Oi! From Brazil!

  Boa noite!   I wanted to give an update quickly on the last couple weeks here in Tijuca in the Marvelous Rio de Janeiro North Mission!  As I wrote in my last email, we were working really hard with our friend Pedro to be able to perform his baptism.  Thankfully he was able to overcome all of his trials and addictions to be able to be baptized as a member of the church of Jesus Christ.  The baptism was very special, and it was the first time that Elder Ebberts got to enter the water and baptize someone!  It was really special, and Pedro even invited his family to come at watch as well.  After the baptism we had a small breakfast before our sacrament meeting started and he came up to me and said, in English mind you, "I'm feeling calm, I'm feelin' good."  I smiled really big to him and said, "Just wait until you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Officially he is a member of the true church of Christ, and he has been having some amazing spi...

  So, it's crazy to write the title of this email and to inform you all that I have started my last transfer here on my mission.  The time has flown in a way I never thought possible but I'm doing my best to enjoy and take advantage of every minute of the time that I have!   During these last two weeks we were able to see a lot of small blessings that came from our desire to really work in a lot of different areas!  Me and Elder Ebberts have had a lot of conversations about good work, and how we can be constantly focused on our missionary purposes!  Because of that, we have been working with less active members, recent converts and trying to have lessons with members participating.  It seems that every time we have focused on a new person, that person has made steps to come closer to Jesus Christ and his gospel!  Even if it's small steps, they are steps nonetheless.   However this last Sunday our friend Margareth did a big step to enter ...

  Bom dia!!   So these last 3 weeks have been full of a lot of cool miracles and I'm so blessed for the time that I have had on the mission.  That being said, it has also been an exhausting last couple weeks! But it's all worth it in the work of the Lord!  Our biggest miracle during this last week was Carolina! She was a woman who wrote down her information on the site  comeuntochrist.org  and wanted a Book of Mórmon.  Normally we have a rule that we will try contacting the person three times at different times in the day before we move on and leave them to be contacted by other missionaries.  We did that, and after the third attempt we sent a message and left it at that.  Miraculously, she responded and then we called her on Saturday morning.  She told us about the difficulties in her life and how she wanted to find herself through God.  We told her about the Book of Mórmon and asked if we could stop by later to drop it off!...

Hello friends and family!  I am here with another update of the mission!   So the transfers happened last week, but I wanted to update quickly about my last week in Macae!  In my last week there, me and Elder Serafim were able to have some cool miracles!  We went out trying to find a lot of people, and during this time, we ended up finding 3 families, and one person who is super interested in baptism.  This person is Davi, who we actually found him because we were searching for another person.  We knocked on the door and Davi said he doesn't know the person, and they must have moved years ago.  Well, no opportunity could be wasted, so we asked him if HE would be interested in a message, and he agreed for us to return the next day.  We gave him a pamphlet and when we returned the next day, he said he had read the pamphlet and had already begun to pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  We were shocked, yet so excited!  We...

  Good morning friends and family!  Here has passed by almost another month since I've written, so I'll try and be thorough without writing too much!   Let's jump into the adventures that have happened over the last couple weeks!   First off, we had a kind of punch in the gut shortly after I send my last email.  I talked about Joelma right?  Well, we had a lesson super spiritual where we marked a baptismal date with her...and then the very next day she sent a message to us saying that God had reaveled to her that she didn't need to go to our church.  We were like, WHAT?  It was really out of no where, and we had her member friend send her some messages and try and help her, but in the end Joelma ended up just blocking us.  That was an unfortunate thing, and it really opened my eyes to how much I love the people here in Brasil, cause I did get really sad after she said no, after she had already received her answer.   But th...

  Bom dia!  My p day has officially moved back to Mondays, so I will be sending more regularly on Mondays.   I hope you all have been able to be blessed during the last week.  I'd like to share an experience with you all from yesterday!  Yesterday morning we got ready for church, and left early to go pick someone up to be able to go to the church.  We had spent all of Saturday confirming people could come to church, and by Saturday night a large percentage of them had canceled.  We went to pick up Natalia, but turns out she was still sleeping and didn't answer the door.  We walked back, somewhat dejectedly to the church.  I turned to Elder Serafim and said, "Well Elder, we did the right thing.  It's a good thing.  We showed our faith to the Lord, and our action.  Now we show him that we are ready for the bigger blessings."  I would soon realize how true that statement was.   As we got to the church building,...