Transfers

Today we received a transfer.  Elder C-------- is going to Setubal, and I will stay in Bom Pastor and I will train again.  Elder C-------- is a little excited to get to know a new area, but he is also sad because he wanted to be able to help this ward more.  We made a good plan for how we can help this area grow and progress, and we will have a meeting with the bishopric on Thursday to help them establish goals and plans during 2019.  It's the ward mission plan, and we hope that we can help them be more active.

I made omelets this week, and Elder C-------- really liked them.  He gave mom props for teaching me to make them. 

I had a split this week with Elder A-------, and he is a great missionary.  He just finished his first transfer in training, and he will keep growing as an Elder.  He has a very bright future.

Christmas was good. We had lunch with a family, and Elder C-------- wanted to sleep for a while, so then we went to Irmã Angelitas house, and we got to talk to you guys.  It was really good, and I think I attached a photo with them. 

I'm glad that you can see some growth in me. At times its tough to see the progression when it's in yourself, but I'm glad you guys could recognize it.  I was really homesick last year, and I had a young man from my first area (who is on a mission now)  send me an email, and he told me that it was really sad last Christmas to see me talking to my family.  But it was just a lot of changes, and I had to learn to focus more on the work.  I hope that I can keep working hard throughout this year.  I want to continue until the end.  I don't want to be like some missionaries that waste their last two transfers being trunky. President told me that the last transfers are when we need to work the hardest because we are the most qualified.  We have the knowledge and the experience to make a difference.  So I need to start training so that I can be strong enough to resist.

I will have a new son this week, so I will go to the center to get him on Wednesday, and I hope that I can be a great trainer for him.

It will be interesting this new transfer, and I will take some time to think of some goals for this new year.  I hope that I can continue learning and growing like I did in 2018. I hope that everything is going well back home, and that it's a great week for you guys!

Love
Elder Nielson

Christmas Eve is Here!

It was good to see pictures of Matt and Mackenzie's little guy.  I hope that he is doing well.  It's sad to hear that he has little problems with health, but it doesn't sound too serious, so I hope the recovery is quick.

This week I really devoted myself to reading Our Heritage. I was able to start and finish the book this week, and it really opened my eyes to how different (many times) the church feels today.  The people in the early days of the church were so dedicated to their beliefs me to see that I can do so much more as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I could feel my spiritual eyes opening a bit, and I see the bigger picture of things.  I love to have experience like this.  It is something that humbles me, and gives me the hope that I need to work harder and to be better.  We really limit ourselves a lot of times. We forget that we have made great covenants with God, and that with obedience to these covenants comes great blessings and miracles.

Something that I am coming to recognize in the mission is that there really is something special about reading.  I think you know well that before the mission, I didn't like to read too much.  But here, it is really opening me up.  I am reading so much more than ever before, and I can feel the Spirit with me so much more as I am procuring more knowledge and further wisdom.  It is incredible.  I am now taking on the task of finishing Jesus the Christ.  I have been reading a little bit at a time since last February, but now I will make it a goal to finish by the end of next week.  I am really happy, and I am able to see through the difficulties that are about me, and I can't thank you and mom enough for how well and how diligently you raised me.  You guys were always a firm foundation for me, and I know that as I start to build my life in the future, it will be strong enough to withstand the forces of evil.

I love you So much, and I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow.

Elder Nielson

P.S. We still don't know what time we will call tomorrow.  The only irmã that invited us to her house is waiting to know what time her son will call.  He left the MTC to his mission this week, and will let her know today.  We will call between 4pm-7pm Recife time.  We will know a little later the exact time, and we will let Sister Houseman know.  She was nice enough to offer to send a message informing you guys when we know.

P.P.S In my last area one member had a daughter that lives in Utah.  She came to visit, and she told me she works at DI in Springville. Her name is B----- K----.  I will attach two pics that I took with her parents.  So Dad can search her out the next time he goes looking for a good book to read.

Semana Dificil

This week was pretty crazy.  Saturday we had the baptism of M------.  He is 11 years old, and he is pretty cool.  He went to church on his own the last few weeks. We showed up at his house, and he had already left for church. So it is pretty cool to see a young man that's so responsible.  He doesn't come from the greatest family situation.  His mom is raising them alone, which is hard. But we are starting to teach her too.  So we hope that we can help this family to continue growing together. We got to the baptismal service early, and he wanted to learn a bit about how to play the piano, so I was teaching him a few little tunes that are easy to play, like Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater.

