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

The package came!!!

Hey everyone! 

First thing, I GOT THE PACKAGE!!! Last Pday we went over to the Mission Office to sign some visa stuff, and it was there! It arrived last Saturday, so all in all it takes about a month solid for a package to get here. And apparently the letters take even longer to get to the States. Good thing we got email.

Ward fish

But thank you guys so much for the package! It made my week for sure. Ninnie really knows how to stuff a package: tons of pictures, letters, and candy haha. Tell her thank you thank you thank you from me. I know it wasn´t easy or cheap, but it meant a lot. The whole family is awesome; I´m so grateful for sure an awesome family. I hope you all had a great week.

This week has been one of gratitude, for a lot of things, and Heavenly Father blessed both Elder B. and I a lot. We´ve been teaching a lot of people, and committing them to come to Church for yesterday. We were planning on having at least 6 investigators come. And guess how many? 11! Two families and a lot of members brought their friends. The chapel and classrooms were really full yesterday! And many said they´d be coming back for sure this Sunday. I honestly have no idea how it happened, or what we did to have this kind of success, but in my nightly prayer yesterday I got down on my knees and thanked Heavenly Father so much for His tender mercies. There´s so much to be grateful for.   

                              

                                      Teaching some math skills

And I love working with the members. Allan the 8 year old got interviewed yesterday by the Bishop, and he´s all set to be baptized. We just gotta choose a date! Tonight we´ll be going over, marking a date, teaching the 10 Commandments (WITH hand signals), and giving his mom Luciana the recipe for Mom´s cookies so we can make them next week or sometime really soon. The best thing that happened with that family was when yesterday the less-active mom came to church!! She looked so happy!! She passed us on the way home as we were walking, sitting in the back of a truck with Allan. They waved at us and looked so happy. The Gospel is so awesome.

8 year old Allen and his CTR shield!!!

That reminds me. Remember when I told you about the nonmember who did not drink but did not want to throw out his wine bottles? He´s not the only guy! We met a less-active with the same thing. And, same thing, no pictures of the family. We proposed the idea of switching out the bottles for pictures, and then I threw the icing on the cake: Mom´s homemade cookies. She took the bait, and is totally willing to throw them out. We´ll be following up with some fresh cookies soon haha. Never thought that American cookies would influence someone´s salvation haha.

You´ve all asked about schools here. Since the seasons are switched, kids are in school almost all year long except for a couple months during Christmastime (and the World Cup every 4 years). They have school at 3 different times a day, and the kids choose which one they go to: early morning until noonish, afternoonish, and evening until nighttime. 

Our supermarket!!! 

About the elections. Things are just nuts when it comes to politics. A lot of people don´t trust the system. How it works is this: everyone above 18 is mandated to vote - no choice. If you don´t then your opportunities go down if you want to go to college, leave the country, or work somewhere in the goverment - it´s declined automatically if you don´t. You register by going to a government building, and then on the day you vote (October 5th), you go to the nearest pre-assigned public school to vote. You punch in the number code of the candidate, or you can choose to vote for no one. What I hear that happens is that if you choose to vote for no one, the government puts your vote over to the person that´s in the lead. Kids 16 and 17 can vote if they want, but it´s not mandatory. Oh, and the open TV channels, for one hour a day, they play advertisements of all the candidates (it´s law), so pretty much you just sit and watch political ads if you wanna watch TV. Pretty different than the States huh? haha

So many great things happened this week. I´m really grateful for the many blessings that my loving Heavenly Father has given me. Thank you guys for everything. I love you all so much. Crazy to think you´re all in high school already. Have a great first week of school!! Go Tide!

Love Elder Nissinen

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Nissinen

Elder B and I in our cool Brazil hats!!

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

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

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

NO WATER! (except to flush)

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

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

The zone!

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

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

                                     Love Elder Nissinen

My chocolate pastel!!!

Hey guys!! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love, Elder Nissinen

Eating Subway at the mall today.

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

Hey family!! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Nissinen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Nissinen  

    

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Nissinen 

Dear Family,

My new companion Elder B. from Lousiana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elder Nissinen

The Macedonia zone

Hi family!! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Nissinen

We got to go the temple today!!!

Hey family!!!,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaching Elder C. english 

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

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

Love you all very much!   Elder Nissinen

Reading scriptures on the bus ride

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