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This last week was kinda crazy. My companion went home and my area is about 7 hours by bus from the mission home. Because of him going home he had a bunch of meetings, interviews and stuff so this last week I stayed in a trio with the other 2 elders in my area! It was good I was able to find a lot of super good people with them. I can tell that God has a plan for everything though because I was also able to get to know all of their investigators. The transfer call came and it turns out me and my new companion Elder Lira will be the only ones in this area now so it was super good that I was get to know their investigators. We have a little problem though because now we have a ton of investigators and our area is freaking HUGE!!! For example: There were 2 people that found the church on the church site and have been being taught via chat on the Mormon.org site, they live 2 hours by car from the chapel! They woke up super early just to come to church though! They are super elect! The only problem is that there is no way we have to go to teach them because of the distance but there is no other missionaries that live closer to teach them! That is the problem here in the boonies here in Brazil!

We are teaching a huge family that are super awesome. We were teaching them throughout this whole last week and they are super elect! Everything was ok for them to go to church then we get there Sunday morning and it turned out that they were robed and one of the ladies that lives there woke up because she heard him and he whacked her with a brick causing her eye to fall out and breaking all that part around the eye. Because of that they went to the closest hospital that is 3 hours away!!! What I still find amazing is that when we got there without knowing any of this 2 of her kids stayed and when we got there they were totally ready to go to church! Even with this total valid excuse to not go they still went. I was very moved by their faith!

Gabriel who was baptized this last week is preparing to get the Aaronic priesthood, he is super great!

So today was my birthday, for my birthday we made some pretty awesome french toast! It was really really good! Some members made me some cake and that's about it. Feels like a pretty normal day to me. I miss being 12 having a birthday, that was a lot of fun!

Well that's all I got for today, love you all, have a great week!

Cool selfie

filthy river in my area

us at a recent converts restaurant

burning trash

oops took the picture to soon

With elder roberts at campinus temple

Here's what happened this last week

Here's what happened this last week

Tuesday and Wednesday

So Tuesday was kinda crazy! After lunch I did a division with Elder Roberts because he had to go to the hospital in Sorocaba and I know that city super well! So we worked until about 5:00 then we ran to get the bus to Sorocaba. We got there at about 9:00 and went to an Elder's house there and slept the night. We woke up super early and went to the doctor's appointment, everything went ok but they weren't able to help him so practically it was just a big waste of time and money! We went to the terminal to buy a bus pass back and their card machine wasn't working so we had to go and walk super far to find a bank so I could take money out. By the time we got back all of the seats on the bus were already taken!!! I was pretty dang mad. So we waited there for a while and finally were able to get the bus. We got back at about 5:30 then went and visited a couple of our investigators. We found that one of the families that we were teaching got super moley all of them except for their son that is super firm. His name is Gabriel.

We went and taught Gabriel and he is super cool. He read all the lessons alone and was asking a ton of super great questions! Also it was super funny he asked us how he could become prophet! haha We explained that his focus right now should be on being baptized and then a missionary and after God will do his will with him. He is super firm to be baptized this weekend! He took us to his cousins house that went to church this last Sunday with him and he is also super firm! He lives alone with his dad but his dad is a drunk and doesn't want anything but he authorized us to teach and baptize him so that is cool! His name is Luan and he has a twin brother Lucas, they all are 13 years old! We also taught this woman named Letisia that went to church this last week! She is super fun! She is a little scared to be baptized but she understands the gospel really well. She also has 2 kids that we are teaching as well. They have a date to be baptized the 17th, pray that it will work out! 

There are some Americans that came to our ward to visit, it was really fun, we had dinner instead of lunch on Friday with them. It was pretty fun we had Brazilian churrasco!!! On Saturday we followed up with all of our investigators and then at night we went into the boonies of the city and had a family home evening with a super rich member! It was sooo cool because we could see the stars so well!!! WOW they are so amazing here!!! We talked to a bunch of friends that they invited and had another churrasco!!! 

SUNDAY!!!

Yeah so Gabriel, Luan, and Lucas came to church and Gabriel and Luan were super excited to be baptized! Lucas couldn't be baptized because it was his first time going to church so he can't. At church we found out that their aunt and uncle are members and I didn't even know. So it was super cool and they helped out a lot! The baptism was super cool. My companion baptized them both because he will be going home here this next week.

Today we did some more slack line and it was pretty dang fun! I love doing slack line! 

well that's all, thanks for all the prayers!

LOVE

Photos of the baptism!

update

slacklining!

Tuesday

To start off the week we had probably one of the most incredible trainings in the world by our amazing mission president, he taught us that we needed to walk by faith and look at how with faith we can walk o waters with faith we can move 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to 12 baskets left over with food how all of this is only possible through our faith in Christ.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a little hard for us because we had to get a bus to Sorocaba 5:00 at night. That kinda didn´t give us a whole ton of time to work, we were still able to find 3 amazing families though so I would say that God really blessed us when he saw our desire that we had to at least find one family!

Thursday

We woke up at like 5:00 am to get the bus so that was super fun... We had an amazing leadership council that pretty much just had the same training that we had on Tuesday but it was still amazing and super spiritual.

Friday

Friday we put to practice all the things we learned in the leadership council and met all of the new goals we set there. We were able to find so many amazing people! We found a woman named Letisia that we taught the Restoration to her and before we offered the BOM she was already asking how she could get one. When we gave it to her she just started to hug it. It helped me to realize how important the BOM really is.

Saturday

We took the whole day pretty much just following up with everyone that we had to go to church. We had 2 families of 5 and Letisia. We also tried to find some news but weren´t able to find any elects

Sunday

had a miracle to start off the day! we had passed by the house of a man that said he would go to church with us but he left basically because he knew we would be there to take him to church. a little made because it was really far away i just walked off but i say a man on the side of the road and i had the thought "you're here for a reason talk with him" instantly i went and talked with him and i said "hey what are you doing at 9 o clock?" " I don't know i think ill go to church" "Perfect!!! do you want to go to the church of Jesus Christ??" "ya sure ill get ready" haha well he went to church and he loved it! and he will be getting baptized soon! it was an incredible miracle it was awesome! Also we went to Letisias house to see if she was woken up and she was all ready and she went alone. The other 2 families of 5 let satin get to them but because God saw our hard work he blessed us with this man and another woman named Camila that came to church for the 2nd time. We didn´t even pick her up because she was living in a city super far away but she moved last week so now we are going to teach and baptize her with the help of the Lord!

Update

Tuesday

we did an exchange literally every elder in the zone was with a different companion... that's not saying much considering there is only 6 elders haha but ya sooo we basically went walking around and i talk a lot about being busy when I'm saying we are busy that normally means we teach one lesson to someone then go to the next house and teach the people there and it just stays like that day by day... but this day was not a busy day in truth i felt like i was just passing time as we walked to different areas to try to find people at home but it didnt really work out to well because everybody was at school or working but after a little bit we went back to the house and got our bags ready and caught a bus out to another city that would make it easier for us to travel to the temple. but when we got there, exhausted from a 2 hour bus ride, i realized one of the most annoying elders i know was staying in the same house sooooo i just kept quiet for the night.

Wednesday

we got up early and got a bus out to the temple and i seriously had such a great experience there with a lot of my friends from the mission and took a lot of pictures we were seriously traveling soo dang much like a 4 hour bus ride to the temple and back then another 2.5 hour bus ride back to my area soo ya it was super exhausting but while we were waiting at the bus stop to go back to our area a deaf guy started asking for money but after that we just caught the bus and then got to our area super late!

Thursday

This day ill be real.... it was rough! i had no will to get up in the morning do to the time that we got home then because of the time we got home we had no time to plan for the next day soo it was just difficult i really learned just how much fake it till you make it can really make a difference in every day.

Friday

This was a good good day like it was just soo relaxed... we had nothing really planned because we (elder Williams and i) had to go out to the neighboring area and they wanted us to come in 2 hours later that we were planning soo we sat around a bit.... but it wasn't until the 10 min before the bus got there that i realized it would be getting cold that night but with the timing and everything i had to suck it up and short sleeve it haha THAT was fun but after 1 awesome interview we went to a members house and had a super boss family home evening with some super cool people! 

Saturday

i did yet another exchange to do some more interviews and it went super well! we got to do all the things we needed to and then some but it was even more fun because i was with the other elder in our area Elder Roberts who has really because a close friend as we joke around about the same things and honestly were basically like the same person as we make the same jokes say the same things haha but he is a pretty cool other then this we did a lot of teaching and met with a lot of new people and honestly that was about it oooohhh wait we went and did some follow up with some people planning to go to church the next day

Sunday

Sunday mornings have got to be the most stressful days of the mission.... seriously as we have to run around the city get everybody up for church THEN even more our cell phone stopped working and that didnt help as we were trying to call a ride to bring some people to church... my head just about exploded in stress and anger then we got to church.

 thank you everyone soo much for the love and support i love you all!

