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.

Some Special Happenings

Here are some photos of the baptisms last week. We visited them this week, and they are so happy.  T---- (the mom) has been grabbing all of her neighbors and throwing them at us. She tells them to listen to our message, so that is great to see a recent convert so anxiously engaged in missionary work.

We also had the chance to attend the temple yesterday.  It is not often we get to go as missionaries, so each trip is special.  I love to be in the House of the Lord. It is such a sacred place.

Our bishop made a ton of lasagna and sent us home with a whole pan! How we love and appreciate the good members of our ward.

Crazy Week!

This week was transfers, and it was super crazy!  We had to get everyone out on their flights on Tuesday morning, and Tuesday afternoon the new missionaries arrived.  We gave them training, and on Wednesday was the transfer.  Thursday we were going to the airport to get a missionary that went to São Paulo to do some work on his visa to Canada.  We got out on the main avenue to get a bus to the airport, but it had been raining all morning.  We were walking through the water, and the bus we needed wasn't passing, and taxis weren't even accepting riders.  We were going to walk to the Metro station, when we finally got a taxi, and we decided to go straight to the airport with him.  Every street was flooded, and the main bus station was closed because it was flooded too.

We got to the airport about a half hour late, and we went looking for the missionary.  We noticed on the flight board that there was a message for us to go to the airline desk.  When we got there and asked about his flight, it had been rerouted to Jão Pessoa.  about a two hour car ride form Recife.  There wasn't any time frame on when it would be cleared to land in Recife.  But after about an hour it was cleared and it made it to the Recife Airport in about 20 minutes.  He stayed with us that night, and we put him on a bus first thing Friday morning. Then we went running off to the airport to renew President and Sister Houseman's visas. 

I had never seen so much water in Recife.  The buses looked like boats, and everyone was taking their shoes off and rolling their pants up to wade through it. 

Our miracle of the week was T----.  She has been coming to church for a little more than two months now but couldn't be baptized because she was living together with someone.  She called us his week and said that he had left and that she would be baptized on Saturday.  She will be baptized tonight with her daughter S-----.  She is so excited, and the ward is pretty happy too.  They have been waiting so long, and they exercised so much faith to get here.

I hope you all have a great week this week!  I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Nielson

A-------'s Baptism

From the Video Chat This Week:

We are grateful to have a missionary serving, and grateful that we get to talk to him every week. However, without a written account of the weeks' events, I'm afraid we aren't very good at keeping track of everything that we talked about during the call. But Elder Nielson sent us some pictures of A-------'s (Brazilian Napoleon) baptism and said it was a great experience.

He said that they have been busy preparing for transfers this week, and they will also go and do some apartment inspections this week as well. Elder N---- will leave the office this transfer, so it looks like they will be back to just a twosome again. Also, one of the AP's, Elder N-----, returns home this transfer.

I always like to get a food report each week. We tried to find out what kinds of vegetables Elder Nielson has to eat. He said he likes a kind of root that reminds him of potatoes but not really. And they have corn and other types of vegetables. They like to go to a place for lunch where you can fill a plate, kind of like an AYCE salad bar except you have to fit AYCE on one plate. And there is a large variety of vegetables with that. He also reported that he cooked up some Chicken Alfredo over noodles this past week using a flavor packet from Sister Houseman that was going to expire. He thought it turned out pretty good. Mixed reviews from his companions.

We also like to find out how much things cost in Brazilian reals (pronounce hey-eyes). One real is about 25 cents U.S. So it's fun to do the math on how much food costs. One interesting thing he mentioned is that they don't have apartments plumbed for natural gas... you have to buy a big canister and connect it to your gas stove... kind of like we do with our grill outside. We did that math on that it was about the same price in Brazil for a container of gas as it is in the U.S.

Here is Elder Nielson's photographic journey as of late:

These are cookies... kind of like oreos except with a chocolate filling.

The Work is Moving Forward

From Video Chats this week:

Elder Nielson didn't write an email this week. He just sent some pictures, so I thought I'd share some of them.

This is a young man named V----- J---- who was baptized last week. He is one of a group of young men the missionaries have been working with and the first to be baptized.

This last Saturday, this young man was baptized. Elder Nielson refers to him as a Brazilian Napoleon Dynamite, but the young man really doesn't know who that is. Give him some gold aviator frames and teach him to smile less and say "Gosh" more, he could pass as Napoleon. He is a great young man who has a strong testimony of priesthood power and the responsibility priesthood holders have to live worthily in order to exercise the priesthood.

Here is Elder Nielson with a home town missionary from Springville, UT. They are both from the Hobble Creek West Stake. It's always nice to see a familiar face from home. Elder McConnell is a good missionary.

Elder Nielson also reported that they have 5 people marked for baptism, and he and his companion are hopeful that all 5 will be baptized in a couple of weeks. One lady who has been living with her boyfriend has started making arrangements for him to move out so she can join the church.

Elder Nielson also reported that he bought himself a new pair of shoes this week. They are low top army boots that he bought from a "buff" military guy that sells military gear in his store. He thinks they will be able to withstand the rigors of missionary work until he returns home in October. He was showing us his shoes last week and both pairs have been patched with Shoe Goo with big splits in the soles. Not good for walking through rain-soaked streets So we were happy to see him get some new kicks.

Elder Nielson also got to call home for a few minutes on his dad's birthday. An added bonus.

He is healthy and happy and enjoying the hard work. We can see great growth in him... both spiritually and level of maturity.

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