#37 - WEDDINGS ARE EXPENSIVE!💍🫠 (1/29/24)

Nice photo

Nice photo???

 Boa tarde tudo mundo! Como vocês estão? Espero que vocês estejam bem e tiveram uma semana ótima!

Flower tie boys

Hey everyone! How are you? Things have been going very good here in Palmeira, Brazil. Woke up to a bird in our house flying into a window to try and escape. I eventually ended up opening the window for him.

BIRD

In other words, here is the update for this past week:

Monday - Got a fresh new haircut! Not going to lie, the Brazil cut is very nice. If anyone knows how to cut hair in this way, hit me up after the mish!

Photoshoot 1 & 2

 

Tuesday - Today I woke up with a message from our friend Helena. I met her one day 2 months ago when I was traveling back to Palmeira on a bus. I was feeling very sick that ride and just wanted to sleep but she kept talking to me and the spirit was telling me I needed to talk to her so I sucked up my pain and talked with her and got her address. We then visited her and her family a couple times and invited them to church. They ended up going once and liked it and Helena began to read the BOM on her own. This message we received said that she was going to leave Palmeira for Curitiba.... BUT WOULD CONTINUE TO GO TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS IN CURITIBA!! WOOHOO! She thanked us for showing her the Book of Mormon and for showing her the path. Even though I may not see her again, I am glad to know the spirit led me to her and gave me strength to help her along this path. I will miss you Helena! We also went to the Cartorio today to pay for 2 weddings: Maria and her husband, and Beatriz and her husband. To get the physical money, I ran to the bank and had to take out about 1,300 reais! (just over 200 dollars) Let's just say we were there for a while doing paperwork and once I could pay, I PAID cause I didn't want to walk around with that money in my pocket!😆

My boi Alexsander!

Wednesday - Today's weather was really weird! One minute it was raining like crazy and I am freezing, the next I would be sweating and need to take off my coat. Brazil weather is weird! On our way to teach our friend Alexsander, we saw him about 300 feet away from us heading to the gym already and we thought, "welp, maybe later we can catch him". Also found out that Alexsander is learning english rn so we have had some moments to speak english with him. Later during the day we were standing outside a pizza store to visit someone and somebody in the pizza store was shouting like crazy as if he was preaching. When we finally looked to see what was happening, I believe he was doing an instagram live! I should have jumped in so I could have been on tv🤣

We were cold and now we're not

Thursday - We visited our recent convert Eva today and she is awesome! She told us that she sees us as her "sons" and that if we ever need anything, she will supply us with it. She told us how she made a savings account to help with our work and she even offered us 100 reais to buy lunch! I thanked her for the kind words and offer but told her I would rather just have a lunch at her place than take her money. (Eva is elite!) Later in the day, we went into a super market to use the bathroom and while waiting for Elder Salmon, I looked at this shopping cart that had blankets inside it and found out there was a REAL LIFE BABY INSIDE! I don't know whose baby it was but it was there... in a shopping cart... I think it was sleeping. We also got to help a man move a sofa. He was moving down a steep ramp and the sofa fell on the roller and before it fell on the man, Elder Salmon and I rushed over and stopped the sofa from falling. Refined motor skills come in handy! We also met someone who gave us their address to pass by later that day and when we arrived at the Address, it was a different guy named Antonio. We talked with him and he had been pretty distant from any church and was wanting more strength in his life. We showed him the book of mormon and explained how the Holy Ghost can help him and we invited him to be baptized and he accepted! He is now on date for the 18th of February! (He also had a dog that looked like a bear, see photo below)

EVA!

Friday - We had the Zone leaders, Elder Lizana and Barrera, over for a division today! We got to work with Elder Lizana who is pretty much the same age as me! It was awesome to work with him! He really helped me understand the importance of teaching the blessings and covenant we make with God when we are baptized. He has also helped people get married during the mish so he went to the cartorio with us again to make sure it went along smoothly and once again, I ran to the bank, got the money we needed for the wedding, and quickly gave it to the man before anyone could steal it (this time it was about 500 reais). For now we plan on having these weddings this coming Friday. Rosa, Beatriz, and Maria keep telling me that I will be like their Godfather. 

Elder Lizana!

Saturday - While cleaning the church I listened to the following talks which I recommend: "The Price of Priesthood Power" and "The Greatest Leaders are The Greatest Followers". I also found out that Elder Zamarron sneezes like my sister Brenna so I will say "bless you" about 6 times when he sneezes😆 While walking around today, we found a recent convert who tried smoking and I said to him "Joel, we dont smoke right?" and he immediately threw the cigarette and said "Smoking is bad, we don't smoke". Glad that missionaries can be representatives to remind people of what Christ would do. We also met this family: Angelina, Sydney (husband), and their son Eduardo. While teaching, their dog, Zeus, tried to jump on Elder Salmon from the other couch but missed and fell off the couch! Zeus is pretty hyper and likes to nibble and knowing my history with dogs... I got bit again! No worries though it is pretty small but that dog is pretty much a ball of energy! The other strange moment was walking to our next appointment and seeing a women skin a chicken outside her house. Never seen that before.

Dog bear?

Sunday - MET PETROS SAMWAYS! He was a former missionary 4 years ago and does he have a desire to serve! He walked up to me during sunday school and said, "I heard your a pretty good missionary. Let's go bring 10 more people to church". So we went and brought 10 more people to church! We went to some of our investigators houses and brought Mayra and her family to church and while trying to bring someone else, we found a lady who was A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH, IVETE! We ended up bring them to church right before sacrament ended (so I ended up taking the sacrament later that day) but we did bring 10 more people to church. Petros is awesome but also a little crazy bc he wanted to walk right into another church and give them a Book of Mormon during their meeting😆 He did give me a lot of tips though! Hope I can work with him again.

Honestly, this last week was a very good work week. We found a lot of new people to teach and bring to church. Truly each day, I am recognizing the hand of God in not only my life but others and seeing how I am being used as a tool to bring the Holy Ghost to others. There is no greater joy than the joy you feel seeing the Holy Ghost work in the lives of others.

5 people in the backseat

I love you all and wish you well! If their is ever anything I can do for ya or anything you'd like to know about Brazil, a mission, or the life of a ginger, let me know!

Luiz and Elayne and baby Noah

Ate mais!

Elder Fisher