Você vai afogá-la!

Hello Everybody!

So this week flew by again, so this will probably be a quick one.

The hilights were few, but on Wednesday night, we did a millionaire-esque game for an integration activity. It went pretty well and there were a ton of people there at the activity.

Thursday, our day was super busy. I traded a pair of shorts for an original Fortaleza jersey at lunch, and afterwards, we passed by Gabriella and Verlanya with a member to help them get ready for Baptismal Interview. Afterwards we did a ton of contacts, but there wasn´t really anyone interested.

Friday, I did a division with Elder Nichols (from Federal Way) and we went to Sevilha and worked over there a little bit. Afterwards, we went to see the new Chapel in Genibaú which was super big and super awesome.

Saturday, we contacted a reference, whose sister had already been baptised and married. She seemed interested, but her mom interrupted a LOT. It was almost impossible to listen to the spirit, because she talked about the lineage of the papacy, as well as saying that we are the church, and we are saints, but also sinners. I hear a lot of stuff like that during the day haha.

Sunday was church, and that was normal, but we didn´t have water at the church. Turns out the spout thin was clogged, so the Stake President helped us out, and about 3 in the afternoon we went and cleaned a little and then filled up the font. Then we had the baptism! There was about 25 youth there for a choir thing, so they all stayed for the Baptism, so it made for an awesome service.

What are you going to make the Elders? Navajo Tacos and Brownies? haha In Montese, we got a lot of ice cream and brownies for dessert, and I always talked about how you would give the elders a HUGE brownie haha

And that was my week! I´m short on time, so this will be a quick one!

Tchau!

Allison's note: There was a problem with his ATM card. He had a transaction where money was debited from his account even though the bank canceled  transaction. Here is his comment:

There was an error on ALL international cards at the Bank of Brasil. Since the operation cancelled itself partway through, it didn´t give the option to print a receipt. The mission had the exact same problem, but with the cards for the allowance every 15 days. I think I mighgt have to call and resolve the problem, but this was a thing that happened in all of Brazil with missionaries, its just that they didn´t have more money that they could take out.  

Yikes! We were able to resolve it on our end though our bank...Kyle doesn't know it yet.

Book of Mormon on My Mind

Hello everybody! So this week just flew by again... I´ll see if I can remember what good happened!

Monday, we headed to the center so I could get my package. We ended up walking about 40 minutes to get to the post office (I had no idea where it was before hand). On our way back, we took a taxi so we could get the train back home in time... which was PACKED. Monday night, we went to a family night/missionary leaving party. We were asked to bear our testimonies, and a lot of other people bore their testimonies, it was a pretty good farewell.

Tuesday, we went to our District Meeting like normal, and afterwards we tried to talk to a less-active, but he wasn´t home. We stopped by quickly with another investigator just to see how she was doing. She had to fix some stuff for her work, so we ended up just chatting with her and occupying her kids while she was working. Then at night, we closed a baptismal date with Gabriella and Verlanya.

Wednesday, we only managed to talk with a young kid who has already gone to church a lot. He says his mother won´t let him get baptised yet because she thinks he won´t stay in the church. So we made goals with him to pray, read the book of Mormon and go to church to show his mom that he would stay strong (those three things are the secret to success!)

Thursday, we had a good appointment in the morning. It was a reference we had gotten from the Bishop earlier in the week. We chatted with Lenaine for a while when her husband was occupied (he makes salgados) and she talked a lot about her families and her hopes about her family. We ended up leaving a message of the plan of salvation talking about why there are temptations and families after this life. After lunch, we talked with Clécia and she said she didn´t want to read the Book of Mormon anymore. She explained to us a similar situation that I had already seen in that show ´´The District´´. We marked an appointment with her to come back and just talk to her and see what had happened. Afterwards, we got on the same page with a sister so she would be able to baptized.

Friday, just about everything fell through, but we talked with a young man who is just a bit lost, but he wanted us to stop by his house and get to know his family.

Saturday, we started out by passing by this young man´s house and he ended up going out to do visits with us. He showed us a bunch of less-actives and we were able to make some connections there. But the young man really enjoyed it, and is starting to get some ideas straight. My companion didn´t really have a lot of patience with him, but then again, no one in these wards really have, which is all he actually needs. He kept on asking why I had so much faith in him, to which I could only respond ´´I can see what you could be, not what you are.´´ We stopped by Jonas to help him with his talk, by giving him some scriptures to do his talk.

Sunday, Church was very good. Jonas´ talk in CNC was very well done, and he impressed everyone. He is very excited to get ready to go on a mission! After church, we helped a member of the bishopric of CC3 prepare flyers for the Halloween activity we are going to do at the end of the month (everyone is excited about it!).

