April 28, 14

Family, 

Happy Birthday!!!!! I thought and prayed for you a lot on your birthday. Today we plan to go to the post office to send your package. I went to send it last week but the post office was closed due to the holiday. I have been praying a lot for you guys this week. I know that God has a plan. 

I was transferred too. I was transferred to an other area in Rio Verde. I am in a branch called Popular. It is a pretty cool  branch and we never fault lunch. My companion will be the first American companion. His name is Elder Haskell. He is pretty cool and I can tell that we will get a lot of work done. Yesterday President Kuceki visited the branch and gave a talk that was really good. He talked about how Rio Verde is really close to turn into a stake. He gave a calling to every member to be a `supervisor of the missionaries` He said that he wants all the members to tell their friends that they have this new calling and they need to see how the missionaries teach. So they invite people to hear the lessons so that they can supervise us. haha It is a good way to find people to teach. He also talked about the importance of the Sabbath day and giving support to all of our leaders. It was a really good talk!

We had a baptism this Saturday. It was a good one. I also had to stop a baptism from happening. haha A family had a son that was turning 8 so they had a baptism for him. They called us and said that they need us to help them out in the chapel. We went over there and they wanted us to be the witnesses. I asked them if the branch president knew about the baptism. She said no. I told her that her son needs to be interviewed by him before he can be baptized. She was confused because her husband has the priesthood to baptize. I had to explain to her that he has the priesthood, but not the keys. But we called the branch president and he came over, gave an interview, and her son was baptized this weekend with our baptism. 

I hope you know that I am keeping all the rules! Both you and Dad said something about keeping the rules. haha 

I hope your Birthday was super good and I am excited for you to get your package. It is really cool! Thank you again for everything that you have done for me. I am so grateful to have such good parents. Especially a good mom! 

I love you all and I look forward to our skype call in a few weeks. I am sure that it will come up here pretty soon. 

Love, 

Elder Wild 

April 21, 2014

Family and Friends, 

I am really happy to read your emails! Its good to hear the Easter is really special there! Hahaha our Easter was interesting. People in Brazil like the holidays, but sometimes they forget why they have the holiday. But we have seen many miracles this week! 

We found this family and the dad had a drinking problem. He was drunk nearly 24/7! All the neighbors want/wanted to kill him, (not literally but kind of) We went their and he was drunk, but we still gave a message. He started crying saying that he wants a change. We gave a priesthood blessing on him. It was pretty neat! The next day we returned and we taught the word of wisdom and made sure that he did not have any drink left. Since then he has been sober and wants to be baptized. He brought a picture of a temple for him to look at when he is tempted. He hung it up on the wall and it illuminates their room! It was pretty neat, the other day their neighbors called us over to talk with them. They said that we were crazy to help them and that there is nothing we can do to help them. She just went on and on and on about how we are wasting our time with them. I got the prompting to give a short message with them. We started to teach about the power of the Atonement. She got really quiet. Then I told her that God loves our investigator (her neighbor) just as much as any other person in this world. Then I told her that we have the authority to change his life. It was pretty awesome! But please pray for him! His name is Luiz Carlos! 

My companion is doing really good! He can teach pretty good and its fun being with him. But we got a call the other day that he is being transferred to another area on wed. We will just have to see where I will go or if I will stay here. Either way I know that our Mission President receives revelation on where we need to go and who we need to be with. 

This week I studied a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Church that he established here on the earth. It was pretty cool. I realized that if people understand the Atonement, they will do anything to accept this gift. If they understand the Atonement they will, read, go to church to show their love for God and the sacrifice of Christ, they will progress, and they will plead to be baptized. The more I study, the more I realize how real this Church is and that this really is THE Church of Jesus Christ. 

I almost sent a package for you this week, but I didn't want to send just a simple card, so I have been putting a few things together to make a cool present! But I am sorry that it wont get to you on time for your birthday, but for sure by Mothers Day! Did Jenna get her card yet? I hope so. 

Wow I couldn't believe the temple of Meridian!! Super Beautiful!! 

Hope you have a wonderful week! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! I am so grateful to have a family so awesome and supportive! Of course I am and will pray for you all always! 

