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!!!!

Brief Letter, But Several Pictures

This week was normal.  We had a meeting for the new missionaries Tuesday and I learned lots.

*At this point, Elder Nielson expresses some frustration with the new missionary he is training and asks for some advice on what to do. I won't include the details.*

But this week was good. We saw Elder Jacklin a lot, and last P-day, we saw Elder D. Sousa for the last time before he goes home in 2 weeks.  I'll really miss him. He was a great companion to me. 

So I will send some other photos too.

But I love you guys. I hope your all doing fine,

Elder Nielson

This Week Passed By So Fast!

Olá,

This week went by fast.  It was a pretty busy week with not much to show for the work, but we have lots of faith that the Lord will bless us with success if we continue working hard.

One scripture that I have thought about a lot lately is in Heleman 13: 26-27.

It talks about how the people reject the true prophets of God, but when someone comes by saying that they are a prophet of God (teaching them that they are certain in their sins),  they lift him up as a true prophet.

It is something that we see a lot in the mission field.  Not that we are prophets necessarily, but we are trying to bring the true gospel of Christ to everyone.  But most of the time, other pastors or leaders of other churches have already spoken bad about us.  So they neglect the truth we are bringing to follow their self-proclaimed prophet.

It also reminds me of the verse in 1st or 2nd Nephi that says that the truth is painful for those living in sin.

How grateful I am that we have a living Prophet that we can trust and learn from to guide us and help us to return to His presence.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Nielson

P.S.  We took these pictures last P-day of the Catholic church here in the center of Paulista.  I think it's pretty cool.

P.S.S. Oh yeah, and next week I will hit 1 year on my mission. What did you and Riley do to celebrate your one year anniversary?  Give me some ideas I can use.

"Oi, Elders. Do you guys want a baptism this Saturday???

OOOOOLLLLLAAA

This week was pretty crazy.  We were walking in the street tuesday night, and our bishop called us and asked us "Oi Elders, do you guys want a baptism this Saturday?"  We obviously said yes.

Irmã Bel was baptized 30 years ago.  She had been frequenting the church for a long time, but never was baptized because she wasnt legally married.  The bishop called the Mission president in that time, and explained.  The mission president called her to his office, and talked with her, and explained that he had prayed, and felt that she could be baptized if her and her husband promised to get married quickly.

So they were baptized, but with the money the church gave them, her husband blew it away.  They ended up sparating, and she moved to another part of Brasil.  So the document was never completed.

So we had the lovely opportunity to help her be baptized and confirmed this week.  Elder Dornelles baptized her, and it was a pretty sweet experience for everyone there.

We also had some training with Elder Edvaldo de Barros Pinto, Jr. of the Seventh Quorum of the Seventy. It was so good. He referenced a talk that explains 4 types of missionaries.  The first is disobedient, does what he wants, and goes home early.  The second is disobedient, does what he wants, and is able to serve the two years.  the third is obedient, worthy, tries to do what the Lord wants him to do but sometimes does what he wants to do. He doesn't serve with all his heart, and he compares his progress with others.  The fourth missionary is obedient, worthy, always tries to do what the Lord wants, and serves with all his heart.  He compares his progress and success with himself, and he is consecrated to the work. It was really great.  It got me thinking about how I can consecrate myself more to the work. 

You will also see in the pictures the house of the lady I told you guys has 70 cats.  So you will be able to see Elder Dornelles in the middle of all of them.  He was in heaven.... He loves cats!

Also yesterday at church, Jaciane and Danielle visited my ward.  Danielle iss a member in Jardim Massangana (one of my last areas) who introduced us to Jaciane, and she was baptized.  Danielle has cousins in our ward, so they came to church with them.  It was really cool to see them again, and it sounds like Jaciane is still preparing to serve a mission when she has a year in the church.

So if my letters have been a little rushed, I apologize.  The last few weeks we had lots of information with transfers, and a mission tour coming up, and it took up a lot of our time in the lan house.  But things are going great.  One of our cool experiences other than having a baptism fall form heaven was this --  we were in a part of our area really far from our house, and we made a contact with a man.  He started talking with us, and he was really interesting.  As the time was getting closer for us to leave, I started signalling for Elder Dornelles to cut the chat, so we wouldn't get home super late.  But after a couple more rounds of politics and the bible, I really had to put my foot down. So when we were able to leave, we were really late.  So we started walking as fast as possible.  I was praying because I knew that we were going to have to use the highway to return home.  But there is one part that doesn't have a lot of shoulder to walk on, and it is really dark at night.  so I was praying for a Volkswagen bus or something that we could use to not have to walk in this part at night.  A ride from a member or anything.  We were just entering this part of the highway when a car pulled over and offered us a ride.  The man was a member form one of the neighboring wards, and he could tell we were running a little late, so he picked us up, and turned around to give us a ride home.  It was super special for me to see God answer a prayer so fast. It was a prayer, and an answer almost simultaneously. These small miracles happen a lot in the mission field.

