Rain rain go away come again another day...

It is funny every day in the morning before lunch it is sunny with a nice little wind then after lunch the sun turns up to 100% until about 18:00hrs when it starts raining then at about 21:00hrs it gets cold. It is ridiculous, it happens like this every day. 

Christmas was cool I was able to talk to my family but it was strange, it would seem like I would have a lot to say because I haven´t seen them for so long but after 5 minutes I didn´t have anything else to say. I was so excited to talk to them but then I had nothing to say...weird. My mom said I have an accent so that is cool I have always wanted to have an accent. 

Skyping with Cameron

So this last Sunday was super cool Gilson got confirmed a member of the church! His boss and a couple of the people he works with went but not as much as I was expecting... After Church his boss did a churrasco and invited us so I ate a TON of meat and umm it was good! I love Gilson he has the missionary vision, he justs wants to share the gospel with everyone! We talked to the bishop to give him a calling I think he might be the assistant to our ward mission leader that would be cool, he would love doing that!

Well that´s all I got for now love you all

The church is true

So 2 weeks ago we were walking and we heard someone say Elder from a construction site and we just kept on walking, Elder A. Souza and I looked at each other and we said let´s go talk to him. So we went and talked to him and he said here is my address pass there but I can´t talk now. So we passed there and the lesson was sooooo great we marked his baptismal date for the 20th. Every lesson he would bring a friend to hear the lessons but the majority of his friends didn´t accept the lessons very well. We told him that Satin would throw everything at him to try and make it so he wouldn´t get baptized. I have never seen another person that had so many pastors pass in his house in my life time! This last week when we were at his house a pastor from the 7th day Church came and started burning us and we didn´t do anything and he just stood up and told him "these elders have changed my life, they told me that Satin would send people like you to try and change my mind and because of that I know this church is true, now get out of my house!" SUCK IT! It was probably one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard! On Sunday he was baptized and he was so happy. it was a baptism I will never forget. Today we passed the construction site and he left with his friend and said hey you are going to baptize him as well! Man he is a role model for me. He said he wants all of his friends to go to Church with him so when he has hard moments in his life they can help him to stay strong in the Church! If all of us members were missionaries like him Satin wouldn´t have any more power here on this earth. 

GILSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So that family of Sandra, Sara, and Moises we are going to have to drop because Sandra´s sister is a member of this ward as well and she got in a fight this last week with bishop and said that she is not going back to church until bishop leaves! UGH! So Sandra decided to tell us she didn´t want us passing there any more because she now thinks that the church will just add problems to her life because of her sister! It makes me so sad, that family is so cool and they were so excited to become members of the church and then Satin uses the littlest thing to destroy everything!

Well I am not going to say much more so I can have stuff to say on Christmas, but I love you all and hope you all have a great Christmas!

Oh and shout out to my Bro Riley for his birthday this last Thursday! Woot Woot!

it was like missionary matrix

This last week I was able to learn a bunch. We have been teaching this family of 3 (Sandra, Moises, and Sarah) this last couple weeks and this Sunday was supposed to be their baptism. On Saturday they were super excited but then after we left Satin had their parents call them and they talked about the baptism and then their parents told them how bad our church is and how bad of an idea that would be to get baptized! UGHHH I am so sad! We are going to do a family home evening with them tonight and I hope it will help out! Yesterday we were getting super stressed because nothing was working out and we were at that point where we just wanted to call it a day and go home. We didn´t do that and the Lord blessed us. We did a street contact with a kid that has 9 years and he brought us to his house and they have a family of 8, 6 of which have the age to be baptized! The spirit told me "just imagine if you would have given up" It was a good slap on the head for me to wake up. 

Oh funny story we were doing contacts and we did a contact with this girl that has about 20 years. Before I knew it she started to lean in and kiss me and I feel like it was like missionary matrix how I dodged it. It was a close one... We explained to her that we are missionaries and we can´t and she was ok so when you go home just take me with you and then before I knew it there she goes again trying to kiss me. At that point we just said to her peace out! (crazy woman!) As we were walking away she said "I will see you at church on Sunday. We will see if goes this Sunday...

