December 18, 2017

HELLO EVERYONE!

I made it in one piece to Albuquerque the land of... not a lot of Hispanics. I just came from a place where two sets of Spanish missionaries cover the same area as one English ward and now I am in ABQ where one set of Spanish missionaries cover two ENTIRE stakes. How the tables have turned.

This email is going to be real quick update! So far I love it up here! The missionary work is way different but the members are really nice and want to be involved a ton. We had a family signed up to carol with us every night last week so that was really cool. I haven't been here to long so I can't say to much about how teaching is going but we has some potential investigators and a couple solid investigators that we just need to make the time to see and contact.

Ever since I got here I have fallen asleep praying every single night because I am completely exhausted but I wouldn't have it any other way! My new companion Sister Peterson is a sweet heart has has been such a big help! She really loves the people in our ward and branch! that alone makes the work so good. When you have a love for the people it is so much easier to give everything and serve them! 

Hopefully next week I will have more to report on but for now just now I am loving this time up here in the freezing cold.

I love the church. I love that it is the same and just as true anywhere you go in the world. It is a testimony to me that our Lord is at the head of this church and he loves all of us regardless of where we are. I know Heavenly Father loves us so much and that is why he gave is His son for us. In Luke chapter 2 it talks about Heavenly hosts coming and praising God. I know we were present at that event. This week is a time to celebrate our Savior because he did what he said he would come and do! BECAUSE of HIM we can overcome anything and everything!

I love you all so much!!! MERRY EARLY CHRISTMAS!!

Love,

Sister Nye

Sister and comps up at NM mission office on Wednesday night

Sister Peterson and I

 Crazy Christmas house that blinds you as you go by

December 11, 2017

HELLOOOOOO!

Well the time has comeeeeeeee! I am leaving El Paso and heading up to Albuquerque! I will we serving in the Woodmont ward and West Mesa YSA! My new companion will be Sister Peterson and I have had a couple opportunities to meet her and she is so sweet so I am really excited. I leave Wednesday for the trip up north. I am going to flippin freeze to death because I heard it snowed up there this week and I don't know how I am going to handle that. I get cold in the 70's now.......

And I apologize now for whatever will be typed in this email... I am all over the place because of how excited I am for this week and Christmas!!!

This week was hectic and awesome! Xochi got baptized and she was soooo cute! She was so ready to be baptized and a lot of the ward came to support her so that was really nice. Buddy S and Killian T surprised me this week!! Having them both in the same room was super overwhelming so I obviously started crying which is funny because then Buddy gave me a note that said "to: the emotional one". He knows me so well. They are doing so good and I cant believe it has almost been a year since they were baptized. Buddy should be taking out his endowment soon and Killian will be after his deployment. I am just so grateful for them and that they chose to cling to the gospel. ahhh it makes me want to cry just thinking about it. 

Another cool thing we did was go Christmas caroling as a zone in downtown El paso at the Plaza. We passed out over 300 pass along cards! Christmas this year has been a lot different than last. First, it is going by way faster.(they are not kidding when they say the last 6 months of your mission flies by). Second, my testimony of Jesus Christ has evolved so much. Every time I read King Benjamins prophecy in Mosiah 3 I feel so grateful for our Savior and how much he loves us. It says:

5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

6 And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.

7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. 

This prophecy was given 124 years before Christ came. He knew what he would face when He came here, maybe not to the full extent of pain he would feel, but he loved us enough to suffer for each of us personally. 

I know my Savior lives and loves all of us. I am grateful for his sacrifice and because of him we can have joy! 

I love you all!

Sister Nye

HOW IS IT DECEMBER?!?!

Helloooooo everyone!!!! 

I cannot believe it is December... time is going way to fast. Also it is still hot and there has been no sign of a change of season down here so it feels wrong to be singing Christmas hymns but at the same time so right.... 

This week we had so many awesome meetings and really cool miracles happen. Our zone conference was On Tuesday. We gave a training(discussion) on the daily schedule and how we can use our time more effectively! I hope someone got something out of it. Everyone in the zone gave a training so it was really cool to see the greenies that came out when I got moved to this area 7 1/2 months ago giving training's and now they are like missionary pros. 

Elder Christofferson came to our mission and it was one of the coolest experiences of my lilfe. We had to show up super early and line the hall way of the building so when he came in he could shake all of our hands. As you can see from the first picture I was the first person in line and I was so excited and nervous. He walked out of the stake presidents office, stopped, looked and us and got the biggest smile on his face. An apostle shaking your hand and saying your name while looking straight into your soul is the coolest thing ever. I could literally feel the spirit radiating off of him. He spoke to us for over an hour and testified so powerfully of the savior. He emphasized that we are the only people in this part of the world that has the authority to teach repentance and baptize and without us this work would not be able to get done. In the leadership meeting that night elder Cornish talked to us about how to balance our lives and the responsibilities we have in the church. He told us to give all our heart in whatever we are doing so if your are cleaning floor you give your all and if you are relief society president you make sure you are the best relief society president you can be. When you are a wife you are the best mom and when you are a mom you are the best mom. And you enjoy every second because life moves fast and we don't have enough time to mope around. We can choose to see the blessing in our lives and make the most of everything we have been given.

