Week 54

Monday, December 24, 2019

This week was crazy and busy as ever but it’s always like this around Christmas. But we were able to baptize two youth; one on Friday and the other on Saturday. The First girl baptized was Ana Livia who has 13 years and has been going to church for 3 years. But her family is a little difficult and missionaries have been waiting forever for her to leave her catholic grandparents and be baptized. The only thing we did was help her see the importance of first following our heavenly family and then earthly family. Luckily for me, my parents want the same things for me as my heavenly parents... But the branch as very excited and put together a big reception. I don’t have very many photos because they had a really nice camera there taking photos and he said he would send them to me... But overall it was a super great experience. She was traveling to the capital but we told her we would even buy another ticket for her. I also played the piano and wrote a special arrangement of I like to look for rainbows. (I don’t remember if that’s what it’s called in English...) But it was fun. 

The other baptism was a youth of 14 years named Lucas. He is the brother of Sara who I baptized last Saturday and you already saw the pics. He is really excited and has really shown interest in serving a mission. In English he always says, No I’m a Jesus boy. His Brazilian accent is too much. But we made cookies and cake and had a bunch of the young men come and support him which was really cool to see. 

 We also had another Zone conference which was a special Christmas edition with a face to face question and answer session with our president and his wife. Sister Mazzagardi is by far one of the greatest examples of faith and obedience that I’ve ever seen. She developed cancer while pregnant with twins. Both died after being born and they said she would also die. But she fought and continued. They cut out a part of her lounge and said she’d never eat normal or talk again. She lost her hair and suffered a lot. But here she is today leading a mission that was dying. 

Yesterday we had a pday with the sisters in another city and stayed in the 103 degree weather for hours. This is the first time in my mission that I got sun-burned and it still hurts... But it was worth it to play. Lots of excitement and stress but now things are calming down and we are getting back to work. I love you all tons and hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas! Next week I will send pictures if internet allows it... Love you all!!!!!!

We got to talk to Josh on Christmas day.  It was sooooo awesome!!!

Shane was on a conference call and they kept talking to each other in Portuguese!

Week 53

Monday, December 17, 218

So for the first time in the history of my city Colatina It snowed.... Don’t get to excited... it only snowed from my 4th floor apartment... Our freezer froze over and we had to de-ice it. So I made the day of some kids passing by and made it snow... ha-ha it was fun. 

But really Christmas will be white here. We have a few baptisms for this Saturday. But as for this week Saturday the 15th we baptized Sara da Silve Gomes and confirmed her yesterday. It was such an honor to be able to enter in the water with here and help her make this commitment to follow god and take Christ upon the name of her. She is super excited and really progressing. She was baptized after less than 3 weeks. She is already half way done with the book of Mormon and becoming involved in her class at church. After hardships and difficulties it’s really a tender mercy to find people like her. It’s a reminder why we are here. We will baptize her little brother and may be her mom this Saturday. In the service I played a special hymn on the piano and my comp sang. A few people cried... (Hopefully because of the spirit). Also this Week was the birthday of my comp which happens to be the same day as you mother... So we celebrated both Saturday night after the baptism with a family less active we are teaching to baptize the daughter. The work is really progressing and we are excited with the results. 

This Sunday we also had the primary program and I had to play the piano. So that was fun to hear the kids bare testimony of the basic gospel truths. I really miss teaching primary. 

I’m super excited for Christmas to get to talk to the famLee! I love you all tons and hope that this week you all will have the chance to share the gad tidings with someone. Have a great week!

Week 52

 Monday, December 10, 2018

This week we will have a few baptisms in this city. One is an 18 year old girl who has been to church twice and really loves watching the videos the church puts out. Before we really started teaching her she asked if she could be baptized again because the bible teaches about only one baptism. We taught her about authority and she really got it. She is our perfect preach my gospel investigator. We teach her with members and they have made friendships with and she really understands the gospel. We are super excited for her. Sunday she almost didn’t go to church because the day before she hurt her foot... here we have to walk a long way to get there. But after calling and talking to her for 20 minutes, showing up at her house and bluffing to already have a car ride for her she accepted with her mom and they got ready. Luckily girls take a long time here so we had time to find a member with a car to come and get them. And after crazy driving we even got to church on time. So we are very excited. 

Another is a 50 year old woman who has been carrying around a lot of guilt. She was so eager to learn about the atonement and power of Christ’s loving sacrifice. She is a little scared and nervous so we will see if it winds up being this week or next. But she is close. Anyways we are having lots of little miracles. My comp is very good with people and very persistent. I’m learning tons with him. We are working with the fire of baptism... (I don’t know if that phrase makes sense in English... because it does in Portuguese...) 

     

Soccer is now banned in the mission which is sad but we will find other things to do on pday... ha-ha if you have any ideas let me know. I miss you all tons and hope that during this wonderful time of the year you are thinking about those who could benefit from the gospel. (Ha-ha if you haven’t thought of anyone the answer is everyone) We have the one thing that will have the human race and allow them to live eternally with God. Never have fear to share salvation! Love you all again and have a great week!

