Transfer!

We had a transfer today...  But we still don't know what's going to happen.  President Houseman called me last night and called me as a Trainer.  So at least I know that I will be training a new elder.  But the APs are still trying to send out all the information and logistics.  So we don't know who will stay in Paulista and who will go.

This week was pretty normal.  We were able to mark a baptismal date for 2 people.  One is the granddaughter of a member here.  We had already received authorization to baptized her, but we never had the chance to talk with her mom.  But we got the chance and she filled out the baptism document and signed it. We hope in the future to help her mom be baptized too.  And the other is a niece of the same member.  This girl's mom came to her saying that she wanted her kids to be baptized in our church. So we started teaching everything to C---- (granddaughter) and K---- (niece) and this week we will start teaching the nephew J------.  So we will have some good work to do with this family.

But it was a pretty fast week.  I had a split with Elder Dal'evedove who is from my group too.  We came to Recife together.  And I also included a picture of how Elder Plentz fell asleep this week! haha.

But I hope everything is going well, I love you all so much!

Elder Nielson

Batismosssssss!!!!!

Ola!!!

I am happy to report that everything went well this week, and N-------, B--------, and P---- were baptized and confirmed!  We are so happy for them.  They grew so much during the last few weeks that we have know them.  It is incredible to see.  They have so much faith and trust in the Lord.  Even N------- who initially didn't feel the need to be baptized.  A woman from the Catholic church passed by to give her their "sacrament"  and heard that she was going to the Mormon church.  The woman told her, "Now you can't go to two churches.  You are going to have to choose -- the Catholic church or the Mormons?"  N------- said, "Well then I would like to stay with the Mormons."  The woman grabbed her stuff and left, telling N------- that she couldn't return there.

This family is amazing!  I cant wait to see how everything goes with them.  

The baptism was really cool.  It took about 5 minutes for N------- go around back and enter the water.  We thought that we would have to use more than one person to baptize her because she is a little frail.  But she entered the water, and our LMA Sabastião baptized her on the first try.  She was a Champ!!!  It was cool to get to baptized P----.  When I was going to pull him out of the water, his feet lifted off the ground and I was stuck holding him their for a little bit.  But he quickly put his feet on the ground and stood up.  And after the baptism, when they were eating cake, we sang "Sou Um Filho de Deus"  or "I Am a Child of God"  to them, and played the guitar.

I will send a bunch of pictures to you guys.

I hope that all is well back home, Love you guys!!!

Elder Nielson

Feliz dia dos Pais!!!...???

Ola!!!

I had a little panic attack yesterday when I realized it was Fathers Day.  But then I started to think,  "Wait, it's August.  Fathers Day is in June..."  But happy Brazilian Fathers Day, Dad!!!

This week we had Zone Conference, and it was really great. I learned a ton, and we got to see some familiar faces from earlier on in the mission.  Elder Haynie and Elder Jacklin are in my zone again, so it was great to see them.

B-------- and P---- are going strong and progressing to be baptized on Saturday!  Also B--------'s mom went to church last week and really liked it,. We explained a bit about how her baptism in the wasn't the same as how Christ was baptized, and she accepted to be baptized Saturday too!

We are working with them, but as you can see in the pictures, they were super receptive when we taught the Word of Wisdom.  They had very few problems with this commandment, and willingly gave us the little coffe and black tea that they had at home.  They went to church yesterday, and again they loved it.  We are so excited for them!

But other than this, it was a pretty normal week.  And it should be another great week of work this week.  I hope that all is well back home, and that you are all doing well!

Love,

Elder Nielson

It Was A Great Week!

This week was kind of busy.  We had a divisão on Thursday, and I went to Abreu e Lima and stayed there with Elder Stobbe.  We were working like normal during the day, and when it was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we started searching for an address.  We come to a fork in the road and didn't know if we should go right or climb the hill to our left.  When I looked at the top of the hill, I saw a woman waving to us.  I quickly recognized that she was Jaciane´s sister (our recent convert's sister).  So we went there and started talking to her, and that's when we realized that it was the address we were searching for.  I had sent the reference to the elders almost a month ago, and Elder Stobbe got the address last Monday.  It was pretty crazy how perfectly the timing worked out.  So I got to introduce them all to the Elders in their area.  Jaciane´s brother was there too.  So it was great to see Gilmar again.

We also have 2 people preparing to be baptized on August 18th.  Bernardete and Pedro.  Mother and son.  We talked with them last Saturday because Bernardete asked for The Book of Mormon on the church website.  We brought one to her and taught her, her son (Pedro), and her mom (Nazeré).  When we returned, they had read what we had left, and they loved it.  So they accepted the invitation to be baptized.  She called us early Sunday morning to make sure that we would pass by to give them a ride to church.  We went there in the VW bus of our ward mission leader, and they really like church.  So things are looking pretty good with them.

We also had in total 7 investigators at church.  It was so cool.  One is Aaron and he is 7, but he will turn 8 in October and he wants to be baptized.  He lives with his grandma, who is a member, but because he doesn't live with his mom, he will be a mission baptism.  Ellem is the niece of our quorem president, and she bore testimony at church which was really cool.  Fabio and Luciana are a couple that we are working with to get married so they can be baptized.  And Bernardete, Pedro, and Nazeré.

It was really a great Sunday with so many people at church.  

Saturday we helped Irmã Katia paint part of her house.  it was really fun. She and her fiance (Emerson) are really funny.  I put some pictures of the project for ya'll to see.

I hope you guys have a great week, and that all is well back home!

Elder Nielson