Oi, minha familia!
How is everything going? It seems that there's a lot of craziness happening out in the real world, especially for you, mom and dad. Is the move going okay? I really don't think I need you guys to send that suitcase, but there may be a couple other things over the weeks that I might request...I'm sure Rosa's already figured out how to send those though.
It's been less than a full week here but it already feels like a month, which I wasn't exactly expecting. They really do drop you into a class right away and the level they keep you out here is pretty intense. Luckily, I've got a great district who are all pretty relaxed and friendly people, which is good because some other districts seem a little crazy for me. Portuguese is kind of difficult, for sure, and I'm at a bit of a disadvantage compared to the rest of my district because they all except one have a background in Spanish, but I'm pulling on my long-forgotten French for references and I think this week is going to get a lot easier. My companion, Sister Daniels, and I are teaching an "investigator" named Rajen (who I'm pretty sure is going to become our second teacher) and it's pretty difficult to gauge how things are going, what with barely speaking Portuguese and not being sure what to teach and all, but I think the purpose of throwing us into this so quickly is to help us learn to rely on the Spirit. It really is frightening; we had our first lesson on Friday and I'm not sure it went to well, but our second lesson Saturday went a lot better and we were able to feel the Spirit, even though both of us were probably mangling the language quite a bit.
We had a thought during Music and the Spoken Word yesterday that basically told us that our lives provided us with resources of untapped potential that we would never find unless we push ourselves further than we've ever gone before, trusting in the Lord that we will come out in one piece. I'm trying to keep that in mind as I go forward into this next week. I was reading in my personal scripture study yesterday and I just happened to be in all of the missionary chapters of Alma, which I thought was pretty fantastic. I found a verse that I won't copy here due to time (Alma 17:2-3) but that stood out to me as never before, because I had never thought about it specifically. It basically said that the sons of Mosiah were able to be such great missionaries by mastering the fundamentals: by searching the scriptures diligently that they can know God and by praying and fasting for the spirit of prophecy and revelation so that when they speak, they don't speak as themselves but they speak with the power and authority of God. I thought that was such a fantastic thing to remember, whether we're serving a full-time mission or not, that studying the commandments of God blesses us with the ability to speak with the Holy Ghost. So anyways, sorry I don't have any crazy or funny stories, but I'm just trying to find my feet still and we're scheduled pretty tightly, which I hear gets relaxed in a few weeks. The temple opens on August 11, so we'll be able to go visit it them as a district, and we also all joined the MTC choir together, which should be really fun. I apologize also for the lack of Portuguese in this letter but this keyboard is wonky and I still can't figure out the accents even on the Portuguese setting. Fret not; I have learned a little bit more than that! Anyways, I hope you're all doing well and I'm praying for you; hope to hear back sometime!
Sister Nielsen
PS: If any of you want to contact me, which I would love, my email is annan@MyLDSMail.net. I can only email on P-days (Tuesdays) but I can write physical letters anytime, so send me addresses and I'll write! My address here at the MTC is
Sister Anna Nielsen
SEP02 BRA-CURI
2011 N 900 E Unit #291
Provo, UT 84602
You can also send me letters for free anytime I'm at the MTC through DearElder.com, which is same-day delivery service and free! You type up a message and they print them out and give them to us. All you need (I think) is my name, mission (Brazil Curitiba), departure date (Sept 2, and if that doesn't work, try Sept 3), and perhaps my unit number (#291). anyways, thanks so much everyone and go forth with faith in all your endeavors in the real world!
