Brasil, Week 24

Hey everyone!

So a miracle happened and we had another baptism this week! Basically, the bishop called us and said "Sisters, I've got some news that you're going to like" because an old investigator that the sisters had taught had abruptly decided to get baptized. Her name is Flavia, she's marvelous, and she's the mother of an excellent recent convert, Diego, who is marrying an RM in the temple this fall. She was talking with her future daughter-in-law, who challenged her to really pray for an answer, which she hadn't done before. She got her response and was totally ready to be baptized, so it was basically our job to get her ready for the baptismal interview and plan the thing. It was a really enjoyable experience to teach someone who was already committed 100% to do everything she learned. It makes me realize that so much of missionary work can be done so easily by the members of the ward; our funtion here is just that we, as the full-time missionaries, have the keys to teach the principles and baptize. But everything else was already done. It was marvelous.

In other news, we had two Brazil games this week, and we have another this Friday, so we have yet more time to stay in the house. It gets a bit annoying when you're not able to leave, but I love the extra study time I get. Not sure if I've mentioned this outside of personal letters to people, but I've developed a true love for studying the scriptures. It's what I do in every spare minute I get now, because I just can't get enough of what the prophets and Jesus Christ have to say to us. It's a really, truly amazing blessing that we have to live in an age when the holy scriptures are so easily available to everyone.

For whoever asked, I have indeed gotten blonder, thanks to all the sun here. I would do something about it but I haven't got the courage to dye my hair another color. Also, thanks so much for all of the family history info you sent! This is great. It doesn't have to be too complex, because the My Family booklet is really small and simple, more with the purpose of getting people excited to do family history work than anything else. 

Also, President and Sister Dalton arrived on Friday. I called Sister Dalton this morning (she doesn't yet speak Portuguese) for a health concern of my companion and found out that her maiden name is Nielsen, spelled the same way, and that her family is from the Hyrum/Logan area. So we're going to figure out that connection sometime.

Love you all and have a wonderful week!

Sister Nielsen

Photo: Flavia's baptism! From left to right: Elder Oliveira, Elder Gutierrez (who claims to be Mexican but is really from California), Irmão Eduardo, Diego, Flavia, me, Sister Angulo

Also, the favela at night (looks a lot cooler than the photo gives it justice)

June 24, 2014 - Brasil Week 23 (how it sure flies)

Hey folks in far places!

So this week was pretty great, minus the World Cup,which we had to stay in casa for. Not that I don't like a rest once in a while, and it's good to have extra study time, but it drives me nuts when we can't leave and work.

Eliete got baptized this last Saturday and my goodness, it was one of the toughest baptisms I've ever had. Not with Eliete herself; she's incredibly elect and was completely prepared and excited for baptism. But it was one of those cases when illness, familial opposition, communication problems, lack of church keys, and just plain ol' adversary interfering made it super interesting. But it happened, as well as many last-minute miracles; she was confirmed in sacrament meeting the next day and is really pleased, and I only have a few more white hairs. Kidding, kidding, missionary work is always meant to be like this and it's awesome. Just the joyful burden of discipleship!

In other news, this week was pretty quiet, though we ran around a lot and talked a lot of different people. The two ways that we get new investigator in this mission are through referrals and "eficient contacts" and thankfully we had a lot of those this week. Now we just need to bring everyone to the church on Sunday so they can receive even more blessings! We have one investigator, Aginaldo, who is basically ready to get baptized but didn't go to church this week because his parents got married. We'll start teaching the whole family again and I hope they can all progress together. We're still working with Juliana to get baptized this week, but we lost contact these last couple days and now I want to know what's going on. We also received a referral from the bishop: a family member of a member wants to get baptized this weekend, which is great, so we'll start teaching her today.

Mom, Dad, and my lovely brothers and sisters (and also Grandma and Grandpa and Becky), I've got a special request for you. So this mission is working a lot with the booklet "My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together" to help members start their geneaology and I've decided that I want to fill it out myself. But I want to make mine a real gem, something that encourages others to fill it out as well. Unfortunately, I have no access to Family Search or social networks to get info and I have only an hour to talk with you all each week, so I need your help. I need to send me information (birthdates and locations, wedding dates and locations, death dates and locations, interesting stories, PHOTOS). Send me your own information and that of your parents and grandparents. Even better, get ahold of the booklet and fill it out with me. It goes until great-grandparents on both sides, so anything you have is appreciated. Thank you SO much in advance!

