July 2, 2018 T'chau Brasil!

Hey everyone! So today was my last p-day and it was definitely one of the best! We got permission from our president to watch the Brazil vs Mexico world cup game and Brazil went nuts with the big 2-0 win! 

We then went to a huge waterfall here in our area that's said to be the tallest waterfall in Brazil but I have no idea if that's true but it sure is tall! 

I have a bunch of pics but I wont be able to send them right now 

Buttttt the bigger news is........... 

This is it! My last email! 

These last two years have been so much more than I could have ever imagined. When I came on the mission I had no idea what was waiting for me. I was pretty sure it was going to be a good experience but to be honest I was totally afraid of basically anything I could have been afraid of. The MTC and start was a blur and I think Elder Garlick said it best when he said that trying to remember and apply everything you learn in the MTC is like trying to drink water out of a fire extinguisher. The majority just hits you in the face... 

I had 5 areas, 10 companions and way too many experiences to count. I had the hardest and the best days of my life and they usually came in the same week. 

I had the opportunity to meet two of the Lord´s apostles. I had the opportunity to talk to everybody that passed by me and feel the joy that comes from sharing the gospel. It's hard to remember what even went through my mind before the mission and I am so grateful for everything I learned but especially for the testimony I was able to build each and every day. I am so grateful for the people I was able to help in their individual paths to live with our Heavenly Father. I have absolutely loved every second of it! Brazil changed my life.

 

I remember when someone once told me that their new favorite word was "blesson" which is when you are able to see the blessing in the lesson that each challenge teaches us. 

The mission was full of blessons!  I am so grateful for the tough days and I will never forget all the best. 

This is my last week which will be full of too many hard goodbyes

I love Brazil and love the people here more than I ever thought was possible!

Alright that's enough of the sappy email! Love you all and see you next week!! Thanks to all of you that emailed me throughout my mission!!!

June 25th, 2018

Hey everyone! So this week I had my last leadership meeting here so we spent a lot of time traveling and we had to lots of baptismal interviews so we were in the bus a lot this week.

I am in the final days now which is really weird but it still hasn´t hit me yet. People keep talking about how I am going home but I still feel like I am new in the mish and definitely not my turn to go home yet! 

We will have a baptism of this little old lady this week named Jovina. She is so funny and excited for her baptism. Every Sunday when we pass by her house to bring her to church she is on the doorstep waiting for us at 8:30 on the dot! She always tells us about how it always seems to be such good weather on Sundays and how going to church just brightens her day! I am glad to be able to finish off the mission with a baptism! 

I will have to travel in the last week to get back to the mission home so I only have like 12 more days of work so we are just working hard until the last whistle as our president always says! 

Sorry for not sending any pics, my comp lost all his pics because he put his SD card into the computer and got a virus so I am not taking any chances!!!

 

love you all! 

Elder Reid

June 18th, 2018

Hey galera whats up?

This week was pretty crazy cause we had to travel a ton. We had zone conference on Thursday in a small city called Irati cause it's in between Guarapuava and Curitiba so it's the easiest place for everyone to meet. We have a van that passes by to pick everyone up so the guy from the van called us and said he was gonna pass by at 7:30 am and so we went to bed and set the alarm for 6:30. The alarm went off and right as it went off our phone rang. I picked it up and the guy from the van was like "hey I'm here and we had 6 elders sleeping in our house and so I woke everyone up and told the guy from the van to give us 15 minutes and in 15 minutes 6 elders showered and were ready to leave which was quite impressive! 

We got to the conference and it was my last testimony and last training which was way weird and sad. I love zone conferences and this was probably the best one so it was a good one to have last!

Then after that we got the van headed back and went to another city called União da Vitoria which is in Santa Catarina to do splits. It's a really cool and pretty little city. It's on the border of Parana and Santa Catarina. It's a mountain city so it was SO cold and I was not prepared for that and the bus ride home was like 8 hours of traveling and super cansativo. 

This next week will be my last leadership meeting and we have some splits planned as well so it will probably pass by flying! 

Life is good! Love you all! 

pics with prez and sis 

prez with that photobomb

June 4th, 2018

Hey all! 

SO this was another crazy week! Elder Garlick finished his mish which was way hard to say goodbye but it's all good cause here soon we will all be in Utah again!

So this week was nuts!

 Wednesday night we were walking home and I see a man laying down in front of our house and I was like humm wonder what that guy is doing there  and we get close and there is just a nude guy lying in front of our house and we were just tip toein by him to not wake him up as we went into our apartment building...

Then on Thursday we were walking home and we pass by these two guys at a bus stop and I was like freak Elder Lira, they are gonna rob us, so we just tried to act natural and say goodnight and all and they got all scared and we passed them. But like 2 minutes after we there someone came running after us and he was like... run! We got all scared and were like woo what happened??? The guy said, " those two guys just robbed my phone" and I was like wow... why didn't they assault us? But the Lord protects so we got out of there fine.

Then on Friday we did splits with another area. We ended the splits at 9:30 pm.  We were leaving the terminal headed home and these two guys were running towards us and I was like... freak!   This one security guy came out of nowhere passes by and jumps off his motorcycle and just slams the guy who was running in the head with his helmet and just started this huge street fight

.

Then we walk a little and hear this girl screaming,we get to the park by our house and there were like 20 dudes just beating each other up and we just slowly slid by tip toein till we get home.

Life is crazy!

It's starting to get cold around here!

Love you all! 

May 28th, 2018

Yo whats up gang!
 So this week I actually have lots of cool stories!

So first off I am officially the oldest elder in the mission which  is way freaking weird! 

Elder Garlick went home which was also way weird but this last week went out with a bang

First off Elder Garlick and I had our birthdays this week. We had to go to Pitanga to do some interviews which was interesting because of some huge strike going on right now. We got there at night and had to leave at like 7 am to avoid all the angry truckers. When we got home I walked in the house and Elder Moreno and Elder Oliveira decorated the house and bought a cake and a bunch of elders were there for a little surprise party before all of us had to go to Curitiba for the mission tour.  Elder Holland came on my birthday which was absolutely incredible but it was quite the struggle to get from Guarapuava to Curitiba because the entire country is on strike right now because of gas prices here so all of the semi truckers stopped working and blocked off all the highways. that also means that nothing is getting transported so all of the gas stations don't have gas in the country and there are no cars in the street anymore. On the highway leaving Guarapuava they blocked off the roads for nobody to get in or out unless it was a chill reason to leave so we got our van who luckily had enough gas in his van to get us to Curitiba and back. We got to the border and all the truckers stopped us and asked why we wanted to leave and we were like yo we are just missionaries plz let us by and they did which was a blessing. Then we got to Curitiba. the meeting with Elder Holland was incredible but it was cut a little short because the airport had limited fuel for the planes so he almost wasn't able to leave and had to get a different plane to get out of Brazil.

He said and taught some incredible things and his testimony is so incredible that it's impossible to hear him talk and not know that this is Christs church. 

There were two things he said that really stuck with me. The first was that he said "the church of Christ will always be progressing there will never be any U-turns or wrong directions but will always be based on eternal progress. make sure that is always true in your own life"

and the second was "The mission should affect every single day of your entire life. If that's not true for you, shame on you and if I cant help you guys understand why that is true, shame on me" 

Also last  Holland quote was "you cant have a million dollar experience putting in 20 cents of effort" 

Basically Holland just motivated me to finish strong and be the best person ever cause he is truly a beast. Basically the best birthday present I ever could have received!

When we were in the van on the bus home the whole zone started singing happy birthday and the sisters had made two cakes so we stopped at some random bus stop and all ate cake together so needless to say it was a pretty lit birthday. 

Earlier in the week we were at one of the families we are teachings house. The dad travels for work and is only home on the weekends. but one day while we were there he called saying he was working when this random drunk guy walked up to his back and stabbed him like 7 times. So he came home and he was all cut up but nothing to serious happened luckily. The guy that stabbed him went to jail. A couple days later we went and got the kids of the family to bring them to a soccer night at the chapel and when we brought them home after, the mom was crying in the front of the house saying the guy had gotten out of prison and came to their house to find the dad and was all crazy trying to hurt the family so the whole family ran away and it was pretty nuts. The police couldn't even get there because they don't have gas cause of the strike so its been pretty crazy these days!!

The stores don't have meat, milk, bread, or fruits and vegetables anymore so hopefully this strike ends soon so we can keep working normally cause it has been crazy!

Anyways this week was awesome! i love you all! 

pics: the district 

birthday

the big 2 0 

May 21st, 2018

Hey all!

This week was another great week on the mission! 

This week also starts the last transfer which means I am officially the oldest missionary in the mish! craziness! So this week the temps dropped tons and it is now freezing here. We are all walking around in winter coats and gloves and such.

The best part of it was that we baptized this week, a man named Vlademir that is way cool. His baptism was Sunday morning and that was the exact day that the heater stopped working on the font so I just about froze my body off getting in to that freezing cold water to baptize him but just tried to remember the pioneers and went for it!

This week is my birthday and Elder Holland is coming to visit our mission on my birthday! so that will be basically the best birthday ever! It's strange because now I am starting all the "lasts"

Last zone conference, last transfer and last testimony! I love the mish and I am just trying to soak it all up now! love you all!! 

We were sitting at the bus stop when a truck passed and got my comps shirt all dirty lol 

May 14th 2018

Hey all!

This week was obviously way good cause of Mothers day! Love you Mom! 

The two baptisms we had fell through at the super last minute which was way sad. We were filling up the font in the chapel and when we went to go get the family an hour before the baptism they had a little family problem and were not able to go to the baptism which was way sad but we will remark with them today!

We have some other awesome investigators that are progressing. We are teaching one family that was baptized in another church recently but felt as if the person that baptized them was not authorized to baptize aka didn't have the priesthood and they are going to be baptized! We are helping them build their new house which has been fun!

People are starting to go crazy round here because of the world cup. Go Brazil! 

We played basketball this morning with some members and it was lots of fun. 

Sorry these days I don't have a whole lot to say but life here is good. Its getting colder so like 60s 70s which is actually a huge drop for here. 

Like a thousand years ago it snowed here in the city I'm in so who knows maybe I'll get lucky to see snow in Brazil!

love you all!!