March 26, 2018 SOCCER!!!!

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Before Andrew left on his mission, David gave him a blessing and promised him that he would be able to share the gospel through his talents and gifts with soccer. This week he has seen the fulfillment of that blessing!

To respond to all of your questions hahah yes we already told President Fernandes about everything and he explained to us that there isnt much that we can do about the things the guy stole because they are of the world and only can be bought. And nothing of my information or wallet was stolen. It was a blessing ha! And we are using everything we can to put things against the doors and we fixed the one door so now we can lock everything! It is awesome that we can do that now! And i bought a couple of things in Montes Claros. I bought a backpack that i need to carry clothes on trips and stuff for District meetings. Oh and I was wondering if for my birthday you could send more shirts that we bought at missionary mall in provo, short sleeve, because i accidently ruined two of them here haha. And all of my shirts stain yellow because of the weather... It is difficult ha. I am glad that you saw Ahiory!! He is awesome ha. And Jessa will have her baby soon enough, i am excited!

This week was super cool! We had an experience this week that basically every missionary in Brasil needs to have. One day we were walking to teach one of our investigators, Renato, that is progressing a lot and we stopped by a bunch of boys playing soccer in the street. And we challenged them to a mini game of soccer. They brought out tiny goals and we told them, "If you guys lose then we get to teach you our lesson!" And they accepted the challenge, but they didnt know that the American played soccer before the mission haha. We beat them 3-0 and we were able to teach six boys about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They all liked the message we shared and we are planning on playing soccer with them again today! Three of them came to church with us and it was just super cool! They all told me that I play super well. But Brazilians also play super well haha. But just an awesome experience here in Pirapora and we are visiting each and every one of them this week! Renato is doing super great too! He didnt come to church this week but we are helping to have the desire to be baptized and he loves to learn about everything we teach! Emerson and Betania showed us their rings for their marriage! It was so cool and we are super excited that next month they can get married, he just needs to do a couple more things. Also pray for them because they need to stop with coffee haha. But we are always helping and praying for them. This week I felt so good because we were able to just work super hard, visit less active members and share this wonderful gospel with everyone. It is amazing to see how repentence works in my life and the life of so many other people. We are now teaching Carines boyfriend too and we were able to challenge them to come to church and read the book of mormon. What a powerful invitation. I love this gospel so much and I know that the book of mormon is true. I can not deny that and i feel it with all of my heart!! 

My toes are doing a lot better and Gilmara is still helping us a ton with that. This week was here Birthday and so we got to eat lunch with her and her family! It was so cool! But we arent going to report to the police because Pres Fernandes told us not to and the police here are super low... Elder Alves wants that old book of mormon replica! His name is Leonardo! And I dont think i will need my credit card much this week. We might eat some açaí another day but thats it! I will try to think of other things i need for my bday pckg and i will let you know next week! It was hard for me to sleep these last two weeks but i am doing better now ha! But everything is good and just always pray for our work here in Pirapora, because this city needs it ha! Love you so much


 I miss you and pray for you every day! Tell jessa and ryan and braelyn and chris that i love and miss them all! Love you!

March 19, 2018 Grateful for the Protection of the Lord

This is a bit of a frightening email for his mom- me. I believe with all my heart that the spirit kept Elder Bestenlehner and Elder Alves asleep during the robbery to protect them.  Still am a bit sad for him losing what he did. Oh well they are just things and they are safe which is all that matters.

 So this week was another crazy week and i will tell you why here in a little bit ha. But i dont want you to get worried because we are fine and everything is still ok! But i am glad that chris is doing good and that the soccer team is at least winning some games! I am praying for all of them! I am excited for jessa too! I cant wait to be an uncle again! I am glad that Real beat NY too! Hahaha they need to start winning! But sounds like everything is going great at home! I am always praying for you all and for camron too. He is awesome! 

This week started off really sad, and dangerous.... haha but not too dangerous. So we woke up on tuesday morning to find that we had been robbed! It was crazy because i dont know how the guy got into our house. We have a balcony and we couldnt lock the door on the balcony because the lock was a little broken, but we did shut the door. The guy must have climbed up the balcony and he just opened the slide doors... But in the end he took my carry on bag with 150 reais that I had in their and some old money that i got here in Brasil. He also took the more part of the jerseys that i bought for family and friends, he took my backpack that I bought recently, my scripture case you gave me, my soccer sweats from high school, my sweatshirt from cross country senior year, my temple reccomend, and our toaster and dvd player haha. Luckily he didnt take any of my documents like my passport.... But it was sad when i found all of my stuff taken haha well not all of it, but just some of the valuable things. We fixed the door and now we are taking lots of precautions to lock the doors every night and put things in front of the doors haha. But it was definitely crazy! Now i can officially say that I am serving in Brasil. But also what was sad was that I couldnt even work until Thursday and our baptism with Carine fell through because she has to work on some things on the baptismal interview! It was a hard week. But what made it better was that we just started to work hard and we recognized that we have the restored gospel in our lives! And that is all that matters! And emerson and betania are getting their paperwork for marriage!! And so things are getting better and i am so grateful for the blessings here in pirapora!!! I love the gospel and we were able to help a lot of members this week like Epaminondas and Joel! It was super cool to help their families and give blessings! But we are going to work super hard and do a great job this week because I can fully work again! Wooh!! The gospel is so amazing and it is truly what matters in our lives! I love this work and it will never stop! I know that my savior lives and loves all of us. President Fernandes taught us that there is nothing compared to the love of god and that we can help everyone feel that love! 

