16 January 2017

Boa tarde! it is a good birthday! my companion made me a cake and we celebrated in the chapel with our district and hot dogs brazilian style. i also got the package from you guys thanks so much! i haven´t gotten to read the cards yet but we used the balloons to celebrate in the chapel. I hope you re all doing well and having a good start to the new year in all of your activities. 

This was a good week. Felipe will be baptized this saturday, he is so great it got the the point where he conducts the lessons witht the prayer and hymn and guesses (correctly) what will ber the next thing we will teach. Jennifer will also be abptized this satuday, a 16 year old girl who is dating a guy in the ward that just got his mission call to Manaus, Brasil! she has been going to church for a year but just this week her dad finally signed the form for her baptism. We also ahev other reall great investigators including Paulina, an older lady whose Husband has Alzheimers so it si hard for her to go to church right now, and Thaís that is a 21 year old girl that has a lot of questions and interest. The work is going well!

A little message this week is based on a mormon video that we have been sharing with people this week about a bush that was big and beautiful , but did not produce fruit. The gardener cut down the bush to the roots and the bush seems to cry saying`` why did you do that to me, I was doing so big and beautiful and now look at me, i am just a stump´´ but then that bush grew again into a big beautiful bush that produced a lot of fruit. I think it is a great analogy for our lives. We may be content with how we are and not want to accept new challenges in our lives, but God (the gardner) knows we will later be even better and produce more ``fruit´´ than before. 

Have a great week!

3 July 2017

hey everyone! wow 9 weeks of missionary homecomings and farwells! sounds like things are exciting in the Kentlands ward. This week was good-- the branch had a ``festa junina´´ which is a traditional party that eveyone does here this time of year. photos included. ALSO-- remember Kessy? well he said that maybe in the future he will be more ready so we  prayed a lot for him and really prayed with faith that he would feel the fault of the gospel and we waited a week and called him just to see how he was doing and without us asking he said that he reflected a bit and felt that something was missing so he want to continue to investigate and search the gospel. Miracles! I don´t remember if i said already but he hasdepression and really wants to fin a path that makes him happy. After a hard slow week we were so happy when this happened yesterday. We literally jumped for joy on the street haha (don´t worry there was no one else on that street) but i hope you all are doing well i love you all wih you all a great week :)

26 June 2017

The sunrise from our apartment is so beautiful every day! It was a good week. Unfortunatley, our most progressing investigators, Kessy, the young man that works at the market and Joice, the young woman that had a baptismal date marked, decided that they did not want to continue right now. It was sad, but free agency is very important. We are going to continue to work with our other investigators and just do our best. I had a great experience this week with the Sacrament. Recently i have been studying and learning more baout the sacrament and also how we can ask God sepcifically what we can imporove and the sacrament is a great oportunity to reflect and recieve these answers. After a hard week, I was excited to participate in the ordinacne of the Sacrament and I could really recieve answers to my prayers and revelation to know what i can do better. i know that when we really take the sacrament with a broken heart and contrite spirit, it is an amazing experience. 

Sounds fun for Nathan and Amy to be in Mexico and Daniel in california! Sounds like everyone is going to have a good busy week. I also found out that i will be able to go to the temple in Porto Alegre on my trip home! I´m really looking forward to that.

19 June 2017

hey everyone. this week i had my last zone conference where i bore my ``last testimony´´ which was so strange. it was a great conference and President Louza told me ``God just need one second to do a miracle and you have a lot of seconds left.´´ i liked that. Then i had a division wiht Sister Soares that was great. Kessy is doing great he went to church yesterday and loved it. He is very inteligent and sincere and has so much potential to be a great member. We are blessed with so many other great investigatros and families and it seems like we are planting a lot of seeds here in São pedro and I hope that we will be able to harvest a few before July 18th! But things are doing great here I am excited for these last few weeks. It´s a little weird because it seems like I will a missionary in brasil forever haha. Good to hear about all your activities, I hope you all are doing great! 

oh, PS happy fathers day dad! i didn´t remember because here in brasil fathers day is in august.... hope it was a good one!

12 June 2017

hey everyone! it was a great cold week! we found an investigator that is really really great and his name is Kessy. he started talking to us in the market where he works and we got his contact and visited him yesterday and he was so prepared. he has a lot fo personal problems but he could really understand how the gospel would help him and after teaching about joseph smith he said that he already beleives that this is the true church. So many miracles! we are workling with a lot of other investigators that are progressing well. The branch is still very small and it will take a lot of work and patience to get back to where it wasabout a year ago (it was goriwing really well but some thins happened that made almost everyone expet one family stop going).

This week i learned a lot about grace because i felt  a little inadaquate and frustrated but i remembered the scripture in 2 Nefi 25:26 that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do. And all we can do is repent and try tto be better each day. I´m grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ that literally saves us from everything. I love you all have a great week :)

5 June 2017

hello how is everyone doing? sounds like everyone had a fun busy week with travels and the start of summer. we had another good cold rainy week here. so far, not many people have gone to our english and piano classes, but people are showing interest, even 2 people today in the market called for us to ask about the classes. 

this week had a lo of ups and downs but we really sa a lot of miracles. we founda lady who is very interested and accepted a baptismal date, but we were sad when she didn´t go to church. we also spent 45 minutes waiting for other investigators outside of the church and it appeared that no one would show up so we went inside but as soon as we entered relief society the branch president called for us because a family of investigators showed up! we were so happy, they are really great they a different religion, assembly of God, but they love to go to our church too, they used to attend our churhc in another city. I learned a lot about not doubting, but always expecting and waiting for miracles and then they happen when you least expect it. I think this week i elarned a lot about faith and all the good things that happen when we have faith and faith is what gives us strength to keep going in the hard times.

read alma 44:4 :)

love you all have a great week!

22 May 2017

hello everyone. sounds like ou all are going to have a fun busy week! matthew, congrats on your ne job you will have in finland is it cold there? i hopoe everyone at home ha s fun memorial day weekend. 

saturday the baptism of Jonathan went well, it as very spiritual. He bore a nice testimony and had a lot of famil and friends there to watch that are not members. This week unfortunately Lilian who we marekd a baptism is passing through some serious dificulties and she doesn´t want to continue to be taught for the meanwhile. But this week we were very blessed with other things. An investigator we found named Darci went to church and just loved it. he is great! he is about 75 years old and we met him when we were helping another man with heavy grocery bags and he called towards us and invited us to visit him. At church it was very spiritual because he does not read and the lesson in gospel priciples was about faith and there was a story about a man who wanted to leanr how to read so he prayed and worked hard and was able to learn how to read. He was very motivated by this and wants to learn how to read and has a lot of faith that this is the true church. I als studied a lot this week about really loving and serving and being a Christlike example for others because that is when they recongize that we are representatives of the Lord. I firmly believe that Darci recongized this when he saw us helping someone with the heavy bags.