December 11, 2017 Baptism and a transfer!

Hello! This week was super good! It really payed off because we worked super hard and we did everything we could. The rain is always good haha its an escape from the hot weather. My toes are still really bad and its going to get worse now that I AM BEING TRANSFERED. I will leave on tuesday for the hottest area in the mission, and the most crazy haha. I am being transfered for Pirapora. I am excited to go and serve there. I have to take a five hour bus ride but I am excited. So I have no idea what i will be doing for christmas yet so sorry ha. But My new companion will be elder figereido. And I am excited to serve with him because he only has one more transfer than i do. So it will be super good! I am being positive about it ha. I am almost done packing all my things.

This week was super cool. I had some great experiences. For one Maria de lourdes was baptized and confirmed! It was amazing to see how happy she was and that she took the most important step in her life. We worked really hard with her because she had lots of problems this week and so we had to run to her house so many times and her house is way far away from our apartment and basically everything in the city. But it definitely payed off. I am so grateful for my companion elder graça too because he taught me so many things. Sometimes we didnt get along very well but we always made up and worked super hard. We are actually really great friends. He told me his experience about life and the mission and it made me think about my past life. And how I had it so much easier than he did. One thing that is sad is that he cant even write his mom. His mom doesnt know how to read or write and so he only gets to speak to her 6 or 7 times a year. Maybe more but he told me thats why he doesnt spend much time with emailing. It made me realize how blessed I am and how I shouldnt be prideful or complain. I need to be more humble and he taught me a lot about humility. This week was super good to learn and to just work hard. Friday we had a division with the zone leaders and it was very helpful. We were able to work in their area while it was pouring rain... Seriously the rain here is like the rain off jumanji.... hahaha. But yesterday we were teaching Valter and he uses the computer to watch a youtube video and pray. And we sat there with him to support him and watch him while he prays. I thought to myself.... How grateful i am to have the gospel in my life. The book of mormon. and prayer. Prayer is not something that you recite every day or every night. It is a conversation with our heavenly father and he really wants to hear you talk and talk with you. Prayer is so so so important and it is important that we pray every day. I love Alma 37:36-37 because it talks about how important prayer is and how we need to counsel with the lord in everything we do! 

 I am grateful for the opportunity I have to be here. I am happy to hear that camron killed it and will do so great in the field. and Chris has always been a stud to me. He is awesome and he will do even better. I am sorry to hear about Zack Vernon and his mom. They are both in my prayers and him serving a mission will help so much. Afonso will be hard to leave especially because I may not see him again but i will keep in contact with him and always talk to him. If I need anything more I will let you know before I get off. Love you!! 

Elder Bestenlehner

December 4, 2017

December 4, 2017

Hello - Elder Bestenlehner let me know that so far he has received 23 cards from all of you!  Thank you so much!!


Dear Friends and Family

My toes are doing better but they still need work hahaha. But thats ok. I work during the day anyways and I am learning to get used to it. But other than that I am doing super great and we are meeting lots of people to teach! Our investigators are doing great too. This week was super slow mainly because of the rain....

But this week was also super good too! We had a really hard time finding people to teach and talking to people on the streets mainly because it was pouring rain all week. And not just simple rain. I mean super super super strong rainfall ha. But it was so fun too. Because usually we dont get much rain here but all of a sudden it decided to rain here. It was funny because last night and saturday night was some of the strongest rainfalls i have ever seen. Saturday night we arrived at home early and decided to leave to place some books of mormon. So we left and began to find people when all of a sudden the rain came. We had to stand under a building and just watch. We watched the streets become rivers and cars that were parked become covered with water. The time was running out before we had to be home so we decided to run in the rain so we could make it home in time. We were literally running in rivers hahaha. We were helping remove things out of the road too because the rain carried lots of pieces of wood and other things. It was so fun and a super cool experience. I have pictures!

But before all that happened we were able to teach the restoration to Juliao. He is super awesome. We were trying to contact references during the whole day and nothing was working, and we were almost lost. But then we realized that we were in the front of his house and so we decided to visit him. And he let us in and so we taught the restoration, it was so amazing and you could feel the spirit. We invited him to read and to be baptized and he accepted! Also we visited maria lurdes and maristella this week and they want to be baptized soon too. Specifically maria who will be baptized saturday hopefully! 

Then last night was a super spiritual experience too. Last night was a devotional for christmas for all of the wards in our stake. We were there waiting and ready to support Afonso, our recent convert because we was going to sing in front of everyone! But then the rain came again and elder tenorio and i decided to help people enter the church because the rain was horrific. We decided to sacrifice our clothes and dryness too haha but it was so worth. I loved the opportunity I had to help people stay dry and enter the church because I really saw the blessings of service. It was amazing. And we were able to help afonsos uncle and aunt enter the chuch because they wanted to see him and they werent members. They were able to see him sing and watch the devotional. But we missed afonso sing because we were still helping. But I know he did great, and it turns out that his aunt and uncle loved the church and want to learn more. Service is the best way to make someones day and talk about our church! and we have the opportunity to serve every day this month. Seja a luz do mundo!!

