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

Hey family!! 

After last week´s little hiccup, Elder B. and I hit the pavement hard this week. And we were so blessed!!! Let me tell you all about the many miracles we saw:

Starting off right after I emailed you all, that very night each of the investigators we saw opened up to us so much! We´re teaching Junior, a 10 year old who loves and plays violent videogames all day. And it´s been hard to get his attention focused on really anything, and he´s also pretty shy. But for some reason I shoved my Rubix Cube in my bag after dropping off our groceries, and Junior noticed it when we starting sharing a message. We decided to talk about baptism and goals. I let him mix it up as best he could, and then I explained how sometimes when we look at a big decision (like baptism), it can look pretty intimidating or even impossible. But when you take it step by step, (as I was solving the cube), it doesn´t take long before you´ve completed it. He was HOOKED to that lesson!! We committed him to baptism for the 14th. We just need to come to Church and get better fellowshipped and integrated to the ward. I never thought I´d actually use that cube in someone´s conversion - imagine that!

Another miracle happened on Wednesday. We got 3 referrals from Headquarters for some nonmembers in our area we should see. We clapped outside one of them, right as the husband of the name we got pulled up. We explained why we were there, who we are, and what we do. We thought for sure he would think we were creeping on his house. But he smiled and invited us in for lunch - a perfect stranger!!! He and his family were very nice and friendly to us, and treated us like guests. We spent some time getting to know them, and before we could tell, we spent two hours there!! But they were very open to letting us come back and share a message with them - keep your fingers crossed!!

Our members have also been some of the greatest sources of our miracles this week. We´ve been struggling to help out a recent-convert young man who went back to his Word of Wisdom addiction after his baptism two months ago. Last week we shared a message about the Priesthood, and about how it´s an opportunity to serve our fellowman and God. He doesn´t have the priesthood yet, but when we came back this week he was very interested in being worthy to have the priesthood. He comes to church almost every week (he walks with us), but all he has are jeans, shirts, and flip-flops, so that´s what he´s been wearing to Church. But Saturday a member called us and asked us what his clothing sizes were. When we showed up Sunday morning to pick him up, holding a bag with slacks, a pressed white shirt, socks, and a tie, he beamed!!! He looked good too!! I got Elder B. to send a picture of him. That same night the same members invited him over to dinner to eat with him. The members never cease to amaze me, and this young man will be ready for the Aaronic Priesthood in a month! He looked so happy at Church too. I don´t think he´ll ever take those clothes off either haha.

Elder B.  is great in writing in his journal, which has motivated me to be better with mine. I don´t have enough time to type all the great things that happened this week, but things are definitely picking up, and I think we´ll be baptizing many very soon. This work is great!!! It ALWAYS is, in times of success and discouragement.

I love you all. Congratulations B on the new car. Maybe you and Papa will have to reteach me how to drive a manual again haha. Enjoy these last few days of school too. Hope you got my letter. If not it should definitely come this week. Elder F.  still hasn´t sent off my package yet, but he´s getting on it this week. 

Love you!

Brazils off brand frosted flakes

Elder Nissinen

We went to McDonalds with our zone right before this. It´s still the same haha, but it´s actually expensive and there´s not that many things on the menu. Like a regular combo is R$20, like $10 there. And it´s a lot nicer than the other restaurants here, so there´s actually guys in suits and ties that act as security guards. Crazy! 

 Hi family!!

 Happy Memorial Day. This is the last holiday until school is over right? It´s gone by so fast!

 So the big news is....yup, I´m staying in Jardim Ipê. And Elder B. is too! The dynamic American duo is here to stay for another 6 weeks. Elder B. thought for sure he was gonna leave, but you never can tell with Transfers. It makes things a lot easier on ourselves too, since I don´t know the area that well, and we both don´t want to give up on the investigators we have yet. The members are happy too that we´re both staying.

 Luckily, the protests were only on Wednesday, so we were able to leave our apartment Thursday. But Thursday morning at 1:30, Elder B.  woke me up because he had a killer headache. I gave him some medicine from the First Aid kit (thanks Mom!), gave him a blessing, and he went back to sleep. He didn´t wake up until 10 that morning, and when he did, he was in a lot of pain. The member who brought us lunch that day took us to his house, where he let Elder B. rest until another member could take him to the doctor. We got him to a hospital clinic, and after they checked him all out, they told him he had a bad sinus infection. They gave him an IV, some heavy prescriptions, and sent us back. After the IV and checkup Elder Baker was feeling a lot better, so for the first time in three days, we got to work!!! It felt great getting out and working.

 Friday I did Exchanges with our Zone Leaders, and I worked in their area. Both our Zone Leaders are Brazilians, so after speaking straight Portuguese the whole day I learned a lot!! I imagine when I get a Brazilian companion my Portuguese will spike. My only worry now is that Elder B. and I won´t learn as fast because we´re both not fluent and we speak English quite a bit.

