March 20th, 2017

HEY 

So this week was nuts and went by super fast. Once again I got super lucky and got to go to the temple. My new zone was one of the only zones that didn't go last transfer so I got here just in time to go again which was super awesome! That's why I'm emailing today 

We got a ton of awesome references but the other day we just got a text message from a random person of some address that wasn't on our map and we asked all around but nobody knew where this street was.  Out of nowhere this lady from Salt Lake called us asking why we didn't contact this lady yet so we just started walking asking everyone for this street. Nobody knew. Randomly we were walking to another appointment and found the street and house. It's this super awesome lady that is so excited we are teaching her and is already talking baptism! 

We also found an awesome less active ready to come back to church that was definitely Uchtdorfs 4th floor last door cause her house was in the middle of a bunch of crazy twists and turns!

This area is super awesome and we are finding great people left and right!!!

So now I have lots of pictures that should work to send. 

Last week this huge bus full of Americans was riding around town and later we found them and nobody believed me at first when I said I'm American but I took a pic with some of them so that was fun

There is this dog that follows us to alllll of our appointments and literally walks with us allll dayyy longggg he rocks!

rain

more rain

banana trees

trains

WINDY

Bed LoL

Bobby

Garbage Truck

Town Grey Sky

March 13th, 2017

     HEY Hope you all had an awesome week! I sure did! We got lots of sun and rain; your usual Curitiba mix! 

But wowee was this week super nuts and jam packed. So I'm here in the new area. It's huge, the members rock, and we got lots of investigators ready for baptism so that's basically the perfect trifecta. 

     So first things first, the other day we were in a lesson at like 7 pm and out of nowhere a bunch of people started to call us, but we were teaching so we were ignoring the calls until after the lesson. But it didn´t let up so we find out after that the gangs around here got a little angry I guess and started doing some not very Christ-like things. One thing led to another and basically anyone in the street after the sun went down wasn´t looking at a very happy ending so we ended up having to return home earlier than we wanted but it's all good. We avoided the danger there.

     Another crazy story, so yesterday we were walking and again out of nowhere this bus passes us screaming something about this American and Brazillian party that was gonna happen in this park in our area and we were like what. So we went to this families house and after the lesson as we were returning we passed in front of this park and there were a bunch of people playing volleyball and I was curious so I asked what was going on but turns out that they actually are Americans because the guy didn´t understand me! Hahaha so right when we got there it started to rain and they invited us in this little house they had with 50 or so American high schoolers. turns out it was some sort of sister school program and everyone thought I was Brazilian  because it's been a while since I've used my english so I was a little slow at first but in the end it was all good! 

     This area rocks! We have lots of work to do and I'm super excited to work with this ward! 

I have more pics but it's not working right now so I'll have to send them later!

Love you all! 

                                                               Pics: The new house

The new district (-2)

March 6th, 2017

Well I bet you all have a whole chair but are only using the edge of it cause you're so pumped to hear about what happened with transfers!!! SO big news! I got transferrrrredddd. Basically the saddest day ever cause I love my ward here and had to leave some awesome investigators and members but I am super stoked for the new opportunity. I will now be serving as Zone leader in the ward Jardim do Sol. My new comp is Elder Rodriguez. He´s legit but we will trade comps here in a couple hours so I am still with Elder Araújo. He´s gonna hold down the fort here in Vila Aurora with a new missionary. 

This week was nuts. Everybody is sick and Carnival is bumpin in the streets day and night so that's been way... different. 

So I don't have a whole lot of time to email today because of transfers so this is gonna have to be quick.

Cool story of the week: So on Tuesday Elder Araújo and I were walking to an appointment with an investigator, we get to the door and I'm like frick we forgot the Book of Mormon we were gonna leave with him in the house. So we were like well we don't have a lesson if we don't have the BOM so we ran back to the house real quick and then knocked on the door. Nobody was home. Great. Ran all the way home to get the book of mormon for nothing. So we started walking to another appointment with an awesome investigator and I was like Elder there's for sure a reason that we went and grabbed this book. Some one needs it. So we get to the appointment and we are talking and all and after like 30 minutes in the lesson, our investigators aunt walks in and says she wants to listen. We bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and this lady just starts crying and saying that shes been looking for these answers for a long time now and she knows the Book of Mormon is true and she was like "where can I buy one?" so we gave her the one we grabbed and she was super stoked. I know Gods hands are in this work every step of the way!

