Week Nine.

Hello everyone!

Guess what? I got my visa last week so I am on my way to Brazil on time! They gave me all of my travel plans. I leave Wednesday from the MTC at 8am. We flight out of Salt Lake to Detroit. Then from Detroit to Sao Paulo, then finally to Recife, and I won’t get there until 3pm on Thursday December 1. So I will be traveling for a day and a half. But luckily my and my companion travel the whole way together. And the last Elder in our district is traveling to Sao Paulo with us. So we will all have each other. I am super excited but very nervous at the same time. I am so ready to go and teach other people and share the gospel with them, but I am very nervous about speaking Portuguese. But I know the Lord will bless me as long as I put my whole heart into it.

We had the great opportunity to hear from two apostles this week! On Tuesday night Devotional we heard from Elder Christofferson and he spoke about things he wished he had done better on his mission. And then on thanksgiving we got to hear from Elder Nelson. He talked to us about the difference between thanksgiving and giving thanks. They were both amazing wonderful talks!

Thanksgiving was good here at the MTC, they really treated us well. And I was so grateful for all of the workers who did work here on thanksgiving. In the Morning we heard from Elder Nelson, as I had mentioned. We then had our Thanksgiving dinner for lunch at about 11am. There was turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and rolls (not grandma’s rolls, that’s the thing I missed the most) and even some pumpkin pie (which I didn’t eat because I don’t like pumpkin pie). But it was pretty good, for Thanksgiving cafeteria style. I was just so grateful for all the people working there. We then made our selves sack dinners to eat later in our residence halls. We had an opportunity to do a service project. We made humanitarian aid kits, kind of like first aid kits. We made big assembly lines. The MTC made 8,000 kits. At the end of the day we got to watch a movie! We watched 17 Miracles. It was a very good heart touching movie, I recommend you to see it. They even gave us all our own bags of popcorn. They treated us very well on thanksgiving. And then when we were walking home the main court yard of the MTC was lit up with Christmas lights! (They have been putting them up since about the time I got here). Each night they are on and they are such a pretty sight to see.

On Friday I had in-field orientation. We just went to a bunch of work shops all day. It was really good. They told us some ways that we can be better missionaries. And we practiced contacting and everything. It was great. We learned a lot.

Yesterday was Sunday. And during our Sacrament meeting our branch President always calls on at least two random missionaries to give a 5 minute talk in Portuguese. So every Sunday you have to come prepared with a talk. And this week it was my lucky turn. I talked about Enduring to the end (perseverar ate o fim). I went over the 5 minutes probably closer to 10. But everyone said that my talk was good. And the Branch Presidency’s wives said it is so incredible how we pick up the language so fast. I also sang again this week in Sacrament meeting. This time with my district and our twin district (the district who came in the same week that we did). So there were 7 of us. We sang a medley of "Child’s Prayer" and "He Sent His Son". We didn’t practice but twice, so it was okay. I still enjoyed it though.

I hope everyone is doing well. And the next time you will be hearing from me I will be in Brazil!

Love,

Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Eight.

 Hello there everyone,

So guess what? I only have one more week of the MTC. Isn't that crazy? Time flies by so fast. I can't believe that an 1/8 of my mission is already done. I am pretty positive that our visas are coming this week. So hopefully we will get our travel plans soon. And then head out after Thanksgiving. We will see though.

This week I got to be a new missionary Host. When all the new missionaries come in every Wednesday they have a missionary who has been here awhile escort you around and get your room, books, ID, and take you to your classroom. There were a lot of sister missionary hosts so I only got to show two sisters around, but it was fun. They had twice the amount of missionaries come in this week, 700 new missionaries, they said we were at 105% capacity. So things are pretty crowded.

It also snowed this week for a day. It was snowing when we got out of class. It's funny now, I am getting used to the cold weather again. Some people complain and I'm like “It's really not that cold”. I've gotten used to the cold from being in Rexburg for three winters. But it will be a total weather change once I go to my mission. Everyone says it's really hot and I will get there as they are heading into their summer!

The extra Elder who was added to our district is now ready to leave. So starting Wednesday there will only be 3 of us in our district. Me, Sister Harris, and our last Elder who will be a solo. It will be pretty funny.

We have been teaching a lot this week as usual. And this week all of our investigators got “baptized”! Okay, so these are our teachers acting as investigators, but it was still pretty fun.

Yesterday in Sacrament Meeting all of the sisters in the zone (7 sisters) did a musical number, it was really good. One of the Elders helped us with it, and we sang “Nearer My God to Thee”, mixed with “For the Beauty of the Earth”. Our Zone is getting very small with everyone getting visas and leaving. There are 4 zones that only have 4 people in them. (a normal zone here has about 12 people). So our four districts put together make one normal size district. We had a new district come in this week and they only had 6 people.

I'm getting exciting to leave, but also very nervous at the same time. I am ready to start teaching real people. But I am scared about speaking the language. But they a new program on how they teach language here and they just started it this summer. Our teachers say we are a lot more ready to go then they were, and we know the language a ton better. So that's good to hear. I'm excited though.

Things with my ankle are looking good, I still have to wear my brace, but I am free to go. It's still not 100%. But it is workable.

I hope everyone is doing well. And HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Love,

Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Seven.

Hello There Everyone!

Time here in the MTC is flying by! I can't believe I only have about 2 weeks left. I still seems like I got here not that long ago, but yet it seems like I have been here forever. It is scary to think that I might/will be in Brazil in about 2 weeks! Thinks are looking up for visas, and I think I will be leaving here on time. Two more Elders got their visas this week from my district and are leaving tomorrow. They filled out their online visas exactly a week before the rest of us did. Our district would be down to 3 people (1 Elder and 2 Sisters), but we had another Elder join our district this week. He has been here for about 12 weeks, he is recovering from knee surgery, and we are his 4th district. So luckily our one remaining Elder has another Elder. So our district will be down to 4 people.

Updates on my ankle: My ankle is getting a TON better and it is truly a miracle, considering I couldn't walk on it. I am now walking around just fine, and even yesterday I took of my brace. I still have an ace bandage on it just in case, but they said I didn't need to wear it. I even got cleared too! They said that I could even play in gym now too, don't worry I will take things easy. It is just so amazing. I almost feel all better. It still hurts to rotate it some ways too far, but it is a lot better. And almost all the swelling is down.

Our lessons have been getting a lot better this week. We have just been able to go in there with a few notes on what we want to say and then we are able to talk. We are able to start thinking in Portuguese better and it is nice. Some weeks I feel like I haven't improved on the language that much, but this week I feel like I have. I'm really impressed with how I can get my thoughts across. But I really only know missionary lingo. When we are trying to speak everyday stuff, we don't know how to say much.

I have really discovered that I love singing. I have always kind of liked it, but it wasn't until I got here at the MTC that I realized how much I really did like it. Also because things are so quite in order for there to be noise we go around singing. I go to choir every week, and I really enjoy it. This coming Sunday the sisters in our zone are all going to sing a song for Sacrament. And one of the Sisters, who I think has an AMAZING voice, said she really liked how I sing. Singing just makes me happy now.

The weather here has also been nice. It's been a bit cold, but every day turns into a nice crisp, sunny, fall day. And it makes us so happy.

Well I hope all is well!

-Love,

    Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Six.

Hello everyone,

It has almost been 6 weeks since I have entered the MTC. Can you believe that? I can’t. Time just goes by so fast here.

Well some updates on my ankle... It is getting a lot better. About the fourth or fifth day I could definitely see improvements in my ability to walk and move around. It still hurts from time to time and is still a bit painful, but a lot better. Because it is a high ankle sprain though, it’s mainly a couple of the ligaments in my legs that hurt when I walk, I guess they tore and so when I walk on them they will hurt. I now will be meeting with the doctor every week, I meet with him later today. I now do physical therapy during gym time, which usually really helps. Except I get almost a new trainer every day and they never know what I can or can't do. So they other day one of the trainers tried having me stand on it and to toe raises and I fell to the floor because it was way to painful.

