Ipe Semana 14

Good week.

Lots of rain.

Fireside directly from heaven.

More interviews and lots of miracles. We are now teaching a family that was taught in Santa Caterina (another state here in Brasíl) and are now ready for baptism minus marriage and coffee. So this coming week we´ll be working hard to help them.

Please but Vilson and Valdete in your prayers. They need divine help to marry quickly.

We´re off to teach our miracle family again and spent the whole P-day working on getting people married... so I don´t have any time.

Next letter will have info on new mission president and the mission split!

Love,

Elder House

Ipe Semana 13

Congrats to Mom and Dad on 25 years of mawaaagge! And with everyone busy, sounds like a normal start to the summer, everyone doing something different and exciting. The only downside to getting email is that every once in a while Dad has to let me know about something cool that happened back home, like the BYU Ballroom team getting the first standing ovation in Blackpool history... Which is indeed very exciting. Thank you for the update.

This week was a bit of a Russian Mountain (which is what they call roller coasters here), with the call to be District Leader, giving 6 blessings, completing my first baptismal interview, and fighting with the local cartorio to let Vilson and Valdete marry there... But that´s what a mission is all about right? We tried so hard to work well with the members, but almost every single member who had planned to go on visits with us, canceled. The Bishop was getting a bit frustrated with our Ward Mission Leader because he wasn´t completing the assignments he was given, so we recieved an assistant to the Ward Mission Leader who is on fire and ready to help everyone! We are very excited for this.

So now that I am District Leader, I get to do the baptismal interviews when someone is ready to be baptized somewhere close to me. On Saturday I did my first interview with a boy named William who is very ready, and very excited to be baptized because, as he put it, `all my life I wanted to be an Elder, and now this is the first step.` It was a neat experience.

We are doing well as a compaionship and growing together. Elder is feeling a bit under the weather every day when we wake up because it is cold, but with just a little persuasion, he´s ready and willing to leave the bed. I know that he is missing home because of the cold here, but he is being a good sport... The NE tip of Brazil, which is where he is from, NEVER dips below 65 degrees. And that would be during a rainstorm in the dead of night in the middle of winter. So the very Oregon-like 45 and drizzling has taken a bit of adjusting for him.

This week we were really working to use the Book of Mormon more effectively, and we ended entering in contact with people from varius cities that don´t have the church yet (Telemaco Borba, Mafra, and a bunch of little cities in Santa Caterina). So we planted many seeds and copies of the Book of Mormon. Elder Silva is now using and explaining scriptures very well and asking very inspired questions.

Last night we found an eleito named Diego. He was seated at a bus stop and night in the rain, and we decided to talk to him. His mother-in-law is sick and this was the event he needed to start looking for the truth. When we started talking about the Book of Mormon, his eyes lit up and I he wanted all the information we could give him about the church. He lives in another part of the mission, but I am praying that we can get his info to the missionaries there! This is why we do street contacts.

This past week was the craziest Sunday in the world. I taught the Gospel Principles class with about 2 minutes of forewarning, gave a talk on the spot when the Bishop called on me, played the piano, and still managed to follow-up with everyone who was visiting and mark brothers to help us with visits. Day of rest my foot! :) But it is the best feeling in the world to be super busy and have the Lord´s help to be able to do it all.

Speaking of my talk, I think it was probably the best talk I´ve ever given... I took a page out of the Brother Allen playbook and talked about how Salmon find their way back to their little stream from whence they came. I talked about how the plan of salvation is very similar. We were all there in the presence of God, but we left that little stream for the ocean (earth) where we would grow and learn and gain experience. But one day we need to return. But how are you going to find your way back to Johnson Creek from the mouth of the Columbia River? You follow the smell. As we choose the right, we make the choices that smell good, that feel right, as the Spirit testifies of what we should do. If we follow the Spirit, we will know what to do (2 Nephi 32:5). Wait... where´s the missionary connection? So I talked about how we are the little fishies who know where to go. With all the different smells in the big river, we know what to do, and how to return. So we have to let all our little fishy friends know how to get back too! It´s our responsibility to help them out! I also talked about how we need to be changed to enter the precence of God... Imagine that God only listens to country music, and you hate country music... you would hate being there with Him. So we need to change ourselves to like what He likes, the music, the food, how He talks, how He acts, or else we won´t WANT to be there with him... 

You know it was a good talk when afterwards, everyone wants to mark a visit with their friends :)

Working hard in Jardim Ipe!

Love,

Ipe Semana 12

Yesterday we had our transfer calls and...

`Elder House... Fica!`

`Elder V. Silva... Fica!`

So we´ll be together for at least another 6 weeks and I´ll finish his training. But after another week like we had this week, he´d be ready to train a new missionary.

