November 14, 2011- Another Brusque Week

Hey everyone!!

So this week was really cool! We had a kid in the branch who got baptized and more than 60 people went and more than 20 of them aren´t members of our faith. It was a really great experience and the Spirit was super strong, everybody loved it. We taught a fmaily of 4 for the first time the night before and when we invited them to the baptism they were super excited and showed up there the next day and loved the service. The work in Brusque is picking up each day, too. We have to be really creative how we work here because knocking door to door or just doing street contacts doesn´t bring a lot of fruits. English class is going really well tho and the people are really having a fun time and the last class they all acceptted a copy of the Book of Mormon. The weather has cooled down quite a bit again, it seems like this winter is never going to end which is actually a really big blessing. Hope everything goes well this week and that you give the kids some loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

November 21, 2011- McDs is Here

Hey everyone!!

That’s so cool that Isaac is going to Alabama, he’s gonna love it there!!!  That mission takes in a lot of visa waiters, we have quite a few missionaries here who were reassigned there and they loved it.  This week in Brusque the first McDonalds here opened and the place is crowded like crazy all the time, the drive thru line is constantly about 2 miles long, seriously.  I don’t know why it’s so packed, all the other cities close by have one and the food is super expensive, it’s about 12 American dollars for a Big Mac.  We had a missionary activity with the branch here this week where we kicked off the holiday season by watching Joy to the World.  It went really and well and everyone is super excited to do missionary work this Christmas.  We had a Stake Conference in a brand new chapel about an hour away yesterday and it was super we had some bad news with a couple we are teaching.  They went to start their wedding papers this week and turns out that the lady still isn’t divorced from her first husband and it may take anywhere from 1-3 years to get the divorce… hopefully all goes well tho and we will see what happens.  Everything else is great tho!!! Hope all is well back home and you all have a great Thanksgiving!!!!  Give the little ones some loves for me!!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

November 7, 2011- Tchau Inglês!

Hey Everyone!!

So it´s really weird having Elder Emerson gone. We grew really close and are great friends but I´m sure he´s doing great in his new area. My new companion is Elder Tomaz. He is from Brasilia which is the captial of Brasil. He´s a good guy, really nervous about things but I´m sure this time we will have together will be a good learning experience. One of the weirdest things has to be that I never speak English anymore, it will definitely help out with my Portuguese but who knows, Elder Tomaz talks sooo fast and mumbles everything together that not even the Brazilians know what he is saying haha he is super hard to understand. The branch in which we are serving is getting really excited tho because they are starting to plan a bunch of branch activities that they´ve never done before so I´m sure that will be great! We have to get on a bus tonight to go to another city for District meeting tomorrow so we will catch the bus at 6:40 and get there sometime tonight. Things are going well tho, everyday out here on the mission is such a blessing, not a sacrifice but a blessing. I love you all so much and hope you give the little ones some loves for me!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

October 31, 2011- What a Week!!

Hey Everyone!!

This week was soooo incredible!! The area where I am serving in, Brusque, is great becuase our branch is super strong and the city is super cool, but as for missionary work...it is pretty slow becuase everyone is German and super super Catholic. My companion Elder Emerson had never seen a baptism on his mission (he´s been out for 7 months) and we had been working so so hard to help somebody get baptized this last transfer and all of our friends who commited to be baptized all came out with marriage problems (they aren´t legally married). When we planned for this last week 2 weeks ago (if that makes any sense to you) we were determined to have a baptism so we marked that we would baptize somebody this last Sunday (yesterday) at 7pm, he only problem was that we didn´t know who we would baptize. So we just kept working super hard this week and then one of the students who attends our English Class who went to church 2 Sundays ago, let us go over and teach him and we did and invited him to be baptized and he acceptted!! We baptized him last night at 7pm just as we had planned 2 weeks earlier!! It really strengthened my testimony of how the Lord gives us trials to see how we will react and if we truly do have righteous desires and after a transfer full of hard work we were blessed! We then found out right after that my companion Elder Emerson is getting transfered this Wednesday. I LOVED serving with Elder Emerson, he is such a stud and we learned so much together this last transfer. My new companion is Elder Tomaz and he is coming straight from the MTC so this will be his first area so I´m really excited to have him here, I´m sure he will bring lots of energy and be ready to work hard. Yesterday at church they had the primary program in Sacrament meeting and the Spirit was incredibly strong, and when they sung Armies of Helaman both Elder Emerson and I were in tears. It´s so crazy to see how fast time fies by, it seems like we were just in the primary singing that song last year! Yesterday was quite a treat tho and I´m really excited to see what these next few transfers have in hold for us. Also I got a care package from the Las Flores YW this last week, that was super nice of them! It was everything that I could want from the USA haha. I hope everything is going well back home and give the little kids some loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

October 24, 2011- Marriage, Please?

Hey everyone!!

This week was another good week out here in Germany! We got to teach a bunch of lessons and meets a bunch of new people. We ran into this guy who is an American Brasilian. He was born in Brasil but moved to the states and lived in Louisiana for almost all of his life. He served in the US army over in Vietnam and showed us some pictures of him in uniform and with Pres. Regan. It was pretty cool talking to him and we met his son-in-law who is from South Africa and has been here for 6 months and still doesn´t speak a lick of Portuguese, just goes to show how real the Gift of Tongues is with missionaries. We had quite a few people who were scheduled to be baptized this week and the coming weeks and we found out this last week that basically all of them but one is not legally married and have no desire to get legally married since it is so complicated to get married here...kind of frustrating but we are gonna help them out and see what we can do. Hopefully everything is great back home and give the little ones some loves for me!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

October 17, 2011- Kids Day

Hey Everyone!!

This last week went really really well and we are pretty physically spent but ready for this next week!! This last Wednesday was ´Kids´ Day´ in Brasil, like everybody gets work and school off to just play for a day. Everybody asked us if we have Kids´ Day in the states and they were super shocked when we said we didn´t, but honestly, it´s just another day for the people here to be lazy...they are great people but incredibly lazy haha. We had an activity at the church tho and we had a Family of 6 (not members) who went and they really really liked it. We had a bunch of people totally lined up to come to church this Sunday too so my comp and I showed up at church 30 minutes early so we could greet everyone. We walk into church and everybody is already there and we are super confused and checking our watches. So finally we ask somebody what´s going on and they said that it was daylights saving time...not good. It thru off everything for our investigatrs and most of them didn´t even know the time changed so we were only able to bring 2 to church. Rosa, who I told you about last time, and her husband Eduardo were there tho and they really loved it so that was good. They came up to me right before Sacrament meeting and said that one of the speakers didn´t show up and they needed me to give a talk on Exaltation...in Portuguese...fun stuff haha but it went well and I enjoyed getting a few mintues to talk. Everything is going well here tho and things should just keep getting better!!! Love you all and give the kids some loves!!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

October 10, 2011

Hey everyone!!

This last week was super super busy which was really good because we thought it was gonna be really slow due to Oktoberfest. They have decorated the city with giant ducks tho, it´s kind of weird so I´m gonna have to take a picture with one so that you can see. The weather got SUPER hot for one day , too, like it probably hit 90s and now it has cooled down again, but it was good to have that day because it really helped me appreciate the winter. I met this guy yesterday at church who served here in the Brasil Floripa mission when James Barnett was here and he knows him super well so that was funny, his name is Pereira. We have this one lady named Rosa and her husband Eduardo who we are teaching and we love them so much, some of our favorite people that we meet with. Eduardo is totally out of it and he always goes into the kitchen to smoke ´cigarettes´ half way thru the lesson, but Rosa is a rock, she refers to us by our first names tho haha (we forgot that we even told her our first names). She has been reading the Book of Mormon lately and we asked her if she prayed to know whther the book is true or not and she said, ´I really believe that the book is true but I´m scared to pray and ask God because then that means that the Catholic church isn´t true`...we are going to check on her this Wednesday so hopefully she gained some courage! Everything is going great out here tho, I´m truly starting to realize just how great of a blessing every day on the mission is, it´s incredible. I love you all and give the little ones some loves for me!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

October 3, 2011

Hey everyone!!

