Transferencia

Ola!

We received our transfers today, and We didn't have a change in our area.  I will stay with Elder D. Souza for at least one more transfer.  Elder Gomes stayed in our apartment and will receive a new companion.  Elder Delevedove is going to a new area.  We are sad to lose him, but he came in my group to the mission and spent the first 6 months here. So it was probably time for a change.  

It's raining like crazy here again.  It has calmed down a little, but we got totally soaked walking to the
lan house.  

This week we had a problem.  During Zone Conference, President Houseman changed a rule.  The rule has been that if a female member is older than 70 years old, we could eat lunch with her alone.  But now it is that we can't eat in the house of any member without a man present.  One sister didn't like this when we tried to explain and find a way to eat with them still (eating in an open area that people can see us from the street).  She got another sister involved who started talking bad to the whole ward about this.  The sisters started taking their names off the "feed the missionaries" list and saying they won't eat with us.  

When we talked to one sister, she was being very contentious.  She has a man in her house, but she refused to let us eat with her. She gave us money to go eat somewhere else ... on a Sunday. But we talked with our bishop, and he completely understood, and said that he would talk to those who were upset.  Yesterday, they were calmer and understood that this is a rule that is not for us to break.  But it is being resolved, and everything should get back to normal.

We have 2 investigators marked for baptism Saturday -- S----- and G--------.  They are a mother and daughter and are really great.  S----- is super excited and ready.  But one member told G-------- that she should probably wait and learn more before being baptized (nice). So we are trying to help her with her duvidas (doubts) this week, and we are praying that she will feel the desire to be baptized. They are great and had already started making changes with the word of wisdom before we found them. They also came to church the last two Sundays all on their own.  We passed by their home to help them go this week, and they didn't open the door. So we thought ,"Great, they don't even want to answer the door...."  But when we got to church, they were their with the 3 daughters of G-------- all ready to go!  It was a huge miracle!

I've had a pain near my stomach that has been bugging me for a while. My companion and other elders voted that I should see a doctor. So I went. The doctor said he couldn't see any problem and that I can return if I have more problems.  But it was in a spot where it could be a hernia, or a gall bladder, so I found it better to check it out before it was a huge problem.  

Sister Houseman usually contacts parents when missionaries see a doctor. I asked her not to say anything about this since it seems to be nothing.  I knew mom would worry, and where it ended up being nothing, no sense in stressing mom out.  But Sister Houseman said that I needed to at least make mention of it so that if something does happen, you guys aren't wondering, how did we not hear about this. But it is feeling a lot better this week.  I think the plan is to wait and see if it starts hurting again in a few months. If so, we will go to the better doctor.

This week was good. We didn't have any pictures this week but it was good.

I hope that everything is going well with you guys back home!  Love you all. We will make plans this weeks for Mother's Day, and we will tell you next Monday how it will work.

Com amor

Elder Nielson

Crazy Week!

This week was crazy!  George was baptized and already received the priesthood.  He is doing great, we are trying to help him find a friend in the church that can help him out.  He is pretty shy, but already I can see him starting to open up a little bit. 

Thanks for the prayers.  I can feel the aid of the Lord in my life. The work is starting to look brighter here in the area.  We had George and 3 other investigators at church Sunday.  Br--- is really cool. We started teaching her and her parents, and they are interested They really want a religion, and they are really conservative, so they fit in real well with the standards of the church.  

The only problem is that they are moving, so it will most likely be a hand off to the elders in their new area to finish the work.  But they are great!  S----- and G------ are a mother and daughter duo.  They have some problems, but they are really excited and already accepted May 5th as their baptismal date.

Saturday we had a service project in our district with "mãos que ajudam."  It was really cool.  We cleaned and painted a school. 

We have a lot of work to keep doing here in the last week of the transfer.  I like to think that a lot of times the work you are putting in will pay off a little way down the road.  Maybe not in this transfer, but in the next or the next.  But you can always put in a little extra work.

Sunday it started raining, and we thought it was going to stop at some point. But it never stopped.  All the streets here are flooded, and we are walking around with big old rain boots on.  We almost couldn't make it to the lan house today.  Last night walking home, we got a ride from a member, but water started entering the engine, and he pulled over to relieve the water. We ended up walking home in water to our knees.  But the other elders in our house found water to their belts.  All the stores are full of water. It's crazy.  We even had a little water start spilling into our house, but we quickly cleaned it up.  

I hope all is well back home, and that you all can enjoy some of our photos this week!

Elder Nielson

Boa Semana

Ola todos!

This week was better.  We found a lot of people with a ton of potential as we started moving outside of the little zone we were using.  Unfortunately none came to church with us.  Only George!  We are really excited and he will be baptized this Saturday.  Every time that we teach him, he tells us how he is just feeling more and more excited to be baptized, so this week will be focused on helping him to be baptized.

