January 8,2018

Hey family! My week was super good and also super hard haha. But I loved every second of it. I learned a lot of things and yes I have been in contact with Elder Whiting and he talked to Sister Fernandes about some things that I need to do to help my toe. I might have to use my card this week to buy a couple of things. So I just wanted to let you know right now. I am sorry that you have been sick this whole week. I hate being sick, but i hope you are doing better. That is so cool that Chris is killing it in wrestling, I knew that he would do so great! And i hope his appointment goes well too. I was sad to hear about President Monson too, he truly was a prophet of God and I know that he is happy right now with his wife. But I love everything he taught us and its so important that we follow the last thing he taught us. To study and ponder about the Book of mormon and Gain a testimony of the book of mormon. Afonsos real name is super cool haha Natanael is a cool name and I liked it when he shared it with us. 

This week was super busy and also hard for us... We have been working with our investigators a lot and they just arent improving. We have been praying and fasting for them to progress and we know that the lord will bless them. The marriage did not happen yet, Emerson is still working on getting all of the papers and getting everything ready. Its really complicated here in Brasil haha. But They are awesome and I know that Emerson and Betania will be so strong in the church. They really want to do what is right and I have faith that they will strive to keep the commandments! But this week we were able to teach a lot of our investigators and the lessons went super well. We taught Dalva about the Plan of Salvation and she loved that we told her that she can see her mom again in the future. She is a about 60 years old or older and she wants to do what is right. She has a bit of fear about Baptism but we are helping her and i believe that our Heavenly Father will help her too. One day we were with our investigators Jennifer and Alice, daughter and mom, and we werent getting any teaching done because she wanted to play games with us. We played games with them for a while and I was trying really hard to think of what we could teach. We decided to teach about keeping the sabath day holy and i shared Mosiah 18:23,25. It was super cool to bare testimony about the sabath day and how i was blessed with soccer because i decided to keep the sabath day holy. The spirit was strong and I know they can follow our counsels.

We also just had a week serving and finding people to talk too. Yesterday we talked with a woman waiting for the bus and we shared with her a message about the book of mormon, and we gave her the book of mormon and she just started to smile a lot and said "Wow i am truly happy that you gave me this book, and I am going to read it." She was so happy and it was cool to see how people really need the Book of Mormon! We marked an appointment with her for Thursday. We didnt have anyone show up in sacrament meeting yesterday, but I was still grateful for everything I learned in Church and for the ability I had to share my testimony. I know that we will have more people in sacrament next week. I know that this work is absolutely amazing and that the lord really has people for us to teach, love, and serve. Have a great week!!

Mom, I would wait a little bit to send the shoes because I am going to try and buy some here... Sister Fernandes said that it will take a long time and so i need to seach for some here and I will let you know if I find some by next week. She said it would be a lot faster and that I can use the money I have on the mission to buy these shoes, but just this one time, it is under special conditions! Oh and I need more colored lead things for my pen marker ha. And I discovered that my photos werent deleted. They were put into another file that I couldnt see and I cant take out haha, I was able to put my card into our dvd player and see all my photos. I think it created a new folder. Love you!! 

Elder Bestenlehner

January 2, 2018

Hey family!!! Sorry  I didnt email yesterday haha mainly because our pday is today! But I am doing super great! My toes are still the same and the doctor told me that they wont heal until I can walk without shoes and socks haha so basically when i finish the mission. We have water and my companion is doing great. Sometimes it is hard with him because he has the same time as me but he doesnt know what to do exactly and i am still learning too ha. But It is good and our investigators are super good too, we are working with them super hard and we are working to strengthen the members, the number of people who attend church here is about 20, so it is difficult, but i have faith that we can help!! I love pirapora already even if it is a million degrees here!! But I am glad all is well at home, I loved to skype you all and talk to you all about what is going on here and there. It is just the two of us living here and all of the other elders in our district live two or three hours away haha. But thats ok! He loved everything that you sent and he said thank you! He didnt understand the jokes inside the crackers ha, mainly because it is in english. I loved all of the cards and everything, it was way cool! A lot of the other elders were super surprised about all the cards I got. But I didnt find the Epsom salt ha, mainly because it doesnt exist in Pirapora. 

This week was super good and super busy for us. We had to travel to Montes Claros and we also had to do a lot of things here in Pirapora. We worked with some of the members on a Service Project for almost four hours hahaha it was super tiring and was hard on my toes but it was super cool. I am used to missionary work so when we had this giant service project it was weird. But I know it helped strengthen our members and others. The other day we were able to teach Emerson and Betania, the couple who are going to marry then get baptized, about the word of wisdom. Because they were still drinking beer and coffee. It was so amazing when we taught that lesson. The spirit was so strong and i bore testimony of how keeping the word of wisdom gives us strength and blessings. I was able to play soccer so well because I lived the word of wisdom! It was so amazing and they accepted our invite. They are super awesome and a family that will help our church a lot. Even though this week was a little bit hard for us because two of our baptisms fell through, it was cool to see the lords hand in another aspect of missionary work. I was also able to give a talk sunday, my first talk in portugues, about sacrifice. And how it is necessary for each of us to make sacrifices in this church, and for this church. Jesus Christ made the biggest sacrifice of all time for all of us and he sacrificed himself for us. It was super cool to bare testimony of how sacrifice is so important. Joseph Smith taught us that a religion without sacrifice doesnt have what it takes to gain eternal life. We literally need to be willing to sacrifice it all for this church and for our savior Jesus Christ. I love the sacrifice of missionary work and the blessings of missionary work. I know that even when times are tough that the lord will be with us, ready to help us no matter what.

