Week 81 ( Section 122 )

Well, once again I left all my time looking up pretty young women on Mormon.org ..... Kidding! I´m just kidding, just wanted to make sure you were all still a bit interested in these emails, ha ha. Anyway just want to say this week was really great to start off. I know I say that a lot but this week was even better than normal :). Just to say I know nothing about transfers for now except that they closing my area here and leaving only one companionship in the ward and that I am called as District leader this morning. It´ll be interesting to say in the least for my poor district, but I am honestly very excited for this new calling. 

So some fun stuff that´s going on this week. I got a sign language book from our deaf investigator and have been studying it a lot. Turns out it´s from the Jehova´s Witnesses...... So it´s full of cool drawings and a bunch of apostasy, ha ha. It says the way you say ´cristian´ is ´JW´! But anyway this Thursday I was actually able to talk to her all night about some random stuff and understand her almost completely without interpretation. It was pretty cool, she was  really surprised that I picked it up and I honestly was as well. 

We had a crazy guy tell me I was an American spy and that I need to go Venezuela or something like that. He also made some illusion to marriage in São Paulo Temple because my comp is from there.... It was fun I guess. I was nice to him and asked him if he believed in God and he told me to prove to him God was real in the moment, so we left him there and invited him to come to the church some day. He then shouted a bit more about American spies and some other random stuff..... Only happens on the mission I guess. 

This week we had an awesome woman drop out of nowhere! She is the mother of one of the other mission´s investigators and this woman, Tania, and her daughter and future-son-in-law all were baptized this weekend! It was super cool! They were all super happy and Tania went from not wanting to be baptized to asking me to baptize her! It was a really great miracle to see in her life and in ours. I know they will all be a great strength to the ward and that I´ll miss them all for sure. 

Sorry it´s short this week but I need to leave you all with a little spiritual thought. I was thinking about how God always provides a way. Seeing as we would have a baptism this week we were looking to complete the standards of excellence of the mission this week, but were heavily lacking in lessons with members with only Saturday and Sunday left. But out of nowhere we had tons of friends of members over to their houses when we weren´t really expecting anything. We just went and worked and hoped for the best and the Lord really did the rest! It´s like Gideon in the bible (if you don´t know that story go and read it, you´ll learn something) in Judges 6 and 7. I´d quote it but it´d be a bit long, ha ha. Check it out and you´ll see the parallels. 

The church is launching something called ´becuase he lives´. Everyone check it out and share it!  Have a good week! 

-Um no exército de Deus

Elder Teela  

Week 80 ( Section 129 )

Hey everyone! This week has been full of fun, the spirit and missionary whimsy. We´ve been a little short in the baptismal department but that´s okay, we´ve got some awesome people who are looking to be baptized this week. It could be up to 5 in one day! Whoo! 

But I really procrastinated writing this until the end of my time (stupid mormon messages are always way too addicting) and I´ll have to be a bit breif here. Not that every really waxed eloquent on you all before but one day it just might happen. 

Anyway this week we had a few great nights. The first was the baptism up of an eight year old in our ward which had more than a few investigators. It´s always good for them to see a baptism before they themselves get in the water. It also meant a ton of free food that could even satisfy a missionary´s hunger, haha. It was her birthday party as well so that was fun. 

The next night we had our ward FHE thingy. It was family histroy night and I´ll add a picture in here so you can all see what happened:

Yes, that is three missionaries in old school get up (I think you´ll be proud of me there Dicie). We thought it´d be fun to get into the spirit a bit with some of the people there. This is only a tiny bit of the people who showed up but only we were dressed in the spirit of the night you could say. 

Me and my comp also had a fun FHE with a famliy in the ward but we kinda got the time off... we got there half an hour early and ened up tracking after sundown and I´m fairly convinced we scared some poor people half to death showing up out of nowhere all dressed up but it was funny :). The FHE Went well too. The family weill be getting sealed here on friday which is SUPER cool! 

Sunday we went to a birthday party for a yound man in the ward. He insisted on some apple pie and I was more than happy to practice the old art so we went and had a good time there, but had to be home by 7 due to some protests that apperently were supposed to happen..... oh well, I made us another pie to enjoy, haha. 

I was thinking a little bit this week about some phrases I think we´ve all heard ´know thyslef´ and the other classic of ´what´er thou art, act well thy part´. These are some good old age wisdom I that I like. We need to know who we are and then figure out our best way to help the world. I always thought that for sure I´d be some huge baptizing AP that made everyone else look in awe at my awesomeness. But is not my part here in the mission or really even in life. I´m still not %100 sure what my part is but I am determined to go after it with everything I´ve got when I do find it. I´ll be the best whatever I am for sure when I get home. I think for sure I want a Moroni-like figure but maybe I should just be like Nephi (the 3rd) who was hated by everyone for being rightous until he was called as one of the humbke 12 in the BoM. Who knows, but we should all do our best to fulfill these two phrases I think. 

Have a great week everyone! 

-um no exército de Deus

Elder Teela  

Week 79 -- Lamenting my oldness

Wow, next week will be week 80 of my mission.... That´s crazy. I´m on the way down for sure, but I´ll get on to the week rather than lament my oldness, ha ha.

First off we had zone conference which was cool. Just a big old ball of spiritual coolness really. The mission President said something interesting.... ´chastity is exhaulatation´. Food for thought. 

So a few cool things are going down here. The woman we are teaching in who is deaf gave me a book of hers to try and learn a little sign language but it´s not very much still. Step by step I guess. I think it´s not ASL either which could be a little harder but we´ll see how that goes. It´s cool though, learning new stuff. I´m not sure if I´ll be using it too much when I get home but it still feels cool. I just wish I had learned more when I was with Elder Shamo, who was an ASL elder.... Oh well, too little too late. Also they made it to church last week and their daughters (11 and 10) want to be baptized! It´ll take a little convincing of the dad and some strong spirit but I think he´ll let them here soon. 

We had a cool ward FHE this week about BoM knowledge. We divided into 4 teams, one for each elder. With 3 elders out for more than a year and a half and one greeny (my comp) one poor team was a bit short handed, ha ha. We had a good night there and we had an investigator who walked there with us with her two little cousins. She liked it enough but didn´t quite get what was going, which is justified I guess, seeing as she never has read the BoM. 

We also had a cool lady just drop out of nowhere. She is the future mother-in-law of one of the members here. She just came to church last week and lives with her daughter (future sister-in-law of the member) and we didn´t get much of a chance to talk to her but she seems pretty open to the church. I think we´ll be seeing between 3-5 baptisms these coming weeks in our area alone. 8 in total in the ward! Should be quite a sight to see! 

We helped a member kill his grass this week the old school way. We had these hoe-like things that they call ´enchadas´ which being interpreted is ´swollens´. I guess they looked at their hands after they were done and gave em´ the name, ha ha. It was pretty brutal work but cool at the same time. I think everyone left with some blisters due to the pansy-ness of missionary hands. I need to hit a weight room again to toughen em´ back up.... 

So this week I said something that I kinda gave a second thought to... It was something like this to an investigator ´yes, Christ will give you a new heart, but you have to give Him yours first´. It kinda hit me when I put it that way. It gave new meaning to what king Lamoni said ´ Yea, what shall I do that I may be born of God, having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that I may be filled with joy..?´ to me. We need to literally rip out our old ways to give more room for the new ones.... Much different when I thought about it that way.

Hope you all have a good week. Keep calm and pray on! 

-Elder Teela 

Week 78-- Less Than 5 Months People!!

So now begins the countdown my friends.... The home stretch, the final run and end of the line. This week I´m gonna start something called the D&C countdown. Everyday you read one section of the D&C starting with section 138 and working your way down to one and that last one should be the last non-pday of the mission. I start Friday...... I´M SO FREAKING OLD!! 

But for this week we had a good one. Monday was fun as a P-day of course so I´ll get to the fun stuff this week. We had a cool activity in the church that our WML called ´project multiply Sapucaia´ which was basically a huge FHE. We ate some pastels (some sort of fried bread filled with meat and stuff) and played that ´what am I?´ game where everyone has a card with a thing on their forehead and need to find out what it is. It got a little loud with about 40 people but went pretty well I think. Everyone had a good time and some investigators showed up, so it was all good. 

It also rained a lot this week. We got home one day after lunch and it had been raining a bit so we thought that the storm had pasted by about 2:30 so we went out and left our umbela´s in the house. The rain came back around 5.... and you can guess what happened there. We took shelter with some old lady near by who turned out to be sweet as the ice cream she sells. She wasn´t too interested in our message but we did have a good talk about church and stuff for a while and said a prayer. We then went to a recent convert´s house to dry off a bit and drink some good old grass tea (Chimarrão). 

We then had an awesome less with a family that seems really prepared, the only problem is that the parents aren´t married so that could put the whole baptism off a few months. It takes at least a month to marry here in Brazil from the day you submit your papers. I´m still not entirely sure why but it´s whatever. They are super cool and they´re kids are pretty funny. 

We also discovered this bakery that makes awesome cake :). Only about a buck fifty for a huge slice.

Also our fridge broke.... I had the great idea to try and break some of the ice that was building up. I ended up making a bit of a mess of it all.... Not my smoothest moment, ha ha. I left some milk in there over the weekend and literally none of it came out as liquid this morning when I poured it all out.... yummy. 

In other news my workouts are going well. Ladies beware! By the time I get home I´m pretty sure no one will believe it´s really me, ha ha. My comp also cut my hair too, which didn´t go so well... He cut it WWAAAYYY short. Good thing mission conference isn´t for a while still, I´ll have a bit of time for it to grow out before Pres. chews me out. 

To end it all this week was stake conference which was great. Pres. Wright made it out with his wife and so did a counselor in the temple presidency! It was really cool to hear their talks but the temple president made some awkward moments for our investigators. He kept asking ´do you want to be Gods one day?´ Which really threw a few people for a loop, ha ha. That took a little explaining. Then the stake president did a bit of work... He had some stuff to clear up and basically spent his time calling repentance on a few things. It was the first time I´ve ever seen anything like it in a meeting like that. 

We finished the night at a long earned baptism. Not from our area but it was a kid I´ve come to know pretty well and I was happy to finally see him baptized. He´ll be a real strength to his family in the times to come like his brother was before him when he was baptized. 

In the end I think I´d like to quote Churchill on one thing. He said this: 

`Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be´ 

However long and hard the road may be is a phrase I have fallen in love with. Everything in the end will make it worth it, that´s just what I keep telling my self when the days get long and the lessons fall through. Keep that in mind and it will pull you through anything. 

Have a good week everyone! 

-Um no exército de Deus

Elder Teela