Tudo tranquilo?!

November 18th, 2013

 

Hello my family, how are you all doing!! I hope you are all well!! Carson you look so old with braces... how long are you going to have them on!? Thats pretty awesome! Dad I understood your portugues! Thats awesome that you could understnad my leter that I wrote in Portugues! And also so awesome that mom wont need to work as much!! What a blessing!!! Im so happy that everything is going so well! Im very blçessed to have such a good family!

So this week I learned a new word in Portugues! Morcego! Let me tell you how I learned this word.... we were headed back home on Friday night and got a call from the other missionaries that live in our house that a morcego invaded our house and was hiding in our room. I thought it was a joke, and didnt even know what a morcego was.... So we got back in our house, and my companions gave me an umbrella to protect myself. I didnt even know what I was protecting myself from... So I went in our room, started looking around... Put my hand on my laundry basket and found.... A BAT!!!!! Haha I almost had a heart attack! Luckily that type of bat just eats fruits er something.... but I freaked out!!!!! Haha just in Brasil....

Anyways about the work here in Fragata! It is very different then Capão! Its pretty hard to find new people to teach, but we got a referral for a family that orded a church video on the internet. We went to deliver the video and it is a family totally awesome!!!! We are going to visit there tonight to teach them again, but I think that they have alot of potential!

As for Mayara, she doesnt even live in our area!! The missionaries in this area before us found her house and didnt let us know that it isnt even in our area... so thats kind of a bummer, I think we will talk to the missionaries in her area to start teaching her. Its a little sad because she was doing so well, but you gotta do what you gotta do!!

Anyways, about the letter to President about my companion, as of right now nothing happened... but we will see what happenes this week. I love you all so much and hope you are well!! Im thinking about you!! Have a great week family!!!! Até Mais!

Chuvaaaaa

Nov 11th, 2013

 

Hello my awesome family I hope you all are doing well! I am missing you all so much but its crazy that next month I will be able to skype you!! It will be way cool. But yeah so right now it is raining a bunch and it is craziness! Last night there was a huge lightning that shook the apartment and it was crazy!! Haha but yeah! I feel like the summer will never come! Its november and Im still using a jacket!

So this week was a good week! I am really loving the ward here! The bishop is actually the brother in law of the bishop in my last area and he is way awesome and super dedicated. We had a meeting of ward council and he explained a plan to help the ward with the missionary work, but also to resue members that have fallen away. I liked it a lot and I am really excited to help this ward.

So this week there is a chance that we will be baptizing a girl named Mayara. She is 19 years old and is very smart, but because she is so smart she really like to question things. She feels a difference in the church and while she reads the Book of Mormon, and I think she knows its true, she is just having a hard time having faith to make that step. She speaks English fluent, and so the other day I taught her that if she waits to know for sure that the church is true before baptism, the certainty will never come. If she had a certainty, she wouldnt be using faith, and baptism is an act of faith. It takes alotttt of faith to be baptised because its natural to want to know for sure. But I told her that when she is baptised she will feel a confirmation that she did the right thing. Faith faith faith!!! Everything in the church is an act of faith.

So yeah! Also we are working with a lady named Maria, who is the mom of a girl named Dara, who is a member. We have only taught her one time, but I had a feeling really interesting whe we taught her. It was a feeling that her "hour" to be baptized is going to be soon. So we are going to help her all we can!!

But yeah so my companion has some issues with obedience and some other things. Some pretty big things. I really feel like a letter to President Castro is the best way I can help him, becasue he is going to ruin his life if he continues like this. He is probably going to hate me forever, but its what I have to do. So wish me luck haha...

But that was my week! I love you all so much and miss you! I hope you are all well! Until next week!

Primeira semana no Fragata!

Hello everybody!!! I love to hear that you are all doing well! Your Halloween costumes were very awesome I was very impressed! They dont have Halloween here so it was a little anticlimatic... but Im busy doing the Lords work. But in Brasil they have Dia das Almas, which is just a day when everybody visits the cemetary and whatnot nothing big, but we had a zone activity and we passed out pamphlets that talked about the Plan Of Salvation!! So that was Legal!

Haha mom your story about the disaster situation was hilarious.. .Carson Im glad the Piano was still working when the power went out. Naturally that should be the first thing to check when the power goes out.Haha but Im glad you had a good Halloween!!

So about my week! First of all my new companion isnt Elder Araújo, its Elder Aramayo. When my district leader called to tell me last week he said the wrong name. He is Argentinan and has a reallllly strong Argentinan accent haha. He is cool haha.

The area that I am in is pretty cool! The members here are super strong and Ive already developed some friendships! My friend Elder Jackson was serving in this area and did a great job and so its awesome to see the people he helped! And he went to my old area so he gets to see the people I helped! But its going pretty good here!

This week we had a conference with Presidente Mazzargardi who is in the Presidency of the Brasil South area! It was really really awesome and I learned alot, but specifically how I can sacrifice my will for the will of the father. He spoke about a cleansing process that missioanries need to have, and as we cleanse and sancitify oursleves we will be more ready to followthe will ofthe Lord. He spoke about our role in the Plan of God and it was really really awesome!!

But yeah thats about it for this week! Nothing too crazy, but here in a few weeks I should get settled in!! Haha I hope you all are well! I love you so much.

Mais uma semana!

Hello family! So first of all, I will be transfered tooooooo FRAGATA! Its a bairro of Pelotas, but a different zone! My companion is going to be Elder Araújo, and Ive already met him before he is way cool!!! Im excited!!

I am pretty sad that I will be leaving but I am excited to serve there! I feel like I have learned so much in this area and I am excited to see what my next area will bring!

But this week was a great week! This week we really have been trying to help Aureci and Niara feel more ready for baptism! Niara is ready and she has been ready for a while for baptism, but we are trying to help Aureci the best we can! He is having a hard time just having faith in Christ to begin with, but he is really trying to recieve an answer I think. They went to church with us yesterday and Niara loved it! She even found out that a friend from her work was a member! And Aureci would have loved it... if he could here. He told us he didnt hear one word.... Its pretty hard to enjoy sitting for 3 hours when you cant hear anything.... I think him and Niara are going to try getting him a hearing aid er something. Its just really expensive.

Yesterday somethin really cool happened! So it was my last Sunday in the ward so I gave a talk, and so this week I prayed and studied and wrote a talk during the week. But speaking in Public isnt one fo my strengths, and I was nervous because my talk was supposed to be 15 minutes or more, so I wrote out a long talk on paper and yeah! I prayed a bunch that I would have strength to talk for a long time, with good portugues, and that my talk would help people. When I got up there to talk I only looked at my notes to read the scriptures that I wrote! The rest I just spoke! And it was awesome! I had such a great feeling during the talk, not a feeling of nervousness, but a good feeling! It was awesome! Haha and the bishop ahad to telll me that my time was up because I was talking for so long! But it was such an awesome feeling to recieve an answer so direct to my prayer!

But yeah so those were the highlights of the week! Also this week it rained a ton and the roads got all flooded and whatnot, so we ended up walking to lunch in flip flops... she lived close and it wet shoes are the worst... And she told us to. What can you do haha.... 

But yeah I love you all! Thanks for all you do for me! I dont need anything but thanks for always offereing:) I love you all!

 

 

Hello from apple world!

Hello everybody!! So first of all, only the people who watch Spongebob will understand the title, but I have been eating lots of apples this week. Haha so this week has been awesome! We did lots of cool things and whatnot! But yeah! Mom thats so scary about the ladder incident.. I hope you are okay!! Thats so scary!!! I really hope you are okay! Connor... of course he would be captain america on the homecoming float... anyways.

So this week was really awesome!! This week we had a zone conference and I got to see my friends Elder Harris and Elder Jackson!! They are awesome and so it was great to see them again. The conference was way awesome! I love every chance to hear Presidente Castro! He is awesome and it was very spiritual! That day was the day of Elder Galdinos birthday so we decided to eat at the Lobão, or (Big Wolf), which is maybe the best churrasco restaurant in Rio Grande do Sul. Im sending photos but yeah... it was epic. It was way expensive, but luckily I have been saving my coins and change for 3 months... I had 80 reais in coins hahaha. So yeah that was way fun!

We have been talking with some people at the school where we used to have our sacrament meetings, and we are going to start classes of english this week! It is going to be awesome!! But I will probably only teach this week because I am pretty sure its my last week in Capão do Leão. Its pretty sad actually. I love this area, but I have been here for a long time! And Presidente Castro gave a hint that I will be tranferred next week... Exciting but sad at the same time!

As for the work here in Capão its going really well! We are still teaching Aureci and Niara, but they need a little more time before they can be baptized. We had a dinner at their house on Saturday and she cooked pan churrasco! It was super good! I really feel like good good friends with them! I hope one day they get baptized because it would make them so happy! Also!! Remember Nelson, my friends from Texas that we were teaching before I left! I got an email that he was baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How awesome huh?! I knew I had a purpose in going to Texas!

But yeah, so today we are going to get me some new clothes. Dad, I chuckled a little bit when you said mold only grows on damp clothes. Haha if only you could see it here. I have a radical picture of mold on my belt haha... and pots... and pans... and everything else. Haha but dont worry Im fine here, and Ill probably be leaving this area soon. I love you all so much!! Have a great week:) 

Ps Connor, the batmobile is awesome congrats!!!!!!! And the boat was an assignment that President Castro gave us after the zone conference... its pretty sick huh haha