WEEK 7- Dublin Baby!

Hey all!

Nothing too exciting happened this week

Wednesday- we had interviews with preisdent donaldson and he gave me the best advice. he is seriously such a great man. I was talking to him about how i want to improve my teaching and so he was like "i have an idea, im teaching about the Book of Mormon tomorrow for our zone conference and i want you to help me teach it." and i was like dude if i help you teach the lesson it will be terrible. and he was like, prepare to get up and help me teach tomorrow and i was like okay. 

Thursday- wednesday night we took a train to Belfast to stay the night with the STLs (Sister Training Leaders) because we had All Ireland on thursday. so we woke up at 4 in the morning and drove to Dublin baby! it was a 3 hour bus ride haha but it was chill because we drove with a ton of other missionaries. it was nice to meet other missionaries. So what All Ireland is, is when all of the Ireland missionaries get together for one big conference and we get a lot of training and great talks. it was great! They taught that we really need to bring the Book of Mormon in while GQing and bring in the restoration.Then President Donaldson got up and started talking about the BOM and I didn't really think he would remember what he said the day before so i was just looking down writing notes in my notebook and then my companion bumps my arm and i look up and President is standing next to me and says, "if i’m correct we made a deal yesterday didn’t we?" and i was like crap. so i got to go up and help teach about the Book of Mormon in front of all the missionaries and it was just a straight up disaster hahaha but it was funny.

Friday- We had exchanges with the STLs in Belfast. it was so nice to be in a big city and talking to different people because her in Portadown we talk to a lot of the same people. haha But i learned so much from exchanges. I learned new ways on how to talk to people and really tried applying bringing in the book of mormon and bringing in the restoration. it was so great! The STLs are sister may and sister brodien. and sister brodien is from Tahiti so for exercise time in the morning she taught us this tahitian dance and its a lot of hip movement or whatever and we were all trying to do it and sis brodien was like "sis neilson youre actually pretty good at this". it was probably the best compliment i’ve ever received. haha We had lunch at a three story Mcdonalds! one direction was playing and that was a huge blessing. haha. 

Saturday- Sis lough was super sick all day throwing up, but she was a trooper and still went out to find and teach people. she is such an example to me. she is such a hard worker. i love her so much. A girl came up to us on the street. her name is eliene and was like "you gave me a book of mormon last week and ive been reading it and i really like it, would there be a time we could meet up and talk about it?" and we were like yes! it was so great! We teach Sam our Chinese investigator english on Saturdays. its so funny because it's me, sis lough, elder rocha, and elder alfonso and were all trying to teach him english but none of us speak chinese and the elders first language is not even english but we try. hahah sam is getting baptized this saturday! so exciting! 

Sunday- we went to church then we had dinner with rosa and carlos and they are just so funny. i love going to their house to teach and get dinner. and rosa agreed to be baptized so exciting!

i asked sis. Donaldson for her crepe recipe so i've been making crepes a lot this week for me and my companion! they’re so good!

on exchanges

when i peed while we were chapping

this is rosa

some ghetto bathroom becasue i literally have to pee all the time haha

WEEK 6- Pouring Down in Portadown

Monday- we flew to Scotland to the mission home for sisters conference that night

Tuesday- Sisters conference was so great! we had three workshops, one was a painting class, one was a lesson about positive attitudes, and the other one was a yoga session. hahah and then at the end president donaldson gave a devotional and it was so good. apparently they do sisters conference once a week just for fun haha. it was so fun to meet all the other sisters in the mission and to see my homegirls from the mtc! Some things i took away from sisters conference was to develop habits of positive thinking, and make a decision under 5 seconds and then go with it. like when your alarm goes off in the morning make that decision under 5 seconds that you will get up. But the conference was in the church building and the heaters were broken that day so it was literally freezing! we were all wearing our coats in the church and then they brought in heaters and then one sparked and went out so we had to turn off all of them because of the one. hahaha just making memories. Then since my flight wasn’t till the next morning, a few of us had to stay at the mission home that night and the mission home is so old fashioned, i love it. president and his wife had us (about 8 girls) wait in the living room until dinner and so we were in there bored out of our minds cause we had nothing with us so to do so some girl started playing the piano and someone started singing and we were trying to think of games to play and it was straight out of the movie Pride and Prejudice. it was so fun. hahaha then we had dominoes pizza for dinner. blessings! after we had pizza sis donaldson was like oh my goodness today is pancake tuesday! so she went into the kitchen and she made us english crepes hahaha thay were so good! I’ll tell ya, the Lord really answers prayers because i needed those crepes! we also had a meeting during sisters conference about eating healthy. i could not stay awake in that one. 

