WEEK 5 FLEW SO FAST

So this week was like a blur I can't believe its already Monday again. We are now in week 6 of the transfer, we'll find out Saturday what will be happening. I am seriously so content and comfortable here I am mildly stressing out because I dont see the need for any change but the Lord might disagree, plus we have like 34 missionaries coming in and 32 leaving so changes will be made. President told me it would be the craziest transfer yet. So I'm a little stressed but what else is new.

So this week was great! Last Monday we saw our investigator who called us the mormon babes and this time in the closing prayer he thanked God for "sending these 2 beautiful angels to me...I know it was you! You do stuff like this" bless his heart, he really gets the gospel its neat to see him understand! He just doesn't realize how much he gets.

On Tuesday we got to help out at the animal shelter. They did a waived adoption fee week, where all the adoptions were free! It was super busy so they had a lot of volunteers help with paperwork and making sure that good people were adopting the animals and such. As of Saturday, there were 0 dogs and only 12 cats left! It was a lof of fun I felt like I was working customer servcie again. It was fun, its even more fun as a missionary because sometimes in public, people are super hesitant to make eye contact or acknowledge you because you have a nametag, but we were only there to take care of animals so people opened up and were less scared of us 2 intimidating girls in skirts.

On Wednesday we helped out at an old-folks home, we help the hard of hearing people know which bingo number was called. It was cute, this old man in a little straw hat was being wheeled into the room and he exclaims, "ahh look at that. wrinkles, wrinkles everywhere." It was funny. Such an old man comment. We also saw a part-member family we are teaching who are all so cute. They really want to learn and are so open, its fun to teach them and watch it all click.

On Thursday we helped an old couple we teach fill out a life-survey, where it had like 60 overly specific questions thaty they racked their brains to think of the answer (i.e. what is the name of the street that you lived on in your 30's) so that took a good chunk  of time. It was cute to hear them reminisce though.

On Friday we saw one of our investigators, she was very high. Its hard to teach high people because they cant really feel the spirit, so thats when we tell them we love them, say a prayer, and see ya later. Bless her heart, she has lots of struggles, we texted her later so hopefully we'll see her when she's not high :)

We also saw our investigator who came to church last week! He's doing well. He knows the Bible so well, and he'll ask questions like "Well the Bible says.....but the Book of Mormon says....." which sound intimidating but its amazing how the spirit helps us discern the true questions he has. The member we brought was trying to answer all his questions, but you kind of learn after a while that his real question wasn't really the ones he was asking, but fell back more on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. So thats what we tried to shift the lesson to, and we were able to provide an amazing spirit and I hope he really sincerely reads and prays. I think he will! That was a very stressful lesson because it almost got a little tense at a point but luckily the spirit saved us.

On Saturday we visited a less active (the one who we walked his dog, this one where he smokes a lot of weed) and he was wearing both a wedd shirt and hat. He is a little mentally disabled but so sweet, we read some scriptures with him and he started moving closer to use and pulled me into like a full 10 second hug. I was caught by surprise and Sister Anderson too. I tried to politely pull away but only got sucked into more! So after he finished my embrace, he turned to Sister Anderson and pulled her in as well. I watched her cute little face look at me and I could tell all she was thinking was "WHAT DO I DO?" She kind of laughed and he patted her back and comforted her saying "its ok, dont cry" seriously so funny. Bless his sweet heart.

We also had a Pioneer Day Celebration on Saturday. This isn't Utah so Pioneer day is just stuck on whatever weekend is closer, so they had a nice little parade and food and such, they sent us home with a full baker box of cupcakes. I'm dying of cupcake overload. We met a ton of amazing potentials there as well! We are excited to follow up with them and get to know them better.

On Sunday a family we are teaching came to church!! We were seriously so excited! They texted us Sunday morning and we were freaking out, it was so amazing. So that was a super exciting highlight of the week.

So yeah, next week we'll know what's happening to Sister Anderson and I. Pray nothing does! I love you, I love being a missionary so so much. Than kyou for your support and love!

Love, Sister Nilsson

I am so tired

This week was so busy! On Monday we had Sister Kocherhans with us so her companions could do their exchanges, so that was a party trio. We had lots of fun and we visited with one of our new investigators. He is in his 30's and loves art. We had an amazing lesson with him, the spirit was so strong and we invited him to be baptized and he thought about it and said "on one condition...you three become my first wives" we were like "ahhh nooo thats not how this works!" he was kidding (I think) and after the lesson when we were thanking him for letting us come over he said "no, thank you! What a rare opportunity, how often do you have 3 mormon babes come on your doorstep? Thank you God!" and on that note we ended with a prayer. He is funny.

We had a missionary return to our ward, he is super eager to help us out with missionary work! So we invited him to join us for some lessons this week, he is really good at interacting with our people and for some reason, he is working miracles in our area!

On Tuesday we saw so many people, it was amazing! Lots of people we dont normally see, and they all wanted us to come back the next day! We were super excited. We have an investigator who thinks he is a gangster, he loves baggy shirts and hats and he loves the patriots (is that the team with Tom Brady on it?) anyway so we were telling the RM who comes teaching with us about him and he can speak bro so he and our investigator bonded.