Other than that, this week was just a big race.  We had Zone Conference, and it was really good.  President Houseman spoke about how we need to be his little mosquitoes, and seek out and teach people with the faith and persistence of mosquitoes.  It is a really good analogy.

Elder Gomes and I woke up early almost every day this week to run.  We run to the beach, and follow the beach for a little, and return.  It is such a cool feeling to be so close to a beach.  I think I included some pictures.

Also today, when we were coming to the lan house, we stopped to take a picture next to a gate that is really funny.  It says, "Careful, Angry Dog" in Portuguese, and has a dog smiling. It is so funny!

We got our Elders Quorum presidency set in place yesterday.  They all seem pretty good, and they really were emphasizing that they are the men to go to if someone needs help, and that the Bishop is just for worthiness issues.  Thought that was interesting, they called him the second bishop.

I hope that you are all doing great, and have a good week this week.

Elder Nielson

Wow...

Hello everyone!

This week started tough.  Our investigator that was progressing the most fell through, and yesterday, the 4 people we had marked for baptism all fell through except for G-----.  So we were really sad.  But yesterday we looked at the map, and we were using very little of the space in our area.  Less than one tenth.  Everything in this small space was going wrong, so we just left and started contacting far away from there.  In places a little closer to the Chapel, so we could bring them to church easier.  We met a young man named R------.  And after we met M-----, and asked him if he knew R------, and they are already friends.  Then they brought some other friends to talk to us.  

It was really cool. We are going there tonight to teach all of them, and tomorrow they said they would go to Mutual. I know that the difficulties we were having in our area were because of where we were working.  I hope that as we are trying hard to expand our area of work that we will be blessed.  

Wednesday our LD asked me to prepare a training and give it at District Meeting.  So I had to prepare Wednesday night, and a little Thursday morning.  But it went really well.  It was about using questions that grab the persons attention while contacting.  So that they are a little more curious. The idea is to ask questions about what they already believe, affirm that we believe the same, and they will be more likely to accept a visit.

But other than this, it was a normal week. 

Apartments vary in our mission. This apartment is a little better than in Jordão.  But it is a little more cramped with 4 of us. So it is more difficult to do laundry and stuff.  And we don't have a clothes line, just a strange cage thing that you put your clothes on to dry.  The microwave is a little newer, but the fridge is about the same.  We live on the third floor, so the stairs are always great when you are finishing a long day. haha.  But its great here. I really like living with 3 other missionaries. A lot more happens when you are in house.

That's cool that Kade Hillstead had pictures of baptisms in the ocean. We live right by the ocean, but I don't know if President will authorize a baptism in the ocean. Maybe if one investigator really wanted it, but we have lots of sharks here, so not many people enter the water.

I hope all is well at home. Love you all!

Elder Nielson

Ola Tudos!!!

This week was crazy.  It rained every day for a week, and the street in front of our house was full of water yesterday.  I almost left our house in a pair of big rain boots that we have in our house, but the other elders advised against this idea.

Tuesday was tough.  Our investigator marked for Saturday told us that she can't talk to us any more.  Her mom started going crazy when she heard that she wanted to be baptized.  J-------- went to her mom and said, "I want to be baptized so I can serve a mission."  And her mom didn't like the idea of serving a mission.  So she is trying to stop her from being baptized.  J-------- is 18, so she can sign her own ficha, but she doesn't want to fight with her mom.  So we didn't have the chance to talk to her this week.  But we found a boy named J-------- that accepted the baptismal invite for 14th of April.  He came to church with us yesterday and really liked it.  But his mom seems like she will give us trouble too. He lives with his dad, so we will be doing everything we can to help him.

Conference was great.  Saturday I watched in Portuguese because they were having problems with putting English in another room.  But yesterday I watched with another American in English.  It was great to hear the voice of the prophet.  He made a lot of changes, but I know that every one of them was inspired of God.  He is the only man that can receive this revelation, and it will help us all to be better members and friends.  

President Nelson is going to be a great prophet, and he was already speaking with such great power.  It is cool to see our church leaders speak and think about what it would be like to have the Spirit so strong in your life.  It is something we can all try to live to achieve, as President Nelson invited us to do.  It was a great conference, and I felt the Spirit so strong. I got a lot out of it and will be working to apply these things for the next 6 months.

Things are good here, I had a split with Elder Gomes and I learned a ton.  He is a great missionary, and I am glad that I can work closely with him because he has a lot that he can teach me.  

Everyone here celebrated the death and resurrection of Christ by drinking.  It's awful to see this.  But the members were really good to us.  They eat what they call "peixe de coco"  or "fish of the coconut."  It was really good.  And they do eggs here too.  The only one that I saw was a big chocolate egg with caramel inside.  It was really good.  

But this is it. It was a good week, and I am excited to keep working through this week.  I hope you all have a great week!!!

Com Amor

Elder Nielson

These are the pictures I took last week for 6 months in the mission!!!  Its crazy to think of how fast it is going!  Quero ser melhor cada dia mais!