Baptismo!!!

Hey all!

The Trio!!!

   W.  got baptized!  It was awesome!  He´d decided earlier in the week that he wanted to wait a little while longer.  We talked with him to try to see why, and it just seemed like he´d lost the desire.  We prayed for him and encouraged him and his family to read the Book of Mormon and pray again.  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday passed and nothing.  We were on our way to another appointment Saturday afternoon when we got the word.  He´d decided that he wanted to be baptized right then!  It was such a rush to pull everything together, I didn´t even have time pass by the house and grab my camera (but I do have photos today!).  We called our District Leader to see if he´d be able to do the baptismal interview, but he had an important appointment that night and wouldn´t be able to make it.  So, we called the Assistants (they were moved to another ward that´s neighbor to ours), and they came running!  They got there at 8:30pm, did the interview, and then we had the baptism!  It was great!  The mission is full of miracles, when you do all that you can and it still doesn´t work, and then the Lord just makes it happen.  It really is incredible.  W. was baptized with his friends too, which must have been a neat experience for him.

Anyhow, got to go now!  I love you guys! 

Elder S.

Elder O. snuck some photos during weekly planning while I was filling out a teaching record.

Then I noticed!

We made the birthday cake this morning!  
We still haven´t eaten it, but it turned out great!

P's Going to Portugal!!!

Elder B. on the Right  (cousin)

I just got a happy birthday letter from Uncle Eddy and the B. family!  Thanks so much for the letter!  And congrats on Peter´s mission call!  Portugals´s going to be awesome!  They talk a little wierd over there, when we speak portuguese together after the mission it´ll seem like you´re praying to me using all the "thees, thous, and arts," but that´s all the more fun, right!  Sometimes I tease my comps and say "Tu es doido" which is like saying "Thou art crazy," but in Portugal it´ll feel 100% normal for you to talk like that.  But congrats!  That´s going to be an awesome mission and I´m so excited to hear how it goes! 

   So, this week was great!  We already had a good sized emergency transfer that took up a lot of our in-field time, so that made it difficult.  But we still got to work hard and teach some awesome people!  Right now we´re teaching a young man named J.  His dad was recently baptized, and he´s now investigating.  He´s great!  He reads, he prays, he asks, he went to church!  We got there Sunday morning and he said that all of his clothes were in the washing machine and that he wouldn´t be able to come.  Then we told him that we´d go home and get some of my clothes (we´re almost the same size) and he could use my clothes to come to church.  After a bit of insisting, he went and got some of his Dad´s clothes and came to church.  And he loved it!  The adversary fights so hard to stop people from making steps on the path of righteousness, he tempts them and convinces them and tricks them.  But, as soon as the make the first few steps they see just how blessed we can be by God!

   We also are teaching a young man named W. who´ll get baptized this Saturday with several of his friends that are making this same decision.  It´s going to be a great baptism with three or four youth getting baptized together!  We´re also teaching an 18 year old girl named Caroline.  She´s a great investigator, but just needs an answer!  We challenged her to pray and ask God if what we´re teaching is true, so now it´s in his hands.  Pray for her so that she can recieve and recognize his answer! 

   Got to go now, but I love you guys!  Have a great week!

Elder S.

I'm Old...

I´m 20 years old now!

photo credit: lifesimplyfabulous.com

 I feel wierd saying that, my brain keeps telling me to say that I have 20 years.  That´s portuguese for ya!  My companion bought me a super awesome black forest cake, and a brazilian apple nut-bread cake!  It was awesome! I´ve got two companions right now: Elder O. and Elder M.  Elder O. is from Guatemala, and Elder M. is from Utah. 

   Anyhow, this week was transfers!  It was one of the most difficult transfers I´ve ever done, this whole week I almost didn´t even stop in the office!  I was running from the bus station to the chapel for a meeting to the bus station again, then to a restaurant to reserve a lunch for the mission, then to the airport, to the office to get some documents, back to the airport, back to the busstation, and you start to get a picture.  It was a blast!

flicker.com

Braziltheguideworldpress.com

Now I´m training Elder M. to be the next financial secretary, and this is probably my last transfer in this role.  I´ve learned so much,

I don´t want to leave the office!

 

 This week we had a baptism as well.  His name is M.  He´s come to the meetings several times already, but lived in another ward.  He´s moving to our ward, so the stake president told us to just baptize him here.  He told us on sunday two weeks ago that he wanted to be baptized, so we taught him everything that Sunday and this past Saturday was his baptism!  It was awesome!  I didn´t get any pictures, but the Ward mission leader has some and I´ll send them to you as soon as I have them.

Thanks so much for all of the happy birthday wishes!  I love all of you and hope you all a wonderful week!  

Elder S.

True to the Faith

Hey all!

  

   This week we had a neat experience with a recent convert named S.  He asked "what does it mean to be true to the faith?"  My first instinct was to answer his question, just tell him what I know about this and leave it at that.  But, before I spake, I remembered a pattern that I´ve seen Elder Bednar use in various occasions.  He gives the student some specific scriptures to study that contain the answer to their question, and invites them to get the answer themselves from the scriptures and the holy spirit.  
So, we left 2 Timothy 4:6-7 
for him to read.

"For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith;"

The Apostle Paul Teaching
Image from graceuniversity.edu
  We told him to try to understand what was going on in Paul´s life when he said this, and what he had done that enabled him to say this.  When we returned a few days later and asked about his study, S. gave us a lesson 10 times better than I´d ever have been able to give!  He´d followed foot notes and studied and read other scriptures, and had come to a conclusion.  He said "Being true to the faith means keeping the commandments to the end, until we are converted."  What a great answer!  The spirit answered his question in a way that Elder S. never would have been able to, and it was a powerful lesson for me. 

Anyhow, this week we have two baptismal possibilities.  1 - M. He´s a friend of one of the counselors in the stake presidency, and told us that he wants to be baptized.  We taught him basically everything yesterday, and during the week we´ll just be following-up to make sure that everything goes well.  2 - R.  He was taught by Elder O. and Elder S. in the previous transfer, but after a while stopped showing much interest.  Yesterday we ran into him on the street!  We went to his house, re-taught the restoration, and invited him to be baptized.  He accepted a date for this Saturday, so let´s pray with faith that everything works out there!

I´ve got to go, but I love you guys!!!

Elder S.

Happy Best Month In The Entire Year!

Happy February!   

This month rocks because it´s my birthday!

   Mom and Dad, I got two more packages from you guys!  One has some skittles and these absolutely divine Peppermint Caramel Bites, a Brazil Mission T-Shirt, and the seminary book marks that you made for your class!  The other has a new shirt and pants.  Thanks a TON!!!

...

   I heard that S. already left for the MTC in Spain, that´s awesome!  I´m sure that he´ll be a great missionary!  

   Short letter today, but I wish all of you an awesome week!  Let me know what´s going on!

First Conference of the R. V. Stake ( first area)
The Assistance with Elder Costa, Sister K. with her son
(from President K's Post)

P's Baptism
(From Elder A's post)

Elder s. back row second from the right
(President K's Post)

Elder S. second row fifth from the right
(President K's Post)

A new group of Missionaries (President K''s Post)

Love,

Elder S.