Opa!

Opa!  Como está tudo o mundo?

 

My companion Elder S. and I

This week was awesome, let me tell you about it!  So we´ve got three new good investigators, and a couple others that have some potential!  The first is a 16 year old girl named I.  We contacted her while she was walking her dog and invited her to go to church.  The next day (Sunday), she just showed up at church!  That almost never happens!  She made friends with the other young women really fast, and then we taught her the restoration at a members home that afternoon.  She had a lot of questions but we were able to answer them well, and she accepted an invitation to baptism on the 8th of August!  We´re pretty excited for her!  We also found a couple named J. and A.  They´ve got a really young girl who´s about 2 or 3 years old named S.  They´re super cool and came to church yesterday!  They´re both very interested in the gospel and enjoy the lessons too, so those are steps in the right direction!  Every time we leave they´re daughter cries too, it´s kind of cute lol!  She get´s so excited when we come over and wants to hold every pamphlet and book that we pull out and share her toys, snacks, etc. with us during the lessons.  It´s pretty funny!

A park close by

   This week we´ve got a better pool of investigators to work with and we´re getting to know the members better too.  We´ve set a goal to invite a family to be baptized every day.  it´s a very difficult goal to achieve but we´re working towards making it a reality.  Missionary work is so hard, but every now and then you see the hand of the Lord in your work and that makes everything worth it.  When you know that the words that you are saying aren´t your own, when you really know that you are being used in the hands of the Lord, it´s then when the mission becomes worth it and we begin to see the lives of other people being blessed by the good news of the gospel.  I´ve got to take off now, but I love you all so much!  Make it an awesome week and I´ll talk to you all next P-day!

My District

Love,

Elder Sweet

P.S.- Dad, generally just the Assistants travel with President.  

Have a Great Week

Hey everyone!  

This E-mails going to be super quick, but I´ll try to give a quick update on what´s going on here in Goiânia!

Okay, so this was my first week working in the office!  Because it was the week of transfers it was pretty crazy, we started working at 6:00 several days this week just to keep on top of everything 

that´s going on.

This transfer Elder T.  will be training me on how to be the Financial Secretary.  I don´t have a picture with him yet, but I´ll send a photo of the whole staff next week.  We get to work more closely with President Kuceki, so I´m really enjoying that opportunity.  President Kuceki is really funny, he´s almost always cracking jokes or playing pranks on someone, so that keeps life interesting!  

Here I´ve attached a picture of the statue of Christ

that´s outside the Bus station in Rio Verde. (similar to the one in Rio de Janeiro except a lot smaller)

A picture of my new companion Elder Santos! 

Thank you all so much for your support and your prayers, I´m so grateful for all of you!  Have a great week and keep me up to date on what´s going on!  

Love you guys!

Elder Sweet

"A New Commitment"

Dear Sweet Family,

It is with much joy that we from the BRAZIL GOIÂNIA MISSION inform you that your son has served with great valor in defending the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We also want to inform you that he was called as Finance Secretary of the mission; he will now have one more responsibility and a new commitment with the Lord. His daily routine now includes work in the mission office. As Finance Secretary he will care for the missionaries’ allowances, reimbursements, the houses of the mission, and all other finances in general.

He will also have the responsibility to help the people in each area he works in. As a representative of the Lord, he will be responsible to improve the life of each person he teaches. We hope you can support your son in this new responsibility and duty to the Lord.

Transfered!!!

 I hope everything is going awesome back in the good ol´ US of A!  So, as I think I mentioned in my previous E-mail, this week is transfers!  And, as you might have guessed based on the title of this E-mail, I got transferred!  I´ve served one and a half transfers here in Rio Verde Popular, and it is without a doubt the best area in the mission.  I feel so incredibly privileged to have had this incredible opportunity to serve here!

 

My companion Elder Hamilton, President Carlos, and me!

 President Carlos (the branch president), asked me to give a "going away" message to the priesthood on Sunday.  I decided to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon contains a promise that if we read it, ponder its message and how merciful God has been to his children, and then ask in prayer if it is true, that we will receive an answer to our sincere petition.  As I read the Book of Mormon, I can feel the spirit testify to me subtly but distinctly of its truthfulness.  I really am growing to love the words contained within its pages, and I feel a little more touched by God´s love with every word that I read.

   I also like to ponder on the history of the Book of Mormon, how it came to be in my hands.  It was translated by the gift and power of God by a young, uneducated farmboy who had been chosen and qualified by God for this work.  He lived testifying of Christ and of this book, and he died doing so as well.  Joseph Smith and others have lived and died testifying of the truthfulness of the message that it contains.  Although many in the world try to attack the book by attacking the prophet, they will one day find that their false accusations are equivalent to the false accusations and twisted words that were used to sentence Christ, the only perfect person who ever lived, to die on the cross.  The followers of the martyred prophet fled across frozen prairie floors and over mountains to find a land where they could exercise the rights promised to them by their nations which were unjustly denied them, and by the hand of God were led west.  God protected them and their testimonies that we might have them today.  Now we are continuing the same legacy that they began, and it is our duty to share our testimonies of the Book of Mormon, and by so doing of Christ, with all the world.

   Finally, I think back to the many times that I have prayed asking God if the Book of Mormon really is his words.  Unlike some, there is no specific event that I can point to and say "there is the origin of my testimony."  My answer came by degrees, so subtly that I never noticed the difference over a short period of time, but now I can say that I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I´ve read it, pondered its message and the mercy of God in bringing that message to us, and most importantly I have sought an answer from God to know of its truthfulness.  And it is true!

   I tried to share these same ideas in my somewhat limited grasp of Portuguese with the men of this branch yesterday, and I felt grateful for the testimony that I´ve been given of the Book of Mormon.  It truly is the word of God, and ANYONE who reads it with an open mind truly seeking to know the truth can know that as well.

   I almost forgot to tell you guys about the transfer!  I got a bit side-tracked there!  I was transferred to the G. ward in G, and I will be the Mission´s Financial Secretary.  It´s definitely going to be a new type of challenge for me, but I´m really excited.  My companion will be Elder S, he´s also going to be a secretary though I´m not sure of what yet.  I´ll tell you guys next week!  

   I´ve got to take off now, but I love you guys and am so grateful for your support and of your prayers!  They mean more to me than I can express. 

Luan and I, one of the branch members here.  He introduced me to Doritos with Nutella, it´s actually really stinking good!  Try it!

Have an awesome week everyone, and I´ll talk to you next P-day!

Elder Sweet 

A Stake?

Hey guys!

   How´s everybody doing?  Sounds like it was quite a week for everyone!  Thanks for sending the video of Landon´s birthday cake, that was awesome!  Congrats on the new car too, Landon!  That 

car´s styling for sure!

    This week Elder H´s knee was a bit better.  We were able to work more than in the weeks before, and I think that this week we´ll be able to work much more.  The progress on his knee is slow, but it is coming. 

   This is also the last week of the transfer!  This coming Sunday are the transfer calls, and I´ll get to know how I´m going to spend the next 6 weeks of my life!  

   Now, a bit about this week!  Elder H. and I are trying to put more emphasis on finding families to teach, and it´s going well!  It´s neat to see how the Lord works with our desires.  Yesterday a couple just showed up at church and attended the sacrament meeting.  Afterwards they talked with Elder H. and asked how they could become members!  This is so stinkin´awesome!  We marked to teach them tonight, so we´ll see how that goes.  We also did some visits with the Elders Quorum yesterday.  One of the adresses that we had was false, but living in that home was a family that had attended the church meetings several times in another city, but lost contact when they moved to Rio Verde and didn´t know that the church existed in the city.  They were very excited, and we´re going to teach them tonight as well.  Pray that everyone´s in their house when we pass by!

   The branch here is great.  This branch is incredibly missionary oriented, more so that any other ward I´ve ever worked in.  This branch is generally regarded as the best in the mission, and is the area that everyone wants to serve in.  The leaders here are incredible and the members just won´t stop giving us references!  I really think that that´s why the branch here is consistently the best in the mission.  The leaders have a vision that centers around missionary work and the members share the gospel with their friends.  We´re on the verge of getting a stake here, too!  On the 19th of the month an area seventy is going to visit the district here and will have a special meeting with our branch as well.  He´s going to be here trying to see if the district is ready to become a stake!  We´re pretty excited! 

Keep me up to date on what´s going on with you all!  Have an awesome week!  Until next P-day!

Love,

Elder Sweet