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!

Ether 12:27

Happy New Year, everyone!

It's been a long week, but a good one! It has been hard to see investigators because of the holidays, but we have been able to have several great lessons this week. We had two (very) less actives come to church yesterday! One of them has a husband who is a non-member, so we should be able to go visit them soon.

Preparing for the new year, we have been reading the talk, "The Fourth Missionary," which is probably one of the best missionary talks of all time. I would encourage each of you (non-missionaries included!) to read the talk, because it teaches principles that we can apply to every phase of our lives, not just the shortest 1.5-2 years.

I think it is special that the first day of the year fell on Sunday this year. The Sabbath day also happens to be the first day of the week, and I have come to realize the significance of that fact. Each Sunday we have the chance to partake of the sacrament, renewing our covenants and commitment to follow the Savior. I hope everyone has goals for the new year. I have come to appreciate how setting goals can help us achieve our greatest potential. Just remember that it is not requisite that we run faster than we have strength, but if we humble ourselves before the Lord, he will make weak things become strong unto us. 

-- Hermana Nielsen

Pictures:

-Some elders must have helped this family with their driveway a while ago!

-This is in a member's home. I don't know why I thought it was so funny 

Feliz Navidad!

What a special time of year to be a missionary! One elder pointed out that it didn't feel like a normal Christmas, partially because when we are at home, Christmas is the time of year when we think the most about Christ... but as missionaries we are learning about and talking about Christ 24/7! Christmas is just a natural extension of missionary work!

Christmas was a special day, for many reasons. We had a sacrament meeting entirely in Spanish! Our English bishop still presided, but he had someone in the ward translate for him. Bishop Skabelund is awesome, and he has so much love and support for our little Spanish group!

I learned a lot of fun Hispanic Christmas traditions this week! I ate tamales (sooo many tamales!) and had "poncha," which is like cider but with all sorts of fruit boiled inside... so you drink it and eat it at the same time. I also ate raw sugar cane for the first time, which was cool... but I think I'd rather just eat chocolate. I also made up my own recipe for pastel de tres leches (three-milk-cake): I just made a cake from a box, then mixed a can of sweetened-condensed milk, a can of evaporated milk, and some normal gallon milk. I then cut the top off the cake (so the milk can soak in!) poured the milk mixture on the cake, and put whipped cream on top! It was probably the most delicious cake that I never should have let myself eat in my life. (don't worry, I shared...)

Being a missionary truly changes you... this year some of my favorite presents were notebooks and laminated illustrations to teach the Plan of Salvation! It is funny to see how drastically my desires have changed, haha! Of course, my favorite present was being able to talk to my family! I'm pretty sure that they are already trunky.

My favorite scripture to share this week has been 2 Nephi 19:6. We can learn so much from all the names and titles of Christ, and this scripture gives just a few! 

I hope you all had a muy feliz Navidad, and are ready for the new year!

-- Hermana Nielsen

On Christmas eve, the Winder family made a "Crazicake"(?). Apparently it is a traditional Danish dessert (it's cool that most of the big families here came from Denmark, like the Nielsen's!)

Moroni 6:4

This week we had a mission Christmas party with all of the "West side" missionaries. It was great fun, and I enjoyed being able to see all the missionaries from Reno again! Our mission president and his wife gave all of us towels with a "Nevada Reno Mission" logo on it!

We have seen so many miracles this week. We had one lesson, where just about everything possible went wrong. We just wanted to watch the restoration video, but it took forever to set up their DVD player, and then apparently our disk had a bunch of weird Asian languages, but NOT Spanish... Luckily Josefina (a member) was with us, and she pulled up the Spanish video on youtube on her phone to listen to... and then she got a call right in the middle of the First Vision. It was quite the lesson, BUT the miracle is that the spirit was still there, and our investigator was able to feel that our message was true, and he said he wants to be baptized!

Another day this week, one of our lessons canceled, so we decided to try someone else, and we invited the member who was going to come to the lesson with us. When we got there, we found out that our investigator just had a miscarriage. The member we brought was able to share his own experience of losing a son, and we were able to share a couple scriptures and our testimonies of the plan of salvation. It was a miracle that our plans changed so that we were able to see her at that time, and we were able to see her bitterness and anger turn into a desire and willingness to be healed by the savior.

This week we want to focus on less-active members, and do everything we can to at least get them to church for Christmas! It's sad that we have so much less-active work to do, and it made me think Hmm, we really need some missionaries who's only job is to get and keep people active. And then I realized... it's called HOME AND VISITING TEACHNG! Seriously, if everyone did their home and visiting teaching, missionary work would be so much easier. So my scripture of the week is Moroni 6:4, and if any of you have been slacking on your duties as a member of the church, I would like to call you to repentance and invite you to start the new year by committing to care for those sheep who have strayed from the fold. 

-- Hermana Nielsen

1 Nephi 21:15-16

It's been another awesome week in Fallon! Hermana Escobar and I have seen so many miracles!

One cool thing that happened this week: we started teaching Mary. That isn't her real name, but it is the English name she chose, because she is from China! She married someone in the ward where we are serving. He doesn't speak any Mandarin, and she doesn't speak any English, but they've been married for about a year now! She has come to church with him every week, but she hasn't been able to learn anything because no one speaks Mandarin. This week we got approval to teach her, in English, with some sister missionaries from Temple Square translating via Skype! She is very different than most of our investigators, because she doesn't have any kind of Christian background. We've only had one lesson with her so far, but it's been such a cool experience! She is so ready to learn and she is accepting everything we are teaching. We are so lucky to have this opportunity to teach her!

This past Sunday I translated for one of the English sisters who came to relief society with the Spanish sisters... it was my first time translating at the same time as people are talking, and it was so difficult! It's one thing to be able to listen and understand, but to then say it in English while still trying to listen to what they are saying in Spanish... I have gained a deeper appreciation for people who translate for General Conference. 

My scripture of the week is 1 Nephi 21:15-16. I love love LOVE this scripture. It illustrates how deeply Christ loves each and every one of us! He will always remember us, which is why we must always remember Him

-- Hermana Nielsen

Pictures:

-We had a cool demonstration about how the Book of Mormon keeps everything in "balance"

-Beautiful Fallon Sky

-Breakfast at members home