4/27/15

This week has been full of amazing things! The Spirit has been so strong this week. Just about leaving my comp and I in tears. There has been so many times in just the few weeks that Ive been here that the Lord has been helping us, answering our prayers. So little of the things do we actually recongize though! Its awesome. Same as in our lives, the Lord is always helping us, even when we dont realize it. He is always giving us exactly what we need.

A lot of walking this week. Our area is decently big, and it is only half the ward. We have 4 missionaries per ward here so thats always fun. The food has been amazing this week. A lot of visiting investigators. A lot of inviting them to church. And how great is the joy when at least one of them comes. Its pretty awesome.

I have learned so much more about faith this week. Faith is not believing that God will deliver you out of your trials when you ask. Faith is not believing that God will make things easier in your difficulties. Faith is believing that God can strengthen you in your trials and He can deliver you from your dificulties. God gives us what we need. And if we could get everything we wanted the whole plan of agency would be defective. We need to trust that the Lord will give us what we need. And we need to trust that His will is what will be more beneficial than anything else. God loves every one of us. No matter what our errors, imperfections, or weaknesses. He loves us. He loves us more than we can imagine. So lets love Him.

-Elder Nelson

4/20/15

Its been amazing here! There is a lot going on. We had a lot of events happen this week! We had Zone confrence, a thing where i think they call it a missionary tea where they throw a party for a missionary leaving, a talent show, and a birthday party for one of the members that helps us out so much! So there is a lot going on! Its awesome to bring people to these events and strengthen the community and strengthen each other in the gospel. 

I never knew what a storm was in the States! It storms like crazy here in Brazil! Rain that will soak you instantly, thunder that will shake your house, lighting that will light up the sky as if it were day, and wind that will blow anything away! Its crazy and awesome! I love it! It is hot here! So i appreciate it when it rains! 

Zone confrence was amazing. It was kind of sad seeing a lot of people giving their final testimonies including my companion and the mission president! It is going to be sad to see them leave! But its going to be good. One of the awesome things that happend at Zone confrence was even though i can only understand a few words out of the many people speak, i could feel the Spirit so strong when people were teaching and bearing their testimonies.

I know that this is the Lords work! The Spirit is one of the greatest gifts we have! All the time we should be striving to have spiritual experiences that will strenghten ourselves and bring us closer to Christ. We need to seek out the Spirit. We need to strive to feel it in our lives. We need to feel that same feeling that we felt that made us join the church, stay in the church, accept that calling, or choose to go on a mission. It is so important to strive to feel that same feeling again, the Spirit. Without it, we will become lost and forget that very reason why we did what we did. The Spirit strenthens us, motivates us to do better, fills us with love, peace and comfort. We need the Spirit in our lives. We need to feel it again and again and again. We need to pray to have it in our lives. We need to always pray for the assurance of what we are doing is right and if this church is true. I know it is true with all my heart. I have felt the Spirit. I know its true. 

-Elder Nelson

4/13/15

Brasil! What a crazy week!

Brazil is pretty different than the states! The people are really nice and awesome. I mean at least i think, Im still wondering if the MTC taught me the right language... But its great! The driving is crazy. People just drive and its crazy. Kind of gets you scared for your life! But its awesome. 

The main meal here is lunch! The members feed us lunch every day! Its pretty great. The meat and rice here are way better than in the states. The main things ive eaten here are rice, beans, meat, and tomatoes. Brazilian barbeques are the best. 

There is a drink here called terere. Thats what you drink when you go to peoples houses. You sit in a circle and pass around the terere and talk. Its pretty interesting. It is definitely an aquired taste. Im starting to like it. Stray chickens, cats, and dogs are everywhere here. They say when they have no food they just go grab a chicken and cook it up. That should be fun when that happens! 

The language is coming. I thought i knew a pretty good amount of portuguese back in the states until i came here. Its like starting over again. They talk pretty fast and with an accent. But its pretty fun and im understanding more every day. Apparently i look like i can be from some parts of brazil and some people are surprised when they find out i am from the us. Its pretty fun joking around with people pretending im brazilian at first.

But there is one thing that is the same and thats the church! The gospel is the same here, in the US, and everywhere. The same gospel that Jesus Christ established on the earth. And in it we can find comfort, peace, and joy! Because life is the gospel. I love it. 

-Elder Nelson

Pictures and Videos from Mesa, Arizona

 April Fools

4/4/15

I wont be having my P-Day on Monday because I will be on a plane down to Brazil all day Monday! I got the official news that I got my visa! I will head to Atlanta, Georgia to São Paulo then to Cuabá! I wont be arriving in my mission till mid day on Tuesday so it should be a fun flight! I will probably be able to reply before then if you e-mail me! Aqui nos vamos! 

Hope everyone is having a good time watching General Conference! Tchau!

-Elder Nelson

3/30/15

I was able to help with a baptism this week! It was so amazing. It is amazing how much the Spirit resides at a baptism. It just testifies how important baptisms are. My mission had set the goal for 100 baptisms in the month of March and we were able to meet that goal and surpass it with more than 100 baptisms. It has been an amazing experience to participate in. To help many of God's children learn of His will and make that covenant with Him.

In Mesa we have this awesome thing called the Easter Pageant! Its basically a play on the life of Jesus Christ! It is so amazing to go to and have this event to go to! We also are grateful to have a temple close by in the mission and a visitors center! It's so great!

I have been reading Jesus the Christ and studying the life of Christ recently. It is so great. The part i was studying this morning was when Jesus was fasting for 40 days and Satan was tempting Jesus. Satan tempted Him 3 times with doubt, misguidance, and pride. But every time Christ was able to be victorious over Satan. What i realized is how true it is that Satan uses those 3 things to tempt us also! Doubt: doubting there is a God or doubting His power, Misguidance: misinterpretation of scripture or thinking we are doing something right when we are not, and Pride: being caught up in the world and forget who gave us everything. But if we could be like Christ, and remember and understand our purpose, we can not fall into temptation! 

-Elder Nelson

3/23/15

Lots of excitement this week! We had the opportunities to prepare two baptisms this week! It is amazing to be able to see these people who are ready to make this commitment. Baptism is so important. They are both excited and ready to act on their faith and get baptized.

I love these people and it is going to be sad when I have to leave! But that is one of the great things about the gospel, we will see each other again! Its one of the best things to know! I have am inside source from a missionary who serves in a ward with the sister of my mission president in Brazil that says my visa is done! So thats exciting! No official news though! 

Every day I have the opportunity to study for 4 hours. One personal, one companion, one training, and one language. How great is that! Time set aside to learn! My favorite hour is probably personal study! I love to study out of the scriptures! There is so much great things to learn! There is so many things on this earth. So much you can do. But only very few things can we take with us and help us after this life. Studying the scriptures and gaining knowledge from them is one of those things! The things we can learn will help us in both this life and the next! The Book of Mormon is so amazing! There is so many great things to find in the scriptures! And the only way to know if what i'm saying is right is by doing it! So go find out!

-Elder Nelson

3/16/15

My visa has been processed! I could be leaving in 3 weeks to Brazil! So exciting! I kind of wanted more time in Arizona but it looks like I wont have much more! The Lord works in mysterious ways!

We have done a lot this week! Its been pretty great!  A lot of people that we have been teaching and meeting. Not much to say about it just driving around meeting and teaching!

One of the coolest things to see as a missionary is the joy the gospel can bring to peoples lives. How it can help them with any problem, addiction, or anything and help them become better. Its really awesome to see that in peoples lives. I love being able to help them learn of God's plan for them and how Jesus Christ made it possible for them to become better and leave their wrongs behind them. I love helping people and love growing close to them. I didn't know I could love people like this before, they're awesome! Anyways, have a good week!

-Elder Nelson

3/9/15

This week has been awesome! It rained for a bit the first two days and was a difference from the nice warm weather! But it is nice and warm now! It is great down here though. I love it!

We've done a lot of teaching this week. But a lot of diligence and work. We have to be persistent to meet with people. A lot of people are stubborn.. haha but great! Its awesome and great to learn from. Hard work pays off.

One of my favorite scriptures that I read this morning was Alma 24. I love this Chapter so much. How the Lamanites become angry with their brethren the Anti-Nephi-Lehies and come upon them to battle. The Anti-Nephi-Lehies were so righteous and wanted no more bloodshed with their brethren so they buried their weapons. As the Lamanites came upon them for battle, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies lay down to pray and called upon the name of the Lord. The Lamanites slayed like 1000 of them while they praised God. But then something cool happened. In verses 24-27 it says, "Now when the Lamanites saw this they did forbear from slaying them; and there were many whose hearts had swollen in them for those of their brethren who had fallen under the sword, for they repented of the things which they had done. And it came to pass that they threw down their weapons of war, and they would not take them again, for they were stung for the murders which they had committed; and they came down even as their brethren, relying upon the mercies of those whose arms were lifted to slay them. And it came to pass that the people of God were joined that day by more than the number who had been slain; and those who had been slain were righteous people, therefore we had no reason to doubt but what they were saved. And there was not a wicked man slain among them; but there were more than a thousand brought to the knowledge of the truth; thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people." We don't know how the Lord is going to work. We just know that he knows what he is doing. He knows. And everyone is invited to join him and partake of the greatest joy there is. There is no greater joy than this gospel. I know this.

-Elder Nelson

3/2/15

The field.. is amazing!

We flew down here Tuesday with about 10 other missionaries with their original call to Mesa! We met President Jenkins and his wife at the airport, they are pretty cool! Found out right away that this is a iPad and Facebook mission! So that should be fun! We did a lot of introductions and paperwork and then we were out to the field! We were temporarily put in a companionship for that day to experience the mission! It was crazy to be out. We walked everywhere. I found out that a lot of children here basically raise themselves because their parents aren't really in the picture, working or just not there. So we get to talk to a lot of kids! Its real fun! But its really nice here! I really enjoyed the warm weather when I walked out of the airport!

The next day we had our first transfer meeting and I found out my trainer, Elder Young! He is a really cool guy and a great trainer! Basically our first few days here, no one would answer their doors to their scheduled appointments. It was kind of depressing. But eventually we started seeing people! The members here are really cool and they feed us great food! They say no matter what you gain weight here! They said that they had a problem with missionaries gaining weight so the president made them run a 5k! That's fun! I'm sad I missed that!

Well we got to do some service at the Phoenix marathon. We handed out water, Gatorade, and energy pack things to the runners at about the 19 mile mark! It was a really cool experience. We also got to go on a hike this morning on the Hieroglyphics mountains. They call it that because there are hieroglyphics on the sides of the mountains as you go up the trail. Pretty cool!

One great thing I leaned this week was about the power of prayer and following the prompting of the Spirit. One of our investigators, or the investigators that the previous missionaries were teaching would never answer the door! We went literally 3 times a day for a few days just to introduce me as the new missionary! We really wanted to be able to teach them and it was really sad to see them not home. We didn't want to lost them. One time before we were about to head over I had a strong prompting to pray that they would be there. Part of me wanted to ignore that prompting and go anyways. But I listened to it and asked my companion if we should pray. We knelt down and I offered a prayer that they would be there so we could teach them. And what do you know, they were there and we were able to teach them! What a great experience! There was without a doubt that it was because of the prayer that we were able to teach them! We were celebrating afterwards! This work is great.

-Elder Nelson

2/23/15

Well if you haven't heard yet, I have been reassigned to serve in the Mesa Arizona mission until my visa arrives. I am super excited. I will be heading there tomorrow. One member in my district is from Mesa, Arizona so it is kind of fun because he is called to Pocatello Idaho! We are kind of switching haha. 

We had our departure devotional and our last Sunday night devotional yesterday. We wished off some people from our district this morning. The rest of us leave tomorrow! I am packing and am ready to go out in the field tomorrow. It is going to be amazing. 

Our agency is one of the greatest gifts God has given to us. We have the option to choose what we want. With God placing us on this Earth without knowledge of our life before, relying purely on our true character, we can make decisions dependent on our true desire. All choices lead to greater decisions and consequences. We choose our choices but we cannot choose our consequences. But only recently have I realized how much greater agency is than I thought it was. We choose more than little decisions. We can choose our reactions and our responses. Our decisions lead us to God or lead us to the Devil. The easiest choice is of the natural man, and that is to be lazy and not strive to be the best we can be. There are mainly 3 things that effect us from accomplishing something from our agency: God's will, faith, and the biggest one i will see on my mission, other peoples agency. We can accomplish so many great things but other peoples choices, which counteract ours, make some things difficult. But agency is beautiful. And when people unite in agency and make the righteous decisions together, miracles can happen. I have seen it here at the MTC. Unity is so important. That's why companionship's are so important on the mission and families are so important in life, they are basic units of unity. And together, with God, nothing is impossible. 

-Elder Nelson

2/17/15

We are all anxiously waiting our reassignments. But sadly, they didn't come yet. This week has been amazing. Its hard to believe we will be out in the field in a week. Its going to be amazing. We all love each other so much and its going to be hard splitting up but we know the Lord has a work for us to do.

My companion and I were able to skype a member from Portugal the other day! It was pretty exciting and fun. She is from Enland living in Portugal and is about to put in her mission papers to serve a mission. She wants to come to the US! Its great to know the language is coming. Its great to know how much the Lord helps you in accomplishing His work.

We are learning a lot about charity, the pure love of Christ. It really is. Two times a week we get up and go do service (one we have to wake up early!). But it is fun and great. Of course it is scheduled service and we don't really have a choice but it still counts for something. But charity is one of the attributes of Christ that everyone can grow on and is definitley one of the most important things we can do. At one our devotionals, Kelly Mills spoke. His talk was centered on charity. One of the things that he said that stook out to me the most was when he said, "Focus on the edges and the center will take care of itself." Or in other words, focus on others and we will be taken care of. I know this is true. The Lord will take care of us when we take care of other people, God's children. We are all God's children, brothers and sisters. So lets act like it. Lets love each other, stop judging, and serve one another will all purpose of heart. So many of us want to become like Christ. One of the best ways to do this is to have charity. For if we think like Him, we will become like Him.

-Elder Nelson

2/10/15

Yesterday we did the fast of English, no English all day and only Portuguese. It was definitely hard to do but pretty fun! Our district seems to be a chosen district and we get to do all sorts of fun things. We were filmed by an Italian film crew for some training video, we get to travel to a place where they have a classroom set up that they are testing and we give our feedback, and now we will be a class for a teacher examination! It is pretty awesome! 

The MTC is going great just as the past weeks! It is a great experience to learn so much every day! With no distractions, so much is accomplished. Exact obedience is the only way to go! We love each other in our district and zone. Love is everywhere and everyone is there for it when you need it.

We watched the movie on Joseph Smith the other day. And something stood out to me. It said Joseph was called in his weakness and the Lord made up the difference. How profound is that! I think it is true for all of us! We are all called in our weakness, every one of us, we agreed to this calling to come to earth. We all knew there would be sickness hardships and difficulties but through them we are able to return back to God's presence and live with our families through all eternity! How great is that! All eternity with the ones you love with complete happiness. We are called in our weakness, in the world, in our daily lives, in everything. I know I am called in my weakness as a missionary but the Lord is making up the difference through my trust in Him. 

