SMALL. DOGS. ARE. THE. MEANEST.

Hey!!

I sure hope that everybody had a good Christmas. This week has been good. It was nice to be able to talk to my family over Skype. The missionary work was slow this week since it was a holiday.  A lot of people were traveling and we got a couple days off. It is way different this time of year here. It is really hot and it’s weird having my birthday and Christmas when it’s 100 degrees, but overall it was good. On Christmas here they start celebrating on Christmas Eve and go through the night and end on Christmas morning.

We found a new investigator this week that seems pretty interested in the church. We are heading to teach him tomorrow. So hopefully this week will be better for the work cause people will be home after the holidays.

On my birthday the elders that were in my room sang happy birthday to me and yesterday, a family here, the same family that gave me a machete, had a surprise party with cake and juice for me. So that was pretty cool!! Haha.

And on our way to the member’s house there was a little dog on the side of the street and when we walked passed it, it started growling, then out of no where started chasing us!! Ha and one elder here went running passed us all. Haha I was getting ready to kick it but it finally quit growling.  Finally the little thing stopped chasing us and we started walking again, ha, it started chasing my companion again, hahaha!! It was so funny cause the dogs are so small but they are the meanest.

It sure was nice to talk to and see you guys on Christmas. I sure do miss and love you guys. Things are good here. Lets hope this is a good week and we can catch people at home. I love you guys!! Tell everyone hello at the cabin.

Man, I love years like this back home. It kind of makes me sad I can’t be there with all of the snow.  Tell Landon it helps me to know that he is out. It makes me feel support. But before we know it we will be back enjoying the cold.

Well I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas!! Thanks for everything you guys do. Talk to you next week.

Love Elder Nickerson

BEST. CHRISTMAS. GIFT.

This year as a family we received the best Christmas present we could have ever gotten.  We got to talk to our son and brother.  Sometimes you never realize how important something is until it is half way across world.  We sure love him!  He is good brother, a good son, and a good missionary. 

Elder Nickerson is doing great! He is loving the food, loving the people, and loving missionary work!  He is not loving the heat and humidity, the distance from home, and the Chihuahuas suffering from small dog syndrome.  :)

He told us that the "rains come down, and the floods come up".  He said when it rains there, it pours, and the roads and streets turn into rivers.  The rain is definitely a sight to be seen.  The weirdest part about Christmas for him was being in 100 degree weather.  They are in their hottest season over there.  

Today is his birthday!  We can't believe how fast time flies when you're having fun.  We are sure proud of him.  When Nick is happy, his family is happy.  We love watching him grow and progress.  We know that he is there for a reason and there is someone or a few someones waiting to hear from him. 

He said missions are like riding a roller coaster.  Some days are easy and fun and high, and other days are struggles, disappointing, and lows.  Nick said there is no other place he would rather be right now than right where he is.  The language has good and bad days for him.  Some days he understands mostly everything and other days he doesn't understand anything.  But he said every day it gets easier and easier.  

We were beyond happy to hear his voice, see that he was looking good, and that he still has his sarcastic sense of humor.  We love that boy more than anything.  When he first called no one said anything because we were all in tears.  We all just looked at each other and cried.  It meant the world to us to see him well and happy.   Even his dog Charlie got to say hello.  He was a little confused at what was happening.  He could hear Nick, but wasn't quite sure where he really was.  A boy and his dog!

Here are a few pictures Elder Nickerson took on Christmas!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are excited for all the families that got to talk to their missionary.  Thanks for all the love and support Elder Nickerson has been receiving. He definitely feels your love and prayers from home.

THE. WATER. DOESN'T. STOP.

Hey everyone!!

 This has been a pretty good week. Right after we got done emailing last week, we went to the grocery store and it started a downpour again. So we got to walk in water over our ankles in the street again. It happened twice this week that we have had to walk in water in the streets. There is nowhere for the water to go, so it all drains in the streets and then runs forever.  It gets almost annoying. Ha!

There is a pizza place here that gives us one free pizza a week and they have this bike to deliver on . . . . . .  and they let me take it for a little drive. Ha, it felt good to be on a bike for a minute.  It was kind of weird to ride, all the gears are backwards and second gear didn’t work. I wasn't on it very long. 

We taught a cool lesson this week. We made a contact with this guy that wanted a Book of Mormon.  He had recently fell off a building while he was working.  He broke his teeth out, cracked his head, and broke both his wrists and arms.  Now one wrist will never work again and the other is really weak.  He works a lot and it is hard to catch him home.  We finally were able to teach him and it was our most cool lesson yet.  He has a wife and a kid and he said he has been looking for the gospel ever since he got hurt.  He wants to know more and accepted our baptismal invite.  So hopefully we can keep teaching him and he keeps progressing.  It felt good to have a good investigator this week.

There is a ton of fruit here.  They have apples I like and more fruit than in the US. Tell grandpa the blueberries were really good. I don’t know what my favorite food is yet. The food here is all pretty good. They just have rice with everything here!!

 It is going to be different here for Christmas because it’s usually cold this time of year and here it’s the hottest time of the year. I hope that everybody has a Merry Christmas. Thanks for everything you all do for me. I’m grateful to be where I am. Sometimes it’s hard, but I know this is where the Lord wants me and where I’m supposed to be. But I can’t wait for Christmas.  The best gift is to talk to you guys.

Here is a poem I received. This poem can help you prepare for the transfer and assignments we serve in. Remember that no matter what your work is, and no matter where you serve, it is for the Lord and GREAT in his eyes. 

“Father, where shall I work today?”

And my love flowed warm and free.

Then he pointed out a tiny spot

 And said, “Tend that for me.”

 I answered quickly, “Oh no, not that!

 Why, no one would ever see,

 No matter how well my work was done.

 Not that little place for me.”

 And the word he spoke, it was not stern; …

“Art thou working for them or for me?

 Nazareth was a little place,

 And so was Galilee.”

Love you guys. Have a Merry Christmas!! Talk to you next week.

Elder Nickerson

ZONE. CONFERENCE.

Hey!!

This week was a crazy week. We had zone conference this week and it was in a town called Feira de Santana, which is like 12 hours away. We took a bus there. The bus ride was pretty good.  I slept though most of it because we travel at nights. As soon as we got there we had zone conference. It was pretty cool to see all the missionaries.  I met a guy from Moscow, Idaho that grew up on a farm.  It was cool to talk to him about stuff.   He goes home in three months. We also got packages there. Haha. It actually felt like Christmas opening them up. Once zone conference was over we got back on the bus and headed for Barrieras and I didn’t sleep very good on the bus ride home. As soon as we got home we showered, changed, and went to work.

We taught some new investigators this week.  I’m starting to understand more and more Portuguese. It is still hard to speak though.  I say more and more in lessons. Ha, sometimes the people start smiling because I have accent when I speak it.  But I do understand more and more. Still hard to understand people on the street. I can follow lessons good now.  Sometimes I get really scared to speak cause I don’t want to say the wrong thing. Pronunciation is the hardest thing for me but I can definitely say it is getting easier and easier. I think when I have a Brazilian companion I will learn faster cause we speak a lot of English with each other right now.

We were supposed to baptize a guy named Montana but he is traveling for a month now so that was a bummer. I gave an airplane away this week. We have a few investigators that we go to more then others but none that’s very promising right now. Montana was suppose to get baptized this week cause he turned 18. Now he’s going to be gone for a week and then we have Lucas who also bailed on us. We will try harder with him.  We have a lot more here but some aren’t progressing. There are so many different churches here that don’t require people to do much but stand there and sing.  That makes it hard to get them to come to ours sometimes. I forgot to tell you guys we made a agreement with a lady if she came to our church, we would go to hers. So we went. A pastor just yelled the whole time and the people would put their hands in the air and do a shaking dance.  It was a really different experience. On Sunday’s all you hear on the streets here is all the different churches yelling. 

Saturday night we got done at an investigators house and headed home and while we headed home it started pouring and pouring.  We were on the opposite side of the road that our house was on. It was raining so much the water in the street was like a foot in a half to two feet deep. There were cars and motorbikes stalling out from all the water. We waited under a place for about an hour and the rain was slowing down so we just had to walk through all the water in our shoes and we got soaked!! I was standing on the sidewalk and a car went flying passed and drenched me with water.  It was crazy how much water was in the streets. We helped some guy pull his motorbike out from under a car because the water was running so fast it took his bike down the road and jammed it under a car. I guess some kid got sucked down by the water in the streets and sucked into a drain and it killed him. The water was crazy!! I’ve never seen so much water running in the streets.  You would have thought the streets were rivers and the sewer pipes were also boiling.  Water was just spewing out of them. It was still a kind of cool experience.

I got the cool origami calendar. I have been opening the letters every day now. It’s really cool!!! I think I opened the whale or shark one yesterday. You guys spent a lot of time doing that. It really means a lot to me.  I love it!! Thank you. I got the stockings and mountain house food and I put up that little tree decoration and the lights in our apartment and I turned the lights on and came back and half were blown out.  I switched the fuse and then the others blew out. I think the power was surging and blew my lights already. Stupid power here. It made me sad.  It looked cool. I also got like 7 letters. Hahahaha.  The one with dad’s with elk hair and two from grandpa and Tanessa and you. Thank you guys so much. I miss you guys a lot. Thanks for everything. It makes me cry when I think how rude I was to you at times. I really mean thanks for everything. I love you guys! I think the next time I get letters will be in six or seven weeks I’m not sure though. Next transfer is in seven weeks. :/ 

I love you guys very much and pray for your safety.  It means so much to me to hear from people at home and the different people that wrote.  The longer I’m here the more I realize how much more I love and am grateful for home and my family.  I miss my bed.  Tanessa, would it be possible for you to make me a Skype account? Only one more pday until we can talk. They said we can only talk for 45 minutes. I hope my companion lets me go longer then that. We will find computers to use to Skype. The English school said we can use their wifi we just have to find laptops to use. Just know we will get things in order this week hopefully. Love you guys!! I’m doing good so don’t worry about me. Thanks again and again so much for everything!! Dad be careful with hunting. You never know what could happen. Be careful!!

 Thanks for all the support and everything. Have a good week!

Love Elder Nickerson