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful spiritual week, full of miracles. I'm also going to have a week of miracles (sure need to write in my journal more), so I'm excited to tell you all about it next Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday. We might be going to the temple so I really don't know when next I'll write.) Love you all!

Sister Nielsen

Photos: Eliete's baptism! The other person is her mom

Our wacky zone. I'm quite fond of this bunch

Brasil, Week 22

Oi everybody!

Heavens, time is always so short and I always have so much to write, but I shall start with the most important and go from there.

I was transferred to an area called Guarapiranga (these names, I know) and it's a pretty awesome place. My companion is Sister Angulo, from Santa Fe, Argentina. We like with two other sisters but they work in the other ward. Our area is really big (although we divide it with the elders) and has all types of places, from weathly highrises to favela (but more favela than anything else. Actually, we live in the favela, more or less, but it's pretty safe. My companion has only been robbed once in five months). But seriously, don't worry about anything, because we're working this area like crazy.

We have two baptismal dates on for this week, Eliete and Juliana, who are both 14. They're also super intelligent and even better, totally elect. We're also working a lot with Eliete's mom, Ana, who could get baptized this week too and is also really great. (Seriously, not only did she give us the reference of her neighbor, she also invited him to church yesterday. And he came! His name is Edvan and we'll start teaching him tonight.

The sisters dropped all of their old investigators who weren't progressing the other week and now (once again) we're doing a lot of finding. But finding is fabulous in this area. Tons of contacts in the road, tons of referencers, and (when we feel especially pumped) knocking doors.

The World Cup is going on in full force, though we don't really know that much about it. We stayed in all day last Thursday for the opening game and today, actually, is not p-day, because we'll have that during the game tomorrow. We're just writing emails today because we won't be able to leave the house tomorrow. Just a heads up, next Monday is also a Brasil game, so my p-day is going to be Tuesday. I didn't die or anything. We still know more or less what goes on every game, because every time Brasil scores a goal, the whole city explodes. Literally. People honking car horns, dancing in the road, firing off illegal rockets, tooting every sort of plastic horn you can imagine... it's pretty great.

Question for all you folks who aren't currently in the mission field: do you have a copy of Preach My Gospel in your home? If not, you should probably get on that, because this book should be revered the same as scripture. Read it, study it, and apply it in your life. The scripures tell us to "despise not the things of God" and I can testify that this is one of those things. There is nothing that will bless your life more than active missionary service in your efforts to build Zion wherever you are.

Anyway, a wonderful week for you all, and love you!

Sister Anna Nielsen

President and Sister Pinho are leaving very soon; haven't had much time with them but their influence will be huge

Brasil, Week 21

Hey everyone!

So tons of great stuff happened this week; I'll see if I can sum it all up...

The biggest news is that one of our investigators, Fernando, got baptized! So really quick, he's awesome. He's a thirty-something guy who is enrolling in the Federal Police now and has a whole lot of charisma. Also, he was super Catholic (at one point he was studying to become a padre) He's been kinda investigating the Church for four years now, but he only started seriously investigating a month ago. One of his friends is a member (Karina, this sweet lady with two young kids) and we've been teaching him in her home. So these last three weeks he basically had a conversion worthy of a Church history movie. He has the firmest testimony of the Book of Mormon and loves this church to death, even with all of the questions and difficulties he had to work through. We took him to the São Paulo temple Saturday and went through the baptismal interview questions with him to show him that he was truly ready. And that was an awesome lesson. He had the interview that night after stake conference and Sunday evening he was baptized. He bore his testimony afterwards, which I wish I could have recorded, because he sounded like a member of 20 years. Half the ward was there and pretty much everyone cried. It was the best thing ever.

