Hey guys! I can´t believe summer is just about over. Things are flying over here in Brazil. This last week has been a really good one for both Elder B. and me. We´ve been figuring out how we can work better together, and Heavenly Father really blessed us this week. It´s a start of a new transfer, and I think things will go real well for us both.

We got two new Greenies in my district, Elder G. and Sister G. The Elder is from Capo Verde in Africa, and he speaks both Portuguese and Creole - crazy!! Sister G. is from Columbia. Both are superstars already. I love working with new missionaries. They have that new fire that it´s impossible not to see. We had a great District Meeting on Tuesday getting to know everyone and talking about how we want this transfer to go. Now that everyone that was progressing is baptized, we´re going back to ground zero to pick up some new and quality investigators. 

Wednesday we taught Alan and Luciana. Luciana´s the less-active mom and Alan is the 8 year old that goes to church with his grandparents every week. This week we taught about the Word of Wisdom. When you walk into their house, there´s a little stand with wine and whiskey bottles. We brought it up about why her and her husband have them there. You know what she said? She doesn´t drink, and her husband´s stopped for at least 7 months. We´ll let´s throw them out! I said. The only reason they have them there is for decoration. I didn´t say this to them, but I will tonight during our lesson: in all the things I see in their house, there isn´t one picture of their family together. I made them the promise that if they throw their bottles out, I´ll buy them a 3.3L bottle of Coke (they have that here believe it or not) and make them a big batch of Mom´s homemade cookies. I think it was the cookies that sealed the deal haha. And we´re gonna follow-up tonight to see if they did it or not.

Another cool little miracle happened on Saturday. There´s a Sister in our ward that´s been a widow for about 4 years. Ever since her husband´s passing, she´s given money to the missionaries for lunch instead of having them over at their house. She gave us money this week, and we got the idea to set up a lesson to share a message with her. We came over on Saturday to get to know her and help her out anyway we can. Turns out that in all the time she´s given money to missionaries, not one missionary has shared a message with her - 4 years!!! Her two neighbors were over as well, two little girls that have always come to Church with her too. Turns out neither of them have been baptized yet. We taught them all the Restoration, and got permission from one of the girl´s parents to baptize her! We´re also gonna start teaching the other girl´s aunt that lives with her. It´s been a goldmine that missionaries have passed by for years!! Again, it´s working with the members that´s one of the greatest things. The Sister and one of the girls asked for a priesthood blessing too. The nonmember aunt was there during the blessings, and the Spirit was definitely there. The only thing that wasn´t perfect was that they all weren´t able to get to Church yesterday. If we have time tonight we´re gonna stop by to follow-up.

Something that´s been going on here in Brazil is that it´s Election Time! It´s pretty different here; there´s posters of tons of different people for different positions (like State and Federal Deputy), with cars going around all day with speakers talking about the candidates and their pledges. I don´t know when the actual election is, but I´ve heard that it´s all done electronic, that people punch in the number of the candidate for the position. With that I´ve also heard there´s a lot of fraud because it´s all electronic. It happens every four years. I´ll have to ask some more members about how it all works.

Thanks for the emails today! Your new school schedules look great. I can´t believe they´ve got another Seminary teacher at Glencoe! That´s awesome!! Congratulations Joe on making JV2, you´ll love it! Rip it up this last week of summer. Love you all. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Love Elder Nissinen

Elder B and I in our cool Brazil hats!!

Holy cow our week was FILLED with some awesome adventures. But before I get too deep into the stories,

I´m staying!! Both Elder B.  and I are stickin around another transfer here in Macedonia. I was super glad when the Zone Leaders told us the good news. I´ll still be a District Leader here, but the rest of my district has really changed - both the Elder and Sister companionships will be training, and they´re getting their greenies tomorrow morning!  It´s so cool to see the new missionaries within their first few days in the field. I remember it being a ^deer in the headlights^ kind of a reaction for me haha. 

Wednesday I went on exchanges with my Zone Leaders in their area. We traded Tuesday night, and then Wednesday morning we got a phone call from Elder B.  and the other Zone Leader in Macedonia: they ran out of water. The couple of days before were really hot, so to ration the water, the government shut everyone´s water off. Imagine!!! It wasn´t long before the water where I was at for the day was off too. NO WATER!! And I had clothes in the washer too! And, like Heavenly Father always does, our prayers were answered with a crazy ton of rain that day on Exchanges. Elder R.  and I got SOAKED! But the next morning on Thursday when we woke up, we were super grateful to have water again - it´s no picnic haha

NO WATER! (except to flush)

Friday and Saturday were our crazy days. Why? WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!! My first one in Brazil!! Everything went smoothly for her baptism Saturday night, the interview went great, no problems. And, the rest of the zone had baptisms planned too - 10 in total! So I was running around doing Interviews in the other missionaries´ areas both of those days. Baptismal interviews are pretty special, when someone who´s really new to the Church, and doesn´t know a whole lot, but can look you in the eye and tell you they know that the Church is true. That´s spiritual power right there. 

