December 16th, 2013

Hello everybody!! So this was the first week of the transfer and it was awesome! My new companion is Elder Mendes, and he is from Santa Catarina, but lived in Utah for six months studying English! He is way way cool! We get along great, and he is a super hard worker! We are going to work some miracles here in the area! So as my title shows, I have been in an all out war with the mosquitos. Its getting pretty warm here, and so the mosquito race is growing at an increasing rate. So last night I went all out, and built a fort around my bed of blankets to protect myself, and put a shirt over my head and socks on my hands to proect myself... but I was outsmarted by the little critters.... Today I will buy some weapons to destroy their race... bug spray... yeah, Im going all out!

So this week was actually really really awesome with Elder Mendes! I am feeling the Spirit so strong when I terasch with him! Yesterday I had the experience of teaching a lesson about the word of wisdom, and I really felt that the Spirit put words in my mouth of what I should have said.; It was REALLY cool, because the guy had some big doughts, but because of that spirit he ended up accepting it and wanting to live it!! So that was awesome!

Yesterday, a miracle happened! So we jsut ended church and we were walking to our apartment to put our suits in our apartment, and a lady walked up to us and said, "Can I talk to you?" So we started talking and she said that she has been going to a christian church for a long time, but felt like there was so much more that she was missing. She said that a friend had given her a book of mormon, and when she read it, she felt so much peace, and started being able to sleep again (she was having insomnia)! And then she said... "So I want to follow this religion... how can I?" Thats like candy for a missionaries ears!!! It was such a miracle! As she was talking I just had such a strong feeling in my chest that was the spirit, and AHHHH! I love being a misisonary! Her name is Jovelina, and we are going to start teaching her this week!

We also have two guys we are teaching that are going to be baptized next week! They are named Claudio and Marcelo! What happened was a while ago, I talked to Claudio on the road, and invited him for church! He ended up going a few weeks later, and brought his son Marcelo, who has 30 years. They ahve gone to church the last 4 Sundays and are loving it, and are friends with a bunch of people in the ward already! They are super super super smart guys, but love the church because it accepts science and religion! They are so so cool, and next Saturday is their baptism! They are very excited for it!!!

So yeah! As for skype, I will be calling 3 O CLOCK MY TIME!!!!!! I dont know for sure what it is your time, but yeah! Be sure to send me the user name and stuff to call!!! But thats just about it I think! It was an awesome awesome week! I love you all, keep being awesome!

PS These pictures are from a few weeks ago I just never had the chance to send them!

 

 

December 9th, 2013

Hello everybody so its that time of the month again!!! Thats right, transfers!!! Haha I will be sticking in Fragata for a little bit more, which means I will spend Christmas in this area!! Yeah!!! So also, send me the name of your skype and whatnot and I will skype you guys on Christmas! So Im pretty excited about that! Also, my package got released from captivity from the mail pirates, so it should be coming to Pelotas soon.

Anyways so this week I did a few emergency divisions with some other missionaries! As would be expected, Elder Aramayo wasnt super happy that I talked to President, so he decided to get all mad at me. So I went on splits with the zone leaders and another missionary, Elder Paz the day after. It was actually really really good. I felt the Spirit and I felt more like a missionary. Lately, its been hard to feel like a missionary with the other missioanries around me doing un missionary like things, but when I was on splits I felt so good. It was like a refresher!

Um so this week our lunch appointment fell so we had to cook in our house... And I made some freakin awesome Tacos!!! I even made the tortilhas from scratch!! Pretty awesome right!! I made guacamole, aand like everything! It was so good! It made me miss Arizona a little bit, but its all good!

Connor I am so happy that you are participating in the missioanry work!!! Thats so so awesome!!! Its alot of fun huh!!! Its so much better when the members are involved and helping! Keep up the good work buddy!!!

And yeah, as for people that we are teaching, we found alot of people taht seemed so so awesome during the first lesson, that ended up running away and hiding from us! Its actually kinda funny sometimes. But lets face it, Im a pretty scary guy!

But one thing that s really cool. In the beginning of the transfer I talked to a lady on the street named Fortunata. She gave her adress, but she lives in the middle nof nowhere and so it was hard to visit her! But this week we ended up getting a chance to go there and she said that she was waiting for us for a long time! So im pretty excited to start teaching Fortunata! But yeah!!

Anyways thats about it for my week! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!!!! And Im sorry, I have pictures again but once again this computer doesnt send pictures.... oh Brasil. Ha, I love you all!

December 2nd, 2013

Soooo one more week has passed here in the wonderful Brasil!! So first of alllllll for THANKSGIVING... I didnt do anything sadly. I wanted to go eat churrasco, but we marked with an investigator that ended up not even fasting. But it was still good! I remembered that im grateful for  so much stuff. Haha it was awesome to see that you all had fun!! So this week I mailed a package for you guys for Christmas!! You should be getting it soon!

So this week was good! So all this transfer we have been struggling to find really solid people to teach, we are teaching lots of people but not alot are progressing. But this week we started teaching an awesome awesome lady named Aline! We went to teach her and started teaching and talking and she asked the question, "How can we recognize answers to our prayers" and "what does the holy ghost feel like'" before we even started teaching!! She is super awesome! I have high hopes for her!!! So that was really awesome! I always feel the spirit so strong when I ask quesions and answer questions. So Im excited for her!

Soooo I have a little bit of bad news... My Christmas package arrived in Porto Alegre... but the mail system is holding it hostage. I had to bail it out with 300 reais from my emergency fund... It happens when the value is really high on a box or its really heavy, and so they tax it. So I gave President the money and it should arrive in Pelotas soon. But if you could, can you put some money in my account so I can recharge my emergency fund?

And so yeah! Yesterday we had a devotional with President Castro for the Pelotas and the Pelotas North stake! All of the missionaries sang in a choir and it was way cool! And afterwards President said he wanted to have an interview with me and Aramayo. So today we had the interview and President asked me to tell him everything. He said it was right what I did even though it was really hard. For right now he is still my companion, but I might switch until the end of the transfer, I dont know yet! But Im very grateful for him.

So that was my week!! I love you all so much!! You are awesome and Im very grateful for all of you! Thanks for everything!!! Sorry I cant sedn picutres this week the computer isnt recognizing my flashdrive.. .Dang Brasil... Haha Tchau!

November 25th, 2013

Hello my wonderful family!! So this week being the week of thanksgiving, I would like to write how thankful I am that I am a family that supports me so well! Lots of missionaries dont have supportive families, or they are the only members in their family, but I am so grateful that all of you are supporting me and still showing so much love. I am also so grateful for the scriptures! I am learning so much adn feeling the spirit so strongly! And I am thankful for my mission, because I feel like Im growing up alot, and yeah! Im just thankful for so much!! But mom, for the thanksgiving rolls, you can put I am thankful for a supportive family that helps me with anything I need.

Anyways, this week was a good week! We are teaching this elderly woman named Nelsa, and she is super cool! She is pretty old, but recieves the messages well! We taught her the restoration and showed her an image of the first vision! She said that she had a dream one time of the exact same image!! Pretty cool huh? So we invited her to come to church and she said she wouldnt make any promises, which normally means no. But this Sunday she came all on her own! It was awesome! It takes alot of courage to jsut go to a new church alone, so I was super happy about that!

This week I ate sugar cane for the first time! It was really good haha! It looks like bamboo, but you eat the inside and chew it, and this sugary juice comes out of the sugar cane! It was super super good haha! So yeah!!

But yeah. Also, Im so grateful to have recieved a firm testimony about this gospel. Yesterday we were teaching this man Eduardo, and he knows alot about scientific stuff and whatnot, and pretty much ended up telling me that my testimony and answer to my prayers were all in my head. Yeah so naturally, I didnt get to happy when he said that, but I was so happy to be able to say that I know for sure that it was true. And as I said that I felt in my heart again, that it was true. I am so grateful for that too:)

But yeah! Carson, sorry to hear about your finger!!! But Im sure you are lovin the atention from the ladies... HAHAHA just kidding. Dad sorry to hear about your ribs. Hope you feel better soon! I will probably send your Christmas presents this week! I hope you like them! And mom I dont have a picture of me and him on my camera... Im sorryyyy.... 

 Me with a sugar cane!!