I'm actually thinking that I may be in the MTC for awhile because I have to be able to have a lot more mobility on my ankle and be able to walk at least 10 miles a day for me to be cleared to go to the field. My Elders tell me to stop worrying about that, and to just get better and that I will be able to go. They have been a lot of help. As I walk around the MTC campus EVERYONE asks me about my foot. I just have a brace on (kind of a big brace), but it's not even a boot. Everyone wants to know what happened and how I'm doing. And it was fine to hear from the first couple of people. But when at least 10 or more people want to have a conversation with me about what happened it gets a bit tiring. My Elders told me I need to come up with a better story. :) I also want to thank you for all of your prayers. There is no way that I would be healing as fast as I am if it weren't for your help and the help from the Lord.

My district is now down to 5 people. 2 sisters and only 3 elders. It is very strange sometimes. But we have been able to grow a lot closer. And we get a lot of one on one time in class too. Another new district came in this week that was pretty exciting. And guess what there are 3 new sisters who came in. That makes a total of 7 sisters in our zone. One of them is from Ecuador, and she is the sweetest person.

There are not a lot of people left in our district and we have scheduled times to teach investigators, so we have to teach all the time to fill up the schedule. We have to teach every time that we have class!!! It gets a bit crazy sometimes and we have no time to prepare. We know that's what we will be doing while we are on the mission but because we are still trying to learn the language it's hard.

I think my language skills this week have taken another step. I now feel comfortable when the investigators ask me something  I can usually respond back with an answer that they can mostly understand. Mine and Sis. Harris's teaching together has also been a lot better. We have always been pretty good. But when we have to make stuff on the spot we flow a lot better. A lot of our lessons this week didn't go as we planned. Our investigators will ask us questions and then we will end up teaching something totally different. We now get to play investigators to the other elders in our district! It is pretty fun.

Yesterday was fast Sunday. WE got to have a mission conference and hear from the mission presidency. We also had a district testimony meeting and the Spirit was strong. Well I am still loving the MTC. And I realized that I do not have much time left, it has flown by so fast.

Well I hope all is well with everyone.

Love,

Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Five.

Hello everyone!

Just real quick I only get 30 minutes, it freaks me out so I type really fast and mistype things a lot and then I have no time to go back over and re read it. (Blog note:  Friends and family are updating entries prior to posting so you can actually read it.)

Well Happy Halloween!! It doesn't really seem like Halloween at all. I just know its Halloween because it's the end of October. It's a bit sad because I love Halloween with all the scary stuff, and fall, and everything about it.

But I have now been here a month! Well over a month. It's hard to believe. But they have a saying here days seem like weeks and weeks seem like days. It is so true here!

I made it through a month at the MTC with out getting injured, but then on Saturday....duh duh duh! I got injured! Yep that's right. I sprained my ankle pretty bad! They said it's a high sprain and I pulled two of my ligaments and might have even torn them, but it's really hard to tell what's all going on in there. I have been on crutches for the last two days and am trying to get off them. I always have to debate with myself is in more painful to walk around on my foot and have sharp pains shoot up my leg with every step or go around on my crutches where my arm pits are bruised now and I can feel every muscle in my upper body and it is all sore now. I try and go around with a smile on my face, and still act pleasant but I think that most people can see that it's a gritting pain smile.  They can tell by the way I walk around – more like hobbling around.

