Hi, my name is Elder Cash Holdaway. I am currently serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Brazil Natal Mission (ie., the big bump in Brazil). This is my blog, where I will share my comings and goings -- the people I meet, the foods I eat, and the things I do.
This blog is managed by my family back home in Maryland and is based off of my emails and letters to them. It will be in my voice, but I'm not actually putting this together. I look forward to letting you know about all the fun I am having hear, along with the struggles and challenges of serving the Lord in such a different place.
I am grateful for this opportunity to serve and to share my testimony with the Brazilian people. If you want to know more about why I left the comforts of home to be here, you can find out more information here.
Elder Holdaway in Brazil
The adventures of a missionary in the Brazil Natal Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
Monday, October 30, 2017
Catching Up on Blog Posting
[Editor’s Note: We’ve been a little lax in updating the
blog. It doesn’t help that Elder Holdaway
writes very little. He’s been better, so
here are some comments of his from the last month or two]
September 18-25th
I wanted to send an email last week, but it didn’t work
out. Last week we went to eat dinner at the Costas which was really
really good. That same week I ran into a young man I baptized in my first
area, he said he wasn’t going to church but wants to serve a mission. I
told him he needs to start going to church again, I hope it works out, I’ll
keep in contact with the missionaries in that area. Last Thursday we had
a zone conference and Elder Carboni of the 70 came to speak to us, he was
companions with President Colleoni on their mission. He said he and President
baptized 25 people in a month in Manaus. freaking crazy. The conference was
really good, and I learned a lot. I went to my first area to say hi to
some of the people I taught when we went to go eat at Brother Costa´s house, it
was weird to be in my first area again. It’s sad to see a bunch of
friends that are ending their missions this transfer, we heard their
testimonies at the conference. A lady in my ward, Fatima Medeiros, recently
came home from a visit to Utah. I gave her 20 bucks and asked her to
bring steak strips beef jerky from Costco, she complied and now I am enjoying
some delicious beef jerky. I am
currently teaching the grandmother of a recent convert of my old companion and
her adopted son who is 9. They received the message really well and she
is really nice, we brought them to church on Sunday and plan on baptizing them
this Friday, and a member brought his brother and maybe we can mark his baptism
for Saturday after conference. I’m really excited for General Conference
and it couldn’t come at a better time. Wish you all well and stay cold
for me, because now it’s about to get hotter.
October 2-9th
Monday 2/10 - Nothing important happened that I
remember.
Tuesday 3/10 - I woke up and went to the zone leaders room
to see if they had the transfers, which they did. I was not to thrilled
with it, and waited for the ZL to tell me it was a joke, which he didn't. After
a while I came to accept it and began to prepare for the transfer,
mentally. My new area is Pombal, Paraiba, a different state then that of
Natal. It’s a 9-hour trip with a 3-hour layover in another city. I
also got a really difficult companion, which didn’t help my situation, but the
APs called me and said I need to take care of him and help him along, he’s
a good guy, works hard, but has some difficulties.
Wednesday 04/10 - We went to the bus station and caught
our bus at 10 to the end of the world. I got the quick rundown of the
area from the last elders, who both left, which means i will be opening the
area. They did nothing. Left only 2 people, a couple, in our teaching
group. We got to Sousa at 6 at night and met up with the zone
leaders. I talked to them and they said that basically we would be
opening a city, no elder has been really working there for at least a handful
of transfers. we got to the apartment at 10 at night and crashed.
Thursday 5/10 - We started the work and left to make
contacts and find people to teach. We had lunch and continued to work.
then we visited a member that night. Based on what the members say,
there’s a lot of problems and disunion in the branch.
Friday 06/10 - We worked, went to lunch, and then
visited the couple that were on the teaching list, they need to be married to
be baptized but the man has a problem with his birth certificate, so we are
working that out. While there we talked to a lady who walked in who is a
daughter and we found out that she’s been to church and received the lessons.
The other missionaries literally left nothing about her. I invited her to
be baptized and she accepted. To be safe I marked it for the next Sunday.
Saturday 07/10 - We returned to the house of the daughter
of the couple, Raquel, to try and baptize her this Sunday. We talked to
her and she accepted. We made sure she knew everything and didn’t have
any problems and then filled out her baptism form. Then that night I
realized the city cut the water off and we wouldn’t be able to fill the
font. I talked to the counselor of the branch and suggested baptizing her
in the river, but he said it’s a mess there on Sundays because it’s the only
attraction here in this small town. No one thought that the water reserve
in the church was big enough for the font. We tried with the military and
the firemen to get someone with water, but they don’t work on Sunday and
nothing worked. But I felt like it would all work out. We went home and
after three days of hard work to close the weeks numbers were dead, and went to
bed at 9:45.
Sunday 08/10 - We woke up and went out to pick up investigators
but didn’t have any luck. Then we went to church and met the Branch president
who lives in another city. He was like just try and fill the font, so we
turned on the water and let it fill until church ended. Thanks to the
blessings we received this week we were able to baptize here in the little
water that we had. I told my DL and soon after received calls from my ZL
and the APs congratulating us. It’s not every day someone arrives in a
dead area, knowing nothing, and having a baptism. The ZL said that the
whole mission would know about this and that the President was really
happy. It was a good week.
That’s about it. Just counting down to my birthday and
hump day.
October 21-30th
Monday-Thursday:
Nothing much happened, but we worked on preparing a young
woman and her younger sister for their baptisms on Friday.
Friday -
Today we left the house at 10 to get to a neighboring city
where the ZLs live for zone meeting and interviews with the president. We
ate lunch at a restaurant which was really good, then met up at the chapel to
have zone meeting. The president showed up and conducted interviews. He
is very happy with the work my comp and I are doing here in this area that was
once dead. After the interviews we went home and went straight to the
chapel in Pombal and had the baptisms of the two girls we prepared. then
we took them out to eat pastels.
Saturday -
I woke up a little late because of the exhausting day before
and I didn’t sleep well. We ate lunch, planned for the day, and after appointment
after appointment fell through we went to the central park and i suggested we
get a milkshake. while we were waiting for it to open, a guy went up to
me and asked me if I was from the Mormon church, to which I replied yes, then
he asked how he can learn more about the church, so we took him to the chapel
and taught him the restoration, he was very intelligent and knew a lot of
doctrine, and said he believed that the Book of Mormon was true. Then we
invited him to go to church the next day which would be in Sousa, another city
for District Conference. He said he would. A real
miracle.
Sunday -
We went to the chapel and waited for the young man, named Lucas,
to arrive. when he wasn’t showing up we called him and said he would be
down in 10 minutes. We waited and waited and waited but he didn’t
show. The vans had to leave to get to the stake center in time for the
conference to start and the couldn’t wait for him. I knew that God wouldn’t
guide Lucas to us and everything to happen just for us to leave him. I
asked the driver to go the other direction to see if he was on the way, and at
the last minute we saw him with his bike coming towards the chapel. We hurriedly
grabbed him and left for Sousa. The conference went well and was really
spiritual. We held the confirmations of our baptisms in a separated room
after the meeting. Then we took the vans back to Pombal. I talked
the whole time with Lucas to see how he liked the meeting, then I shared with
him the Articles of Faith because he was curious about some doctrines.
When i shared the part about Adam’s transgression and I explained why Adam had
to fall, he stopped me and said, oh I don’t know the chapter or verse but I saw
a scripture that says something like Adam had to fall for men to exist. I
couldn’t believe that he was quoting the Book of Mormon. He said that he
was studying the Book of Mormon the day before. A true golden
investigator.
Monday 30/10 -
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME WOOHOOOOOO
I’m gonna go to a pizzeria tonight in Sousa to
celebrate with the other elders as well as celebrate 1 year on the
mish.
[Editor's Note #2: Pictures from the last couple of months can be found on the Photos page.]
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Week 5, Transfer 5 -- Bautismo! Milagres! Casementoooo!
NOTE: This is from the week ending July 2nd.
Nothing much happened earlier this week except I got stung
by a wasp which felt like a blow torch on my hand, and it’s been raining for
two weeks straight.
Friday, we went to
another ward party for São João where you basically eat a bunch of corn. I had
popcorn, a kind of corn pudding called canjica, corn on the cob, and cake.
Saturday, we had the baptism of the
investigator we have been working with named Nedson, who is 21. The service went well in the end, but I
freaked out on the inside when after we went in the water he asked if he could
use the bathroom beforehand, we went and I thought he wanted to back out at the
last second, but everything went well.
I
got a phone call from the elders in Nova Repúplica asking if I would be going
to the wedding of one of the families that I taught, whose son I baptized. Then they asked if I could baptize him after
the wedding which really came as a surprise and I said of course. I can't really explain just how happy I felt
that I would have the opportunity to baptize the father of the family I helped
bring into the gospel and who I taught about eternal marriage and families
which I know affected them.
We got
picked up at 5 to go eat dinner at the Costa's house before the wedding. We had chicken, sausage, beef stroganoff and
chicken stroganoff (different kind of stroganoff), and lasagna. It was all really good. The wedding went really well and the baptism
even better. I'll never forget that
day.
Sunday, we finally saw the sun so that’s
cool I guess. There is a lady in the
ward here who is going to Utah next weekend which is weird to think that she
will be there and I will be here.
I
learned an interesting fact the other day -
There is a slang word we use here in the north-east of brasil: Oxente
"oshench". Apparently, because
of the US naval base here in Natal, people started saying "oh shi*"
because of the Americans, but after time it turned to oxente, which sounds the
same. You say it in the same context. Just your little history lesson
today.
- Élder Holdaway
P.S. OXENTE! i have 8 months already!!!
First baptism of the day -- Nedson |
The food -- oh, the glorious food! |
The Costas, the best family here. Bro. Costa was in the Brasilian Special Forces |
The baptism of Tiago, I baptized his son in my 2nd transfer. My clothes are still wet from the baptism earlier. |
Next step, temple marriage! |
Monday, April 17, 2017
Transfer 3, Week 5
Tuesday 11/4 -
Today, we met with the Zone Leader, Elder Melo, and his
companion, Elder Rocha, at the bus station at 9:30 am. We chatted for a bit until Elder Melo and my
companion left for Caicó. I will be
spending the week with Elder Rocha, who is from Cape Verde, Africa. We worked a lot today, made a bunch of
contacts, and taught several lessons in-house.
It was really great to work again.
Wednesday 12/4 –
Today, we worked hard again, but caught a bunch of rain. I'm
really enjoying working with him, he knows the doctrine really well and the
bible really really well. He has only
been a member for about 3 years and will go home in October. He said he didn't read the bible or anything
before the mish, I'm really impressed at his knowledge, study skills, and work
discipline.
Thursday 13/4 -
Nothing much happened today.
I started the Old Testament this week and am now in Leviticus which is
really, really boring. So far I've read some pretty strange things that have
happened. At night, we went to a less
active member's house, Duiji, who served in Colorado and speaks English, he
also cooks. He made us Asian chicken
stir fry which was delicious.
Friday 14/4 -
Today, while eating breakfast, I cut my thumb pretty bad
cutting a mango. I probably need
stitches but a band aid will do. The
mango was good. A member brought over a
pizza for lunch that they sell. We
didn't work that much today because it is Good Friday. I read a bunch of Liahonas [local church
magazine] and read an article about institute that mentions Brent L. Top, and
an article about opening a mission in Sweden, I think, where President Russell
M. Nelson and President Monson worked with Elder Hans Ringger to open the
mission there. Proud to have Ringger in
my blood, and my personality. We managed
to teach a lady, and argue with her very Catholic friend when she showed up
half way through. My companion said that
not one person in the Bible was baptized on the head or as a baby. She said that our bible was wrong. He said that it was wrong because the Catholics
changed it. At least that’s what I took
from the situation. It was very
entertaining. Then we got milkshakes
with the sisters, then saw some members (who are apparently rich, the husband
owns a bank) and they bought us (good) pizza.
Domingo 15/4 -
Today we had an investigator show up and a member brought
his friend. After church, we went to the
sisters house (outside) and ate cinnamon rolls that the American sister
made. Then we went to Duiji's house
again to eat orange cake, tapioca crepes, and avocado smoothies (with milk and
sugar) which was all very good.
This week was really good and we were able to make 72
contacts, teach 25 lessons (in-house, not in the street) and do much more. Elder Rocha taught me better working habits
like working in the morning and leaving the house earlier, and all in all I had
a great time with him. Today I am in
Caicó to eat churrasco with the zone, and tomorrow is zone conference in
Mossoró. A few days with Elder Cassiano,
and then transfer day. I'm feeling
pretty good and hoping for a baptism next Sunday, but we'll see.
P.S. My thumb healed fine...and no pics :(
And if you want to know how to do a Law of Moses animal
sacrifice properly, shoot me an email.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Week 1 Transfer 3 -- Currais Novos!
Buckle
up for this one.
Monday 13/3 -
Today, I didn´t really do much except that night I met up with
some other elders to get burgers. Everyone was talking about transfers
and one elder told me that he knew the transfers and that I would stay and
Elder Prado would be transferred. Another elder, an American, told me
that he felt that I would be transferred to Caicó and when he said that I felt
it too. Despite what the other elder said and the other rumors I heard saying
that I would stay, I somewhat knew that I was going to be transferred to Caicó
specifically.
Tuesday 14/3 -
Today, the news about the transfer came later than usual, about 11:00.
The ZL said "Elder Holdaway will be transferred to Currais Novos, Zona
Caicó, and his new companion will be the DL, Elder Cassiano." Except
for the news about my new companion, I wasn´t surprised at all. Elder
Cassiano is from Ribeiro Preto and was in my zone in my first transfer; Elder
Nhantole was my DL and Cassiano was the other DL. The zone Caicó is about
4-5 hours inland from the state capital, Natal, and is actually spread across a
few cities. Where my old area was a borough of the city, Natal. Currais
Novos is its own city and is actually two hours away from Caicó and the
ZLs. My new area has 4 missionaries; Elder Cassiano, Me, Sister Newman
(an American), and Sister Noble (a Brazilian). I´ll talk more about my
area later. I spent the rest of the day packing, and I visited some
people including Nathanael; the boy I baptized Sunday and his family,
and Ismael, my Ward Mission Leader, who is awesome - he served in Ribeiro Preto
and was called as Branch President in his FIRST AREA!!! I can't imagine doing
that. He served in various leadership roles on his mission and when he
was an AP, Elder Oaks visited the mission and spent the day with Ismael doing
divisions. He taught me a lot in these 13 weeks and he cried a little
when I said goodbye. Then we went to the Costa's for dinner.
Brother Costa and I talked a lot about our time in the military and I showed
him a little pin I have of the Special Forces unit patch with airborne wings.
He was a Brazilian commando which is kinda like the Navy Seals. He did a
lot of underwater demolition and he also parachuted; static and freefall.
He said that the military here has the upmost respect for the US SF unit patch
and anyone wearing it. He said he did a lot of work/training with
them. Dinner was great and it was hard saying goodbye to them, the best
and kindest family I’ve met yet here.
Wednesday 15/3 -
Today at 7:30 I said my last goodbyes to my
"birthplace" and we headed for the rodoviário which is a big bus/taxi
station where all the missionaries met up to travel and exchange
companions. I enjoyed talking to the other missionaries before my bus
left at 10:30. It was a small A/C-less bus as opposed to the nicer
buses that others got. We stopped at a pretty nice restaurant for lunch
and continued our long journey. The countryside here is beautiful and
green with small mountains jutting out across the land. It looks like a
greener version of Arizona. We got to Caicó and met up with our comps and
ZL's. We went to the ZL's house and chilled. We went to go out and
eat dinner, and walking around I saw THOUSANDS of stink beetles and the whole city
smelled like beetle. My shoes still smell like all the beetles I
massacred with my feet. The ZL's said it's not normal for them to be here
and they arrived whe
n we came. We at dinner (I had tapica recheado, which literally means stuffed tapioca. It's meat, eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, etc., stuffed in a crepe or tortilla made of tapioca – Its pretty dang good) and crashed. I didn't sleep that well because it was hot and those stupid beetles kept jumping and crawling on me. The next day we had zone meeting and afterwards we played Mafia which was fun. Then we ate lunch at a member’s house from the ZL's ward which was an hour away in the hot, hot sun. The members are bakers and they make little cakes, or scones and biscuits for a living and they sell to markets. It was interesting to see how they work. Then we went home to grab my things and went to the rodoviário to go to our area. Another boring trip. After being here for a few days (it's Sunday right now) I'll explain more about the area. Currais Novos, translated, means New Corral. With that you can guess that there’s plenty of ranches here. But, actually, this city, or town, is an old mining town. The city is in the middle of nowhere with one road in and one road out. The nearest city is at least an hour away. I love it here, and one reason why is because the landscape and climate here is like northern California or northern Arizona. There are shrubs, cacti, and rocky hills everywhere. The nights are a cool 70 degrees. The culture here is like that of the American Northwest as well. There is a local motorcycle club here and, at the moment, a motofest in the town square. I love it here and if given the choice, would never leave. That night we ate dinner with the sisters at an outside churrascaria.
Friday 17/3 -
We slept in to get needed rest after 2 long days of travelling
(and 2 weeks of sleeplessness for me) and went to get lunch at a restaurant
that a member works at and he paid for our meal. Then Elder Cassiano
showed me the area and we met a couple members. I went to the local supermarket
to get groceries.
Saturday 18/3 -
After lunch, we went to the chapel to visit with the branch
president, who wasn't there. We went to go to his house but met him on the way
and talked. He wants us to speak on Sunday. Then we went to
take açaí and then checked out the Motofest which was awesome. Hundreds
of bikers from different clubs were walking around with their cuts on, like the
Brazilian version of Sturgis. Luckily, I didn't see any
"one-percenters." I bought a pin of the state flag, Rio Grande
Do Norte, and a pin of an eagle with the words "motociclista" written
beneath it. Then we ate dinner at a snack shack that the branch president
owns and chatted with him.
Sunday 19/3 -
Today, we picked up some members and went to church. My
comp and I had to give talks, and I prepared what I thought was a pretty dang
good talk on how we can grow our testimony of the BoM, that would fill the 10
minutes allotted. I was first and wasn't too nervous to talk in front of
25 people. A little more than halfway in and right before the good part,
the 1st counselor nudged my leg and gave me the thumbs up like that was
enough. So, I quickly wrapped it up and closed. I don't think I
talked all that long or even went past the 10 minutes. He apologized
after I sat down and said something but I didn’t understand him, I still don’t
know what happened, but I hope it means they won’t ask me again.
That’s all folks, until next week. More
pictures in the blog.
You have arrived . . . |
Monday, March 13, 2017
Transfer 2 -- Weeks 4 thru 6
Tuesday 21/2 -
Today, my companion and I divided with the District Leader,
Elder Alfaro, and his companion, Elder Martins.
I went with Elder Martins in his area, he and I are good friends already
so I was excited to spend the day with him.
For lunch, he made ham and egg breakfast tacos which were good. Then we went out and did some street
contacting. They have a small sand dune
in their area, so he took me there and we hiked to the top and watched the sun
set, but I forgot my camera. We talked a
lot and he really opened up about his life before the mission and what
not. Then we went to take açaí for
dinner. Side note - their house is like
the best missionary house I have seen in the mission and I am super jealous of
them.
Wednesday 22/2 -
We woke up and Elder Martins made fried bananas. You fry bananas in oil, put on a plate, and
top with sugar, powdered milk, powdered chocolate, and sweetened condensed
milk. Super easy and super good. Then we
returned to our areas.
Thursday 23/2 -
This morning, President and Sister Colleoni came over to our
house to look at the place and tell us that we were going to move houses to
live with two other elders in another zone.
I am not too thrilled about this change, but the good thing is that the
house is right next to our chapel.
Friday 24/2 -
We have to be careful in the streets at night and shouldn't
stay out late because of the Carnaval parties.
Everyone is drunk. We taught a
boy named Gean that we met on the street the other day, and he invited his two
older brothers, Mateus and Leandro to listen in on our first lesson, the
Restoration. It went well and they all
seemed interested. We committed them to
church on Sunday, but who knows being that Carnaval is this weekend.
Sunday 26/2 -
They didn't come, in fact no one came except for a handful
of people. I went to stay the night at
the DL's house to spend the next day with them.
The power was out in their area but we had a fun time playing Uno and
other games.
Monday 27/2 -
Today, I stayed at the district leader's house last night
and we are going to go on a tour of Natal and the beach and what not with a
member.
We went to an activity at the church for Carnaval and we ate
feijoada, rice, and barbeque. Then we
went with a member to the beach which was really cool. We went to a place where the sand dunes met
the water. I saw camels there and the view
was just amazing, I think the beaches here are my favorite that I have been
to. I was surprised that not a lot of
people were there though. We went down
near the shore and walked 3-4 miles down the coast. My favorite P-day yet. On the way there we passed a Carnaval parade
while we were on the bus. It was like a
mix between Mardi Gras and a San Francisco gay parade. I didn't realize it was
so gross and dirty. Maybe there's a
better part to it. There was a guy I met
at the church activity that had a GoArmy key chain that made me look
twice. It was weird seeing that
here. I talked to him and he said he
went on his mission to Idaho and he planned on joining the Army there in the
states, but it didn’t work out for some reason.
Thought that was pretty interesting.
Tuesday 28/2 - PARA BENS MAMÃE !!!!!!!
Nothing special really happened today except that I'm
getting sick and Gean and Mateus weren't there for their appointment. Vai dar certo.
Wednesday 1/3 -
Today, we passed by Gean and Mateus again (Leandro doesn't
live there) and we taught them the Plan of Salvation. Mateus shows more interest than Gean, but he
is 3 years older than Gean at 15.
Thursday 2/3 -
Today, we went to visit a 13-year-old named Alan who just
got back from the church youth camp. He
liked it and wants to be baptized, in fact he has wanted to be baptized for
quite some time. He has already been to
church several times, but hasn't been taught.
He leaves for a city near Mossoró next Tuesday, so we are working to get
him baptized on Saturday. Today we
taught him the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, and Gospel all at once and
scheduled to teach the commandments tomorrow.
Friday 3/3 -
Today, we taught the commandments and filled out the
membership/baptism document and got it signed by his mother. Now just an interview with the DL and the
baptism tomorrow night.
Saturday 4/3 - PARA BENS KAELIN!!!!!!!!
Today, we received a call from the bishop and he told us
that we can baptize Alan if we want, but he will not confirm him because Alan is
leaving, and the bishop doesn't want another inactive member on the
records. We plead his case and he said
he would call us back. The other problem
is that there is no church where Alan is going.
Next, we got a call from the Mission President saying that for the sake
of good relations between the ward and stake, he would not be authorizing this
baptism. I wasn’t feeling well, so I
returned to bed after personal study and got up in time to go out and work for
the day that afternoon. We taught Mateus
today (Gean lost interest) and committed him to baptism and church.
Sunday 5/3 -
Well, Mateus actually showed up and we had good
meetings. In Sunday School, the teacher
taught about gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and shared a video of
Elder Holland talking about it. I
thought it was the perfect lesson for our investigator and he seemed really
interested. We went to eat lunch and the
member told me about an American who passed in this area who was a really good
singer and had a band back in the states.
I asked her more about it and she said that there’s like 12 members of the
band and they wear blue. I was a bit
confused and asked if there was a video of it on YouTube, and she pulled up a
BYU Vocal Point video singing Silent Night.
He is the first one singing. I
thought that was pretty cool. We went home
and I tried to catch up on sleep that I lost the previous night due to not
feeling well, but it didn't come. Then
we went to a meeting that ended up being cancelled and so we did some street
contacts for the rest of the night. On
one contact I presented the message of the Restoration and asked the lady if
she would like to hear more about it this next coming week. She pulled up an empty chair next to her and
told me to share it now, and so we did right there on the street (a lot of
people just sit in front of their houses outside) and afterwards we set up an
appointment to teach them the next one.
Monday 6/3 -
Today, we went to Alecrim so I could get a suit from another
Elder who is leaving soon. I felt so
sick that we just we went to the LAN house and stayed home the rest of the day.
