Quase um ano já!

Oi Familia!

It´s crazy how fast the time has past by.  In a couple days I´ll have officially hit the one year mark, and for some reason that just doesn´t even seem fair at all. I´ve done a ton, but at the same time I feel like I haven´t done nearly enough for one year, and to think that this second year will fly by probably even faster, I´ve come to realize that I just got to put it all in each and every day.  

I´m sorry me emails have kind of gotten shorter and less interesting.  Sometimes I just feel like hardly anything different has been happening lately, just with a lot of new faces.  My new goal is to take a lot more pictures this new year.  I feel like pictures preserve memories a lot better, but I´ve gotten kind of bad at pulling the camera out.  Oh well,  we´ll make that a new years resolutions of sort.  

We´ve taught a lot of people this week.  A lot of people with a lot of problems.  Smoking, Drinking, Marriage, etc.  In the middle of a lesson with this couple that has been fighting a ton and just put it all out their for us to help, I thought of a talk by Elder Nelson a couple years ago when he said, `Ask the missionaries, they can help you!`  I remember thinking than, and thought it during the lesson, `Wow, do these people not realize I´m like a 20 year old kid who has never been married and has no idea how to do marriage counseling?`  But I guess that all is part of the calling, and so I read over some parts of the A Familia: A Proclamação ao mundo with them, and told them the message we had will help them overcome whatever difficulty they have, and they ended up coming to church which is a great start!  We will see where it all ends up, but I´m sure we were able to make somewhat of a difference.  

We have been having a lot of success bringing people to Church these last couple weeks.  Now we just need to get them reading the Book of Momon and praying.  The three pillars of testimony, no matter what stage of life you are in.  If you are having problems, make sure you are praying, studying the Book of Mormon, and going to church.  It truly brings revelation.  

I´ll try to take more pics for you all this week and this year.  Love you all and stay strong in the journey.  And always remember why we are here, to become perfect in Christ.

 32 Yea, ^acome unto Christ, and be ^bperfected in him, and ^cdeny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and ^dlove God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be^eperfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect inChrist, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye ^asanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the ^bblood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your ^csins, that ye become ^dholy, without spot.

Espero que vocês tenham uma boa semana e que fiquem firme em fé, sempre crescendo em seu testemunho.

Abraço,

Evan  

Finalmente choveu!!! ... um pouco

Oi família!
Tudo bem?!

The week has just kind of flown by. Time just seems to kind of
disappear sometimes, but I guess you just have to make the most out of
it.

So here are some highlights from the week... Actually, I'll think I'll
just tell about Saturday, because Saturday was kind of highlight day.
Saturday morning we were able to take Rodrigo e Elisangela to visit
the temple with us which was really great. They felt the spirit so
strong, and all of us were just renewed by the wonderful spirit that
is there. We taught them about eternal families and temple marriage
while we were there, and the Spirit was so strong so I challenged them
to baptism again. I was almost positive they would say yes, but after
thinking for awhile, they went back to their same answer of wanting
certainty. It goes to show that the real path to conversion is
through the Book of Mormon and personal prayer. They have only read a
litte bit, so we need to really get them started on that. They've
been coming to church for 5 weeks already, and they come to all the
activities and everything. Even the members think they have already
been baptized which creates some funny/awkward moments. But with time
I'm sure they'll come around.

After the temple we had a delicious lunch, made some visits, and then
went to visit Larissa (niece of a member who we have been teaching) to
make sure she was all ready for her baptism, and while we were there
we got a phone call from the bishop that the water in the neighborhood
were the church is had been cut, so that kind put a wrench in our
plans. But we called up some other missionaries and last minute they
were able to go to their church and fill up the baptismal font for us,
and last minute everyone drove over to the stake center, but it all
went smoothly which was good. The only problem was that we were
supposed to have a ward activity after the baptism, and the baptism
got way delayed, and so nobody showed up to our church until 7ish and
it was supposed to start at 6, and we had some investigators that had
gotten their early so it was kind of a bummer for them, but oh well.
Everything turned out fine.

