This is going to be short

It was a decent week, not as great as i hoped, but fine. Our pool is getting smaller and smaller. So we are going to have to go back into what i like to call the "finding stage." You returned missionaries know this stage as "hell." Just kidding. Yesterday we worked our butts off and taught 8 lessons, finding 10 new investigators. All the Lord asks for is our effort. If we are willing to give it, he is willing to bless us. Its not necessarily fun, but worth it if you are willing to take a walk of faith.

Friday we had a lidership conference in Porto Alegre. It was fun, but 105 degrees on a hot smelly bus is not fun. We had to bust it back in suits to do two baptismal interviews. Luciano (see pictures) passed and was baptized that night. He´s the man. Rosangie also passed, but then when i told her what time the baptism would be was like, wait, I´m not going to get baptized without my husband... Ahhh! Her husbands name is Reni. His brain is fried from 30 years of drinking. He just got out of a clinic where he was baptized by some dude from who knows what church. Basically as many times as we explain AUTHORITY he cant understand why the alcoholic from the clinic doesnt have it. He also is Brasilian, and believes that the only sins are killing and robbing. If you dont do those two things WHY do you need to do things like pay tithing, or live the word or wisdom. "Your not hurting any one else.." Yes, you heard me right, a guy that spent his families life savings putting him into a clinic off and on for 5 years thinks that he is only hurting himself. I love people.

Other than that we have just been doing fun finding activites to try and find new poeple to teach. Namely, knocking doors. But i have a new strategy that i would encourage all missionaries to follow. I call it "the wrong door approach." It goes like this.. You make up a name, and knock. You say does this person live here...? They say no.. why do you ask, and IMMEDIATELY come out to the fence. (Brasilians are super suspicious) Thats when i ask how long they have lived there, and show them my cute little pamphlet. Its genius. 

I love Hot tomales, Mitt Romney, and Coka Cola. The Great Apostasy happened. I PROMISE. If you dont believe me look up James E. Talmage. After that Christ decided that we were worth saving. How grateful i am for that. How grateful i am for the Restoration of the gospel. If you dont have a testimony of it, get one. It will make you so much happier.

Tchau gurizada.

Brasilian Stuff

Hello white people.

I had a good week, a tough week, but a good one. Let me get my venting off my chest first, as i normally do. Brasilians can´t say No. It drives me insane. They will waste your time, energy, money, and effort, without blinking twice before they will say NO. I think i have mentioned an Old Lady that used to love us and make us dinner that we were trying to help stop to smoke so that her and her granddaughter could get baptized. When we really started cracking down on her not smoking she suddenly started to disappear. Every time we would mark with her (we have been leaving early in the morning at 9 a.m. to walk 45 min to her house) she was not there. We have literally been doing that for 2 weeks trying to prepare her to get baptized. Saturday we met with her and told her 2 Elders were coming from far away to do the interview in an hour, she´s like yeah okay! The Elders waste their time and money and come, not there. I call her, the minute she hears my voice, hangs up. We have wasted SO much time on them, because they always pretended way interested whenever we talked to them, but never wanted anything. Brasilians can´t say no, and it makes me CRAAAAZZZYYYY!!!!

Advice to South American Elders: Don´t waste time on people! Cut them!

Have i ever spoken about my friend named Rafael? He´s the PUNK in the first picture of the baptism of Reni. He is that ladies son, and he makes her cry daily. He´s super sick, but ridiculously prideful, and super mean. (Basically he´s me) And I´m like his counselor. So Friday we get there and his mom asks us to talk to him cause he said he´s quitting school. (Very rare to finish high school here) So we sit down and have a very long conversation. Long story short as I´m trying to explain to big picture to him, cause he´s super smart, he just keeps telling me im just like his mom and i dont understand, that i had forgotten what its like to be 16 and have a girlfriend. It was right about then that I looked at him and thought i was looking at myself in the mirror. It was really weird. I then preceded to explain WHY is was so important that he doesnt quit school, doesnt break the law of chastity, and does serve a mission, so he could have the perspective on life that i now have. It doesnt mean i dont remember what its like to be him, its just that i understand so much better what things bring happiness, and what things dont. When we are young it is so incredible difficult to see past the next weekend, or the end of high school, then we grow up a little and realize how little some things matter. I am eternally grateful to the mission for that, there is no greater blessing.

