Campos - Week Twenty-two

 This is Magda. She had been up for more that 24 hours straight (because of work) so she looks really tired.

 City center, in the flea market area.

 A recent convert that I've been helping.

 At our district meeting.

Bolt-ing!

Well, we got news of transfers. And I've got 6 more weeks in campos. haha. Maybe president forgot about me here. But that's all right. There's probably someone here that I still need to teach. And I knew that I wasn't going to be transferred. It funny how the Spirit works like that.

Anyway, our baptism didn't happen this week. =( Magda went to our weekly ward activity and a member said something that she didn't like so she left. But she knows its true, we just need to mark a new baptism date with her, because she wants to come back. And she has been calling herself my "black mama" and its hilarious. She is always worried about us eating right and using sun screen and stuff.

This week wasn't the greatest week for work,  We basically have like 2 investigators, so we spent some time knocking doors, which didn't help all that much. And we didn't have anyone in church on Sunday either. I did give a talk with a minute’s notice in sacrament meeting. I talked about the Sabbath day and the sacrament, and why it's important. I thought it was all right, (for preparing it when sacrament meeting started.)

One thing that I have learned about the Spirit on the mission, is that it requires active listening on our part. If you never think about the Spirit or hearing the Spirit, or about things related to the gospel, it's a lot harder to feel the influence of the Spirit. When we are proactive, doing things to invite the Spirit, trying to feel his presence in our lives it is a lot easier. This Sunday was a great example of that. We had two great lessons right in a row, and just brought that Spirit with us to the next because we talked about our lesson and what we did, things like that instead of immediately talking about things of little importance to the work. In 3 Nephi 18:7 Christ teaches about the sacrament. The promise is that "if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you." You have to actively seek the Spirit. =)

My testimony of prayer has also grown substantially on the mission. A testimony that I could have had if I had really prayed before. I gained my testimony of prayer in the CTM, and especially this transfer I have had some great experiences receiving answers to prayer, and having that calm, spiritual feeling. Saturday night I was praying for help to change here on the mission and do better. I know that with REAL INTENT, and faith, a sincere prayer can always be answered.

I love you guys. I love you mom and dad, and all the members of the family. Thanks for everything.

Keep up the good work Drew. Don't slack off in school like I did. Don't take my uke out of the house. =) One thing that I regret is that I spent too much time on the computer and not enough time doing useful things. Learn new skills. Keep playing music. Don't do stupid stuff. =) I love you irmãozinho. Try to build your testimony of the gospel and the church now. Something cool to do is read Joseph Smith history and then pray about it. The promise in Moroni 10:3-4 isn't a one time deal. You can use that promise as many times as you need. You have preach my gospel at home, open it up, and study chapter 6. Maybe this will help you be nicer at home. =)

Darcy, Way to be a soccer all-star. Keep up the good work girl! Math is hard, just keep studying and I know you can do it! You are awesome! I have less to say to you because you are already better than Drew. haha jk, but srsly. Anyway, keep being awesome, study the scriptures every day, and try to talk to your friends about the church. =)

Blake meu melhor irmãozinho. te amo muito! Way to be a stud. I love how you are such a kind teddy bear. =) just don't get so frustrated. Patience is really important. I know that at times I get frustrated easily too if things aren't going right, but just sing yourself a hymn (I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus is a favorite of mine) and just "Don't worry, be happy." Love you bro.

I thought those pictures of dad were pretty funny. Especially with all the hair. haha I guess he wasn't always bald.

Love you all. tchau!

Campos - Week Twenty-one

Well, this week was pretty interesting.

Basically many of our investigators stopped progressing, but I'm still able to see many of the miracles that God works in his missionary work.

First of all, I will tell a little bit about Magda. Even though Angelo hasn't been home this whole week, (which has got me really worried, I’m going to fast this week) Magda has been SO prepared by the Lord that it is just amazing. She has such a strong desire to have a happy family and to have an eternal family. So she went to church yesterday, and she really liked it. Here’s the part that was really amazing: In Principles of the Gospel, we were talking about the family being forever, I showed Magda a picture of the Salt Lake Temple and started to explain about temples, and being sealed. When I said that this is a temple of the Lord blahblahblah, she said very casually, yeah I know, I dreamt about one of these temple some time ago. WHAT? Apparently, she receives a lot of personal revelation through dreams, and in one a long time ago, she saw the Campinas temple. When she was in church, and saw the picture on the wall, she instantly realized the temple as a place she had been in her dream. There was also a random butterfly in the chapel today, and it landed on her, (the only person it landed on) and she said that she felt something really special when it landed on her. She also told us during the week that she got an answer to her prayer. She finished reading the part in the Book of Mormon that we left for her, and she prayed about it and said she felt a really strong feeling of peace. We taught her all of the commandments this week, and she does not have a single problem with any of them.

