Video Chat - New and Different

The new policy for missionaries to video chat rather than write home has unintended consequences, one of which is that there is no letter to post to Elder Nielson's Missionary Blog.

We video chatted with Elder Nielson for just under two hours yesterday, and it was great. I doubt we will talk that long most weeks, but that is the time limit President Houseman has set. I'll try to recreate some of the highlights and continue the blog for those who read it. Elder Nielson said he would still try to send an email of happenings, but we will see.

Life in the office is different but enjoyable. Elder Nielson is enjoying the work and his new surroundings. But he's finding that tracking information from a couple hundred missionaries is a daunting task. For example, he will send out an email requesting information from a number of missionaries. It takes several follow ups and reminders to get everything he needs. But it is certainly a life skill that will have many applications in the future.

Elder Nielson and his companion had a baptism Saturday night. It was a man who had been taught but wasn't progressing. But he showed up to church and said that the Spirit told him that the LDS church had so much good and he needed to be involved with it. So they were excited to set a date and have him join. They area also working with a couple who isn't married that have one child. They hope to get them married soon so they can be baptized.

One of the things Elder Nielson loves is fruit drinks that they make there. He said that we think we have a lot of fruit choices in our stores in America, but Brazil has about 10 times more varieties of fruits. So he loves getting fruit drinks/juice. He also loves Brazilian coxhina. they are tear-drop shaped breaded dough full of yummy meat filling. He thinks he could sell them when he comes home out of a food truck.

Anyway, more to come directly from Elder Nielson in future posts.

Questions About Mission Office Life

1. Is the mission office air conditioned?
    Yes the office is air conditioned.

2. Is your apartment at the mission office? Nice apartment or about the same?
    We have an apartment separate from the mission office.  Our apartment is really big and older, because there used to be a bunch of mission secretaries. It has 3 bathrooms, 3 rooms, a kitchen, a family room, and a balcony.

3. How many elders serve in the office besides the AP?
    Right now we have 3 of us in the office.  Elder Price (still) Elder R. Nunes (my comp) and Elder Couto.  R Nunes is the housing secretary, and Couto is the financial secretary.  But we have two missionary couples and a sister that also work in the office. So Elder Couto is training Elder Merrell to take over for him next transfer.  So the only two secretaries next transfer will be Elder R. Nunes and me.  President doesn't use a ton of secretaries, and the couples help out a ton.

4. Tell us more about your duties.
     So I handle the weekly schedule. Mostly the interviews that President has to do with every district, and special interviews on P-days.  I have to handle the visas for all of the missionaries, and all of the temple missionaries too (that come from out of the country).  I prepare the mission journal or newsletter that has President Houseman's message, birthdays for the week, important information (for everyone), the baptisms that happened the previous week, the mission calendar (about 3 weeks into the future). But the biggest task is the visas. And I kind of do security.  I have a second monitor that lets me see all the cameras here, and I can open up the gates to let people in, so that is pretty fun. 

5. Are you companions with one of the APs or with another office staff missionary?
    The AP's are comps, and I am comps with Elder R. Nunes (who is an elder from my group).  Elder Price is with Elder Couto.  So I am Elder Price's comp when we are in the office until we leave at 5 pm. Then I am Elder R. Nunes's comp.

6. Is your new area a good part of the city?
    It's a pretty good area. I am still trying to get to know it. There are lots of buildings and apartments, and it is really tough to enter them without a referral. We work a lot more in the ghettos where the houses are more accessible. In the apartments the standard of living is pretty good, but the ghettos are about like the ghettos in every area that I already have served in.

7. Is the mission home part of the mission office or separate? Is your apartment near the mission office?
    The mission home is separate from the office. It is about 10 minutes from the office in a car and about 20 or 30 minutes walking. Our apartment is really close to the office. It's about 4 minutes walking distance.

8. What is Elder Price doing?
    Elder Price is training me in the office.  He will help me to learn everything that I need to in this transfer so that i can take over and keep up the work next transfer.

We don't eat lunch with the members during the week. We only get a half hour for lunch every day, and we receive extra money to grab something to eat quickly during the week. We only eat with the members on Sundays. 

It is pretty cool, I am liking it a lot.  There is a lot of things to remember, but I know I can do it.

