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
Thursday, January 22, 2015
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
Monday, December 22, 2014
Manifestações do Espírito
December 17, 2014
Oi família,
Today was the Mission Christmas Devotional. It was so good to see everyone, and so good to here from Presidente Perrotti. I have grown to love him so much over these two years. He leads with a smile, loves to give hugs, and is a good person.
Our little drama with Luciclea and Fernando ended up turning out well. I guess there are some novelas with a positive ending, or at least one. We ended up going back to Luciclea, and just listened to her for about an hour telling us about all the spiritual expierences she had had after we left that dramatic night. After giving her a blessing and leaving, she went to bed and fell asleep right away, and while she was sleeping she felt a light envelop her. She told she thought she was dying, but then heard a voice that said, "you are not dying. I am giving you a word of comfort." She continued sleeping, and then had a dream in which she saw an angel guiding me and my companion to her. When we reached her, the angel told her, "Listen to these my servants, for they bring you peace." As she told us of these experiences, I felt my love for the savior increase, and realized again how this work is his. How greatful am I to participate in this wonderful work.
Ana was baptized Sunday. Her family came to watch. Her parents are really catholic and don't plan on changing soon, but we'll see how things go.
On christmas, I plan on calling you all after lunch. I hope that doesn't mess up any plans you have. We have lunch with the bishop, and after lunch we will get online. Probably around 1 or 2 brasilian time (são paulo). I don´t remember what time that is in Utah. I´m way excited to see you all. It just hit me yesterday that I´m in the final two months. The weeks are just flying by.
Lembre-se que `Deus amou o mundo de tal maneira que deu o seu Filho unigênito, para que todo aquele que nele crê não pereça, mas tenha a vida eterna. Porque Deus enviou o seu Filho ao mundo, não para que condenasse o mundo, mas para que o mundo fosse salvo por ele.`
Feliz Natal e um próspero Ano Novo
Abraço,
Evan
Oi família,
Today was the Mission Christmas Devotional. It was so good to see everyone, and so good to here from Presidente Perrotti. I have grown to love him so much over these two years. He leads with a smile, loves to give hugs, and is a good person.
Our little drama with Luciclea and Fernando ended up turning out well. I guess there are some novelas with a positive ending, or at least one. We ended up going back to Luciclea, and just listened to her for about an hour telling us about all the spiritual expierences she had had after we left that dramatic night. After giving her a blessing and leaving, she went to bed and fell asleep right away, and while she was sleeping she felt a light envelop her. She told she thought she was dying, but then heard a voice that said, "you are not dying. I am giving you a word of comfort." She continued sleeping, and then had a dream in which she saw an angel guiding me and my companion to her. When we reached her, the angel told her, "Listen to these my servants, for they bring you peace." As she told us of these experiences, I felt my love for the savior increase, and realized again how this work is his. How greatful am I to participate in this wonderful work.
Ana was baptized Sunday. Her family came to watch. Her parents are really catholic and don't plan on changing soon, but we'll see how things go.
On christmas, I plan on calling you all after lunch. I hope that doesn't mess up any plans you have. We have lunch with the bishop, and after lunch we will get online. Probably around 1 or 2 brasilian time (são paulo). I don´t remember what time that is in Utah. I´m way excited to see you all. It just hit me yesterday that I´m in the final two months. The weeks are just flying by.
Lembre-se que `Deus amou o mundo de tal maneira que deu o seu Filho unigênito, para que todo aquele que nele crê não pereça, mas tenha a vida eterna. Porque Deus enviou o seu Filho ao mundo, não para que condenasse o mundo, mas para que o mundo fosse salvo por ele.`
Feliz Natal e um próspero Ano Novo
Abraço,
Evan
Monday, December 15, 2014
Cansado e Feliz. A missionary combo.
December 10, 2014
Oi fam!
It´s been a crazy week here in Brasil. Waking up early, lots of meetings, temple trips, and miracles. I´m honestly exhausted, but it´s all worth it. I´ll try to let you all into the highlights.
