Boa noite tudo mundo! Como vai? Como está as coisas? Vocês tinham uma semana última? Fizeram alguma coisa especial? Espero que tudo mundo estejam bem! [Good night everyone! How are you? How are things going? Did you guys have a week last? Did they do anything special? I hope everyone is well!]
What's up guys!!! Can't believe that we are already getting closer and closer to Christmas! Feels like yesterday that I was studying for Finals at BYU and then heading back home to relax and celebrate with my fam.  |
| Smolder on a tank??! |
As you can tell from the title, this last week was a bit interesting and different but still, it was awesome! Here's some of the highlights:
Monday - We traveled to Curitiba for a conference for new trainees and trainers. When we arrived there, we met up with the secretaries which means I got to see Elder Araújo again! WOOHOO! It ended up that a LOT of other missionaries were staying at the staff house that night so we left early from the office to the staff house to shower and I forgot that some showers in Brazil aren't electric and take time to heat up so.... I ended up taking a cold shower and it didn't heat up until after I was done😆 We then each ordered pizza so we had like 12 pizzas to eat and man, I was stuffed! (Dois Amores is delicious!)
Tuesday - Today we had our training for new missionaries and trainers. We learned a lot about using the preach my gospel app and how we can help our trainees better learn and become better missionaries. It was also really cool to unite with my "dad" again, Elder Hall! He is also training right now so I was able to talk to him about it and also catch up with him. He actually told me that Jose in Almirante Tamandare was finally baptized after we tried to help him be baptized for about 2 months! Awesome to hear that he accepted to follow the example of Christ! We then also had a lunch which was... PIZZA, AGAIN! I once again ate a lot and thought, "I am full", until they brought out the desert pizzas and I thought, "Just one more...". After the conference, we had to wait at the office until our bus left at 5 in the afternoon so we did some tech work, talked with the Elders there, and grabbed some extra book of mormons to bring back with us. Our Bus ended up leaving closer to 6pm so we didnt get back to Palmeira until about 8:30pm, thus we lost one day of work. I will also add that during this day I was feeling a little sick, pain in the body and head.
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| Elder Hall! |
Wednesday - Mission Devocional! This time we talked about the talk from Russell M. Nelson "Enter into thy Closet". We learned the importance of having a place to pray with a notepad nearby to write spiritual promptings you recieve. Other things I liked is the importance and symbolism of the garment we wear, how we should think about the temple and putting upon ourselves the name of Christ and that Each day can be Hisortic if we follow the spirit and think of who we are representing. After the devocional, we went out to go teach. During our first lesson, we were talking with a women who had a date of baptism but didn't go to church and towards the end I began to feel really week. We quickly ended the lesson and I found a nice bench to sit on. Making my way back to the house I soon took my temperature and found out, I had a fever. My comp and I ended up staying in the house doing "technology" and sleeping (I slept a lot). I honestly felt in a lot of pain and really week to do anything. We tried calling people to teach but no one answered. So with the conference yesterday and being sick today, we pretty much got 2 days off of work!😅
Thursday - I ended up loosing my fever, but was still sick and had pain in my body. I managed to go out and teach today to find that we had a major storm with rain, wind, and lightning! I began to think "Satan really doesn't want me working... welp I got nothing better to do so lets go Elder Da Silva!". We managed to find our friend Alexandro who is about 16 and already knows a little about the story of the Book of Mormon. We ended up teaching him about baptism and inviting him. Even though he didn't accept, we is honestly curious and searching for the right path. I really think that God planned all of this just to speak with him about this because he has this desire to learn what is the right path in life. We ended up finishing the night visiting a well known family to the missionaries, the family of Elza. She ended up buying us waterbottles to replace the plastic one I was using. Thanks Elza!
CHUVA!Friday - First lesson that I taught today is one of the hardest lessons a missionary could teach..... How to tie a tie! I taught my comp how to tie a tie (im actually not sure if he just had his ties pretied or someone else did it for him but it was a cool bonding moment!) It was fun to also teach in portuguese! Made me use words I hardly use in portuguese so if anyone out there speaks portuguese and needs to learn to tie a tie, I got ya! During one of our lessons today, one of the kids, Italo, just gave us candy without reason. It was delicious and super sweet of him! The biggest blessing today is when we recieved a call from Rosa while we were walking to an appointment and Rosa asked us to meet her at the house. I was hesitant because we had another appointment but we went to her house. Her daughter then met us there and walked us to where Rosa was where we met her ENTIRE FAMILY! There were like 15 people there! We got to know everyone and taught about the Book of Mormon and invited them all to come to church and guess what!? .... THEY WENT TO CHURCH!! THANK YOU ROSA! Later that night we actually had a family night and watched part of the movie: "Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration".
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| Soccer team pic |
Saturday - We had an activity for the young men today that we helped out with and the soccer field was called "Campo militar". Not thinking anything I looked to the side and they had Tanks there! Elder Cardoso and I immediately ran over and took some pictures! (to all the missionaries from the CTM, maybe we were fubecas🙄) We later got lunch at the local supermarket cafe with our friend Luis and we met the president of the supermarket. She talked with us in english and it threw me off guard! I then asked if she knew about the church and taught her about the church, the book of mormon, and asked if she would like a copy. (Let me just say, it is hard to teach the gospel in english, I was tripping over my words a lot!😆) She accepted and we are going to try teaching her this week. Towards the end of the night, I was walking back home with Elder Loertscher and this random lady just walked straight at me on the sidewalk and stopped right in front of me. I moved to the side and kept going but it was really freaky. I agreed with Elder Loertscher that we wouldn't speak of that moment again. It was weird.
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| Soccer team tank pic |
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| Two guys on a tank |
Sunday - Early moving van ride! While we were picking people up there was a horse in the middle of the road and stood there for a minute! I forget sometimes that horses just walk around here free. We also had one of the most memorable baptisms on the mish. One with rain, thunder, and freezing cold water! Before the baptism started, President John said to Luiz that his baptism will be very memorable and it was! When Luiz entered into the water he was shivering! After the prayer and after I submerged him in the water, he JUMPED straight out of the freezing water and made his way to the ladder. I ended up promising him I would buy him a chocolate bar because it was that cold! Sorry Luis😅 But I am glad to see your desire to follow Christ and come back into the embrace of God.  |
| Baptism of Luiz |
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| Baptism with fam of Luiz |
Honestly this week, with the sickness, pain, and trails, was full of many miracles that the Lord put in front of us. I love that Preach My Gospel mentions that no effort is wasted. Always our works are adding up to a greater work and the Lord is always aware of His children and will send blessings our way. We just need to be worthy and aware to recognize these blessings and act.
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| Book of mormon in the tree |
I hope that you are all well and that you have a great week! Next time I write to you guys I will no longer be a teen!
Ate mais!
-Elder Fisher
