Santa Forgot His Air Conditioning

If somebody is thinking of sending a late Christmas present, I'd gladly accept an air conditioner. This week has been nothing but burning, scorching, Icharis bane hot. So hot, in fact, that my companion overheated and we passed a day at home just to let the guy return to normal. Personally, if it wasn't for the constant breeze we have here, I'd have been in the very same situation. However, God qualifies all of his servants, so in a few minutes, we recuperated everything, and took off back into the furnace. 

However, some really good things did happen this week. First of all, I got to see my family again! I'm always glad to see the family doing well and happy. Sometimes in the mission, you suddenly think about all the changes that have happened at home since you left; room stolen, car sold, and for some missionaries, moves to other states or countries. (Lucky for me, my family still lives where I left them) However, when you get immersed in the work, these thoughts pass like day dreams. Does that mean I don't miss home? No. It simply means that I often forget I do. ;)

Anyway, beyond that, our branch here received a wonderful Christmas gift, as their attendance rose to an all-time high of 150 people. That means they've finally earned the rights to build a brand new chapel! It's interesting to see how the branch has grown. In the last few years, they'd always talked about trying for a chapel and never achieved one, but this year they were certain, and did all they could to get there. Every week, the numbers started to rise, 70, 80, 90, etc, and as a result, It happened! It just goes to show, that true faith, combined with diligent works, are the recipe for great miracles. (Wow that made me hungry) So it is with all of our deepest desires. 

Weird experiences are in greater supply than any, and as such, there were plenty of them this week. However, instead of that, I'll finish with the story of one of our most interesting investigators. He was a referral we received from a recent convert. When we arrived there, we recognized him immediately as a talker. When I say talker, I mean he could talk for an hour straight without taking a breath. However, as we were talking, several people were passing by, and began chatting with him as well. One by one, they entered, talked, and left. So, one by one, I saw people that this man had helped and touched their lives. This man, although the talker, was a great serviceman, honest, chaste, and a true disciple of Christ. Even under poor situations nothing held him back, and when I saw this all, I was impressed. He's already walked the 45 minutes to church twice, and is animated as ever to be baptized. 

Well that's all the time I have. Thanks for everything!

Elder Angus

wotw:

couragem (cor-ah-jeng) Courage. Something we all need.

Bring It

For your Christmas mission conference did you do a theatrical presentation?

Yes, we did a skit/music video about the conversion and baptism of someone.

 

Do they have Turkey and all the trimmings for Christmas?

Yes. Yes they do. ;) That, or they do a Brazilian barbeque, which to me is just as good.

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One more transfer, one more change of companion. Wait what? That's right, I'm still in Osório, but it seems I'm doomed to never keep companions for more than six weeks. ;P Anyway, that's fine. Elder Dickson is from the missionary factory, Utah. However, what's cool is that as he awaited his Visa, he passed four months in the Colorado, Fort Collins Mission. That means I finally have somebody to link me up to my home mission! After we talked a while about Colorado, how it is, all the biblical flooding, and what not, we went out and we got to work. He still doesn't speak very much Portuguese, but that will change when I'm through with him ;). 

To add on to that change, I'm also district leader again. Last time, my district was rather simple to help out, but this time I've been confronted with areas completely different and needs that vary over the map. Luckily, that also means that they have differing skills, so maybe if I just put a few things together... wait, that's probably best to do some other time. Anyway, now I've got tons of ideas running through my head at the same time, and I'm pretty much tired, especially after the unexpected events that this week had in store. 

For one, I finally had the opportunity to ex-pulse a demon. Well, it's probably a good thing that we haven't had to until now. We were teaching one of our investigators and seeing how he was, when he started to ask a few strange questions. Then, he suddenly went quiet, started looking at us funny, and with a completely strange voice, he started interrogating us, all the time saying the man whom we were teaching had left. Of course, the first thought that ran through my head was, "Oh no. What on earth is this." Fortunately, God has given us power enough that nothing can overcome us. So, in the name of Jesus Christ, we dismissed the evil spirit from the room, and our investigator comes blinking into reality, and innocently asks, "Elders, when did you get here?" 

Although a slightly frightening situation, it really showed me something, that the power Christ holds is the greatest of all. Before him, the devil has no power, our sins are washed clean, and our salvation is made clear. This week, we had the privilege to find a really special family. When we arrived, they welcomed us in openly, and they all sat, listening intently. Then, one by one, we challenged them all to be baptized the 4 of January, and they accepted. Why? Because they want to follow the example of their savior, Jesus Christ.

No wonder we remember his birth this time of year.

Elder Angus

Word of the week:

Natal (nah-taw) Christmas or The Birth...ish That's what it basically means. This time of year, everyone goes to the beach, while the missionaries do what they can in the hot, abandoned streets. 

Photo:

-Elder Dickson on the Copacabana ;P 

Festival of Lights

Is the Branch President in Wesley's baptism picture?

Yes, I think. He's Japanese.

How big are the spiders there?

In the house, they're the normal size. In the forest, they're the size of your fist. :)

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Marathon is defined as a long-distance running race, strictly one of 26 miles and 385 yards. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that this week was the very same. Beyond the fact that we probably walked as much this week, we were doing a lot of hurried work to obtain our goals in the little time that we had. 

In this season, the spirit of Christmas is starting to penetrate the mission. Many people animated to find the families that are more open to the spirit this season, and others more animated about speaking to their own family. That, and we have a lot of activities. This week, for example, we had our Christmas Mission Conference where everyone in the mission unites, share their sad excuses for theatrical presentations, bear their testimonies, and take a look back on the events of the whole year. This time it was really good, and powerful. Even better than that, it seems more areas came prepared for their presentations than last year. :) However, it took out a whole day of work, so there is little more to do than put your shoulder to the wheel.

This week we were blessed, though, with one more baptism. Bernardo is a friend of one of our other recent converts. We started teaching him when he arrived one day during one of the discussions. When we saw him ready to return later, we invited him to participate, and we gave him a Book of Mormon. Since then, he's been even stronger and more spiritual than his friend, reading every day, praying every lesson (even asking to do so) and animated to do everything the Lord asks of him. When we invited him to be baptized, he didn't wait a second before he shouted, "I want it to be in the lake!" :D No objections there!

This goes to show a few things. One, there are bright pearls among the worst of people;two, that there are always people being prepared of God; and three, we must give everyone an opportunity to hear the Gospel, because we never know where we'll find them.

Yesterday, we went to sleep to the sound of fireworks bursting in the sky, celebrating the birth of our savior, and this wonderful season. Too bad we don't have fireworks at home. :)

 

ELDER ANGUS

Word of the week:

Fogos (foh-gohs) Meaning "fires," or in this case, fireworks.

Photos:

-Baptism of Bernardo

-Lake Peixoto (pay-SHOW-two) Where we did the last two baptisms.

United Forces

How old is Wesley?

16, priest age. ;)

Did Wesley get baptized in the lake?

Yes. My companion got super excited to do it.

When you talk about displays of your companion and branch president what do you mean?  Is it what they say, or how they act, or did they put together visual aids?

:D It's how they act. For example, my companion will ask a simple question, and when they answer correctly, he jumps to his feet and gives them a double-high-five, all the while shouting, "That's it!" XD 

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Over the last few weeks, I've had a few adventures on P-Day. Two weeks ago, we hiked the trail up to the top of the big hill that overlooks the city. It's nothing like the usual trails I know (well cut and trodden) as we weaved in through all the trees, avoiding the large spiders, and swinging on the vines, until we arrived at the top. Then, we understood how small the city was, and at the same time, how huge the windmills really are. 0_0 Then last week, we went to the beach closest to us. The beaches here are different, as there are no off-shore rocks, just sand. That, and if you pick up one handful of sand, thousands of little crustaceans will come squirming out, like a giant prison break. Both situations were great experiences, and the two make me re-think my perspective on things. 

When you get a higher or larger outlook on things , you start to understand a little more about God. From a high place, we see tons of little humans running about their daily toils, and among the sands we find hundreds of little creatures striving for their survival, all of which appear hidden to our regular gaze until we take a focused look. God has a much greater and wider vision of all of us. In fact, he can see all of his creations, and yet he can still examine each of us individually. Our personal relationships with God show the great love he has for all of us. A mother of twelve children doesn't forget their stories, nor does a painter forget the work and process of his several hundred paintings. We are children of one of the most loving beings we know and believe to exist. Our Heavenly Father. 

Something even as good as our relationship with God, is our relationship with others. As we can see, none of us exist alone in this world, for all living things were created in abundance. Our search to work well one with another makes a part of earthly trials. This week, we were able to see the great effects of team work and the blessings that come from it. In Osório, we have all our meetings in a rented building at the edge of town. The Branch here has existed for almost ten years, and hasn't experienced any real growth, until now. Their dream was always to have a chapel built to have our regular church meetings, and they always declared, "Maybe this year we'll get one." However, now things have changed, and that anomalous "maybe" has been eliminated. To build a chapel, the branch needs to maintain a frequency of at least 80 people for at least 8 months. This month is the last, and will be the most difficult when half the branch is traveling to the beach. So, what they've done is organized every single member that has a car and assigned them up to eight families each to go and take them to church. Prabably half of the families had one excuse or another, but at the end of all accounts, we have been able to maintain our numbers with the many less-active members who through the combined force of the church, have decided to return. \'o'/

There are tons of other great blessings and stories I could tell, but I guess that will have to wait until next time. Anyway, thanks for all the help, support, prayers, thoughts, comments, and anything else that y'all have done to help the work. I'd give you all Christmas presents, but I'm unfortunately super poor. Talk to the missionaries though, and they can get you free books and DVD's. ;)

Signing Off-

Elder Angus

Word of the Week:

excelente (ex-sell-en-chee) Excellent.

P.S. I goofed the last subject. It's Entropy, not Enthropy.

Enthropy

Is it warm where you are?

Extremely. Just sitting draws a sweat. :/

What do you want us to write about you in our Christmas letter?

- Write what you want about me, as long as you use ridiculously cheesy comments like "Jess is still rotting away in Brazil," or "Jess has yet to be Exiled from Brazil." We can't let anyone take me seriously. ;P Just Kidding, say whatever you want.

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Laws of nature show that everything will naturaly flow from order to disorder. This week was a living proof of that. However, our focus has been completely steady: Baptism. 

Something my companion says a lot that's super contagious is "Está Animado!!?" (are you excited!!?) Whenever we teach or help somebody, he tries pumping up so much excitement and happiness they almost explode. I laugh so hard at the little displays he does, but in the end, it is helping out a lot.  His contagious attitude has spread to the ward members. The branch president, Pres. Chiaki, is really animated to help us every day, wanting to visit as many people as possible within the short time he can spend with us, and even showing off his own little displays to animate our investigators. 

But what's better than animated missionaries, and animated members, is the animated investigators. Parents that didn't want anything to do with us are opening more doors, and people that were near impossible to help, have begun helping themselves. This week we had two baptisms, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday. Wesley is João Batista's brother. We actually have little time to talk with him as he's always on the street playing on his skateboard, but with what little time we had, we saw he really wanted to become better. This week, we invited him to be baptized, and he accepted. Then we fought off the doubts, the false comments, small slip-ups and bad comments every day until we finally helped him finish what he started. Now he feels truly happy, and is already helping the young men out a lot. 

However, I think an even better example is that of Adinam. We found him almost two months ago, just knocking on doors (...well, gates) When we arrived at his house, we knocked once and he already started calling us in. He was elect! He had already received the missionaries before, and he was living all of the commandments and reading the scriptures every day. Everything we taught, he remembered and easily accepted it all. But, he never went to church. Every week he'd promise to be there, but he never went, something that makes you want to rip your tie apart. We'd tried picking him up, giving him responsibilities, and even calling him six times to remind him and wake him up. Nothing, but we weren't out of ideas yet. Finally, we took Pres. Chiaki with us and told him to invite Adinam to be baptized immediately after the church meeting. So, with all the effort and  animation he had, Pres. gave one of the funniest baptismal invitations I've seen, but it worked! He not only appeared this week in church, but he even followed through and was baptized in the end!

This week was really rewarding, but not without a huge mess of problems and strange situations. However, like the sky diver, crazy experiences like these make me even more excited to do this marvelous work. I hope that all of us might unite in such a work and a wonder.

Elder Angus

Oh, and thanks for everything!

Word of the Week:

Bagunça (Bah-GOON-suh) Mess, in all meanings of the world. For example, esta semana fui uma bagunça, de mais!

Photos:

- Christmas Lights in Osório

- Baptism of Wesley

(I'll send photos of Adinam's baptism when I get them)