Dont worry too much about me! The robbery wasnt too serious because it happens a lot here in pirapora, we just have to take lots of precautions now and I will have to buy the carry on and back pack and jerseys again here soon, or in the future i dont know haha. But I love you so much  ! Sorry if i have ever done anything wrong to you, mom or dad or the family! I love you all so much and i am grateful for each and every one of you! Have a great week and i am going to print off the Quotes you sent me and read them later on in the day!! 

Elder Bestenlehner

March 12, 2018

This week the only thing i was able to do was have surgery and stay at home haha. It was so terrible because i had to stay home alone! Elder Erazo came to pirapora to work with my companion and every day i stayed in home studying and resting my toe. So in the surgery it was super crazy. He told me that the only thing he could do is pull out the nail on the big toe. He said the other toes he couldnt do anything but the big toe that was the worst he pulled out the entire nail! It was super weird and i wanted to watch him do it but Elder Alves wouldnt let me... But I learned a lot about myself this week and how i really want to just work and help others. But the only thing i could do this week was stay at home and work on some papers that we use during the day. It was super hard. I felt alone and i had a hard time seeing my purpose as a missionary, because i felt like staying at home i didnt have one! But i was able to strengthen myself spiritually and i was able to have some pretty cool experiences. While my companions were doing great in the field, I was able to talk with my Heavenly Father more than i ever have! I was able to put my trust in him that eventually I will see the blessings of my work and my efforts. I learned a lot that I just need to be happy in all moments or the mission will be miserable. Sometimes being obedient can appear like the hardest thing and that you arent feeling very blessed because of it. But obedience is what brings blessings after the mission. Baptisms and good numbers are blessings of our hard work in the field. I was able to see the hand of the lord in our work here, and in my life. Because I learned that it is really hard to stay at home resting, but its when we can put our faith in god more than ever. We can show him that even in the darkest and hardest of times, we are willing to follow him and do what is right. I love the gospel, because it brings so much peace. It will always be hard, but he will be able to carry us through the hard times. One cool thing that happened was that Elder Alves found lots of people to teach, he found woodson and davidson! They are awesome and sound super cool. Emerson and Betania are doing good, they traveled and so we couldnt visit them, and i had to stay home ha. Then on sunday one of our investigators decided out of the blue that she wanted to be baptized and wanted to change her life for the better! Her name is Carine and she has come a long way. We are going to teach her a lot this week so keep her in your prayers. She wants to be baptized this saturday!! It is so cool! I love the gospel!! 

March 5, 2018 Transfers!

So this week I found out that I have to have surgery, and i will be doing that tomorrow! With my new companion here in Pirapora. Elder Fig is being transfered and I will be receiving Elder Alves as my new companion! He will be the senior companion but i am excited to work with him and do the lords work here in Pirapora. It will be awesome! But I am a little bit nervous for the surgery but i know that the lord will help me to be strong. My toes are getting better but they are still pretty bad. But the good thing is that the pain is a little bit less!! But I know that the lord is always with me helping me along the way! I am glad that Chris made the team! Tell him to work hard and it will help him next year too! And to always keep his head and stay happy, the coaches love it when you are always happy working hard and loving the game!. I know as of right now we have little investigators but i know that the lord is preparing more for elder alves and I! 

This week was super cool because everything paid off on sunday! We were able to invite so many people to the district conference in Montes claros and we had four people that were able to go! But sadly the others didnt go because of a problem that happened with one of our members, Joel... But I will talk about that later. He is awesome, so satan continues to work in different ways. But we are also working!! But it was cool to have lots of people on the trip and Emerson and Betania loved the trip to montes claros! They are so awesome and they love this church. All they need to do is get married. This week we were able to meet a man named Marcio and we shared the restoration with him. It was awesome because the spirit was strong and he told us that it makes sense that The book of mormon exists. Because he thought a lot about the record of the people in the americas but he had never seen the book of mormon before! We invited him to read the book of mormon and he said that he would! We are going to return back to his house on Friday! Sunday after the conference, we had an awesome evening! It was super spiritual. Joel and his wife invited us over to talk about some things and so we arrived in their house ready to help them. Sadly joel told us that he had drinken beer and that he is lost and doesnt know what to do. They are a family that was sealed in the temple, and I could see the sadness that was surrounding their family. We taught about repentence and the spirit was super strong in their home. We promised him that through the atonement of Jesus Christ everything can change and everything can return to the way it was! It was so powerful and after that he invited me to dedicate his home! I had never dedicated a home before but I trusted in the Lord and the spirit told me what to say and how to dedicate their home. It was so cool! I love the priesthood and I love the power of the atonement. We can all be forgiven and be saved, no matter how far we have fallen!

 I am nervous for this transfer but i know the lord will bless us! I am excited to meet my new companion! And I will probably receive the package in the next zone conference!! Tell Cathy Heaton that I loved her card! And Jessa and Ryan and Braelyn because I received their cards right now haha. But I loved them all! And I loved the letter that Grandma Ruby and the Valora family sent to me! It was so cool! Mowgli and Baloo are always so cool to see and I loved the painting! Love you all so much!