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!

Campos - Week Ten

Well, this week was pretty hectic. So, we didn't have any baptisms this week, but we remarked for the 8th. Cristiani was still using drugs and stuff but we're helping her a lot and I'm pretty confident that she'll be ready on the 8th. Chayene is excited and wants to start going to Seminary with one of the young women we brought to her house. Awesome. So everything is going along there. 

My new comanion is pretty cool, but he says stuff like, "There are two types of rules ... " Basically he thinks some of the rules are silly, which I don't like, because obedience and diligence are two of the most important principles on the mission. But, we're working well together. 

We are teaching a 78 year old man named Gervasio, who likes to read so we gave him a Book of Mormon. He says that he reads it all the time, and we even saw him sitting outside with the book in his hands, but I'm not sure how much desire he really has. We'll see. 

We also started teaching a woman named Genilsa, who has potential. We just need to go back and see if she is keeping commitments. 

I'm a little stressed here in Campos. Some times I feel like I'm the only one here working hard to find, teach, and baptise people here, but also we don't have much support from the members so we're doing everything alone. But i'ts part of the work.  I know that if I do the best that I can, the Lord will bless me. If I keep doing what I know is right, I know that eventually, I will find success. 

Oh and here in Campos, I'm pretty sure seasons don't exist. If i'ts winter here right now, it feels a lot like summer. 

Well, I love you all, thanks for all the support. I'm trying my best to be a good missionary. Thanks for everything mom and dad. Looks like everything is going great there.

And it would be cool to get letters from people...haha.

Alright thanks for everything. 

Campos - Week Nine

Hey mom. 

No that's not weird, and mostly everyone calls me oodemanz or something like that, because, as zack's mission has already proven, people who don't speak English can't say our name. 

Anyway, this week was a little different for good and bad. 

The good part, was that we had a lot more help from the members this week, so this Sunday, we should have 3 baptisms! Wooo! And we had people at church this week! WOOO!  And yeah everything has been pretty good this week, everything normal, everything great.

Cristiani went to church this week and loved it. She and her family, well part of it anyway, should be getting baptised this week, I'm a little worried but I think it'll all work out. If not there's always the week after. 

We've been working pretty hard this week, our number of contacts was pretty low =( but the ward seems to be getting more excited with the work especially with this new program that President made, to rescue those people who have fallen away. Inactivity in Brazil is ridiculious. Theres maybe 150ish members active, and 600ish members total. Wut?

But yeah, the bad part of the week happened yesterday and today. I will be travelling to Vitoria today, 4 hours on a bus there, and 4 hours back to get a new companion. Elder J. Sousa (my companion) elbowed Elder F. Santana in the FACE on Sunday, in the middle of the street, going to lunch. It was rather unexpected. So everything eventually was resolved, and I have to trade companions in an emergency transfer. Lame. But oh well, there s nothing that I can do. 

Well that's about it. The photos are in a square in downtown campos. Pretty sweet. 

Soo yeah. Love you all.  Happy Fathers Day, Dad! 

Thanks for everything fam. Maybe I'll get my other shoe today.. haha

LOVE. peace out. 

Campos - Week Eight

Riley in his apartment making his "double chin face"!

Hey family!

So this week was all right. It started out pretty good but then kinda went downhill. Anyway, we now have 4 baptism dates marked, 3 with the family of Cristiani. We are teaching her husband José and daughter Sheyeni. They are progressing well and are excited for their baptism date on the 24th. We also are teaching a Julius Caesar, who is pretty cool. He had some issues in the past, I don't know exactly what, but he was in prison for a while and he is really looking to change his life and follow the right path.

This week was harder because we didn't really do our contacts until the last day, so we were lacking people to visit at times, and it seemed like no one was ever home.

The best part of the week was the temple dedication on Sunday. The Manaus temple is pretty cool. Before the session, they had a slide show of the temple with a few others and the rooms inside. The Spirit was pretty strong, just with the slideshow! The temple was dedicated by Elder Uctdorf, and Elder Cook was there too. Elder Uctdorf gave a talk and so did two of the members of the area presidency. It was pretty neat. well. yeah.

We had a meeting that was pretty productive with the bishop this week. the members here aren't really excited to do much. The weekly activites dont have very many people, but the bishop and I came up with some ideas to help get more people. The bishop is a really great guy, the sad thing is that he is pretty much doing everything by himself.

Well that's pretty much my week. Wasn't very exciting. I cut my hair. and yeah.

Sounds like you all are having fun with summer there. That's cool that you went to record at Disneyland. Well, there were some holidays here that made it harder to work, and there's always soccer happening. Everybody here was pretty depressed that they lost to Argentina. Messi basically won by himself.

Love you all! Miss you! Keep being awesome!

Campos - Week Seven

Hey fam!

So this week was pretty good. Sorry I forgot to tell you that I got that package last week. haha now I just have to wait for one more shoe.

This week was pretty awesome, but we still have some things to improve here. The new zone leaders put in standards of excellence for our goals, which are pretty dang high. They wanted us to have 40 lessons total this week which is more than I've ever done. But we came pretty close this week. We had 38. so close. But also they wanted 20 lessons with a member which is the hardest part. This week we had a division with the zone leaders, went pretty good, marked a baptism date! And then  the next day, the new traveling assistants were here so we had 3 missionaries and we had another really good day, We found some investigators with potential this week.

So with the lady that we started teaching, Cristiani, she is an awesome investigator. We marked a baptism date with her and with her daughter, Shayani, and we will try to baptize the whole family! She just loves the Book of Mormon, she knows that our message is true, she just has an awesome testimony already. People have tried to tell her bad things about the Church but she strongly defends it already. She said she has found a great peace in reading the Book of Mormon. So cool. She and her daughter, and hopefully her husband and her two boys will all be baptized on the 24th. we're really  looking forward to it.

This Sunday was pretty cool. It was a stake conference, and it was a broadcast to some of the stakes here in Brazil. Elder Neil A Anderson spoke and so did the prophet! It was pretty cool. One thing that is kinda annoying is that we can't bring investigators to church this week because it will be the dedication of the Manaus temple. And there wont be sacrament meeting. Lame, but cool at the same time!

So that was pretty much my week. We worked a lot this week, had success, we are improving our work here, but we can still be better. I like this area, and I think the mission is great!

So that's about it for me! Oh and the photo is my district.

Campos - Week Six

 The river that divides Campos.

An alleyway where a member lives. It's a poorer street, but I hought it was cool. 

Hey fam!

So this week was pretty good. Seemed like it went by pretty dang fast. So anyway, transfers happened this week, everybody in my district stayed except for one sister. So this week one of the elders here in Campos worked with us in a trio on Tuesday. It was pretty cool working in a trio, but it threw off our groove. We're still trying really hard to find a lot of people to teach, and we are, just a lot of times they lose interest after the second lesson or so, they don't want to keep progressing so they don't. It's sad, but its part of the job.

This week we taught Roosewelt and Monica again, I think I told you about them already. I love going there to teach.  I always feel the Spirit. Anyway, we taught the gospel to them this week, faith, repentance baptism, etc. and Monica had some awesome questions. She is an awesome investigator. We also taught the Word of Wisdom to them this week, and Roosewelt made the decision to stop smoking. The only problems with them are that Monica doesn't want to quit smoking yet, and Roosewelt doesn't want to get married with her. Haha.  He keeps saying that she's the one, but he says in two years he'll get married to her, but she is ready now. And an even bigger problem is that they still haven't come to church! Failure!

We're trying to work more with the members, but we're not getting much help yet. They're in their comfort zone and don't want to do anything to share the gospel. It's sad but we're trying to help them get excited to do missionary work.

I'm pretty confident that we found our baptisms for this transfer. We decided to visit one of the contacts we made, whose name is Cristiani. We went to teach her, and she was really excited to receive us. We taught her the first lesson and the Book of Mormon. She Is married, even though she lives in a poorer part of town, which is a miracle, she has 3 children, and she already believes that we are an answer to her prayers. She prayed for help and that day we talked to her. She already believes that we are telling her the truth, and she has a huge desire to do what is right and follow Christ. Her only problem, and this will be a hard one, is that she is addicted to cocaine. But she has a strong desire to stop and set an example for her children. She believes that the Book of Mormon can help her with her addiction already. We're going to teach her a few more times this week and we'll see how things go. But I know that she can overcome. She has been SO prepared to hear our message, but she just has one big difficulty to overcome.

But yeah, that's about it.

I'm teaching the gospel "like a boss." Which is one of the phrases I taught my companion. haha.

So yeah. I love you guys, keep up the good work! Dad's fireplace project is pretty sweet. He needs a shirt that just says "Being a Dad, like a boss"

Well I'm out of time, but I love you all, it's great to hear from you guys!

Peace out.

Campos - Week Five

Hello family!!

The photo is our zone, but it will change this week. Oh and just about everyone is our district is staying, just one of the sisters is getting transferred.

Anyway, this week was a good week! I know usually say this week wasn't as good as we hoped, but....
So the only thing that could have been better is having investigators in church. We didn't have any. Again. But its frustrating because we did everything we could! We called, we went to get them, everything. But that magical disease that passes only on Sunday, hit two of our families, and the others just disappeared. Really annoying.

But anyway, this week was great. We had a lot of new investigators, the problem, as always here in Brazil, is that mostly they're not married. But we found lots of people with a desire to change their lives. We found a couple where the husband is doing physical therapy because he was drugged um and had a motorcycle crash. He was in the hospital for a long time. He is really turning to God for help and he does not want to go back to the life of drugs where he was. He's already saying that he'll go to church every Sunday.

So the biggest thing that happened this week was on Saturday. You know how Brazilians love to watch soccer. So we had a lot to do, but because of the final of the champions league, EVERYTHING stopped. It was really hard to work because everyone was watching the game and wouldn't give us very much attention. We were trying our best but my companion got really frustrated and decided he was going back to the house because he didn't want to work anymore because everyone was rejecting us because of soccer. So I had to help him with this frustration. It was a good experience. Missionary work is hard. No one really wants to talk to you, But after I helped him calm down, and helped him see that it is our job to give people the chance to hear our message, whether they hear it or not, it was better. We went to an appointment that we remarked (because when we got there the game started and there is no way they would turn of the tv  for a bit) and on the way a guy gave us his address without us even having to do a contact, it was pretty cool, and then taught an awesome lesson with an awesome family. There's a lot of potential for us to work with that family. Every time we have a great first lesson like the one we taught then, when people understand, have interest, and promise to keep commitments, lessons like that when the spirit is strong, is why I love being a missionary.

If I could just teach lessons all day with the spirit, the mission would be perfect. The only bad part is that commitments fall, people aren't home when we mark to pass by, and sometimes it's hard to teach lots of people.

But yeah, I love the mission. I'm trying to be better every day, trying to help people, and trying to build the church here in Campos, and have a little fun doing so.

Sounds like the fam is doing awesome. Love you guys!

Thanks fam for all the support! I wouldn't have gotten here without you guys! =D
I'm working hard so that YOU GUYS can have blessings. Elder Cook gave his Apostolic blessing and said that every day we work for blessings that will bless our families, our future families, and everyone we love. =)

Thanks for everything!