Campos - Week Fifteen

 At the special conference featuring Elder Mazzagarde from the Area Presidency.

Sightseeing on p-day.

Well, This week was alright I guess. Our investigators were confirmed this week. Which was cool. They had a good spiritual experience while they were getting the gift of the Holy Ghost.

So, the best part of the week was a special conference that we had in Vitoria, with Elder Mazzagarde, who I think is part of the Area Presidency, but I'm not sure. Anyway, his...lecture? was awesome! First of all the Spirit was just ridiculously strong. He basically destroyed us. He talked for about 2 hours about EVERYTHING. My favorite part was when he decided that he didn't need the pulpit anymore and just started going off into super awesome doctrine. He talked alot about faith and having desire, the desire to do what's right and to receive revelation. He talked about needing to have a righteous desire or we won't get anything. He talked a lot and focused on how big or great (I dont know, it's the same word in Portuguese) God's plan for us is. He talked about the eternites and eternal marriage and then how exaltation and the the law of chastity are really tightly linked and connected. Basically  he just talked forever about a ton of awesome stuff. Definitely need to study my notes.

Another experience that I thought was really awesome this week. So we have been teaching a woman named Gersila, who is like 70ish, who really likes us because her husband died recently and she likes talking to us. She ALWAYS gives us food too. Anyway, her granddaughter who lives there decided to participate in the lessons this week, (who is 17 and I'm pretty sure that she only wanted to participate because she likes the missionaries) but anyway, we taught her, (Stefany) a part of the first lesson, because her question was, why are there so many different churches? So we taught until the apostasy and we were going to teach the restoration the next day. We left the pamphlet with her to read. So, the next time we were there, we started to recap everything again and she just said no, let me tell it, and then went on to basically teach the entire 1st lesson to her grandma, including the part about Joseph Smith, which we hadn't explained to her yet. We were amazed. Like jaw on the floor stunned. She's got a ton of potencial. like a ton. So yesterday, we had lunch at there house, and taught her mom, Aline, about the plan of salvation. and they all liked it. I'm so excited to teach and baptise that family! So we'll see what happens.

We are trying to mark more baptism dates, but these people aren't coming to church. =( that is our problem. So no, we aren't going to have a baptism this week, but hopefully the week after.

The people here aren't that into the Olympics sadly. They'd rather watch the Brazilerão (which is the big league championship here) lame I know. So I haven't seen or heard anything. =/ Missing the Olympics is lame.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. Love you guys. Go America! win ALL the golds!!

Campos - Week Fourteen

 Riley and one of the Zone Leaders on divisions.

At the baptism of Joselia and Raquel.

Well, nothing has been working with these emails. That's really frustrating. Oh well.
So, we had baptisms this week!! WOOO, so excited. Everything went great, there were no problems, they even showed up to church early. =) Raquel said she felt like she was floating after the baptism and that she felt like she wanted to cry but didnt know why. Basically, everything was awesome. So excited to have finally helped someone into the church here in campos. Yesss!

So we found another person that I think we will baptise on the 5th. His name is Luiz, and he is way cool. Basically I think God put him in our path a second time so that we would teach him. We contacted him on the street, and he said that we already talked to him and got his address. But we couldn't remember any of that. So we took his address again and decided to visit him. I think he's about 48, but he's way cool and just wants to learn. He accepted a baptisimal date for the 5th of august. I'm looking forward to it.

We taught Paulo again. He's so hard but I want him to accept the gospel so much! He would be a great leader. So we marked to teach him a few times but he never could, so on Tuesday, we decided to bring a member along, and turns out, they know each other and that helped so much. Basically, he was going to say to us that he doesn't agree with us about the Book of Mormon and that he didn't want us to teach him anymore. But our member just destroyed him with logic about why not have the Book of Mormon. It was awesome, and the Spirit was really strong. I just want him to accept the gospel! Our teaching is still going pretty slow, unfortunately. =/ We aren't getting very many new investigators.
But I'll be here until the 14th, I think I'll get transferred. After 4 and a half months in the same place, I'd like to see some new places every once in a while.

But that's about it for this week. I hope I will be blessed with more miracles this week as well. LOVE you all!

Blake- way to be an awesome camping buddie! Good job at scout camp bro! I'm sure you loved it!  Keep up the good work irmãozinho. How's the saxophone going? Are you pro already?

