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."

SIXTH AREA: Miracles and Mt. Dew

"My comp. and I have been very humbled to receive so many great blessings in just one week and since we arrived in our new area. This week was one full of miracles and the work is just exploding and I am so honored and blessed and grateful to be a part of it. So we are living in another apartment closer to our area now, we moved on Wednesday morning and a member with a lil truck helped us so it was real quick and easy. . . We basically have 3 main parts to our area and two of them are close and ones kinda far but not really far and so we divide our time between them usually and we have just been guided to the right and prepared ppl it seems like and we have been so so blessed."

"A missionary that went home, his dad came to pick him up and left two bottles of Mountain Dew for Elder Bangerter and we got them last week and it was amazing!! Ha ha, the first time in more than a year and a half!"

"We started teaching a guy named Byron last week and he didnt come to conference and we werent able to talk to him again until he called us on Sat. and said he passed by the church and no one was there so he said he'd come and talk to us and he came down the road we were walking in a new car.. He had the BOM in the front seat and was all smiles. Because of Gen. Conf. last week, he thought it was on Sat. too but we explained it to him and he came yesterday with his girlfriend, Maria, they are great and loved it. So Byron told us on sat. that he is reading and praying and that he prayed to help him get a new car and said when he did, he would enter the church and never fall away. Ha!"

SIXTH AREA: *Opening Arco-Iris with E. Bangerter 3/30/10

March 29, 2010
"Tomorrow is the transfer and we got the call this morning, i was nervous cuz we had no idea what would happen. So get this - me and Elder Bangerter and I are staying together one more transfer so we are so happy! :) but we have to change areas!! We are going to go to another area in our same stake that is really close so i think we will stay in our apartment, so thats sweet. It will nice to have another change and to be able to open the area together and i am excited for the work. . .

Elder Bangeter and I are doing great together and loving the time we have together, we will be such good friends after the mission and he said he'll be there at my homecoming, ha ha.. so yeah, the times a winding down and its crazy, i cant even think about it."

MAKING MUDDIE BUDDIES

"So this week the ward had an activity and we didnt go, but Rodrigo and Felipe went with their other friend Gabriel and they loved it cuz they love playing soccer.. we are gonna play with them this afternoon so it will be sweet.. i will send a pic of them.. after church yesterday we were teaching those three friends on the sidewalk in front of Gabriels house and another one of their friends came to talk to them and we gave him a pamphlet of the restoration and he said he will read and pray. There is so much potential with these guys."



April 5, 2010
"This week we started working in a new area and a new ward, its called Arco-Iris which means rainbow in portuguese and so we are opening the area together and it is going great. So everything is new and we have met a few members and they are great and our Bishop is awesome and helps a ton and our ward mission leader is amazing. Hes only been a member for 4 months and he has such a strong testimony and helps so much, we already taught with him this week and it was great. . .

So conference was just amazing eh?! Wow, we were lucky enough to watch all of the sessions including Priesthood and it was just amazing, wow.. i learned so much and it was just great, i am excited to get the Ensign to be able to study. . .

So saturday night, we were headed to the saturday afternoon session (but it was at 5 here) and we were doing street contacts and talking to ppl in the street like we do everyday and i talked with an old man on a street corner and told him about conference and how it is special and that we were headed there, but that there would be two sessions on sunday and so he said he would try and go like so many hundreds of ppl have said but of course never went so we just went like normal and we got to the sunday afternoon session last night and guess who was sittin in the back all by himself, this old guy with his crutch thing! It was so great to see him. He has diabetes and so he has some circulation probs i think in his feet and legs and so its hard for him to walk and he told me that on sat. so i thought for sure he wouldnt go and was just another contact but he walked all the way there alone and was sitting alone and he got there at 3! so luckily the choir thing was going and i guess he watched that and he stayed for conference and he was in so much pain because of his foot he said but he stayed and at the end after President Monson talked and the choir sang and the prayer, he was crying. Man he was so touched and so was I. So he doesnt live in our area, he lives in another ward that has sisters so they were there and got his address and will pass there this week and teach him, it was a great experience :) So yeah, miracles happen everyday, it doesnt matter how big or small, they happen, its especially easy to see as a missionary. and so i am just so grateful to be a part of these ppls lives."

FIFTH AREA: Divisions

"This pic is from two weeks ago when we taught with Leonã and Alison, it was great.. so this week was great and everything is awesome and i am great and my comp. The work isnt going so great and it was a really hard week, but this week with be a lot better and so dont worry.. we have zone conference this week too on friday so i am excited to see some friends and to learn how to be a better missionary, ha ha.. so we did two divisions this week and it was aight.. i stayed in my area on tues. with elder laird from Ogden and we're buds so it was sweet to work with him and then on friday i went to another area with Elder Santiago, i already did a division with him and hes sweet so it was good and we taught some great lessons."

FIFTH AREA: Testimony

MARCH 8, 2010

"I love the gospel, its so amazing! how lucky are we all to have the truth in our lives.. i think about my life before the mission and how so very blessed i have been my entire life and for how easy it was for me.. living and serving in Brasil for this time has opened my eyes so much and to see how there are so many ppl lost in lies and apostasy and so many ppl searching and wanting the happiness that our family has always had :) man, its so amazing, i just love it and i love you guys!! My testimony continues to be strengthened each and everyday :)"

"There is a lady in our ward that bore her testimony of the power of the priesthood and it was amazing, a great miracle happened with her this last week.. so about a month ago her and her family were sealed in the temple in Porto Alegre because it was a lil more than a year that her husband was baptized and they are such a sweet fam, we ate lunch with them last sat. and she told us she had to have surgery and yesterday in church she said it was to see the problem that the doctors didnt know why it was happening.. they told her she could have cancer or something else but her husband gave her a priesthood blessing before the surgery so that everything could go great and when the doctors opened her up they found absolutely nothing wrong with the part where the problem was and she was completely cured - wow, it was an amazing story and i was so happy to hear it! :)"

"Then after church Leonã received the Aaronic Priesthood as a priest and it was awesome and we did a division with a kid named Alison and i taught with Leonã.. it was amazing.. i have witnessed a complete change in his life in only about a month of time and how eternally grateful i am for this and for the opportunity. The first time we finally taught him, he didnt really believe in God and this was about a month ago and last night he was bearing his testimony and teaching the complete 1st lesson to strangers in the street and in their houses, it was so amazing!"

(Pres. Swenson had a hernia on a disc in his neck i think but he already had the surgery there in Salt Lake and is just recovering and will return soon)

FIFTH AREA: Leonã’s baptism on 2/27/10

Leonã’s Baptism with Sandra and Wilma February 27, 2010

MARCH 1, 2010

"So this week was great and I just sent the one pic of Leonã’s baptism, it was amazing. Finally a pic of their amazing family.. so it all started with the mom, Sandra and then her mom, Wilma and this last Saturday, Leonã.. it was so great.. we had the baptism together with the other elders in our ward and they baptized a sweet old lady named Ana and it was such a spiritual baptism.. It was planned a lot better and so there was a lot of members there to participate and it was great. Leonã is awesome.. this week he bought all new church clothes for Sunday and he looked great yesterday.. church was great and everything is just going awesome.. I love my comp. and we are such great friends and I love working with him"