Nov 27, 2017

 I hope your week was super awesome!! My week was super slow but it was really rewarding because I learned a lot of small things this week. The small things are what helps us become greater. My toes are the same haha but they are getting a little bit better too, I still need to ask for a blessing because I always forget. That is so cool that mitch came out there for the weekend. How is he? He doesnt email me much hahaha neither does chris. Halli is the only faithful sister in the family besides you and dad. Thank you for always caring about me and sharing things that I need to hear. It really helps me. 

This week was super good but also really hard. We didnt have much success this week and the greater part of our investigators with a date for baptism fell through and so we dont have many people to teach. But we also found some people to teach and we just decided to be missionaries this week and do our part. We have an investigator whose name is Maria Lurdes and she is progressing a lot! She wants to be baptized but she needs to come to church more. She came to church yesterday and absolutely loved it. She is a bit more older and she tends to forget things often haha. But it was awesome to just teach her about the gospel and make those long walks up the giant hills just to make her day and the days of other people. Maristella is doing good too. She wants us to teach the law of chastity to her and to her boyfriend again so they can make a plan for marriage. We hope that she takes this next step for baptism. We have an appointment with her on Wednesday. Valter, the pastor, is progressing too! He came to church yesterday and he is changing his heart ha he is super cold inside and so it is best to just love him and teach with Charity. We are also teaching the son of rosalia. He has a huge problem with drugs and beer. He is super addicted and we are trying to help him because we want him to have the gospel. He is so addicted that it is to the point where he sells things in home just to get drugs. We decided to fast for him and for our other investigators so that we could see miracles in our work. We had six investigators in sacrament meeting yesterday and it was so amazing to see our ward just packed with people. Elder Graça and I want to have one more baptism before the transfer ends and so we are working hard with our investigators and doing all that we can. And we know that the lord will do the rest. This week I had the opportunity to teach a very old lady who was 90 years old. Actually we were walking in the street and Elder Graça told me to talk to her and her daughter. They were on a balcony and so I started to talk to them and they let us in. She told us that she always loved to receive the missionaries. She began to tell me all about her life while elder graça spoke with her daughter. When she finished, i gave her a book of mormon and she smiled and began to thank me so much for my kindness to her. I realized that night that maybe nothing will come out of that visit and maybe she wont be baptized or be an investigator. But I realized that she needed the missionaries that specific night and she needed our love. I realized that we are truly representatives of our savior jesus christ and we can make lots of visits like that just to make someones day. I also learned that you have to be able to get along with your companion because if you dont, you wont be able to teach and you wont feel the spirit. But everything between me and elder graça is good! He is awesome and I am learning so much from him. I also helped with a baptism that the other elders had and it was amazing to just see how baptism helps people to become clean and to start a new life. I know that this is the right path and that the book of mormon is so important. Without the book of mormon, we would not have the church restored on the earth. I am also really grateful for Joseph Smith who decided to ask our heavenly father one simple question, that turned into the most amazing experience. Leia o livro de mormon, pergunte se ele é verdadeiro. Nosso pai celestial vai responder para você. I LOVE YOU ALL! 

Thankfulness and A baptism!

Hey everyone,

It is definitely raining here a lot and guess what..... I have two infections in my toes. It turns out that my ingrown toenails did not heal haha. But I have to be super careful. My week was super good! It was super tiring and super painful because of my toes but it was rewarding in the end! 

This week we really focused on helping others arrive in sacrament meeting because we needed more investigators in sacrament meeting. We taught a lot of lessons and we met a lot of people!! We have two new investigators named maria ludia and angela. They are not progressing a lot because they wont come to church, but we are helping them! I am excited to teach them anyways. We also were able to help the sisters this week in their area and no one accepted us hahaha. It was very hard because we were rejected so many times. After that we taught maristella and natasha, but we found out that maristella and her boyfriend are living together and so we have to set a date for marriage with them, for her to be baptized. But we know that everything will be fine!!

I was able to experience something amazing this week too. Afonso was baptized on saturday and confirmed on sunday!!!!! It was so amazing to see the change and to see how happy he was. What made it even better was that I got to help him and I was the one who baptized him. It was the first time I had ever baptized anyone or helped someone to be baptized. Wow, what an experience. I will never forget the feeling that came from just helping him. I cant imagine how he felt haha. But it was super cool especially in portugues. I am so grateful for Afonso too. Wow he has a powerful testimony already and it was amazing to see the gospel change his life. He is super awesome and I will never lose contact with him! He is definitely like my brother now! It was such a cool week and super rewarding because we worked so hard and just to see him make this powerful step made all the difference! It was super cool. I know that baptism is such essential in our lives and that through the gospel and through our savior Jesus Christ we can do all things!! I love the gospel so much! The power of the atonement is real and the power of the priesthood changes lives.

I love the work and I am excited for more. Yes ofcourse it is super hard when you arent having lots of success but I learned something super powerful this weekend. Alamo, the first counselor to the bishop spoke with us about motivation. He said that we as normal humans look at things or look at the future and tend to say, No i want to stay in my comfortable zone. But he said that true disciples of christ look at the future or look at a challenge and say, Yes it will be hard but i have god on my side. And they continue on. How powerful. Sempre fique firme nas coisas que nosso pai celestial nos deu. Temos ele em nosso lado!! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!!

