Every day is a great day to be a Texas Mcallen Missionary!
Why hello once again from the great city of McAllen
Texas! Its been a nice and cool 100 degrees this past week and we had
quite the 4th of July celebration! ok so not really. it wasn't like a
utah party... which was interesting for sure!
In past years, the missionaries have been required
to come in early on the 4th of july. but with our new president came new
rules! we were directed to stay out til normal time and spend time with
members! Sooo the day started with an AWESOME
4th of july breakfast! lots of people came! the missionaries got put in
charge of serving syrup! but since our companionship had members
bringing nonmembers, we... meaning I... bossed the elders around a
little and made them do the syrup(: no worries, it was
done with love and then they were all(20 elders) awkwardly standing by
syrup. so they got bossed again to go talk to members. Good times had by
all(: We actually had two members bring their friends! it was super
cool! a family from our spanish ward brought
this really nice older lady from Chile! she is absolutely amazing!
(more on her later because we saw her later in the day!) Then an english
ward family we have been working with brought their neighbors. We were
super excited and hopefully will see some progress
with them in the near future! Oh and guess what we ate for breakfast? a
good old american texas meal! there were pancakes, sausage, bacon, and
TACOS. because no meal is complete down here without tortillas! I wish i
could say it was delicious but i was too
districted talking to members/investigators and helping with the
serving ): no worries i ate when we got back to the apartment!
Ok so more on the chilean lady! a SPANISH family
brought her to the breakfast. Then we had plans to visit a family from
our english ward and when we got their, they told us they had invited a
good friend to meet us! (yay for member work!!!!)
AND IT WAS THE SAME LADY!! We were so excited!!! So we got to talk to
her and build some friendship there and we have an appoint to see her
tomorrow afternoon! Huzzah for members bringing their friends!
That night we had dinner with a family from our
english ward. They are seriously the coolest ever. They barbecued and i
am sorry to say it was better than any I have ever had!(sorry dad!) They
are a super cool family too! they are always
open to us coming over and keep bugging us to bring investigators to
family home evenings at their house. best. members. ever! After that we
kind of visited a few more people but ended up home a little early
anyways because everyone was at the fireworks and
we weren't allowed to go... bummer man!
So that was our 4th of july fun!
My other awesome story for this week took place
friday night! Friday is our planning day, so on top of our morning
studies, we have 3 hours of planning for the next week. Yuck. we did
make pizza this time though so that made it slightly
fun. Well all of our plans fell through... so we decided to park at the
church and walk to a potential investigators house... but of course...
totally wasn't home. So as we were walking back i saw this little girl
kind of teasing a dog behind a truck. so i
started talking to her of course (you would be surprised how good i am
at talking to strangers now! i totally order for myself every time we go
out to eat mom!) So she asked us if we would like to take a seat and
ran over to the truck infront of her house
and put down the back thing... she was super cute! then we asked if we
could to talk to her family too. Her mom is currently in the hospital,
step father is in jail, and brother is in jail. so her 19 year old
sister is taking care of her (shes 6) and their
8 month old sister. How crazy is that??? We talked to the 19 year old
for a bit and asked her about church and she said her mom never takes
them... so we offered to show her the church! Yeah! she accepted! we
were walking around showing it to her when she
asks "so does your church baptize?" UM! HECK YES WE DO!!! Long story
short, She is now preparing to be baptized on August 4th(: She wasn't
able to come to church yesterday though because she had to go to the
hospital to see her mom): but its ok! she will
be there next week!
So in studies this week i put an emphasis
on studying faith... in the bible dictionary is says "All true faith
must be based upon correct knowledge or it cannot produce the desired
results." Lots of people down here have a lot of faith.
They know that Christ is their savior and that they can be saved, they
just don't have the correct knowledge to get the "results" or help they
need in their lives. My love for the people here has grown so much as
I've realized this. Faith truly is a powerful
thing. we can be healed by it, change our lives and those around us
with it, but it must be based on the true doctrine of Christ. in our
zone conference with the Trayner's, President Trayner talked about
truths. Lots of things can be true. like a lemon is
sour. That is true! Unfortunately that truth isn't going to help your
salvation much.... we need to distinguish between the right truths that
truly matter and find where our faith lies. that has been my focus this
past week to really figure out my faith for
sure. and this are the things i know because of my faith and it being
based on correct knowledge:
Jesus Christ Lives. He is our Savior and our
brother. He not only died for us, but He also lived for us. He walked
the path that we must take and showed us by example what we must to do
return to our Father in Heaven. God is our Father!
He loves us sooo much! He truly loves every person that has walked this
earth and ever will! I feel so grateful to be able to be here with the
people in Mcallen Texas and serve them! Feeling that love our Father in
Heaven has for them is truly incredible!
He wants to bless us so much but when we get stuck on temporal
things... He can only do so much. Just like us missionaries! we want to
help people and teach them... but unless they are prepared to receive
the message... we can't do anything. I hate that feeling
a lot! When someone is suffering and I know they could be relieved of
it if they would exercise a little faith but they wont... it really is
hard!
I'm really greatfully to be serving here! I've had a
few moments this past week i've been trunky...(homesick) But I know i
am here to help these people. In any and EVERY way i can! Thank you to
all for your prayers and support! This adventure
is pretty crazy! I realized yesterday that the end of this month will
mark 6 months since i watched my family drive away from the MTC... Its
been the longest AND shortest of my life but worth every minute! I love
you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
I challenge you to look at where your faith lies, whether it is in the
arm of man or the arm of God. If its a little... off from where it
should be, do all you can to fix and seek that help!
