November 17, 2014

Hey!

So this week turned out a little different than I thought it would.  Elder Assis left and instead of staying in the area like I thought I would I got transferred to a different ward.  Now I'm with Elder Ramirez, he's awesome!  He is from the Dominican Republic.  I'm in the same stake, just a couple wards over.  I like the ward and area, but I was really disappointed to leave my last area.  But I don't really know what will happen now, there is only one more week until transfers and I don't think that Elder Ramirez and I will continue together, I think it is just a temporary thing, we'll see what happens, I guess!

In my new house all of the Elders are great.  There is an Elder from Acre, a state of Brazil that is like, beyond the Amazon, haha.  It's so rare to see people from there that some people say it doesn't actually exist and people are more surprised to meet him than they are when they meet foreigners!

Camilla was baptized yesterday!  It was great to see her and a bunch of other people from my last area at the stake conference! President and Sister broadbent spoke at the stake conference and so they stayed for the baptism, which was cool.  I love getting to baptize someone, it's the best feeling ever!

Here are some pictures!  Love you guys!

November 10, 2014

Hi!

This week was good, Elder Huxford got the shower working, haha!  I've never been shocked by one, and I think they're generally pretty good at not shocking, unless you're trying to fix it.  When ours broke the wires started buzzing, making sparks and then caught fire, but that was the worst experience I've had with one.  I think it was because there was a lot of steam in the bathroom and the wires were really close together, so they short circuited.

Elder Assis is leaving this week, which is sad, he has been an amazing companion and I'm really going to miss him.

It's cool to hear about everything happening back at home! I love you guys so much!

November 3, 2014

Hey!

Hope you're doing well!

This week was pretty normal again, haha.  Our water came back, but our electric showerhead shortfused while I was showering and has stopped working, so I'm still not taking the greatest showers.  But we should get it working again today or tomorrow, what a blessing!  haha!

Elder Assis and I went to 25 de março (a really big commercial center of São Paulo) with some other missionaries that are going home in a few weeks and bought some sweet ties.  Elder Assis is going home next week, so he's what the missionaries call trunky, its pretty funny!

Some members were asking a bunch of questions of what Halloween is like in America, you should send some pictures of Halloween stuff so I can show them!

Oh, for a Christmas package, could you send some new shoes?  Mine are pretty messed up, it's actually pretty funny, I'll take a picture and send it.  Also, is my Ocarina still around the house?  I was thinking it would be cool to have that!

Thanks so much! Love you!

October 27, 2014

Hey!

So this week was pretty normal. I'm getting back into the routine of being a normal missionary, which is harder than I thought it would be.  But it's awesome, I understand so much more about missionary work after being in the office and now I just have to throw myself back to work to apply it!  We had interviews with president and inspections of the house this week, which is always fun!  A good motivator to clean the house, haha!  Brazil is in a really bad drought right now, and so some places are having the water cut, and this week it hit us... We've gone 3 days now without running water, it sucks, haha.  All Brazilians have a "water box" on the roof, so we have water to wash dishes and brush our teeth and flush the toilet and such but we have to bring it in in buckets.  I think it should only last until tomorrow, at least I hope so!  I'm needing a good shower!  Davi was confirmed yesterday, he is really funny.  He has a strong testimony, and is loving bringing the gospel into his life, I think it is so incredible how the gospel is for everyone, no matter what the person is like!

Yeah, the peace symbol is pretty popular, haha, but I just choose to stick with the "joia" that is, being interpreted, the thumbs up.  hahahaha.

I love you so much!  let me know what is going on or if there is anything you want to know!

October 20, 2014

H!!!

So, I'm in a city called Diadema. It's just a little bit outside of actual São Paulo.  It's definitely the poorest city of the mission, which is a big change coming from the office and an area in the center of São Paulo which is pretty rich!  But it is really awesome because the people are really receptive, I'm really excited to be able to work a ton and have a success!  My comp is awesome, his name is elder Assis, he is going home in just 3 weeks, he has to go home a couple weeks early so he can start school on time.  He is an amazing missionary and really knows how to work well, I'm really happy to be able to be comps with him, because I'm learning a ton!  We live and share the ward with the zone leaders which is really cool too. They are Elder Huxford and Elder Guimarães.  We even had a baptism this week!  I hardly know the guy but it was really cool to see his desire to be baptized and how everything fell in place for him to be baptized this week, because originally the plans were for him to be baptized next week.  

