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