December 12th, 2016

     HEY sooooo I bet you all have a whole seat but you´re only using the edge of it because you´re all so anxious to know what happened this transfer! SO here it is: I have no idea yet! haha sorry but the whole transfer hasn´t been released yet. The only thing I know is that I am going to train a new missionary. A group of new missionaries will arrive here tomorrow and I´ll find my new companion! Definitely a little sad cause my buds Elder Rafael and Elder Pinheiro were transferred to the other side of the mission. It´ll definitely be weird not having them in the house because I have been with them since I arrived here! I think the idea is I will stay in Vila Aurora but don´t know for sure yet. My companion Elder J. Santos is going to train as well so we are headed to the mission home later today to find out about what´s going to happen! Also love Elder J. Santos but I think we will stay in the same house so it´s not too big of a change there.

     

      BUT anyways this week was jam packed! First and foremost we had the baptism of Roberto! Now that I think of it I am not sure if I ever mentioned Roberto in an email. We met him 2 weeks ago and last p-day the baptism wasn´t 100% yet so I think I forgot to mention him but anyways he´s 27 years old, super happy and now a member! I´ll include some photos of him. The baptism was super good and he asked to share his testimony at his own baptism. It was super cool and he is progressing super well! We finished off the transfer with a bang!

      Teaching a whole ton and reactivating some less-actives that I have been working with since I arrived here which is so awesome to see them enjoying the blessings of the gospel! This Sunday we had a transmission of Elder Holland for all of Brazil! We heard from some members of the seventy and other leaders of the church! It was super legit and last night there was a Christmas activity in the stake and it was super cool cause woo Christmas spirit! 

     

Funny story of the week: So The other day I was on splits with another Elder, Elder Araujo. We were knocking doors and such and we knocked this one door that had a gate half way open and there is this dog super super mad there. This dog was not just barking angrily, this dog wanted to kill us but all is well cause the dog is chained to the house. Jokes on us! We took one step to leave cause nobody showed up and this dog is just going mad. All of a sudden the chain BREAKS and this dog just starts sprinting after us. I tried to close the gate but it was broken so we just started sprinting down the street and this dog running after this. Luckily there are a lot of dogs in the street so this dog started fighting with other dogs and forgot about us. We made it out alive but just barely! 

Anyways this week was awesome and filled with lots of laughs! Hope you all had an awesome week!

Pics: Elder Rafael´s dinner  (just bread, he didn´t eat the peanut butter) 

Before and after pics with Roberto 

December 5th, 2016

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a spectacular week and learned something new every day and are remembering to always wear a seat belt!
      Anyways I am gonna be super sincere and say that this week was definitely one of those weeks in the second half of the sentence they talk about when people say "sometimes you´ll have good weeks and sometimes you'll have bad weeks". People just weren´t jumping after the good news of the gospel like they usually do this week but not just that. This was a week with helping and dealing with lots of struggles which is always great and such but after a week of hearing sad stories and lots of mishaps, it starts to get a a little tough.
       But hey lets start with the highlights of the week cause its December 5th which means only 20 days till Christmas!!! Woooo yay santa!!! So the Christmas life is starting to pick up a little around here but a lot of people don´t celebrate and those that do don´t decorate much plus it's really hot so the Christmas spirit  is having a tough time breaking out this year. I think I could really get used to this whole 80 degrees on Christmas deal! The time is passing so crazy fast.  It's already almost 2017 so that's crazy!
      I don't really have anything crazy exciting or new to say. Sorry these emails are super boring. We are doing a lot of teaching and the weather is crazy as usual. The transfer ends this Sunday so who knows where I´ll be next week but I am super excited for whatever is gonna happen! I am loving the time and work here! The church is true and I hope you all shared the Christmas video on facebook, insta, twitter, snapchat, myspace, and whatever other social media people use! The gospel is true and I have absolutely no doubt about it!!!! Love you all!!! 

Monday November 28th, 2016

     Oops I forgot last week that Thanksgiving was this week, but hey better late than never. Hope you all ate a ton!  This week was super super super HOT. and also an amazing week!!!! I can´t believe December starts this week. What happened to November and the last 4 months here?? It is passing faster than I ever would have imagined.

     We are finding new people every day here and all of them are so ready to hear the good news of the gospel! It is really incredible how the Lord places so many amazing miracles in our paths. I know he has a perfect plan for each and everyone of us. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here, meeting new people everyday and hearing so many stories. It really was a truly humbling week. I know the Lord gives us difficulties because he loves us. It´s the cliché what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but hey it's true! Oh hey!! Everyone stop reading this email really quick, go to mormon.org and watch the new Christmas video: Be the Light of the World!!! and then open facebook or any form of social media and post it!!! ok?! 

Did you like the video? 

Ok now that you did that and are reading this email again, this week was pretty cool. We have 4 dates for baptism and they are all progressing really well. I love them all! Unfortunately, the transfer is ending here in 2 weeks so I don´t know for sure if I will stay here in this area but the Lord provides!! Thanksgiving was super legit (see pics to see how legit)  Other than that this week was a lot of talking and Portuguese! 

The usuaaaall! You all rock! 

November 21st, 2016

     I think the hardest part of the week is thinking of a subject for this email. This week was absolutely super duper incredible!!!! I am not even entirely sure why but life is just really really great right now.

      So yeah we found a lot of new people to teach this week and knocked doors for eternity. I´ll be honest, knocking doors wasn´t always fun and it still isn´t always fun but it is actually pretty neat. I love to talk to people and nothing quite matches the feeling of asking someone a question, them not understanding me and we just both stare waiting for the other to respond. It´s great! Ok but sincerely it is really cool and fun to get to know a little about tons of people.