Wednesay- We flew back to Portadown. we got on this little dinky plane and it was crazy!!! i had fallen asleep on the plane cause we’re always tired and then next thing i know i’m woken up by the plane legit shaking. there was so much turbulence. so i looked out the window and we were right over the ocean. like i legit thought we were landing in the water we were that close! and this lady a couple rows behind me was screaming. hahaha it was so funny. but yeah sketchy plane ride. then we got off the plane and had to walk to the train which was like a 25- 30 min walk but it was sooo windy. if you put a small child on the ground it would have blown away. it was hard to walk and the birds couldn’t fly hahah. We taught carlos in a cafe but then got kicked out so we had to find another place to teach so we were just on the street trying to teach it was crazy. he had so many questions. i dont even remember what i said to half of them. but just gotta trust in the lord and it will all work out hahah. he wants to meet again so that’s good. 

Thursday- i woke up and was walking down our stairs and straight up biffed it. hahaha i had my blanket around me (because our heater isn’t working so we have to wear like five layers to bed haha) but i had my blanket around me and so when i started to fall I couldn't brace my fall cause i was holding tight to my blanket. hahah but i bruised my heel pretty bad. so that was fun. 

Friday- two of our lessons fell through but its all good. haha We GQed all day. We had dinner at this guy in my ward’s house named Eamon. we had salmon and that was rough. haha but i just soaked it in ketchup so could get it down. Then we went chapping after dinner and i had to pee sooo stinkin bad and i was like sis. lough we still have an hour to chap and i need to pee. so i went behind this three foot cement wall. haha it was raining too lol. 

Saturday- We were GQing this morning and we started talking to this guy and he just went off about joseph smith and all this crap about him and i was getting so heated and i started to go off on him but then i remembered to be Christlike which can be very hard sometimes. but yeah that was a great way to start our day. haha So we had a first lesson with a guy named berry, and while we were teaching him i asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes and i froze up. i didnt know what to do because we had never practiced when someone actually says yes to baptism. so i looked at my companion but she was waiting for me to say something so i was like well alright sweet dude. I could've done that way more spiritual but yeah. haha so that was exciting. 

Sunday- literall the most crazy day of the week always. we went to church. the ward is funny. there’s not a ton of people and its always freezing. I swear they don’t know what heaters are here. haha. we have a set of elders in the ward too. so this is gonna be a straight up missionary story). then we went back to our flat to grab lunch and i was just so out of it and it was pouring outside and we both really didnt want to go out cause it was so cold and we had 3 hours of GQing. but of course we went out and had positive attitudes. but since it was pouring there was nobody on the street but we were like lets just walk around the street 3 times and then go chapping. so the first time nobody talked to us. then the second time i was walking past this guy and i said hi and i started to walk away. then i was like no i need to talk to him and i started to talk to him and he was super interested and we got an appointment with him. it was awesome! then we got another appointment right after him! it was so amazing and definitely the boost of confidence we needed. haha then we ran into this guy who only spoke spanish so my high school spanish kicked in (those of you that know me well know that i know little to nothing of spanish) but he needed to get to Belfast. so we got him to the train station and then he needed to go buy cigarettes before the train. so we had to run all around town trying to find him some. it was crazy but we got him on the train and helped him. so yeah thats why you always do what you’re supposed to even when you don’t want too sometimes. hahah Then we had dinner with Rosa and she made fish and vegetables, literally what i always have for dinner. but portuguese people just make straight up fish, like eye balls, teeth and everything. so it was a challenge getting that one down. then her husband came home drunk and told me and my comp we had to eat the eyes of the fish so we did. hahaha then rosa wanted to sing karoake with us so we sang and danced. hahaha it was so fun

I miss the temple! I never thought I would say that but I really do. haha dude it’s freezing here but it’s great.

on top of pratts hill when we fist arrived to the mtc!