So this week was really against the norm of an average missionary week but it was still really good. We didn´t get to work at all on Monday or Tuesday because we had to travel far away to a city for a zone conference with our mission president, and then on Saturday and Sunday we had to travel to another city to watch conference (although we missed the 2 Saturday sessions which was a bust). Priesthood session was super super good!! Elder Holland´s talk was incredible! I didn´t get to listen to his actual voice because we had to watch it in Portuguese, but it was still great and so true about we are in a constant fight of good vs. evil everyday. We can´t just stay in the middle of the two, we must pick the Lord´s side of the devil´s. Work here in our area is going to be a bit slower this month, too. It´s October now and Brusque is a town that is almost all Germans which means...Octoberfest...should be interesting. Also all of the banks and mail services here (in all of Santa Catarina) are on strike so ya, if you´ve sent me a letter recently then it will probably take a while for it to get here becuase once they finally do get back to work they will be crazy crazy backed up. But Conference really made this week great! We are so lujcky to have a living Prophet and also Apostles on the earth today to help lead and guide us. The gospel brings us so much happiness and there is nothing that can compensate for it! I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!! Give the little ones some loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

ps. Our Presdient made a rule about a month back that we couldn´t email anybody but immediate family on P-day but this week he told us that he is changing the rule to where we CAN email anybody we want on P-day, but we only have an hour to do it. So anybody can feel free to email me and I will try to at least respond back a little bit!

September 26, 2011- Brusque Livin

Hey Everyone!!

So this last week went pretty well, we worked a ton and are still pretty tired. We had one day this week where it was super hot outside (unfortunately it´s back to cold and rainy today) and we went tracting the entire afternoon and knocked at more than 100 doors and not a single person let us in! I´ve never seen anything like that out here in Brasil yet, but we still felt good about the work we did because we know that everybody has their agency. Also this week we met this super super cool family while we were tracting who are like our best friends now. It´s a Mom, Dad, and daughter. 4 years back they lost their 12 year old son when he crashed into a tree riding his bike. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and their were crying, and the Spirit was super strong. Hopefully they get baptized!! Also we met this one lady when we were tracting and she let told us to come back the next day and so we did and she let us in. We were just about to start teaching her when she pulls out her Bible for us and tells us that she wants us to explain a chapter in the Bible to her. It´s Judges 19, a pretty weird chapter, but she´s fixated on it haha. It´s pretty common for people out here to get obsessed with crazy stuff from like Isaiah (or any Old Testament story), and Revelations and we just try to help them realize what is actually important for their salvation haha. Ya, last Monday was quite a knee slapper, so after we sent emails I went to get my haircut. My hair was pretty long so I just went into the first barber shop that I found and they sit me down and whatnot and the guy comes and cuts my hair. So he cuts it short and whatnot and right as he finishes he whips out some gel and puts my hair into a fohawk...my companion was dying of laughter and I just smiled and thanked the guy (I didn´t want to offend him) and walked outside and did my best to get rid of it haha ya, it was interesting. Anyways, I love you guys so much and hope you give the little ones some loves for me!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

September 19, 2011- The Winter Continues!!!

Hey Everyone!!

So this week we dealt with the aftermath of the flood and it actually all went pretty well. We were still able to go out and do our normal missionary work too and we had a lot of people accept us into their houses and listened to our message. A few of them have great potential to be baptized, while a few others were just more looking for a word of comfort. The area here is going really well tho and the members are still super excited to have missionaries. The winter here has been abnormally long (at least that´s what all the Brasileiros say) and it is still pretty cold and rainy. I´m expecting it to get real hot real soon tho so we shall see. My companion was talking to me the other day about his MTC experience and he was talking about how great his Branch President in the MTC was and how his wife would always warn them to never eat or drink anything when they are in their areas because they would get super sick and have serious health problems...I then asked them what their name was and he said Woffenden...it´s totally President Woffenden and his wife, and my comp said they were from CA, too. So that was a funny connection to make. Everything is going well tho and we are super excited to keep on working in this area!! Love you all and give the little ones some loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

September 12, 2011- Well, At Least We Are Safe

Hey everyone!

Such a crazy week this last week, I´m still in shock, it feels like the world just ended and only the city of Brusque is aware of it haha. So this week we had a lot of rain but nothing like too crazy. Anyways, the river that runs thru our city gradually started to get more and more full to the point where it covered a couple of roads but it seemed like that was gonna be it. We and everyone else in the city were taking pictures because of the overflow. About an hour later we saw a member of our branch and he told us to go home immediately and stay there because the whole city was gonna flood. We still had a lot more work to do and quite honestly we didn´t think anything would happen so we just kept on working for the rest of the day. We get back at night and the river has flooded the bridge and a few streets right by our house so we had to hike thru all the mud and knee high water to get home, but we eventually got home and our street was totally fine and we thought there was absolutely no way that the flood would get us. So we are asleep and at 1:30 in the morning our door bell starts ringing like crazy and people are banging on the door. So we answer it and it was our neighbor who lives right above us (a member) and he is in a panic and tells us to get our stuff as fast as possible and get upstairs into his house because the flood was here. So we rush and get our essentials and place our suitcases higher up so that they would get wet and we finally step outside our house and just see like a tiny pool of water in the street and we were like ´seriously? He just woke us up for this?´ but we agreed to go and spend the rest of the night in his house just to make him happy (there were actually 2 other evacuated families there too). So we go back to sleep and when we wake up in the morning we look outside the window and our street is flooded about 3 feet deep and the water was rising by the minute!! We were just in shock and watched the water continue to rise for the next 4 hours and watch house after house and car after car just get covered by mud and water. People in rescue boats were going around the entire day passing out water/food and one of them even sunk. Some people didn´t make it out of their houses and even died. Others had crawled into their attics )like entire families) and had to spend the night there. The flood water was full of snakes and frogs and dressers, pots, etc...it was absolutely crazy, such a surreal feeling. Finally at 5pm that night the water went down enough to where we could make it back to our house. Our entire front yard was covered by about 6 inches of mud and we had a water line on our house of a little more than 3 feet high. We then treck our way to our front door, open it and just find everything covered in mud, it was such a mess. The water inside our house also got up to about 3 feet high and that was really good compared to some of our neighbors, some of them had water lines as high as 10 feet!! We spent all day Saturday cleaning, it took forever and we still haven´t gotten all the mud but we got the majority of it. A member from the Church and 2 of our investigators showed up at our house around noon and helped us clean up too, it was super nice of them but we had to throw away 3 dressers and a bunch of other stuff. My suitcases got hit too and my Journal from every day of my first 6 months of my mission was completely wet, total bust. Our clothes and whatnot got hit pretty hard too and most of our shoes are pretty much done with. We had to clean up as fast as possible tho because our the situations of our neighbors were much worse than ours. Several of them literally lost everything and they were so dejected and crying, it was super sad. We spent the rest of the day and night helping them out tho. Then the next day was Sunday and we only had Sacrament meeting and the it was amazing!! There were a few families who were there who had lost everything and the meeting was exactly what they needed, the Spirit was so strong and everyone was crying and comforting each other. After chruch we just went back to work on the clean effort, we really couldn´t just go out and do our normal work, the city was basically destroyed. All of the city went under water too, like most of the businesses are closed still because they got really hard. It has been really cool to see everyone team up tho and work together and we have already had some great missionary opportunities because of it. It appears like we are going to have to just do clean up work for the majority of this next week too, but we are ready and excited to help. But don´t worry, we are doing great, and have food/water, all the essentials. Love you all so much and hope you have a great week and keep the city of Brusque in your prayers!! Give the kids some extra loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

