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 

Week 77-- I started a war

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the suppor I´m getting still guys. It really means a lot to have so many good friends. I love getting your emails and I respond to them the best I can but sorry if I miss a week or two here and there. Thank you all so much :). 

So this week went by pretty quick for me. Monday and Tuesday had some rough beginnings though because my companion was sick Monday (so no B-ball :( ) and Tuesday I was sick. I made a resolution that day that I would work anyway but only lasted till about lunch. We got there by bus which was just fine until we ate and I pretty much passed out then and there, ha ha. They said I was super red and looked like I was about to die.... so we went home and I napped all day pretty much by orders of the mission president´s wife. 

Wednesday I was better-ish. I didn´t do my normal intense workouts but we managed to actually do some missionary work without a problem. We had a good day but I really don´t remember it, ha ha. I was pretty exhausted and hit the hey hard that night. 

 

Thursday was district meeting and I about started a war. Every meeting we usually have ten minutes of language study with the district. Most of these involve games and I did ´Scatta-gories´ if anyone is familiar with that. I did Elders against sisters too..... Wrong move, ha ha. The sisters basically complained a lot and everyone kept using Brazilian fruits as words which I didn´t count and that got everyone going pretty well, ha ha. The sisters ended up winning by a bit but basically it was a war in the church, ha ha. That night we also had a super cool FHE with a member where his mom and sister made a TON of pizza for us. We almost got it all down but even four hungry missionaries after a good long day´s work wasn´t any match for how much pizza there was. For those of you who know a missionay´s appetite that should be pretty surprising.

Friday we had lunch with the ward mission leader and almost got kicked out because me comp was dogging on his soccer team too much, ha ha. It gets real down here people. I swear it´s crazy. Elder Lima here told me that at home people get shot over games and often there are fights after a big win. It´s pretty nuts. That day also started the rain that is still hanging around here. It´s been raining off and on for the past 4 days. It´s nice though because it cools down the weather a bit. At least we´re not kissing 100 (38C) everyday. It´s nice not to sweat until I die everyday now. I only drink a liter of water when I get home now a days as apposed to the usual 2, ha ha. 

Saturday we found a cool family. The dad is a delivery driver for a big drinks company here so he gives us a lot of soda and the mom is deaf, but she seems really cool we learned a little sign with them and they seem pretty cool. They have 3 little girls, like the gospel and accepted baptism already! It was pretty legit how we found them too. We were there for another appointment but as we were at the gate their little girls kept giggling and hiding from us so we deiced to hit them up. 

So a little spiritualism here. This week I´ve been really focusing on change. What final changes I want to make before I get home and shock the world with how awesome I am, ha ha. I´m sure physically we´ve all made a goal at some point but also I´ve been thinking a lot about myself really. I´ve realized that really the only thing that gets in the way is our pride. Just the fact we think that the way we do it is justifiable or that we know better, but in the end we just need to let go of that and honestly just be who we know we should be. It´s so simple but so hard isn´t it? 

Well, that´s it for this week. Have a good week everyone! 

-Um no exército de Deus

Elder Teela 

Week 76- Happy Carnival, still

Happy Carnival still! Yeah, it´s about a 4-7 day ordeal here.... Except nothing crazy has happened. Just the fact that the internet cafe we normally use is closed.... And that´s more annoying than anything. I swear, any excuse not to work and these people down here take it. Lunch, rain, and the shops don´t even open till 9 and that´s if they ´get up early´. I was talking with some people and they say going to bed before midnight is just absurd. Everyone seems to stay up till at least 1 or 2 here (I know that´s not wierd to college students but     I´m a missionary here). 

 This week was good, tons and tons of finding but then I can´t really complain. This was probably the most accepting week  I´ve had in my mission. Everyone seemed to just let us in without a problem. It was kinda weird really, after being hardened to hear every excuse in the book to be just let in without a bit of a fight comes across as all too easy, ha ha. 

So some fun stuff that happened... We went to a lunch (which I´ve been to at least 5 times now) and the sister there kept calling me`German´. It´s fairly normal here to call someone german if they have a lighter complextion but the funny thing here was that she actually thought I was from Germany, ha ha. I´m not sure why but it was pretty funny to me and she didn´t seem to understand I kept talking about how I was from the States. 

After lunch that day we went to take the bus home but we kinda hithced a ride on the wrong bus and ended up a city over.... whoops! Luckily it stopped by the train station so we didn´t end up too far off course but I about died when the bus didn´t follow the normal route and asked the money- changer-lady where we were going and she responded the city over, haha. 

