Hey everyone!!

Do you know something? This church is TRUE!!!!! Our mission had a great experience with a General Authority, Elder Costa. It was a straight 4 hour meeting, and it was pure Spirit going on. Everyone got to shake his hand. He trained on nearly everything - our purpose, member/missionary work, planning. No one wanted him to go when it was over. You know when you can feel the priesthood that an Authority has, like you know God gave him that calling? It´s like when an Apostle comes. But the best part (and kinda freaky part), is that he´ll be meeting with all of the Office Staff on Wednesday and interviewing us. It´s the end of the transfer, and all the missionaries that are leaving pass by and spend some time at the office making sure their suitcases aren´t too heavy. So most of the time they leave a bunch of junk behind that doesn´t get thrown out. Looks like over the next couple days until Wednesday we´ll be doing some down-and-dirty Spring cleaning. 

Speaking of transfers, I´m officially the Executive Secretary (aka Office Boss) of all us here. Elder V.  has a special assignment the President gave him, and he´ll spend his last transfer in an area really far away as a Zone Leader. He trained me and helped me a lot, I just hope I know what I´m doing haha. So my new companion is.........Elder L. ! He looks American, but he´s from the South, Porto Alegre. I don´t know a whole lot about him. He came here this morning with all the craziness of the other missionaries that are leaving, but he´s the new Referral Secretary and a Traveling Assistant like me. 

Let me tell ya, transfers are NUTS!!!! How it works here is that we (or I) call each companionship thats having a change and let them know personally. So imagine with 50 companionships that have missionaries moving around - it gets complicated pretty quick. Not to mention the drama when they hear the news. Most of the elders answer pretty calm with no emotion. But the Sisters (oh boy).....How do you help a Sister stop crying? Some Sisters get pretty attached to their areas and companions, so when you have to break the news.....well.....all you can do is reassure them that´s where the Lord wants them to be. I guess haha. New experiences in the office.

We´re having a rough time with our investigators. The work´s going slowly, but Saturday we taught a lesson with a lady attending institute. She was invited by some friends, and she´s already been reading the Book of Mormon - and she´s in 2 Nephi! Her parents are totally against the Church, so we´re only able to teach her on Saturdays after Institute, and sometimes on Sundays. But there´s some good potential.

It´s gonna be a lot of work, but a great transfer. The Church is TRUE - it´s a LIVING CHURCH, and you can FEEL it.

Love you all,

Elder Nissinen