August 13, 2012- These Things are True

Hey Everybody!!

This last week was such an incredible week!! It flew by super fast but it´s because we were sooo busy. The main highlight of this week was on Thursday when Elder Carlos Godoy of the 1st Quorum of the 70 came and gave an amazing training!! The Spirit was very strong and he really helped all of the missionaries gain even more energy and desire to work hard and put in practice the things we learn in Preach My Gospel. I loved the training so much but at the same time I was just thinking, "Why couldn´t he have come a few months earlier so I could actually put these things in practice??". It was still an unforgettable experience tho! I´ve been trying to think about the end of my mission as little as possible these last few days, but now the end really has arrived and I´m super excited for the next part of my life!! This time that I´ve had to represent the Lord for these last 2 years has been a life changing and life shaping experience. One of the most precious gifts I´ve adquired has been my testimony that Christ has His true Church on the earth again and the Book of Mormon is the evidence of this. God loves all of His children and He invites all of them to learn of him, come unto Him and through the small and precious truths that we learn in the Book of Mormon we can truly return to His presence someday. I´m forever grateful for this knowledge and I know that anyone with sincere desire can know of these things. I love you all and thank you for all of the support that you´ve given me in these last 2 years and I´m excited to see all of you so soon!!! No need to give the little ones any more loves for me, I will be able to give them myself!!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

August 6, 2012- In the Brasil

Hey Everyone!!

This last week was a super great week!! We got to work a ton and it has just been sunny, beautiful, warm weather so hopefully it continues!!! We are super excited for this next week, too because Elder Godoy from the Quorum of the 70 is coming to do a conference with our mission so it should be a great learning experience! Everything here is great and I hope everything back home is even better for you all!! Give the little ones some loves!!!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

Pics from a hike they went on that week:

 

July 30, 2012

Hey Everyone!

  That´s so cool that you all are in AZ!! That´s pretty brave for you guys to go out there during the Summer but it sounds like the weather isn´t too hot. I will definitely have to go and visit Tahnee and Tyler sometime so that I can visit some people in Chandler! So we did a bunch of traveling this week and only spent about 2 days in the mountains and I even got to leave the state!! It was really cool because where I went is a lot different from the other places in our mission. We, too, saw a massive car accident along the way, it happened right in front of us...just goes to show the importance of being careful on the highway. Today we are in Floripa because President asked us to come back for a few days because he´s going to do some activities with us and then afterwards we will go to a city close to the border of Argentina! We just found out that next week Elder Carlos Godoy of the first quorum of the 70 will come to the mission so Elder Eide and I will have to receive him and President Fernandes in the city close to Argentina, it should be a really great experience!! I hope you guys have a great trip and that you make it home safely!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

July 23, 2012- The Trio

Hey Everybody!!

This week was another solid week full of lots of great and interesting experiences!! We had many spiritual experiences where we saw our investigators open up and feel the Spirit testify that the things which we preach our true. We also had a missionary who injured his knee and can´t work for a few weeks so we are in a trio with his old companion until President finds another solution. The missionary with us is from Chile so we talk a lot in Spanish, but mainly just joke around in Spanish. Well, we are all safe, healthy, and excited about the work here!! I love you all and hope you give the little ones some loves for me!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

July 16, 2012- Festa Julina

Hey Everyone!!

  This week was a pretty great and entertaining week!! We got to teach a lot of lessons and go on a lot of splits with the young men who are preparing to serve missions. The weather was bitterly cold so it was almost impossible to talk with people outside but we got into a lot of homes so it worked out great! I told you guys about a really cool family that we found a few weeks back and they are still going strong!! They are reading the Book of Mormon a lot and they know that it´s true and are talking to all their family and friends about the church now!! This Saturday we had a party at the church, it´s called ´Festa Julina´ and the entire country of Brasil has this party either duirng the month of June or July. Basically everybody dresses up as a hick and they do square dancing all night long and there is tons and tons of food! I will try to attach a video if the computer lets me. I love you all and hope that all is going great!!! Give the kids some loves!!!

Love,

Elder Michael J. Neilson

btw the video wouldn´t download but here is one photo all everyone dancing and one photo of my companion and I

 

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.