We also got to go to the temple this week, which was a really nice experience.  We had a little reunion in President's house, and we sang a song as a district (that you guys probably saw on Facebook.  We ate Burger King which was cool too. We got there a little early, and we were sitting on a couch, so I don't know why we weren't appearing in any still photos. It was a night reunion, and President used examples in Lucas 1 and Mateus 1 to show examples of people that heard of Christ. He asked "how did they know about Christ?  What did they do when they heard?  And what did they do after they saw?"  So it was pretty cool to see what we need to do as members after we gain our testimony of Christ. We need to share it, so get out and share your testimony of Christ this Christmas season.

At church yesterday I got a pretty cool surprise.  E------, our recent convert from Paulista came to visit with his family.  He told me that he went to the temple on Saturday, and they were able to baptize some family names. He also told me that he was owing me a pizza (which i didn't remember).  And he gave me a pair of socks that says "all  you need is pizza".  It was really nice to see him again, and to know that he is doing well.

It was a really tough week though this week.  It's really hot right now and I'm drinking water like a camel. We had lots of rejections, and it felt like everyone that we talk to was calling us liars or false. But as I was writing this email, I can see how even though we had many difficulties, the Lord blessed me so much throughout this week. Maybe the work was tough, and the Lord won't make the work completely easy, but he threw in some surprises and special experiences to lighten the burden. God really loves all of us, and he is always looking out for us.

I hope you all have a great week this week, and a good preparation for Christmas.

Love,
Elder Nielson

Is it cold there?

This week was really interesting. It passed by way fast. We had interviews with President Houseman, and he told me that they are planning to open up another branch in Paulista. It was really cool to hear that an area that I served in is still having success, and I hope that everyone there can work together to help the branch grow.

We also had a week of finding. We found a magic street. We have an investigator that has a little business in his house. He sells coconut, and other things, so we always talk to him in front of his house. His name is Paulo. And the last 4 times that we passed by, some college-aged student would stop and start talking to us, even if we were teaching. So we found Raissa, Guilhereme, and André this week, and all of them seem really open and interested in learning more.

It was Stake Conference here, and we had two young men that went with us to church -- Micheal and Harthur. They actually went to church on their own and left when they saw that it was closed. We found them returning home, and they walked about 45 mins with us to another church for the conference. It was really cool. President Houseman said that we have to be Warriors of Zion, and not Warriors of the Sofa.  It was really funny. He was telling the members that they can't stay in their house all day long, and it was a really creative way of doing it.

I still don't know about calling home at Christmas or whose home we will do it at. I really don't know many families here still. I know that one of the members that helps us out a lot is going to be travelling, so I will have to sit down with with Elder C to think about who could help us out. Even the poorest areas have wifi. It is really interesting. The houses can be really small and made of mud, but they will always have a TV, a cell phone, and internet access. So its not a matter of who would have the conditions, but more of who has the heart. haha. But it won't be a problem.

Lucky missionaries in the states with smart phones. I can't even imagine if we walked around with a smart phone here. Every day we would be robbed. But everyone knows that we don't have anything of worldly value, and they leave us alone. But in Paulista a man tried to take our phone, and I gave it to him, but he didn't want it because the cell phones here that the missionaries use are really small and simple and cheap.

I also finished the Book of Mormon this week. It is always a great experience, and it is giving me a desire to learn more about church history. So maybe I will read Our Heritage now. I don't know. The Book of Mormon is an incredible book, and I know that it is the most powerful tool that we have as missionaries.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Dezembro Já???

This week flew by.  We had M-----'s baptism, which was really cool. She lives with the bishop, and her mom doesn't like the church, so we didn't really know if the mom would mess things up, but M----- bore testimony to her mom that she really knows that the church is true, and her mom gave authorization for her to be baptized.  It was really cool. We have lots of other people that we can work with right now who can be baptized. Some have been taught in the past, and now we are trying to contact them again to follow up. One was a baptismal document that had all of the imformações, including the dad's signature, but he never was baptized. When we went there, we learned that the kid wanted to be baptized, but the Elders were transferred and didn't leave information about him for the new missionaries, so it's just now that we found him again. And it looks like his parents aren't too happy about it, but we will try to do our best to help him out. So we are pretty excited. We think that December will be a great month. 

