Ha nevado en Nevada!

-Missionaries: defenders of the truth!

It's been such an exciting week! I don't even know where to begin...

It snowed this week! We got more snow than Fallon has seen in years. It was so bad that on Thursday night, the mission president told us that we weren't allowed to drive after 6pm; we either had to stay home or get member rides. Luckily Hermana Castro from the ward was able to drive us to a couple lessons! By Sunday morning there was black ice everywhere, so our meeting was delayed until 12. Most wards actually canceled. Last night, though, we just got rain, and the temperature is back in the 50's, so it looks like it never snowed! 

Speaking of snow: this week I realized that "nevada" is really close to the past participle of "nevar," which is the Spanish word "to snow"! So now I say that "ha nevado en Nevada!" (It has snowed in Nevada!)... I think I amuse myself too easily. 

I got to do exchanges in Reno again this week! I loved being able to see some of my old investigators. It has finally gotten to the point, though, where Fallon feels more like home than Reno... so it was good to come back to the cows.

This week one of our investigators, Adelina, told us that she stopped drinking coffee! That might seem like a little thing to some people, but before my mission I never realized how stubborn some people would be about the word of wisdom. I am thankful for Adelina, because she is truly prepared, and I love to see an investigator repenting!

We had an awesome/ weird miracle this week: Hermana Escobar and I were in Fernley (one of the farther-away parts of our area), and we were trying to decide what to eat for dinner. We started driving towards the town, and the first thing we saw was a Chinese buffet, so we decided to at least look at the prices. Before going in, we said a prayer, and Hermana Escobar prayed that we would eat "where [God] wants us to eat." I thought that was an interesting thing to ask, but we ended up eating at the Chinese buffet. We blessed our food, and then just started talking to each other, in Spanish. Our waiter came up to us and said "A cuar igresia van?" and we were both really confused, because we assumed that he was speaking to us in English with a really thick Chinese accent... and then we realized that he was speaking Spanish with a really thick Chinese accent. And he was asking us which church we went to! We got the address of the church from the Elders in Fernley and gave it to him, and then we had a conversation with him in Spanish. The weird thing is that his Spanish must have been much better than his English, because he wouldn't respond when we spoke to him in English. We never did quite figure out how he knew Spanish in the first place... but we were able to talk to him a bit, and he said that he wanted to go to church (maybe just to learn English, but either way it would be awesome!) So there we were, Hermana Escobar and I, having a conversation about the gospel in Spanish, with a man from China, in a Chinese restaurant, in the United States... missions sure are full of weird experiences!

Finally: Transfer news! Hermana Escobar will be going to an English area! Her English is improving so much, she is going to do so well! She will finish training a new Hermana who was called Spanish speaking, so they will be able to learn the language from each other. I will be staying in Fallon... and I will be training! I am so excited (and terrified!) for this opportunity to serve as a trainer. In the mission field, we say that I am having a "daughter," and I think that analogy makes a lot of sense... I will love her, and I will need to teach her and be an example, and I am going to worry all the time about whether or not I am a good "mother." But in the end it isn't about me at all, this time is for her to learn and grow and love missionary life!

-- Hermana Nielsen

Pictures:

-Exchanges with Hermana Servin and Sister Balbuena!

-More snow!