Sister Nelson and her MTC companion Sister Harris.

Sister Nelson and Sister Harris with their new companions!

Week Ten.

Hello everyone! I am in Brazil now, it is very exciting and was a very long journey.

I should have sent everyone my mission address before I left with all the information on it. If not it should be on my blog. But I will give you my address for my house. I will be here for three months so only use this address through February:

Rua Sigueira Compos, 57A

Prado / Gravatá - PE

55642-140

Brazil

So first my email and spelling might be even worse now, because of this computer. We are in this store place which is more like a small garage that does not have a door so the keyboard is full of dirt. And the key board is a bit different to.

But I am not in Brazil! First I will tell you how a got here. My last couple of days in the MTC were good. It was hard to leave everyone though, because in the last month I had become really good friends with everyone in my zone and my teachers and my branch president, our last Elder, and my companion Sister Harris (which we are in the same mission and now in the same zone so it is good).

I left the MTC at 8am on Wednesday November 1st and did not arrive to the mission presidents house until about 7pm on Thursday or something. We had a total of three flights, on the red eye flight I didn’t get any sleep so it was an interesting first day in Brazil. We were the only Americans on our flight. So once we landed it was hard. Our district, us three, stuck together the whole time, and we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. We just followed everyone else getting off the plane. We had to go through customs. We then had to get our bags to put on our last flight. Luckily there was a lady from the church travel to help us get our other tickets and recheck our bags. It was hard for me and Sister Harris to say good bye to our elder, because he was going to a different mission.

I didn’t really know what a lot of people were saying, and then this one lady came up to me and Sister Harris crying - basically asking for money, because we were Americans. It was weird. The lady said good bye to us as we went through security. And that is when we got really confused we were glad we had each other. They changed our gate on us like 3 times and what they were telling us was different than what the board said. It was sooooo confusing. The place we were waiting seemed like a bus station, there were three or four gates and it was a pretty small place and there were about 100 people or more and we were crammed in there body to body. Finally we heard Recife and we ran to the ticket person, we then got on a bus to go to our plane. People here have no personal bubble and again on the bus we were stacked on top of each other. We finally got on the plane and fell asleep. I woke up about and hour later and realized we were still in Sao Paulo. The plane took off an hour and a half late so I got some sleep.

Seeing Brazil from the sky was beautiful. It was all green and blue and then very red, the dirt is red and all the house tops are red too. We finally laded in Recifeand then our bags took forever, there was only one guy loading the bags on for two flights. We were afraid that they lost our bags, they were the very last ones. Our mission president was then there to pick us up! Luckily he spoke English too! He actually can speak like 5 different languages.

We then arrived to his house late and our two future companions were there waiting for us. His wife Sistre Lanius had made a nice meal for us. It was very good.  We were so tired though. President Lanius kept saying that we were going to sleep at the temple and we had no idea what we was talking about. The temple was right by his house. We then drove over to the temple and there was a small hotel that we were sleeping at. Our companions kept trying to talk to us, but we really didn’t understand a lot of what they were saying (I still don’t). But President Lanius let us sleep in an extra hour.

The next day, my first day in Brazil was a bit crazy. We woke up and went to the temple though it was good, but the whole thing was in Portuguese. So they gave us headsets, it was funny. Then they had some American temple workers take us through so we could speak English. We then got to eat at the temple, I didn’t know what a lot of the food was. But I ate it any ways.

We then needed to go to the mission home but the taxi to pick us up with all of our stuff took over an hour and a half. So we were able to talk to our companions. My Companion is Sister Leite, from Sao Paulo, she doesn’t know any English. She is very nice and very patient with me, and she is a great companion. We finally got to the mission home and then some elders took us away (I guess they were the secretaries I didn’t really know). They both spoke English though so that was nice.

We needed to get a Brazilian ID, and a picture for it first. The place closed in like 2 hours, so we got in another taxi and went to 3 different stores trying to get a picture taken and the taxi left us at the last. But that store didn’t take any either. So we basically ran to the mall. I don’t know how far away it was. I walked through the poorest place I have ever seen. I guess in Recife you have your rich people and then your poor people who live right next to each other. Their one room houses were made out of plywood, and there was trash in the dirt street/walk way. It was a bit scary, but we had the elders with us. We finally got to the mall took our pictures, which because we ran in the really hot weather we were really sweaty, not cute. Then we hopped in another taxi to go back to the airport to get our ID right before they closed.

We then went back to the mission office and filed our paper work and got in another taxi with our companions for an hour and then on a bus for an hour to my my new area - Gravatá. I had to then say good bye to Sister Harris the only English speaker. We live with two other sisters, who are both Brazilian.

Really  quick because I don’t think I have much time left. I am living in Gravata and everyone says its really nice because its not as hot as Recife and the people are nice. We have visited lots of people here and I don’t know how to say much.  My dictionary is my best friend, so I just bear my testimony. The people here are really nice and welcoming. I will tell you more about it next week because I am out of time. Sorry...I guess I only get 45 mins. And with this bad key board full of dirt, I can’t type fast at all.

I love you all, and want to tell you so much more.  I am doing well, and even though I can’t really speak I have been trying my hardest and am just very humbled but not frustrated or anything so its still good. :)

Love

Sister Rebecca Nelson

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