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.

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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.