Batismo!

Olá!

Today we will have a baptism! J--- V----- has been preparing for the last month, but something was not quite right. We persisted, and we finally found the root of his problem. He was able to resolve it and move forward.  It was a miracle!

This week I was companion to Elder Price.  His companion got his Visa and left late Sunday night to go to his mission in Mexico.  So Elder Price stayed with me in he office, and we just kind of floated between our two areas until yesterday.  It was pretty tiring -- one day sleeping in our house, the next his. So it took a lot out of us this week.  He will be companions with my brother, Elder Duarte (who was also trained by Elder Carrari).  I think here is a picture attached of us together. 

We are excited to see how many more people will be baptized in the near future.  There are some that are marked with a baptismal date, and they seem to be ready to change their lives for the better.  I hope we can help them do just that.

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,
Elder Nielson

Baby Bryan

I would like to share an experience that happened yesterday.  I hope that all can learn something from the example of the little boy I met yesterday.  I hope we can all see how blessed our lives are, and that we can be happy with what we have.

In a letter to President Houseman, I explained this experience:

We had the chance to give a blessing last night to a baby named Bryan.  He has a rare muscle disease.  Where his brain isn't able to control and fire up the muscles.  So he needs a respirator that gives the pressure in his lungs that the diaphragm would give him to be able to breath. He is 9 months old, and he has been in the Hospital Portuguese for the last 7 months.  He is a super animated child, and he is able to communicate with his eyes, which is pretty cool.  It was interesting to see how he, even with so little time in this life, is able to be happy despite his difficulties.  As he was preparing to leave the hospital last week, they took the feeding tube out of his stomach, and it got infected.  So he is still staying there until they can get rid of the infection and close the hole up.  His stomach acid is, however, causing some problems with the closing.

It makes me see that really I don't have anything that I can complain about in this life.  I have very few difficulties.

His mom also showed great faith in God.  She said, "I don't really know God´s purpose for Bryan here on earth.  I don't know if it is his will that he is cured, or that he grows up.  Maybe it's his purpose to come here for a short time and be an example to everyone he knows, teach me and my family very important lessons, and be brought back to God's presence as a perfect, sinless child.  Many people can think that that is something horrible to say, but if it is God´s will, I accept it."

I really cant explain how deep that quote is.  She has such spiritual trust.  For a person to be able to see so many ways that God is working, even amidst the trials, is incredible to me.  I really learned a lot yesterday as we had the opportunity to give Baby Bryan a blessing.

We have a new missionary in the office. Elder A. Ferreira will be the new Housing secretary. Elder Nunes will train him this transfer.  He is from Rio, and he is a great missionary. So the office staff will be a threesome again for a transfer. I look forward to working with him.

I hope you all have a great week, and that you see the good around you, and be happy for all that God has blessed you with.  Even the small things like health, safety, etc., that often pass unnoticed.

Elder Nielson

P.S.  Like my new cup, Riley?

Crazy Week

Hey Everyone,

So this week was super crazy. It started off by us and the AP's having 13 investigators to church, so that was great. We also rounded up a bunch of 12 year old kids and had them come to the meetings which was a disaster. Never again. They got bored during the second hour (Sunday School) and left the class. But they didn't go home. They hung out at the church and started playing some loud music. We had to admonish them a couple of times that they needed to either be in the class or head home. But they had come with our ward mission leader who uses his VW minivan to round people up and bring them to church. So they had to wait for a ride home. We did get them back into the class, but when it was over, they were the first ones to the minivan and everyone else had to wait until they got dropped off. Who knows what might come of it, but right now it didn't seem like a positive experience.

We helped two sets of missionaries move to new apartments back to back on Monday and Tuesday. One was a three hour one way trip into the interior. We saw some cool landscapes that reminded us a little of Africa (or at least the movie The Lion King). During one of the moves, I was carrying a stack of boards and went past the apartment. As I was coming back down the stairs, my foot slipped and I bounced down the stairs on my back with boards landing on top of me. Fortunately, my head didn't hit every step on the way down, but my back is feeling a little stiff. But I'm okay.

Wednesday was a holiday, so everyone was avoiding work. Everything was shut down. However, we needed to hang a whiteboard in an apartment, but when we got there, the doorman told us we couldn't use a drill in the apartment because it was a holiday (people sleeping in, I guess). After some discussion, we said we needed to do some other things as well and went up to the apartment. It was on the top floor so there were no sleepers above us, and the doorman would not be able to hear from the first floor. We checked with neighbors on both sides who had no problem with us drilling. So we quickly buzzed 8 holes and go the white board hung without disturbance or incident..

Thursday I went to the Federal Police to renew 4 visas. While there, I ended up helping a man from Texas do a first register to get home. He couldn't understand Portuguese and apparently didn't have all the paperwork he needed. I was able to translate for he and the agent. He had his computer and a heat printer (no toner required) and was able to print out what he needed. He was very grateful and I was sad I didn't have an English Book of Mormon. But I have his address and I'll see that he gets one. He has a wife and two kids, and I could picture them dressed in white. He is a welder working for a large U.S. company.

Friday I worked in the office trying to catch up with everything that we missed earlier in the week.

We have been finding new people to teach, including a man named Pedro. His nickname is Fofinho (little cutie) that some little kid gave him and it stuck. He is super interested in the Book of Mormon.  He and his wife are legally married, and we are hopeful that they will come to church tomorrow.  We will go over there right now to try and teach him.

Overall, a pretty crazy and productive week. Hope you all have a great week.

Love,
Elder Nielson

Leo and his mother Rosangela

Our lunch today.

Apartment buildings of people we are working with.