 I am grateful for you and for our family. For my savior jesus christ and the love he shows me every day. For my Heavenly Father, and all of the gifts and counsels he has given me! I love this gospel and the book of mormon and I am so grateful for everything in my life. I will look towards the future with god on my side. Love you so much!!

Elder Bestenlehner

November 13, 2017 The power of the Book of Mormon

Dear Everyone,

This week was absolutely amazing. I saw the hand of the savior in my life and in the lives of others more than ever before!! This week was amazing because Elder Graça and I fasteed with Afonso on tuesday so he could recieve an answer about the book of mormon and about this path for him. It was very brutal because its super hot here and we wanted to eat food ha but it was so amazing because we fasted with strength and we didnt complain. Afonso remained strong too. And blessings definitely came after that. The night that we ended the fast with him, he told us that every time he is around us he can feel the light and he can feel the spirit testifying to him. He said that he is reading the book of mormon every day and trying to read with real intent. He loves the book of mormon. He also told us that he wants to serve a mission too. He is 23 years old and that night he was struggling so we asked him if he would like a blessing of comfort. I gave the blessing and in that blessing I could feel the spirit so strongly, and then all of a sudden I dont know why I said it but I did, I told him that he would serve a mission and ended the blessing. After that blessing he said, Wow I love this feeling. It was so powerful and so amazing to see him changing. I have been teaching him and visiting him for two months now, he is more like my Brother than anything else right now. 

Then on saturday we visited him and he brought a friend. We taught his friend and Afonso testified to her about the book of mormon and how the book of mormon brings paz and it is truly an addiction to read. I started to cry when he bore that testimony ha. But after that he watched a Baptism of another person in the ward Barroca, and he told us that he had something to tell us on Sunday, yesterday. Elder Graça and I were very excited and we waited for him in the church because he was participating in the choir. After that we sat down together and he began to draw for us. When he finished drawing, it was a picture of his baptism and confirmation, and it had him becoming a member of the church!! He is going to be baptized on Saturday! He bore testimony to us and he said that no matter how many temptations he has this week he will be strong. I cried then too. The power of prayer and of fasting is real and I have a strong testimony of this now. I remember when he didnt believe in the book of mormon, but now he does and he has a testimony, he loves this church and he loves everything about the testimony and answer he recieved. How amazing is the gospel of jesus christ and the book of mormon. Wow. The book of mormon is powerful and truly is the most amazing book we have on the planet right now. I know for a fact that the book of mormon is true and has the power to change lives. What an amazing experience that I will never forget. 

This week was also really awesome because Arthur, a teenager, who we are teaching he decided to be baptized saturday too. And we had lots of people in sacrament meeting and we have lots of people to teach. I can truly see the blessings that the lord gives us when we work hard and trust in him. Pray for Afonso, Arthur, Maristella and Natasha. So they can feel the desire to join our church and gain a testimony like we have. I am so grateful for the Atonement and for the opportunity I have to teach the people of brazil and see the change in their hearts. Sei que esta igreja é verdadeira e que meu salvador Jesus Cristo, ele vive. Ele nos ama. Ele vai proporcionar milagres em nossas vidas se nos confiarmos nele!!! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! Dont forget to always pray, read the scriptures, attend church, and be Happy!!!

This week was amazing! The miracles that I saw and the things that I experienced I will never forget. The language is getting better and I am super excited for the future and for this week. I know that Heavenly Father will help me and will help you too!! Love you!

Elder Bestenlehner

Hard work and obedience

This week was very tiring but super awesome. I learned a very important thing this week. 

Elder Graça is super awesome and he is a super hard worker!! We worked so hard this week and we have 7 people with a date for baptism. But our main investigators are having difficulties with some things that I cant tell but they are trying to do better and I love to see them working hard and preparing for baptism. This week i learned an important lesson about teaching through the spirit. It is important that we are constantly guided by the spirit so we can know what to say and how to say it. I had two experiences this week where I didnt follow the spirit and I said something that didnt sound right or was offensive in some way, and we almost lost two of our investigators. It was supér hard for me especially because I was honestly trying to help them, I just said one little thing wrong. But right now I am learning how to listen to the spirit fully when teaching. It was just two little but big mistakes.. Other than that I listen to the spirit and so say things that the Holy Ghost can testify to them!! But We always need to start with a prayer too, prayer is essential and it brings the spirit in the room more than any other thing. It was a good week to learn new things and to work super hard in this hot weather. One funny story that happened this week was that I was sitting down with Elder Graça between two buildings, and a bunch of little kids ran up to me and said,, Do you speak english!? Speak English for us!! it was so funny and super cute, but then a man in an apartment came out of the window and said oh look its the mormons!! Ha and all of the little kids started to call him Santa Claus..... It was so funny and super strange too. but in portugues it is funnier because Santa is Papai Noel! He looked nothing like santa claus but the little kids were just pestering him haha. But Other than that we are struggling a little bit here in Gutierrez because the work is really hard and super slow, everyone else is baptizing and so it makes it hard for us. Our ward is super weak and needs llots of help. So we are trying to help them and trying to teach at the same time. We are fasting and praying a lot for the ability to do both of those things. But other than that this week was super good. Elder graça likes to work hard and to joke around, but he said that he likes to be super obedient and so do I! I learned a great lesson too about our savior Jesus Christ, We were teaching with Afonso the other day and he was talking with Elder Graça, and afonso told me to pick some song to play for us. And I saw "You raise me up" By Josh Groban I love this song so much, and I started to cry when we listened to it beacuse he truly raises us up to do marvelous things in our lives. He will raise me up to move mountains to walk on stormy seas and to love the people of Brazil. Sei que meu salvador Jesus Cristo vive e que ele nos ama. EU AMO VOCÊS!! Tenha uma boa semana!! 