There are moments on the mission when you feel like you are being dropped into a Novela (brasilian soap opera. they are kind of huge down here, and a horrible influence on society if you ask me) and one of those was yesterday. Looking back it really feels like I walked into a set. I say that joking, but honestly its really sad because it involves real people with real problems. But the way everything played out it felt surreal
It started out yesterday. We dropped by at Neide´s store to say hi. It´s always fun to go by there. I always leave more excited for the work. She is getting ready to get her Patriarchal Blessing which is way cool. After talking for a bit, she helped us set up an appointment at a government office in Campinas for one of our investigators (Luis Fernando) to renew he outdated ID so that he can get married and baptized. We had planned with Fernando to mark on Saturday, but realized the office was closed Saturday, so we tried giving him a call, but no answer. We then called his girlfriend/wife (Luciclea) to set things up with her, and when we called I could tell she was in a bar. Lot´s of noise, music in the background, and to top things off she was almost crying. As a friend and a missionary, I naturally got worried. First that she was crying, second that she was in the bar, and third because she kept saying over and over again, I need you guys to come by tonight. I told her we would drop by and continued on with the day, putting the events in the back of my mind.
Fast foward a couple hours. We grab a bus to go back to the neighborhood where we live, with plans to stop by Luciclea before going home. Pretty normal bus ride until this lady sits next to me. Like always, I start talking to her and ask her how she is going.
`Mais ou Menos` she responds. I could tell she had been to the hospital because she had that cottonball and bandage that they always stick on you after drawing blood or giving medicine, so I asked her if she was sick. And then she replies,
´Look, I´m the next door neighbor of that lady you have been teaching. We were actually really good friends until today.`
"Well good to meet you," I said with a smile.
"You wanna know what happened today?" she asked.
At that point I was thinking, "well, the way she is asking me, I really don't think I want to know." but I asked anyways.
"I was at a doctors appointment," she says, "and my husband didn't know I was coming home early. And as I was walking home I walked passed the bar, and who was there drinking and kissing, Luciclea and my husband."
She continued, "So of course I marched in to figure out what was going on, fought with my husband, and he beat me up pretty bad so I had to go the hospital again."
Pretty shocked I replied, "Wow, that makes me really sad," Praying that what she told me wasn't true.
I talked with my companion and we prayed and prayed to know what to do when we went over to Luciclea, and when we get there she is out of control crying. Through sobs, we here her side of the story, which is completely different then her friends and ends up with her friend hitting her across the face harder then she has ever been hit before. Luciclea has a pretty bad temper, and told us that she fought and fought not to fight back, but was more angry then she has ever been before. We talked with her, listened to her, prayed with her, and gave her a blessing. We left the Spirit there. And that's where we end our little drama, at least for today. We have to go back to see how things will run out, but if I learned anything, it's that the love of Christ can heal the deeepest wounds. I truly felt that with Luciclea as we left her house last night.
Other highlights of the week include Ana and her family. We taught them all Sunday, and there are excited for her to get baptized. They haven't accepted baptism, but have at least accepted having us over and really felt the Spirit as we taught. I'm really excited for Fabiano, her older brother. Sadly he smokes, which will probably be his biggest challenge, but he loved the lesson.
We also met a sweet couple, Rai e Micaela. They are 21 and 19, and usually when we find young couples like that they are just living together to see how things play out, which makes things difficult, but to are surprise, they are legally married and accepted baptism. Now comes the teaching process.
We had the opportunity to go to the temple today. I have to tell you that it is really nice to have a little piece of heaven on earth. There is so much wickedness. Just riding the buses here in brasil I am pretty much constantly singing hymns in my head to keep my thoughts pure. There is literally pornography everywhere you look. I've already memorized when I can look out the window, and when I have to look out the other window, and when I need to close my eyes as we take the bus around down. I'm not even kidding, it's horrible. But the Lord has protected me and it was so nice to be in the house of the Lord today and feel his presence. And even nicer to feel worthy to be in his presence.
Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.
Abraço,
Evan
Oi fam!
It´s been a crazy week here in Brasil. Waking up early, lots of meetings, temple trips, and miracles. I´m honestly exhausted, but it´s all worth it. I´ll try to let you all into the highlights.
There are moments on the mission when you feel like you are being dropped into a Novela (brasilian soap opera. they are kind of huge down here, and a horrible influence on society if you ask me) and one of those was yesterday. Looking back it really feels like I walked into a set. I say that joking, but honestly its really sad because it involves real people with real problems. But the way everything played out it felt surreal
It started out yesterday. We dropped by at Neide´s store to say hi. It´s always fun to go by there. I always leave more excited for the work. She is getting ready to get her Patriarchal Blessing which is way cool. After talking for a bit, she helped us set up an appointment at a government office in Campinas for one of our investigators (Luis Fernando) to renew he outdated ID so that he can get married and baptized. We had planned with Fernando to mark on Saturday, but realized the office was closed Saturday, so we tried giving him a call, but no answer. We then called his girlfriend/wife (Luciclea) to set things up with her, and when we called I could tell she was in a bar. Lot´s of noise, music in the background, and to top things off she was almost crying. As a friend and a missionary, I naturally got worried. First that she was crying, second that she was in the bar, and third because she kept saying over and over again, I need you guys to come by tonight. I told her we would drop by and continued on with the day, putting the events in the back of my mind.
Fast foward a couple hours. We grab a bus to go back to the neighborhood where we live, with plans to stop by Luciclea before going home. Pretty normal bus ride until this lady sits next to me. Like always, I start talking to her and ask her how she is going.
`Mais ou Menos` she responds. I could tell she had been to the hospital because she had that cottonball and bandage that they always stick on you after drawing blood or giving medicine, so I asked her if she was sick. And then she replies,
´Look, I´m the next door neighbor of that lady you have been teaching. We were actually really good friends until today.`
"Well good to meet you," I said with a smile.
"You wanna know what happened today?" she asked.
At that point I was thinking, "well, the way she is asking me, I really don't think I want to know." but I asked anyways.
"I was at a doctors appointment," she says, "and my husband didn't know I was coming home early. And as I was walking home I walked passed the bar, and who was there drinking and kissing, Luciclea and my husband."
She continued, "So of course I marched in to figure out what was going on, fought with my husband, and he beat me up pretty bad so I had to go the hospital again."
Pretty shocked I replied, "Wow, that makes me really sad," Praying that what she told me wasn't true.
I talked with my companion and we prayed and prayed to know what to do when we went over to Luciclea, and when we get there she is out of control crying. Through sobs, we here her side of the story, which is completely different then her friends and ends up with her friend hitting her across the face harder then she has ever been hit before. Luciclea has a pretty bad temper, and told us that she fought and fought not to fight back, but was more angry then she has ever been before. We talked with her, listened to her, prayed with her, and gave her a blessing. We left the Spirit there. And that's where we end our little drama, at least for today. We have to go back to see how things will run out, but if I learned anything, it's that the love of Christ can heal the deeepest wounds. I truly felt that with Luciclea as we left her house last night.
Other highlights of the week include Ana and her family. We taught them all Sunday, and there are excited for her to get baptized. They haven't accepted baptism, but have at least accepted having us over and really felt the Spirit as we taught. I'm really excited for Fabiano, her older brother. Sadly he smokes, which will probably be his biggest challenge, but he loved the lesson.
We also met a sweet couple, Rai e Micaela. They are 21 and 19, and usually when we find young couples like that they are just living together to see how things play out, which makes things difficult, but to are surprise, they are legally married and accepted baptism. Now comes the teaching process.
We had the opportunity to go to the temple today. I have to tell you that it is really nice to have a little piece of heaven on earth. There is so much wickedness. Just riding the buses here in brasil I am pretty much constantly singing hymns in my head to keep my thoughts pure. There is literally pornography everywhere you look. I've already memorized when I can look out the window, and when I have to look out the other window, and when I need to close my eyes as we take the bus around down. I'm not even kidding, it's horrible. But the Lord has protected me and it was so nice to be in the house of the Lord today and feel his presence. And even nicer to feel worthy to be in his presence.
Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.
Abraço,
Evan
Saturday, December 6, 2014
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