Helllllllo erbody, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all have a happy new year this week! I missed you guys a ton this week,but really it was so great to be able to talk to you guys even though it was such a short amout of time! I cant wait to be able to tell you all of my mission stories, there are some funny ones.
Like yesterday something funny happened. In our apartment building, there live alot of pigeons. Alotttt of pigeons. So, the apartment complex put, a metal screen over the windows so the pigeons cant land on the window sill. Well, yesterday a pigeon managed to get inside the net (I have no idea howwwwwwww) but couldnt get out! So, we went to church thinking that while we were at church, he would find his way out.... we were wrong. We came back and he was there in the same exact spot on our window sill. We tried everythign to force him out, and nothing worked. SO... we ended up having to cut the screen, and scare the bird with an umbrela so he would leave. But instead of leaving the wondow sill through the hole in the screen.... he decided to attack the umbrela! Did you guys know that pigeons have a vicous pecking action? Because I sure didnt.... We eventually forced him out... and he went and tried to land on a window...... that didnteven have a window sill.... he struggled to hold on to that window, and kept slipping...But I think he forgot that he is a bird and can just fly away to a different place? I dont know. But I ended up giving him the name of Santa Claus... because while he was on our window sillhe decideed to leave us some presents... merry Christmas?
Haha we had a good week here working though, and we even saw a little miracle yesterday with an investigator. We have been working with her for a while, and we invited her to be baptized this Saturday, and she wasnt super sure if she wanted to or not, and me and Elder Alves left the lesson, feeling like she needed to have a personal spiritual experience so she could gain a testimony. Yesterday we went to her house and we asked her some questions about how she has felt about everything we have taught her, and she responded saying that she felt something inside her growing. Well, me and Elder Alves decided to read a part of Alma 32 with her that talks about the growing seed, and when she read that she got really emotional, and felt the spirit, and said she knew that the church was true. We are going to work with her to be baptized this week! I am super excited, her name is Pamela!
But yeah. I am super happy to be on the misison.I hope nobody got the impresison that I was dying to come home er something like that on Christmas, because actually this time on the mission has been the best time of my life, and it is sad that it willend. But I willwork my hardest until the end. But yeah! I love you all! Ill talk to you all next year!!! Tchau tchau!
Picture one is my Christmas morning and picture two is my Christmas eve with two families in the ward!
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Hello everybody Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyy Christmas here in a few days! I am so excited to be able to talk to you guys again! I miss you guys a ton. Um I still dont know for sure when I will call... Tomorrow around 2:30 or 3 my time I might call and test out the skype and then we can work out the details about when I will call on Christmas!
This was my first week in the Restinga in Porto Alegre and it was pretty great. The area looks like there is alot of potential, I am kinda sad that I wont be staying here for alot of time, because it seems like a great area to work. I am serving in the ward "Nilow Wulff" and it is very small, actually its the same size as Canguçu, with only 20 members active. There is alottttt of room for improvement!
The people here in Porto Alegre are alot diferent then the other cities that I have served in. In the other cities (especially Canguçu and Cachoeira) it seems like the people were so reswerved, but here in Porto Alegre everybody loves to talk and most of the people let us in to teach!
Um, lets see I dont knowwww the investigators too well to be able to writeee about them yet, but I think this week we may have a baptism of a girl named Paloma. She has been going to church for a long time, and just hasnt been baptized because her parents wont allow it, and she only has 16 years. We are going to fast and pray that they allow it and if they do, we will have a baptism this Sautday it should be cool!
Um and this week we had our Christmas conference and it was good, but nothing compares to a Christmas at home. I miss Christmas with the family, but its okay because I am just going to have to make the best of these last 5 weeks I have here on the mission! I am excited, lots of good things are going to happen in this period.
But I am happy, I am working hard, and love being a misisonary every single day. It seems like every day it only gets better!! Andddd Im pretty sure my Portuguese is like the best it will get, because when I got here in the ward, they asked me if I was Brazilian. Yeah, Im like six feet tall, blonde, green eyes, and they thought I was Brazilian... It made me happy haha....
But yeah, anways for those of you who are curious to see my apartment... dad.... haha its Rua Nilow Wulff 300 I think, bairro Restinga, Porto Alegre. I live in the apartments with a yellow stripe. Yup, buttttttttt até mais!
