The Week Before General Conference

Questions and Answers: 1. I'm very excited for conference weekend.     Do you know where you will be listening to it? I'll be watching in my ward's chapel I think. 2. Will you get to attend the Priesthood session? I don't know. possibly yes because we live so close. 3. Did I... approach F... about baptism and if so did - what was the answer? There was a small group of people that approached F... and her husband and requested that they be serious about their marriage and when they want to make it eternal (which would require F... getting baptized)  she seems to be think a bit more seriously about it now, but still refuses to  stop drinking coffee. 4. How many lessons did you and your companion teach this week? Where they effective? We had more than last week. I think some might have been effective. Elder Soares will probably baptize a less active sister's son if he's still here by the end of November. 5. Have you seen anything interesting this week? I don't think so. 6. Tell me one thing that you will make as a goal for your week? Get G..., T..., and G...'s parents A... and M. to attend at least one session of  General Conference/ 7. Are you staying well? We have had many family members around  the country and Church members sick this week. My stomach hasn't been working right for a while now. I've possibly been eating too many peanut products and my system  doesn't like it. 8. Tell me about last week. Elder Soares and I were witnesses at a "wedding" We went to sign a paper after watching the couple sign a paper and now they're married.

I'm glad you got a chance to take a break with the Haworths.

It's always handy to have a local with connections as a home teacher

We've already had to close the gospel principles class some Sundays

because we had no one attending. I am trying to get better.

I love you

Blessings

He's Smiling :)

Those are some major blessings!

One blessing that we've gotten here: we've got a new ward mission leader

(I probably already said that) and he's very serious about the fact that we're here to help the ward in its missionary efforts not the other way around. He requested a progress report from us (which shows the information of all the people we're currently teaching) and we had 6 people on it. After a meeting he did with the ward missionaries and some of the leaders, he has six to ten more people.

He also said that he would send ward missionaries there first to "open the door" for us. He also requested more ward missionary couples. 

1: Any investigators come to church Sunday? Yes,  F... one of our eternal investigators came to church Sunday. (I...((our ward mission leader)) said that he's going to approach her seriously about baptism soon)

2: You won't find investigators until you both are on the same path, so what are you doing to work better with your companion? When I get news of a new possible investigator I'm trying to be excited and run right behind it.

I managed to smile this morning, I'm attaching proof

I love you 

Mountain climbing last week

You know... where I went wasn't too different from the states. (His mountain climbing last week) The biggest differences were that there were more vines in the forest and that the mountain is right next to the city... But it was still cool. It was just kinda funny that even though I was in the middle of a fast at the time, I was the least tired out of all of us when we got to the top. I also found out that I'm possibly one of the fastest runners here in our group as well! Pretty cool to think that a little less than a year ago I couldn't really even run and now I can run up a mountain haha.

We're just starting spring here... and I'm already dying again...

That four letter curse word right?? SNOW!!! MWAHAHAHAHA!! 

But i won't get any for more than one year :(

We haven't ordered water yet because we still have some but we'll have to order some soon.

Aww :( My alergies are still here but they're not too bad.

 questions:

1. What fun thing have you learned this week? Nothing really

2. When is your next Zone conference? No idea

3. How are your investigators? They don't want to go to church.

For the zone conference we usualy got some sandwiches, a banana, yogurt, can of pop, and a pão de mel...(Gingerbread)

That's pretty cool about Porter's Eagle Project! Tell him congrats for me!

I'm going to start reading the Book of Mormon again. I had a dream this week where, at the end, a man I don't know looked at me very seriously and said "You need to get more excited about reading the scriptures" 

I got a quick call from Elder Ewerton Saturday morning which cheered me up a little. He's doing well in his new area as a trainer. He's already got some baptisms lined up!

Love you!

Labor Day in the USA

My goodness... you said lol haha. Elder Gardner looked at me in a state of shock last week and told me his mom said lol in her email.

Yeah, I've known for a while already that the mission is the best choice I've made.

My adventures this week? I got sick for two days because we were too lazy one day to order a new jug of water so I drank water from the tap and my stomach didn't like that... This is the only area where I couldn't drink the water so far.

I also went to the Federal Police office for the last time (?) in my mission! (Brazilian missionaries need to do renewal visa paper work part way thru their mission to be able to stay in the country.)

 I got to do a baptismal interview for another set of Elders and it just so happens that the woman is a relative of a family that I met when I was far away in the Penha zone. It was pretty cool to see them again.

The week was slow because I couldn't leave the house much... and lunch was in our own house for the whole week which was weird. 

We didn't learn, do, achieve, or accomplish much... one thing is that we need to get better about inviting people to church and working to get them there.

The temperature here is getting hotter because spring is coming. The mosquitoes will be getting worse so the Area Presidency is paying for bug spray for us all.

What have I learned about Elder Soares?

He teaches really well, but I'm going to need to be the one that pushes us to get out and work. And that he gets super nervous and agitated when he's hungry (aka fasting)

It does help that Elder Soares and I are from strong families. And it helps that his sister is serving right now too.

I love you a lot!

Oh PS... I'm on later than normal because I used my only day of rest to scale a mountain.

 Elder Soares is in all blue right in the middle.

 Muscles!!!! not really... two of us were holding them by their feet haha

 Elder Santos and I

Gardner joined in

A New Companion Elder Soares

So I'll start with the answers to the questions:

1. What is your companions name? Elder Soares

2. Where is he from? Teresina, Piaui. It's a part of the north east of Brazil 

(All of my Brazilian comps have been from the north east so far ha ha)

3. How old is he? 18 and he'll turn 19 in December

4. Is he the Junior companion? Yup

5. Is he a worker? Yup. He's a really good teacher

6. What do you know about his family? 

They're all members. He's the youngest. One of his sisters entered the MTC a week after he did and is in the São Paulo Sul mission!

7. How long has he been out? 

7 months. He arrived one transfer before Ewerton.

8. How did it go with the lessons with your investigator and his parents? 

It went really well! G... told us that he has a testimony that what we've taught him and what he's read in the book of Mormon is true! He laid down one night and decided to ask the Lord is what we said was true and he said that his body went cold on the outside and started burning a little on the inside and that was when he realized that it is all true. Now we just need to work a bit more with 

T... and get them married

9. What are you studying this week? 

This week I'm studying the part of preach my gospel that teaches about planning and stuff because I need to get better about that and I'll have to do training on that tomorrow.

Saturday I weighed myself in the morning at 169lbs, then played basketball with the other elders and some of the young men from the two wards. Afterwards I weighed in at 166lbs... but I'm probably back up to 170lbs already ha ha 

Well it's not that I'm not eating any better by not eating.. It's that I'm just eating stuff like burgers and such which I don't consider eating well anymore :P

Yeah cold here is reaching 60 or a little below... (I've become a weakling) But yeah, I'm still dying from the heat during the day... it's annoying.

Well the success this week was with G... The frustration: I hate using the phone so I left it with Ewerton when he was here but now I'm the one who has to use the phone all the time so I forgot to call all our investigators

Saturday night to see if anyone would be going to church... 

we didn't have anyone at church yesterday.

That's awesome about Caleb! What happened to Maddie that she needed stitches?? Congrats for Tiffany!

I'd like to get started on my admissions papers for BYUI but I've got no idea what to do or how to do it or if I can even do it here.

Anyways, I love you! 

Picture from Elder Ewertons page

Another Picture from Elder Ewertons page

The Week Jack Arrived!

AY!!! Bigger family! (Another one of Elder Lundy's Sisters gave birth this past week. She had a son who she named Jack. He's named after his Great Great Uncle.)

1. How are G... and T... doing? They're doing well! We're teaching G...'s mom and stepfather now too. Oh! and they asked if they could invite more people to be present at the next visit!

2. Are you learning (ALS) sign language? I'm learning Libras (LIngua BRAsileira de Sinais) Brazilian sign language

3. How was President Silcox's visit for interviews last week? They went well! I got to tell him about the new members of the family and about Elder Kolb's new mission call

4. How did your studying on charity go to learn about overcoming vices? I didn't end up studying about charity this week because I was pretty preoccupied studying for the Plan of Salvation lesson for G... and his family

So I got to do three baptismal interviews for the sisters in Mogi Centro this week. They were all very cool and different. I think they were some of the more special interviews I've had the opportunity to do.

Elder Ewerton is being transferred tomorrow. I'm gonna be sad to see him go, but it's gonna be a really good experience for him. He's going to open an area and train a new elder! 

Welp anyways I love you!

1 Year Mark in the Mission Field!

Questions/Answers time:

1. What's one thing that inspired you this week to work harder? Our new investigators G... and T... They're very humble and interested, and even accepted to visit church the moment we invited.

2. Who impressed you with the most growth this week? Elder Ewerton! When I arrived another brazilian elder was teasing him saying "Oh you finally got an american companion. Now you're gonna work hard and you're not gonna like it at all" He was saying that Americans work hard and Brazilians don't (even though that elder is Brazilian) Well it was a bit like that. I was always pushing as to do a bit more which Ewerton wasn't used to because of his last companion's work habit. But this week, he was the one pushing us to work harder! :)

3. Where do you think you had the most growth? Not really sure...

4. When will you be going to the mission home again? No idea, but President Silcox will be coming out here for interviews this week! :)

5. Where you introduced to any new foods lately? Nope... Really I don't even feel like the food here in Brazil is really that different.

6. How is your health? I'm doing alright. I've been eating a bit too much paçoca lately so I've been having a bit of stomach troubles, but the paçoca is almost all eaten up so I'll be all good soon! 

7. What new spiritual thing did you learn this week. Well, the majority of our investigators have some sort of word of wisdom/vice issue so I told president that I would focus my study on that and this week he told me to focus on charity because it's directly linked to overcoming vices. So that was a new one to me!

That's pretty cool about the blog! I know that my friend B... from the Jardim Tietê ward has been checking out and she said it was helping her get psyched up for her mission!

So today, Ewerton and I went to his favorite restaurant Rock and Ribs to celebrate his 19th birthday tomorrow and me reaching the one year mark this week! We got GIANT burgers that took almost an hour to eat. Ewerton didn't finish his and I was feeling light headed after finishing mine haha :3 It was fun

I don't know if I told you yet, but I'm learning sign language too! Our area has quite a few deaf people and one I... has a deaf daughter so she does sign language interpreting at church for her and she's also teaching a free sign language class at church Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Welp, that's what I got for you this week!

I love you!