rains so much the bottom of my dresses are always soaked

snowing in town

when it was snowing like no other. my cheeks get so pink when i go outside but my comps doesn’t

at sisters conference and got to see my homegirls from the mtc, missed them so much

us at the mission home, pretending its pride and prejudice

selfie in the mall

WEEK 5

Pouring down in Portadown

Sunday feb.4- We had fast and testimony and it was so amazing! Then we went to district meeting and our own testimony meeting for the people who didn't go up in sacrament meeting. Then i napped of course after church. Then we had a devotional after dinner and listened to Neil L. Andersons talk about how we can never let the flame go out on our missions which was cool. Then president Bunker gave a short devotional after. Then right before we were about to close the meeting President says, "i just want a couple of people to come up and bear there testimonies." and as he was saying this he was looking directly at me and i was like oh crap he's going to call my name. And he called up four people and i was one of them haha. but something that was really cool was before all the devotionals this elders grandpa died like the night before and they were really close so president invited him up to talk about his grandpa and say what he would say if he was at the funeral. it was really cool. then after the testimonies all of us at the mtc got up and sang, Joseph Smith's First Prayer and God Be With You Till We Meet Again to president and his wife and it was such a spiritual moment. And the second verse of Gbwytwma the german speakers sang it in german and it was awesome. man i loved the mtc. every night in the halls the sisters always sing a song to see if we could sing loud enough for the elders to hear (the elders and sisters hall is divided by a door) so we went up to the door and started singing loud and then the elders sang back and it was so amazing haha

Monday- was just a normal day. not too interesting. exercise time was really fun though because the whole mtc was there 

Tuesday- i left the mtc that morning. It was very hard to say bye to everyone especially the foreign missionaries because we willl probably never see them again :( We had to get up so stinkin early to leave though haha at 4:20 we woke up. then the buses left at 5:45 and it was pitch black outside. since it was so dark outside when we were on the bus the only thing we could see outside was cars headlights. it reminded me of star wars when they go into light speed haha. Then i fell asleep on the bus and woke up and there was snow everywhere! it was so beautiful but so flippin cold. Then we got to the mission home and the house literally looks like you’re in the 1800s hahah it is cute. but when we got there they had this amazing dinner waiting for us. i was so excited because i was so hungry.  when we sat down at the table we had to leave a chair open next to us so the trainers could come in and sit next to us. so the trainers came in and sat next to us and we all started to eat. but as i was trying to eat the trainers wanted to talk to me but i didn't want to talk, i wanted to eat! so i’m trying to talk to the trainers while stuffing this dinner in my mouth. it was just one big mess. haha But after dinner we had to sit in a trainee meeting for seriously 3 to 4 hours, it was sooo long and you had to pay attention cause if you didnt they would call on you haha then we got interviewed by president Donaldson. then we got paired up with our trainers and my trainers name is sis. Lough pronounced (low). she's super cool and we get along really well which i am so happy about! haha i was so nervous. she is from American Fork, Utah. Then we all went out street contacting or as they call it here GQing. that was interesting haha oh yeah and we found out also where we would be serving and i am serving in Northern Ireland in this little town called Portadown.

Wednesday- We woke up at 4:30 and got on bus after bus after bus, like three buses. then we got on a ferry for about three hours and i got super sick. so i went outside on the deck and it was so windy it was funny. i went inside and ate mac n cheese and felt way better. Mac n cheese can cure any illness, ill tell ya that. then after the ferry we got on another bus (the buses we rode on reminded me of the bus in harry potter that zooms through all the cars). then we got on a train and finally made it to portadown at around 4pm! haha it was a long traveling day but we went straight to work and went GQing and then we went chapping (door tracking) and i really liked it surprisingly.

