Bianca was baptized!

Hey guys, this week has been great. We had a zone conference at the temple, and all of us got to pass through!!! It was such a cool experience, and only the second time I've visited the temple in my mission. I was the last one to leave, so the assistants were mad at me for being late to lunch, but it was worth it ha-ha. The Zone Leaders had me participate in the training. That doesn't make sense, because the District Leaders aren't supposed to usually, but I did as I was told. They told me to help plan and sent me the verse it was about. So I quickly read D&C 4:2 for 30 seconds then came in and outlined my thoughts for a training, and they said sure. That was basically all the planning ha-ha. Then we just assigned everyone to talk. The basic idea was talking about the connection between sin and guilt. In D&C 4:2 it uses the phrase “held without guilt”. Guilt is something that comes about when we know there was something we were supposed to do, and we don't do it. So, then we went in and talked about a bunch of examples of how the prophets expressed anxiety, stress or sadness when people made the wrong choice, but how that inspired the prophets to be more diligent in their missionary work. I gave examples of how we could do the same by inviting people and following up more because we are anxious about whether or not they're keeping commitments. It was good training. Elder Medeiros talked for a really long time, so I only had like 2 minutes and had to rush through. But it was all ok. 

Another big thing is that we had Bianca's baptism this week! It was really cool, though the day of I have to admit I forgot so much: to fill the font, set up the chairs, update the program, bring a towel and more... But in the end it turned out all right. This week was really busy just because we were getting to know Bianca and helping her get to know the ward. Plus, our friend Julia also accepted a baptismal invitation for next week. We had to remark (reschedule), because she takes care of her sick mom who had to go to the hospital, so she couldn't go to church. We did have a super spiritual lesson with her and a return missionary named Paulo. He's a good friend of mine and had some really helpful tips afterwards. 

 

We had a lesson with Mila this week! We met with her while doing an exchange with a 16-year-old named Ruan in our area. He's a really dope kid who asks the most genuine questions I've ever seen in my life. But he's also very hyper... ha-ha. We got to her house and were going to walk to a park. It was packed, so we walked to another park, and only sat down for the lesson after well over an hour. Then it was IMPOSSIBLE to start because every time I said "So Mila," Ruan jumped in and asked something like,

 "If you're companion was drowning, would you jump in to save him?"

"We can't go to the beach; it’s against the rules"

"Let’s say a member took you."

"Elder Serdoski can't swim, why would he go into the water?"

"I don't know but just imagine..."

and so on. Imagine, trying to teach a lesson where about every 36-7 seconds he asks, "What happens if you put a fork in the microwave?" "Can you beat me in an arm wrestling match?" "Have you seen Star Wars? I haven't but I just was curious if you have?" 

Elder Serdoski was struggling to be engaged. When I asked him if he wants to explain about something he laughed and said no. That is what anxiety sounds like ha-ha. Eventually, I made everyone get up. We just walked around the park and Mila, and I chatted about all the stuff she read and all her problems. Then Ruan asked her to race him to see who has faster and so forth. When we got home Elder Serdoski complained to anyone who would listen about how I made him walk so much today all around the park for no reason. This is just a taste of mission life folks. 

 

Buuut on the way home, we were stopped by a guy named Vitor to take a picture of him and his motorcycle. He then immediately asked where our church was and gave us his number. Even crazier, he then went to both hours of church; asked what baptism for the dead were. He explained that his dad was never baptized, and he wanted to go for his dad, but there were so many baptisms and so many churches, he had no idea which baptism was authorized of God... Ya, I know... We are just as excited as you!!!

 

And that’s all folks. We had district P-Day today which was a blast. We went to the Martin’s, ate churrasco, played magic the gathering, card games, a little fute mesa until their son kicked the table and split open his foot. It was dope. This kid is the next Steven Erwing. It’s crazy how much he knows about animals. Literally any animal. I always ask people who would win in a fight, a Tiger or a Lion. People are always wrong and say tiger. I asked him and he explains in extreme detail why a male lion would win. I casually said what about female. And he says well let’s just talk about the facts. Then he said them... All the facts. He talked about tooth size, claw size, claw curve, average weight, height, length, muscle ratio, daily diet, maximum eating capacity, maximum sprint, mating habits, raising habits, the differences in the psychology of the animals, the difference in their hunting habits, and much much more. Long story short, it was the lioness, by a very, very large margin. Oh and this kid is 13, by the way, and can do this with basically any animal. 

 

Milagrão!

Hello to all my subscribers, 

How are you? I'm great, this was a great week. I've stopped taking notes on what happens which makes it really hard to remember at the end of the week. It was an interesting one for our area. 6 of our investigators are moving, which is too bad, especially in the case of Isabelle, because she really wants to get baptized. But as it happens, we got to go over to their house Friday morning to help them move. I woke up at 5:30, and we got there at about 8:00. Then there was nothing to do yet, so we ate breakfast with them and helped wrap plates for an hour and waited to be told what to do. In the middle of plate wrapping, I burst out laughing, and her 11-year-old daughter thought I was crazy. I just thought about how it’s someone’s profession to write all these newspapers, and somebody else’s to collect the data, and someone else’s to make the graphs, and someone else’s to make the title. All this work just for one newspaper. And all people use them for is to light fires and wrap glass plates. It just cracked me up. 

We only found a couple new friends this week and all outside of our area, but one was Bartholomew. (Definitely didn't spell that right.) He is a 17-year-old who's really shy. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, and it really captivated him. The good news is that he lives in the Zone Leaders’ area, so I can still keep an eye on him! We even got two references this week. Mikaelly, who had a baptismal date then moved to our area. She is really busy but really nice. We talked a lot, and I'm really excited to get to know her. The office elders also passed the contact of someone who has a date for this Sunday! So, in 7 days we have to introduce her to the bishop and make sure she knows the ward; that'll be exciting!

