Pray Always - October 12

Hey everyone!

   Okay, so I´m officially back in the office now!  I thought that I´d have a week with the previous secretary to get back on top of things, but I actually had 2 days.  This week was definitely the most stressful of my mission, but being in the office is a lot of fun.  There´s a lot of pressure, but it´s a lot of fun.  All three of us in the office now are basically new in our positions, so we made a lot of greeny mistakes this past week.  But, we´re getting back on top of things!

   So, really quickly let me sum up some of the things that happened this week!

1. I studied Elder Bednars talk "Pray Always," and it´s incredible!  I´m trying to apply the principles that he taught better in my prayers, and as a result I am feeling much more of the guidance and protection of the Lord in my work.  Putting the focus of our communication with God on how we can help others makes a huge difference!

2.  There was an emergency transfer today, so we had to go to the office this morning.  On our way there today we saw one of the tender mercies of the Lord.  Okay, that´s a bit exaggerated but it was still cool!  We saw a Ferrari 458 Italia, it passed us and then stopped at the bakery were we sometimes buy breakfast on the way to the office.  It was pretty cool!

3.  I got to see the recent convert  Elder S. and I baptized two transfers ago!  She´s still going strong and sharing the gospel with everyone!  She brings us references of people that she met in the market, professors, friends, she just doesn´t stop talking about the gospel!  She´s already been a big part in the conversion of another family that was baptized in the past transfer, has done her family history back for who knows how many generations, and is preparing to go to the temple.  It´s so awesome to see people that you´ve taught in the mission staying strong and sharing the joy of the gospel with everyone!  It´s incredible!

So that´s a bit about what happened this week.  Just to wrap up, here´s a challenge!  "Ponderize" a new scripture this week, and if you want send me a quick E-mail about what you learned!  It would be great to read your thoughts about the scriptures and learn with you all!  

And, a final thought!  Elder Neal A. Maxwell was an incredible Apostle, I love reading his talks!  In one of my favorite talks he said something like this "It is true that we must count our blessings, but we must also make our blessings count."  I´ll leave that quote with you guys, but we´ll talk next week!  

Love,

Elder Sweet

General Conference Was Incredible! - October 5

Hellooooooooooooo Família!

   So guess what!  I got transferred again!  My companion, Elder M, has finished his mission and goes home this week to Santiago, Chile.  As for me, I guess that President K. decided that I do more damage in the field than out of it, so he´s decided to bring me back to the office!  This time though, I´ve got one week to get up to speed and refresh my memory on how to run the mission´s finances, and then the old Secretary´s heading out and I take the chair.  I´m a bit nervous going into this, but the Lord doesn´t call the qualified but qualifies the called!  I´m just praying that he qualifies me!  I´m going to be in a trio with my old companion, Elder S, and the other Secretary Elder C. It´s going to be great!

   I´ve had a few wierd transfers like that in my mission, for example my companion in Rio Verde, Elder H. had been my companion for half a transfer in Itumbiara as well, and now I´m going for the second time to the Goiânia ward with the same companion that I had last time I was there!  The mission´s great!

General Conference was incredible as well!  Man, what talks!  Elder Holland´s talk about Mothers was incredible, and it made me think a lot about my Mom!  There is no one, save the savior himself, who is more deserving of the love of a child than that´s child´s mother.  The mission has helped me to see just how much you´ve done for me, Mom!  I love you!

Elder Costa´s talk was incredible too, 

he talked about gaining a testimony of the atonement of Christ.  

I was almost crying in Elder Bednar´s talk when           

he spoke of how blessed we are to be guided by wise men inspired by God! 

Elder Christofferson´s talk about the role of the church was perfect for two of our investigators who came to the session and had expressed the same question just a few days earlier.  We´ve got a lot to study and learn from the conference!  

I loved this talk about "Ponderizing" as 

well.

Just to wrap up here, a Family was Baptized! 

 Let me send some photos!  I haven´t done such a great job about taking and sending photos this transfer, sorry!  I´ll do better this next!

Here another picture of this Family's baptism! 

This family has been investigating the church for 2 years now, but finally got married and baptized!  They wanted to be baptized by one of the firsth missionarys who taught them, so he and his companion came to the baptism.

Here´s a picture of our Zone!

Brazilian omelette, anyone?  This thing was so good!

Consistency Amid Change - September 21

Hey all!

This week was pretty great!  Let me tell you a bit about it!

So first, I did my first division this week!  I went to the ------- ward to work for a day with the District leader there. 

I´ll be honest, there´s a pretty steep learning curve to just about everything about being a Zone Leader, but I´m climbing it little by little! 

The Elders were having trouble talking to a decent number of people.  This area in particular doesn´t have a lot of people on the street, so when you get an opportunity to talk with someone you need to take advantage of it.  In all we saw that it´s not too difficult to talk with a decent number of people even in this area, you´ve just got to be consistent.

Consistency (that´s how you spell it, right?  I´m forgetting how to spell a lot of words in English, it´s a problem.  I tried speaking english a few days ago with a guy that we met who spoke english, and my english was worse than his, I could hardly get half a sentence out before switching back to portuguese or coming up with some kind of syntax that works in portuguese but just makes no sense in english.  Oh well, got a good laugh out of it!) is an interesting principle.  Something that we´ve been trying to help the missionaries here understand is that we have to be consistent in living gospel principles if we want to see the gospel blessings.  Sporadic application of true principles is not sufficient to work miracles in our lives, rather it is the consistent application of the basic principles of the gospel that brings miracles to pass.  This applies not just in the gospel but in many aspects in our lives.  Often we as missionaries are told that we need to talk with a lot of people to find the people that God is preparing to receive the gospel, so we get excited and talk with a ton of people for a day.  The next we work, but not with the same fire driving us.  Pretty soon the excitement dies, and we end up doing what we´ve always done.  Bu it is not this sporadic application of a true principle that brings the blessings!  Those missionaries that consistently apply themselves to talk to a large number of people each day are those that are guided by God to a greater number of people who are ready to listen!

A similar process is at work in our lives.  It is the consistent application of the basic principles of the gospel of Christ that brings to pass the mighty change in our hearts that the scriptures speak of, that causes us to no longer desire to do evil.  This is what God wants for us, but we must have the faith to act consistently in accord with the gospel to see this blessing in our lives. 

Okey-doke, I´ve got to go now!  I love you all a ton, keep telling me what´s going on on the home front!

Love,

Elder S.  

Time Goes by Fast - September 14

Sunrise Goiania, Brazil
(Picture from the internet)

Okeydoke!  I´ve got to be fast (again), sorry about that!

Really quickly!  We´re teaching a cool family right now!  We got a reference from the church media, some people in our area had asked for a book of mormon on Mormon.org.  So, we went there and taught them, and they want to be baptized!  It´s awesome!  Their names are F. and D, and they´ve got a baptismal date for the 26th of September.

R. wasn´t able to go to church this week, but we´re going to keep passing by to see if he´s really interested or not.  

Anyhow, we´re working our butts off here!  I´ve never worked so hard in my mission, but man is it fun!  I just can´t believe how fast the time goes by though, it´s actually a bit scary.  Yesterday we were working and I felt like it should have been 3 or 4 in the afternoon, but then the sky got dark all of a sudden!

Sunset Goiania, Brazil
(Picture from the internet)

It was 7 at night already, it´s nuts how fast the time flies.  But I am loving my mission and I miss you guys a ton!

Got to go already, but I love each and everyone of you!

Love,

Elder Sweet

Serve a Mission

I. Square (Photo from Wikipedia)

Hey guys!  I´ve got to be quick today, but how´s everyone doing?

So, really quick here let me tell you about some awesome investigators that we have right now!  First: R!  

He´s 23 years old and super cool.  He sings rap and works at a food stand at a local park that sells these awesome brazilian style hamburgers (google X-Tudo Hamburger, that´s your typical brazilians burger) and these giant omelettes!  It´s pretty great!  He´s loving everything about the gospel and recieved an answer about the Book of Mormon in the middle of the lesson when we taught him about it!  This morning after studies we went to his house and watched the Joseph Smith video with him, he said he was fighting to not cry at several parts.  He´s pretty well set in his determination to be baptized!  So pray for him!

We´re also teaching a family right now, there names are J. (Dad), L. (Mom), A, A.(Sons).  They´re a great family and they went to church last sunday.  We talked with J. yesterday night and he said that he wants to go to church one more time, but that after that he wants his whole family to be baptized!  He already knows that they´ll have to get legally married first, so we´re helping make the steps towards that goal.  It´ll be my first wedding in the mission!  They´re a super cool family and they love the gospel!

So this week is going to be great and we´re going to work until we can´t work anymore!  It´s going to be a week full of miracles, I can´t wait to tell you guys about it!

Word of Wisdom to all, Serve a mission!

Love you guys!

Elder Sweet

Hey Everyone

Here´s one picture from outside our house.  There are these giant, super awesome apartment buildings in the middle of our area.  It´s gives a pretty stark comparison because they´re the only buildings with more than two stories for miles. 

So what´s everybody up to?  It looks like things are going well for everyone up in the states, and things are going great down here!  Let me tell you about it!

   My companion rocks.  He´s in his last transfer on the mission and after that he´ll return to Chile.  He isn´t a little bit "dead" to use missionary lingo, but is working his butt off with every hour, minute, and second that we have.  

It´s great!  This week I learned a ton about the relationship between hard work and smart work, and how we have to have the two together to be succesful.  We worked harder and smarter this week than I´ve ever worked, and I´m learning so much!  The mission really is the best experience in the world, so serve a mission!!!

   Right now we´re trying to help the missionaries here do two things, invite EVERYONE to be baptized and talk to lots of people.  Many times as missionaries we judge people and decide that they aren´t interested in the gospel, and so we don´t even invite them to be baptized or come to church.  We´re encouraging the missionaries to invite everyone to be baptized, without deciding for ourselves first if they´ll accept or not.  We had a neat experience with this yesterday, when Elder M. and I were teaching a man that we found knocking doors yesterday.  As we talked to him he didn´t seem to be to interested, but he said that he´d be able to go to church next sunday so we decided to enter the house and teach him.  We got in the house, said a prayer, and taught him about baptism.  Even though he didn´t seem to be too interested, we still invited him to be baptized and he accepted!  He seemed to get a bit more interested after the invitation to baptism.  This is just one of many instances that we see the importance of this priciple.  So, moral of the story: Don´t judge people!  Just invite everyone to hear the gospel and let them decide if they want it or not.

   I hope that all of you have an excellent week, and I love each one of you!  Always remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and pray earnestly to comprehend and appreciate more deeply his incredible gift to us.  This is the foundation to conversion!  Got to go now, but keep being awesome, tá?

Falou!!!!!   E boa semana para tudo o mundo!

Elder Sweet

I didn´t take a lot of pictures this week, but I´ll do better this next time around!   Anywho, more pictures to come next week, I promise!

"Changes" August 24, 2015

Família!

Me and Elder M.!

How´s everyone doing?  Thanks so much for sending the awesome photos and videos from the family reunion!  It looks like it was a blast!  That´s pretty cool that you guys got a motor home too!  Dad, I think a trip up to Capitol Reef is in order when I get back!

Okay, so here´s some news for you.  President wasn´t too impressed with my work as Financial Secretary, so I got transferred!  I didn´t see that coming, but it was one of the "changes" that I mentioned in my previous E-mail.  This transfer I´m in a part of Goiânia called Ipiranga, my companion (Elder M.) and I are the Zone Leaders of the Goiânia North Zone.  He´s Zone Leader 1 and has a lot more experience than I do, so I´m pretty grateful for that!  I was pretty, well, I think terrified out of my mind´s the right word here, when I was coming into this transfer, but Elder M. is really motivated, sincere, and has made it very clear that he´s here to help me learn!  I´m going to need that help for sure!

So, about the mission tour!  It was incredible!  Elder T. is the Area authority that came to visit the mission, and what an incredible experience that was!  He spoke about faith, prayer, charity, it was incredible!  I want so badly to see everyone that I know go on a mission just to have the opportunity to be taught by such incredible servants of the Lord.  Elder T. had a very neat kind of humility to him, and as he spoke I felt so strongly the Holy Ghost testifying to me that he is a servant of the Lord.  He told us about "the veil of unbelief" (See Ether 4:15) and how we must break this veil in our lives to become servants through whom the Lord can work miracles.  He taught us how to counsel with the Lord in our prayers, and emphasized the importance of inviting not just to come to church on sunday or be baptized, but invite them to come unto Christ.  He did several roll-plays with the missionaries and it was incredible to see the love of the Lord that he conveyed.  When the mission tour came to an end, he threw us a curve-ball and asked President K. for permission to say the closing prayer himself.  It was so neat to here one of the Lord´s Seventies praying!  

I want so badly that everyone can serve a mission!  There opportunities to learn to love God´s children and be taught by his servants that are incredible but only exist on the mission.  What a marvellous blessing from the Lord is a call to serve a mission!  So go serve a mission!!!  Everyone!  Do whatever you need to do to put your life and testimony in line to serve him.  The two years are so short, but so rich with growth in knowledge, charity, spirit, testimony, and in our relationship with our Heavenly Father!  So, serve a mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I's  baptism on Saturday!  

The sisters had three investigators who chose to get baptized on that day too, 

so it was a good crowd!  I. is in white at the top left of the photo.

I´ve got to go now, but I love each and every one of you!  You are all chosen children of a divine being, a God who loves us and wants each of us to have joy.  Trust in his wisdom and knowledge of how to obtain that joy, because he knows how to have it so much better than we do!  Seek to learn his word and live it!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Sweet

Another picture of I's baptism!

P.S. Landon, check your E-mail!