Love, 

Elder Wild

photo: This is what I woke up to. hahaha a river in the street. It rains pretty hard here. But I think that the rain season is almost done. 

April 14, 2014

That's pretty awesome to hear the good things about the new ward. Its good to hear that you guys are having a good time. And you will be able to see the temple be constructed in Meridian!

 My area is Rio Verde. It is a city in the state of Goias. I think there are about 16 missionaries here in the city. We are serving in the Bandeirante area. It is pretty good. I thought that we only needed 8 more priesthood but I think we need 30 more priesthood and a attendance of 100 in the Branch. This last week there were almost 50. Normally there are 80 but I think a lot of people were out of town.

The baptism of that one woman Marta didn't happen yet. She is a seamstress and is really busy. She sewes underwear for a fair that happens every week. She gets paid about $0.50 for every piece. But they turn around and sell them for $17. A bit unjust?  So she was always working and didn't have time to meet with the missionaries. The city cut her water because she didn't have money to pay the water. She worked a lot so that they wouldn't cut the power too because if they do that, she wont have power to work.I hope that she will be baptized here pretty soon.

There was another person that will be baptized shortly too in Caldas Novas. We were walking down the street and Elder Srur talked to this man smoking something. He was very smiley and very happy. (identified what he was smoking) We asked if he had time to hear a lesson. He invited us in and we started talking and sharing a lesson. His sister just returned from the US and asked where I was from. I said Colorado. She said that she wants to live there because a certain drug was legalized there.:( I wanted to leave right then, but we finished the lesson. He went to church by himself that week and we marked a baptism date for him the last week I was in Caldas. Elder Srur got him to stop smoking, and he will be baptized in a few weeks or maybe next week. It is amazing that this gospel really is for everyone and every type of person. 

But we had a baptism in our area the other day. Her name is Luzia. She is 30 years old and has 3 little kids. It was fun to prepare her for her baptism. The branch helped a lot. Now we are focusing on finding families to teach. When we are talking to people in the street, we ask them if they have a family. They normally say yes. Then we ask them how long they have been married? Then they say a few years. Then we ask them if it was a big party in a church or just in the court house. Then the majority of them say they just live together. It is hard to find people that actually are married legally. But the Lord is always putting someone in our path.

When ever we find people that are actually married, we get supper happy! At times over excited! haha This week I got an email from Elder Cavalcante in Iprianga and a family that we taught got married this week, then were baptized! I was pretty excited to hear that!

This week we had a zone conference and it was really good. I learned a lot. It was fun to apply the things that we learned in or teaching. I felt that we improved a lot. They had a lot of cool demonstrations. 

I will pray for Dad to get more work. I hope everything is going well there. It sounds like you guys are having fun!

Have an awesome week! I am always praying for you!!
Love, 

Elder Wild

These are the photos of the people we taught in Jan. and Elder Calvacante got them married and baptized in the last week of his mission!

April 7, 2014

Family!, 

This week was pretty good. My last days in Caldas were good. It was sad to leave, but I was excited to move on to a new area. We went to Goiania and the next day we had a mini transfer meeting and now I am training a missionary in a city called Rio Verde. It is an agriculture town. It is pretty neat! The drive hear was really pretty. There were just fields and fields of sugar cane. I think I was transfered because another missionary went home, so they had to move some things around. My new campanion is Elder Rosa. He is from Rio Grande do Sul. (A state in Brazil) It is pretty fun. We are also living in the same house as another set of missionaries so that is pretty fun. One is from Indiana. I made him that birthday cake that you sent. It was pretty good. 

I also recieved many cards and packages when I went to Goiania. Thank you all very much for sending them! 

Nana and Papa: I really liked your cards and the Life is Good shirt! Thank you very much! Kim and Cris: Thank you for the card and the photos of the air balloon! 

Mom: Thank you for the many cards and the Christmas cards to give out. they will be a good present to give to investigators here in 8 months. 

Conference was really good! We watched the first part of the first session in spanish. Suprisingly I was able to understand a good part of it. Then they figured out how to switch it into portuguese. A little after that an Elder that entered into the MTC the same time as me, but in Provo was super confused. He recieved his visa a few days ago. Serving in Salt Lake for nearly 9 months he did not have a good vocab to listen to conference in portuguese, so the branch president here set up english in another room. All the Americans in our zone watched it in English. And we ate the skittles that Nana sent. It was nice to hear their voices and to snack on a good American treat. 

