Bill Nye the Science Guy

Hello Everyone,

Sister Peterson headed down to El Paso last week and I picked up Sister Guy. You would not believe the amount of jokes we have gotten this week about our names. Honestly they are so close it trips me out sometimes and I feel like I am saying my name wrong. 

Sister Guy is super sweet and fun! I love how willing she is to work. The first lesson I took her to was for our investigator Brandon on the word of wisdom and law of chastity. She handled it like a total champ. I don't know how she does it but she has soaked everything up like a sponge and kills it in lessons. 

My brain is all over the place so I will just share one of my favorite experiences from this week. 

We were meeting with our investigator Felicia who we put on date last week for March 3rd but she seemed really hesitant about it. Well we were teaching her about tithing and fasting this week and the whole lesson I just kept having the impression that we need to invite her to be baptized on February 24th which made no sense because A. it was a week earlier and she was already on the fence about baptism and B. it was a week earlier so what difference would that make... haha. Well I couldn't handle it anymore and I asked her and you could see something change about her. It was like her eyes lit up. She agreed and told us she would fast about the date. She was so much more willing to be baptized with this new date. I still don't fully understand why but I know that our Heavenly Father knows her and knows what she needs. I am grateful for the spirit and the major role he plays in this work. 

Oh also we got to go to the temple with Johnny this week to do baptisms for the dead! It was so cool. Johnny asked me to be baptized for his grandma and he is the one that got to baptize me! The spirit was so strong. I loved to be able to do that for him and for his grandma. He was so grateful and then on top of that he was able to bless the sacrament yesterday! Woohoo! He is progressing! 

Which reminds me! Killian and Buddy are both preparing to go through the temple and I just got word that Killian received his patriarchal blessing yesterday which is awesome. Everyone seems to be doing really good. 

I think I have already written about this before but it is so cool to be at this point in my mission and see my converts doing awesome! The church is so true and I have seen it bless so many lives!!! I am grateful to know that God watches out for us and he wants to bless us. That is literally what gets me through every week and especially when nothing seems to be going right. I know God has a plan and we don't need to worry. I love this gospel. I love what is does for each of us and the joy it brings. I love my Savior so much! I have done a lot of pondering the last couple weeks and I know without a doubt I would not be where I am without my Heavenly Father and Savior.

I hope you all have a great week! 

I love you all so much!!

Love
sister Nye

January 22, 2018

Hello everyone!!! 

How is everyone doing?? I had such a good week and it went so fast & it was just crazy. Time is flippin flying. AHHH. I pick up the new sister this Wednesday and we are staying in Woodmont and YSA. I am so excited to get her and serve with her! I hope she likes me... everyone pray for that. I am so excited! My dear sister Peterson is headed down toooo.... EL PASO YSA! Not gonna lie I was a little jealous. I felt homesick for El Paso when she got her transfer call. So weird. I used to think that place was so weird and now I love it with all my heart. I am so grateful too because she can go check on all my recent converts there. It all seems pretty perfect!

This weekend we had stake conference and the Saturday night session was so good. There were 3 speakers who had previously been inactive for one reason or another and they talked about their experience and what brought them back and then they were "interviewed" by one of the stake presidency and asked questions about their testimonies and some insight on what we can do as members to help all of our brothers and sisters, less active or not. The main theme was that we need to stay away from any judgement and just love each other. I don't think there was one dry eye in the room. I felt so inspired and motivated to serve. We never know what others are going through, even the ones that seems to be living perfect lives. That is something I have really learned out her... no one has a perfect life and everyone goes through really hard things. BUT thankfully we live in the fullness of the gospel and although life can be the worst sometimes their is always hope for a better day or time to start over and be whoever you want to be. Man, Christ is the best. I love him with all my heart and I cannot comprehend how much he loves us and how much our Heavenly Father loves us. 

We also did some other fun things this week like painted a big mustacheless Mario for our investigators Natasha's sons 4th birthday party.  It was a fun service project and it looked pretty good. We got to go to the party and the kids had a blast pinning the mustache on Mario. 

Our new YSA ward is doing awesome! You can tell the new bishopric is overwhelmed haha but they are doing well. We still have no callings but everyone is willing to take any assignment until real callings are made. There are way more people now so a lot more possibility for people to teach which is cool because YSA is the best and we got two of our investigators on date for the upcoming month! Its also funny because we share the ward with another set of elders.  Elder Andersons companion got called as AP so he has been alone with us in the YSA. We have to check all his texts and I made a joke that we were a trio and he did not think it was as funny as me... he might have said my comment made him feel disobedient. oops. haha. 

Well I love you all so much! I hope you have the best week ever!!!

Love

Sister Nye

January 15, 2018

Hello Everyone!!

This week was a good/weird one. That probably gets so old to read but I swear every week on my mission has been good and weird. 

Any who....

I got sick last Sunday with a cold and the then got a migraine on Wednesday which was the WORST! The headache got really bad when we were at the home of a Hispanic sister who only speaks Spanish. I was trying to understand bits and pieces of what she was saying but my brain felt fried. I probably looked so out of it. Sister Peterson had to drive home for me and when I hit the pillow I crashed for two hours. I woke up feeling a ton better but still not ready for full blown missionary work so we went to the church to help set up for the young women's new beginnings. The whole week was a bunch of service which was really nice. One night we just stopped by a single mom in our ward and cleaned her house for two hours. I love doing that kind of stuff.... maybe that's why I received personal revelation on Saturday during studies to call our ward mission leaders wife and make home made cookies withe her for less active members.  We made 120+ chocolate chip cookies and spent the day giving them out. It was the best!

Our YSA branch turned into a ward yesterday and it was awesome! We had like triple the attendance and the new bishopric looks sweet!

We got some bad news from one of our members Brother B this week who is like the fake adopted grandma of our two 9 year old investigators. The girls dad did not approve them getting baptized. All of us were really sad. They still have permission to come to church and meet with us though so they will get baptized one day. We have not lost hope!!

Some other random news: I talked to my mission president this morning and I got called to train for my last transfer! I was not expecting that at all. I'm really excited to train again though. I think this will keep me super focused and busy! I pray that she will learn the things she needs to from me.... hahah....oh boy. I will really miss sister Peterson though. She has been such a breath of fresh air and we had a lot of fun together. There is still a chance she could be in a trio with me(fingers crossed)

I love you all so much!

Sister Nye

PS 

please send any uplifting and helpful tips for the end of a mission. 

I have been praying a lot to learn everything that Heavenly Father wants me to learn while I am out here. Satan is really good at making all of us feel inadequate (a theme of my mission) and down. I have learned that my biggest defense against Satan is knowing my identity. Sometimes I wake up and just don't want to go out but as soon as I pray and ask for desire or help I am filled will Gods love and remember why I am here and what I am doing this for. I am grateful for the gospel and its ability to change lives. I know this was Heavenly Fathers plan and although Satan wants us to believe that we are failures, our Heavenly Father knows that we are all champions and we will succeed. All of us have the ability to change and become the person Gods knows we can be thanks to our Savior. 

January 8, 2018

Hello everyone!! 

Johnny got baptized this week which was awesome and also such a roller coaster. When I met Johnny he had been taking the lessons for 3 months and was on the 3rd lesson. He was struggling to keep commitments and the things he was being taught weren't sticking but right before I arrived he started to take everything very seriously and on Christmas he told us he want to be baptized in two weeks. I'll be honest, I didn't know if it was possible but my companion and I decided be would do everything in our power to make his goal a reality. We met with him everyday for two weeks, got him interviewed and everything ready. He was scheduled to be baptized on Friday the 5th of January and on Wednesday we had a lesson with him in the morning and he was so excited and ready but then later that night we got a text from him apologizing and cancelling his baptism. We tried calling but he wouldn't answer and none of the member could get a hold of him. We were so sad. Luckily the next day he called us and told us the baptism was back on and that he wanted to meet with us. We met Thursday night and it turns out he was just very nervous and anxious about being baptized. He also thought that after baptism everyone would forget about him. After assuring him that no one would forget about him and the blessings of baptism we were back on. We had to tell everyone that the baptism was back on because Johnny had told everyone it was cancelled. We got speakers lined up the night before and thank heavens everything worked out. We prayed that there would be a lot of support and over 40 people came and the room was packed. I was running on adrenaline and emotions. The good news is he was baptized and he was glowing! He was confirmed yesterday and received the priesthood. We already have plans to go to the temple with him to do baptisms for the dead! 

Johnny threw us for a loop this week but I am so thankful that God hears our prayers and even if he hadn't been baptized this week I know it is all in Gods timing. 

This week our YSA branch is being dissolved into a ward and we still get to be the missionaries so I am super excited! More people to meet! 

Oh! One last story about my favorite investigator we have. His name is Eddy. He is in his late 70's and from Jamaica. This week we were reading 2 Nephi 31 with him and out of the blue he asked us about marriage. Our ward mission leader told him about The Family a proclamation to the world  and from the other room his wife starts yelling things like "you have no marriage" "you have already been baptized" over and over and over. Poor Eddy didn't know what to do. At one point his wife turned on the blender and he got up and told her to stop so he could hear us which made her even more mad. We are are worried about him and what this means for him and the church. His wife does not like the church but Eddy told us he knows it is true. We are praying that we will be able to help him and that his wife's heart will be softened. 

I love you all so much!!!

Love,

Sister Nye

January 2, 2018

HOW IS IT 2018?! 

Okay guys this is so crazy. I cannot believe another year has gone by. The time is flying so fast. Blah...its it getting kinda stressful. Chills are literally going through my body. 

Well hello everyone and happy new year! 

It has been a pretty normal week. Holidays don't feel like they used to but they are still great in a different way. Our investigators are doing good and three of them are on date for baptism. If everything goes right this week we should have a baptism for our investigator Johnny on Friday. I haven't been here to long but it is crazy to see the difference that has come in these peoples lives already. 

We also got to go on exchanges and I got to be with Sister Vasquez! It was so fun to be with her again. It felt just like old times but we are a lot better missionaries now than we were almost a year ago. 

On Sunday we had to be back in our apartment by 6 pm for new years eve and we couldn't leave until this morning... I don't know if any of you remember me doing that last year for something called "a day with the Lord" and I read the entire Book of Mormon in 16 hours. It was the same thing but the activities were different. Instead it was more a time of reflection. I had 13 envelopes over the course of the 1 1/2 days to open and each had a conference talk or scriptures to read with a list of questions to answer. One of my favorite envelopes revolved around my patriarchal blessing and the inspiration I could receive from it.

There was also a scripture found in one of the envelopes that I really liked. It's Helaman 8:14-15 and it says:

"14 Yea, did he not bear record that the Son of God should come? And as he lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, even so shall he be lifted up who should come.

15 And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal."

I feel so grateful for my savior. I know because of him we will all live again. I have been able to see the gospel of Jesus Christ change lives, even my own. I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much and he wants us to have ALL the blessing he has. That is why he created this plan for us. He wants us to be happy and he wants us to find joy. Life can be absolutely crazy and the world is getting darker and darker but I know that we can find peace through this gospel. I honestly have no idea where I would be with out my Savior. He is everything to me which makes me want to do everything I can do in return for him. 

Sorry this email is short but I gotta go!

I love you all so much!!!

Sister Nye

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