September 5, 2011- I´m Serving in...Germany

Hey everyone!!
So this last week was pretty crazy, lots and lots of changes but they were all good. The area I was serving in, Itapoá, was a really interesting town and about 80% of the houses were empty because it is just a Summer vacation town so it complicates missionary work a bit. Our President wanted us to see if it was even worth keeping open so that´s what we´ve been doing the last 4 weeks. We told our President everything about the town and our situation and he said he would pray about it and make a decision. So he did, he prayed and then called us and told us that he´d like us to open a new area in the mission, a town named Brusque. It was bittersweet to leave Itapoá but now that we´ve gotten here to Brusque we have seen that it truly was revelation for us to come here. We already had a few baptisms last night and we had 3 other families not of our faith come and attend the baptismal service. The Spirit was super strong and everybody was crying, inlcuding people from those 3 families. We then grabbed 2 of the families after the baptismal service and brought them into a room where we taught them briefly about temples and everybody just kept on crying haha it was such an incredible experience. The branch here just got a brand new chapel and we are the first missionaries they´ve had for 3 years so they are all super excited about missionary work, it is so great! The city of Brusque is such a cool place, like it´s this super super nice German town in the middle of the Brasilian forest. Everyone here is German or Italian and it definitely feels like we are serving in Europe, and the people here are pretty rich, which is kind of a bust but it´s all good. The city is super well known for it´s clothing factories and apparently everything here (clothing wise) is super cheap. We´ve got a really nice house to and it´s just super good to be here, the people are so excited. I´m really happy to be with my same companion too, Elder Emerson, he is a super good guy and we get along and work super good with each other. This place is supposed to get super super hot during the Summer tho and it´s a lot of hills so we will see how that goes! Everything is great tho, life is grand. I love you all so much and hope you give the little ones some loves for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

August 29, 2011- Moving Week!

Hey everyone!!

So I´m typing this on a super badd keyboard so theree will probably be a ton of spelling errors, but it´s all good! So this last week we had to go to Floripa for a mission conference. We had thee area President come and talk with us. He talked a ton about eternity and how we needd to do everything we can right now to receeive the eeternal blessings that our Heavenly Father has waiting for us. Hee said that if you were to go and grab one grain of sand eevery 1000 yearrs from somewhere on the earth and do that until EVERY sand on the earth had been collected...that eternity would just be beginning, craziness but so true. We only had 3 days to work in our area this week because of all the travel and whatnot but everything is going well. We found these 2 little old ladies this last week when wee weere tracting and tthey are amazing! We only had time this week to teach theem oncee but they when wee taught them they starteed to cry, the Spirit was so strong, it was a great expeerience. We found out that we have to move this next week too. We catch a ride everyday from the bishop and go to our city where we work (it´s about a 35 minutee car ride) but the bishop is moving and no longerr going to be able to drive us, so we havee to get a housee there. Should be interessting, but super nice to live in the actual city although the Summer is approaching and pretty soon the town will just be full of beachgoers, it´s gonna be rough, I truly hopee I get transfered haha but it will all be good. Everything here is well tho and I´m gladd to hear that things arre going smoothly back homee! Give the kids some loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

August 22, 2011- What a Week

Hey everybody!!

This week turned out to be such a great week. We really had nobody to teach out here so we just went to work. We tracted tons of streets and got referrals from everybody and now we are blessed with lots of people to teach and some people who should be baptized in the coming weeks. This week was probably the most exhausting of my mission but it felt great. We had more people at church too and are getting closer with the members each day. Unfortunately it´s been raining for a while now but it´s supposed to stop soon and we might actually see some sun!! My companion is doing great, he is a really good guy and he loves to work hard too. Gotta run, but I love you all and hope you give the kids some loves for me!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

August 15, 2011- Welcome to Itapoá!

Hey Everyone!!

So it´s pretty crazy living off the island, i feel like I´m gonna go back anyday now. Up here in the north is a lot different from where I was serving on the island. This is kind of what I expected Brasil to be like, food and whatnot is cheaper here and we have a big apartment but there are a lot more poor people here. So I´m actually not serving in the city of Guaratuba, I´m serving in a city that´s 30 minutes away and called Itapoá. It´s this Summer vacation beach town that is pretty new (it´s only 18 years old so they still don´t have paved roads) and it´s absolutely empty right now, like 80% of the houses are vacant because it´s still winter. We have a group (smaller than a branch) out here that consists of about 20 members and we had 8 of them come to church this Sunday so we gotta work on reactivating them. The work has a lot different feel out here for some reason and is quite a bit slower but we have already made plans to try and really get this place booming this next week so we will see. My companion is a really good guy too, he is from Spokane, WA and this is his only area that he has ever served in. We´ve definitely got our work cut out for us so we just gotta get going, and work our tails off. I´ll let you know how things go next week! I love you all so much and hope you give the little ones some loes for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

August 8, 2011- I´m Leaving the Island

Hey everyone!!

So ya, I´m getting transfered this week, crazy crazy crazy. It´s really the first transfer of my mission because the other 2 times I left an area I had to get on a plane to get to my new area/mission haha It should be really good tho! I´m sad to leave this area because it has treated me so well and the people here are incredible, it is really hard to say goodbye but I just tell everyone that I will be back in a year, so I´m super excited to return and be able to speak fluently in Portuguese with all of them!! It´s gonna be hard leaving my companion too, he is such a great missionary and we have a blast together. So our mission covers the entire state of Santa Catarina (comparable to the size of the state North Carolina) and then we have 2 missionary companionships in the state below, and 2 missionary companionships in the state above, Parana. I´m going to Parana which is the farthest north area in the mission and I´m pretty stoked. I´ve only heard some rumors about the place and the things I´ve heard is that I´m going to a beautiful beach city where we have to baptize in the ocean because the church doesn´t have a baptismal font, what a bummer...haha I´ve already heard some stories of missionaries getting swallowed by waves as they were baptizing people so I´m pretty entrigued to see what´s in store for me haha. My new companion is an American too, I don´t really know anything about him other than he likes to fish and has 3 months in the mission so I´m pretty excited to work with him and see who we can bring to the waters of baptism!! I´m really gonna miss my companion right now tho, he has been such a great example to me and has tons of love for everyone he meets. Love is exactly what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. I hope everything is going great back home and thank you for all the prayers!! Give the little ones some loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

August 1, 2011- Helping Hands

Hey everyone!!

This last week was crazy but super good!! We had to do a lot of things that required us to travel around the island so we weren´t really in our area too much which was kind of a bummer. On Saturday we went to the north of the island and did a Mãos Que Ajudam (Helping Hands) project and it was super cool. It was in a super super rich area where this is just this super random ghetto right on top of all of these sand dunes. So we took a bunch of rice and beans to all the people that lived there, it was a super good experience. They have a Helping Hands song/dance out here too so they played it on these super loud speakers the entire time that we were doing the project, it was super catchy haha we sing it all day now, I´ll have to sing it at my Homecoming. We spent a lot of time at the mission office and spending time with our new mission president which was really good, he is a super good guy and has a lot of great ideas for the mission. We are on our last little stretch of cold weather right now and then it is supposed to warm up again so that should be rad!! Everything is going great but I heard that I will probably get transfered this next week so we will see! Give the little ones some loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

July 18, 2011- My Boatin Parents!!!

