That Easter Morn

(Written Monday, March 28, 2016)

Hello my dear friends and family,

The first week of the transfer was incredible. Sister Faucette got to say bye to some wonderful families that we've been teaching and she's off to Kingman, Arizona. I'll be seeing her this week on Wednesday, though, so I'm excited about that. Since then, Sister Wilde and I have had some funny adventures as we've run all over doing the work of the Lord. This transfer we are continuing our focus on helping find the elect and bring forth of God's children to the waters of baptism, but we are adding the overarching theme to be "Connecting everyone with Christ" and focusing on every contact we have will be helping others increase their faith in Christ and preparing them at whatever phase they are at whether it's getting them to the waters of baptism or helping them prepare to go to the temple.

It's such a privilege to be working in the most effective and highest producing part of our mission for the end of my time here. We are working hard with so many people we are teaching and were able to help three of our investigators come to church for the first time yesterday and they loved it. Hard work is paying off and we will see others come unto Christ this transfer for sure.

Sister Wilde and I just keep laughing about everything whether it's our orange mouths or our homemade bread baby (he was so delicious!)

The work keeps moving forward. Everyday brings cool experiences and wonderful people to meet. We got to have traditional Japanese food this week from a member family who asked what we wanted and I said "Katsu don" ( did I spell that right Dad?) my Dad always made that and I'd been craving it and it was so good! We also had sushi and I ate it! It was an incredible night and so yummy!

I got to see Sara, an 8 year old from a part member family we have been working with get baptized this week and she overcame her big fear of water and did it and she was just smiling so big! I love seeing things like this happening :)

We also got to watch the women's broadcast which was the best one I've seen, my two favorite quotes were "Throw away the mirrors and look out the window" and "Love is making space in your life for someone else."  It was a great broadcast and it was an eventful week!

I set a goal with myself at the beginning of this transfer that without fail I'd stay up to write in my journal after every day so that I could remember how I felt for my last transfer clearly and freshly. I know this will be a treasure to me and my future family one day. I've noticed the help I've received from the Lord to be able to stay awake to do so. In the past I would be so tired I'd crash when going to bed which is why I'm 100 something days behind, but recently He's been giving me strength to do this and I feel so blessed. I am reminded of wonderful miracles and blessings He gives me daily and it makes me happy. It helps me know that the things that are important to me are important to the Lord too. I love my Savior.

I would be missing out on a wonderful opportunity if I didn't bear my firm and solemn witness of Jesus Christ today as a representative of Him. I testify that Jesus Christ lives. He knows us personally for He suffered for us individually. He knows my strengths and my weaknesses and He knows how to help me grow. I've seen Him work with me in patience and love to mold me into the woman I am today. Without my Redeemer I am nothing, but through Christ I can do all things asked of me because He gives me strength. I testify that the single greatest event in the history of mankind took place in a garden, on a hill and in a tomb. Christ suffered, bled and died for us only to conquer not only sin but death also when He rose from the dead. It is because of Him that I have the hope to see my grandmother and recently deceased grandfather again and have the hope to be with my wonderful family who I love for time and all eternity. What greater blessing and knowledge is there than this? He lives, He loves, He knows and understands. My time as a representative of Him is getting really short. I pray that I can bear his name with dignity and grace until the end of this chapter and through the rest of my life to show others that I am one of His disciples and I follow Him.

It's a privilege to feel the Savior walking beside me every day and I cherish these moments and smile. The work of salvation is the work of the Lord and I know it to be true.
I love you all, I hope your Easter was Christ-centered and spirit-filled and full of sunshine and feelings of love for and from the Savior.
Love,
Sister Nelson

PS: You'll have to check the blog because I have lots of other pictures!

The Final Stretch

(Written Monday, March 21, 2016)

My dear family and friends,

This was a great ending to transfer 12 and now it is time to begin my last transfer. I can't believe that this is it. But we had a great week with so many miracles that came from working so hard. We hit all the standards of excellence this week, met some amazing people while walking on the street and shared some great lessons and messages about the New Easter video called "Hallelujah." We are finding so many prepared people and have set a high goal for baptisms next transfer but I believe we can do it. The people are out there.

We've also seen some great miracles from temple tours and teaching people about forever families. The Vegas Temple holds a special place in my heart.

We saw Talia and Nicole get baptized on Saturday as well. It was such a great day to bring more of God's children back to Him.

We've also really been trying to organize our apartment and the old paper area books so that no one gets lost and we can find old investigators to try teaching again. We are getting the area in great shape so we can put things on the iPad and I can leave the area better than I found it when I go home. Sister Faucette and I have a stack of papers probably 6 inches high that have to be recycled. So much paper! Ahh but all is going well.

We found out about transfers this week and Sister Faucette is leaving me to go out of valley to Kingman, Arizona. I'm way excited for her, but sad she won't be with me til the end. My new companion is Sister Wilde, I don't know much about her other than that she's really funny and she works hard. She's 27 and she'll be here with me tomorrow morning so here we go!