1. Me, Elder Marcato (ex comp) and Elder Mendes (ex comp)
2. Me, Elder Menezes (Brazil treiner) (examine our unique style of our hands...)
3. Me and Santa
4. Me Elder H. Silva, and Maicon (recém converso) at a pizza place before I left Cachoeira)
5. Us eating some pizza with Maicon and Andreza
6. Me and Lucas (recent convert from Cachoeira)
Hellllllo good morning from Brasil! I hope you all are doing great! We had a greatttt week this week! So I am very excited to tell you all about it! Anyways first of all we found out about transfers this week... and sadly I will be transfered to Porto Alegre in the bairro Nilow Wulff! I will be companion do Elder Alves, who is from João Pessoa Brasil. I already know him and lived with him in Fragata last year, so it should be cool. I am a little sad to be leaving Cachoeria, because the work is going so well, and my companion was so cool. We are planning on having 3 baptisms this week, but sadly I wont be able to be here. But its okay, Im sure in Nilow Wulff there will be lotsssss of people waiting to hear our message.
Anyways first of all, about the baptism of Vangli! It was one of the baptisms that I felt the spirit the strongest! We sung "the spirit of God" and he told me that he just had a great feeling while singing that hymn! Then, I had the oportunity to baptise him and it was great. After he was baptised he gave me a hug and I could tell he was feeling the Spirit. And then on Sunday when he recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost, he was just smiling and I could tell he was feeling it. It is such a great experience. I love being a missionary, there is so many blessings that we have recieved. Thankfully, everybody that I baptized here is strong in the church, and have strong testimonys, and I am just so happy that the Lord is using me to bless the lives of these people.
I am pretty happy about my time here in Cachoeira. When I arrived, it was a pretty weak branch with 40 people more or less. But yesterday, my last sunday, with all the new members, and investigators, and reactivated members that we brought to church there were 70 people. Really it was a huge miracle.
Daniela and Junior went to church yesterday and are super strong, and Danilea is so excited to be baptized, but she is just waiting on the wedding paperwork. Sadly they told us yesterday that because of an emergancy they are moving to Porto Alegre this week, which means we wont have the oporutunity to teach them. They said they will find the misisonaries in Porto Alegre, and when she is ready to be baptized she will call me and Elder H. Silva so we can be at the baptism!
Funny story... I was walking on the sidewalk this week, and a member drove by and honked his horn. I looked up to wave at him... and when I looked up, I fell into a sewer drain!!! Luckily there was no sewage at the moment, but it was pretty funny!
But yeah, today starts my last transfer of the misison. Crazy right? Yup its crazy. But I am working hard until the end! I love you all! Have a great week!
The first picture is of Vangli, and the last one is of Felipe, from the other week!
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Hello everybody, it is so great to hear from you guys.First of all I need to apologize for the spelling errors in this email, today is a holiday inBrasil and there is only one internet placeopen in the whole city, and turns out the computers are pretty sketchy...
But I hope you all had a great week, my week here was pretty good. We really have been working a ton here in Cachoeira, and its interesting that the Lord always blesses us, just not always in the way that we expect. One example is Felipe! We had been working so much to find people to teach, and then out of nowhere, we met him at his aunts house who is a member! He was all ready to be batpized, its just that nobody had invited him to be baptized! He was baptized on Friday, and it was great! I would send pics, but because of the sketchyness of the computr I amworried that my pendrive will get a virus... But the baptism was great, and Daniela, our investigator from Fortaleza was there and she loved it! She will be batptized soontoo, she is getting the paperwork ready for her marriage, and then she can be baptized!
Vangli is also doing very well, he went to church yesterday, and is ready to be baptized this week! He is facing alotof opposition, but he is facing it with faith and he is determined to be baptized. It will be a great experience, Vangli is such a cool person.
The Lord is really blessing us here, and I dont take these blessings for granted. I know that its not because of me that theseblessings are coming, but its all from the Lord. Its just great to be able to recieve all these blessings. I really love the people I teach. And, I am happy. Very happy.
Sorry the email isnt longer... I cant take this dumbkeyboard anymore! But I hope you have a greatweek!I love you all!
Hello everybody, gooooood morning here from Brasil! I hope you had a very great Thanksgiving, and hope you all remembered how thankful I am for all of you! This week on Thanksgiving I was in Porto Alegre for a conference of Zone Leaders, and then the day after was a misison tour with Elder Moroni Torgan of the seventy! We decdided to get Thanksgiving lunch at a restauraunt in the center of Porto Alegre, nothing too fancy, but it was good. Instead of Turkey I ate a bunch of carne:)
So anyways how the misison tour works is that every once in a while, a general authority goes to the mision to evaluate the work that is happening and how it can improve, and so on Thursday we had a conference with all the Zone leaders on the mission, and we had a meeting with him. I am so grateful for leaders that are so inspired and give so much to the Lord. Really that conference made me think alot about my work, and what I can do to improve. Its crazy that the more I improve, the more I realize how many weaknesses I have!
Then on Friday we had a confrence with Elder Torgan, and about half of the other misisonaries here in the mission, and it was really great. He talked alot about revelation and how we need to have personal revelation for our misison and for our own lives. He explained how we cn recongize revelation and it was a great expereicen that I am never going to forget.
And then we got back here to Cachoeira Friday night, and we were so excited to be able to work this week, and we were so full of faith that we would be able to find people that are ready to be baptized this next week. We ended up talking to a member Rosiara and she told us that her nephew who has nine years wanted to be baptized, and has gone to church a bunch of times! I actually already knew him (his name is Felipe) but I htought he was a member! So we talked to Felipe, his mom, and he wants to be batpized thios week! It will be super special!
Then the next week we are planning on having another bap´tism of a young man named Vangli. He is super cool, he is 21, and has been wanting to be baptized for a while, but things keep on coming up that are getting in the way of the baptism. We are going to have to work hard to make sure he can be baptized this coming week!
There is so much cool stuff happening here in Cachoeira do Sul! Its great here in this city. I lovvvvve being a misisonary! But for my last trasnfer I think President is going to transfer me from here sadly. The trasnfer is in two weeks, and its sad because I dont want to change my comp, but if I stayed in the same area we would both end our misison at the same time, and two new misisonaries would have to come into this area and yeah... it wouldnt be so great for the work. So, I proabably will leave the area on the 16th.
But yeah. I hope you all had a great week, I love you all so much! Happy first of Dezember!!!!!!
Hello everybody I hope you all are well! I miss you guys a ton, and am very excited to be able to talk to you in a few weeks for Christmas! It should be very cool!
This week was a great week of work here in Cachoeira! We are really trying our best to work hard, and sometimes to our dissapointment, the results dont always come how they are planned, but at least we are happy as we are working! That is a great blessing, when we work we are happy.
Yesterday was stake conference, (actually district conference because here doesnt have a stake) and it was great! It was actuall funny because the first speaker was a Peruvian, the second was Japonese, the thirdand forth were American, the fifth was Uruguayan, and the last speaker was the only Brazilian that spoke! It was funny. President Castro spoke and it was really super great. In one of the sessions they asked Maicon, our recent convert, to bear his testimony, and it was the strongest thing ever. EVERYBODY in the conference was commenting about his testimony afterwards, really it was such a special moment for me.
I dont remember if I told you about the family of Luziane, but its a family that we have been teachig for a few weeks that is going to church and learning so much. What is really amazing is how fast the people learn after going to church. It seems like they learn and accept everything so much easier after going to church! I am very excited for them, it looks like their family will be baptized in a few weeks!
Also a miracle happeded last week that I didnt include in my email. A long time ago we were teaching a guy named Vangli, who is super cool, but never went to church and never stopped smoking, and so we didnt visit him for a long time. Last week we got a phone call late at night that he stopped smoking and wanted to be baptized! And, it was a direct answer to a fast that we did! It was such a special blessing! So he has a baptismal date for Dezember 5th! I am super excited!
But yeah, so there are a bunch of blessings here in Cachoeira. I love it. I am excited for Thanksgiving, even though I probably wont eat turkey... I will be in Porto Alegre Thursday and Friday for a specail conference with the 70 of the area Brasil Elder Moroni Torgan! I am excited, it should be really cool!
Anyways I love you all! Attached is a picture of me eating churrasco with Daniela and Junior from last week that I frogot to send! I love you all!
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