October Pictures

We´ve now got 3 new cougar converts. One of them was even an ex-ute.

Festa de 15 of a member! She is the funniest girl I´ve ever met.

Family night!!!

Pancakes!!!

Yeah, this is what we call 6 elders in a taxi.

Zone P-Day!

Sicknesses...but with cookies and maple!

This was quite an interesting week, full of suprises. Elder McArthur got some intestinal disease from something he ate this week and was in bed basically the entire week. Then my companion also got sick, so I had a different companion basically everyday this week. It made things hard, cause I was basically teaching investigators in two different areas, so I didn´t have a lot of time to focus on all the people and potential investigators I am already teaching. But I was still able to have a great week!

So Julia is doing great, definitely one of the smartest girls I´ve met. We were teaching about the sacrament, and before we even explained anything, she ran into her room, grabbed a piece of paper and began to explain how baptism is like a contract we make with God. But sometimes we do bad things, so it´s like we rip the contract a little when we don´t do what´s right. She began to rip little pieces of the paper and then explained the sacrament is like restoring the contract to make it new again. Yeah, I´d say she understands the gospel. We´re hoping to baptize her on her birthday which is the 8th of November, but it might have to be later depending on her plans. 

Marcos is doing well, turns out it might take even LONGER for their wedding to work out, because of the marraige system here in the city. We´ll see for sure this week when is the soonest date they can be married, hopefully before the transfer. The catholic youth we have been teaching are doing well, they are reading and praying to find the truth of the book of mormon, but it´s looking like they like their own church and aren´t looking for anything else. But we met the boyfriend of one of them who is a really cool guy who is really interested to learn more. He always calls me sir, it makes me feel old haha. But we´ll see if it works out between the two of them.

This week we had two family nights with members and investigators which were awesome. At the first I made chocolate chip cookies, which were delicious, and everyone was dying over them. I´m probably gonna buy all the ingredients to make some for myself, cause they were so good. The second I made pancakes and maple syrup. The pancakes they make here are bascially the crepes we make there, they had never had the thick pancakes we eat there. They all loved the pancakes as well, although they said the maple was too sweet haha. But the members brought a new couple for us to teach, and we brought a few other investigators as well. It was awesome.

But other than that, there´s not much more news! My companion and I are getting along great. He is the first companion I have had that is showing an interest in american football, it´s great. He is officially a Chargers fan, and we usually spend our free time talking about the rules, players, teams and everything. Let me just say, I really miss football. That will be a bright part about coming home haha. But yeah, Elder Cotrim is a great missionary, a great person, and I will remember him for the rest of my life. He has a strong testimony and has really helped me to stay strong, even as I head to the final stretch of my mission. I feel the spirit with him every day and I really hope I get to stay longer with him!!!

I have to get going, but i love y'all! The church is true. God lives. Christ loves you. I love you. So have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Weight

Here´s a cool email I got from my boy Elder Fredrickson, assistant in the Alabama Birmingham mission:

Tuesday morning about 7:30 am I was looking to sit down and study when I found myself just staring at the transfer board and thinking about the missionaries. Saw a picture of Sister Carlson in Hamilton Alabama, and immediately thought about a woman named Diana that I had referred her to a year ago while serving in Vestavia Hills. 

To set the scene, Elder Weight, McGee, and I were on the 31 en route to the Wahler's house. When we stepped on we all instinctively found 3 separated empty seats in the bus and all talked to the folks aside us. Elder Weight and McGee were fabulous missionaries. 

As I started talking to this woman Diana, I quickly realized that she was very attentive and captivated. She was Hispanic and spoke perfect English. As I taught her about the Book of Mormon, she took the book from me and I moved on to a new victim.

By the end of our travel, she had read the entire intro and testimonies along with a few chapters of 1 Nephi. We referred her to the Hoover Sisters, and then didn't here from her again. We followed up with the missionaries every night in Hoover, no luck. Dag nab. 

Fast forward to this week 15 months later. I knock on her door now serving in Hoover, with Elder Savage on exchange. She smiles at our sight and we set up a return appointment. We bring Kristina (another investigator set to be baptized April 2015 bc of some parent probs) both previously Catholic. 

In tears, Diana expresses to me that 15 months ago on that bus, 30 seconds before meeting us she had prayed "for guidance". Since that time she had lost the book in a move, and had 5 friends attempt to give her spiritual guidance. She recognized us as an answer to prayers. And is set to be baptized. 