Hey!!

I hope you guys are having a blast out at Lake Powell!!! I´m sure the little kids absolutely love it, especially William and Gregory. Did you guys not take Annie with you?? A lot of people are on holiday right now here so they are all going to Uruguay or Argentina. Brasil is kind of depressed right now too because they lost in soccer last nikght to Paraguay and they should´ve won, o well. Our mission president came to our apartment this morning and was absolutely stunned wikth how small our apartment is haha he was like ´this is it??´ . We are still trying to find a new place but it´s pretty difficult to find one out here, we are thinking about just buying a tent and sleeping on an empty grass or sand lot, we will see. Have you by chance sent any more of my medicine? I´m just about out, and am doikng great rikght now, I´ve even put some weight back on. Well I hope you guys stay safe and have a ton of fun out at Lake Powell!! I love you guys!!!

July 25, 2011- Floripa Livin

Hey Everyone!!

This last week went by soooo fast but was super good!  The lady who we baptized yesterday is sooooo solid in the church, she is definitely one of my most memorable baptisms out here.  She was really having a rough time leading up to Saturday tho because she was quitting smoking and moving out of her boyfriend’s house where she has lived for the last 12 years!  She used to smoke almost 2 packs of cigarettes a day so for her to stop smoking all together in one week was an absolute miracle.  Her entire family smokes tho so she is constantly watching people smoke and it makes her want to smoke.  So to help her out both my companion and I gave up something that we really liked until her baptism on Saturday.  I gave up speaking in English and my companion gave up eating sweets.  The lady was super funny too because she would give me chocolate and make me eat it with her in front on my companion haha he was dying, but we both survived and it turned out to be a great experience.  Our apartment got attacked by mold the other day too so we were walking around in mold-covered suits haha it was all good tho.  Things with the new president are going super well, he is cleaning up the mission a ton and we are getting a lot of blessings because of it!  I love you all and hope you can give the kids some loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

July 11, 2011- Another Fast Week

Hey everyone!!

This week was definitely anything but normal! We got a call on Tuesday telling us that we needed to pick up another missionary and be a companionship of 3 for a few days. We literally had to have the guy sleep in our kitchen (although our kitchen, bathroom, and study room are actually the same little room) too because our house is so small!! It was an experience tho. We had a few super good people ready to get baptized this next week too but then they got anti-Mormon stuff from their relatives, it was such a bust but we are still working with them and praying for them. Our new President is pretty great too, he is trying to really make us the best missionaries that we can be so I´m excited to see what happens in the next few months. It got warm here for 2 days too!! but now it´s freezing cold again, apparently this is one of the coldest winters EVER here on the island and I believe it. The Portuguese is really coming along now too, I love speaking Portuguese it´s such a rad language. Hopefully you guys are all enjoying the sun back home and go swimming in the ocean, it can be a killer seeing beautiful beaches all day and not being able to go into the water!! Give the little ones some loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

July 4, 2011-U S A

Hey everyone!!

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!!!! All of the American missionaries are celebrating today so it´s pretty fun. Brasil is an amazing country but so is the United States!! This last week went really well, frozen but well. It is funny how when the weather gets cold out here how everybody just sits in their houses and does nothing, they don´t even answer the door. Attendance at church gets cut almost in half when the weather is super cold too and yesterday was the coldest day that I´ve experienced ou in Brasil. Luckily the island doesn´t get any snow bu we have other areas in our mission where it is snowing right now. We finally met our new mission president this last week too, President Fernandes. He was like a tornado haha the guy has sooooo much energy and it´s great, he is eally focusing on cleaning up the mission and sending home all the lazy Elders. He should be a great President tho and I´m really excited to work with him. This last week was pretty cool too because we saw a wild tucan, like the tucan from the Fruit Loops box, it was pretty cool, my companion got some pictures for us. We have seen some really good progress from a lot of our investigators and the members are really starting to embrace them and we are getting them involved with the missionary work. We have this one couple, Robson and Eline, and their kids and they could be soooo solid. They really want to get baptized but they aren´t legally married yet. The wife says she doesn´t know ifshe wants to marry the guy either because she says that she doesn´t trust him. The guy struggles a lot with immorality and drugs, it´s super sad the see what these things can do to a family. Hopefully we can help them turn to the gospel to overcome these problems. Also we have been eating a ton of fish lately. During the winter it seems like they eat fish almost everyday. I´m actually starting to really like it, altho it can make you feel really funny at times. We had grilled bananas for dessert last night too and they were incredible!! All you do is cook the bananas on the grill until all the skin turns brownish black and then you cut it open, put some cinnamon sugar on them, let them sit on the grill for another minute or two and then eat them, you gotta try it sometime! I love you all so much and I hope you are getting plenty of sun this summer!!!! Give the kids some loves for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

June 20, 2011- A Super SOlid Week!!!

Hey Everybody!!

This last week was such a legit week out here in Brasil!! We had so many spiritual experiences and just other cool experiences but I don´t have time to write them all so here are just a couple. We had a baptism yesterday of this lady whose parents were trying for about 7 years to get her baptized and she never would. I had taught her before with my previous companion but she didn´t show any desire but my new companion and I decided to stop by a couple of weeks back, she let us in, we taught her, she came to church and the next day told us that she wanted to be baptized!! super cool, so we had her baptism yesterday after church and the Spirit was so strong at the baptism, almost everyone there was crying their eyes out, including her husband who is finally interested in learning about the gospel now too!! So that was way cool and we went to a firside last night where President and Sister Querioz gave their last fireside to the members here before we receive our new mission president. The Spirit was incredibly strong the entire night and they had us, the missionaries, sing ´Armies of Helaman` and everybody there was in tears. Such an amazing thing to witness. Also this last week when we were proselyting in the jungle part of the island and we saw monkies!! they were just jumping around in the trees and 2 of them were actually really friendly to us and we got to play and take pictures with them for about 10 minutes and then we had to go, but we were so stoked to see monkies!!! Also this last week we went to stop by the house of some of the people who attend our English class. They are a bunch of teenagers and we weren´t sure why they all had the same address till we got to there place, a foster home. It was an unforgettable feeling to walk into their place and see all of these kids who have had such rough lives and so badly just wanted to be loved. I was on the verge of tears the entire time as they joyfully showed us all the rooms in the foster home and what they like to do. After the tour, the social worker there came up and thanked us for the English class that we give every week and he told us how much all of the kids loved to go. He then asked me a lot of questions about the church and I got to teach him about the restoration and give him a Book of Mormon while my companion taught somebody else, it was amazing! I showed them a picture of our family too and told them how we are a foster/adopt family and they just thought that was the coolest thing ever (probably because it is)!!! Going there made me so grateful for the life I´ve had and for all the love I´ve received throughout my life. We are here on the earth because God loves us and wants us to feel His love forever. If we can always try to brighten somebody else´ life just a little bit everyday, I know we can make a difference in the life of that person. I love you all and hope you give the kids some loves for me!!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson


June 27, 2011

Hey everyone!