So that's my week.  I hope that everything is going well with everyone.

Love
Elder Nielson

First Week of Training

What's up, everyone!?

So this week I went to Recife Wednesday and I got my son!  His name is Elder Dornelles.  His is from Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and the biggest shock to me is that he is 26 years old.  I was imagining someone in the range of 18 or 22, but it is cool.  He got his call one week before he turned 26, so he barely was able to come. He was a member of the Assebleia de Deus before he converted.  He still has some things that he says that just sound like it. Just now I looked to the side and he was in Youtube trying to listen to music.  I had to tell him that we can't do that, and he looked horrified, like nobody had told him this yet.  But he likes to work, so it will be good.

We stayed in Paulista and Elder Plentz went to Bom Conselho. 

Elder Dornelles really likes cats.  Like really likes them.  We were walking home from lunch yesterday and there was a little kitten walking around, and he started saying, "Oh look how cute it is. We need to bring it home and take care of it."  I told him that we can't, because we cant have pets.  But he grabbed it anyway and was trying to think of some way to keep it or bring it to a member.  But it would take over an hour to go to the house of any member and leave the cat there.  So I had to tell him that we can't waste an hour on a cat.  We were already really late, and I think this left him a little unhappy.

But he is learning really fast, and he is excited to work and to magnify his calling.  He is always looking for time to talk with people in the streets.  It is really good.

Wednesday I was able to see Elder Jacklin there.  He was training again, and his new comp was Elder Dornelles' comp in the CTM.  It's a pretty small world! haha.

I hope everything is going well with you guys. Have a great week!

Love
Elder Nielson

Transfer!

We had a transfer today...  But we still don't know what's going to happen.  President Houseman called me last night and called me as a Trainer.  So at least I know that I will be training a new elder.  But the APs are still trying to send out all the information and logistics.  So we don't know who will stay in Paulista and who will go.

This week was pretty normal.  We were able to mark a baptismal date for 2 people.  One is the granddaughter of a member here.  We had already received authorization to baptized her, but we never had the chance to talk with her mom.  But we got the chance and she filled out the baptism document and signed it. We hope in the future to help her mom be baptized too.  And the other is a niece of the same member.  This girl's mom came to her saying that she wanted her kids to be baptized in our church. So we started teaching everything to C---- (granddaughter) and K---- (niece) and this week we will start teaching the nephew J------.  So we will have some good work to do with this family.

But it was a pretty fast week.  I had a split with Elder Dal'evedove who is from my group too.  We came to Recife together.  And I also included a picture of how Elder Plentz fell asleep this week! haha.

But I hope everything is going well, I love you all so much!

Elder Nielson

Batismosssssss!!!!!

Ola!!!

I am happy to report that everything went well this week, and N-------, B--------, and P---- were baptized and confirmed!  We are so happy for them.  They grew so much during the last few weeks that we have know them.  It is incredible to see.  They have so much faith and trust in the Lord.  Even N------- who initially didn't feel the need to be baptized.  A woman from the Catholic church passed by to give her their "sacrament"  and heard that she was going to the Mormon church.  The woman told her, "Now you can't go to two churches.  You are going to have to choose -- the Catholic church or the Mormons?"  N------- said, "Well then I would like to stay with the Mormons."  The woman grabbed her stuff and left, telling N------- that she couldn't return there.

This family is amazing!  I cant wait to see how everything goes with them.  

The baptism was really cool.  It took about 5 minutes for N------- go around back and enter the water.  We thought that we would have to use more than one person to baptize her because she is a little frail.  But she entered the water, and our LMA Sabastião baptized her on the first try.  She was a Champ!!!  It was cool to get to baptized P----.  When I was going to pull him out of the water, his feet lifted off the ground and I was stuck holding him their for a little bit.  But he quickly put his feet on the ground and stood up.  And after the baptism, when they were eating cake, we sang "Sou Um Filho de Deus"  or "I Am a Child of God"  to them, and played the guitar.

I will send a bunch of pictures to you guys.

I hope that all is well back home, Love you guys!!!

Elder Nielson