Well let me tell you the story of how it happened. I was in gym on Saturday and I was playing volleyball. I love playing volleyball here it is a lot of fun. And a lot of the Elders I play with are really nice. I have been playing with the really good people. (There are two courts one that's medium and one that's good, well MTC standards). They are mainly all Elders from Tonga and they are pretty good and hit hard, but they are impressed with how I play. :) Well someone set me up and I went up and spiked the ball and it was a nice hit! But as I came down there was this huge Tongan standing right there and I landed on him coming down. My ankle popped and I was down! All the elders were trying to help me, but I kept brushing them off and telling them I was fine. Then I realized I wasn't. So I hobbled over to the medical people they have there. She poked and probed around and told me it was sprained. Well I could tell that. I sprain my ankle a lot. But it felt really bad! Then Sister harries comes running in, some one hold her what happened. (So...I will try to tell the rest of the story quicker because I'm running out of time). They told me there was no doctor on Saturdays. But it hurt so bad that I went to the front desk and had them call the on call doctor or something. They told me they were going to take me to the Provo health clinic. So we got to go in a car in the first time in a month and go out into the real world!! It was so weird. We went there and they pocked around some more and boy did it hurt. And they took an x-ray for safe measure. Nothing was broken. They said I had a lot of impact on my bones though from past sports. But then you could see in the x-ray how swollen my ankle was. It was pretty big! And still is. So he prescribed my some medication. They wrapped me up and gave me a nice ankle brace. We then got to go over to Walgreens to get the medication, but because we had gone straight from gym we didn't have any money or anything with us. So some nice elders we were with (who were also getting medication and were at the doctors) lent me some money so I didn't have to come back. We were gone most of the day. I then come hobbling into the cafeteria where everyone who knows me stops and asks what happened. Then our elders from our district didn't know where we were, so they started being very worried until they found out.  The Elders have been super helpful and nice these last couple of days. Two of them are even fasting for me today, so I can get better and then when my visa comes I can be well enough to go. They are so cute! I love them all. So that was my exciting adventure this week in a nutshell. I can tell though my ankle is getting better. It's still pretty painful and I’m still off and on crutches, but it is getting a bit better.

Real quick other news:

- Sis Dalton came and spoke in relief society yesterday. She is so amazing and is such a great speaker

- A new district came in this week and because I am now the coordinating sister I get to do the orientation with them. So that was a lot of fun. They are now our roommates too. It's nice having other girls now in our zone as the other ones have left for Brazil. There is also another district coming in this week, and there are 3 sisters. One is from Ecuador so that might be interesting.

- More visas are coming in!!! Two people from my district left this week. Then 3 more got their visas. So tomorrow our district will be down to 5 people, three elders and two sisters. It will be interesting.

Wellll I love everyone, and hope everyone is doing well

Love,

Sister Rebecca N

Week Four.

Hello Everyone!

I have made it almost 4 weeks already in the MTC. I can't believe I've already almost been here for a month. The days here are blending together. We always loose track of what day of the week it is, and half the time we don't know what time of day it is, because we are in our classroom all day, and it doesn't have a window. We will leave class to go to a meal and we can't remember if we are going to lunch or dinner. It's funny sometimes. So a few exciting things happened this week. For our devotional on Tuesday night Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke. It was way amazing! He talked about how we can receive the spirit, and how we always need to carry something around so that we can write down spiritual impressions that we get. He did a question and answer thing, but in reverse. He asked the questions and would have people respond back to them. We then were able to talk about it afterwards as a district and it was so good, and it brought us closer together.

Yesterday I was also made the coordinating sister for our zone! It's not too exciting, but still a lot of stuff to do. I am like the female version of the zone leader. I am in charge of all the sisters in our zone, which at the moment there are only 4 of us, so it's not that much. But we are getting two new sisters in our zone this week, they will bee the first new sisters in our zone since Sister Harris and I came in. It's strange having only 4 sisters and 70 Elders in our zone. Also all the elders know you, because there aren't that many sisters, but we don't really know every single one of them.

Back to the Coordinating Sister thing.  I basically interview them and make sure they are doing good, and check on them every night. Also when new sisters in the district come in, like this week, I help train them. I spend Wednesday and Thursday night with them. I was so looking forward for it to be Sunday this week, so I could have some down time. But little did I know once I got called, I then had to be in meetings ALL day. From about 8am-8pm (mixed in with my other classes and meals, but the rest of my time was spent in meetings). I was pretty exhausted after yesterday, but I am sure that I will love my new calling and to be able to help the sisters in my district.

