January 30th. 2017

HEY whats up! Good morning! I hope you´re all having an awesome 2017!
     This week was awesome mostly because we had some huge rain storms that cooled it down a little bit here so THAT was a big blessing.
      So first week of the transfer was a success! We found some super great people and didn´t sweat all that much. We are trying out some new things cause knocking doors every day wasn´t giving the results we were hoping for. We decided that the majority of people return from work after 6 so we have been visiting during the afternoon and knocking doors at night and finding a whole bunch of new people! Our investigators are progressing but we are really trying to give it our all to find new people and to help our investigators progress a lot more. Some days are a little tough when its super hot or pouring rain and nobody wants to let us in  but just gotta keep on keeping on!
      This week will be pretty awesome! We have a zone conference tomorrow, so that´ll be fun to see president and some other missionaries that I don´t see very often here. Always a hoot! The stake conference we had last week was all about missionary work in the stake and the members are pretty excited now to help us out which makes a huge difference! Im excited to see what the future has in store for this ward! Hope you all have an awesome week! 

Pics: 

When you find some american food

Elder J. Santos Photo shoot part 2 

Food network w/ Elder Quaresma 

January 23rd, 2017

Wowee...... I always said that the next time the Falcons were gonna make it to the Superbowl would be while I was on the mish... Even better is they are playing the Patriots!

 BUT anyways I bet you´re all just DYING to know what happened this transfer! 

SOOO I´m staying in Vila Aurora! I will stay with Elder Araújo and finish the second half of his training and I am also serving as district leader now in our area! I am definitely super excited and grateful for the opportunity to serve! I love this ward and I am super excited to work more with them!

So this week was pretty great. We had stake conference which was awesome. President Cuvelier gave some awesome talks and really got the whole stake pumped about missionary work which was super awesome! The work is so much better when we get to work with members! So I know all of you have lots of friends you wanna see in the celestial kingdom! Go give an address to the missionaries!!!

 Our investigators are progressing super well. We are now teaching a family of  our last baptism, and they are all super excited about the gospel!

 It cooled down a little bit this week so it's not too hot anymore. That or 100 degree weather everyday is normal now, not too sure. So yeah! Sorry not too interesting of a week but some big things happened as well! Enjoy the pic of teaching my comp about how to pick a team! 

Love you all

January16th, 2017

Wooweee..... what a great week! SO yeah we really killed it this week just trying to get out there and talk with EVERYONE! So this week we had the new missionary meeting for Elder Araújo basically where we meet up again 4 weeks after arriving in the mission and talk about how everything is going so that was fun to see some missionaries that we don´t get to see very often..... ONE OF THEM BEING: ELDER RAFAEL!!  It was way good to see him. He is now working way in the interior of the mission and seeing those missionaries is pretty rare so that was a super great surprise! The meeting was way good and I definitely learned a lot about planning this week. I don't think I have ever planned a day in my entire life so that was definitely something new I had to learn in the mish! But after a while I was seeing that we were making the same goals every day until ONE DAY I was reading in Preach my Gospel that says we need to make goals according to the desires of our heart and not what we think is going to happen so Elder Araújo and I started cranking out some hefty goals and praying lots and we really saw this week that the Lord prepares the way when we put all of our effort and show our faith! 

This week was an awesome week for our investigator! He´s living the word of wisdom and loving it 

We are helping him with his wedding that's coming up soon and he is super excited for baptism! He loves going to church. We have sacrament meeting the last hour of church and we said the final prayer after the 3 hours and he looks at us and goes "its over already!?" And after was asking to go on a tour of the chapel and all! The guy rocks and I am loving working with him! 

This is the last week of the transfer so I we will see next email if I will finish training Elder Araújo here in Vila Aurora or if one of us will be transferred! Lovin life! 

Hope you all watch the packers and falcons game for me cause i know they'll kill it! 

I love you all! have a stellar week! 

Pics:

Strict diet of spaghetti and orange juice

Elder Rafael feat. Elder J. Santos feat. my tie that Elder J. Santos stole (just kidding)

January 9th, 2017

WOWEE if i had a word to describe this week it would be... WATER! Cause the rain really never stops here so lets take a recount of how many times it rained this week: every day... I don´t think I have ever seen a worse thunderstorm in my life than I witnessed last monday after we sent email. It was pooouuuurrrrinnnngg literally all day. The problem is our house is sealed in by concrete so the water just builds up until someone forgets to lock the door, the wind blows it open, and water just starts flooding into our house. But no worries, it's all dry now. I think we walked completely drenched this week more than we walked dry.

