It's Raining, It's Pouring

(Written Monday, April 11, 2016)

Hello my wonderful family and friends,

It's been raining and super cold (aka 57 degrees-which is super cold for us folk out in Nevada) so we broke out the boots (which turns out have been worn so much they have holes in them and are kinda good for nothing without duct tape, trust me I am so classy) and the big puffy coat and have been running through the rain sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world.

One night in particular I wasn't prepared and was working with one of our leaders in the Warmsprings area south of here and only had a thin jacket and my black flats, well it was pouring and we just laughed and ran through it knocking on all these doors in this apartment complex to find people at home. It was so fun, it was a little chilly, but when will I ever get to do that again as a missionary for such a worthy cause. By the end, my shoes were so soaked that they were really heavy and every step I took made a sloshing sound. But it was neat. I am reminded of a video that we've been sharing with people called "A shower of Heavenly Blessings" by President Uchtdorf that talks about rain in a positive way. The rain is God's blessings for us but when we out up our umbrellas we are preventing ourselves from receiving that joy. When we keep the commandments and do all we can to love and serve the Lord, we are more happy and love the rain. That's how I felt running through the rain, it didn't make sense, but it was such a joy. I love that the gospel brings joy.

In other news, my face is no longer swollen and awful looking, I'm normal again so this week was so much better, we worked super hard and saw amazing, simple miracles. I'm looking at every moment as so precious now because this doesn't last forever and I'm doing things right now that I'll probably never have a reason to do again. Like enter people's homes and hear their whole life story and find out they are a custom embroiderer and met the prophet once. Just random things that are so special because this is all we do, we don't have distractions of the world in the way and we are just loving and serving God's children. It's so simple and profound and beautiful.

I love being a missionary with all my heart, I love having good health so I can run to the end and not faint or be weary and I love my elder brother, Jesus Christ who has taken this journey with me the whole time and is bringing me full circle to show me all of the wonderful things that I've learned and how much more full of joy and love our lives are when we reach out to others.

I love you all so much! May god bless you this week to see the positive in any particularly negative moment and may you feel his love!
Love,
Sister Nelson

"What the Heck is a Webelo?" And Other Life Questions.

(Written Monday, July 20, 2015)

Family, Friends, Universe!

I am so privileged to be serving here in Las Vegas. I am in the best area of the mission and I wouldn't change a thing about what is happening here! Heavenly Father is blessing us so much and I feel His love every day, but more importantly, I feel His trust now, which is far better in my opinion than His love.

We have 11 people that are getting ready for baptism (they have a date set) and we've been having so many join us for church and also steadily finding new people that Heavenly Father has sent to us to teach. I know it is not by my efforts at all, it feels as though these people have simply fallen into my lap and I just get the privilege of teaching them the simple things I know to be true. This is truly an amazing thing I get to be a part of and I feel so happy going to bed exhausted every night. I am working harder than I ever have in my mission let alone my life and I LOVE IT! But the only thing I wish I had was more time. Time is going way too fast now and it's only bound to go faster. I feel like I am running after the train of time that is speeding me along saying, wait for me to catch up, this is too fast.

Two incredible things happened this week:
Jaime got baptized and we took a very ready family to the temple to teach them about how they can be a family forever.

Saturday started when I woke up from a dream where we were at Jaime's baptism and I was giving a talk on the Holy Ghost and in my dream, I was using some scriptures, so I made sure to include those scriptures in my talk. We went to do our personal study on the lawn of the temple (literally the only place in all of Las Vegas that has a giant green lawn, it reminds me of home) and it was so peaceful that morning. Afterwards, we met up with the Garibay family who are getting baptized this upcoming weekend and we did a tour. As you can see in the picture, they are such a special and wonderful family!

We took them into the courtyard and talked about eternal families and the mom grabbed all her kids into a big hug and said I want to be with them forever and I want to help my ancestors. We have to do this. She began to cry and it was such a special moment. The spirit is very strong at the temple and this family will do so many wonderful things here!

In the afternoon, I got to watch a dear friend and brother of mine get baptized and it was so special! I am so proud of Jaime and the spirit was there! He is an incredible man and I know he will do great things for the church. When he got his blessing to receive the Holy Ghost, it was straight from Heavenly Father because the things the man said were things that he didn't know about Jaime.

I know this church is true. I know that Heavenly Father loves us and I know he is proud of what we are doing.

