5 Meses!!!

Olá Todos!

This week was pretty good.  We taught 14 new people on Thursday.  We gave an invitation for one member to invite some people over for a family night. He told us he would try to think of some people, and when we went there, he had brought 10 people!  Eight neighbors and two of his sisters that live way out in the interior. It was really cool to see him take our invite and do something great with it!

We have two people that can be baptized here in a little while.  One is R-----.  He called a friend that's a member and asked to talk with us.  We came and taught him, and he accepted our baptismal invitation and came to church yesterday.  We will be working a lot with him the next two weeks, but he is really cool!

The other is M---- d-- D----, or D---.  She was a referral from one of our members.  The member gave us her name only for the fact that she isn't part of the Assembleia De Deus...  But she is really good. She came to church with us too, and she really liked it.  We taught her son last night, and he was really interested too.  But he was amazed that we got her to go to church.  He said that she really doesn't like church.  But we all know that it was the Spirit that helped her have the desire to go.

We had a split this week, and I was with our DL.  At the end, he said, "Your goal last time was to talk more with people. How do you think you're doing with that?"  And we sat there for a couple of minutes and looked at how much better I was at just communicating.  Asking for directions, opening my mouth to introduce the gospel, and initiating lessons.  So that was something that really gave me some hope.  

During the split, we were walking and a dog started barking really loud.  Elder P------- put his hand out and said "Cala Boca!"  Or "shut your mouth", and the dog was silent.  We both turned our heads to look at each other with amazement on our faces.  It was pretty funny, and he said, "I have the priesthood."  He said it in English, and I almost died laughing. 

But anyways, things are going good here. I hope that everything is good back home, Love you all!

Elder Nielson

I think my comp is watching me....

Ola todos!

First, we had a baptism fall through this week, so that made Saturday and Sunday a bit tough.  F----- has been an investigator forever! He knows all the names of missionaries for the past 10 years.  He just has a fear of the water.  So we will be trying to help him if we can find him.

We still had our schedule for Carnival this week.  So I got to read a lot in Jesus the Christ.  It is really cool.  I am going to keep reading in it when I have free time.  

Probably three or four times during this week I woke up at about 5 am, and when I looked over at Elder F-----, he was just sitting there with his eyes opened staring at me.  So that was pretty awkward.  I would role over and just pretend I saw nothing.  One night he was laying in bed as I was reading, and I looked over.  He had his head under his pillow, but he was watching me from under his pillow.  So we will see if this continues and what is up with it.  It will be something interesting, that's for sure.

We ran a couple of times this week, and one morning the bugs were pretty wicked.  I took a picture, because when we got back home, they were everywhere.  I had them in my eyes, my mouth, it was crazy!  

Today we played soccer in Massaraduba and had a little barbeque.  It was pretty fun.  It rained on us for an hour straight as we played and it made for a great time.  We have some pretty cool people in our mission!

The work is still going strong here.  We are struggling a bit with helping people keep commitments, especially going to church.  We can leave and try to drag 10 people to church, and everyone of them will avoid going.  It's pretty tough, but we have a split this week, and that will definitely be something I ask for help with. Oh, and Elder Bednar will be visiting our mission. I'm really excited for that. 

I will be trying to focus on ways to motivate others, and use this transfer as a time to grow and strengthen my language and interactions with others.  These are things I can for sure control.  If we are walking somewhere , I can always stop and make a contact in the street.  

I hope you all have a great week!

Thanks for all you guys do!

Elder Nielson

Novo Transferência

Ola todos!

This week has been kind of crazy with transfers, and Carnival...  First, we had a family night Monday with a bunch of members, and took a photo because it was Elder Carrari's last time.  Then Tuesday we had a little party for Elder Carrari and it was good.  Then Wednesday was transfers.  The Mission has missionaries travel to their new areas alone now, so when Elder Carrari left, I had to go meet up with our district leader and wait for Elder Felipe to come to Jordão.  

He is really interesting.  He is from São Paulo, not right in the city but in the part that is a little more country. He really likes Anime.  He has this transfer and 2 more before he goes home, so I'm hoping that's going to give him some fire to work hard.

To meet Elder Felipe, I got stuck on a bus for almost two hours. But I made it to him without problems.  We were able to work Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday we had an adjusted schedule for Carnival.  From Friday until next Tuesday, we will leave our house at 8:30 am and return at 5:30 pm.  We do our studies at night, and with our extra time, we will read Jesus the Christ.  It is really interesting.  

Carnival is pretty wild. We had huge block parties last night that just had music blaring until really late.  Everyone was drinking and dancing, but we were in our house before it was really up and going.  I'm surprised that we found a Lan house open to be able to get emails and write, because during these weeks, they just party all night and sleep all day.

But we are safe here and trying to avoid these parties as much as possible.  Last night the party was pretty much at our front door and, from what members have said, it won't be the last night like that. So we are trying to pound as much work into our day as possible.

Love you guys!

Elder Nielson

Transferência!

Oi!

I just got my transfer, and I will be staying in Jordão!  My comp will be Elder H. Felipe.  We don't know anything about him, but I am really excited.  Elder Carrari received a call this morning from President Houseman and will be a secretary of the mission.  He will work in the office with all the references.  It's weird that I will be working here with someone else.  I'm thankful for him and everything that he taught me!

I just learned that Elder Haynie from my CTM district will be in my district again!  He is such a cool and good missionary.  He plays the piano better than anyone that I know!  He is the comp of our district leader, so I will have the opportunity to learn from him during a split at some point!

This week we saw a chicken sleeping in a tree, so I had to take a picture of that.  

We had a lot of contacting this week, and I am feeling good about that.  We have tons of people to start working with now.  So this week will probably be a lot of visiting these people that we talked to and beginning to teach them.

Barbara, one pf the members here received her mission call last night.  She is going to Cubá!  So that's pretty cool.  And Wallison will be getting his call this week.  It definitely brings back a lot of memories of when I opened my call.  

So we just got our rules for Carnival, and we will return to our house at 7:30 and do our studies at night.  This is just because Carnival is Crazy!  From what I have learned it is just 3 weeks of fantasy. So everyone has a fantasy, and goes to huge parties all over the place.  Gabriel explained that its really hot here, so people typically don't wear clothes when they go out. So yeah, we will be careful with that.  Everyone here calls Carnival Apostosia or apostacy because is just breaking the word of wisdom and Law of Chastity everywhere.

Things are great here In Jordão, and I am ready spend another transfer here.  Time to go to work!