In other news, stake conference was this week and it was fabulous: Elder Costa of the Area Presidency came to our stake and spoke (he is crazy direct, that man) and Sunday we had a broadcast with Sister Stephens, Elder Scott, and Elder Ballard. I had no clue that Elder Scott spoke Portuguese, so I (and the rest of the stake) were totally stunned when he gave his whole address without a translater. It was really really spiritual, I have pages of notes.

We also had a conference with the entire mission this week, which was great for getting to know a lot of people. President Dalton will leave at the end of this month and President Dalton will arrive. We're all praying and fasting for Sister Dalton so she can learn the language quickly.

Sister Mendez was still pretty sick this week, but we managed to put on a great ward activity on Wednesday. We made an iron rod obstacle course (which looked awesome; wish I had thought to take a picture) and we had some 40 people show up, which was way more than we were expecting. We forgot to ask, but the thoughtful members brought tons of food (for the baptism, too) so there was plenty of cake for all.

 Sister Oler and I got transferred, so I will head to a new area tomorrow and have even more adventures. Wish I could tell a little more, but time ran short, so I shall see you all next week!

Sister Nielsen

Photos:

Me and Fernando and Karina´s kids, Rebekah and Néfi, at the temple!

Fernando's baptism!

This really spiky tree is pretty popular here

June 2, 2014 - Brazil, Week 21

Hey folks in other places,

Life is good and interesting, so I'll try to summarize some things that are happening. So for the past two weeks that I've been here in Interlagos, I've been in a trio a bairro called Indianópolis. It's really upscale, with tons of skyscrapers, and reminds me more of New York City than anything else. Our area is enormous (eight bairros), so we use the bus a lot to get to and from our appointments. We also a sizable favela, but since the elders before us were robbed three times we have a lot of rules about when and with whom we can enter the area. Other than that, it's a pretty secure place.

My companions right now are Sister Oler and Sister Mendez, who are from Colorado and Bolivia, respectively. I love 'em a lot but I don't know how much longer I'll have with them, because President Pinho doesn't like trios very much and only does them as a last resort. But this area is really amazing, in part because the members of the ward are so involved and help out so much. The missionaries see a lot of miracles here just because of the love people have for us. 

Unfortunately we weren't able to work a lot this week because the other sisters got really sick and couldn't leave the house, as much as they wanted to. (I'm still in perfectly good health, by the way). So I studied and cleaned a lot and the members gave us lots of food. The sisters are still not in the best of health so I'm not sure how much we will be able to do in the future, but I'm praying a lot for them and this area. 

Sorry I'm boring; I'll try so send some pictures or something. Love you all!

Sister Nielsen

May 26, 2014 - Brazil, Week 20

Hi everyone,

So the big news this week is that I got sent to the Brazil São Paulo Mission. No, I don't know why or what happened, but for now I'm just trying to accept that this is where the Lord needs me and just humbly follow the Spirit in all things. I miss Curitiba like crazy, though. My new address is:

Missão Brasil São Paulo Interlagos

Rua Comendador Elias Zarzur #365

Barrio Santo Amaro--SP, Brasil

04736-000

I haven't got a lot of time this week; I'll write more next week when I know this area a little better. So far, I like this mission and I'm adjusting well. Thanks so much for all of your help and encouragement.

Love you all,

Sister Nielsen

May 19, 2014 - Brazil Week 19

Hi folks in other places!

So this week was pretty great, especially because we had a member of the Area Seventy, Elder Morôni Torgan, come to our mission. He gave us some really inspired counsel for the vision and direction we could take individually and as a mission. He spoke a lot about how to courageously follow the Spirit, which was something I always need to improve. He knows the scriptures like the back of his hand and it was really neat to see him (without scriptures in his hand) saying "Let's meet in [book/chapter/verse]" and a hundred and fifty missionaries trying frantically to keep up with all the references he was using.

