Transfers

Today we received a transfer.  Elder C-------- is going to Setubal, and I will stay in Bom Pastor and I will train again.  Elder C-------- is a little excited to get to know a new area, but he is also sad because he wanted to be able to help this ward more.  We made a good plan for how we can help this area grow and progress, and we will have a meeting with the bishopric on Thursday to help them establish goals and plans during 2019.  It's the ward mission plan, and we hope that we can help them be more active.

I made omelets this week, and Elder C-------- really liked them.  He gave mom props for teaching me to make them. 

I had a split this week with Elder A-------, and he is a great missionary.  He just finished his first transfer in training, and he will keep growing as an Elder.  He has a very bright future.

Christmas was good. We had lunch with a family, and Elder C-------- wanted to sleep for a while, so then we went to Irmã Angelitas house, and we got to talk to you guys.  It was really good, and I think I attached a photo with them. 

I'm glad that you can see some growth in me. At times its tough to see the progression when it's in yourself, but I'm glad you guys could recognize it.  I was really homesick last year, and I had a young man from my first area (who is on a mission now)  send me an email, and he told me that it was really sad last Christmas to see me talking to my family.  But it was just a lot of changes, and I had to learn to focus more on the work.  I hope that I can keep working hard throughout this year.  I want to continue until the end.  I don't want to be like some missionaries that waste their last two transfers being trunky. President told me that the last transfers are when we need to work the hardest because we are the most qualified.  We have the knowledge and the experience to make a difference.  So I need to start training so that I can be strong enough to resist.

I will have a new son this week, so I will go to the center to get him on Wednesday, and I hope that I can be a great trainer for him.

It will be interesting this new transfer, and I will take some time to think of some goals for this new year.  I hope that I can continue learning and growing like I did in 2018. I hope that everything is going well back home, and that it's a great week for you guys!

Love
Elder Nielson

Christmas Eve is Here!

It was good to see pictures of Matt and Mackenzie's little guy.  I hope that he is doing well.  It's sad to hear that he has little problems with health, but it doesn't sound too serious, so I hope the recovery is quick.

This week I really devoted myself to reading Our Heritage. I was able to start and finish the book this week, and it really opened my eyes to how different (many times) the church feels today.  The people in the early days of the church were so dedicated to their beliefs me to see that I can do so much more as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I could feel my spiritual eyes opening a bit, and I see the bigger picture of things.  I love to have experience like this.  It is something that humbles me, and gives me the hope that I need to work harder and to be better.  We really limit ourselves a lot of times. We forget that we have made great covenants with God, and that with obedience to these covenants comes great blessings and miracles.

Something that I am coming to recognize in the mission is that there really is something special about reading.  I think you know well that before the mission, I didn't like to read too much.  But here, it is really opening me up.  I am reading so much more than ever before, and I can feel the Spirit with me so much more as I am procuring more knowledge and further wisdom.  It is incredible.  I am now taking on the task of finishing Jesus the Christ.  I have been reading a little bit at a time since last February, but now I will make it a goal to finish by the end of next week.  I am really happy, and I am able to see through the difficulties that are about me, and I can't thank you and mom enough for how well and how diligently you raised me.  You guys were always a firm foundation for me, and I know that as I start to build my life in the future, it will be strong enough to withstand the forces of evil.

I love you So much, and I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow.

Elder Nielson

P.S. We still don't know what time we will call tomorrow.  The only irmã that invited us to her house is waiting to know what time her son will call.  He left the MTC to his mission this week, and will let her know today.  We will call between 4pm-7pm Recife time.  We will know a little later the exact time, and we will let Sister Houseman know.  She was nice enough to offer to send a message informing you guys when we know.

P.P.S In my last area one member had a daughter that lives in Utah.  She came to visit, and she told me she works at DI in Springville. Her name is B----- K----.  I will attach two pics that I took with her parents.  So Dad can search her out the next time he goes looking for a good book to read.

Semana Dificil

This week was pretty crazy.  Saturday we had the baptism of M------.  He is 11 years old, and he is pretty cool.  He went to church on his own the last few weeks. We showed up at his house, and he had already left for church. So it is pretty cool to see a young man that's so responsible.  He doesn't come from the greatest family situation.  His mom is raising them alone, which is hard. But we are starting to teach her too.  So we hope that we can help this family to continue growing together. We got to the baptismal service early, and he wanted to learn a bit about how to play the piano, so I was teaching him a few little tunes that are easy to play, like Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater.

We also got to go to the temple this week, which was a really nice experience.  We had a little reunion in President's house, and we sang a song as a district (that you guys probably saw on Facebook.  We ate Burger King which was cool too. We got there a little early, and we were sitting on a couch, so I don't know why we weren't appearing in any still photos. It was a night reunion, and President used examples in Lucas 1 and Mateus 1 to show examples of people that heard of Christ. He asked "how did they know about Christ?  What did they do when they heard?  And what did they do after they saw?"  So it was pretty cool to see what we need to do as members after we gain our testimony of Christ. We need to share it, so get out and share your testimony of Christ this Christmas season.

At church yesterday I got a pretty cool surprise.  E------, our recent convert from Paulista came to visit with his family.  He told me that he went to the temple on Saturday, and they were able to baptize some family names. He also told me that he was owing me a pizza (which i didn't remember).  And he gave me a pair of socks that says "all  you need is pizza".  It was really nice to see him again, and to know that he is doing well.

It was a really tough week though this week.  It's really hot right now and I'm drinking water like a camel. We had lots of rejections, and it felt like everyone that we talk to was calling us liars or false. But as I was writing this email, I can see how even though we had many difficulties, the Lord blessed me so much throughout this week. Maybe the work was tough, and the Lord won't make the work completely easy, but he threw in some surprises and special experiences to lighten the burden. God really loves all of us, and he is always looking out for us.

I hope you all have a great week this week, and a good preparation for Christmas.

Love,
Elder Nielson

Is it cold there?

This week was really interesting. It passed by way fast. We had interviews with President Houseman, and he told me that they are planning to open up another branch in Paulista. It was really cool to hear that an area that I served in is still having success, and I hope that everyone there can work together to help the branch grow.

We also had a week of finding. We found a magic street. We have an investigator that has a little business in his house. He sells coconut, and other things, so we always talk to him in front of his house. His name is Paulo. And the last 4 times that we passed by, some college-aged student would stop and start talking to us, even if we were teaching. So we found Raissa, Guilhereme, and André this week, and all of them seem really open and interested in learning more.

It was Stake Conference here, and we had two young men that went with us to church -- Micheal and Harthur. They actually went to church on their own and left when they saw that it was closed. We found them returning home, and they walked about 45 mins with us to another church for the conference. It was really cool. President Houseman said that we have to be Warriors of Zion, and not Warriors of the Sofa.  It was really funny. He was telling the members that they can't stay in their house all day long, and it was a really creative way of doing it.

I still don't know about calling home at Christmas or whose home we will do it at. I really don't know many families here still. I know that one of the members that helps us out a lot is going to be travelling, so I will have to sit down with with Elder C to think about who could help us out. Even the poorest areas have wifi. It is really interesting. The houses can be really small and made of mud, but they will always have a TV, a cell phone, and internet access. So its not a matter of who would have the conditions, but more of who has the heart. haha. But it won't be a problem.

Lucky missionaries in the states with smart phones. I can't even imagine if we walked around with a smart phone here. Every day we would be robbed. But everyone knows that we don't have anything of worldly value, and they leave us alone. But in Paulista a man tried to take our phone, and I gave it to him, but he didn't want it because the cell phones here that the missionaries use are really small and simple and cheap.

I also finished the Book of Mormon this week. It is always a great experience, and it is giving me a desire to learn more about church history. So maybe I will read Our Heritage now. I don't know. The Book of Mormon is an incredible book, and I know that it is the most powerful tool that we have as missionaries.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Dezembro Já???

This week flew by.  We had M-----'s baptism, which was really cool. She lives with the bishop, and her mom doesn't like the church, so we didn't really know if the mom would mess things up, but M----- bore testimony to her mom that she really knows that the church is true, and her mom gave authorization for her to be baptized.  It was really cool. We have lots of other people that we can work with right now who can be baptized. Some have been taught in the past, and now we are trying to contact them again to follow up. One was a baptismal document that had all of the imformações, including the dad's signature, but he never was baptized. When we went there, we learned that the kid wanted to be baptized, but the Elders were transferred and didn't leave information about him for the new missionaries, so it's just now that we found him again. And it looks like his parents aren't too happy about it, but we will try to do our best to help him out. So we are pretty excited. We think that December will be a great month. 

I can't believe that it is already Christmas again. It feels like it was just a few months ago that we went to the temple for Christmas, but here in 2 or 3 weeks we will be there again. It will be really good to be in the temple. It is a good release that we need as missionaries. Keep up on the reading, it is really cool that President Nelson is doing a bunch of challenges for everyone. I really like it. I will finish The Book of Mormon this week too. The only problem is that we don't get to see other devotionals and things like that, so we can only participate in the challenges in general.

I can't even imagine snow right now. I am melting here. It is getting really hot now. It's humid, so I am always sweating, but this is pretty normal here. I have already gotten used to it. 

I cant believe that BYU lost to Utah again............................  But hey, I will be able to see them beat the Utes next year! haha

I did a split with Elder J------ from Alabama this week, and it was really good. He is a great missionary. He is training, and his son (jr. companion) stayed with Elder C---------- in our area, and they worked really hard. We are starting to see some good success here.

Let me explain the pictures. We are laying on the ground because we cleaned our house really well.  We didn't even do anything last P-day. We just woke up and cleaned, left to the Lan house, bought some cleaning supplies, and returned to clean some more. (You would be so proud of me, mom!)

I cut Elder C---------- hair this week, and it turned out pretty well. He was happy with the cut. I guess that watching mom cut my hair all my life has paid off.

It's tough to eat with the members in this area. I'm not sure why. They usually give us tupperwares and we go home and eat. Or they give us money. In my two weeks in the area we have eaten 3 times with members. The reason we like to eat with members is so we can build relationships and gain their trust so they will be more interested in missionary work and providing us with referrals. Plus it's fun to get to know the members. So we have lots of work to do here. I'm pretty excited, and Elder C---------- is excited too!

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson