CHEGOU.

Hey everybody!!

Well, it has been a good week.

First off our fridge finally arrived after 4 or 5 weeks without a fridge.... but the store sent the wrong one!!!  Inside our house is 220 and the fridge is only 110. The store won't exchange it. So we have to buy a converter.

This week we were able to baptize José, my companion's first baptism. He was excited!!! And so was I. I also made pancakes and hash browns this week.   They didn't turn out how my mom cooks them, but it was good to taste a little food from home!

I can't believe that Christmas is already arriving here. I'm excited to be able to Skype home. Next Monday we won't be able to email home because the mission moved our P-Day to Christmas day. So it will be a little different next week but it will be good.

Well, that's about it for the week. Tonight we are heading to Salvador and will travel on a bus all night to arrive there tomorrow morning.  We have transfers and our Christmas Conference. My companion and I will stay one more transfer together.

Well, I hope that everything is well with you guys. If I can't send another email before Christmas, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Feliz Natal para todos e feliz ano novo. Tchau até o proximo. (Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year. Bye till next time.)

Remember the true meaning of Christmas. Talk to you guys later bye!

Love,

Elder Nickerson

BANANAS. HE. ATE. THEM. ALL.

Hey Everybody!!

Well, I didn't think it could keep getting hotter but it does! This week has been good. When we wake up in the mornings it's 85 or 90 degrees at 6:30 in the morning and at lunch time it's 100 degrees in our apartment.

It hasn't rained since I got here and the river in the middle of the city is drying up!! One day I put my thermometer in the sun and it hit 130 degrees!!

This week has went really fast!! We received new cards that we give to people and it has a site to watch a video that talks of Jesus Christ. (natal.mormon.org) Here is the site if you guys want to watch it...haha, it's in Portuguese so not sure if you guys will understand it, buts it's cool.

Makes us remember our Savior and what he did for each of us! And because of him, what we can become and that we can live forever with our families.

I sure am grateful for this and what he did for each of us! This week we were able to put some baptism dates on a few people and they accepted and one has it for this Saturday so I hope everything works out!!

A family here also gave us bananas and mangos, they are really good. One day when we were walking home with the bananas a guy that stays on the street asked us for a few bananas so we gave him around 10. Haha and the next day we were walking where we gave him the bananas ha and there were a ton of banana peels on the ground.  He ate them all!!

Well that's about it for the week. This month is flying past.  I can't believe it's almost Christmas!!!!

I hope all is well with you guys, talk to you guys soon.

Love,
Elder Nickerson

https://www.mormon.org/Christmas

https://www.lds.org/topics/christmas?lang=eng

HOTTER. EVERY. DAY.

Well, this week has went well.  My companion and I have been very blessed and have found many people to teach.

This past Sunday was Stake Conference and we were able to have a couple family discussions and two of them accepted baptism dates. I hope they keep progressing!!

I am really enjoying this new area!! Summer here is still just starting and it just keeps getting hotter and hotter. We have been without a fridge for 2 weeks now but it should arrive either today or tomorrow, so we are excited for a new fridge!

We have been getting cold water from our neighbor!!

That's about it for the week. Hope all is going well with you guys. Talk to you guys later. Bye

Love, Elder Nickerson

Good advice then. Good advice now.

 

This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help.

 

We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues.

RIGHT. PLACE. RIGHT. TIME.

Well everybody, this week has been good.

We have been able to find 11 new people to teach and 2 families to teach, so we have been very blessed to have found all these people.

Yesterday, we taught The Plan of Salvation to a family and I felt the Spirit really strong.  After we got done, he said, I always thought and knew that our lives just didn't here, and that there has to be life after death! It is was really cool to be able to talk with him and teach him what we know.

Our area here in Petrolina is very very hot night and day. The temperature never goes hardly under 90 degrees. The other morning it was 104 degrees before lunch time, haha, it gets very hot here. The city hasn't had rain for a long time and the river that runs in the city is starting to go dry.  I hope we get some rain here soon.

Yesterday, we went on a split with a member and when we were finished we sat outside his apartment and talked for a minute.  While we were talking, we heard a girl yelling and we looked up and there were two guys on a bike trying to rob her. They were pulling her hair and yanking her bag. So we took of running to help her and when they saw us coming they jumped on the bike and took off. They ended up stealing her flip flops, but that was it. I know we were  suppose to be there at that moment to help her.

I can't believe how fast time is going here in the field. I'm grateful to be a missionary and help our Savior. Well that's about it for the week. I hope all is well with you guys. Talk to you guys later.

Com Amor,

Èlder Nickerson

 

 

PETROLINA.

Hey everybody!

Well, a lot has happened this week. I ended up getting transferred to a city called Petrolina. It is about 7 or 8 hours from Salvador. We caught an oni-bus and spent the night traveling. I also ended up getting my new companion, Elder Saldanha, he is from Rio Grande do Sul, and from the city of Santa Maria. He has just under 3 weeks in the mission, so I will be training him here. 

We are both new in our area so we have to open it.  The last elders that were here didn't write any addresses of people or anything, so we have to start with all new contacts.  We have been making a ton of contacts trying to find some people to teach. 

Here in Petrolina it is hottest part of our mission and this time of year is the hottest here in Brasil. At 10:00 in the morning last week it was already 95 degrees inside the house.  And at night time it doesn't hardly cool down. It is very hot here.  No words to describe how hot it is. It reminds me of the sand dunes. There is a lot of sand here. 

Petrolina is no longer part of the Bahia, we are now in a different state.There are a lot of people here lighter skinned. And there is a lot of wealthy people. The city is also a lot cleaner then the other cities I have been through.  

There is also a chapel here and a lot of youth and returned missionaries that like to help the missionaries. So I'm excited I get to be here! 

Well, that's about it for the week. Time is passing faster and faster here in the field. I'm grateful to be a missionary for our Savior and help people have the gospel in their lives. I hope all is well with you guys. Thanks for everything. Talk to you guys later bye.

Com Amor, 
Elder Nickerson!

TIME. TO. TRAIN.

Hey Everybody!

Well, today will be my last day here in Santo Amaro! I will be transferred tomorrow, as well as my companion will also leave.

I also found out that I will be training a new missionary from the CTM. Ha, I don't know if he will be American or Brazilian. Hope it all goes well.

This week went by really fast. It's going to be sad to leave this area, but exciting to get to know a new area.

Sorry, we don't have much time to write today, we have a lot of people to say goodbye to.

Hope all is well with you guys. Thanks for all the support and talk to you guys later.

This is a picture of our Branch President and his family.

Com Amor,

Elder Nickerson

 

Missionaries share one thing and one thing only - the gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Like Nephi, "We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins" (2 Nephi 25:26).

It may seem strange to focus so much of our lives on Jesus Christ, but the wisdom of the gospel applies to everything from the purpose of life to how we approach our work, how we relate to others, even how we take care of our bodies.

The teachings of Jesus Christ have more power to bring lasting happiness than all the success and pleasure the world can offer. Every message Mormon missionaries share revolves around Him and how His Atonement and ordinances allow us to return to live with our Father in Heaven and our families in heaven.

GRATEFUL. TO. BE. A. MISSIONARY.

We just got back from the beach. It was really cool but really really hot. 

This week has been good for us here. I hope that everybody had a Happy Halloween. 

This week has been kinda crazy!  One day this week my companion and I left our house and had a group of people a few houses down from our house gathered together. I guess our neighbor lived alone and she died and ended up staying in her house for 3 or 4 days dead. When we were walking by, they were putting her body in the truck and she was really over-weight, so we ended up helping lift her in the truck.  It was weird to see a body that went rotten. It stunk so bad. I felt bad for her. There was also a guy in shock, I think from seeing her. It was kinda a crazy experience. 

This week we were able to find a few new people to teach and they accepted baptism dates. That is always cool. This is the last week in the transfer here and I have been here for 5 transfers, so I think I have a pretty high chance that I will get transferred. 

That's about it for the week. It's crazy time keeps passing faster and faster. I sure am grateful for the chance I have to be a missionary. I hope you guys are all well. Talk to you guys later.

Much Love, Elder Nickerson