And the big miracle of the week. I was in the car with a member on Sunday. We had gone to church in the Costa and Silva wards. He asked us about, "That girl who went to church a couple times way back." Mila... I told him about how she was really cool, but blocked us and expressed that she wanted nothing to do with us out of nowhere, because of stuff she read online. Then a couple minutes later, Claudia sent us a message. She's the member we invited to the lessons with Mila. She said that Mila and her had been talking, and Mila asked when church was coming back. She then went to church and said she felt the Spirit, and asked if she could hear the messages again, and apologized to us for being rude! How cool is that? It's the first and probably only time in my mission someone who was marked as do not contact has had a sudden drastic change of heart. The funniest part, I was talking to Elder Frost earlier in the week about a story dad told me. Where some missionaries contacted people marked as do not contact, and one of them ended up getting baptized. But I talked about how you don't hear about the hundreds or thousands of do not contacts who react in... different ways, and that that never actually happens... Well, I was wrong ha-ha. We will see how this next week goes, I love you guys, talk to you next week!

 

Conference Week

 Hey guys, so conference was a blast wow! All the talks were amazing that I listened to. Third hour didn't start here until 9, so the other elders didn't watch it until Sunday. I was really confused about why they were all watching the women's conference session until afterwards they told me that they didn't do women’s and men’s separate anymore at third hour. Whoops. But I'll get around to watching it tomorrow. 

 

The big theme I focused on was on not judging others, learning to rely on the Spirit, and having charity for all those around you. I had an especially strong reaction to one talk on Sunday afternoon. It struck me on the importance of obedience in the mission field combined with charity. It was Bishop Budge's, and it struck me powerfully. 

 

I was thinking about the nature of the mission and its relationship with happiness. I wrote in my notes that we can have 100% obedience/diligence, but if we are doing it, because we want pride or glory or any reason other than because we have charity, it's the same as if we have 0% obedience and diligence. Something the Spirit added to his words that I really liked was that if you're a consecrated missionary, then the mission isn't a sacrifice; it's a pleasure. Now let’s add onto that a little bit. The mission requires sacrifice; that is fact. We sacrifice our time, our health, our desires, our dreams (sometimes) and our plans. That is not happy in and of itself. But discomfort comes from sacrificing that which you love for that which you don't. That's just a bad deal. It’s a value trade. If you don't love the people you teach, if you don't love the members, if you don't love the Lord, there is no ultimate reason for you to serve a mission. You will sacrifice your might, mind and strength, but not your heart. You're trading that which you do love, (yourself) for that which you don't. Now that might be obvious to some, but it didn't always click to me. 

1 Corinthians 13:2-4

2 And though I have the gift of ^aprophecy, and understand all ^bmysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the ^apoor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 ^aCharity ^bsuffereth long, and is ^ckind; charity ^denvieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

This really puts it into better words than I could. It doesn't say that it’s not possible to do good without charity, it says that it profiteth you nothing. Mormon took this to the next level and said if you have not charity, you ARE nothing. Turning the phrase of Gordon B. Hinckley, "There is no point of doing missionary work if we don't hold onto the fruits of our labors." No point, 0. That's because baptism without persevering until the end is nothing but a checkmark in a missionary’s to-do list: a statistic, nothing more nothing less. You can baptize without loving, and maybe it will work out well for the people you teach, but the harsh truth is that at the end of the day you will still be nothing. Now all this isn't a cry to stop being obedient and diligent because if you don't have charity there's no point. The opposite, "pray to the Father with all the energy of thy heart, that ye may be filled with his love," is Mormon's simple invitation. Once you have charity, you will want to be obedient, want to be diligent, and want to be humble. Your might, mind, and strength will follow your heart. 

Or in summary

If, Love of things sacrificed > Love of Lord, then missionary = sad

If, Love of Lord > Love of Self, then missionary = Happy

... that simple 

And guess what, the scriptures say it, too!!!

1 Samuel 15:22

"To obey is to better than to Sacrifice"

Why is obedience better than sacrifice? Doesn't obedience denote sacrifice? Yes, but obedience is a measurable effect of our love of God. Christ said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." He didn't say if ye loved me. Love comes first, then obedience, which will lead us to willingly sacrifice to Him. God does not need us. Sorry, that's the unfortunate truth. He is capable of doing His own work. He doesn't just want us to sacrifice our time and our talents because He needs Elder Bassett to help Him out as He is just WAY too overwhelmed. He wants us to fulfill our callings out of love, and He wants us to do it with a willing heart, because we need it.

It says in 2 Nephi that Nephi lived "after the pattern of happiness," not a happy life, but Nephi followed a pattern. Alma says that the two times where the Nephites were the happiest were when they followed Nephi, and when they followed Captain Moroni. (Alma 50:23) The people who followed Nephi were at war against their brothers and nephews and cousins. The Nephites at the time of Captain Moroni were in a constant state of war and bloodshed. Surely happiness didn't come from their circumstances. What then? Well, when Moroni called the faithful to fight for their God, what happened?

Alma 45:15

"And those who did belong to the church were FAITHFUL; yea all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them, GLADLY, the name of Christ...the people came RUNNING together with their armor girded about their loins, rending their garments in token, or as a covenant, that they WOULD NOT forsake the Lord their God." 

Or Nephi, "I did persuade my brethren, that they might be FAITHFUL, in keeping the commandments." He didn't convince them to keep them, he convinced them to keep them faithfully. What’s the difference? Have a fun personal study. 

This didn't make a lot of sense. If I write a talk, I'll work out the thoughts a little better, I'm just in a hurry. Gotta go, a lot happened this week, but it’s kinda the same old stuff. Bye!

 

 

Ensaio

OK, so this week was the mission tour with the General Authority for our mission, Elder Koch (hope I spelled that right). We had a striking 9 lessons the first two days, including one ending in a baptismal date with Rosy. I made the comment to Elder Targino that this was going to be a great week... then literally 100% of our lessons fell through the rest of the week, ha-ha. But still a great one! 