In other news, we had a really great week and taught tons of people. Sister Muro and I had a new goal to knock doors according to the promptings of the Spirit, and I can't explain how but it went really well. We managed to find a bunch of new families, including a couple named Isaías and Sueli who are really great. Isaías has a lot of curiosity about all sorts of things and is really eager to come to church, even though he wasn't able to make it this week. We also have another investigator named Orlei, who came to church this week and liked it a lot. He has some difficulties in life and the gospel will bless him a ton. I'm putting my faith in the promise that the elect are wherever you go, as Elder Torgan told us, and it doesn't really matter where you are, because the Lord pours out his Spirit on all the people here (I really love Alma 13:24 and Alma 16:16, which talk about exactly this). The other sisters had a baptism last night and their investigator, Jeferson, is exactly an example of one of these prepared people. We had a little hiccup in the beginning where someone had drained the font, and since it doesn't fill that fast, we had to do the classic "dash to and from the kitchen with buckets of water" act, which was actually the first time this happened to me in my mission. But the rest went smoothly and the baptism was great. I also spoke in church yesterday, which was pretty cool. My topic was the Restoration, so I was doing my best to reach the focus of my talk (our responsibility to share these blessings with others) without actually teaching the first lesson from the pulpit. But I think it went well and everyone liked it.

Anyway, that's about it for now, but I'm doing great and hope you all are doing well too!

Sister Anna Nielsen

May 12, 2014 - Brasil, Week 18

Hi everyone!

So this week happened and it was good; we knocked lots of doors and talked to tons of people. Also, we had a really great activity that we had been planning for a long time. We had an opportunity to plan a missionary activity, so we made a theatrical production about "The Auction of a Soul" and had a ton of recent converts acting in it. There was a lot of stress and running around and some minor crises to get everything organized, but in the end it went off without a hitch. We had more than 50 people show up, not all of them members, which was fantastic. The purpose of the activity was to unify the ward, which I think happened really well; now everyone is taking about doing millions more of these activities and the sisters are begging for a break. Sorry, this will be really short, the man running this internet place just annouced that they close at noon and it's 11:58 now. But I love you all and it was really great to skype you (family) yesterday! Also, I just found out we have a mission tour this week and someone big is coming, so I'll let you know all about that next week. 

Abraço,

Sister Nielsen

May 5, 2014 - Week 17, Brazil

Hey everyone!

So transfers happened this week, and both Sister Muro and I will be staying in Tarumã, which is a cause for much rejoicing. I really love this area and I'm really grateful for the opportunity to get to know the ward better. 

We had a baptism this week, as I think I mentioned: William, who's 9 years old, was baptized and it was a really great experience. He's a great strength for his whole family, especially his dad, who's not a member yet. Everything went really smoothly and easily, which was a huge blessing, though we experienced minor hiccups when we tried to clean the font. (A batismal font, by the way, gets dirty after just one week, and it had been a month since this one was last used). We went to the chapel and it turned out that we didn't have keys for the font or the janitorial closet, so we borrowed cleaning supplies from the member next door and I (being the sensible person that I am) kicked off my shoes and jumped into the font. But once the font was clean, I realized that I actually had no way out, so my companion laughed wickedly and snapped photos before she finally took pity on me and lowered a chair.

We worked a lot this week with three teenage boys, Cleiton, Kevilin, and Gabriel, who have been a real blast to teach. I've never seen anyone their age grasp the meaning of what we teach the way they do. I have great hopes that all three of them get baptized in this coming week, because they will be an awesome addition to the ward and a huge help to their family, too.

In other news, I bought new shoes this week (also a cause for much rejoicing). They were classy, cheap (R$32,50, or ~$15?), and super comfortable, so now Sister Monteiro doesn't have to see my other shoes, which were literally worn through in the bottom. 

Sorry, I don't have tons of interesting things this week, but Ilove you all and thanks for your support!

Sister Nielsen

April 28, 2014 - Brazil Week 16

Hey everyone!

So the big news this week is that Daniel got baptized! I think I mentioned that he moved to Vila Oficinas this week, but since it's pretty close (in our district) we got permission to attend the baptism. I've only known him for a few weeks, but my companion has been working with him for three months, so she was over the moon about the whole thing. It really was a miracle, because Daniel was so firmly committed to the traditions of his family, but he changed a whole lot in order to get baptized. I really love seeing the effect the gospel has to truly improve someone's life.

