Monday, August 19, 2013

Craziest week of my mission!

Bom dia!                                               August 19, 2013

This was probably the crasiest week of my mission. I was able to go to Ponta Grossa and stay with the zone leaders there for the whole week. Ponta Grossa is a city at the very end of our mission and everyone wants to serve there because they always baptize. Well, the last few months they havent been baptizing so me and Elder Schmidt went there for a week and left with 18 baptisms on Sunday! It was so good and there were so many miracles. They didnt have very many people ready to be baptized but we got there and worked a lot with them and they ended up having a lot of baptisms that they werent expecting. It was really good and I learned a lot about miracles and fasting. It was good to be a zone leader again and I had a lot of fun. Tonight I will be going back to......Boa Vista!! I will go there and spend a week with the zone leaders there to help them have the same success as Ponta Grossa. 

When I got to Ponta Grossa i went straight to their area book and saw that they didnt have any investigators. So I told them that the whole week we were just going to work our hardest to find new people and that the Lord would help us to baptize someone on Sunday. So we went to work. We knocked doors almost all day everyday and we were able to find 18 new people to teach. We even found a family of 9. That was incredible and 6 of them are old enough to be baptized. Well, Saturday night came around and I was really sad that we still didnt have anyone to baptize when we were walking home and we got a call from the sisters in our zone. They said that they were teaching a young man that was ready to be baptized but he lived in our area! So we called him and he said that he would come to our church the next day. He came and I interviewed him after Sacrament Meeting and he was baptized! It was such a testimony builder for me. Oh and I forgot to tell you that we started a fast just for this after lunch on Saturday. It was amazing. The Lord really does answer our prayers. But we have to get up and work to deserve the blessings that we ask for. My testimony of this grew a lot this week

I also just wanted to thank mom and dad for always complimenting us on the things that we do well. There are a lot of people in this world that would do anything just to get a compliment from their parents once in a while. We taught a girl this week that got pregnant really young and still lives with her mom and her mom doesnt ever compliment her. She just tells her all the things that she does wrong. She just cried the whole time we were there and I got home and just thanked our Heavenly Father for the parents that I have. I love you mom and dad. I am so grateful for who you are and the things that you have taught me. I love you!

Tell Grandpa that he is in my prayers and that I love him. 

Iguaçu Falls hasnt been in our mission for the last 10 years. The picture that they sent in my call package was wrong. We dont even come close haha.

How is Scott coming along with the mission prep? I cant believe that in just 3 weeks he will be leaving for the MTC. That makes me crazy. Scott, prepare yourself. There are a lot of missionaries out here that dont even know why they are here. Its really hard for me to see that. Please prepare yourself. Its going to be the best two years of your life so far. But only if you want it to be and only if you want that. I love my mission. But it has not been easy. Get ready to work hard and here a lot of "no's". Youre going to love it and I cant wait to get your emails. I love you bro!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!


Training again


Bom dia!!                      August 12, 2013

Its good to hear that you are all doing well! I heard that Rileys talk was really good. He is a great kid and I am sure that he was a powerful missionary. I talked to Syd a little and thats so cool that she got a job at the MTC!! I would love to teach Portuguese there. 

This week was really good. I was able to spend the whole week training a new missionary from Argentina. It was really weird to be training again but really good. I was able to see how much I have changed since the last time that I trained. I have grown so much and I have really become a better missionary. We were able to find a few good people to teach and things are going really well. We will leave today for the other side of the mission to help the missionaries there. We will stay a week with the district leaders and help them to work with all that they have. One thing that our mission is lacking is faith. So our goal is to go there and show them how to do the work so that they can have enough faith to keep going after we leave. I love this responsibility and the mission is really improving. 

Tell Grandpa J that I am praying for him everyday and I know that things will work out. He is a strong man and I look up to him so much. Tell him that he needs to get better in the next 3 months because I need to be able to sit and talk with him about life when I get home. I really look forward to that. 

Scott will probably need a converter. I havent used mine yet but thats because Curitiba is a really advanced city. But I am not so sure about where he will be serving. 

I have no idea what I am going to do about school. I know that I will have to go straight to the doctor about my knee and my hip when I get home and I dont know how that will effect everything. I dont even know where I would like to go to school yet. I havent thought about that too much haha I have been having a lot of problems in my hip this last month and I am really starting to get worried that I will be able to walk by the end of my mission. I know that the Lord will help me but I am a little nervous for what will happen after the mission. So, that will play a big role is when and where I will go to school.

I hope you all know that I love you so much. I cant believe that Scott will join me in the mission field in less that one month. I know that he will be a great missionary and that the Lord is preparing people for him. Dont forget to pray everyday so that he can get his visa. The Lord will help.

I love you!

Helping Others


August 5, 2013
Bom dia!

This week was really good. We hardly had any time to work in our area but we were able to find some people that will be baptized. We dont have a lot of time to serve in our area so this week we will officially become traveling assistants. its going to be really good and we will be able to focus on the areas that are struggling. I still feel a little strange being assistant because I always looked at the assistants like they were perfect. But now I know that the key is to be obedient and just work your tail off. We were able to go to Ponta Grossa this week with Pres. Monteiro and his family to give a training to the missionaries there. Ponta Grossa is a city about 2 hours outside of Curitiba. It was my first time leaving Curitiba and it went really well. We gave a really good training. But I learned one thing while I was there. One of the new sisters that got here on the mission 2 weeks ago is an american that was serving in the USA for 5 months before getting her visa. She got here and didnt remember a word of Portuguese and we knew that things would be a little rough in the beginging. Well, her companion turns out to be one of the proudest and most impatient people on the mission and things were not going well. They both talked with Pres. Monteiro and the Brazillian sister said that she would do better. Well, this morning Pres. Monteiro asked me to call them and see how things were going. I spent 40 minutes on the phone with the American sister while she cried and told me that she was almost ready to go home. She was trying her best to work and give ideas but her companion would just get mad and tell her that she knows what she is doing. It was really sad listening to this sister cry and say that she was just about ready to give up. I helped her to realize that the Lord could help her and that things would be ok. What I learned from this is that we really need to look at people from their point of view. We need to step in their shoes and see how they are feeling. The Brazillian sister didnt even try and she was ruining the other sister. We ended up doing an emergency transfer and they will be a lot better off. But in marriage and in other things in life we cant just do an emergency transfer. We need to be humble and just try to help other people. I hope that that is one thing that I have learned on my mission.

I just want all of you to know how much I love you all. I am so grateful for the family that I have. Everyone says that I must have been a really good kid in the pre-existence to have this family but I think I was just a huge rebel and i needed a good family to whip me into shape :) I love you so much and I know that this is the work of the Lord. I love being a missionary and I love this gospel.

Nada muda se você não mudar. Isso é verdade. Arrependimento não só significa que paramos de pecar. É uma mudança de atitude e pensamento.
Translation: Nothing changes if you dont change. This is true. Repentance doesnt mean that we just stop sinning. Its a change of attitude and thoughts.

I love you!


New Assignment


Bom dia!

Wow. Sorry it has taken me so long to write but you guys will never believe what happened!  Last Monday was transfers and I thought that I was going to stay in Boa Vista.  Well, I got a call and I was transferred!  It was so hard to leave Boa Vista and there were a lot of sad members there.  There was a line at church to take a picture with me before I left!  Well, Monday I went to the transfer meeting and I found out that I was called as the new assistant to Pres. Monteiro!  Yes, you are now talking to the newest assistant in the Brazil Curitiba Mission.  I was shocked but no one else was.  haha.  Everyone else told me that they knew that I would be the next assistant.  I didn't send an email to you last week because we spent the whole day at the airport sending off the missionaries that were finishing their missions.  It was really cool but the best thing that happened was on Tuesday when we got to go back to the airport and get the noobies from the MTC.  It was so fun to see how nervous/excited they were.

I am now in Barigui but this will only last for one more week.  We will now be traveling assistants and we won't have a specific area.  We will be going around the whole mission to help the missionaries that are having problems.  My companions name is Elder Schmidt.  He is from Germany and is in his last transfer on the mission.  Hes awesome and really rich!!  haha!  I have to learn all this new stuff really fast because I will be the one at the head of the mission in 5 weeks.  I love my new calling.  Its hard and we dont have time to do anything but it is really cool to spend so much time with Pres. Monteiro and his family.  They are amazing people and I love them.

I love you all so much and I hope you don't get mad that I didn't write very much !  I don't have time!