Week 12

This last week I was transferred to Carazinho, in the Passo Fundo Zone. It is literally on the very border of the mission. It took 6 hours just to get here from headquarters in Porto Alegre. My new companion is Elder Diamond from Orem, Utah. He is also actually quite young on the mission with 6 months, only double what I have. He´s ridiculously good at cooking, teaching our investigators, and speaking Portuguese. In this city there are 2 areas, so I live in an apartment with 3 other elders, unlike my last area. This morning my companion made pancakes with buttermilk syrup. That´s the best breakfast I´ve had in 3 months! I sure lucked out, he was actually a chef for 2 different restaurants before.

During my first 2 days here we met some of the coolest people ever. They are definitely elect. With one house we just had an impression to try knocking and it turned out to be a small family where the father had been inactive for decades, wanted to return to church, has a wife and daughter, and the whole household is excited and really receptive. They live in humble circumstances which really makes a difference. Those who have an easy life with all they want don´t want to change. This daughter had an accident where something took a slice of her face years ago. Now she can only see through one eye. She has been through a lot and it has really humbled her. That family is very precious to us.

Because Brazil doesn´t have Halloween or Thanksgiving, they set up their Christmas decorations super early, sometimes in the beginning of November. We finally broke down and busted out the Christmas music yesterday! It´s quite weird to listen to while we get ready in the heat. Later today my companion will make us an awesome lunch and we´ll head over to the chapel to play soccer with some of the young men here. I´m loving this new area!

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Elder Joseph Andrew

Porto Alegre North Mission

Caixa Postal 13008

CEP 91010-971

Porto Alegre-RS

Brazil

Read my blog at elderandrewinbrazil.blogspot.com

Week 11

Every Sunday I'm reminded of the importance of attending church. It can be a struggle to get investigators to church sometimes and it's always hard to see a recent convert become less-active. Church is the heart of this Church! We need the strengthening of our testimonies, we need to be nourished by the good word of God by inspired teachers, and most importantly, we need the cleansing power of the sacrament.

This Sunday we confirmed the young woman we baptized last week. As I sat in sacrament meeting I reflected on how she had arrived at this point. She was actually a reference from a member, which made her conversion even stronger. As members we should definitely do our part in missionary work by working with our friends. They are the most likely to be truly converted.

Well it's a new transfer tomorrow, and we just learned that I will be leaving Ivoti and heading to Porto Alegre bright and early in the morning to meet with all the other missionaries being transferred. There I will learn where my new area is and meet up with my new companion! I also had the opportunity to eat chicken heart on some pizza this past week. Elder Nielson loves it but I don't think I'll go back for seconds in the future. I wish you all well and hope you find success this coming week!

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Elder Joseph Andrew

Porto Alegre North Mission

Caixa Postal 13008

CEP 91010-971

Porto Alegre-RS

Brazil

Read my blog at elderandrewinbrazil.blogspot.com

Week 10

This past week was absolutely full of miracles! It all started off last P-day, my birthday. Because of our planned baptism, we wanted to work extra hard to show the Lord our determination. On P-days we still have 3 hours at the end of the day to work. From what I've learned in the past few weeks is that those hours set the tone for the rest of the week. We even taught a lesson during our P-day hours, something that really opened some doors that we'd follow up later in the week. One of the visits that we made was to one of our recent converts who is on fire. It is now my belief that recent converts are the most instrumental members in future conversions. Right off the bat she updated us on those we were working with that she is friends with. Her testimony was almost palpable as she described what she had done to help our progressing investigators. Not only that, but at the conclusion of our visit she took us to her neighbors next door, having already talked to them about the church and given them a Book of Mormon! If that isn't the Lord's hand I don't know what else to call it. She is knocking our socks off. We saw the same thing happen with another convert who was to blame for 3 more baptisms of missionary age young men in another close by area. Milagres acontece! Certainly these things made up the best present I received for my birthday.

Something funny also happened on my birhtday. I was contacting a young woman when she asked me a question. We are experimenting with the baptismal contact where you straight up ask people on the street if they want to be baptized. So she asked, "Where?" Still not knowing a ton of Portuguese and speaking candidly I replied, "Na pai batismal," literally telling her how she would be baptized: in a baptismal font! My companion thought it was hilarious and he called up the Zone Leaders to tell them what had just happened.

This week on Friday I had a division (in the states it's called a companion exchange) with the district leader being with my companion in Ivoti and me traveling to Estancia Velha to be with his companion. It was cool, I got to see how other companionships do things and learned a few more cool techniques for teaching people and grabbing their attention.

Yesterday I gave my first talk in Portuguese. After doing that, a 30 minute talk in English doesn't sound so difficult. We also had the baptism of our investigator which capped the week off beautifully! That was my second on the mission and originally my companion was going to baptize her but he had to go to the hospital for an out of the blue sickness. So on short notice I baptized her. I was pretty nervous but it was such a great experience, especially because it was my first time actually being in the water. Not only that, but also saying hte words in Portuguese!

I wish you all a good week! Enjoy the cool weather, it's getting to the point where nothing here really dries because of the heat and humidity.

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Elder Joseph Andrew

Porto Alegre North Mission

Caixa Postal 13008

CEP 91010-971

Porto Alegre-RS

Brazil

Read my blog at elderandrewinbrazil.blogspot.com

Week 9

Well it´s been another great week! Two more intersting things about Brazil is you can´t find automatic cars. Every car, bus, and semi truck is a manual (stick shift). And the exhaust smells strongly of sulfur. Also, all businesses close and all restuarants open from 12-2 in the afternoon for lunch. Can be a poin when you´re trying to buy stuff for the week on P-day, but at the same time it brings more poep.e out into the streets where we can contact them!

My trainer, Elder Nielson from Virginia, is way awesome. I´ve learned so much from him. Little by little I´m taking over teaching more parts of the lessons that we give. It´s tough because I´m still super new with the language, but I´m catching on. I also just got a call today to give a 7 minute talk in next sacrament meeting, we´ll see how that goes! I hope my companion and I are not transferred away in 2 weeks because I´m enjoying learning the language and teaching techinques from him. He´s a genius.

One of our progressing investigators is making leaps and bounds in learning and giving up addictions to keep the commandments. We´re super excited for her and hope to baptize her soon. The only struggle she has is getting to church. The adversary always gets us in some way. Church attendance is so vital to our progression in the gospel. That´s where we renew our baptismal covenants and learn from inspired leaders and teachers. I know this church is true without a doubt.

Today is my birthday! I´m officially 19 now. Ice cream here is super expensive, and considered quite a treat to have it for dessert. The first time I had it here on a hot humid day (just the regular, cheap neopolitian stuff we have everywhere in the states), it tasted like heaven. I´ll probably get some today as a present to myself. The members have also been super awesome. I don´t know how they found out that it was my birthday, but they made some great food and made it really special.

This is the true church! Through prayer and study of the gospel all people everywhere can know too of this glorious truth. I love sharing it with all those who have open hearts and who receive us wanting to know more. I testify that Jesus Christ lives and that he restored His church through Joseph Smith. Because of what him and many other people went through, we now enjoy the blessing of the restored gospel. Share it with your family. Share it with your friends. Not just a select few need the happiness that the gospel brings, everyone needs it.

Good luck in all your endeavors and thank you for all the love and support. Até a semana que vem!

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Elder Joseph Andrew

Porto Alegre North Mission

Caixa Postal 13008

CEP 91010-971

Porto Alegre-RS

Brazil

Read my blog at elderandrewinbrazil.blogspot.com