SIXTH AREA: *Arco-Iris with Elder Mattos 5/3/10

May 3, 2010

TRANSFERS

"Elder Bangerter is leaving and he will open an area and train a new missionary. I will be comps here in our area with Elder Bangerter's last comp. Elder Mattos. I am so excited cuz he is a great missionary, but sad at the same time to be split up from Elder B. My new comp. is awesome, hes a tall, great looking brazilian that all of the girls love, ha ha.. We are already such great friends."

Elizabete's Baptism

"So this week we have the rest of our baptisms marked and Roni's mom, [Elizabete] is ready and she told me she wants me to baptize her. She would have been baptized yesterday too but she got really sick this week. She went to the hospital cuz she was so bad and so we gave her a blessing and she got better and came to church yesterday and to the baptism and loved it."

"Yesterday in church a lady in our ward gave a great talk about adversity and faith and it was so great and made me think alot and I know that it was for me in the moment and has helped me to have a greater outlook on life and everything we go through. I am so grateful for this amazing gospel and for my testimony. I love the work and everything is going awesome. The time is just a flying and going by a lil too fast, ha ha, of course i am excited to come home and be with everybody again but its just such a great time in my life and the most important time of my life for my future. Its funny how the other day I was thinking about the talk that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave i think last year about the ministry of angels and how i know that everything he said is true and that our loving Heavenly Father always sends angels both seen and unseen and I was thinking and realized how blessed i am with all the angels in my life and every one that God sends to help me and all of us. I realized that before the mission at a crossroads in my life, God sent just one of his sweet angels to help me realize my purpose in life and help my testimony and because of that angel, and many others, i am here today. For this I will be eternally grateful :) I know this fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we have restored is the only way that we will receive eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of our Father and Savior together with our families and friends."

SIXTH AREA: More Miracles and Lots of Hot Dogs

Elder Kirschman's Zone (Max is fifth from the left - top row)
April 19, 2010

"So we were working on Saturday afternoon on this one road and we had two pages full of addresses from contacts in the street that are in our area book. So our appointment fell on that same road so we started knocking doors (clapping) at these addresses that we have. So we knocked at a house of a lady, but only her husband was home and he accepted us right in very nicely and very interested and so we taught him the first lesson, the restoration. So right away the Spirit entered and was with us so strong and it was easy to see that this man was prepared, he is amazing. He was completely prepared to meet us with an open heart and it was such a great blessing. So he understood very well and was paying so much attention and felt the Spirit so strong and accepted everything and even baptism for the 8th of May. He was shaking because the Spirit was so strong. So before I could even get out the invitation to church as I was explaining a lil bout it, he said he would come on sunday! Ha, it was so awesome and he said he would bring his wife and so we got to church and were waiting out front and there they come holding hands and they loved it and we have an appointment with them tonight so we are way excited. They are around 55 years old and have 4 kids but there kids are all moved out and so i just thought its like our fam, ha.. but they are just such great ppl. and we are so excited to teach them and help them be baptized and receive all the blessing and prepare for the temple. And its a miracle too because they are actually legally married! What a blessing."

"So yeah and also we were waiting out front of church for investigators and a guy in a suit and everything and his mom came up and we just thought they were more members from the ward but they said they were visiting and it was the first time and that someone had invited them so we showed them where the classes were and they loved it too and we marked tonight with them too so i am way excited. So yeah, so many miracles have been happening and we also started teaching a sweet lil 9 year old girl this week named Monique. She is great and loves church - so her aunt takes her to church and she wanted us to teach her so she could be baptized. Her mom was baptized as a girl but is inactive and so we will try and teach her together but the aunt said that they all live together with their dad and he doesnt want the missionaries in his house so we taught her at another members house. So yeah, kind of a rough situation but we will see, her baptism will be this week along with Ananda, did i tell ya'll bout her? Shes dating an RM and she is an elect and is so great and is already ready to be baptized so her baptism will be this sat. along with Monique."

"We had zone conference this week on thurs and it was great. We gave our training 4 times to 4 different groups of missionaries and it went great, better than planned, i hope all the missionaries learned something, i learned a ton and we started a new activity this week that is awesome with the whole mission. We all started reading the BOM together from the beginning and we are reading at least 5 pages per day and we are marking in the same way: Yellow = all the names for Jesus Christ, Blue = all of the words that the Lord says when he is quoted, Red = all of the atributes of Christ, and Green = all the points of doctrine and principles. I am loving it and i am also finishing the BOM from where i was at the same time so it is awesome, i just love the BOM!!! There is absolutely no way that it COULDNT be true! :) I know that it is true and have no doubts, I love it, it is our proof that we have for everything and all that we need to know that everything about the church and the gospel are true, everything.. I love the gospel and my testimony is continuing to grow everyday."

FUNNY STORY: "Not last Sat. but the one before we were walking down a street and this lil skinny black kid named Alife that we had talked to one time in the road was passing on his bike and yelled, "Hey, I'm gonna go to your church tom!" So we just told him to really go and it would be awesome. So he passed and I said to Elder B., "If he goes to church tom. I will buy you a hot dog everyday next week" Ha ha and so you can just guess what happened! We walked into church and helped our investigators into class and turned around and this Alife was walking down the hall! Ha ha, it was awesome and he loved church and we have been teaching him and we taught him and his mom and lil bro and it was great. So every single day last week i bought Elder B. a brazilian hot dog and he loved it! Ha ha!"

April 26, 2010

"Roni (remember the R makes an H in portuguese so its pronounced Honi) and his mom, Elizabete that came to church last week by themselves cuz a lady in our ward invited them? They are so great and Roni came to church yesterday and got there early and brought a friend and was wearing a suit! Hes so great and i just love teaching him cuz he wants to learn so much and understands and asks ?s and so hes great. He loved church and his mom didnt come cuz she was a lil sick but we taught them together last night about the plan of salvation and the word of wisdom and we had marked their baptism for the 8th but last night we invited them for this sunday the 2nd! They will pray to know what to do and i told them about how i prayed to know if i should serve a mission and how my answer was like, "you should already be on your mission, get ready as fast as you can and go!" ha ha, and so i told them about this amazing experience and how God always answers our prays and he will answer theirs about if they should be baptized this sunday so they said they would pray and we are gonna pass there tonight so we are excited! :) So they are amazing and Roni is ready to help the ward out already and wants to serve and teach so hes ready to work and the bishop loves him so hes amazing. "
Roni, Celso and Claudete, and Monique

"[The baptism] was so great and I was able to baptize Celso and I was so grateful for the opportunity :) It was prob the best baptism I have had on the mission and the best day yesterday. Church was so great and it was fast and testimony mtg. and Celso and Roni bore their testimonies! It was the first time that I have seen investigators bearing their testimonies in church before their baptism. It was such a special moment for me and such a special day."