Everyone here in my new area has been calling me an "old missionary" and that I'm going to be going home soon when they find out I have more than 13 months as a missionary.  That and the fact that my companion is going home next month, Elder Guimarães is going home next transfer and Elder Huxford is going home the transfer after that has really made me realize just how short my time here is.  I realized that I am probably in my second to last area... and I feel like I'm just now figuring out how to be a good missionary!  At first I was sad to leave the office but now I am really grateful. I think I am able to learn and develop more out here in the field teaching, (in the great favelas of Diadema, haha) than if I had spent more time in the office.  I really want to do everything possible to take advantage of this precious time I have to serve the Lord here on my mission.

I love you so much!  

October 4, 2014

Hey!

Well, I'm really excited for conference today, I can't believe this is my THIRD general conference as a missionary!!  Only one more after this!  I can't believe it.  I love general conference as a missionary, I feel that I am just so much more prepared to hear the words of the prophets and appreciate them so much more because I spend all day teaching people who don't have the truths of the gospel or the knowledge of modern prophets.  Giving them that knowledge and explaining how important and incredible it is that the Lord has called prophets and apostles in our day makes me appreciate it even more!

In Brazil the tradition is that everyone goes to the stake center to watch conference together, which I think is cool, so we are going to be there for all of the normal sessions.  But tonight president has invited us over to his house to eat dinner and watch the priesthood session with him!  That is going to be fun!

I don't think I ever told you guys about the mission baptismal goal.  President established the goal of 410 baptisms in the mission from September to the end of the year divided into goal of 75, 100, 110, and 125 per month.  It's a pretty ambitious goal, but for September we got it!  The mission baptized exactly 75 people!  It was really exciting and a great example to me of how the Lord helps us when we set goals and really work to achieve them with his help.

Some really good things are happening in our area.  We are finding a lot of new investigators with really good baptismal potential, and I am really excited for October, I really think we will have some great experiences with these people!

To update you guys of Wanderley, he's still in the hospital and it looks like he's going to be there for a good while.  He's also going to have to do a lot of physical therapy to get back to functioning normally.  It's horrible to see him like this, especially knowing that it is because he quit smoking and drinking coffee that he is in the hospital.   But I have faith he will come out of it stronger and will be blessed for his faithfulness, but if you could keep him in your prayers it would be fantastic.  

Yesterday we had a really cool experience with Adailson!  He brought a friend to our appointment and had us teach him!  It was so cool to see Adailson so excited about sharing the gospel, he was so excited and happy to share what he knew that he was basically jumping all over the place, talking about the sacrament, celestial kingdom, word of wisdom, just trying to throw everything at his friend at the same time!  I really love Adailson.  This guy can barely read, but his knowledge of the gospel and faith are growing at an incredible rate and he truly has received the Holy Ghost!

This week we had mission leadership council, with all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders.  Those are always really cool, and this one was my personal favorite!  A huge chunk of it was just president teaching!  I really love President Broadbent, he is an incredible example to me and I am really glad for the chance to be in the office, so much closer to him than is otherwise possible.  I love being in the office but sometimes during meetings like these when he is training the leaders I get excited for when I can be in the field full-time and apply everything I have learned from president on a larger scale!

I love you!  Thanks so much for helping, supporting, and putting up with me for long enough to get me out on my mission!  It is literally the best!  And thanks for all the continued support and prayers!

oh, and here are some photos from the past little while!

September 20, 2014

Hey!

So looks like from now on p-day for us will be Saturday!  This way there won't be any crazy events or anything that can get in the way like during the week.  

The coming weeks should be cool for the mission. This week we have zone conference and the next week we have a p-day of the mission!  That should be fun, the whole mission is going to go to the São Paulo Botanical Garden and we're gonna eat and I don't know what else, haha!  Here's something funny, some mission president had made a rule that missionaries can't drink coca cola sometime in the past, but President thought that we shouldn't have that rule, so one of the big announcements the mission will get in the newsletter is that they can drink coke!  It's pretty ridiculous how happy that is going to make some missionaries.  What keeps me busy in the office is really just typing up convert information into the system, passing referrals, and organizing materials.  President has given me a few other miscellaneous things to do, like I send emails to parents saying that their missionaries have gotten here safely, and I'm making a 1 page summary of the 20 page missionary recommendation form for each missionary that will be of greater use to him.

I love you!

From September 15th

Things have been going pretty well here!  Here's a funny story, so we were in our Sacrament meeting and all of a suddenElder Aidukaitis walks in... haha, he is in the area presidency and spoke in the last general conference!  It was really cool!