Move is Done! 5-18-15



Elder George and his companion Elder R

 

Hello again and may I say that this move coming to an end is a HUGE stress relief for me. I know now how stressful parents feel about moving. It really isn’t all that fun. But the new house is much better! So that’s a plus. Really the only one. So we'll work with that from now on! Today we are Emailing Pres. Doing the numbers, and after we are gonna get groceries and I'm gonna make pancakes tomorrow! I can buy pancake mix, but its kinda expensive. So I think I'll make the recipe from scratch :) I am also going to make syrup from the maple flavoring mom sent.

My favorite food! Pizza! Half savory and half sweet-Nutella and candy bar with caramel.

No mom, I haven’t received the package with my razor cord in it. I won’t get it until next Zone Meeting which is in June. Zone meetings are once a month. Transfers are every 6 weeks usually, except twice a year a transfer is 5 weeks to help with the visa waiters. District meetings are every week.

As for a lesson this week.... We taught a new woman called J. She is really nice and she has been searching for something more in her life for a little while and she is excited to learn about the church. The lesson went well. We talked about the Restoration and it went well. We left her the BoM and she was interested to read it. We have another appointment on Tuesday. Should go well!

Oh my goodness... In the center of the city there is a tin man that walks around doing funny stuff! Yesterday I did an interview with him in English and it was funny. My companion couldn’t stop laughing! It was awesome. Sometimes we pass him and he's perfectly still! It’s awesome!

During church this Sunday I was listening to the hymns and thought to myself why we really sing hymns... God has to be listening, yeah, but then I remembered that music invites the Spirit much stronger than anything else and so that’s why we sing them. We were singing “There Is A Green Hill Far Away” and I was truly touched by that song. Everything about it is amazing.

Well, mom asked me about a scripture that impacted me, and I was reading in 2 Nephi 9:34.... No Just Kidding.

I was reading in D&C 121: 7-9 again and I'm ALWAYS touched by his words in Liberty Jail. "My son, peace be unto thy soul. Thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a moment. And if thou would endure it will, God will exalt the on high." Every time I read those words when I'm having a bad day it makes all the difference. Thinking about how much He loves us helps more than people imagine.

I love you all and wish you the best! Have a great week! I look forward to seeing you words soon!

Sinceramente e com amor,

Elder George

Wassup --- 5-11-15

Mother's Day Skype

 Hello again! Yesterday was Skype as everyone should know. So that was really good as always and it was good to see everyone. But on to news this week!

This week we didn’t have a lot of lessons.... AGAIN! I found out on Tuesday that we were gonna move on Friday and we had conference with President Silva on Thursday all day. So on Tuesday and Wednesday, all day, we packed everything we have and got ready for moving.

 On Thursday we had Conference and it was good. We got to see the more fun side of president and it was good to see! We played a few jeopardy type games and it was a good day!

 On Friday we had the move and it was a long day. We tried to get everything done, but it took longer than we thought. So we missed an appointment, which I was upset about but it went okay. Saturday we started to get things organized and that was normal. Got things unpacked again and so that was annoying, to pack and then the next day unpack in the same freakin city. Oh well.

 We talked with L and she is going well. She wasn’t able to come to church because she was traveling but she promised she would next week. If you guys could add her to your prayers I would be really grateful. Other than that, we didn’t have too many lessons that are notable. So yeah.

So everyone, not too much new because of the move, so I'll cut this here! Have a grand week and I am so grateful for everything you guys have do to help me and support me. Love you guys!

Elder George

That is chimarrão. Its from south Brazil :) Its healthy and its good. I enjoyed it. Not super sweet.



Hello! 5-4-15

Friends and Family,

Hello again! This week was quite the mess! Lets start with the most interesting!

 Life is a lot more busy now then it ever was. I had my first District meeting as the District Leader on Saturday, and I was nervous but it was good. I have to train everyone on something. Its like giving a talk really. I talked about Obedience with respect to Helaman 5:12 ("And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.")

My new comp is from Brazil!!!! He's awesome and I'll have a pic of him for you guys next week! We are having a great time and its funny because he's actually older then me! Funny how things work out. 