I had splits with Elder Graças this week. His area is outside of the city and super pretty.

So yeah now with the teaching. We are finding some awesome people and families that are loving all the restored gospel has to offer! One of our awesome investigatorsis progressing super super well. He was drinking about 2 liters of coffee every day when we first found him and smoking at least a pack a day. We told him about all the blessings that will come if he stops and he told us that he was never going to smoke or drink coffee again. We trusted but stopping isn´t super easy. Turns out what he says goes and after that conversation he is completely living the word of wisdom! But wait miracle alert: so he is a site developer but has been working with other things because his site business hadn´t had a single customer for over a year. ONE DAY after he stopped smoking and all, he has had clients calling all day long. Not a single client called in over a year and miraculously now he has appointments every day. The gospel is good! God is always waiting to bless us we just need to do our part! I love you all!!

Pics: The first 10 minutes of the rain

Splits

January 2nd, 2017

     HEY hope you are all killing your goals so far in this new year! This week was tough but we are just out here trying to give it our all! Everyone is travelling so contacting and teaching was definitely a lot harder this week because nobody is home.

      So new years eve here is absolutely nuts. I have never seen more fireworks in my entire life. Everywhere around here sells fireworks, not your dinky little fireworks, these bad boys are professional Boston fireworks deal and EVERYBODY has them. All day long they were going off one here and there, but I thought a war started here at midnight!  Literally everybody in town just in the streets, in our driveway, on the roofs lighting off these fireworks. Good luck trying to sleep through that. In 5 minutes the town was just filled with smoke and it was just bombs going off forever right above our heads, in front of our house, EVERY WHERE. It was definitely super sweet! But anyways yesterday was definitely the craziest day of the year!!!! (lol) but actually I think that will hold through for a good amount of time.

      If I had a dollar for the number of times that I knocked a door and was let in to the house without explaining who we are I would have two dollars. I know it's not a lot but weird that it happened twice right? So yeah I don't know what the deal was but yesterday we are just doing the usual, knocking doors, and we knock this one door and this family lets us in without us even introducing ourselves, we sit down and she says so who are you guys? Hahaha hey I´m not complaining cause it was an awesome lesson and we found two great families because the same thing happened in the next house we knocked. It was a tough week for our investigators because everyone was travelling  and partying it up but things should calm down a little bit.

      It´s definitely summer. Christmas and new years was a cool 105 degrees so that was super fun! The Christmas tradition here is to eat a lot this sweet bread called panettone and needless to say I am panettone-ed out! We ate a whole ton of food and life is just rocking like always here! Hope you all have a super good week! 

 

Elder J. Santos soakin up some sun! (jk rain)

What I imagine lehis vision must have looked like

Panettone for life

December 26th, 2016

     Hey everyone!!! I hope you all had a killer Christmas and ate a lot of Christmas food cause that's always the best!

      Just another killer week here in the big  B R A Z I L soo yeah Christmas here is just a little bit different and by a little bit I mean completely the opposite  sooo all of the celebration goes down on Christmas eve night until like 5 in the morning on Christmas eve. A whole ton of people shooting off fire works in the middle of the streets and lots of people that rent out huge speakers and trampolines and just kids and families partying all night long and then everyone just sleeps basically all day on Christmas.

      The work was definitely a little bit harder this week cause everyone is traveling and nobody wanted to let us in and it was blastingly hot all week. I can now say i have lived a Christmas over 100 degrees. This week we also had the Christmas conference with all the missionaries which was pretty lit. We played some basketball and ping pong at the mission home and then ate a super super big Christmas lunch that was spectacular. But wait there's more! President, as always, gave a killer conference about the work here in Curitiba and now we are all just super hyped to spread the good news of the gospel!!!

      Christmas day here was pretty normal minus it being super duper hot. Definitely will be a little sad to see all the Christmas festivities going away like the Santa that gets towed around in an old fishing boat throwing candy all around town or my bff Santa that sits outside his house singing and playing the accordion all day long. you know, the good stuff!

       The man, the myth, the legend

Our friend came back!

I hope you all had an awesome Christmas with fam and food and lots of thinking about Christ because he's the reason for the season! You all rock!!!