I can't believe that it is already Christmas again. It feels like it was just a few months ago that we went to the temple for Christmas, but here in 2 or 3 weeks we will be there again. It will be really good to be in the temple. It is a good release that we need as missionaries. Keep up on the reading, it is really cool that President Nelson is doing a bunch of challenges for everyone. I really like it. I will finish The Book of Mormon this week too. The only problem is that we don't get to see other devotionals and things like that, so we can only participate in the challenges in general.

I can't even imagine snow right now. I am melting here. It is getting really hot now. It's humid, so I am always sweating, but this is pretty normal here. I have already gotten used to it. 

I cant believe that BYU lost to Utah again............................  But hey, I will be able to see them beat the Utes next year! haha

I did a split with Elder J------ from Alabama this week, and it was really good. He is a great missionary. He is training, and his son (jr. companion) stayed with Elder C---------- in our area, and they worked really hard. We are starting to see some good success here.

Let me explain the pictures. We are laying on the ground because we cleaned our house really well.  We didn't even do anything last P-day. We just woke up and cleaned, left to the Lan house, bought some cleaning supplies, and returned to clean some more. (You would be so proud of me, mom!)

I cut Elder C---------- hair this week, and it turned out pretty well. He was happy with the cut. I guess that watching mom cut my hair all my life has paid off.

It's tough to eat with the members in this area. I'm not sure why. They usually give us tupperwares and we go home and eat. Or they give us money. In my two weeks in the area we have eaten 3 times with members. The reason we like to eat with members is so we can build relationships and gain their trust so they will be more interested in missionary work and providing us with referrals. Plus it's fun to get to know the members. So we have lots of work to do here. I'm pretty excited, and Elder C---------- is excited too!

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Bom Pastor

Hello!

I made it here to my new area safe and sound.  Bom Pastor is pretty close to the center of Recife, and it is a really small area.  My comp is Elder C---------.  He is from the Rio de Janeiro, and he is pretty crazy.  I already knew him pretty well (he was Elder D--------'s comp in the CTM).  He really is a great missionary. He finished training and I am his first comp after Elder J------.  He is really excited to work and learn. But I really think I will have more to learn with him than he can learn from me.  For only being a member of two years, he already knows the doctrines and how to teach them really well. I know we can do some great work together.

Our ward is pretty small. We don't have many active members. We don't have a Ward Mission Leader and some other important callings, so we have lots of work to do. Last Sunday I was called to speak at the last minute, so I grabbed a talk I had prepared for a Zone Conference and talked about the value of the soul. And how God loves all of the people on the earth. I hope it went well.

I can see that this area is poorer than my last one, and that the last missionaries baptized mostly little kids. So a bigger part of our investigator pool are kids, but I believe that we can make a change in our teaching group pretty quickly. We can keep teaching those that are interested, but we can also try to find some adults and some families that can help the ward grow. We already found some pretty cool people this week while contacting, and we are pretty excited to return and teach them.

This area is pretty tough with lunch. I have been here a week, and we have only eaten in a member's house once (yesterday). Normally we eat one meal a day with members. But it's nothing we won't be able to handle and figure out.

We have one investigator that is pretty tough. His name is A---, and he seems like he is trying to study the bible to prove us wrong. So we are praying and trying to know if we should stop visiting him or not, but our last visit was a lot better, so there is still hope. haha. There will be a baptism this Saturday that is the bishop's granddaughter, so it should be pretty good.

I continue to serve as a district leader here (replacing Elder J------). Our district is really good. We have three areas: Bom Pastor, Várzea, and San Martin.

When I got there the house needed a good cleaning, so we have been cleaning all day today. And we are going to Walmart (yeah, my first area that has Walmart!) to buy more cleaning supplies. But it is looking a lot better. We already cleaned the fridge and the stove and the bathroom, so we just have the floors in the house to do now.