To answer the above question, I learned what a webelo is, I never knew. A Webelo suggests an inner change or advancement of becoming better. I think that is so cool because that is what I am here to accomplish I guess, becoming a webelo in life and you are too (yep, this email just got cheesy) I love seeing these inner changes that make such bigger outer changes for us!

To close off with some other life questions, when asked what superhero would we be, we have discovered them in a book of superheros. I would be Kitty Pryde (yes with a Y) and my companion would be Dazzler. You will have to go to the blog to see our superheros, but they definitely look like us! When we asked Jaime what names he would guess we had, he obviously guessed Spanish names, so I evidently look like a Martina and my companion looks like a Sandra. Life questions answered!

I love you all have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Alayna Nelson
AKA Kitty Pryde
AKA Martina

Cereal, Folklorico, Rainstorms, Peaches & Umbrellas

(Written Monday, June 15, 2015)

So in case you didn't sense the randomness of this week from the title, it was nuts!

Among many things, we had the exodus of the cereal into the back of our car from a member! We got so much from a member that it fed all the missionaries in this area!

I stole a peach from someone's tree because they didn't answer the door.

I rang another doorbell with an umbrella which required much skill because I had to reach through the gate.

And I took a picture with a TV in the middle of the desert.

We met a lot of wild animals this week and got caught in a rainstorm (which started as a windstorm that felt like a tornado and blew stuff in our eyes). But then I took the opportunity to dance in the rain since it never happens here.

We went to a church party that was a cultural night and they had Mexican decorations and dancing in the traditional dresses called Folklorico. I took videos, but I guess they are too long to send, so one day you will see them! Our bishop got up and sang the song that he used to propose to his wife to her again called "Eres Tu" :) It was so cute! Spanish music literally sings to my soul these days, how did I never know! I LOVE IT!

It's starting to get really hot here, but exciting things are happening when we listen to the spirit. This week we had an appointment to show a lady around our temple but she canceled, normally we would follow our back up plan, but I had a small feeling that we should go walk around the temple and that someone would be there for us to talk to. So we drove there, prayed and said we would walk around the temple once and go back to our other plan. We did so and didn't see anyone, but as we were walking back to our car, I saw a little boy and thought very strongly "go back" as we did, we ran into a Spanish Speaking man and his 10 year old son. They also spoke perfect English, but the dad wasn't a member. We were able to take them into the lobby of the temple and answer some questions for them, it was just so neat to meet them. They told us they were being taught by other missionaries and went to a different building of our church because his wife and ten year old son are members, but we haven't been able to figure out who's teaching them! It was incredible to see that when we listen to the smallest of thoughts, that God uses us as his instruments.

That same day we knocked on a door and I felt as though we should walk further up the street, we knocked on an unplanned door and no one answered, but we were able to talk to another kid outside that was so friendly and has a bunch of Mormon friends and we were able to answer some of his questions about the church too!

Miracles are happening here and this week there will be so many more! I love my Savior, My Brother and My Friend Jesus Christ. He is the reason I am here, because I want others to know of him and love him too in a way so personal that will change their lives! Keep going and be believing!

Much Love,
Hermana Alayna Nelson

Pictures: Literally in the windstorm, so many things were blowing in our eyes!

I found my perfect car! I love Hello Kitty way too much!

Us with the wonderful young women that did the Folklorico dances :)

Check the blog, there are so many more photos on there, I did a good job to make up for last week!

Rain and Eternal Families

(Written Monday, April 27, 2015)

Well y’all, today is my half birthday and basically my 6 month mark. I travel home next year on April 26th. So from here on out, I only have one year left to make the mission count. I have finished one third of my mission already. It is crazy how fast time goes. What a significant time.

I am so glad to be serving. Although things right now are mainly driving around a lot to try and get to know our members and the people that the elders were teaching before, you still get to see the hand of God. We stopped in on a recent convert family and they are on fire. They were getting ready to go into the temple the next day and we were able to help them feel excited. Their eight year old twins are geniuses and knew so much about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and were quizzing us, it was so fun. Then right before we left, they sang Families Can Be Together Forever about going to the temple and being sealed as a family. This whole family was about to do something so special and beautiful and they were doing it together. I know the family is ordained of God and that he loves us so much. What made it even better was that they sang in Spanish and I understood. I will admit that I cried a little bit, but the gospel of Jesus Christ and the promises we can make are so special and I love seeing it bless the lives of others.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Hermana Alayna Nelson

PS: It rained here and I was so happy, but now it is really cold, (like 65 degrees... but that's super cold for me now)
PPS: Me and Sister Stark this morning, still doing great :)