Last night we had another fun drunk person experience. (for the 100th time) So we´re walking home a little late and see this dude on the side of the road with a paper towel in hand. Dude is in a BAD way, but like usual i did my customary compliment. Baaaddd idea. Dude immediately SPRINGS forward to my comp trying to grab him, and we jump back fists raised yelling at him not to touch us. He then preceded to ask my comp for a "patriarchal" blessing (slightly aggressively) and my comp still a little wigged out is like no, no i cant. Also a bad idea, the guy gets all indignant and  points his blood covered finger at my comp and starts questioning his worthiness. (for sure a member) By about that point I decided it was time to take off, so we start backing up and as soon as were sure he didnt have a knife took off. Love drunk people, especially mormon drunk people.

More advice to South American Elders: Don´t come home late!

The mission is fun. Its so painfully devastating at times but mostly its good. I´ve picked up a new good thing from my companion. Whenever something crappy happens he says something to the extent of " its all good, this is not going to affect my eternal salvation." I feel like thats good advice for all of us. When little crappy things happen lets remember the big picture. I´ve applied that in my mission. I am STILL going to get married to a hot wife in the temple. I am STILL going to be a DA in New York. I am STILL going to be saved at the last day. NOOOOO WOOORRRIIIEEESSS. (this is for you DI, stress free!) 

I love you all. Me and Evans are both staying here for one more transfer. Big shocker. Not too happy about it. But hey, Christmas is STILL 2 months away. Stay Classy Orem.

Happy Halloween

No Halloween is not celebrated here. Well, not really. Its mostly just another holiday they stole from the U.s. as an excuse to not work and get as wasted drunk as they can. Last night was CRAZY.

Things are good here. It was a tough week. Lots of problems we´ve got to resolve in the ward and the zone, but thats life. If you can´t resolve problems, you´re going to live them. Mostly I´ve come to the conclusion that EVERY major problem that ever happened in the history of the world starts with pride. Don´t be prideful. (Steve, Alex, Colin)

This is the last week of the transfer. We are going to the beach this week, and then we have two baptisms this weekend. Its going to flyyyy... 

New favorite obsession- Mormon.org. I watch Brandon Flowers video at least 3 times every p day. Mostly just as an excuse to hear Killers music... but hey, its the church website!

I love you all, sorry this is short. I have no doubt this is Christ's restored church. Anyone that leaves it must foolishly crawl around or over the Book of Mormon, which has stood for hundreds of years in spite of being critically attacked. We would all be wise to strengthen our own testimony of that book. There are more important things in life to be found in there.

This Email is not going to adequately explain what I want it to

Hey people

We went to the beach this week. It was awesome. I love the beach. See pictures.

I wont lie. I hate writing these things. Call it impatience. But i will pen out some thoughts I have had this week about Brasil and a man named Korihor. 

Korihor was an Antichrist in the Book of Mormon that used deviated lies about the church to mislead people. For example he would make up a doctrine of the church (how can we be responsible for Adam´s sins) and then feed that lie, because it wasn't true anyway! So it was easy! What does that have to do with Brasil...? Everything. The most frustrating thing for me here is the lack of commitment to do something important. In all aspects of life. This is so fundamentally important for us. I believe I have spoken a bit about an awesome mother and daughter we have named Suzanah and Suelen. They are great, they love us, and feel the spirit so strong with us. But will not read the book of Mormon. Them, and 9 million other Brazilians always have the same excuse. No i didn't read, when i read I want to really be in the right mindset, and I wasn't, so I didn't read. No I didn't go to church, when I go to church, I want to really pay attention, and I knew i wouldn't, so i didn't go. No, I cant pray tonight, Im not in the right mindset, when I pray, I want it to be good, so not tonight. Does anyone else see the irony with that excuse?? We never asked you to go to church and not pay attention... we didn't ask you to read without real intent... We asked you to read!! It is making an excuse based on an excuse that doesn't exist! And its NOT the real problem. So we spend 30 minutes dissecting something that isn't really the real cause! Does that make sense?? This is the common atitude here in Brasil. This is the devil working on the heart of the children of men. 

