Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
última samana!!!
Hey fam,
Well this is the last email. It will probably be a quick one. Next week I´ll be going to Campinas, getting a bus to São Paulo, and then taking a midnight flight back to the states.
Highlight of the week was definitely the marriage and baptism of Luciclea and Fernando. They were so excited and felt such a huge peace after.
We have two other people that are planning on getting baptized the last week of the mission. Jamille is the cousin of Débora and she has just been loving church, and Marli was a referral from another investigator that is eating things up as well. It´s been a really fulfilling couple weeks.
All the misisonaries that are going home had a training from the Centro de Auto-suficiência. Pretty much just training on getting a job. Interview tips, resume tips, finding tips. It was pretty cool.
I´m way excited to talk to everyone. We´ll have a lot to talk about ;)
Love you all and see you next week!
Evan
Well this is the last email. It will probably be a quick one. Next week I´ll be going to Campinas, getting a bus to São Paulo, and then taking a midnight flight back to the states.
Highlight of the week was definitely the marriage and baptism of Luciclea and Fernando. They were so excited and felt such a huge peace after.
We have two other people that are planning on getting baptized the last week of the mission. Jamille is the cousin of Débora and she has just been loving church, and Marli was a referral from another investigator that is eating things up as well. It´s been a really fulfilling couple weeks.
All the misisonaries that are going home had a training from the Centro de Auto-suficiência. Pretty much just training on getting a job. Interview tips, resume tips, finding tips. It was pretty cool.
I´m way excited to talk to everyone. We´ll have a lot to talk about ;)
Love you all and see you next week!
Evan
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Mais dual semanas! O loco!
February 2, 2015
Oi fam!
It´s crazy how fast the week went by, and how fast this next week will pass by as well. This week we have zone meeting, I have a self reliant course that all returning missionaries take, my final interview with President, a wedding, a baptism, a churrasco, and a couple family nights. And then the last week I will go to the temple, have lunch with President, pack up the bags, and take a big long flight back to the states. It kind of feels surreal sometimes.
Anyway this week has been pretty normal. Luciclea and Fernando are way excited. We found a bunch of new people to teach as well. Débora´s cousin came to church and loved it. Another woman named Marli came as well and had a great experience. Marli cried a ton in our first visit with her. She recently lost a son to a car accident, and the Plan of Salvation brought a lot of comfort.
Other than that it´s just been work as normal. Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Evan
Oi fam!
It´s crazy how fast the week went by, and how fast this next week will pass by as well. This week we have zone meeting, I have a self reliant course that all returning missionaries take, my final interview with President, a wedding, a baptism, a churrasco, and a couple family nights. And then the last week I will go to the temple, have lunch with President, pack up the bags, and take a big long flight back to the states. It kind of feels surreal sometimes.
Anyway this week has been pretty normal. Luciclea and Fernando are way excited. We found a bunch of new people to teach as well. Débora´s cousin came to church and loved it. Another woman named Marli came as well and had a great experience. Marli cried a ton in our first visit with her. She recently lost a son to a car accident, and the Plan of Salvation brought a lot of comfort.
Other than that it´s just been work as normal. Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Evan
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Casamento marcado!
Monday January 19, 2015
Oi fam,
Big news of the week is that after a lot of hard work, lots of trips to the cartório, lots of prayer, lots of fasting, lots of insisting, and lots of help, we finally marked Fernando and Luciclea´s marriage and baptism, and it´s going to happen before I go home! On our fifth try, this morning everything worked out perfectly. Mark your calendars, Feb 7th 2015 we will be having a giant wedding party, (all right, probably not so giant, but it will still be fun.)
I don´t know if I´ve let you all in on all the details, but we´ve tried to mark this wedding a lot. The first time we found out that their ID´s were expired, so we went to Campinas together, and got them renewed. But for some reason, I don´t really remember to well now, Fernando´s document gave some problems, and so a couple weeks later we had to go back to renew it again. And then we had everything ready at the end of last year, and went to mark it, just to find out that they don´t accept ripped birth certificates, and Luciclea´s certificate was really old and worn out. So they denied us again. And so then Luciclea has her Mom go to the cartorio in Bahia just to find out that 10 years ago almost all the documents had been burned, so it would be tough to get a new certificate. And then a littler later we find out that her birth certificate was one of the few documents that survived the fire. Yes! And then we started a race against time. The information paper we had said we have to mark the marriage at least on month ahead of time, so about 2 weeks ago, we were in a hurry to mark it so I could participate before going home. So her mom was finally able to get the certificate and sent it priority mail (which should only take 24 hours), but it didn´t show up, and didn´t show up, and didn´t show up. And then a month before I leave hit and so we tried desperately with the old certificate again, but they deny us again! So I was pretty sad, but then good news... Since the two of them already live in Vinhedo, it only takes 16 days to process, so we bought a bit of extra time. And then the certificate finally got here, and we went to mark the marriage again, just to find out that they don´t mark marriages on Friday, and so today we went back, and tudo deu certo. finalmente.
Sorry. Kind of long with a lot of details, but I´m happy now.
We also took them to the temple on Saturday and they loved it. Luciclea is already making me promise to come back in a year for their sealing. I didn´t promise anything, but would love too.
Hope you all have a wonderful week. Try not to count down the days ;).
Love,
Evan
Oi fam,
Big news of the week is that after a lot of hard work, lots of trips to the cartório, lots of prayer, lots of fasting, lots of insisting, and lots of help, we finally marked Fernando and Luciclea´s marriage and baptism, and it´s going to happen before I go home! On our fifth try, this morning everything worked out perfectly. Mark your calendars, Feb 7th 2015 we will be having a giant wedding party, (all right, probably not so giant, but it will still be fun.)
I don´t know if I´ve let you all in on all the details, but we´ve tried to mark this wedding a lot. The first time we found out that their ID´s were expired, so we went to Campinas together, and got them renewed. But for some reason, I don´t really remember to well now, Fernando´s document gave some problems, and so a couple weeks later we had to go back to renew it again. And then we had everything ready at the end of last year, and went to mark it, just to find out that they don´t accept ripped birth certificates, and Luciclea´s certificate was really old and worn out. So they denied us again. And so then Luciclea has her Mom go to the cartorio in Bahia just to find out that 10 years ago almost all the documents had been burned, so it would be tough to get a new certificate. And then a littler later we find out that her birth certificate was one of the few documents that survived the fire. Yes! And then we started a race against time. The information paper we had said we have to mark the marriage at least on month ahead of time, so about 2 weeks ago, we were in a hurry to mark it so I could participate before going home. So her mom was finally able to get the certificate and sent it priority mail (which should only take 24 hours), but it didn´t show up, and didn´t show up, and didn´t show up. And then a month before I leave hit and so we tried desperately with the old certificate again, but they deny us again! So I was pretty sad, but then good news... Since the two of them already live in Vinhedo, it only takes 16 days to process, so we bought a bit of extra time. And then the certificate finally got here, and we went to mark the marriage again, just to find out that they don´t mark marriages on Friday, and so today we went back, and tudo deu certo. finalmente.
Sorry. Kind of long with a lot of details, but I´m happy now.
We also took them to the temple on Saturday and they loved it. Luciclea is already making me promise to come back in a year for their sealing. I didn´t promise anything, but would love too.
Hope you all have a wonderful week. Try not to count down the days ;).
Love,
Evan
Monday, January 12, 2015
quick update
Oi fam,
It has been a great week. Yesterday was a blast. The dias family through me a surprise birthday party. We were walking to a supposed appointment, and my comp stopped at there house to get a cup of water rapidinho. I was kind of bugged, cause we were late to the appointment, and asked him, why don´t we just get a cup of water at the investigators house, but he insisted, and as we walked in, there was a huge cake, tacos, and some great friends waiting to surprise me. They pulled it off really well.
Highlight of the week was the baptism of Débora. She is 19 years old, and we´ve have been teaching her whole family. The rest of the family is really stuck in their church, mostly because her dad is pastor. But he is reading the Book of Mormon, so we will see what happens.
Other than that life has been pretty normal. A bunch of recent converts will be going ot the temple this week to do baptisms. I´ve excited for them. I´ve been letting my companion be senior. I´ve taught him everything I know how to teach, now it´s just letting him learn from experience, so it´s been fun to take a back seat and let him do things.
Love you all. thanks for the birthday wishes.
