HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

El Paso has one season which is summer so I am really trying to adjust to 90 degree weather everyday. It actually feels really good to walk out of our apartment in the morning without a sweater or jacket!

This week has been super good and super discouraging but its all about perspective. I have only been here two weeks but have already started teaching 3 new investigators from the first lesson and all 3 have committed to baptism and we have their baptism dates set up. Here is a little run down on how they are doing.

S was taught Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity this week and took it like a champ. He had been drinking tea the entire lesson so when we told him tea was against the word of wisdom he put it down and didn't touch it until the end of the lesson when we walked to the trash can and threw it away. He told us he was done with coffee and tea and just wanted to follow Gods commandments and would do anything to be baptized. Honestly I love the Kid. He is 18 and has never had religion in his life and had really come to God and Jesus Christ on his own. We are just here to help him on the path.

B was also taught Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity this week and she told us that she went to a party and realized that drinking just wasn't the same as it used to be so decided to leave! That happened before we had our lesson with her! I was so stoked and I cannot believe how much the gospel has changed her life in just two weeks. She asked us yesterday if we would go shopping with her for church clothes. I love how willing she is and how excited she is to join the church! When we showed her the calendar with her baptism date she started crying which made me cry! 

M has been a struggle for the sister since July. He has the strongest testimony and knows the Book of Mormon is true he just wouldn't commit. Well this week he talked to Brenda and realized that he was holding himself back from more blessings. At our lesson on Wednesday we all pulled out our phone calendars and M chose December 7th and he said a prayer to see if that was the right day and he received the answer yes! The spirit was so strong and I couldn't stop smiling. 

Yesterday was hard because we were supposed to have 5 investigators at church but only one went and it wasn't to our ward. After Sacrament a member in our ward came up to us and told us he had people he wanted us to meet outside. We were super confused but followed him to the back of the building. Guys he brought his puppies!! I was so happy and it was so what I needed after our rough morning. I didn't want to let Ghost( little puppy) go. The Lord blesses us in weird ways but its always what we need.

The Church is so true. I stopped while we were walking this week and told Sister Hazen that I couldn't believe I was out in El Paso TX doing this. I wake up pretty much every morning and laugh because I get a reality check of where I am and what I am doing. I am so blessed to be able to share the restored gospel with the YSA in El Paso. It is such a joy and comfort to know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us and he loves us all so much! 

I love you all and I hope you are all doing amazing things!!

LOVE,

SISTER NYE

Mexico

Mexico

Mexico

Hello Everyone!!

Just to fill everyone in I am now living in El Paso TX which is probably the most random thing that has ever happened in my life! I will try to attach pictures of my mission map so you can see how huge my area is. I am serving over the El Paso YSA area. It includes 3 stakes and many wards. 

My companion is Sister Hazen! Yep her last name is my nickname. I am taking it as a sign that we are meant to be together! She converted to the church two years ago and is so solid! We actually lived in Provo at the same time and did a lot of the same things just never saw each other. She has been out 3 months and just finished training when she got me. 

My first day was crazy! I got thrown into my first lesson within 10 minutes of arriving. His name is Eric and he has gone through some crazy stuff but found the gospel and has turned his life around. He doesn't have a set baptism date because of his probation hours so we are hoping in about 3 months he can finally get baptized.

J: An investigator that has been taught all the lessons but has some issues with weed. We taught him word of wisdom and read D&C 89 and he took it as marijuana is a gift from God to take us to a more spiritual place so we had to drop him. It was sad but he wasn't progressing.

M: All his friends are LDS and in the YSA ward. He read the Book of Mormon every day and knows its true. He is just struggling to pick a baptismal date. Last week he came to one of our lessons and raised is hand to ask if he could teach Joseph Smith. It was so amazing and he did such a good job! He came to our lesson last night and taught about the spirit world and how the Plan of Salvation gives him hope.... I just want to throw him in the font.

B: We just started teaching her a few days ago but she is also friends with the YSA in our ward. She loves everything we teach and said she will get baptized as soon and she learns more. When we taught her the Plan of Salvation she was just like "ya that makes sense". I love her so much.

S: We taught Siaa the restoration last week and he excepted everything but he is also really deep and has really profound thoughts. He is 18 and recently got kicked out of his house. When we taught about modern day prophets he got confused and thought he was a prophet. We cleared that up and he was the first person I got to put on date for baptism. Right now we are planning November 12th and I am praying he will get there.

H: She has been taught by the missionaries before and knows everything is true. She is just nervous that after she gets baptized that she will make a mistake and she doesn't want to do that. We are working on getting her to realize that we are always going to mess up and that's why we have Jesus Christ, so we can repent constantly.

I have yet to have any Mexican food. I am so bummed..... I was so stoked before the mission but all I've had is french toast and tomato soup. That's the only down fall of being in a young single adult ward, everyone is poor. 

So my favorite funny story of the week happened this weekend. Someone we had met on the street committed to come to church but bailed last minute because he had work. I texted him back and asked if we could still meet with him. He then responded something like "to be honest ma'am I only said yes because I thought you were pretty". I spent the next 30 minutes laughing before sacrament meeting.

Well I have to go but I love you all and I will try to fill you in better next week!

Love,

Sister Nye

Hello everyone!!

I had another wonderful week in the MTC and guess what?!?! I LEAVE FOR ALBUQUERQUE IN 4 DAYS! I cannot believe it. I am so excited to actually serve real people but I'm also extremely sad to leave my district family! 

