Brazil Week 11

Hi folks!

So this week was a little wild. Actually, we technically had a baptism yesterday, at least according to the numbers, though we didn't find out about it until an hour before. So turns out that this family that Sister Lima and Sister Bavastro (yes, all my companions have had Sister Bavastro before me and I've only even met her once) reactivated last transfer have this little girl who they wanted to baptize, so the bishop marked a baptismal date for her on Sunday, along with another little girl of a recently-reactivated family. The only catch: this girl turned nine on Saturday. So according to the Church handbook, she's now a convert baptism and needs to be taught all the lessons before she can be baptized, simple as that. So it was a bit of a mess, little Yasmin was crying because she thought she wouldn't get baptized, my companion was breathing fire just a little because she couldn't reach anyone on the phone, and finally President Monteiro said "I'll authorize this" (because we couldn't do much to stop it) "but sisters, you must teach her all the lessons this week." So we have a new investigator/recent convert that we're going to take care of. When our zone leader called to wish us congratulations on the baptism, Sister Lima almost threw the phone against the wall. But thankfully we got it taken care of and Yasmin is really excited to start Faith in God.

In terms of people we're working with, we got another family to church this Sunday, but sadly (as is common here), they're not actually married (because you have to wait 30 days and pay R$300 to legally marry here). So we've committed them to get married and we're helping them to progress. But they liked church a lot and Jorge in particular liked all the families and children that were there, because it was a "great environment".

As usual, we found a lot of new people to teach and now we're sorting through to see who's solid and who's not. Leo, the 13-year-old son of the stake president has been bringing his friend Saulo to church and he came with us to teach that family, which was really fun. Saulo's parents are pretty invested in their own church, but they are unbelievably okay with the idea of their son getting baptized into the LDS church, which I guess is good. It's a little sad when people just don't understand the importance of the first lesson ("There's only one true church on the earth and you've gotta know more about it!") but we teach the first lesson so often that it's pretty common for people to not understand. I want to improve my own teaching skills on this, in particular teaching by the Spirit, so I can help people feel in their heart that our message is true, even if they can't wrap their mind around it quite yet. Still, we get a lot of funny experiences with this. We were teaching the First Vision the other day and got to the part that says "This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!", which in Portuguese is "Este é meu Filho Amado. Ouve-o!". We then asked "Who do you think was this beloved son?" and the man rolled his eyes in a "duh" sort of way and responded "You just said his name. Ouve-o!" and it was all we could do to not die laughing right there. Could be worse, though; a while back, one of the other sisters began the First Vision without properly explaining that this was the experience of Joseph Smith, so the investigator thought that she was recounting her own experience. So her companion is watching the investigator's eyes get bigger and bigger and is totally unable to say anything until after. Sometimes it gets really exciting to teach here, because when we talk with everyone, we literally talk with everyone. But I quite love it and it's getting easier for me to call on the Spirit in our lessons and be certain that the Spirit is testifying as well, even if those we teach don't choose to accept it. This is really great because it allows me to strengthen my own testimony of the gospel every time we teach, no matter what happens.

Anyway, I love all of you and Î love hearing about the work and miracles you are doing too; whether in the field or at home with family and friends, it's all the same great work of happiness!

Sister Nielsen

Pictures: our zone/ district (because Zona Curitiba is really new and there's only one district in it). I look super weird because I was the one to push all the camera buttons and then sprint back to my seat

One of our neighbors has the phrase "Jesus: This name has power" painted on his garage door and it's become something of an inside joke among us sisters

Brazil Week 10

Hey everyone!

So this week was pretty exciting. We had a surprise visit from a General Authority, Elder Gavarret of Uruguay. We only found out two days before, so it was a little crazy getting ready. He spoke a lot about the Book of Mormon and ways we can better help our investigators have a solid conversion. It was a great conference and I really really liked it. He speaks fluent Portuguese, so no one had any trouble undderstanding what he was teaching. We're going to start applying a lot of the suggestions he made in the coming month.

In other news, it was finally my turn to go to the hospital this week, for an old sports injury I didn't want to admit to anyone but that had been getting a lot worse with walking so much every day. When Sister Monteiro said "Go to the hospital", I was like "I WILL NOT" because there was no way it was urgent, but then I discovered that the phrase "Go to the hospital" here in Brazil really means any sort of medical care, be it emergency room, doctor's office, urgent care clinic, etc. So I got it taken care of and I shouldn't have any problems now. 

One neat thing I found out: this week at the conference, I had the opportunity to talk with the sisters who are still in Bom Retiro and they told me that Lélia, the mother of André, got baptized last week! She had been coming to church every week since her son's baptism, but she'd been pretty icy and difficult to talk to every time we tried to teach her. But somehow, the sisters worked a miracle, which is great because both she and Andr'e need to support one another in this. Sister Eulogio showed me a picture taken immediately after the baptism, with Lélia soaking wet and grinning ear to ear, which was the first time I or the sisters had ever seen her really smile. So that was pretty awesome to see miracles still happening there. 

As for our week, we knocked a lot of doors and procured a lot of new investigators. We had one really frustrating day where we knocked for hours and not one person let us in, and then another day where it seemed like everyone was begging us to enter and we ended up teaching 9 lessons that day. This was in the same neighborhood, so I don't know what happened. For the most part, our area is pretty safe (which is good because we don't go home each night until well after dark). We do have one favela, but it's really small.

