Week Fifty Three.

Hello there everyone,

Another week has come and gone and here I am writing you guys again. This week has been very rewarding, but the rewards came after a ton of hard work! The start of the week was pretty hard. It is differently entering into summer here and we had a few days of super-hot sun with walking a ton and some of our areas are really far away. I forgot to use sunscreen, so I got pretty nice sunburn too! So because of all that we were both pretty pooped the rest of the week, I was finally able to rest a bit today. But we have really been wanting some baptisms in our area especially because this week is the last week of the transfer period, so we are trying to push through. We have been praying a lot and trying to put in a lot of sacrifice. Because of that we were able to find some miracles this week too.

We were challenged to invite people to be baptized at least once every day, and because of that we were able to get 3 baptism commitments!!! 2 for this week and one for the week after. We were truly blessed. There is an ex-pastor that we have been trying to teach who has been going to church for over 5 months, but in a different ward! It is always super hard to find him in his house. But we were passing by there and decided to try, and sure enough he was in there. We still hadn´t invited anyone to be baptized that day so we decided to invite him. And sure enough he accepted! And will be baptized this week. We were so excited. We then received a reference that the elders gave to us. We called him met with him the following day. He is dating a girl in another area and has been going to church for at least 2 months now, and wants to be baptized before the 4th, we were like: we can make that happen, how does next week sound! (This was the day following the other baptismal commitment) So we were pretty excited. He has a ton off questions and is more gospel literate than a lot of members that I know. The other was at church where a member said his nephew wanted to be baptized! So we set his baptismal date for next week. What a week of miracles we are so excited! We really tried to do everything that we could this week, and because of that we were able to finally commit some investigators to baptism, and we were able to meet all of our goals.

This Sunday Our mission president came and visited our ward, we were not advised beforehand, and were in a state of panic. Our investigators were visiting other wards and we didn’t have investigators in our ward. So we snuck out and started calling everyone. WE had some investigators that lived super close and we went to their houses to get them to come to church, but none of them were home. We then started inviting everyone that we knew in the street to come to church. But sadly enough no one came; we realized we just had to face the truth. But the president met with us after wards and really just wanted to know how the ward and the area was doing, so it was all good.

But this week was very hard, but I think it has been the week that I have seen the Lord’s hand and received more  blessings than anytime previously in my mission. I am very grateful to be here serving the Lord. Thank you everyone for all your support and your prayers. Next week is transfers so we will see if anything changes, until then, I hope everyone has a great week.

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Fifty Two.

Hey there everyone, 

This week was again pretty uneventful, but there was general conference this weekend, so it threw a mix into things, which was pretty great. But this week, we were finally working back to normal speed from my companion being sick, which was great. But it was a pretty normal week. We were just trying to get back into the swing of things from not visiting people in about 2 weeks, so we were just trying to get out there and visit people. The Elders even came to our area to try and help us find new people. But we are really trying to push for getting some baptisms here in this area, my companion and I are really trying, so we are going to work really hard these next two weeks.

But this week was general conference. It was pretty interesting this time because we had to go to the stake center, but the stake center is a bit far away and its super hard to ride a metro bus into that area. We went there for the first session and just stayed until the second session finished. On Saturday not many people were there. It was mainly the missionaries and some of the people that lived close by. But we were all shocked about the age change for the missionaries, especially for the sisters. But between the sessions some of the elders had a baptism. Right before it started they asked if my companion and I could sing a special number. I said sure. But I was dreading it a bit, because I knew that my companion does not sing, so it would be mainly...ME. Well she said she would, we quickly picked a song and went up there to sing. When we started I was the only one singing, she started to chicken out, but joined in on the second verse. I was so nervous; I have never sung a solo in front of people, until then, ha-ha. But I thought it went well. After the last session ended (which was 7pm here) the elders took us to the bus stop because it wasn’t in the safest part of town. Well right in front of the bus stop was a huge fire and we were all being smoked out, couldn’t see or breath very well. We gave up waiting for the bus (which only passes once an hour, and one passed right by us without stopping) and called a taxi. It was quite a night.

Sunday was a lot more relaxed and had a bunch more people attend conference. However it was Election Day here in Brazil, and everyone here is required to vote, so everyone goes crazy. There was little paper fliers ALL over the ground. When we got home at night after conference everyone was celebrating the winners of the election. There were people drinking in the street and it was like one huge party with fireworks and a ton of honking horns and everything, so we went right into our house. But conference was great yesterday; a lot more people were there too. During the break I went and played with a lot of the little kids that were there; it was pretty fun. But that is pretty much my week. This week we are going to continue to work hard and make things here in this area. Hope all is well with everyone else. Until next time.