But I really liked Robert D. Hales and Russell M. Nelson on being obedient and where we are putting our faith. They were really good. I am excited too to read them and study them. 

This week we have a baptism so we will be working hard for everything to work out. It will be a really good week. I am really following the Spirit to a tee so that she will be baptized. This area is pretty key. We just need to baptize 8 more men in our area for this branch to be complete and ready for this District to be made a Stake. This gives incentive to not loose one minute of working. 

But I am glad that everything is going well in Idaho. If things bad come up, just think of President Uchdor´s talk. 

Thank you again for all the packages and for all your support. 

I love you All! 

Elder Wild

March 31, 2014

Family!

You need to check facebook! 

This week was crazy. We found a house and we signed the contract and everything. The branch will start meeting there as soon as the mission sends chairs and a table which will hopefully be this week. It is a way sweet house! It has a pool, bbq, and a soccer field! It is way nice. 

Its a cool story how we found this house. The branch president found this house a few months ago, but the owner was only selling and not renting it. The church wont buy a house because they will buy land and build a chapel when the time is right and the numbers are good and constant. So they would not rent it to us because they just wanted to sell it. (a few months ago). The branch president had a dream about the house and so he went and told the owner about his dream. The owner was in the process of selling the house. (he was closing a contract on the house that week) But the Spirit touched him and he said that this seems like a good reason to rent the house to us. 

President Kuceki came here a few days ago to check it out. He brought the packages!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahahhahahah Thank you so much!! I loved everything! I opened all the envelopes already! The quotes were awesome! I will guard this the whole mission! I loved the duck dynasty tshirt too! Sooo cool! Ties also!!! And I loved the book with all the pictures of our ward friends! THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!!!!! I shed a tear or two. hahahha 

I think I will make the cake today hopefully. We will see. Or wait till our baptism this week. We have been working with this one woman a long time. She wants to get baptized but she hadn't had that strong impression yet. One night she woke up in the middle of the night and prayed if this church was true. That night she dreamed of the 3 witnesses. Pretty awesome!!!!! 

I was worried about you guys this week. I know it was a long drive and a lot of stuff this week, but I prayed a lot for you  guys. I am glad you made it there safe and sound. 

Well this morning was sort of crazy. We called the assistants in Goiania this morning and they said that I will be emergency transferred on thursday.... But I am sure the Lord has a good plan for me. 

Well have a good time unpacking! I am sure it will be lots of fun! Keep working hard because good things will come!

LOVe Elder Wild
Thank you again for the packages!! 

A member in our ward gave us some coconuts. The water in them is really good. 

Here is a picture of the pay phones here. pretty cool huh! 

March 24, 2014

Family!
I imagine that this week/ these last few days have been super fast and stressful. I will log off with a few minutes left so that I can log on later to see how your week went. 

This week we didn't have a cell phone because our chip broke. so we just used the pay phone to call and report our day. I have never used a pay phone until this week. alot of times we would be talking and the phone would use power, so then we would have to go find another one. 

This week we found 24 new investigators. Of them 8 went to church. Alot of people here will recieve us and will not deny us to enter, but they dont want to change their lifestyle. This one man that we found and taught this week was super interesting. We told him to be ready  by 8:30am for us to come by and pick him up. We showed up at 845 and he didnt want to go because we didnt keep our time. But he hadnt been reading or praying so it was a shocker to us. 

We also have been contacting some of the old investigators and they have been doing surprisingly well. This one woman said that she had been praying and everything but she still hadn't received an answer. that night she dreamed about the 3 witnesses. It was pretty cool. this week I read about the 3 witnesses and how they all went in active, but they never denied seeing the plates. 

I hope that you all make it to Idaho safe and sound. sounds like you will be traveling today or some time this week. Have a super safe travel! I will be praying for you. 

