#93 - Marriage and baptism.... part 6💍(2/24/25)

Quote Princess Bride: "MARRIAGE IS WHAT BRINGS US TOGETHER TODAY!!" ...and baptism as well!

HEY GUYS! How are y'all doing from Utah to Canada to Argentina to Hawaii??

I'm gonna try and make this quick bc I got a lot to say and we got transfers going on today. Just to let everybody know, I'll be staying in Paraíso with Elder Eyring for one more transfer!!!

But here comes the run down for the week:

Valdo family baptism

Monday - Early morning basketball!!!! ...and zumba? We went to the church to play some b ball and ended up running into a group of people doing zumba at the church. Lowkey wanted to join but, bball with the boys was hype. That night we went to work and finally found our friends Valdo and his family to teach them. They had been going to church for a while but we finally got to teach them and invited them to baptism and they accepted! (After trying to invite them for 2 hours bc simone talks a lot! Thanks Elder eyring for calling me a pasture to help get attention😁)

Sister district photo

Tuesday - District council and getting cookies from the Sisters!! Today we also went around doing visits with a future missionary that started his mission today! (24 of February) His name is Douglas! He went with us to visit a recent convert whoses dog peeped on my bag and visit Valdo and his family where the roof was broken and water slowly kept falling on my shoulder 😆

Elder district photo

Douglas!

Wednesday - Today we went to have lunch with Douglas and his family and they tricked me into doing this "word of wisdom" check. You blow into this machine that they say will spin if your lungs are healthy but what ends up happening... is you spray flour in your eyes😂 They got me good! So as they say, Eu cheirei pó 😅. We then went around visiting RC and ended up not visiting one bc a mad cow was blocking our way (I looked intimidating) and we ended the night visiting João and Andressa! We had marked their marriage for Saturday and we went to confirm that all was good and have a baptism interview for them. The cool moment is when Andressa told me that the health she was asking for us to pray for worked! She went for an ultrasound and her baby is in perfect condition!! BLESSINGS!

Flour machine

COW

Thursday - Divison with Elder Rodrigues!! I went to his area and worked with him. We found a less active member who gave us ice cream!! We also went to go teach a part member family and to break the ice with the family, we some how ended up talking about Barbie! Shoutout to my sisters for having me watch barbie! Thanks Chelsey, Marin, and Brenna! 

ice cream!

Friday - Today we went around in our area visiting recent converts until we had our appointment with Valdo and his family. When we got there, no one knew where he was! It was like "Where's Waldo!" We ended up leaving but then we found him while heading back to our house!

ELECT COUPLE

Saturday - We left early to go visit a couple that was going to get baptized and they are elect!! The Sisters from Jardim Europa asked us to go and they are so cool! They have a really old car and they are wanting to serve a couples mission already! We then ran over to the marriage of João and Andressa and later that night we had the baptism! The cool thing was that João wanted to baptism his family and so we got special permission to have João be baptized and confirmed in the water AND recieve the priesthood to then BAPTIZE his family! It was a truly spiritual experience. And to top it off, I got to acomphany Cris in singing a hymn.

 

Marriage

João family baptism

 In the water

Cris!

Sunday - We had church in the morning and then right afterwards, a mission call opening and the baptisms of our friends Valdo, Marlon, and José! This time we got our friends Vinícius, Douglas, and Yuri to baptize our friends! Afterwards, we kinda just spent the rest of the day sending records and tec stuff but overall a very blessed week!

Sunlight

When we were talking to our Mission President about having João baptize his family, he brought up a cool idea. He mentioned what Jesus Christ would do and to think about what would bring the spirit. In this case, it would be to have João baptize his family. As the scritpures say, look unto him in every thought, doubt not, fear not!

Amo vocês! 

Até a semana que vem!