Isabel chose me to baptize her, because her returning less-active boyfriend has to have a few more talks with the Bishop. Lesson learned: I don´t know why, but Brazilian water heaters work wonders. After filling the font, it seriously felt like bath water, it was so warm. I got a little nervous after Isabel chose to wear the dress baptismal suit (you know I´ve had bad experiences with dresses and baptisms), but I´m super super grateful that it only took one time! It was an awesome baptism and quite a few members came to support. 

The zone!

Elder B. did the confirmation yesterday and did a great job too. The night before while I was writing in my journal, I could hear him practicing outloud in Portuguese the words he needed to say. 

Things are going pretty well here, and I´m loving it a lot. Still no package yet, I called the Office this morning, but I´m sure it´ll be here soon. Thanks for the great emails today. I love you guys so much, and your´re always in my prayers.

                                     Love Elder Nissinen

My chocolate pastel!!!

Hey guys!! 

Great to hear you all had an awesome and fun time last week. 

I don´t know how it happened, but somehow the missionary work over the last few days has EXPLODED!!! We haven´t been busier! It started on Friday, and we´ve seriously had every hour blocked ever since - we´ve even been forced to do splits with the members just to cover enough ground! We´ve been teaching a lot of less-actives, and Heavenly Father has blessed us so much.

Where do I start? Elder B. and I did a contact a while back on the street, and an appointment fell through, so we decided to go contact it. Turns out the lady was home and ready for the gospel. I really felt the Spirit during that lesson - she accepted a baptismal date too! Her name is Flor, and she wasn´t able to make it to Church yesterday, but we´re sure gonna follow-up with her soon so Satan does´t even have a chance. 

Our biggest miracle was a less-active family that´s been starting to come back to Church a couple weeks ago. We made a visit, and we spent over 2 hours just talking, bearing testimony, and getting them excited about the gospel. We read Alma´s conversion story in Alma 36 - man it was powerful! We´ve been teaching one of the son´s girlfriends (Isabel), and she accepted baptism for this Saturday!! My first one!! Keep your fingers crossed that all will go well!! 

We´re really picking up the work in this area, and I´ve never been so tired! Haha but it´s one of the best feelings in the world; being exhausted in the Lord´s service. I´m kinda nervous about transfers this week. I really really really hope I stay in this ward - there´s just too many things to do here! 

Thanks for all your great emails and support. Thanks for the pictures too! I checked the Mission Office today - the package hasn´t shown up yet. Oh, by the way, you´re all still doing the reading right? Page 180 today!

I know Heavenly Father is watching out for us and hearing our prayers. I love you very much. Have an awesome week

Love, Elder Nissinen

Eating Subway at the mall today.

Elder B. and I at the LAN House. Be honest, do my cheeks look chubbier? haha If so, you don´t have to post this one on the website

Hey family!! 

Another wintry week here in São Paulo, meaning about a high of 25 degrees Celsius (about 78 Farenheit). And Heavenly Father has answered my prayers by keeping me safe from sunburns! Winters here in general are all over the place; it can be ^freezing^ (about 45 more or less) when you wake up, and then by noon it´s scorchin up in the high 80´s. Can´t wait to see what Summer brings in a couple months! 

After hitting a low spot a couple weeks ago, we´ve slowly been picking things up with some more prepared investigators, found none other than by members themselves!! A week ago we had a Family Home Evening with an active family who invited some nonmember friends. The activity went well, and when we casually mentioned prophets during the spiritual thought, the nonmember got super interested. We marked the appointment for the next day, and BOOM! We had a 2 hour discussion on the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. Lots of great questions. The only problem is that she and her husband aren´t married yet. We haven´t talked to Morgana (the investigator) in a couple days (she didn´t come to church unfortunately), but we´ve got another lesson with her tonight. From what we´ve heard from the active family, she talked it over with her ^boyfriend^ (they´ve been together for 6 years now with 2 kids), and they want to get married! Cross your fingers! 

Lunch on Exchanges with all-Brazilians. They´ve gotta teach me how to cook this stuff!! It´s like a big stew over rice.  It's awesome and I love it!

Something super awesome happened this week too. A recent-convert family that was baptized just over a year ago went to the Temple to get sealed. They bore their testimonies yesterday, and it was super powerful. The whole ward supported them. Baptisms are great, but the Temple is the real prize of the whole Restored Gospel package. THAT´s what we´re really workin for. 

Again I was converted to member-missionary work. I think that´s one of the biggest lessons I´ve been learning throughout my whole mission. Yesterday we went on Splits twice with members, both were Returned Missionaries. They helped us out so much!!! Not only with the language, but with finding out investigator´s needs and then using the Spirit. I think the only thing that´ll help me adjust to home life will be helping out the missionaries back home haha. 

Happy Birthday Joe!! You´re such an awesome brother. Hope you got my letter I sent a few weeks ago. If it hasn´t shown up yet it should soon. 

We´re sure to see a bunch of miracles this week. A lot of our planners is already full with appointments. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement. I know this work, His work, will keep moving forward. Love you very much, and have an awesome fun week with High Adventure and a Girls Week Out! 

Love Elder Nissinen

Our weekly pday activity. So far Elder B.'s got me beat 4-2 games, but we´ll see how it goes down today

First off, I think that´s an awesome family motto! Kinda describes how things went down this week for us.

We had a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader Luis on Tuesday night, and boy it went great. He´s a convert and a returned missionary, and he´s got some great ideas on how we can get the work really going, not just teaching and baptizing, but converting our investigators and eventually getting them to the temple. He gave us a Gospel Library picture book that´s got artwork of pretty much everything in the Church - it´s a great tool to help out with the Portuguese. Pictures say a thousand words right? I proposed the idea of the 40 Day Fast that you guys did at home and that Mojave River did before I came in. The Bishop yesterday told me it was an awesome idea! I´m sure we´ll see some awesome miracles from it. Luis and us set a goal to get 6 investigators at Sacrament Meeting this week. And to get us pumped for it, he had us shout it from the top of his balcony overlooking the town: SEIS!!! 

So we went right down to work after that, inviting, inviting, and inviting all of our investigators, contacts, less-actives, practically everyone. We made Following-Up a main theme, because especially here it´s very easy for temptation to come along and distract people from the things that really matter. We found a few new investigators too with some good potential. 

Cutting a break in the story, I went on Exchanges two times this week. Once in my ZL´s area, and then other a greenie in my district joined me for the day. My ZL´s have a super solid investigator that has a legit hammock. She let me go inside, wrap myself up like in a caccoon, and hold on for dear life while they swung me back and forth. Missionaries have to make up their own thrill sometimes haha. The other day when I was with the greenie Elder T.  (from Utah) was a ton of fun. It´s great seeing that Greenie Fire go to work, and we even celebrated our successes with some pizza (I´ve got pictures). Being a District Leader is great! 

Back to the story. We were praying like crazy to help get those 6 at Sacrament, and then Sunday came. We passed by every single investigator on the way to the chapel, and unfortunately they were all sleeping and didn´t want to be woken up, busy and didn´t answer the door, or they dropped us all together. That´s the hardest thing about missionary work here, is getting people to Church. It wasn´t easy walking to Church yesterday, but your darn right that We Do Hard Things. And it´s worth it. God answered our prayers with an investigator at church who´s family is super-Catholic and anti to the Church - and she liked it! The Portuguese is coming along pretty well. I can pretty much say whatever I want without having to repeat myself. I think my accent is going away too. It´s harder for Elder B. though. It´s sad but when people ask us how long we´ve been out, they say I speak better than he does even though he has more time. I pray for him. 

It´s rare that I do speak English with anyone. One time a member wanted us to have a conversation between Elder B. and I for a minute to see if she´d understand anything. It felt so weird that I think my mouth muscles were a little sore after just talking normally. So weird! 

I can´t believe I have one year left on my mission. Holy cow it´s gone by so fast. We walk a lot, and some days are longer than others, but looking back I´ve loved every second of it, and it makes me want to work even harder and serve with no regrets. Missions are amazing.

I love you all very much and I hope you have an awesome week. I´m glad to hear everything´s going better with Grandma and that Monday went great too. You´re all so awesome. I know that God sents help from both sides of the veil for His children. 

We do hard things, because it´s worth it. 

Love Elder Nissinen  

    

Thanks for the emails this week. I´ll be with you all in spirit during Grandpa´s funeral.

Compared to a somewhat rough first week of the transfer, this last week went a lot better. I´m not having to use my little portable map as much, and Elder B.  and I had some great experiences teaching and working with our members. 

Wednesday we had our interviews with President del Guerso. Mine went super fast. No problems? Good! haha But while everyone else was getting interviewed the Assistants gave a training about how our focused needs to be changed. The stats in Brazilian missions are these: during 2013, 44,000 people were baptized. Out of those 44,000, only 4,000 remained active in the church - less than a tenth! What that means is that we´ve got to find those people who are seriously looking for change and a better purpose, and families who´ll stay active together. 

So what Elder B.  and I have been doing is going through everyone we´ve been teaching and seeing if they actually have potential and a desire to progress. Meaning, we´ve had to drop a few people. It´s hard at times, but hopefully in the future they´ll be prepared and ready to accept it. 

Luckily (even though there´s no such thing as luck on a mission), we were able to find a couple families this week. One we contacted a few days ago and yesterday we taught them the Restauration. It´s one of my favorites, if not my absolute favorite lesson to teach - there´s so many great things that came because of a young man´s prayer. The family was pretty excited about it, and we committed their son to baptism. The parents are a little hesitant and want to check things out first, but they´re ultimately not disregarding the idea of baptism. 

Saturday night we had our Festa Julina! It´s like a big Harvest festival. People dress up in ^cowboy^ kind of clothing (straw hats, boots, the girls in pig tails) and it´s a bunch of sweets, soda, and corn on the cob. We brought two of our investigators, and they seemed to enjoy it!  They had a ring toss that ripped me off of all my tokens, and then this little kid got up and won no problem - how embarrassing. 

We´re getting fed really well. Today I switched from Frosted Flakes to healthy eggs and toast for breakfast. Elder B.   is teaching me the tools of the trade of going healthy. 

Well that´s about it that happened this week. We´re both working very hard. I know that my year-mark is close (too close), so now´s really the time to shine. 

I´m so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the knowledge, power, and happiness that is in our lives and in the lives of those we love. I´m grateful to know that endings don´t exist, only new beginnings. It´s hard and sad to see Grandpa go, but we know he´s free at last from all of mortal life´s difficulties. I love you all. 

Love Elder Nissinen 

Dear Family,

My new companion Elder B. from Lousiana

Well. Those last two games weren´t really expected to go like that, but everything is calm now. Everyone knew it wasn´t gonna be easy without the captain and star player of the team, but it´s only a game. Being a German for the week was actually pretty fun. I thought there´d be a bunch of riots after the big loss Tuesday, but I guess people were so shocked at what happened that it wasn´t anything too dangerous or crazy. And because Brazilians have such a rivalry with Argentina, the whole country was rooting for Germany to win yesterday. At the end of the day, it´s just a bunch of games, but I´m especially glad Argentina didn´t win. Imagine all the trash-talk I would´ve gotten from Elder Moore, Elder Bailey, Sister Sorenson, and all the other Argentinian missionaries I know! haha But it´s good to be back going in ^4-wheel drive^ without having the World Cup hiccups in missionary work. 

So my new companion, Elder B. , is from Zachary, Lousiana, close to Baton Rouge. We both come from a pretty similar situation: we both didn´t get our visas right off, so we both served in California reassignments. He served in the Sacramento Mission for 3 transfers and then came here. I´ve got one more transfer than he does in the mission in total, and he´s got one more transfer in Brazil. We both aren´t fluent, but it kinda works to our advantage a little haha. The members have been helping us out with finding some great people to teach and helping us learn some speaking and teaching skills.

The first few days of the transfer were pretty rough. Without Elder C. we got lost in our area a couple times, and communicating wasn´t easy either. But this last week I learned a bunch of lessons, especially about gratitude. Just looking back at all the things God has blessed me and our family with has really made me learn to be grateful in whatever circumstances, kinda like what President Uchtdorf talked about in his last talk. Just a bunch of little things that have added up. Some examples off the top of my head are: not sure which bus to take to get to our lunch appointment, and we end up picking the right one without getting lost. All of our backup plans fall through, and we get some referrals from the Mission Office to go visit. Not really sure what to say to an investigator, but the words come out and we both are feeling the Spirit. Honestly there´s no way that two 19 year olds can do this work by ourselves, and it´s crazy if we´re trying to.

I had a great first week as a District Leader too!! I had my first Baptismal Interview with someone that Elder C.  and I had found a few weeks ago and passed him off to the Elders in his area. It was pretty cool sitting down with him to talk about his progress and his commitment to be baptized. The hard part about it was that it had to be done at 10:30 that same night!! His baptism was the day after and he had work in the morning, so the only way it could´ve been done was the night before. By the time Elder B.  and I got home, it was 11:30!! But at least we helped someone get ready to be baptized, that´s the important thing. 

Please pray for Elder B.  and I so that we can find and teach those people who are prepared here. It´s been a while since someone has been baptized and remained active in the Church in this ward. 

We´ve got some great things coming up! This Saturday we have the Festa Julina, which is like a big harvest festival they´ve got in Brazil. Should be fun! 

I´m definitely praying for Grandma and Grandpa. I sent her a quick note too. Keep me updated on their condition. I love them both very much.

Great to hear you all had a great time at Black Butte! Thanks for the sweet pictures too! 

Love you all very much!! Have a great week!!

Elder Nissinen

The Macedonia zone

Hi family!! 

I bet you´re all expecting the news of what happened with transfers. Well, the Assistants called us last night with some bittersweet news. First the bitter: Elder C.  is being transferred to downtown São Paulo, but he´s gonna be a zone leader! And I get to stay here in Macedônia and be District Leader! I´m pretty excited, but it´ll be different being a DL in Portuguese. My next companion is Elder B.  All I know is that he´s American and has one more transfer in Brasil than I do. The swaps happen tomorrow morning. These last 4 weeks with Elder C.  have been awesome. Even though we didn´t baptize anyone, I learned a lot from him and we had a great time. And it´s good to know that we´ll see each other again since we go home about the same time.

I saw all the awesome pictures of the 4th of July party. It looks like it was such a blast!! On Thursday I went on exchanges with my zone leaders, and Elder R. , an American, came into my area for the day. When our last appointment of the day fell through, we decided to pre-celebrate the 4th in the only way we could and going all-out American. So we went to the supermarket and bought everything we needed for an American BBQ: hamburger patties, buns, catchup, chips, Coke, ice cream, as creative as our budget would allow us haha. I used the liberty of the credit card, just so you know Dad haha thanks. Elder Ross and I had a ton of fun. The next morning we woke up and sung all the patriotic hymns in our English hymn book. It´s funny how your patriotism goes up when you´re away from your country haha.

The days leading up to, the day of, and the days after the Colombia/Brasil game were pretty intense, especially for my Colombian companion. I didn´t understand everything, but I could just tell that there was some good trash talking going on haha. People here take their futebol just as serious as the Bible. We watched the game in a member´s home, and after the game I stood on his balcony to see all the after-game fireworks. It was a good way to hit off the 4th. 

But now, people here have the crazy idea that me and all the other American missionaries are German! We just walk down the street and the first thing strangers tell me is ^Hey German^. Who knows what´s gonna happen without Neymar and T. Silva, but it´s not gonna be easy. Elder C. is just happen that even though his country lost, they took out Neymar hahaha. 

Besides all the on-the-side stuff that´s been happening because of the World Cup, this last week was one of our most fruitful proselyting weeks. We met this lady on the street who turned out to be a less-active who hadn´t been to Church in 7 years! And she was preparing to go to the Temple right before she went less-active. Turns out she has a son who wasn´t baptized. So we taught him Wednesday about the Restauration, and left him a pamphlet to read and pray about. We followed-up with him a couple days later, and he told us he read, prayed, and felt like every word we said and he read was true!! We introduced the Book of Mormon, talked about what we should do when we get a confirmation, and then BOOM: committed him to be baptized for the last Saturday of this month. And even better; one of the best questions that a missionary loves to hear is, ^what do I need to do to be baptized?^ It´s sweet music haha. So we´re gonna work a lot with Felipe (that´s his name) in these next coming weeks. 

The members have been helping us out a lot too. Yesterday we had lunch with Bishop and his family, and after eating a TON (Fast Sunday meals are the best), we offered to do the dishes for her like we always do with the sisters. Normally they decline the offer, but the Bishop´s wife said that past missionaries never offered to do them for her. So we spent the next half-hour scrubbing, washing, and drying all the lunch dishes haha. Lesson learned: being called to serve doesn´t always mean knocking (or clapping in front of) doors haha.

Hope you all have a blast at Black Butte!!! Sounds like a lot of fun! Thank you for telling me about how Grandpa´s doing. I´ll keep him in my prayers. What an amazing story Dad!! 

I love you all so much!!! Have an awesome week!!

Love Elder Nissinen

We got to go the temple today!!!

Hey family!!!,

With two games this past week, it wasn´t our best proselyting week. This is the last week of the transfer, and I really hope that both Elder C. and I will stay for six more weeks. We´ve been working super hard to find and teach some quality investigators and to build trust from the ward. We find out Sunday night who´s going where, and then the actual swap is on Tuesday, but we´re both hoping we stay in Macedonia. Elder C.´s a great guy and a great missionary. 

I hope you all watched the Brasil-Chile game. HOLY COW!! If you wanted to hear the world go nuts, you should´ve been there. You wouldn´t believe it. Incredible how a country totally erupts when a ball goes in a net. And of course Neymar saved the day. Everyone here thinks he´s the greatest. Boy was it a close one. And when Neymar got the last PK, everyone was screaming, yelling, cheering, everything. The member who were watching the game with even let off a bottle rocket on his balcony! With the games before, President has told us we need to be home as soon as possible afterwards, but with Saturday´s game, we thought it´d be best to camp out an hour or so and wait till things quiet down a little. And since the game was at 1pm, our proselyting was shot. So we just went home, cleaned up our house a little, and went to bed early haha. You only get that opportunity when you´re sick on the mission haha.

There was another close call this week. It´s normally custom when you greet someone (between girls and guys-to-girls) to shake their hand and give them a peck on the cheek. Of course missionaries can´t do that, but not everyone knows that. During a lesson this week this lady walked in the house, shook my hand, and then almost kissed me!!! When she leaned in, I said pretty loud, ^Whoa no!^ and she backed off. It was one of the most freakiest moments of my mission!! haha That´s why we keep a stiff arm when we shake hands. 

Have to admit I´m a little jealous of your super-4 of July party you´re having this week. But it just so happens that Friday is also the same day as the next Brasil game, so I´ll still be celebrating. Elder C.´s pretty nervous, being Columbian and all. His country plays Brasil Friday, and for his own safety he´s praying that Brasil wins haha. And just in case, he´s already gone around saying that he´s from Bolivia and not Colombia haha.  

We went to the Temple this morning! Man I´m so lucky that President lets us go every transfer. Life would be a lot harder without the Temple. One of the greatest feelings in the world. 

Even though things have been kinda rough with missionary work, we still see little miracles God blesses us with. Most of our investigators don´t like to commit, or they forget appointments, or sleep instead of going to church. The work isn´t always easy, even in Brasil, but we still see blessings and Elder C. and I have definitely been feeling the Spirit when we teach. Last night I went on splits with some RM´s in Macedonia. They had a friend that they brought to Church Sunday and we got to teach him last night. They´ve been home for about 6 months now, and after the lesson we got to talking about missions in general. They told me they´d give anything to be back on their missions, instead of having to worry about school, work, and life. It´s super true. I don´t want it to go by as fast as it already has been. I´ve never felt so good about what I´m doing in my life as I am right now. 

Teaching Elder C. english 

 Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. This work cannot and will not be stopped, even if we have to pause every now and then for a soccer game haha. 

Have a great 4th, but be safe too! Don´t get too crazy with the mordars and snow cones haha.

Love you all very much!   Elder Nissinen

Reading scriptures on the bus ride

We found an awesome burger place - the biggest burger of my life for R$6!!

What the streets look like during the World Cup!!!

Hey everyone!! 

This was a great one! Elder C. and I worked our tails off, and despite a few hiccups, the Lord blessed us immensely. Jardim Macedonia is a great place to be in.

A lot of you have asked how everything´s going with the World Cup. I´ve tried comparing to a lot of things, but the closest thing I can imagine is this: take the Super Bowl of Super Bowls versus every major country in the world, multiply the excitement by 10, and then put that excitement in the same country that´s hosting all these countries. Seriously from a non-missionary perspective, it´s what everyone is talking about. President del Guerso has given us permission to watch the Brazil games in active members´ homes, but the atmosphere doesn´t help out missionary work a whole lot haha. From about noon to 9pm, the games are on TV, which means if anyone has a TV in their house, the games are on. It´s funny because whenever we enter someone´s house, member or not, and we ask if we can share a spiritual message, they always say, >Oh sure, just wait till the end of the game!< So, what else can we do for the leftover 15 minutes? haha With the game today President said we have to go back to our houses right after, so today will be a full pday!

Jardim Macedonia has fewer active members, but it´s our plan to help them stay firm and reactivate the less-actives. A problem in Brazil is that many are willing to listen and commit to being baptized, but staying firm and living the commitments are hard. We had a meeting Sunday morning with some of the leaders in the ward, and a lot of what was talked about was finding and bringing back members who will stay active, go to the Temple, serve callings, etc. And the members are the best source for finding these people! 

For example, a couple weeks ago we had lunch with an active family. After our spiritual thought they decided to invite their less-active neighbors and their non-member friends to an FHE with us. We had it last Monday, and Elder C. and I were in charge of the game after the lesson. The dad shared a brief message from General Conference, and then we played Batata Quente. A little introduction, missionaries have to be pretty resourceful, so we found a little hackysack from a box of Frosted Flakes we bought before, and played Brazilian Hot Potato. Simple, but it worked! We had a ton of fun, and then the active family committed them to take the lessons and come to Church. I love working with the members!! 

Our study desk

The infamous electric shower head

Our Laundry room

Some pictures a member took of us last night with a family. Cake and Coke! haha

 Elder C. is by far one of the best companions I´ve had on my mission. He loves music, and he taught himself piano and a bunch of other instruments. He even writes music! And he´s got a great heart too. On Saturday I woke up with a terrible sick feeling in my stomach. I tried to shake it off and work, but after about an hour of walking, I felt really achy. I still don´t know if it was something I ate or drank. But we were close to the chapel, so we went in and I instantly fell asleep on one of the wooden benches of the chapel haha. Three hours later I woke up 100% better. We couldn´t get ahold of our lunch appointment, but Elder Castilla stayed there the whole time and helped me out a ton. I´m teaching him English, and we read the Book of Mormon together in the languages we´re trying to learn. I may have convinced him to go to BYU too haha. 

Oh, and I got your letter last week! LOVED the pictures and the letter!! People here really like seeing pictures of your family; it helps to show that you´re a normal person, and talking about families is an easy way to connect with people here.

Love you all!!! Thank you for your emails and encouragement! Being a missionary is one of the happiest and best things I´ve ever done! The Gospel and the Savior are real. Heavenly Father does answer our prayers. Miracles do happen. The scriptures are power-packed with the Spirit. 

Have an awesome week!!! I´m still hoping it´s Brazil and the US in the final haha. Be safe

Love Elder Nissinen 

My new companion has been out 10 months just like me!!!

Hey family!! 

As you´ve all heard and probably watched, Brazil started off the World Cup with a win! Things have never gotten crazier here (good and bad). 

Before I talk more about Thursday, I better talk about where I´m at right now. I'm in the same stake as before (Campo Limpo), but I switched wards and zones. I'm now serving in the Macedônia ward with my new companion Elder C. . He´s been out exactly as long as I have (10 months as of last Saturday), and he´s a blast!! He´s from Colombia, speaking Spanish, but he´s forgot a lot of it thanks to Portuguese. He´s helped me out a ton with the language, and I can tell I´ve already improved a lot in just this one week. 

They use real paint on the curbs of the streets!!!

GOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!!! Score Brazil!!!

We live in a house that some members let the missionaries stay in. It´s not like the Yen House back in Mojave River (with the Jacuzzi and pool table), but at least we have a working stove in this house! Remember when Uncle Matt talked about those electric shower heads that heat up the water? Yup we´ve got one, but I haven´t gotten shocked yet (don´t jynx it). It´s only us two that live in it, but it´s a lot bigger than the last apartment. 

I still don´t know why the Emergency Transfer happened. Nobody went home, and there were at least 6 elders that got swapped around. President just told me it had something to do with helping out some newer missionaries. But it doesn´t matter, because Macedônia with Elder C.



 is a lot of fun. It´s still in the favelas, but it´s also on the wilder side of town. Saturday and Sunday nights get pretty crazy with all the Funk parties. Saturday night our lesson took a lot longer than we thought, so to avoid all the craziness we took a bus home. It´s ALWAYS an adventure on the buses in the favelas - imagine the Dinosaur jeep ride at Disneyworld, without seatbelts!! I easily got a foot of air off one of the bumps in the road haha.

So President let us watch the first game Thursday, but the whole day was just horrible for proselyting. If somebody wasn´t drunk and partying, they were painting and decorating the streets even more. Even the members were fixed on the opening ceremonies and everything. And President told us to get to our houses asap after the game, and now I know why. Luckily the member we watched the game with gave us a ride. Traffic in Brazil is bad already, but what a crazy ride it was dodging parties and barbeques. But no worries, the Lord always keeps His missionaries safe.

The ward is pretty cool. It´s a little bit smaller, but there´s quite a bit of members who want to help us out. There´s a recent-convert family that´s going to the Temple to be sealed this month, and they invited a neighbor to come to Church and hear the lessons. And he came!! We´re gonna start teaching his girlfriend (soon to be wife) this week too. The only problem is the marriage issue. It´s a big problem here, especially if they´re married to someone else but can´t get a divorce, and they´re living with someone else - headache. The members are still surprised I´ve only been here a month now by how I´m speaking, but I still have a long way to go. 

Father´s Day doesn´t exist here in Brazil, but I was still thinking of you Dad yesterday. Thanks for being a great father in my life and helping me be where I´m at now in my life. Packages are hard and pretty expensive to send from here, but I´ve got a letter I´ll send tomorrow after District Meeting. Hopefully it gets there at least before the 4th of July. I love you a lot Dad!

Love you all and hope you have a great first full week of no school!! Glad to hear the Dance Festival went well and it was a lot of fun! Keep your fingers crossed for Brazil and the US, but for my sake I hope Brazil wins in the end. People here already love Americans, but I bet that´d change if the US won haha

Love you all,

Getting my hair washed....you know what she did? She came, and washed my hair. Barney Fife with Mrs. MendleBright

Habibs (it´s like the Arabian Little Ceasers haha) The cost 25 american cents

Elder Nissinen

Hey everyone!! 

I´m just as surprised as everyone else about this emergency transfer thing. And just when I get used to Jardim Ipê too! I´ve never seen it happen before, so who knows what´s happened with the other elders. I have no idea who´s my new companion, or my new area. But I do know that I´ll be going over to the next zone, which is actually in the same stake. So I´ll still be able to see the members at Stake activities and stuff. 

And so yesterday with the phone call from the Assistants totally threw me, Elder B. , and the rest of the ward off. I thought for sure that at the end of this transfer, at least I wouldn´t be the one going. But the Lord has a purpose in everything. We got the phone call right in the middle of a first lesson with an investigator family - bad timing Assistants!! Let me back up a little:

A week or two ago, Elder B.  and I went over to this one member´s house to introduce ourselves and talk about how we can help them do missionary work. We got talking, and after a while, they told us they have a family that lives in the same complex that would be super interested in the gospel. So they invited them over for lunch yesterday, and marked us on the lunch calendar for the same day. That family was super prepared!!! Anyways, right when we started sharing the Book of Mormon with them, we get the phone call. Elder B.  ignored it, but they called again. At that point we didn´t even care what anyone was calling about because we were just completely focused on this family. Elder B.  even took the battery out of the phone haha! But when the Assistants told me the news, I´ll be honest I was kinda mad. We´ve been having so much more success over the last couple weeks, and it´s gotten better and better!! A lot of the people we were teaching were solid, coming to church, had baptismal dates. AND we were gonna watch the first World Cup game with a member who has a 3D TV!!!! But I´m sure the Lord´s got a plan for what´s ahead. And I hope I get a Brazilian companion too so I can pick up the language a lot quicker. 

So about the World Cup, things are going CRAZY here!!! So crazy, that President del Guerso told us that we can watch all the games with Brazil playing. The only thing we have to do is that we have to watch the games in really active members´ homes, and we can´t go all crazy with face paint and stuff. BUT, when Brazil scores, we´re allowed to yell and celebrate haha. Everyone´s getting pumped for Thursday. And the people here are transforming the Favellas into a living Brazilian flag!! They paint the sidewalks, curbs, and even the trees in Green and Yellow. They hang streamers above across the streets. You see flags everywhere. It´s ridiculously awesome. I would take pictures, but there´s always people painting, hanging more stuff up, etc. This whole country´s gonna shut down on Thursday!! 

We had Stake Conference too yesterday, and we got to have it broadcasted from Salt Lake. All of it was in Portuguese. The 1st counselor in the Relief Society, Elder Ballard, and Elder Scott spoke to us. They had voiceovers for the first two speakers, but when Elder Scott came up, the words he was saying were the same coming from his mouth! The dots connected: he speaks Portuguese!!! Turns out he was in the Area Presidency of South America at one point, so he already knew a bit of Spanish and Portuguese. It was pretty cool hearing an Apostle speak another language! 

Well, who knows what´s ahead with these changes, but I´ll definitely miss everything that´s happened here. Elder B´s been a great companion, and we´ve both helped each other out during this last month. The members are amazing in every way possible. I´ve seen a ton of miracles here, and we´ve had a blast eating all the pizza with chocolate-stuffed border as we can haha.

Good luck with these last 3,5 days of school and the Dance Festival!! This week´s gonna be a blast! Make it a good one. Love you all a lot!!

Vai Brasil!  

Love Elder Nissinen 

Hi Dad this is Jacob. The Assistants called me like 2 hours ago and told me I´m being emergency-transferred to another area. Don´t know why, but it has to do with missionaries in another zone. Anyways, tomorrow afternoon I´ll have to go to the office, which means to do email I´ll have to do it earlier in the morning (like 9:30 my time). So I just wanted to send this email so you and the rest of the family can send your emails sometime tonight instead of tomorrow morning. I still won´t know what´s gonna happen until tomorrow afternoon.

Love ya Dad,

Elder Nissinen