First Week in Lindoia

Hello, I had a great first week here in the office! A hectic crazy week, but a good one. I had an interview with President yesterday morning and he told me "Elder, I´ve never seen you look so lost in the mission!" I laughed but its true, Im pretty lost. its okay though im adjusting. It just such a different life. I have yet to teach a lesson in my area... okay thats not entirely true we had two hours thursday night to go out and teach a lesson to a couple that we have a date with for next week, but other than that we have just been in the office. This couple is sick, Elder Melo and Elder Peterson found their boys playing soccer at the chapel one day, taught them, and baptized them. Then the AP´s before me started teaching the parents, and Wednesday we went to the Cartório with them to pay for the marriage and mark their day. Its marked for this next Saturday, it will be sweet.

But the big news is... IM IN PASSO FUNDO!!! It was soooo strange coming back here. i honestly never thought I would step foot in this blessed city again but here I am and it is crazy. Such a flood of memories and emotions of how much i love this city. Technically today is our p day but we are just here for an like an hour finishing up a training and then we are going to dividie with the LZ´s here in Passo Fundo. So basically im losing my p day, but its worth it because tomorrow is Stake Conference so I will get to see pretty much all the people I love in this city. As luck would have it by some strange chance of fate we ending up eating lunch with Felipe Heinz today!! Remember him? My basketball playing ingesh brother from Passo Fundo that drank Dr. pepper at my house? It was wierd seeing him married, he is still working at wizard until he can find a good job (jobs are painfully hard to get here) and they now live in the area of the LZ´s. It was rad.

Seriously I just love this city. I am in the same lanhouse that i used for 7 months to start the mission. The same lan house that I used to watch my companion use skype with his girlfriend!! Ahhh... good times. If you guys end up having Elder Lynn over for dinner tomorrow tell him where I am and he will be very jealous. So tomorrow after Stake Conference we will divide with the LZ´s again, and then Monday morning we have zone conference with Prez and we will eat lunch and then go home with him. We will arrive back in Porto Alegre around 7th Monday and be very tired. After that I have no idea, cause i still dont really know what´s going on around here, but it´s good, and im liking it.

The worst part of the week is the heat. Porto Alegre is an oven. I dont think i have slept more than 3 hours in more than a week. You Americans are so spoiled, you have no idea how miserable it is to sleep without air conditioning OR even a fan (broken) in 100 degree heatt in the 100 percent humidity. Seriously, i will never live anywhere else but the desert again. I dont ever fall asleep until at least 3 (when it cools down to like 90) and then i wake up at like 5 just DRENCHED in sweat. I used to be frantic about taking showers before going to bed cause i hate sleeping in sweaty sheets but now i´ve just given up, its impossible. Thursday night I couldnt sleep at all and so i found myself on the couch drinking coka cola from about the hours of 3-5. (and I ask myself why i am so fat...) So yeah, its pretty miserable. But, im happy and healthy and very blessed so there´s just not much to complain about. 

I feel my testimony rising and growing each week that I am here. I am 100 percent convinced that this is Christ´s church here on this earth and that it has the capacity to bless our lives abundantly. Through more personal contact with President Pavan and Elder Campos I have learned a few things that have strengthened my testimony greatly that this church is run by revelation. This transfer I had an experience that I will never forget, and that will always be a reminder to me of how closely God run´s his the dealings with his church and his missions. hope all is well.

Stay Classy.

The New Chapter of Big Al's Mission

Well, here we are again. Transfer day. This week was without a doubt the most hectic of my mission..

The big news is that for the first time I know where I will be going when I am transferred tomorrow and likely where I will be finishing my mission. I will be going to the office in Porto Alegre to serve as the Assistant to the President. I found out Thursday on our way home from the beach. The Assistants woke me up and gave me the news, and told me that I needed to come in on Friday to help finish the transfers. (I will be killing Elder Campos, it is his last transfer and they didnt think that just one transfer would be enough time to prepare me for the rest.) So it was interesting to be able to finish the last details of the transfer with President and the assistants. There is a ton of work that is involved that I had never considered. 

