Hey Fam!
It´s crazy to think another transfer has flown by. Elder Toebe is flying home today, as well as Elder Carmongio. They are my first companions to have finished the mission, so It´s been sad to say by. But mission friendships will last forever.
This last week was kind of slow, at least for Elder Toebe. He kept telling me, The last week just never ends. But it flew by for me. We spent a lot of time passing by recent converts and members to see him off, and less time teaching then maybe we should have, but it was a good for him. Tomorrow he will be lost in the real world again. He´ll actually start walking already tomorrow morning, which will be good. And he already seems to have a good idea of what he´ll do in life, so he should get off to a good start.
But to cap off his mission we were able to baptize again. His last day in Vinhedo we were able to baptize Neide and her son Rafael. It was honestly the best baptismal service I´ve participated in. A ton of people showed up to support and it was such a huge victory to see Neide take that leap of faith into the waters of baptism. There was so much external pressure on her not to follow through, but as she said, when God tells you what is right, you just follow. How much better would the world be if we all had that sense of obedience. She will be such an awesome member and such an awesome leader for others as well. I truly believe, that several will come to know the truth through her.
Other than that I´m just excited to keep on working here. Elder Toebe was such a great missionary that President is sending three of them to take his place. Yep, we are going to divide the area, and now we will have two sets of missionaries in the ward which should be great. And on top of that our zone is combining with another zone, which means double responisiblity, but it should be good. I´ll be traveling a lot more and working a lot more. But work just makes the time fly by.
Hope you all have an amazing week!
Love,
Evan
Beleza família!
Como vocês estão?!
It´s been another wonderful week here in the mission. I´m loving this area and my companion, and all the missionaries in my zone. It´s really just wonderful. I´ll try and give you all a good summary of the week.
Let´s start off with a bit more about my missionary friends. Elder Ferguson served for 1 year in Montana, and had quite an adventure there. He´s still adjusting to life in Portuguese but he´s getting better. Sadly he´s been sick this week, which has made a tough transisition even harder, but it will all work out. He´s an hilarious kid from the Ghetto. I love to here his stories about Louisianna. Completely different from Utah. He´s seen a lot of stuff happen and loves talking about it. Since I´ve been out on my mission I´ve honestly learned so much about people. I love Utah, but I´m thinking after college I´ll give it a shot somewhere else. Just to get to know another culture and learn from the richness of experience that others have.
We have four misisonaries in the ward now which has been fun. The others are Elder Sears from Georgia who went to BYU as well, but a year before me. He´s on the final stretch of the mission and is excited for the first BYU football game this fall which will happen like a week after he gets home. He´s training Elder Rodrigues who is brand new from Brasilia. Honestly we have an awesome house, and zone. We like to call it our all star team.
As for the work we are really excited for this next week. We have a great teaching pool with people who are really starting to progress. I´ve been really excited about Adailton this week. I don´t remember if I told you much about Gledson who we baptized in May, but Adailton is his nephew, and we always tried teaching him with Gledson but he never showed much interest. He´s 15 and lives with his uncle. Anyway, a couple weeks ago he started showing some interest, and after we left Gledson´s house he called us and said, Elders, can you all come back tomorrow to teach me, and then after the first lesson, he asked, what time are you coming back tomorrow, and now we have been teaching him almost everyday. He´s gone to church twice already and is preparing for baptism Sunday.
I´m also really excited for Marco e Liciane e Felipe. They loved Church the other week and already had a ton of friends. Now we just need the Spirit to work his magic, especially with Liciane. She is really involved in her beliefs, and doesn´t really want to make the commitment to be mormon, but the accept everything we say as truth, and just need to recognize the answers they have recieved and take a leap of faith.
Our zone covers a hugh geographic area so I´ve been traveling a lot. Nothing like waking up at 4:30 to take a two hour bus ride to do baptism interviews and go to district meeting and the like. They didn´t tell me about that part when I signed up, but I love it.
Anyways, hope that gives you all an insight into my week. Thought from the day comes from Alma 18
33 E o rei Lamôni disse: Creio em todas estas coisas que disseste. Foste enviado por Deus?
34 Respondeu-lhe Amon: Eu sou um homem; e o homem, no princípio, foi criado segundo a imagem de Deus; e seu Santo Espírito chamou-me para ensinar estas coisas a este povo, para que venha a conhecer aquilo que é justo e verdadeiro;
35 E uma porção desse Espírito habita em mim, dando-me conhecimento e também poder segundo minha fé e desejos que estão em Deus.
I hope you all always remember that God is our father, literally our father, and that each and every one of us has the potential to become like him. Yes, sometimes we are weak, lazy, prideful, etc, but we have been given the gift of the Holy Ghost and have the right to recieve power and knowledge if that´s what we truly desire. Sometimes we have to change our desires to recieve the blessings God wants to give, but as we change, we become perfected.
Amo todos vocês. Tenha uma boa semana e sempre fique feliz, apesar das dificuldades.
Abraço,
Evan
July 21, 2014
Terminei forte
Oi fam!
One more transfer come and gone. It´s crazy to think I only have 5 left. I really have to make the most of it. I feel like I´ve really started to figure out where how to do the mission. How to work with the members, how to teach, things are just clicking, and now I have to put it all into practice to finish off strong.
Found out last night that I´m leaving Nova Vinhedo. I love the area, the ward, and the investigators. Definitely my favorite area until now. But I´m excited to move on. Vamos ver para onde vou.
We ended the transfer on a high note with the baptism of Adailton. He has grown so much, and I´ll be sad to leave him, but he has felt the spirit and is starting to get a lot more involved in the youth program which is great to see. We showed up to church on Sunday 15 minutes early, and he was already there. That was so nice because ususally we have to hunt people down to get them to come to church. I took it as a sign that he has truly felt the spirit and is taking the first steps of conversion.
I´ll miss the area though. I loved my companion, loved the other missionaries in the ward, loved the Bishop. I just loved it all. But I´m sure I´ll keep on loving it, wherever I am.
Thanks for the support and love,
Abraço,
Evan
