Email 8/28/17

Thank you Mom for another great email. I have been having interesting weeks ever since I got here to Brazil, but just know the Lord is taking good care of me, and it sounds from the many emails I have received from you that he has been blessing you well; which I am grateful for. A solar eclipse, that is awesome.  I didn´t know that that was happening. It is fulfilling the signs of the times. Since I have arrived here in my mission I have seen many blood red moons. The Lord gave them as a sign to his faithful children that the day of his advent is nigh at hand. Thank you for telling me that the sun became as sackloth. That´s another sign the Lord has provided for us. This week was a good week. On Tuesday we had English class again and a hot dog activity. Their hot dogs aren't bad. Wednesday we visited a very nice woman named Eva. She is very interested in our message and is reading the Book of Mormon. Thursday I had splits with an Elder Da Silva.  He is a good missionary and we visited a few good families. Friday we had a district meeting and that night we had another English class. Saturday we attended another baptism and my companion was the one who baptized. Her name is Yris and she is a member of the São Matues Branch. She was confirmed yesterday by Elder W. Silva, my companion.  My new companion is a responsible person with records, so far as I can tell. My investigators are doing alright. I have plenty of photos that I put into Drive for you to see. I am grateful for the information and news that you give me from week to week. The Lord has been providing for my temporal needs as he promised he would do for his Elders in the Doctrine and Covenants. Thank you for the Jokes and the Thought. The information from home is very helpful. I have needed it to keep me safe. The fact that you are alright is giving me good indications that I am doing well. Just know that Satan will try as he can to tempt me to break my covenants.  In my Patriarchal Blessing it mentions "Know that Satan is real, and that it is his desire to tempt you and persuade you to violate Sacred covenants, but if you will stay close to the church, your parents, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ you will be able to rise above any of his temptations." You sending me emails is helping me keep my covenants. I am grateful the Lord is still helping me. Thank you for listening to him, when he gives you promptings to do things for me. Thank you for the emails. Até Mais.

Email 08/21/17

Thank you for letting me know about Great Grampa giving up the ghost. I received a bunch of information from Grammy about this in her email. I had forgotten that Great Grandpa served in the Korean War. I can view the video (you sent).  The main problem is finding a computer with sound that works. I will have to view it next week. Yes, Jeffrey is starting the High School Experience. I hope he is ready. Thank you for this information. I am happy to hear that so many of the family could be gathered at one time.

The importance of missionary work is great. The Lords need it to happen to save the righteous and condemn the wicked. Without missionary work the judgments that the Lord wishes to send on the wicked would not be just seeing as they do not as yet have sufficient knowledge to condemn them; but on a lighter note it is needed to gather the Lord's elect from the four corners of the earth. The blessings from fulfilling missionary work are tremendous. As it says in my Patriarchal Blessing: "As I accept and fulfill responsibilities within the priesthood, I will be approved and worthy of the blessings of Heaven." I have been already receiving many blessings as I have been fulfilling my responsibilities with the priesthood, I have been called to fulfill. I have grown much since I left our house on Nickel way. The Lord gave me much light and truth, since then until now. I am understanding the scriptures even better than I was before.

Things are going pretty well. Our investigators are progressing. We had two baptisms this last Saturday in our ward. They were investigators of Elder Mendez's and mine before he transferred to his new area. He came back with his new companion and baptized one of them. Their names are Renata, and her son Lucas. The Father of the family has not as yet accepted the invitation to be baptized, but he is still attending church meetings with his wife and son. We will be need to visit them more and persuade him to be baptized little by little. The Lord is still blessing me for my endurance in Rondonópolis. I am very grateful he was keeping watch over me. I need to continue enduring for in the future the tribulation will only get greater on the elect until it becomes so great that the Lord must shorten those days in righteousness, or no flesh would be saved; but for the righteous' sake those days shall be shortened.

My new companion, Élder W. Silva, is from the tribe of Judah. This may make things a bit interesting considering the fact that our tribes were historically rivals, but so far he has been chill. I am grateful for the variety of companions I have had.

I forgot to mention I finally baked my birthday cake and I have photos in Drive. I hope you find it a little amusing. I know the Brazileiros found it a bit. We did our best with the resources we had. It turned out delicious. Thank you for sending it to me. I may be able to eat the pasta during the duration between now and the end of the transfer.

Thank you for the scripture. I have been thinking about another scripture, from time to time, within the Bible dictionary under shewbread; the last line. I like it. Thank you for the photos. I hope you are taking well the passing of your Grandfather to the world of spirits. He will definitely do well as a missionary. I will miss our Grandpa. Até mais.

Email 08/14/17

I am well. I had a pretty good week with Elder Mendez. Sadly this was my last week with Elder Mendez as a companion here in Mapim. He is getting transferred, but I am not. I will be staying here for six more weeks with my new companion Elder W. Silva. He is a Brazileiro and he is from Belém, the capital of the State of Pará.

We had rain yesterday, finally, after several weeks we received rain. We had no cloud in the sky for a while. We had another Baptism this last Saturday. Rafael, the little Brother of João Victor, was the one who got baptized.  Rafael´s Uncle, who is already a member, baptized him.  I have photos in Google drive for you to enjoy. Yesterday we went proselyting with one of the members of our ward. He took us in his car for the sake of the rain and we successfully taught four families. I may, in the future, have the opportunity to teach them again with Elder W. Silva.

I am sad to hear that Great Grandpa Kartchner is dying. I see that Jaron and Tharon are there.  That´s awesome that Spencer is nearly to Elder and will be starting his work in the vineyard soon. I hope he is ready spiritually. I found that that is more important than any of the others. Although I was prepared emotionally, I was not very prepared secularly well. I should have studied better and more.

Many people have been getting sick lately, even here in Varzea Grande.  I got a hair cut this last week. A member of the São Mateus Ward did it for us. She is the one that has done it the last few times and she is an expert at it. To top it off she does it for free.

Thank you for the jokes they were a good PUNishment. Thank you for the thought. The Pictures are great.  If have any questions just ask. Tchau.

Email 08/07/17

My week has been good. Me and my companion have been working trying to convince and teach one of João Victor's brothers, Rafael. Things have been going well.  He received the lessons and understood well. I gave him a Book of Mormon and he and his brothers are still attending church. I do remember meeting someone while I was with them. A man was in their store in front of their house buying beer and I felt that it was a good idea to give him something. I decided to give him a pamphlet or two and also a Book of Mormon. He was so grateful for this that he gave me his sweater. I tried to refuse seeing as I have what I need sweater-wise and he is a poor man, but he insisted. He also decided to buy us a soda.

I was not given a blanket when I got here. I may be given a blanket in these areas (Campo Grande or Ponta Pora where the weather is very cold). It is likely that I will be sent to these areas.  A fleece blanket would be good.

This week will probably be my last in this area seeing as I have been here for three transfers, but if not I will let you know next week. Tchau.

Email 07/31/17

My week was excellent. I attended a few activities at the church house, met a new family, and...... I BAPTIZED someone this week. His name is João Victor Frances De Almeida. I helped confirm him the next day. My investigators are doing pretty good. We still need to visit them a lot more and get them to come to church before they will improve greatly. I usually have one (zone conference) every two weeks. I have not as yet talked with, met, nor taught any aboriginal people. I hope that you will be pleased that I now have one ordinance performed and have now had the opportunity to help at least two enter the path to the kingdom of God. I have pictures of him and his family. My companion and I hope to help his brothers and possibly others be baptized as well. Thank you for your prayers for me.

Email 07/24/17

My week was pretty good. I had that zone conference.  The cold weather, that was shown in the pictures I sent last week; lasted for two days and half afterwards. The zone conference went well. During it I learned that President Oliviera´s mother is dying. It is so sad that he has to suffer not being with her. I also learned that some of the missionaries are getting very trunky. I didn´t receive the package yet. They said that they hadn´t received it yet and they hadn´t. I will just have to wait until the next Zone Conference and see. Thank you for the jokes. They are getting better and better. I have forgotten to tell you, I have a few families that I have been visiting. Many people here are Catholic, but I thinks these families are from some other religion similar to it, but nonetheless they are good people. One family is very conveniently close to our house and it is enjoyable to visit them. They have provided us with dinner on several occasions and it has been nice to visit them. The name of the woman of the house is Solange. They have met the missionaries before, and were delighted to meet us when we first found them. We found them while we were trying to visit another one of the families we have to visit. They live right next to this family. One thing I find interesting is how they pray. It is similar to the manner in which we pray in the Temple. I am beginning to understand more and more how significant the Apostasy really was. Nevertheless they are good people and we will be visiting them again tonight. I love the people here. I am grateful that I could have the opportunity to spend time with them for three transfers. Other than that things have been kind of slow here.

I forgot to tell you another story of another family we visit often. This family is predominantly Catholic. They like us and the missionaries in general. Jossy, one of the members of this family, was baptized a member while I was with Elder Silva. We go over there a few nights a week and they normally attend church. Jossy has three sons, that I know of, and they all have potential to be baptized, but I don´t know if we will be the ones to do so. This last Saturday we were there and they decided to have me dance the Lambada. They mostly did it, because they thought that it would funny and it most definitely was. I really hope they don´t put that video on Facebook. It was interesting learning how to dance that, somewhat. I will definitely need to practice a lot more in order to get good at that dance.

One thing that is good news is something our Mission President mentioned in the Zone Conference. He said that our mission has less missionaries than all the other missions in Brazil and yet we still have good numbers for baptisms, investigators who attend Sacrament Meeting, baptismal dates, etc. Thank you for writing me. If you or any of the family have questions, just ask. Tchau.

Email 07/17/17

I am doing great actually. We are having a cool, misty, and almost rainy day here right now. It is actually cold enough for a sweater. My week has been pretty good. I went to several activities this week at the church house. I neglected to to mention that I am helping teach two English classes now with the help of another American. He is from Spanish Fork, Utah. (Elder Dayton) He and his companion both know English. His companion is from São Paulo. My companion is doing well. I have the opportunity to help him learn English every so often. He is way better than my previous companion. I like this. I have now had two Brazilian companions and two Spanish speaking companions. The language is improving well, but I will still have to keep learning even by study and also by faith in order to get fluent enough to teach better. I have been having trouble with giving messages at almoços (lunches). I definitely need to keep studying with my companion. We have been having a steady amount of investigators frequenting Sacrament Meeting. Other than the cold weather we get at times, things tend to stay the same. There has been a lot of construction going on here in Cuiabá, and I remember that in Rondonópolis they had the same happening. When Elder Brown came here, to spend the last few days of his mission in his favorite area; he mentioned it was rather important. All throughout Matto Grosso there have been fires. They have been burning the matto or weeds. That which Elder D. Todd Christofferson foretold about Brazil soon having improvement is being fulfilled (something along the lines of that). I have not yet been able to bake my cake. Don´t worry it´s fine, I still haven't been able to make the pasta either. Maybe I will be able to do so later on. My next Zone Conference will be on Thursday. I will probably receive the package then. I forgot about Independence Day, but don´t worry the Lord didn´t forget me.  I had an enjoyable activity that day.

Great you got more Kindle fires. I bet the little ones like that. Is Jeffrey the President of the Teachers Quorum? (He's a counselor.)  Wow; (Great-grandpa) 88 that is an accomplishment to typewrite about. I am glad to hear that Grandpa is still kicking. We have a member here that is 90 something and she still walks around and attends the Church activities. I hope that Alex and Jeffrey had a great time. Alex is good guy. At West Side Matters do they ever play "I'm so pretty" from West Side Story? That´s good that Jemma and Julia got their hair cut. It is far healthier for everybody when they don´t do that themselves. I hope the job you did cut it. That is impressive that you still find time to go to concerts and dates. Even with what has been happening. Thank you for continuing to go to the temple.

National Ice cream day shouldn´t be too hard to celebrate, they have ice cream everywhere and anywhere there is enough people to have a town. Oh good you just talk about topics that concern the west side of the Valley; such as whether the Jets or Sharks will win the football game or not. I hope the west side of the valley is still doing well. Oh got it. Teresa did their hair, that´s good. She does an excellent job, that does cut it. Jesseca cut her hair too. It must me hair-editary. Thanks for bearing my humor. Thank you for the jokes. And the great Spiritual Thought. I love you all. 😊