Also we have a miracle baptism. A couple weeks ago we were teaching a man named Sam and his 8 year old daughter Xochi. Well Sam fell off date and it was getting hard to meet with them during all the thanksgiving craziness. Well Xochi went to Mexico with her mom for 3 weeks and when she was there she turned 9 so now she is our investigator and SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!! She is so cute and excited! Her mom is a member so she knows a lot about the church already but has been less active most of her life. We are just so excited for this little chicka!! She has been so fun to teach!!!

Transfer call are this week so I will probably be moved but I'm excited to see what will happen! I hope I stay in El Paso for the rest of my mission but I'll go where the Lord wants me to go!!

I love you ALL!!!!

Love,

Sister Nye

November 27, 2017

HELLO LOVED ONES!

I hope you all had a really great Thanksgiving! We ended up with a really hot Thanksgiving here in the 80's and three meals so by the end of the day all of us were moving really slow. 

We started the week with a meeting in Albuquerque for the sister training leaders and zone leaders and guess who was there?! LITTLE VASQUEZ! She is now an STL and she has been out 9 months! I can't believe I trained her 9 months ago!!! Time is flying by. 

Our meeting was really good and a lot of it was preparation because Elder Christofferson is coming to our mission this week. There will be meetings for the missionaries, investigators, recent converts, YSA and leadership meetings. We are going to try to go to all of them. haha. We are for sure going to go the the missionary and women's leadership meeting so we just have to find some people that fit in the other categories so we can slip in. I'm really excited to meet him though and hear what he has to tell all of us. 

Thanksgiving was spent at dinners and the El Paso parade. The parade started at 10 and ended at 1 pm.... it was so long and there were so many Guadalupe floats. The members down here volunteer as the clean up committee so we spent some time cleaning the trash of the streets but the people were really grateful so they gave us free cotton candy :) Then it was off to the dinners. Nothing to special happened but we met a lot of non member family members who seemed to have some interest and gave us their phone numbers so we could come by and share a Christmas message with them! Hopefully we will see some really cool things come from that.

On Friday after district council I got to see KILLIAN! Laicey made lunch for Sister Hazen and I and all of our companions. It was so sweet to see him! He is doing awesome and just came back into town from Greenland. It was this week a year ago that we started to teach him and now he is a very active member of the church! Sometimes it is hard to be here and I feel like I'm not making any difference but seeing some of my recent converts and how they are doing today makes me so full of joy and all the trials are worth it. 

We started delivering our living Christmas cards Friday night because we got really excited and couldn't wait until today. We received over 20 referrals from members on out first Sunday when we announced it and that was only from maybe five members. So on Friday night we went by one of the referrals and it was a super nice christian family. We sang to them and read the Christmas story from Luke, closed with a prayer and left with another carol. The family referred us to another family and then that family referred us to another family and so on. We went to 5 homes that night and met over 15 people! AND NONE WERE MEMBERS! We felt the spirit so strong as we walked into those homes and testified of our savior. I am so excited for this Christmas season and to share this message with the people here in El Paso. 

I hope you all have a great week!!! I love you all so much!!! 

LOVE,

Sister Nye

November 20, 2017

Hello Loved ones!!!! 

I hope everyone is getting excited for all the food on Thanksgiving! I can hardly wait for stuffing. For those who didn't know I used to eat a box of stuffing after seminary almost every day my senior year of high school. It is da best. 

This week was really great. We are finally out of the woods with the cold and flu and back to normal. We had some really powerful lessons and finally made some breakthroughs with the people we are teaching. For example we have been teaching our investigator Amanda for couple weeks and although she was keeping the commitment we would leave here we could always tell it wasn't hitting her spiritually like we would have hoped. We had a good discussion with our district about what we could do to help her feel the importance of this message on a spiritual level and not just an intellectual level. We decided that the best things we could do was talk about her identity and help her to see the changes that have already taken place in her life since she started to live the gospel. She told us she has notice a change in herself. She is more patient with her coworkers and she is trying to see the good in everyone. She also said she has been praying more and not because she promised us she would but because she is actually finding peace from it.At the end we felt prompted to share a verse from Alma 5

14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

She paused and couldn't quite decide what to say. She told us the scripture really touched her heart and she wanted to ponder it for the next week and get back to us. Our outcome was met and she felt the spirit. 

I am nowhere close to where I need to be spiritually but I can see the difference from where I was a year ago to now. My testimony cannot be shaken and every day I try to take upon myself the countenance of Christ. I am so grateful for my savior and all He has done for me and my loved ones. I'm so excited to start this holiday season focused on my Savior. 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much! 

Sister Nye

Sister Nye, Jimmy, Sister Hay and Sister Harris

Sister Nye and Sister Harris 

MLC in Albuquerque

November 13, 2017

Hola everyone!

I have literally no clue what this email will contain. I am pretty drugged up from my cold medication. Having a cold on a mission is kinda the worst because you are still capable of working so you just have to keep fighting through it and hope and pray that it will go away the next day when you wake up. That hasn't happened so far but maybe tomorrow. 

Sister Harris was sick all week which is how I got sick but luckily Sister Hay is doing great and keeping us afloat. Every single night we would get home and all of us would just crash from exhaustion. 

I really learned that Heavenly Father will help us get done the things we need to if we keep going and put one foot in front of the other. There were a lot of times this weekend where I wanted to stay in and I felt like I couldn't keep going but I prayed that I would be able to work hard and somehow the Lord gave me the energy to make it through our hectic weekend. This work is so important to me and it has changed my life. There are so many people that need to feel loved and need service and it brings me so much joy that I get to be an instrument in Gods hands to bring this message to his children here in El Paso. 

The L family is doing really good. They finally made it to church yesterday and I was so happy I could have cried. They showed up late and I was so bummed. I thought they weren't coming which would have meant they couldn't be baptized and my heart was just breaking but they walked in right when the sacrament song was being sung and it was the highlight of my week. They have all been reading and praying which means their testimonies are growing!

Funny story for the week. We went to teach our new investigator Manny who is just a nerd 100%. There is no other way to explain him. Anyways he is atheist and his prayers are slightly awkward just because he has never had a relationship with God before. At the end of his lesson he closed with a prayer super similar to this "Hey God, its me manny. So uh thanks for the sisters, they are pretty cool I guess. Oh and thanks for the peanut butter. I didn't realize how much I missed it...."

And to top it off he came to church yesterday with his little hospital mask on because he told us his allergies were bad from the weeds in El Paso.... love the kid.

Sorry this is a weird email. haha. Just know I love you all a lot. 

Love,

Sister Nye

picture of me and my favorite mini van Mama Blanca

.

Nov 6, 2017

HELLO LOVED ONES!

I have a testimony that Heavenly Father hears our prayers! A couple weeks ago my mom told me that Sydney Harris (Dad's friend Randy's daughter) was coming to this mission and all I wanted was to be her companion but I knew the chances were super slim, like pretty impossible. I had been in my area for 4 transfers already so if I were to train I would be washing a new area and sister Hay and I had only been together a transfer so it was even more likely that I would just stay with her in 4th ward. Well last week when we got called to train together in 4th ward and stay STL's I kept praying that Sister Harris would get sent to us if it was in Heavenly Fathers will. On Tuesday that transfer van was 2 hours late and I was getting super anxious. I was talking to one of the sisters leaving when a little white van drove up and a girl with blonde hair looking super confused got out. I RECOGNIZED IT WAS SYDNEY!! I ran to her and gave her the biggest hug. She was the only english greenie coming down so I knew she was in our companionship. She has been such a miracle and make us laugh all the time. She is super prepared and right from the start was an awesome teacher. I'm going to enjoy this time with her because trios never last long in our mission.

This week we were super busy which was awesome! We taught a bunch of lessons and saw some pretty cool things happen from following the spirit. There were 2 days this week that we forgot our area book with all the addresses for members and former investigators and somehow every time a lesson would fall through and we needed to stop by a former I would remember the street name and get close enough that we could recognize the house and there was always someone home willing to hear our message. I was super stressed this week and I know Heavenly Father was really helping me out and trying to give me guidance and comfort.

A scripture I have been focusing on this week is Mosiah 2:20-22

20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

I am so thankful for everything God has given me. I am constantly overwhelmed with the love he shows for us and although the world is absolutely crazy right now I know He is aware of us and if we follow our Savior we will be blessed. I know there is a plan laid out for all of us and the trials and heartache is for our benefit and growth. 

I love you all so much! 

Love,

Sister Nye

1. little Sam, an investigators son.

2. our last picture with hna Sinabaldi before she got sent up north to her greenie

3. THE TRIO

4. Sis Harris sleeping while we had to make zone phone calls

5. late night tracting

6. My cuddle buddy

October 30, 2017

HOLY COW THIS WEEK WAS PSYCHO!