Sorry if that bit of rambling didn't make any sense. I'm in a super big state of thought process right now. How do I respond to that? Ohh okay yeah of course you should read and pay attention no problem. Of course you need to pay attention when you read and go to church, that's inherent in the invite. I just feel a super weak sauce lack of commitment to do ANYTHING! here in Brasil. And I get worked up about it. This is your salvation that I'm teaching you! I'm telling you how you can NOT go to hell. I feel like that is slightly more important than your soap opera. 

I love Brasil. I love the people here. I love my mission. This gospel is 100 percent true. And although Satan finds incredible complicated ways to impede our work, the gospel will spread to the four corners of the earth like a plague. A super sick tasty type of plague. I hope you are all well. I'm fantastic, just fat. God Bless.

P.s. Do any other missionaries LOVE it when you ask people to pray and they pray to you... I.e. I want to thank you guys for being here, I want to say thank you for my familiy, and that you guys get home safe... etc etc. I have to try hard not to stop them in the middle of the prayer and tell them to talk to God, not to me.

Yo

Òla Pessoal.

It was a good week. We were able to stay in our area the whole week and so that was good. We are seeing little miracles through our hard work. We were able to get 8 people to church, and although i get really frustrated with the lack of reverence/help there a few of them liked it. It is just devestating when we bust our butts of to get people to church, and then nobody helps/pays attention to them, the meetings are loud and irreverent and they have a crappy experience. Devastating. 

We are getting a lot of references though and have a huge teaching pool. Lots of people with baptismal potential. We also finally got an Elders Quorum President this week which was super helpful. We teamed up with a few elders to do a division Saturday and got some good visits done. I met an interesting person on that split. His name was Alex. We had seen him a few times in the street because he always yells retarted stuff at us.. But everyone does that, so I just ignored him. But then one time he yells out. Belo Horizone Mission 2004!! And I´m like whaaaattt... Keep in mind this guy is FULLY tatted with Saint Mary and demons.. and is frequently drunk. So that night we returned to talk to him. Long story short he shocked us by telling us he served an HONORABLE two year mission, and returned home. One little fight from the Bishop kept him from going to church for a little. He met a girl and got involved in Batuki, and to keep from sharing too many details quite literally delivered his life to Satan. It makes me realize how vulnerable we all are. And how with the littlest slip Satan can get an incredbily firm grip upon our hearts. If any one has seen the video of Boyd K. Packer that talks about the Crocodiles... invisible traps. Look for them, they are all around you. 

Life is good here. We had a baptism last night of a cute little girl named Alise. She is the one that lives in the house thats not safe for us to go to. The one where her dad was killed, her sisters current boyfriend killed her ex boyfriend, and the new boyfriend of her mom flipped a car full of guns and drugs... Yeah. I pray nightly that the church can be the refuge for her that her home is not. We´re going to the beach tomorrow. We will return Thursday night to a busy weekend. So much to do. Love the mission.

A igreja é verdadeira. Sabia?

What are we going to do

Helloooo Americans. How are you my friends??

It was a good week! We spent the whole week focused on building up Zion here in our area so that was great! We had some major disappointments with people not going to church and asking me " what do you want.." when we call them, but there was also some great blessings. Priscilla was confirmed this week and went to church in a skirt! What! Now the only thing that lacks is for her to take out her nose ring!