Well I guess that's kind of a sneak peak into a day of a missionary.
Or at least a good day of a missionary :). You have to go through a
lot of hot sunny days to have one of those, but it's definitely worth
it.

Amo todos vocês. Espero que vocês tenham uma ótima semana e que
reconheçam o amor de Deus em suas vidas.

Mosias 2

19 E eis também que se eu, a quem chamais vosso rei, que passou os
seus dias a vosso serviço e, contudo, esteve a serviço de Deus, mereço
algum agradecimento de vós, oh! quanto deveis aagradecera vosso Rei
celestial!

20 Digo-vos, meus irmãos, que se renderdes todas as graças e
louvores, com todo o poder de vossa alma, àquele Deus que vos criou e
guardou e preservou e fez com que vos regozijásseis e vos concedeu
viverdes em paz uns com os outros--

21 Digo-vos que se servirdes ao que vos criou desde o princípio e
vos está preservando dia a dia, dando-vos alento para que possais
viver, mover-vos e agir segundo vossa própria avontade; e até vos
apoiando de momento a momento--digo-vos que se o servirdes com toda a
alma, ainda assim sereis bservos inúteis.

22 E eis que tudo que ele requer de vós é que guardeis seus
mandamentos; e ele prometeu-vos que, se aguardásseis seus mandamentos,
prosperaríeis na terra; e ele nunca se desvia do que disse; portanto,
se guardardes seus mandamentos, ele vos abençoará e far-vos-á
prosperar.

Ele sempre está ao nosso lado para ajudar, consolar, e fortalecer.

Abraço,

Evan

Calor de mais! Record setting heat in Brazil!

Oi familia,

Mais um transferência acabou. Time is just flying by. 11 months has
already passed by and before I know it, I´ll be more then a year old
on the mission. Crazy.

So it´s just my luck that I´m in Brazil during the hottest year of the
century. The heat has been breaking records here, and the country is
in danger of going into a serious drought. The rain has completely
stopped and there are some cities that have already cut the water to
conserve. Something like one day on and one day off. We´re still
good here, but if it doesn´t rain soon, I don´t know what will happen.
The Lord will take care of us though, so I´m not too worried.

So other then the blazing sun, life has been good. The hours after
lunch sometimes get a little bit miserable. Hardly anyone is home, so
we are stuck in the streets trying to find people to talk too. We can
usually get into a house or two and find someone to talk to, but
inside the houses aren´t much better without air conditioning. We
have fans to keep us cool at night, but we´ve ended up throwing our
mattresses outside and sleeping under the stars because it manages to
cool down a bit at night, and that makes sleeping a lot nicer. Kind
of reminds me of camping a bit, just with cement all around me instead
of trees, but I´ll take what I can.

So I´ll guess I´ll tell you a bit about Elder Lybbert. He´s from
Georgia, a city close to Atlanta, and came straight here from the
Provo MTC. He had actually got reassigned to Indy as well, but the
visa came just before he left. He has an older sister on a mission as
well, in Georgia, and I think he has a couple other siblings as well.
He didn´t bring any photos so it´s kind of hard to remember. He´s
huge into BMX, so huge that after he had a really bad crash his Junior
year, and after being in a coma for 5 days, he learned how to walk
again, and then how to bike again, and went right back out. I guess
he´ll be safe for two years here. He lost his hearing in one ear
though, so I always have to stay on the right side, or maybe it´s the
left. I really don´t remember. I think being part deaf makes
learning the language a lot harder though. You learn so much from
listening, and without hearning, it´s hard to distinguish words and
phrases, so everything probably just sounds like a jumbled mess to
him. But he´s picking it up. Slowly but surely.

