Monday, September 30, 2013

33rd Week, September 16, 2013

Una Hija! Y una Hijastra!


Sooo because I am finishing Sister Petersen's training, she is my step daughter. and I am STARTING Sister Diaz, she is my daughter! My first born in the Wilderness! My "jacob" you might say! Mission lingo is super funny and a little bit weird sometimes!
 
So when we left off last week, I told you all that we were driving to Mcallen that night! Yup. It really did happen! Sister Petersen and I took the GPS and I drove to Mcallen to pick up my second trainee! Crazy right?! Sister Diaz is from Guatamala! The office lied to me and said Ecuador! But nope! She is chapina! (guatamalan) aaand just as my mother in the mission was 27 years old, so is my child! Crazy right? But super fun! We are having a blast so far!
Tuesday we drove back from Mcallen in the morning to make it just in time for our zone meeting! Yay for zone meetings. I love when we get all the missionaries together because we can bounce ideas off one another on different stuff... and I get to see more missionaries that just my companions! I love them dearly but... living on an island 20 minutes from the nearest missionaries is kind of a bummer sometimes!
 
We convinced the Elders that Sister Diaz only knows spanish... (: She in reality knows spanish, english and french fluently! Pretty cool right? So we convinced them she didn't know english and it was adorable to see how patiently they re-explained they jokes they made in english to her in spanish! Oh man i was dying laughing. It was great. Then we finally told our district on wednesday she knows english and they were so mad at us. but they laughed too so it was fun! I can definitely feel my spanish improving immensely speaking it so much with her! We have had a few moments where she has to explain a word to me and I have to explain some english words to her. Its been super fun though!
 
Our apartment has sprung a leak! On sunday we got a call saying that a tropical storm is headed in and we need to have our stuff ready to leave at a moments notice if we need to evacuate... not scary at all right? Haha no we aren't really worried because the hurricane is going down into mexico. we are just having awesome rain. So because our apartment is so small, I moved to the couch so my baby could have a bed, well the leak is right above my couch... and now my sheets are wet! haha! so fun right? ah well. That's mission life. I realized that we think mission life is so fun and perfect and missionary work all the time, but man... we have real life problems we have to deal with in the mission! Who forgot to tell me that??
 
We were also talking on sunday and I realized a few others things. I know Dad has been saying this all along, but the mission really is meant to convert you unto the Lord as well.. I was looking through my pictures so far in the mission with sister Diaz and she pointed out how much I've changed. I haven't really felt like I was changing too much... but when I looked at the picture I realized I don't really look like I'm 16 any more... In 12 days I'm actually going to be 20! TWENTY YEARS OLD.  I officially made it out of my teenage years without getting married or pregnant! The mission has taught me so much so far and now training is making my testimony of faith so much stronger... It really is scary each day thinking, "oh man.. is my companion gonna insult someone... or are we gonna find a family today?" I was so selfish before just worrying about myself and now worrying about others has really made me open my eyes a lot.. I'm not sure if any of this makes sense to anyone else.. but I thought I'd share my profound moment.
 
I was telling one of the elders in my district how nervous I am about this adventure and he said that when he started training it was scary too but he realized he could use the atonement at any moment to help him out. So that is my goal. In the moments I'm the most confused or afraid and really don't know what to do. I will lean on my Savior. He knows right?
Another thing one of the elders said to me really hit me hard... He told me that the first thing his trainer told him was "I am not perfect. I'm not a perfect missionary and I don't know everything. But I do know what I'm doing. I know how to be a missionary and I am asking you to trust me. I promise to trust you as well because we both receive revelation for this area. I will trust and respect you as long as you do the same" and he said I have to trust my companions enough to do things I know wont work. I'm working on trusting them a lot right now because I know they trust me. We have to work as a team though!
 
This church is so true and amazing. I'm grateful to be out here in corpus learning all these things even if I am a little stressed, smelly, and tired. Its worth every moment! I testify that our Savior loves us and lives. He died for us and now He lives for us that we might return to Him!
Love you all!
 
Sister Courtenae Nielson

 

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