I love this work. I love this mission. I'm super stoked for the new opportunity to serve! 

Pics:

The usual rain ´round here

February 25th, 2017

HEY 

Hope you all had a wonderful week. I did. Life rocks. I love this place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this week was another jam packed pile of fun. 

Actually I don't really have all that much to say. Just the usual.

So today we went to the temple which is always the best and had some great experiences there. Took some pretty sick pics and learned lots about the savior so the day is rollin in at a solid 100%.

This week wasn´t anything toooooo special. This is the last week of the transfer so next Monday we will find out if Elder Reid Vila Aurora pt. 5 will be the next film in the series. I'm thinkin the chances are pretty slim that I stay here one more but ya never know! 

Sorry this email is totally all over the place. I don't really know what order to go in soooo

Highlights of the week:

Last night we had a family home evening with a bunch of youth in the ward before they all went to youth camp this week (cause carnival is gonna start on Tuesday so its gonna be a fiasco around here. They say Curitiba is pretty mellow on the carnival so I don´t expect anything to crazy. Just lots of fireworks like always.) So anyways the FHE was super fun. Had some book of Mormon trivia and laughed a lot which is always the best!

Had another great district meeting. Love my district here. 

Picked up some awesome new investigators

Had another FHE with one of my fav families and got to feel the spirit super strong!

Sorry nothing too exciting! I love you all! I am loving every second here! I love this gospel! I'm so grateful for this awesome opportunity! 

Templeeeeee

The gang​​​

Photo shoot with super BOM

February 13th, 2017

HEY this week was just super awesome. Every week is just super awesome. I love Brazil. I love Curitiba (south). I love the Vila Aurora ward!

So this week was just way fun and had lots of great experiences once again. 

So first off this week was the hottest week of the summer so far. Which also means it was the rainiest (?) Every time it is super hot here, it rains a ton. So every day is like 100 degrees and it just pours all night long which is super fun. I´ve learned to love rain because it cools ya off a little when the suns beating down all day. But anyways it was particularly hot on tuesday afternoon when a family thats moving into our ward called and asked for some help moving some furniture. So about all houses here have another little house on the back part of the property. This family was moving into a house of this old lady who is sick so she sold her huse but wanted to keep all of her stuff so we had to move all of her stuff to the back house. I swear nobody lived in that house for more than 100 years. This lady had a bunch of old beds, tvs and freezers. So we start hauling stuff to the back. I have never seen so many spiders in my entire life. The most popular spider in our area here is the brown recluse spider which is like super dangerous too so that was just joy haha anyways we start moving these freezers that are just FULLLLLL of spiders. it was nuts. and gross but it was fun and super hot! 

On saturday we had a ward pizza night. The elders quorom organized the activity and each family was responsible for bringing two pizzas and Elder Araújo volunteered to bring two pizzas too so yeah thanks elder lol 

So the hardest thing to find in your average store here is cheese. Cheese in Brazil is so expensive and they only have mozzerella. So I walk up to the deli and ask for 600 grams of cheese expecting a block of cheese but it only comes in pre sliced for sandwich cheese so yeah nbd we get home and realize we dont have a cheese shredder but do have some 300 slices of mozzerella. Great. SO we just start going at it with knives and blenders and then finally found some sort of cheese grater. Shredding cheese thats already sliced is way hard. Dont try it. 

BUT the pizza night was a success! Had lots of investigators and less actives and had a great time! 

Love you all!

Pics:

Pizza! (not the one we made) 

pomegranates (score)

our humble abode

The member thought it would be super funny to take a pic with this bed and pretend we are in prison lol

Diggin up a bunch of pieces of wood for idk what