Serra - Week Three

FYI the graffiti says "independence is a fairy tale, revolution now." haha

So this week was interesting, went by fast, but it feels like we didn't get that much done. So this week we cut almost all of our investigators because they are being weaksauce. Its rather annoying. But we worked with some part member families this week, and we could have some success there. The problem here in Brasil is that people aren't ever married, just living together. Lame.

On Wednesday we had a multi-zone conference. It was pretty good. I really like hearing the mission president talk, he's really funny. Sister gave us good words about obedience and qualities of a good missionary. And one of the new things that our mission is doing, is a obedience report? spreadsheet? I don't know what to call it. Unfortunately we have some slacker missionaries here, so now we have to report on obedience, which for me and my companion, isn't really a problem. =) President talked a lot about change, and how we are going to change the mission. For our mission, we need roughly 42 new investigators for every baptism, which is more than just about every mission in Brazil. (This is one of the hardest here.) But he's putting in some changes so that we can teach more, find more, to baptize more. Woo hoo!  President told us about his conversion story, which was literally about "the lord calls men in their weakness and qualifies them for the work." The ward council where he lived was praying for a bishop. He visited the church out of nowhere, liked it because of the architecture of the chapel, and because it had a place for football in the back. So he decided to join the church. 1st Sunday, he was confirmed. 2nd, he was called to the bishopric, and 3rd Sunday, he had to preside the meetings, and then when the professor wasn't there gave a lesson which happened to be on one of the only scriptures that he had read in the Book of Mormon. President is a really funny guy, and I'm pretty sure he'll be a Seventy after the mission.

The rest of the week the work did not go all that well. We had a lot of appointments fall through. We tried our best, and we taught some new people who have potential. We are doing great. Saturday was ridiculously hot, and then Sunday and today it decided to rain again. Yay...

Well that's about it. We don't have any baptisms lined up since Sergio's wife decided to be offended over something silly, and now he wants time before we come by again. That ticked me off. But that's it.

I got that box already. I called the bank also. Yep. So now I just have to wait for the Christmas boxes. That's all. Thanks family for everything.

I love you all! Looks like you're having fun and staying busy!

Oh and I forgot that it was Thanksgiving until halfway through the day. I had gravy to make potatoes and gravy, but I left the gravy in Campos. =(

Tchão!

Serra - Week Two

  FHE.  Sergio, our investigator, is on the right.

The new area is really good. We do have a lot of jungly areas, but we don’t really go there because no one lives there. haha. But basically since I've gotten here, its rained. I think I've had one day in this area without rain. Some of these cities close are under water because the drainage is bad. The other  guy in the photo [from last week] is Eliomar, he's going on a mission next year, so he's been helping us out.

So this week started really good, went bad in the middle, and finished well. We started the week off with Family home evening with a less active family, and our investigator Sergio came. He liked the message
and we helped him make friends with some of the members. He is one of our baptismal dates, and his son Paulo. He went to church this week with his wife and son, but they had to leave after sacrament meeting.
But they really liked it, and Sergio and Paulo are progressing really well. I asked Paulo this week how his prayer was, and he said that he felt something really strong inside of him. awesome. They are supposed
to be baptized this Saturday, but we're going to remark the date with them so that they ca go to all of the church meetings.

So we were supposed to have two baptisms this weekend. Super firm, with the mom and the sister of a member. We have been teaching them since I’ve gotten here, and they have been progressing well. We had a division to go and do the interview, and Vânia said that they were moving to Bahia in 10 days, and that she prayed and decided to get baptized there. flip. she told us earlier that it would be in a few months. So that was pretty sad because they are great investigators, super humble and accepting.

We are working with an investigator named Eliziani and her son Bruno, who are also really great. Eliziani really wants to go to church, she says that she has been praying and that she knows what we teach her is
true. We had invited her to be baptized, but we need to do it again, because we didn’t really mark a date with her.

