Week Twenty One.

Hello Everyone!

So this week has been different for sure. It was my first week as a trainer, just after three months. At first a was pretty scared already being a trainer, and American and not having much confidence in the language. But Wow have I grown in just a week. But I have been blessed with an amazing new sister, Sister Corrêa. She is also a recent convert and is excited to share the gospel with everyone and basically has the heart of an angel. She has also been helping me a lot this week too, because I don’t know everything. So we have been working together to get through this week. But we have been working very hard this week. I have wanted to do things a little bit differently, so we will see how it goes. But this week we couldn’t find a lot of people in their houses, so we talked to everyone and made contacts with everyone we came in contact with. I will tell you the truth; I was scared to death to make contacts with people before. But just with a little bit of time my confidence has gotten a lot better and I now like doing it. But we walked everywhere this week and all day. These days we have arrived in our house completely exhausted! We finish our planning, late because we have been doing so many things, and we fall right asleep. My confidence this week has definitely improved this week a lot. I think just in this week my Portuguese has improved a bunch. I mean some people say that they can’t understand me because of my accent. But for the most part everyone says that just after three months I am almost fluent. I was also forced this week to be the first one to talk and do everything, because I am training Sister Corrêa, so I had to talk more. But sometimes that’s always what I need in my life, is someone to push me into doing something. And that’s what happened, but I am so very grateful for it. I know that the Lord helps a lot in this work, and he truly does bless us.

Love,
-Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Twenty.

Hello there everybody!!

Wow what a week. A lot has happened in the last couple of days!! I mean A LOT! I am now a trainer. Can you believe that? I will back up a little. I finished my training with Sister Leite on Sunday. SIster Leite and the other Sister we live with kept joking around that I would train this transfer because a lot of missionaries will arrive. But honestly it is super early for someone to be training, especially for an American. The American sisters here usually train after a year, and that’s if they train, some of them don’t train another missionary at all. Being a trainer is a big responsibility and means that the president trusts a lot in you. And I don’t even know any other sisters, Brazilians here who trained right after their training. So when we got the call Sunday night saying that Sister Leite was transferred, and that I would stay and be training, it was a huge surprise. I was over whelmed. I at first was very scared, know that I still wasn’t confident in the language, and I still had a lot to learn. But then I knew that this would be the greatest learning experience for me. I would have to learn to truly trust in the lord with everything that I’ve got! And so I have. Guess who else is also training - SIster Harris, my Companion from the MTC. It was very sad to have to see SIster Leite leave, but at the same time, all of my feelings of nervousness turned into excitement. But I now have my new Companion, Sister Corrêa (I attached a photo of us), she is also from São Paulo. Taller than me, which is a first for here. Very new in the church 1 year and 7 months, but loves the gospel and missionary work. A bit shy and timid but has a big heart. I can tell that we are going to get along very well. I am so excited to work with and train her. I only met her yesterday afternoon, so I will have more to tell you next week.

WE have had quite the adventures this week. It has been Carnival, but luckily because I am not in the city Carnival is not that bad. (Yes, I am still in Gravata). WE have had to return to our house early every night to avoid the craziness. Friday night there was a parade where guys dressed up and women, we were in our house, but we ran into a few during the day. Sunday we had to stay in our house all day, because it was a day where they throw what at people with water guns and its crazy, if I want a missionary it actually looks like a lot of fun. Saturday (I know I’m jumping around in my days) there was a huge storm here all day. Heavy rain and thunder and lightning. It was pretty cool.

Monday we took a car to Recife to drop Sister Leite off, it was my first transfers, and everyone is so excited and nervous there. It is fun seeing where everyone will go. I, Sister Harris and another sister stayed in the apartment in Recife, just around the corner of the chapel, to wait for the new sisters arriving the next day. Yesterday, (Tuesday) we had to go to the chapel to do something in prep for the missionaries because 19 came yesterday (that’s a lot). The chapel is about 4 floors so it has an elevator. Well we took the elevator back down and guess what happened, the second door wouldn’t open. The door inside the elevator kept opening and closing, but the outside door wouldn’t open. We were stuck in the elevator for almost half an hour! This is always one of my fears, and well it happened. After prayer, where we able to get our way out. The President’s wife was outside the chapel and was so glad that we made it out. The Lord did help us in there. It was quite an adventure.

Well my week has been quite exciting. And I can already tell that the Lord is helping me. I already have more confidence, and am able to speak better Portuguese, and remember things easier. I know that this is the Lords work and he helps his missionaries and the areas that we need.

I hope all is well with everyone!

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Nineteen.

Note from Editors - A bit late due to other life events.