Week 51

Monday, December 3, 2018

This last week I completed on year. All of the younger missionaries asked me what it was like and after thinking I responded, ha-ha it’s the same. We will still be missionaries and we will still work our guts outs... 

But this week was good. It was my last week with my comp elder Ferreira. Yesterday he went to Cachoeiro which is my favorite city in the world. My new comp is Elder Corcino also from Panamá (a Brazilian state in the south)

He is super legit and I look forward to working with him. We have some great people to start working with.

Friday I met an 18 year old girl and did a quick contact with her in which she accepted an invite to church... But everyone says they will go to church. But Saturday night I called her to remind her and she again expressed desire to go. Sunday arrived and we walked her to church. I had called all the sisters in the branch to compliment her and help her and the branch did a wonderful job. She made tons of friends and liked the messages a lot. It was testimony meeting and she enjoyed the spirit we felt. We will teach her officially for the first time tomorrow. Her name is Sara. She has two other siblings and mom and step dad we will meet too. 

Zone commence the best theme was about the steam ship and rutter. We learned that in life it’s the small things that can change the course of our ship. For this we have to focus daily to accomplish the small tasks that prepare us in our work. Scripture study and prayer are essential in our lives. All and all conference was great. They focused a lot about the second coming and how it’s close. It really is arriving... It will be a great and horrible day depending on how we prepare. 

But I love you all tons. Hope you all have a great week!!! 

Week 50

Monday, November 26, 2018

 This week it rained just about every day. I really don’t enjoy the rain because nobody wants to talk to you. But still we worked every minute we could and took advantage of the situations. I now know a little more about what it means to endure to the end. 

Spiritual experience: I was a little frustrated because we have been working like no other with results smaller than I wanted... So Saturday I wrestled with God and begged him to send somebody to church that would just go out of the blue. Somebody who would already have a friend there. And somebody we could teach this week. Sunday arrived and our family wasn’t there. While praying again and again I began to become a little discouraged. But sure enough our family came in a bit late and after church we found out there had been a youth that showed up and found he had a friend there. We will play ball with him today and teach him Tuesday with his member friend. Miracles are real. Prayer is real. We have to learn to pray and ask specifically what we need and tell heavenly father specifically what we are going to do. He will always answer in the best way. That is to say his way. 

Funny story: We climbed the biggest hill in our city and found a mango tree on top of it. Right now we are in mango season and these mangoes were sooooo perfect. So naturally we climbed it and harvested a bunch of mangoes. These were the bet mangoes I’ve ever had in my life. Not saying a lot... but my comp also agreed that they were the best mangoes in his life and being that he is Brazilian and has a life full of mangoes it means a little more. But I almost killed him because I was in the tree throwing mangoes too him and occasionally some randomly fell and almost hit him... I was up about 40 feet. But we lived and have been drinking natural mango juice every day this week. This is the first area that I’ve gained weight. I’ve gained 1 kilo (2.2 pounds). I’m going to have to start running again ;)

So not going to lie... I only remembered thanksgiving because of black Friday... But in my defense Brazilians don’t celebrate it... Just black Friday. (Bought a giant box of Brazilian cereal!)

But I’m thankful for the day that we get to be extra thankful. 

Love, Elder Lee

Week 49

Monday, November 19, 2018

So this week was pretty eventful... Last Monday in a game of soccer I defended a goal from behind but unfortunately I sprained/hyper extended my ankle… So that is unfortunate… It was pretty ugly and we had to go to the hospital but the next day was full of appointments so we waited… I got home and took of my brace to see it only got worse… Luckily it didn’t break at all. Just cracked the bone a little. But he put it in a full leg cast. But the problem was he said I couldn’t put in weight on it for 15 days… but the place that gives out crutches was closed. So we worked normal and I walked on it. And then after a few days I got tired of it because my city is literally only mountains and stairs. So I cut it off and we work normal. God blesses us when we give our all. I called an American doctor and he said it would be really ugly for a week but after get better really fast and only have problems for 6 weeks. But he said I could walk and work normal… Today I got up at 5 to go on a hike/light run in the epic Brazilian wilderness mountains… The American here who I run with is going home in 2 weeks so we had to get a few more in together. I will really miss Brazil.

This week we had 6 people in church with us. The other four had four and so our little branch had ten people who are investigating the only true church on earth. We were all super stoked to see that they all had good experiences, felt the spirit and the speakers spoke directly to what they were needing. It’s amazing how revelation and the spirit work side by side.

I’m now training in piano to play in the primary program next month… Now I know why god broke my ankle… now I can’t play ball and don’t have an excuse not to practice so pray for me. I know the gift of lounges is real but now I have to pray and find the gift of fingers. Other than that nothing new. Another week getting to find gods elects.