This week we were teaching a family when we felt inspired to do a little activity with them. We read part of the talk in General Conference where Sister Wixom told about the man who had been separated from his family for 2 years, being taken prisoner in vietnam, and was permitted to send a message of 25 words or less to his family, in which he would need to show them that it really was him, and give some counsel. So each of us wrote a message to our families. Mine is as follows...

THESE THINGS ARE IMPORTANT: FAMILIES MISSIONS TEMPLES SCRIPTURES COLLEGE MUSIC BYUFOOTBALL BRASÍL SWEATERS LASAGNA WOOLSOCKS BALLROOM GOPHERS 800M SPERRY SKIING LETTERS LEATHERMAN MICROWAVE-RICE-COOKER

Maybe some of these things are not so important as I thought before the mission, but as a missionary, I know that some are even more critical than I ever imagined. The temple is a place of power. The mission president has a goal to help every new convert have an experiece with the temple within 2 months of baptism... that could mean visiting the grounds, or doing baptisms inside, but the temple is crucial in our taking the 5 and final step in the Gospel of Jesus Christ... Endure to the End.

The coming transfer will be exciting but also a little bit scary. As of the first of July, the mission will be split, and we will have a new President.

Wish us luck... Or even better, pray for it ;)

Love,

Elder House

Ipe Semana 11

Clouds make rain. 

Rain makes mud.

Mud makes missionaries,

Look like scrubs.

But in a city where half the population works in construction, rain also means that everyone stays at home so we can teach them :)

This week was a bit rough, but we made it through. Once again, we had few investigators at church. Those who came, were greatly strengthened by the testimonies shared. I don´t like it all too much when people shirk their commitments... I will be much better about this after the mission, having my word be as good as a contract.

In missionary work the only thing worse than being dropped (here we say `cut`) is having to drop them... even when they know the gospel is true. It is very hard to make the decision to stop teaching someone, and at first, I felt like we were condemning them to spirit prison or something, but now I have a testimony in this respect. If we are teaching people who are not making progress, but like talking with us for one reason or another, we are spending time teaching someone with the time that should be spent teaching someone who the Lord has prepared for us. This past week, we moved many people to the back of our area book and as a result we received 9 people and 3 families to teach... some of which were literally just waiting for baptism. The Lord can do his own work, and he is using us to hasten it.

100% obedience is really hard. Probably a mission-life-time pursuit... And I suppose that´s how life will be afterwards... A lifelong pursuit of perfection.

When your companion breaks down on the sidewalk crying because in one day everyone unloaded their baggage on you and the spiritual burden becomes too heavy to bear, remember that this is the Lord´s work, and that only He can do it, and that when we have the chance to help in it for a little season we will often feel inadequate because we are. And we must rely on His Grace to help us. I know that might sound a little Louisiana baptist-ish, but Grace (which is the enabling power of Jesus Christ) is perhaps one of the most powerful topics of study for a missionary.

We had a neat little miracle this week when all of the tobacco in one neighborhood disappeared in the same week that 4 families who live there began the fight against their addictions. But all the other smokers in the area there now blame those `boys with the ties` for it. :)

Maybe this week we´ll pray for all the alcohol to evaporate... 

Love,

Elder House

Ipe Semana 10

I don´t know how Calli is part of our family... When dad told me that my irmãzinha at 10 years old has decided to read the Book of Mormon in 30 days I didn´t know exactly how to respond... I don´t know where this little girl came from, because she doesn´t seem to fit in with the rest of the family. All of us brothers would take the challenge to read the entire Harry Potter series in a week, or Work and the Glory in a month... but the scriptures were always something that we read as a family, and for seminary. My little sister is one of the best examples I have in life.

When I received an email from Nathan who has been one of my best friends since grade-school I almost started crying. I remember distinctly the day I was sitting on the bus, and the new kid from the ward got on my bus! Zing. Insta-friendship. In this past week he baptized his girlfriend Kassandra, received the Melchizedek priesthood, confirmed her a member in the sacrament meeting following, and will be married this coming Saturday. Congratulations to Nate and Kassandra! Unfortunately I won´t be there for the marriage this week, or the sealing in the temple in one year, but I am very excited for them!

In the PEC this week, everyone talked about what happened the past Sunday with the gossip and such that had been harming the progress of a few families we are teaching, and everyone in that council is devoted to help them. I have never sat in a leadership meeting where the Spirit was present with such a force that we received direct and clear revelation as to what needs to be done to help several people we are teaching. The area is doing well, but we are still fighting with tobacco addiction for several people. We will be spending `bastante` time in one part of our area this week helping those people progress. We will also offer priesthood blessings to those who need them. Our lessons with members were very weak as our splits fell through and when we did have a brother from the ward, our investigators were not at home... But as we were watching the District 1 as part of the 12 week program we realized that this really is the part missing from the recipe to make the ward blossom and that this week we need to teach investigators in the homes of members.

