The Prophets Have Spoken!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Oh man, General Conference is just the BEST!

We watched all 4 sessions at the meetinghouse here in Spring Hill for probably the first time on my mission (I usually watch it at members/investigators' houses). I have never before FAILED at getting investigators to come to conference, and I have also never INVITED so much! ....So I take that back, I didn't fail, because I invited.

In the weeks leading up to conference, we challenged members and nonmembers to bring questions and concerns to conference and we promised they would be addressed (by the Spirit, of course). Personally I had SEVEN questions that I wrote down for conference. I am shocked to say that in the FIRST session all seven were answered! It was the most amazing experience I have ever had with conference; this time instead of taking "minutes" of the sessions I wrote down something when it had to do with one of my questions, and I numbered it from 1-7. I have learned volumes!

I'm sure you are wondering what my seven questions were. One of them was: "How can I replace my fear with faith?" Faith was preached a lot from that pulpit! President Uchtdorf and Elder Holland did a great job of covering that.

So I summed up the themes and motifs of conference in my own "25 words or less":

"Be OBEDIENT! Be CHASTE! Be happy. Be a missionary. Catch the wave! Have FAITH. Have PEACE. Forgive. Strengthen home, marriage, and family."

What would be yours?

Of course, I LOVED Elder Andersen's and Elder Nelson's about missionary work. I loved President Packer's poem (didn't his talk sound like a departing talk?). I want to be Sister Dalton when I grow up. I LOVED how often music was referenced! I am going to blog about it this week. Having personally met Elders Nelson, Oaks, and Kopischke on my mission, I especially loved listening to those talks. Elder Kopischke changed my mission when he trained us last year.

But, I think my winner talk would have to be Elder L. Tom Perry's. Was he great, or what?! He took the gold with his bold call to return to the 10 commandments. I plan to use that a lot as we teach the Bible-thumpin' Christians here.

And oh man, for the SECOND time now I have been witness to a choir performing in conference that I COULD HAVE BEEN IN! Last year was the MTC choir that I just missed by a month. This year it was so cool to see so many of my friends on the stand singing with the BYU Choir. And it made me miss choir! I can't believe that happened two times in a row.

This week as we visit families, we will ask them, what is ONE thing you will do differently now because of conference? If we don't apply the doctrine to our lives and LIVE the scriptures, like Elder Falabella taught, then it's useless! So I ask you the same question, what is ONE thing you will do differently now?


Here is the poster for the fireside (and Sister Abel and me on Easter Sunday)!

Be Still, My Soul

Dear family,

I could kill for a cookie right now. My new companion is allergic to sugar among many other things, and so there is NO more dessert for us! What a miracle, as I have been struggling to break my sugar addiction (YES it's a real addiction!) for my entire mission and now I can. Ironically, every other house we've gone to the last week happened to have freshly-baked cookies on the stove. It's a killer!

Sister Amanda Abel is from Bountiful, UT and I actually know her! Her mom found me on Facebook when she got her call and we messaged a bit about some things for Sister Abel to pack. Both she and I remarked to each other, "How neat it would be if we served together!" Sister Abel came out with 25 missionaries (WOW!) so the chances were slim. But we're together! ALSO, her mom is in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! Sister Abel loves to sing too and will be a great help as I am writing the missionary musical fireside.

And she is an ANGEL. My new Facebook Assistant responsibility is VERY heavy. You think having a cell phone is stressful; try having two! And we also lost our full-time car this week (we now share with the Franklin sisters) so the week was even more stressful trying to find rides and coordinate lessons. I would literally not have made it through this week if it hadn't been for three things:

1. Priesthood Blessing from my District leader, which gave me so much ease of mind

2. Surprise Temple Trip! I could have spent the entire afternoon in the Celestial Room. It was INCREDIBLE. I miss the temple! We only get to go twice a year so it is a real blessing.

3. Church/Fast Sunday. Fast Sunday is always my "Start over" chance to cleanse myself physically and spiritually.

No huge miracles this week, but Saturday night we were walking out in the wind and snow and a member family happened to pull up along side us and give us a ride to where we needed to go. We had the impression to go see an active family rather than someone we were teaching, and the family told us yesterday at church that we were an answer to prayers; that they had had a rough week and our coming-over showed them that Heavenly Father is mindful of all that they are going through. We were exactly where we were supposed to be that night. THOSE are the little miracles that make up my mission!

We've been working with a 10 year-old, Elena, who is SO excited to get baptized, but her parents are divorced and not active (yet the Dad really wants her baptized) so it's been a really tricky situation. She was supposed to get baptized this Saturday but some problems happened. Keep Elena in your prayers! We are also anxious to set a baptism date with two of our other investigators this week so we hope it happens. We are always praying to find a family to teach.

So, I just have to keep reminding myself, "Be Still, my soul." This was the longest week of my mission, and it is probably going to be the longest last 5 months now that things just got a lot harder. But I can do hard things, especially if I do them the Lord's way and not my own! That is the biggest lesson I learned this week; that there is no way I can organize and plan every single detail. So I just submit my will to the Lord and let him "take the wheel." (P.S. Carrie Underwood's church is not too far from us....)

Love you!

Sister Nordstrom


This is the group that Sister Abel came out with; TWENTY-FIVE missionaries! And 18 of them are sisters!!! This is the Gathering of Israel!!