     Nothing too exicting happened this week. We marked two baptismal dates with these two awesome guys that are loving the gospel! The weather is still really crazy so every day we leave with short sleeve shirts, winter coats, and umbrellas just in case. Kidding but we definitely should because it's cold, hot, and rains every day! Sorry this email isn´t very exciting! You all rock! 

Pics: We learned how to cook this week (sorta)

November 14th, 2016

     WOWEE this week was by far the best week of the mission so far! This work is incredible and I am so happy to be here in this ward in Brazil teaching and learning from these people!!!! 
     Ok so first we had a ward family night in the chapel It was one family´s missionaries homecoming and I was asked to give the message. No big deal right? Yeah well turns out this missionary is a pretty popular dude and there were so many people here. The American that doesn't really speak the same language as everyone else in the room was a little nervous. But the Lord provides and it went really well. ANYWAYS, after the message, this family came up to me and started speaking English and I was way confused and thought maybe I was fluent in Portuguese because I was finally hearing words that made 100% sense in my head! Turns out that wasn´t the case and it really was English but the crazy thing is this family is from Connecticut! What are the odds!? They aren´t members but they used to live here in Curitiba and are visiting here now! Crazy!
      This week was incredible! We found so many new and awesome people this week. We were (almost) never rejected! We found 7 new investigators that are all just really really awesome and have such big desires to learn more and yeah it was super good. We were a little down at the start of this week because one of our baptismal dates fell through and we were having trouble finding people but the Lord really showed us miracles after we showed our faith!
      We had the primary program this Sunday which is always the best! The primary in this ward is super funny and super cool! In other news, there was another hugeeee accident right outside of our house again making that accident number 5 right outside our house.
      The weather is still absolutely crazy. The beginning of the week was about 90-100 degrees and then completely out of nowhere, we got absolutely drenched by rain. You might wonder why we never bring umbrellas with us, and to be quite honest, I wonder the same thing...
      Anyways this week was supppperrrr dupppperrr good and I am way excited for this next week to see how our new investigators progress! You all rock! 

     Funny story of the week: So yesterday I was asked to say a prayer in English. Ok I can do this, only the language that I speak every day of my life. Yeah well turns out I don't know how to speak English or Portuguese now! I started off well and didn´t realize I was speaking in half Portuguese and once I realized I didn´t have it in me to finish in English. Way embarrassing but way funny too.

What the sky usually looks like at 3 pm

 Zone Meeting woo                            

November 7th, 2016

     HEY whats up everyone this week was pretty uneventful soooo this email is going to be among the more boring of emails sorrryyy.

      ANYWAYS this was the first week with my new companion, Elder J. Santos. He rocks and we are teaching the gospel to anyone that wants to hear it and more! We knocked a lot of doors this week, well actually that´s a lie, every house here has fences so you clap and the dogs start barking and the person hears their dog and comes out. It´s like a rube goldberg machine doorbell. So we clapped a lot of doors this week and found a lot of great people.

      We are teaching two families of 4 and they are lovin it! They are progressing super well and I hope that it continues because teaching families rocks! A new group of missionaries arrived here on Tuesday so that´s pretty neat, excited to meet them.

      So our ward building is the stake center and this weekend they had a play about hope and life after death and all that good stuff just your typical ward activity. BUT NO this was not your normal ward activity! We were walking to the chapel and the streets were just packed with cars and people and it was a zoo inside! There were so many members (and non-members too!) and the play was way good and professional status. This ward rocks and I love all the people here. They rock!

      Other than that this week was pretty chilllll. We found a lizard in our house last night cause its hot during the day but cold at night so all the insects and animals like to join us at night lol Everyday is crazy and hilarious and awesome!

     

Love you all! Keep rockin in the U S of A!

Pic: Our new friend

Attachments area

October 31st, 2016

     One more time! One more time! WOW this week was amazing!! So much happened so I am gonna give a little summary of the week first and then I will explain the good stuff a little more.
      But first, Elder França was called as assistant to the president so I am now with Elder J. Santos! Transfers were today so this is our first day as companions, but we are super excited! 
      Ok now the week, So first it only rained on us once this week which is a way big improvement, thank you mother nature. We had the baptism of Thiago which was a super cool experience and he is super happy! 
      We had a zone conference with President Costa who is the the area 70 president in Brazil. We picked up 5 AWESOME new investigators that all accepted baptism on the first lesson so I hope that those will stand strong!      A member brought us to this super super good restaurant and we stuffed our faces. AND to top it all off, the van at the end of our street was selling sausages 2 for 10 reals! ($3) If that doesn´t sound like a good week then I don't know what to tell ya!
      Ok so cool things this week were that we were really struggling to find people to teach. We decided to start contacting people on the side of our area that we hadn´t worked much because it is really far from where we usually work and where all of our recent converts and less actives are. Anyways, we were having a little better success. We found one lady that said she has been praying for help from God to help her stop smoking and such so we taught the Word of Wisdom and she has already cut down a ton on smoking and said we were an answer to her prayers! After that we taught a man who was super excited about the message of the restoration and ´said he wanted to be baptized! AND THEN as we were walking back, it was way hot and we were really thirsty and tired and such but we decided to knock one more door. This house that we passed many times, pretty much every other day, without knocking but decided to this time. It was a family of 4 that were soooo receptive to our message. They scheduled the day for us to come back and are such amazing people. The cool thing is that the dad works every day except for the 4 hour period  that we decided to knock. If we would have passed by any other day nobody would have answered so yeah real life miracles happening every day here! The work is amazing and time is flying! You all rock! 

Baptism of Thiago

Guiherme and Leonardo, two awesome members preparing for missions

The legend: Shampoo 

My favorite tree