Tuesday-Saturday- i dont really know how to explain all of this but basically our normal routine is wake up at 6:30 exercise. 7-8 get ready. 8-9 daily planning, 9-10 personal study. then we got out to GQ. so here in Portadown everyone is from Portugal and so we willl find someone to teach but we can barely talk to them so we have to give them to the elders because they speak Portuguese, so thats really frustrating. so me and sis. lough are trying to learn some Portuguese phrases so we can talk to them. didnt think i was gonna be speaking another langauge on my mission. haha  Some guy tried to bash with me and would ask me questions and i would answer him and he would say, "well how?" to everything i would say. so i started asking him questions about his religion and he would asnwer them and i would respond the same way he would with, "well how?" and he didnt like that all too much haha. but it rains here all the time and it has snowed the past three days like crazy snow too. one night we were chapping and literally three inch snowflakes were falling! it was so beautiful though. All of our lessons cancelled on us this week except for one and i invited them to be baptized and they said no hahaha i was like no worries man, we will keep working with you haha. he believes in aliens and stuff and wants us to ask President Nelson about them because we were talking to him about prophets haha it was funny. one day it was raining so hard and me and Sis. Lough were talking to someone on the street and i looked at her and it looked like she was crying. but really it was just the rain taking her makeup off and her mascara was running down her face haha it was so funny. our town is so small that we walk up and down the same street when Gq all day and we Gq a lot because our appointments always bail. but there are only old people in the town, which i though i would like, but they are all super religious and dont like talking with us. so whenever we see a younger person like in there 20s, we track them down. hahah its so funny. but this one old guy was spitting on me when he was talking to me and i was dying i wanted to throw up and this other old guy raised his cane at me one time like he was going to hit me haha it was awesome. we say so many dang prayers, i literally have bruises on my knees from praying haha it's the best. Saturday morning was really rough and i was just so tired and sad because both our lessons cancelled that morning and so i was like we are going to work our butts off and find people to freakin teach and we did! and we had so much fun doing it hahaha We also teach english class wednesday and saturday nights and its so fun hahah 

Sunday- Church was really hard becasue i didnt know anyone and almost everyone doesnt speak english. so we have transponders in church where you put the ear peace in your ear and Pedro in the back translates behind this curtain into the earpiece. (it reminds me of wizard of Oz where the wizard says, "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain haha) but that night we went to pedros house for dinner and my comp was getting my hyped for it because he is an amazing chef. so we sit down at the table and he brings out muscles and clams. i about died and just had to scarf it down with orange fanta haha but it’s really great here.

Sister Neilson

WEEK 4- Letter from the Mission President

Dear Brother and Sister Neilson,

On 6 February 2018, we welcomed Sister Neilson to the Scotland/Ireland Mission.  She arrived safely from the Missionary Training Centre and we are excited to have her in our mission.  I interviewed her and felt her spirit and desire to serve our Heavenly Father. One of our very best missionaries, Sister Lough, has been assigned to be her trainer and they are assigned to the Belfast Zone, Bangor District and attending the Portadown Ward. If letters are mailed they can be sent to the office or directly to her address

12 North Street

Portadown

BT62 4BR

United Kingdom

P-Days are on Monday.

I will have the opportunity to meet with Sister Neilson for a personal interview every six weeks.  In addition, your missionary will be writing me a weekly letter of her activities as well as a personal note.   She will also meet regularly with her district and zone leaders where she will be trained with other missionaries.  Therefore, with interviews and our weekly letters, I should be able to help her meet any challenges she may have.

We are grateful for the part you have played in preparing your daughter to serve in this important work. We would encourage you to write her weekly letters of encouragement. Letters from home provide a powerful sustaining effect on the confidence and morale of our missionaries.

We testify of the truthfulness of this work and are grateful to be a part of it.

Sincerely,

George R Donaldson

George R Donaldson, President
Scotland/Ireland Mission

PS:  Stirling, Scotland, 1898, David O. McKay: “I was homesick and a little discouraged on this day.  As we were coming back into town, I saw an unfinished dwelling, over the front door of which was a stone on which there was a carving. That was most unusual, so I said to Elder Johnston, ‘I’m going to see what that is.’ I was half way up the gravelled walk when there came to my eyesight a striking motto as follows, carved in stone:  “‘Whate’er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part.’  I said to myself, or the Spirit within me, you are here as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. That afternoon, I accepted the message given to me on that stone, and from that moment we tried to do our part as missionaries in Scotland”

WEEK 3

Peace Out MTC!!!