Hello there everyone,

This week sure did pass by very fast! This week we got to go into Recife again (if you can’t tell by now, it’s a pretty big deal when we get to go into the city for something). We have a Zone Conference on Thursday and left Saturday. The Conference was good as always and we got the opportunity to learn a lot. After the Conference was over we got to go to the temple. We left the stake center and started on our journey to the temple. Usually we take a bus, but it was in the middle of rush hour and something happened and none of the traffic or buses were moving. We came across some Elders and they helped us navigate a bit towards the direction of the temple and to other bus stops. But we decided we would just walk, but we didn’t know how to get over there, because the temple was on the other side of the city, like the way other side of the city (really long), but we wanted to make it to the last session. And then an Angel fell from the sky.
A girl about our age, who had just come home from her mission noticed us and the Elders and asked if we were headed for the temple. So she was then our personal guide to get to the temple. We walked about 1 1/2 hours with her and probably another hour before with the Elders. It was also in the hot muggy weather of Recife. As we were walking we were thinking of all this walking in the heat with heavy backpacks for a couple of hours that we had to do just to get to the temple, but then we realized, hey at least we can walk to the temple, imagine all the people that travel for days just to get to the temple, or the pioneers! So we realized we were very grateful. We arrived at the lodge next to the temple completely sweaty and exhausted, but realized that we not only made it in time but also had to go eat. So we grabbed a bite to eat and then went to the last session of the temple, what a great way to end your day.

That was the most exciting thing that happened this week. Other things that happened this week... I realized it’s really good I don’t know the names of the meat sometimes here. Last week I understood I was eating cow’s hand, but sometimes here they have a different name for the meat when you eat it. So now when we have strange meat, I now have to ask my companion what part of the animal is this. Well I found out I ate stomach intestines here, yeah that wasn’t so great either.

But this week we taught this guy from Nigeria, so he speaks English. So half the lesson is in English and half the lesson is in Portuguese, it’s pretty neat. All he really wants to do is test our knowledge on how much we know about Christ´s life and the Bible, and why our church doesn’t worship certain things. It is actually pretty interesting sometimes; it is never dull when we visit him.

This week I also finished the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission, it was pretty exciting. This week has taught me a lot of things, patience, loving others, and trusting in the Lord. I hope all is well with everyone.
Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Eighteen.

Hello there everyone,

This week has been pretty normal, but of course like every week some
exciting things happened too. First we had the baptism of Kionaria!
She is 17 years old and amazing, has such a sweek spirit about her.
Also we only taught her for about 3 weeks as well as our last baptism.
She is one of the people we taught when we taught all of the kids, but
she was the main reason we were teaching all them and she was the
oldest. Her two younger siblings are members, but she had just
recently moved into the area. But again before the baptism we had the
lucky chance of emptying the font out with buckets...again. But this
time i wasnt sore after words. But the baptism was amazing we did a
joint baptism with the other other sisters in the other word, so there
was a lot of people. But we know that she will be great.

So somthing interesting i got to eat this week, calfs hoof ( i think
thats what we call it in English) mão de vaca in Portuguese, whch is
cow´s hand. Yeah.... it was interesting. I also didnt know what it was
untill after lunch. They then put a huge pot of meat of the table and
said its intersting and its okay if we dont want to eat it. Sister
Leite and I then peered into the pot and i think both of our noses
turned up. It basically looked like a bunch of animal fat, but we were
able to find a few actually meaty peices, but i think i wont try that
meat again. We then went home after words and ate some other food.

Last P-day we were going to go visit some places here, but it started
to rain. When it rains here it rains buckets and its reallyt heavy,
and they dont really have drainage systems. But they problem was that
we were still in the center of town when the rain started and we had
to make it home some how. I was totally fine walking in the rain and
am used to it, and actually kind of like it. But people here when it
starts to rain they all take cover. We were ready to go and i turned
to Sister Leite and said are you ready. She looked at me like I was
crazy (because we didnt have anything to gard us from the rain and it
really was pouring buckets). I told her in Seattle the rain doesnt
stop anything. So we went for an adventure and walked home, it was
only about 10 mins walk home, but we were completely soaked from head
to foot. It was great I loved it!

This week we started to visit really old investigators(a long time
since they have been visited). it was good to see a bunch of new
faces. But I have started to bee more comfortable in speaking with new
people, I have been speaking more. they then ask how long i have been
here and then are very surprised that for two months I speak really
well. Sister Leite said that this week I have really made a leap in my
language. She has been great. Me and Sister Leite have really learned
work well together and build a friendship too. But sadly our training
is almost over. But she has been amazing in teaching me and helping me
with everything.

Hope everyone is doing well

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson