Winter!!

Well, the number one news here in Ijuí: Winter has arrived! I never thought it would come, but it’s finally here! It’s both a wonderful and horrible thing. Wonderful because i don’t die of heat stroke walking everywhere. But horrible because my hands are always frozen. Wonderful because i am able to sleep at night with lots of blankets. Horrible because I have to get out of my bed in the morning. Wonderful to finally see my breath when I walk outside again. Horrible to see my breath inside my own apartment. And that about sums up winter here in Rio Grande do Sul! I think I’ve decided i like it, though. People let us into their homes more often when they see us freezing on their doorstep. Haha and I think I’m just more of a cold person. Always have been and always will be! Now I just need it to snow and I can die in peace.

So other than the cold, it was a great week! We have a family of investigators, and they are golden! It’s a father and mother with three children. They are legally married, they are interested and they accepted the invite to be baptized. But, the one problem is that the father works in Porto Alegre almost every Sunday so he can’t come to church. We were thinking and praying about how we could find a solution to this, but we just couldn’t think of anything except to just wait. Then, we visited them and found out that he has asked a transfer (he works for the military there) to the base here in Ijuí. And he said if they don’t allow it, he’s going to quit and pursue some other job offer he has here in ijuí. How amazing is that?! This will allow him to come to church on Sundays and in turn, to be baptized. I could see him as a great leader in the church, and this ward NEEDS some great leaders. It’s pretty sad to see, but this ward is really falling apart...We had 64 people at sacrament meeting yesterday which is quite sad for a ward. There is so much judging and gossip and rumors, and it just tears the people apart. But I think a turn around is coming up! We’re working hard and trying to get a better attitude going. There are a lot of good members in this ward who want to work and want things to get better. We’re going to start doing family nights twice or three times a week to try to get some more unity in the ward. We’re going to try to focus on bringing less actives to the family nights to make friendships and to help them feel loved. And of course, we’re going to try to find families to teach and baptize, because missionary work always helps people get energized. The ward here is great, it just needs a boost, so I’m hoping I can help out! 

I’ll just put out this one word: Make sure you are going to church for the right reasons. And if you’re not going to church because of another person, remember that we go to church to become closer to the Lord and to show our love for Him and most importantly to renew our covenants. Don’t forget that!

What else happened this week...I gave a talk on Sunday! My first talk here in Brazil. I was given 10 minutes and ended up talking for 15..whoops. It’s so strange, before the mission, I could barely get enough content to talk 10 minutes. But yesterday, I prepared a 15 minute talk (in Portuguese!) in just one hour. It’s crazy how much I’m learning and i don’t even realize it! I have much more knowledge of the scriptures now, and most importantly my testimony has grown - of the church, of the scriptures, and of our Savior. I know that he lives and that he truly loves us. Honestly, I can’t explain to you how I know. I can’t explain why I know. But I can say with a surety - Jesus Christ is my savior, my brother, and my friend. I’m not perfect, but because of him I can continually do better and one day be perfected. "I’m a Mormon: I know it, I live it, I love it."

Love you all so much! Keep doing the little things. Keep me in your prayers, cause a mission isn’t easy. I pray for you every night and hope all is well. Until next week!

Love,

Elder Weight

Welcome to Ijuí, Elder Bruxa

Well, I made it to Ijuí safe and sound! I’ve only been here a week, but I already love this city so much! It’s a lot bigger than I expected it to be, since it’s not Santa Maria haha. But it has a super market and everything! There are a lot of great people here and I’m excited to work here for a little while!

So Monday was my last day in Santa Maria, so I did a goodbye tour, visiting tons of members. I promised them all I would introduce them to my parents, so I think your obligated to come pick me up now Mom and Dad! I’ll miss them so much, they were so great to me. Tuesday I packed everything up and headed to the bus station. My bus was the last one to leave, and it was just me and one other elder. We read our tickets wrong and we were waiting at the wrong terminal and missed our bus. whoops haha. So we had to buy tickets ourselves and wait an extra two hours. But it worked out fine! We arrived here in Ijuí and met our companions! My companion is Elder Souza. He is probably one of the funniest persons (people? grr English) I’ve ever met. We live with another Brazilian named Elder Longo and an American, Elder Christensen from Oregon. They are also pretty funny people, so I’m pretty sure I’ve laughed more this week than my entire mission haha! Not really, but close to it. Elder Souza is from the northeast and Elder Longo is from Sao Paulo, and they are always trying to prove that they’re state is better than the other. It’s hilarious. This is going to be a fun transfer, for sure.

This week I’ve been getting to know the members, investigators and everything which has been fun. The members are a little crazy, but they’re such good people. They are so kind to us and I already love them so much! We had lunch with a family this week, and one of the little girls was trying to pronounce my name, but it just wasn’t coming out right. She was finally able to say "Elder Witch." So I said "exactly!" and she continued to call me Elder Witch. So then my companion began to call me Elder Bruxa - witch in Portuguese. By the end of the lunch the entire family was calling me Elder Bruxa (pronounced brusha) and the Elders continue until now haha. But then the other day, another little boy called my companion "Elder African" so we’re even now. :)

We did 3 service projects this week, One with a family of investigators. It was great to help out, but they were back to back to back, so we were down right exhausted. It was a total of about 14 hours of heavy work, and on top of all that, i got pretty sick. Luckily it only lasted about 24 hours, but it was a miserable 24 hours. I have great companions who take care of me though, so it’s all good!

Okay, this email has been all over the place, but I’m doing well! I’m so excited to be here right now, change has been really good for me. I love being a missionary, teaching and testifying that God still cares about us. He truly loves us and wants us to be happy. He has established a church that is the same in Utah, Alabama, Brazil and the entire world, to help you become a better person. What better message is there to share with all the world?! I don’t think there is one.

I hope you’re all doing well! I love you and miss you and think about you daily! Keep pushing along and remember: "You can do hard things!"

Love,

Elder Bruxa

Ijuí!!!

I’m a bit short on time, and some of you already heard about my life yesterday, but I’ll try to do a quick recap!

First of all, I’m being transferred to a place called Ijuí!!! My companion will be Elder Sousa and that’s all I know. I don’t really know anything about the area, I only know that it’s 2 hours north of here, there’s lots of hills and rich people. So this should be an adventure! I’m really going to miss Santa Maria, cause I’ve grown to love it here! The members and people are all so great and have been so kind to me. It also has Walmart, McDonalds and subway which I’m guessing no other city in my mission has haha! I have a feeling I’ll return here someday though, maybe at the end of my mission, maybe before, we’ll just have to wait and see!

Giovanni and William were finally baptized this week! We have been teaching them for almost 3 months now and their mom finally allowed them to be baptized. She decided if they really did want to be baptized, she shouldn’t stop them from doing so! The baptism was wonderful, the spirit was strong and there were lots of good members there to support them. But, after the baptism, their dad showed up AGAIN and took them to their grandparents house. So they weren’t home Sunday and weren’t confirmed. It’s too bad but this week they’ll be confirmed for sure. 

We had a great zone conference this week as well. When I first got here I really had trouble relating to my mission president, but he is getting so much better. It’s evident the Lord called him to teach him and us! That really how it is with all of us though. We’re never going to be perfect, but the Lord qualifies who he calls. I haven’t been perfect on my mission either, and that’s how the Lord teaches us! With our weaknesses. Ether 12:27 "I give unto men weaknesses so they may humble themselves before me...and if they humble themselves before me I will make weak things become strong unto them." or something like that. I think that has become my favorite scripture on my mission because I have seen so many of my weaknesses strengthened on my mission. This is what the gospel is all about: CHANGE. Realizing you are not perfect and doing your best to do better. That is how we will return to the presence of our Heavenly Father - becoming a better person. Always remember that! 

I love and miss you all so much! Have a wonderful week and I’ll talk to you next week from my new area! Pretty exciting! 

Love, 

Elder Weight

Dogs and Missionary Work Pt. 2

So I think missions all around the world need to create a new key indicator (number): Dogs saved during the week. Cause we would definitely be at the top of the list. So on Tuesday, we had a family night with this family of investigators and a family of members. It was an awesome family night, the spirit was so strong. One of the investigators is an atheist, so we showed a mormon message about how God is literally our father, just like an earthly father. Half the people at the family night started crying and it was amazing. The atheist investigator even said "amen" for the first time! So we leave the family night and we´re walking the investigators home. Their dog is running along after us and everyone is happy as can be. Then WHAM a car zooms by and runs over the dogs leg. Everyone for miles around heard the crack of the bone and then the dog starts wailing. All the kids start crying saying "meu cachorro, meu chachorro" (my dog). Then, of course, it starts raining to add to it all. Luckily, Sister Correa knows a little bit about vet stuff. And her bag was just like hermione´s bag in harry potter, she starts pulling out gauze and sanitized water and bandages and everything. We get the dog calmed down and carry the dog to a veterenarian nearby. But, basically everything is closed so the kids start freaking out. They start asking us to pray for the dog, so we say a prayer and they calm down. Then their dad shows up, basically says "it´s only a scratch," and takes him home. Moral of the story? Our investigator believes in God now, the dog is ok, and we have a new lady to teach who was helping us out. Cool, eh?

That´s my one cool story of the week. Other than that, this week was a bit boring. It was a great week, just the same thing as always. We worked with the members a lot this week and had a lot of success. We found a few new investigators and a lot of our old investigators have finally started to progress. Only problem is that no one came to church cause it was raining pretty bad. But this week will be great, I think. We have a lot of people to work with and hopefully the baptisms will start coming. It´s usually been pretty easy for me to find people ready to be baptized, but this area has been so tough. The members are wonderful, there just aren´t very many people who are open to us. But you just have to keep going and trust that God knows what he is doing. That´s one thing I´ve learned most in this area. Constant work and obedience brings blessings, we just have to trust in Him! Sometimes it seems stupid to follow this rule or that commandment, but the Lord is required to bless us when we obey. And it´s true! I don´t know why or how, but when I am obedient, i am happy. But don´t trust me, try it for yourself! (alma 32:27, john 7:17, moroni 10:3-5, etc etc)

I love you and miss you all so much! I hope you´re all getting excited for the World Cup. It´s all anyone talks about around here. Y'all best be cheering for Brazil! The people are pretty confident Brazil is going to win, I guess we´ll just have to wait and see!

love you all so much! Again, i´m happy and healthy and loving my mission. It´s weird to think I´ll be home in less than a year. I don´t know if I´m more excited or sad for that day. I´ll let you know when it comes ;) Have a wonderful week and I´ll talk to you SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooohoo!

April Santa Maria photos

Beautiful view of my area!

Blockbuster still exists here!

Our tiny classroom of Americans watching conference in English.

Daniel and Jeruza(A couple I helped teach in the Santa maria ward) are finally getting married!

My companions attempt of an Easter egg.

Morôni, my spiritual brother that should have been born in America, and his wife Carol.

Family night with Marcia, Moroni and Carol!

The font wasn´t filling fast enough so we got a bit creative........

A pretty cool military house close to our apartment.

Rodizio of pizzas after conference!

Baptism of Andrielli

I´m a pro dish washer now.

Dogs and missionary work

Dear friends and family and strangers,

Can´t believe April is already ending! It feels like conference was yesterday and now it´s May! How strange. And you know what May means......MOTHER´S DAY! I´ve already got three options of members houses I can use to skype, so be ready! Let me know what time will work best for you, cause my schedule is pretty flexible. I can already tell that speaking english is going to be strange for me. I´ve started to think in portuguese without even realizing it. I never thought it would happen, but it´s becoming easier to speak portuguese than english!!!!! Can you believe that?

So this week was pretty good. Unfortunately, Giovanne wasn´t baptized and it doesnt look like he will be anytime soon...his Mom said she wants him to wait until he´s 18 to make sure it´s something he really wants to do. But we´re thinking that he has started having some doubts and doesn´t really want to be baptized anymore, so that´s too bad. But ya know, when one door closes, another one opens! A member took us to one of her friends house to give her a blessing. She is a pretty heavy smoker and found out if she doesn´t cut back, she could lose her leg. Turns out she had already been taught a few times by some sisters and is pretty interested. She said she has been to about every church you can think of, (including ours) and just can´t find one she wants to commit to. So we taught about the restoration, committed her to stop smoking and invited her to church. She was completely ready to go Sunday and loved church. She has already cut down from two packs per day to a few cigarettes per day. She already has a ton of friends in the ward and she seems to be liking everything, so we are pretty excited! We have been having trouble finding investigators. We seem to be doing everything - contacting, working with members, knocking doors, service, everything! So finding her was an answer to prayers, and this week we´re gonna try a few more finding ideas and hopefully find some more. This week our ward mission leader was released and a new one called. He got home from his mission about 2 months ago and he KNOWS how tod do missionary work. I think it´ll be really good for this ward, cause they´ve been having some troubles in the work. But this week the sisters have a baptism and things seem to be picking up! 

Cool story: This week we were on our way to lunch and we found this dog injured in the street. He had been run over by a car and hurt his leg pretty bad. He had a collar so we found this lady who took her home and fixed up the dogs leg. Then the sisters went to "check up" on the dog and started teaching this lady and her family. And then the dog ends up belonging to a less active lady in our ward who we helped reactivate. So now the sisters have a new investigator and we helped our less active find her dog! Funny how everything works out, huh?

