Oct 7, 2013

So this week the President gave a rule saying if you don't have any investigators to attend conference with you, you can't go... I was super nervous! So we prayed and taught and found. It was sad because some missionaries had to stand out in the foyer until they had investigators. 

It was a good conference. From what I understood... I had to watch it in portuguese which was rough. I learned a lot but it was not the same. To actually hear the Prophet is a blessing! They do voice-overs so occasionally you will hear his voice and a bit of english, but normally just a monotoned translator. A fun fact: Elder Richard G. Scott speaks portuguese so he did a pre recording and they played that during his talk. It was nice to hear an apostles voice. I also liked the choir cause that was in English. For the most part, I understood it. It is just different cause you don't have the intensity of Elder Holland and all the others. 

I really liked President Monsons talk when he talked about his wife. That was really neat! But my favorite thing was that many of the talks were about the members needing to work with the missionaries. It is such a great help when they do! 

But all in all I was just grateful to be there watching conference. I asked one of our investigators (Mateus) what he thought of conference and he loved all of it. He watched the saturday sessions with us. But on sunday he watched it with his family on the internet. His whole family lives on that lot so we teach all of them when we come. They say that they love us coming over and teaching them and that they feel good when we are there. 

This week we had a lot of rain! There was one day when the roads were just rivers. There was about 8 inches of water in the streets. We had to time our crossings perfectly; otherwise, the cars would spray us. I thought it was fun... my companion probably wouldn't agree. 

So I still have my companion... But I think next week we will have another transfer meeting cause a lot of missionaries are done after this week. Elder Batista only has this transfer and one more so everyone thinks he will be transferred. 

The sisters in our area were good this week. They had a baptism. It was right after conference. They haven't had any weird things happen this week which is good. Last week I said that they stayed in our house... Only for 30 minutes while we got the locks changed... just so that is clear! hahaha

Here are some answers to your questions:

Are you getting enough sleep?

Yep, every morning I wake up at 6:25 wide awake and ready to roll. 

  

How is your mission going? 

It is going good. Companion is tough. I am living by the principle "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." So I will leave it at that. But I am working hard. 

 

Are you getting immersed into the Portuguese language?

Portuguese is a fun language. I taught an english class last week and it was really hard to speak in english. This is really good! haha. Conference in portuguese was a good experience. But it would be nice to hear in english next time.  I tried teaching in English a while ago, it was hard. But it is a blessing to be able to teach in a different language. 

Are you able to visit a single ward and how big is the ward?

Not sure if there is a singles ward... but our ward is huge. 

Hope all is well for the wedding! Sorry to add stress on top of that about my message not getting through last week. 

So I kept the family tradition going. I went and bought candy. it was 27,50 or something. So in our dollars around $12. It was fun to eat the candy in the chapel. 

I cant remember if I said this in the last email or not but I made cookies for some of our recent converts. They liked them a lot! Although in Brazil they only have margarine so it is not the same, but it is fun to make different food for them. 

I will be praying for you all!

Love 

Elder Wild

Thanks for everything!!! 

Sept 30, 2013

First off, I want to thank you very much for your package. The pictures were awesome!! I liked the annotations on the back too! Foi muito bom. I am very grateful to have such a loving family! You don't know how lucky I am! I know missionaries that say their family writes them and tells them that they will not be at the airport to pick them up. I could not even imagine this! I am so grateful to have a family that prays for me, and that writes me, and sends me letters and pictures every month! Every time I think about how blessed I am, I want to cry! So thank you very much!!

If you want me to answer questions this is the best way cause it is right in front of me and I wont forget! ahaha

1)  What kinds of food do you eat?

Rice and Beans. haha but lately the Members have been getting to know us better and have BBQ with us. It is way good. The meat is grilled perfectly. Almost matches Ruths grilling. 

2)  Are most of the people Brazillian, or do they come from all parts of the world?

Everyone is Brazilian. There are people from different states of Brazil but they are all from Brazil. They all look different though. Some are darker than others, and few are even whiter than me. 

3)  Do you walk everywhere, or take a bus?  Is the church very far away?

We are blessed and the chapel is a 5 min walk. But mostly we walk everywhere. But we use the bus a lot too. Our area is the biggest area in the mission. it is huge!!!! We have one city in our area that is 60km away. I haven't been there yet. Our Bishop wants us to work in the areas closer to the chapel because we need to strengthen this area. 

4)  Do you have a ward mission leader you work with, or just with the bishop?  

Our mission leader is amazing! He is a very hard worker and is always helping us with new ways and getting referrals for us. But we work with the bishop too. He is an amazing man. He has 4 very young kids. And lives about an hour and a half bus ride from the chapel. And he doesn't have a car, so he uses the bus. His family is awesome! He is such a great man! 

5)  What do you do on your p-day?