Saturday in the late afternoon I returned here to the Vale with Elder Carroll and until now we have been running trying to do all the visits we needed to and say goodbye to a few people. But the great part is that I will be able to return to this area on division. Also I will get to return to Passo Fundo and Caxias! I am honestly very excited about his new role, a little overwhelmed but mostly just excited.

My last few days here were so special. I´ve been witnessing true miracles. Yesterday we committed Adriano and Jaqueline to get married with the Bishop. They will be baptized with their 4 kids sometime next month. Yesterday we were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie with Jackson and Danielle, and then Luciano and Deise made dinner for us. I gave Luciano a signed baseball and he gave me a custom made cup with a picture of us at his baptism. It was awesome. 

My thoughts have been in a constant flurry these last few days, thoughts of my imperfection and how many flaws I have. But So many things have led up to me being 100 percent convinced that this church (and this mission) is run by pure revelation. One of those was a special experience I had with Elder Green (the assistant that is leaving) in my future area on division a few weeks ago. I believe I mentioned how painfully brutal that day was.. We were kicked on, spit on and flat out denied. It got so bad that we  decided to take a break, step back, and ask for heavenly help. We were led to a family of 4, and a good first lesson, and after that I sort of forgot about it. But What I haven´t shared is how Elder Green has called me after every subsequent lesson with them. About how they talk about that first visit every single time. How they NEVER let any kind of preacher into their house but in our eyes they saw real sincerity. They talk about how much their life has changed since then, and how excited they are to get baptized. They remembered every single word we said that first lesson, even our first names! They have already gone to chuch twice and given the Assistant two other references of people they are teaching. I had their opportunity to stop by their house on Friday with Elder Green and more or less tell them that I would be taking the spot of Elder Green. They will be doing a family night with them tonight to answer the question they asked of how we found them. Green wants to ask permission to come back for the wedding and the baptism. It is truly one of those unforgettable stories on the mission. 

Please pray for me in this new aspect of my mission. I know that it is in our weaknesses that the Lord qualifies us for the work. He calls igsifnificant people to take part in his spectacular and grand designs. 

Love,

Last Week in the Valley

Hey People.

For those of you that dont know what Hell is like come to Southern Brasil in January. Everyone says that missionaries are allowed to go swimming but they´ve never been here. I do it everyday!! Sure, its in my own sweat, but what difference does that make? If I didnt have second degree burns on my neck I would look like a true Brasilian.

I have no idea why but the Lord is just deciding to bless this area abundantly. Something I have learned on the misson is that when you work hard and do your part, the Lord will bless you. Not in the way you expect, but he will fulfill his part. For example, We spent a great part of the week knocking doors and doing contacts. Wednesday was one of the rougher days I´ve had in a long time. I was in Porto Alegre doing a division with the Assistants. Me and Elder Green knelt down in Prayer to ask help for us to find a family of five. We even left early before lunch to really get after it. We knocked doors and were painfully rejected, so we went to lunch. We left at about 2 o clock in the scorching hot sun with the attitude to just get creative. We didnt have a single thing marked so we just started talking to people in the street knocking trying anything to get in a door. Ive never been rejected so harshly in my mission. From 2-6 we didnt teach a single person and were just shut down. We were lost and decided to say a prayer. Ill admit I was faithless and told Elder Green I would not say it. I was prideful. But he having more faith than I did was confident some one would let us teach them. And they did, after a little while we found a family of 4 (with a baby on the way=5) that let us in to teach them. Elder Green called me Friday to tell me that the second visit was the best in months. They all accepted baptismal dates and asked what they need to do to be able to enter the temple. They went to church on Sunday. The Lord fulfills his promises.

