Serra - Week Seven

 We were setting up for the ward Christmas party but then....

we got distracted! 

 The mission Christmas party.

 Me with the Pres.

Caroling with the ward.

Me with some of the youth in the ward.

                                                   "To live without love is to live halfway."

Dear family,

I like the Christmas picture. =) Nice Photoshop-ing. I like how I have Blake's hands. All of the littles are so much different from when I left!

Anyway, I will call tomorrow, around 9 your time. 2pm here in Brasil. I can talk for as long as I want. =) President doesn't care, and we don't have anything to do tomorrow anyway... I will skype from the chapel, while my companion uses the phone to call home.

Tonight, the other missionaries will come over and we will spent Christmas eve together, which is cool, I guess. You said you send three packages? I only got two. So the paper tree, I don't have. haha. Oh well.

This week was really, well, slow in terms of work. We taught very little, but we helped out a lot with the ward. They had their dinner (that we didn't eat. >=( freak.) That we helped set up and clean and do everything.

The best part of the week was yesterday, when we went caroling with members of the ward to some less active members, from 5 until 9. It was great, I really liked it. It was the best thing that I've done all month. It brought a little bit of that Christmas spirit that is lacking here in my area. We brought the less actives fruitcake (which is actually a popular thing here, no one throws it out). It was really great to see their reactions when they saw a ton of members that they haven't seen in a while at their door to sing for them. Some of them started crying. The Spirit was really great. I loved it.

That's about all we did all week. Love you, talk to you tomorrow. =)

Serra - Week Six

Hey family,

Well, this week it was really hot again. Flip, Elder.

So we had some good things happen, and some things not happen, but that's alright.

So our best investigator at the moment is Ilda and her daughter Deborah, and now we are teaching her sister Joelma too. She is the one that lived in Campos. She read the Book of Mormon, and really liked it, and she said that she felt good while she read. She was going to go to church with us, but she didn't. =( and I don't know why yet. But she really likes our visits, and she committed to live the Word of Wisdom. Progress! I really think that she will be baptized.

We are also focusing on Marlete and her family, even though she's not married. Her daughter in law Magna, who was there when we taught the Book of Mormon read, prayed, and says that its true. =) We are also working with the family to get them married and to church, which is seeming difficult, because they are always doing something.

Thierlies went to church again, but isn't reading the Book of Mormon still. He's a really great member, he has a testimony, but he wants to return to activity before thinking about going on a mission.

The week has been pretty slow, people are already starting to travel. This next week will be difficult as well. But we are basically working with these two families a lot, and I really like them both. What is awesome is that every time we teach in these two places, the Spirit is always really strong. It is always the most spiritual lesson of the day at these two houses.

This week the mission will have its Christmas party. It's tomorrow actually, along with transfers but I'm staying again, so whatev. They said that this Christmas we can't go to a members house to use skype or something like that but I'll get back to you next week about what will happen for the call.

Sorry for the short email. i know its annoying. Next time I will write down my biggest spiritual experience of the week to tell to you. =)

Love you all. Thanks for all the love and support. I'm trying my hardest. I feel like the mission is a huge patience test with my companions. I seem to only get companions who have companionship issues, and President puts me with them because he knows that I'm patient. haha

Until next week, and then one more day.

TCHAO!!

Serra - Week Five

 The mission office.

Our new hammocks!

Well, this week was really hot. Really hot. Like 100 hot. But that's just part of the work here. But today its raining again. haha

The Christmas tree is in a member's house. And I am PRO and made a BALLER Christmas card. I hope you liked it. And I did pay more money to get that box there before Christmas. =)

Brazilian food. Well, if you just make rice, beans, and some chicken, along with some coke and a salad, that's your basic Brazilian lunch. haha. But to make something a little better, get some dough to make tortillas, and you put basically whatever inside (ground beef, ham and cheese, pepperoni), fold it over (almost like a taco) and fry it in oil. Its called pastel and it's really common here. I don't know...
basically beans, rice, pasta (some kind of noodles) a kind of meat and a salad is the basic food here.

This week we didn't have that much success, but we tried hard. We ended up knocking a lot of doors this week, but we did find some really great people. The problem is going to be Christmas because a lot of the good people that we are finding will travel. Lame.

So I don't know if I told you about Marlete already. She is a great investigator, she says that it's her dream to be baptized like Christ was baptized and she really wants to see a baptism. She has so much potential. The only problem is that she isn't legally married. That's something that is really annoying about the people here. They live together 20 years and aren't married. Her daughter-in-law was there when we taught the Book of Mormon, and she really liked it. She said that she wanted to read the whole book to know more about it. So I don't know how much that they will progress, but I really like them.

Our best investigator, Angela, is going to travel and won't come back until the new year. =( But she is going to take her book of Mormon and her notebook to take notes/write down questions. I won't be surprised if she read the whole thing by the time she gets back. She said that she'll have a lot of questions for us when she gets back.

We found a really awesome family this week knocking doors. We talked to a girl named Deborah and she said that we could come back when her family was home. So we did. She lives with her mom and we taught them. Ilza, the mom, lived in CAMPOS for 7 years, in the area I was, so we got along well, talking. We gave a really spiritual lesson there, and we marked to go back. They also have a lot of potential and I am excited to keep teaching them.

One of the inactives that we have been visiting went to church today and it made me really happy. His name is Tierlies, and he's 22. He prepared his mission papers 3 times, but didn't go because of dental issues, but he came to church for the first time in a while, and it was great. One is his problems is that he plays League of Legends a lot, the same that Cam and Zack play, and he keeps saying that he wants to play with them. haha

Well, that's basically my week. Oh and I bought a hammock, and slept there two nights in a row. It's pretty sweet.

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

We went to the mission office last Monday, but they said that they can only give the letters and packages on transfer day now. =(

I bought a harmonica, and I am learning to play some hymns. Pretty sweet. Do we have our trombone still? I'll want that when I  get back.

I think that's it. Love you all. =)

Serra - Week Four

 A service project.

I put Christmas lights up in our house!

Hey family, well, this week was kinda crazy. We decided to focus really on getting a lot of new investigators, weeding through those who don't want to do anything, and those who do. So, the week started out awesome. we were on fire. But then, about halfway through the week, we lost it. We taught little, so the week didn't turn out that well. At  least we have a lot of new people to teach now. We found a family that was really cool, but the third time we came they said that we couldn't teach them, and they gave us their Book of Mormon because the dad was trying to burn it... but we'll give it back again. We also found a really cool family that used to be Jehovah's Witnesses, and they had a lot of interest, but they're working a lot and didn't have the time to talk to us again. So its been frustrating.

This Sunday we found a super cool woman and her daughter, she really wants to see a baptism, and agreed with the restoration, but she isn't married. But she does have a ton of interest. so we'll see.

It's been either rain or really hot here this week, but personally, I prefer the rain. Christmas spirit doesn't exist here like it does back home, Christmas caroling confuses people, (not a Brazilian tradition) and maybe 1/16 of houses have something Christmas on the outside. But that's okay.

The email isn't very long this week. I sent a package home with a present for Drew, Darcy and Blake, you should get it soon. Sorry to the rest of you, I couldn't/ didn't have time to get something for everyone.

Well, I love you all, thank you for everything, you are the best family!

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!