So this last week went really well as always and there were some pretty big changes.  We had our last meeting as a mission with President Querioz and his wife and it went really well, it was like 6 hours long but it was good.  President Querioz is going to be missed a lot out here, he is like the most popular person out here in southern Brasil and he is a stud.  I had my first mission President in AZ for 4 months and the President Querioz here for only 3 months so it will be weird to only have one more President for the rest of my mission.  Also my companion got transferred, I was super bummed at first because we worked super well together but when I found out who my new companion would be I was super excited.  His name is Elder Armistead and he is from Denver and he goes to BYU-Hawaii too!!  We talk about Hawaii soooo much during the day and he will go home in time for the start of the next Winter semester.  He is a super cool guy tho, we work hard together, and mesh super super well so I’m pretty happy right now.  The weather just keeps getting colder too, it’s already snowing down here in our mission, luckily not on the island but it’s still freezing.  We gave talks yesterday in Church too an those went super well, the members in our ward are really starting to embrace us.  We’ve got some pretty solid people out here who we are teaching so hopefully we will see some more baptisms soon!! I love you all and give the kids lots of loves for me!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

June 13, 2011- English Speakin Floripans

Hey Everybody!!
Everything here in Floripa is goin great!! The weather keeps getting colder, but it´s all good. We worked so hard this last week and fasted and are seeing many blessings come from this. My new companion is the best, we get along super well and work really hard. This is President Queiroz´s last week here in Floripa and then he goes back home to Utah so everyone is pretty sad about that but I´m excited for the new President to come. The Portuguese is doing well, it can still be tough at times because I need to expand my vocabulary but that will just come with time. English classes are going crazy well right now, we´ve had more people come this last month than they´ve ever had people attend here. We got to pass out 10 Book of Mormons and got many referrals from teaching English class too so that´s good. Hopefully everything is going well back home and give the little ones some loves!!!! Love, Elder Michael J. Neilson

June 6, 2011- Floripa´s kickin!

Hey Everyone!!
So I got a new companion this week, Elder Crestani, he´s from Utah and he is a solid missionary. This last week has been sooo great, like the Spirit has been incredibly strong and we are being blessed with so many people to teach and baptize. We had President Queiroz come to our appointment last night too, it was pretty cool to have him with us and see how he is able to work with people and help them understand the need for the Gospel. He goes home in a couple of weeks which is kind of sad but it´s all good because I hear that our next President is super rad. Serving on the island is amazing, our ward is incredible but things here are sooo expensive, my new companion is always telling me how ridiculously priced things are out here. Our District went from having almost no Americans missionaries to now we only have one brazilian on the island, crazy crazy. Things are really really well tho, and it´s fun waking up and having our back door frozen from the cold. Ya, it just gets colder and colder every day, so much for warm Brasil! haha love you all and give the kids some loves for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

May 23, 2011- Small Apartments Make Great Ponds

Hey Everyone!!
This week definitely had it´s adventures to say the least haha but ya, we came home the other night after working all day to find our apartment completely flooded. We don´t know what happened but a lot of our stuff got ruined because of it, one of my suitcases is still wet and everything inside but it´s all good, we are still alive. We have been in contact with the mission office this whole week and it looks like we might be able to move into a new place which would be good since ours smells pretty funky now haha We transfer meeting this last week and a family came to pick up their son. They are from AZ and live in the bordering city of where I served. They said they were loving it in Brazil and didn´t feel at all in danger in Floripa. The work has been going well too, we´ve been having baptisms and have a few more this Saturday. The ward treat us really well here, and the people are a lot of fun. Everybody is anxious to meet our new mission President and are making guesses as to what changes he will bring. I´m excited to meet him and am sure he will be great. Love you all a ton and give the little ones loves for me!!!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

May 30, 2011- Crazy Crazy Crazy Week

Hey everyone!
This week was definitely one that I will always remeber, lots of things happened and I will just share a few. I finally received the package with my meds that you sent me Mom so thank you so much! We had a few more baptisms this week and have quite a few more coming up in the next few weeks. We have a lot of people who tell us they want to be baptized but they are either not married legally or just have other issues that are gonna take some time to resolve. The members of our ward here are amazing, just super cool people. We have quite a few really really nice neighborhoods in our area and we had lunch the other day in one of them. The people we ate with are loaded and their house was huge, super nice, with cooks, maids, etc and afterward the dad said he would drive us back to the Church and he ended up taking an hour detour where he just drove us around the island. It was pretty cool, the island is ridiculously beautiful. Then on Saturday we got a call from President saying that the mission was having a ´mini transfer´ and my companion Elder Kneipp would be transfered. Elder Kneipp was not happy at all, but that´s the way things go out on the mission, you never know when you´ll go. My new companion is an American and I´m pretty excited to work with him and see what kind of success we will be blessed with here in Floripa. Hope all is well back home and make sure to give the babies some loves for me!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

May 16, 2011- It´s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...in Brasil?

Hey everyone!
Wow, the weather here is starting to get biting cold, like really it´s crazy! I would have never thought that Brasil would get this cold and everyone here keeps telling me that I haven´t seen anything yet. They say during the winter here it´s usually anywhere from 5 to 8 degrees Celsius, and it´s not uncommon for it to drop below zero. Ya, pretty cold stuff needless to say haha. Other news, I didn´t get transfered, neither did my companion, so we are still here on the island which isn´t bad because they say the island has the warmest weather in all of our mission. Hopefully I don´t get transfered to the snow covered mountains this winter, but if I do then it will definitely be an adventure haha. We are doing well here tho and are enjoying our time serving the Lord and the people here in Brasil. Also, I got Nicole and Jason´s package this last week of cookies, that was super nice of them and the cookies were still fresh and good! And yes, I was impressed by their art skills haha. President Queiroz reminded us again this week to tell people back home that if they ever send a package down here to Brazil to never declare that the value of the items in the package are more then $7. Two reasons. First, it´s more likely than not that it will get stolen. Second, if it does make it here then I have to go to the post office and pay anywhere from $80-150 to pick it up. Just a note. Anways, the Portuguese gets better everyday, having one on one conversations with people isn´t tough at all but rather when we are talking in big group settings is where I really get lost. I´m so grateful I was able to learn Spanish in AZ, not because I love Spanish, but rather because it was quite a struggle at first but eventually I was able to get it down with help from the Lord. From that experience and struggle in AZ, I´ve had a lot of comfort in seeing my progress with the Portuguese language since I have already been thru a similar situation. I think this is one of the reasons why the Lord gives us trials so that we can have strength and confidence to take on new challenges. I love you all so much and wish you all the best! Give the babies some loves for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

May 9, 2011- Week of Dia Das Mães!

Hey everyone!
This week was pretty solid!! We had a few baptisms this week and have a few more lined up too so that´s good. We did find out that we are getting transfered since the mission is receiving 8 new Sister missionaries and they need nice areas to work in and our area is definitely a nice one so they are clearing us out of here. I´m excited tho, it will be great to see other parts of Brazil!! Hopefully I go really far inland!! Everything is great tho and it was so great to be able to skype the family yesterday!! Give the little ones loves for me!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

May 2, 2011- Brazil is THE Greatest Place in the World!!!!!

Hey Everyone!!
Sounds like the sealing and everything went great!!! It was pretty cool because on Sunday we actually had dinner with this family that just adopted 3 half-white, half-black teenage girls so when I showed them my family photos they absolutely LOVED them! The area where I am serving right now on the Isalnd of Floripa just keeps getting better everyday! My comp and I are really working hard and have seen some great blessings come from the Lord. My area is pretty ritzy, we still have some mid-class, but we have a ton of pro athletes, musicians and all other kinds of rich people here. The beaches and houses are pretty incredible and the food is the greatest EVER. We have more spaghetti and pizza than anything else, like at least 4-5 meals a week that we have at others´ homes are either spaghetti or pizza, I´ved yet to have a bad experince with food here. I love this place soooooo much tho and don´t even like to think about returning to the States someday (except to see friends and family again). Hope all is well and give the little ones tons of loves!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

April 25, 2011-Happy Pascoa!!!!

