Waiting for Elder Nielson - He is On His Way Back Home!

It feels like our family is holding our collective breath(s) in anticipation of Elder Nielson's arrival tomorrow. He is on the plane somewhere between Sao Paulo, Brazil and Miami, Florida. (Isn't that a direct path through the Bermuda Triangle!?! Nooooo!) It doesn't seem real and won't be until he comes walking up to us at the airport. We can't wait.

I've thought a lot about how amazing it is that these young men and women go out into the world with very little life experience armed with their faith, their scriptures, and the love in their hearts for the people they serve, and they literally work miracles in the lives of God's children. Some grew up with missionary service as a family legacy. Others are the first in their family to serve and are starting their own legacy for others to follow. They all carry with them the precious gift of the restored gospel with the power to change hearts and the truth that points to a better way of life.

I think of the families the missionaries leave behind and the sacrifices the families make. It is no small thing to send a child off to a far off place with so many unknowns. To know they may go without air conditioning, warm showers or toilet facilities. That they will be confronted with cultural and language barriers that they must overcome. The food will be very different from what they are used to and there will be health issues that we know nothing about. It's not easy! I think of the multitude of prayers for their safety, well being, and that Heavenly Father will guide their footsteps and teach them those lessons that with help them to grow to be like the Savior.

And in the end, all of this turns for the good of the missionary. Trevor's mission has been in every way a glorious experience for him and for us. His mission parents, President and Sister Houseman, have loved and mentored him from the beginning. They have been amazing. The members in Brazil have opened their homes and their hearts to him and have enriched his life. He has had great companions and has learned from each of them. The blessings our family has experienced as he has served are tangible and real.

Now Elder Nielson returns home to face more unknowns. I love Elder Holland's thoughts as he prepared to return from his mission to England. He said:

Exactly twenty years ago last fall I stood on the famous white cliffs of Dover overlooking the English Channel, the very channel which twenty years before that ran as the only barrier between Hitler and England’s fall. In 1962 my mission was concluding, and I was concerned. My future seemed very dim and difficult. My parents were then serving a mission also, which meant I was going home to live I-did-not-quite-know-where and to pay my way I-did-not-quite-know-how. I had completed only one year of college, and I had no idea what to major in or where to seek my career. I knew I needed three more years for a baccalaureate degree and had the vague awareness that graduate school of some kind inevitably loomed up behind that.

I knew tuitions were high and jobs were scarce. And I knew there was an alarmingly wider war spreading in Southeast Asia, which could require my military service. I hoped to marry but wondered when—or if—that could be, at least under all these circumstances. My educational hopes seemed like a never-ending path into the unknown, and I had hardly begun.

So before heading home I stood one last time on the cliffs of the country I had come to love so much,

And there I read again,

We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. What is our aim? . . . Victory—victory at all costs; victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be. . . 

Conquer we must; as conquer we shall. . . . We shall never surrender. -- Winston Churchill

Blood? Toil? Tears? Sweat? Well, I figured I had as much of those as anyone, so I headed home to try. I was, in the parlance of the day, going to give it “my best shot,” however feeble that might prove to be. Now at the same time in your life, I ask you to do the same.

We are anxious to help Elder Nielson chart his course and to not assimilate back into his old life but to build on where he is now and continue the ascent. He has served well and honorably. Well done, son. We are proud of you.

Here are the last pictures of Elder Nielson in the mission field:

A Time for Reflection (Last Letter)

Well.... This is the last time that I will be writing home.  I would like to thank all of you for the love and support that I have felt during these two years.  I love my mission!  I recommend it for all!  There is no way to express this time in words.  It has to be lived.  It is  difficult, but as we learned in Conference this weekend, sometimes the hard things make room for more happiness in our lives.  I know this to be true.  In the mission you learn so much, and you meet so many wonderful people that teach you valuable life lessons.

I can't believe how fast time flys.  It feels like a short time ago that I met Elder Price, Elder Jacobsen and Elder Haynie.  That we were passing through the MTC and just trying to learn Portuguese.  It goes by way too fast.  When I think of why the mission can't be longer, all that comes to mind is that we need these experiences to strengthen our real lives.  We need to use what we have learned and apply it back home to make ourselves and our families better.  I hope that during these two years I have become what the Lord needs me to become, and that I can continue serving after the mission.