Another awesome thing: so we got to go to the temple this Thursday, which was a huge blessing. I was a bit worried about being able to understand everything in Portuguese, so I prayed really hard that the language wouldn't be a problem and miraculously, it wasn't. The temple here is small and beautiful, and even though it's right in the middle of a busy downtown part of the city, it still felt separated from the rest of the world. It's a really big blessing to have a temple so close and to see the impact temple blessings have on the members here.

Apart from that, our week was pretty normal, with a lot of finding new investigators. We're going to teach all the lessons to a nine-year-old boy in the ward this week so he can get baptized Saturday, and we're also going to set a date this week with one of our investigators, Kevilin. We're also going to work really hard with the rest of his family, because they're all pretty great.

So that's about it, but thanks so much for your letters and support!

Sister Nielsen

April 22, 2014 - Brazil Week 15

Hey everyone,

So what happened is that the day after Easter is also a holiday here, so we didn't have p-day on Monday cause stuff was shut down. And then yesterday we found out about a surprise conference today which used up most of p-day, so this will be really short sorryyyyyy

But yeah, I love my area. We had a great week and taught a ton of people, so now we need to see who really has potential. There's this odd phenomenon that everyone we teach keeps moving, so we have to refer them to the other missionaries. But a great investigator named Daniel who we worked with a lot this week moved Monday and I think he may get baptized this week by the elders in Vila Oficinas, which would be amazing. There's also a really firm family here that we're working with; I love all of them to death. The kids, Mateus and Letícia, got baptized last month, and the parents are in the process of getting married, so life is great with them. Sister Muro is the love of my life; we teach really well in unison and every lesson is different because we're working really hard to evalute and constantly improve our teaching. But I could listen to her teach forever; I wish you all could see her.

Sorry this is short but the gospel's still true! I love this Church and absolutely love this work. Love you all too!

Sister Anna Nielsen

And here are some photos to make up for lack of text (worth a thousand words, right):

My beautiful companion in her homeless outfit

Our house, Bag End

The local elementary school sponsers graffitti projects, which I think is really funny. But hey, it combats all the bad graffitti out there!

April 14, 2014 - Brazil Weeek 14 (already...)

Hi everyone!

So what happened this week is that I got emergency transferred... I still don't know why. But as I said last week, they're actually really common and President has told us that it's not necesarily an emergency if we get transferred in the middle of a transfer, because he doesn't want us to get too comfortable in an area. So I'm now in Tarumã, which is this kind of hilly area in the middle of the plain that the rest of Curitiba and the metorpolitan regions are in. So we get some pretty amazing views and the sunset is breaktaking almost every night. My new companion is Sister Muro (from Peru), who I absolutely adore. She was the favorite companion of Sister Lima, so I feel like I already know everything about her (and only positive things too. To quote Sister Lima, "her only defect is that she likes to clean things!") I forgot to take a picture of our house, but it's absolutely lovely. It looks like a dollhouse and is super neat and roomy. We were living with two other sisters (Sister Garnica and Sister Carbone, both from Argentina, so I'm gonna learn Spanish) but they're actually moving out today, because we've been on the floor these past few days. So starting today, we get the house to ourselves, which is a little sad because I'm used to living with another dupla now.

 In this new area, basically the only thing we've done these last three days is teach lessons, which is another reason why I love this area. The people here are really open and let us in all the time. Since we were doing a lot of finding, this is a new experience for me, but it's great to practice so many lessons with a new companion. Every lesson is different, so I'm learning a lot in terms of teaching skills and generally how to converse with people about imprtant topics. Sister Muro is really good at not being a "rut" missionary, ie. teaching the same exact way for everyone we encounter. She's remarkably talented at tailoring the leson to the needs of the investigator, which is great for following the Spirit. We've gotten some really remarkable responses from people because we said the right things at the right time, thanks to spiritual promptings. As I said, we're finding a lot, but we have one great investigator family (Gisel and Elizangela). The two kids were baptized recently (and Mateus passed the sacrament yesterday!) and the parents are in the process of getting legally married so they can be baptized too. They're really firm, which is so great to see. I love these people already. 

Anyway, there's still a lot of stuff I don't know, so I'll learn a lot this week. But I love my new area and I'm so excited to work here. Love you all!

Sister Nielsen