Week 23

Monday, May 21, 2018

So this week was good in marking dates for baptism. But the problem is when you mark a date you have to visit them every day. So our biggest problem is that we are always running and trying to visit our people. But there are worse problems to have...

But the spiritual thought for this week...

Sometimes in life it feels like we are taking two steps forward and one step back. But if we continue we will eventually reach our desired location. But it our job to be willing to move and change and work. Because no matter how long it takes we will reach our eternal goal. Key word... eternal. We will have an eternity to progress and learn.

So we have a guy we teach everyday who is in love with the gospel. But his wife left him in the house locked without the keys. Because here in Brazil you have gates not doors. And so he pulled us in after climbing up through a second story window so we could enter his house and teach him. So I went first and then helped him then pull my comp through the window. Its people like this who make getting out of bed in the morning easy. 

Other than that I’m excited to work with the 7 baptisms that we have for these next two weeks. Also started cooking Brazilian food which is good. Also guitar is still fun to calm down and take my stress out. And I found a place that sells frosted flakes by the kilogram so I’m set for life ;)

But I love you tons and hope everything is going well for you!

Week 22

​Monday, May 14, 2018

For all of you wonderful woman out there happy mother’s day!

This week was great in finding new people to teach... But everyone we found and needs to get married first. But the lord is wonderful and has blessed us with a non-member who is married to a member who will help us speed up the process. And so right now we have to have faith that everything will work and keep our people firm. But that’s okay. Everything will all work out in the end. 

It was wonderful getting to talk to the family Sunday! Fabiano the member who I skyped with was very impressed with you all. I didn’t really realize how much I missed you until I saw you all. But it’s okay because Christmas is only 7months away right? 

Spiritual thought of the week,

Mother’s day is an opportunity to reflect on the wonderful things that the woman of this world do for us and realize how essential there role is in gods perfect eternal plan. But one day is not enough to express our gratitude. Every moment of everyday we should live our life in such a manner to show our appreciation for the teachings and service of our mothers. And with that being said it is important to remember that we have a heavenly mother. I want you to know that I have such a testimony of the love that mothers have for us and our heavenly parents as well. 

This week was shorter because I talked to a lot of you... But I really do miss and appreciate you all. I hope that all is going well and that you are all still being rock-stars. 

Commuito amor,

Elder Lee

Week 21

Monday, May 7, 2018

This week was super full and fun! The highlight was the baptism that we had on Saturday may 5th. But what is cool is that I was baptized 11 years ago may 5th and it was my fifth baptism on the mission on the fifth day of the fifth month and it was Becca’s birthday too ;)

But we baptized Dianna Fraga Pires who is with 9 years. Her father is brothers to the bishop. The Father, Welington went inactive for 10 years and the rest of his family is active and amazing in the church. So imagine the surprise of bishop when I told him we were baptizing his niece. He told me that it wasn’t possible that they had already tried. But the lord had been working with them and gave us the perfect set up. I love the family so much! Welington also is a pro at guitar and they have been teaching me a little. For the baptism I played with my comp a special musical number that I wrote comping I like to look for rainbows. I also made cookies and Jell-O (cause everyone here loves Jell-O). Everything went perfect. But because she was a convert baptism we had to wait until Sunday to confirm her. So as we waited for them to show up they didn’t and my heart fell. But as we said the opening prayer they showed up. So this is cheesy I know... but I opened my eyes to see my family walk in and sit down and everything ended up perfect. 

Another bonus to this week... So our investigator Ana Rita is a principle for a school. And one night I taught her a lesson and she cried and loved it so much that she brought me and my comp to give a lesson to her whole school! I was thinking 30 people but it ended up being over 300. And I had a cool blue tooth microphone and walked through the crowd giving an inspirational speech. Then after that, we visited every classroom. They had never seen Americans before and it was really the weirdest thing. We were like rock stars. Kids legit tried to get our autographs... But the best part was that Ana Rita loved seeing her kids like that and now likes us even more. She is really a blessing in our lives. I think that a lot of times people forget that missionaries aren’t the only ones who are capable of blessing people. They receive so many blessing from non-members. But this week was good. I made some steak and brownies, crapes, and am learning guitar still. 

Big change that happened is transfers are no longer 6 weeks. President will randomly decide when we have transfers, which is honestly kind of hard for me. But it makes sense because unfortunately we have people who know they don’t have time to baptize so they don’t work. But my son and I will use this as an excuse to only work harder because we don’t know when we will leave. But just this for this week, I’m excited to skype you all this next week. 

Week 20

Monday, April 30, 2018

Hey family so my key board isn’t working very well and I don’t really speak Inglis anymore so please forgive me. But this last week was amazing! We marked four dates for baptism and saw some amazing miracles. For example we had been walking everyday more than usual which is a lot and we finally got to a house and I sat down to start the conversation and the first thing that came from the mothers mouth was that she wanted her daughter to be baptized and herself as well in the church of Jesus Christ. Her husband is brothers with our bishop and they kind of left that family alone because they lost hope. But you can imagine the surprise on my face when I had a day full of rejection and walked into that. The 9 year old daughter will be baptized Saturday and the wife later after she gets legally married. But what a miracle from Heavenly Father. It was really a humbling experience and something that reminded me that realistically, Heavenly Father is who prepares the people and converts them through the Spirit. So that was wonderful.

Another fun thing was p-day. We had been walking so much and we both felt a little sick but I asked my son if he wanted to climb Zumbi Mountain. He asked WHY? And I responded ha-ha because it’s there. Definitely made me think of dad. So we climbed it and it was sooo worth it. The view of the city was breath taking. We found two pure quarts rocks at the top and brought them to struggling investigators and gave a lesson about how they can do hard things like give up coffee. We are all on a journey in life and are all climbing a mountain. When we get tired and think that we can’t continue it is sooo important to realize that Christ is behind us ready to push us up. 

Please pray for Anna Rita and her husband Rogerio. They are so ready to be baptized but coffee is hard for them. They have a date for the 12th of May and we get to visit them every day. They are such a blessing to us. They are wealthier here and have a car and give us a ride home so we can stay longer with them. Brazileros are so amazing. The charity that this culture has is unbelievable. I will be sure to send more pics for you all. 

But thank you all for everything and for your prayers. We really feel them out here. I love and miss you tons!

Com muito amor,

Elder Lee