Linhares - Week Twelve

Well.  Nothing happened this week.

Just kidding. But the start of the week was kinda hard. Saturday to Wednesday, nothing was open and everyone was out partying and stuff because of Carnivale. Because this is a smaller city, everyone left for the beach that is close by or the other cities. So we still worked through it. This week we worked a lot with less actives, trying to get them to go back to church because we have a TON of inactive members in this ward. It makes me sad meeting them, and they say that they're going to another church now, which I think is stupid. Anyway, we visited a lot of less actives this week, and we'll keep visiting them

We baptized this week! Just one, it is the cousin of our other baptisms, her name is Ilaine. We decided that she could be baptized, because she's gone to church almost every time, will be able to keep going with her grandma, and who was firm. She wanted me to baptize her, so I did. The baptism was good, just Elder Fischer and I got a little upset with the members, because the ward mission leader didn't tell anyone about the baptism, and he knew for at least two weeks, and then they wanted us to hurry up the meeting and get it done because the Relief Society was supposed to have some activity in the same room, (but we already talked to the president who said she'd just do it in another room) so it was rushed, they still didn't use the room, and there wasn't very many people to support the baptism. but other than that, it was AWESOME! Their grandma will be baptized soon also, but she just has to get married first, so we're just waiting for that. This is the last week of the transfer though so I don't know if I'll stay or not.

I also talked in church this week about missionary work. I had an awesome talk prepared, but time was short, because they switched branch presidents yesterday, I took up too much time, so I felt bad too. They basically had to kick me off the podium. I was a little disappointed about that. It was about what prophets have said about why missionary work is important and how members can help. A lot of times here they'll say that if a recent convert goes inactive it was the missionaries' fault because they weren't ready, when they didn't do anything to fellowship or help the recent converts. Anyway, the members are really key to missionary work in any area, and the trick is just getting them to realize that and help out. One of the quotes I liked, I think it was President Benson, said that through missionary work, the members' testimonies will grow more, and it for sure will raise the spirituality in any ward where applied. It's in Preach My Gospel at the end of chapter 1.

I’m not sure if we'll have a baptism this week, the one that would, has been gone for almost all this last week, and now her ex-husband wants to live with her again, so she wouldn't be able to get baptized, but we'll see what happens.

The pictures are the baptism, there's a stupid shadow, I know. William, my convert, getting some practice for his mission, =D the view from our investigators window, and, something that I just thought was hilarious. It's the reason why Brazilians drive so crazy. They put their traffic signs behind things such as street lights.
[We didn't get the other two pictures he refers to.]

Well that's about it for this week. This might be my last week here! I'm working hard, eating a lot, (its okay though because I actually run every morning!) and I'm always hungry. (Like a boy scout but worse. Missionaries are always hungry!)

I love you all. I think your blog is hilarious mom, just so you know. Only after I go on a mission do I realize how funny my family is. Thanks for everything, I'm waiting for those packages, unless they got sent back again I'll get them at the end of this week! Thanks for all that you did to get me here mom and dad. Definitely the best thing I could be doing. I love you all! Drew don't crash in your first month driving! See ya!

Linhares - Week Eleven

Well I didn't bring my camera this week because nothing very interesting happened this week like it did last week.

Anyway, yes I send a letter to the president, but because he is a Brazilian he would like it in Portuguese since he is still learning English. So sometimes I write him in Portuguese, and I basically tell you guys the same things anyway. As for letters, it would be nice to have talks or devotionals that I could read, and yes I have to pay for using the internet, and it's cheaper just to sit here and read your emails than to print it out.

So today is the start of Carnival. Basically a week long party where everything closes and there is a lot of sinning and laziness. haha. Today we had to go all the way into the other elders' area to find an open lan house, and there are no open stores today. Most of the people left to go party I think. This will be an interesting week.

We haven't had a baptism this week. The other elders did, but we should have one the end of this week and another by the end of the transfer. The weeks just pass by so fast!

Last pday was Elder Fischer's birthday, so we went and ate at Subway again. Other than that we didn't do much special this week. We helped a member paint two of his doors . . .