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Fifty Two... ONE YEAR!

Hello there everyone,

So this week I have a bit more time to write, but unfortunately I still don't have that much to say. My companion was still on recovery and still a bit sick. Some of the days we were able to leave but we were working at less than half speed and only visiting the most important people. So work this week was pretty slow. But I have faith, and I know that it will get better. :)

This week both my companion and I, sister Rodriguez completed one year on our missions. I cannot believe how fast the time has passed. Time has just flown by, like really I do not know where a year has gone. It is super crazy. We were both excited and sad at the same time completing a year, because we don't want it to be over in 6 months. But it was good, I made a cake for us and we celebrated a bit.

Not much has happened in the last little while since I have emailed you. We went to the temple and brought with us a less active member that we are reactivating. She and her little son loved it, we played around with them for a while too on the temple grounds. The temple in Recife has such a calming spirit to it. The city is super loud and even smelly, but the moment you walk in the gate it all goes away, seriously (all but the occasional siren). I love going to the temple here. I stayed in there for a long time this time when I went in. 

Other than that we were able to make a few visits here and there and the other half of the time my companion was resting and I was studying or catching up on stuff that needed to get done. We helped do a blitz in another area, where we went with members inviting less actives to the ward conference. I went with this lady who had served a mission a little bit ago, and it was way nice talking to her. 

Yesterday we were able to watch the woman's session of conference. It's weird here because they broadcast it live, so it was actually super late at night. It ended at 10pm, so everyone watched it the next day. We have to get on a bus to go to the stake center to watch all of conference. All of the Brazilians say it's fun because everyone stays there and its super fun. II really enjoyed President Eryings talk. 

That is about it for me, I hope that everyone is doing well. Send my best wishes to everyone.

Love.
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Fifty One.

Hello there everybody,

Sorry that I am sending this email a bit late, but we moved our p-day because we went to the temple today for the first time in 3 months, so it was pretty exciting. But really there is not much to tell for this week. Not too much has happened this week, because my companion has been sick almost all week long. We started off the week super good, teaching a ton, finding lots of people and all of that. Then Tuesday night my companion, sister Rodriguez, started to feel sick, so we just stayed in the house pretty much all week long. She had a fever that came and went and her whole body was hurting. We then thought that she had yellow fever or something. So Saturday we went to the free 24 hour public health clinic and were there for about 6 hours, until midnight. We then went back the next day after church to get the results of her exams. The President got concerned and came with us. They then found out that it is some kind of pinched nerve in her spine, that is what they are thinking, but we don't know for sure. So that is all we know for now. We are trying to get it cleared through the mission to go to a specialist. But we are just taking things super easy.

As for me I have had a lot of time to study. But when sister Rodrigues was awake we had time to talk and study together. But a few of the days I spent a lot of time cooking. I have discovered here on the mission that I really enjoying cooking, and it's not too bad. I have gotten really good at looking at our bare cupboards and throwing what we have together into something that is actually pretty good. But this week I have made lasagna for the first time, just throwing things together making up my own recipe. I made kiwi pavê, and some other things. I really enjoy cooking, and I am trying to learn how to cook more Brazilian food too, still lack the beans. But this week it was really good to get in all the studying. My companion felt bad keeping me in the house almost all week. But I told her not to worry about it because I actually never was board or anything because there was always things that I wanted to study and didn't have enough time to study them. 

We are still trying to prep one of our investigators for baptism. But she still needs to stop smoking, we are setting new goals with her, so hopefully it will help. She is really determined to succeed. 

But that was my week. I hope that this week I will have more to tell you. I hope all is well with everyone. until next week,

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Fifty.

Hello there everyone,

I don't have a lot of time to write today, so I will try and make this fast. Today we went to Recife, in the old part of the city and brought a members brother who was a history teacher, and knows a lot about the history of the city. We basically got a free tour of some of the historic sites of the city, it was very cool. I liked it a lot! I will have to send pictures next week. This city has a ton of history to it and a very diverse culture. It is very interesting. I love this city

But not much has happened this week. It was pretty normal, didn't have lows or extreme ups either. Just..normal. :) But We are going to be preparing a person to be baptized this week, she is a bit nervous because she is afraid that she won't be able to stop smoking. She has basically stopped but is afraid that she will return begin smoking again, and wants to know more about the church. But we know that she is ready! This week the assistants came and visited us to see how we were doing. They didn't give us any warning, it was quite a surprise, but good. 

