a van and a man was standing because there wasn't room then more people came on so we had to squeeze so he was kind of leaning over me cause I was sitting and my bag was on my lap and im not sure how but he got in there and got my wallet because I had just pulled it out to pay so he knew it was there. then when more seats were available he sat down and sat in the back next to my companion, she started talking to him and told him we were missionaries and a little about our message, he then tapped my shoulder and told me I had dropped my wallet and gave it back I looked down and my bag was open and I knew I had closed it and afterwards my companion said that he pulled it out of his pocket and returned it after she told him we were representatives of Jesus Christ, BAM! miracles and blessing of being a missionary!

But other people aren't as fortunate as me... 2 Elders in our area got robbed at gun point, they pulled up jumped out, put guns to their heads and took there whole bag, scriptures and all. Poor elder was a gringo and had only been in the field 4 days, haha WELCOME TO LIMA :) 

I love you guys so much! I still have tons to tell you but all this took my whole 40 minutes.. and this keyboards stinks...  Have a great week!!

LOVE

Hermana Nielsen

Questions! Who was our first ansestor to join the church? Do we know? Also we have those my family books and I want to fill mine out but dont know anything can you send me names and birthdays and if we have them photos. i want to use mine as an example.

So this is what happened, our whole zone went to the temple and we were taking pictures. So I set my camera on self timer and the whole zone was all ready and I yell Listo, 10, 9, 8.. so they are all waiting for me to get in the picture so as I'm running over my first step was right into this sprinkler head and it caught my shoe, I started going down so I was trying to see if I could catch myself and get my feet back under me, I was in a pencil skirt, so it didn't happen, so it was like a slow motion fall I soon realized it was too late and boof, penguin dived it on my belly, not sure where my hands were but my face was in the grass and I just laid there, then as I pictured what it must have looked like from the elders view laughed really hard, and as you can see from the picture they thought it was pretty funny, cause the camera was still set so I caught all their reactions. haha so yeah probably one of my top 10 best moments in the mish. haha

Fambam..

Summer is old enough to go to girls camp? What? and she lead aristo- sha!? Hahaha that's so awesome. keeping the Nielsen name with that song!

Alright so I got lots to tell so im just just go down my list!

First we had our Hermanas Conference, which was super awesome! And it was cool to meet all the Hermanans in the whole mission, and meet up again with my ccm pals! We learned a lot! A lot about our roles and the priesthood, it was really special!

Then the next day we went to the TEMPLE!! woo! 5 months I had been waiting! It was great! we took a train to get there and oh man I did not think we could fit anymore people on that train, it was JAMMED PACKED and more and more just kept coming.

Also I have a super funny story from the temple but my pictures arent uploading and its not as good without the picture so ill try to get it to work for next week..

So this week I was asked to speak in church! WOo.. the night before. ha. But when have I ever prepared a talk any other time then the night before, but I kind of ran out of time to prepare it so all I had was my scriptures and a sticky note with points of what I wanted to talk about, and I literally just talked most the talk which surprised me cause I was actually able to say everything I wanted to in Spanish! I talked on Family History and compared it to missionary work and how we look for people, they look for names, we prepare them for baptism, they do the the baptisms for the dead in the temple, and in the end we are both saving souls and helping in the hastening work on both sides. I thought it went pretty well, I was only suppose to speak for 10 mins and I didnt even think I had that prepared but the bishop actually had to pass me a note that said "tiempo" haha so I guess it was long enough ;)

Hey dad an elder in my zone is from argentina and he wants to know what areas you served in :)

Everything is going well, and we have 2 investigators really progressing, im out of time AGAIN.. ugh But I love you guys!! keep sharing the gospel and being awesome member missionaries!

Love

Hermana Nielsen

 Well well well.. so I don't have much time but I'll try and hurry and write about the things I had on my list.. 

First off, HAPPY FATHERS DAY PAPANWA!! Hope it was a great day, I love you lots and im SOOO glad I had/have the strictest dad ever! ;)

Second, funny story: So we are the only Hermanas in our district with 14 elders, and were new so they were all kind of bummed to have ´hermanas´ because that meant they had to do P-day activities for us and it couldn't be all intense, well last Monday we played this game called ´mata gente´ its a Peruvian dodge ball but they said that only left hand for the Hermanas, and to get to the point of the story lets just say I showed them that I'm no whimpy ´hermana´ ha and i ended up getting them all out, they were all surprised. so the next round they decided they could use there right hands against us. haha it ended up being super fun and I think they were happy that i could actually compete with them so they could still have fun, so yeah the Hermanas are cool now in the zone haha.

As for our week, we know the area pretty well we are just working on finding new people to teach, we have 3 with baptismal dates, but only one came to church.. her name is Anett, she is 15 and lives with only her aunt because her mom is crazy,but she is super awesome! Comes to all the activities and does her reading assignments! so yeah we are excited for her. Oh yeah did Imention we are over 2 wards? so we have two of everything, and we are at church basically all Sunday. Also I'm teaching English classes one a week here! haha weird!!! But its great cause tons of investigators come! 

I cant think of much else to say this week was kind of scattered. WE have a JUST Hermanas conference with president this week and were going to the temple as a zone! the nice thing about being in Lima! woo! But yeah all is well, i love peru and i love being a missionary!

Have a great summer!! ah Cody is a senior!!

love 

Hermana Nielsen

FAmbam!

¨Y Hermana Nielsen dijo al rey: He aqui. el espiritu del senor lo ha llamado a otra parte; ha ido a la tierra de Lima a instruir al pueblo de Villa El Salvador!!¨

-Alma 22:4

...AND I AM LOVING IT!  So my area is actually called Los Angeles and is waaaay different then Mala. There´s traffic here, real streets, houses are more established but I didnt quite escape the sand, and were on a hill! But im already in love with it here. We are working in 2 wards so we have 2 of everything to keep track of, but I have loved all the members iIhave met! we live with the stake president and his family in their garage. They are soo awesome! And since we are the first Hermanas in one of the wards and here in this area since 10 years everyone loves us. haha. They are so excited to have Hermanas, everyone is trying to feed us and come out working with us, its the best! But like I said its super dangerous here, thats all people say to us, it be careful. Our first day here we actually got chased by a drunk guy, but he couldn't keep up obviously so we lost him, my companion was like sprinting, but I just walked quickly. I probably should be a little more worried about our safety but I know we´re watched over and protected so I wasn't too worried. haha, Hermana Jimenez always says that she is very grateful and that president was inspired because she is scared of everything and im here to protect her. ha. so yeah we´ll be fine ;) 

This week was just alot of visiting members and our leaders trying to get to know everyone so not much else to say. I love it here, and so far opening an area has been super fun cause we get to set everything up and start from scratch basically.and we already have 4 investigators that went to church!

 I had an awesome week and Im really gonna love this new area! Love ya guys LOTS! Have a great week!

 LOve, 

Hermana Nielsen

 AH I cant believe you guys are in HAWAII!? That's so awesome, I'm so glad everything worked out! Moms primera vez también! Sounded like a typical Nielsen trip, with deciding at the last second possible, and finding any possible way to save money. like parking waaay far away. haha. So maybe we should start planning our trip to Peru now.. ;) 

 SO real quick I actually didn't read through your letters last week, just a quick skim, til afterwards on my camera, CASSIDYS GOING ON A MISSION?! There's gonna be 2 Hermana Nielsens?! That's awesome, Mexico and Spanish will be soo fun for her! 

Also dad that story you told about elder Bednar with family history and pornography was so cool! I read it to Hna Cortez and we both got the chills, Family history is incredible, i wish we had more of an opportunity to use it here.

FAmily!

NOw for the good stuff.... I'M OPENING AN AREA!! I'M  now here in Villa El Salvador, Lima. They haven't had hermanas in this part of town in over 10 years because its super dangerous. haha. My new companion is Hermana Jimenez from MEXICO! She is super cute, we were in the CCM together so we new each other. But yeah its gonna be quite the experience but I'm super excited! I'm ready for a challenge! I don't have much time so ill have to tell you more about it later and about all my goodbyes in mala. But hope you have a great week!! LOVE YOU ALL!
Hermana Nielsen