The package arrived on monday and I basically ate everything in the package already because I miss american candy hahaha. But thank you so much, it helped me a lot!!! And I am trying to find batteries in brazil but I havent found good ones yet ha, but the fans are great, I just need to find batteries for them. Love you! Thank you for everything you do for me and all the prayers!! LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I probably wont send pictures this week.. sorry ha. 

Elder Bestenlehner

Transfers!

Dear Family and friends

This week was super great! My last week with Elder Dedeco! So Transfers came this week and Elder Dedeco is leaving for Montes Claros! The hottest area in the mission haha, he is going to be a Zone Leader there! I am going to be staying here in Gutierrez and my new Companion will be Elder Graça! He is from Africa!! From what I have heard he is a super cool person but not a hard worker, I am going to use your advice and be exactly obedient in all things. I am excited though and I know that the Lord has plans for Elder Graça and I! This week was a little bit hard for us too because we honestly thought that Alfonso was going to be baptized but he didnt pass the interview. So we need to wait more time and he told us that he wants to make sure that he is completely ready for Baptism. Elder Dedeco wont see him be Baptized but thats ok! It was cool to actually have one of those missionary experiences where you think everything will be perfect and that all will work out fine but then all of a sudden everything falls. I honestly was sad for a hour because I wanted him to be baptized on sunday or saturday but I know that everything will work out in the end! 

We had a couple of Family Home Evenings this week to and it was super cool to feel the spirit. One of our other investigators, Italo, he was with me at one Family Home Evening and he honestly wanted to learn more and change his life!! It as amazing to testify of the power that the Atonement brings and that we can all be saved through our Savior Jesus Christ!! Elder dedeco and I also found a group of 5 teenagers, all boys, and when we were teaching them I could just imagine all of them in church as a quorum strong and ready to serve. It was super cool and I want to visit them again this week. It has been hard to contact Jorgina because she doesnt want to see us anymore. We are still praying for her though. Maristella wasnt in Church on Sunday but we set a date for her for Baptism on the 18 of november! I am going to visit her more with Elder Graça. We have another investigator named Valter and at first he didnt want to change at all and wasnt really open to many things, but then on sunday he told us he is reading the Book of Mormon and he believes that the parts he is reading are true! It is amazing to see the difference that the Book of Mormon makes in the lives of others!

Most of the week was just anxiety for Transfers ha, It is normal for everyone to be nervous the last week of the transfer! I am excited for more to come and I have so much faith that everything will be ok! I love you all and Hope  you all have a great week!! 

Thank you for sharing all of those things with me. I needed to hear those things especially since I am super nervous for this next transfer. Because I need to explain everything and take control on some things here because Elder Graça doesnt know the area.... But I have faith that the lord will help me with the language and with what will come. I am getting better though and learning more and more that I have my own experiences and I cant compare myself with others. I just want to feel the spirit so strongly every day and be guided by the spirit too. But I know that through exact obedience and my faith that miracles will happen. I am always praying for the family and I am so grateful for you all! I am happy to know that through my service here you will all be blessed. The people that will be living in my house are: Elder Graça, Elder Tenorio, and Elder Keim. And you dont need to do anything special with the notebook, it will be fine if you just send it here please ha! Thank you mom. Love you so much and if I need anything else I will let you know! LOVE YOU! oh and I dont have pictures right now but I will try and send some later haha I don't have batteries for my camera...

Love,

Elder Bestenlehner

Happy Feet happy missionary

This week was super good, and super spiritual for me. Our investigators are doing great. Alfonso lost contact with us for a couple of days and we were worried but he came to church on sunday and said that everything was ok. He will probably be baptized this week. Since transfers are the week after this week we want to baptize him because Elder dedeco and I started to teach him and found him. He is super awesome and already is gaining a testimony of the church! Maristella is doing good but it has been a hard week for her because a member of her family passed away and she is having some doubts about the priesthood authority in our church. We dont really get the chance to teach her much except for on sunday in church ha. We also met a new man called Valter this week. He is super old and is evangelical! But he is super nice and he likes it when we talk to him. He came to church and during the classes he shared his opinions, it was kind of awkward for everyone but everyone just loved him anyways. Jorgina is hard to reach now. We actually taught her yesterday because she let us in but I will talk about that later because its a funny story.