9. Your thoughts on the new policy for missionaries calling home.
     I don't know how I feel about it. I feel like it could turn into a pretty big distraction for a lot of missionaries. It would be good for missionaries that don't come from a family of members to help them see their testimony grow, and help their family join the church.  I even think it would be worse in the start of the mission. If I was suffering with homesickness and was seeing you guys weekly, I think it would slow down the adjusting process. Sometimes you just need to be thrown in, it will hurt to adjust, but it will happen a lot faster. So I will see what happens here. There is a pretty good chance we won't get to Skype every week, but I think its pretty likely that we will be able to use chat and talk back and forth on my P-day.  We are waiting to see what President wants to do.

Love you too!
Elder Nielson

I'm Shocked!

So much has changed.  I received a phone call from Sister Houseman during lunch, talking about a medical appointment for my eczema, and when she finished talking about it, she said, "Oh. President and I wanted to talk to you about something really important together."  President came to the phone and asked if I would accept the designation to be the new Executive Secretary of the mission. I had to stop for a second and think and process what he had said.  He asked, "Are you still there?"  And I had to ask him to repeat the question again because it really caught me off guard.

So I am already in Recife today, and I am starting to receive my training this transfer so that I can take over for Elder P---- next transfer.  It will be really different. We are in the office from 9a - 5p, and we do normal missionary work from 5p - 9p.  My P-Day will switch to Saturday.  President was running a little behind with his interviews today, so Sister Houseman sent me with the Assistants to use the Lan house.  We will eat something real quick and return to the office.  It sounds like it is a 6 month calling, so I should be here until one or two transfers before I go home.

I am trying to learn all the ropes here.  I think I will have more to tell you on Saturday!

Love you all!

Elder Nielson

Outra Semana

This week was pretty normal.  We did a split with the Elders in San Martin, and Elder O. M------ got to stay in our area and lead the work.  He did great! They only got lost once for about 5 minutes, which is pretty awesome for the first time!  Elder A------- is still a great missionary, and their area is doing well.  I like the view form their apartment of the church.

Last week as a district we only had 4 people that came to church.  This week we worked hard to make plans with our investigators to go to church and, joined with a little fasting, we were able to bring 20 people to church yesterday.  I was really happy to see the Lord blessing our district.  It was really good.

R-------- was confirmed yesterday, and we were able to mark her daughter G--- for baptism on February 15th.  We are really excited. We have already brought lots of members to meet them so that they feel more comfortable at church.

But other than this, it has been really normal here.  Not really too much to report.  I finished Jesus the Christ a few weeks ago, and I forgot to tell you. I am now just trying to finish up reading some of the footnotes that I didn't read at the start. But it is an excellent book.  It really helps us to understand the New Testament, and helps us to understand the teachings of Christ more clearly. 

I think this week our Young Mens President will call us over to his house to do a service project and we will break down some brick walls with a sledge hammer, so I am pretty stoked about that. 

I hope that everything is going well back home! Wish Riley a happy birthday, and let him know that I remembered his birthday when I was planning.

Love
Elder Nielson

Baptismos!

First off, everything went well with the baptisms of R-------- and M------.  They were really excited, and both of their families came to see it.  Sadly no family returned for the confirmations on Sunday.  M------ was confirmed Sunday and is excited to be a teacher.  R-------- had to work, so her confirmation will be next Sunday.  It was Elder O's first time baptizing, and he was really happy afterwards.

But other than the baptisms, it was a pretty slow week.  We had zone conference, and a lot of baptismal preparations. It will be a week of hard work to make up for last week.  We are excited, and we are starting to find some great people to teach.  Our ward mission leader is helping out a ton to integrate the investigators with members. 

We also had interviews with President Houseman, and it was really nice. We talked a little about the district, about training, about the area, and he is excited about the new missionaries that are being sent to our mission. They really are coming in a lot stronger and a lot better prepared than our generation was.  It is interesting to see how that works. We came so unprepared, but it seems like these new guys just jump right into the groove of things.

I bought a ukulele to play at baptisms. They are pretty cheap here. I still had about 70 dollars in reals, and I was able to buy a ukulele, a padded case, and a tuner. So I thought it was a pretty good buy. I am learning to play some hymns, and there a lot that go really well with the ukulele. So I'm pretty excited about that.

Its raining a ton today, and the rest of the week is just crazy hot. You don't even know, from about 12:00-5:00 the sun is just burning.

