April 23, 2018

How are you and how are things at home? I am grateful to hear that everything is going well and I hope that Jessa will be ok! I am sure she is doing great. But i miss you all but i love this place so much! Even though it is super hard it is one of the coolest places on earth. But I am happy to hear that Brae keeps chris out of trouble ha she needs to keep that going for a while and it will be all ok. That is cool that they switched the missionaries but strange that they pulled out two at the same time. Usually that doesnt happen, well at least not in our mission. But i am sure they are doing great work there! Emerson and Betania are doing great and it was hard to say goodbye to them and to Pirapora and to everyone i met there, but i know that one day i can see them all again. I am sure that Elder Alves is taking good care of them. But my new area Nacional is super awesome!! I love it even though it is full of hills and super huge ha! My new companion Elder Alonzo is super awesome to and he basically is a great missionary already and knows how to work! Its going great and this week was super good! 

I met a lot of new people this week and it was cool to serve my district! I am the district leader in BH east and so it is super cool! Gutierrez is in the same stake as Nacional. Elder Alonzo has been on the mission almost 4 months now and he is doing awesome. We have some great people that we are teaching and we are praying so much to find those who will accept this wonderful gospel. We have an investigator whose name is Gian and he is so cool. He loves to learn so much and he loves all of the videos on Mormon Canal, on youtube. He told us that it is one of his favorite things to do is watch those videos ha. We also have Andressa, José, and John Vitor. They all have a date for the 12th of may and we are praying so much that they will continue on this amazing path. I love each and every one of them and i want them to experience this joy! My district is made up of two more elders and two sisters! Elder Lujan, Elder Perez, Sister Dutra, and Sister Silva. Sister Silva and Elder Perez arrived on the mission this transfer. But it has been awesome to serve and follow up with them. They are doing great and the sisters had a baptism this last week! We were also able to meet a man who returned from his mission but sadly was excomunicated from the church and he is so awesome. We want to help him to be rebaptized and to want to come back to Gods Fold. He told us that he wants to and that the best time of his life was when we was on the mission. We also met a less active whose name is Felipe and he has left the church but he knows that it is all true. We are helping him too. There is a lot of work to do and i  know that the lord will help me and help my district to fulfill his work! I love this gospel so much and i am so happy to be here serving the lord. I know that he will provide people for us to teach and lives for the gospel to bless! 

 My area does have a part of Contagem! But it is farther away! It is about an hour from the center of BH. But oh can you send Maple exract too? I forgot to ask that a couple of transfers back and then i just forgot completely haha. And one of the sisters asked if you could get her one of those journals of Joseph Smith. I am doing great! Just pray for our investigators and the work here because it needs to be done!! Love you so much  and Have a great week! Here are some pictures! 

April 16, 2018 Transfers back to Belo and District Leader!!

Hey! How are you and the family?? I am doing great other than the news we got from transfers yesterday haha. I am basically panicing but I am excited for what is to come! I dont have much time to write today because I will be traveling.... I am being called as a district leader in Belo Horizonte. My new area will be Nacional and my new companion will be Elder Alonso. He is from Uruguay! I am super excited but super nervous too because i have no idea how to be a district leader. I havent even been a senior companion yet... But i know that the Lord calls his servants and doesnt make mistakes! I am ready for this new challenge! 

Pirapora i will miss so much because this area is super awesome and I love the people here. And i know that i helped in the work here so much because here in a little bit Elder Alves and his new companion will have four baptisms, because of the work we had been doing! And so I am super happy for him and for this area! I am sad to say goodbye but ready for a new challenge!! I know that through the spirit i can be guided in the work and helping out my district!! It should be super fun and I will travel for about 7 hours until we get to Belo Horizonte! Elder Alves will train a new missionary! He has almost 1 year on the mission!

But we havent heard much about our new mission president. They say that they cant reveal it because of  his Job or something. But i heard that he is Brazilian!! I will let you know the details about Skype later on, probably here in a week and a half or two weeks. Maybe more. But Dont worry haha it will happen! Oh and can you go on my Facebook and accept the invites that are there. There are a lot of people who sent invites here in Pirapora! haha.

But I know that this work is amazing because the spirit will always be with us to testify of the truthfulness of this gospel! It is simply amazing and i have a strong testimony of the restored gospel and the book of mormon. Also i know that my Savior lives and is here with me working in the field. Helping me along!! I love you so much mom! I dont think i will need anything more. I had to take out money for the transfers because they didnt send us enough money and so i took out money to pay for the tickets! Chris i bet had so much fun and of course Brielle and Braelyn are the cutest nieces ever! Love you all so much! I will write a lot more next week dont worry. It is because i will have more to say haha and more time! Love you

April 9, 2018

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I am so happy! I loved seeing the pictures of Brielle and she is so cute! Also Braelyn is so cute too! I love them both so much! Its so cool that she was born on April 3rd! I think that is just a cool day to be born. But that is awesome that everything went well and Braelyn is still very loved haha. But I am also glad that you went to Uncle Steves birthday party. Looks like it was crazy!! Hahahaha. But i am just filled with joy to see my new niece haha. and my other niece! This week was also pretty good for us too! Just filled with new experiences! oh and chris will have fun at prom ha. 