I had lots of cool experiences this week. I was able to see the power of the restoration once again in the lives of others. Elder Dedeco and I were walking and a man who was drunk stopped us and said he needed help and that he had been searching for us. So we sat down with him and we started to share the restoration with him. It was so amazing because he really listened. When I explained what the book of mormon was and how it can help others he started to cry, and I bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and he said "Bacana" which means amazing in Portugues. After that Elder Dedeco invited him to be baptized and he accepted. He doesnt live in our area but it truly testified to me that the lord is preparing people for us. Another cool but funny experience that happened was that the other day we were walking and two ladies that were also drunk stopped us in front of a bar. One said "OH its the mormons!!" In portugues and we taught both of them. But it was so hard because it was in front of a bar and they were drunk ha, when we gave one of them a pamphlet, the other screamed at me and said "why didnt you give me one!?" It was funny but I told them that god loves them and that our savior jesus christ loves them too. We were there so to listen and talk to them about Christ. 

Sunday was super hard to teach and to visit people because Atletico and Cruzeiro were playing each other ha. In soccer. I am an Atleticano! I like Atletico! But so many others like Cruzeiro. It was funny because we started to teach Jorgina during the game because we couldnt really turn off all of the tvs ha. And you know how hard it is for me to avoid soccer, it is impossible. I started to say the last prayer and the game ended and Atletico beat Cruzeiro 3-1 and everyone started to scream and go crazy with fireworks and all sorts of things ha. So i hurried and ended the prayer because no one could hear me! It is crazy because it is truly real when they say that in brazil during the game everywhere is dead silent and no one is on the street. But when someone scores or when the game ends everyone goes crazy!!!! Atletico and Cruzeiro are the teams that live in Minas Gerais, the state that I am in, so ofcourse everyone went crazy ha. The language is coming along slowly, I am corrected over 100 times each week but I have faith it will come for sure. This is my last week with Elder Dedeco probably since transfers are on the 1 of november and he will leave since I am finishing training. But I love you all and eu sei que esta igreja é uma igreja verdadeira. Eu sei que meu salvador Jesus Cristo vive e que nosso pai celestial nos ama muito!! AMO VOCÊS! Tenham uma boa semana! 

Caden will do such a great job next sunday, I am excited to hear how it went.  I can't wait to hear where Camron is going! I love both of those guys ha. and michael but I havent heard from him in ages. Love you!! Thank you for everything you do for me. Miss you so much and I am always praying for you dad and our family! The one picture is of me and Elder dedeco. I bought a flag of Atletico for me and to play a prank on Elder Coutinho because he loves Cruzeiro and so we hung it up in his room and the second is this cool view that I saw at lunch the other day. Love you!

Elder Bestenlehner

A Painful end to a great week 10/16/17

So this week was really awesome and really painful haha. I will explain later. The language is coming really slow but I have faith and I understand a lot more so I am grateful for that. But First of all our Investigators are doing great, Alfonso is progressing and his baptism is this saturday. Maristella finally accepted to visit with us again because all she does is attend church, she has a fear of baptism. Jorgina is practically not wanting anything anymore. At one of our home evenings for elder coutinho she was there and I talked to her and tryed to regain her trust but when we tried to visit her the next day she would not accept us. But this week we worked really hard and found lots of new people and set some others with a date for baptism. We are hoping to have more baptisms soon but the next transfer is two weeks away and either I or Elder Dedeco will leave. 

This week we had a lot of family home evenings with members and it was so fun!! There was so much food and so much laughter. We had a home evening in the area of our sisters in our district and it was fun because the lady we visited was a boxer and so Elder Coutinho and I we boxed ha. The other Home evening we had was in the home of Rosalia and Alfonso was there too! It was so spiritual because Elder Coutinho bore his testimony since he is leaving for home this next transfer. And I made everyone laugh with something strange I did with my throat that sounds like a turkey. Alfonso was laughing so hard that he couldnt breathe. We also had a lot of opportunities to serve other people this week which was so awesome. We taught a lot of first lessons and we hope that the people we taught will read the Book of Mormon. Without the book of mormon, we cant teach very much. It was just a good week to work hard and help others. I also played soccer with some kids on friday because every friday night we share a message at the chapel for soccer. It was super fun!

 Lets talk about Saturday.... So this week I found out that I have two ingrown toenails and it turns out that the smaller one was infected and was bleeding a lot and was hurting so much!! So I called Sister Fernandes and she told me to go to a lady in the area of Elder Coutinho. So I went with Elder Coutinho yesterday to the lady because no one was there Saturday. And she works with these kinds of things and so she had to remove it herself. The one on the right or the smaller one was more infected and a lot harder to pull out, it was at the very bottom of the nail. So she started to work on it and wow.... It hurt so bad. She was working on it for over ten minutes and so I had ten minutes of pure pain. I was grasping the side of the chair so hard and I started to sweat too. Ha it was terrible. The bigger one wasnt that bad. But she taught me more how to cut my nails and keep them safe ha. It was crazy. But this week I learned a lot about Patience and how not everyone will accept our messages. Its so hard because you just want everyone to be baptized and see the beauty of the gospel but since in the lords plan, people have agency, and so we have to accept that and juse love and serve. Love you all and I am so grateful to be on the mission here in Brazil. Sei que o evangelho de Jesus Cristo é verdadeiro e que o Livro de Mormon é essencial! 