Yesterday, I felt like a member again not a missionary, because I was at church almost the whole day and I just came home to eat, ha-ha. There was a stake women's conference yesterday, and wow it was amazing, I learned a lot. The theme was guardians of the home. There was a spiritual part, then a workshop part, it was very well planned. 

As for me and am doing great, I keep working hard and am trying to do my best! I am now seeing and feeling the toll on my body after a year of working and walking. I am starting to feel more tired as the weeks past. But yet I am loving it because I know that I am happy doing the lords work and that he will bless me after. 

Well that is about it for me! Sorry that this is short this week Love you guys and hope all is well.

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Forty Nine.

Hello there everybody,

So this week was really good! A lot better than the past week when I was sick and we weren't able to do much. We set some high goals this week for number of lessons, contacts and people at church, and guess what! We were able to complete all of those goals! It was a hard push at the very end, but we were able to do it! Sunday night we were only short a few contacts and a lesson, nothing seemed to be going right. Finally we were able achieve the goals that we wanted for the day and ended up with a great week! It was so fantastic. One of the biggest miracles was the number of people that were at church! After having a month with no one at church we were able to have 7 people at church, and 3 of them were there for the first time, it was amazing! We were so happy. We will soon be preparing some of these people for baptism. It truly was a miracle to have these things happen this week. It really was a stretch but we were able to pull through with the Lords help!

We are continuing helping Nací prepare for baptism (hopefully next week), she just has a few problems she needs to sort out, but she is amazing. We have been teaching her for a couple of weeks now, but her daughter said that her mom has always been looking for a church but has never been able to find one. She said her mom has been super happy about this church and always talking about it. She is a miracle and will be ready for baptism soon. We have been able to see a bunch of small miracles here this week and are finding a bunch of new people. 

One of the things that has happened this week I really loved was the interview that I had with the mission president. He asked how everything was, he thanked me for my work and thanked me for everything that I was doing. I talked to him about service, and he said something very interesting. That the atonement of Christ is one of the most important things in our life, but usually we never give thanks for it, the same thing is in life. A lot of the time we give and see nothing in return. After my companion and I had our interviews we both changed a lot!  He said something to both of us about our companionship, and we knew that we were going to stay together for this next transfer. So Transfers were today and we are together for another month and a half. But we are continuing learning, growing and serving one another and this transfer will be different!!

But that is about all for me this week, I hope that everything is good everyone. You will hear form me again next week.

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Forty Eight.

Hello everyone,

So this week was a bit interesting. I was sick almost the whole week. It was nothing bad, so don't worry. It started one day with just my throat hurting, then I lost my voice and got a bit of a cold flu thing. On Tuesday my companion told me that I need to at least take a nap for a bit and that afterwards, if I felt better, we can go and work. I ended up sleeping the whole day! I was a bit out of it. But I then started feeling better, but my voice was not. There were several days where I didn't really didn't have a voice and couldn't talk. When my voice became really bad my companion made us go back home and gargle with salt water. (I found this to be good way to diet because you never want to eat after that, ha-ha). But now I am almost back to normal, so things are great.

But because I was sick there was a few days where we weren't able to work or worked part of the day. So we weren't really able to teach a whole lot. Also when I was good to go out, we found absolutely no one in their homes, it was probably the weirdest week ever. But through our trials we were able to see miracles! We got to church and one of our investigators came to church on her own, we were so happy. The other called saying that she woke up late, so we went with a member who had a car and brought her to church. We both were super happy. We even set a baptismal date, the first in awhile. We are helping her to stop smoking and with other goals, so that she can be baptized. She actually said exactly some of the same things that one of my investigators said to me in my last area, and she was baptized. So it was like reliving the experience over again, it was pretty neat.

This week we had a Zone Conference with half of our mission and it was really good. I was able to see some of my old companions, and met some new people too. The president gave a ton of good advice, my companion and I were quick to put it into practice. We are excited to see our area progress. I am so grateful to be here on the mission, it is passing by so fast, and I am trying to make every day worth it. I hope you all have a great week.

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson