Week 5 1/2

Well it's not my regular P-day but

EU RECEBI MINHA REDESIGNA플O!

whew

Anyway

I will be heading to the Jacksonville Florida mission for an unspecified period of time while I wait for my Visa to Brazil! I leave the MTC this Tuesday at 2:30 in the morning (que isso) and I simply cannot wait to see what awaits me in Florida. One of my roommates is from Florida and keeps telling me about all sorts of cool things to expect. I was kinda hoping I wouldn't be disappointed with my reassignment but I don't think that will be a problem. I'm so pumped!

Also Neal L. Anderson spoke this Tuesday about charity at our devotional, but I'll talk about that later. I just think it's great that I wrote so much about charity and trying to develop it this Tuesday and then he talked about it!

This week is the best

Much love,

Sister Nielsen

Week 5 (?) (!!) eu não sei

Oi, como vão?

I'll try to get back to everyone who wrote me individually, but if I run out of time (which I will) know that I love you all and wish I could have more time to talk to you. But this week, I really don~t have that many exciting stories to share. Once I get into the field, every week will be different and I~ll be working with people instead of packing my brain full of words and techniques and whatever other conhecimento they want me to have before the set me loose on the world. So bear with me because I~ll have more to say soon, I promise. 

(Also forgive any wacky punctuation; I set this keyboard on the Brazilian settings and I~m too lazy to set it back slash find the appropriate key for the English equivalent)

I~ll be getting my reassignment this Friday, most likely, so while I don~t know where I~ll be going, I do know that this is my last week here at the MTC, no matter what. Since I have no clue where I'll end up, it doesn't quite seem real to me yet. I~m certainly nowhere near ready, but I bet most missionaries feel that way upon preparing to leave.  

We had colds sweeping around for the last few weeks and I got it really bad a few days ago, but I've totally recovered now. I passed it on to Sister Russell though and she~d been laid up far worse than I was, so I feel kinda bad about that.

Last week, the district that left passed a sister on to us who was put into a tripanionship with Sister Jackson and Sister Russell. Poor Sister Gold had broken a bone in her foot (she has no idea how, too) and had to stay for almost eight weeks already, so she has twice the language experience we do so far. She had to watch her first district leave and then her second district too, which much have been hard, but the most aggravating part was that she already had her Visa and could go to Santa Maria at any time, if she could get the walking boot off. So we had a bit of a miracle this Friday when she was finally cleared for service, because whichever bone this is (one of the slowest-healing int the body, too) was progressing a lot faster than anticipated. So we~re really happy, though sad to see her leave.

Today, we begin a final week of constant Falar Sua Língua from 6Ç30 in the morning to 9:30 at night. I can't wait to see how far we'll come in a week, though at the moment, communicating about non-gospel topics is stilted at best.

Right now, the biggest thing that I'm worried about is being able to teach to the investigator's needs and help them to feel the Spirit. At this point, I can pretty much forget that I~m speaking Portuguese when I teach (though when we try to FSL regularly, I crash and burn).  I felt like a lot of the time, I was just teaching the lesson given in Pregar Meu Evangelho (with is fantastic, though) but not relating it to the person I was teaching enough. I hated feeling like this in my lessons and I was trying all sorts of things but I wasn't sure what to do, so I brought it up with my teacher, Irmão Nothum. He listened quite attentively and them gave me some advice that I thought was rather odd: he told me to work on developing charity. He read me the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul talks about the virtue of charity. I'd invite everyone to read it, but basically he says that we can have all faith and all power and all skill with words but if we have not charity, we are nothing. Moroni talks in Ether 12 about charity as well; about how this is a gift from God and that we need to pray earnestly to receive this Christlike attribute in our lives. Irmão Nothum promised me that if I could learn to have this pure love for everyone, regardless of who they are, the Spirit would help me to understand those who I teach and to help them as best as I could. So I've been trying this week to develop this attribute and at times, it has sort of worked and at other times, it very much hasn~t worked. I realize this is probably something I'll be working on my whole life, but I know that in the strength of the Lord, I'll be able to do the impossible and that even I, as imperfect and unworthy as I am, might be able to love and help someone else. Good luck everyone, and I hope that next week I'll have a little more news for all of you!

All the best,

Sister Nielsen

Week 4

Oi, todo mundo!

Eu não tenho muito tempo agora e meu Português é ainda não certo, so I'll just get into it. I love hearing from all of you, so thanks if you wrote me! Mom and Dad, I hope you have a good camping trip and enjoy Zion's Canyon. I'm hoping to go there once I get back.

