30 Jan 2012 - Palmeiras Area (Dad)

I was writing a juicy email last time but my time ran out and instead of telling me the LAN house guy just shut off my computer. So it saved some of it, but it didn't have half of it. I was finishing with a nice testimony but obviously you aren't ready for it :-)

Well the work has picked up. The Lord blessed us with some great miracles. We got a baptism this week and an elect that we have been teaching decided he was going to give up work and go to church instead. He is an old guy and he only works on the weekends so he is basically retiring. He makes me happy. He is an old guy that isn't blinded by the Catholic lies. He was high up in the Baptist church but saw all of the apostasy with tithing etc. and left the church. He is awesome. He was always working though but the Lord gave him a stern slap in the face.

Transfers happened and I am staying here with Elder Dean... yay? Just kidding :-) It will be more hard work and I will probably go crazy but whatever. I have been kicked back down to regular Elder again. :-) It bruises my manly pride but I know God knows more than I do. It doesn't really bother me that much. It is a lot easier to have no responsibilities! I have some more great news. We got robbed again! yay! This time a random guy was walking up close behind Elder Dean and I felt that he was going to try and rob us. Just like I felt the last time. Sure enough he tried to grab Elder Dean's watch and run but that failed miserably. He almost fell will trying to do it. Then he told him to take the watch off. It was a R$ 10 watch from the fair so he just gave it to him. Then he started pushing us away so we would leave. He wasn't armed or anything, he probably needed the watch more than us. It was more annoying than anything. Maybe in 2 years I can change/forget the details and make it a cooler story.

Well that's all that happened this week. We got to drink some white guava juice which was weird since it is usually pink. It is starting to rain :-) No more baby scorpions in the house so that is good.

30 Jan 2012 - Palmeiras Area (Dad)

[Jeffrey sent the following email fragment he rescued from the previous week's aborted email session.] [(Dad) I pray every day that more immediate success will come, but that's in the hands of the people you teach and the Lord. He never usurps agency, but he also never fails to recognize diligent and humble efforts.] That is what they all tell me, but someone has to use their agency to accept the gospel don't they? The part that is hardest for me is that we are finding miracles but they still don't progress. We found a family that has been fasting and praying to find a new church, people that stopped us on the street and told us to come and teach them. These sorts of people are usually the prepared elect of God. So I feel a little weak and unrighteous when I can't even get these people to go to church. So that is why it is hard. No matter what we do, nothing happens. I trust in the Lord, I know that I am doing His work. There is a fine line between doing all you can do and having no success or doing not enough and that is why you don't have success. How can I tell which side of the line I'm on? I'm not perfect.

I wrote some other stuff but it looks like only this part was automatically saved as a draft. It was probably just more complaining :-)

23 Jan 2012 - Palmeiras Area

[No email this week, so we're assuming a transfer or big meeting happened or the Internet crashed in Brazil. Sure do miss hearing from Jeffrey. :-( ]

16 Jan 2012 - Palmeiras Area (Dad)

The police strike is over. Deep back in my gut I was hoping for a 2 week riot just to have a cool story. That probably wouldn't have gone over well though.

[I shared an experience of rejection in Nicaragua with Jeffrey.] I remember that story, you had told me earlier on my mission. I was thinking about 'The Other Side of Heaven' and my mission has got nothing like that. How are they going to make a movie out of my mission? I have set a new goal too: I'm going to write in my journal everyday. I usually write in it every 2-3 days. The main reason I'm doing it is so that the producers have an easier time making my movie :) It will probably help me with other things too.

I hate to admit it, but my current area is tougher than pork chops cooked in a microwave. Sometimes I just have no idea what to do. I go and do and it fails miserably. There are probably silver linings that I am missing. I am really hard on myself and I always think it is our fault. I'm not perfect so there is something I should be doing better. I don't know. I'm trying to go and do what I need to do. Sometimes I feel all is lost, but I bounce back.

9 Jan 2012 - Palmeiras Area (Mom)

[I was asked to do the Stake Valentines dance refreshments again.] I remember doing stuff for the Valentines Dance before I left. Like anyone goes to a dance to eat food anyways. They are all old and married. They go to just show off and make out :) It is the kids dances that need food because that is what makes them worth it. Just throw some beanie weenies and some chips and that will make all the old people happy. That would make me happy at least....

It must be nice to have good people in callings and the ability to solve problems. Here some of the leaders are inactive and any meeting (like Ward Council) takes about 3 hours and the people just end up attacking me for some reason. Then nothing happens. Some wards do it better than other wards. It will be nice to go back to America and not have to deal with ward members anymore ;)

This week was another hard week. I have been noticing that I haven't been happy during the week. I'm always worried and wishing things were going better. I guess I judge myself too much. It's hard. We had some investigators at church which is a miracle. I'm trying to stop the worrying and trust in God more but that is hard. :)

9 Jan 2012 - Palmeiras Area (Dad)

Well I figured out why we got robbed on Sunday. Apparently there was a Police strike so there was no Police on the street from Dec 31- Jan 3. I feel free to tell this to you now since it has already passed. So there is no need to worry. As you can imagine it was CRAZY here. It is crazy with the police. It was kind of like serving in the middle of Somalia. Everything was closed and widespread robbing happened at the strip malls and stuff like that. Kids were just walking down the street with guns. It was kind of intense. Our neighborhood that we live in was less intense. Our work area though was kind of dangerous. Downtown was ransacked. This is what people tell me so I don't know how true it is. It'll be a good story to tell my kids. We all had to be home by 6 PM.

I was thinking about running more when I get back home. I'm still just on the thinking stage of course. It is good to know that we still have the treadmill. Maybe I'll run outside to keep my tan. I can't wait to get back and work out in the gym though ;) It is a lot easier to work out when you don't have to walk around all day.

So we were teaching this nice old lady these past few weeks. The kind of old lady with no teeth that is always smacking her lips. She was a great lady and she loved us and loved our message. She accepted everything that we taught her. She went to church and everything. Then one day we taught here this week and she did a complete 180. She didn't want to talk to us anymore and didn't want to be baptized. I was sad. She was talking to us and telling all kinds of apostasy and lies so that we would go away. I honestly cried about 3 times during the lesson. It was really sad. I felt anguish for her soul and her hard heart like it says Alma & Nephi etc. felt for their people. I can't say I have felt anguish for everybody's soul that I teach, but I felt it this time. I can only imagine what our Heavenly Father feels every day when he sees his poor children doing wrong things. I knew what she was doing and I knew that it was the wrong path. We tried to help her but she just kept resisting and wouldn't listen. We tried but I didn't know what to do and I felt even worse. I imagine it is the same with parents. I love these people and the people of this area aren't being nice to me :) It is hard for me to work every week and have nobody come to church. That is the key but nobody wants it! It makes me want to be better though so that Heavenly Father doesn't have to feel that sadness when he sees me. I think we should all work harder so that nobody feels that sadness because of us. I hate feeling that sadness. I'm sure my parents do too and so does Heavenly Father.

I know that He loves us more than anything. We must do what He tells us to or else we can go nowhere! He knows what is best for us and He knows what will destroy us! It aches my heart when I see people openly denying Him. I have a lot to do to be one of His perfectly righteous sons, but I know that I can achieve that. He will help me and that is His main goal. So why not make it our main goal too?

2 Jan 2012 - Palmeiras Area (Mom)

So people are telling me that you went paintballing and others are saying that you went laser tagging, so I'm just going to assume you shot people. That is good that you are enjoying it. I have been working out here, but it not easy and sometimes I just don't feel like it. We went running in the morning the other day so that was cool. I do my usual pushups and pullups. Hopefully when I get back home I can get on a better routine. I too struggle with the task of eating right. It's not my fault all of the good food in this world is greasy and heart attack causing. I'm a southern boy, it's no fair.

I have been working hard, knowing that my time is ending. It's good to train at the end because you work harder and your companion always has that fire. I'm trying to do all that I can and I think I am giving my best effort. I'm happy and we are teaching great people. One thing that I'm trying to work on is prayer because it has never been a strong point and it is sometimes hard for me. I figure it will help me a lot after the mission too :) Just trying to do what I can. I love you!