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!!