Week Twenty Three.

Hello There everyone,

Another week has passed by, can you believe it? Sometimes the days here are very long and very tiring, but the weeks always seem to fly by. This week was another hard week. With the hot sun beating down on us and having to walk to what seemed like the end of Gravatá with no water, we were just barely putting one foot in front of the other and sometimes did not find people in their houses to give anyone their scheduled lesson. Our weeks seem hard at times, but this week has been a week of miracles also.

Yesterday we were out walking trying to find a reference after lunch that was way at the end of town. We didn’t really know where we were going, and we were just talking and kept walking. We finally stopped in front of a restaurant, which by the way was way past the person we were trying to find, and realized that we had been trying to find this restaurant for the past two weeks.  We had made a contact with someone who said they lived by the restaurant. Well the addresses here, are super great sometimes, you don’t know what street is what and people just tell you “I’m just across from this place and you go a little ways down and I live on the first floor.” Well.... I’m sure you can imagine how easy it is to find houses here sometimes. So we were at the restaurant, and now all we had was the number of the house. So I happened to pick a street and we started walking. We saw that the numbers were close (and oh sometimes the numbers here jump twenty and then go back down and then repeat, which I don’t understand) and then the houses didn’t have any numbers. So we picked one of the houses that didn’t have a number, clapped our hands (you don’t ring door bells, you clap your hands loud and shout the persons name), and the lady we had made the contact with answered the door, and was very happy to see us! During the lesson she was crying, she didn’t tell us why, and we didn’t want to pry too much, so we asked if we could visit her again, she said “Of course, please!”  We then left and knew that the spirit there was with her, to testify of our message. We will see what happens... but we were led by the spirit to bring her a message in a time of need.

We also started teaching another family, a set of grandparents, a mother, father, and son. They are an amazing family! The grandpa says the funniest random things though, Everyone starts laughing when he talks. The father is recovering from a really bad surgery, and can barely walk. Just in this last week we have seen so much improvement in his ability to walk, and we all know it is a miracle. We gave them a Book of Mormon, then we returned later that week, and the father was already in Jacob! It is crazy to see how fast these people embrace the true word of God.

Another person that we visit, she is so very strong and wants to get baptized so bad, but the man she lives with doesn’t want to get married. But wow, she has such a strong testimony. When she talks and bears her testimony it strengthens mine.

Some of you have been asking me about my language... well it’s hard for me to judge, because I tend to be a perfectionist at things.  I have come to find a mission is far from perfection, you are always stumbling along learning new ways to do new things with the help of the Lord. I don’t know if I’ll ever really say that I am fluent, but... almost. As far as my understanding, it depends on who I talk to. but that goes for my Brazilian companions too (sometimes they don’t understand the accents here). For the most part I understand everything that my companions and other missionaries here say.  For the people here, I usually understand most everything. But for my speaking I can express everything and I am just talking without having to translate things in my head. Just talking, my thoughts are transitioning over to Portuguese too. My problem when I got here was that I spoke very slowly, but because I naturally speak a bit fast and I am now completely comfortable speaking people.  Sometimes they say that I speak a bit fast at times. I also think sometimes I am just excited to talk to the people and want to share my message, so I talk faster, but I do feel I am almost fluent. I of course don’t know all the words, so sometimes when people talk about food or other categories where I don’t know a lot of words I am sometimes lost. Usually when people are talking, and I don't know the word, I can usually understand the significance from the context, but I find I need to hear the word a lot more before I start using it in my own vocabulary. My companion is helping me a lot. I tell her that when ever I say something wrong correct me. So some of my conjugations where I have become lazy she helps me, and she has also has been helping me with my accent too. I want to really learn this language inside and out. The problem I sometimes have is with reading, especially reading the scriptures and writing. So we have been working on that these past weeks, and it has gotten a lot better.

But this is my life in Brazil on my mission, and even though times are hard, I live to see the miracles that happen here and the way our message changes the hearts of the people.

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

Week Twenty Two.

Hello Everyone!!                                                                      Gravata  March 5, 2012

I finished my second week of training, and oh my have I learned so much in this short little time. Every minute of your mission you learn so much, it is crazy how much you learn. I have learned this week how to be a better missionary, to work every single minute I possible can, how to truly love my companion, so much more about the gospel, and best of all my language. I have only been with Sister Corrêa for 2 weeks, but she says that already she had seen improvement in my Portuguese, there are only a few things with my pronunciation, but she says I am pretty much fluent. I still have doubts. But I do pretty much understand everything that everyone says to me, some of the people with their accents here I have problems with still, but my companion can’t understand them either. 

Our area was really progressing when Sister Corrêa came here, and that’s what I think I had the most problems with, was what to do. So we have been doing a ton of contacts. and have started teaching some new people, even new families. We have been working very hard every day to try and teach people. This week the sun has also been super hot and super strong, so we have been exhausted when we come home and fall right asleep. 

Sister Corrêa is amazing and she helps me so much. Me being new, I don’t know what to do some of the time, but she is great and has a very good work ethic too. But throughout this week we have been learning together. Stumbling along the way, but growing firmer in every step that we take. Its interesting because she has a good knowledge of the Bible, where I don’t so much, and I have a better understand of the Book of Mormon, because she is a convert of just 1 year and 8 months. So we help each other learn more. I have also started teaching her English, because she really wants to know, she already had a good basis. But I have been helping her. So at night now we only speak English. But I have found that it is really hard for me to speak English now. I am forgetting words and how to say some words, and even some of the grammar. It’s usually speaking that I have the problem with. But it is very interesting this transition between languages. 

So this week something historic happened. WE are now part of a new stake! The stake of Caruaru! It is pretty exciting. So we all, both the wards here, hopped on a bus for Caruaru, about an hour away, for the formation of our stake. The bus was hot and muggy, just as you can imagine, but it was worth it. 

This week in our apartment we have encountered, I think 6 cockroaches!!! That’s the most in the whole time I have been here. We all don’t like killing them and are really scared, so we took turns. So I killed my first coach roach this week. Boy did I smash it. The other sisters came home saw that is was smeared all over the floor, and asked what it did to me, haha. But the most exciting one was where one flew in the window past my head and then right in front of two other sisters studying, we were all running around screaming. The other exciting one was in our dresser. It has a door that opens with shelves, and it was in one of the shelves. WE were trying to kill it with our smashing all of Sister Corrês things. 

This week I also had my first encounters with people gawking over me, because I was an American. A lady this week wanted me to bring her home in my suitcase and said that I should act in movies here. One yesterday first thought I was Italian. But they all wanted to kiss me and shake my hand and to talk to me. They kept saying I can't believe an American is here, right in front of me. Oh my goodness, I was so embarrassed after that. 

But these weeks have been exciting and I have learned a lot. I always trust in the Lord. I hope everything is good for everyone else.

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson

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

Week Seventeen.

Hello everyone,

This week has been a bit of a hard one, just because I have felt under the weather. I think the effects of the food and the heat are starting to get to me this last week. It hasn’t been that bad, I mainly feel sick in the morning, and sometimes at night. But it could be a lot worse. The day I felt the worst, whole body ached, was the day of our baptism, which was great. We woke up and headed over to the chapel for the interview and the room that the baptism was going to beheld in, with the font, was flooded. This week it has been raining quite a bit (at least for here, maybe not Seattle rain), but the ceiling was leaking. So we had to mop it all up.

Then after the interview was over us and the Elder looked in the baptismal font to fill it up and the water had never drained, from last week when I got in the font. There was some stuff in the drain, we tried shoving a big long rod down it, and nothing happened. We realized that the water had been sitting there for the last two baptisms, almost a month, and the water was a bit dirty. So we had to get the water out. So what did we do, use buckets! Us four formed an assembly line and were filling up buckets of water and dumping it in the sinks and the toilets of the bathroom that was right next to it. It took us about an hour to fill up the whole baptismal font with buckets and dump it out. Too bad I didn’t have my camera with me. It was definitely something to remember.

Well after that I felt a lot worse, but the day had just begun, our lunch was about 40 mins away and we journeyed there in the rain. I arrived and the members said I didn’t look very good. That was true. But then after lunch we had to go to the store to buy stuff to make a cake for the baptism, which happened to be on the other side of town. I wanted to collapse in the street, and I have no idea what was making my legs work, but they were still moving. We finally made it home to make the cake, and Sister Leite made me get into bed right away. I was able to take a nap, and after a bit of time I started to feel a lot better, and we had a good baptism.

The boy who we baptized, George, really has been a miracle. We only taught him for about 3 weeks before he was baptized. We invited him to be baptized our second lesson with him, in the second week he said he was ready for baptism and the third week he was baptized. For a boy of 17 years old, he shows so much faith, and will be a strong amazing member, and talks about wanting to serve a mission. We felt so great after his baptism.

On Sunday I gave my second talk in the ward, but they asked me last week to give it, and to be the second and final speaker, instead of the first. So as I was sick on Saturday I wrote my talk on D&C 4, I guess missionaries always get given this to talk on. So I gave my talk, and went over my time, I think almost 5 minutes over, my talk was about 15mins long, and I even cut parts out of it. Sister Leite said I did a really good job, and my talk was good. Some people said they couldn’t really understand me, but that is sometimes a given, and then they said I talked really fast (that’s because I was nervous), but once people realized I had only been in Brazil for 1 ½ months they were really surprised and then complimented me. So the only way I can go from here is up, and improve even more. But it was good.

This week we had family home evening with a family that is pretty inactive but really fun. There are a lot of girls who are in Young Women’s in the family and they also invited some friends and were super excited. (But again it was a night I didn’t feel very well). We gave them a lesson and they made popcorn and we played games, but the problem was they were all in Portuguese and they were games of memory and thinking of more words. Well I don’t know that many every day words in Portuguese, like all the fruits, so I had a hard time with the game, but they basically gave me a free turn.  I said what I remembered, which wasn’t everything, and they didn’t eliminate me! :) But it was really fun having a family home evening with them.

Last night we received calls for a mini transfer for today in our mission, and it was not really a mini. Almost everyone got moved around. I stayed because we are still in training, but the two sisters we lived with left this morning. We spent the whole morning cleaning the house, because two new sisters were going to come this afternoon. We got a call and Sister Leite (my trainer), her trainer will be coming here, but they are training a new sister who will come tomorrow from Argentina. So we will have two people in training in our house, an American, an Argentinean, and two Brazilians. We found out our District Leader will also be training. A lot of new things happening in our mission -  We also get to go to Recife this week to hear from Elder Jensen, I think from the Presidency of the Seventy. So, I will have lots to tell everyone next week.

Hope everything is well

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson