April 28th, 2014

Olá todo mundo! So this week was another great week. Man things are seriously going so great here in Canguçu! Like we are seriously being so blessed by the Lord!!! Connor, I hope you had fun at prom, and Carson, keep rocking at beaseball man. I hear that you are smashing the ball... thats right, I taught you everything you know.... Haha Jonathan.... I heard about the Australians liking your music on the radio... thats rad mate... you should go to outback to celebrate.. haha. Mom, thanks for sendingh me emails every week for me, I love hearing from you. I love you mom! And dad, Brussels looks awesome, and what was that cheese french fry thing you sent in the picture???

Anyways this week really was a great week. My companion Elder Moraes is really awesome, and is such a hard worker. He is so awesome seriously, he is very dedicated. And, he is helping me alot with my Portugues accent, so it is going great with him, I love being a treiner, even though he is like pre trained already haha. 

But this week we have been really trying t obring members with us to teach and to help us with our investigators because it makes a huge difference! And so even with our small branch of like 20 members, we are helping them help us! Its great because we can see their testimony grow along with the testimony of the investigators its great, and exactly what the branch needs! And so this week, we are going to try to integrate Danilo and Milene a little more with the members because they are great, and I dont want anything to happen!!

So about them! They are AWESOME! I know I say that every week but I mean that, they are awesome! We still havent started the papers for the wedding because Milenes parents have to be there and they live pretty far away, but this wednesday we will start the papers and then I think the baptism will be May 30! We will have the baptism and wedding ceremony on the same day... I am really excited!!!

This week we told them that we would go with them to church on Sunday and so we woke up early and went to their house to walk with them to church, and there was nobody home. I was a little worried and so we went to church and me and Elder Moraes said a prayer that they would be able to come to church. Then, right before the sacrament meeting they showed up on their own!!! Man, that was a miracle for me... Turns out they had gone to Milenes parents house, that lives pretty far away, because Milenes mom called and they needed to go. But they remembered about church on Sunday and came back to Canguçu on Sunday morning to visit church!! How awesome is that?!

So yeah, that was awesome! Isabel is going great to, she didnt come to church this week but is still reading and praying. She just needs a little more confidence to break her traditions that she has in the family, because her family is really Anglican. She is doing great, and I really believe that with time she will be able to make a leap of faith.

So those were the highlights of this week! I love being a missionary. Even thought its hard, and I miss all of you, its such an honor to serve the Lord for these two years. Oh an just to explain the picture, me with the goat was when we went to the family´s house (Gama Family) who are super awesome and one of the sons is a member less active. But they had a goat... so they brought him insiade for me to feed. Hahah foi engraçado. But yeah that was my week! I love you all! Have a great week!

April 21st, 2014

Hello my awesome friends so this week was a  very great week! But I am so happy to see that all is well at home, and Carson, dude you are huge!!!! Congrats for those hits you had! Dad sent me some videos... dude you rock! Haha and tell Alex congrats with the marriage proposal, thats so great!!! Haha I miss you all so much:)

SO this week was great, on tuesday I went to Porto Alegre to get my new son, Elder Moraes! He is super awesome!!!! He is only a member of the church for 3 years, and is a brasilian that was baptized in Portugal when he was studying there! He is 25 years old, and so excited to work, and he was actually that ward misison leader in his city of Baurú, São Paulo! He  is the most prepared missionary I have ever seen, and he has so much faith! I am so happy to be his trainer! SO yeah! On tuesday we went there and came back and didnt have time to work because it was such a long trip on he bus, we got home super late!

But its great to have responsabilitieson the mission! Its like now I can determine how hard we work and stuff which is really a blessing. We have been working a ton with Danilo and Milene still, and they are so great! This week we are going to go and start the marriage process for them and then we they are married we will ahve a marriage and baptism on the same day! It will be so special:) I am so happy for them! This week we had a family night with them in their home, and I made Jamba Juice smoothies for them.... but they didnt turnout so great.... I was gunnnnnnnnna make strawberies wild, but I couldnt find strawberries or apple juice or vanila ice cream... so I used strawberry juice... and pineapple...and like the type of ice cream mcdonalds has.... yeah didnt turn out so great.... but at least it was fun right!

Haha a cool experience happened this week with Isabel, because last week she went to church and tripped and almost fell in te church. But this week we went to her house ad she told us that she believes it was a miracle she didnt hurt herself because she broke her leg a ong time ago and it is really weak, but she didnt even hurt it a little on Sunday! She even told us she felt sombody catch her when she tripped.... Wowww.. thattttts a miracle!!! We are helping her feel more ready to be baptized, because she is still feeling unprepared, but she is awesome!

And one more miracle happened this week! We were walking looking for a referal, but the member didnt give us the adress and told us vaguely where the house was. We were going, and got a little lost in the middle of nowhere, so we said a pray asking the Lord to show us the house. I saw a house off in the distance and thought, "could it be that house? Lets go ask at least if they know the guy!" We went there and a lady came out, and I asked if shew knew the guy, and she said... "thats my husband!" How cool!!!! They couldnt attend us at that moment, but it was a answer direct to our prayer! It was so amazing, I just got such a great feeling after! It was small, but was a miracle. I didnt hear a voice, but a thought came in my mind, that was guided by the spirit! SO cool huh? 