Funny story of the week:  We played a little game. I gave a word to Elder C--------- to use in a contact. It was "sabonete" or "bar of soap" And he walked up to a man and said, "You know how sometimes we are really, really stinky, and everyone around you can smell that you are stinky? This is what happens when we sin. But luckily we have a way to take away the smell. Just like we can take a bath with a bar of soap to take away the smell, if we repent we can take away our sins."  I think the man thought that he was calling him a sinner or something because he didn't want us to return. hahaha.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Q & A

Elder Nielson responded to lots of questions this week but didn't really give a weekly summary. Here are some of the questions we had and answers he provided:

1. What kind of food do you eat in Brazil?

Arroz, feijão, macarrão, galinha.  (rice, beans, noodles, chicken)

2. Is Recife a third-world country or is it pretty modern?

It is pretty modern.  It isn't third world, but it wouldn't be considered first world. They have a lot of people that are really poor, but they have all the necessities for the most part. They have a lot of favelas or ghettos, which is where you see the most necessity.

3. Are the bugs and mosquitoes as bad as you were led to believe?

There are a lot of cockroaches, and mosquitoes, but it isn't as bad as we thought. We were all thinking that it would be like I was in the middle of the jungle. I use bug spray, and it doesn't give me too many problems with mosquitoes. They also have lots of scorpions, but I haven't see too many because we usually live in apartments.

4. What do you love about Brazil?

Everyone is open and happy. The members are excited to help (most of the time), and if you ask for directions, someone will take you where you are going.

5. Do you feel fluent in Portuguese? If so, how long did it take to feel you were fluent?

I feel fluent. Obviously there are little words that I don't know, but I can understand everything and express myself in Portuguese better than I can in English right now. I think that when I left my first area, I was already speaking pretty well. From there until now, it is more about training the accent and growing the vocabulary.

6. Share one spiritual experience that you will always remember. 

I will never forget how quickly the Spirit has gone to work with E------, our recent convert. He did a full 180 and now that he has the gift of the Holy Ghost, he is growing very quickly. He is sharing the gospel with others, and he is trying to bring people back that aren't going to church. Last night he was talking to us about these efforts, and I could feel the Spirit testifying that he will do great things, and that he will be an instrument in the Lord's hands.

I feel the spirit powerfully every time that I open up my patriarchal blessing to read. I am seeing these blessings, and I desire to magnify them in the best way possible. I know that the Spirit is present with me and has guided me in the past. As I am reading the scriptures, I can see Him opening my mind and leaving everything clear.

I recognize that the blessings and gifts of the Spirit aren't automatically given to me, and this makes me think about the parable of the talents.  If God gave me these things, what can I do to strengthen them, and develop them more in my life?  This is where my search has brought me, and I can feel that I am getting closer to where I need to be; that I am becoming who God wants me to be.

7. Do you have lots of persecution because of your religion, or are people fairly accepting?

We only have persecution from the other churches. All of them talk bad about us, so usually when we start to teach someone, we have to break all of the bad ideas that they have about us before we start to teach them.

8. What are the hardest things about your mission?

We walk a lot. But for me, I don't really mind. But the heat is really strong. From 10 am until 5 pm, I am just soaked in sweat.

9. What do you love the most about being a missionary?

I love the opportunity I have to study the scriptures every day. I also love that we can help people gain understanding and peace here on earth and help them resolve their problems.

10. Do you speak in church often?

Yes, we talk in church regularly. Usually when we get to a new area, we are called to talk in church. And when the assigned speakers don't show up, the bishop will grab us and ask us to speak about something we studied this week.

11. Are you staying in your area or being transferred this week? 

I was transferred, and I am going to Recife to an area called Bom Pastor, or Good Shepherd. I will take the place of Elder Jacklin, and I believe I will stay there with his son (junior greenie companion). But they changed how the transfers work, so we won't know who our comp is until we get there, but I am pretty sure it will be Elder C----------. I am pretty excited. I know that he speaks English well. He appears to be a great new missionary, ready to work and magnify his calling!

It's Almost Christmas?

This week was a little difficult. We had great expectations for all the new people we found last week, but we weren't able to reach some of them. We made a list of people that we could mark for baptism, and during the week we tried to get them. Nobody wanted to accept a baptismal date. We also had a couple that due to the size of our area we weren't able to meet with.  So this week we planned to focus on fewer people so we can actually meet with them, teach them, and help them to progress.  We have faith that we will be able to see better results this week.

I did a split with Elder J. B this week. It was pretty good to get to know him a bit better and help him with some of the worries and difficulties that he is having in his area. 