 

Speaking of piercings I had an interesting baptismal interview with a 15 year old this week very distressed about some of her "rings". I was like listen, Im a missionary, take the thing out to get baptized, and then talk with your bishop/woman leader. Then she was like no its not even bad, look, and whoop UP COMES THE SHIRT! Im like ahhhh! nooo! It gave me a good scare, but she was just showing me her belly button ring. Girls...

 

Yesterday we did a division with the assistants. It was fun to spend another day with my good buddy Elder Melo. He is a little rat. He loves looking through ALL my belongings to find things he can take home with him. But we had a great lesson with some new investigators that we have. Suzanah and Suelen. They are 40 and 15 and told me last night they are loving the Book of Mormon, loving us, but are scared to go to Church in fear of not loving it there. Almost like a Is it too good to be true? type of thing. We gave a powerful witness of the reality of the holy spirit, and invited them to pray earnestly to know if what we have certainty of, is true. They promised they would, and will also go to church this week. AGUA.

 

I have felt spiritually uplifted this week from my study. I really feel like the new dvd players we have received with training segments on preach my gospel are going to be great. The work is evolving and I feel confident in our ability to use it for good. Let me bear my solemn witness to my friend and family of the reality of The Living Church. The Church is guided by true revelation, of that I have no doubt. The Book of Mormon is a powerful testament of Jesus Christ, given to us by God as a source to know the truth of all things. Christ atoned for our sins allowing us to repent and use God´s ordinances here on earth to one day return to him.

 

Each day I have a renewed desire to find, and teach people these things, in preparation for the first ordinance of the gospel- baptism. Essa é a igreja de Cristo.

 

Vos Amo.

 

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

I hate Brasilian Pregnant Pictures

Hey people-

Its a good thing i have Di nagging me to death or I would forget to write something every week. 

I hope you were all spiritually edified by conference like I was. I have no doubt that these men are called of God to be his mouthpiece here on earth. I testify that God has a living prophet and 2 counselors, God spoke with men like Moses and Abraham anciently, how foolish would we be to believe he doesnt speak with men today. As Elder Callister taught us God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God still speaks with man. If you dont have a certainty of that, get one. Without it, life has little (or less) meaning. 

I think my favorite talks were Elder Callister, and Elder Christofferson about repentance. I ate up every word of these inspired men. And how exciting that Provo will get another temple!! I quite enjoyed the ohhs and the ahhhs after that, and then the laughter after announcing the Wyoming temple after the exotic ones. "I think I´ll dedicate that one." Our prophet is funny, and Wyoming sucks. 

I had a maturity moment this week. We were invited to eat dinner with our recent convert Dina this week, and she had gotten home late and was in a rush to make us a lasagna. Long story short she forgot to take off the plastic in the pastels (they make lasagna wierd here) and so it was full of plastic. She felt horrible. Me and my comp were trying to take off the plastic telling her how delicious the food was and that it wasnt a big deal, but her two kids worsened her misery by being total butt heads. Just straight complaining and telling her how dumb she was and refusing to eat. I wanted to be like "SHUT up you ungrateful little weiner, she worked her butt off to make this and a little plastic to pull off is hardly a big deal." 

Right as I thought that I saw visions of tantrums at the dinner table. I´d like to make a formal apology to all my aunts, grandmothers, my beloved mother, or anyone else that ever made food for me. I have a large certainty that i was one of those "butt heads."

It was a hectic week. We didnt have a whole lot of time to work in our own area, and for this i felt a lack. Between conference, meetings in porto alegre, and problems within our zone with missionaries we have done a lot of running and not a whole lot of spreading the restored gospel. 

It will be good to get back to the work this week, as we should have all week to be in our own area, and recompense (sorry di i cant think of a better word) for the time we missed.

The gospel is true, God called a prophet in our days, the Book of mormon is his living witness that these things are true. Dont ever give up what you want most for what you want now. It would be the biggest mistake of your life. 

Love

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil