August 26, 2013

     My week was really, really good.  We got some really good work done in this ward.  We had 3 less active people there, one whose daughter will be baptized next week and 2 investigators also.  One should be getting baptized in the next couple weeks.  The members were super excited and happy to see the less actives and the new people as well.  
     We taught tons and tons of lesson about the tree of life and haging on to the iron rod, its super good to teach people especially less actives. One family that we are teaching is a really great family. 2 boys one baby girl husband and wife. They are members for 10 years now, but still only the mom has gone to the temple, the dad has been active, then inactive so we are working of firming him up so that he can go to the temple. We have a family night planned at their house this week as well. 
     I had to do some electircal work in our shower this week. The water is heated electically here in the shower head, and there are wires connecting it. These wires in this one are exposed and while I was taking a shower sparks started flying, so I turned it off and I deduced that there wasn't a very good connection so we should fix that. I put a sock on my hand and grabbed my leatherman to do some work on it, but as I was in flip flops and a towel with one hand in a sock standing on a chair, it was a little difficult to work the leatherman, so I thought that maybe I wouldn't get shocked if I just touched the wires without the sock on my hand, however that was false, I got shocked big time, so after that I put the sock back on and fixed it. I thought my uncle would be pround of my electrician skills :) 

So this is me and my companion on top of a members house.  They have a sweet view of our area!

This is our area.

August 19, 2013

Hello!  I had a really good week this week! Lots of hard work, meeting new people and teaching LOTS!  One cool thing is that we get to take the bus now cause we're in such a big city.  Not near as much walking now! The bus is super crowed like in Paris but its really dirty! We had lunch at a less actives house this week and she had NCIS on.  Usually TV here is in English and they use subtitles to watch and understand, so I saw like 5 minutes of it and it brought back good memories of when we would watch all your favorite cop shows! It was kinda cool cause I told her my mom loves those shows and she loves those shows too!  
   So this week i figured out how to work in the city, I should tell you mom don't worry about me, I am perfectly safe, however this area is just a little bit crazy. We are finally getting in the groove of things here. My companion is a great guy but his skills are still developing, so I do a lot of the work. This ward is needing some serious help, we have about 50-60 people coming every week which is just a little more than our little branch of Luis Eduardo Magalhães. So ya we have room for improvement. Our recent convert is awesome! He has reactivated his friend who was baptized years ago and has been inactive for a long time, and we are working with his family right now, and he has invited his neighbor to hear the discussions as well which is awesome. We found our baptism for this transfer, we found Paoula knocking doors this week. We taught her the first lesson and it was alright, nothing super special. When we came back to follow up a few days later, she had read and told us about how she had prayed about it, even though she didn't understnad eveyrthing, and she described how that day she was feeling really bad, kinda depressed with life. She is a single mother of 3 children whose blind mother lives with her. She said she felt totally relieved and safe that night, and as she woke up in the middle of the night she looked at the Book of Mormon, and felt that it was true!!! We are teacher her and her sister in law who lives next to her. And they both are great, except that the sister in law is not married so we have to get that taken care of but she is really excited too!!! New people is what this ward is needing!!! We also found a really great inactive family. We were knocking doors in another area and we found this family. The mom and children are members but the father is not, I am not sure if they are married or not. However this lady has not been going to church, only becuase no one has visited her. We went there and she said she was excited about the going to church now, and she has 4 little kids that are super funny!!!! And they love us!!! remember that cheek flapping thing that dad used to do for us, where he would grab his cheek and move them back and forth really fast? I did that for they and they all died hysterically laughing!!! 
   So my companion is pretty serious and pretty quiet so I mess with him quite a bit!  Like last week we went to the mall because he wanted to buy some new white shirts and as we were standing in line I asked him if he knew what the Bernie was (that retarded looking dance) and he said, "no" so I started doing it and he turned so red and said, "Elder, stop that!"  I then started laughing so hard and we were next in line and the checker lady ringing him up saw me laughing so hard I was turning red and couldn't breath!  Then she started laughing super hard as well.  All the while my companion was super embarrassed!  But I think he's enjoying being my companion! haha
     The members are excellent here at feeding us!  We have some that live right below us and they always give us food!  I probably won't eat any rice and beans for a while after I get home!
  You wanna know something funny...you know how Grandma always teases Grandpa that he is bald because he washed his hair with a bar of soap?   Well I started washing mine with a bar of soap too because I ran out of shampoo.  And yes, I am going bald! hahaha

August 12, 2013

So I had my first full week in Salvador, which was awesome!!!  My apartment here...well lets see...the shower knob is broken so we turn the master switch for the bathroom on and off to take a shower, so in consequence, the toilet doesn't work so we have to fill up buckets from the shower to flush the toilet.  I love with 4 other missionaries.  They are pretty clean so that's good.  This apartment is not as nice as my other one but it's ok.  It's a lot better than some I have seen other people living in.  It rains all the time here and is very cloudy so that's one really good thing that I like about Salvador! It's not a cold rain but it's for sure cooler than my last area.

I took this this morning.  This is my new area.  It's pretty different but super cool.  I am loving it!  My new companion is an american and is a really cool guy as well!  

This is part of our area, which is massive! Over 3 million people live here!  We are going to be very busy!

August 5, 2013

Good morning mom!
   Guess who played the piano in sacrament meeting this week?  Yup...Elder Krause!!!  It was OK.  I played both hands on the opening hymn and for the sacrament hymn but just he right hand on the last one.  It was actually pretty darn good considering!!!  Can you tell Kristen that the piano lessons are paying off because I still remember how to read music!
   Well the fax has not come yet so I don't know where I'm headed tonight!  I'm all packed and ready to go though!
    OK the fax just came...I'm heading to Salvador and will be a district leader!!! I'm so excited!  A good thing about being in Salvador is that's where the mission home is so I should get mail and packages (hint hint) more often!
This week we taught a lot and kept working but we had to say lots of goodbyes too!  It was sad but I am super excited about my new area!

Here I am saying goodbye to my buddies! I promised them I would come back when they go to the temple!

Saying goodbye to Mari.  This was another hard goodbye!  She is such an amazing lady!  She gave me this present!

She made the top one for you and had the pen made for me!  I don't know if you can see it but she had my name engraved on it! Ah man that was really, really nice of her and she wrote you a letter that I will send when I get your new Texas address.  I will just wait and bring your present back with me since it's so expensive to ship things from here. 

This was my last family night with Maura and Joales and their cousin that I was teaching.  This is one family that I'm sure will get baptized but sadly not while I'm here.

One last goodbye!

July 29, 2013

   

Here's some more pictures from that holiday I was telling you about last week.  It was so funny!

Me just being funny!

This is me with Maora, Joales is behind me and that is one of their kids in front of us!

Well this week was busy!  We helped that lady Mari, that I baptized a couple weeks ago, move the other day.  She just moved close by in the city and had quite a bit of stuff (but nothing like our moves)  We moved all of their stuff in 3 hours and in one medium uhaul.  So I was like pfff that's easy!  I realized that we have a lot of stuff when we move! :)  Anyway, I think her husband was pretty impressed that we came and helped! 
     We started teaching Mere's mother and she was super excited about that. and we started teaching the cousin of Maora, who is also great. The only thing that is stopping Maora from being baptized is marriage, her husband is super cool but he is going a little slower than her. We were teaching her cousin with her and she shared something she wrote in her journal and it was her powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the plan of salvation and I could hardly believe it!!!! ah, also we taught the mother of Mere and she was beaming the entire lesson and bore an awesome testimony as well of the church and the book of Mormon. Its great to see the people you teach wanting to share the gospel with others and bringing them to church, awe man this is how missionary work should be and its so great to be getting this point finally.       
We set out with a branch list of people, and we went to visit all of the inactives. And there were a few of them that were soooooo far away but we found them and they seem to be pretty good people, just have difficulty getting to church, so we will have to get them excited and build their faith a little bit. It seems like we did lots and lots of walking this week. Also the box with the scriptures that I had ordered arrived, so I wrote letters to people and last night we had a family night, and I gave one thing of scriptures and an illustrated Book of Mormon to Sidinei and Mere, and the other to Maora and Joales. They both were super excited and loved it. Ah it was sooooo cool. We had a great family night, everyone bore super strong testimonies and ah it was just incredible. Something else kinda crazy is the story of Jessica. This young girl that we baptized about 3 months ago. She was dating this kid in the branch, but they broke up soon after she was baptized. Then his older brother who lives in São paulo came home to visit and now they are dating and she is going to drive back with his family so São Paoulo this weekend and they are going to go to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Which is super super great, she has been wanting to go to the temple for a long time!!! And she will only be able to do baptisms but it will still be really cool!! It's funny that she is dating his brother now but they seem really happy!
   Well I had a phone interview with President Hart this week and he told me I was going to transferred next week.  I am going to cry when I leave this area.  I love these people so much and have been here for so long.  But I know there are people other places waiting for me to teach them so I'm excited for that! I will have to catch a bus and ride through the night because transfers happen on Tuesday.  
Love you! Talk to you next week!

July 22, 2013

 This week was super hectic but super awesome as well! On saturday we had the wedding. It was great, there was tons of people there, everyone was happy and crying, there was a cake, (i didnt have to buy it some people in the branch ended up helping out) and ya it was great!

Cutting the cake!

At the reception out back of the church.

And on Sunday I baptized them both.  It was a much smaller event than the wedding but much more spiritual and enjoyable!  It was really cool and a day I had been waiting a long time for! The cool thing is that Sidni is the first man to be baptized since the branch was formed!  All the rest of the baptisms have been women and children.  I was pretty stoked about that!

This is their daughter Camilla, who was being a little stinker but is SUPER cute!  It was such a special day, I was smiling the whole time!

After the baptism.

This is me and Joales.  He's another guy that I'm teaching.  We had a branch party this weekend as well.  This was a great success and tons of people came and this time of year they have a holiday called St. John.  It's like a tradition that people draw mustaches and beards and dress up like hillbillies!  I didn't have any hillbilly clothes so I just went and Joales drew on my beard and mustache!  haha it was pretty funny.  He draws really good and tagged my name on the chalk board behind us too!

July 15, 2013

Well it was a great week!!!  Other than the baptism we had a talent show.  I juggled and everyone loved it.  I'm getting really good cause everyone always wants me to juggle for them! haha it's pretty funny!  

Mere and Sidni are getting baptized on Sunday!!!  I'm so excited.  We are having a wedding and reception for them on Saturday and baptizing them on Sunday!  I love them so much, they are incredible.  They are really taking a step of faith because money is super tight with them but they are going for it!  So I wanted to do something special for them so I ordered them scriptures on the website.  They don't have quads in portuguese so I got them really nice triples.  I know they will love them!  I will take pictures, don't worry!

And we ate lunch at home one day this week so I made mashed potatoes from real potatoes and they were so good!  I put some cheese in them and my companions loved them!  And today I am making french toast for lunch.  We don't eat at members houses on Pday.  

 This is Mari that I baptized this week!  She is so awesome!!! She is married and has a 2 year old.  her husband is a cool guy but not super interested so for the time being we are going slow with him.  She was so excited and gives lunch for us sometimes too.  She has already started doing her geneology!!!

So we set this pool up in the "church" and we fill it when someone is getting baptized.  Hopefully we can baptize so many people we can fill it more often! 

I made this cake for her baptism and everyone loved it!  They said I am ready to get married because the cake was so good!  HAHAHA

She invited tons of her friends and family and they all loved it.  They are going to come to church this Sunday and we are going to start teaching almost all of them!!!

This is me and my favorite drink but my companion doesn't like it!!!

This is us at the waterfall with Elosmar.  He is a member of our branch.  This was right before Elder Morris got transferred.

This is part of our chapel.  It's a two story house and this is my friend Elder Henrique playing the guitar at the talent show.