That sounds awesome about moab. When we were there me and Brady wished that we could drive an atv or something with a motor when we were riding bikes with the young men. I think that is where Brady developed a love for pedaling. hahaha  It was a pretty good week. A good pday too. Again I am way excited for you guys on the move. It should be a blast. Are you guys packing away the camp trailer too? or is that going to stay in Colorado? I am sure ID will have a lot of good places to camp. I have heard that it is really pretty there and has lots of mountains. You can also visit rexburg and camp at the sand dunes. Those are pretty fun! I remember a lot of weekends out there jumping off the dunes or sledding down them. I am sure you have a blast. 

I am learning a lot from my companion. Especially to not take no for an answer. hahah. It is super funny. At first I would tell them that they just dont want to hear our message, but he told me that we have to get rejected at least 2 times. It is pretty funny when we are marking baptism dates. He is really good at showing the importance of being baptized in the true church. Everyday I learn. 

My time is short, but I love you all and I sent Jenna a little something. Because I cant use my card in the post office, I have to pay with cash. So I used my wells card to buy groceries, and then used the money to send cards. Being in a tourist town, groceries are pretty expensive, so I had the Wells Fargo help me out a bit. 

I hope you guys have a good week. 

Safe drive too!! 

I will be praying for you guys! 

take lots of pictures!

Love Elder Wild

March 17th, 2014

Family, 

This week was pretty good. We traveled to Goiania this week for transfers and to have a mission conference. I think that you will get a photo in your email. It was pretty good. Elder Cruz (of the seventy) talked about how the things we learn on the mission will prepare us for everything in life. Then the transfer meeting came. My area was the last area to be talked about so my heart was pounding pretty hard the whole time. My new companion is from Belem. Elder Srur. (brazilian) He is really awesome. He has 1 year and 9 months so he is almost finishing, but he is a great missionary. He is also an assistant to the president so that is pretty cool to be his companion to learn stuff from him. Everyday I learn a lot. 

We worked super hard this week when we returned to caldas novas. We found 24 new investigators, but none of them went to church. They were all sleeping and wouldn't wake up to our whistling and yelling and clapping. haha I don't think they are ready.

We taught this one group of boys this week. The second we walked in their house it was just the smell of pot. I thought o great, but you never know, everyone needs to be invited to repent. We committed them to all come to church on Sunday. On the follow up lesson we taught the word of wisdom. We talked about the things that are bad for our body. Then we asked if they wanted our help to live this commandment by taking all their substances in their house and throwing them away. They accepted our help! We asked for their cigarettes, they gave them to us, we asked them if they had weed, but they said they didn't.... I didn't believe them, but didn't want to fight this battle. We asked if they read the pamphlet on the restoration we gave to them. They pulled it from under the sofa and said this one? it had pieces ripped out of it. (it was obvious that they used the paper to role their marijuana cigarettes) we just invited them to church, then left. it was a good experience. 

This sunday we had splits to bring our investigators to church. Elder Srur went with a dad in the ward (Jovelino) and I went with his son Tiago. It was super fun. He is 23 and has autism to a pretty high degree. I am not saying this as a joke, just to describe the situation. He cant count to 10 and has the intelligence of a 5 year old. But it was so fun to look for investigators. We would arrive in the front of a house and he would just shout wake up! wake up! come to church! It was awesome!! 

Also this week we had a cool experience. There was a man that moved here and is a member. Because we are just a branch, there is nothing on the church site that says that we exist. So he was asking everyone in the city if they heard of us. He got the prompting to just wait. We were on the same street on this moment, but a few blocks ahead walking the opposite direction going towards an appointment. We got the prompting to turn around and walk towards the center of Caldas Novas. As we were walking down this street there was a man standing there and I got the prompting to talk to him. As soon as he turned around and saw us he couldn't speak. He was so happy. He just showed us his temple recommend. haha it was a really cool experience! He was there on sunday and super happy to be a part of this branch. 

Well I am really excited for you guys to move! It should be fun. Always remember to have a happy attitude. even when you are dead tired. No one want to work with grumpy people. hahahaha. Sounds like the Bishop is a real nice guy. Dont be afraid to let them help you. It will be a blessing for them just as much as it will be for you. 

Congrats Jayson and Spencer on your Eagle! Every American on the mission has his Eagle! Way to Go

Have a super good week and know that I am praying for you all! 

Love you all 

Elder Wild