So I read plenty of the Book of Mormon this week, and I perceived something interesting. I always remembered that the book contains the fulness of the Gospel, but I never understood to what extent. I noticed that the plates of Nephi are great talks of the gospel, but from Mosiah until the end of the book goes step by step through the parts of the gospel and shows how the Nephites went through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy ghost and enduring until the end. That gave me a new light on the importance of the book of Mormon, that I really liked.

Well, that was my week. Love you all!

Elder Cornwell

Fast Week

Well this week flew by! We had some interesting moments (like when there came a new fridge and four mattresses for us, when we already HAVE a fridge and 6 mattresses) but oh well!

So, Tuesday, we contacted a reference we had gotten and taught a good lesson of the restoration. The reference, Clécia, is looking for a church where she really feels good (a.k.a. the Spirit.) and we are helping her find this church! One of her sons (about five years old) wanted his mother´s pamphlet, so I gave him one of the Plan of Salvation instead, and everytime we pass by, he yells ´´Hey! You gave me the little book!´´ hahaha. The other part of the day is that we closed a baptismal date with Gabriella and Verlanya (who went to conference and LOVED it). After conference, they no longer felt the desire to participate in this other church they were doing activities in. So we had set the date, and passed by about every day this week to help them get everything set... but more on that later.

Wednesday was a bit slower. We visited a less-active member (who I now consider active) Jonas, and left a message with him to help him get the courage to come back to church. The rest of the day, we tried to talk to less-actives and do contacts.

Thursday, we filled out the baptism papers with Gabriella and Verlanya and had them work with their parents to approve the baptism (Verlanya wanted to wait because she will be turning 18 next month, but we explained that baptism really isn´t a thing to put off until next month). Then that night, we went to Clécia again, and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (we had already left a Book of Mormon for her... she had a bunch of questions about it). She told us that she had prayed and had a dream that she was at our Church in a skirt. She didn´t see it as an answer to her prayer, but she said it was weird, because she doesn´t wear skirts, let alone own a skirt hahaha! 

Friday was a holiday, so we tried to get stuff done, but no one was home, or wanted to talk to us.

Saturday was a really busy day. We left early to talk to an old investigator, and then headed off to lunch. After lunch, we headed out to visit all of our investigators and contact some contacts we had made and so forth. WE contacted a reference from a member of a man named Adolfo. He said he had interest in our message just because of the way a member had talked to him about the church in a normal conversation. He said he didn´t like how churches are all about the money now. We got to leave a message of a humble boy, who was just seeking God wherever he was, and only desiring his salvation, and not money. At night, we had marked the baptismal interview for the two girls, but their parents wanted them to wait a little bit (in all reality, one of them is holding baptism over their daughter´s head as a reason to do anything she says without complaining.) So they won´t be baptised this week, but they will next week.

Then, this week was fast and testimony meeting here. In Conjunto Ceará 3, I bore my testimony about how the church is the same wherever we go. I said that my first meeting, I didn´t understand a lot, but I felt the same as I did at home. In Conjunto Novo Ceará. there is a member heading off to a mission in Colombia on Wednesday, so there was a lot of ´´Two years is such a long time, but you will do so great ´sobs´´´ and so forth from his friends and family.

Today, we are headed off to the center to pick up my package, and get some other things... what those are, I don´t know yet, but we will get them!

So that was my week! Love you all!

Oh! and tell Trent and Cassie that their letter is written, but I just need to buy envelopes and send it to them haha!

 

Elder Cornwell

I asked some questions and Kyle answered them:

1.       Did you receive the package yet? It is in Fortaleza and the status online is still the same: Aguardando retirada. Yes... and about that, It was held back at Correios, and I will have to pay about R$180 (about $88 US Dollars!!!!) to take it out, which I´m going to do today at about 3 or 4 our time.

2.       Are you senior companion with Elder Moraes? Yes... he is the fourth in a row that I get out of his training.

3.       Where geographically are you? What is your house address? We are on the northwest part of Fortaleza, close to Caucaia (which is a municipal of Fortaleza) R. Quinhentos E Quarenta e Umb, Fortaleza - Ceará

4.       How are your shoes holding up? They are still surviving...the insoles of one of them got used up pretty well already, so I´m going to try to buy some new insoles later.

5.       Do you do lots of walking in this area? Yeah! We cover two wards that covers a good part of conjunto Ceará.

6.       Are you having more opportunities to teach in this new area? Yeah, we have two wards, and  lot bigger area, so it is a lot easier to get out and teach.

7.       Did you get along with Elder Nelson…why were you transferred so soon? I got a long pretty well with him. I think we were both put there just as a transition of Elders, and then he stayed and I left.