Ola todo!

First I would like to talk a little about Elder Bednar!

He is a little shorter than he appears in General Conference.  When he walked in, we all stood up, and he was hard to see. He is pretty short.  But he was awesome.  First thing he said, " You are not going to write everything I say."  We all had started writing what he was saying, and looked up really confused.  He wanted us to write what the Spirit was saying to us, and not what he was saying.  I entered the meeting fasting, and it made it all the better!  The Spirit was so strong.  He just had a question and answer session going. We studied four talks prior to the meeting, and he asked what we learned, and everyone was answering, and he would ask one follow up question.  It was really cool!

He taught us in a very straight forward relaxed way.  He didn't give a talk, but rather asked us questions and testified and taught as we answered.  It was such a good experience.  He was so calm and every word made you think.  It was really a cool experience.

One comment that stuck out to me was this: "Our prayers start when we say Amen."  Meaning that we need to pray with faith, but faith is a principle of action, so we need to get up and work to make these things happen.  If we pray for the people that weren't at church this week, we have to go out and bring them to church.  It was a cool thought.

Last week at the lan house Elder F----- was watching YouTube. When I saw I told him to leave it, and he was a little angry.  During Companionship inventory, I was praying to talk about this without having any contention.  And that's just what happened. I asked what I can do better, and he opened up and started saying he needed to be better. We left there with a determination to be better. But nothing has changed. So I'm a little frustrated. On top of that, an elder asked me this week "Has he told you he has permission to use Facebook?"  I said, "Yes. President authorized it because his family can't talk any other way."  He said, "No. He says that to all his comps, but it's not true."  

So I asked President Houseman in my email, and we will see what the truth of the matter is. He started talking about going home one transfer early because he is dying.  But then he talks about everything that he is going to watch and buy when he gets home.  So I'm a little worried about him.

We spent the last two P-days at home with our district playing cards and eating food.  I put a picture of the couscous that we ate today for you, Dad.  Also put a picture of a worn out Elder F----- sleeping.  

We did however manage to find some great investigators this week.  We should have one or 2 baptisms coming up here in a little bit.  We have some great investigators.  Rafael, Dora, Anderson, Elba, Marilha, Edimilson, Maira, Felipe, Alice, Lucas. If you could keep them in your prayers, that would be great.  

The first 4 are progressing, and Rafael will be baptized this Saturday, or next Saturday. We have to see when we talk to him tomorrow.

One thing that I am learning to do a lot better is to just talk to people and share the gospel.  I'm trying to meet my goals: I am doing a minimum of 5 contacts between lessons, and I can really see it helping me improve as a missionary.  So I am doing great. Don't worry about me, I am fine! 

I hope all is well at home!

Love

Elder Nielson

5 Meses!!!

Olá Todos!

This week was pretty good.  We taught 14 new people on Thursday.  We gave an invitation for one member to invite some people over for a family night. He told us he would try to think of some people, and when we went there, he had brought 10 people!  Eight neighbors and two of his sisters that live way out in the interior. It was really cool to see him take our invite and do something great with it!

We have two people that can be baptized here in a little while.  One is R-----.  He called a friend that's a member and asked to talk with us.  We came and taught him, and he accepted our baptismal invitation and came to church yesterday.  We will be working a lot with him the next two weeks, but he is really cool!

The other is M---- d-- D----, or D---.  She was a referral from one of our members.  The member gave us her name only for the fact that she isn't part of the Assembleia De Deus...  But she is really good. She came to church with us too, and she really liked it.  We taught her son last night, and he was really interested too.  But he was amazed that we got her to go to church.  He said that she really doesn't like church.  But we all know that it was the Spirit that helped her have the desire to go.

We had a split this week, and I was with our DL.  At the end, he said, "Your goal last time was to talk more with people. How do you think you're doing with that?"  And we sat there for a couple of minutes and looked at how much better I was at just communicating.  Asking for directions, opening my mouth to introduce the gospel, and initiating lessons.  So that was something that really gave me some hope.  

During the split, we were walking and a dog started barking really loud.  Elder P------- put his hand out and said "Cala Boca!"  Or "shut your mouth", and the dog was silent.  We both turned our heads to look at each other with amazement on our faces.  It was pretty funny, and he said, "I have the priesthood."  He said it in English, and I almost died laughing. 

But anyways, things are going good here. I hope that everything is good back home, Love you all!

Elder Nielson

I think my comp is watching me....

Ola todos!

First, we had a baptism fall through this week, so that made Saturday and Sunday a bit tough.  F----- has been an investigator forever! He knows all the names of missionaries for the past 10 years.  He just has a fear of the water.  So we will be trying to help him if we can find him.

We still had our schedule for Carnival this week.  So I got to read a lot in Jesus the Christ.  It is really cool.  I am going to keep reading in it when I have free time.  

Probably three or four times during this week I woke up at about 5 am, and when I looked over at Elder F-----, he was just sitting there with his eyes opened staring at me.  So that was pretty awkward.  I would role over and just pretend I saw nothing.  One night he was laying in bed as I was reading, and I looked over.  He had his head under his pillow, but he was watching me from under his pillow.  So we will see if this continues and what is up with it.  It will be something interesting, that's for sure.

We ran a couple of times this week, and one morning the bugs were pretty wicked.  I took a picture, because when we got back home, they were everywhere.  I had them in my eyes, my mouth, it was crazy!  

Today we played soccer in Massaraduba and had a little barbeque.  It was pretty fun.  It rained on us for an hour straight as we played and it made for a great time.  We have some pretty cool people in our mission!

The work is still going strong here.  We are struggling a bit with helping people keep commitments, especially going to church.  We can leave and try to drag 10 people to church, and everyone of them will avoid going.  It's pretty tough, but we have a split this week, and that will definitely be something I ask for help with. Oh, and Elder Bednar will be visiting our mission. I'm really excited for that. 

I will be trying to focus on ways to motivate others, and use this transfer as a time to grow and strengthen my language and interactions with others.  These are things I can for sure control.  If we are walking somewhere , I can always stop and make a contact in the street.  

I hope you all have a great week!

Thanks for all you guys do!

Elder Nielson

Novo Transferência

Ola todos!

This week has been kind of crazy with transfers, and Carnival...  First, we had a family night Monday with a bunch of members, and took a photo because it was Elder Carrari's last time.  Then Tuesday we had a little party for Elder Carrari and it was good.  Then Wednesday was transfers.  The Mission has missionaries travel to their new areas alone now, so when Elder Carrari left, I had to go meet up with our district leader and wait for Elder Felipe to come to Jordão.  

He is really interesting.  He is from São Paulo, not right in the city but in the part that is a little more country. He really likes Anime.  He has this transfer and 2 more before he goes home, so I'm hoping that's going to give him some fire to work hard.

To meet Elder Felipe, I got stuck on a bus for almost two hours. But I made it to him without problems.  We were able to work Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday we had an adjusted schedule for Carnival.  From Friday until next Tuesday, we will leave our house at 8:30 am and return at 5:30 pm.  We do our studies at night, and with our extra time, we will read Jesus the Christ.  It is really interesting.  

Carnival is pretty wild. We had huge block parties last night that just had music blaring until really late.  Everyone was drinking and dancing, but we were in our house before it was really up and going.  I'm surprised that we found a Lan house open to be able to get emails and write, because during these weeks, they just party all night and sleep all day.

But we are safe here and trying to avoid these parties as much as possible.  Last night the party was pretty much at our front door and, from what members have said, it won't be the last night like that. So we are trying to pound as much work into our day as possible.

Love you guys!

Elder Nielson

Transferência!

Oi!

I just got my transfer, and I will be staying in Jordão!  My comp will be Elder H. Felipe.  We don't know anything about him, but I am really excited.  Elder Carrari received a call this morning from President Houseman and will be a secretary of the mission.  He will work in the office with all the references.  It's weird that I will be working here with someone else.  I'm thankful for him and everything that he taught me!

I just learned that Elder Haynie from my CTM district will be in my district again!  He is such a cool and good missionary.  He plays the piano better than anyone that I know!  He is the comp of our district leader, so I will have the opportunity to learn from him during a split at some point!

This week we saw a chicken sleeping in a tree, so I had to take a picture of that.  

We had a lot of contacting this week, and I am feeling good about that.  We have tons of people to start working with now.  So this week will probably be a lot of visiting these people that we talked to and beginning to teach them.

Barbara, one pf the members here received her mission call last night.  She is going to Cubá!  So that's pretty cool.  And Wallison will be getting his call this week.  It definitely brings back a lot of memories of when I opened my call.  

So we just got our rules for Carnival, and we will return to our house at 7:30 and do our studies at night.  This is just because Carnival is Crazy!  From what I have learned it is just 3 weeks of fantasy. So everyone has a fantasy, and goes to huge parties all over the place.  Gabriel explained that its really hot here, so people typically don't wear clothes when they go out. So yeah, we will be careful with that.  Everyone here calls Carnival Apostosia or apostacy because is just breaking the word of wisdom and Law of Chastity everywhere.

Things are great here In Jordão, and I am ready spend another transfer here.  Time to go to work!

Muito Produtivo

Oi!

This week was really productive.  I made goals to open my mouth to new people and introduce them to our church and the Book of Mormon more.  As I worked for these goals, we found a lot of new people to teach.  Some of them weren't very excited, but some of them seemed very interested.  I can't wait to start working with these people! It's a little sad. We are finding all these great people, but with transfers, I think both of us may be leaving. 

We had a 'Castanha' on Tuesday. So caju is actually a fruit. I didn't know about it before coming here.  It has this big nob on the top of it that you take and burn.  Then you crack open the nob and have the nut to eat. It was really good.

Continuando

Sorry, they had to cut the power here at the lan house for a little bit, so they told us to send what we had real quick.  But yeah, castanha was really cool.

This week we opened the Book of Mormon with one kid and asked if we could return to his house and teach him and his family another day, and he said, "My mom is down there." So we followed him. He took off on his bike and got to her about 50 feet ahead of us. He said something to her, and she looked to us, and immediately turned away... She turned to her son and started shaking her head and waving her finger saying no no no no...  When we got there, she is part of the Assembleia de Deus church.  It's this huge church here with a building on every block.  If their members talk to us, then they basically get excommunicated...  So its really hard to teach people of the Assembleia.

I haven't had a real sandwich in 4 months. Yeah, I hit the four month mark this week. Its crazy!  Oh speaking of sandwiches, tuna here is really expensive right now.  Last night the Relief Society gave us some little sandwiches, and they were tuna sandwiches, but they used sardines instead.  I thought that was funny.  They were still really good.  But its funny that they switch to sardines when tuna is expensive.

But the work is going good here.  About ninety percent of what we teach is "if you live how God wants you to live, you will be blessed by Him. This isn't us saying this. This is a promise He made to us in the scriptures hundreds of times!"  Its very true.

We have transfers next week sometime, so when I write next Monday, I should know if I am staying in Jordão or not.

I hope all is well with everyone!  Love you all!

Muitas Coisas

Oi todos!

This week was pretty crazy!  Last P-
day we played some solid basketball with another dupla in our district (Elders Jacklin and Pinheiro). They are really funny.  We had to take some pictures of how sweaty we were afterwards. Then we had a pidgeon outside our front door that just sat there for almost two days.  Had to get a picture with that!  

We had Zone Conference this week, and it was really good! The main take away was "Abrir sua boca!"  or open your mouth!  I think that is something I can really do better at ... just talking in whatever situation I'm in.  It's going to be the best for helping others and for helping me learn Portuguese faster. I also met Elder Farnsworth from Mapleton, Utah there.  He is a zone leader right now, and it was really cool to see someone so close to home. It's funny that I had to come all the way to Brasil to meet someone that lives 5 minutes from my house!

I saw a monkey this week. This lady just had it sitting next to her.  So we asked her if it was vaccinated, and she assured us it was all vaccinated.  So we took some pictures with it on our shoulders.  It was really cool.  I look really scared because it was grabbing at my ear the whole time.

Our investigators are doing good. The biggest miracle this week was that R---- found work this week.  He is going to drive a bus for the city. We got all the papers ready for their wedding last week, and this week he finally found work.  The Lord truly blesses us when we put our faith in Him!  Their going to get married the second week of February, after Carnival.

I've have a rash that just won't go away. It started the first week I arrived in the mission field and has lingered. I decided it was time to mention it to Sister Houseman who set me up an appointment with a doctor to take a look. He prescribed some antibiotic. We'll see how that works. Not a big deal. Pretty common with the heat and humidity here.

This week was good!  I hope that everything is well, and everyone is healthy!  Love you all!

Love,

Elder Nielson