This week we started teaching a reference of a member, named Maria. She's been to church a few times with her already, we've taught her 3 or 4 times already, invited her to be baptized, and she said yes! But for some reason she doesn't want to get baptized now. We talked to her about it, she prayed about the Restoration, and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and received an answer. So yesterday we told her to pray about baptism, and she said that if she gets another positive answer, she will get baptized. So we're praying for that.

Our other baptism will be the cousin of our last two. She is there with her grandma most of the time, and we've just been struggling to talk to her mom to let her get baptized because she needs permission. But the mom is just never there! So frustrating. And the mom of William and Caique who we baptized, I’m assuming she doesn't want to stop drinking or smoking because she won't talk to us, and the other night she jumped out the window so she wouldn't have to talk to us! I guess that just what the Spirit does to people. They know what they’re doing is wrong. They feel guilty so they just have to run. Which is stupid. She's in her 30's and she jumped out a window to avoid talking to the missionaries! Epic fail!

Well that about all the news that I have this week. I feel like I am going to be transferred after this one, and for sure I'll have a new companion. It's even possible that after this transfer Elder Fischer could go home without ever seeing each other again! That kinda weird. So before the end of the transfer we're going to a pizza restaurant. ( Pizza in a brazil is kind of a fancy thing. And also, mayonnaise on pizza, is good. Sounds weird, but it's good. =)

Well, I don't have anything else really . . . I love you all! I wish I could have some of those Valentine’s cookies! Sounds like everyone is doing great, and doing good work. It's weird that Drew is driving! haha. Well that’s all for this week. See ya!

Oh, I think the time is changing this Sunday, so I'll be an hour closer to your time

Linhares - Week Ten

I had some interesting experiences this week!

First off, it's been a hard week of teaching. We been trying really hard to find new people, but many of them just don't have a very strong desire to learn or do anything to get there. That's the most frustrating part, is that they just won't do anything.

I had a few new experiences this week. I talked to a drunk murderer with a revolver in his pants. That was new. We were at a house in a poor area (this was the second time we were at their house) and just decided that they were the kind of people that wouldn't do anything, and were just making excuses of why they can't go to church (all of which didn't make sense). We were about to say a prayer and leave when this older drunk guy comes stumbling in, grabbing something in the front of his pants. He started talking to us, crying about how terrible a person he is and he doesn't want to feel bad anymore, rambling about how he had a revolver, (which he really did. Guns, BTW, are illegal in Brazil) and how he was the most feared bandit in Espírito Santo. Well, we managed to escape that one after he kept rambling. So that was something new, and a little scary.

Other new experience. We had a service project today at a members house that they are building outside the city. It was about a 20 minute drive out there (they took us out in their car), and we helped them build their new house for a few hours. After we ate lunch there, they had to leave, so we taught the first lesson to the other guy helping us that lives at the same place--his house is just farther back--and then we had to hitchhike back to the city. We started walking for about 10 minutes without any luck. If we walked all the way to the city, it would take a few hours. Finally, we managed to flag down a guy in a fiat pickup (it looks kinda like an El Camino, not really a truck) who was turning onto this main road. He let all 4 of us missionaries ride in the bed of his car all the way back to the border of the city, then we had to walk another 45 minutes to our apartment to change and get ready to work again. After getting soft serve ice cream. =) First time in my life that I hitchhiked.

Another awesome experience this week. I know they say not to tell home when you're sick and things, but this one is worth it. Friday, Elder Fischer and I ate something that was bad. We think it was a papaya that someone fed us. We each ate half and it's supposed to be a natural laxative. Anyway, Saturday, Elder Fisher woke up sick. By the time we were halfway through studies he had already been in the bathroom like 7 times. It got worse for me throughout the day. Basically the whole day we had headaches, our bodies felt tired and sore, stomachs were hurting all day, but we just kept working. The last visit of the day, we caught a recent convert smoking, and helped her realize that she needed to go to church this Sunday, not next Sunday like she wanted to, and she was really grateful for our help. When we got home, we realized that miraculously, all of our lessons that we taught that day were with members, even though we didn't have someone leave with us, which allowed us to reach our weekly goals. Also, when I got home, the pain and tiredness hit so hard, after we finished planning the next day. As I lay on my bed, I realized that angels had been helping us through the day. There is no way we did all that by ourselves. And we probably walked more that day than any other day this week. I knew that angels were helping us along that day. That was an awesome experience of the mission.

To answer some of your questions:
There are no sisters in this area, just me and my companion, and another companionship with a Brazilian, and an Argentine.

Culturally, I like that nothing is open on Sunday. But that means they're all going to bars, watching soccer, and maybe going to random churches at night. But in Center, nothing is open. Except for some ice cream places.

I don't like that people will lie just to make you happy. They are more emotionally driven, so they'd rather hide from you, or lie to you, than tell you that they don't want to take the lessons anymore. Or that they won't go to church/keep commitments. People here are also lazy. They'd rather just do what's easy. haha  Maybe that’s not so different!

Sounds like the family is doing great! I liked hearing about what every member is doing. Exciting things are happening at home! Well I already typed a lot and I still have to mail president. I love you all!

Scripture of the week. is from Jacob 6. I think its verse 10? I don't know but you can find it. I had Drew in mind especially for this one. All it says is "O be wise; what can I say more?" So just don't do dumb things. Keep the commandments, live the gospel standards, even if it's not the cool thing to do, because the Lord will bless you and you will have more happiness. I just liked how plain that scripture was. What can I say more?

Linhares - Week Nine

 Riley with either William or Ciaque (he didn't say which!)

 At their baptism.

 Playing soccer on p-day.

At a fast food place thinking it's funny to see Scooby and Shaggy!

Again, I'll just answer your questions first because I think it's easier that way. haha.
Yes, we use a cell phone, and most people have one, even the poor people. But we only have a certain amount of credits on the phone, and there is a stupid think in brazil called "liga a cobrar," which means, call to charge. Basically, if you don't want to use your money, they call to charge, which makes our phone ring, but if we answer it nothing happens and it hangs up. So then we have to (or not) call them back because they think the church has money. So this will be our second week without being able to call anyone because we ran out of credits. LAME.

The church we have here is pretty small. None of the churches here have carpet, just tile. No AC either, just ceiling fans. But even so, it's a nice building, and even has a family history center (which is small too).

 I have no idea why we don't have bikes. Would make the work SO much easier, but I guess they're worried about them getting stolen or maintenance or something. We hardly ever walk on dirt roads, about half of the roads are paved, and the other is like cement stone roads.

I still study the scriptures in English in the morning, but I read from the Portuguese ones a lot too. I understand just about all of it, there's just a few words every one and a while that I don't know. Especially because the scriptures use different language than the rest of the people here.

Anyway, I BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!!! WOO!!

The baptism was awesome.  It was just a great experience! We baptized the two kids, William and Caíque, (13 & 11) and we should be baptizing their mom soon too. It was just awesome! I've realized what a huge difference I've made in their lives, especially William. This week we taught them every day to get them ready for baptism, William even left with us two or three times to go teach people! He's just awesome, and will be such a great missionary. I found out at the baptism from his mom that just 3 weeks ago he was rebellious and hard to deal with but now he is completely different. He wants to go on a mission, when we come to teach he gets everyone to come and listen, and after the baptism he even wanted to stay and clean the chapel with us! He's just such an awesome kid. Caíque is great too! He just isn't as mature yet, but he's excited to go to church, and live the gospel with his older brother. Those kids, even though the family isn't that well off, bought white shirts, ties and dress pants for going to church! The mom Poliana will be baptized Saturday after next. She still has some problems with the Word of Wisdom, but I think the spiritually powerful baptism will help her change, and make the same changes that her son made.

Well this week was pretty good, we're still trying to find more investigators and people that we can bring into the gospel. This week we happened to find a relative of William and Caíque, who has noticed how much they have changed and thought it was awesome. We started teaching her too, there was also a friend of hers there when we taught her the first time too, who really wants us to come teach her, but because we don't have any credits to call people, we can't find her house. So annoying. umm I didn’t bring my planner to the lan house with me so I can't remember much...This week just went by so fast! Oh we did have a Zone meeting, but the Zone leaders forgot to bring the letters, so i dont know if I have anything still.

That’s about it this week. It sounds like everyone is having fun.  Has dad bought a new car yet?  Is Zack getting married yet? The political news isn’t that important to me right now, but I like hearing what going on. A member told me yesterday who was playing in the Super Bowl. I didn’t care much. haha.

Well I love you all, I’m having a good time learning and preaching the gospel!

Linhares - Week Eight

The youth of the branch (with some investigators) who were at our English class one week.

 Having some fun while we were filling the font another week.

I’ll answer your questions first. The week was good! It also went by super fast. It's week two of this transfer already. We had 7 investigators at church this week! 6 are from that family we found.  The two boys are getting baptized this Saturday (so excited for my first baptisms!!!) The mom went to church also, which is awesome! We marked a date with her for two more weeks and we really need to work with her to overcome her Word of Wisdom problems. Anyway, the two boys, William and Caíque are really awesome. Especially William. Every time we come over, they're normally playing soccer in the street or something, he gets everyone in to listen, and is just all around awesome! He was already asking us about serving a mission and baptizing people. haha. I'll send you pictures of the baptism next week. We had the grandma of that family come again, and two other kids that live there. The Grandma, Maurina, (the one that prayed about us coming to talk to her) really wants to be baptized, but can't yet because she isn't married, but living with her "husband." She's trying to do all she can to be baptized though. So awesome.

The other investigator that we had was Vanessa. She is 16 and lives next to her aunt, Irmã ZuZu, who is a member (and really old crazy). She had been going to church regularly, but doesn't want to get baptized for some reason, so we told her to pray about it, but we haven't been able to talk to her yesterday. We'll still be working with her this week.

We haven't really found anyone new to teach this week =(

The past few weeks it's been raining a lot, a few days out of the week, so it would be nice to have an umbrella. The ones here are kind of cheap so I don't know how long they'd last.

I haven't gotten your package yet, but im sure it will still come, the Brazilian post office gets backed up during the holidays. Anyway, I just got a package from the Mortensen family! Neal's family that is. I got their Christmas card, Snickers of every kind, (ooh soo good!) and two sweet ties! I’m going to write them a letter today, I didn't have time to take a picture with my new ties, so I'll do that next week and send it and you can show it to them? haha

Food wise, I only have to cook it the morning. I generally have one of two things. French toast, (because it’s super easy to make and tastes good) or breakfast tacos? It's basically a breakfast burrito with a small tortilla so it's more of a taco. They don't have tortillas here, which was surprising, but they have this dough for making pastels, that will make tortillas if you cook it without oil. So I have that with eggs and french fries. And that's basically it for food. I like to buy fruit, bananas are super cheap here (R$1.40 a kilo), but other fruit (like pears that are super good here) are really expensive! (R$7 a kilo) I also like buying food from the bakeries on the street.

This week I also took up the role as cleanup crew at lunch, eating the rest of the food. Hopefully I won't get fat because we're starting to run in the morning and do better workout things. I just like eating though. haha

Anyway, we had one more fun thing happen this week. We had divisions with the zone leaders, so Elder Fischer left to AraCruz, and I "stayed" here with Elder Barr. We had to travel by bus for an hour both ways to meet the zone leaders, and then the next day did it again, which killed study time this week =( Elder Barr was really cool. We got along really well and worked together really well fast. That day was pretty normal, other than having a different companion for the day.

I wish I had more time to study during the day. There's SO much stuff in Preach my Gospel that I need to know and can help me be a better missionary, but there's just not enough time to study all the things that I want and get through it as fast as I want! This sounds funny because I didn't do this when Zack was saying it, but Drew should start studying now! haha I wish I had studied Preach my Gospel more before the mission.

Also, I am seeing how important the member are in missionary work! Missionaries find, teach, and baptize, but without the members, those are just less-actives waiting to happen. It's such a huge responsibility for the members to friendship the investigators, make them feel welcome, and help them through the changes that they are making. What the members do with converts really makes a huge difference on whether they will stay active in the church.

Well that's about it. (Whew, that was a long email....) looks like everyone is having fun! Love you all!

Linhares - Week Seven

This week went by pretty well, the last week of my first transfer. I made it through. Haha I can't put an exclamation point because this keyboard is broken, so just pretend I’m more excited about these things than it seems. It was our last week of the transfer, Elder Fischer and I are staying here, but the other two guys here are leaving, and one of them is going home. Transfers are sad, you make friends and then they leave.

Anyway, that family is doing all right, more of them went to church this week, some of them will still be able to get baptized, but we found out this week there are huge word of wisdom problems going on there so we were trying to work with them on that. Some of them still have that desire to change. I really love that family. There's Maurina, she's the mom of the place, she has two daughters that live there with their kids, Juciara, and Poliana. There is another woman that lives there too but I can't remember her name right now. Anyway, there are a ton of kids there and they're all awesome. William, Wallace, Cayeke, Idline, Marina, and Giovanni. That's from oldest to youngest, and they don't all have the same parents but they all live there. William and Cayeke will be baptized first I think, but we want one of the adults there to get baptized with them.

We teach them almost every day, and we found another awesome investigator this week. She was a reference of one of the members, and she had a New Year's goal to find the "truth." She's going to get baptized too. She's really awesome. She's 21, and she is really accepting of the lessons, is already living the commandments, and she was telling us why she needs to go to church. How cool is that? Haha She's had an answer already and she is reading the Book of Mormon every day. She didn't come to church on Sunday because she was in the hospital because her head has been hurting. So we're not too worried about her yet.

We've been trying to find more people to teach, and we're working in more areas than just Interlagos now, so we can't get as many lessons in. I think that's all the big things that happened this week.

If your package is here, I'll get it this week, if not, I'll have to wait until either transfers, or another zone conference or mission conference. And I don't know if I'll have an interview with the mission president every transfer.

Sounds like everyone is having fun at home. And poor Mugsy (insert exclamation point here). Sounds like everyone is doing well and life is going on as normal. From looking at the blog am realizing how funny our family is, and I love it.

Anyway, I love you all, talk to you next week.

Linhares - Week Six

Sorry, I didn't bring my camera this week. =( I'll have to try again next time.  We had a zone conference this week, but your package didn't get here yet so I don't have it still (the Brazilian post office doesn't bring on more people during the holidays, so things get slowed down.)  I’m doing better with the language, I still don't understand everything that's being said.

So, this week was pretty hectic. We didn't have much time to work, because we had interviews with the president on Tuesday, and then zone conference on Wednesday, and a baptism on Saturday, and the English class on Friday, so we've been losing a lot of time. We've been having problems in the area of Interlagos, we only have one good investigator there after this week. We had to cut Sirley because he doesn't really want it now, and Cida again, because she refuses to feel the Spirit. We spent like an hour, doing all we could for her to understand, and recognize that she has felt the Spirit already, but she just wouldn't, (so frustrating) so we're done teaching her too. The good news is, we had a miracle find this week! And had 5 people in church on Sunday!

This week we're going to be working in Araca.  It's the area across the bridge from Interlagos. We were going through there on Tuesday night to visit a friend of one of the members here. Cida was with us too, so we stopped at the house of a less active because she needed to use the bathroom. There was someone moving in at the same place, just at the house below them, so we helped them carry their furniture down to the house, after, we decided to teach them a message and marked for a day to come back. On Thursday, Elder Furrows (one of the other elders in Linhares, because we were doing divisions) and I went back to teach them, and the mom of the house (her kids and her grandkids and the whole family, almost, lives there) said that she saw us walk by her house a few times, and wanted to talk to us, but didn't have the courage to, and then she prayed that she could talk to us, and the next day we showed up! It was awesome! There were so many things that had to happen for us to be there, especially since we hadn't really started moving over to that area yet! That was a pretty awesome miracle. She went to church and is super accepting of everything that we taught her so far, but then, she wasn't married legally yet. =( so sad! But the whole family is elect, we have 6 baptism dates marked with that family already. It's going to be awesome. Her daughters, Juciara and Polina, are both accepting, one of the men in the house, Fabiano went to church and loved it (we still need to mark a date with him,) and some of the kids want to go and get baptized with their parents too. SO awesome. Anyway, that's been the highlight of the week.

Oh and it was raining a lot early in the week. We ran through a flooded area, and got drenched in the rain. And for lunch with the president, we ate at a restaurant and just loaded these huge plates, and ate chuhasco? I don't know how to spell it, but its Brazilian food where they have different types of meat on big sticks and they just cut it onto your plate as much as you want. Dad's going to love that when you come and get me haha.

Well that's it for this week. Love you all, sounds like you're having fun! I’m happy here and doing my best. =)