Good news here for visas. Even more came in this week! 2 Elders from our district are leaving tomorrow, so we will only have 8 people in district. Some now only have 4 or 5 people. So numbers are getting fewer as they head finally to Brazil. Sister Harris and I are thinking that we might get ours in about 2 weeks. We are pretty sure that we will be getting to the Brazil MTC eventually. We have taken the average of what it seems like for people to get their visas and that's why we think two weeks. It is so Exciting!

Something kind of funny that happened this week was that we had a fire drill. It was during our first gym time of the week, so some of the Elders got mad. They evacuated the whole MTC,  2500 missionaries in total out of the buildings. We all went over across the street to the playfields that are over there.

During TRC this week (Training or Teaching rRsource Center) we were able to teach a local Brazilian. Which was a bit scary, but fun all at the same time. She's Japanese decent but raised in Brazil, and her husband is Australian, pretty funny. She was so cute and super nice to us. But boy oh boy did she speak fast!!!! Our teacher said that it would give us practice for our mission. We found out that in Recife they speak REALLY fast, which all the missionaries from our district who are going there (including me) are the slowest speakers that are in class. So it's pretty ironic right now. but we will get it....eventually.

I am so grateful to be here, and even though times here are sometimes hard and over whelming I know that the Lord is there to help me through this. I have been so blessed with a good district and an AMAZING companion. Thank you for all of your support!

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Three.

I finally filled out my online visa! So it's one step closer to getting my actual visa and going to Brazil! Me, my companion Sis. Harris and one other Elder did our onlines on the same day, so now our whole district has ours in. So we were pretty excited. But something even more exciting a bunch of visas are starting to go through! A good handful of people from our zone got their visas the day after we filled ours out, even one of the Elders in our district got his too! So there is bright hope in our future. Sister Harris and I are thinking that we might get ours before our time is out at the MTC and that we might not get reassigned stateside first. So it is pretty crazy. How fast do the visas usually come after you fill out your online (you might be asking)? Well... No one knows! They really don´t.. It is totally random! It looks like they do it by what area you are going to. I've heard it takes anywhere from 2 hours, to 7 months, both extremes. But anyway it is pretty exciting!

They have also been running out of room like crazy for people here at the Provo MTC, mainly for the elders. But even for the sisters sometimes. We are actually in a guys building. The whole floor is just sisters, but there are Elders below and above us. So when we are all quiet sometimes we can still hear the 19 year old boys jumping around and yelling for a couple hours after we have to go to bed. It just makes you laugh sometimes though. There are only usually 4 people to a room. We only had roommates for the first 4 days we were here, other than that we've had the room to ourselves. They are also redoing 2 whole buildings that are supposed to be used for sleeping, so they moved a whole other set of bunk beds in our room. So everything is really tight now. All of the Elders now have 6 people in their rooms.

The weather here has also warmed up! Again, last week was cold for some reason. But a heat wave came or something. Last week we could barely find enough blankets to keep us warm, now we don't even want blankets to sleep with. It's kind of funny, but it's been nice because we can have our gym time outside in the nice weather.

So this week for our MTC Tuesday Devotional Sister Julie B. Beck came and spoke, the general relief Society President! It was pretty neat to hear what she had to say. She also grew up in Brazil because her dad was the mission president down there when she was little. I felt like I could really relate to the stories that she told us. We also got to do TRC (Teaching or training resource center) for the first time this week, where volunteers come who are members and we teach them lessons. The spirit was so strong and it was the best thing so far. I really enjoyed it!

Sis. Harris and I have also done choir the last two weeks and it's really fun.  My Portuguese is coming along, and I can understand more than I can speak, but I can fumble along sentences.  I love being here and am blessed to have a great companion and district and teachers and leaders!