Jiselia sent this conversation between her and Sister Koch to my mom

Ok, so, first off, the ensaio. Last zone conference a bunch of elders got together and were playing the piano and singing some songs. As a joke, I came in with Elder Targino's recorder playing really badly to mess them up. It got a lot of laughs but one thing led to another, and now we are performing a musical number for Elder Koh. We have a 170,000 dollar piano, a 1000 dollar violin, and the creme de la coop, a 6 dollar recorder played by Elder Targino. Then a bunch of elders singing. Elder Targino has been practicing at least an hour a day every day for the last 3 weeks on the recorder. Today was the big show. The microphone at the pulpit was strategically turned off, you know, to let the other instruments take the forefront. But Elder Targino, this madman, notices and mid note stops playing, calmly walks over to the controls and not only turns on the microphone but turns the volume up all the way. When he walks over and starts playing again, I'm trying to keep a straight face while singing, because the sound of the recorder echoes through the church halls. At the end, Elder Koch went up and thanked everyone, "Especially the elder playing the recorder, or the 'sweet flute' as it’s called in Portuguese." That was ta highlight for me, but there were still plenty of good moments throughout the conference. It was all about following the Spirit and focusing on helping the people we teach find happiness. Plus, because it was at our chapel, we got to eat lunch with the other zone as well, which means twice the ribs. 

And other than that, it was a straightforward week. We found out why Milton hasn't been responding. He went into a smoking and alcohol recovery program. That makes me so happy, especially because it means that when he gets out, he has a real shot of changing his life if the other elders can give him the right support. We also met with Milla at the chapel on Sunday. I gave a talk about the importance of bearing testimony and afterwards responded to all her questions about what music, movies, and video games are allowed. It was pretty weird, but it's cool to see that she's really considering becoming part of the church, and we haven't even invited her. She's really concerned about what's gonna distance her from the Spirit and how she can have God in her life. It's awesome!

Other great news, Noemi is getting baptized!

Up and Down

Up and Down

So, as you can guess this has been a really up and down week ha-ha. But luckily for me it ended on the up, so I’m in a good mood writing this email. This week we went to Barão Geraldo to resolve some stuff. We received a reference with a number that didn't work, so we went to her house so get the new one; then Milton stopped responding, so we wanted to see what’s up; and Nadir has been having problems with someone talking bad about the church, so we marked an in person lesson. We got dropped off by our Uber at Milton’s, but no one was home, so we walked to the Reference's house. It wasn't hers, but it was her cousin’s. That’s where we met Mila and her Mom in my first ever knocked door. We talked to them for about 20 minutes and ended up getting their phone number. We haven't talked to the mom yet, but we taught Mila the restoration, and she loved it! She even went to church on her own! At church someone gave a talk about the blessings of missionary service, and she asked if she could be a missionary, too. (She's 18.) 

The craziest part: the thing that kicked off the conversation was they asked where I was from, and when I said California, they told me about her brother-in-law that lives in Folsom!!! What are the odds of that?! I can realistically bet that they are the only people in all of Campinas who have even heard of Folsom, California. After the lesson she went to her grandpa’s and talked about the lesson. Her grandpa pulled out a Book of Mormon and gave one to her that was given to him by missionaries a long time ago. What a cool story. While we were walking away, I asked Elder Targino how he felt, and he said, “Like a real missionary.” 

After that we went to Nadir's, and that's a sadder story. Someone talked a lot of bad about the church including but not limited to, "It’s a church only for rich people; they are evil; they sacrifice children in the temple; and more..." Sister Eliziane her friend tried to talk sense into her, but she refused to hear any more of the lessons which is ridiculous but, I can’t control the agency of others. We took off her baptism date and stopped teaching her. We can hope and pray that she will have a change of heart. 

The next day was Elder Targino's birthday. The day earlier I went to the store and bought him a ton of candy and a cuscuzeira which is a type of steamer made to cook food from his region of Brazil. Then when he came out of the room in the morning, we surprised him. He was really excited. Later in the day I bought lunch for him at a GREAT restaurant called Big Jacks, and he spent the rest of the day calling his family ha-ha. At least 4 or 5 hours. But we decided not to press him. Pick your battles! Then we played hide and seek in the dark at the church which was a TON of fun. As I'm sure you all know, I am the hide and seek expert. 

That reminds me of a funny Elder Targino moment. Elder Targino was on the computers with headphones and Elder Mons asked if he wanted to play hide and seek for his birthday. He took off his headphones, looked at Elder Mons and said in English, "Test". (He doesn't speak English) Then he put his headphones back on and went back to the computer. Elder Mons looked at me and said, “Was that a yes or a no?” And then asked again. Elder Targino blew out his nose and turned around and yelled it louder. So Elder Mons yelled back, “What does that mean.?” And Elder Targino yelled, “Test,” again. Elder Mons asked if he meant to say triste (sad), and he said no I meant test. Elder Mons said that doesn't make sense, and Elder Targino just said, “I said test, you asked me if I said triste, so I was clarifying that I said test." Keep in mind that Elder Targino is furious that no one knows what he’s trying to say. Elder Mons said, “I just want to know if you want to play hide and seek. What do you mean test?” And Elder Targino takes off his headphones looks up to the heavens and gives the loudest sigh you've ever heard and says, "Test! Exam! Proof! Quiz!" To this day we still don’t know what he was trying to say. Stuff like that happens every day on the regular that was just an example. It’s interesting. Then we realized, HE's Dwight from the office! He also doesn't let anyone stand behind him because attacks come from behind. 

At the end of the day, I asked him what he thought of his Birthday, and he shrugged and said "eh" ha-ha. I said "Really, nothing good happened today." And he said, “No, nothing.” The other elders were pretty peeved, but it’s whatever. Apparently back home he celebrates his birthday for a full 2 weeks, so I can see how this is a downgrade. 