Life is still crazy busy here and I'm downright relieved that I won't be here longer than six weeks. Don't get me wrong; it's fantastic here, but I'm eager to get back in to the real world again. I'm learning so much here that it's kind of hard to believe how far I've come from four weeks ago. Portuguese has progressed well enough (at least when giving lessons) that I can worry less about whether I can be understood and more about how I'm responding to the investigator and relating the gospel to them. I'm struggling with teaching a lot more than Portuguese, I think, because it is pretty difficult to try and relate what to teach to someone you just met/know little about/can barely understand/all three. Still, I'm often really surprised by what the Spirit can make out of my fumbling attempts to share a message that I know is true but can hardly express. my district has started a new teaching approach where we teach each other, with each of us impersonating a person we know well to have the gospel taught to them. It's really a fascinating exercise, because you can see how what is taught to you can really apply to and help real people, as well as understanding the sorts of questions a person would have during a lesson. I'm also picking up all sorts of off-the-wall skills that I can't even think of right now, but that I hope may come in handy. I learned to do that ridiculous finger-snap thingie (though I never want to be caught dead doing it, seeing as it's not even a Brazil thing; it's just a Mormon boy thing). I've learned to work the Brazilian Portuguese keyboard settings like a pro; I'm slowly improving at volleyball, and I've learned to say "hello" and "goodbye" and "excuse me" and "thanks" in a dozen languages besides Portuguese, because I ask basically everyone I talk to about their mission languages and I talk to a LOT of people here. I suppose it's all good practice. I've seen quite a few people I know around here, mostly from BYU, though Elder Matheny got assigned to my branch and I see him pretty often.

About last week's mystery devotional, the speaker turned out to be Richard G. Scott, which was fantastic. His talk was brilliant, naturally, and he said some wonderful things about prayer that helped me out an awful lot. He exhorted us say unrushed prayers and take that opportunity to pour out our whole souls to God, rather than just listing off our requests and then hanging up. God knows every corner of our hearts, but he also wants us to come to him with our problems and show that we have enough faith in him to ask for what we need. You don't need an appointment to talk to your Father; you can call on Him at any time or place. I just think that's such an amazing reassurance to have. He told us about the three kinds of responses we can get to our prayers. Most people are aware of the feeling of comfort and peace that signifies a positive answer and the unsettled feeling, the stupor of thought, that we get when God wants us to do something differently. But I hadn't heard much about when you simply don't receive an answer. That's one of the hardest things to feel and I've felt recently that I wasn't getting some answers that I needed. But Elder Scott reassured us that no answer is indeed an answer, that Heavenly Father is telling us that he believes in us enough to make the right decision. He lets us grow by exercising faith in him. It's hard to say everything I felt, but I felt that Elder Scott was speaking directly to me at times, or that the Lord was speaking to us through Elder Scott. The Spirit in there was indescribable, especially when he gave us an apostalic blessing that all missionaries learning a new language would have the gift of tongues and guidance of the Lord according to our faith and diligence in studying. I guess you can't really argue with something like that and since then, though I'm still studying as hard as ever, I haven't been too worried about Portuguese. I feel like i should leave you with an inspiring scripture, but even though I've run into a ton just in personal study this week, I haven't got my notebook or my scriptures at the moment and can't share them too easily. So I'll just bear my testimony that I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers through the scriptures. It's really quite astonishing. Especially if you read with a specific question in mind, familiar passages and verses leap out in new ways with new meanings and they can apply to you or to whoever you're praying about, be it a companion, family member, or investigator. So read the scriptures! It's all in there! 

Anyway, I hope regular life is proceeding smoothly and comfortably for everyone. Good luck!

Sister Nielsen

Week 3

Hey everyone! Tudo bem? Thanks for talking to me; I really appreciate it!

It's been a really busy week, but since the days have really fallen into a routine, I'm not sure what's new to talk about. My district (which is still awesome) has a bunch of equally fantastic teachers who like to throw us into weird situations with investigators to see how we react. I can't say I've noticed a difference in my Portuguese between last week and this week, but several people have told me I've improved, which is heartening. An awful lot of our time is spent either in class or studying, which means I don't have a lot of neat stories to tell, but we manage to have fun anyway. The elders are in the middle of a dramatic war where they make eye contact with someone else and then shoot an invisible blowpipe dart at them. If you get killed, you have to die suddenly and dramatically and you're only safe if you cover your neck or never look at people in the eye. They like to steal each other's nametags as sneakily as possible, too. But I promise that we're actually getting work done. We're memorizing quite a few scriptures in Portuguese as well as the missionary purpose, the convite baptismal and the First Vision, so we always have a lot on our minds.

I bullied my poor companion into singing in the devotional choir every Tuesday and today we'll be doing a gorgeous version of Jesus, Once of Humble Birth. Everyone is being a little bit evasive/dropping hints about this devotional, so I'm suspecting that a General Authority may be coming to speak. Guess we'll find out tonight! The temple also opened this week, so we got to go for the first time since we got here and that was pretty fantastic.

No one in my district and only one person in my zone has gotten their Visa so far and it's pretty likely that I'll be reassigned to a stateside mission for a bit, but I'm actually really excited to find out where that will be. Just as long as I get to Brazil eventually, I'd be happy with anywhere in the US. (I did joke about how I'd go anywhere but Texas, because we have three people from Texas in our district, but one of our teachers, Irmão Buttars said he thought the same thing and got reassigned there. And he loved it. I know I'll love any place, but it seems that karma is in Texas's favor right now).

