HELLO UNITED STATES!!

HELLO UNITED STATES!! 

Everything is great here in Brazil, the days are either super hot or super rainy. 

I am really liking this ward a ton, they really help out with our recent converts. 

Gilson is doing great he is inviting all of his friends to church, because of him there are going to be a ton of people that enter into the church, 

we are preparing to go to the temple with the recent converts on the 30th and it will be super awesome! 

Mateus is also doing great. He is the only person that goes to church in his family but I believe that with time because of his example the rest of his family will start going to church as well. He got the priesthood this last Sunday so that was super exciting! A member named Monica is helping out a ton with him, she is sending messages to him and making him read the book of Mormon every night and to say his prayers. 

This last week we were looking for a referral we received and some lady yelled at us to come here, so we did. We were talking to her and it turns out she is a member of the church but she doesn´t go anymore but she said she wants to return to the church. She lives with her boyfriend and her daughter that aren´t members. 

We have been teaching a young man named Clayton for a while now and this last week was his baptism! His baptism was super cool but the heater for the water broke so the water was super cold! The water was draining slowly which we didn´t know, so we filled it up early then when we were getting into the water I was, dang this water is super low. Because of that the first time he didn´t go all the way under the water, his toe came out, so he was baptized 2 times in the freezing cold water. His dad would never listen to the lessons before but he went to church for his sons baptism and he loved church! I think now he will let us teach him!

We are teaching this amazing family of 3 people named Adriana, Mariana, and Leticia. I love teaching this family they are so cool. This last Sunday they went to church and I loved it! It is super funny whenever we go to their house she is always making food for us for when we get there, I will get fat if I go there too much because she cooks super well!

Well I think this is the longest letter that I have ever written I hope you are happy with me mom.
 --

-Elder Messick

Missionary selfies

Slack line

Full of miracles

natal!

Mateus!!!!!

This last week was full of miracles. 
So remember that one big family we were teaching? yeah so we went there this last Monday and the dad of the family said we couldn't pass there anymore and I got super sad. On Thursday we were passing close to their house and Mateus stopped us and said, hey I still want to go to church and be baptized, I know my dad doesn't want me to but I know it is the right choice. So on Sunday, there he was at church. 
This last week we also found a bunch of sweet new investigators and a bunch of them went to church. 
The lord is blessing us so much these last couple of weeks. 
Man my emails are getting shorter and shorter every time. I think here in 6 months I will probably just send an email saying, "hey I am alive, love you all" 
no just kidding, if I do that I think that my mom will kill me. 
Well I love you all 

Conselho de Liderança1

Reunião de Conselho

da Zona Trujillo

Conselho de Liderança

This last week was good

So sorry the Internet fell until now so I don´t have much time to write, that´s Brazil for ya. 

This last week was good. We are having a lot of fun doing crazy contacts with people on the street and we have found a couple of cool people doing that, more then anything it just keeps us excited to do contacts.

So that family that we have been teaching is giving me a lot of stress! This last Sunday we went there to pick them up to go to church and they were all ready and walking out to the car and the husband who is usually super chill came out and pulled the wife back in and said you aren´t going to church you need to clean the house. It made me want to punch him in the face but don´t worry I didn´t. He is one of those guys who is super chill when he is sober but when he is drunk, he is the devil! He has never given us problems before though, he has always let his family go to church in the past but now that they are progressing toward the baptism Satin must have put something in his head. 

Today for p-day I went and did slack-lining. I was able to walk all the way across which for me wasn´t easy! Then I was able to sit down on the line then stand back up. Then Elder Trindade gave us a capoeira lesson. It is some Brazilian fight that is super cool. 

Well that´s all I have time to write this week bye love you all!

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