Ok one more quick story so we found this Haitian guy and we went to talk to him and here in Brazil you say você é o cara which mean you are the face. Doesn´t make any sense in English but it is a good thing meaning you are super cool. so anyways I said that to him and I guess for Haitians it means you are the faggot. Yeah he gave me a super weird look because he only has been here in Brazil for like 3 months so he hadn´t heard that yet and he looked mad. I said sorry but I was super confused then his friend started laughing because he has been here in Brazil for a year and he explained to his friend that is was a good thing and explained to me that I shouldn´t say that anymore to Haitians...  I got pretty embarrassed.

Well that´s all, Love you all.

Halls in your mouth

Me on top of an ant hill

This last week we were doing a ton of finding to try and get more people for our teaching group. 

We saw a bunch of teenagers playing soccer in the street on Monday and went and joked around with them for like 5 minutes and then I had a kinda cool experience, we asked them if we could share a message with them real quick and they all went and sat down and I felt like a teacher. there were so many teens it was cool, I have never taught that many people at once. The majority of them didn't want anything, but one was elect. It is cool how the spirit tells you who actually wants to hear your message and will actually progress. This kids name is Moises and we got his address and went and taught his family, his mom´s name is Sandra and his sister's name is Sarah and there are two other baby girls but I don´t remember their names. They are super cool. The mom said that she had been praying for more peace and when we taught her it was the first time in a super long time that she had felt real peace. 

We started a new phrase to help our zone to stay excited working in the hot sun. We say "smile on your face, Halls in your mouth, Book of Mormon in your hand, and fire in your bones" so whenever people are feeling tired they put one of those candies Halls in their mouth to make them excited again and it is funny how well it has been working. People are calling us and saying Elder I was feeling super down so I put a Halls in my mouth and found a family of 4! It is funny how a little phrase and Halls makes everyone excited to work. I feel like the company that makes Halls should pay me for making so many people buy Halls now. Everyone is carrying Halls now it is super funny. I even told a couple people in a ward about it and on Sunday they pulled out a package of Halls and said the phrase. Ha ha it is funny how a stupid small thing like Halls can make a huge difference. So remember, if you are feeling down just stick a Halls in your mouth. 

So we had the baptism of a kid named Douglas this last Sunday. He was the only one that wasn´t baptized in his family but finally he decided to take the big step. His baptismal service was super spiritual, his mom went up there to give a talk and she said "I don´t get it, I always tell you to go to church with us and you never went, even once, then these elders come and you go to church and the next week you get baptized." it was funny but it broke the spirit. We had the idea to plan out how his baptism would go, like who would say the first pray what song and so on. That worked out so well as we were filling it out the whole time he would say I want him to pray but I am not getting baptized, then I want him to give a message but I won´t get baptized. We left the paper with him and he just got so excited about his baptism, it was a super cool experience!

Well that´s all I got to say for this week I hope this email is long enough for you mom. 

Love,

-Elder Messick

Douglas' baptism

don´t have a whole lot to say

So it´s not that I am being lazy or anything but today I just don´t have a whole lot to say. 
Our new ward here is awesome and they help out with a ton of stuff. This area is a little harder because the people here aren´t as willing to hear about the gospel. 
We were looking in the area book and found a Haitian guy that the paper said he loved the church went a ton just that he didn´t speak port. only English and french. I read it and was like wait a sec. I speak English! We went there and he was like yeah you came back. He understands Portuguese but responds in English. So I taught him in English. When we taught about the baptism he said yeah I wanted to be baptized but the last elders didn´t understand me. 
We visited him with the bishop who kinda speaks English and he said elder what are you waiting for this guy doesn´t smoke, drink, he lives the law of chastity what are you waiting for just baptize him. So that´s exactly what we did. He is super cool and even cooler I did my fist baptismal pray in English! I always wanted to do that! His name was super hard though. I will send a pic this next week my camera isn´t reading in this computer...
well love you all have a great week!