I've been really touched by the scriptures this week. They have become even more "delicious" to me as I read about the amazing missionaries in the book of Alma. I read Alma 26, the missionary anthem chapter this week and felt near tears because of all the miracles I've been blessed to see and the people I've come to know in this amazing city. I love it here so much. It's crazy that my time is so short. I wish I could stay but I'm also excited to see my family, how bittersweet this is.
I did learn something that has changed the way I look at sin and hopefully sharing it with you will change it as well. I run into a lot of people involved with so many awful sad things that perhaps under different circumstances they may not have fell prey to. I always wonder how they got there, where did it all start and how Satan can be so sneaky with us and I learned how today while reading
 Alma 30:17-18 17  "And many more such things did he say unto them, telling them that there could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime.
 18 And thus he did preach unto them, leading away the hearts of many, causing them to lift up their heads in their wickedness, yea, leading away many women, and also men, to commit whoredoms--telling them that when a man was dead, that was the end thereof."
I think what Satan does to convince us that sinning is great in one or both of these things. He clouds our understanding of an eternal perspective which makes our choices matter and he teaches us to forget who we are (sons and daughters of a Divine Being).  He teaches us to rely on ourselves and takes away our self worth as divine beings as well and when that happens, sin seems enticing. I've learned that we can't ever be stronger than Satan when put into tempting situations, but we can be smarter than him by remembering who we are and whose we are and by always having an eternal perspective of the blessings coming our way because of our divine nature. I don't know about you, but this makes me want to sin less and remember who I am more.

I love you all. I'm grateful for the good examples you are to me and I can't wait to come home and be around you more and learn more from you. But until my six weeks are up, I still have time to be a great representative of the Lord and proclaim his gospel to the world. I'm very excited about these final days to give it my all. May you all have a great week!
Love,
 Sister Nelson
"And the race is about to begin..."
Only those of you who have seen better off dead will get it but it's so true, here I go! Running to the very end!

Heavenly Father Has a Plan for You and Me

(Written Monday, March 30, 2015)

Wow everyone, this has been a week full of miracles out the wazoo!

I hope you all had a great week and you are excited as Easter is getting closer! I am looking so forward to being able to celebrate the resurrection of my Savior Jesus Christ, but not only that, General Conference on Easter Morning, which means that the whole world gets to listen to the prophet of God give us comfort and counsel in a world that is so hard to live in! I am so grateful for that!

This week, I was very humbled to learn that Heavenly Father really does have a plan for me. Last week, I was having a hard time understanding why after all my hard work, diligence and obedience, I saw now fruits to my labors. My companion, who has a lot more faith than I do in this aspect said, in regards to no one being at church, "It's okay sister, everything will work out eventually and Heavenly Father has a plan, maybe this Sunday wasn't the best for them to come." I had a hard time accepting this because it seemed like we couldn't have had a better Sunday. However, this Sunday, I got to see all six of these beloved sons and daughters at church (perfect attendance for what I had wanted the week before ) and it was so much better for them than last Sunday would have been. They made so many friends and got integrated into the activities and they all loved it! I am so happy to say that my sweet friend Gaby and her family were able to make it to church this week and I was beaming all during the Sacrament Meeting because I knew that Heavenly Father was listening to me and showing me that He's there and I KNOW that I appreciated having them there so much more this week than I would have the week before. Heavenly Father has not only been teaching me patience this transfer, but also to trust in Him, His judgement, His timing etc. and it's blessed everything we have done.

I also learned a lot from the worldwide Women's broadcast this past Saturday night, it was all about the family and it kinda made me miss my family for just a few seconds because of how grateful I am that they have helped me be the person that I am. But it was incredibly inspiring and empowering to us as woman in a scary world. I learned a lot from President Eyring's talk about being compassionate and I invite you all to watch it on lds.org. I love how inspired the church leaders are and I love this gospel.

That's basically it spiritual wise this week, other random things to note, I cleaned out a cat lady's house for service this week and it made me really never want to have like more than 2 cats ever. There was so much cat hair, but it was really fun, we did it as a district.

I got my bangs back and I feel so much more like myself which is nice.

We had exchanges again with our sweet Sister Training Leaders and I got to be in an English area for the day and I learned so much from Sister Robinson. Oh and I tried cactus, which tastes kinda like a green bean mixed with cucumber, it was kinda weird, but I kinda liked it! The things you do as a missionary!

I love you all! My commitment to you all is to watch conference this week and send me an email with your favorite talk or quote from conference and why you liked it! I know these men and women are inspired from our Heavenly Father to tell us the newest information that will protect us in this world! If you would like to know how to watch conference, visit This Link to learn more!

I love you all, Have a phenomenal week and a phenomenal Easter!
HE IS RISEN and BECAUSE HE LIVES, I get to share the good news of life after death with all of Las Vegas.

Love,
Hermana Alayna Nelson

Because HE Lives!

"I am so excited about this video! I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I am so grateful for the knowledge that we have the He Lives and for all the wonderful things we have because of it! Share this with your friends this week! He loves us so much and we have this wonderful gift! Happy Easter!"

Because He Lives - Mormon Messages Easter Video