At one point in time we were reading 1 Nephi 3 with him and our member friend compared Nephi and the story of after Nephi was courageous and went back to Laban as a "Tom Brady touchdown right there!" and our investigator was really funny. Luckily our investigator and I bonded over Arby's curly fries, so even though I can't speak bro we were able to bond. He reminds me of Charlie Helquist, he struggles with some things and I know he wants to stop, and I really think the gospel will help him. We are hoping to see him again.

On Wednesday we took our RM friend out with us again and we visited this less-active member who has a few disabilities and a medical marijuana card, so he's not really there at all when we visit him but he enjoyed our visit, he showed us his shirt that had some kind of weed joke on it, bles his heart. We also met his grandmother, she's a former investigator and she loves the missionaries. Our RM friend really knows how to old lady flirt and she knew how to flirt back, they were each gushing at 1each other for like 5 minutes straight. She is such a cute lady, she has grandma's clock and everything! It was such fun to meet all these new people.

On Thursday we helped one of our investigators move out of her apartment, I am not excited to move in the furniture. Luckily we recruited the elders to help and got it done pretty quick. We also had our first monsoon! It was madness, the lightning and thunder was so loud and huge, the sisters next door "almost got struck by lightning" not sure if I completely believe that but it seriously sounded so close. So the monsoons are a regular thing here til like mid-august I think, its pretty neat.

Other exciting news, our zone gets to volunteer at the animal shelter this week! They are having a free adopting thing, and we get to help people adopt new friends! So excited to help doggies and catos get homes.

ON SUNDY WE HAD AN INVESTIGATOR AT CHURCH! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE HAD AN INVESTIGATOR AT CHURCH IN SOOO LONG, IT WAS AMAZING AND SO MUCH FUN. Our investigaor enjoyed church, it was different but he loves to learn so that was so fun to have him there. This is Sister Anderson's first investigator at church, so it was fun to see her so excited. But yes the Lord is blessing us TREMENDOUSLY, so I am grateful! I'm learning to be grateful regardless of how many lessons we teach a week :) I'm loving every minute of this work, its going way too fast.

This week should be rockin' too so I'm excited. July is halfway over, crazy! I love you so much have a good week!
Love, Sister Nilsson

USA USA

This week has been great! I am finally figuring out life here in Farmington, becoming more familiar with the area and the people. I can finally help Sister Anderson plan our days because I kind of know what's going on, so life is good. I've discovered some things about me, first and most importantly, I found my new least favorite hobby which is very common in Farmington:

weeding rock yards. IT IS THE WORST. Everyone here has a rock yard because its too hot for grass to stay green, and these annoying pokey weeds grow in between the rocks so people want to make their rocks look nice so they weed them! We've been helping people do that this week and it is my new least favorite thing to do. Literally weeding rocks. The joys of New Mexico.

On Tuesday we got a new investigator, we met her boyfriend earlier and they just had a baby. We were mildly shocked when we found out this couple was 15 years old but they were very kind to us, we'll be seeing them again this week. We also have been teaching a sweet lady who has a cute daughter and we were able to see them this week.

We also do service at this old folks home where we help the residents play bingo. So funny, Sister Nicholes was sitting by this older Navajo lady, she sits down and smiles and says "ya'at'eeh" and sits down, this lady scoffs and rolls her eyes! hahaha so Sister Nicholes just disregards that then points out a couple of numbers she missed, and this lady snaps and says "I dont need your help!" so Sister Nicholes glumly sulks over to a chair by me and says "Can I sit by you? My lady is a little stand-offish" IT WAS SO FUNNY.

Anyway yeah this week was pretty normal, trying people and meeting new people. Not a lot a people have been home I think due to the holiday but we keep going! On Sunday we had a ton of people to try in our planners and we saw 0 people! But we still had a good day.

On Friday we found out that one of our investigators got beat up by his drunk fashion designer roommate who attacked him with a glass mannequin head. Luckily he's ok but just a crazy thing to happen.

We got to walk dogs again on Saturday. My dream come true yet again. I walked a cute big dog named Dusty, he was so good. I taught him sit and lay down, and then he loved me to rub his tummy.

On Sunday we had a really amazing sacrament meeting. One cute young native lady who was recently baptized like 6 years ago went up and bore her testimony. It was so simple and beautiful and she sat down and we were like "that was amazing!" and all she does it ask "did I look fat up there?" haha so cute, and no she didn't look fat. Another miracle on Sunday, one of our investigators who we haven't seen all transfer texted us and set up an appointment and said she has old skirts and shoes she wants to get rid of! Missionary dream come true!

So yeah thats basically the week. This week is zone conference, we will go to Kirtland NM on Wednesday, this is the first zone conference I've had not in Cortez, kind of weird but change is good. I also have exchanges tonight and Sister Hillam is my sister training leader, and I'll be going out with her and Sister Dowd! so funny. Also super weird, Next Monday I'm at 11 months! Seriously doesnt feel like that at all.

TODAY WE ARE FOR SURE GOING TO TARGET AND I'M SO EXCITED
Love you all so much,
Sister Nilsson

her caption: A typical Farmington photo. Rocks and little bottles of alcohol.