Conference, cow tongue, and baptisms!

Another great week for me! We had zone conference on Tuesday, so there were missionaries from 3 other zones in the city. It was really great to see some old friends. But it also helped me realized how old I am in the mission, cause basically all the people I new are home or going home. I didn´t recognized like half the people there, it was strange. Although the fact that I served in Alabama for 8 months probably helps with that haha. So the conference was great and afterward there was a baptism of a young man of the sisters in our district, and there were 60 missionaries there to watch the baptism, it was pretty amazing. The biggest attendance of a baptism I´ve seen!

So later in the week, we did another division with the zone leaders, and I went to their area with Elder Mcarthur. We show up at lunch, and there was this weird meat the member had prepared. It was really chewy and had a strange taste, but I didn´t think much of it until the member told me it was cow tongue. So that was an exciting...no that´s not the right word. Lets say...an alarming discovery. Haha, but the exchange was great, and at the end we had an awesome dinner at a recent convert´s house when it started to storm really bad. The sky was basically flashing every second from every direction with lightning, it was really cool to watch. I guess it happens quite often here, which is interesting cause in Utah it´s like one lightning strike every 30 minutes haha. 

Anyway, this week we taught a bunch of people. We have the family of Catholics who are reading the book of mormon and really searching for an answer. They always feed us to death, and this Sunday they´re gonna give us a churrasco, it´s a pretty good deal. We taught Julia, the little girl we found at the churro stand and she is so incredibly smart. We taught the plan of salvation, and she started crying as we taught about the Atonement, the spirit was so strong, it was aamzing. She came to church with her mom for the first time as well, and loved it. We´re hoping to baptize her before the end of the transfer, but she´s so busy, it might have to be afterward. We are also teaching the wife of the second counselor in our ward who is not a member, and before she was completely closed off, but now she loves it when we teach and is talking about baptism and everything. What a miracle. Marcos will come back this week, so this weekend should be the marraige and baptism, if everything works out. Really hoping it does! But things just keep getting better, me and my comp are getting along great, he´s awesome. Everythings just peachy :)

So now my spiritual experience of the week. We were going to teach an investigator, but we stopped by a members house first to see if she wanted to teach with us. Usually she is the happiest person you can think of, but we walked in and could tell something was wrong. She was all sad and depressed, so we began talking to her to find out what happened. She told us she had her final test after a 10 year battle with cancer, and found out she had finally won the sickness, but that she would never be able to have children. I had absolutely no idea what to tell her, so we just sat in silence and let her cry. Then we offered her a blessing, and she asked me to do it. I have never really been great at giving blessings in portuguese, and i still didn´t say everything right in this blessing, but i really did feel that the words i said came from God, and although the words weren´t really all that special, yesterday she told me that we had saved her and that after that day, her week had improved 100 percent. She is one of the favorite persons I have met here, and I know God sent me here for a reason. Not just to teach all these people, but to save her from the depths of despair. I just love my mission so much, I feel like I have finally hit my stride. I am speaking fluently, helping people to learn the truth, and most importantly, learning how to feel the spirit. It´s the greatest.

Love you all so much!! Have a wonderful week. Talk to you again monday.

Love,

Elder Weight

Hey, God is real!

I had quite a special week this week! Many miracles have been hapening and it´s so cool to see. At the beginning of the week, I did a division with Elder Nascimento, one of the zone leaders here. He speaks english fluently so it was quite enjoyable to finally speak a bit of engish haha! We taught some great lessons and had a lot of fun together. Then I got back together with my comp and we taught the wife of the second counselor in our ward who is not a member. She has been having lots of problems with depression, and was actually in Porto Alegre for 3 weeks for treatment. We have been teaching her for awhile now, but she never displayed much interest. But we had a really spiritual lesson with her and she began to cry which she had never done before. Before she just completely ignored us, but something got to her this lesson and now she has been showing more interest. It was an awesome experience. Later we taught the little girl we met at the churro stand. Her name is Julia and she has got to be one of the smartest little girls I have ever met. We met her parents as well, who are amazing people. They are both members, who have fallen away from the church. They told us they still have strong testimony´s of the church and that they will return at the right moment, but the most important part to help them would be to teach Julia. So we began teaching her, and she began to tell us she had a friend at school who lost her parents. She told us she began praying, asking God why he would allow this to happen and for him to send her answers. A few days later, we ran into them at the churro stand. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and joseph smith, and gave her a hard cover copy of the Book of Mormon, and she got so happy. She told us she was going to read the entire thing before we came back. She is such a special little girl, and I felt the spirit so strong as I taught her. After the lesson she began to converse politics with us and who she would vote for and why. It was adorable.

