No no, I haven´t been contaminated. Elder C. is one of the Assistants to the President.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!! It kinda sucks that they don´t do anything in Brazil for it, but I think they save it for an even bigger Christmas. I´ve heard that Brazilians celebrate Christmas for two days (Eve and the actual Christmas). President del Guerso is planning something HUGE for the mission to celebrate. And I´ve heard a rumor that we may be watching the movie Frozen! Keep it on the DL though.

December starts next week (already!), and I´ve started rolling out the Christmas music and the whole ball of wax. And even better news, I GOT NINNIE´S PACKAGE!!!! Don´t worry, I´ve only opened the letters and I´ll wait till December 14th. I was so surprised and grateful that it came already. 

Elder O. and I decided that we´re gonna give Christ really good present this year, and we committed ourselves to baptizing 5 people in December. It´s gonna be a big challenge for sure, but the same day that we talked about it, we met a bunch of really interested people that the members introduced to us. We´ve got at least 3 quality families that we´ve started teaching! Hallelujah!

Getting back to the title of the email, I did my first exchange with an Assistant. They´re the Elders that are over the entire mission and work close with the President. Elder C. is the most craziest missionary I´ve ever met. When we walked out of our apartment onto the street, he yelled HALLELUJAH!! GLORY TO GOD!! and started doing street contacts. I wasn´t sure to laugh my head off or to be embarrased. And throughout the day things just got more hilarious. We knocked on two people´s door at the same time, and ended up telling one of them that we´d be back in 10 minutes after sharing a message with his neighbor. But his attitude is super contagious, and I was mostly laughing the whole exchange.

Stake Conference was this weekend - it was SOOOOOO AWESOME!!!! President Del Guerso spoke at each session, and invited us to the Priesthood Leadership session. The whole thing was on To The Rescue, Conversion, and Teaching. To be honest it was probably the best stake conference I´ve been to about missionary work. A random couple came in during the conference, and afterward came up to us and said they wanted to be taught, married, and baptized. AND they livein our area! BOOM! Elder O. doesn´t believe in Santa (he believes it´s all commercialized), but I think after seeing these miracles, he´s started to believe haha.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving this weekend! I´m so very very grateful for my family and the Gospel which has changed my life in more ways than I can count. I´m seeing so many blessings out here in the mission field that I should´ve been more grateful for back home, and I thank Heavenly Father for every day that I´m out here. I wouldn´t be anywhere else!

P.S. Elder O and I are doing good.  We´ve been working out the kinks in our companionship this last week. To let you in on a secret, I´m thinking of buying him a new pair of shoes for Christmas. His pair isn´t very good, and is already falling apart after 3 months. Can I use the $100 as my present to get him some?

Thank for you all that you all do. 

Love Elder Nissinen

Hey everyone!

Time has gone by super fast. Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away (can´t believe it). Unfortunately Brazil doesn't  have that holiday. So they jump right to Christmas! It´s sunny, clear, and already the stores have Christmas decorations. Because the prices for presents gets jacked way high in December, we´ve got people already doing their Christmas shopping! In the middle of November!! Because of the paradise-y weather, the song Melekeliki Maka has been stuck in my head. I´ll have to check around if they´ve got a Portuguese version of that song...

Well, in response to last week´s meltdown, I took the time Wednesday morning to study a bit about stress and what the heck´s been going on in my head. At length I came to the conclusion: DON`T TRY TO CONTROL THE THINGS YOU CAN`T. I can´t force my investigators to be baptized, I can´t control the missionaries in my zone to be more obedient, neither can I be the Ward Mission Leader, Executive Secretary, and Bishop on top of all that at the same time. Phew. So, I took the day and we worked, worked, worked, and I had fun with it.

We´ve been doing some ^Spring Cleaning in our teaching pool too this last week. We started off the week with 15 groups of people (families, single investigators, etc.), and as of yesterday we´re down to 6. A lot dropped us for crazy reasons (Don´t want to pray because they know they´ll get an answer, They don´t want our money, or They´d rather be a model), so we´re gonna be syched and pumped for some good finding. We´ve been slacking on our street contacts, so we´re gonna have to put the Perdizes wagon in overdrive. 

Cool story this week. One of the investigators we have is Pereira, an old investigator that was dropped four years ago, but we started reteaching last week. He´s one of those older guys that you can´t help but love. He repeats everything he says at least 3 times, but it´s profound. Our first lesson with him was 3 hours long the previous week. On Thursday we asked him if he believed the Book of Mormon is true. He said he knew it was true from the beginning, but he asked God for a confirmation, that if two missionaries gave him another Book of Mormon, without asking, that he would have all surety that it is true. We gave him a Book on our first visit without knowing, and he told us that this last week. 

Sorry I don´t have any pictures this week. I´m looking for a good spot to take the Christmas Card picture Mom asked. When does she need it? Thank you for the hilarious Barney Fife snippet. I laughed right out loud, and I think Elder O.  thinks I´m crazy (along with the rest of my past companions haha). We´ll keep going, day by day, and I know the Lord will bless us with success. After some good reflection this last week, I decided to change the nickname of this area from Babylon to the Garden of Gethsemane for me. It´s been a hard but wonderful challenge.

I love you all very much. Congratulations B on the ACT score. Keep your head up. 

Love Elder Nissinen 

Hey Guys,

First lesson learned on last Pday (taken from one of Dad´s quotes): If you don´t do it, don´t do it. Learned that lesson pretty well when I had the crazy idea to cut my own hair. It wasn´t too too too bad, buuuuuut, two weeks is the difference between a good haircut and a bad one, right? I think in the space of two years, every Elder goes through at least one bad haircut haha.

Transfers have come in.......we´re both staying!!! I was relieved. We´re both stoked to stay, because we´re really hoping to see the fruits of our hard work after these last 6 weeks. This area has really been the Refiner´s fire for both of us. There´s many reasons God has His missionaries go out in two-by-two, especially that when you have those hard days, weeks, or months, you´re not alone in it. There´s a good amount of stress on the mission, that comes from just about every source you can think of. Saturday was one of those days. I had already started my fast that afternoon, I was tired, nothing was on-time that day, and we felt alone. We both had our own emotional breakdown. When we came home that night, I asked Elder Oliveira to give me a Preisthood Blessing of Comfort and Counsel. There´s a special feeling and power when you feel a Preisthood holder´s hands on your head, and I really felt the Spirit. In the end, I knew that everything that we´ve been going through has been helping and preparing us for the future.  We stay positive, selfless, happy, and obedient, and things will all work out soon. Thank you for your prayers. 

Love you tons,

Elder Nissinen

My package arrived!!!  Thanks Aunt Ninnie!!!

Hey guys! 

Let me just start off by saying that I´m still not used to this whole starting-a-fast-on- deal. After 18 years of having it , Brazil throws me a curveball hahaha. Actually I didn´t realize it was fast s until Preisthood Opening Exercises haha. I´m planning on making it up next Sunday. 

I love reading your guys´ letters! Winter already?!? We´re on the last week of transfers too, and the next one will run into Christmas. I´m really really hoping to stay with Elder O for at least one more. 

We had Mission Leadership Council this week too, and it was great talking with Elder M, Elder J, and Elder C. Turns out we´ll all be going home the same transfer! I sent a picture of us four. 

As for the English, we´ve been having a sort of competition with the Sisters that we split the ward with. One of them has been out for 11 months, and knows quite a bit of English. Elder O and I love to pull pranks on the Sisters. But this week this Sister came up to Elder O with a new phrase she learned that week: Go to Hell. What´s even funnier is that Elder O understood it perfectly without me having to translate. You would´ve had to have been there. I´ve been thinking of some real good sentences to teach my comp in revenge haha.