Oh and I need you to get on Facebook and change things about my profile and stuff like pictures the name and put some pictures on my profile because some of the members here want the photos! If you can that will be amazing! And if I need anything else I will let you know! 

Elder Bestenlehner

October 9, 2017

Hey Mom!! Sorry I sent you a new one but it was hard to respond because of the pictures haha I loved the pictures though!! Mainly because we dont have anything like the trees and mountains here in Belo Horizonte, just a lot of houses, buildings, and hot weather ha. I am glad to hear that your week went well and that is so cool that Hailey had her baby!! I forgot she was going to be having a baby soon. Camrons call will come for sure haha but I definitely would not have lasted. I love brother Danley so much and he is one of the reasons I am out here too, he has inspired me with his love and his example in all things. Braelyn is still super cute and I loved all of the pictures ha.

This week was definitely hard and really slow. Mainly because Elder Dedeco, my companion, is having trouubles with his back so it was really hard for us to really work hard this week. But I still had some amazing experiences. For example, I was able to give him two blessings of healing and I did it all in portugues and it was so amazing. I love the opportunity I have to give blessings and bless the lives of others through the priesthood. Wednesday was a super cool day because we had splits with our zone leaders. I was with Elder Bishop, he will end his mission in December but it was awesome to work with him, he is from washington dc. But it was cool because we ended up teaching a family of 7 people the restoration and you could just feel the spirit so strong!! I was able to quote the first vision and it was amazing how the restoration brings the spirit and testifies to all people. It was even more cool when I found out that three of those seven people live in our area. So we are going to teach them this week!! One sad thing this week was that Jorgina doesnt want anything more from us. Apparently she heard a rumour from a friend that the missionaries just want to eat and not teach. So she has stopped coming to church and other things like that. We want to keep teaching her and are not going to give up! Our other investigator who is really strong is Alfronso. He will be baptized this saturday we hope!! He is awesome and he has told us that he wants to work in the church and be apart of what we do. He is a professional singer. Wow the other day he sang andre bocelli for us and it was so amazing. I have a video that I will send another week ha. And after that we taught a lesson about the gospel of jesus christ and the spirit was so strong during that too. I was able to testify about the holy ghost and about the gift of tongues because he asked about it. He will definitely be baptized, he just needs to obey a couple of commandments first!! Other than that this week was just a lot of walking and helping others which is totally ok, I was able to talk to some of the presidents sons friends at soccer on friday night about my past life with soccer and other cool things too. Sunday was super amazing too. I was fasting for help with the language and for our investigators and wow does fasting help. I bore my testimony in almost perfect portugues and it was so amazing. And in front of president fernandes also because he lives in our area!! Some of the counselors and leaders joked with me afterwards and said that I dont need to talk in church again because I basically gave a talk for my testimony. It is true sometimes I dont see that my portugues is really good or not but I definitely recognize the gift of tongues in my life and the miracles that my heavenly father has provided for me. I love to see how the gospel changes lives, I have heard so many stories in our ward already. So many people love the missionaries and tell us their experiences and it warms my heart and gives me energy to serve our heavenly father. Love you all and I am so grateful for all of you!!

Thanks for sharing all of those things with me mom. It really helped me and I am super excited the day when I become fluent in portugues, I know that heavenly father with help me and that I will help his children through his blessings. Sou grato por este evangelho de Jesus Cristo, e a oportunidade eu tenho ser um missionário. Estou animado a servir meu salvador Jesus Cristo e ajudar outras pessoas em todas as lugares!! Eu te amo mãe!! LOVE YOU

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_XLj-cBnNCkdzRVTHRKblBmVWs/view

A link to Andrew's latest video. It is on Google drive so I think you will need a google account.

October 2, 2017 100 days!!