We are teaching an awesome couple right now, and they are even legally
married! Rodrigo and Elisangela found us walking down the street one
day. Rodrigo pulled over and asked us if we could teach him some
English, and we were like ´Sure, if you come to church on Sunday` We
tried to set an appointment right then and there, but he didn´t want
to give his address, and so we gave them the address of the church and
invited him and left, and didn´t think much of it because usually if
people aren´t willing to set an appointment, they won´t come to
church, but sure enough he came, and brought his wife too! What a
great suprise that was. That was about 4 weeks ago, and they have
been coming every week and really love it. They are such great
people. So fun to be around and so fun to teach. We just need to
teach them more, but it´s kind of hard because they are working and
studying until 9 almost every day, so we can only pass by on the
weekends. But logo logo tudo vai dar certo.

Well that´s about it for now. Hope you all have a great week.

Amo vocês,

Evan

P.S.

E agora, meu amado filho, apesar da dureza deles, trabalhemos
diligentemente; porque, se deixarmos de trabalhar, estaremos sob
condenação; porque enquanto habitarmos este tabernáculo de barro,
temos uma obra a executar, para vencermos o inimigo de toda a retidão
e para que nossa alma descanse no reino de Deus.

Moroni 9:6

A semana de milagres

Oi familia!
Como vocês estão?

This week was honestly just filled with miracles, and unfortunately,
due to a ton of phone calls, follow-up, planning, and working, I
didn´t get to record a ton of it in my journal, so I hope I can
capture some of the feelings I´ve had of late in this letter.
Training and being District Leader at the same time can sometimes be
exhausting. It´s go go go 24/7 without much of a chance to stop and
take a breath.

I guess the first miracle I would like to share is Diego (another
Diego) who was baptized yesterday. It is honestly amazing how
prepared he was when we found him. So willing to read the Book of
Mormon, so open to the Spirit, and so prepared to be baptized. I
guess the biggest miracle was just to see the Lord´s promise in Alma
16:16-17 come true.

16 And there was no inequality among them; the Lord did pour out his
Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the
children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which
should be taught among them at the time of his coming--
17 That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might
not be unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might
receive the word with joy, and as a branch be grafted into the true
vine, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord their God.

When I started my mission I had a fairly limited view of what the
mission would be like. I thought if I could baptize 5 or 6 people in
two years I would have done all I could. I thought people would be
really closed and unwilling to listen, and I didn´t have a vision of
what the Lord could do. But as time has gone on, God has really
started to open up my eyes of what his plan is and how we can help
him, and I´ve come to realize that today is the time to harvest the
fruits that have already been planted. Especially here in Brazil.
And I guess Diego is just more proof the Lord has given me to help me
learn that this work will grow and continue to grow until it literally
fills the earth. Right now the gospel has been preached in most
countries, but I´m here to tell you it´s gonna keep on growing until
it fills up all these countries as well. And the Spirit is preparing
the hearts of everyone to recieve this wonderful message! The work
will grow, we just need to decide what role we are going to play.

The other miracle was Luciano. We have been teaching him since we´ve
got here, but he really struggled with smoking for quite some time.
He had gotten down to 1 or 2 cigarros per day for a couple weeks, but
it was hard to take that final step. We had a date all set in stone
for Sunday, but he was still smoking to start the week and a couple
lesson appointments fell through, so I didn´t think it would happen...
but then all of a sudden I got a phone call on Friday night and
Luciano almost shouted for joy and told me `I´ve stopped! I´m done
smoking! Are you excited for Sunday?!` and so of course we went over
there, saw how he was doing, marked an interview, and he was baptized
as well. He´s really made some amazing changes.

Now we have a lot of work to keep everyone firm. Sometimes baptizing
is the easy part, but then you have to follow up with your converts
and do all you can to help them stay firm in their decision.

I hope you all know how much I love you all and how much I love
Christ. It´s really amazing what we can do when we turn our lives
over to the saviour. I still have a long ways to go as missionary,
and a lot to learn, but I know I just need to learn how to give myself
to the Lord.

Love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week. Keep on being
awesome, and always remember the Lord in all you do.

Eu Amo Vocês,

Evan

Running out of ideas of what to title my emails.

Oi Familia!
Tudo Bem?!

Just like to start off my sending out a big thanks for the Birthday
package! It was way fun to get, and I felt like you guys sent a lot
of love with all the simple gifts. Goes to show that love bridges any
barrier, even across the continents. Dad, thanks for the music, it
really was great to get, and also thanks for giving up the Reeses, I
know that was probably a sacrifice. Lisa, thanks so much for the
Kool-aid. It really has been helping in the hot afternoons. Amy, I
love listening to you sing! Your choir is so good and so inspiring.
Thanks for the game as well. I still need to try it out. I think
I´ll do that after I finish writing this. Thanks for the tie Brian! I
wore it on Sunday. Really pretty chique. And thanks Mom for the
brownies, and everything else, and more than anything, the love you
were able to pack into everything. I love you all so much.

So I went shopping at Walmart today. Yep, it truly is taking over the
world. Kind felt like a piece of home here in Brazil ;)

The week really flew by. We really have a great teaching group right
now, just need to help some people pray and read the Book of Mormon,
and when they do, I know they will feel that this is all true. It
really is so simple. Read the Book of Mormon and pray with sincerity,
and God will answer. But you have to want it. Without real intenção
ou desejo, God can´t do much for us. Reminds me of a phrase I learned
in the MTC, God can´t drive a parked car.

Diego was baptized yesterday. A great experience for him, and even
more importantly, his family. His Mom and Brother came and really
enjoyed the baptismal service, and church as well after, so it looks
as if their hearts have opened up a bit.

We are also teaching the family of Gabi. Gabi has been going to
church for three years but hasn´t been baptized yet because her Mom
thought she was too young to make that kind of decision, and her Mom
was really Catholic at the time, but we taught her the Restoration,
and she really understood and even accepted baptism as well! She just
wants to take some time, but we will get her reading the Book of
Mormon, and Gabi, her Mom, and her Brother all should be baptized
within the next month or so.

There are a ton of other people here as well. It´s been so fun to see
the teaching group grow so fast, but it just goes to show how much God
is preparing his children. If I´ve learned anything this transfer,
it´s that so much depends on our vision. If we believe we can do
something, and have the faith that God will help us, it will happen.

Love you all so much, and wish you all the best of weeks!

Love,

Evan

Ficando Perdido em Campinas

Oi Familia!

So after about a week and a half here in the area I still hardly know
exactly where I am. But at least I know how to get to church and how
to get home, so that´s all that really matters. Everything else just
kind of works out throughout the day. So I´m happy to say that Diego
is really progressing. He´s devoured all the pamphlets we´ve given
him, loves reading the Book of Mormon, and loves going to Church, but
he just has this fear of baptism for some reason. He used to go to
another Church, which tried to force him into baptism, so maybe that´s
the reason, but we had talked about everything and marked a baptism
with him and he seemed to be over the fear, but then he called me the
other day and said he still felt all conflicted, but I´m sure he´ll
get over it sooner or later.

As for the rest of the week, we have found some new people to teach.
Everyone here will let you teach, especially in the favella, but the
problem is finding people who actually want to change. But it´s a
process, so you just have to hope and pray a lot for people, and do
your best. I always tell people that we are here to teach and help
and support, but that they are the ones who do the real changing. We
can bring the message of Christ, the message of hope, but if they
don´t act on it, then nothing is going to happen, and I think the same
is true of us as well, if we don´t act on what we know, nothing is
going to change and nothing is going to get better. Sure it´s hard,
but life is going to be hard sometimes, so you might as well grow from
it.

Elder Lybbert is still as confused as ever. Yesterday was really
funny because he was shaking peoples hands at church and said to one
of the members `How are you?` in English, and the member gave him a
really funny look and I looked over to him and said `Elder, remember
people here don´t speak English` But he´s working hard and he´ll
catch on pretty quick.

It´s hotter than ever right now, but that´s alright. We just keep on
going and sweating, and life is a great.

I just finished up reading Mateus hoje and loved reading about the
life of Christ. He is such a great example in everything, and I hope
I am becoming more like him. We really need to let the light of
Christ within us shine, and people will recognize it and want to know
what it is.

Hope you all have a wonderful, cold week!

Love,

Evan

Mais um desafia em volta para Campinas

Oi Familia!
Tudo Bem!

Well it´s another year gone and by, another area left, another
companion, and several more challenges ahead, but I know 2014 will be
spectacular!

So I was transferred again. Kind of sad to say goodbye to Itupeva,
but I guess not to sad. I liked it their, but it wasn´t my favorite
area, or the best of transfers, and so it wasn´t to hard to leave
behind. President sent me back to Campinas! Back to the big city it
is! I´m liking the area here, but one of the hardest things about
being the missionary is that we are always in the cities, and I´m not
exactly the biggest city guy, so first thing I´m going to do when I
get home is take a nice long mountain retreat away from humans and all
their problems.

Sorry, kind of went off on a tangent their. Anyways, I´m back in
Campinas again with Elder Lybbert who is from Georgia and has mais ou
menos 4 days in Brazil. It´s kind of funny to see him so completely
bewildered with Brazil and remember that only 5 or 6 months ago, I was
in exactly the same place. He´s new as new, hardly speaks, but is at
least willing to try and talk with people for a couple seconds before
looking at me with bewilderment when the people respond. It´s
awesome!!!

Anyways we are opening an area together. I guess not really opening,
but we got double transferred in, so neither of us had much of an idea
of where to go or what to do. But we found some nice members of the
ward to help orient us, and it´s all work now. We are actually in
charge of two wards here, so I´m going to 6 hours of Church every
Sunday. Never will complain about three hours again. But with two
wards we have our work cut out for us. Should be a blast.

So we already found an awesome guy to teach. His name is Diego and we
found him knocking doors. We taught him and his whole family, and he
was totally interested, read the pamphlets we left him, and when we
picked him up for Church yesterday he asked us if he could have a Book
of Mormon. And then it turns out some of his great friends are
already members, so he looks like he´s on the fast track to be
baptized. He´s already reading the Book of Mormon, already going to
Church, is really interested, and alread has friends in the Church.
Golden Investigator!

President has asked that we start doing a lot more work with Menos
Ativos which has been really cool. Yesterday we went by this guys
house who was baptized when he was 18, stayed firm for 20 years and
was even stake executive secratary, but then had a really ugly divorce
which kind of drove him away from the Church. But he never lost his
testimony. When we stopped by, he told us he wants to go back, and
that he knows its true, but he´s living with another woman now, and he
thought she didn´t want anything to do with the Church. So we talked
a bit with him, telling him that people can change, and then his wife
walks in and we start talking to her, and turns out she has been
wanting to find a church to go to, and has some really serious
concerns about life she wants answered, and agreed to start taking
lessons from us, which took her husband completely by suprise. Goes,
to show, you just never know who the Lord is preparing.

Well that´s kind of what´s happening with me this week. Just want to
share a scripture to end it off.

Mateus 20:25-28

25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great
exercise authority upon them.

26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great
among you, let him be your minister;

27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:

28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Jesus Christ is our perfect example. He spent his whole life serving
and teaching others, helping them to become better people, and ended
up giving his life so that through him, we can overcome our
difficulties and become cleansed from sin so we can return to his
presence. For all that he did, he never demanded fame, he never
demanded honor. He served with his heart out of love for others. As
followers of Christ, we need to do the same. Love with all out heart
and minister unto the needs of others.

Eu sei que Deus nos ama muito e mandou seu Filho para que pudessemos
vencer pecado e dor. Sei que Jesus Cristo é nosso Salvador, e só por
meio ele podemos ter felicidade e alegria durante nossas vidas.

Eu amo vocês.

Evan