Afterward, we visited that other family we ran into by accident looking for the drunk guy last week. We show up and she just starts feeding us a bunch of food. Then it turns out her dauther is the leader of the catholic youth in the area, and they were planning to have a meeting at her house. We played the mormon message that shows an earthly father and compares it to our heavenly father, and the father of the family was crying at the end of it. We shared a message with everyone that was there and invited them all to church. They all seemed pretty interested even being part of the catholic youth group. So basically we´re gonna convert all the youth of the catholic church, it´s no big deal. Haha but we have a family night with all of them, it should be great. To top it all of, that night we had a baptism! Well technically it wasn´t ours. But about a month ago, a member from our ward brought one of her friends to church. We began to teach him, but turns out he lives in the other ward, so we had to pass him to the other elders. But he got baptized this week and asked us to watch. It was a sweet little baptism, and he is the man. He is definitely an example of the elect that are lost, just because they don´t know where to find the truth. 

Church was great, but had few people. This ward has been having some difficulties lately, and it seems like we work so hard and then no one shows up to church. It´s frustrating at times, and during sacrament meeting I was kinda sad. But during the last hymn, Where can I turn for peace, I felt the spirit so strong telling me things would get better, and that God is proud of what I am doing. That very day we found a new investigator with lots of potential, found out one of our investigators wants to move out of her house which would solve the problem of her not being married to her boyfriend she doesn´t even like and then we had an awesome family night. Then I get online today, and see an email from Rick and Jody, a couple from Huntsville Alabama. They got married and Jody was baptized the last week before I left for Brazil. Now they will be sealed in the temple in December. I could not believe my eyes as I read that email. God truly does know me and brought be comfort when I needed it most. These entire two years are all worth it, just for the chance to help a couple be sealed for all time and eternity. I am so grateful for my mission and for all the valuable lessons I continue to learn. I know that God lives and that he loves each and every one of you. He answers prayers, and still works miracles in our lives today. I miss all of you so much, but I know the work I am doing here will have a lasting impact, even if I don´t see the results. I can´t believe how quickly my mission is already ending and I want to make the best of these last few months. I´m so excited to get to work again this week and I will talk to you all Monday!

Love,

Elder Weight

Miracles & Conference

I´m offically not a sister missionary anymore! Woohoo! A year and a half passed by so quickly and i can´t believe Christmas is in two months cause after Christmas 'já era.' - a portuguese prase which translates to 'already was' which basically means 'you´re done for.' I am honestly not anticipating that day cause I know I´ll miss my mission a whole lot. So let´s not think about that and talk about mission stuffs!

This week was awesome!!! My companion and I are seeing so many miracles together, it´s amazing. People are appearing out of nowhere for us to teach and I know it´s the Lord placing these people in our path. We taught a former investigator, Maria last week who came to church. This week we went back and found her husband and granddaughter with her and taught all three of them. We showed the Restoration video about Joseph Smith and they accepted the baptismal challenge. Only problem is that she needs to pay a bunch of money to get divorced and thn they have to get married...but i think we´ll be able to work it out. She came to conference this weekend all alone and loved it! We´ll have to focus on her husband this week to get the entire family to come to church, but things are going great with her! Marcos came back for a few days, so we taught him basically everything else he needs to know, so when he comes back they´ll get married and he´ll get baptized right away. He is awesome and so excited to be baptized. We´re thinking he´ll be back about the 20th, so on the 25th he´ll be baptized. Another cool experience - we were headed home after the second session of conference on Saturday and we stopped to buy some churros. You know I can´t pass up an opportunity to eat churros. And here they fill the churros with chocolate, it´s delicious. Anyway... there was this lady in her car close by, and she began talking to us. Turns out she´s an inactive member of our ward, and her daughter in the back seat just turned 9 and she was wanting to come back to church and baptize her daughter. Yeah, we couldn´t believe it either. But it gets better. The lady selling churros is ALSO an inactive member with an 11 year old son and husband who are not baptized either. She lives in another ward, but we marked an appointment for the other elders. "There can be miracles, when you believe!" Haha it really is true though. I have learned on my mission that conincedences truly don´t exist and God really does lead his work.