Hey mom!! I dont think I want to stay dry hahah did you know that here in belo horizonte it hasnt rained for 135 days.... and friday it finally rained!! I will talk about that later haha. I am definitely feeling better and i know that the blessing that dad gave me helped me so much! And we are waiting for a while to have the baptims because we want to be able to confirm them the next day and we couldnt do that with conference this last weekend. But other than that things are going super great here!! I loved conference so much.. I will talk about that in a second ha but Wow was it powerful. And I love what you shared with me, Elder Eryings talk and Elder Andersons talk were some of my favorites for sure. Elder Anderson´s talk blew my mind. This week was really good though!! Full of fun times and good experiences. Lets talk about friday! Friday was amazing because of the rain haha. But since it had not rained in 135 days in Belo Horizonte, we were basically dying because of the heat. It is so hot every day, and so when it started to pour down, we couldnt help but dance with joy ha. You need to watch the video I will send because it is funny and truly what we did for about an hour. But other than that we had lots of splits this week too. I was with Elder Coutinho for most of the week besides saturday and sunday. I was helping the other elders with their area because they are having a difficult time. But Saturday was awesome, we had an activity for the youth in our ward, we wanted to provide a mini mtc for them. We were so excited to help all of them, but our joy was killed when only one showed up because of the rain. It turned out ok though because we helped him learn a lot more things and just had fun!! And then we watched conference which was absolutely amazing. Wow I really loved one talk where he spoke about using the glasses of the gospel. And how when we use our glasses of the gospel we see things in different ways and we are a lot more happier. I really loved that and I plan on using my glasses for the gospel for the rest of my life. And did you notice how most of the talks given were about service and the book of mormon. It was amazing and I absolutely love the book of mormon. I liked the question that was asked, "Where would your life be without the book of mormon." And I thought about it for a while and the correct answer that I came up with was lost. I am so grateful for the book of mormon in my life. Wow I love to read it every day and it helps me to have joy and strengthens me in times of weakness. I am so grateful that I have the book of mormon in my life and I am excited to help others see the significance too. Our investigators are doing great and Alfonso came to conference on sunday!! It was perfect because conference sunday was the best possible conference for an investigator, I was absolutely shocked. But what shocked me even more was that he told us he will be baptized and he wants a calling in the church. How amazing!!! We still need to help him with a couple of things beforehand but I am so excited for him. Jorgina didnt come to any of the sessions but I think it is because she is taking care of her sister, we dont know for sure. And how powerful was the talk that Elder Anderson gave. He confirmed the truthfulness of all the other talks in conference and added his own testimony to make it perfect. Wow I love the gospel. It was a great week to feel the spirit. When I saw the conference center I couldnt help but feel a little sad I wasnt with my family, but It made me even more happy when I got to talk to many people about the beauty of temple square. I definitely felt the spirit so strongly this weekend and I hope all of you did too!!! I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week. O evangelho de Jesus Cristo é verdadeiro e O Livro de Mormon é a palavra de Deus. Sei que essas coisas são verdadeiras com todo meu coração!!!Thank you for sharing everything you shared with me mom. Especially about the last part with the man who told me that. I already love all of the people here and I want to be here more than anything in the world. The only problem is that my portugues stops me from reaching full potential but I know that heavenly father will help me. Like Elder Erying said, "Buscai-me em cada pensamento, não duvideis, não temeis." Doubt not, fear not. I have so much faith and my portugues gets better every day. I am truly so Blessed and I am so grateful to have a great mom like you and an amazing family!! I am excited to discover more reasons of why I am here in brazil but I know i am here for a purpose. oh and I have a couple questions and concerns. How long do I need to use my retainers? and My credit card that you gave me doesnt work in atms haha so thats about it! If I need to tell you anything else I will. Love you!!!

                            This is Elder Fernandes - his parents were Mitch's mission president and his wife. Andrew met him at zone conference right before he went home. Fun!

September 25

Sept 25

Hey!!! Thank you for sharing what you learned in Conference, it really helped me in my faith and how I should help other people! No fear!!! That is good to hear that everything is going well back home, I always pray for you all and hope you are doing well. Our investigators right now are doing great and the majority of them are progressing, we are hoping to have a couple baptisms on the 7th! We are working hard and trying our best. Most people don't know this but where I am serving right now the people are more closed and dont want to change very much. My companion said that it is better outside of Belo Horizonte, but it doesnt matter to me because I will probably stay here for another two transfers. 

This week was pretty hard for me and really good at the same time.  I am having that same problem I had with my eyes again here in brazil. And for the majority of the week I was sick but I didn't stay in our house I still worked and pushed through it. I don't know what the source is and maybe you do? But this week was a great week to learn more things and just love the people. This week we had a lot of splits inside our own district. I was with Elder Tenorio for three days this week haha. But it was awesome. Every Wednesday I have the opportunity to help with an English class at a high school and for the ward and it is so fun to help there!! The teachers name is Joaquim and he basically speaks english too ha, he is super nice and he gave me a huge compliment the other day, he said this "Even though you don't speak the language that much, you are not like the other americans I have seen, You are like them in appearence but inside you have the heart of a Brazilian." This made me really happy, because I seriously love all of the brazilians here and i love to joke with them. Also something funny that came out of that class was that later on Elder Tenorio told me that all the girls in the class were talking about me after the class ended and Joaquim heard and tried to introduce them to me haha it was weird..... But the other days we mainly focused on our investigators, Jorgina is our investigator that is closest to Baptism, she is amazing, she told us that she drank coffee all the time and we challenged her to stop drinking coffee and the next day she stopped and substituted it for something else, she has such a strong faith and wants to do whats right for her family, she is 65 years old! And our other Investigator Alfonso is progressing too, he had a hard time with some of our teachings but he is starting to read the book of mormon and we hope he will accept it. Friday I got the chance to be senior Companion again and it was super fun and I love the experience it brings. This week was super good and the language is hard, sometimes I feel like I am not progressing at all but I know that the lord does not let his servants fail!!! Something crazy that happened last night was that a small house that was a library too caught on fire, it was so close to our apartment!! Elder Coutinho and I watched it all happen. But I love you all and thank you everybody for everything you do for me! I know this gospel is true, without a doubt. I love the opportunity I have to represent the savior in all that I do and just show an amazing amount of love for everyone. I always love to help the people here and talk with them and I imagine its exactly how the savior was when he was on the earth. Jesus Christ loves all of you and he wants you all to be happy, always remember that he is with you. Tenha uma boa semana!!!!

