Tuesday, January 30, 2018

January 29th, 2018

SOOOOOOO
I bet you are all just dying to know what happened!
So after a week of fervent prayer, we got the tranfers call last night...

anddddddd
IM STAYING ONE MORE TRANSFER WITH ELDER GARLICK IN ARAUCÁRIA!!!!!!!
I could literally not be happier 
I love this ward so much and I'm stoked to stay 
So this week was a little but harder because a lot of our baptisms fell through and got remarked for these next weeks
We had some family nights this week which was fun
The ward requested my mac and cheese again so you can call me master-chef if you want
We had an awesome family night with the stake presidents family and had some awesome investigators which was way fun
Nothing too exciting happened this week but i got lots of pictures so hopefully that makes up for it! 
love you all!! 




January 22nd, 2018

Whats upppp everybody!
Shout out to all of you that are still reading these emails! 
This week was wicked lit and I still freaking love Araucária! 
So we started the week off strong with an FHE with the ward on Monday night. They all asked me to make mac and cheese cause it doesn't exist here. The only problem is cheese doesn't really exist here either and the only thing they have is like that easy cheese squirt stuff sooo basically Elder Reid went all master-chef and made like 10 pounds of mac for a huge crowd and it was way good. Everybody loved and so we are gonna do it again tonight! 

On Tuesday we had splits with the Assistants which was fun. Both of the Assistants have served here in Araucária as well so we had a good time visiting some awesome people here. It's definitely the best ward here in the mish.

We watched the worldwide devotional. I know Russel M Nelson is our prophet seer and revelator!
 
It's been about a month straight that it's been raining so that's lit. The worst part is it's rainy and hot and sunny so we just get soaked and heat stroke like every day.

We have an awesome investigator named André who is like the coolest guy ever. A member invited him to a ward activity and he loves basketball so we play with him every morning and lots on P-day. His baptism is gonna be this week and he said he is still waiting on his answer from God but this week our mission prez came and we had a devotional about the missionary work and out of nowhere Andre shows up all dressed up for the meeting and in the middle of the devotional our president called him out of the crowd and bore his testimony and after Andre said in that moment his vision like closed out and the only thing he could see or hear was our president and that he got his answer! 

We had a couple other FHE´s this week which was lots of fun and lots of food. I'm loving the life like always here in Araucária. 
Transfers are this week but I'm really hoping I will stay another transfer here in Araucária at least with Elder Garlick! I love you all!! 
pics! 


Monday, January 15, 2018

January 15th, 2018

     Sooooooo this week was super lit as always because it's pretty impossible to have a bad week in Araucária! 
So this week was played a lot of basketball on P-day and we are getting in shape playing with some of our investigators every morning bright and early. 
We are getting pretty well known here in Araucária among the balling crew.

     On Tuesday we had district meeting and later that day we went to do visits with two youth that are preparing for the mish so they wanted to learn how to knock doors and such so that was pretty lit. After the first couple the two of them left and started knocking doors by themselves which was way courageous because I definitely wouldn't have had the courage!

     On Wednesday we went on splits and it rained all day which was way lit cause blessings woooo 
We taught some good people and had a good time.

     We had an FHE with the stake president and his family and that was a lot of fun. 
On Saturday we were walking around and all of our appointments fell through so we were a little bit lost knocking doors when all of the sudden we get a call from a way weird number so we answer and it's two sisters from the temple square mission that were passing a referral. Shout-out to our little old phone because I didn't even think it could get international calls. 

     Anyway, we decided to contact this lady because they said she requested a Book of Mormon and they had been teaching her through skype. 
So we start walking and get to the street where her house is. Garlick was like so what number is it and I was like 4000 something where are we at and Garlick was like that's lit because we are at number 50. So after walking quite a while we were just walking through this field and it starts pouring rain while it's sunny out. Garlick is the guy that gets burned easily so Shout-out to Elder Garlick for getting rained on and sunburned at the same time. There is nowhere to hide from the rain so we just kept walking till we finally got to this little fruit stand and chatted it up with this old guy for a little. 
     The rain stopped so we left and this little gang of dogs starts to run after us but don't worry we got out alive. We finally made it to the house. We knock and this girls dad walks out and tells us to never come back and slams the door. Quite the adventure that didn't play out how we thought it would but the grape juice at the fruit stand was good so it was all worth it. 