I went horse riding this last week!

Our area is super Huge because the church isn't very big here so my area has like 7 cities!!! to get to one side to the other by bus takes like 3 hours for you to have an idea how big it is!

there is a good number of people in our branch I think there were 130 there on Sunday.

new week, new area

So after a six hour bus ride from my last area I arrived in my new area Itapeva. Six hours on a bus is SO long, ok it´s not that long but it is just so much time doing nothing, I felt like it was such a waste of time. When the bus got there and the doors opened I felt this gust of freezing wind I was sure that it was snowing by how cold it was but it wasn´t. The bus driver said it was 2 degrees Celsius, it has been so long since I have felt cold. The bad part about cold here is there isn´t a heater in the house so we have to do jumping jacks to warm up. Also it takes a lot of strength to want to take a shower because it is so cold, these last days I have been taking my quilt into the bathroom so I can use it to leave the bathroom before entering into the refrigerator/study room. Last night it was negative 2 degrees, everyone here in this city is freaking out saying that there is going to be an ice age! I am glad that I brought a good jacket though.   Oh I can see the stars in my new area, in the other areas, because of the pollution, I could never see stars. The air is so clean here, it is super nice

So my new area is super cool, other then the cold, I love it. It is super pretty here and I heard that there is a waterfall in my area that we will have to go to one p-day. It is very rich here and the people are a lot more cold hearted so here we are going to have to rely a lot more on the members to help us with our missionary work. The members here are amazing though! We mentioned that we didn´t have very many blankets in our house to someone and that night there were like 3 members that came with their car full of blankets. Usually here the members think that missionaries are slaves but this area really respects us and really wants to help us with our work. 

My new companions name is Elder Williams, he is from Idaho. He is cool, and obedient, which is super nice, he also helps with planning at night and everything it is super nice to have a companion like this again! We share the house with another companionship one is elder Roberts, he is from Texas. I like him a lot, he is super cool, he is also very humble and a super hard worker. His companions name is Elder Araújo, he is very new on the mission but is also a super hard worker. I really like living with them, is has been a blast so far!

I am still zone leader but our zone only has 4 duplas. The zone is super big here though, the church is just starting up here we are a branch to tell you the truth, there are cities where I am at where missionaries have never went before which is a new cool experience. The only hard part is to do an interview or division with the other areas it is like one hour and a half by bus, so that is hard but it is ok. In between the areas there is just forest, our zone is made up of 3 small cities but is so beautiful here, this is what I was expecting when I first opened up my call seeing that I would serve in Brazil. It is such a small city that there isn´t even a McDonalds here!!! haha but it´s ok, I guess it is good...

This last week was a little crazy because the day after we got here the secretaries called us telling us that we would have to go back to go to the federal police because my companion is going home here in 5 weeks and he had to do a couple things so Thursday afternoon we got the bus at 2:00 pm and got to the mission office at 8:30 pm!!! The next day we woke up super early to go to the police station and then once we finished we got the but and got back to our area at 6:00 pm, so much time wasted!!! It was a little hard to work in our area this week because of that and also because we didn´t have any investigators, we went and visited a couple recent converts some other elders baptized and found the sister of one and she is wanting to be baptized!!! That is exciting, her name is Stephanie. This week was crazy but I can tell I am going to like this area a lot! 

Love,

Lots of pictures

Me with a painted cow that I named lucy at a pharmacy!

Transfers are tomorrow and I will be transferred. I am going to a place called Itapeva it is almost out of the state of São Paulo. It is soooo far away! I am excited to go there just that I will still be zone leader and I am not really wanting to be zone leader anymore but oh well I guess I have more to learn. 

The churrasco we did last monday!

Olha a carne boa

a cool picture

Making cookies and brownies at our recent converts!

Me at a bus stop!

Some catholic thing where the people decorated the street with shredded painted wood

1 year and 8 months looking and I finally found a Brazilian hat!

angry birds mask from McDonalds!

Baptism of Jonas!

me eating canesugar