Progress

This week has been good, we have been focusing in visiting people with members of the church to make the lessons more comfortable and help them feel like all of this is possible.

We have a lot of people that are progressing and that I hope will be baptized this month. Hopefully this week. Its finally getting cool  here which is a greet blessing, after all its Fall.

Its really cool to see when we work with members stuff just happens right. We go and visit people and when we arrive they tell us that they have been wanted to talk with us that they have been needing help. Its really cool to see how we are being guided to talk to certain people.

Elder Willard

Baptisms

We had a baptism on Friday which was great, there's nothing like having a baptism to get you pumped for more baptisms. His name is Lerri Rian (lehi ryan). His the son of a less active and a non-member and a super active grandmother and they all basically live together.

 

We had a stake conference via satellite with Elder Scott (who spoke Portuguese) and some members of  the Seventy and Relief Society. Unfortunately the Internet was so terrible that we missed about an hour of the conference. We were only able to understand Elder Scott and still some people complained that he talked to slow and that his accent was weird.

 

I did a presentation at an English school and I talked about culture in the US for about and hour and a half. Its really interesting how people try to tell me facts about the US that aren't true. But they all got a kick out of "Don't kiss anybody." Here in Brazil its very common to kiss other people of the opposite gender

when you greet them. I told them don't do that, you will only see that on TV and with celebrities that think that they are "fancy."

 

I'm getting thinner

 

Elder Willard

Teaching English?

Well this week has been a lot of work which has been great with lots of prospects. Finding people that seem general interested in our message and are doing what we ask them to do.

Hopefully we will get to play volleyball today at the chapel. I have a presentation at a School of English. I'm going to talk about some physical differences between Brazil and the US. For example, here in Brazil they don't have water heaters, when you want to take a shower you use a chovero, it’s a plastic attachment that goes on the shower head.

It’s basically a plastic bowl with a wire in it to get the water hot. The good thing is you never run out of hot water. Or, it’s very rare to have a dryer for clothes, instead you hang them up on a line.

 I need more socks...but I´ll buy them here.

Mother’s day is super close!!!!

The elder Elder Willard

New Companion

My new companion is from Curitiba, Paraná. If you guys don’t know where that is, that’s fine, some people around here don’t know where it is either and it’s like 8 hours away by car. His name is Elder Andrade, his 19 and ready to work. Unfortunately, he has been sick for about this whole week and we haven’t had much time to work in our area, but this week will be different.

Weird facts, most Brazilians don’t think we landed on the moon and some don’t believe in dinosaurs, like they never existed.

Looks like we got a baptism for on the 26th locked in for a grandson of a super active member.

It’s starting to get really cold down here. But cold for me is a lot different cold for them. Everyone is bundled up with lots of coats, hats, and scarves. But its only 60 degrees.

Hopefully, I´ll have more interesting this to share next week.

Elder Willard

(the first one)

Transfers

This week was alright, I would have liked more success. We are working with our recent convert so he can receive the priesthood and start getting for a mission maybe!!!!

I feel like I’m learning a ton, about the language, being a missionary, the gospel but the probably is I also feel like I know very little, you know how that is. And sometimes you learn a new thing and it’s like a large pitcher of water and it understand it the picture of water is poured into a cup, or your brain but the problem is the cup is a tiny shot glass and the cup over flows and you lose almost all the water on to the ground.

It’s transfers today, I will be staying in my area and will get a new Brazilian companion. Elder Andrade, we´ll see how it goes. We are focused on a few people that can be baptized this month, with faith anything is possible.

It’s finally starting to cool down around here, Fall but it still doesn’t feel like it yet...probably because its April. I’m also losing weight; I have stopped consuming cake, soda, candy, most kinds of desserts and I’m eating lots more fruit. Mom would be proud, I think.

Thanks a bundle,

Elder Willard

Another Baptism

Cassio was baptized on Saturday and it was terrific!!

Truly, He was an enormous blessing for us. Let me start from the beginning.

About 5 weeks ago, a young man entered the chapel and he seemed a little off. He was wearing jeans and a shirt supporting a local school in the Carnival competitions, missionaries from another ward approached him and asked him if he needed anything and why he was there. He said that he was downtown celebrating Carnival all night and until about 7-8 o clock in the morning and was so tired (and drunk) that he couldn’t make it home on foot. So, he stopped to rest in the chapel.

The missionaries invited him to come to church next week and he accepted. The next week he came again but I wasn’t able to talk to him and he disappeared. The third week, I talked to him and asked if we could teach him and he said that his mother didn’t like our church but we could teach him at the chapel during the week, unfortunately he forgot or wasn’t able to go to that lesson.

The fourth week he approached us and asked to be baptized before we could teach anything. We taught him as fast as we could and he was baptized this last Saturday by a member of the ward.

The Lord is preparing people to be baptized and to follow the Savior. I hope that I can see more of these miracles on my mission. The church is true, the book is blue.

Elder Willard

It's Fall

On Saturday we had a Missionary activity, we invited all members of the ward to our activity and to bring some one who doesn't know the church. We present a movie that talked about the temple and how families can be together forever. We got to meet some new people and reactivate some less-actives but, of course, after the activity there was food.

Cachorro quentes.

Hot dogs are different here in Brazil. They take hot dog meat and cut it into slices and mix it with a lot of tomato sauce with corn and peas. So, it’s kinda like a sloppy Joe, but a hot dog.

Then they put ketchup, mustard, and mayo on top with a crispy potato thing on top. It looks like a bunch of mini french fries on top. It’s weird but good.

We were at Church yesterday, very normal and a young guy (16) who has been visiting church for almost a month said, “I want to be baptized.” We decided to teach right after church with some of the young men leaders and I asked why do you want to be baptized

and he said this, “Oh, I don't know, I just want too, It feels right. Before I started coming to church I was walking in darkness but now everything has changed and now, I'm not doing anything wrong anymore.”

I will baptize him on Saturday, the only problem is that his parents don't like the church and maybe won’t let him get baptized.

But all is well here in Brazil; it’s finally Fall 

Elder Willard