Life here is lit!!! love you all!!! 

Thursday, January 11, 2018

January 8th, 2018

Hey all! This week was soooooooo freaking good! 
Our investigators are progressing a lot! and I love this area a tonnnnn! It's gonna be so hard to leave this area but luckily I have at least 3 more weeks and I'm praying to stay at least one more transfer with Elder Garlick here! 

So this week we were playing basketball on Pday and we ended up meeting a ton of people to teach because of it. We visited one of them who is Lucas and taught him. He is way cool and after the lesson he said I have a friend I really want you guys to talk to so he brought us to his friends house and we taught his friends family and they went to church with us on Sunday!

One of our investigators is Andre who is way cool. He's 18 and was a referral from a young woman in the ward. He was travelling but finally got back. He made a ton of friends at church and has a baptism marked for the 20th!!! It's been was awesome working with him! 

This week I was sitting on the ground at night in our house when Elder Mousques walks in and just starts yelling and I was like dude what? I looked to the side of my head and there was a freaking hugeeee spider
We got it all under control but it was definitely like the nastiest thing I have ever seen in my life!!!!!! 
The pic below is when it was already curled up and dead.

We did a service project cleaning some rugs for a lady in our ward who is super cool! And we found the so called "american chicken" in the streets!!!!
 Go us!
 love you all!! 

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Christmas 2017



Garlicks parents sent him these sick mosquito nets 

Tis the season of pannettone 

Our Sick Christmas Tree

The Zone

January, 2nd, 2018 !!!!!! Happy New Year!



Hey all!! This week was just like all the rest of them aka it was freakinngggg sickkkkk
Christmas and new years were way fun! We had lots of work and lots of good memories this week!

We also had our mission leadership meeting this week which was cool. We learned a lot from Prez as always
This week we had two awesome experiences:
The first was that this time of year is like freaking monsoon season and I'm pretty sure the entire Atlantic ocean has come down in rain on us this week. So one day we planned to knock some doors and we were like alright we gotta get at least two lessons on this street. We taught one cool family and then went after the next lesson. When it just started raining soooo hard and I was like freak Garlick lets go hide under that bus stop real quick cause usually the rain passes fast but Garlick, being super faithful was like no dude we gotta get one more lesson so we looked around to chose the house we should knock and we both decided the same one so we knocked there. A lady came out and invited us in without us even doing the first contact. She then told us she had been waiting for us cause her husband passed away really recently and she was needing to find a church because she also moved to Araucaria recently because of her husband passing away. It was a way awesome lesson and very spiritual!

The next one is funny
So yesterday  four of us elders were playing basketball in this park right by our house when the Araucária city A team walked up and started practicing and then they challenged us and we were like ummm sure so we played against them and it was way fun. The hoops here in Brazil are way short so it was just a big dunk contest but still a lot of fun. After the game they asked us if we could teach them english and we got their addresses so I'd call that a #success 

Life here rocks! It's sooooo hot still but I'm super used to it now! Happy 2018 to all of you! 
love ya! 
Pics: 
Garlick getting a facefull of banana 


December 26th, 2017

This week was way sick! Merry Christmas to all!!! 
Hope you all had a great Christmas cause my Christmas was freakinnnn sickkkkkk!!!
Here in Brazil they celebrate Christmas even more than Christmas and there are a ton of fireworks and lots of BBQ.
We had dinner with the stake presidents family which are way awesome. Their son went to BYU Idaho on the 24th.
On Christmas, it was p-day and we opened up our christmas packages (thx mom and dad u rock) and made an awesome christmas breakfast. 
We then went to a members house to have lunch. We hung out a little with them and then did the long anticipated skype call home! 
This week was a little bit hard in regards to the work cause lots of people are travelling so we tried out some new things. We wrote down our number with some scriptures on a bunch of christmas cards and started handing them out and did a lot of contacts like that. 
We had an awesome pizza FHE at Stake Presidents house too! 
My comps still a great guy! We should have some more baptisms in these next weeks! 
I don't have a whole ton to say but I'm gonna send lots of pics and they say a pic is worth a thousand words sooooooo 
love you all! 
Merry christmas and happy new year!!! 
pics: 
Christmas lunch! 


Our investigator Isabelle! 