A few nights later we had a great FHE with the family I first met here in Brazil. It was fun, I remeber that first night here I only caught maybe %60 of the conversation there and had to kind of fill the rest with my guess work and now I was there and didn´t miss a beat. It was cool how much I had improved in the language is such a short time. When practice meets nessecity and inspiration from God, miracles happen :). It was good, I gave their little daughter about 5 peices of origami. She seemed to just be tickled pink. The way home was less fun though but we managed to make it through the sketchy part of our area without a problem (don´t freak out Mom :) ) 

 

Church was good yesterday, we didn´t really have anyone on the meeting because of holidays but it was good none the less. One little kid right as we were starting to sing the opening hymn had one of those moments where a kid is just unconsolable and started screaming `No! No! NNNOOO! Don´t take me out!´ Poor mom about died of shame but it was one of the those moments.  I thought... I used to be like that kid.... It´s crazy how much we change. 

We had another little boy at lunch who locked himself into the bathroom and started freaking out. His Dad quickly arrived to save the day but the little boy was crying and screaming too much to hear his dad give instructions. So his dad patiantly called out to him until he had calmed enough to hear his voice. When he finlly calmed down he got out just fine with some instructions from is dad. I imagaine that´s a lot like the life here and God above. To Him it must seem simple really but He understands our trouble and panic so He helps us out, even though we can´t seem Him. He will call until we are calm enough to let Him help us and then opening the door is all too easy. 

So that´s about it, gotta  go now, we all have to do e-mail one by one today so I´ll be leaving. Hope you all have a good week! 

-Um on exército de Deus

Elder Teela

Week 75-- Happy Valentintes Day!!

Hello once again everybody, and Happy Valentine´s day! Here in Brazil it´s actually in September and in Feburary we have carnival! Well, carnival isn´t actually that big here in the south. Everyone says that it will just be a few parades instead of the normal madness that you see on TV. That only really happens in Rio de Janeiro and the Northwest so it should stay pretty calm here. 

This week is transfers so that´s exciting. Execpt I´m staying again, I´ll have a new compaionion but still the same old Sapucia. I´ll admit I´m a little down on that as I was hoping to go to a new area but I´ll just have to stick this one on the Lord and hope for the best. It´ll all be great in the end I bet. 

So starting off with Monday night things got crazy kinda fast, haha. We normally have 4 Elders sleeping in our house every night but that night because of departing missionaries we had a grand total of 8! Yeah, this can´t go well, ha ha. Two of them were pretty late though so we grabbed some extra matresses from a near by member and put them on the ground for them to sleep on. After we were done we looked at eachother and thought.... wouldn´t it be funny if the last two came in and we were all in the same bed? So take a wild guess at what we did, ha ha. They came in the room and one of the two said ´I think I need to call president now´. We all had a fit of laughter after that :).  

We´ve been out to eat our giant mess of french fries 3 times this week which has wreaked a little havoc on my stomach now, ha ha. I guess it´s not the best idea to got there more than once a week when all you eat is grease filled devil-food. 

Um, basically the work has been pretty good, we´re on a bit of a down cycle now so that means plenty of finding and work, but that´s what we came out here for right? We baptized the teaching pool we had so that means we gotta build it back up. I guess that about sums up the week... We had one day where literally we had 5 or 6 appointments so we grabbed our best buddy from the ward and did some work but literally EVERY one fell through, luckily we found tons of work to do still and did well but it was a bit ridiculous. 

We also had a funny little ´funeral´ for 2 missionaries going home this week. We made WAY too many sweets and then of course ate them all in order not to be wasteful :). It was fun but it´ll be good not to have all the thoughts of home the weeks that come, you get a bit distracted. 

So, to finish up I´ll give a little thought I had here. I might have already wrote about it a bit but I like they way it came together. In district meeting I was thinking and made a note: We give up the things of the world to gain the things the wolrd cannot give. It just kinda came together for me in that minuet. We don´t just lose things when we go on this mission, we gain things that we can´t even imagine of gaining any other way. The blessings, the faith, the tesitimonies and of course the funny stories. These are things that an education, a pretty girl and money cannot give (okay, the girl maybe, haha). It´s all gonna be SO worth it in a few short months here. Even the darkest, hardest moments will make the reunion that much sweeter. 

Hope everyone has a good week, keep calm and pray on! 

-um no exército de Deus

Elder Teela