The best lesson that we had this week was with an investigator named Neive. She had a baptism date when I got here, but she wasn’t taught everything and the day passed. We brought a RM sister, with us, and we
always teach her at a member’s house. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit was super Strong. We asked really great questions to get her to think about what we were teaching. We all bore
our testimonies, and there is no way that she didn’t feel the spirit. She was still being kinda flakey, so I explained to her one more time about why the Book of Mormon is so important. And she understood that
if it is true, it’s all true, but if it isn’t, its all a lie to deceive people. So basically its in her hands if she wants to follow or not because I know that she's already gotten an answer.

I love missionary work. Sometimes its hard, nothings going right, and you feel like you're just throwing away time (which is really frustrating when you aren’t able to teach anyone) , but the spiritual experiences are great. The satisfaction is great.

Something that I learned reading through the book of Mormon this time is Nephi's example. His Go and Do attitude is apparent throughout 1 Nephi. He always says "The lord is commanding us to do it, so, let's
go! just do it!" I love it. That's exactly the attitude that we need to have. The Book of Mormon is the Best. =D

I love you all! Stop having a bad attitude. Going on vacation with the family is great. I hope everyone is doing fine. Try to share the gospel. =)
Love ya!

Serra - Week One

 Going down an alley in our area.  Lots of houses!

 My new companion, Elder Delgado from Paraguay.

 Praying to choose the right path . . .

 "I don't think this is it."

 Lots of dead things.  Bones . . .

So I have been transferred to Serra! woo! I'm now serving in the Jardim Limoeiro ward, zona Vitoria. Awesome. My new companion is Elder Delgado, from Paraguay! I've taken the opportunity to start learning Spanish as well. haha. We like in an awesome house, just us two. It’s pretty great. Delgado is crazy, but he's funny and we work well together.

This week has been pretty good. We have already had success. It’s just awesome. So we've had about 4 people this week give us their address without us saying anything more than good afternoon. Which has been really nice.

Our area is super big. We have to walk a lot. My comp walks slower than my last one, so it takes a little more time. We have already marked 4 baptism dates here, with two women who will be baptized this Saturday! wooo! They are the mother and sister of a member. So it was pretty easy teaching them because they had already gone to church.

We also have been teaching people who live on the side of our house. He is an inactive Adventist, but he really likes the messages. He wasn’t able to go to church this week though because he had to go to the hospital with his wife, or something like that. His son Paulo, also has a baptism date, and he says that he wants to be a missionary like us. Really cool.

So, remember how in Linhares we did family home evening all the time? Well, it didn't work in Campos, but it works here. We will have one tonight with a lot of people at an inactive member's house, (who we got to go to church yesterday.)

Well, I really like this area and I think that we'll have tons of success.

Well that's about it. I love you all, hope you're doing fine!

Keep up the good work guys! And Drew, you should totally leave with the missionaries. That's one thing that I wish I had done more, and something I will do when I get home.

See ya!

More pictures from Riley's farewell tour of Campos

 It's hot.

 Sunday lunch with the district.

 With Tânia after her baptism.

 Us with two of the young women from the ward, Raiane, and Thamires, who helped

 us in the mission work. If it wasn't for Thamires we never would have taught Tânia.

Us and Francisca. A member who is super awesome and 

makes the best food in the ward. =) She really likes us.

I'm gonna miss the people in Campos!

Campos - Last week before transfer!

 Eating ice cream with Andre. 

 We had a random lightning storm out of nowhere this week. It has been SUPER hot, 

and then in an hour, heavy rain, lightning, and thunder. One hour later, it was gone.

 Me with the ward missionary couple on Sunday.

Our zone.

I have been transferred. But, transfer meeting is tomorrow, so I'll be able to tell you what happened next p-day. Everyone in the Zone has been transferred. There were only three missionaries here that stayed. So this week has been rather crazy. It's been a slow week, but a really good one. We have been working with a few people. For most of the week we have been trying to get Tânia to go to church and read the Book of Mormon. Her husband is still kinda against it.

Me and Orlando

 We stopped teaching Orlando this week, unfortunately. We have been teaching the family of a man named Costa, we built a really strong friendship with him this week. We had dinner with him and his family, and it was great. His family is one of the families that I admire the most that I've met here in Brazil. They are really close, and very kind. Costa will definitely be baptized by the next missionaries that come here. He thanked us deeply for all that we did, bringing our message and peace to his home. He said that we arrived at a time that he was really needing us. He is really searching to know that it's true. He says that when he knows that it's  true he will be baptized. So awesome.

The best thing that happened this week was definitely Sunday. The best day that I've had. So this week we had been talking with Tania, and we brought up baptism on Friday. She said she didn't know and reminded us that we had marked her baptism for this Sunday. But we had been thinking about it, and since she hadn't really firmed up in her desire, we thought that it would be better to wait for the next missionaries to baptize her next Sunday.

On Sunday, she came to church, alone. As we were walking her to the Relief Society, she told us that she had brought her clothes to change after the baptism. We were kind of shocked that she said that, and said we didn't know if her baptism would be this Sunday or the next. She seemed disappointed when I said that. I went back to quorum, and really thought about it. I prayed and asked if we should baptize her today. The more I thought about it, I realized, that if she had brought her clothes to change, without us saying anything about it, she decided to be baptized. So after class we started making preparations. We went to go talk to her to confirm that is what she wanted to do. Before principles of the gospel, she gave each one of us a present (which was a nice tie. I opened it at home). The best part was the note. It said, "thank you so much for not giving up on bringing to our home the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Wow. Awesome. It was really a fight there. haha. But that's not all.

It was fast and testimony meeting yesterday, and Tania really felt the spirit. She said that many of the testimonies spoke directly to her. The most amazing part is when she got up near the end, and bore her testimony. She talked a little about the troubles that she was going through, and how we showed up and started teaching her. She told about how grateful she was to have had us in her house, and for our determination and persistence. She said "I wanted to know if it was true, I read the book and prayed to know if it was true like the elders asked me, and I know that it's true. And today I'm going to be baptized." Ohmygoodness I have never felt soo much joy in my life! Almost by herself, she received testimony and made the decision to be baptized. Until that point, it wasn't really certain if she would be baptized then or the next Sunday. But she announced it in her testimony. Wow. It was definitely a miracle and the best way to end a transfer.

The baptism went well. One kid from the ward was being baptized. too. The primary sang, “When Jesus Christ was Baptized,” and it really brought the Spirit. I know Tania felt it. The  service was perfect. Two recent converts bore their testimonies. Seriously was the most joyous day, the happiest day I think I have ever had.

A family that I have been helping. The dad is less active. 

 Basically the rest of the day we visited members saying goodbye, after 7 months here in Campos, I'm kinda sad to leave some  of the friends that I have here. We had lunch with Francisca, who made my companion a cake, (it was his birthday on Friday) and gave us toys. haha We visited a few others, visited Tânia again, who again expressed her gratitude for what we did. And she says that if you come to visit we can stay at her house. She is really one of the biggest hearted people that I've ever met. We had more cake later that night, and then I made a few trades. Jonata, saw my Chargers shirt when I got it and said that he wanted it. So I traded him for an official Brasil team jersey. And then I gave his dad, Jocimar, my American flag after I signed it and that made him really happy. 7 months I have been working with him. He says that he'll send a signed Brazil flag home.

So that's about it. It was a great week this week. Sunday made all the time that I've spent here in Campos worth it. =)

Just a note, I'm kinda happy because I'm losing weight now. haha I've lost at least 2 kilos already.

If you could send like 2 more American flags to me to trade/give away, that would be really cool. =) And there are people here complaining that I haven't added them on facebook yet. haha.

Love you mom. Thanks you everything that you and dad have done for me. Thanks for teaching me to do the right. I'm really thankful that you taught what you did.

Love you family. I'm glad that Cam and Lauren are safe, when all the people here were talking about how big the hurricane was, I got worried. What part of New York are they living in?

And where in Brasil does James live?

That's it. I'll tell you where I am next week. Eu amo vocês!