Back in Sorocaba!

Well here I am, back to where I started my mission, in Sorocaba! I am not in the same ward but I am in the same stake so I am super excited! It was super cool, at church some people from Trujillo came to my ward here in Jardim California and I had the opportunity to speak with them. It was super funny they were like, "Hey! Now I can understand what you are saying", it was pretty exciting. I found out that 2 of the people named Suzanna and Robson that I helped to get baptized moved to another state but are preparing to get sealed in the Temple!!! WOOT WOOT.

My new comps name is Elder A. Souza and no I don´t have a picture with him just yet, I know I am a terrible person. I was at the MTC with him so that is cool that now we get to be comps. He is a super hard worker and before the mission really liked to fight so I need to watch out. Haha. He is short and Brazilian that´s the best description I have. 

So I am loving this area, It doesn´t have very many hills and it is like half the size of my last area so that is super nice! The other 2 elders that were here before us left and my comp and I got here and are super lost! So that´s an adventure, they also didn´t update the area book so when we got here we had 0 investigators so that was a little frustrating. We worked super hard though and were able to bring 4 people to church and I am pretty sure that 2 will get baptized this next weekend, their names are Pamola and Adrian. They are super cool. Pamola is a niece of a member and Adrian we met on the street and invited him to go to Church and he got super excited and went, it was super cool. It was one of those street contacts that you think was just a waste of time but then Sunday comes around and yup there they are, waiting for you at church. It made me super happy. It is cool when stuff like that happens.

I should have taken a picture of our house when we got there, Oh man I don´t think I have seen anything more messy. Like my mom always taught me the spirit can´t be in dirty places so we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned a little more and finally finished. It is so true what my mom said. It is so much better to plan and to study now that is is clean.

Well that´s all I have for this week Love you all! Beijo

Brazil

So just to explain a little more how Brazil is, a dog just walked into the lan house where we are at right now and it is just normal, nobody gives a crap. Haha I love Brazil! So pretty much this last week was awesome! We had so many miracles! 

So the beginning of this week we had interviews with our president and wow he is an inspired man! He told me what I needed to do to make my mission better and it worked out so well, this last week was amazing! I don´t even know what changed other then this last week I was just a little happier to work. I guess it is like what my dad always said, " if you are going to do something, do it with a good attitude".

This last week we did a fast that we would be able to help this one family of 3 people named Maria, Erik, and Carlos Eduardo. It worked out, we have been teaching them for like 4 weeks now and because of a problem that happened with the interviewer we almost lost them but fasting has power! They just changed! The 2 kids were baptized and now the mom is finally trying to stop smoking so that she can get baptized as well. The best part is they all went to church alone this last week! 

So we got the transfer calls and I will go to Sorocaba again. It is sooo hot there, but I am super excited. I will be in the same zone as my first area so I will be able to do divisions and visit my recent converts there! My new companions name is Elder A. Souza I don`t know him yet but I am excited to get to know him! 

Oh best part so I really loved this ward of Engenhonovo and this one member bought me a slack line so I am super excited about that. I haven´t used it yet but I am super excited to try it out! 

Well love you all remember that the small things make the biggest changes!

Yet one more email

Another email from Elder Messick, I know what a surprise, it´s not like these come every week or something! 

Rain season has started again and guess who´s umbrella broke? Yup pretty much every day I just get soaked but it isn´t that bad because it is super hot, but don´t worry mom, I will buy a new umbrella.

So yeah there was this giant bug that entered our house and it wouldn´t die! we would hit it with a sandle and it would just get up and keep on flying! Finally after a ton of spankings the bug finally just sat on the ground and didn't move anymore so we threw it outside!

That´s all I have for this week sorry it is so short. 

Os novidades

Well I am trying to think and this last week we didn´t have a whole ton that happened. We have been having troubles finding new investigators that are good which is strange, that never happens here in Brasil. I feel like we are doing something wrong but I don´t know what. 

This next week we are going to try knocking doors and doing tons of street contacts in one neighborhood. 

Today I had the chance to play American football and it was AWESOME it was a great way to relieve stress. Well I am going to have to run the place we are at is closing right now because today is a holiday sorry! 

love you

God Is helping me to learn patience.

Not going to lie, when I got my call to come here to Brasil, I thought that I would eat a bunch of weird nasty foods but I was wrong the food here is very normal. The other day I had the first lunch that made me a little hesitant to eat. We had cow liver. It wasn´t that bad at first but then as I was cutting it I cut into this vein and you could just see all the dry blood but I just ate it and said that it was good.

So on Sunday I had a funny experience. So I don´t know what it was but it must have been something we ate because about 2 hours after lunch my comp and I were in need of a bathroom and fast. So our area is freaking huge and were we were at there was nothing around but a big church called "show da fé" (the show of faith). We decided it was our only hope so we went and talked to the guy by the door and asked if we could use the bathroom. Their meeting hadn´t started yet so he said yes. We went in and some lady stood up and said why are they here, crazy old lady. While on the way out we did a contact with a couple of the workers there and we got one person to pass his address and to mark a time when we can go teach him, it would be cool if that worked out!

It´s funny, you know you have been in a area for a long time when you know almost everyone that passes you on the street and even the bus drivers know you.

We have been teaching this family of 3 that is awesome! Their names are Maria, Eduardo, and Erik. They were super firm to get baptized this last week but we had a little problem. One of our district leaders in our zone is having some problems so president asked that we do a lot of divisions with him. So we had him do our interviews because he was already in our area and he did a crap job. In the interview he practically just promised stuff to the kids if they would get baptized, like candy and games. Their mom didn't like that and I can understand why. I wanted to kill that Elder who did those interviews but Don´t worry I didn't, I had to try and be patient with him. The baptism fell because of that, I just hope that they will still let us teach them after that. I guess God Is helping me to learn patience.

Well that´s all for this week love you all! Beijo! 

João vitor!

Cleiton.  his mom is shy and didn´t want to be in the pic

Catholic chruch 

fruit!

more FRUIT!

The creation that I made this morning

So real short email

So real short email this week sorry I will just sum up my week real quick.

So we have been working with this family of less actives and they have been going to church for a while and their cousin got baptized this last weekend! His name is João vitor. Also this family that we Baptized a couple of weeks ago of 4 kids without their parents has been going and it was the birthday of one of their brothers, he turned 8 so we baptized him. Their mom is just in the life of sin but every once in a while she will go with them and she has gotten a lot better since the first day we met them.

Love you all sorry this email is so short!

This last week was very complicated

This last week was very complicated. 

We decided to drop about 19 of our 21 investigators, none of them were giving interest to go to church. So this last week all we really did was knock doors. I don´t like knocking doors because it has been sooooooo hot these last couple of days and after hearing no so many times it gets you a little unexcited. so we have to play games so it keeps things interesting. 

So there are street vendors that always yell and say look here´s water or what ever they sell they are like oh water cold water good fresh spring water and they just say it a lot so one time I was getting tired of hearing no so I just decided to walk on the street and say look here the baptism free for one free for all oh the baptism. It doesn´t work to translate but you get the message. 

One guy stopped us and I was shocked that it actually worked. He asked what is batismo is it some kind of perfume? haha it worked this guy is awesome his name is Anderson and when we taught him about prophets he told us I always knew there would be a prophet because the bible said the last days their would be many false prophets not all of them! I was shocked, this guy is elect! Everything that we taught he said he agreed with and that the church of Jesus Christ is the only one that he has seen so far that actually follows the bible with prophets and apostles and everything! He accepted to be baptized the 25th but I don´t know if that will work because it will be hard to get him to church because he works a lot of Sundays. but for sure this guy will stay firm! He is so cool.  

This week was hard because Monday is a holiday so in our whole ward with even the members there was like 50 people in total when there is usually like 200. 

Well sorry I don´t have any other fun stories for you guys this week.

It is crazy how fast this mission is passing, it freaks me out!

Açai 

Cupuaçu

    Tuesday- Elder Hunt and I gave an awesome training where we put salt in a coke bottle with a hole in it and as the salt was pouring out there was two missionaries getting the falling salt one was super slow and the other fast. They had to fill up this other bucket but because of the slow one they weren´t able to do it. The point was we all have to do our part to reach the goal and it worked out really well, everyone loved it.

      Wednesday- Today was the day where it was all or nothing. We had 35 baptisms in the month and only needed 6 more to break the record of the mission, so we did everything. We went to all the areas and did all the interviews we could of people that could be baptized. We ended baptizing 7! One more then we needed! It was so freaking awesome!

      Thursday- So Thursday morning we had a leadership council where we went and learned some awesome stuff from president. While there president told us he wanted to buy domino´s pizza for us on Friday so that was exciting! We got home from that and went to our recent convert´s house and she was freaking out that I might leave the next Tuesday.

      Friday- So we woke up and then took a 2.5 hour bus ride to president´s house and oh man it was soooo fun! We went there and had American pizza! I decided that Brazilian is a lot better though. We also played ping pong and yes I still suck at that game! President is so competitive he was like screaming when he was playing, it was interesting to see another side of him...

      Saturday- Oh man conference was soo dang good! We did get to go to the priesthood session but I ended up falling asleep during it because it started at 9:00pm 

      Today- Today was super fun we went to the church this morning and played a Brazilian version of dodge ball which is way fun! It is super nice to finally do a physical activity! So my comp left me to be assistant to the president, so now I will be in a trio until tomorrow! 

Well that is about it. It is crazy how fast this mission is passing, it freaks me out!

Love you all!

275 eggs for less than 10 dollars 

Capribaras!!!!

LiVE

Semana Abençoada: My Beloved Son and THE Family

 Haha sorry forgot to send the letter from last week... here it is

Monday-Normal day because our P day was switched to Tuesday because of the temple!

     Tuesday-What a great day, every time I go to the temple I learn and love more and more! :) After we ate lunch at a churrascaria! Só na proteína with a good ole root beer from Desert book store. 

     That night, our bishop went out with us to our lessons,it was great for him to be able get to know our investigators and recent converts.

     Wednesday-Today was the day, the day I had another kid on the mission...

Some complications happened involving some missionaries having to go home, their companions were what we call "Curto Prazos" like normal teenagers from our mission who do a "mini mission." The 2 curto prazos had such a bad time with these other 2 missionaries who had to go home that they didn't want to stay on their mini missions anymore, so President Farnes called them and told them to give it just one more week and told them that he would put them with us, Elder Hunt and I. So that is what happened, I got Elder Oliveira from another ward close by. We now became Zone Leaders/Trainers haha, so cool! I was so excited!

     Elder Oliveira and I went to town! TONS of news, lessons, dates, and best of all, we marked baptismal dates with 4 people in Cristina's family (the same family of Wesley, William, and Emily the dog!) for Saturday! 

     Thursday-District meeting, Elder Hunt and I designed and planned a super detailed zone training which involved getting a bucket of water with a hole in the bottom, to the other side of the room with all the water...it failed miserably, but fortunately no one even noticed and we quickly changed the lesson and whole point of the training and it worked out smoothly aha.                              

     Friday-Today was the day. I did the most detailed planning session of my life, and looking back on this day, it made a huge difference on what happened the next day.

     We went and bought a super expensive cake, 50 blue balloons, candles, and Styrofoam letters "Baptize." Elder Oliveira and I ended up throwing a little surprise party for Cristina, Thayane, Erick, and Alyson! It was a huge success, it literally went perfectly! :)

     Saturday-We woke up at 5 am to get everything organized and ready for the baptism which happened at 7:30 am. It was a beautiful baptismal service, the spirit was very strong and all 4 of us baptized, Hunt, Oliveira, Bispo, and I, their first baptisms in the field! So amazing,so satisfying,and this family are literally among my favorite and most beloved people on this earth. 

     That afternoon we went and bought them a frame and printed their baptismal picture, they loved it :) 

     Sunday-All the confirmations,a good lunch, lessons and that night a member made us American chili! It was such a treat! 

     Monday-This morning a member took us to Sam's Club! I know Sam's Club!!! We got some treats ;) then after we went with some members, and our recent converts from Cristina's family and we played football! So much fun! 

     This was a great amazing week! I learned and grew with new responsibilities as a father aha, the zone baptized 35, I baptized my favorite family here on the mission, and everything is great! :)                            

     Transfer calls are coming this next week, let's see what destiny has in store. Also we have until Wednesday to have 6 more baptisms as a zone to break the mission record, LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!

Lunch post temple!

Hi, love you all!

 So exciting news I found out the day I go home and it is a lot earlier then I thought. I will go home the 30th of August. that made me a little trunky but now I am good.

American missionaries come home a month early because of the Visa.

Thayane, Alyson, Cristina, Erick

The most beautiful picture I have

Baptize balloon

for the family of 4 that we baptized!!!

 all about those mirror elevator selfies

Messickinho and Hunt

Elder Diniz LOL

The crew

Futebol Americano de manha,FOOTBALLLLL with members RCs!!!

Trip to SAM'S CLUB this morning,it even smelt like America :)

love you all!

I love Barueri!

I put on for my city, I love Barueri! 

So yes as you all probably noticed the last email was not from me it was from my companion but I liked it and it explained what we did way better then I could have so I sent it. I didn´t have time to edit it so it probably had a lot of stuff that said that I did that I really didn´t do.

 Açai- the best icecream that exists! We eat it soooo dang much!

This last week was a tough one. We have been working with 2 big families a ton this last week. We did everything I thought that we should have like bringing members, teaching all the lessons, and having members call them, but when it was time for them to go to church none of them came. Elder Hunt teaches way well and I feel like we have been teaching only by the spirit but then at the last minute it all fell. I don´t know what we did wrong but I won´t let it get us sad, we will keep working and just do even more to not let it happen again.

On the way to the temple!!!

That fake smile though.....

On Tuesday we were able to go to the temple and it was awesome! We were able to go with few people there so it was a lot more peaceful. It was super cool and super spiritual. After the temple we went to a store right next to the temple that sells a bunch of church stuff and american food. Oh man when I walked into that store my eyes were fixed on one thing. They had Gold Fish!! (crackers). You don´t even know how excited I got when I saw that they had gold fish! The closest feeling I can use to explain how I felt is how you feel on Christmas morning. 

A meal fit for the templo

Santa Casa Do Senhor

My companion Elder Hunt in our appartment

I am really liking working with Elder Hunt, we work very well together! This last week was a rough one and we didn't baptize but I really like what our president says and that is "Little Victories Every day" and we had one of those.

We went to pick up our investigators but all of them left or were not wanting to go and this kid named Erik was there that we have taught a tiny bit in the past. We invited him to go to church with us and he said yeah for sure. At church he loved it. It was super funny the teacher asked a question and no one responded and he raised his hand and was like can I respond. He gave a very basic answer because he doesn't know a whole lot yet but man it just made the rest of the class ashamed that they didn't answer. He then asked us if there was any way that he could be baptized that day but unfortunately the area 70 has a rule that they have to go twice so he can´t until next week. I really do like though that when all seems lost and everything falls there is almost always a miracle waiting for you if you continue working.

I love my mission and I love the gospel!