Do you remember that giant hamburger where we received money to eat lunch that day, so we ate a little bit of the giant burger for lunch, and we bought the rest home?  I put on some pictures of the experience. We bought another one and w
ere able to finish the whole thing in about 15 minutes. We were pretty proud.  In the past, there were two really big elders, both of them were about 200 pounds. And when they bought this hamburger, they had some times that they weren't even able to finish it all.

I also put a picture of how Elder M left the apartment this week.... with white socks. He used them because the rest of his socks were dirty. Oh I don't even know if I mentioned that our washing machine was broken for about a month, and that we were washing our clothes by hand. But we got the washer fixed this week, and it really is a blessing to have it working again.  It helps so much.

I hope you all have a great week this week!

Love
Elder Nielson

Conferência de Zona!

Well last Sunday night, Elder Montiel and I realized that the eggs we had bought would expire on Monday.  There were already a couple that were smelling bad, so we cracked the rest and cooked them up.  I think it was about 20 eggs.  It was an interesting experience.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference.  It was really good.  President Houseman talked about distractions and how we need to be completely focused on our mission.  He said, "Distractions will take away our excitement, hope, and will bring challenges and disobedience." 

This is true not just for missionaries but for every day lives.  We have our goal which is to return to live with Heavenly Father.  But the adversary will throw distractions into our lives to try and take away our focus, distract us, and make us sad.  But we can't let these distractions (sin, temptations, vain things of the world, cell phones, social media) distract us from our proposito (purpose?) here on earth.  Every one of us has a mission.  We need to always work to hear the Spirit and know what God wants us to do so that we can fulfill our mission on earth. 

But just as the adversary gives us distractions, God also gives us distractions for good. As we study the scriptures, participate actively in our church meetings, fast, and keep all of his commandments, we are being focused.  God is showing us His will in our lives, and it will help us to be strong enough to resist any temptation.

I know that God talks to us. We need to learn to recognize when he does.

Things are going well.  We were able to teach 19 new investigators this week, so that definitely will help us to get a new group going. Elder Montiel is doing great.  He has more time in the mission than I do, so it feels a whole lot easier to have someone with experience on your side.  We are running all over the place, and we don't really have much time to think.  Just work.  Which is really good. 

I got to see Elder Price this week. It was the first time that I got to talk to him in about 9 months. We bought a ball in the CTM with a minion inside. We each paid one real for it. So now we switch it every time that we see each other. And it had already been with him for 9 months.

Saturday as we walked through the streets in the center of Paulista, there was a group that met up, and they were having a preaching service, with rock music and everything. One of the pastors stood up and started talking. "Hello everyone. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to meet with you and to praise God here in the middle of the street. If we are able to bother everyone when we are in church, imagine how many people we can bother here in the street."

I couldn't help but laugh at that.

I really liked that story that you shared from Brother Bodily. This is something that I am trying to learn to do. Something that I am trying to be familiar with. President Houseman taught us about Goals of Faith. How a lot of times we set a goal that we are already in a good position to hit or that we can see how to hit that goal. Maybe we call them realistic goals. But to set goals of faith, we need to reach for the things that we can't see. Our goals with faith should have a part that we can't see how we can accomplish them without God's help.  He explained how we can leave some room for God to work with.

In his mission, President Houseman set a goal to baptize 20 people in a month. But it wasn't just a goal he set. He felt prompted with his companion that this was the goal they needed to set. They worked and worked, and baptized all 15 of the investigators in their teaching pool. They still had 2 weeks to have 5 more baptisms, so they prayed and showed their works to God and asked for his help so that they could find the people that he had for them to baptize. They found a family and they were baptized.  He baptized 23 that month. But only because he followed the inspiration that God gave him.

This is a trait I studied this week, and learned that the gift of discernment can be to discern the whispers of the Holy Ghost too, not just to know the thoughts of the people. I know that my patriarchal blessing says I have this gift of the Spirit, so now I am working to develop it.

I hope that you guys are doing well, and have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Transforência?

Hey!

This week was just crazy. Tuesday morning as we were starting weekly planning, President Houseman Called and explained that Elder D would be returning home. We stopped, and did a planning session for what he would do when he got home to stay in the church, and what he would do to return to the mission. He had some unresolved issues that required him to go home for a time. I could tell that these things weighed really heavy on him, and that this will help him to feel a lot better when he returns.

Wednesday morning I took him to the airport and I picked up my new comp there.

Elder Montiel is from Chile. He has a year and two months in the mission. He is really cool, and he is from a city called Patagonia. He likes to sing and play the guitar and he likes to work, so yeah. This week was really, really busy.

We had to help on Friday with the wedding of Thiago and Tatiane. Saturnday was Thiago's baptism. Tatiane was already a member, but wasn't going to church anymore. She almost died in child birth and was able to recognize the second chance that God had given her. So they talked and decided to be sealed in the temple. In one year, they will be able to do that! It was really a great little baptism. The wedding was also great.

I had a cool experience at church this week. We were sitting in the sacrament meeting, and I started looking around to see which investigators came to church. We had nobody. I started to feel really sad, and I started to pray for comfort and peace. When I looked back to see if I had missed anyone, I started to see Pedro, Bernadete, Nazareth, Irmã Bel, Carol, Aaron (who was a ward baptism, but asked me to baptize him), Emerson, and Thiago. Every single one of our recent converts since I came to Paulista was present at church. All of them are still going strong. It was something that touched me. I am starting to see a bit more quality in the baptisms that we have. It's not just about getting a baptism, but we want to keep these people strong in the church. It was a really sweet experience to see the fruits of our labors all here at church.

This week I studied a lot about accountability. President Houseman always asks us to prepare a talk for Zone Conference. And he may call on anyone at any time to give their talk. So you have to be prepared. But this topic is something really interesting to me. In D&C 101:78, it talks about how all of us need to be accountable for ourselves. God gave us freedom of choice so that we can choose to follow his commandments and be blessed. He asks us to give account of what we are doing so that we can self evaluate. As we pray and tell Him all that was good and all that was bad in the day, we can see the things we need to be better at. And we can repent and act.

I think of when we finish a week and the numbers were awful. As you report the numbers, you feel really bad. But you feel motivated at the same time to do better. As we give counts of our key indicators, we can see how our work is doing. Now I will give you a question to think about. "What would be the key indicators that we need to account for in front of God in our every day live?" As we think of the things that are most important in our lives to fulfill, we can see where we need to be better, and we can make the changes necessary to receive exaltation.

I hope that you are all doing well and that you guys can have a great week.

Love,
Elder Nielson

Muito Aconteceu Essa Semana

Wow, so much happened this week.  First, we had a split with the ZLs, and I stayed in Paulista with Elder Carrari.  It was pretty great to get to work again with my trainer.  It was a desire that I have had for quite some time.  I had talked to Elder Dornelles about this, and then it happened.  It was really a great experience.

We had Emerson's baptism!!!  His wife and his 3 daughters were already members, but he never wanted to know about the church.  It was the cause of many fights in their family.  So the rest of his family started to work with patience.  They didn't push the church on him.  They did family nights when he was at work (to not cause problems).  They started paying tithing, and they did some fasts.  And little by little, Emerson started asking his daughters about the church. And when he asked his wife, it was all over.  She started explaining, and he started to feel the desire to join the church and to get married for time and all eternity.  When we showed up, we were able to make a great friend. His wife jokes, "In the past he would start to fight with me when the Elders left, but now, he doesn't want the Elders to leave!"

It was good to see those familiar faces.  If you would like, you can compare the picture from my birthday and the baptism, and see if you can recognize anyone.  They are all members of Emerson's family.

I'm so grateful that I was able to get to know this man.  He is so humble and meek, and I know that he will be a great leader in the church one day.  He has such a good heart and wants to do what is right.

This week we will have the baptism of Thiago.  That will be pretty cool too!  Keep him in your prayers.  

I hope you are all doing well, and that you are all happy!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Novo Transferência

This week was pretty normal.  We are just trying to adjust to the new district.  We both stayed here in Paulista, and we are pretty excited.  Thursday was our first district meeting, and Elder Stobbe left some stuff ready to help me out, and it went pretty well.  It is a little different being in the front and trying to lead goal setting as a district, but I think I will be able to adjust to it.

When I called into the LZs Wednesday night, I asked who the new LZ that came to our zone was, and the Elder said, "Ill put the phone on speaker, and we will see if you can guess who it is based on his voice."  When the new Elder spoke he said (in English), "It's your dad!"  Elder Carrari is my LZ!  It was so funny, because I was saying to Elder Dornelles this last week that I would really like to be Elder Carrari's comp again, that I thought I could learn a lot more from him. And who knows if we will go on splits together.