Oh and I might need a new binder for my jornal, just because I cant fit more papers in the one I have now. And one of the missionaries here wants a jornal like I have that has the thing about joseph smith, "All these things shall give thee experience." you know the one haha. If I think of anything more I will tell you before I get off. The pictures basically represent this week, the first one is an amazing view and sunset and the other one is just us being us ha. LOVE YOU 

Sept 18

This week was super good! I loved every part of this week. It was funny because everyone was worrying about transfers this week, my companion thought he was being transferred for sure, he even packed all of his things yesterday, but he isnt being transfered because he needs to finish training with me ha. But this week was a great opportunity for me to learn and grow and one day I got the opportunity to be the senior companion when we did splits in our district. It went reallly well. Our investigators are doing great, we have three right now that are really close to baptism. Jorgina is praying about it right now and it is hard to teach her sometimes because she doesnt know how to read, which is sad but she comes to church every week. Our other investigator is hard to teach too because he has a lot of doubts, he is catholic! But he said he is going to pray about everything too. Geralda is doing great, she is on vacation this week so we have not seen her very much. I challenged i think 4 people to be baptized this week and to pray about baptism. It was cool and I love teaching lessons!! I love it here in Gutierrez, the members are so amazing and the people are super amazing too. My portugues is getting better but it is very slow and it is helping me to learn more about patience!! One funny thing that happened this week was when I was the senior companion for one day and i was with elder tenorio, we were talking to this man and he was very nice but really old ha, and elder tenorio started to use some hand sanitizer and he asked the old man if he wanted some, so the old man took and it and wiped it across his forehead and said "I am cured" in portugues, he thought we were blessing him, it was strange but he was happy haha. Not much happened this week but it was a really great week! I have more hope and faith for the future and I am excited for what is to come! oh and another cool story was that this week we got a reference from some sister missionaries in salt lake city, so we were able to teach a lawyer here in our area, and her name is livia, she was really interested in the book of mormon and she wants to know more! we taught her in this massive building in a nice office ha it was unusual for us but the spirit was so strong!! Well thats all i have for this week, but I am so grateful to be here in brazil and to be helping other people at all times and in all places! I love you mom! I know for a fact that the book of mormon is true, and if we read the book of mormon we will grow closer to god and we will want to stay closer to our savior and redeemer Jesus Christ. I love the gospel!!!! I dont know if i can send pictures this week but I will try ha. 

Elder Bestenlehner

This is Florieno Oliviera. Andrew met him at church, he thought he looked like Bilbo Baggins lol. Turns out he is a former General Authority and has been doing missionary work for 46 years. Andrew loved talking to him.

September 11, 2017

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was really amazing. It was just a good hard working week. We were able to have 17 new investigators, four of them came to sacrament yesterday and we have five with a baptismal date right now but they arent very strong about baptism so we are praying for them.

Its really cool to meet all types of people here in brazil, they all are so nice and dont have any hate or envy. I cant tell you how many times I personally get stopped on the street because someone wants to talk to me about The United States or try and say something in English. It is awesome. Every week I help with this English class in the stake to help people learn english and this week we had the class in a high school, during the hours of the high school ha. A lot of high schoolers came into the class to learn. And after we were supposed to eat doce arroz which is sweet rice, and we went down into the cafeteria and all of the high schoolers were there. It was scary because immediately they all started to stare at me and make faces and a couple of girls raised their eyebrows at me and winked at me. hahah elder coutinho was laughing so hard but I was scared for my life. We had splits that day so that is why I was with Elder Coutinho.

This week was more of a service type week for Elder Dedeco and I. We mainly helped the other areas in our district with numbers and we were able to teach the Restoration so many times. It is truly amazing to share the Restoration and invite to baptize. A lot of people say, oh i have already been baptized and then we get to explain through the spirit that it has to be the correct type of baptism, with authority and the priesthood, and we ask them to pray about it because only God can answer them. I love the Priesthood too, its amazing how the priesthood blesses all lives and we can give blessings to people who are in need of it. I love sharing the messages to the members at lunch too, I always get to share a message about Jesus Christ and I love to testify of him, because he is so amazing and I feel honored to represent him and help people know more about him.

OH and by the way Brazil has the best desserts here, no doubt in my mind, so amazing. I love all of the desserts hahaha. All of the members and non members tell me to eat a lot more. They say, come mais bobo!! its so funny but then it means that I have to eat more!

I am truly grateful to be out here in brazil e eu amo Brazil!!!! I love talking about soccer with them too, it makes them so happy and me happy! Anyways, love you a lot. I hope the family is doing well and I hope everything goes great this week! O evangelho e verdadeiro!! Sorriso sempre!! oh and these pictures are awesome.

I posted a few more September posts today, but you will have to click on the month September on the right and scroll down to see pictures and a fun video.