Hola :)

Hola mi familia!
Sounds like you all had a great week this week! We had a good week too... to start things off I was blessed to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday. The bishop called us at about 810 to ask if we could speak in church. We had to leave at 830 to try and pick up some investigators, so after prayer and all I had about 12 minutes to prepare. It is one thing giving a talk on the fly but it is an entirely different thing giving it on the fly in spanish. Hna Smith and I definitely both freaked out when he called. She either didn't mention or I didn't hear that he wanted us to talk on missionary work. Later she decided she didn't tell me but who knows... So prayed and decided to talk about following the prophet. It went really well, I am very grateful that public speaking doesn't make me too nervous.... It tied in really well with the high council member who came... oh and dont you worry... member of the stake presidency was there too. For the first time in my mission! haha so we get to church and because the high council and stake presidency member showed up the bishop decided only one of us should speak. Hna Smith immediately spoke up and said, "hna nelson can!" it was really funny! I didn't mind but after I finished and the bishop announced that the mission leader would be speaking on missionary work, i leaned over to hna smith to ask if they had given us a specific topic and she was like "yeah, i told you and was wondering why you talked about following the prophet..." it was pretty funny but thankfully the bishop wasn't upset that I didn't talk on the topic he gave hna smith. Hopefully the people understood me... a member told me my spanish has improved immensely so I guess that is a good sign.
We sadly didn't have any investigators at church this week. Raymunda couldn't come, luki and carlos didn't come for some reason, and another newish investigator Alba... it was her birthday and she couldn't come because she had things going on for her birthday. I made her some schotcheroos... SO GOOD! Alba reminds me SO much of angela, marks wife!! She is so cute and always smiling and reminds me of angela every time I see her. She has accepted to be baptized if she gets an answer to her prayer that the book of mormon is true. She has to attend church two times before she can be baptized so we will see when she ends up being baptized.
Luki and Carlos for some reason were no shows this week. Luki was making school uniforms for her girls and other neighbors and she was really busy this week and wouldn't let us come and help. We are a little nervous but are going to go visit today or tomorrow. The kids here start school today. Their school schedules are switched here. right now is the beginning of the school year, so that is interesting. They also choose a "degree" while in high school and study that specifically for the last years of school... if it is something that only takes 2 years they finish high school at 17 or even 16 sometimes. Really strange!
So we had a really fun family home evening with the Cayax family (one of my fav families in the ward) and cecilia and her family. We had a lot of fun. We talked about faith and had every draw pictures of the seed, tree, water etc in Alma 32... a tree without water and sunlight etc. They loved it and we had fun teaching it. Hna Smith's family has a game called dont eat pete that we played too. That was fun! It has like 9 squares and somebody has to leave the room and everybody else picks one of the monsters in the 9 squares and he is pete. Then we put skittles on all the squares and the person comes in and can eat a skittle for every monster but pete... anyway it was pretty fun and definitely a game I want to make my own of so that I can play it with members. Something funny, hna cayax is pregnant. due about the same time as karli and I had NO idea. hna smith said something to me and I was like... NO she isn't! and don't say anything! sure enough she is most definitely pregnant and I can't believe I couldn't see it!
This week we had a lot of lessons at the door... a little strange but possible! they are fun though because we try to get as much in before they shut their door on us:) We need to practice at being a little quicker to grab their attention, but it is pretty fun!
This week we have started enjoying fleas... I haven't found any but I have felt them and they are horrible! Hna smith found one and we dont know how we got them, but we are hopefully going to get rid of them quickly...
This week we went to visit a menos activo and he looked like he'd gotten beat up. He doesn't remember what happened and I think he was either drinking or somebody hit him, knocked him out, and he had a concussion or something. whatever happened somebody robbed him. they took money and his papers (birth certificate something like that... for some reason they carry them around with them) it was really sad and I worry much more about his poor family. he disappeared tuesday and came home all bloody saturday morning. makes me appreciate so much the word of wisdom. our commandments are blessings!!!! It was really sad and our bishop told us for the time being we shouldn't visit him any more. I am going to make sure they get visited because his wife and her children (they aren't his children) are the victims of the choices he makes... whether they are bad or he was just in a bad situation... who knows. Anyway, Hna smith is teaching me how to be better at setting goals! I started reading the new testament and want to finish it by june now that I have finished the Book of Mormon. It is so great and I love reading the scriptures! Definitely something I have learned on my mission. I love you all and hope everyone is doing well!!! Talk to you next week!
I LOVE YOU!
love, hna nelson