This week we didnt have much luck with Emerson, Betania, or Renato. It was very difficult and really annoying because they were all traveling. And so it was our job to find new people to teach! Luckily the lord blessed us so much! This week we were able to teach a man and his son. Juvenal and Maxsuel! It was super cool and the lesson about the restoration was super powerful. At the end of the lesson, we both felt that we needed to invite them to be baptized and so I was able to invite them and they both accepted! Although they didnt come to church on sunday, we are going to work with them this week. Another cool experience is the one we had yesterday! Yesterday we were able to teach a family of 14 people. They were five small families all together and we were able to teach them with Epaminondas! The lesson was crazy and i felt like the elders of old time when they basicaly preached high up on a stand. But i was able to bare my testimony with authority and my companion Elder Alves did the same thing. They belong to a church that is very different than ours but we are going to visit them again this week and try to teach by the spirit again. I just love being able to teach these people even if the more part of them dont want to hear us because they think we are strange. I just love testifying about the book of mormon and the power that it has in all of our lives. Wow i was able to bare my testimony in sacrament meeting too about the book of mormon and i told every one of them, If you all knew what is really inside this book, you would read it every day and never miss one day of reading. It is true. The book of mormon has that kind of power in our lives. I love it and I know the book of mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of god and that Russell M Nelson is a prophet of god. I can never deny that!! I love this gospel so much and I invite all of you to gain a testimony of these things for yourselfs! Also this guy made a wood carving of the fellowship brochure for me! Lord of the rings rocks! haha. 

Love you all!

April 2, 2018 CONFERENCE!

Hello!    I am doing great! This week was hard with the work because of the Holiday but my mind was completely focused on General Conference haha.

  Wow was General conference amazing. I woke up on Saturday so excited! I couldnt express my feelings for Elder Alves when i talked about General Conference. We wanted to scream to all the world that today we sustain a prophet of the lord. All of the Brasilians were so excited when Elder Soares was called. Elder Alves just looked at me with the biggest smile on his face. It was awesome to see!! And he really is an apostle of the lord.

I had an awesome experience about President Nelson. When the part came for everyone to sustain him as Prophet and where everyone stood up, I just started to cry and the spirit was so strong. The spirit testified to my heart in a way that i cant describe that he truly is a prophet called of god and that this is the beginning of a new era. It was so amazing!! I love feeling that spirit and i felt it so many other times during conference. I loved his talk about Personal revelation. It was so cool to hear about how we can all receive personal revelation and how we need it in our lives. I love the spirit that he brings and that all the other general authorities bring too!

I also loved a quote that said "When we feel the forgiveness that comes from repentence of our sins, we will want to share that feeling with everyone and we will want to sacrifice our lives for the lives of others" Wow how powerful! It was so amazing to feel the love that our Heavenly Father has for us and I cant begin to describe how I felt this weeked.

General Conference is easily one of my favorite things about the year. I didnt always feel this way about General Conference, but that was because i didnt understand or comprehend the love that you can feel and the things that you can truly learn. The changes in the church i know too that they are inspired and it will help this work move on and grow faster! I love this gospel and you could just feel that the gospel was truly restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith and that we have a prophet today that lives and loves us and guides our church. And that Jesus Christ is the head of our church and he is always watching after us!

Our investigators need more time to do a couple of things... we are thinking that Emerson and Betania will take about another month. And Renato told us that he doesnt feel ready for this saturday.... so we are trying to help him more and find others here in Pirapora to teach and share the restored gospel!

I wanted to ask for my birthday too some socks that are more thin and easy to wear here in Brasil, i need another pair of pants (the underarmour kind) because that guy stole a pair hahaha. And also i just wanted to ask for candy from the United States because i miss it haha. But i dont want to ask for too many things. I am just grateful for what I have! Also Gilmara told me that she sent a message to my facebook to talk with you. But I love you so much!! Thank you for everything you do for me and dont worry, I am doing great! I am just so happy to be here serving the lord and sharing this wonderful gospel. This life is truly a life to prepare and be happy! Even if the work hasnt progressed much and its hard, I LOVE IT. Love you so much! Have a great week! I might have to send pictures nexxt week ha.