Thinking back at what had to happen for us to teach her, is just amazing. If we hadn't knocked doors last transfer, we wouldn't have found Angelo and known where his house was. We only saw him one time, and we never went back. The other day we were walking. And I thought, hey, do you remember that kid we taught who lives over here? Let’s go visit him. We got to the door, and Magda was there, and she let us in and was really receptive. She also heard the sisters a long time ago. Just thinking about how she has been prepared, and how we were lead there is still amazing to me. God really does work miracles in the lives of his children.

The other miracle that I saw this week, was with Fernando, an inactive member that I have been working with basically since I got here. Yesterday, I saw a huge change in him. (I sent a picture of him last week). Basically, to tell a little bit about his story, he used to be rich. He lost everything, and was living with a younger woman, and her child when I met him. She betrayed him and abandoned this child more than three times. He used to be full of hate and anger and didn't really want to go back to church because the members stopped helping him because he wasn't going to church. He also had Word of Wisdom problems. Because his "wife" left again, he had to stay home to look after his son, (which isn't even his, but he has legal guardianship and the love that he has for this child is amazing) so he can't work. We were there earlier this week, and was more or less the same as always.
Elder Lefoll, during a division, told him about how the Lord, and how the church, needs worthy men, priesthood holders that will make a difference in the Lord’s work. Yesterday when we visited him, it was awesome. Fernando started to cry and the Spirit was really strong there. After all the suffering, all the trials, all the anger, hate, and bitterness, he was able to forgive the woman that betrayed him many times, abandoned a child. He had basically by himself, ended his Word of Wisdom problems, and was trying to clean himself spiritually from all the evil that he had done in his life. I have seen how powerfully the Atonement has worked in this man's life. Even after everything he had been through, he stood, with tears running down his face, saying, "I will be in church, I will be ordained to the priesthood, and I will be clean in the presence of God. I will go to the bishop and say I will clean this the Lord's house BY MY SELF because He has done wonders in my life and through my suffering and my misery He has not forgotten me, so this is the smallest act that I can do to show my gratitude to my God." It was a moment very special.

Really was a miracle of the atonement that we saw in this man's life.

I love working for the Lord. The spiritual experiences are great. Seeing the Atonement work in these people's lives is a great reward. Just thinking about this story and passing it to you, I can feel the Spirit.

The Atonement is real, and in works miracles in our lives if we let it. All the sorrow and pain and guilt that we feel is washed away with light and joy. I have felt this in my life. Repentance is real. And Christ can heal our broken souls. I love the Lord's work and I love this gospel.

This week I was also feeling really, alone, and I wasn't happy. I was annoyed with things, I wasn't feeling the Spirit. I wanted to know what was wrong, and I didn't feel like God was watching out for me. I remember that when I prayed that night, an amazing feeling of warmth and love came over me like I've only felt one other time in my life.
Like someone was hugging my soul. I know that God loves us and that he is looking out for me. Just that experience tells me how much God loves me and wants me to be happy.

Thank you mom and dad for all that you have done in my life, teaching me the gospel, and doing everything to help me go on a mission. I love you Mom and Dad.

Love you fam. Keep up the good work. =) Stop destroying the car Drew. xD

Eu amo todos Vocês!

Campos - Week Twenty

 With an a less-active member we're trying to help.

A street I walk past every day.

Well, you wonder what I do with the Mission President. I email him in Portuguese so that's why I never send it to you. But just for kicks:

Presidente,

Eu gostei muito a conferência da zona esta semana. Eu aprendi muito e eu estou aplicando muitas destas coisas em meu ensino. Especialmente a parte sobre usando perguntas. Sempre foi um ponto fraco meu, mas agora, sabendo esta três tipos de perguntas, esta ajudando muito em nosso ensino.

Nos encontramos nosso dois batismos por esta mês. Angelo, e Magida.
Angelo é um rapaz, e foi para igreja ontem. Eles tem muito interesse, cumprem com os compromissos, e basicamente, são pesquisadores de ouro.
Nós vamos levar mais membros lá hoje.

Nosso trabalho com membros da igreja não está indo bem ainda. Nos tetamos marcar com membros para sair, mas está caindo muito. Estamos trabalhando bem com os missionários da ala. Eles estão saindo conosco.
Esta semana nós vamos focalizar em levando membros específicos para nosso pesquisadores para ajudar mais na integração.

Estamos marcando muitas datas, mas muitas também estão caindo.  O maioria das vezes é porque eles não estão indo para igreja. Eu acho que a integração que nos vamos fazer com os membros vai ajudar com isto. Esta semana tivemos até 7 datas, mas não estávamos consiguindo acompanhar com eles, ou levar eles para igreja. Nós vamos tentar remarcar estes datas mais algumas com familiares destas datas que nós tivemos esta semana.

Obrigado por tudo presidente.

And that's what I sent to President this week. I talk about the work, what we did well this week, and what we can work on. I really like my Mission President. We don't have interviews with him all that often, but he is really spiritual, really funny and laid back also. Basically, if we're doing our work, he's happy.

We had Zone Conference this week, and it was awesome. I love these conferences. Mostly because the spirit is awesome, and because I learn a lot it this time also. I like hearing president speak too. He said something interesting about Satan this time. He talked about how he wasn't cast out because of sin, but because he rebelled against god, and how rebellion against the commandments/gospel is worse then committing sin. Pretty cool. Anyway, I also learned a lot about teaching skills, and how to use questions better to invite the spirit to our teaching. I applied what I learned this week and the spirit was definitely better in our lessons. Oh, and something else interesting. The mission has a goal to have 100 baptisms this month, which means each companionship has to baptize two people this month. Something else interesting, is that the prophet has asked that each missionary baptize one person per month. I was thinking about it. And if the prophet wants me to baptize every month, the only reason why I wouldn't be able to is because of a lack of our own faith. Like Nephi 3:7- The Lord never gives commandments unto his children unless he prepared a way. So, if the prophet is asking, if I try my hardest, and have faith, I will be able to reach this goal.

So this week was pretty good. We found our baptisms for this month also. Angelo and Magida are their names. Angelo is 15 and is Magida's son. She also has a 4-year-old. She is a single mother, who puts a lot of importance on the things of God, and just wants a happy family. We taught them twice this week, and Angleo went to church yesterday, and he went without complaint. He was dressed ready to go when we got there Sunday morning. Awesome. Magida didn't go because she had to work. But we're going to teach them tonight. I'm pretty excited for that.

We had some good lessons with Bruno and Iago, but they didn't go to church today, because he's a DJ, and he had a party Saturday night, and got home late, and didn't want to come with us. Lame. So, we'll see if they still want to progress.

We have another awesome investigator, Leia, when every time that we mark with her, when we show up she has the table and chairs out and ready, and is really liking the lessons. The other day we went there and were able to teach her two daughters also. And that was a really spiritual lesson. Her daughters, Natalia and Thayná, are really intelligent too. One is 25, is a manager, and has a business degree, and the other is 23 and is studying engineering or something like that. They understood our message really well, but they didn't accept a baptismal date, but we'll work on that. Natailia said that she would follow the answer that she got, but she didn't want to accept the date at the moment. Thayná did want to commit to anything because she's still trying to figure some things out in her life, but wants to meet with us again to learn more. They are great investigators.

We have been marking a lot of baptismal dates, but we have been having trouble following up with them and getting them to church. But I'm excited to keep working. It really is amazing to think about how much I actually care about my investigators and how much I want them to progress.

I'm glad that my little message helped the kids. I do regret not spending more time with the family at home. Only after I leave do I realize how much I was missing.

Well I love you guys, keep us the good work fam. =) Keep trying to love one another. Try to have more love at home. Btw, have you guys seen 17 Miracles yet? That movie is amazing. I would watch that every p-day if I wasn't playing soccer.

Yeah so sometimes I feel sick of working here in Campos, sometimes I don't. I walk the same streets basically every day, and have been for 5 months. I do feel like I've knocked every door, especially because our area is pretty small. The language is great. I actually don't study much in Portuguese for personal study because the Portuguese scriptures don't have all the footnotes and study helps that the English ones have. The church doesn't have its own Bible [in Portuguese] either, so the Bible doesn't have any footnotes, but I use PMG in Portuguese. With 2 other Americans at home, I've been using English a lot more, especially because my companion is almost begging me to help him learn English.

Well, that's about it, the picture is with a less active that I have been working with almost since I got to Campos.

Well, Love you all, good luck with school! Summer is over there, but its starting to get hot again here! Lots of love!
Elder Woodmansee. =)

Campos - Week Nineteen

Hey fam, what's up? Sounds like there's a lot going  on at home, but I'm sad to hear that there is some contention. =( Contention drives away the spirit, Drew, Darcy and Blake. What you guys can do to help have more peace in the home is, 1st, read Moroni 7. That is an awesome chapter, in verse 48 it says to,  pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love. This is the first step, is to have the desire to love one another, and to follow the example of the savior. Pray asking for the strength to love and serve. 2nd, talk to the person about what is bothering you, and ask them to stop. 3rd, regardless if they change their actions or not, make a goal to serve them. For example, make a goal to do something nice without them asking. Pick up their room. Wash their dishes, do one of their chores around the house. These small examples of service will help you love more. =) Love you my siblings.

Keep up the good studies Drew. Don't slack off. I know that you have tons of potential, but that's not everything. We have to use it.  So, don't be lazy in your schoolwork.

Darcy, way to be a stud. keep being a soccer star, and keep being an example in the family. =)

Blake, my favorite brother, how are you doing bud?! Keep up the studies. Start studying the scriptures every day, and you will be the smartest boy in your class. Keep being the lovable teddy bear that you are. You are an example of love and kindness. These are attributes of Christ and are very special. I love you brother!

Well this week started well, but didn't end great. We started out this week great. We had members with us, We were able to teach Pricila, who came to us saying that she had a dream about us and that it was serious. So we were thinking that she didn't want to go to church, that she thought the Book of Mormon was false, and things like that. But she said, I dreamed that you guys were leaving in a month! haha Which is half true, transfers are in a month, but while we were talking to her she expressed her desire to be baptized, because she wanted to be obedient to the commandments of God. Wow how awesome is that? So we marked a baptism date with her. This Sunday coming up she should be baptized. We just have trouble talking to her because she lives kinda far away.

We stopped teaching Marlene, because she didn't want us coming by every day anymore. I'm a little sad about that.

We had one day this week that was just outstanding. We taught only a few lessons, but we marked 3 baptism dates, in that  one day. The Spirit was really with us.  It was cool. Just walking down the street I was feeling theS pirit as if we were teaching the first vision. So awesome. I love that feeling. We had an awesomely spiritual lesson with an investigator named Janieli, its just frustrating that since that lesson we haven't been able to talk to her again.

We also are teaching and marked a baptism date with a woman named Leia, who already has a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. Her problem is that she just started going to another church and they are expecting her to be baptized there soon. But we'll she how she's doing this week, and we'll try to teach her husband also, who we taught the first time, but he works so much so it's hard to teach him.

Bruno and his friend Eago are doing great, Eago, has a lot of interest in the lessons. The last time we taught him, he asked some great questions and was really understanding our message. They didn't go to church this week though, so we'll have to re-mark their baptisms for the Sunday after this one coming up. I really want to see them progress.

The love that you develop for the people that you teach is really incredible. You care so much about them, because you learn to listen to what they're saying. You teach them depending on their needs. I really want these investigators to progress.

I'm just a little frustrated because my companion has tons of potential to be an outstanding missionary, he just doesn't have the desire to follow all the rules. And I end up getting frustrated, because I know that the Lord would bless us with so much more success if we were more obedient.

That's about it for this week. I'm trying my best to serve the Lord.
I'm amazed at how fast the time goes by. I'm worried that I'm running out of time to do the Lord's work here in Brazil. At the end of this transfer I only have 8 more. That seems like not enough time. Yikes!
Better try harder then.

I love you guys. Keep up the good work. =)

AMOR PRA TODOS NA FAMÍLIA.