WEEK 2

yewwwwwwwww week twoooooooooo

so, per usual food was delicious this week! i seriously love the food here hahahah ive never been so full in my life. i dont know if i said this in the last email but me and my comp are always so late for class people always see us sprinting to class but always stopping for candy at sister bunkers office haha. 

so wednesday, dinner was amazing that night! we had fried chicken, french fries, baked beans, this apple crisp with a vanilla things we poured on top and a cinnamon and banana cake with this amazing whipped cream! but that day my class was sooo fricken tired so my teacher had us all move to the cafeteria for our lesson. one of my teachers is from scotland and the other is from wales. we had a devotional that night and we it was a girl speaker who spoke in general confernce one time. then we had a lesson from presidnet bunker about the law of chastity which was super fun and funny. 

Thursday, BLESSED DAY! we had fish and chips for dinner that night and it was amazing!! i loved it so much! but after that meal i finally finally had like a regular normal poop. after dinner me and sister peterson just sat on the toilet and wrote in our journals which now that i type it out sounds pretty gross, sorry about that haha. For lunch we had haggis!! it was nasty i'll tell ya that. but im glad i tried it cause a lot of people didnt. i legit couldnt sleep that night though because our district was talking about scary movies and i got so scared that i couldnt sleep and then when i did fall asleep i woke up in the middle of the night cause my necklace was like choking me out hahaha. 

for exercise we played this game with the soccer ball and we would juggle the ball five times between people (we were in a circle) and then on the 5th juggle you grab the ball and chuck it at someone to get them out, it was super fun. 

my teacher brother Scharff is so amazing he helps me so much and is so patient with all the questions that i ask. me and my comp taught our investigator theodore and it went pretty dang well. 

Friday! we went on a church history tour! we visited ribble river where the first baptism in europe was I think. the house where the seven missionaries stayed with heber c. kimball, and then we went to gordon b. hinckleys first house in his mission. it was awesome! then we visited this little town that was straight out of a movie! and there was this church in the town that was built in the 1400s and we all piled in the church and sang called to serve and it was so cool!! oh yeah so when the president needs you he calls your name over the loud speaker that goes through the whole mtc, its like back in highschool when the principle would call your name out haha. theres this elder here that is just so frustrating to deal with, he just makes the most annoying comments and i have to distance myself from him becasue when im around him my highschool ali comes out and i cant hold my tongue. oh also random story me and my district were in class and i called someone an L7 weenie and did the hand gesture with it and everyone busted out laughing they thought it was hilarious except one sister she got mad haha. 

Saturday, no joke i swear i woke up in the middle of the night and felt an earhtquake and even felt the after shock. so i woke up and asked my teacher if there had been and earthquake last night and he said there hasnt been an earthquake in the last 24 hours and everyone laughed at me and apparently it was just my comp on the top bunk moving around and i thought it was an earthquake. me and sis. duke wrecked in ping pong per usual. so sister bunker always has a bowl of candy in her office but its first come first serve so you have to like sprint to get some and me and my comp went to go see if there was some so we said a prayer and there was candy it was a miracle. 

Sunday! sundays are my favorite day of the week! our talk was on service and sacrafice so i went into the bathroom stall to finish writing it because i like how when im in the bathroom im alone haha and i started writing it and then all of a sudden i hear a little giggle in the stall next to mine and then sister nilsson says, "sister neilson are you writing your talk in here?" apparently she could hear the pencil on the paper hahaha it was so funny but she was having a really hard time because she was telling me that she really felt like she was going to give a talk today and her first language is swedish so she was super nervous and just kept practing her talk in english. then when she heard she wouldn't be speaking on sunday she was so happy and then at the very end of sacrament meeting president bunker gets up and says "i would like one more speaker. could sister nilsson please come up and give a talk, the swedish sister nilsson." (my heart literally dropped cause i thought he was talking about me) but then i realized it was her and she got so nervous she started to tear up and then she went up and just said that she was going to bear her testimony and she did and the room was just so full with the spirit it was so amazing! i love sister nilsson. 

Monday we went tracting. is was nice to get out of the mtc! on the bus ride over to manchester the bus driver isn’t mormon so he was playing normal music on the radio and it was so nice to hear music finally hahhaha we taught our investigator, eve, that day and it went so well!! i was so happy because our lessons had been pretty rough before that haha. we had to practice teaching the law of chastity lesson and so these two elders in my district went up to demonstrate with the investigator and the investigator said sex and one of the elders who is super innocent kind of giggled and the whole district just busted out laughing! it was so funny.

We went to the temple today. the temple is amazing! today is the last time in the temple for 18 months so I stayed in the temple for as long as I could. I love the temple.

but yeah life here is great. i love it so much!! something i really liked this week that president said was, struggling is mandatory but misery is optional. I go into the mission field next week so that will be very interesting but i am so excited about that. we were at a devotional one night and i was just thinking that its so cool that everyone here is here for one purpose and that is to serve our Father in heaven and that just got me so pumped. ive never been so happy and excited to share the gospel! i love it so much! 

love,

sister neilson  

my toast i have every morning when i wake up and every night before i go to bed. the toast is too tall and doesnt get cooked all the way to the top haha

me and my district on the church history tour. the first place where the missionaries taught

church history tour

me and sister mcnamara in front of gorbon b hinckleys house (shes from california)

the house of the seven missionaries

the 1400s chapel. the inside was beautiful!

my companion after we taught our lesson. i dont know if you can see it but she got really bad pit sweat stains haha

this is elder ala jaaski. he is from finland and is so tall so we bond on that haha

ribble river

my teacher wrote our names is Greek cause he served in greece

me and my district

me and everyone at the mtc

i went to climb over the fence to be with the sheep and halfway up the hill i realized i was surrounded by thorn bushes so that didn’t happen

me and sister nilsson, love her!

WEEK 1

Hiiiii!!!! Oh my goodness. i love it so much here. it is amazing! 

So, Tuesday I was dropped off at the airport at 5 a.m. and said peace to the family. i first flew to salt lake city and then met up with some sisters there and we all flew to New York and the second i got off the plane it smelled like pizza. i wanted to eat some so bad but we had to rush off on our next flight to Manchester. some chick going to my missoin threw up on the flight lol. But the flight from SLC to New York was very long because i had a middle seat and literally couldn't do anything. haha then the flight from New York to Manchester was amazing. I sat in the very back row with this really nice man. he let me have the window seat even though i was supposed to have the aisle seat. and there was a blanket and a pillow sitting there waiting for me on my seat. Then we took off and i took pills before the flight so i just passed out and woke up and a meal is sitting in front of me. it was teriyaki chicken and cheese and crackers and the cheese was amazing!! i was in heaven. then, i went back to sleep and woke up to breakfast, pretty awesome flight. Then we landed in Manchester at 7 a.m. the next day. Two people from the MTC picked us up from the airport and then we drove about 45 mins to the mtc. we were driving on the other side of the road too. We got to the MTC and met the mission president, Bro. and sis. Bunker and they told us that we could just relax that day sleep go play volleyball go walk around the temple do whatever we wanted which was sooo nice, i slept so great that night haha.

So, Thursday was my first real day in the mtc. oh yeah! my companion's name is Sis. Peterson and she is from Utah of course. We have 8 people in my district and there is 55 in all at the mtc. The food here they make us is pretty dang good. for the most part we have lots of like roast and lamb hahha we had pea and ham soup this morning it tasted basically like chicken noodle soup.

so on thursday we had our first lesson and it went, alright.. haha. the people we teach is our teacher but he completely changes his personality into this other person and they have these little rooms for us to teach in and they are set up like living rooms, pretty legit.

We have missionaries here from all around the world, Sweden, Finland, England, Denmark, Africa, Australia, Brazil, China, and America. i love talking to all the foreign missionaries. i think they are all so cool. we also had to memorize, "Our Purpose" and "The First Vision" which i got down now.

i really love my district we're so tight. The beds here are tiny hahah but the matresses are squishy so that nice. Literally the second my head hits the pillow i'm out haha. But i really enjoyed the first day. But everyone here says the longest prayers it's insane how they think of all of it haha Also my companion would like always follow me to the bathroom and that made me nervous to poop in front of her so i never did. but now she lets me go in alone haha. i volunteered to help in a discussion so that was cool.

Friday was a good day. the morning was great! We had tots, toast and eggs for breakfast. Then for exercise time we played volleyball which was amazing! Then we had lunch after that which was oh my goodness absolutely amazing! we had fried chicken, fries, and baked beans! i love baked beans! Then after that we had study time and then we had to teach our investigator, Lee about the restoration. and while we were getting ready i realized that i literally had no clue what the resoration was and everything about it and everyone in my district knew i swear eveything about it. haha so i got pretty upset and was really hard on myself. While me and my comp. were getting ready to teach Lee we figured out that we have very different ways of teaching, i'm way more chill about it. go with the flow follow the spirit and she needs to make sure we say every little thing and can't forget about anything. She's very knowledgable. so i made us a motto and it's, Go with the flow of the Spirit and she liked that hahha. so we went into the lesson and it went great!! i was so pumped and it made me feel so much better! i really love it here. im defintely not the smartest one but that just leaves more room for improvement and so much room to learn which im excited about. 

Saturday. oh yeah there is a swedish sister missionary here and her last name is Nillson, and i really like her, shes super chill haha i went to the bathroom and while i was washing my hands i totally burned my hand on the water apparently the water here is super hot. and everyone blows there nose all the time here, like while were eating dinner or even when im talking to someone they will just blow there nose its so gross haha. i seriously love teaching our investigators but its so hard for me because i dont know a lot about the church so usually i always get to know the perosn and have casual conversation and then sis. peterson teaches the lesson and i butt in a little and then bear my  testimony haha. but a chick in my district, sis. duke, me and her wreck in volleyball and in ping pong hahah its fun. I love all the friends i am making here, i love making friends haha 

Sunday!!! Best day ever! we had church at 9 and there was 6 speakers chosen at random. i didnt get chosen. everyone that speaks has to give it in the language they will be speaking. kind of wanted to do it but whatever. then we had sunday school with my district and then relief society which was  good too haha. So my companion is a piano player so she plays for church and this one sister asked her to accompany her so i have to go with my companion whenever she and the other girl would practice which was kind of annoying because all i wanted to do is study instead. well we got to church and she went up to sing and the words in her song was exactly what i needed to hear and answered my prayer. then after church we have three hours of free time so we can do whatever we want so i took a nap and then just hung out with some of the elders and sisters. it was pretty fun. Then bro. and sis. bunker gave FHE that night and it was amazing! we played games and then had like an hour and a half lesson. we talked about the book of mormon and in the lesson was another answer to my prayer! literally my prayers get answered left and right here no joke. at the end of FHE we sang three songs (also when we sing we sing ALL of the verses...not my favorite but whatever) but we sang, "families can be together forever" "Teach me to walk in the light"  and, "i know my savior lives".  literally everyone was bawling hahah well i wasnt but the spirit was so strong. Also we say so many dang prayers, i run out of things to say haha. 

Soooooooo, monday!! we went tracting for the first time in Manchester for 2hours right in the middle of the city hahahah There was this bird lady and she had all these birds around her and was feeding them i started singing the song from mary poppins. But tracting wwas super fun. i loved talking to all the people and making friends. then after tracting we just had more class as usual haha

Today we went into town and i just bought some things that i left at home hahaha but for reals the food here is amazing! im always full. but i love it here and everything is great! and the mission president is so laid back and chill. i get to wear my vans like whenever i want hahah but i miss everyone and love you all!

me on the plane with my face mask

on the bus on the way to the mtc!

me and my companion, sis peterson

playing some volleyball

me and my companion, sis peterson

me and the other sis. nilsson from sweden

temple pics!!!

Traveling to the MTC

hey mom! i made it to the mtc! haha the flights were pretty long but slept through most off them. the last flight was my favorite! it was so fancy and we had like legit meals! i love you and the family so much! my P-days are on tuesdays. Everyone seems so nice but ive had to pee for like since we got off the plane like forever ago haha. but theyre letting us relax today, we can go shower and nap and play ping pong! isnt that nice! 

Also! the plane landing was insane! it was so windy we were like flying everywhere and it was so shaky and then we hit the ground and flew (bounced) back into the air hahaha and then he slammed on the brakes and we all flew into the our tv screens hahahha i dont know dads email so tell him thats why i didnt email him i feel bad! but i love you guys all so much! and i need brandon leti anna and katies email! im so happy to be here mom seriously. it feels so surreal,like i feel like im still back in the states. but i had to fart so bad the whole plane ride it was awful! haha just adds to the experience i guess lol

Surprise Text

I got a text today from a stranger at the SLC airport with a picture. Here's what the text said…

Met your darling girls!! My son is serving back East and it always makes me happy when random people send photos. :)