[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.
Monday, November 8, 2010
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.
[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.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
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....
Monday, October 25, 2010
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.
[(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.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
18 Oct 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Dad)
[Dad made some comments about the poor maintenance by the owners of Michael's apartments.] I'm sure its not that bad, you and Michael have seen worse on the missions. I remember the little cement house you lived in on a mission and had church in, at least that's what I remember. :) It will just make everyone more humble after living there for awhile. Besides all that matters is if the owner is a nazi, like mine was. It's much better when she is nice but your place is still a dump.
[Told him about the house fire around the corner triggered by some sort of explosion in a car in the garage.] It makes me grateful that you park the older cars with more chance of exploding in the driveway and street. Who calls a SWAT van to a car exploding scene?
Speaking of getting shot, for some reason I have almost been shot twice the past few weeks. Not to alarm you, I'm sure that my missionary name tag would have stopped the bullets. We were walking down the street and a drunk guy almost hit me on his motorcycle, well he hit me with the mirror. So I expressed my disbelief and anger to my companion but I guess he heard because he stopped the motorcycle a few feet in front of us (in front of his house) and started yelling to his wife to grab his gun because he is going to shoot this little punk. Oops :) I guess it was my fault. The worst part was this street is super long with nobody on it and a field on one side and a wall on the other. A perfect place to be shot and thrown into a ditch in the field. We just kept walking and everytime we heard a motorcycle coming we just prayed ;) The other time we were walking behind the Catholic Church (figures... of all places to be shot) and this guy was robbing a girl on a motorcycle but she peeled out and was screaming etc. ( she ended up t boning another motorcycle but not very hard they just kind of fell over) then the gang looked at us and one of them started running at us with a gun but since the lady was screaming etc his gang told him to come back. He looked at us for a bit, clearly wanting to shoot the one in with the glasses and steal all of the "valuable" Mormon pamphlets and Book of Mormons in his backpack, what a haul that would be. Instead he just ran away. Later the police stopped people in front of our house but they weren't the robbers. I have also come up with a genius technique to stop people from taking my money. I keep my money in my chest pocket in a protective covering they give you for the missionary guide. I put a picture of Jesus on my planner so when they go to steal the money they will see Jesus and think twice....yeah genius!!
Monday, October 18, 2010
18 Oct 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Mom)
[Michael is planning to go scootering down the canyon with some girls and his roommates.] It's the girls mom, they make you do anything you never wanted to do or even thought about doing. They are evil :) What every happened to the good ole days of drive in movies and caramel apples on the swing by the lake :) haha old people :) Who knows, Michael and I use to do the same thing by our house too, but I guess it isn't the same as Provo canyon. If you didn't support this idea why did you tell him to get a scooter to go kill himself? Just wait until he finds out about DI they have so much cool stuff there to kill dumb people. I'm pretty sure I was just born with natural talent....
[We went camping with another family and while gone a house around the corner had an explosion and fire, giving Sean a little more excitement than he wanted.] Dad told me you guys went camping and Sean almost died from a make believe shooting by the Sanderson's house. Is it cold there yet? You could have gone diving at Soldier's Bluff...by yourself. You guys are totally getting old now. You are going camping with other old people... [A family in the ward invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner.] the youngins invite the senior couples to Thanksgiving dinner because you can't eat a whole turkey :) muahaha just kidding though. [Sean had a few inches cut off his hair.] Sean should keep his hair long and play the guitar and get rich. There is a guy here named Wesley Safadão and he has super long hair and plays the guitar and the whole world loves him!!! I will be like that when I get home.
I told Dad about my near death experiences, maybe he will tell them to you if he thinks you need to hear. We have two baptisms for the next 2 weeks so things are getting better but they still aren't better. We had a lot more "success" this week aka numbers but it wasn't a quality week with hope for the future. Just two more weeks and we have transfers, I would like to stay here but I don't every worry about transfers because they are God's choice, so what could go wrong? I finally got to meet up with my district from Provo. They finally made it here and I talked to one of them today. It's weird how easily you make friends in the MTC. I have another good friend but he went to another mission. He is convinced we will go to California after the mission, but I am a non-believer. :) The fruit here is magical also, I haven't eaten anywhere near all of it. Yum
[We went camping with another family and while gone a house around the corner had an explosion and fire, giving Sean a little more excitement than he wanted.] Dad told me you guys went camping and Sean almost died from a make believe shooting by the Sanderson's house. Is it cold there yet? You could have gone diving at Soldier's Bluff...by yourself. You guys are totally getting old now. You are going camping with other old people... [A family in the ward invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner.] the youngins invite the senior couples to Thanksgiving dinner because you can't eat a whole turkey :) muahaha just kidding though. [Sean had a few inches cut off his hair.] Sean should keep his hair long and play the guitar and get rich. There is a guy here named Wesley Safadão and he has super long hair and plays the guitar and the whole world loves him!!! I will be like that when I get home.
I told Dad about my near death experiences, maybe he will tell them to you if he thinks you need to hear. We have two baptisms for the next 2 weeks so things are getting better but they still aren't better. We had a lot more "success" this week aka numbers but it wasn't a quality week with hope for the future. Just two more weeks and we have transfers, I would like to stay here but I don't every worry about transfers because they are God's choice, so what could go wrong? I finally got to meet up with my district from Provo. They finally made it here and I talked to one of them today. It's weird how easily you make friends in the MTC. I have another good friend but he went to another mission. He is convinced we will go to California after the mission, but I am a non-believer. :) The fruit here is magical also, I haven't eaten anywhere near all of it. Yum
Monday, October 11, 2010
11 Oct 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Dad)
[Dad mentioned some scriptures regarding why Jesus Christ suffered death (2 Nephi 9:5 and 3 Nephi 27:14).] I was reading in Romans (because Romans teaches you everything you need to know ;) and it talks about this a little bit too. I will have to see what I can do about those scriptures :)
[I really appreciate your insights into and viewpoint about your experiences. You see beyond the surface of experiences and understand the significance behind them, like what you talked about last week in describing the tough times and the point of a mission being more than teaching, but including experiences, feelings, etc. (although I didn't catch the full meaning of Paul/Jeffrey's experience with eating something nasty and putting pieces in his pocket; what was the nasty thing, by the way?). Getting beyond the superficial meaning of life's events (and everything else) can make a big difference in our perspective.] Just things I was thinking, the Paul thing was kind of random but the point was I think that Paul had a lot more experiences than the stuff that he wrote about. I know those experiences with Christ changed his life and helped him to become better. Also, they gave him thoughts or feelings he will never forget. I was eating Mandioca which is a root and is kind of like a potato. But it was nasty beyond belief so I stuffed it in my pocket so that I could finish faster. It might have been better with something on it, but it was just plain. That and Doce de Leite on cheese are the only things that I haven't liked so far. Coconut water is nothing to get excited about. Açaí is a miracle fruit, nectar from heaven. I could eat it everyday. Maracujá is good too, but it makes you sleepy (Passion Fruit). I have had a little bit of starfruit too but it tastes like apple. Guava is nasty too. There are tons of fruits that I haven't tried yet though. It's hard to look beneath the surface sometimes, especially when things are hard. One of our investigators was talking about how it's easy to thank the Lord in the good times but when they turn bad you forget about him and worry about yourself. The area is still hard here and the members aren't helping, nothing is really getting better. I will just keep working though and pray for miracles to keep happening. I did have a cool experience with a drunk yesterday. He was screaming at us that his name was Michael and he tried to shake my hand. It's an unwritten law that you never shake drunk people's hands. Instead he grabbed my hand and yelled we are going to church together. If only all the people had this kind of will to go to church :)
[I really appreciate your insights into and viewpoint about your experiences. You see beyond the surface of experiences and understand the significance behind them, like what you talked about last week in describing the tough times and the point of a mission being more than teaching, but including experiences, feelings, etc. (although I didn't catch the full meaning of Paul/Jeffrey's experience with eating something nasty and putting pieces in his pocket; what was the nasty thing, by the way?). Getting beyond the superficial meaning of life's events (and everything else) can make a big difference in our perspective.] Just things I was thinking, the Paul thing was kind of random but the point was I think that Paul had a lot more experiences than the stuff that he wrote about. I know those experiences with Christ changed his life and helped him to become better. Also, they gave him thoughts or feelings he will never forget. I was eating Mandioca which is a root and is kind of like a potato. But it was nasty beyond belief so I stuffed it in my pocket so that I could finish faster. It might have been better with something on it, but it was just plain. That and Doce de Leite on cheese are the only things that I haven't liked so far. Coconut water is nothing to get excited about. Açaí is a miracle fruit, nectar from heaven. I could eat it everyday. Maracujá is good too, but it makes you sleepy (Passion Fruit). I have had a little bit of starfruit too but it tastes like apple. Guava is nasty too. There are tons of fruits that I haven't tried yet though. It's hard to look beneath the surface sometimes, especially when things are hard. One of our investigators was talking about how it's easy to thank the Lord in the good times but when they turn bad you forget about him and worry about yourself. The area is still hard here and the members aren't helping, nothing is really getting better. I will just keep working though and pray for miracles to keep happening. I did have a cool experience with a drunk yesterday. He was screaming at us that his name was Michael and he tried to shake my hand. It's an unwritten law that you never shake drunk people's hands. Instead he grabbed my hand and yelled we are going to church together. If only all the people had this kind of will to go to church :)
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