I went to Floripa to pick him up and when I got there I saw TONS of suitcases. I then remembered that all the missionaries going back home to the states were also there. I didnt really pay attention to it though. I went up to the office, got some mail, and in walked in the leaving missionaries... Including my trainer!.... It was awesome to see him again! And so we talked a while then he left for the airport and I stayed here.... Sad day.  

Deven's trainer and Elder George

But on to the next! We got our comps and then went to sleep the night at the secretaries' house.

After we got to our area the next day, we got to work. We had one really good lesson with I and he now has a baptismal date on the 6th of june! So if you could pray that he could feel the desire to follow his commitments that would be amazing!

As for the other stuff I'll let you know on SUNDAY FOR SKYPE!!!!

So this is it until the next time I see you guys! Até mais! Tchau! Te amo!

Elder George



New Things 4-27-15

Ether 12:27
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Hello Again!

This week was quite the week really! Went by slow because of a few things which I will address. NOTHING BAD but EVERYTHING EXCITING! So let’s jump right in!

An interesting fact about Brazil this week is that every morning you can see people smoking and drinking beer already. Today we saw someone drinking and smoking at 730  AM So that’s different here!

We didn’t have any basher encounters which was good. SO that was all smooth sailing, but I did have my first encounter with a depressed person. Her name is M and she is the Mom of one of our families that we teach. She hit some rough spots with her parents and life and so she is REALLY down. So we are trying to help her out because we are teaching her sister and she is really progressing and so we want to help her by helping her sister but depression is tricky stuff.. so that’s that I guess.

Later that week we got the Transfer Call and we've got some changes coming our way!!! Elder B and I are separating.... HE will go to another area to be zone leader. So we will be going about 20 minutes away! So that’s cool. I on the other hand am staying here.... AND TRAINING!!!! AND BEING DISTRICT LEADER!!!! ITs gonna be crazy busy but I am super pumped and it should be awesome. That is the biggest news I have for this week really.

As far as people we have taught, if you could put in your prayers L, M, and I I would be very grateful. They are all potential baptisms so that would be great if you could pray for them to receive and recognize answers to prayers. Thanks a lot!

As for a spiritual thought, I thought about this  a bit and I was reading in Ether 12:27 after I got the call and thought to myself, "How the heck am I gonna be able to train a new missionary and be district leader....?" I was reading that scripture and thought to myself that if I show humility I will become strong in the work because of the Spirit and the Lord, SO that is my hope for each of you. Think of something that could be troubling you and think if you could show the Lord your humility to try and be a better person, accomplish said thing etc. And he with help you accomplish it. I love this work and I Know that HE lives and loves us. Have a grand week and remember you little ones to try and help your mothers at this special time of year! See you guys!

Sinceramente,
Elder George

Transfer time!!!! 4-20-15

LETS GET READY FOR TANSFERS!!!!

Hello again! I thought about a starting this out with that because this is the last week before them! So if you guys don't get an email next Monday it means I or he got transferred and we had to travel on Monday. So, That solves that for right now.

This week was not terribly eventful. There were a few things that are worth noting. So lets jump in!

On Monday night and Tuesday we did a division with the other elders in the city. One of them is being trained! I ended up with him to have a mini training experience so that was awesome. We had a great time together and it was kinda weird. Why? Because he is 21 and I'm 18. So that was weird being the more experienced one.

On Thursday we were doing a contact like normal with our backs to the road when a moPED came and stopped behind us and the guy got off. At first I thought "Oh he just lives here too."(Because we were talking to 2 women.) He came up to us and said to the women," Do you know who they are? They are missionaries of a church that preaches against the Bible. They worship Gods on different planets and believe in a different book instead of the Bible. They also worship a man called Joseph Smith who killed 11 people during his ministry. They also are here doing this because their Prophet sent them when even their prophet didn't serve a mission." He went on and on about all kinds of garbage that he must have found on the internet and yeah. While that was happening I felt something happening within me. I suddenly understood with a clarity of mind as if he was speaking English. I was able to express myself as I could if I was speaking English. I felt the Spirit powerfully working through me and defending what I KNOW to be true. It didn't matter a thing for him because he was just looking for a fight but it made all the difference for me. Just a cool/action experience in missionary life.

