"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!"
My final week has finally come and tomorrow I leave to come back to the United States.
Never did I think I would say that I would be sad to leave a foreign country and come back to something that I know better, but I really am sad to say goodbye to such a beautiful place and such kind-hearted and loving people here. I have made lifelong friends with so many and I hope that I have the opportunity to come back to Mexico someday and visit all my friends here once more (especially when my Spanish is much better).
This week has definitely been a roller coaster of just a little bit of everything. Between teaching our last lessons to our teachers (pretending to be our investigators),
cleaning toilets for service,
my companion got super sick with a cold and we had to stay home for a few hours in the morning.
We had a crazy day of nothing but meetings to prepare us for the mission field and we took a ton of pictures with all our teachers and friends before saying goodbye. It has been very sad, but I know that Heavenly Father has prepared us and it is time to say goodbye to each other so that we can more fully serve the Lord.
I know that my Spanish has gotten so much better. I know it's not perfect but I can at least keep a conversation and Heavenly Father will definitely continue to help me. Saying goodbye to our teachers was probably the hardest thing because they have changed my life. But I firmly believe that I will be able to see them again.
I know this email is my least detailed yet, but there just isn't much time and really if you visit the blog, there are more pictures than anything! You will enjoy seeing everything that has been this wonderful last week in the most spiritual time of my life.
My spiritual message for you all this week is to start preparing for CHRISTmas. But more importantly start preparing for Christ.
I have three videos about the Christmas Season for you that have touched my life this week!
“He is the Gift” - this is the new video released this year by our church about Jesus Christ and it is beautiful.
“Wisemen still seek him” -this one is phenomenal as well.
“Christmas Spirit” -this one warmed my heart.
You can also watch more videos about Christ and Christmas at www.lds.org/christmas
but the best place to go is www.mormon.org/christmas
The message that Christ has for us is so beautiful: It’s a message of hope and joy and love. Please watch these videos when you get a chance and you will be filled with the spirit of Christmas!
I hope you all know that I love you! I don’t always have time to respond to everyone personally and that makes me sad, but I hope you know that I take pictures of every letter and read them when I have time. You all are a source of strength to me so even if I don’t respond, know that I read them and they help me so much! Thank you for your support and friendship! May God bless you and keep you!
All my love,
Hermana Alayna Nelson
PS- don’t forget to check out the blog (MTC Photo-A-Day) SO MANY GOOD PICTURES THIS WEEK!
Songs that we made up in spanish (tengo hambre to the I'm so fancy song and the Aguiñiaga song we made to the Lion King song).
I am singing tonight at a devotional with the choir and we are singing "He Sent His Son" and another song in Spanish and they are beautiful.
The title of this post is the motto of our group of missionaries. It´s pretty funny and kind of true. It feels like lying on a smooth stone, but at night after working hard to listen and understand and speak Spanish, your brain is fried and a smooth stone feels pretty good! Don´t worry! I sleep very well at night! And Mom, you´ll be happy to know that my appetite has probably tripled since I have been here. I eat two corn dogs and I’m still not full! On Tuesdays which are pizza nights, I eat pizza as big as my face and eat the whole thing. I get so much food and it´s all sooooo goood!
I am learning so much about the Spanish language and learning how to teach people! I love it so much here. Last Wednesday (and yesterday) my district (or group of missionaries) all did an English fast meaning that we didn't speak any English and attempted to only speak Spanish all day. It was really hard, but I learned that I knew a lot more Spanish than I thought! It was awesome!
Also, we all took cute pictures in pajamas at our sleepover last night. These make me chuckle :) Missionaries can have fun too! Don´t worry :)
We watched a really powerful video in class about the Book of Mormon and the efforts that were made in order to bring this sacred record and another testament of Jesus Christ into the world. It expresses all the hardships that the prophet Joseph Smith and all the early Mormon members went through. It´s so powerful to me that people were willing to die for these things that they believed and saw. I know this gospel is true without a shadow of a doubt. I just want to add my testimony to the testimony of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (a general authority of our church). So if you have time, watch the video “Testimony of the Book Of Mormon Jeffrey R. Holland” on youtube or visit my blog and it will be at the bottom of this blog post!
I wish I had a lot of time to write, but I spent a lot of time emailing my family because they are pretty important. I love this gospel and I love my savior, Jesus Christ. I know he died for us so that we might live again and be with our Heavenly Father once more. This life is so beautiful and I am so excited to share this gospel with so many people because it makes me so happy!
Until next week, two of our other mottos are “End your day, the Latino way” (by only speaking Spanish so you can learn the language) and “No Toca Las Tortugas” which means don´t touch the turtles. I don´t know why, it´s just super funny to us.
I wish I had more time, but there really just isn't a lot of time to
email! Missionaries are busy. But just know that I am having a wonderful
time! I have only been here for like 6 days and I have already taught 3
lessons to a person who is looking into the church in COMPLETE SPANISH.
I know for a fact that Heavenly Father is helping us because not only
do I understand, but I can also respond fairly well in Spanish! I took
five years of French and was nowhere near able to speak for five
minutes. But when I am teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is so
important, I know that Heavenly Father is helping me. I hope you are all
doing well. They keep us so busy here learning and working hard to
understand the language that I don't have much time to be sad and miss
home, I am just happy all the time!
I wish I could send you pictures of how beautiful Mexico is, but sadly,
these computers don't have an SD card slot, so you will all have to wait
until I get back into the States to see Mexico, but if you get to
travel here ever it is amazing.
I just want to leave you with two things that I have learned this week
and that is that we are all so privileged to get to experience this
mortal life and this beautiful Earth. Heavenly Father has given us so
many privileges and we need to take advantage of them! If you check out
my blog, my sister will have posted the video on this post, but if you
just read this email, then you will have to look up this video, but
please look up "Your Potential, Your Privileges" Mormon Message. It is
so beautiful and reminds us of who we are and all the things we can take
advantage of.
This is the best time of my life. It is very hard, but it humbles me and
allows me to see my Heavenly Father's hand in my life daily! He is
blessing me because helping people know of and come unto Christ is so
important to him. Know that Heavenly Father loves you and he plays an
active role in your life! I am having far too many spiritual experiences
to deny that!
My computer time is drawing to an end! Have anamazing week!
!Hasta Luego Mis Amigos!
