Glass half full

Well, not much news this week, but I do have a few great stories! So first off, I have to talk about the cup of course haha. It is literally the only thing people like to talk about here. There is nothing else! So Elder Christensen and I were getting sick of all the people telling us the USA has no chance and that we´re so horrible and that we won´t even beat Ghana, mostly from our companions. So we decided to make a bet. If the US wins, they have to buy us a huge bag of doritos (really expensive here) and if Ghana wins we buy for them. We had a family night at the Bishop´s house Monday and unfortunately NOBODY showed up. But we did get to see the last goal of the US and we got to throw it in the face of ALL the brazillians that we won. And we enjoyed doritos the next day. Win win situation. But too bad the US couldn´t pull it through yesterday, big bummer. I guess they´re waiting to give me the best birthday present ever by beating Germany on Thursday. Haha we´ll see!

So we had found like 3 new families these past few weeks, with huge potential, and they all cut us this week. But one of them gave me one of the best stories of my mission thus far. We had met this lady and her 4 year old granddaughter on Tuesday, taught the restoration, and she seemed quite interested. She told us she was catholic, but had a few doubts the catholics never seemed to answer. We went back later in the week and her granddaughter ran out, saw it was us, and ran back inside. After a few minutes she returned (the little girl) and said "I think my grandma doesn´t want to talk with you two anymore. She thinks she´s not home, but I think she doesn´t want to talk to you." That has to be one of the best ways to be cut by an investigator. Hahahaha we were laughing about it for the rest of the day, it was so funny. Theres always good to find in the bad right? And although we lost a few this week, we did have a few doors opened. Our golden family i always talk about will finally be able to come to church! The father, Luis, will most likely be released from Porto Alegre tomorrow for good. He is awesome and firm and ready for baptism. Also, a less active family we have been working with had two more grandchildren move in with them this week, and they want to be baptized. We are also going to start teaching their son´s wife this week who is not a member. And we have a few service projects set up with potential investigators so things shoud improve! There´s always a bright side of things. 

I already sent this to Dad, but I thought I´d share it with y'all. A little bit random, but hopefully it can help someone who is reading! I´ve been thinking a lot about repentance these past few weeks. I got ahold of the miracle of forgiveness and it´s a great book. Yeah it makes you realize that basically everything you do is a sin, but it´s really great haha. I was reading about the part of repentance where you have to abandon the sin. I think sometimes this is the hardest part of repentance. We realize we made a mistake, we feel sorry and want to change, but we just can´t get the strength to stop! I read a part where pres. kimball shares a story/parable of a general in war. He asks a soldier to deliver an important message and the soldier responds "i´ll try, sir"" The general tells him he doesn´t want him to try, he wants him to deliver the message. The soldier, a little confused responds "I´ll do my best!" The general tels him he doesn´t want his best, he want the message to get there. The soldier again responds "I´ll deliver the message, or i´ll die trying!" The general is a bit mad now and responds "I don´t want you to die either! I want you to deliver the message. It is an easy task, there is nothing in your way that will stop you from doing it, and you are fully capable. Just deliver the message!" Sometimes I think we tell ourselves it´s just not possible to change, or that we´re trying our best and not acheiving. But God has promised us that if we truly put forth our effort, we can overcome any trial, affliction or temptation that comes our way. 

1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

God will never try us above that which we are able. We must remember that Christ already overcame any trouble we have, so with his grace, we are capable. D+C 122 The son of man decended beneath them all, are ye greater than he? Is your trial greater than his? Nope! 

Well, I love and miss you all! This week should be a good one - my birthday, transfers, exchanges, world cup excitement and more missionary work! ah, my life is wonderful. Have a great week and I´ll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Weight

It has begun.

This week was quite an amazing week. Well, it started out great and then the World Cup started, which would be a great thing if I weren´t a missionary haha. But I´ll start with the good stuff first. Monday we had a family night with a semi-active family and it was awesome. There are NINE kids in this family, and seven still live at home. It is always a mad house while we are there with kids running and jumping off the walls, but it´s still so much fun. They have every type of kid you can imagine - punk rocker, drama queen, brain nerd, princess, attention seeker, everything! Haha but the parents are working on getting to the temple and the family night was great.

On Tuesday we had pretty much nothing to do, so we decided to do some tracting. Usually I don´t like to tract because it´s really not effective, and working with members is always the better way to go, but sometimes it´s just gotta be done. We started knocking, and most everyone gave the same excuse as always "Oh i´m really busy right now" or "I´m leaving right now" or "i´m catholic." But we ended up at the house of a mom and two kids. She looked pretty stressed out and didn´t seem like she wanted to talk to us, but brought some chairs out and sat down with us. We asked her how she was doing and she just started telling us everything. I think she talked for 20 minutes straight about the problems she has been having with her mom and the trouble she brings into her life. She told us how her mom is just a terrible person and doesn´t want anyone to be happy and makes everything miserable. We just listened happily and patiently and then began to talk about how we can help. We told her about the message that we have and that we could visit her mom if she would like. She then began to ask lots of questions about why we´re here, about the church and everything. She told us she has been looking for a church that doesn´t have lots of rich people, and that doesn´t ask for money every time she goes. Haha so we invited her and her family to church, but they weren´t able to go this week. By the time we got to this point, her husband showed up, and he seems interested as well. We didn´t have time to share more about the restoration, but plan on going back this week. So that was a cool experience!

Wednesday, we taught our golden investigator, Luis. He is basically ready to be baptized now, but has the whole work trouble. He has to continue to work in Porto Alegre through the world cup but afterword he will be able to stay in ijui for good. So we just have to play the waiting game. We started off asking if he had any doubts or questions, and he asked "So you were telling me about the Celestial Kindgom last week and I have a question. I know it´ll will be great and happy to live with God and all, but what are we going to DO there? Are we just going to rest for the rest of eternity? That doesn´t seem very happy to me. What is the purpose of going to the celestial kingdom?" Yeah, never had an investigator ask that before haha. We explained that we will continue to progress and learn, that it will be similar to our life here, just a lot longer. He is solid, and we just have to wait for him to visit us for church.

So after Wednesday, things went downhill. The cup started with Brazil vs. Croatia Thursday and no one wanted anything to do with us haha. We ended up going to a members house to "teach..." haha. It was an awesome game and Brazil looked great. I´m thinking Neymar is my new favorite!!!!!! Everyone was screaming and going crazy, it was awesome. Friday it poured rain all day which was not the greatest...Saturday nobody was home that we had planned to visit, and everyone else was watching the games all day. Sunday was about the same. Everyone watches every game here, no matter which teams are playing, which makes life difficult. And there´s games at 1, 4 and 7 so it never stops! It´s tough, but what do ya do! Just keep working hard and endure! And not gonna lie, it´s really cool to be here with all the excitement and such. People love to tell us what´s going on with all the games, and it sounds like there´s been some exciting ones. I´m hoping and praying the US can pull it through tonight!!!!!! Should be a good one.

Well this email has been all over the place, and I didn´t get anything spiritual in there...sorry about that. But just know that I love you all! And if you´re struggling with anything, take it to your Heavenly Father. He wants to help, no matter what the circumstance. He will always answer your prayers, i promise you that. Have a great week, Go USA, and Go Brasil!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Love,

Elder Weight

Copa copa copa copa copa copa copa.

If you didn’t know, copa means cup. As in, WORLD CUP!!!! It has finally arrived and it’s looking like it’ll be just as exciting as I imagined. The streets are being painted, everyone is wearing Brazil jerseys and hats and all, the only thing that passes on TV is updates of the team, and there’s just a buzz of excitement in the air! Even though I won’t be able to really watch, just being here will be a pretty cool experience. It’s probably going to make my life as a missionary a little bit tougher, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Elder Christensen and I are going to cheer our hardest for the good ol USA, but things aren’t looking to hot for them. We always joke with the Brazilians and say things like "what are you going to do when the US beats Brazil in the finals?" And then we all just laugh at the impossibility of this haha. I’m hoping that the US at least gets revenge with Ghana for what happened in the last cup. 

Anyway, this week was pretty good. Not anything too exciting. We got some referrals this week who were set and ready to come to church, but didn’t come. So that was a bummer. Our golden family wasn’t home basically all week, and the father was in Porto Alegre everyday but Tuesday and had some family over so we weren’t able to teach them. But he gets back this week, hopefully for good. But other than that, there’s not too much news on the investigator work. It’s been so hard for me to find people here, and i don’t know why! There’s really just not much interest in the church around here, especially because they church is so far away from our area. People don’t understand why they need to walk 40 minutes in the rain when they have a church one block from their hours. It’s frustrating, but we have good people and I know we’ll find more!

We had the mission tour this week with a seventy, Elder Soares. It was really good and I learned a lot from him. He told a lot of cool stories and said a lot of interesting things. He showed a video of this ship on the sea trying to save a man floating in the water. I guess there was an explosion on another ship and this man had been floating for more than 48 hours. The ship passes by and they throw a buoy to the man but he’s so tired he can’t grab on. The boat continues to pass by and they throw the buoy once more without success. The boat just continued on, and didn’t try anything else. The man ended up dying. Elder Soares then asked us if we are doing everything we can to save our investigators. Do we just throw a buoy and hope they catch on, or do we do everything possible to save a soul? It was a powerful moment for me, because I do work hard, but I don’t do everything possible. My studies could be better, I could pray more fervently, I could plan better to be more efficient, I could do a lot of things. I decided to focus on one thing each week I could improve on, and really try better to throw more than one buoy. I think this can apply to each one of us as well! Are we throwing more than just one buoy to save souls (including our own)? I think everyone would answer no at this point, and that’s not a bad thing! Just recognize what you can improve, improve it and keep your head high! I love you all so much and hope all is well. I think about and pray for each one of you every week. God’s love is real, and his church has been restored. I KNOW it! 

Love y'all!!!! And don’t forget...GO BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Weight

May Pictures

Trying to warm our toes with our tiny half working heater

Bus ride to Cruz Alta! 

Luis and Sandra in Santa Maria 

Daniel and Jeruza's wedding

Baptism of Giovani and William

My second family the Hoffmans

June?!

This week was another great one! Can you believe it’s already June? I can tell this is going to be a great week. World Cup, birthday, mission tour, and more missionary work! How much better can life get? 

This weekend we had stake conference in Cruz Alta. It’s about 45 minutes away from here so we took some buses up there. It was those nice tour buses so it felt like I was on my ballroom or choir tours again! Only problem is that we didn’t end up in Disneyland ;) But Stake Conference was awesome! Elder Leal of the seventy was there, the Porto Alegre temple president and President and Sister Parrela. I learned a lot of cool things, and it was fun to visit another city. On Saturday Elder Leal talked about not forcing the spirit but providing an environment where the spirit can dwell. Reminded me of what you said last week Dad. We just have to do what we can to provide a place where the spirit can dwell, and the spirit will do the rest. It will be in his own time, and maybe they won’t understand the spirit at first, but we just have to continue doing what’s right in our lives and families and homes and the spirit will do his part at the right time. Sunday he talked about things we can do to really get to know Christ. Life eternal is to know our Father and his son Christ, so these are some pretty important things. He talked about real study of the scriptures, taking the sacrament, sharing our testimony, and most importantly living the gospel. He is a great speaker and I really learned a lot from him. Also, I saw my mission father Elder Pontes there! President can’t seem to split us up because we’re still in the same zone, pretty cool right?

We taught our "golden" family this week and it was awesome! We talked about the plan of salvation, and when we talked of eternal families, the spirit was so strong. Their son who is 21 started describing his thoughts and started to cry because of how happy he is to know that he can live with his family forever. He has been going to the assembly of God lately and said he has been waiting and praying for his family to start going to a church as well. So that was a really cool moment. But now the problem: we've got to tell him that he can only be sealed to his family forever in our church... That’ll be a tough one haha. But we are going to teach more about the restoration and authority this week, because once they understand that, the rest is a piece of cake! Luis (the father) received word from his work that he just has to find someone to replace him in Porto Alegre and then he will be able to work here in Ijui. He said he’s hoping this last week was his last one working there and we’re hoping and praying as well! Once he is free from this I think he’ll be baptized for sure. They are just perfect and I’m excited to teach them again this week. 

Other than this, we’ve been trying to work with a lot of less actives to help strengthen the ward. We have lots of family nights set up with less actives this week, so we’re excited for that. We’ve been slacking a bit with keeping a big teaching group, so we’re going to try and find some new people this week. We also have the mission tour with Elder Soares from the 70 on Wednesday in Santo Angelo, so that should be pretty cool as well.

I have to get going, but I love and miss all of you! Hope your week is fantastic! Until next Monday!

Love,

Elder Weight