Tuesday-Saturday -
I was pretty sick and couldn´t sleep that well this week and
it was hard to find the energy to do anything. As a result, work was slow,
especially with most of our appointments falling through. The only really good thing that happened was
teaching this one family. The mom,
Kayla, was baptized 23 years ago but is inactive. Last Sunday she had the sudden desire to return
to church. She brought her 13-year-old
son, Nathannael, and his cousin who is a member. We talked to her and set a day to teach
Nathannael to baptize him. The day we
went, we talked to the step-dad, Tiago, and had a good conversation with
him. Throughout teaching the family, we
found out that Tiago has a really strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and
Restoration. By Saturday, we committed
Nathannael for baptism for Sunday, Tiago for baptism after he gets married
(people here aren´t usually married), and Kayla and Tiago will work on going to
the temple. Saturday night when we were
teaching about eternal marriage and families, Kayla became very emotional. She gave the closing prayer, and it was one
of the most powerful and sincere prayers that I have felt. It was truly special. Friday night we went to
the marriage of our WML at the chapel.
It was boring but the food was good.
Sunday 12/3 -
The night before we had a conversation with the bishop over
the phone and he almost blocked the baptism again. I decided we should open a fast for our work
here and leave it in the Lord´s hands. I
felt like everything was going to be ok, but my companion was up all night
thinking about what he will say to the bishop the next day. Today, I brought my baptism clothes even
though it was still up in the air. I sat
down in the 1st block and the bishop came in and sat down next to me and said
we will have the baptism like normal. My
comp was very surprised. The baptism went very well (it only took one time this
time), the whole family was there and once again the mom was very
emotional.
Tomorrow is transfer day, I think I will be transferred but
we will see.
Monday, February 20, 2017
Weeks 2 and 3, Transfer 2
Monday 6/2 -
Today, we spent most of the day at the internet café
downloading church movies from YouTube like the best two years and the work and
the glory.
Tuesday - Friday
Nothing really interesting.
Saturday 11/2 -
Today we held the interview for a 10 yr old girl named
Flavia. Her parents are members but are
less active. I have been working hard
with them to reactivate them and hopefully the baptism of their daughter will
help. They came to church last week and
the week before. We had lunch with the
Costas which was super good as always.
The baptism service started at 5:30 and went well. She was baptized by
her uncle. I told the father that the best thing he can do now is be a good
example to his daughter and continue going to church.
Sunday 12/2 -
Today, João Victor almost didn´t go to church because he was
partying all night last night. He was
confirmed today with Flavia. I am happy
to see the many blessings from the Lord.
Monday 13/2 -
Today I tried to resolve a problem I had with a package that
was sent to me and didn't get that far.
We had to go to Alecrim which is a burrow of Natal across the river in
Zona Sul. While there I decided to buy
an official futebol A.B.C. team shirt. ABC is the team from Natal. We spent the rest of the day at home.
Tuesday 14/2 -
Today we had to wake up at 3:30 for zone conference. We took a bus to a chapel in Zona Sul. The conference was really good and we had
some good food and I got to meet a bunch of friends. We got home at 6 and went straight to bed and
didn´t wake up until the next morning.
Wednesday 15/2 -
Today we went to Carrefour (kinda like Walmart) and got our
allowance from the church and I bought some food. I also bought food to make tacos Mexican
style to make for my companion and I.
Friday 17/2 -
Today I got my garments that I ordered in the mail a couple
weeks ago. The nylon mesh and the silk
type are awful here. I bout a 50/50 cotton/poly mix garments that they don’t
have in the states. Super comfortable.
For dinner, I made the tacos. I
cooked up some ground beef and seasoned it with I'm not sure what because the
spice names are different here. I mixed
in some pinto beans and hot sauce. it smelled really good but tasted way to
salty. The beans I bought had a ton of
salt that i didn't know about. I decided
to level it out with some sugar and it turned out really, really good. My mom used to make taco meat with ground
beef and baked beans, what I made tasted just like that. I made a simple salsa with tomatoes, onions,
cilantro, and lime juice. topped the tacos with cheese and lettuce. They were really good, and it was my companions
first time trying it.
I invited some elders over to my place today for lunch to
make tacos again, one of them is Mexican, so I hope he approves.
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