I gotta get runnin, but I am happy and healthy! I am loving the work here and everything is swell! I love my companion, he is the greatest. Our ward is great. It´s been tough these past few weeks, but nothing I can´t handle. My portuguese gets better and better everyday and the world cup is just 1 month away. How much better can things get!? I love you all and miss you all so much! I hope you have a wonderful week and remember - Jesus loves you. And I love you too!

Love,

Elder Weightchê (how to pronounce my name in a brazilian accent)

Feliz Páscoa!

In other words, Happy Easter everyone!!! I had a pretty good week here in Brazil, although Holidays are more of a pain than a joy for missionaries haha. But we made do and had a great week. So here in Brazil, Easter basically starts Friday. They call it Semana Santa (Holy week) and for some reason they don´t eat any meat, just fish. I guess they associate fish with Jesus Christ, but hey, it was nice to eat some fish for a change. It starts Friday with celebration of the crucificion and everything was closed that day. Then everything opened again on Saturday and closed Sunday. And, like I said before, Brazilians love their holidays, so their Easter extends to today. So everything was closded again today which makes life hard when you need to find a cyber, but we found this one! It´s a little tiny one with pretty sketchy computers so I´m too scared to upload pictures right now. I´ve heard multiple horror stories of missionaries losing all their pictures to viruses, so you´ll have to wait until next week. Sorry! Anyway, my Easter was great. Of course, I didn´t have the chocolate or family or the food or the easter egg painting but it helped me focus more on the true meaning of Easter. I´m so greatful for my Savior. I´m so grateful for the knowledge I have of his Atonement. It wasn´t until I took a book of mormon class at BYU that I realized how much we know about Christ and his Atonment because of the restoration of the gospel. If you just read the bible, it´s clear that Jesus died for us, but the details are all so unclear. The Book of Mormon and D&C provides so many insights which help us to understand and appreciate the Atonment. I know that Jesus Christ suffered and died for ME. He didn´t just generically suffer, but suffered for me personally. And he suffered personally for you as well. I know sometimes life gets hard, but "all that is unfair about life can be made right through the atonement of christ." (Somewhere in preach my gospel.) Again, I am grateful for all that he did for me so that I can repent and become a better person. If any of you have doubts, turn to the scriptures, especially the BOM, and prayer and you will find answers, I promise!!! And shoot me an email if you have any questions or doubts as well, I would love to help!

Well, Easter spiritual rant over now. Sadly, our baptism fell through again. His great grandmother, who he lives with, wouldn´t sign the form because she said she is not responsible for him (makes sense, right?) His mom has been sick in the hospital but will return this week so we´ll talk to her this week and hopefully baptize him Saturday. Pray for him! We had a great activity for the ward Saturday, Hot Dog Night! We did a talent show, a tour of the church and a dance afterward. There´s a less active in our ward who plays gaucho (brazilian cowboy) music and he played in the show. We also found this other less active who is a lyrical singer with an amazing voice. I played piano and sang a little bit with him, it was pretty cool. I´ll share the videos with you some other day! We had a lot of people at the activity, with quite a few investigators. I think they enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun.

I´ve got to get going, so I´ll end with one of the funnier stories of my mission. So this entire week, I was complaining to my companion this would be the first year I didn´t paint easter eggs. We were going to buy some eggs and paint but we never had time. Easter arrived and we just had one egg. My companion thought it would be nice to at least make a hard boiled egg for me. So he sticks an egg with some water in a cup and throws it in the microwave hahahahahaha. I was in the other room and all the sudden I hear a huge pop noise. I run into the kitchen and the microwave door is completely open and there is egg everwhere. I just start laughing and he starts laughing and we couldn´t stop laughing. It was hilarious. So, sadly, this was the first easter I didn´t paint eggs, nor eat eggs. But it´ll be an easter I remember for the rest of my life haha. Oh yeah, I didn´t tell you! My companion Elder Gomes and I will stay together here in Ipiranga for a third transfer! Woo! He´s a great guy and we get along most of the time :) There´s also another Elder Gomez living with us from Colombia and he will train an American who was in the states for a while but now is in the Brazilian MTC. I guess people who stay in the US now get to take a 2 week refresher course in the Brazil MTC. Of course, I missed that boat. Lame, right? Ah well.

I love you all so much and really missed you this Easter! But hey, this will be the only easter I miss on my mission, because I was home for easter last year, pretty cool right?! And Mothers day is less than 3 weeks away, I´m getting pretty excited!!!!! I´ll let you know more details in the weeks to come. Have a great week and choose the right! 

Love,

Elder Weight