-Elder Nelson

2/03/15

Study, study, study. I think I have studied more at the MTC in the past 3 weeks than I have in my whole life. But it is amazing and I love it. There is nothing better to learn than the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how to share it. I love the people here. Everyone wants to become the best they can and wants to grow to become as Christ is. How great is that?!

Our schedule is packed. One thing after the next after the next. There is little time to breath. But there is no better way to do it! There is no time being wasted! Because this time is the time of the Lord! No distractions! 100% obedience! There is no other way the Lord would want it. This is how we all should strive to live our lives.

One great thing that I am coming to learn here at the MTC is faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle and ordinance of the Gospel. It is the foundation and the first step to personal conversion. It is one of the most important things to recognize and strive to have more in your life. Faith is not a one time thing, it is not an event or obstacle to get over, it is a principle of the gospel that must be lived every second, every hour, and every day. Faith in Jesus Christ can lead to so many great things. Faith is one of the things anyone can improve on. As I began teaching lessons in Portuguese, I lacked faith. I was nervous and wondered how I could ever teach a good lesson and worried about what I would say. The second I realized I needed faith and had faith that the Lord will help me, is the second that the lesson begin to reach the investigator's heart. We all need to strive to have faith in what we do and have faith that if we obey God's commandments and live worthily to the best of our ability, the Lord will prepare us a way.

-Elder Nelson

1/27/15

Como voce esta? 

This week has been absolutely amazing. The MTC is the 2nd best places on the planet I have ever been to. The temple is #1. There a devotionals both Sunday and Tuesday nights. They are fantastic. The talks given are some of the best talks I have ever heard. The spirit is always strong there.

It is absolutely incredible to learn two languages at the MTC. The language of Portuguese and the language of the Spirit. Porguguese comes, but the language of the Spirit it the most important language to learn. To have the Spirit with you when you teach is absolutely necessary. You can't do it without it.

This last Sunday we watched a talk. And it was probably the best talk I have ever heard. It was called Characters of Christ. How great is it what Christ had done for us. Atoning and paying the price of justice for our sins. But in the time of Christ's pain, worse than any of us could even imagine, he thought of others before himself. "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." He forgave everyone and thought of everyone before himself. How great would it be if we could be like Christ, if we could turn outward when the natural man would turn inward. Even in our worst of days, when we believe that everything should be about us and we should get what we want, how awesome would it be if we could think about others. 

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful experience we have to be tested. For it is truly amazing. God lives. Jesus lives. This gospel is as true as you and me. 

-Elder Nelson

1/20/15

Oi!

The MTC is one of the most amazing places on earth. Everything here is amazing. So much spirit. So much learning. And so much studying. There is no place I would rather be. Muito bom! If any of you want to email me personally that would be awesome! And if you want to write or Dear Elder me my address is:

Elder Adam John Nelson

FEB24 BRA-CUI

2009 N 900 E Unit 199

Provo UT 84602

I can write and receive letters almost every day. So it would be amazing if you could write me. 

As missionaries, our goal isn't to dunk as many people as we can and baptize them. We aren't trying to force our religion upon anyone. We don't teach. As missionaries, we invite and we help. We invite others to come unto Christ. And we help them by letting the spirit teach them through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The moment we tune into the Spirit during a lesson, the moment it becomes His lesson, not ours. 

Several times in life, God presents you with an option. One of the options is easy, and allows you to stay in your comfort zone. The other option is to take a leap of faith, step out of your comfort zone, and requires you to leave what you know. The leap of faith is the way which God wants for us. But once we take that leap, you will realize how glad you were that you did. Going on a mission was one of mine. Another one of mine that I will do tomorrow when I go into a lesson and teach in Portuguese. How great the joy when you take a leap of faith. Trust in God. He WILL provide.

-Elder Nelson