Mission lessons

My week was a bit hectic but it was really good. Its so crazy to me that I literally dread p days because they seem to drag on forever and its the only day I ever think about home. The rest of the week I just dont really have time. This week we were caught up in function of Transfers and another Caxias trip. Routine, but the drive home from Caxias was unforgettable. As President gets closer to going home he seems to be much more open to story telling and passing wisdom to his Assistants. He re counted a bunch of incredible experiences that he has had on the mission that strengthened my faith. My president is an inspired man, and there is no doctrinal question that his wife cant answer. They are the type of people that just make you want to be a better person, kind of like my grandparents. They have taught me countless lessons on how to live the gospel. I will miss them.

Its funny how the Lord always seems to let you fall flat on your face before he lifts you up. In our spare time this week we planned well and had a few important visits all marked to be with members. It was incredible how badly they didnt work out. Thursday night I just felt stupid, pretty much everything I had worked so hard to plan had fallen, and I had wasted the members time and money. What of the things that most frustrates me on the mission is that other´s free agency affects my ability to be successful. Being here in Brasil where punctuality and fulfilling your word doesnt mean a whole lot that can really spiral a missionary into depression. But I´ve also learned on the misison that it is not prudent to make decisions off a hot head, and that a good nights rest and a cold coke can solve a lot of life´s problems. After stepping back and taking a look at things we were able to re group and make everything work out Friday to set us up to have a good p day. We had a great lesson with Rubia last night (that lady that had the Joseph Smith dream.) 

I was super frustrated because we had already marked twice to have a family night at this couple´s house, they had made food and everything, and both times she didnt show up, totally making us look like slacker freeloaders. I was so nervous to try it again last night because of my pride but the spirit confirmed that that was the right decision to be made. We showed up at this couple´s house awkwardly smiling and he just opened the door and started laughing, but he was cool about it and told us we could bring her up. We ran down to her apt startled when she opened the door dressed in something I would expect to see in Las Vegas at 3 in the morning. After declining to step outside of hell´s corrider and entering into the doorway of wily temptation, we told her we needed to go up to the other apt to teach her. To my bewildered amazement she replied "How am I supposed to go to a family visit dressed like this?" As me and my companion stood there in silence not knowing what to say.. (You don´t feel comfortable going to visit a lady in your building but you´re okay to recieve 2 missionaries??) She helped us out and told us to wait while she changed. (She apparently was going to a Night Club.) Moral to the story the moment we arrived there I realized why we felt we needed to go; They totally hit it off, the lesson was awesome, full of the spirit, and her countenance immediately changed. She went from the most worldly woman I had taught in months to an incredibly elect investigator. When we do what is right and endure, the Lord will bless us one way or another. 

Im grateful for my mission and everything its taught me. I can honestly say that when my time is done here in about 10 weeks I should come back a slightly better person. 

Stay Classy. 

Weekly Status Report

It was good to talk to you guys breifely yesterday, it made me excited to talk tomorrow. The two Elders going home was a fiasco. One of them was one of the most painfully unlikeable stuck up rich kids from Texas I have ever met. He only had like 3 months on the mission but a month ago His mom got cancer while he was on the mission, but told him it was completely treatable and that she was not going to die and her only wish was that he stayed on the mission. I was the one who told him the news and watched him not even blink or show any reaction, I was like are you okay... It looked like he couldnt have cared less. Long story short for 3 weeks has been asking to go home, saying it has nothing to do with his mom, he just has no tesimony. I talked to his companion yesterday and he said he did nothing less than argue DURING lessons contrary to church doctrine. We fed him lunch before he went home and he was insuportable, basically gave us the middle finger and told us how he couldnt wait to get out of this hell hole so he could play tennis, good riddance. Feel bad for his family though, its going to kill them.

The other is one was the complete opposite, one of my good friends on the mission. For months he´s been thinking about going home, but fought against it because he knows it is the right thing to do to stay. i called him the night before and he just cried and cried, Didnt say a word on the way to the airport, completely sullen. His problem was testimony too though, he told me he saw so many people in the big world and they looked happy, and he wondered if he couldnt be happier breaking the commandments too. I couldnt believe it, I wanted to say YOU IDIOT WHAT PEOPLE ARE YOU TALKING TO!! But I didnt, I tried asking him some questions and helping him remember the things he already knows, but to no avail. He promised me he would talk to his bishop first thing he gets home, and try to renew his temple recomend though, Ill be rooting for him. He had almost a year and 3 months. Super sad day for me. 

I got in the gym a little today. We had to go fill up the font for a baptism tonight and we brought a basketball (Here there is a sweet indoor court, the only one ive ever seen in Brasil) i just couldnt ever find anyone to play with me. But while we were waiting me and my comp played a bit. YIKES. i am terrible, I had completely forgotten how hard it is to learn how to stroke and dribble again. I got so frustrated becaues i remembered those things coming so naturally to me before, and there i was trying to methodically THINK okay where do I release the ball.... It was painful. 

Mostly my last three months are just going to be really memorable. I had such a fun time in Santa Cruz do Sul yesterday.  We drove home with Presidnet and Sister Pavan and planned our Passo Fundo trip this Monday. We talked about a lot of fun stuff, about you, and motorcylce riding, and basketball, and politics. And then Sister asked me if I had bought presents already for my family, when i said not yet she told me we would make a trip out to a city called Soledade, that is about 30 minutes from Passo Fundo. Its a city renowned for priceless gems from the serra mountains. I´m stoked, Im going to be a couple cuias (the chimarrão cup) some bombachas (the big gaúcho pants) and a couple gems, one for a ring for mom and another for my future wife!!

Mostly Im just stoked and happy. Im working very hard and my mission is just passing before my eyes. Yesterday I woke up in a panic thinking that soon I will have to face reality, i had always though of it as a dream and a vision but never really thinking about. Frankly the though scared crap out of me. I have NO idea how to be a normal person. All I know is how to be a representative of Christ, and JUST now im starting to learn how to do it effectivly. Its crazy...

Soak up the good times, save some good stuff to do when i get home. The gospel is true, keep studying the scriptures, even though Wyatt pretends he doesnt notice he does. I did. Talk to you tomorrow.

AL

Full of Gas Still

This week was no easier but I feel more energized. I´m just stoked, I´m not tired and I get more and more excited about the progress we are making in the ward. It´s funny becaues honestly it was a slow week number wise but I feel like we got so much done. We are really getting after the members trying to build a strong relationship with them worthy of their trust so that they will help us in the work. Any missionary knows its way easier to spend 30 minutes with a member to get a reference of a family that already has LDS ties rather than knock doors looking for a pin in a haystack, i just wish I would have figured that out earlier. We had a great experience with that last night when we were frustrated with nothing working, and decided to step back and say a prayer. It was incredible how right after that everybody starting picking up their phone, we got two visits done, and then went to the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency. We ate dinner with them and shared a message not even asking for a reference simply telling them they could confide their friends in us. Before we finished he startled me by suddenly just getting um and making a spontaneously call to a friend of his. On the spot he marked an apt with him and his wife and 2 kids for this Sunday. Ironically at my favorite pizzaria for lunch today this same guy stopped me and said "Hey are you Thiago´s friends that are coming over tomorrow?" I chatted with him for a few minutes, super cool guy, I´m stoked to go there tomorrow. Lesson learned. Members have people that are prepared for the gospel, but they will not give them to missionaries that A. They don´t trust, and B. Don´t ask.

Yesterday we had a good zone council with all the zone leaders and we also went to Caxias this week to do a division with the zone leaders, i feel like all we do is travel or plan trainings these days, but it´s good because it keeps you busy. Tomorrow is going to be sick, we asked for some help from our zone leaders here to come help us make up for the time we lost this week, so we are going to blitz our area!! We are going to divide and just go crazy, looking for news and contacting the references we got this week. Then at night I promised them we would make Hot dogs (Brasilian of course...) and my famous mate doce. (It´s basically chimarrão but and Elder taught me something that revolutionized my world (Just like the day I figured out that Corn and Bacon Pizza with chocolate crust is delicious) But he taught me that if you put erva doce (sweet herbs) cinnamon, sugar, orange, and clove in the cuia (the wooden cup thingy) it created the most delicious mixture of heavenly goodness that man have experienced after the fall of Adam. All those going to the RANCH will be eternally blessed as we pass the cuia and drink sweet sweet erva doce late into the night while we gossip on others. 

I am doing well. I have gotten so sad at a few of my recent converts decisions to throw away the eternal truths they have learned for pitiful worldliness. I can´t understand how a person´s who life is already a piece of trash can not be willing to make a few changes. I have definately felt changed by my mission learning that my parents haven´t lied to me all these years: keeping the commandments not only protects us, it brings us true happiness.

Stay classy.

Holland

Need I say more? The rest of my week would seem pretty insignificant if I even tried to overshadow Friday morning. We were so lucky last year to be able to recieve Elder Christofferson and Elder Holland coming to our mission was just a big big BIG plus. He was incredible, the man spent the first 10 minutes joking about how old he was, (and he does look old) but his voice and his spirit have not lagged a single bit. I´ve never heard anyone speak with more intensity in their voice, and more fire. Needless to say I have no doubt that I personally witnessed one of Christ´s special witnesses here on the earth today. I´m very grateful for that testimony and how it will be a bedrock for the rest of my life. Elder Holland´s message was about the Fall, we made a scoreboard for someone that understands gospel truths from the Book of Mormon, and someone who doesn´t. He explained how the knowledge we have of the Fall and the intercession of the Atonement makes us unique from the rest of the world. We are quite literally the only people on the face of this Earth that understand that doctrine. He made me laugh when he said sometimes he wishes he could just take Chapter 2 of Second Nephi and staple it into the Bible somewhere in the middle of Corinthians. I love Elder Holland, and now I have his voice recorded along with Elder Christofferson´s, and I´ll remember their words forever.

The rest of my week was involved in Transfers, and preparing for this Conference. Its been a lot of busy work here in the office but honestly that´s probably a good thing because my health has not been soo good. I´ve been struggling to get back to full strength, but I know that´s no reason to slow down and that I just need to keep my head down and stay focused. We have kind of hit a rut here in our area, we have quite literally either baptized or cut all of our investigators. Now the trick is finding them with the limited time and resources that we have. That is going to involve visiting a lot of members, its been far more effective. I like to think of it as a type of fundraising the surely Grandpa Rex used to do for BYU. It´s going to be far more efficient sitting down with someone and being like "look, I don´t really want to be here. I don´t want to have to suck you dry or ask you for help you´re not dying to give, but i don´t have another choice, so... Hand it over." Rather than running into the street and stopping pedestrians one by one asking them for 5 bucks.

I´ve lost all patience to teach normal imperfect people that don´t want responsibility. I either want to teach elects or I don´t want to teach at all.

I honestly love missionary work. I´ve come to learn it´s eternal importance in the scheme of everlasting exaltation. I know it needs to be done, and I know it needs to be done the way the Lord asked it to be done. Elder Holland told us he knows he asks more of us than is fair, but he would never ask for apologies. I took that as meaning that we need to realize; I know that more than what is fair is being asked of me, but I´m not going to complain. Complaining never solves anything and quite ironically only makes a bad situation worse. The Gospel is the answer to all of life´s question´s and anybody that has real faith will live it, and find the blessings of doing so. Pray for my well being and the well being of those I teach.

***

That I forgot to tell: I call it "What is the worth of a Taxi?"

On Thursday we spent most of the day helping the secrataries get all of the materials ready for the Holland conference. We had already skipped one of our appointments that we had to help and we had one more coming up at 8 that i really didnt want to cancel but we had to help them finish up so we did. It turned out that there were way more matierals than we thought there was going to be so we decided to grab a taxi and take them down the to south mission so we wouldn´t have to take them in the morning. The only problem was that is was raining super intensely which was backing up all the taxis, every one we called said they couldnt attend us. So sitting there not sure what to do we see a Taxi drive up and drop a guy off in front of the office. We run out there frantically to try and grab her and she luckily didnt have another route and agreed to take us. 

Long story short after a few basic questions me and Elder Baker dived in to teaching the first lesson. She became instantly intrigued with the idea of the Book of Mormon and was really excited about coming to our English Clases. Unfortunately this Taxi Driver was a woman (no pun intended) and doesnt have the directional skills of a man, and we got very very lost, giving us tons of time to teach and field questions, but racking up our Taxi bill. But we finally got there.  We ended up asking her to wait while we unloaded the boxes at the south mission to take us bafck so we could talk to her more, and we started talking about the Temple. It just so happened that we were super close, so we told her to drive by to see it and we would pay the difference, again, upping this already expensive Taxi Bill.

 it was a fantastic experience of someone that the Lord may or may not have thrown in our path. Honestly I´m not sure if he did or not but I know we took advantage of it and taught her, gave her a book of mormon, and picked up her address for the misisonaries to go there. She promised to come to English class this next Friday, and that she would read the introduction of the Book of Mormon. The bill for that Taxi was about 3 times what we would have paid if we would have picked up our typical gruff "go screw yourself, I hate my job" Taxi driver. But that money and the appointment I canceled would be all worth it if she so much as stepped foot inside an LDS building and felt the spirit. It gives you an idea of how much one soul is worth to God. Does anyone know the value? Mathew did, and he described it in his Gospel, but basically, it´s a lot.

We've Got Worms

It was a hectic week. The week before transfers is usually crazy like this one was but this was a bit of a peculiur transfer. We have kind of had to do it looking ahead to the big events we have coming up in our mission. (Change of President, Jeffrey R. Holland, and a new zone we are opening up in our mission.) On top of that it was tough because we have 14 new missionaries arriving (we pictures up one yesterday (Elder Henry) and we will pick up the other 13 Tuesday morning.) And me and Elder Baker have made an earnest attempt to visit every single returned missionary we hvae in our ward (which is quite a few) before the end of the transfer. We really feel like we can utuilize them to make this work advance here, using the young couples. So all in all its been a busy week, it didnt help that i got SICK for the first time on my mission.

Yes, that´s right, i´ve been diagnosed with WORMS. Monday and Tuesday both days i was feeling incredibly nautious like i was going to throw up and without any type of energy, but i worked through it. Then my comp ratted me out to Pres Thursday and we called the doctor responsible for all of the missions in Brasil. About an hour after he diagnosed me with worms and gave me a bunch of medication and told me if anything got worse i needed to call him IMMEDIATELY, i started to vomit violently. Long story short Sister made me go to 2 different hospitals (neither of which could attend me, Thanks Brasil) until i finally got the injection i needed. It was a TERRIBLE day. I literally felt like I was going to die. BUT, im alive, and (almost) worm free. Well, not really, that probably actually wont be solved until i get back to the States, again, Thank you Brasil.

Today was sweet. We took Elder Henry to an early session at the temple at 9 where it just so happend that there was a Caravan from Passo Fundo! I saw tons of people I knew, it feels great when people still remember your name and face when you were sure they had forgotten about you! Its incredible the impact missionaries make in people´s lives, I truly am grateful for the opportunity i have had to do so. Then we went and celebrated at Outback where I ate Chelsea´s body weight in Ribs. Pictures to follow. 

I truly love my mission. The Lord still thinks im a little too immature to go home so he in really going to put me through the "Refiner´s fire" these last 3 1/2 months. I´ll probably still come home cracking jokes and making fun of foreigners but I will definately bring a knowledge of the plan of salvation and a deep love for Brasil with me.

I love America

You know even your President is trunky when he is the one calling you to let you know Santorum is out of the race, Mitt is my boy. It´s been a busy week and i am exhausted. We finally finished out last division, and now this week will be a good week of rest for me as we finish the transfers with President, cause im going to need it. The last 4 months of my mission are going to be spent hopping city to city. We recieved some new news this week...

JEFFREY R. HOLLAND IS COMING TO OUR MISSION. POW. He will be here on the 27th of April. Add that to the growing list of things we have to do on top of our preparations for our new mission president that will arrive on the 30th of June. The next transfer will be a short transfer, it changed to be 5 weeks instead of 6 weeks (moving everyone´s release date up ONE WEEK.) So me and Elder Baker have A LOT of planning to do to figure out how we are going to do all 8 of our divisions (plus any emergency ones we have to do, all the specialized trainings (We are going to GRAMADO next week- (Gramado is one of the most famous tourist cities in Brasil)), on top of the zone conferences we are going to have in all 7 zones!! In other words, you can kiss our area goodbye.

I like staying Busy, it keeps me focused and makes time fly (almost too fast even) but it is really taking a toll on me. I find myself waking up each day just a little more beaten and exhausted, and the only thing that gets me up off of our coach is Elder Keesling to make me do P90X with him. (If I wasn´t doing P90X daily my butt would have its own area code) Its tough to stay in shape because all we ever eat is Sausaged Pizza with Chocolate Stuff Crust (Best invention ever), Overly sized hot dogs full of eggs and maionaise (also delicious), and Coka Cola. I never thought i´d say this but I miss so much eating lunch at members houses...

So.. this week will be a big planning week for us. President is super concerned about leaving the mission in a perfect condition so that the arrival of President Wright goes smoothly. That means more conferences of prepartion, more movements on transfers, and more trainings that we will have to do. Its a good thing I have a firm testimony that this church is run by Christ personally or i might just want to lie down and die. That being said every day here in Brasil is fulfilling and meaningful, each day i learn something more about myself, and i know sooner than I realize, it will all be over.. 

Pictures are from my dinner with Daniel and Anne in Caxias, and our Churrasco we made today. Mmmm... Carne. 

Stay Classy.

Weekly Email

Hello
This week was fantastic. We are still struggling to find a groove in our area, it´s tough to remain consistant when we dont always have certainty of exactly when or how much time we will have to work there. But we have two baptisms marked for this Sunday so that will be a big boost for the ward. Its funny (not really) that after almost a year and eight months i´m finally figuring out how to do missionary work effectively. This ward can be a great tool, its full of young educated wealthy couples, and we are using them to find exactly that. Something great that the church in Brasil is stressing right now is "Real Growth." Meaning that we, as misisonaries, have to search for those who can immediately contribute to the growth of the Church. People that can hold a calling, pay tithing, go to the temple, and do their own missionary work. This is going to be a blessing here in Brasil, and I´m trying my best to apply it in my work and to help the missionaries do the same.
On Tuesday we went to Passo Fundo. It was fantastic as always, the Zone Leaders there are brilhant and are really elevating the zone. Plus, i just flat out love that city. Tomorrow we are going back to Caxias with President right after Church, we will work with the LZ`s and then do a specialized training Monday morning.
Today was a pretty relaxed p day.. We were tired so pretty much we are just chilling in the office using email, writing letters, and eating ridiculously oversized Brasilian hot Dogs. Delicoius. These crazy kooks know how to create a delicous form of a heart attack. I´m not going to lie, I admitted to a few Brasilians this week that i know prefer Brasilian PIZZA and HOT DOGS. What the freak is happening to me... Get me out of here!!
Just kidding. Im happy and healthy. Well, at least happy. But my daily P90X that Elder Keesling is slowly chipping away the saturated fat from that same pizza and hot dogs that i eat daily. Oh well, what do you do. 4 months.
Love you all, stay classy. Go Mitt!
P.s. I´m a ranch guy.