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!!!