Someone asked if I've had any more serious communication issues and I can't really think of any this week, though I remembered one from my first week here. A lot of times, we get the response "Deus é um só", meaning more or less "God is one" (which, by the way, is a lie put out by the devil because in this context, it always means that it doesn't matter what you do or what church you go to as long as you think God is in your life). As missionaries, we hear people say this a dozen times a day. But when I first arrived, I was hearing "Deus é um SOL", which would mean "God is a sun" and I was like "What is this country of crazy sun-worshipping people?!" until Sister Medrado set me straight. So far, I've gotten really good at avoiding when men try to kiss me (cause cheek kisses are a customary greeting here but as missionaries you can only do that with women), though occasionally, I have people lunge before I can stop it. I've learned the proper way to clap outside gates and actually be heard, though Sister Lima tells me I look like a seal when I do this.

I n]know there's plenty of stuff I could write about, but frustratingly enough, my mind always goes blank when we do emails. So rest assured that I'm still alive and well and really, thanks so much for all the responses I get from everyone. Love you all and remember, this Church is absolutely true and the only way you can achieve true happiness in this life or the next!

Sister Nielsen

Brazil Week 9 or so

Hi everyone!

It seems like I just barely wrote my last letter to everyone, so I'll see if I can write a new one without repeating everything I said last week. So the big news is that Luiz got baptized! It was a really amazing experience, though the lesson teaching the doctrine of baptism and then recommitting him was one of the hardest of my life. But he was baptized Friday and then received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday, which was really great to see. He's really really happy and we'll be having a family home evening with him tonight.

We also had our mission conference on Thursday with two other zones, so it was really fun to see some friends from my first area (sadly not Sister Medrado; she's way in Ponta Grossa now). The area presidency here announced a new baptismal interview question last week about the Book of Mormon, so President Monteiro explained how we can implement this into our work and then each companionship 25 Livros de Mórmon to take home. We also received lots of pans and other random things, so it was a little crazy in the office after the meeting. Rafaela, President's 9-year-old daughter was calmly running the entire operation. My goodness, how I love that family. His three kids go to a military school, so they're master planners and operators.

Sadly, not much else has happened in the last five days, except that various health complications arose among the other sisters and there were two more trips to the hospital, as well as a lot of running around to find the right medications. (There was also some arguing with groucy doctors who were trying to separate companionships for examinations and stuff). But I have a lot of hope that this coming week will be filled with sunshine, effectiveness, and many progressing investigators.

Well, that's more or less it for this week, but thanks so much for all the love and support I get from all of you!

Much love, 

Sister Nielsen

Pictures: Luiz's baptism! From left to right: Sister Bergloff, Sister Lima, Luiz, me, Sister Bell

Also, some of you were wondering what our house looks like. The one room is on the left of the front door, and then the bathroom is on the right. You can also see the fence of the basketball/any other sport court, where I like to run in the morning

Curitiba Week 8

Hi everyone,

So I'm still alive and all; the mission presidency just moved our P-day to Wedsnesday because last week was Carnaval and everything was closed. The Carnaval celebration here in Curitiba was really small, only about three blocks in Centro Cívico, wayyy outside my area, so fortunately we didn't have to deal with that. But it was a little hard to knock doors because everyone went to the beach.

Anyway, I realize I forgot to describe Guabirotuba last week. It's somewhat poorer than Bom Retiro (though it has its fair share of rich people too), and a little more like Americans imagine Brazil to be like. I like it quite a lot. Still extremely urban and about roughly the same size as my other area, though this one is really long and narrow since it follows the main roads. There seem to be a lot more young people here, as well as skateboarding gangs of teenages who look like they wandered of the set of West Side Story.  We're right in the flight path of the main airport, so every five minutes another airplane passes overhead. It's really not a problem, except when we're talking to people at their gates and can't hear them. I stand out a little more here than in Bom Retiro, what with my hair and accent. So far, the most common response is that people get really excited and then say a phrase in English like "Hello my name is coffee yes no one two" and then ask what we're doing here. It's pretty great because everyone's open to having us swing by their house later. Seriously, how open people are about things like this is the biggest cultural difference I've seen here so far. We had a big Family Home Evening in the chapel the other night (a grand success; we had 15 investigators/recent converts come) and my companion called everyone literally an hour before it was set to start. And everyone accepted. Sometimes I can't help comparing things to the work in Florida and I see how, in some aspects, the work has fewer obstacles here.

This week we were teaching a really lovely guy named Luíz who we were hoping would be baptized this Sunday. He's really educated and understood everything we taught, but he wants to wait one week, because (like Mark, the investigator from Florida) he wants to make sure he's absolutely ready. But he has a ton of real desire. I've never seen an investigator cry through a lesson on tithing because he wants to pay it before. (He cried for all the other lessons, too, so we're kind of used to it now). We have a few other investigators right now but they've all got less than serious desire to be baptized, so we're starting fresh and knocking a lot. Yesterday, we were on exchanges again (because Síster Bergloff went to the hospital to get a giant hole in her foot stitched up) and Síster Bell and I encountered and taught a really golden family. So we'll see where that goes this week.

We were supposed to have our mission conference last week, but all the bus drivers in the city went on strike for a few days and it was really hard to go anywhere particularly far. So we'll be having our mission conference tomorrow and I'm really excited for that. Mom, the memory cards have probably arrived and I'll likely get them tomorrow, but if not, I'll let you know next week.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. I've been blessed with more time to study, so I've been learning the New and Old Testaments a lot better, which has helped me to strengthen my testimony. Our opportunity to study is always my most anticipated moment of the day. Anyway, love you all, and it's so great to hear about what you're doing. I read everything you write to me, even if I can´t always respond.

Love,

Síster Anna Nielsen