What did y'all think about conference? I thought it was great. I wasn´t allowed to watch in english for who knows why, but I downloaded it all onto my phone today, so i´ll listen at home. But I thought Pres. Ucthdorf´s talk about recieveing light and truth was really cool. He gave the four steps to recieve an answer of God, and my favorite was the last one - Live the commandment and do his will, then God will reveal the truth to you. John 7:17 Do his will and you will know of the doctrine - if it be from God or from man. So my invite to all of you is to live what the prophets and apostles taught us this week! Do the test and see what happens, and I promise God will reveal the truth of all things - through your thoughts and feelings and through the holy ghost. For the fruits of the spirit are peace, joy, love, faith, kindness, temperance, long suffering...i don´t remember everything (galatians 5: 22). But basically everything that is good! I know the gospel is true and I know that Thomas Monson is a prophet of the living God. Read and re read his talks, because it is direct revalation from God to us. 

Some other talks i thought were great were from christofferson about justice and grace, from anderson about joseph smith, from godoy not just because it was in portuguese, but it was a great talk and from Holland of course. Really it was all amazing, but I´m excited to get the full effect in english :)

I love you all and miss you so much! Have a wonderful week and I will talk to you again Monday.

Love,

Elder Weight

A Wonderful Week

What an amazing week that I had!!! So on Tuesday I got my new companion, Elder Cotrim. He´s from Sao Paulo and he´s been out about 4 months. He is such a great guy and we´ve had an awesome week together. We´re already such great friends and we´ve already had some cool experiences together. He had a tough week with some things going on at home, but it´s been cool to see how strong he has stayed and how ready he his to work hard even with everything that is happening. I was definitely put with him in the right place at the right time. 

So this week Marcos is still working in another city, so he was not baptized. Since conference is this week, they will be married and baptized next week for sure! He will come home this Wednesday and then we will finish teaching everything and get ready for next week. We met a woman missionaried had been teaching a while ago and began to teach her this week. She came to church yesterday and we found out her daughter is a member! She really likes church and wants to continue to come, so we´re so excited! Hopefully we can reactivate her daughter as well. It looks like she´s not married though, so we´ll see what happens. We got a bunch of referrals from members this week as well, so we´ll be quite busy in the coming weeks. We also found a ton of less active members who are ready and willing to try to come back to church, and almost every less active family has at least one person who is not baptized in the family, so we are really going to focus on them. 

One of the highlights of the week was yesterday. It had been raining all day, and we weren´t having any success with anyone. I remembered a less active some members had mentioned so we decided to search him out. We found them, a nice couple with two kids. They began to descibe their conversion story and it sounded like they were strong active members for years. Then we found out that after they passed through the temple, they started having tons of doubts and questions that they were not finding answers to. As I was thinking about how to respond, nothing was coming to mind. I realized I had no idea how to answer his question and I started having a mini mental panic. But then I got the strong impression to invite him to general conference. I explained to him that we can try to answer his questions the best we can, but that the Holy Ghost is the one that teaches all truth, and answers all questions. I invited him to conference and promised him he would recieve an answer. He told me nobody had ever done that, and that he was so excited to come to conference. I felt the spirit so strong during that lesson and I know that this weekend will be special for him and for me. I was thinking afterward, how happy I am to know I can make promises in the name of Christ. I remember thinking right before asking him "am i worthy to do this?" I remember feeling a strong feeling of peace, and I knew at that moment I truly was a worthy servant of the Lord. And that is a feeling I will never forget. So I will make this promise to each and every one of you: If you have any doubt, concern, quesion, or problem and are searching answers, I promise that you can recieve an answer this weekend at conference. It´s already happened countless times to me, and I know it will happen again. I am so grateful for prophets and apostles to lead and guide us, and I am so grateful for this gospel. And I love all of you! The church is true, the book is blue, read it, pray about it and watch conference!!! Até mais.

Love,

Elder Weight

September Photos #2

Birthday Cheesecake

Gaucho Day! I couldn't get a very good picture, but there were a ton of horses. 

Last day for Elder Lima :( 

USA! 3 Americans in Brazil

Train track over the River Ibirapuitã

Cool view over the river

Don't Fall!!