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

Week 7 (?!), Curitiba

Hey everyone!

Since everyone asked, I'll address this first: I got transferred to Guabirotuba, another bairro within the city of Curitiba, about 40 minutes by bus from Bom Retiro. My new companion and second-transfer trainer is Síster Lima, who has about 9 months in the mission here. She's from São Paulo, so she talks super fast, but as of yet I haven't had any problem understanding her, though I fall into the habit of also talking quickly all the time, which probably isn't good for people understanding me... oh well. We live em quatro with two other sisters, both Americans (and both blond, which everyone thinks is really funny). Síster Bergloff has a year here and is pretty perfectly fluent in Portuguese, which is good because now I can ask the more complex grammatical questions that the Brazilians can´t answer (seriously, they all complain that we learn Portuguese in a different way than they did, so if you ask any Brazilian things like "What is the imperfect subjunctive vocês conjugation of X irregular verb?", they have no clue). Anyway, both Síster Lima and Síster Bergloff are extremely eager and amimated, so we have a pretty lively time in our apartment. Actually, it's not an apartment; it's a teensy little casa on the church grounds, barely 15 meters from the chapel. This is both good and bad, because we're so close to the church building all the time. We have a lot of youth and an extremely active bishop here, so the whole ward seems to descend on the chapel as home base basically all day every day, which is really good for getting to know people here. On the other hand, it's also pretty dangerous, because everyone, members and nonmembers, knows exactly where we live and comes knocking on our door day and night. But I figure that there isn't a better option in this area and we probably derive some sort of ambient protection from the presence of the chapel.

It was actually pretty hard to do missionary work this week, because a lot of other things happened that were clearly necessary but took away from our time finding people. Tuesday was transfers, Wednesday was district meeting in Ala Dois, a different part of the city,Thursday we had to go to the Polícia Federal (almost back in Bom Retiro!) to get me registered, and Friday we had to go to the mission office in Água Verde to give my passport to the secretaries. Then later that day, Síster Lima got really sick so we rushed to the hospital to get her taken care of. (She's totally better now, thankfully!). It can be kind of frustrating to do all these things as a missionary, because while we can see that taking care of all of this contributes to our purpose, we also want to be doing missionary "work" instead of missionary "things". But this week should be a whole lot easier and also, by now I feel like I know the bus system of Curitiba like the back of my hand.

We also received permission from President to have tradeoffs with each other whenever we felt that it would be beneficial, so Thursdayafternoon Síster Bell and I went knocking doors together. She's starting her fourth transfer here but she doesn't speak a lot of Portuguese, so I was doing most of the talking and teaching (which scared me to death!), but thankfully we didn't run into any real problems communicating. After hearing my accent, a lot of people ask me if I'm German, (I don't know if this is good or bad or what). So far, my largest blunder this week was when our district leader (Elder Christensen, strong American accent) used the phrase "face a face", which means "face to face". But I managed to hear "alface alface" (which would mean "lettuce lettuce") and asked in front of the entire district "Can you please explain that expression?" and then got laughed at in a good-natured way. I still have a really long way to go with Portuguese but as of now, I get through most situations no problem, which is a real blessing.

I know I haven't sent any pictures home latey; I promise I still have all my arms and stuff. We went to the Jardim Botânical for P-day last week (it's a really famous spot in Curitiba and miraculously we obtained permission to leave our area. We also went to the Opera de Arame (Wire Operahouse) and my camera died so I have no pictures of it but it was really cool, a huge building of glass and steel framework built over a waterfall and lake, with massive orange koi swimming in the pool below. Síster Medrado and I celebrated our last night together by ordering pizza from our favorite place, Zupt Sabor (yes, it's really spelled Zupt and we eat there way too often). My favorite food here in Brazil so far is probably pizza with calabresa (type of sausage) or pizza with chocolate and strawberry (sounds weird, tastes amazing), though the ice cream here is incredible wherever you go. Anyway, I'm out of time but send any questins that you have about life or the work here and I'd love to answer them. Love you all! 

Síster Nielsen

Pictures: Me and Sister Medrado with the lovely city of Ci]uritiba behind us

Sister Eulogio, Sister Constantino, me, and Sister Medrado

Curitiba, Week 6

Hi everyone!

So the big news this week is that I'm getting transferred, though I don't know where yet. Transfers work a little differently in this mission; in Florida (because the mission was so large and we had to drive to various transfer points to coordinate everything), we had a conference call with the entire mission on Monday night where President Craig went zone by zone and said who was staying, who was leaving, where to, with what companion, and with what responsibilities (trainer, district leader, etc.) Then P-day is Tuesday and we have transfers on Wednesday. But here since the mission is just two main cities and some rural areas, we find out from the zone leaders Sunday afternoon if we´re staying or going, then we have p-day Monday and a big transfer meeting on Tuesday where we find out about our new area and companion. So we know that both Sister Medrado and I will be leaving, but nothing beyond that. It´s kind of sad because I'm rather fond of this area and ward; even though everyone says that Bom Retiro is a difficult ward to work in, everyone here has been really loving and kind. Also, Síster Medrado is my favorite person on this planet and I'll be really sad to leave her (though there´s actually a chance that we could be transferred together to another area). Also, we´ll be leaving behind a lot of great people we´re working with long-term and I wanted to be able to see their progression. One of them, Rafaela (who is the fabulously gorgeous, intelligent, and kind girlfriend of a less-active RM) will be getting married this month so she can be baptized. I love this family a ton and it will be sad to leave them, as well as a lot of other people, but such is the life of a missionary.

So we've had a lot of rain this week, which is good (though a little harder to dry clothes). Actually, it wasn´t quite rain, but this kind of extremely light misty drizzle that Curitiba is famous for that almost makes it seem like you don´t need an umbrella but after half an hour, you will suddenly find that you are soaked. The other sisters don´t like it much but fortunately I'm fond of this kind of weather.

Síster Medrado also got really sick at the beginning of this week so I had to do a lot of talking on the phone, which by this point I'm actually pretty good at but it still stresses me out. I think a lot of times, people believe that I either understand everything or nothing, which sometimes makes it hard when I didn´t understand just one crucial work and they slowly repeat everything but the one work. But for the most part, I'm content in this language, though I really really need to improve wayyyy more.

This week, we ran into a guy who was absolutely convinced that we were Seventh Day Adventists and nothing would change his mind of that. Even when we slowly repeated the name of the Church, he kept substituting "Sétimos Dias" for "Últimos Dias" and we finally gave up and laughed like crazy as soon as he was out of earshot. We also called a lovely sister in the ward to confirm a lunch appointment but forgot to identify ourselves, so her response was something like "Of course you can eat lunch with me, my dears, but may I ask who is speaking?" I know there are more stories I could tell to establish the flavor of the mission but I can´t think of anything right now so until next week!

Síster Anna Nielsen

(Anna hasn't sent pictures in a while, this one is from the mission president and I believe it's from last month)

Curitiba Week 5

Hi everyone!

We did an awful lot more of knocking doors this week, which is always exciting. By this point I can understand and be understood by almost everyone at their gate (as long as their dogs aren´t barking too loud, which is a really big if). Once inside, Síster Medrado usually does most of the asking questions and social stuff, though I can do more of that now. Then we teach the lessons as simply and powerfully as we can and commit the people to come to church with us on Sunday. This area is a little harder than some, so we are looking for new ideas for finding. We were hoping to have some baptisms this weekend but as commonly happens, difficulties arose and they fell through, though we´re still working with the candidates and hoping to get them baptized soon. The other sisters had a baptism this week, though it was really stressful and difficult to make it happen. But they managed great and our mission overall achieved 51 baptisms this week. If we can get 88 more before the end of the month, we´ll finally be able to go to the temple. We also did some hunting down of referrals and contacts in the street, which was interesting. The maps and streets are really accurate but the house numbers are not, so you never know if someone gave you an incorrect address or if you just can´t find it. For example, our house number is 3, the house next to us is 1045 A, and the apartment building across the street is 240.

We had rain this week, which was nice in the heat. It usually rains only in the afternoon and is pretty quick, but because it´s so hot, we often have massive thunderstorms and crazy hail. Last Thursday, during a storm of Biblical proportions, we knocked on the first door we saw and found, to our great surprise, that the sisters were already inside teaching the first lesson. Since they usually don´t work in the bairro of Pilarzinho, this was a really crazy coincidence. 

I bought a new umbrella because in the same day, the handle of my old one snapped off and a tiny ferocious chihuahua tore off the tip and punched several holes in the fabric. I laughed til I cried when this happened, but I really needed another because of all the rain. My new one rains quite a bit inside the umbrella as well, but it looks like something I can fix. My scriptures, thankfully, didn´t get too wet, though almost every experienced missionary here has scriptures that are almost illegible from being soaked so many times.

I made a risky move this week and got my hair cut, which was scary. I explained that I just wanted the ends cut, no more than 4 or 5 centimeters, and the hairdresser nodded in agreement and cut my hair off almost to my shoulders. I really wanted to cry when I saw it, but I guess shorter hair is more practical and easier to take care of in this heat. Also, my companion compared me to Mulan, who sacrificed her long hair for something of greater value and since I love that movie, I guess I feel a little better. 

One thing I´ve found is that unfortunately, there aren´t a lot of people in the state of Paraná with lighter hair or eyes, so I attact a lot more attention than I would like because of this. It´s usually the first thing people mention when they see us and I fear it may be distracting from our purpose. My companion suggested I dye my hair darker to blend in a little more, but I´m too scared to go that far. The other day, an older man who somehow didn´t notice my accent started talking about how great Brazil is because we have such diversity and yet are united in purpose and we didn´t dare tell him that I was actually from the US. I think most people assume I´m from Santa Catarina until I start talking.

Yesterday was Síster Medrado´s birthday. It´s a little hard to find ways to surprise your companion when you´re always together but I managed all right. She was taken care of really well by the ward, so I think she had a great birthday.

That´s about all I can write for this week so so long!

Love you all,

Síster Nielsen

Curitiba, Week 4

Hi everyone!

This will be a short one; sorry about that, but bear with me.

We did a lot of finding this week, which hear includes a lot of knocking doors. It´s always intersting to see who lets us in or not. I firmly believe that (as long as the missionaries themselves are humble and obedient) everyone we talk to has the Spirit prodding them to accept us and hear more, so they´re either accepting or rejecting that. Because of this, it doesn´t matter our ability in the language or the way that we extend the invitation to hear about the gospel as long as we´re trying our best to serve the Lord. This way, I don´t worry as much about saying the ´wrong´thing, because everyone has the agency to choose whether to accept us or not. Still, working here is the hardest thing I´ve ever done. Everyone is asking what is the hardest thing: the language, the food, living in another country, the weather. For me, it´s adjusting to a new mission culture, because the way we work is so different from what I know already. But I have a really strong testimony that without obedience, we accomplish nothing in missionary work, and this obedience is both to the Lord and to our mission president. So I´ve expecting to see really mighty miracles in the weeks and months to come. For now, I´m focusing on discovering the smaller ones that occur every day.

We got a new sister this week, Síster Constantino, who´s from Chile. She´s pretty great and we have a lot of fun in the apartment. We may try to speak only English in the apartment this week, which will be exciting.

We had a bit of an adventure on the way to zone meeting this week (we´ve had four of these in the last 3 weeks and no one knows precisely why). We were on a crowded ônibus with about 6 or 7 other missionary companionships and a rather distressed-looking man whipped out a gun and started waving it around. But fortunately he didn´t shoot anyone and we all got off the bus at the next stop, so I don´t know what happened after that. Zone meeting was pretty great; through some miracle of the Spirit I´m always able to understand what President Monteiro says. André brought his parents to church yesterday for his confirmation, which was really neat. We´ll start teaching his mom tomorrow. Anyway, that´s about it for our adventures now; hope everything is going great at home, too! Love you all!

Síster Nielsen