Lots of crazy things happened but I wanted to share my favorite experience from this week. So we started teaching the Lowe Family last week and after a really awesome first lesson they all accepted to be baptized on November 25th. This past week when we went over we taught the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong in the room. The 15 year old son Isaiah was speechless as we talked about the atonement of Jesus Christ and what that meant for him. We asked what he was feeling and he told us he was so grateful but he wanted to pay Christ back for that sacrifice. He didn't understand how someone could love him so much and care so much about his eternal welfare. We felt prompted at the end of the lesson to show them a picture of sealing room in the temple. We told them Heavenly Father wanted their family to be sealed forever. Victoria, the mom, said that is exactly what they wanted and their goal as a family was to make it to the temple. We all got on our knees to pray and each of them said a prayer asking God if this is what he wanted for their family. Each of them got the answer yes. There was so much peace in that room. I left so grateful for Gods plan of happiness. I know Heavenly Father loves us an although life is not always easy it is worth it. Every trial is for our progression.

Sister Hay and I got called to train a new missionary together so tomorrow we will go pick up the new sister at the transfer sight. We are so excited welcome her into this crazy life as a missionary.  I have never been in a trio before but I am hoping for the best. 

I love you all! And I am praying for you!

Love,

Sister Nye

Picture of Hermana Thompson who is going home tomorrow and I in Albuquerque

(hence the tree in the background)

MLC in Albuquerque 10/23/17

October 23, 2017

Hello everyone!!!

Some crazy deja vu has been occurring since I have been on my mission for over a year. Every once in awhile I will reflect on where I was a year ago and I realize I was still in El Paso, doing the same things, wearing the same clothes and talking about the same message. No complaints. I love El Paso and I am so grateful to be here.

This week was another roller coaster(hmm I think I say that same line every week) well it was and I am so tired but so happy......but so tired haha. Will Rambo is out of the hospital and recovering super well. We called him yesterday to see if he would be at church and he was already there an hour early. He was sustained and received the Aaronic priesthood. I love that guy.

Our investigators are doing really good. We have a couple awesome part member families that have moved in that are miracles. The Lowe family moved in this week from the west side. Brother Lowe was baptized in August but after some unfortunate events had to move without his wife and 2 kids getting baptized. We were able to start teaching the family and they are preparing to be baptized on November 25th. The 12 year old daughter asks really good questions for instance my favorite question she asked was "why don't dogs have to be baptized?" I think I could have been having the worst day ever and that question would have cheered me up! haha. They want to be sealed together and all of them have a testimony with a foundation of Jesus Christ and eternal families. 

I cannot express how grateful I am for my Savior. A lot of really random hard things were thrown at us and the zone this week. I feel like I have learned a lot more about what it means so 

Classic sister Nye story for the week:

I was on exchanges with Hna Beamer on Thursday and we were going to have dinner with my relief society president Sister Sanchez(Literally the Hispanic version of my mom). She was on the phone talking to one of her councilors about super Saturday that was taking place on Saturday. They sounded super stressed so I asked if there was anything we could help and no joke Sister Sanchez turned to me so quick and asked if I would be in charge of teaching one of the crafts....of course I said yes because.....I love crafts. That turned into us going to Joanne's and getting popsicle sticks for Christmas ornaments. Now something you should know about my companion sister Hay, she hates crafts and if she had been there she would have slapped me haha. Anyways we had to figure out how to make the ornaments and on Saturday we taught all the women how to do it from 9-1. It was a great day and my companion couldn't do anything about it. Ay that makes me sound like a terrible person.

I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Nye

Pictures:

-Sister Hays pumpkin(angel Moroni/mormon.org) My pumpkin(NM/TX flags)

-Sister Arthur did self portraits of us

-My trio for the day. Hna Beamer and Hna Openshaw

October 16, 2017

Hello everyone!! Just a little warning this email will be lame......

We had a very eventful week! It was honestly so exhausting and stressful but of course really fun!!!! 

Friday the 13th may have been the worst day ever but I'm moving on. If everyone could keep Will Rambo in their prayers. He had a minor stroke on Friday but we have been visiting him and he is doing a lot better. His main concern was that he didn't get to attend the temple trip on Saturday but we went to the hospital yesterday with our ward mission leader and we brought him the sacrament. It was a really cool experience. We are hoping that we will get to leave the hospital today or tomorrow. 

Last night we had a opportunity to go over to one of our favorite families homes and share a message. There were 15 of us and each of us went around and said what helps to build our faith. The spirit was so strong and I felt so peaceful. It was like leaving all the worries from the week in the past and leaving them behind. I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who gave us the Holy Ghost to comfort us in trials. 

I'm going into this week optimistic! I know God has a plan for each of us and that he loves us. Satan is trying to get us down but he will never succeed!!! We have so much power and everyday we have the choice to be happy and have a good attitude. Trials will come but they are here to make us strong!

I love you all literally so much and I miss you like crazy!!! You are all in my prayers!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE,

Sister Nye