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!