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.

September 4, 2017

It's no wonder they call this city Belo Horizonte or Beautiful Horizon.  Those stories that you shared with me are super cool! I loved them! And by the way I will try to work on my grammar and other things but it is super hard down here because the computers and the keyboards are different. That is cool to hear about Chris developing his own testimony, I wish I could have heard it! I really liked the stories you shared about listening. Because right now that's all I can really do... The language is super hard to speak and understand so right now I just listen. For example, we visited Geralda this week to see how she was doing, and she started to cry because she was having a hard time with losing some of her children because of death. We taught her again about the plan of salvation and it was cool to tell her that I have brothers and sisters in heaven right now who are helping me on earth and preparing for the second coming also. It was a really cool experience. 

 The boy who baptized Geralda is named Robson and he is 28, he wants to serve a mission soon and he didn't take out the earrings for the service haha, actually it is weird, they don't teach things like that here until way after baptism. It gradually is taught.

The ward here is called Gutierrez ward and the members call me Elder Da Best haha.

 

This week was a really slow week and really hard for me too. The language really tests me sometimes and its difficult to understand. I was on my knees a lot this week, Prayer is so important and I am so grateful that we have prayer. It is truly the only way we can communicate with our Heavenly Father.

Every Wednesday and Thursday we have splits with other missionaries. Wednesday I had splits with Elder Coutinho, my roommate in our apartment, and then Thursday I had splits with Elder Bonner, the zone leader for our zone. I really liked Thursday with Elder Bonner. He taught me so many things and he also gave me criticism which was helpful. That thursday night we taught the Restoration to these two young men who were both Catholic and it was amazing to see the spirit the Restoration brings in. Elder Bonner explained it so well too, he explained it so well that they had no counter arguments and were willing to pray about it. I was able to talk about Prophets and the Book of Mormon. He also gave me a small Bible that is very useful to me now. Here it is important to use the Bible and the Book of Mormon when you teach. Because so many people don´t believe in other books from our heavenly father. Sometimes we take for granted the Book of Mormon, it is so amazing and I want to read it so much because it makes me so happy and I learn something new every time I read it. I watched How Rare a Possession saturday night and it made me cherish the opportunity we have to read the Book of Mormon so much more. A lot of the people here dont like to be talked to when soccer is on, so it is hard to teach during those times ha. We havent had actual lessons yet, like the lessons on commandments or ordinances, because we are trying to find new people to teach. It is hard too for me this week because I just watch Elder Dedeco explain things and then bear testimony of it, he hasn't started to actually train me yet. So that makes it hard. But I am starting to learn patience and i try to stay positive in all moments.   I get to share a message at all the lunches with members so its pretty good. I also got to play a little bit of soccer this week and talk to kids about soccer, it was super cool

I love learning about my Savior too, last night I was having a hard time with the fact that we didn't have very many lessons just visiting non active members and so I decided to read in Jesus the Christ and how it says that there was and is an absolute need for the Atonement and for our Savior Jesus Christ. We all need our Savior and we all need to use the atonement to be forgiven of our sins. It made me want to repent of small things that weren't very important but bothered my heart and were in my mind. Like for example, if I told my mom I had eaten my vegetables when I actually didn't. Lying is breaking the ninth commandment, even if it is small, so I decided to repent of those things. We can use the Atonement for everything. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to tell people that Jesus Christ lives, and we all can return to live with him and our Heavenly Father one day. 

Something funny that happened this week: We were walking past a bar and this short old man stopped me and he looked kind of like Papa Smurf, except he wasn't blue ha and he was talking to me so close. And he was definitely drunk and he just kept spitting on me and all I could do was smile and listen haha. And then he asked me who I was and I told him and he said "Oh, I guess you don't want a drink or something to smoke then..." in portugues. It was funny because i said no and he offered us to come inside and we said "How about we teach you next week instead?" And he ran off. It was funny because he didn't know who we were until we told him. People in Brazil really like to party, and so we have to be careful on the nights they have parties ha. Well I love you all so much!! Thank you all for your examples and for helping me before my mission. I have faith the lord will help me with my portugues and my mission.

Thanks for the emails everyone! I love you so much! I miss you all and its been hard for me these couple of weeks, I have thought about home a lot because I dont know the language yet and its hard for me to focus, but its getting better. I just need to learn patience. I will definitely keep all of you in my prayers! Love you all. 

Elder Bestenlehner