Monday, June 15, 2015

June 15, 2015 - Another great week!

So we went to stake conference this week and now there will be a new stake, stake Valpariso! So that was great, a lot of people went to the meeting. Also this week we noticed that it is super common to burn trash in the street and saw like 20 fires in total this week. It always smells super bad but its whatever. Not much else this week, I noticed how many scriptural names there are of cities and states here, like Bethlehem, Saviour, Holy Ghost, its pretty awesome!

We played soccer this morning with our zone it was super fun. This computer is super slow and is not showing any of my pictures to ill save them for next week! Ciao ciao!

June 8, 2015 - Val-paradise!

This week was great, the best thing that happened this week was that this Family that we contacted knocking on doors all came to church by themselves!!! Holy cow it was so awesome, I remember that the day that we knocked on their door, we were ready to give up and go on to our next thing scheduled but we saw their house and just asked for water at their house and they let us in and we taught the restoration for them and marked another day to come back which we did with another member named Douglas and invited them to church and they all came! The best thing for sure this week, seriously I know now that the Lord wants us to show our faith by our actions, like we did by knocking on that last door when it was so hot and we were just beat. So that was great!
    So what else, well like my dad said once for me when he was telling about his summer working on the oil rigs in Wyoming, its hard to talk to people about the gospel when theyre drunk. There are always drunks that stop us on the street and speak broken English to us its pretty annoying. Haha this one night, a guy stopped us and just pointed to the stars and was like ´´what does it mean?´´ and other questions that I didn’t really understand, so we just left him there to wonder because he was not sober in the slightest way. I´ve heard from some members that for a while, Valparaiso (this city) was named the most dangerous city in the world! That was a long time ago though, now its just fine! I feel like my English is worse than my Portuguese, its pretty tough now to speak with fluidity but I guess that’s a good sign!
     The other P-day when we played soccer we were sore for 4 days haha but it was worth it! Today an elder from our district had to go home because he has a stomach problem and needs treatment that is only available in the U.S. so this morning we made him breakfast and had a little farewell party. But I realized this week that honestly this life without the gospel would be so sad and pointless. We always need to remember the simple truth that we are here to be tested and have all the tools to return with our Heavenly Father one day, it wasn’t meant to be easy but it is worth it. Keep on studying those scriptures everyone! I mean honestly, how many times do we hear that and how many people actually do it? Be a winner!

     The daughter of a family that we helped re activate was baptized, the dad was so happy to be able to baptize her and during the oridance he cried so much and the spirit was very stong there it was a great day!

     The other day this stupid dog was following us and trying to bit our legs, he got a little nip in there but i feel like we won the fight! Haha good times.









May 25, 2015- Crazy Week: Emergency Transfer!

 So on Tuesday Elder Oliveira and I were just walking to an appointment and the assistants to the president called and asked to talk to me and told me it was nothing that I had done, the president was very happy with my work, but i was to be transfered the next day and had to be in the office of the mission at 1. So that was a huge surprise! It was pretty hard to say goodbye to Elder Oliveira like that, we really got along and hes a great missionary! Now im in Valpairso with Elder Bond from Bountiful, UT! Hes been on the mission for about 6 months and we are working a ton and its the best feeling in the world! Now im the senior companion, I feel that i need to be much more responsible now but im up for the challenge! The day i got in Valpairso the Zone leaders called welcoming me to the zone and telling me that the challenge of the day was to mark a baptismal date for the next month. I thought ´´í dont really know the investigators very well but lets go!´´ we marked a date and it was a great start for the transfer!

Other than that nothing much has happened this week, we have been working hard to mark lessons with members, and now its just us two americans, so our portuguese is getting better because it needs to get better haha no more Brazilian at my side to rely on with the language! But its been going just fine :) Elder Bond rocks! He went to Woodscross and works very hard!

Elder Bond and I after a exhausting but great week of work

Me and the family of Tavarez a member who hleped us out a ton in Taguatinga

My expression more or less when i found out about the transfer

Me and Elder bond after we made some good ol pancakes for breakfast!







May 18, 2015 - You don't mess with Flavia

 This week was great! Elder Oliveira wasnt feeling very well this week so ive been helping him out as much as i can, sometimes its hard to lug around a companion though but we had a great week! On thursday we had a family night at a less actives house whose name is Flavia, when we were finishing up, a guy rolled up to the door and started shouting threats at her and her family, because this guy was the dad of one of the ex boyfriend of the daughter or something i dont really know but anyways Flavia hopped right on the phone called the cops and then sent a message to this guy on Whatts app and was shouting a lot of things that i probably shouldnt have understood but i did haha everything is okay now and it was taken care of. But it reminded me of how a momma bear protects her cubs with everything shes got!

     We helped with two moves this week of families in the ward, ended up draging a matress up and over a roof to the second floor of an apartment with just a rope. New zone leaders: Elder Lenon and Elder Costa great guys we played soccer for like 3 hours today im absolutely destroyed but it was so fun! SOCCER IS THE BEST!

We were walking home ( we live right by a cemetery) and Elder oliveira started walking a little out of the way to look behind thes office buildings and i was like where are you going and he was like did you see that woman and little boy? and i said, i heard them but i didnt look up because i didnt think anything about it, but he saw them and they turned a corner and thats why he was looking down the road but didnt see them, they just dissapeared! Maybe ghosts?

     Its funny here instead of ice cream trucks there are tamalhe trucks! At church this drunk guy walked in during the sacrament but didnt stay long, the bar right next to the church was playing loud music the whole meeting but it didnt stop the spirit!

We were doing contacts the other day and saw a sign on the door of a house that had two hands holding a cow not literally but like a logo and above said ´´follow the popular culture´´ what apostasy!

But is was thinking this week that it really is just through reading and praying that we gain strong testimonies, experiences other than these things can help, but if we want a well founded one, we need to read and pray! I felt so much closer to our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ this week because whenever we had to stop at home or if Elder oliveira was sick i just read about his life and it has helped me want to be more like him, so please read a little bit or just a part of the New Testemant and help your testimony grow today!

Just that, no pics i left my cam at home but thanks for the emails love you guys!

May 11, 2015 - week 5 of taguatinga!

Well it was great to call my fam! This week was great, we had been visiting some less actives in the ward who finally made it to church it was so great to see them there! Its been awhile since ive written a general email but time just flies by and its hard to keep track of what i have already written, here ares some updates
Me and Elder Oliveira are staying one more transfer together!
We went to the hospital today because Elder Oliveira was sick because of a food virus! Make sure to cook your eggs thoroughly everybody
The skype call on mothers day went super great
!!!!! Haha not much else, have an awesome week everyone!