There was another sad story with a member this week. Someone sent us a message because she was going to come bring us lunch. And she sent us an audio message saying "It’s my day to give you the Lunch. I’m going over and you're going to be waiting at the Gate. At the Gate. The GAAAAATE. Not the door the Gate. I get there give you the food and Goodbye" We have no idea why she doesn’t like us; we have no idea who she was. We then sent her a message asking what time she would be there. And she ignored us and told us to wait outside. We couldn’t wait all day, so we went in to do a lesson. An hour and 40 minutes later she came by while we were in our lesson and when we weren't there, she threw the food over the fence and called us 6 times. We kept on telling her we were in a lesson, and she kept calling again to complain about how we weren't there and tell us she threw it on the ground. I still have no idea what caused all of this or who she is. 

OK back to a funny/sad story. Elder Targino and I were studying Edapp, and there’s a question that says, "This quote from President Monson says that you are a special spirit of God who was reserved especially for these days. You've probably heard it before, but do you believe it?" Elder Targino read that out loud and then without skipping a beat said no in a really absolute obvious way. And I don't know, it was funny/sad. 

We found 6 people today, but other than Mila I only want to comment on 2 others. Rodrigo is a really cool guy that we met online that is super elect. We taught him about the restoration, and I was saying "Joseph Smith wasn't called to create a new church, but to..." and he said the next word for me "Restore Christ’s church." I thought that was really cool. 

The other person is Rosy. I sent her a friend request, and she sent me a message saying she was so glad I sent her a request. She said she's looking for a church that can give her direction in life! I got to know her on the phone, and apparently, she met missionaries 4 months ago in Barão Geraldo and told them she was looking for a church and direction; they took her number but never called. I talked to Elder Mons, and he said he had never been to Barão Geraldo when he took care of the area. So, what we think happened is a couple of missionaries were sneaking off and ran into her. But didn’t want to call her because they would have to explain to Elder Mons and Elder Pompeu why they left their zone. I hope that’s not it, but it makes the most sense. I’m trying not to be annoyed and hoping there’s a better explanation. But the exciting thing is, that we found her again. 

And that’s the week. There’s some other little stuff but this has been long enough as it is. 

Tchau gente!

4 Transfers, 3 Areas, 5 Companions, 1 District

Tuesday:

Transfers are always a blast, and my transfer predictions were right! I'm staying in the district and replacing our old district leader who went home. I'm really happy about it, especially about being in a 4-elder apartment. But the area got opened last transfer which means basically starting from scratch again, ha-ha… right when things in Cosmopolis were coming together, but it’s all good. My companion is Elder Targino; he is the funniest person I've ever met without trying. Elder Mons explained it the best; it’s like every single word he says and decision he makes, he thinks, what is the most hilarious thing I could possibly say in this moment? Also, I'm back with Elder Lima from Pouso Alegre, and he is the new Zone Leader. When we got back from transfers, we didn't have a very productive day. I was trying to get Elder Targino to daily plan with me for a solid 3 hours, but every time we started, something would happen or we would get a text, or he would get distracted. I finally got us to say a prayer and open daily planning when the Zone Leaders walked in laughing and started talking again. No sweat though, transfer days are normally a little less stressful on the calendar. One of the main thing I'm excited for in a 4 Elder... card games. I taught the Zone Leaders hearts on one of our divisions, and they played every day. When 9 o´clock rolled around I said, "All right, let’s play," and Elder Mons said, "Ooooh, actually I'm doing a 40 fast from cards," and Elder Targino as well, ha-ha. So there goes that dream. I appreciate the consecration. 

The new area is awesome! We have 3 wards and get lunch AND dinner every day from members which is cool. I'm a bit worried about the Cosmopolis area, because Noemi sent me an audio message where she sounded like she was on the verge of tears and asked if we could email on P-Days. She had a lesson with the other elders, but Elder Silva didn't talk. When she asked questions about the Book of Mormon, they didn't know the answer. But I have faith it'll work out. I already talked to her a bit, and she was just panicking in the moment. We invited the Cosmopolis elders to the Zone Family night, and they gave a lot of sass. The new elder over there is a friend of Elder Soares and therefore not my biggest fan, ha-ha.

Wednesday:

So, I brought a recorder to the mission and apparently, it’s a very distinguished instrument; the other elders are obsessed with it. I was messing around in the morning and Elder Lima walked in and was just staring at me. I stopped playing, and he just said in his broken English "Don't kill the beautiful sound of the Flouta," and walked out ha-ha. It killed me. I had some great preparation for the first district council of the transfer. I prepared a training about obedience, then when we were in council got a strong impression to throw it out. Instead, I just had everyone read a couple scriptures and asked questions about the atonement of Christ; how we feel about His suffering; and how we can show gratitude to Him. It was much better than what I had planned. After that, I had my first ever lesson in Spanish. I did ok, but wow is it hard, ha-ha. It made me really want to learn Spanish though! But first up, I need to learn Portuguese. After that lesson, I got to meet the Bishop of one of our wards! He was a really awesome guy! He has a huge family, and all the kids were eager to participate in the lesson. It didn't stick with all the members, but the Bishop is the most important relationship to build. 

Thursday/Friday (got mixed up on the days):

Our daily schedule got messed up, because there was a fair in the morning that we went to. It was cool to try sugarcane juice again, but it was the 5th day in a row my personal study got cut short, so I was a bit grumpy about that. When we got to the chapel, I had another episode of trying to get Elder Targino to focus on daily planning for around 2 hours. At least we shaved off an hour this time, ha-ha. We had a member coming to drop off dinner at 6, but she didn't end up getting there until about 8:30, so I spent the time teaching Elder Targino English. It was hilarious, because in the North of Brasil they pronounce R's as H. So, the 3 of us were trying to get him to make the R sound for an hour with no progress and all dying. After that I had another District Leader training, and guess what they asked about the entire time? What movies we can watch on P-day. Apparently, it’s the same elder, and he’s asked for clarification about the movies the past 3 District Leader Conferences. He's really holding out for something. 