 Remember on The Honeymooners when Ralph and Norton drank the grape juice they thought was wine? Elder B. and I had a similar experience this week. We were in the home of a less-active, and she gave us some juice. I took a sip, and boy it was some strong grape juice, but I wanted to make sure it wasn´t wine. Thank heavens it wasn´t!! We got a good kick out of it:  A little strong but good,  right?

 The work is going. It´s not as easy as everyone thinks, because it´s easy to get in the homes of less-actives, but it´s hard getting them to keep their commitments, especially coming to church. All the other churches meet at night, and ours is a half hour walk away at least. Plus, we don´t understand everything our investigators are saying, so it´s hard to understand their needs. It´s going to be a challenge for us, but I´m sure this a test Heavenly Father has given me to help me rely on Him more.
 I sent a letter off to you all today too. The lady said it´ll get there in a week. I have not been by the Mission Office lately, so maybe your letter has already arrived.

 I love you all a lot!! Hope you´re enjoying these last few days of school. Thank you for your prayers.

 Love Elder Fuss

Members in Brazil call me Elder "Noodle" .  You can see why!!

Hey everyone!!

So last night we got an interesting phone call from our zone leaders. Over the last month a lot of people have been protesting against the government because of corruption and stuff. Some of it has to do with the World Cup and how the government is spending money, and people have been saying it's the last straw. So because of the protests, the meeting with Elder Nelson was cancelled, and all of the missionaries have to spend the day inside their houses. It's for at least the day, but President told us to go shopping last night to stock up for a few days just in case. Who knows? I guess everything's not all fine-and-dandy when it comes to the world cup. But our zone leaders let us email at a member's apartment who lives in the same complex, so I'm grateful I still get to email you all. 

Everything else has been going great here in Brazil. We're teaching about twice as many lessons as I was in California, and the people we meet and teach are incredible. The work moves so fast here! It's not uncommon for the missionaries to meet someone, and within two weeks they get baptized. The hardest part is making sure they stay active, which is why we're working a lot with the members to help find and teach. It's so much more effective! Both the members and non-members are ready and prepared to be a part of the work of salvation - you just have to ask! I still don't know all the members yet, but every week I get more and more comfortable with the language and all.Elder B.  and I are doing great, no problems.

Pictures of my apartment!!!  We live on the top floor!!!

We only have a washer so we have to hang dry all our clothes

The only thing that works in our kitchen is the Fridge, microwave, and our George Forman grill.

Guess who sleeps on the top bunk.  Yep me!!!  Just like home!!

We are scrubbing our bathroom down today!!!

Guess which side is mine???? 

Elder B. had a rough start with his trainer, and he's told me this is the best companionship he's had on his mission yet. This is the last week of the transfer too. I came in two weeks after it started (because of the CTM), and the CTM is having us cut our transfer a week early. Chances are one of us are leaving - we've been lucky to have an american companionship. We find out Sunday night if one of us is going, and then Tuesday morning is the actual swap. Monday is still our P-day, which will give us time to pack if we do get transferred. I find out Tuesday also who's companions with who and where they're going, so it's all kind of a surprise for everyone until Tuesday. 

And I'll have you know that after 2196 pushups this last week, I'm 100% caught up!! Feels good doing only 140 a day instead of 400. I'm not gonna procrastinate that again...

Another crazy thing happened this week. We had hail!! And in some places, it stuck like snow!!! On Sunday after Church we were walking from our apartment to a member's house, when it started raining a little bit. There was a lot of thunder, so we speed-walked it all the way to the member. And then after 5 minutes of getting there, we had the biggest storm that I've ever seen in my whole life! I took a video of it all. We had heavy rain, heavy hail, heavy thunder, and heavy lighting all at once! Needless to say things got heavy. And that never happens here. At the chapel some of the ceiling panels broke because of all the precipitation resting on it. Things are just getting crazy here!!

Hail storm!!!

Church was great. We saw one of the recent-converts walking in right when the meeting started, and when we asked where the rest of his family was, he told us he came all by himself. He's 10, and the only member in his family. 10!! He got dressed, walked all the way to Church at least a half hour away, and stayed for all 3 hours - by himself!!!!!! That's true faith right there.

Before I gave myself a haircut for the first time

After!!!  Not too bad!!

Like I said, things are picking up, and the world is getting crazy. Stay strong in it. God will continue to bless you. The Church is true no matter where you go. I love you all. Hope you have a great week with only a few days left of school. Finish strong. 

Oh, and since I've got a lot of spare time today, I'll be writing a bunch of letters. And I've got pictures to send too today. 

Love you!

Elder Nissinen

Love  

Hi family!! 

It´s great being able to email you all just a couple days after we skyped. That was so great!! I´m really grateful we didn´t have any problems with that. And it was so good to hear that you´re all doing well. 

Sorry if my English isn´t as good or if it all looks funky on the computer. I´m emailing from a LAN house. It´s like an Internet café where you pay like 5 reais for an hour and a half session. The Internet just got back up today after being out all afternoon. That´s why I´m emailing a little later than we normally would. Hope you haven´t been waiting all day at the computer.

Being in Brazil has been thee biggest change of lifestyle ever! Luckily I have an awesome and hilarious companion Elder B. to help me out. We´ve been working nonstop. Well, the only problem was that after a solid week of walking everywhere his toe got some infection. Lesson learned: that myth about wearing sandals in the shower is TRUE!! I´ll spare the details, but there was a lot of puss and skin. But it´s all good now. Elder B. has another appointment Thursday, and between now and then he has to wear Crocs to make sure his feet are ventilated. People normally stare at us anyways (and they have good reason to). Two Americans in white shirts and ties, one of which is wearing black Crocs! haha He calls them his ^fourth quarter shoes^.

The temple today was great!! Sao Paulo´s got a great little temple right smack in the city. Our session started at 9, but because traffic was so bad, we had to leave our apartment at 7. We barely made it in time because while traffic was backed up, we got out and speedwalked it all the rest of the way there. Walking around the Magic Kingdom for fastpasses was great practice. It was the first time I did a session completely in another language - it was so cool too!!! Super grateful for temples. 

After the temple we went shopping at Walmart (yup, they´ve got em here too) and at a cheaper supermarket, then we started for the LAN house. We´ve been waiting here for over an hour for the Internet. Here´s some of the things I bought: lunch meat, cheese, bread, milk (in boxes), orange juice, and Hershey´s chocolate. We´ve made a lot of bus trips this week, way more than missionaries normally use. So I´ve had to use some of my money for bus fare. 

On my first night here, the night Elder B. bought me a chocolate border pizza, we went shopping for some basic stuff I needed. I was looking for a plastic water bottle that I could carry around with me, and when I saw Elder B.  putting one in his basket, I did too. Later that night, when I took a drink, my throat started to burn and I ran to the sink and threw up. I looked at the bottle (and it looks exactly like a cheap little bottle) and I recognized one word: lava, which means wash. I DRANK DISH SOAP!!! Luckily I drank that before the pizza and not after. I´ll have to get a picture with it so you all can see. This place even puts laundry soap in water bottles!! Where am I? haha

And B, just to let you know, I´ve only got 1600 pushups left before I´m all caught up. Next Monday I´ll have it! Are you doing the challenge too?

Elder B.  and I are both learning a lot from each other, and we know we´re gonna keep seeing miracles in this area. We´re both not fluent, but it´s ok, because it makes us rely on the Lord all the time to speak and understand what our investigators need. I´m grateful for the gift of tongues, and it´s real!! The Lord has blessed me in so many ways, I can´t thank Him enough. I´m so grateful for my mission. I have grown and stretched a lot. I´m so grateful for my family - the gospel has blessed us so much. Skyping with you all was awesome! 

I know I didn´t have as much time as we did in California to Skype, but thank you Mom for being the best. I´m grateful you´re my mom. You have and continue to help me become the person I am and want to be. You´re a wonderful example of Christlike love. I probably didn´t say this a lot back home, but I love you a lot Mom. Thank you, I´m grateful that I will always be your son, and you´ll always be my mother.

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers. I´m thinking about each of you a lot. I´ll be sending letters soon. We can only write letters on P-day, so I´ll have one sent off next Monday for sure. 

Here´s my mission office´s address:

São Paulo West Mission

Rua: Eusebio De Souza

Bairro: Jardim Londrina   no 121

CEP: 05638100

São Paulo, Brazil

You can double-check online, but I´m pretty sure this is everything. 

Love you all a lot,

Elder Nissinen

Hey family!!!

 

Sorry I told you Friday instead of today. Today's actually our p-day. Sorry!!

 

I'll just start off by saying, the CTM is THE BEST place to learn Portuguese, way better than in Provo. I'm completely immersed here!!! We're pretty much forbidden to speak English to anyone - the only ones who understand it are the other americans. My roommates are Brazilians, my teachers are Brazilians, we eat meals with the Brazilians, and all the workers are Brazilian. It's all sink-or-swim here. And it's awesome!! I've learned/relearned a ton, and the best way of practicing is just speaking it. Our teachers don't spend a lot of time on the Fundamentals of being a missionary. We're pretty much just practicing a ton. Teaching, speaking, playing games, everything's in Portuguese. You know what's weird? After speaking Portuguese nearly for a straight week, it feels weird speaking in English haha. I'm super grateful that I get to spend a little time here just to step back, reevaluate stuff, and just jump into the language. The gift of tongues is real!!! I mean, after seven months of hardly speaking full sentences in Portuguese, and then after a week of full immersion, I'm surprised the natives understand me! I'm nowhere near fluent, but the CTM has given me a great foundation.

 

So lemme tell ya a little about how things work here. It's waaaaay smaller here than at Provo. We just got a bunch of new missionaries today, and we capped at 300 or so. The whole facility is like one of the big buildings in Utah. So you get to know people here pretty easy, which is nice. My roommates are really cool (and patient). We have three meals a day (Desjejum, Almoço, and Jantar), and then at 9:30 we have a Lanche. It's like a late snack: piece of fruit, a little croissant roll, and juice box. For breakfasts it's the same thing: a roll that we put meat and cheese in and then toast it - tastes pretty good. And, you called it, beans and rice are available at for lunch and dinner every day. Besides the Gospel, I'm also converted to one more thing: Guaraná. I had it my first meal here, and I don't know how to describe it. It's got a hint of cream soda, but fruity. SUPER good! I think one of my American roommates is addicted to it because he drinks like 10 glasses a day. Another thing, we have to drink a ton of water here - at least 10 glasses a day. The nights get pretty humid, and the mornings cool off. We have a big fan right over our door that we leave on all night. I was BAKING my first night! 

 

My companion is Elder W. from South Carolina. He served in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for 6 months before coming here, and his MTC companion was Elder B.  - small world! He's really cool and picked up a little Creole in Florida, so he likes speaking that when he can. He's going to Goianya. So far I haven't met a single missionary going to Sao Paulo West yet, but I'll probably run into a few later.

 

My district is cool too. Sister B. and Sister A.  are in it, and they're companions again too! My Branch President assigned me to be the Zone Leader on Sunday. In the MTC it just means that I welcome the new ones in my zone and set a good example by being obedient.

 

Last week we got to go out to the heart of the city and proselyte. Elder W. and I were given 6 Book of Mormons to hand out, and then to just go talk with people! It was probably the funnest thing! The people here are super humble and receptive. The problem here is that near everyone will accept a copy, but there're people who will just do it to be nice and not read it. Kinda the opposite problem I had in California. Within an hour we easily had them handed out. The area we proselyted looked like New York Town Square - soooo many people in just one little area. It just felt great being back out.  

 

The language is going great, I'm really excited to get back in the field. I've been really blessed this last week. Heavenly Father has helped me out a lot.

 

Sorry these computers won't let me send pictures. And there's a rule here to where you can only take pictures on p-day and your last day here. And we can't take our cameras outside the CTM too for p-day. But this morning when I went to the Sao Paulo temple (btw, BEAUTIFUL!), our driver took a picture of our district and will send it to you.

 

They have the hour time-limit for emailing here too. I still have 20 minutes by the time you get this email, so maybe we can chat.

 

Thanks!! Sorry again if you were expecting an email on Friday. I love you all a lot!!!

 

Elder Nissinen

Hi family!!

Just letting you know I made it here safe and sound. And what a day!! I'm super tired, and my mind is blown again. EVERYONE speaks Portuguese here! Talk about full immersion. I haven't unpacked yet, but I'm headed to my room right after this.

But I'm super excited to be here. These next two weeks are gonna be focused completely on language skills. Instead of having two teachers a day like the regular 6-weekers, we have three. We're encouraged to speak the language all the time and to eat with the natives in the cafeteria. All of my teachers so far are natives, and their English is limited.

The food so far is pretty good too. Guess what we had for lunch? That's right: beans and rice! On Wednesdays we get pizza, but it's totally different than American pizza. No tomato sauce. I ate a slice with cheesy sauce and corn! Not too bad actually.

Anyways, it was great talking with everyone yesterday. It's crazy to think I'm actually here now! My P-days are on Fridays, but my first won't be till next week, just like it was in Provo.

I don't have a lot of time, but I may be able to chat for a minute.

Love you all so much,

Elder Nissinen

Hi everyone!!

Sorry I am super low on time today. Since it's my last P-day in the States, I've had a lot to do, and I've been running all around since 5:30 when we woke up. Dont worry though, we still got our studies in. 

I sent off a package of stuff I knew I wouldn't take to Brazil. You should be getting it later this week. If you don't know what some of the stuff is, we can talk about it when I call next week. I also put in my SD card with the birthday pictures and videos. 

On Thursday we had our regular President Interviews that he does about every three months. This time President decided to include my "departing interview" with mine. Lemme tell ya, it feels so weird haha. I'm just so grateful I'm not actually going home yet. But he's letting me call from the airport. I bought a Calling Card today too. My flight leaves from California at noon, but I don't know the other times for layovers and stuff. 

Haven't started packing yet...haha I've just been sorting stuff into piles. But that's another thing to get started on plus my list of other errands we have to run today. 

Sorry I don't have a lot of time, but I'll update you on everything when I call next Tuesday. Elder F. and I have had an awesome week, and I'm sure this is gonna be the busiest and best week of my mission so far.

 I love you guys and hope you all have a great week!!! 

Love Elder Nissinen

Hey everyone! 

This week has been great! I've seen a lot of blessings this week, especially from General Conference. It was sooo good! We didn't watch it with members, so we just went to the Stake Center and watched it all there. That place was dead! Out of the 12 people inside that chapel, all but two were missionaries haha. I can't believe it's all gone by so fast. And what's even better is reading through all the talks in the next couple weeks. My favorite talks were by Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, Bishop Stevenson, Elder Ballard, and Elder Scott - so many favorites! 

Thank you so much for the birthday present!!! Elder F.  recorded me opening my package without me realizing it. I'll send off this SD card before I leave. I loved the Andy Griffith shirt too!! And I've got the Barney Fife license in my wallet. It was a really good birthday. We didn't have a lot of time after Priesthood Session, but Elder F.  and I are gonna go out to eat somewhere before transfers. 

This week I woke up for Early Morning Seminary for the first time - 4:30! haha Elder F.  and I were invited to help out the Seminary kids learn how to invite their friends to come to seminary. This week is Invite Your Friend To Seminary week, so we role-played with the teens to help them see how normal it is to invite someone, even if they don't come. We got Costco muffins afterwards, so it was pretty cool. Oh, and this one teenager is from Brazil, so we talked for a little bit in Portuguese. You probably won't believe this, but she actually understood me!! Everytime I try talking to a Spanish-speaker in Portuguese, they look at me like I'm speaking with rocks in my mouth haha. And I hope the CTM will boost in those dusty language skills.

Elder F.  and I have been doing great, and we're still having a blast with our roommates Elder S. and Elder S . Last night Elder S.  taught us how to throw playing cards so they cut through paper - it works! I even got one to stick in the ceiling this morning! Just one of the crazy things we've been up to.

As for our teaching, we're hopefully gonna have the B.'s be baptized this upcoming weekend, but we haven't been able to see them this last week and we still have some things to teach them. The rest of our investigators have been doing well. With MLC and General Conference this week, we didn't have as much time to proselyte, but it'll pick back up this week. Elder F.  and I are just gonna kill it over these couple weeks :) We're excited. 

One of our investigators, Jose, has been going through some hard times. He owns his own moving and cleaning business, but he hasn't had a lot of business lately. And his landlord just served him with a 3-day notice. On Friday we went in planning on teaching the Restoration. But after hearing him talk about how stressed he is, we got the prompting to give him a priesthood blessing. He said he felt really warm inside, and he wanted that feeling again. Well, Church, prayer, and scriptures is the answer we gave him. He went out of town this weekend but we hope to see him at church soon.

This gospel is so awesome. After listening to general conference, the youth are really being focused on. The world is going crazy!! I was just in the mall a couple hours ago. Elder F.
 had to get some presents for his brother, but just walking through it felt weird. And the clothing stores have gone nuts too! So much of the stuff is inappropriate. Stay true guys and buckle up, cuz we're in the last days.

Love you all. Thanks again for the birthday wishes :)    Elder Nissinen

I GOT MY VISA!!!!!!!! I'm leaving April 22nd right after transfers. President Hobbs emailed me today about it. I was seriously jumping around the Family History Center giving everyone high-5's. 

It's very bitter-sweet. Leaving everything and everyone I've met over the last 7 months and starting over again. I've had so much fun. But don't worry. Both Elder F.  and I are committed to working 110% for the rest of the time I'm here. 

This week we were extremely blessed. We've been helping the B.  kids prepare for their baptism on April 12th. The kids have learning disabilities, which makes it a little difficult. It's been a blessing though because it makes us teach simply, which is exactly how we're supposed to be teaching anyways. Also, through a bunch of referrals from other missionaries, we got 4 new investigators this week! Two of them are a husband and wife named Latu and Della. Latu is Tongan and Della is Hispanic, and they're hilarious. They were referred by two sister missionaries who talked to them on the street the other day. Their background is pretty funny. One time Della's car stalled, so 7 missionaries came and pushed her car up a hill, and she really remembered that. Latu's father was a devout member who didn't force his son to be Mormon, but Latu was really intrigued about it. The Spirit was strong when we taught the Restoration, and before we even started teaching Latu was talking about being baptized. We both committed them to be baptized April 26th. It was like teaching the Hicks all over again; they were so prepared. Elder F. and I were literally jumping and fist-pumping in the car after the lesson. We live for these moments. Unfortunately they had a family emergency happen on Sunday, so they weren't able to come to church. But we're excited to see their progress.

Friday night we had a YW Fundraiser for Girls Camp, and they did a Silent Auction, kinda like the ones back home. They even did a live auction part too, and guess what was one of the things they auctioned off? Service by the Elders. I didn't even know Elder F.
 signed us up for it haha. The auctioneer was slowing down around $30, so Elder Fullmer and I went up in front of the ward and started flexing. We then bumped up all our service to $60!! It was a kick! The YW served pancakes that night, and guess who made them? Yup, us too! I got pretty good with that spatula by the time it was over. 

My brain is so fried that these were the only things I could think of that we did this week. I know my journal has a lot more. I don't think my head has wrapped around it all yet.

Love you and hope we can chat. Love Elder Nissinen

Elder F. and I doing service that was auctioned off. We shoveled rock! It felt so good to sweat! haha

Hi everyone!! 

This last week was awesome!! Elder F.  and I were able to hit the ground running after a lot of meetings our first week. It's been a lot of fun. We even got our bikes out. Elder F.  hadn't been on a bike on his whole mission yet, so it was pretty funny seeing him riding around. Biking is so much fun compared to just sitting in a car. We've had to cut our zone back on miles this month, so we've all been having to bike or walk a lot more. It helps because we get to talk to a lot more people on the street. 

One of the best parts of the week was our dinners. We got taken out to Olive Garden on Wednesday, and on Friday a member took us to Steer n Stein. It's the best steak place in town. Man, it was so good!!! The member was pretty much ordering everything and anything for us on the menu: onion rings, chili bean soup, chicken, garlic bread, fried shrimp, ribs, baked potatoes, and 12 oz steaks!!!! AND dessert!! He ordered for us the biggest plates they had. We were so full - and so grateful!!! And...(Mom you'd be proud) I've got plenty of leftovers too :) 

So about the work, we've been super busy! This last week we nearly doubled our teaching pool. We found a solid new investigator and we set three other baptismal dates. It's from another part-member family, and the kids getting baptized have come to church at least since I've been here. It's the B. family, the kids names are Joseph (13), Timothy (10), Clark (9), and Hank (7). The dad reminds me of Bogey a little bit too haha. 

Here's a fun fact about Elder F.  Remember the movie Paul Blart? Elder Fullmer has the same condition hypoglycemia; if he doesn't eat every couple hours, he gets super tired. Back home he passed out at football and wrestling matches. He just told me a couple days ago. I didn't even know that disease was real! We're doing great. It's been a blast having the other two missionaries there. The hardest part is actually getting to bed on time because we end up just talking and laughing whenever we're all together.

Sorry I hardly have any time to chat today. We spent a lot of time cleaning our apartment, getting haircuts, dry cleaning, and doing another zone activity. I've got pictures to send though. 

Being a Zone Leader is great! Elder F.
 and I get to help out a lot of missionaries, and you get to be friends with a lot of them. 

That's fun you all ran a 5K! Who was it at Glencoe that put it on? 

Oh hey B, crazy thought, have you been checking out the ACT/SAT yet this year? Don't know why I thought of that haha.

Lovin the work. My companion is awesome. Even though the Green Tree ward is small, it's fun. And there's a lot of work to do :)

Love you all. Have an awesome Spring Break! Make it last!!  Love Elder Nissinen

        

                           I was trying to make muffins last night.....got a little distracted. Let's just say that things got a little crazy when both smoke alarms went off and we had to open all the windows and doors.... :)

Hey everyone! 

So the first week as a zone leader....Honestly this was the busiest week of my mission! All the zone leaders call this week Shark Week. It's because we have a bunch of meetings that we prepare for and a lot of logistical stuff. And since it was the beginning of the transfer, we were helping everyone move dressers, mattresses, and box springs, plus the brand-new missionaries' stuff all this week. AND, on top of all that, we had an APOSTLE come and speak to us!!!!! It was such an awesome week, but I'm glad all the meetings are over. 

Thursday was the craziest. We had 9 hours of meetings that day, and boy was I drained! We had a Leadership Meeting for all the District Leaders, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders in the mission. Then we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) for 5 hours. It's where all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders talk about their areas and what President Hobbs wants us to focus on for all the missionaries. We take what President Hobbs trains on and then pass it down to our zone through Zone Meeting. It's once a month, and for us it's tomorrow. So Elder F.  and I have been preparing like crazy for it. And then on top of that, we had Stake Coordination with all the Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders in Hesperia. 

Overall, my respect for zone leaders has skyrocketed. There's so much to do! Haha 

Ok, so about my companion. Elder D.  (yup, pronounced like Donnie) F.  is from Fillmore, Utah. He's been out 9 months and turned 19 not too long ago. He grew up on a farm and did wrestling in high school (he's a state champion!). And he's super funny. We quote Napoleon Dynamite all the time, and we haven't stopped laughing since last Monday. He's been showing me the ropes of the Green Tree ward and being a zone leader, and he's been a huge help. He's also really good at listening, and a lot of missionaries trust him, which is awesome. I'm learning so much from him. 

I forgot to take pictures of the new apartment, but with four elders there is never a dull moment. And both the other missionaries (Elder S. and Elder S.) are hilarious! It's a good-sized apartment: two bathrooms, a living room area, and two bedrooms, but unfortunately we don't have a washer and dryer in our apartment. Thank heavens Ninnie sent me a roll of quarters like 6 months ago. Oh, and I got both Ninnie's and Mom's package over the last couple weeks. It's been awesome!! That Green Eggs & Ham book from Ninnie is the coolest dinner thought to share. Little kids, moms and dads, even teenagers LOVE IT!! We shared it with one family last night, and they couldn't stop laughing. And Elder F.  loves those good gloves from Mom's package. Those cookies were great too :) 

When I got Ninnie's package a couple weeks ago, I decided I needed to just clear out most of the candy I had. I filled one of the packages with candy I wanted to give to other missionaries, and I handed it out at my last District Meeting. Funny story, we had a Tongan sister in our zone, and she was so happy I was giving it away. She ended up taking half the box of candy - it was so funny to see her so happy! haha

One more funny story. I didn't really know this, but missionaries are super resourceful. Our new sister missionaries needed a box spring, so we managed to fit a box spring into the back of our Corolla. Bad news was, we couldn't close the trunk because the box spring stuck out. So what did we do? Elder F.  and I took three of our Mission Belts and hooked them around the lid of the trunk so it wouldn't bounce up and down. We drove over a mile like that. It worked pretty dang good if I do say so myself. We got pictures of it too. 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!! I've been pinched already because I forgot to wear a green tie. I'm gonna have to go back and change. 

Hope you all have an awesome week!! I love you!! 

Love Elder Nissinen   

Hi family!!!                    (The B. Family.  I will miss them!)

While I was saying good-bye to the B. family, they took a picture of us with our Transfer Doctrine. We got the phone call from President Hobbs himself Saturday morning telling both me and Elder B. our new assignments. Elder B. took my spot as District Leader, and I'm now a Zone Leader!! And I'm serving in the same zone as last transfer, so I already know most of the missionaries in it. I was totally shocked when President told me. I was just figuring that I would go to a "dead ward" (a ward with not a lot of work going on). So what does this mean for my visa? No idea, but chances are it won't be anytime soon if I'll be a zone leader. Oh well!

Sadly, I had to move out of the mansion and into an apartment. But it's worth it because there's another set of zone leaders already living with us, kinda like back in Apple Valley. We're gonna have a blast :)

My companion is Elder F.  from Fillmore, Utah. He was my zone leader last transfer, so we already know each other and we get along great. He's super funny, and he's only been out for 9 months. Our zone is really young, since all but two companionships are training, which means almost half of our missionaries have been out a couple of months or less. We're going to be SUPER busy this transfer: helping new missionaries settle in, figuring out stake meetings, and a bunch of other stuff. AND we have our Mission Conference this Saturday, with Elder Anderson and a 70!!!!!

                                             (My new district)

I'm really really excited for this transfer. It was hard to say good-bye to everyone, especially the H.'s and the B.'s , but I won't be far. D.  calls me his "brother" because I baptized him. It's those moments that make everything else worth it. 

                              (The awesome H. family)

I love hearing all the great stuff going on at home! Laura's a lucky girl B haha. Who else has been asked to Mormon Prom yet? I hope round two of your bridge goes better. 

Great job on your Syllabus Rosie!! You'll be makin even more money from students! :) 

Joe, that's great to hear about your new friend. Just being a friend will help him more than anything, and will really help him be ready to be baptized. You're an awesome missionary. 

Here's the address to my new apartment:        Victorville CA 92395

                                                               (My new companion Elder F.)

Everything is looking great for this transfer!!!! I'm loving it. I've still been reading a page a day, and I've been doing the pushup challenge too everyday.

Love you all! Hope you have a great week!!!  Love Elder Nissinen

Hey everyone!!

On Friday I woke up to a HUGE RAINSTORM!! Winds were up to 40 mph. The rain looked like it was coming down sideways! It was great!! Elder B. woke up sick that morning, so we stayed in for part of the day. That car is really coming in handy. And it didn't stop raining until Saturday afternoon. It sounds weird, but I actually missed the rain. I'm sure you all are sick of it by now though, so if you want to send a few clouds over here, Hesperia will take it.

Every Tuesday we have District Meeting, and the Assistants to the President called me that morning and told me they were coming to my district meeting. I was so nervous!!! But it all went well. I have no idea what they were doing up here...?

Remember what we chatted about last week? I took your advice and shined Elder B's shoes while he was in the shower. They needed it. Later that morning Elder B went to go shine his shoes and came back and said, "You son of a gun! You shined my shoes, didn't you? Thanks man." You can't ever go wrong by serving your companion.

But this week has been a fun one. We did Perler Beading with a new investigator (it's plastic beads that you iron on), hula-hoed an old lady's backyard for service, had dinner at a burger joint that reminded me of Basco's Burgers (that's why it showed up on my credit card), pushed an old lady and her broken electric scooter up a half-mile hill in the rain, and did some killer LAZER TAG as an Elders Quorum activity. We had about 15 guys playing lazer tag inside of this blowup maze that took up a good part of the gym. I got a bunch of pictures this week. D. B. and D. H.  came too. And yesterday D.  blessed and K.  passed the sacrament!! He said every word perfectly.

Do you remember W.O. ? He was an investigator we were teaching a couple months ago, but his wife has been super sick and in the hospital since then. She has hyperemesis, which is really bad morning sickness. She can't keep food down and has a PICC line going into her heart. She's been in and out of the hospital for the last couple months. But last night we were finally able to meet with them just to see how they're doing. What I had been really wanting to do was to give her a priesthood blessing. We gave her one, and the Spirit was super strong. This morning we had to go over and give her some more IV's because her husband was at work. I've got some pictures of that too. Anyways, she told us she felt soooo much better after the blessing, like she wanted to get out of the house for once! Power of the Priesthood baby!

I learned an important lesson this week: I hate TV. It's so hard to focus on a person talking and listen in to the Spirit when you've got Disney Channel or NASCAR screaming in the background. That happened twice in the same day last week. And I had the biggest headache afterwards! Not like a migraine, but I could totally tell the Spirit was not as strong as it could be. TV is ridiculous (except Andy Griffith, that's ok haha).

I have zero clue about what's going to happen with transfers. Chances are that one of us will leave. But I could end up getting my visa. There's just a bunch of question marks with transfers; it's exciting!

Congratulations on the Personal Progress, Rosie! Don't forget what that medallion means and what you stand for.

B, your email last week was hilarious!! Doesn't take much to impress girls these days haha. Way to represent!

Joe, you're doing great! Keep up those good grades, merit badges, and all that.

Before and after clean-up

 I love you all!! Dad, I sent you a letter last week. Maybe you'll get it today. Hope you all have a fun, safe, and hopefully dry week.

Love Elder Fuss

Hey there!

Well, my "sleeptalking" self struck again last night. Only this time I did some lethal damage - to my companion! I actually remember getting up at 1:01 this morning, thinking that it was 6:30, and while I was stumbling in the dark (or sleepwalking, I can't remember) I poked Elder B. in the EYE! I thought it was all a weird dream, but it explained why he was a little mad at me this morning haha. Beats me!

This week we didn't have any luck finding new people to teach. We've decided to go through the names of everyone in our area book who haven't been contacted yet. It'll keep us busy and hopefully we'll find a couple people interested in learning more. We've even resorted to tracting. Yes, this week was my first week of tracting. And I now know why the Prophet and Apostles are saying to not make it a priority - it's so not effective haha. We do have some appointments set up with potentials this week. 

Some exciting news for ya....we have a CAR!!! Because of some medical stuff and a missionary had to go down to the mission office, there was an extra car in the Hesperia Zone - and we got it!!!! President gave it to us after Zone Conference on Thursday. Originally Elder B.  couldn't drive; we didn't know why. So I got to drive home from Zone Conference!!! It felt so freaky driving after 7 months. The next morning President called us and said Elder B.  could drive, and because I'm a visa-waiter, my companion is the designated driver. Which makes me the designated "back-out." The car is cool; it's a 2014 Chevy Cruze with only 10000 miles on it. We used it a couple days, but we decided we like biking better. So we bike in the day and drive at night. Since it's pretty sketchy to bike at night here, the car helps a lot. 

But the best part of the week was yesterday at church. D. and K. were given the Aaronic Priesthood. We first ordained D.  to the office of priest, and then right afterwards, D. ordained his son to a deacon. It was SO COOL!!! They were so worthy and prepared to do it too. All the priesthood brethren afterwards were congratulating them. 

We have a bunch of service this week. We might even be reading to a bunch of little kids at a library for Dr. Seuss day. A lot of the Relief Society ladies have been asking us to help with their gardens too. I'm really looking forward to an Elders Quorum activity we've got this week: Indoor Lazer Tag!!!! They have a blowup thing that barely fits inside the gym - it's gonna be a ton of fun! I'll get some pictures too.

That's what's been going on. We hope to be finding and teaching a lot more. I wonder if the visa is on its way?

Hope everyone has a great week!! I love you!!

Elder Fuss