Great Week

Hey!

Recap from last Saturday:

I always forget to talk about what happened at the end of last week.  L---- was baptized!  It was a huge miracle!  She was the first person that we met in the "Predinhos" --  a less active member that lives there told us where she lives and told us the missionaries talked to her many years ago, and that maybe she would like to hear our message again.  We have been working with her ever since.  There were times where we had to leave for a while because she wasn't really progressing, but she found friends and really started moving forward. She was able to quit drinking, and she took this important step in her life.  The bishop baptized her, and it was a great experience for him as well. The next step is to bring all of our recent converts to the temple.

This week we were able to go to the Federal Police to renew some visas and get lots of things done in the office as well.  Things are going well.  Next week is zone conference, so we have been preparing for that a bit this week as well.

V-----´s baptism is tonight.  He is excited, and so is his dad, I----.  He is the man who kept putting off his baptismal date for various reasons. But his girlfriend was baptized last week and I think that made him more committed. It should be a good baptism, I'll tell you about it next week.

My goal before I come home is to find and baptize a whole family. What a blessing that would be!

I hope you all are having a great week, Love you guys!

Elder Nielson

Pretty Normal Week

This week was pretty good.  A-- and S-------- were baptized last week.  Sadly V----- wasn't, but we were able to mark his baptism for August 10th. We will be praying that he can keep preparing and feel the desire to be baptized.

The baptisms were great. The only hitch was that we didn't get the font all the way full before we ran out of water, so they were baptized in about 30 inches of water. Not ideal, but they were able to be completely submerged.

This week we have been working a lot with L-----.  She is S--------´s grandma, and she is the first person that we knew in the "Predinhos".  She has been coming along slowly, and we are very happy for her progressing.  The ward is excited, and the bishop will baptize her tonight.

L----- is excited to do temple and family history work. She expressed to us that she didn't have a great relationship with her mother up until right before she passed away. She felt that her mother changed her heart about their relationship and tried to make up for things before she died. L----- feels that doing her mother's temple work would be a great way to bind them closer together. What a great testimony and faith she has in the temple covenants and sealing power!

We are trying to find new people that we can teach, and we are getting to know new people each day.  Elder H-------, the elder I'm training to take over as Executive Secretary, is doing great. He is already reminding me of things that I have forgotten.  Someone will ask us to do something at the start of the day, and when we get to the end, he reminds me that we forgot to do it.  So that is great.  It's an awesome attribute that will help him succeed in the office. 

I hope you all have a great week!  Love you guys!

Love,
Elder Nielson

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.