Later we had a ward council. I asked the Elder's Quorum president for a list of families that were part member, and he immediately started flaming me. He said he passed it to us two weeks ago; I explained that all the mission phones had been erased. Then he said, "Well I passed this list to the other elders last transfer, and they were 'too busy to call it,’ so explain to me why I should go around collecting this list, if you elders are just going to 'be too busy' to call any of the members?"  I tried to explain that in the quarantine, finding new people who would progress was proving to be a significant challenge. The best and most meaningful work missionaries can do is through members. I explained that I had only been here for 3 days and was a hard working missionary. Without promising anything, I mentioned that we had seen a lot of success working with members in my old area and that caught his attention. Turns out, he served his mission in Artur Nogueira, so that definitely won me some points. The end story is that I was not excited for our next ward council. It didn't end up even happening though. We called and the ward mission leader asked for 15 minutes to get ready, then after 15 minutes the president of the Elder's Quorum wasn't ready, then after 15 more minutes it was the ward mission leader again, and eventually we threw in the towel. But the day ended on a plus, Noemi sent a nutella strawberry crepe out of nowhere with a note that says, “I hope you can remember today as a happy day.” I didn't talk to her or mention any of the other stuff to her, so that definitely made it a happy day!

Saturday:

So today is the day of Denis's baptism. I sent him a text message asking when it would be, and he sent a message saying the other elders hadn't given him a time or a location. Then he was upset I couldn't go, because he wanted me to come baptize him. I went to ask permission from the Assistants and long story short it made it to President's desk. President wanted to know why Denis had never met the other elders. I explained that Denis moved to Campinas 2 weeks back, and the other elders canceled the pass off lesson on Monday, because they wanted to pack for transfers. That brought the other elders into hot water, so I explained that Denis was a really hard guy to arrange stuff with. When all was said and done, we had a new baptismal date for next Friday, and president gave me permission to come down. We were also able to schedule a new lesson for him to meet the other elders. So ya, 6 days in a row with no full personal study... Rough. But after that we had another lesson with the Bishop’s family, and his kids were an absolute blast. They are the same age as some of our investigators' kids, so they offered to have a family night with them!! Another fun thing of the day, I found this guy on Facebook named Paulo, and he is MASSIVE. Tree trunk neck big. And he calls me 'Irmãozinho' which is literally 'little/small' brother; it makes my day every time, ha-ha. Around lunchtime, we had a member bring us a massive amount of food. A full on feast, I'll send a picture, but I won't be able to get everything.... chicken, rice, pasta, cake, juice, and salad. We finished the day with a zone family night that was really good. To prepare, we all read "Let God Prevail," and we all spent the first 15 minutes getting to know each other, then bore our testimonies and talked about the talk. The district is pretty great; we have 4 Elders in Campinas, 2 in Cosmopolis, plus Sisters in Mogi Mirim and Paulinha. When we finally got home, Elder Mons started having some calf cramps and was begging me to massage his calf. I did but made him promise he would return the favor. Then when we switched, he just couldn't force himself to do it; he was too weirded out ha-ha. He offered the other Elders 10 reals, 20, 30, 50 to do it for him, but I yelled, "NO!!! It has to be you!" We were all dying of laughter, and I learned for sure that I can never be put into a position of power in the mission. My poor district. 

Sunday: 

Sooooo, I finally got to go to church again!!! 1st time in more than 2 months (no in person or online church). There was a family with like 6 little kids, and I sat with them beforehand and played a game where they tried to clap your hand and I tried to dodge it. They were all giggling and taking turns, and it made me miss playing with little kids so much. But I had to cut it short to prepare the sacrament. There were a ton of people, so I wanted to put more than two trays out. Elder Targino was insisting that we wouldn't need more. Every time I tried to get more; he wouldn't let me. I'm telling you it was the parable of the fish/loaves, there was not enough to go around, and a blind man could have seen it. Eventually, we had to start. When the time for sacrament came around, Elder Targino looked at the Sacrament, then counted the people, and slowly turned to me with a super wide-eyed expression. I asked him if he thought we needed more cups, and he just said, "Definitely," So while people were singing the hymn, we rushed to get more trays set up. Following the sacrament, we had another Ward Council, and in it I talked about how it’s not just our job to find new people to teach, but to support the ward and the members. I said we were available to help them in whatever aspect they needed, and if they ever knew of a member who was struggling, inactive, or just needed support, they could send their numbers over, and we would give it a shot. Boy oh boy was that the wrong thing to say. The president of the relief society then proceeded to unmute and do that thing where someone talks in a fairly normal voice, but you feel like they are yelling at you. She talked about how we had to Thank the members for lunch. She said "I don't care what it is! Whether it's money or food you are to send a video thanking them." I completely agree. The thing is we always send a text message thanking them and asking if we can call to thank them over the phone and share a scripture. When I said that, she said she didn't care, "We don't want to talk to the missionaries, we have other things to do. If you send a video, we can watch it at our own convenience throughout the day. The 15 times I've given missionaries lunch only 1 time I was sent a video." I agree with her so much about the fact that missionaries need to show more gratitude, but the other wards asked specifically that we not send videos and instead call, because videos are impersonal, and nobody watches them. Plus, let me remind you this is my 6th day in the area. How much stuff am I going to get yelled at for that wasn't me, ha-ha? The other elders sure loved teasing us about it though. We are going to do videos and hope, but we also know that we can't make everyone happy. After that mess... members came to bring us food, ha-ha. (from the other Elders’ ward.) They brought crates of milk, bread, etc. Enough food for 2 weeks! I'm super grateful, but also feel like we don't deserve all this support and kindness. But beggars can't be choosers.  