Interesting story of the week:

In our area we have a junk yard that has a bunch of old car parts, and there is a kiosk that is in the front and it makes a little corner. There is a woman there that is always yelling a bunch of nonsense inside. She passed in front of us the other day and went there to start yelling. So I told Elder M------, "If she is there when we return, we will talk to her." When we were returned, she was there so I tried to talk to her, but she had her back to us and couldn't hear us talking because she was yelling too loud. I gave a little whistle, and she heard it. She squatted down in a "spider man-like position" and started yelling for us to leave. She grabbed a bag and started trying to grab something from inside, so we started to back away. She pulled out a 3 L of water. She threw it over her head without looking at me, and I was soaked. So we left, and I was in shock. I couldn't believe that the crazy lady had soaked me with water, and it was really funny to think about afterwards.

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

Love,
Elder Nielson

Another Great Week!

It is pretty cool to hear how it all works to call a new stake presidency. It sounds like it should be a great stake presidency, and it will be interesting to see what they do to help the stake grow and be stronger.  Elder Costa is a Brazilian you guys are aware, right??? (Side Note: One Elder Costa is Brazilian, but the Elder Costa that came to our Stake is Argentinian). I'm sure Heavenly Father inspired them to choose the right man for the job at this time from all the good and worthy men of the stake. Something that I try not to do in the mission is aspire for position. At times the thoughts come "Will I ever be this, or that?"  But its not something that we need to worry about, we just need to worry about keeping the commandments and serving where we are. It's the natural man that seeks for position.

We have two people marked for baptism this Saturday -- R-------- and M------.  They seem really excited, and we hope that it all goes as planned.  We will also have zone conference this week, and I'm pretty excited for that. 

Our teaching pool is a little weak right now. We need to search to find new people that are interested and willing to make the sacrifices to go to church and to read and pray. We think we will be able to teach R--------'s daughter, who is kind of avoiding us because she has a friend that doesn't seem to like us that much, but she will go to the baptism. I'm sure she will like it, and we have faith that with the help of the Young Womens, she can be baptized too. And M------ was a contact that we did with the Young Mens president, and he is pretty excited about it. His parents aren't married, and we are trying to help them to marry so that they can be baptized too. We are also helping them with the Word of Wisdom.

But other than that this week was pretty normal. We had some meeting in Recife that made it a little bit more difficult, but we still had some great resultados.

The pictures are of Elder A----, he is from Bolivia, and he is my zone leader.  We had a split this week. He wanted pancakes when we woke up, so I made him pancakes, but the flour was expired. They didn't turn out too good. But the pizza was great!

Hope you all have a great week. Love you so much!

Elder Nielson

H------ foi Batizado!!!

This week H------ was baptized!  We have been working with him for a while. When I got here in the area, we were walking around, and a recent convert was riding his bike with H------. We called H------ over,talked a little, and set an appointment to visit him. He went on a trip, and it slowed the process, but he is really determined. He even started showing up early to church to help wash the sacrament trays.  He is awesome!

We had some problems with the baptismal jumpsuits, and the zipper broke on the only one that fit him. So we had some fun with a stapler. We were able to close up the suit, and baptize him just fine. 

G-------- baptized him.  G-------- is the Young Mens President in our ward, and he helps us out so much.  He tries to give rides to our investigators, and he has helped in so many ways. It was nice to see H------ baptized by a member that will be able to take good care of him. Oh yeah, H------ calls everyone "tio"  which means "uncle" in Portuguese.  It's the culture here - when you respect someone, you call them "Tio".  So I'm tio, Elder M------ is tio, and G-------- is tio. H------ is super funny.

We had a good week, and we marked 3 people for baptism,  M----- who is also one of the fruits of the work G-------- is doing to help us.  And R-------- and G-----, a mom and son.  R-------- and G----- came to church this week, and they really liked it. So we hope that it strengthens their desire to be baptized on the 26th.

This is a different mother and son than I mentioned last week. We are still working on R----- and V-----.  R----- had surgery a couple of weeks ago, so she wasn't able to come to church.  We couldn't talk to her this week, but we talked to V-----, and for only being 13 years old, he is really intelligent, and he has some great questions.  We hope that things can work out alright with them.

I started studying the Come, Follow Me program, and it is really great!!!  It will help everyone in the church do a personal study really effective.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Nielson