- Elder Fisher

#92 - "Pickles" 🥒 (2/27/25)

Coisa interessante, a palavra "pickle" em português é pepino azeido mas nós ensinamos nosso amigo Vinicius a falar "pickles" e agora é todo que ele fala.😆[Interesting thing, the word "pickle" in Portuguese is pimenta azeido but we taught our friend Vinicius to say "pickles" and now that's all he says.]

Nice Pic (is this good mom?)

GOOD MORNING TUDO MUNDO! (Or afternoon.... or even good night?😅)

After doing some early morning basketball (im still not great but I scored a bit) we are now at it with the weekly email. Ngl, it was a bit of a rough week and not too much happened but there are the highlights and miracles I saw:

White shirt cleaning experiment

Monday - Gorillão restaurant.... again! I'm just saying the burgers are really good! The rest of the day we stayed home bc Elder Eyring wasn't feeling so good so it was a pretty chill day.

Pday with the boys

Tuesday - Divison with Elder Aviz! After our district counsel I went back to Elder Aviz area to do a divison with him. It was honestly pretty funny bc we had lunch with a member from Venezuela that doesn't speak any English. So, using the gift of tounges (and my limited high school spanish) I talked with her in Spanish! Good thing that Elder Bueno was also with us to speak Spanish bc I got some work to do🤣 Afterwards Elder Aviz and I went around finding new people and by accident, I stepped in drying cement so... my footprint will always be a part of brazil now if anybody wants to go do R. João da Silva in Dalcol🤣

Wednesday - Mission Devotional! We talked a lot about working with members and having a mindset of working like an escalator instead of an elevator. At times missionarys may focus on just one person at a time and only them so they progress like an elevator but we should think like an escalator helping a lot more people progress and always looking for more people. But today we had the miracle of getting João birth certificate for him to get married!!! WOOHOO RESTORATION OF DOCUMENTS! We also accompanied a batismal date for Princesa named Rubens! This guy is awesome! He told his story about finding the church, feeling he needed to get baptized and he stopped smoking, works as a carpenter and all. He is awesome! (And now baptized!) We then ended the night with an "english connect" class... that "sorta" happened

Rubens!

Thursday - We woke up this morning and during our personal study, I found Elder Eyring lying on the ground. I thought he was dead! He was just trying to stretch out his neck which was hurting. After lunch I did a divison with my first son... ELDER DA SILVA!! It was so cool to see how much he has grown now to do contacts, teach, and everything. #prouddadmoment

 

Elder Da Silva

Friday -  EARLY MORNING TEMPLE TRIP! When we were trying to leave, we were all on the bus except for a service missionary that came with us and I ran back in to find him. Turns out a lady had asked him to help with sealings and he lost track of time😅 We then had a family night where Vinícius (our recent convert) taught us some brazilian slang such as:

- Está comendo abelha 

- O pai chegou

- se liga na ideia

- está mascando

Idk what they mean but, were practicing!

Saturday - SERIVCE! We went to help out Reni, a lady we are helping to be baptized, with her yard. She had a lot of tall grass and weeds so our boys Vinícius and Yuri pulled up and helped us out. Afterwards we did the same thing in Vinícius house!

The boys and Reni 

 

Yuri and the truck

Working with the boys

Sunday - We went to Renis house to bring her to church and sadly, we found her smoking. She had stopped the day before to be baptized but she smoked so we had to reschedule the baptism for next week. Please pray for Reni to stop smoking. The highlight of today was going to a Stake leadership meeting where we talked a lot about missionary work and working with members also. It was cool to be around the stake President here and the bishops and being involved in the work a little more.

Something that Elder Eyring and I were talking about was the importance and meaning of the commandments. Like 2 nephi 4:4 says, when we keep the commandments, we prosper, but when we dont, we cut ourselves from the presence of God and allow the enemy to have room in our lives. Its honestly remarkable that we have these commandments in our lives to guide us and give us conselho when we need it. 

Overall, a very memorable week but I'm super excited for this next one! 