Oh, and I forgot about the ghost story. This was yesterday. So normally we keep the gate to the chapel locked and shut, as well as the door of the church. Because it was Sunday; however, both were wide open the entire day. We left early and the other Elders stayed. It was around 9:00, and Elder Lima decided to go to the backyard. While he was walking, he thought he saw a guy pressed against the door trying to hide, but he didn't know what to do, so he kept walking like he didn't see anything. He went to the other side of the chapel. Elder Mons was walking down the hall looking at his phone, and he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He said something like a shadow on the other side of one of the doors like someone had just snuck past. Neither of them knew what to do, so they met up at the front, turned on the alarm and started to leave.  While they were at the gate, the church's motion detector went off. They unlocked the church and did a quick look through, and then set the alarm and left again. When they got home, they both said, "I had the weirdest thing happen," and told each other the stories. We were deciding whether or not to go to the chapel and check it out. But after I got dressed, they said they didn't want to anymore. We called president and don’t know what happened next. What we think happened is that someone snuck in and was in the chapel watching us and waiting for us to leave, so they could rob it. Then when the alarm went off, they panicked, waited for the other elders to unlock the door, and look around, then sprinted down the street. Either that or their investigator who says he's possessed by demons decided to stick around after church and follow through on his threat to destroy Israel... but that's another story. 

I Guess I'm Old

I don't remember if I mentioned this in the last mail, but I'm no longer DL; I'm training. I think President was worried I'd be overwhelmed training and a district leader. My new companion is Elder Silva (Another one I know), and he is just the best. He's from Recife, Brazil. I love him so much I can't even put it into words. He's so sweet and happy and not at all arrogant or anything I was worried about, haha. He knows the doctrine well and teaches well, but also listens to and follows advice. He follows my example in terms of obedience and there isn't really too much conflict there. One quick thing, on the off chance that there's a future missionary reading this. BE OBEDIENT! The only real scuffle we've gotten in this week was today on P-day. I was reminding him to wear a white shirt and a tie unless we are going to go do something where we'll sweat, and he's like "Oh I believe you that it's a rule, but here in Brazil the missionaries don't do that one." This is a really small example, but it's something that carries over into a lot of other stuff. Maybe in Brazil the members grow up watching missionaries not care about the rules and do whatever they want, and then when they make it to their mission, it's a lot easier to fall in those habits. Someone is always watching you. That is the lesson I am most grateful to Dad for teaching me when I was younger. Ok are you ready? Are you sure? Really? Ok, let's do this. 

Tuesday: 

So first off, transfers!!!! That's right, I get to see real life missionaries! I got to see Elder Lima real quick. (The one that was companions with the Elder Silva after me.) There are 4 missionaries in our mission training right now. 2 Sisters and 2 Elders, and I'm the oldest. That's right; I guess I'm old now. The new missionaries kind of just chilled for a while. Elder Morrison went to the bathroom, and I never saw him again, haha. We just joked around trading tongue twisters in Portuguese and English. Looking back now, there's really not much to talk about, but it was soooo nice just being able to sit back, relax and talk to other people face to face. Not thinking, "Oh, when's my next appointment? or How long should this phone call be? or When should we call it and hang up? We were waiting for at least an hour, probably closer to 2, and then the office Elder decided to go out and get ice cream for the new missionary dinner, so he took me with him. After all that time waiting, as soon as we left, the assistants called us and were like, "Elder Bassett, where are you??? We are ready to introduce the greenies, and we are just waiting for you." Haha. So I gave myself the shin splints speed walking back, haha. This is where we all met our new companions, then had a little lunch together. Apparently, we have KFC here??? I gotta be honest, it wasn't very good. But I was starving, so I pounded down two sandwiches. The ice cream, on the other hand, was amazing. It was the Blue Bell of Brazil. Sooo good. When we got home, pretty much all of our lessons fell through, and Elder Silva was really disappointed. I didn't want to crush his dreams by pointing out he should get ready for a lot of that. Things were pretty awkward. The mission has changed me; I don't need to talk anymore. I'm more than happy sitting in silence for an entire day if I really have to. But because he was there, I was hyper aware, haha. "How is he feeling? Is he happy? Is he disappointed?" I found myself wishing we lived in a four elder apartment, so he could have a more entertaining first day. But that's ok, because our last lesson of the day went through. It was with a member I've been helping to reactivate, and she is the HAPPIEST person I've met in my life. I can't even put it into words. The second we called she was yelled, "HIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!" and started talking our ears off. It was great. We barely got a word in, but it was a warm welcome for Elder Silva's first lesson. 

Wednesday: 

To start off, I ripped my best long sleeve white shirt. This is my second time doing this! I was just stretching during a trainer training and the back ripped. Oh well, at least now I know which shirt to burn when I hit a year. Ok now get ready for the first, but not the last time I talk about my personal study this week. It was bomb. I was reading in 2 Nephi 25, and it was just amazing. Basically, this is the perfect chapter to answer challenges somebody makes about the Book of Mormon verses the Bible. Nephi kinda just goes through and sums up the purpose of the scriptures, and it's really good. Our personal study got interrupted by a lady who I thought was a member of one of our wards, because she called me Elder. But then she started talking all about a present she had for me, and I still thought it was a member until she said that the present was that my first month of online English classes would be FREE. You know I can't resist a bargain, but with all this missionary work, I really just couldn't see myself having the time. SO I said thank you very much, but I'm actually from the US, and English is my mother language. I hate rejecting gifts. Anyways, today I taught Elder Silva how to call referrals which was exciting (for a missionary at least). He even set up his first lesson. When she said she was interested, he said, "Great! Tonight at 6." And she accepted. After he hung up, I asked him if he checked our schedule first to make sure we don't already have a lesson at 6, and he froze for a second. Good learning moment. ALWAYS CHECK THE SCHEDULE! One cool thing is that he's really excited for me to teach him English. We will see if that lasts though, because so was the other Elder Silva in the beginning. His first lesson with an investigator ended up being the one that he set earlier. Her name was Maria, and we read Jeremiah 1 and talked about how God would support us when we are doing His will, and we introduced the concept of the premortal life. It went pretty good, but I wish his first lesson would have been with someone more enthusiastic about talking to missionaries. But that's ok, because afterwards we had a lesson with my favorite person we are teaching, Ana. She is soooooo sweet, and the lessons with her are really spiritual. She is working on preparing for baptism right now, but it's definitely a challenge, because she needs to reschedule 66% of the time. We plan on meeting with her every night at 8:30. She confirms every morning but frequently sends a message at 8 canceling. But at least she actually gives us a heads up! 

