New area

Just think that here in a few months AJ will be able to drive himself around and you will be able to chill a little bit more. They seem to be like best of friends. Tell AJ to tell the kid about the gospel! Here shortly AJ will be able to baptize him!! 

TRANSFERS are today and I will be being transfered to a city nearby. I will be companions with one of my previous companions, ELDER GOMEZ. I am super stoaked for this opportunity. It is exactly what I was needing. It truly was inspiration. The area that I am going to is in the city of Presidente Prudente. The area´s name is Everest A. I am super excited for the change that is about to take place! I will sure be able to grow a lot more again which excites me the most. The harder it is here in the mission the better prepared I will be for my life post mission. I am super greatful for being on the mission. The mission truly is something that is pricelss and that all worthy young men and women ought to do.

This week was pretty chill. Not much walking hardly. I did a lot of splits and was able to help 9 people be baptized throughout the zone and then 2 others were baptized. So it was a pretty exciting week for us here. I was really happy to be able to teach so many good people and see them enter into the waters of baptism. 

Well this week ought to be a fun one, getting lost, meeting new members and new missionaries, and the usual work. I hope you guys have a great week! I love you all tons!

Feb 19

This week was pretty good. It was a pretty relaxing actually. I took a leader vacation doing splits in various cities and not having to touch a phone or having to resolve and serious problems. I was traveling around doing splits most of the time in two different cities, Assis and Ourinhos. I was able to baptize in my area as well as see a baptism in the two other areas as well. What I learned a lot this week was about the strong and simple truths of the gospel bring deep and everylasting happiness. You can be sad momentarily bad the gospel and Christ´s atonement changes not and will always be a sure foundation that will provide for you in all of life´s challenges. But it was just a nice week to reflect on the happiness that I have fore being a member of the church and serving as a full time missionary. My life is going pretty good. The mission is the same old same old at the moment. That is what happens when you have been in a single area for the past 6 months. Luckily transfers are next week and I highly doubt that I will be here any longer. Transfers are next week, so I am pretty excited for that. It is almost a 100 percent chance that i will be being transferred.   It is crazy to think that I have only 8 more months left. Crazier is that Justin only has 4 more months left. That is like nothing!!! Time is sure flying! i am just as excited to go home as I am nervous I think. But super excited for the progression that will take place. 

I love you guys! have a great week!

Feb 12

Hey guys how´s it going?

I actually have been accumulating a lot of brasilian recipes over the course of my mission. I have a note book that one of the sisters of the ward in arapongas made me. It may be hard because there may not be some ingredients there in the states. But I think florida ought to have a brasilian market that sells brasilian goods due to the large population of brasilians there.

But Yeah those members are stellar. They always help us by giving car rides to our investigators and recent converts and they invite us over for family home evening to teach Aline´s mom who isnt member, or to just have dinner. They really understand that serving a mission is really hard and I am thankful for them. 

We were able to confirm John this week. It was awesome. I gave him one of my white shirts, a pair of pants, a belt, and one of my ties. He was super shocked when I gave him all that stuff. he was completely speachless. He is super elect. he is wanting to serve as a missionary.Tomorrow he will go with the youth to Bauru and go to the zoo with them. Then wednesday he will be interviewed to recieve the aaronic priesthood. Now we just have to help his family receive a testimony and accept to be baptized with more assurity. We have about 5 people that we are working with that could possibly be baptized here in the next few weeks. Hopefully they will accept the warm touch of the spirit and accept his testimony. 

Have a great week! I love you all!

This week was a fun week. It went by really fast as well. It went by really fast due to the amount of splits that we did with the other areas. It was also a fun week because we actually had a really elect investigator family that we are working with inwhich one of the sons was baptized yesterday. His name is John. He is actually interested in serving a mission as well which is exciting. Now we just have to keep working with the rest of his family this week which are 3 more people. We are hoping that they will accept to be baptized this week. We also found some people that have moved into the ward boundaries that had been going to church for a few months in another state and they hadnt been baptized. We are going to work with them in hopes that they will also be baptized here in the near future. We didnt walk too much this week. All of our appointments were close together luckily. This week I learned about the sadness that Christ has for those that refuse to follow chirst´s example being baptized in the church of God. I did a bpatismal interview and the poor guy wouldnt accept to be baptized for anything. It struck me deep to the very depths of my soul how sad God was feeling. So we must do our best to help these people feel the love of christ that he has for them. And that is about it. Have a good week! I love you guys!!

Tell AJ this phrase: "Bronchitis?? Aint nodody got time for that!" lol but I hope he gets feeling better. That must be pretty terrible.

Tell Lindsay happy late birthday for me! Wow 24 years old!

This week went well. I was able to do some splits with the elders in Palmital and Parati and help them with their investigators. It was really succesful. We marked 4 baptismal dates and were able to help those people greatly. In my area we marked four dates as well with an elect family. I am grateful that God bless the obedient and diligent. God really is bound to bless us when we do His will. We will take the family to church and we will baptize them this Sunday. We had zone conference on friday and it was good for the missionaries in my zone. It was what they were truly needing. Now I hope that they apply what was learned.

We are going to play basketball and soccer here in a little bit. That should be fun. It will definitely help unite the zone. But the real treat will be when we baptize this family this weekend. I am super stoaked!!!

Well I hope you guys have a great week and that everything goes well. I love you all!!!!

This week went really well. We had transfers and a lidership council with my mission president this past week. My new companion is really cool. His name is elder nascimento. He is from praia grande (Big beach) in são paulo. Mom would sure love to visit a place that has big beach literally written in the name lol. But I am super glad that Elder Nascimento is my companion. He will definitely be a great help to me. God definitely answered my prayers and sent me a miracle. He is a hard worker and a super chill guy. He wants to baptize at least 15 this transfer. THe dude is super optimistic and faithful. He thinks I am crazy in comparison with the other Americans here in the mission. We worked a ton. We probably walked 200kms this week in the blazing hot sun. It was in the upper 90s eeryday without a single cloud in the skye. I am looking like a lobster. Hopefully it will all be tanned soon. We didnt baptize anyone this week but I have faith that this week we will be able to baptize a few people. This weekend we will be having stake conference which is exciting. We are trying to get the whole zone to baptize on the same day. That would be pretty sick! At least 10 simultaneous baptisms. IT should be a prett exciting week full of fruits for us to harvest. Well I hope you have a great week. Good luck with the cooking course! Sounds fun! Good luck AJ! Healthy food normally means tasteless food lol jk!!! I love you all!

Transfers

SO...... It´s transfers!!!!!!

     I have been called to stay here in Marília for one more transfer. That makes 4 here in marília. Man President sure does like to put me in one spot and keep me there for as long as possible it seems like lol. 6 months in Antares (Including the CTM), 6 months in Arapongas, and now 6 months here in Marília. I am going to be transferd almost certainly after this one. 3 areas, 2 zones, and 6 companions so far. not much but not many can say that they have had such statistics as I have had. I was looking back this week upo my companions. All of them have been or are zone leaders except for my son but he will when he is released as the executive secretary. I have been truly blessed with knowledegable companions. 

    But I am looking forward to have a new companion, to hear new stories, to have different teaching experiences, and to overcome new challenges.

     This week we were able to have some success getting some really good people to church for the first time with a high probability of being baptized this weekend. We are without phone credit for a week so that complicates things a litle bit but it will all work out. I have faith.

      I will let you guys in on the whole transfer change thing and who my companion is next week. I got to go shuttle everyone now. Talk to you guys next week! I love you!!!! 

This week went well. We were able to help another companionship baptize 3 kids this past weekend. It was a really cool experience. Hopefully we can get their parents baptized as well. This experience is really humbling or me. All 8 of the baptisms that have happened in Palmital, the other area, have been because of Elder Jesssee and mine works. It is all his kingdom. But luckily we found that special person that you mentioned previously. Her name is Camila and she is super awesome. She is 27, single, and has 3 kids. We did a super spiritual contact with her, she was super active in the church meetings and was just begging to go back so hopefully she does and gets baptized.

This week was super hot, like super hot. But luckily this next will be nice and cool. There is a week long cold front coming through. Maybe it is that cold front that hit the states finally coming here down south. It has been raining since saturday so that has complicated a few things, but at least it hasnt been so hot.

I hope you guys have a great week this week. I love you all!!!