Yesterday I bore my testimony about courage in Sacrament Meeting. This last week I had a really good experience with that. one of our District Leaders had a baptismal interview for me to do. The lady was scheduled to be baptized for the next day, . Btw, I love doing interviews. It´s like seeing a person´s spiritual progress in a snapshot. We started it off with prayer, I got to know her briefly, and then starting asking her the questions. Soon I realized that this lady didn´t really have a testimony, but that she was ultimately being baptized for the two young men teaching her. She hadn´t read much of the Book of Mormon, none of it in the past two weeks, neither had she prayed about it. In a kind way I stopped the interview and explained to her that it´d be better for her to have a little more time to prep herself and grow her testimony. She didn´t have a problem with that, and she committed herself to study and pray more. After the interview I explained what had happened to the District Leader, with her not being able to be baptized that weekend. As we walked back to his apartment to trade back, he didn´t say a word to me. I shook it off, knowing that if I had passed her, she would´ve been baptized without a true testimony. I felt Heavenly Father was pleased.

I thought the incident would be over. Later that afternoon I get a phone call from President del Guerso. The District Leader had called him, complaining to him that she hadn´t passed. He asked me why I didn´t pass her. To be honest I was pretty nervous when I explained what happened. In the end he told me congratulations, and today in our weekly emails, President told me thank you that I didn´t pass her and that the Lord was proud of my trust in Him.

There are many times when our courage to stand for what´s right is tested. Heavenly Father has saved us for these times to when we need to show that courage. In this great war, we already know who´s gonna win. The real question is which side will we find ourselves fighting on when it´s over. 

Thank you for your wonderful examples. Stand firm. And even when blessings don´t appear in the way you hope, they come. Just hold on a little longer. There´s a lot of help and happiness ahead. 

I love you all. Have a great week!     Love Elder Nissinen

Temple trip this morning!!!

                          HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM,

You know that phrase that behind every Eagle Scout is a Mom? I know the same thing goes for a missionary

.

Oh YES! YES YES YES!! Ninnie really knows how to stuff a package. Tell her THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Everything was just perfect. And I´ll shred the old card today

Well, the sun is shining in the dead-center of Sao Paulo, and Elder O. and I haven´t given up yet. I´m seeing some great progress in the area, slow but sure. We´re building better friendships with our members, they´re more willing to go on splits with us, and we´re gonna be having our first Ward Council t(in a long time - before Elder O. got here). If by an odd chance, if I turn into a member that´s too lazy or too ^busy^ to do missionary work, I want someone to hit me right upside the head with Preach My Gospel. Because there´s no way in heck that this work can hasten with just 88,000, at least not at the pace Heavenly Father wants it We had some really good things happen this week. We had interviews with President Del Guerso. He´s a pretty funny guy, especially when him and his wife are cracking jokes. My interview was pretty short. No questions? No problems? Good! Haha

On Thursday
 We got a random referral on the cell phone, saying that a couple had already been to church and wanted to get baptized. Pretty much in our ears that means that we get over there as fast as we can. Little did we know that the street was in the furthest corner of our area. We walked, and then walked. Elder O´s back had been hurting a lot that day, so I carried his bag and we walked and walked for about an hour straight (and missionaries walk fast). Finally we got there. The couple (Carol and Vagner) had just moved from Bolivia that same week, was taught by the missionaries there, and want to get baptized. BOOM! We´re working with them to get married and used to the ward. Turns out in the Center there´s a lot of Hispanic members in our ward.

It was awesome to see Elder M!!!

Can´t complain a whole lot haha. We´re working really hard, and God has been really good to us. What more can I ask for? I know for sure that in the times where I´m not baptizing as much, that I´m growing ten times faster.

Love you all. Hope we can chat a bit if the Internet doesn´t act weird. Happy Halloween (Brazilians know it exists but don´t do anything for it haha).

Love Elder Nissinen

 

The Peridizes Zone!!!

Elder O made me this awesome meal!!! Noodles, Rice and Chicken.  It was amazing!!!

Before I forget our next P-day won't be on Monday because  we´re going to the TEMPLE!!!! The last time I went was with Elder C. months ago. I hope I never take the Temple for granted.

It´s great that Pday is today too! Elder O.  and I are always pumped to get off to the LAN House as fast as we can. And we´re now another hour ahead thanks to Daylight Savings. Elder O. was telling me, where he lives they hardly ever switch the time, because he lives so close to the Equator. You´re not gonna believe this (I didn´t either), but yesterday President sent us all a text giving us PERIMISSION to SLEEP IN today until 7:30. What the heck!!! Even I took advantage of that, or tried, even though I couldn´t go back to sleep when I woke up at 6:30. Oh well haha

Things went a lot better this week. We´ve been really narrowing down our teaching pool with those who want to know the truth, and SHOW it (going to church, praying, reading). The rest have either dropped us or we dropped them after teaching them for so long without much progress. But with that said, we´ve got some quality people we´re teaching. One of them is Fernando. He´s the guy we brought to the church building to tour it around and play some pingpong. He grew up as a Jehova Witness but wasn´t baptized. We´re super tight with him. And....he came to church too!! I got a cool story with that:

A lesson learned on Sunday (of many). During the week, someone robbed the church building; jumped the high fence, broke the two thick masterlocks on the doors, and broke the window to get in. They took the speakers and microphones, and tried breaking the Bishopric´s security door. Thankfully no one was inside or hurt, but it made things kinda annoying on Sunday without being able to hear the speakers right. We were sitting towards the back near the side doors, and with little kids running around, opening and shutting the doors every 10 seconds, and not being able to hear the speakers, I was (to say the least) annoyed. I was mostly afraid of what Fernando would think, it being his first time. After the meeting, we asked him what he thought. His answer stunned me: Ît was perfect. I realized and learned that to those who no hardly anything of our faith, that there is still a distinct and perfect Spirit to be felt in His house, no matter how roughty the kids, or if we´re lacking the lastest sound system. None of that matters if there are those gathered in His name, attentively looking for that ^water of everlasting life.^  And they will feel it. The members afterward asked Fernando if he´s got a baptismal date soon. He said Not yet, but I will definitely soon. It was one of those spiritual fist-pumping moments.

This is a hard area, probably one of the hardest in the mission. Some have called this place Babylon if you believe it or not. But I´ve been growing and stretching so much with Elder O. We´re working our butts off, and we know Heavenly Father has and will continue to bless us, even with the small coincidences. Thank you too for your advice Dad that you sent me today.

I love you all very much. Have a great week! 

Love Elder Nissinen

Ping Pong Proselyting...

Boy things have been burning up here in Brazil. We left the apartment at 10, and it was already 91 degrees!! The whole week has been like that. Thank heavens we have a box fan for each of us to use at night to cool off. When we get home at night, after planning, it´s always a competition of who´s gonna be the one to take a shower first. In the summer it´s pretty common to take two even three showers a day to get all the sweat off. I definitely used some sunscreen to keep me alive haha.

A long week it was in Perdizes. We had a lot of good successes, and then almost all of it came burning down at the last moment on Saturday. But I´m grateful for the story Mom sent me about Gratitude. Elder O  is a great help. He´s super positive and hilarious, and we´ve been helping each other out a lot with all the crazy stresses in mission life. We had some really good spiritual experiences too.

Starting off on the less-spiritual side, I learned that our church building has a ping-pong table! We took one of our investigators to show him around the chapel, and then we all decided to hook up the table and go at it. After a bunch of smack-talk (it´s really fun to smack-talk in Portuguese btw), I learned an important lesson: don´t mess with Brazilians in ping-pong. Fun fact, they all hold the paddle the Japanese way. I held my own, but Elder O shoved my foot in my mouth. If we have time today after shopping and cleaning, we´re gonna go back to the chapel for a rematch. 

Me and Elder W with our MacD 

I also went on Exchanges with Elder W, a brand-new missionary with only 2 weeks here. A lot of the Americans now are going straight to the Brazil MTC without having to wait. And me with only a week or so in the huge downtown area, needless to say, we got a little ways off the beaten path, if you know what I mean. But we decided to celebrate (and get rid of our headaches from being lost), by getting some Big Macs for 15 dollars a piece. But it was worth it haha.

Saturday was probably one of the hardest proselyting days of my mission. We´ve been working with some really good people, and they were marked and ready for baptism soon. But throughout the day, we passed by a few of them on the street. Many lied about appointments, broke commandments behind our backs, and to be honest we were pretty mad, if not disappointed. Right when close to nothing else could-ve gone worse, we decided to take 5, get some cold water, and pop a squat on a nearby parkbench to just talk. We both felt right to fast about all this. So right then and there we started our fast in prayer. We got up, chose someone to go visit, and started walking. A minute or two later we got a phonecall from the Relief Society president. She´d seen us praying and asked us why. We told her we were having a rough day, and she told us of how proud she was that we´re obedient and working hard, and that the Lord is proud of us too. I don´t know exactly how Heavenly Father answers our prayers, but a scripture that Elder O uses often comes to mind - of how by small and simple things, great things come to pass. That phone call was the best thing that happened that day. 

Thank you for your emails and prayers. Even though some weeks and days are harder or better than others, I´m grateful that Heavenly Father gives me these opportunities to grow. I rely on Him for so much.

Keep fighting and keep moving forward. Know where you face.

Love you all very much,             Elder Nissinen

            Pictures of my apartment 

My first Brazilian Companion

Happy Pday! It came really fast this week, and I´ve got a lot of changes to tell you guys.

Of course Monday was spent most of the day packing and saying good-bye to all the awesome members I met. I´m sending you some pictures of them all today. Tuesday I got to see all my last companions because they were getting transferred too. Elder B and Elder C are still doing awesome. A member pulled up in one of the fanciest cars in the church parking lot, and Elder Oliveira came out with the member. My first thought: ^Man this place is gonna be legit. So many things to tell you about the changes.

I think the best way to describe the difference between Perdizes and every other area I´ve served in is like this: Imagine serving in the poorest part of Cornelius for 4 months, and then get transferred right to the richest and heart of Portland, right in the smack center. And that´s where I´m at! It´s a HUGE area. We have to take two buses to get to church every week, and even with our area split with Sisters, it takes about 30 minutes by bus to go from side to side. The houses are few. In fact most buildings are apartments, so imagine in just one block how many people live. We have SO MUCH work to do here we are never resting, plus being a zone leader at the same time. 

My first Brazilian companion Elder O is amazing. He´s a convert of about 5 years now, and is the first member of his family as a member of the Church. He got kicked out of the house for joining, but then he came back and baptized most of his family. He´s an awesome teacher, super funny, and gets along great with everyone. Heavenly Father has really blessed me with some awesome companions.

This week we did a Contact challenge between our zone, between which companionship could do the most contacts in a week fromThursday to Sunday night. Our zone is really competitive, but it was hilarious throughout the week to see everyone smack-talking each other about talking to people on the street. Even between conference sessions our zone was out contacting to get the edge. I´ve never contacted so many people on my mission! Our area´s not the best for contacting because since so many people work in our area, few actually live in it, or even close to it! 

To put that to the test, Elder O challenged me to do a contact with the first person I saw, and then to see where he lived. Turns out the guy lived at least 3 hours by bus away from our area - and that´s common!! The center is way different than anything else. And if you think Portland is weird, wait till you check out São Paulo. Just so you believe me, there´s men that dress up like women, and they actually look like women (until they open their mouths and talk in their actual voices). Pretty weird. 

We live in an apartment with just me and Elder O. Sorry mom, but no oven in this one. And no gym either! But it´s okay. We got a great view of the city from our 12 story window. 

Conference was the BEST! And I was super grateful they hooked up a little TV in some room in the stake center to the English channel of conference. It was me, the rest of the American missionaries in the stake, and a couple members who were fluent in English. I wasn´t able to listen to Priesthood Session because of the time, but I downloaded all the conference already to listen again throughout the week. I thought it was really neat that they had a few 70 speak in their native languages. The members got a kick of it here that they got to hear a talk in their own language without someone doing a translation. I learned to be grateful for English after listening to the foreign talks. It´s so much different when you´re listening and watching the General Authority actually speaking. 

Crazy changes, but I know I´m learning and growing a lot because of it. It looks like you all had a great week. Keep truckin Glencoe! Love you all a ton!! Thank you for your emails today. I keep praying for you every day.

Love Elder Nissinen

A good captain always goes down with his ship,


So so so many things happened this week. Not gonna lie, some things were stressin both Elder B and I with a bunch of appointments and baptisms lined up. But Heavenly Father´s hand was in everything that happened this week.

At the beginning of last week we were planning on having 6 people baptized this Saturday. Throughout the week, people started talking about not being prepared enough, or they hadn´t kicked their Word of Wisdom addictions yet, but we both prayed a ton this week that before the transfer was over, that we could have at least one person baptized, but if it´s the Lord´s will, we´d wait. We both felt that we´d focus more on the people who had the most likely-est chance of baptism. 

Out of all that, Jessica came out of the crowd of investigators. She was found through the Bishop´s 2nd counselor, Gilberto. She had some doubts in the beginning, but after going to Church the first time, the Spirit did the rest. She´s not married but has two younger girls. We got pretty freaked out when the girls were fighting chicken pox all this last week, but come a couple days before Saturday, they were perfect! It was great seeing the ward support her. She said that a huge weight was taken off her shoulders, she felt so great. Gilberto baptized her, and the day after I did the confirmation. 

Sunday night was a roller coaster too. We had the ward activity, the CTM&M (Member-Missionary Training Center), and it hit off so well. All the returned missionaries dressed up in their original tags, while the rest of the ward wore little FUTURE MISSIONARY tags. There were about 10 RM´s who had returned recently, so they each split off into `companionships` and we did a rotation between the ward. And then, to top it all off, (Mom, you´d be proud) I baked cookies for the whole ward! Took some creativity and bought all the stuff the day before and put M&M´s. The ward LOVED them!! All of the sisters had me translate the recipe. Your cookies are going global Mom! We had so many people there wanting to help out with the activity, and the work´s really gonna acelerate here!

The only thing.....President called me right before the activity. Looks like I´m followin the same path that I did in California - I´m going ZONE LEADER!!!! Which means, I´m being transferred. Tomorrow´s the swaps. All I know is that I´m going to Perdizes (the other side of the mission, and it´s a lot richer area too), my companion is gonna be Elder O  (a Brazilian!!). I´m pretty stoked but sad at the same time. I told the ward after the activity, and man was it hard to say goodbye. I´ve spent the most time in Macedonia than all the other areas on my whole mission. Elder B is a little afraid, having only 3 weeks in the area, and now with a Brazilian companion that he´s getting. But it´ll be good for him too. Tonight after packing I´m gonna go visit some other members to say goodbye (and to give them the cookie recipe). I think the hardest thing about a mission is saying goodbye. But it´ll be a great experience in this new area, new companions, new everything. I´m excited to see what the Lord has in store for me to learn with all this. 

A mission´s amazing. I´ve learned so much already, and I´ve changed so much too. A mission wants you to be a better person, and it makes you that. 

Loev you all a ton. Got some good pics comin today. The LAN house is going on a lunch break in about 15 minutes, but I´ll be back if you want to chat. Take some good notes of General Conference. It´s gonna be awesome!

Love Elder Nissinen

What a week. Another one of those rollercoaster weeks with some really cool miracles and some crashes and burns.

But first off, remember that multi-zone activity where our zone won, and President promised us breakfast? We had that today. Man, President lives in a really nice place, on the richer side of town. The better-off people live in penthouses in complexes, and President fed both zones with an awesome breakfast. We also chilled for a few hours playing basketball in the complex´s sport court. Everyone took pictures, and President will be putting them up soon. I´ve got a few to send of it all too today.

Elder B.  and I are doing really well. This is the last week of the transfer, and chances are I´ll be heading out. Out of us four I´m the one with the most time in the area, so this week Elder B is gonna be acting as senior companion to help him get to know the area and investigators better. It´ll also help him with his shyness and Portuguese too. But, if the Lord does want me to stay for one more transfer, I´m not complaining haha. It´s definitely one of my favorite areas. 

After emailing last Monday, Yule and us 4 went and did the Ice Bucket Challenge. Yule´s got the video, and he said he should have it on today. If he doesn´t, Rosie can give him a hard time haha. 

I don't know why I wore jeans knowing I'm going to get wet!

We have a bunch of great investigators, and those who´ve already been to Church love it. We have a few lined up for baptism this weekend, but some have been on-and-off with commitments, and others have told us they don´t feel quite ready yet.

The zone!!!
Elder B and I are gonna keep praying and working hard so these people can make the right choice. The best choices in life are usually some of the hardest. I think that´s why it´s so important that when the Spirit prompts us to do something, we need to act on it and not push it off. Satan these days is increasing in strength. But I´m super super super excited for General Conference in less than two weeks. Our Stake Center´s gonna be in remodeling during the conference, so we may have to go to another stake center if we want to watch the sessions in English (they usually got it hooked up just for the American missionaries). 

The Lord has blessed us with a really cool kid we´re teaching. His name is Nilo. We found him through some member-friends of his that work at the same Pet Shop as he does. Actually the owners of the shop are members too, and they always have a Book of Mormon ready to hand out. The members aren´t apart of our area, but they referred Nilo to us. He´s super smart and diving into the scriptures. In the last couple weeks he´s read all the way past Lehi´s dream, and in that chapter, that´s when Nilo decided he wants to be baptized - Ka POW! And....he came to Church yesterday all by himself!! These investigators are true examples of faith, because they SHOW it. His member friends surprised all of us by taking him to Young Mens and Sunday School, even though they´re not in our ward! 

We got some good things coming. This week´s gonna be packed with appointments and the crazy things that only 4 lost Americans can do in a foreign country haha. But Heavenly Father has blessed us so much - we can´t stop thanking Him, even during the rough days. 

Love you all a ton. Thanks for the emails again. Congratulations on the wins and the great-looking Captain Crimson flag. 

Love Elder Nissinen 

What an awesome week we had! A lot of errands with getting Elder B and Elder W all settled in and zone conference, but Elder B and I hit the pavement hard this week. 

Elder B is a great guy. He´s spent 8 months in the Las Vegas West mission waiting for the visa. He´s 19 from Iowa, close to Des Moines. We´ve gotten along great this week. Portuguese is a little hard for him to understand, and the first week is always the hardest, like mentally draining. He even fell asleep a couple times during lessons! haha The crazy thing is, is that on the first impression people think he´s Brazilian!!! I guess if you´re dark-haired with a tan you can pass off. I have no chance haha. This last week I´ve really noticed how far my Portuguese has gone since 5 months ago. 

Wednesday we had our Multi-Zone Conference with President Del Guerso. It was pretty much an all-day event, and by the time we got home with traffic, it was like 7:30pm. The mission´s getting really pumped up for all the good stuff that´s been happening. In August our mission reached our goal with 104 baptisms - in a month! I remember the most baptisms we had in California was 33 in a month. We also had a little inter-zone competition of basketball shots. The AP´s put a point system depending on where you shot (1 for layup, 3 for free-throw, etc) Each zone chose 3 people to shoot, and whoever had the most points would eat breakfast at President´s house. We were the last group to go, and all the zones didn´t get more than 3. All the zones chose the Americans in their group to shoot (because most Brasilians can´t shoot for squat haha). I was first, went up for a free throw. The shot looked beautiful, and it must´ve bounced around the rim 5 times before bouncing out. Man I was ticked. But Elder B and another Elder goy us with 4.  I think the Mission posted some pictures of it you can check it out.

The rest of the week we´ve been runnning around teaching, teaching, and teaching our awesome investigators. Luis and his family have been doing great with the Word of Wisdom, and they´re progressively decreasing their cigarettes and coffee. The members have been doing great in supporting. We´ve also got a fun activity planned at the end of the month called the CTM&M (Missionary and Member). If it goes well, I´m thinking about trying to do the same thing with all us RM´s when we come home. The ward´s getting pretty pumped with us 4.

Nothin but good things are happening. Thank heavens I haven´t gotten burnt yet, even when I spend the whole day with sunscreen. It´s pretty expensive here, so in the next package if you could put in a bottle or two that´d be great for when summer comes.

Love you all a ton! Thanks for the great emails. Congratulations Captain Crimson and the rest of the family! You´re all super awesome. I´m having a blast and we´re tearin it up here in JMAC. Be prepared next week for some ASL Ice Bucket Challenge pics for our pday activity today with Yule :) 

Have a great week,              Elder Nissinen

The famous chocolate pizza!!!

I snapped a quick one of us in the LAN house

That´s right. As of tomorrow, our area Jardim Macedonia will be taken over by 4 AMERICANS. Which means, they´re splitting our area! President called us Wednesday and told us the news. With the new program for American visa-waiters spending two weeks in the Brazil MTC, President needed somewhere to put some Americans. Our ward is the only ward in the stake without two companionships, so President made it official that we´re going from 2 Americans (which is rare enough) to 4! Elder B. and I are gonna be splitting, me with one and him with the other American. I still get to be District Leader too. They´re both super fresh here. All I know is their names: my companion is Elder B. and Elder B.  is Elder W's. We´ve been laughing to ourselves the last few days thinking about how it´s gonna be with us 4. We already get enough heads turned with just us two. Tomorrow morning we pick them up, eat lunch with the President, and head back to Macedônia. From what I´ve heard, they´ve already been out for about a year. We´re both pretty excited. This area´s been really needing it. Lately we´ve just been booking it to and from appointments across our area. And it´s about a 45 minute walk from one side to the other. The ward is pretty pumped too, but they don´t know that we´re getting two Americans yet haha. 

The only problem we´ve been having with this change is getting everything together and organized in our house so it won´t be too cramped with us 4. It´s great for both of us, but we´ve been arranging and rearranging everything to fit. President ordered two closet dressers and another bunkbed, and they came Friday morning during Weekly Planning. The night before we were planning to spend the whole day putting it all together. Turns out in Brazil it works different: The moving company drops off the boxes, and within 3-5 days a guy from the company comes and puts it all together. We were about to start opening everything when our neighbor member told us - thank heavens! The guy came this morning, powertools and everything to slap it all together. He just finished an hour ago. I´ll send pictures next week of how the house looks after we get done arranging it all. 

But in spite of all the craziness trying to get ready for the newbies tomorrow, we´ve been BUSY like heck. Heavenly Father has blessed us a lot. Here´s the cream of the crop in Macedonia as respects to investigators:

Luis, Adriane, and Eder: Father, mother, and son-in-law. We found them by just doing a street contact in front of their house. They´ve come to church twice already, and yesterday they came on their own!! They love church and the Book of Mormon, and they´ve got a date for the 27th. The whole ward is super pumped for them!

Marcos: Another street contact. Actually we found him while contacting someone we street-contacted a few days before. He´s an older guy and pretty lonely. He´s got some bad knee problems too, and he can only make it to the top of the flight of stairs that lead to the road. He told us he´d be all ready, shaved, and in nice clothes Sunday morning for us to pick him up from the road. When we passed by in a member´s car he beamed! And he looked great!! Loved church too! We´re also helping him kick his coffee and smoking addictions. He´s got a date for the 27th too.

We´re planning on having a giant baptismal service on the 27th, and we´ve got a few more investigators lined up for that date too. A couple members yesterday bore their testimonies on conversion right to the investigators we had at church - it was awesome!! We´ve got a growing force of member-missionaries helping us out, and we´re dividing and conquering to keep up. This work is so awesome. I´ve never been more exhausted, and I love it. 

Honestly it felt pretty weird speaking in English yesterday over the Facebook thing that Yule´s got. He´s a tight guy, and getting prepped to serve his mission soon. He loves to hang out with us taking selfies after sacrament meeting haha.

Sorry for the lack of pictures this week. Not too many Kodak moments, but my mind is already thinking of plenty with the Fantastic 4 Americans.

Love you guys a lot. Glad to hear the first week of school went great. Keep it up! Go Tide!

Love Elder Nissinen