In our area it was a bit different. We really didnt get into any doors. We tried and tried and tried but just weren´t successful. But when we just didnt have any more strength things started to happen. We found the most elect family of six I have ever found on my misson. I think I have mentioned Jaqueline. She is the most prepared person I have found in so long. She went to church last week and this week brought her 4 kids. We committed her to get baptized again and she is going to talk to her husband about marriage. We are going to take the Bishop there Friday, and I think he will agree, he likes us. We had the marriage and baptism of Jacson during the weekend, which was super special. And we will have one more baptism and wedding (after) this weekend. His name is Valdecir, and he repeatedly shocks me with his ability to understand. This dude gave up drugs, alcohol, and thug life to try to stay with his girlfriend who recently go baptized. I never told this but the first time we visited her he threatened to get his thug friends to kill us if he saw us again and now he takes off his hat when we pray, goes to church weekly, and is STOKED to get baptized. Last night as we taught the plan of salvation he took of his shirt and showed us his bullet wounds and told us how different this is and how good he feels. After that we received a reference from a girl in our ward, she went with us to her 17 year old friend who is going to go to mutual and church this week and will definitely be baptized. I honestly dont know why, but the Lord is just deciding to drop things out of the sky to us. 

It was a super hectic week. We literally did a division almost every single day. This week will be busy too, we have to go to Capão (that means one last Batatão, wahoo!!) tomorrow and then we will watch district meeting in Torres Thursday. We also have a baptism and various activities to plan. Friday Luciano is making a goodbye churrasco for me, so that will be fun. He said he has a sweet present for me. And sunday Franklin and Jussara are having us over for Dinner to say goodbye as well. I will miss this place. But we´ll see what happens. My p day will be on Monday next week, so ill give you the heads up!!

Love you, stay classy.

Limping Towards the Transfer

Whew! Another week survived.. I feel like Satan is trying to kill me here!! Just kidding... But seriously.

Im freaking tired. And every week this transfer there has just been a new problem. This week we went to do a division with a dupla that we knew was having problems. It turned out it was just the tip of the iceberg and we found out they hadnt left home in over three weeks and we doing some bad stuff. We tried our best to work hard and help them but as some wisenheimer always says "You can lead a horse to water but you can´t make him drink." I was frustrated at their district meeting because of the ineffective day, and a few things boiled over and I ended up losing my temper for the first time on my mission really. Imagine me dragging a huge Brasilian out onto a street corning and just screaming at him in Portuguese and you´ve got a good picture of what happened. After we calmed down and hugged and tried to understand the others point of view. We have to go back there next week but It will probably be with President. The Lord´s time is precious and I have little patience for missionaries who waste it, especially in front of young impressionable juniors. 

But other than that the week is good. We finished teaching Jacson and Danielle and everything is set for their wedding and his baptism this Saturday. Its going to be SICK! He has requested that we take a hugging shot in the baptismal font after the baptism so STAY TUNED!! Haha what a quirky guy... Oh! And we are also teaching a COMPLETE FAMILY!! Yes, you heard it, a complete family. Do you know how many complete families I´ve taught on my mission? I can count them on my fingers. They dont exist here in Brasil. Jaqueline went to church on Sunday and loved it! Then last night she brought her 4 kids to a family night we did at a nearby members house! We made pastels and played a game. Best of all, she has two twins that turn 8 on Jan 28th!! The last saturday of the transfer... EIGHT! My favorite number! Now we just gotta grab Adriano, the husband, he´s being a bit rebelious but he loves us and Im going to drag him to church and then into the baptismal font. 

This week is division week. Wednesday with the Assistents, Thursday with Cachoerinha, and Friday with Gravataí. Its going to be crazy, but sweet, i´m stoked. Sort of. 

Love you all, have a good week, stay classy. 

P.s. Mom don´t worry about my weight those tape worms that infest my shower will help us out!!

It's 2012?

Im tired. I thought Brasilians did a great job of profaning the day of the lord when they shot of rockets and gun fire from midnight to four in the morning on Christmas.. But I had forgotten what a party new years was.. My goodness.

This week was plain brutal to find people at home. Being so close to the beach here there are few people that stick around during the holidays. We did a lot of walking.. New Years Eve was painful. We spent most of the day stalling looking for someone we could talk to until our dinner. Which i really didnt even want to go to because last time i ate there they were all drinking... in front of the missionaries. My hope that that was going to change on the night where EVERYONE gets plastered drunk was not granted. For anyone that speaks portuguese they were the definition of "sem vergonha." I thought at least someone sober was going to be the one to take us home at 1030, I was wrong. I put on my seatbelt and prayed. The lord let us get into one little accident when my fluffy friend didnt see a speedbump, but he got us home. Thank heavens.