I will be bringing home many fond memories from these two years, and I pray that Brasil can keep growing stronger.  I love the Brazilian people, and wish the best for them.  But we still have a week to work and make the most of this time! I love you all, and hope that you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Time is Short

Elder Nielson sent the following pictures of a baptism last week and some sight seeing on P-day. He is working hard to get as much done as he can before he comes home in two weeks.

Here are the pictures:

Splits and Zone Conference

This week was great! I had a split with Elder Nielsen, and it was really funny to see peoples faces when they realized it was the same last name (almost).  We had some good laughs during the day, but it was a really productive day.  We got lots done, and I learned so much from him.  He is new in the mission (he is in his second transfer), but you can feel the Spirit he has when he teaches and testifies.

We are working to prepare our training for Zone Conference that will happen this week.  We will be talking about beginning with the end in mind (Stephen R Covey-ism). We will focus on planning what we will teach and which invitations we will extend to our investigators during the meetings.  It should be a pretty good experience.  And we are hoping to be able to pass all the information in a simple way so that it can be understood.

As of this week, I've officially been a missionary for 2 years now. Wow! I am just trying to keep my head to the grind stone until the end.  I don't want to leave regrets here in the mission.

I hope you all have a great week!  I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Busy Week

This week was super busy, we had a new leadership training on Tuesday and the Mission Leadership Counsel on Wednesday.  They are really great experiences to grow and to learn more about how I can be a better missionary.  I realized that there are tons of things that I can be better at with teaching techniques and planning more effectively and other things. 

We were able to work a lot in our area this week as well. My new (and last) area is in Rio Jordão. It covers one of my old areas in Jordao Alto. So it is fun to see some of the members and investigators who knew me at the first of my mission before I could speak Portuguese. One member mentioned that I was pretty green when I was first serving there, and I was.

We are working with a large number of investigators, some who I knew before and whose circumstance have changed to clear the way for them to move forward in the gospel. We are really hopeful that we can mark many of them for baptism

The time is just flying by.  This week went by so fast.  The church has a bunch of talks and reflective questions that we are asked to study during our last transfer. They are designed to help us prepare for post mission life.  But I don't want it to end. My mission is so good. And there is so much to be learned and to be done yet. 

We don't have much time today. We got together with a bunch of other elders in our zone to play soccer. I just played goalie, but my knee is hurting. I think my soccer days are over. And this lan house isn't too good. I'm sorry we couldn't video chat, but we're heading out.  I love you guys, and I hope that you guys have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Photographic Post

We aren't getting any written reports, so I'm going to try and piece together the last couple of weeks from information received from video calls and from pictures that have been posted.

This is Elder Nielson's last P-Day in the office. He will have a new assignment for his last transfer, but he has not idea what it will be yet. He is hoping to be able to train a new missionary and is excited to focus solely on missionary work. He has loved his time serving as the executive secretary for the mission. He has learned a lot and gained some valuable experience. And he's had the greatest companions. 

Elder Nielson was scheduled to come  home this transfer, so he would be home in a couple of days, but he learned his visa doesn't expire until the first part of next year, and he was able to stay an extra transfer. So he will be home the middle part of October. We love that he loves his mission and the Brazilian people enough to stay as long as possible and serve. He feels that there are still things he needs to accomplish.

Here is a picture of the latest baptism (two Saturdays ago). I don't remember her name, but she is a great lady, and as you can see, she had a lot of support at her baptism. Elder Nielson said she lives in a pretty rough part of town with drug dealers and gangs. But she is known as someone you don't mess with, and because of that, the missionaries were more safe in her area than in other parts of the city. She put the word out that they were not to be hassled, so they felt very safe. Also, because of the kinds of activities going on in that area, besides drug activity, here is very little other crime because they avoid doing things that will bring the police in to confiscate the drugs. But this new sister could be the means of bringing many people to a knowledge of the gospel and to the waters of baptism.

Elder Nielson and his companions have several good investigators they are working with.

The highlight of this week is that President Russell M. Nelson is in Brazil for a Regional Conference. On Friday, he had a meeting with just the missionaries in Brazil. Elder Nielson's mission participated via video feed from Brasilia. President Nelson taught the missionaries more effective ways to teach with the Book of Mormon. Trevor thought it was excellent... that rather than starting an investigator out with "I, Nephi, being born of goodly parents...", it may be more effective to have them study about Christ's teachings in the Americas in 3rd Nephi. He reminded them to teach with joy.

Today the missionaries get to listen to the prophet speak in Sao Paulo. 

Apparently one of the favorite things for the office staff to do is to steal Sister Houseman's phone and leave random pictures for her to discover later. She sent us several. Here are a few:

The last couple of weeks have been filled with traveling to mission apartments, hanging white boards and cork boards for them. Also, as they will be receiving 20 new missionaries, they have had to open up new apartments. So they have scheduled with cleaners to go in and clean the apartments.

Fun with Food:

 

The office elders accompanied Sister Chambers to a market on P-Day and she kindly bought them all McDonalds.

We Bought a Zoo!

I just sent a google photo link that you can see the pictures from this week! We went to the zoo today for P-Day for something different to do. It was fun. Amazing what monkey's can do with their tails. Very cool acrobatics. We do wear our missionary clothes when we go to public places on P-Day.

But this week was awesome!  We had Zone Conference, and we learned lots about how to be better missionaries.  This Zone Conference we learned that we need to be like bees, and search for and take good care of God´s children.  We are so happy with the progress of our investigators.

B------ will be baptized tonight.  She has been coming to church on her own for 4 months now.  We found her through A-----, her "son in law".  I knew him from when I was in Paulista, and he is dating B------´s daughter.  So one thing led to another. We started teaching her, and she started to keep her commitments, and she is super excited.  She knows lots of members, and the Relief Society president is in constant contact with her.  We know that there is still lots of work to be done with the rest of her family. We are excited to get it done!

B------ is excited to go to the temple, so we are hoping that she can go soon.  When we taught about temples and baptisms for the dead, she had a great comprehension and instantly wanted to go to the temple.  She is in contact with the stake family history director, and they are working for her to be able to bring a family name to the temple the first time. It's really a huge miracle.  Because of one connection, we found someone that was prepared to hear the gospel, and through that one person, God will be able to do a great work.  Not only is there lots of work that she will be able to do with her children, but also with her loved ones that have already passed!

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson

P.S. This isn't B------'s baptism. This is V-----'s baptism from last Saturday. I'll share pictures of B------'s baptism next week.

Great Week

Hey!

Recap from last Saturday:

I always forget to talk about what happened at the end of last week.  L---- was baptized!  It was a huge miracle!  She was the first person that we met in the "Predinhos" --  a less active member that lives there told us where she lives and told us the missionaries talked to her many years ago, and that maybe she would like to hear our message again.  We have been working with her ever since.  There were times where we had to leave for a while because she wasn't really progressing, but she found friends and really started moving forward. She was able to quit drinking, and she took this important step in her life.  The bishop baptized her, and it was a great experience for him as well. The next step is to bring all of our recent converts to the temple.

This week we were able to go to the Federal Police to renew some visas and get lots of things done in the office as well.  Things are going well.  Next week is zone conference, so we have been preparing for that a bit this week as well.

V-----´s baptism is tonight.  He is excited, and so is his dad, I----.  He is the man who kept putting off his baptismal date for various reasons. But his girlfriend was baptized last week and I think that made him more committed. It should be a good baptism, I'll tell you about it next week.

My goal before I come home is to find and baptize a whole family. What a blessing that would be!

I hope you all are having a great week, Love you guys!

Elder Nielson

Pretty Normal Week

This week was pretty good.  A-- and S-------- were baptized last week.  Sadly V----- wasn't, but we were able to mark his baptism for August 10th. We will be praying that he can keep preparing and feel the desire to be baptized.

The baptisms were great. The only hitch was that we didn't get the font all the way full before we ran out of water, so they were baptized in about 30 inches of water. Not ideal, but they were able to be completely submerged.

This week we have been working a lot with L-----.  She is S--------´s grandma, and she is the first person that we knew in the "Predinhos".  She has been coming along slowly, and we are very happy for her progressing.  The ward is excited, and the bishop will baptize her tonight.

L----- is excited to do temple and family history work. She expressed to us that she didn't have a great relationship with her mother up until right before she passed away. She felt that her mother changed her heart about their relationship and tried to make up for things before she died. L----- feels that doing her mother's temple work would be a great way to bind them closer together. What a great testimony and faith she has in the temple covenants and sealing power!