Hey Everyone!!
Hope everyone had a great Easter!! Easter in Brazil is different than the states I guess, they still eat tons and tons of chocolate but I´m not sure anyone even knows what Easter is about haha in Church we didn´t have a single talk on Christ and His resurrection, but that´s fine, we had some investigators some to Church and they really liked it, hopefully we will have some baptism coming up real soon. The language is really starting to come, (thankfully) it´s not too bad to understand what people are saying but I still have a lot of room to grow. The island is such a rad place, going from the beautiful beaches of Southern California to Hawaii and not to Floripa...I´ve been pretty dang lucky, altho it can be a killer knowing that I can´t go in the water here, o well! The traffic on the island is soooooooo bad tho, like worse than LA and that´s probably because there are only 2 lanes here. We got to do a service project the other day here, we moved all of these cynder blocks from one corner of this lot, to another corner. It was pretty tiring and we were sweating pretty good but after a few hours we had the job done and it felt real real good! Also the hot dogs here are amazing!! they put everything on hot dogs (just like the pizza), like seriously, they will put potatoes, peas, corn, chocolate, whatever you want. So exciting that the twins adoptions will be final this weekend and then they will be sealed to our family!!! Somewhat bummed that I can´t be there but I know that I am suppose to be here right now!! I love you all so much and give the little ones extra loves for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
ps. I sent some letters out last week so hopefully they will get to the states soon!!

April 18, 2011-Floripa Livin!!

Hey Everybody!!
So Floripa is definitely a really really cool/pretty island, like unbelievable. My companion says that the people in Santa Catarina (the sate that our mission covers) are the rudest and meanest people in all of Brazil, I didn´t believe it at first but I can definitely see what he means now haha they aren´t that bad, it´s like serving an English mission in the states, they are all pretty well-to-do financially here so they don´t really see a need for religion. Historically, our mission is the lowest baptizing area in all of Brazil but al the missionaries say that President Queiroz has done a great job with this area, too bad he has to leave soon! We teach English classes soooooooooo much here, it´s cool but we are really trying to just gain the trust of these people and then introduce them to the Gospel. I teach this one man, Steferson, 3 mornings a week. He is a professor at a university here, has his doctorate in engineering and is going to Germany in September to do this really big project. His English is pretty good so I have to teach him some more complicated stuff about the English language...I don´t even feel like MY English is that great haha o well. The work is defintely slower here and everybody we teach just invites us to come to the beach with them or to go surfing with them...I´ve decided that living on Floripa as a missionary really isn´t that fun haha I wouldn´t be sad if I get transfered to a new area really fast!! haha I got a giant envelope full of letters from the Las Flores Ward Activity Day girls so that was really nice of them! Takes a while for mail to get here tho, and even then it takes a few weeks for us to get it from the mission office but it´s all good, no worries. Soccer is everything for the people out here, we are always playing soccer with kids, it´s pretty fun and they tell us to do it so we gain the trust of the people out here. Besides that, everything is going really well, hopefully everything is great back home!! Give the little ones loves for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

April 11, 2011-Floripa...Heaven on Earth

Hey everyone!!
So ya, I´m finally here in Brazil, this place is absolutley crazy and I love it! The island of Florianopolis is absolutely stunning! Like the most beautiful place on earth, it is unreal! My first area is the southern half of the island too so I get to be surrounded by it´s beauty all day, every day. Our apartment is the tiniest thing I have ever seen, they say it is by far the smallest apartment in the mission...I definitely believe them haha but it´s all cool, the view from our place is sooo sick. My companion is Elder Kneipp, he is from Northern Brazil and doesn´t speak a lick of English and since arriving here I have come to realize that I don´t speak a lick of Portuguese haha he is a way cool guy tho and is really good with the people here. President Queiroz and his wife are like the coolest people I have ever met, they are so nice and down to earth. Sister Queiroz told me that the most beautiful women in the world live on the island of Floripa (Florianopolis), yep, she is definitely correct haha we just have to stay away from the ones that are bad news. President told us to never go tracting out here because it is a waste of time but that we need to find other ways to find investigators. So, in my area we teach English class twice a week, we get anywhere from 20-40 people to show up. I wish my comp new English so he could help me but he just sits outside as I teach everyone, it´s a ton of fun tho. Everyone here wants to know English. Floripa is super nice, we have some ghetto places in our area but besides that, this place is ´muito legao` as the locals says, ´very legit´. Tons and tons of pizza too, on the island they are obsessed with pizza. They put everything on pizza too: chocolate, strawberries, whatever you tell them, they will put it on your pizza haha The work here is night and day compared to work in the states. In the states you aren´t suppose to stay at a lesson for more than 45 minutes, here each lesson goes anywhere from 2-4 hours, it´s crazy, I´m not a fan of it at all but my comp and everyone else here tells me that this is just how it is. We ride the bus a ton down here too, like probably 4-5 hours a day but I´m already getting used to it. The members here are amazing too, going to church was such an experince, it was like a massive family reunion and as if they hadn´t seen each other for YEARS haha it is so entertaining. Everyone here has their own handshake that you have to do with them whenever you see them too haha it´s pretty fun, even the older women in the ward have their own haha But ya, I love this place, it is absolutley amazing, I will definitely live here after the mission. Portuguese is not Spanish, they are completely different and I don´t really have a clue about what is going on until we start talking about church things, but I know it will come sooner or later. I´m doing grea and hope everyone else is too back home. Give the little ones tons of loves for me!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I'M GOING TO BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MY VISA HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i FLY TO BRAZIL MONDAY MORNING AT 11AM, STOP IN DALLAS FOR A COUPLE HOUR LAYOVER, THEN FLY TO SAO PAULO WHERE I HAVE A SMALL LAYOVER AND THEN GO STRAIGHT TO FLORIANOPOLIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 23, 2011-It's HOT here!!!

Helloo Everyone!!!
This last week was so rad!!! We had our baptism on Sunday night of this lady named Elia and she is soooo solid!! I got to confirm her a member and it was such a neat experience since it was my first time ever confirming somebody and I did it in Spanish!!! This area that we are in has been sooo ridiculously blessed, we are so lucky to see the Lord perform miracles each and every day out here!! We already have a lot of friends who we talk with every week and it seems like everyday we are fortunate to pick up somebody new!! It is starting to heat up here tho, I'm pretty scared to see what a Summer here would be like!! We are also getting ready for this massive Easter Pageant that they do every year out here (I hear it is ridiculously good) and it is April 15th&16th for all the Spanish speakers so we are just inviting everyone to come out and see it!! Ya, that's about it. Give the little one loves for me!!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

March 16, 2011-The Work Keeps Coming!!

Hola everyone!
This last week was AMAZING! We got to teach a ton and had some exciting baptism news!!! On Saturday I got to baptize this young kid named Angel and it was a super cool experience!! I'm really really tight with his family and his dad grew up in LA so we get to talk about CA a lot. They are the Juarez family and are such generous people, they would feed us dinner every night if we would let them! haha Then the next day at church I was sitting next to one of our investigators named Elia who just has a solid testimony and is such a generous person as well. We had extended baptism dates to her before but she said that she wanted to come to church some more so she could get to know some more members in the ward. Well after Sacrament meeting I started talking to her and she told me she doesn't want to wait any longer to be baptized and wants to be baptized this week!!! So rad!! So we had her interviewed and she is going to get baptized this next Sunday!! My companion is going to baptize her and I am going to confirm her, it should be a beautiful event! The work here in Chandler is every missionary's dream! With the disaster in Japan and other world events going on we have really received a lot of questions about what all of this means. It is a great opportunity to share the gospel with these people and help them understand that with the gospel we have no need to fear. I love you all soo much and hope all is well back home!!! Give the little ones loves for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

March 9, 2011- Visas are Coming!!!!!!