December 18th, 2017

Hey! So I bet you all know what I am gonna say. Yes, once again, this was another amazing week here in Araucária! Pretty sure I have never had a bad week cause the mission is full of #blessings. 
So first things first, I'm gonna stay here in Araucária with Elder Garlick this transfer! Super stoked about it! We have lots of baptisms planned out and I am super excited to be able to participate in them!

This last week we had Nayara´s baptism! It was a pretty crazy sequence of events but in the end it all worked out. During the week we were not able to find her. Her best friend, the one that gave us the referral of her, went to the hospital with some pretty severe heart problems. We couldn't find Nayara all week but randomly on Friday I was on splits with Elder S. Rocha. We called her and she said she was home so we stopped by and asked if she was still wanting to go through with the baptism this week! She said yes but also wanted Isabelle, her friend, to be at her baptism. We told her that by making the right decision to be baptized, God would bless her. So we called the DL and he interviewed her and we had her baptism. Nayara showed up at the chapel an hour before her baptism but we ended up forgetting some things at home and Nayara had told her parents the wrong day so we last minute ran across the city to her house to inform her parents of the baptism and ran back. I look way sweaty and nasty in the baptism pics but sometimes in the mish we do crazy things!
 
Summer is in full blast and its like 100 degrees every day here now with 100% humidity. Christmas or 4th of July? Super excited to stay with Garlick this transfer! He's a stud! 
This week we had our Christmas conference which was way fun! President had this restaurant cater a huge feast! It was way great! life here is amazing as always and I am loving this city!! 
Merry Christmas to all!! 


pics:
The man the myth and the legend: lacerda
baptism! 

December 11, 2017



Hey everyone!!!
This was another stellar week here in Araucaria!
We are having lots of success. 
Our current investigators closest to baptism are Nayara who is a 13 year old girl who is a recent converts best friend we have been working with lately. The other is Isabelle  who we found on the bus,  Alison who is this 16 year old guy who is way awesome. We had all of them with us at church yesterday and they are loving it! 

So last p-day as we were leaving our house we saw this big old box with a bunch of trash in it and heard some noises from inside the box. We opened it up and there were 6 puppies that someone had just thrown in the front of our house and we had no idea what to do. We called some members and brought them to their house. 4 of them ended up not making it but now our recent convert has 2 more puppies. Twas quite the experience hahaha

 This week we had our leadership counsel meeting with the Zone leaders which is always fun. I can't believe this transfer is already coming to an end! It kinda stinks that transfers are gonna be right before Christmas. I am hoping I stay in Araucaria with Elder Garlick for Christmas!! 

This week we have our Christmas conference which should be a lot of fun! 
This has definitely been the hottest December of my life. We did a service project the other day and Elder Garlick got wicked sunburned which is definitely a first. Sunburned and sweatin in December! 
Its hot as heck right now but we are loving it! School gets out here soon and everyone starts their summer break and starts travelling which makes things a little bit tough but we are excited!! 
Love you all! 
Pics: Our american breakfast 
Christmas festivities!


December 4th, 2017

Yo! 
So this week was definitely one of the best ever!!
It flewwww by. So first off on Monday we participated in the Christmas musical which was way cool. We only sang one song where we entered in at the last second and surprised the crowd. It was way awesome. I'm pretty sure if you put on google "Curitiba Ele é o presente" or something like that some pics or videos should come up! We should be getting some of the videos here soon but haven't received anything yet.

This week we also had Geraldos baptism. It was super crazy cause the last time we taught him on Tuesday he was kinda doubting  if he should be baptized. We weren't able to find him during the whole week cause he travels a lot for work. We went on split Thursday which was a good time. I went with a new elder, Elder Firmino in Tatuquara. Their area is way awesome and we visited some awesome people and ended the day singing hymns to this drunk guy to help him sleep haha.
When I got back on Friday Geraldo called us. He told us he wasn't going to be able to make it to his baptism on Saturday.
But asked if he could be baptized on Sunday morning. We got up way early to get things ready for his baptism at 8 am. There were a ton of people there and Geraldo couldn't keep the tears in. He loved it and said he's gonna bring his family to Brazil to baptize them (he's from Cuba) 

We are gonna have some activities this next week. On Saturday we have Rosies wedding and baptism which will be awesome! Way excited for them! 
Life here rocks!! 
Time is flying!


Pics
Geraldos Baptism 
matching ties with Ed