 I hope all of you have a great week!! It is crazy how it is already 2018. I cant believe how fast time passes, But I love this work and I am ready for whatever challenge heavenly father gives me! I am going to eat lunch soon and then I can email some more after but I love you so much!!! Thank you for all that you do for me and for your example. I cant ever thank you and dad enough, and the family, for all that you guys do for me. And for all of my friends and family who always support me. Love you all. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 

December 25, 2017 Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Hey mom! So since it is five hours difference I will probably be calling home around 12 between 12:30. Or around 1 if my companion goes first!! I didnt get any epson salt but sister fernandes gave me some things in the zone conference that will help me but it will take three months. I have been using it everyday and yet I have not seen any improvement ha but i have faith! I got both packages and I loved everything!! My companion was super excited too that he had stuff in there hahaha. It was super awesome to see elder Dedeco! I will see him every week until he leaves the mission because we are in the same district and he is my zone and district leader ha. Yah Afonso is super awesome. He is a super good singer. I miss him and i bet he is doing great back in Gutierrez. Elder Graça will take good care of him. 

This week was full of new things and fun experiences. Our new investigators are doing great but they have a hard time fulfilling commitments. Its sad because this gospel can change their lives! But we have two investigators that are a couple but they arent married yet. Emerson and Betania, they are planning on getting married and getting baptized in January. Their nine year old daughter was baptized a couple of weeks ago and so they want to get baptized too. We had lunch with them the other day and it was awesome because he made fish! It made me think of dad! Our other investigators that are ready for baptism are Jennifer Gabriela and her mom Alice. Alice we think has a fear of baptism but Jennifer wants to get baptized this Saturday, even if it were without her mom. We are working super hard to help them have a better relationship but they are super awesome and I know they can both be baptized if they show their faith! We are working hard to find other people to teach too. It is hard to find really good people in this area because our area is huge and is basically a desert. There is just dirt roads and jungles that are like the jungles in africa. The trees mainly. Every morning we wake up to find 6 or 7 dead cockroaches haha. so thats always fun. But other news is that it has been one week now and we still dont have water in our house. We have been one week without water and we are still going ha! But everything will be ok. I love the opportunity I have to serve here and I know I can make a difference even with the terribly hot weather and the painful toes. Its amazing to just talk to people each day, even if they make fun of you because you are american! But this work is absolutely amazing, and we will be able to teach others if we put our trust in god and he will do the rest! FELIZ NATAL!

December 18,2017

December 18,2017

 Sorry i didnt email earlier we are in montes claros right now on a division because we have our zone conference tomorrow. But everything is good. My new area definitely needs work but thats why i am here. It is a good area filled with good people so i am super excited to work hard. My new companion is awesome too. He doesn't know much about missionary work because he just has one more transfer than i do. But we are excited to work hard! and this week I get to see Elder Dedeco! My toes are basically the same and i have two new ingrown toenails so things didnt get better yet but i know they will. I am praying a lot and i know that i will see miracles. Thank you so much for the family fast. Yah i had to spend some money for transfers and to buy a backpack because we have to have lots of divisions and pirapora is three hours from montes claros. I have no idea about christmas yet and when the skype will be. We actually don't have a ward in this area. Its a branch of about twenty or thirty people and Pirapora is super poor. So we are trying to figure something out. I will be able to skype for sure i just need to find out this week.

This week was super good and super tiring. It was just me trying to get used to the weather and the new area. I love it here in Pirapora even though it is blazing hot. And we have lots of bugs, and cockroaches. But it is cool to live in a place like this. I heard that there are lots of monkeys and huge spiders here too, so that should be fun! But day of transfers i missed the first bus to pirapora and so i had to wait until 3:30 and i arrived in pirapora 9:30 so it was very tiring ha. But we are working hard. The area is pretty big but it is also really poor and so lots of people accept our messages but they dont fulfill commitments. We have lots of faith though. It is super cool to teach about the restoration and invite people to be baptized through that message. You can just feel the power in the message and the spirit is always so strong. We have lots of people with potential and we are hoping to have a baptism this week! I hope everything goes well. This week i had lots of problems with my toes and it was really hard to work and to walk all day with hot shoes and just everything going against them, but I continued on and I told my companion that I would lose my toes for the mission. And I really would, i know that means no more soccer but if it was the will of Heavenly Father, I would. We all have to learn to make sacrifices for this gospel and so that others can recieve this gospel too. That is what I love about missionary work, you are willing to risk it all. Love you all so much! Sorry I couldnt write more this week!

Everything is good here my faith strengthens every day. I wont use my card more because I dont want to hahah i just had to use it the other day for those things. But I know that everything will turn out fine next week and in this new area. I will probably stay here for a long time. That is so awesome about the temple and i am glad you got my package!!! Miracle!  I will send pictures next week or later. Dont worry about my toes, they hurt a lot but i will continue to work. I am going to write Afonso soon, he is so awesome. Love you

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!