Começando de novo em Itupeva

Oi Familia!
Tudo bem?!

Well I´m officially taking a tour of the mission. 4 transfers here in
brasil, 4 different areas, 3 different cities, 4 different companions,
and a lot of fun hard work. I know a lot of missionaries that
complain about getting transferred, but I´ve actually kind of enjoyed
it. Sure it´s been hard to leave behind friends, get to know the
streets and the cities, get to know the ward, and get to know the
comps, but it´s honestly been a great adventure for me.

So right now I´m in Itupeva with Elder Schulze. He has about 6 weeks
here in Brazil, but served two transfers in the Tennesse Knoxville
mission before he got here. Story sound similar? Anyways he is a
great guy, a really hard worker, and super obedient. He´s from
Phoneix, and is quite the athlete. Basketball star, quarterback...
etc. He´s probably going to play college ball when he gets back but
hasn´t decided which scholarship to take yet. He kind of wants to try
to walk on to BYU as well. It´s been great to work with him this
week.

I love the area here. The ward is awesome. Great members who are
willing to work with us. We have quite a few investigators who are
progressing. Gabriela is 17 whose brother joined the church two years
ago and he is getting ready to go on a mission. She´s serious about
joining the church, and if everything goes right, should be baptized
this week.

Claudinei is another investigator we have with a baptismal date for
this upcoming Sunday. He´s awesome and really ready, but is
struggling to quit smoking and coffee. But he´d already made huge
strides before I got here, so I think he´ll make. I´ll be praying
lots for him and keep in touch on a daily basis.

I definitely miss Pouso Alegre. It´s amazing how many friends you can
make and how close you can get to people in a short period of 5 weeks.
Truly built my testimony of the power of the gospel. Only the love
of Christ can unite people that strongly, that quickly, and although
it´s been hard, I know I´ve made some eternal friends and am looking
forward finding more friends here. Who knows? Maybe I only have 6
weeks here as well, so I`ll have to hit the ground running.

I´ll just end it off with an awesome scripture I found in 3 Néfi 13.

Portanto não vos preocupeis com o dia de amanhã, porque o dia de
amanhã se preocupará com suas própias coias.

Too often in life we catch ourselve worrying about the future when we
would be better off focusing on the moment and enjoying every
opportunity to live that God has given us. I really have a testimony
that tommorrows problems will take care of themselves, especially if
we put our faith in the Lord and live in the moment. I love you all
and wish you all the best of weeks.

Love,

Evan

Um bom fim de minha tempo em Pouso Alegre

Oi família!
Tudo Bem!?

It´s been a great week! Lots of work, lots of fun, and a lot of
knocking doors. So much happens in one week it´s kind of hard to put
it all in the letter. Earlier in the mission I organized some
thoughts before I went to email, but right now I´m having a hard time
remembering exactly what I did. I´ll have to go back to some of my
older habits.

I´ve been loving my life here in Pouso Alegre. In five short weeks
I´ve made some really good friends. Elder González, Elder Silva, e
Elder César. Definitely the best house I´ve passed through. We had a
blast together, studying, laughing, sharing stories, eating. So fun.
And I can hardly forget Tchelo, my best friend of the mission so far.
His testimony is so Strong and we´ve grown and learned so much from
each other. As it says in D&C 50:22:

Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one
another, and both are edified and rejoice together.

This truly happened with the two of us. The spirit truly connected us
and I made an eternal friend.

I´ve also been loving everyone else here. We spent a lot of time with
Carol (recente convert) and her friend Renata, who has been taking the
lessons and going to church. They are both studying medicine here,
but managed to find some time in their busy schedule to pass with us.

We also found a great young family, Danniel, Denise, and their
daughter Faviana. They all went to church yesterday, and really
enjoyed it. I remember the day we found them was really hard. It
rained all day and we were absolutely soaked to the bone, and
literally nothing was going right. All out appointments fell through
and no one wanted to talk in the streets. We had a list of menos
ativos (less actives) we started stopping by, but literally all of them had moved,
and the people that were living there didn´t want to listen to us
either. We walked from one end of the city to the other, and nothing
was happening. Finally after a long day, we passed by the last menos
ativo on the list, and guess what, he had moved out as well, but who
had moved in? Daniel and Denise. We taught them the Restoration, and
they really enjoyed it and accepted baptism and everything. Daniel
told us he was abandoned as a child, and grew up on the streets. But
he never got angry, never joined the gangs of the streets, and has
been looking for the right path in life. He told us he accepts anyone
who talks about God, but really felt something diferente about our
message, and brought his whole family to church, a 30 minute walk.

However, I won´t get the opportunity to see how it all turns out. My
life in the mission will take another path to who knows where. I´ll
let you all know next week. The transfer was one week shorter then
normal this time around, but I have to say, it was truly the best 5
weeks of my life. I absolutely loved it. But life goes on and I´m
moving on to my next área. I´ll let you all know where I end up!

Love you all, e espero que todos vocês tenham uma boa semana.
                     (and I hope you all have a good week.)

Tchelo (center) and Elder Gonzalez

Tchelo (right) and Elder Gonzalez

Tchelo (left) and the apartment