July 9, 2012- Church Horns

Hey Everyone!!

This week was the start of the new transfer and the 2 other Elders living with us both got transferred and the 2 new Elders arrived so we´ve been helping them get to know the city out here. Out of nowhere we went from having hot hot weather to super cold weather and the forecast is to pretty much stay cold forever now. We had a really obnoxious situation at church this last week. The Church is located on the city´s main street and a local church has a tradition every year on this Sunday that all the truckers from the nearby cities come and line their trucks up for miles and miles on the main road and for an hour in the morning they go to their sermon and then they come back at 9am and just drink, party and honk their truck horns until noon...our church meetings are from 9am till noon and it was so loud the entire meeting. I had to play the organ for Sacrament meeting and I turned the organ up as loud as I could to block out the noise but we could all still hear the honks and background music...o man, it was quite a memorable meeting haha We are doing great out here, tho, and realy excited for these coming weeks that we have! Our 4th of July went great, too!! We ate lots of hot dogs and hamburgers and sang lots of patriotic music and really enjoyed ourselves!! I hope you all are safe and that you give the little ones some loves!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

July 2, 2012- The High and Humble

Hey Everyone!!

This was a really cool and busy week! We had Zone Conference and a man named Carlos Martins came and spoke to us. You´ve probably never heard of him but he started off as the owner of an English school called Wizard and since has expanded his businesses to several countries and has become the largest employer in all of Brasil and he´s a member of the Church (he was a Mission President a few years back, too). I got to talk with him for a little bit and he is a very normal man, it took me by complete surprise. I then realized that only the true gospel of Jesus Christ can turn a multi-million dollar man into a humble, down-to-earth person. Later that night he gave a free lecture to the community (in the chapel) on the 7 keys to becoming a millionaire. He gave a lot of great advice and I took a ton of notes and then he arrived to the 7th and final key. I was really anxious to find out what would it would be and was really impressed by what he said. The 7th key to become a milionaire is ´Find your Divine Origen´ and he began to tell how we are nothing without God and how we must have a healthy relationship with him to be able to have a successful life. He then took the opportunity to bear testimony on how he knows that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Christ´s true Church here on the earth today. He bore testimony for about 10 mins and then invited everyone in the crowd of more than 500 people to take time out of their schedule to meet with the missionaries and learn more about the Church. It was such a cool experience!! The Church really is such a grand blessing in our lives, it is the only place on the face of the earth where we can go to learn the true eternal Plan of our Maker. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints truly is the Lord´s kingdom established here on the earth and that anybody who has real desire to know if these things are true can know for themselves. I hope you all have a great week and a great 4th of July!!! Give the kids lots of loves!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

This is a photo of President, his wife, my companion and I with Carlos Martins.