Wednesday! the cook here is named steven and he sings opera and so if you're walking by the cafeteria you can hear him singing so loud its so cool, he's amazing! he tried out for Britain's got talent and just barely didn't make it because he didn't have a cool enough story. So my companion got mad at me for some reason after exercise time and then she wouldn't talk to me and was just being so rude so i straight up was like, "No, we're not doing this anymore, we are going to talk about whatever you're mad at me for." So we went into the laundry room because that's literally the only place to be alone and i was like "I'm done with all your shit. if you have a problem with me just tell me straight up" and she was just getting mad at me for all these stupid reasons. Long story short, we talked through all our problems said a prayer and now were good! haha but i really am glad she is my companion. we have had our ups and downs but i have learned a lot being her companion and i am so grateful for that. but for real i have been craving Mexican food since i got here, and i saw on the menu for today that we were having burritos and i was so excited! and then when i tasted it it just wasn't the same as, Pedro's Tacos. i was so sad hahahha i really miss our good Mexican food. we had elder Hirst from the 70 come talk to us and it was about our value and our worth and it was super cool! our last week here in the mtc we are able to skype anyone from home and have a little lesson with them and something really cool was this sister here skyped her dad and his wife and they're not members but she told me that they were all crying as she bore her testimony and that her dad and his wife really want to read the book of mormon, it was so cool and i was so happy for her.

Thursday! we had German shnitzel for lunch today! (i don't know if i spelt that correct) but it was so good!! Me and my comp were going in to teach our investigator and we both really like one spot on the couch better than the other one and my companion was like, "ok i get the arm of the couch this time" and i was like "no way dude", and so we got into the investigator room and we subtly but not so subtly tried to sit by the arm of the couch and i obviously beat her to it. Se wasn't too happy about that haha. But something i learned from her in that lesson was that she is so inspired and feels the spirit so strongly during and before our lesson. like i was in the lesson with Prince(that was the investigators name) and i was saying something to Prince and to myself i was thinking, "wow, what i am saying right now is really good" and then my comp said something to him and i was like "what?" then when we got out and the teacher came to us and said what my companion said to Prince was exactly what he needed to hear. so yeah that was a tough pill to swallow but i really learned from that experience. We also practiced door knocking that night. when we knocked on the door Ed answered it and we were trying to think of creative ways to get him let us in. i was talking to him and then i just started spitting out random crap about how pretty his house and garden is and as the words were coming out of my mouth i was like i just need to stop talking right now and it was just went terrible haha it it was fun practicing lol. 

Friday! Oh man, i was so excited for dinner that night and right as i was about to take my first bite i saw a long, thick, black hair in my food and just about threw up and so all i ate that night was rolls and cookies which was actually really good haha oh yeah! we taught an actual real life member today! like some one from the outside came into the MTC and we got to teach him and it was so cool! and everything just went so great we were all sharing personal experiences with prayer and the spirit was so strong! We had our end of the MTC meetings with President Bunker and can i just say, wow President Bunker is amazing, i love him so much! There is a teacher from Ireland who knows how to like Irish jig and some of you guys might now i have been practicing my Irish jig so when i found out he knew how to do it i asked him to teach us during our exercise time and dang, let me just say i though i was good at Irish jigging but i was just terrible and i was practicing it wrong the whole time hahah but it was fun. 

Saturday! We did this lesson practice with my whole district in class today with my teacher. my district was one big companionship teaching my teacher as an investigator and he would just pick a random topic out of preach my gospel and we had about a minute to prepare for it and we all had 4 mins to teach it. so one person would start and then at any point the teacher would say switch and then call one of our names at random and we had to pick up teaching where the last person left off. it was pretty fricken scary hahha i got to skype my family on saturday and teach them a short lesson and it was so nice to see all of them! We had salmon for dinner and yikes it was so gross so i just ate the banana caramel cream pie hahahha Then when Elder Von Mollendorf got up to refill his drink and elder o'connor poured salt on his pie and we tried to play it off like it was sugar and i even ate some of it so he would believe us but he didn't believe us and so i just ate salted pie for no reason. haha Also last night i decided i was going to cut my hair because there is this chick here who is a sister and she is from italy and back home she cuts hair for a living. but the problem is she speaks like no english so the only was to talk to her is by using hand motions so it was pretty sketchy. but its all good hahah

Sunday! we had fast and testimony meeting this morning. it was pretty good, but we're fasting today and fasting is so dang hard hahah but it's good too haha but the reason i am emailing today is because on tuesday we head over to Scotland finally! i am so excited. 

me and elder midelf, he is from sweden and his mom sent him 15 pounds of straight chocolate so he gives me chocolate all the time hahah 

our district

me and sis duke

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!!!