We are trying to find new people that we can teach, and we are getting to know new people each day.  Elder H-------, the elder I'm training to take over as Executive Secretary, is doing great. He is already reminding me of things that I have forgotten.  Someone will ask us to do something at the start of the day, and when we get to the end, he reminds me that we forgot to do it.  So that is great.  It's an awesome attribute that will help him succeed in the office. 

I hope you all have a great week!  Love you guys!

Love,
Elder Nielson

Transfer Prep

Boa tarde!

It's been a pretty crazy week.  We had tons of documents that needed to be signed and notarized.  So that was the first part of the week.  Then the assistants got the transfer, and so we have spent the last few days outside of the office doing a bunch of stuff.  We went shopping with Sister Houseman to get everything that will be needed for housing this transfer, and a bunch of other stuff. We barely had room for the purchases and the passengers bringing it back. Then we ran some errands and checked a house that has been closed for a while to see if it was clean.  And it was pretty dirty.  The windows were left open, and the whole house was full of dust.  I walked out sneezing after about 20 minutes in the house.

We have been having difficulties with our investigators that are progressing to accept and follow through with the baptismal invite.  They will accept and not follow through, or just 'accept.  But we know that the Lord is working with them, and that they are learning a lot.  I can see their testimonies growing, and I hope that it will be enough to bring them to the waters of baptism.  Our focus has been to find new people and to strengthen our teaching pool.  It was cool this week, we ran into a young man that I met in a division when I was in my second area.  He explained that he was visiting his friend that lives close to the church here, and asked us if we wanted to meet him.  We accepted, and we met V-------.  He is about 24, and I have a good feeling about him.  He is from Rio. He seems a little shy, but I believe he will like the Gospel message.

We are excited for another transfer, and to see what happens throughout the mission.  It's a different vision of things when you are in the office.  I'm watching to see where the people who need to renew their visas will be and to see what will happen.

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

Love,
Elder Nielson

A Couple of Weeks Combined

Note: We have been out of town and on the road, so we have missed a couple of weeks reporting on Elder Nielson's happenings. Here is an update:

Here is a picture that I---- requested we take at church on Sunday. I---- is a man we met while doing contacts in our area. He is a member but hasn't been active for years. But he wanted us to teach his son and his son's girlfriend. V----- and A-- are the two at his side.  They are preparing for baptism, and we were so happy to see them at church finally.  We know that they have great potential, and I---- can return to full activity in the church, and be a huge blessing in this ward.

Here are some pics of what happened on my birthday.  When I woke up Elder A. Ferreira had made a birthday shrine.  I thought that was pretty cool.  We had made a cake, and he put sweetened condensed milk and chocolate syrup in it.  That was a pretty good surprise.  In the office Sister Houseman bought some little pies and pastries for everyone, and before the new missionary follow-up training, they all sang Happy Birthday.  It was a great birthday!

My birthday also included a meal at a Churrascaria! (like Tucanos) ;) I took some pictures just to make dad's mouth water a little. (And yes I do know that the plates are empty in the second pic. We finished eating it all.)

The week after my birthday we spent most of the time on the road with President and Sister Houseman.  We traveled through the interior or our mission, and we did inspections in 21 apartments.  It was three days of travel.  And it was a great experience and opportunity to get to know lots of the mission.  We had many experiences that cannot be summed up in one email.  Each day had new surprises, challenges, and adventures.  It was a great time.

But our miracle is that with all the time we spent outside of our area, the Lord blessed and protected, and guided our investigators.  B---- and L---- had baptismal dates marked, and with the help of the Lord, and their own desires for righteousness they were able to continue preparing and to be baptized.  Its incredible how the lord is mindful of all of his children and has the best in mind for all of them.

This past week was back to normal duties and working with our investigators. Probably the scariest thing was that the Houseman kids have been in the U.S. visiting family and they returned this week. But it was not certain that their daughter had the proper paperwork to get back in to the country. Her visa was about to expire when she left on the trip. So being my responsibility, I was particularly nervous. I had consulted with a couple of lawyers at the Area office for a work around and followed their instructions closely (what original documents and copied documents she needed) so I felt we had things in order until I spoke to another person who said that that was all wrong. But I explained to him the instructions I had and he was still questioning whether or not it would work. I'm happy to report that the Houseman kids are back in Brazil with their parents safe and sound. Most likely due to some divine intervention, but I was relieved it all worked out.