Mom and Dad, I'm sorry that the mountains in Hyrum are on fire right now, but I hope you guys are doing all right and aren't getting too much smoke. Those pictures you sent were really cool. I'm glad you guys get to see Granny so often, too, so give her and all the other Hyrum-based relatives my love!

Thanks for writing, Becky and Grandma, I'm glad that everyone is doing well in Virginia too.

Erin Brady, you've gotta send me your address (mail or email) so I can respond to you! (if I've got the time, but I will try) Thanks for remembering me; you're the best and I wish you much luck!

Johnathan, that was the most ridiculously disappointing DearElder I've ever received. Sure, my district thought I was super popular and all, but I know there's more going on in your life than that!

Erin Stansel, that's so fantastic that you're working at the temple! I bet that's giving you a lot of preparation for your mission, though you've got a little more time still. Have you amassed enough clothing for an army yet? Got all the layers for those chilly Baltimore winters? I can't wait til you can tell me about your experiences there!

Anyways, I apologize for this being so short, but they keep us far too busy to think much about home. This has been one of the most physically draining and spiritually uplifting times of my life. We had Rosemary M. Wixom, the General Primary President, speak on Sunday and she and her husband were in charge of the DC South Mission for several years, so she had some really neat things to say. Basically, if I can l learn to love everyone on my mission, work hard, and follow the Savior, that pretty much clears up any of the problems I could have as a missionary. There is a fantastic Ezra Taft Benson quote that I wish I could quote right now, but as far as I can tell, work, love, and Jesus Christ are the key to everything I need. If I can master that and forget myself, this should be a fantastic 18 months.

Ask me any questions you like and hopefully I'll think of more to tell about the MTC next week!

Love to all,

Sister Nielsen

Week 2

Hey everyone!

It's been great to hear from all of you; thanks so much for all the letters and messages you've sent. I'm glad you got across the country all right, Mom and Dad, and I hope you're settling into the Utah house okay. I have been able to see a lot of people I know here, especially people from my freshman ward and my classes. I saw Jake Van Leeuwen and he had enough time to tell me that Spencer was coming  back to the MTC soon too. Also, congrats to Ben and Beth on baby Caroline.

To all of my siblings, thanks for sending me letters to let me know that you care and remember me! I'll try to get back to all of you, but my time here is a little limited, so I'll see what I can do. I love and miss you all.

To Greg Devore, thanks for that message you sent! It really made my day to read it. And yes, not only have I run into your niece here; she lives just a couple doors down from me. You should probably know that Sister Tingey is pretty much the nicest person I've met so far and believe me, there's a lot of competition for "nicest person". She's always smiling and positive and she's going to be a fantastic missionary.

The first week here was a little bit rough, as I understand it is for most people, but it's definitely a lot easier than it was before. Perhaps not easier, but I've gotten used to it and I'm settling right in. I actually hope I don't get my Visa right away because I really love my district and everyone I'm meeting and basically the whole experience of being here. Portuguese is coming pretty well; I still feel like I can only talk about gospel topics and very brokenly at that, but I can understand just about anything anyone says to me. Most of my district is one of those two ways: either they speak quite well but have difficulty understanding, or they can understand what is said but have a hard time responding. Luckily, there seems to be one of each type in every companionship, so everyone is able to buoy the other up according to their strengths.

I want to brag about the awesomeness of my district for just a second: since everyone is so focused and spiritual and working hard on becoming better missionaries, we decided this last fast to have a "fast from English" as well, where from dinnertime to dinnertime we would SYL completely (or Falar Sua Língua in Portuguese) and we all planned it out and leapt into it with remarkable enthusiasm, despite the fact that we had literally only had a week and a half's worth of training in this language. And we did marvelously, too. Apparently none of our teachers had heard of another district doing a language fast so soon and they were really surprised but what we could say, as were we. I certainly saw miracles of the gift of tongues in those 24 hours. I don't mean to brag about anything, but I don't feel too bad bragging about these guys, because they're awesome.

Learning Portuguese and trying to teach the gospel is still a really humbling experience, though. Sister Daniels and I had a neat experience this week, as we were planning our final lesson for our first investigator, Rajen (who turned out to be our second teacher, Irmao Butters (imagine a tilde of the a in that word). Sister Daniels was about to look up the word "pride" because she thought we might need it and I was like "No, no, we won't need a negative word like that" and she was like "Yeah, you're right" and didn't check it. And of course during the lesson, Rajen used a word that we didn't recognize and we simply could not follow what he said. So for the first and only time, he had to write this word on the board (it was "orgulho") and then write "humilidade" next to it and cross it out before we figured out what he meant. That was probably the most successful of all the lessons we had taught him so far and we were really able to feel the Spirit, but that went down a lot while we were tripping over that word. So listen to promptings you get, even when they seem pretty small. I'm not saying every random urge to look up a word is a prompting from the Holy Ghost, but if you're preparing a lesson on the gospel that you're teaching to someone in half an hour, perhaps that's a time when you should pay attention.

Anyway, I haven't got much time left, but thanks for talking to me, everyone! I love hearing about what's going on in the outside world and it's easiest to write me while I'm in the MTC, so keep them coming! 

Love to all of you,
Sister Nielsen

Week 1

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!