I'm trying to remember all the good stuff that happened so once again bear with me. Oh okay so in the MTC you watch a Elder Bednars talk "Characteristics of Christ". You can only see it in the MTC so its pretty special but it really makes you reevaluate your life and strive to be a better, more Christ like person. Anyways my district watched it together last Sunday and now Elder Bednar is our super hero. Fast forward to this past Sunday and Elder Bednar was our surprise devotional!! It was so cool and he gave a really cool talk on getting the most out of general conference. 

I also gave my very first Relief Society lesson on the Holy Ghost. I accidentally went over time so that just shows how far I have come in the MTC. 

Sister Tinoco and I are quite the tag team here and we are really starting to understand and love our "investigators". We have been really humbled and every day we remind ourselves that we are just the mouth piece and the Holy Ghost does the teaching. We have had 3 investigators so far and we teach them all everyday and we also teach our teachers in class. Its super busy but it makes the days fly by. Sister Tinoco makes me sane here and I really don't know how I got her as a companion. Everyone else wonders that too. haha.

Sister Tinoco has been trying to teach me Spanish so she got me a "The Gospel in Spanish" book. Last night I read the entire book to her while she wrote her family and I got a little obsessed. I even decided to write  the History of Joseph Smith on the white board. Or should I say Jose Smith?;)

I am officially the senior sister training leader so I gave another tour to the new missionaries last night and it went a lot better than last weeks. Its crazy to see how nervous they are but I love to hug the sisters and tell them that this is exactly where they need to be. They probably think I'm psycho because I get way excited and cant control myself. 

This morning we went to the temple again and I had to wake up at 4:45. It was so worth it and the session gave me just what I needed to go into this next week. I have a huge testimony of temple work and the joy it brings people here on earth and after. 

This past week was a cry fest. Every time I talk about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ or The Plan of Salvation I cry...which is literally all the time. I blame my mom 100%. 

Sorry this email has been all over the place! Pdays are super stressful for me haha!

I love you all so much!!!

Sister Nye

Hi to all my best friends and family!! 

Today marks 9 days since I have been in the MTC and time is going by so fast! I have so much to say and who knows if I'll remember it all so bear with me!

I have been BLESSED with the best companion ever! Her name is Sister Tinoco and we instantly clicked which has made all this craziness so much easier! Many of you know all I wanted in my district was a few weirdos and awkward kids that I could laugh at(I am a terrible person and I am working on it) and I got it! I laugh 24/7 because of the things my district says but they are amazing people and I have have really grown to love all of them just like family. 

Last Thursday night my district met with the branch presidency and we received our assignments. I have been assigned as the sister training leader which doesn't mean much other than I am the welcoming committee to the new missionaries in my zone and "relief society pres", I pick who gives the relief society lesson and I conduct. So yesterday when the new missionaries showed up I got to take them on a tour with the zone leaders and I felt so bad... A girl in another zone threw up in the hallway right when I was showing my zone around. The poor thing was just so nervous that she had an upset stomach and then last night while the sisters in my room were journaling we got a knock on the door that security would be coming around are building because a new sister passed out and there WAS blood. Quite the eventful first day for everyone. 

I got super lucky to be in the MTC during general conference. Every session all the missionaries sat in the big gym and watched together. I have over 10 pages front and back of conference notes which is crazyyy. I used to just draw during conference. Having a missionary perspective made conference super powerful and I just wanted to absorb everything I could from all of our leaders. I loved how conference talked so much about joy! I know that we can receive true joy through Jesus Christ and I cannot wait to share the Gospel with the people in New Mexico.

So a lot of funny/amazing things have happened and I know it would be to much to write them all so I have picked a few of my favorites.

• First I got the most Dear Elders in my district! Shout out to my mom, Barnard and my sister for making that possible. I felt pretty cool.
• Yesterday I received a notice in the mail that I needed to get a flu shot and it ruined my day for about 5 minutes but my district told me to get over it and grow up. no sympathy. That's karma for not getting the shot before I got here.
• Sister Tinoco and I had service at 6 AM yesterday and I found my new favorite hobby: cleaning scuff marks off tiles floors with a magic eraser. Guy there is nothing more satisfying.
• My first few days here there was an Elder that is a little person who would come into my class everyday and shake my hand over and over. When sister Tinoco and I would be in our classroom studying alone Elder Beaulieu would poke his head in the door way and then a second later he would have his companion lift him up and he would poke his head into the door way a little higher. I know that probably doesn't make sense but I was on the floor crying from laughing so hard. 
• This morning I got to go to the temple with my district and we had to wake up at 4:45 but it was so worth it. Seeing a group of 19 year old missionaries in the temple is priceless.
•  I got to see my friend Thomas a couple days ago before he left for Japan. It was so nice to see a familiar face.

The last few nights Sister Tinoco and I have been working on our lessons for our investigator Katie and we miss dinner. Its worth it though because we went from the worst teachers to now we can actually work together and be on the same page.

The MTC is the most spiritual place next to the temple and getting to live here is unreal. I have grown so much in just a week so I cant imagine what will happen to me in the next 18 months. Guys I LOVE the gospel and the hope and happiness it brings me! I start tearing up every time we talk about the plan of Salvation because I am so thankful that I can live with my family forever! This Church rules!!

You are all in my thoughts and prayers!! I love you all soo much it hurts!!!

LOVE,

Sister Nye