The next day was interesting. I felt like Will Smith from I am Legend. I didnt see a single person on my way to church. THEN i only saw about 30 persons AT church. Keep in mind they combined 3 wards so that the attendence might not be SO bad. So it was a pretty sweet stake conference... with 30 people. Brasil...

However that day was oh so eventful. Its funny how sometimes you plan everything perfectly and nothing goes right, then other times you dont plan everything and it all works out. Sunday we didnt plan a single thing, we just walked out with the idea to wing it, find anyone that would listen to us testify of christ. Long story short we found 3 drunk dudes that were willing! Well, i should clarify, they weren´t drunk when we started. They were drinking WHILE we taught. Long story short, bible bash´s with drunk dudes are difficult to win... but oh how they are funny. The lesson started out great, but when we got to the part of apostasy and Joseph Smith we started to get a lot of shaken heads. First they told us the Bible was the TRUTH and it was the only truth. Then when they brought up that it was impossible to see God I asked if they believe in Moses. No.. So now the Bible is "sort of" truth. Then after we established that two of their pastors disagreed on the same scripture the Bible was no longer valid. BUT when two drunk dudes make a stupid comment then turn and laugh at each other its a point for them!! I have high hopes for Marcelo, Ivondro, and Thiago. 

Wednesday was kind of fun. A missionary that served here brought back his mom and grandparents and had a little party at the church. We were invited as translators. I ate pretzels!! I love pretzels. 

So yeah.. my week was hectic and tiresome. But when we work hard the Lord always leaves us with a few tender mercies. Yesterday after walking all day and having just 1 lesson in the scorching hot sun we found something that doesnt exist here in Brasil... A full, complete family. Not just a family, but an AWESOME family. I wont tell you how many actual families ive taught on my mission, but i can tell you i can count them on one hand. We shared the message of the restoration, the BOM, and challenged them to pray as a family. They loved it and want us to come back Wednesday.. And best of all, the HUSBAND likes us to. Even better, The wife hates her church!! Wahoooo! Pray for them. Their names are Adriano and Jaqueline. 

Mom, take confort in knowing you have now passed the ONLY complete year you will ever not see me. Pow. Happy new year. 

Stay Classy. 

(Pictures of Gramado Chocolate (delicious) from my Brasilian Grandma, Her family, (Im going to baptize that 23 year old girl, count on it), and tereré. (Like chimarrão but its sweet and you drink it cold.) I drink it every morning.

Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas people.. Don´t be sad, Ill be there NEXT YEAR!! wahoooo!!!

It was a good week. It was so hot... I miss snow, but it was good. Christmas here is a lot different. They dont do anything on the actual day.. its all on xmas eve. They stay up till 12 and make a lot of meat (thats what i want, to stuff myself full of salt before i sleep) and then shoot guns and rockets off and scream and play loud funk music until about 5 in the morning. Yeah, its SUPER reverent. They LOVE respecting Christ´s birth. I heard next year they are inviting Ossy Osborne to sing the annual "Silent Night."

 We had transfers and i stayed here. My new companion is Elder Carrol from Cary, North Carolina. He´s the man, i like him a lot. He´s getting here in a firestorm of change in the ward, with everyone kind of recovering from the recent shenanigans. Our new bishop made a churrasco for us though on Christmas Eve and we had a great chat about what we can do to start the new year right to help this ward. Pride is dangerous, avoid it.