Other then then we have two people to pray for this week!

L: She is 18 and was already taught by the missionaries here and is very intelligent. She feels that everything is true and that she feels like she needs to pray to find out for sure. If you could pray for her to help her recognize her answer so that she can know that this is the true church I would be grateful.

D Family: They are a family of less actives that got baptized a few years ago but lost activity. Their son in law is an investigator and needs to feel the importance of the Book of Mormon.

If you could pray for them I would be soo grateful!

I love you guys and I cant wait to tell you the news of the TRANSFERS!!

Take Care!

Elder George

Another week down 4-13-15

Well, This week had only 6 days in between emails and it felt like two weeks yet again! Why does it seem like time has slowed down again. That is super annoying isnt it? Oh well. Lets just get to the news shall we?

One thig I thought I would mention just for a fun fact is that in Brazil, even the restuaunts serve the same thing as the people do. They dont usually have really extravegent foods and things. Rice beans and everything else normal! Just a fun fact!

Oh, so I had planned to send a bunch of pictures but the computer erased everything so that sucked; the pictures are all erased. And the card corrupted.... So now I'll have to use my other one because this one is garbage now.

So this week was slow and not particularly different then the others. All of our investigators with a baptismal date fell through so now we have to start basically all over again which is hard but thats life. So this week I dont really have any updates on them because we cut them all.... So I will bring some new people to the prayer roll next week! :)

This week we did divisions with the zone leaders! It was okay but Elder A was sick so it wasnt as great as we had planned but it went okay. We worked hard all day and it felt good to have someone to help me a little more with the language since he is Brazilian and trying to learn English. So that was a good thing.

But other than that I was studying this week about Joseph Smith and something hit me really hard. During Elders Quorum yesterday the teacher did something I never thought he was even capable of doing. (BTW he is a Marine type guy and super serious.) We were learning about Joseph and in the end he began to weep because of the testimony that is his and the Spirit in the room. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and like Elder Holland said," No evil man could write such a book. And no good man would write it, unless it were true. And it came from God" I testify that The book of Mormon is the evidence that this church IS the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth today.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Com amor,

Elder George

EASTER WEEK! 4-7-15

Well another week gone and it was full of grand things! So let’s get this show on the road!

This week was rather boring to start out with. We didn’t have many lessons. So basically everyone is the same old things. Alex didn’t come to Conference so he can no longer be baptized. So that was quite disappointing for us.

 BUT, tonight we have an appointment to commit someone else to baptism so that could be happening as well!

CONFERENCE was amazing! The talks we really good! I was quite surprised to see that Pres. Monson only spoke twice AND was being actively opposed! I wanted to be there just to defend him. No one has the right to openly oppose the Prophet when all he does is good. I was very disappointed in that. I got to watch conference on Saturday in English! On Sunday it was Portuguese but it was awesome to watch the Priesthood Session with dad as he was seeing it!

I got mail on Friday! I got three from mom, 1 from the stake and 1 from Bob Clark :) he's such a legend!

Other than that, we had a zone meeting on Friday and it was okay. We got to TRAVEL so that was quite fun for a change! I went from traveling multiple times per week in Imarui, to not traveling at all in this area, and so this time was the first time since I got here! SO that was fun!

WE also had interviews with the President yesterday, which is why I didn’t email yesterday but those were okay. 

Other than that, everyone I would ask that your prayers could be for us here- that we may find those who are ready to receive the restored gospel.

Time for little boy moments! Remember to listen to the words of the prophets! They know what we need to do to stay strong in these days! So make sure you aren’t sleeping like I did during conference when I was young!

Well in this time of Easter, I want everyone to know that my testimony of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and his goodness is even stronger as when I sang that song at my farewell…. I KNOW that he lives. I KNOW that he loves each and every one of us and that if we could see the Heavenly Hosts, we would see MILLIONS of them riding to our aid every time we are in trouble. I love this Gospel and I love each and every one of you. Take care and I will write you in 6 days this week!

Elder George