Evan
It has been a great week. Yesterday was a blast. The dias family through me a surprise birthday party. We were walking to a supposed appointment, and my comp stopped at there house to get a cup of water rapidinho. I was kind of bugged, cause we were late to the appointment, and asked him, why don´t we just get a cup of water at the investigators house, but he insisted, and as we walked in, there was a huge cake, tacos, and some great friends waiting to surprise me. They pulled it off really well.
Highlight of the week was the baptism of Débora. She is 19 years old, and we´ve have been teaching her whole family. The rest of the family is really stuck in their church, mostly because her dad is pastor. But he is reading the Book of Mormon, so we will see what happens.
Other than that life has been pretty normal. A bunch of recent converts will be going ot the temple this week to do baptisms. I´ve excited for them. I´ve been letting my companion be senior. I´ve taught him everything I know how to teach, now it´s just letting him learn from experience, so it´s been fun to take a back seat and let him do things.
Love you all. thanks for the birthday wishes.
Evan
birthday pictures
Hey Mom,
The Dias family through me a great suprise birthday party! They even made tacos for me. It´s been almost two years since I´ve eaten tacos. What a treat! Here are the pics they took from there ipad mini
Love,
Evan
The Dias family through me a great suprise birthday party! They even made tacos for me. It´s been almost two years since I´ve eaten tacos. What a treat! Here are the pics they took from there ipad mini
Love,
Evan
foto of mission on Christmas
Sunday, January 11, 2015
So this is Christmas
December 29, 2014
Oi família,
Christmas just flew by. Crazy to think that it has come and gone again. Christmas Eve we went to Renata and family´s house. They are an awesome family of recent converts that love the misisonaries. We had dinner, everyone got some sweet zip ties, and then they invited us back for breakfast the next morning. It had been a while since I´ve had a decent breakfast, and it was delicious. Then we went off to the bishops for lunch, and from there got to talk to everyone, which was so great, and then went home to get some much needed rest. Loved it.
The week has been great. Elder Bradd and Elder Luiz, the other companionship here, had a baptism yesterday. It was fun to participate. We had three investigators there, and all of them felt the Spirit really strong. Luciclea and Fernando were telling everyone that they will be next. We just have to get them married, which will probably take another month or so. And then our other investigator, Debora, come up to me after the baptism and asked to be baptized. Her family is huge in a another church, so she will face a lot of oppostion, but she told me she felt God touch her heart while she watched the baptism, and decided that´s what she wants. We were way excited, and marked her baptism for next week. Pray for her and her family. Her family is awesome, and we would love for them to feel the same spirit that Debora felt.
Those are highlights I guess. It should be a busy week and a busy new year. Lot´s of work to continue and a lot of people to visit.
I´m so grateful for all of you and the support you give me. I have a firm testimony that families can be together forever, and that is one of my greatest desires. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful 2015!
Abraço,
Evan
Oi família,
Christmas just flew by. Crazy to think that it has come and gone again. Christmas Eve we went to Renata and family´s house. They are an awesome family of recent converts that love the misisonaries. We had dinner, everyone got some sweet zip ties, and then they invited us back for breakfast the next morning. It had been a while since I´ve had a decent breakfast, and it was delicious. Then we went off to the bishops for lunch, and from there got to talk to everyone, which was so great, and then went home to get some much needed rest. Loved it.
The week has been great. Elder Bradd and Elder Luiz, the other companionship here, had a baptism yesterday. It was fun to participate. We had three investigators there, and all of them felt the Spirit really strong. Luciclea and Fernando were telling everyone that they will be next. We just have to get them married, which will probably take another month or so. And then our other investigator, Debora, come up to me after the baptism and asked to be baptized. Her family is huge in a another church, so she will face a lot of oppostion, but she told me she felt God touch her heart while she watched the baptism, and decided that´s what she wants. We were way excited, and marked her baptism for next week. Pray for her and her family. Her family is awesome, and we would love for them to feel the same spirit that Debora felt.
Those are highlights I guess. It should be a busy week and a busy new year. Lot´s of work to continue and a lot of people to visit.
I´m so grateful for all of you and the support you give me. I have a firm testimony that families can be together forever, and that is one of my greatest desires. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful 2015!
Abraço,
Evan
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