But yeah pretty much that was my week, it was really great, and this week will be even better!!! Thanks for all the support and love that you show me! I lvoe you all!!! and so the first picture is in front of the misison office in Porto Alegre, the second is the family night with Danilo and Milene, and the last is a cake that my companion made that has Passion fruit in it... its really good!!! Hahah

April 14th, 2014

So this week, there was many verl col experiences that happened, including one that was like a missionary´s dream, so all in all it was an amazing week. Dad, Lisboa looked so awesome, did you understand the Portugues at all?? They speak very different from Brasilian Portuguese, but I would be interested to visit there to see what its like. Connor congrats on your AP physics test, that test is ridiculous, and I go tthe same score I think... I dont remember... maybe I got a four. But still congrats man! Carson, keep rocking at baseball, you are the prodigee of the family in baseball, keep up the good work! Jonathan and natalie, keep rocking. And Mom, I love you, I am very excited to talk to you on Mothers day! I hope all is well:)

So big new! Today we got the transfer phonecall, and I will have my first son on the mission, thats right, I am going to treighn!!! It will be so awesome, maybe I will be able to teach an American Portugues er soomething! I will find out who my companion is tomorrow when I go to Porto Alegre!!! I am very excited, especially becuse new misisonaries seem to have alot of faith and obedience, which will be great to work with, because sadly there are others who lack those atributes!

But to tell you about my week! first of all, lasttt week a member took us to meet a friend of hers named Isabel. She is a super sweet lady, and we shared a message with her, and it was really awesome. At first she didnt seem too interested, but when the member, Aldaci shared her testimony, it made all the difference. She became really interested, and we have now visited her three times, and every time she has been more and more interested. She is even reading the book of mormon, from the start, and she understands reallllly well!!! She was telling us about the story of Nefi and Lehi and it was awesome! She came to church yesterday and loved it! The only problem was she almost broke her leg because she tripped on the steps of the church... but other then that it was great!!

So DANILO AND MILENE!!! They are our wonderful couple that we are teaching and that we will help get married soon. They have been doing so well, and we found out Milene is a great Soccor player and loves sports, which gave a good intro to teach the word of wisdom! They accepted it without any problems which was so awesome! There is just a different feeling when we teach tehm and when we teach other people. Its like... you can just see in their eyes that they are feeling the Spirit! So they went to church yesterday and after, Danilo came up to me and said this. My heart stopped and like I got so happy. He said, "so Milene and I have been thinking... and maybe this week or next week, we would like to be baptized," MY HEART STOPPED!!!! Ha I knew they were going to be baptized but, it was awesome that he came up and wanted to mark his baptism!! So I explained to him about the marriage that we will do, and as soon as that happens they will be able to be baptized! I am so grateful for them! Seriously they are a miracle, and even Presidente Gimaraes (the branch president) Said that he could tell they were having a true conversion! I really love them! Last night we watched 17 Miracles with them, and they loved it! They like invite us over to the house to teach them and they even want to mark anotherrrrr churrasco, but this time I think we will pay because they dont have alot fo money!

But yeah, so this week was me reaping the blessings of this transfer. The next transfer will be "SÓ ALEGRIA!!!" (just joy). I love you and miss you all so much! Have a great week! And sorry I dont have any new pictures from this last week... but this week I will take more! I love you!!!

April 7th, 2014

Hello everybody so this week was a very awesome week fo rme, I really loved it! I hope all of you enjoyed conference because I loved it. My favorite session was the sunday morning session, and my favorite talks were those of President Monson, Elder Bednar, and Elder Uchtdorf! They were so great! Also Marcos Aidukaitis is part of the area presidency of Brasil, it was cool because he translated and recorded his talk in Portugues so when he was speaking, we heard his voice instead of the translators! He was born in Porto Alegre, and so he is Gaucho! And I heard him speak in the MTC when I was there! So that was cool! I hope you enjoyed the sessions! I still ahvent had the chance to watch the Priesthood session, but I want to really badly!

So this week was also Zone Conference, and it was really good too! I got to see a bunch of my friends that I got to know on the mission, and it was really cool catching up with them, but the actual conference was so good! Presidente Alves, one of the misson coiunselours gave a talk and he told about his misison, and how he really turned it around because of the faith that he developed and it helped me alot. I really loved it! The whole confernce was good but yeah!

So about our awesome investigators Danilo and Milene, on Monday they made Churrasco for us, and it was super fun being with them. They are doing super well. They arent legally married because in Brasil its pretty diffuicult and expensive to get married legally and so people just move in togehter. So this week we alked a little bit about that, and they said they really really want to get married in the temple to have an eternal family, and wow we just got so happy!!!! And so we are going to help them get married legally first and then they can be baptized. It takes about a month to do the paperwork fo rmarriege, and so about here in one month they will be married:) That was so awesome, because we were a little worried how we would tlak to that, but we didnt need to worry because they are just so receptive!!!

But yeah those were the highlights of the week! I love you all so much and hope you are well. I miss you all so so so much, but I am happy to hear that you are well! I love you all so much! Here are some pictures of the conference, and the churrasco with Danilo ad Milene! I love you!!! Have a great week!