We are doing great as a companionship and working hard. But this week we felt like we were running fast but going nowhere. So we analyzed what is missing and will teach more with members.

This week we got the lamest excuse EVER for not being able to go to church... We called before passing by to walk with him to church and he said that he needed to `comprar frutas`... He was going to miss out on learning eternal truths that will help him progress to gain eternal salvation to `buy fruits` I was rather puzzled as to how I could respond to such an wimpy excuse. Maybe we´ll have to teach a little lesson on honesty :)

I´m still working on the `Thou Shalt Not Gossip` paper, but next week I´ll have it ready.

I love being a missionary. It is the hardest, most rewarding work that exists. The Book of Mormon is true. I know it because I asked God and he responded through the power of the Holy Ghost. I recommend the book to anyone who wants to build their faith in Christ, or who wants answers to the great questions of the soul.

Love,

Elder House

Ipe Semana 9

This week was a little tough, but we made it through. We are finishing construction on a house of an investigator, but we hit some complications there... Gossip is possibly the worst enemy to the progression of our investigators. This coming week I will study and write out the scriptural evidence for why `thou shalt not gossip` ought to be the 11th comandment.

But challenges and all, things are going well. I will have to take a picture with Vilson and Valdete who are pretty much the best people in the world to teach. They were going to all the churches on the face of the planet until they found the Church of Jesus Christ, and even though their family and neighbors are giving them a little bit of a hard time with the transition to living a gospel centered life, they are progressing by leaps and bounds. This week, we will have all of the documentation we need to marry them in the coming month, and the baptism will follow shortly.

This week I bought a little music box and we have been enjoying what little Mo-Tab we could download from the church site, and a few talks. But it is nice to have music in the house again.

This map shows the boundary of the ward we are assigned to teach in, and as ya´ll can see, it is pretty big. But a big area is a blessing because you have lots of families to teach (19 in our case). This is the best area in the world.

Love,

Elder House

Ipe Semana 8

Well I was shocked that Calli has grown about a foot since I left home, and her voice has changed dramatically in only a few months. She is turning into a young woman already! And it was great to see that the rest of the family is doing well. Mom has an orchard going, Christian is going to Prom, Carstensurvived the AP Biology test, and Dad is still puttin pizzas on the BBQ. It was a treat to talk with y´all yesterday via Skype for mother´s day.

This week we worked well, but we still have `bastante` room for improvement. We need to use the members even more effectively, because our goal for 15 lessons with members is very realistic. Unfortunately this week, many of the people we were expecting at church did not come, even though we passed by early with members and left church to search out others. But the Lord blessed us with a wonderful family who showed up out of the blue with a member. We have yet to teach them in their home, but we will mark a baptismal date, and jump on getting their documents sent from Rio Grande do Sul. 

Today we received authorization to go to Pinhais to get the documents for another marriage, but our ride fell through. We were waiting for him at the appointed hour, and we called but he never showed up... So we took that as a sign that we should spend the day cleaning the house from top to bottom. We still have the kitchen to tackle next week, but the house has only a faint semblance of the house I arrived in. We will arrange another ride to Pinhaisfor the next Preparation Day, and look for a more reliable member :)

Our relationship as companions is continuing to grow and improve as we spend more time teaching together. As I look for small ways to serve Elder V. Silva, it helps things running smoothly. We need to improve our exercising in the morning, and in the past week we set a goal to leave the apartment three times in the week to exercise, but with that cold wave we received (and owing to my companion being from a place where 18 C is as cold as it ever gets) we chickened out... But this week we will do better. We are also working on using the Book of Mormon more effectively in ALL the aspects of the Missionary Work.

This week we received a referral to a man who sells salami on the side of the road, who, by all appearances is at least half crazy. But a young man in the ward had been talking with him and he was interested in the story of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. So we went to talk with him and we presented the Book of Mormon. I have NEVER had someone who understood what the Book of Mormon is (an ancient record of God´s dealings with the people who inhabited the American Continent over 2000 years ago), how it is a test of Joseph Smith´s call as a prophet (if the book is true, then Joseph Smith is a prophet), and a sign of the Restoration (God needed to reteach some of the doctrines that got lost in the 1600ish years of apostasy that resulted from the people´s rejection of the Apostles after the Resurrection of Christ)... as well as this man did. He lives out of our area, but he is always selling with his family under a little tent, so we will start to teach them this week. I think Elder Silva will probably quote me for saying `hey, we don´t judge people (leave that to the District Leader and Bishop)... we just teach!`

I love being a missionary, and I know that the Lord is blessing us as we participate in His work.

-Elder House