Hey everyone!
So today my Brazil visa-waiting companion got transferred and I got another Brazil visa-waiting companion (kind of an odd switch). But at transfers I saw the Elder I came out to AZ with and he got his visa yesterday and flies to Brazil tomorrow!!! He is pretty stoked and I am way happy for him!! The work in Chandler has been incredible as always tho!! We had a baptism last Saturday, one this next Saturday, one the week after and possibly 2 the week after that!! We are pretty excited to see so many people progressing towards baptism lately!! As missionaries that is what we are here to do, baptize. So when we actually get baptisms it feels really really good!! I'm loving it out here tho, we make sure to keep having fun out here!! Not too much more that I want to say, everything is great!! Give the little ones lots of loves for me!!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

More Brazilian Visa Waiters Have Arrived!!

Hola everyone!
  So last Friday we got a call that my companion and I would be receiving a Brazilian visa waiter! I was pretty excited to be able to have someone I could speak Portuguese with. So we picked him up on Monday, Elder Oliver from West Virginia. Cool guy and he was told the same thing that I was told when I left the MTC, that his visa should arrive in less than a month so he is pretty convinced he will be gone like next week. Perhaps he will, especially because he knows absolutely no spanish so he can't really talk to any of our investigators or people on the street. He is a good worker tho and will feel more comfortable eventually I am sure! This last week my companion and I went back to the guy (Omar) who told me that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and all of that. It was the first time my companion had met him and he was convinced that he was actually a member and just playing with us. He recited a bunch of scriptures from the Book of Mormon and D&C and bore testimony of many things again, but again he told us he won't join the Church just yet because he has read a few books on Brigham Young and that is his idol and since Brigham didn't join the Church until after 2 years of investigating, he won't join the Church just yet...it doesn't make sense to me. Especially because he told us exactly how he got his answer to know that the Book of Mormon is true, but he invited us back to talk with him some more so we just hope and pray that the Spirit can motivate him to take action and be baptized. Also this last week we really were able to gain so much more love and appreciation for the gospel. Some of our investigators have told us about their past and the problems they now deal with and how they try so hard to be good and stay on track but past addictions and past relationships prevent them from doing so. We have one man who was homeless the majority of his life and was a drug addict on some pretty heavy stuff. The last few years he got married, got a job, had a kid, has started coming to Church and reading almost everyday but still can't leave his past. He completely broke down the other night and told us how badly he wished he never did drugs, drank, or slept around because he is doing his best to stay good but Satan still has a hold of him. He is the nicest guy, and you would never guess that he would have the crazy past that he has, but it just goes to show how lucky we are to have the gospel to help us avoid these devastating things of the world. I love the gospel so much and hope that we can always remember to be grateful for the guidance we receive from the Lord thru His prophet. I love you all so much and am stoked to hear that you finally have a court date for the babies!!! Send them my love!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

February 23, 2011-I Love Spanish

?!Como les han ido todos?!
  This last week was SO incredibly amazing!!! The amount of people we are teaching and preparing for baptism just keeps increasing! First thing I learned this week, don't EVER eat this soup called 'menudo'. I had heard horror stories about it before and somebody finally cooked it for us this last week. It is a soup that is just full of these massive chunks of cow stomach/intestine and it is the chewiest meal EVER. haha I was struggling sooooooo hard to eat it, especially since they gave us massive portions. And to top it off we had every Mexicans favorite dessert, flan. also not the greatest, but they are a less-active family who we are really close with so we were still very grateful to be fed. Then the next day I went on exchanges with an English elder and went to do English work with him. We were sitting in one of his investigator's home and talking to her about what everything will be like when she gets baptized here in the next couple of weeks, but something about this lady just didn't seem right. I didn't know it, but her father-in-law who only speaks Spanish, was sitting in the back of the room listening to our entire conversation when he suddenly butts in and in Spanish so my companion and his daughter-in-law couldn't understand, starts telling me how she is not at all prepared or worthy for baptism. He tells me about how she needs to start taking more responsibility in life and get her act together and how she views baptism as something that is just going to solve everything. Quite frankly, he was ripping on her as she sat right there (but she was indian and didn't know a lick of Spanish). He then starts saying how she needs to understand more about the purpose of baptism as explained in 2 Nephi 31 and Mosiah 18. This guy isn't a member so when he said that I just busted into a huge smile, and asked him some questions about the Book of Mormon and asked him if he believed it is true. He answers that question by bearing his testimony that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and even said things like he knows that Moroni directed Joseph Smith to where the gold plates were...I was so ecstatic!! So I asked him and my real companion and I could return and talk with him some more and he said for sure!! It was such a cool experience that then turned into very awkward because his daughter-in-law and my companion asked me what he just said, and I told her that he doesn't feel she is ready for baptism and that the English missionaries would tell her why she isn't when they teach her next time haha it was really cool tho! The Gospel is sooo great and the change it can bring to our lives is amazing!! I hope all is well back home and give the little ones some loves for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

February 16, 2011- Another Alooooha!!!

Hola todos!!
  Wow this last week has been INSANELY busy, like we have been teaching lessons left and right!!! The Lord has blessed this area soooooo much and I am so lucky to be here at this time to witness this. We have a baptism coming up on March 5th which is way sick! We are working on having at least 4 other people baptized on that date too so lets pray that it all works out!! This Sunday I am speaking in Sacrament Meeting on the Small and Simple Things that we do in our lives, I'm wayyy excited to talk about this. It is just me and a member of the Arizona Tempe Mission Presidency speaking so I hope we don't bore our ward too much haha I love it out here tho, I know I've said that like tons of times before but really, it amazing out here! Like yesterday we only had 8 hours of proselyting time and more than 6 of those hours were spent in peoples' homes teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My companion, Elder Southern, and I are just in complete awe of how crazy on fire this area is right now, and we know it is completely because of the Lord. Thank you all who have kept the missionaries in your prayers, we need as much help from the Spirit as we can possibly get out here and with the Lord everything is possible. I love you all soooo much and wouldn't be surprised if one of my next emails is sent to you from the great country of Brazil!! Give the little ones tons of loves for me!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

February 9, 2011-Busy Busy Busy Busy!!

Hey everyone!
  This last week has perhaps been the greatest week of my mission!! The success the Lord has blessed us with has been so tremendous that I am still kind of in awe haha. President Howes set some goals for every companionship to achieve, or at least come close to, by the end of the transfer. Thanks to absolute miracles from the Lord, Elder Southern and I have already reached these goals by the 2nd week of the transfer! We have been teaching like CRAZY out here and we now have soooooo many people who are going to get baptized, it is absolutely amazing!! We have soooo much work too that we are contacting the members everyday to help us out and they LOVE to help us. The Spanish people love the missionaries more than I have ever seen a people love the missionaries, and a big reason for this is because the majority of them are converts themselves. This area is exploding and I am soooo lucky to be here to see it happen!! I hope all is going well back home, I love you all so much and make sure to give the little ones tons of love for me!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

Feb 2, 2011

Hey everyone!!
  We had such a strong week this last week! We taught a LOT of people and saw the gospel change them in incredible ways!! Then came Church this Sunday and we brought 11 people to Church!!! It was sooooooooo cool to see, my companion had never brought more than 3 before! Such a blessing from the Lord and they all loved it and say they want to come back this week too!!! The ward here is great too, they all have fellowshippers now which give them rides to Church. We are absolutely SWAMPED with work right now!! Like, ridiculous amounts of people who we visit and teach! It is the greatest, but we realize that the Lord has given us a ton of responsibility and we have got to make the most of it. The Spanish just keep getting better everyday, I LOVE it and am stoked to someday speak Portuguese! Well, that's really all I got this week. Be good!!! And give the kids tons of loves for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

Michael's New Address

Elder Michael Neilson 728 W. Kingbird Dr. Chandler, AZ 85286

January 26, 2011-Livin on the Farm!!!!!

Hola Everyone!!
  This last week has been superb! I love it here in Arizona and I absolutely LOVE speaking spanish!! It is crazy how much my spanish has improved since I have gotten here, I know it is a gift from the Lord, I only wish that all of Brazil spoke spanish...o well! No visas this last week, but we had investigators at church and all of them are going to be baptized here in the next couple of weeks! Plus they have referred us to their family members who seem really promising too! The work is going sooooooooooo great and it is incredible to see how much the Spirit can change people's lives! Up until yesterday we had been sharing the Spanish Ward here with 2 other Elders, but both of them got transferred and President Howes has told us that he isn't going to replace them but instead we are going to cover both their area and our area for at least this next transfer, our area is now close to 80 sq miles! We have quite a few baptisms coming up and now have over 100 people that we are in contact with...we are BUSY to say the least haha I would much rather be super busy than have no work tho. Also, my companion and I have to move out of our apartment...our new house, the top of a member's barn!! How rad is that! Like seriously, it is a barn with cows, horses and all manner of animals, I'm so stoked!! Everything out here in AZ is amazing and I love the spanish work sooooo much. Take care back home, and make sure to give the little ones loves for me!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

January 19, 2011- The Visas Are Coming!!!!!!!!

Aloha everyone!

  So this past week here has been INCREDIBLE and we have seen soooooo many miracles. We have had people tell us they want to be baptized, investigators actually come to church, and many less active (for like years) finally start to come back to church!!! It is so cool because having an investigator come to church and seeing a less active come both bring incredible joy to missionaries, and more importantly the Lord. It has really taught me to not give up on people and realize that deep down in everyone they are actually hungry to know the truth and that's what the gospel brings. We have seen so many times where we will start to either teach or talk with someone and they are super hard and stiff at first but after just a few minutes of bearing testimony and allowing them to feel the Spirit their attitude changes DRAMATICALLY. But ya, life is absolutely great AND this last week 3 people in my MTC district got their Visas!!! We had dinner at this members house on Sunday and all they did basically was rave about how rad brazil is and I will be super stoked when my visa finally does come!! and carnival is next month so brazil will just be one giant party!! I'm not sure if that's great for missionary work hahah but I love you all and hope that in everything you do in life that you know that your Heavenly Father is there for you and that thru His Son we truly will be the happiest we can possibly be in this life. Give the kids and Mom tons of love for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

January 12, 2011

Hey everyone!
  This last week was SUCH a great week! We have been working our tails off and have been seeing the blessings from the Lord! It's funny because I have yet to have a baptism out here and we only have one person on date, but I don't feel discouraged because we are giving it our all and I have been able to see the Gospel greatly benefit the lives of the people we come in contact with and it has greatly benefited mine too. I had my first interview with President Howes this week (week get interviewed 4 times a year) and I told him how much I love Arizona and how grateful I am to be here. To that he told me he was glad to hear that, but told me that Brazil Florianopolis is still my mission and that I should not forget that. For some reason I imagine him responding differently but he is very straight forward about my time and purpose here in Arizona. Anyways, we have been teaching this guy named Manolo for some time now and every time we start teaching him, 3-4 of his roommates always come out and listen to us. They are all in their 20s, have tats and tons of piercings and it is amazing to see how the Spirit calms them down and touches them. They all wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said they would read it, so rad!! The power that comes from the calling of being a missionary is incredible! It is way more powerful than I could have ever imagined, and it is because we are representatives of Jesus Christ. Off of street contacts we have people completely open up to us and tell about their whole life story. People have soooo much trust in the missionaries and it is our job to make sure we are always worthy to have the Spirit with us so we can be trusted. I absolutely LOVE this work, it is amazing!! I hope all is well back home and that Mom's health gets better!!! Make sure to give the little ones loves for me!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson
ps. an elder from my MTC district just got his visa yesterday!!! so rad, hopefully I still have some more time here tho!! 

January 5, 2011

Hey everyone!
I hope you all had an amazing New Years!! Ours was good out here, not very productive on New Years Day tho...we went outside just to find all of Chandler hungover or still drinking out in the streets, not the state of mind we want people to be in when we teach them about the gospel haha. We have been sooooooo incredibly blessed this last week and have seen an increase in the number of people we teach and seen incredible improvement in the people we teach! I absolutely LOVE it here. I don't even want to think about Brazil because it seems like every day I have less and less of a desire to ever go there. The work here is AMAZING and I have so much love for everyone here that it is going to be really hard to leave Arizona. Everything about this place is great!! I've seen so many blessings from the Lord and I have a hard time imagining myself receiving these blessings anywhere else. I know that I have been called by the Lord to serve in Brazil tho, and when I do get that call for my visa I know I will be very excited! The language has been coming along soooooo incredibly well, at first I thought everyone talked SO fast but it does not seem that way anymore. If you know me well then you know that I feel like I was born to speak Spanish and I am so thankful to the Lord for allowing me this opportunity. This mission has really taught me the importance of faith and works. If we ever desire to gain anything in this life then we need to first turn to the Lord, let Him know that we have faith in Him and show, by our works, that we actually do believe in Him and we are going to work our hardest. I LOVE my time out here, it is such a blessing!! My companion is amazing and I am sooooo lucky to be serving with him. I hope all is well back home and that Mom continues to improve!!! Give EVERYONE loves for me!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson

December 29, 2010

Hey everyone!
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!! It was super good to be able to call home and talk with you guys!!! Hopefully Mom's health is improving and the doctors will get her back home A.S.A.P! So this last week was fantastic!! Christmas Eve we got to help the Bishop and some High Counsel Members take Christmas Packages to some of the families in the Spanish ward who are going thru tough financial times, they were all soooo gracious and it felt so great to be able to perform this service for them. We (like all missionaries) seek for service opportunities every day and it is such a blessing for us when we are able to help others! It makes us feel good and feel closer to Christ while at the same time giving others a good taste of what our church is about: Service. If you ever see an opportunity to serve, take it. Mom is a pretty amazing example of this. Christmas day was incredible too! We got to teach a lesson to one of our investigators in the morning, do some more street contacting, call home in the afternoon, eat dinner at a member's home (they are a super cool cute little old couple from Columbia) and then play football with the rest of the Elders in our zone! So fun, and yet so tiring haha. Our numbers for the Christmas weekend were pretty low and we weren't too pleased with that. So. We hit the pavement running on Monday and to start off this week we have shattered our street contacting record and our return appointments off of street contacts (if that makes any sense haha). Work solves everything. If you are constantly giving it your all and doing everything in your power to raise the voice of warning, then all other worries go away. It is such a fulfilling feeling to know that you truly have worked your hardest. I love you all and wish you a great New Year (Ano Nuevo)!!!! Give the little ones and Mom tons of love for me!!!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson