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!

by Elder Messick and his companion Elder Hunt

Emily the husky!!!!!!!!!!!

Letter written by Elder Messick and his companion Elder Hunt

Monday-Sooo, we didn't have p day last week, we were only to do our email in the morning and then work like normal the rest of the day. 

It was cold and rained a ton, that certainly didn't help Elder Hunt and I who were super sick. But luckily we had an activity planned with the young men and women to integrate some of our teenage investigators. The activity went well, not what we planned, but it went well :)

Tuesday-Today was technically our p day, it was a special day because we went back to the MTC! We went there with a few other of the Sao Paulo missions to see The Brasil Area Presidency speak. 

While there, we went and picked up one of the good old donuts that I would get when I was in the CTM. What a walk down memory lane. 

Wednesday-We had a super cool zone training! Elder Hunt and I wore our baptismal clothes and gave our training. WE LOVE USING OBJECT LESSONS, so we bought ice cream, cookies, and sprinkles to make an icecream sunday, each one of the 3 objects represented good teaching, good planning, and knowing how to work efficiently, but then we added Tabasco hot sauce, salt, and oil, each one of them being, if you don't have faith, or desire, or obedience, it was all about being the best most complete missionary you can be. The big emphasis was on being the best YOU, not comparing yourself to others and working to reach YOUR true unbelievable individual potential. It was great training with some of the other things we taught and passed to our zone. 

Reunião Multi-Zona Alphaville

Thursday-We had one of the most incredible life changing Zone Conferences from President Farnes. I work my hardest every single day to continually raise my vision to push the limits of what is possible, but after a conference with President Farnes, Acts 2:40-41 can be made a reality- "And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls." President Farnes makes dreams a reality, I am unbelievably blessed to have him as my mission president.

Friday-WEEKLY PLANNING. That afternoon, I went to Cajamar to do interviews for the sisters and Elder Hunt stayed with a rad 16 year old in the ward named Davi. We had some great lessons and followed up very well with our investigators! That night I got back at about 830pm, BUT all the power in the city had turned off and the buses had stopped service, it was also raining, we ran out of phone credits, and we were VERY far from home. In the end, we got a ride with a member to our house, but we got home SUPER late, it was terrible. 

Saturday-We did tons of divisions, tons of Elders, tons of switching areas to get all the zone interviews done! Another night where we got home very late. 

Weslley and William's baptism!!!!

Sunday-An amazing family of 5 we've been teaching went to church! AND THEY LOVED IT! And they all have baptismal dates for this end of the week ;) Also remember the family I talked about last week, Cristina, Wessley, William, and Emily the dog? Well, Cristina and her daughter went out of town, but Weslley and William were baptized, they are very special friends 

Emily kissed me!

My companion Elder Hunt from Las Vegas

some guy that I did the interview of and he wanted to take a pic with me!

So yup like you read in the subject of this email, a girl named Emily kissed me. I do love her though, she is awesome! She is blond she has a lot of hair, she is so obedient, and she loves playing around. When she kissed me it was more of a lick on the whole face and wasn´t all that nice. Oh I forgot to say she is a dog hehe. 

Seriously though we are teaching this family of 4 and they are so dang cool and they are progressing so well! They were all firm in a different church but then they said that after we taught the Restoration they never believed in theirs anymore! So yeah the church is true. Anyways they all have a strong testimony of the church they even bring their friends to church they just don´t want to get baptized because they say they feel bad changing religion so fast, ugh! 

They have this dog named Emily that I love so dang much! When ever I come over it always runs up to me and then just waits for me to try and attack her. I love it, but yesterday she surprise kissed me and it wasn´t the best surprise ever.

So yeah we also had the baptism of Larissa a single mom we have been working with for ever trying to help her to stop using drugs and finally she did it so she was able to get baptized! She is super cool she has had such a rough life but had enough desire and drive that she was able to over come her addictions she was having!

That´s all I got for this week Love you all!