Amo vocês! Até a semana que vem!

- Brasilianboy, Elder Fisher

#91 - Só Espírito 👻 (2/10/25)

Bom dia Galera!! Como vocês estão hoje nessa manhã? Acabei uma ligação com meu primeiro companheiro, Elder Mortenson, e nossa... Somos muito velhos na missão já 😅 maz além disso, estamos bem! [Good morning guys!! How are you this morning? I just finished a call with my first companion, Elder Mortenson, and wow... We are very old on the mission already 😅 maz besides, we are fine!]

Shopping for BOM

Hey guys!! Another week has come and gone and here I am back again like a boomerang to let you guys know about that stuff going on here in PARADISE (Paraíso I'm portuguese):

Monday - RAIN..... and hamburgers?? We tried a hamburger place called Gorillão and it was INCREDIBLE! Ngl, it was kinda pricey in terms of reais but, it was delicious. And of course it was raining so we got pretty soaked😆

Drenched at the Best Açai 

Gorillão

Tuesday - ZONE MEETING! We taught our zone about the importance of discerning the people who are ready now to be taught and make covenants with God and also about being yourself and using your talents! Later the AP's arrived so I went around working with Elder Eduards. We went to visit a recent convert, Camilly, who asked about what to do when someone asks her what church she attends. We taught the name of the church and what our name is. We aren't "Mormons", we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And then during the closing prayer, Camilly thanked God for sending the Mormon Elders! (She is getting better😆). To end the day we visited my friend Gabriel and we both had a confirmation that it wasn't just by coincidence that we met him at this time. We invited him to be baptized and he already knew it was a sign!

APs

Wednesday - I'm back in Palmeira again!! I went to Palmeira and did a divison with Elder Worthen to see how he works and if he is ready to be a Zone Leader. It was awesome! We found my friend Ari in Palmeira and invited him to baptism and he accepted! Cool thing, I found out that Elder Worthen also watched Speedracer as a kid!! I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE😂. And as always, we made Strogonoff while I was there cause I always cooked that😁 the remarkable moment was seeing Eva who I had baptized a year earlier and see how she was still going to church and had a better family relationship bc of the Gospel of Christ!

Stroganoff

Corn popsicles with Elder Worthen 

Ari that was baptized in palmeira who I taught when I was there

Thursday - Divison with Elder Snow! Other than missing our bus (oops) it was a pretty chill day! I went to help Elder Snow find more joy in the work and grow his confidence. It was honestly incredible. We went from just me giving an entire lesson to him giving lessons by himself at the end of the day. I knew that he knew the doctrine and how to teach, he just doubted himself. And now he has that confidence! Also, when I got back home, I found out Elder Eyring got sick🥲

Bus with Elder Snow

Friday - After a blessing and some medicine, Elder Eyring and I went out to work. We confirmed people for church, for baptism, and everything but the highlight was talking to Natalie's dad. Natalie has been wanting to get baptized for some time but her dad never allowed her. Everytime we went by, he would sit in the back and make and excuse to not talk with us. But this time, the spirit guided us. We went with Venacio and his wife (members) to go visit them. As usually the husband stayed in his room and said he had a headache. So we shared a brief message with the rest of the family. Then, the Holy Ghost told me, "ask to give a blessing to the husband" and so I did. We then went to the back room and talked with the husband to give him a blessing. He accepted and it gave us the opportunity to talk with him. I honestly don't remember all I said or what happen but I remember that I felt the spirit guiding every step and putting the words in my mouth that... WE GOT THE SIGNATURE!!! Natalie will be getting baptized this coming week!

Nataly and family

Saturday - Today was the good old run around and confirm everyone for church but also, being guided by the spirit. We went to visit Soraia and her family. We had invited them to be baptized and Wesley had accepted and Soraia had as well but she was struggling with understanding why we don't drink coffee. So we go with our friend Vinícius (member) and once again, not knowing what to say or do, the spirit guided us. He led me to invite Soraia to pray specifically if this is Christs true church and we have a living Prophet, and if she should be baptized with her son tomorrow. I did so and she told me she had actually already known because she asked God if it so be, that his servants (us) should keep coming... and we did. So she accepted! We then also gave her 3 things of Cevada so that she stops drinking coffee. But then..

Soraia family

Lesson with Reni

Sunday - After passing by her house in the morning, Soraia sends us a text saying they won't be baptized anymore. Unsure of what happend, we passed by. We could help them change their minds but we at least got them to church where we had the baptism of our friend Gabriel! (Sidenote: Ari in Palmeira also got baptized!!) We then also tried to help our other friends get baptized thar night but everyone was traveling or didn't feel ready. So we are praying that this week the spirit touches their hearts and helps them know they are ready!

Gabriel and Elder Eduards

Baptism of Gabriel

our friend Lucas that baptized Gabriel

I like to think on a scripture that a friend of mine shared with me from D&C 68:2-6. We are called to this mission and to be moved upon the Holy Ghost. When we speak, acting from the promptings of the spirit, it is scritpure and comes from the Lord. The Holy Ghost is the teacher and we are just the messengers.

That's a tall turkey

Love you all!

Até a semana que vem!

- Elder Fisher

#90 - The Lord will provide! (2/3/25)

 Fala Galera!!! Como vai?

I'm gonna make my email a little shorter today because we are doing a DEEP CLEANING of our house (#heritagehallscleaninginspections)😆

But here is a quick run down from the week with a LOT of rain

Monday - Chácara!! (Cabin!) We went to a members cabin and played frisbee, went fishing, had a churrasco, relaxed, and weirdly each elders somehow fell in mud in some way or another. 10/10

Tuesday - Today was a rough day but also really funny. We were searching for new people and basically no one wanted to talk to us😅 I remember saying hi to someone while passing by and they immediately just turned away and left. I guess people don't like gingers😆

Wednesday - Divison with Elder Bueno! Elder Bueno is actually a recent convert who was baptized about 7 years ago. It was cool to work with him and get to know his story. Highlights of the day were having a bird poop on me out of no where and finding a way to get a investigators birth certificate! Please pray for João and Andressa to get married!!

Thursday - Divison with Elder Silva! Elder Silva already served in my area before and it was cool for him to come back. We visited a lot of people he knew and even found a reference he tried bringing to church, Soraia. We actually passed by and invited them to church and... THEY DID! (I'll get back to that in a sec)

Friday - "Rain rain go away, come again another day". Let's just say there was a lot of puddle jumping done today (bc a friend of mine always tells me to do so 😉🤣) But today we were able to ask for João birth certificate to come in and we are just waiting for it to arrive! (Thx Cris for the help with the restoration!)

  

Saturday - Today we went about confirming people for church and this is when the Lord started to humble me. Overall this week I felt like nothing was going right. Everyone was busy, problems were happening, no one wanted to talk to us and all the people we invited fell through. We had started our fast and I was expecting so much more but that isn't trusting in the Lord. So we had only 1 family confirmed to go (Soraia and family). But right before going home, we felt like trying one last family we already invited for the last 3 weeks and guess what.....

Sunday - THEY CAME TO CHURCH! We had a total of 12 investigators at church! I truly have come to realize that faith is to keep doing all that is in your power and trust the Lord will do the rest. We then went to visit these families afterwards and, THEY ACCEPTED TO BE BAPTIZED! Some of the people we need to help get married or fulfill other commitments but please keep Soraias family and Andressas family in your prayers.

I'll be ending this here bc I got less than an hour before I need to get back out to the road. I'll just leave this thought here, sometimes the greatest blessings are unanswered prayers. God will always answer but in the right way. Trust in him and align your will with his!!

Amo vocês!!

-Elder Fisher 🐟