I am waiting anxiously for the new Liahona that has all the conference talks so that I can start reading them. I think they said that it's already on the church app, so take the great opportunity you guys have and read through them again.

I got the package this week, which was unexpected, but a really nice surprise!  It was really a great day!

Saturday we had a Ward baptism.  We started teaching Aaron and when we went to get authorization to baptize him, we couldn't because he is 8, and his mom is a less active member.  So he went to the bishop, and he finished the preparation.  When we showed up to just give a little support, bishop asked if I brought a towel, and I said no.  He explained that in the interview Aaron asked for me to baptize him.  So we ran home, grabbed a pair of garments and a towel, and I put on a jumpsuit, and we had a great little baptism.  The boy has a great desire to serve a mission, so I am really excited for him.

Have a great week!

Love
Elder Nielson

Conferencia Geral! Líder de Distrito?

Hello!

This week was pretty good.  We had the great opportunity to watch General Conference.  The messages as usual were great.  I felt like we had a ton of messages that talked about "taking upon us the name of Christ". I think this is in a way to help us minister to others as Christ would minister. And to help us prepare to meet God.  The changes to the Sunday meetings is something that everyone here was calling "apocaliptical" or something that would come out of the Book of Revelations.  It is something that is putting the focus in our homes so that if one day it isn't possible to leave to go to church, we are able to maintain ourselves strong in the Gospel. I thought it was a great change.  President Houseman told me today, "Now we have more homework."   

General Conference was great.  I got a lot of take aways.  I need to use this precious time in the mission to learn how to better receive personal revelation.  I feel the Spirit as I study and teach, but to hear the Spirit guiding me, I feel I am lacking.  This is a topic I started searching after the talk by President Nelson's "revelation for the church, revelation for your life" talk. But it is something that this week I really started seeking after. 

I also feel that I need more love for others, that I need to let the little things go that the natural man uses to capture us.  Anger, pride, irritation, frustration.  I have gotten a lot better in the mission field with this, but as I am training, I am starting to see that it isn't sufficient yet.  So it will be a focus for me.

Twelve temples shocked me.  That is a huge thing.  So many temples! So go to the temple! haha.

There were also lots of talks about the plan of salvation, and dealing with difficulties.  Supporting trials, and spiritual trust in God.  I thought it was interesting because President Houseman gave a talk in a Zone Conference very similar to one talk about difficulties and spiritual trust.  That we have some different ways we receive trials.  "Our own choices will bring trials, the free choice of others, and the common things in the world."  But as we learn to pass for trails and be strengthened, we develop spiritual trust.  And it is something essential to remaining strong in the church, and to returning to God.

This morning I was taking a shower and heard the phone ringing, but Elder Dornelles was in the other bathroom. So I went out and grabbed the phone, and it was President Houseman.  I answered the phone, and he asked how I liked conference. We talked a little and he said he was calling to give me a new calling.  He asked if I was willing to serve as the new District Leader.  I was a little shocked, but I said yes.  I don't really know how to be a district leader, but I will have to learn fast! ha ha.  So yeah, that should make things interesting here. But I'm excited. It will be a new challenge.

I hope you all have a great week, and that you each had a great conference experience.

Love

Elder Nielson

P.S.  This is a picture of our District this transfer, and a plate of Cuz Cuz I made this week. ;)

 

Boa semana!

Hello!

This week was a lot better.  We were able to work through some difficulties on Tuesday, and the rest of the week went fine.  We had the baptism for Carol on Saturday!  She was so excited and had been waiting forever for this day.  Her grandma is a member, and when we were trying to prepare Carol for baptism, two of her cousins appeared and said that they wanted to be baptized too.  But a month passed, and they didn't go to church with the grandma one time, so we all decided that we would baptize Carol, and if the cousins show a little more interest in the future, baptize them later.  It was a really special day for her and for us.

Today we went to the city and we went to Marcos Zero.  This is where the State of Pernambuco started. It was pretty cool.

In my study this week, I thought a lot about 3 Nephi 13:19-21.  It talks about accumulating treasure in heaven, and how we need to put our focus always on the things that are most important.  Because the world is full of things that want to take our attention from our goals.  But we can all work to do things that will matter in the eternities, and not just here on the earth.

I hope that you all had a great week this week!

Love,
Elder Nielson

P.S.  I hit my one year mark this week!!!!