Darcy - way to be an all-star soccer player! Keep dominating the field, and one day you'll be playing for team USA! =) haha! Super cool that you had the best week ever at efy. Keep being awesome Irmãzinho. Did you score goals at your soccer tournament?

Drew - You need to be better. Stop slacking. haha just kidding. Way to have spiritual experinces at efy. That's super cool that you liked it and that you learned to pray about the things you need. 3 Nephi 18 is a chapter that I have really come to love in the Book of Mormon, especially the part in the middle that talks about prayer. Drew, Live the gospel. I know it seems annoying, but study the scriptures EVERY DAY, if its just for 10 minutes, do it. And seminary doesn't count. I promise you that you will see a difference in your day. You will be happier and have the Spirit with you. Don't forget to pray either. There is power in prayer. Like it says in D&C 10, Pray always, that ye may come off conquerer. You can overcome Temptation and whatever satan throws at you with prayer. =) Leave with the missionaries. I promise you that this will help you prepare for the mission faster than anything else. You will actually have fun doing it. =) How's the electro music going? Have you made a cd yet? Putting my light gloves to good use?

LOVE you guys. Have a good week =)

Campos - Week Thirteen

 At a car show in Campos.

Maybe Riley's companion isn't as excited about cars as Riley is!

This week was another slow week of work. We lost a lot of time doing other things, that needed to be done, but just held us back from working. 

This week we started looking for a new house because we basically don't have water (I haven't washed dishes in like a week) and the house is falling apart. So luckily, we foiund an other apartment, right next to it that is brand new, and cheaper, and doesn't have water problems. So hopefully we'll move this week. We also took part in a ward activity to find all the inactive members (which is a lot) and see if they are willing to have visits from members/return to church. So that killed one more day of ours. The other elders here, also had a baptism yesterday, which was awesome, but ran really late so we lost a ton of time again. 

This Sunday, we are going to have two baptisms! Raquel and Joselia. Basically, they are the perfect investigators. They've gone to church 3 times now already by themselves, and when we taught them about the Word of Wisdom, we forgot to take their coffee like we told them we would, and when we called them the next day, she said that she threw it out already! How awesome! I'm so excited to see them get baptised! They are just loving the church. 

We are also teaching a man named Paulo, who has a ton of ridiculous questions. He just needs more faith. He thinks that maybe the Book of Mormon has 99% truth and is of God, but he's worried that he will find one verse hidden in there that is of the devil, so then all of it is wrong. So frustrating. But he's pretty cool and he like to talk. 

We had 4 of the less actives that we're working with at church today! I was pretty happy about that. We've been working pretty hard to help them return to church and recieve the blessings from the Lord once again. Working with less active is great, just sometimes they're a little stubborn about going back to church, so yeah.

Well, I need to get better at a lot of things. I have soo much that I can improve, where's the time? And also, the Relief Society wants me to play piano for them but I dont know if I can do it. =/ I'm gonna have to practice a lot but I don't have the time for that! I don't know what I'm going to do yet. 

And Campos had a classic car show, so i decided to swing by and take a few pictures....

Wow, that room is pretty different. Ridiculous. Basically, everything cool that you guys do, you do it after I'm gone, right? haha
thanks mom. =)

Looks like everyone is having fun. Way to go Drew for having an awesome efy experience. And I like your hat. Pretty jealous. Even though I don't like hats. Don't do drugs. Your new room is pretty dang cool too. Just keep being an example for the other boys in the ward. Study the scriptues daily. Start getting ready for your mish NOW!

Way to be excited for efy Darcy! keep up the good work and being awesome in the church! Keep livin the gospel!

Thanks for everything fam. Love you guys. =)


PS. Dad, I think your car is awesome. Just so you know, a Malibu used here is like 80,000 in reals. Which is about 40,000 dollars. You have a rich persons car.

Campos - Week Twelve

This week was slow in terms of work. We weren't able to teach tons of lessons. I also got pretty frustrated with people at times this week and was a little discouraged at times as well. But the end of the week was better. So, I've been trying to find out how to work better in this area. So I was a little disappointed at the start of the week because of this. So we've been kinda experimenting. We've been trying to work with inactives this week, we knocked a few door and have just been trying to find out what will work the best here in this area. I was really excited this week because on of my best friends here on the mission, Elder Lefoll was transferred and is now living in the same house as me. Yesss!