Thursday: 

Funny thing that happened this morning, Elder Silva kept telling me my scale was wrong, because it said he was 200 kilos, haha. He forgot that Americans use pounds. My studies this morning were really good. I was studying about prayer in 1 Nephi 2. We like to focus on verse 16, and how he prayed with faith and immediately got an answer. But let's look at the answer he got. Was it a voice? A vision? A manifestation? No, the Lord softened his heart so he could believe. Think about that, really think about that. The answer he got to his prayer was so unbelievably imperceptible. It's my belief that he probably didn't even notice at fist, but rather as he was writing this record in retrospect he had the perspective to see how the Lord had responded to him. It wasn't until later in verse 19 that he had a super strong manifestation. And it wasn't at the time he was asking for help for himself, rather he was crying out to the Lord on behalf of his brothers. I'm not gonna comment too much; I just want to put that out there to let anyone reading this to consider it. But I will say this, Nephi prayed fervently, got a small answer, decided to trust in the Lord with a soft heart, and only then did he get the big one. I don't know, I've just been really happy this week. And today especially I noticed it. One of my goals lately has been to spend more time thanking the Lord. You hear that all the time. People say, "Try saying an entire prayer just thanking the Lord." I never even tried, because I have wayyyyy too much I need help on, haha. But I kinda realized there's no cap on how many prayers you're allowed to say, haha. So, what I've been doing is just praying, closing my prayer, then praying again and only thanking the Lord. It's made a big difference, and I highly recommend it. This is a really sappy email; sorry, Taylor. We had a lesson with Jeferson today. He's a really good guy, but his comprehension is low which makes it hard to teach him. We repeat ourselves a lot. I think it's the type of thing that would normally annoy me, but I can't explain it; it just made me love him more. Seeing how earnest he was to understand. And more importantly, seeing that he doesn't just say ya and move on; when he has a question, he asks. We were planning on reading the first chapter of Nephi with him, but we ended up just reading the summary at the beginning of the book for 30 minutes straight. At the end, we mentioned something about Joseph Smith, and he had no idea who we were talking about. So I think we need to teach the restoration a 4th time. After we hung up, he sent an audio message like a half an hour later and said, "I did it! I read the entire thing! All of Nephi! After you guys hung up I just Read and Read and Read until the very End!!!" It made me so happy, I love him so much. I didn't want to point out that he read the first chapter not the entire book, though. He's so pure. After that, we had a lesson with Diego, and it went really well. Our first lesson since his baptism. At the very end, I asked him to pray, and he immediately said ya sure and did it. It just struck me how much of a difference that was. We couldn't even get him to pray for the first couple of lessons and now look at him. It's so gratifying to see the differences! After that, I taught Elder Silva how to weekly plan... he wasn't a fan. Oh well, not everyone can be I guess. Something funny about Elder Silva is that he REFUSES anything I make. I offered him some off my curry, and he started gagging at the thought of mixing vegetables and sauce with rice. But at the same time he went through two loaves of bread in three days. For breakfast, he just butters up 6 pieces of soggy bread and thinks it's the most gourmet meal in the world, haha. That and CusCus, a food really popular in Recife he's obsessed with. He says he eats it normally for breakfast lunch and dinner which is astounding to me. It reminds me of what the Pioneers ate on their trek to Utah... Flour and water, haha. Just kidding; it's not that bad, just also not that good. I got kind of annoyed at Elder Silva for the first time today. He was talking to me about how we need to call our interested person list more. I said sure and let's do it, but he kept saying, "When I'm done, we will have called all of them; we need to just go through and call each and every one." It's hard to come across over text, but he was saying it in a way of like, "Now that I'm here, we are going to pull it together." And I don't need to remind you of the days where I spent 3 hours a day every day for a week calling that list. Then he was saying, "Also we need to do lessons with members, family nights, include them in the work. We can't just keep doing stuff without them" And we had at least 8  member lessons planned over the weekend which he had forgotten about, haha. Man I sound really negative here, don't I? I got kinda fed up and ended up saying something along the lines of, "This is only your second day here; that is literally all I have been doing for 6 weeks non stop." Then immediately afterwards felt really bad. The thought popped into my head, "When I'm a husband, is this how I'm gonna treat my wife? and when I'm a father, is this how I'm gonna treat my kids?" and I felt like an idiot. So I gave him a hug, and said I was sorry, and that it was a good idea. Then we went, and we scheduled family nights with all of the wards for Sunday.  

Friday: 

More personal study talk!! 2 Nephi 26:8. Everything points to Christ. Literally everything: every scripture, every prayer, every talk, points to Him. The whole point of the scriptures is to convince us of His healing power. This was a really sad scripture to study. Seeing Nephi lament the destruction of his people. Read verse 10 and imagine that instead of Nephi talking, it's our Heavenly Father.  10 And when these things have passed away a speedy ^adestruction cometh unto my people; for, notwithstanding the pains of my soul, I have seen it; wherefore, I know that it shall come to pass; and they sell themselves for naught; for, for the reward of their pride and their ^bfoolishness they shall reap destruction; for because they yield unto the devil and ^cchoose works of ^ddarkness rather than light, therefore they must go down to ^ehell.  It is a super sad verse. When I was reading this, the scripture from Jacob popped into my head of the Lord crying and saying, "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" In my head, I could see a beautiful painting of the Hill  Cummorah, with bodies of Nephites and Lamanites all around the top of the hill. On the top of the hill, Heavenly Father crying into the shoulder of Jesus Christ and crying this out. "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" I wish I had the artistic skills to bring this into form, but sadly that's not a gift I've been given. After this experience during Companion study, I received a strong spiritual impression to do the Preach my Gospel study activities for the Chapter about how to recognize the Spirit. I decided starting next week, I'll  start setting my alarm for 5:30 and doing that before I exercise. Let's see how it goes, haha. Our lunch cancelled for the day, so Elder Silva decided he was going to cook something up. Then after a half an hour when he was ready to eat, they called us and told us they ordered food for us. But it was at their work a 30 minute walk away. So an hour later we started eating, only a half an hour after our lunch ended, haha. Can't complain though! Last night a girl sent me a message and flirted it up reeeeeaaaal hard. She was like ohhhh what church I wanna know more! Then after we set a lesson she asked me if I had a girlfriend and if I was seeing anyone. I told her that it wasn't something I was focusing on right now, and this morning when I went to confirm she had blocked us on whatsapp and facebook. I guess she wasn't interested after all, haha. We had a lesson with a lady I really like, but in the middle of it, the call cut out. I was worried that she blocked us, but we were able to call the next day; the reason was just cause the phone died. But I remember being really sad; anyways, she's really hard to mark a time with. After that, we had a lesson with a member. It was my first time talking to someone under 18 about the gospel since Ryan, haha. She's a 14-year-old convert with a 16 year-old-sister, and it was a fun lesson. Especially when I dropped my pen cap, and Elder Silva bent over to get it and the chair toppled over, and he fell, hahah. All four of us laughed sooo hard. It was right as we were able to get them to focus, too, haha. When we finally got home, there was no rest, because I've gotten used to Elder Morrison being super clean. Elder Silva is... less so. I spent all night putting away all the food he left out. Plus sweeping up the spaghetti and mopping up the sauce that he poured into our wire trash can, haha. Elder Silva walked in when I was done wearing normal clothes, and I hated to be the one to break it to him that we had to stay in proselyting clothes until 9:00 (It was only 8). 

Saturday: 

Well, in two days, he ate all of my food. So on Thursday, I went to the store to buy some more bread and stuff. Then this morning when I went to make a sandwich... no bread. In the future, I'll hide it. So with no eggs, no bread, and no milk, my normal fast breakfast options were up, and we had daily planning in 5 so no food for me, haha. One cool thing happened, he grabbed a broom and started sweeping. I got really excited, then watched in shock and confusion as he went outside, and swept all the dirt from the patio... into the house. We're working on it, hahaha. We had a lesson with Jeferson to teach the restoration suuuuper simply, so this time something sticks. I started off simply by saying God is our loving Heavenly Father, and He gives us the Gospel to bless us. Then I looked as Elder Silva, and he launched into the passing of authority down to President Nelson and how today we have a modern living prophet who received revelation from the Lord. But I still love Jeferson. Afterwards, I sent a couple texts and gave probably the simplest restoration I've given in my life. I´ll send it later, and you can post it, mom. After that, I linked the movie about the Restoration and an hour later after our lesson, he sent us a text and let us know that he had watched the entire thing!!! I love him so much. My two favorite people to teach are Jeferson and Ana; what a blessing that we had both today!! Afterwards, I remember just thinking I love Ana, and I love my companion, haha. After that we had a fun family night with the zone. It's always good to be able to see other missionaries and relax. We all just answered some get to know you questions, and it was great. Something I've started doing is reading Taylor's emails from his mission blog while I'm contacting. I sent one part of it to Elder Koford, because I thought it could be a good training for district council. We had a fun conversation afterwards; I'll link the screenshot, haha. There's another funny part where he's talking about how everyone has the flu, and he says, "Everyone's dying. And no one can go to church," You have noooo idea. Gift of prophecy? Final thing of the day. Fabio sent me a tie. A REALLY nice silk one, too. I'm super grateful, but I'm also afraid to put it on, because just the oils from my hands leave grease stains, haha. 

Sunday: 

Something really weird happened today. We called someone for an early morning lesson, and they didn't answer. A wave of anger came over me out of no where. In my head I was like, "How dare she! Why does she think her time is more important than us? How is she so self obsessed that she doesn't care about our time enough to tell us she's not interested, and instead just tells us to call, then declines us. " It was super weird, because I wasn't actually really angry. It was like a cold anger that was injected into my brain. I think it was just frustration, but it was still really weird, and I didn't like it. Just guys, be nice to the missionaries. They have it hard right now. Anyways, personal study got me over that. I was studying 2 Nephi 26:30 and for some reason today the phrase that "if ye have not charity ye have nothing" really stuck out to me. Why do we waste our times setting other goals? Why do we even make new year's resolutions that don't help with this? Why do we work on patience, humility, knowledge when we have yet to master the most base of commandments? Love one another as I have loved you. That's what I need to do. Just a thought. One exciting thing, Sister Saucedo announced that we get to open our emergency kits and eat everything inside. OHHHHHHH BOY. I am gonna gain a ton of weight. I've been losing a ton lately which has been frustrating, but let me tell you this is not gonna be muscle. I FINALLY was able to stop drinking sugary drinks. But now we have like 12 liters of milk, chocolate powder, liters of juice mix, jellos mixes, and on top of all of that as we were doing an inventory of our haul, a member came by and gave us two Liters of coke... Let's do this! Man, I need to write less in my emails. Sorry folks, I just really use these emails as my journal, haha. Anyways, it ended up working out because like I said Elder Silva ate all our bread, but now we had crackers for the sacrament.  After that, we had 5 hours straight of meetings! We had set up family nights with all of our wards. First was Jaguariúna, and only a couple people showed up, but it was a good lesson, and we talked about my favorite story in the Book of Mormon (Anti Nephi Lehies). Specifically looking at the Nephites answer when they asked for help while considering the fact that these two peoples have been in bloody conflict for hundreds of years. Afterwards, we had the Conchal ward, and it was awesome!! It kinda felt like going to church again. We had like 15 people in the call with at least some people's families. At the end, because it was fast Sunday, we invited people to bear their testimonies if they wanted to, and it was soo cool. Too bad that is the one area we don't have any investigators. Next was the Artur Nogheira ward, and only one family showed up which was disappointing, because that's the area where all the people we teach live. But Michelle went, so at the very least she met a member and got to know the Book of Mormon better. The Cosmópolis ward we sent a reminder an hour before, but still only Anderson and one other lady went. That was a bit disappointing, but all in all we were happy with the day.