22 Nov 2010 - Alvorada Area (Dad)

[Response to a comment Dad made about Elder Christofferson's conference talk where he mentioned the old film "Man's Search for Happiness," and how it reminded Dad of showing the filmstrip back in the day he was a missionary.] They had film back in your mission? :) The thing that stood out to me when I was reading this is how much the missionary stuff has changed. I haven't heard anyone teach anything like this in the trainings etc. We don't talk about time I guess :) ["Life offers you two precious gifts—one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will."] Also, in your day it seems they encouraged carrying as much as possible, projectors, stone-age cameras, flip-charts, filmstrips. I have a backpack but all it has is Bible, Book of Mormon, and 6 pamphlets. Things are a lot different these days, but things are the same too. I'm pretty sure some of these houses here looked exactly the same 600 years ago when you served. I thought it was hard at first to just talk, but now it's a lot easier than memorizing every lesson. Elder Jeffrey R Holland talked about that a little bit during a devotional in the MTC. He told a story about 2 Americans on a Spanish speaking mission and they were in the age of memorized lessons. They found this one lady and they were talking to her, and she found out they spoke English. She wanted to practice her English so she asked them to leave the message in English rather than Spanish. The missionaries just looked at each other and started in Spanish. She stopped them and asked for English once again but the missionaries began in Spanish again. They had memorized it in Spanish after all. The lady stopped them and asked them why they couldn't teach her in English if this message was so important. She was disturbed that the missionaries only knew the memorized Spanish lesson but couldn't testify in their native language the truth of the gospel and she asked them to leave. Just a story, but it doesn't matter if the lesson is memorized or not, a missionary should be able to testify by the Spirit and not what he memorized or what he practiced 100 times in the MTC. In that way missionary work is the same forever and for always. We teach by the Spirit, no matter how smart or how much we know the language, the lesson will mean nothing without the Spirit. Paul taught by the spirit, Dan Jones too, You, Michael, Me all teach by the spirit and that is what missionary work is. That is why we don't need a badge or calling to teach the gospel, just the Spirit.

15 Nov 2010 - Alvorada Area (Dad)

The spirit is always good to teach because people are always excited to hear that they can receive help from the Lord 24/7. It is sometimes hard, like you said, to get someone to commit to being baptized because they think they need to know everything or they think they need to wait at least a year. All they need is the desire and after baptism, if they keep the covenants, they will never regret the decision. I had an investigator in my last area that we worked the whole transfer teaching him lessons etc. He is fully convinced that we are angels of God and his sweet little old mom always called us angels. I have had the most spiritual experiences in my life in his house and at times it felt almost like the temple because my chest was just burning the whole time. Sadly I left, but I feel confident that he will be baptized and I really hope that he does. If only he would just accept baptism. He has waited 6 weeks, he has grown and has felt the spirit, but his joy could be so much more and so much fuller. Sometimes missionaries look past the whole confirmation part. They just count the baptisms but baptism is nothing without confirmation. I am a little worried becasuse this ward baptizes on Sunday instead of the usual Saturday so the people have to wait a whole week to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and who knows what will happen during the week. This week was missionary week in the ward so I got to give a talk about missionary work. I just talked about 4 things that make us better missionaries. 1) Be a missionary forever, not just 2 years, 18 months etc 2) Don't be scared to share the gospel 3) Be an example 4) Don't get discouraged because missionary work will be hard. The 4 things are from Quentin L. Cook fom an Ensign article. The talk was easy, the Portuguese was easy, the spirit guided me and I think I spoke the best Portuguese of my life because of it :) I don't have problems with it, which I am grateful but I have other struggles because we all have problems.

15 Nov 2010 - Alvorada Area (Mom)

We don't have English classes in this ward which is good because it was a pain :) It went well though, but the problem was participation and crazies that thought they knew more english than me. It was good at first to get investigators (which is really the purpose of English Class) but after awhile only the same people came. It was good though teaching, its a lot harder than I thought it would be. I would be teaching a general principle, then they would ask about something that was irregular and didn't follow the principle...stupid English. Oddly it's kind of hard to talk in English now too because I don't speak any English at all, maybe once a week at District Meeting but not really. I speak 100% Portuguese and only hear Portuguese besides the random music here. It was kind of funny when I had my interview with President Batt I was talking like a drunk 5 year old and I gave the prayer of a retarded fat kid. You just start talking the way you would in Portuguese but in English which is totally wrong.

8 Nov 2010 - Alvorada Area (Mom)

[Mom made a comment about "hearkening with exactness" and using agency wisely even during free hours.] I'm not sure what this free hour you are talking about is on the mission...but the President Batt talks a lot about hearkening with exactness. Well not the exact words but that we need to follow all the rules on our mission and we will be better missionaries because of it. We will have the spirit and things will be a lot easier for us.

I don't have much to say this week, it's just the usual working and walking. We did have another baptism this week. It was a son of a family that was baptized last week before I got here. He delayed a week, but the family is strong as far as I can tell with the week here. They have 2 sons, now 1, that haven't been baptized they almost got killed/shot 2 times so far always outside of the church. The mom is good and strong though, and instead of blaming the church she believes they were saved because they were going to church. This area is a quite a bit more ghetto than the other area, but there is nothing to worry about. The Lord protects and if I get shot, for some reason the Lord wanted it to happen barring stupid behavior :) I know that prayer is a personal conversation with God, and I know that without it we are lost. I know that through faithful prayer we can learn anything that we want, and we can receive blessings from the Lord. The Lord has already testified of the truth to me through prayer and I am glad He has given us the means to talk with him.

8 Nov 2010 - Alvorada Area (Dad)

[Dad mentioned that BYU won, TCU handily beat Utah, and Oregon is ranked #1, with TCU #3. Nothing to do with missionary work, but Jeffrey's reply is amusing.] That's good, maybe they have hit their stride and they will destroy Utah :) That's rather embarassing for Utah, but it just proves that Texas is better at football :) Bigger, Faster, Better, but somehow they are below Granola Oregon....there must be something to the nature hikes and the fear of pumping your own gas thats helps them.

[I found an area on the map called Edson Quieroz, but it looks like a ritzy area near the ocean. Now that you've had a week there, give us a few more details to help us locate it better.] Edson Quieroz is fancy and it's next to the beach ....kind of. There is a huge Mall called Via Sul Shopping next to our house and I can't remember the street that has the church on it. There is a huge street Washington Soares I think, and then one that intersects by the Mall that goes towards the ocean, that is the one with the church on it. We live the opposite was by the Bank of Brasil and the Correios ( Post Office). I don't remember the street name but it's got a wall and a field. You won't be able to see our house anyways since it is below someone else's and it's the size of a rather large closet.....About the same size as our living room split into 3 rooms.

1 Nov 2010 - Alvorada Area

This week I was transferred to a new area, Alvorada. It's somewhere in Fortaleza :) Edson Quieroz I think, Seis Bocas area. I just got here today so I don't really know much at all. I don't like change very much so I am pretty sure I will move a lot here on the mission. I have already moved MTC's :) It's easier to move on the mission though because you now that God wants you there. You don't have to make a choice, the Lord makes it and you do the work there. So it's easier because I don't have to worry if it was the wrong choice or not and whatever happens I'm supposed to be here. They say the ward helps a lot here so that should be a pleasant change from my last area. They have a place called "Mundo Açaí" so I really can't complain. My new companion is Elder R. Ferreira from Curitiba. He has been here for awhile and I think things should go well here. My Provo MTC companion replaced me in Henrique Jorge so that is kind of weird/cool at the same time. That's pretty much it....

25 Oct 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area

[Combining emails to Mom and Dad this week because some of the content is common.] My area isn't bad at all in robberies and that kind of stuff. There isn't a place where the missionaries don't want to go. Robberies and stuff happen all the time here in Ceará though. A lot of people die too here, the most in all of Brasil. No doubt the culture here of beer and laziness plays a big role in these statistics. Every member has a story of getting robbed, but nothing bad has happened to me yet. Oh and no missionary has died yet from robbery, just a smash in the head by a gun ;)

[(Dad) Good to hear your MTC district finally made it there. What did they do while waiting for visas?] My district was in Nebraska serving their missions, with a part of South Dakota too yippeee. Some of them were on Indian reserves, others no. It will be a big change from Nebraska to Ceará, minus the drunk people of course they will be use to that.

[(Mom) When I pray at night, and get to the "Missionary" part, I pray for ... you ... by name. When I say your name aloud (I pray aloud now) always a warm glow fills me. It is confirmed to me each night that He is pleased with your service, that you are a valiant missionary.] It's good to hear that, it seems mothers usually always know what to say. One of my biggest concerns is doing all that I can and working so that I don't have any guilt. Baptisms etc don't really matter to me, I just want to be able to live the rest of my life without regret of what I could have done more on my mission. I think if I do this, the other successes will come, baptisms, spiritual experiences etc. It's good to hear that He is pleased.

[(Mom) I am happy that you were not shot. Have you shared those experiences with the mission president?] I didn't tell the President, this kind of stuff happens a lot here though (The whole mission). The area I'm in right now isn't bad at all, it's safe and there isn't really a place that I fear going.

[Mom commented about a book on prayer she has been reading.] I agree with praying aloud. It's hard in the morning to just pray because you think about other stuff and you want to sleep. I used to just mouth the words when I prayed in the MTC so that I could focus better. I haven't done that for awhile and I always told myself that I needed to do better.

I had a baptism this past Saturday. I was chosen to do the baptizing. I have was really scared, kind of. It wasn't fear but nervousness I guess. I said the baptism prayer a million times in my head so that I wouldn't mess up. We baptized a 16 year old girl whose cousin is a member. It was interesting because she has been taught by the missionaries for 3 years but never did anything. We taught her and she started going to church alone, without help from her cousin. Her cousin helped her a lot to prepare though. One day when we came over to teach they were super excited because the girl had read and prayed and received an answer. The baptisms went well, the font was a little low on water though. Afterwards when I was changing in the bathroom I just sat down and thanked the Lord with all my heart. I just sat there and looked at the wall and I felt the spirit and the weariness that I felt from all the worrying just left me and I was grateful. I'm so grateful that we have the authority here on the earth to perform baptisms that mean something. I'm grateful I was given the opportunity to do the baptizing too. Whenever I think about the baptism I feel happy because I know what a blessing it is. Even though I really only remember the water temperature from my [own] baptism, I know that it is the right thing to do. The rest of my life wouldn't have been the same and because of this I know baptism changes your life. I hope to see many more baptisms, not to add to my "glory" but the feeling is wonderful when you see your investigator get baptized. Whenever I think about the baptism I feel an indescribable happiness, not because it was my first but because I know it is a saving ordinance and this girl can feel happy for eternity. I know the power and authority is real on this earth. I have already had this confirmed to me in my short time here. I know Jesus is our Savior, I know He died and that he suffered for our sins. He didn't suffer them with regret or urgency to finish. He suffered them gladly, one by one for each person. I was reading in the Liahona general conference edition and someone said that He didn't suffer our sins in a mass. He suffered one by one and He thought about each one of us as He suffered. I know this is true and this is why He knows our names and our pains.