Yes, We Have a Trucking Strike!

Hello everyone!

I saw the subject of Dad's email, and it sounds like you guys have already heard about the strike.  The truckers are angry that they have to pay a lot for their gas, so they are doing a strike.  It is starting to shut down everything.  But where I am isn't too bad.  We still have a couple of gas stations open and cars and buses in the streets.  But more in the interior is where it's a big problem.  They receive food in the stores every day by semi, so they are already without food.  We heard about one dupla of sisters that was without food.  So elders in the area closest bought a ton of food and walked to their area to give it to them.  Where they are, it is a big trek to travel between areas.  Our zone conferences are canceled for this week.  But everything is going to  be fine.  We already bought some food because President Houseman told us all too, and when we leave the lan house we will buy a little more.  

We had two baptisms this week!  Everything went well with J------ and J--------.  They are super excited, and will be great.  We had a conference with Elder Clayton of the 70, and he focused on teaching our investigators after baptism, and helping them get to the temple with a family name in under 2 months.  We we will be helping them to do this.  It is especially cool for J------ because her mom died when she was really little, so she will be able to be baptized for her mom here in a couple of weeks!  So cool!

We also made pancakes last P-day. (Mom, the syrup didn't go too great, and Elder Gomes told me to apologize...)  But they were pretty good.  We also found a soda called Guaraná Jesus.  It was really good!

You are probably wondering why  J------ and J-------- were taught and baptized by 2 tomatoes.  The Elders of Piadade asked us to help in a quick service project.  Moving sand.  We forgot to apply sun screen.  When we finished 4 hours later, we were a little burnt.  But we moved the entire mountain of sand.  This is what the Lord means when he says by our faith we can move mountains.

It was a good week, and we are excited for another!  Remain calm, we arent dying here or anything because of the strike.  Things are a little worse in São Paulo, but here they are much calmer.

Love you guys!

Elder Nielson

Transferência????????

Hello,

This week was interesting. Tuesday night the elders in Piadade were doing a split, and we were just sitting down to eat some pizza when we got a call.  Elder D. Sousa looked at the caller ID, and it was President Houseman. He got all nervous, and everyone told him to answer.  He answered and went into the other room to talk.  When he came out, he had a face that was in shock, and he handed me the phone. President asked how I was doing, and said, "Nos temos um transferência especial. Elder Sousa vai ser transferido, e você vai se-tornar senhor."  Translation: "We have a special transfer for you guys. Elder Sousa will be transferred, and you will be a new senior companion."

We were all really surprised, because it came out of no where.  But in the morning Elder D. Sousa left, and Elder Phipps came to Massangana.  He is another American from Utah that has 6 months in the mission.  One transfer less than me. He is cool.  He knows a lot about the scriptures, and the history, and I think it will be really good!

We will have the baptism for J------ this Saturday.  And also, do you guys remember J-------- from my first week in this area?  Her mom will let her be baptized this Saturday too!  It's crazy to see how God works. The mom had a fight with the family, and it left her ready to let her daughter be baptized. We are really excited for them!

But this week has been pretty normal. We are just working and keeping at it. It will be weird to have someone that speaks English with me because he wants to speak English a lot.  But I am trying my best to speak Portuguese, so my language can be better, and his too!

It was kind of a crazy week, but it went well!  Hope that all is well back home!  Love you guys so much!

Elder Nielson

Ola De Novo!!!

Hello Everyone!

Well, since our Skype call yesterday, not too much has happened. This dear sister was trying to kiss my head...  I resisted, and she was a little angry, but I couldn't just let her kiss my head and have you guys thinking it was something she always does, because its not! haha.  Elder D. Sousa just let her kiss him. haha.  She is really funny and sweet, and I let them all know that I was grateful, and that you guys were grateful for letting us use their computer and internet.  They help us so much!

Fun fact about Brasil.  Two times a year, at Christmas and Mothers Day, they release all of the prisoners from jail, so that they can go visit their families (sound familiar?). I had no Idea, but they say that the released prisoners just start going after the people that snitched on them, and they have a lot of deaths around those dates. But its a real thing. We joked that the prisoners have more rights than the missionaries because they at least get to hug their moms twice a year! haha.

This past week was kind of an emotional roller coaster.  One investigator was going to move, but then told us she was just moving down the street and would stay in our area.  But then she finally decided to move away. So that was kind of tough.  But we have one family that is progressing and is super excited, and one of them might move too.  So we are praying and fasting for these people!

But it was great to see everyone on Skype!

The only new update since yesterday is that this morning we went to the bakery by our house to grab something to eat.  We have one lady that works there that is our friend. She is always joking with us. I told her that I saw someone using a hat with the emblem of the bakery on it, and I asked, "Where can I get one of those hats?" She said, "You want one? One second. I will go get one." And she brought one for all of us. So it was pretty sweet! I would send a picture, but the internet in the lan house is super bad right now. Next week I will send the picture of this cool hat I got from the bakery by our house!

I hope all is well!  Have a great week, and I love you guys!

Elder Nielson

Batismo!

Ola todos!

This week we got to see S----- be baptized!  She is really cool.  We are sad that her daughter wasn't baptized this week, but we are still working with her.  She still has some problems with some commandments.  But we are hoping with faith that she will be baptized soon.  S----- had already quit smoking, drinking, and only had a little problem with coffee when we met her. But when we taught the Word of Wisdom, she gave us the coffee she had in her house, and said that she had already been working on quitting coffee too!  She has so much faith!  

It was funny, after her interview, Elder Gomes asked, "Who did you choose to baptize you?"  She said, "I really liked the Gospel Principles teacher."  The only problem is that the teacher is a lady.  So he explained, and she asked Elder Gomes to baptized her. He tried to explain that it is better if one of the missionaries who taught her baptized her, and she said she didn't want us to fight or feel bad, so Elder Gomes baptized our investigator. Haha!

We found one girl named B---- in the street one day.  Actually, her mom found us.  She came to us crying and worried that B---- was a little late getting home. So we called for someone and started talking with M------ (the mother) to calm her down.  She started talking about B----, and how the family has been searching for a church but never felt good in one. They had never visited ours.  When B---- came home, we talked a little more.  We passed by another day and taught them about the Restoration, and they liked and understood it.  B---- and her mom have come to church the last 2 weeks, and at the baptism of S-----, B---- told us that she received an answer about whether or not to be baptized.  But they are moving this week so, sadly, we probably won't be able to see them baptized. But they said, "At least when you guys return home, you can find peace in knowing that you changed our lives for the better and helped us find what we were searching for in the dark."  

It is something that is really cool to me.  Because it is only through God that we could have found them, and now they will be baptized here shortly.  They are moving this week to the area of the APs, so we hope that they can keep on helping this elect family.

But this week was good. Not too much else happened. It is still raining a bit, but nothing like the past two weeks. The work here is going great, and we are all feeling good.

Elder Barreta is the new comp to Elder Gomes, and he is from Cabo Verde (Africa).  So that is really cool.  He is great and really likes basketball.  This whole week he was asking us if we wanted to play basketball on P-day, so we will probably play a little bball today!  It should be fun!

Next Sunday we will be calling on Skype for Mother's Day.  We will be calling at 5 o'clock our time. I don't know what time that is at home, so you will have to Google it. haha! But I will call for you guys at 5 o'clock Recife time on Skype.

I hope all is well and that May is treating you all well.  It's crazy that it is already May...

Love Elder Nielson