Almost Uruguay!

Me - half in Brazil and half in Uruguay

Map of Livramento. My area is in the upper middle, Planalto. ITS HUGE!
Elder Hormazabal and I

Greetings from (almost) Uruguay!

So the arriving group this week was 3 guys from Chile, a guy from Cape
Verde (the first on our mission from the respective countries), and a
Brazilian and an American.
AAAAAnnnnnndddd... I am training one of the guys from Chile! Sweet!
Elder Hormazabal is from Vina del Mar in Chile. It's like an hour and a
half from Santiago, the capital. I'm pretty excited because now for
sure I'm going to be able to be fluent in Spanish before I get home.

When I passed through Santa Maria to pick up my comp and do the n
ewbie training and stuff, I was able to stop by some of my
converts here in Santa Maria, and they are all doing awesome.
Alexandre and Luciana said that when they get older they want to
serve a mission as a couple!

This week, since we are both brand new in the area and know nothing,
we spent a lot of time visiting the members, getting to know them, and
offering to serve them in any form. We have one baptismal date marked,
for a kid named David, for this next week, he is a good kid. His mom

is an inactive member, and he also lives with his aunt who is a
very active member, and he has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot.
I'm excited to be on the border again (A Fronteira, the word is cooler
in Portuguese).

It has been kind of weird to see a few parts of the city that I
remember from a year and a half ago. But it's cool.
Our area is absolutely gigantic. We have got a lot of work to do here.
Elder Hormazabal is a great guy. He was baptized at 16, and is the
only member of his family. Before being baptized, he had started
studying to be a Padre.
Well, I hope you are all doing well!

Livramento!

Well first off, I just got the news, i´m getting trasferred to Livramento!
It's a city down on the border of Uruguay, close to Quarai, Livramento
is basically together with another city called Rivera, they are
basically one city together, but the internacional border of Brasil
and Uruguay cuts them in half right in middle. Cool right?
Also, I will be a trainer there, and I won´t even be any sort of
leader, just a trainer (that will be a weight off my shoulders, it's
been over a year since i was called Zone Leader).
My area there will be called Planalto.

I am kinda sad though, because there are some awesome people that we
are teaching right now that are going to be baptized this transfer.
This week I did a division with Elder Pagotto. It was really good, he
is awesome. He is district leader in Itaqui, way far away.
Gelsom and Judith, this family that came to General Conference is
doing super well and are going to get baptized, also Leandro is doing
quite well, also going to get baptized.
This week we got together some of the young men from the ward and 2 of
their friends, taught them, and they came to church on Sunday and
liked it a lot.
I also got some news from Elder Menk that some people we taught there
in Santa Maria finally got baptized, sweet!
Anyways, i need to go make my bags!!!

General Conference

Hello family, how are you all doing?
I am doing great.
This week was a great week for us.
Obviously the crowning event of the week was General Conference, our
own experiences listening and watching, and the people we were able to
bring to watch. Leando, a guy I have mentioned we are teaching, came to
3 sessions, and liked it a lot. He is awesome, and I am pretty sure
that we are going to be able to baptize him this next month. After the
Priesthood session (which was really awesome) he went up to one of the
Brothers of the Branch who will be moving to Rio de Janeiro this
month, and told him that he wanted to be baptized by him before he moved. (sweet!)
Also we were able to bring a family to church, Gelsom, Judith, and
their sons Gustavo and baby João Augusto. They liked it a lot, and are
excited to come back next week.
General Conference was a truly great spiritual experience for me. I
felt as if certain talks had certainly been written just for me. These
men truly are modern prophets and apostles. How good it is to know
that! The pathway is made clear in all ages. We live in a time when
more than ever, we need the guidance of our Father. I hope all is
well, and that great experiences are had at EFY.

Surprise New Companion

This week was a fairly normal week. We have been working, but we haven't
had much success in finding super good new investigators. We have
taught lots of people, but none that like made me super exited that
are for sure going to get baptized in the next 3 weeks.

On Thursday, for some reason, I was just dead tired, but I was able to persevere.
On Friday morning we got a call from Elder Menk saying that Elder
Nunes would get transferred to Santa Maria, and that Elder Andrade
would be my new companion. It was a little strange, given that it was
in the middle of the 6 week transfer period, and so my theory is that
President did it so that I could show the area to Elder Andrade for 2
weeks, and then I will get transferred on the actual transfer. And so
then Saturday morning we switched and I am here now with Elder
Andrade.

Elder Andrade is from Maranhão, which is a state up in the
northeast. He is friends with another Elder on the mission that Elder
Black trained, named Elder Jannsen (I did a division with him last
month). As a matter of fact, this Elder Jannsen is actually his (Elder
Andade´s) engaged brother -in -law, haha, and they ended up serving on
the same mission, cool right?
Elder Andrade is a really good missionary. He is from the same group
as Elder Menk. Elder Andrade has been bringing a lot of new ideas to
the work here which is really good.
Idon´t really have a whole lot to write this week. I hope you are all
doing awesome and that kind of stuff!

"At Least We Had a Baptism!"

Well, this week we had some interesting experiences.
On Tuesday, while we were up at the Northern part of the city, by the
URI (universtity), there was a crazy rain and wind storm, so some
workers invited us to hide in the building that they were remodeling.
Also, we taught a guy from a nearby city, Santo Antonio das Missoes,
that said that 6 years ago there was a hail storm there that dropped
hail as big as oranges! It apparently destroyed 90% of the city! That's
crazy!
Also, on Wednesday, we had another encounter with a difficult individual. Oh
goodness, that was tiring. When we entered in this guy's house,
and found out how antagonistic he was being, I just wanted to cry and die. I was
already super tired and drained from trying to be reasonable and well
mannered with the last one. And this one was not any different.
Anyway, the week was an extremely difficult week, very exhausting, and
very faith trying.
But hey, at least we had a baptism at the end of it all!

1- Feijão, I made beans and rice today for lunch

2- Baptism on Saturday

3- My shoe's not well. The shoe that had been resoled, the sole is all

worn down on one side...

4- $

Alifer

This week we taught, a few times, a 15 year old kid named Alifer. He has
been going to church for a few months and is going to be baptized next
week! He has been doing really well and has progressed a lot. He is reading
2 chapters of the Book of Mormon per day, and is quite excited for his
baptism. His friend that introduced him to the church just became a
priest and so he will baptize him! Cool right!?

On Thursday we had Zone Conference. It was really good. We learned
about John the beloved, it was really cool.
During the conference, I thought about the endless hours I have spent
on my mission walking in the hot Brazilian sun, looking for people to
teach, all the tiredness, difficulties, and toils. As I look back,
truly it has been a price that was a pleasure to pay.

On Saturday we had an encounter that kind of evolved into a bible bash...

actually, he started asking some extremely irrelevant questions, and I

responded to them, but then it just got out of hand, and I stopped bothering.

We testified of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of the truthfulness of the

Book of Mormon. As I testified, I felt the power of my words.

I am currently in the middle of Mosiah reading the BOM in Spanish.
Also, in the Old Testament in English, I am in Ezekiel (someday I will
finish!) I have been reading a great deal of General Conference
discourses lately. That's something that really strenghthens your
testimony of living prophets and apostles.

This Keyboard is really d d

*Mother's Note: Alex sent us a voice recording this week and I'm not sure how to share that - sorry! This is all he wrote!

Hey, I did another voice recording, so on that I said most of the stuff.
But this week was really good.
It is a good thing I voic e recordede because this keyboard is really
d d naabi cant write much on it