P-day... We study till 10, then we go email, then we buy food, clean our house, take a nap, write letters, and then back to missionary work. Today we are going to go to a store that has a lot of ties for really cheap. I asked a member this week if there were any national park type things. I will try to go to one to really see Brazil. Not just the city...

This week was awesome! First off, we had a baptism for Sandila. I really didn't think she would pass the interview but she did. Barely. Under the condition that we work with her a lot after baptism. But after the baptism and when she received the gift of the Holy Ghost, I could see a huge difference. She was more happy, she was more excited. It was awesome! Her family was baptized a few months ago but she didn't want too. Now her family is complete!!

You always ask for a scripture, and I always forget. So this week I will do better. Read the topical guide description for Zion. This week I studied a little about zion. I explained to the members that it is important that we build zion. Moses 7:18 and then the blessings of building zion 1 Ne 13:37? I think... Member missionary work is very key in building Zion and making the ward stronger. 

This week I did not get transferred. I was bummed at first. I wanted to stay in the ward but I wanted change. But at the transfer meeting, I was happy and felt the Christ like love for Elder Batista. I haven't had any problems with him since. I told him that I wanted to work harder with the members because our old way was not working (knocking doors). This week we have a goal to not knock a single door. We are going to work through the members, recent converts, and less actives. It is amazing how many more references we get by doing this. 

Also, The stake President came and visited us this week and told the ward council that the members need to make a greater effort in giving references to the missionaries. I was so happy to hear this! 

Also this week, the other set of missionaries got transferred to another city in our area, and we got a group of sisters. It was interesting. This week they were chased by 3 men. They ran to a members house and waited there. Then a member came and picked them up in his car and brought them to their house. Earlier this week, they lost their keys so they haven't been locking their door. But they do have a lock to the gate and the other door. But when they returned one night, their door was locked.... spooky? But its all good now. They changed the lock and we haven't had any problems since. 

Well I am running low on time, And there are a lot more stories that I want to tell you, but they will just have to wait till when I come home! hahahaha

Dad, I am sorry I can't write you this week, But I am glad to hear you are getting better gas mileage. 

Mom, I bought some sunscreen with the credit card. should be around 30 dollars. 

family- Again, thank you for sending me letters and the photos. I am so blessed!!!!

Jayson, congrats on the Brazilian. 

Love,

Elder Wild

Sept 23rd, 2013

Thank you for thinking of me and sending that package!

Generally I would say that I can go without the conference treats but because you said that I need to keep the family tradition going, I will. haha

I am excited for general conference too! I'm not sure if I will be able to watch it in english or not. And I think we watch it the weekend after you so that they can do all the voice overs.  It will be a good opportunity to invite people to come out and listen to the prophet. 

This has been a crazy week. We have two sets of elders in our ward and one of the elders finished his last transfer this week. So now we are in a trio. Transfers are this week. I don't know if we will be transferred or not but people keep calling us to make sure that our house is super clean, and that our Area Book is all nice and neat. So I think there is a good chance that we will be transferred. 

The language is getting better and better as always. It is good to see the lords hand in helping me learn the language. 

This week we didn't teach very many lessons which was a bummer but every lesson we did have was amazing. The spirit was super strong and the people want to learn more. But they don't pray. My companion has interesting ways of getting people to be baptized. He likes to find the elect. (the people that are basically ready to be baptized), BUT there are so many more people that we can work  with. My zone leader told me to just follow and I will have my chance to do things my way some day. Right now, I just have to have faith that this will work. We had another baptism in our ward this week. It was the sister and her son of a family that were baptized two years ago. It was a good baptism service. 

My companion is a good guy and he likes to help me. I have learned a lot from him. The best way for us to get along is to just talk to each other. It gets boring sometimes when we just walk in silence. But I have faith that it will get better. 

This week we also found out how big our area is. For one, our Bishop lives 60km away. We had lunch in a different city on sunday. It was about a 40 minute bus ride out to the city, and a fifteen minute walk. When we came back, the bus did not stop to pick us up because it was already full. So we crossed the street and took the bus further away from our city and back around. It was about an hour and half. I fell asleep on the bus and when I woke up, there were so many people on the bus! It was very packed. It was a good thing we did this cause the bus just kept going past the stop we were waiting at. 

This week I focused on talking with everyone in the street. It made the work so much more fun because I was able to share short messages and make appointments for the weekend. It makes me a lot more happy and less tired when I do this. And people ask me which state I am from because my accent is different. I tell them that I am from the United States and they are impressed with my language. They ask me how long I have been studying the language. And I say: almost three months. And they don't believe me. They tell me that it is impossible. hahaha. I tell them that with the power of God it is possible. 

Thank you for all your prayers of safety and strength! They are  working! 

I love you all! 

Elder Wild

Sept 16th, 2013

That is so sad to hear about Estes Park. Wow I really love that place. I guess I will have to mountain bike up there when I get home instead of road bike...

But I must say... those Colorado Rocky Mountains look amazing. Green and awesome. I miss them! 

This week was awesome. The baptism went well for Waleska. Her mom Debora was crying pretty hard. She will be baptized soon. 

This week was also crazy cause I was on a 4 day split with the zone leader. It was supposed to be for 1 day, then it was changed for 2. Then during he was like, we don't have time to switch you back so we will just be companions for a few days. It was a fun time. I learned so much from him. I learned to really follow the spirit. 

I have been having small problems with me not teaching for a majority part of the lesson, because my companion doesn't know that I know the lessons in portuguese. But when we switched, the zone leader told him that I taught all the lessons perfectly. My companion was surprised. Yesterday we taught the plan of salvation to a family and we traded off quite often and the spirit was much stronger and we were able to teach so much better! 

During my split we were teaching this guy that lives in a house the size of your closet! Oven, sink, bed, and a small table. Then there is a community bathroom outside. Anyway, we were teaching the lesson and a missionary came to the window and said that another missionary needed help with a baptism interview "now." (another set of missionaries were giving the baptism interview in the same lot) and so Elder Loveless (the zone leader/my companion) left, and Elder Myrick came in and joined in on the lesson. Elder Myrick does not know a lot of portuguese. But we taught the first lesson and committed him to going to church on sunday. Miracle of the gift of tongues! It was really funny because Elder Myrick kept trying to get the man we were teaching to read but he kept saying that he didn't know how to read. But Elder Myrick didn't understand that. I just tried not to laugh.  The zone leader was very impressed with us. 

Another mini miracle: We came in to teach this one guy we contacted on the street and him and his brother were just leaving. We convinced the one guy to stay and listen to our lesson with his family, but the brother left. A half hour later the brother came back, and said that he got jumped and all his money, phone, and other stuff were taken. If he would have stayed, he would have been fine. haha.

This has been a good week overall. At zone meeting this week I got your letter about education week.  I loved how we should make our houses like a temple. I liked that a lot. Way awesome! Thank you for sending letters! Again, I am very grateful to get mail every month. It is such a good feeling!  I also got your letter about leaving the ctm. The mission ties sent it to the ctm and they just now forward it to me. 

You asked about my acne. It is a lot better than it was in the ctm. I decided to not use any of that face wash and just use water to wash my face. And my face is more clear. Funny how that works. The members are super nice and helpful. One girl tried to give me some of her make up. She tried to tell me it was for men but I wont buy that. They are always trying to give me creams and stuff. One guy told me to rub bamboo leaves on my face. I wont try that. 

Well I love you all very much and thank you for all the letters and emails. The language is going good and I am having a good time. 

Thank you also for your prayers. I will pray for those in Estes and our new Stake President. And my family of course!

I love you all!

Elder Wild

Sept 9th

That is neat that you talked to Kyle. Thank you for all your prayers and fasting. I can tell they have been working! Everyday I am feeling more and more confident. But I wouldn't say I'm completely fluent yet. I am able to teach, and to talk to people. I understand the important words so I can kind of make out what they are saying. 

So this week was awesome in so many ways.

First off, we still have these memorized lessons that have been a pain in the butt to memorize and I just memorized the main one that take most people a few months! But as you know PMG tells you to teach by the spirit and not memorized lessons. It was hard for me at first because I had just been in the CTM for 6 weeks learning about how we teach from what we know. And memorizing these lessons was the complete opposite. Anyway, the new mission Presidente made the announcement that we are to follow Preach My Gospel completely. And that we are to no longer teach memorized lessons. I was so happy! My companion was too but he has a harder time with this because he has been teaching these lessons for 1 year and 8 months. But I think he will come around. He said that it will just be a hard transition. 

So now in companionship study, we just have to practice teaching. 

This week we will have one baptism for a little girl that is 8. She is way excited. We were walking down the street and a member called us over and we taught the family that she was with. The mom is going to be an amazing member, but she has to decide to either live separate from her spouse or get married. Hopefully this week we can help her make a decision. Hopefully she decides to get married. 

Another funny experience this week was we were knocking doors... In Brazil you clap your hands and the girl came to the gate in nothing but a towel. I didn't really know what to say so I didn't say anything. But then I asked if this was a bad time and she said no. But then she went and put clothes on and let us in afterward. She came to church yesterday. It was a good experience for her. The people that we bring to church really like the Gospel Doctrines class. Before the class the teacher said we are learning about talents. Debora told me that she didn't have talents and I just laughed and said that she has many. After the lesson she told me about all her talents for her two daughters and it was really cool. 

I am really sorry about the spelling on these emails. The keyboards are a bit different... And I don't know where the quotation marks are and I don't want to use valuable time to find them. hahaha

Well its good to hear all is well and that Dad is getting more work. 

I will write a letter today and try to get it in the mail. We will see. 

I love you all! Thanks for being a part of my life!! 

elder Wild