Yesterday was a good day for us. We were able to catch up a bit and contact some good references. At night we went to my boy Jacson and his soon to be wife Danielle. Im not sure if I´ve told you about them but they give me a lot of grey hairs. Its a family of members that never had testimonies. We go there to teach Jacson who is getting married and baptized on the 21st of January, but we very rarely are able to teach much. His mother n law is a member that hates the church. And all she ever wants to do is ATTACK us with faithless questions. She is one of those classic people that somehow manages to blame the church and its members for everything bad that has ever happened in her life. Instead of trying to prove the church is true she looks for anything she can find to prove it is false. Last night after calmly listening to them argue about whether tattoos were sins, whether it was possible to engrave 500 pages on gold plates, and WHY Adam and Eve couldnt have children in the garden of Eden, we had had about enough, people that cant walk (read the book of mormon) dont need to worry about running (exaltation)  We explained to them that we are here to prepare people to be baptized. We explained that we will not answer their profound questions any more, and that we will not move on to the next lesson until ALL of the commitments are kept. We promised them that if the people took the committments we leave seriously, there would never be an unprepared baptismal candidate. Members or missionaries to not drive people away from the church. People drive themselves away. THEY do not decide when they are ready to be baptized, WE do. 

Point to the story: Read Moroni 4:5. Yes the sacrament prayer. Think about what we promise to do each time we take that bread and think about what the Lord promises. We promise to keep his commandments, remember him, and take his name upon us, or to pattern our life after his. He promises us his spirit. When we do not take the sacrament we do not have that promise. We do NOT have the spirit, and thus we do NOT have the capability to rationalize, and see things the way he does. We will lose ourselves, and we will do it fast. We will have doubts, and there will not be answers. We will become pessimistic, faithless, and frankly pathetic. I made myself a promise last night that I will never allow myself to be in a position where i cannot take the sacrament. Its the greatest gift the Lord offers us. But when we dont take it, we have no guarantee, and its a slippery slope as my father likes to say. Take the sacrament every week, and you will never cease to find answers to your doubts. 

Im so grateful for the invaluable learning i have gained on the mission. I told my companion yesterday its not so much the my core desires have changes drastically (they have a little..) but that the way i view things and my perspetive of God´s plan on earth is 100 percent different. Love you all, Happy New Year. 

Stay Classy.

I don't remember what happened this week

I am excited for Christmas. It doesnt feel like Christmas here... Its freakishly hot and no one has christmas trees..

This week was a blur.. it passed so fast. I know we went to Capão da Canoa (the beach) and did our division with the district leader there. Then the next day we went to Torres (right on the border of the next state) to have our district meeting, and made the long trek home para casa. Friday and Saturday we worked our butts off to make up for the time we lost, and we made some good progress. We were super stressed with where our 2 baptisms were going to come from this month, (president is breathing down the necks of the LZ´s to get their 2) but now we have some good options. I think I´ve talked about that elect Lutheran lady that doesn´t know she is elect? She finally came to church this week with her daughter! Too bad right after we found out her husband was searching mormons on the internet and came across some FILTHY anti mormon stuff.. That is gonna be a super interesting/awkward visit tomorrow night at 8. 

Yesterday we had our Christmas Conference in Porto Alegre. It was super fun. For our apresentation we did the Birth of Jesus Christ: Gaúcho version. Beyond my belief our no-nonsense president agreed to be our narrator. For anyone that understands Brasil, everyone outside of the Rio Grande do Sul hates gaúchos and their accent. So you can imgaine how funny is was to have a Paulista (someone from São Paulo) trying to immitate a Gaúcho with all types of crazy slang. It was super funny, Ill have to send the video home. But I also learned a lot. Sister gave an INCREDIBLE training on the meaning of the word "messias." She helped us understand way better how the prophecies in the bible truly were fulfilled, and how Jesus really is the Christ. She is amazing. So knowledable, I always call her when i get into doctrinal arguments with my companions, and she clears things up. 

I cant believe we are aproaching the end of another transfer. Every one seems to pass faster and faster. Stranger that two of my best friends on the misison, Elder Melo and Elder Lynn are leaving! Im going to the temple with them today. Next week is transfers, so my p day will be on Monday. I´m about 90 percent sure that I will be staying here, but we´ll see. 

I love you, Enjoy the spirit of natal. Stay classy. 

Oh yeah, and Im a hunter now. Tell everybody. The last picture is from the crazy tornado we had last week.