So we found some good investigators this week. I'm expecially excited for Joselia and Raquele. I dont know if i told you about them yet. They have gone to church 2 weeks straight By Themselves, which is awesome. We're going to mark baptism dates with them this week. Joselia is like half deaf so its really funny when we teach her. We are basically yelling the lessons to her. They are really humble and its awesome. Raquele is 17, and really shy, but the young women in the ward are awesome and really help include her in everything so this is helping her a lot. We will mark a date for them to be baptised on the 22. It'll be awesome.

So, knocking doors always brings some interesting experiences. We found an awesome family, Daniela and Terezina, a mom/grandmother and her daughter. Terezina(the mom) had talked witht he missionaries a few years back, but that was an awesome first lesson. They were really interested to know about our message, and that was probably one of the best lessons we had taught in a while.

We also met a huge family knocking doors one night. They were pretty cool, we didn't have time to actually teach them the 1st lesson that night but we marked to come back. One of the members of that family said that she was running out of faith and needed someone to pray for her two kids who were a little bit sick this week. And then we showed up. Awesome. I always love that--seeing that we are really inspired by the Spírit to talk to certain people who are being prepared to hear our message.

Another experience that was awesome, was that we knocked a door becasue someone was playing piano. An old lady came to the door and invited us in. She and the three other people there were Baptists and were playing some hymns (a lot of the hymns that we have, they have too). And one of the guys there, an old blind singer, was awesome! So we decided to sing a little bit with them, and the lady that invited us in said that the Spirit was there more fully when we arrived, just goes to show that we really are messangers of God and that we bring the Spirit with us. We are going to go back there and teach the first lesson to her and see how it goes.

The ward here started a program to rescue the inactives of the ward (which is like 300) so they have started to visit all of them, to see if they would be receptive to a visit of members, or the missionaries. Its pretty cool. So hopefully we'll get some pretty good people to teach who want to come back to church and also part member families.

So yeah. Thats about it. So I heard that I got a package, but I dont have it, because the bag it was in for some reason or another (mainly that the other elders left it at the bus station) went to the complete other end of the mission. Soo, I won't get it until midway through the transfer or something.  But yeah.

Something else that I'm wishing for? mike and ikes. Like always. And maybe a bottle of Mountain Dew. =) But yeah, maybe another pair of pants would be nice. All the ones I have are a little short. So a 32/32 would work. But yeah, you talked about sending a calendar. That would be cool. By the time I get it it will already be 2013.

That's about it. Thanks for everything fam. I love you all, I love you mom.

Campos - Week Eleven

Riley with his new companion.

Hey family, what's up? I hope everything is going good there at home. Looks like fun.

So, this week was good, but at the same time disappointing.

So, our focus has been on helping Cristiani progress towards baptism. But this week it was hard to meet with her, we didn't see her that much, and she didn't go to church this week. And she didn't quit smoking. Lame. But we're doing all that we can, and everyone has their agency to choose if they want to progress.

So I'm liking my new companion, we get along well, and we teach well together. He is being mostly obedient, haha which is good, but yeah. This week was pretty slow. We didn't teach very many lessons this week, and a lot of our appointments fell, which is always annoying. So transfers will happen this week, but my companion and I will stay here in Campos. Yipee! So we're planning on having a good transfer, and hopefully we can baptize someone here. =)

We found a family, a mom and her daughter that we started teaching this week, and they went to church. =) The mom Joselma is half deaf, so we almost have to yell the lesson to her. The daughter Raquele is 17, and she liked church on Sunday, so we'll keep helping them progress and hopefully mark bap dates with them this week.

We are also teaching a man named Paulo, who talked to the missionaries a few years ago, but I think he was a little confused about their message. We went there and cleared a few of his doubts and explained the 1st lesson. He had a knowlege and knew about everything that we taught until Joseph Smith. We are going to go there this week and see if he read the Book of Mormon.

My favorite investigator that we have right now is Pricila, who is a cousin of one of the recent converts here that we are re-activating. She is only 15, but she is awesome! She has tons of awesome questions and she just wants to learn. She was super excited to get a Book of Mormon. She also really wants to go to church on Sunday. I just really enjoy teaching investigators like this, because the Spirit is always there when they want to learn and don't harden their hearts to the message. Yesss! Elderrrrrrr.

But yeah, so that was my week. Teaching people. A little disappointments, but also some great new investigators. You asked about street contacts.  I'm not good at that. I don't like talking to people. But it's part of the job, so i do it. Every. Single. Day. Like a boss.

So, thanks for everything fam and for all the support, I love you!