Con mucho fe y amor de Tejas,
Hermana Nielson
Why hello once again from the great city of McAllen
Texas! Its been a nice and cool 100 degrees this past week and we had
quite the 4th of July celebration! ok so not really. it wasn't like a
utah party... which was interesting for sure!
In past years, the missionaries have been required
to come in early on the 4th of july. but with our new president came new
rules! we were directed to stay out til normal time and spend time with
members! Sooo the day started with an AWESOME
4th of july breakfast! lots of people came! the missionaries got put in
charge of serving syrup! but since our companionship had members
bringing nonmembers, we... meaning I... bossed the elders around a
little and made them do the syrup(: no worries, it was
done with love and then they were all(20 elders) awkwardly standing by
syrup. so they got bossed again to go talk to members. Good times had by
all(: We actually had two members bring their friends! it was super
cool! a family from our spanish ward brought
this really nice older lady from Chile! she is absolutely amazing!
(more on her later because we saw her later in the day!) Then an english
ward family we have been working with brought their neighbors. We were
super excited and hopefully will see some progress
with them in the near future! Oh and guess what we ate for breakfast? a
good old american texas meal! there were pancakes, sausage, bacon, and
TACOS. because no meal is complete down here without tortillas! I wish i
could say it was delicious but i was too
districted talking to members/investigators and helping with the
serving ): no worries i ate when we got back to the apartment!
Ok so more on the chilean lady! a SPANISH family
brought her to the breakfast. Then we had plans to visit a family from
our english ward and when we got their, they told us they had invited a
good friend to meet us! (yay for member work!!!!)
AND IT WAS THE SAME LADY!! We were so excited!!! So we got to talk to
her and build some friendship there and we have an appoint to see her
tomorrow afternoon! Huzzah for members bringing their friends!
That night we had dinner with a family from our
english ward. They are seriously the coolest ever. They barbecued and i
am sorry to say it was better than any I have ever had!(sorry dad!) They
are a super cool family too! they are always
open to us coming over and keep bugging us to bring investigators to
family home evenings at their house. best. members. ever! After that we
kind of visited a few more people but ended up home a little early
anyways because everyone was at the fireworks and
we weren't allowed to go... bummer man!
So that was our 4th of july fun!
My other awesome story for this week took place
friday night! Friday is our planning day, so on top of our morning
studies, we have 3 hours of planning for the next week. Yuck. we did
make pizza this time though so that made it slightly
fun. Well all of our plans fell through... so we decided to park at the
church and walk to a potential investigators house... but of course...
totally wasn't home. So as we were walking back i saw this little girl
kind of teasing a dog behind a truck. so i
started talking to her of course (you would be surprised how good i am
at talking to strangers now! i totally order for myself every time we go
out to eat mom!) So she asked us if we would like to take a seat and
ran over to the truck infront of her house
and put down the back thing... she was super cute! then we asked if we
could to talk to her family too. Her mom is currently in the hospital,
step father is in jail, and brother is in jail. so her 19 year old
sister is taking care of her (shes 6) and their
8 month old sister. How crazy is that??? We talked to the 19 year old
for a bit and asked her about church and she said her mom never takes
them... so we offered to show her the church! Yeah! she accepted! we
were walking around showing it to her when she
asks "so does your church baptize?" UM! HECK YES WE DO!!! Long story
short, She is now preparing to be baptized on August 4th(: She wasn't
able to come to church yesterday though because she had to go to the
hospital to see her mom): but its ok! she will
be there next week!
So in studies this week i put an emphasis
on studying faith... in the bible dictionary is says "All true faith
must be based upon correct knowledge or it cannot produce the desired
results." Lots of people down here have a lot of faith.
They know that Christ is their savior and that they can be saved, they
just don't have the correct knowledge to get the "results" or help they
need in their lives. My love for the people here has grown so much as
I've realized this. Faith truly is a powerful
thing. we can be healed by it, change our lives and those around us
with it, but it must be based on the true doctrine of Christ. in our
zone conference with the Trayner's, President Trayner talked about
truths. Lots of things can be true. like a lemon is
sour. That is true! Unfortunately that truth isn't going to help your
salvation much.... we need to distinguish between the right truths that
truly matter and find where our faith lies. that has been my focus this
past week to really figure out my faith for
sure. and this are the things i know because of my faith and it being
based on correct knowledge:
Jesus Christ Lives. He is our Savior and our
brother. He not only died for us, but He also lived for us. He walked
the path that we must take and showed us by example what we must to do
return to our Father in Heaven. God is our Father!
He loves us sooo much! He truly loves every person that has walked this
earth and ever will! I feel so grateful to be able to be here with the
people in Mcallen Texas and serve them! Feeling that love our Father in
Heaven has for them is truly incredible!
He wants to bless us so much but when we get stuck on temporal
things... He can only do so much. Just like us missionaries! we want to
help people and teach them... but unless they are prepared to receive
the message... we can't do anything. I hate that feeling
a lot! When someone is suffering and I know they could be relieved of
it if they would exercise a little faith but they wont... it really is
hard!
I'm really greatfully to be serving here! I've had a
few moments this past week i've been trunky...(homesick) But I know i
am here to help these people. In any and EVERY way i can! Thank you to
all for your prayers and support! This adventure
is pretty crazy! I realized yesterday that the end of this month will
mark 6 months since i watched my family drive away from the MTC... Its
been the longest AND shortest of my life but worth every minute! I love
you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
I challenge you to look at where your faith lies, whether it is in the
arm of man or the arm of God. If its a little... off from where it
should be, do all you can to fix and seek that help!
Con mucho fe y amor de Tejas,
Hermana Nielson
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