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!!!!