Week 52 - 12 September 2011 One Year on the Mission!

Hey there back home! Do you guys know what this week is? It’s the week where I make one year on the mission! Man it’s passing by pretty quick, not gonna lie. I feel weird cuz I can already like see the mountain peak of the mission, and yet it feels like I got here yesterday. Haha  It’s a weird feeling knowing I already used up half my time here in Brasil already.

As for this last week, it was a real tiresome week with a lot of work, but it was good. We had a baptism planned for Saturday of a 13 year old kid named Tiago, but he wasn’t all the way prepared and we had to push it up for this next week. But he’s excited about it. He’s the brother of Patrique, the boy that we baptized about 2 weeks ago. We also have some other good investigators here that are preparing to be baptized this month too. A 12 year old boy named Késsio who is a referral from a member who is helping us teach him. Irmã Eliene is helping us with him, and he’s a real good kid and is really willing to follow the gospel. He has a date for the 24th of this month to be baptized.  I’m excited for him. We also are teaching a family of a man named Jaimilson. He has 2 brothers that are all in a pop-rock band (which is pretty legit) and his wife too who we’re teaching. They are all really smart and like us a lot. They haven’t gone to church yet, but are also a really willing family to follow the teachings of the gospel.  I can’t wait to be able to see them go to church and get baptized.

This week we had to travel some more too. On Saturday we spent the whole day basically traveling around to do baptismal interviews. We first had to go to Bragança in the morning before lunch, then return to Capanema to eat lunch, then head out to Castanhal to do another, then we had to return again back here to teach Késsio at 8:00. Yeah it was a big rush haha but I’m liking the traveling here. It just isn’t so fun when we get stuck in a little van, standing, with about 20 people, and without air conditioning haha.  But it’s all worth it in the end.

Well that was my week.  I’m all good here so don’t worry about a thing :)  Love you all!

Élder Andrus

Me and my companion

Week 51 - 5 September 2011 Traveling this Week

Hey ya´ll!

So my new companion is Elder Pereira, and he’s from the state of São Paulo.  He’s pretty cool, and we seem to be getting along well too, so that’s good.  I’m glad I haven’t gotten a bad comp yet haha.  Let’s just hope it stays that way huh haha. 

So last week for the transfer, I had to take Elder Farias to Castanhal for him to go to Belém, but I stayed in Castanhal with another Elder waiting for our comps.  We woke up and everything normal, and they said they’d get back around noon, but ended up staying there waiting for them until 6 oclock! haha.  It was weird not having anything to do and to just wait for like the whole day.  But then we headed to Capanema that same night and got there around 9.  Then on Wednesday, I had to head to Belém for a leadership meeting we had on Thursday with President Campos.  It was for the leaders of the mish and was extremely edifying.  Then we headed back to Castanhal that night, slept there, then headed back to Capanema.  Then on Saturday, we had to travel to Castanhal again for me to interview a young woman that was being baptized.  It was really cool to be able to do my first baptismal interview.  But then, we headed back to Capanema again and got there at about 8 at night.  Yeah this week was jam packed of trips from here to there, so it was tough to actually do work in our area.  But on Sunday we worked a lot and received 3 references too, one of which will be baptized this next week.  We’re also starting to plan more our trip to the beach city, Salinas, and to bring all the investigators from there to here to be baptized.  I’m super excited to be able to do that.  I can’t wait.  Hopefully we’ll  be able to do that this next coming week.

Besides this, there are a lot more things to do as a district leader here.  But I’m liking it a lot.  The sisters in my district are really cool and don’t cause any problems, and they work hard, so I’m surely grateful for that.  But I like the work as a district leader.  It keeps me a lot more focused on the work than on other things.  Also it gives me a lot more responsibility in the companionship and the zone.

Well, that’s about it, I think…I hope I’m not forgetting anything.

Love you guys!  Can’t wait for the packages!

Élder Andrus

Week 50 - 29 August 2011 District Leader

Bem Vindo a Capanema (Welcome to Capanema)

Hey there back home! This week went well, and it’s also the week of the transfer. Elder Farias got transferred to an area in Belém, but I’m gonna stay here in Capanema with another Brazilian comp. I don’t know him much so we’ll see how things work out haha. And I also got called as the new District Leader here too. Pretty cool huh? I’ll be taking care of my companionship and 2 sisters in Castanhal (Sister Freitas and Sister Welch). It’ll be tough it seems, but I’m sure I’ll learn a lot of the calling as a leader.

Also, Saturday morning we had a baptism of a 15 year old boy who was an ELEITO for sure. We had a lot of help from the members, and they did practically everything to prepare him. His name is Patrique, and he’s a real cool kid. His dad even came to the baptism which was cool too.

As a goodbye for Elder Farias, a bunch of people went over to a member’s house and had a group of Capoeira and everything. So people were playing, then after we had a Family Home Evening, then like a party dance thing for the members haha.  It was fun. I even got pulled into the circle to fight Capoeira haha.  It was riduculous. Elder Farias was sneaky and got it on film haha - embarrassing.

One thing that I’m noticing is that my hair here is like super, super dried and burnt because of the sun. I can’t even like run my fingers through my hair anymore haha. They always say that here the missionaries go bald - bald because of the sun, and now I’m seeing that it really does happen haha. But hopefully my hair stays in place and doesn’t  start to fall out haha.

Love you all, and sorry I’m short on time again today. We need to take Elder Farias to Castanhal tonight so we’re rushed.

Love you!

Élder Andrus

Iguana found on the street 

Burning six-month tie!  A little late . . . 

Patrique's baptism 8-27-11

Week 49 - 22 August 2011 Talked in Sacrament Mtg

Hey ya´ll!  This week was a good hardworking week.  On Saturday, we baptized a boy named Pedro. He is the son of a member here who is just now starting to come back and become active again. Pedro is 11 years old, and he’s a really good kid.  The baptismal service went really well too.  It started pretty late, like around 8:30 pm because everyone showed up late from a conference in Castanhal, so it was pretty rushed, but even like that it went really well.  His dad, which is the less active member, gave the closing prayer and started crying cuz he was so happy.  Then yesterday at church, he was able to be the one to confirm Pedro a member and give him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Also, I gave a talk yesterday at church.  It went pretty well, I think.  It was about patience, and I talked about the Sons of Mosiah and based it on the scripture in Romans 5:3-5.  It teaches us that we have tribulations to test our patience, so that we can gain experience, so that we can have hope in the Lord.  It went a lot smoother than my last talk that I gave.  I ended up actually going over the limit haha. I think it was about 10 or 12 minutes long.

Oh another cool little thing is that our bishop here, Bispo Pamplona, he knows a girl that lives at a beach about an hour away called Salinas that wants to be baptized. So we might be able to go there to teach and baptize her. Pretty sweet huh? We need permission from President Campos, but it would be a really cool baptism. Everyone says that it’s one of the most beautiful beaches around here. So that would be a fun experience.

Well family, I love you guys.  I hope you’re all well at home all alone without the kids! haha

Élder Andrus

               Pedro's baptism with his father, Celso

                                                            Marcio and Aline family

Week 48 - 15 August 2011 New Baptism Goal

Hey!  Sorry I didn’t get around to emailing on Monday.  It was a holiday here in Pará for some reason and there wasn’t internet.  So President Campos let us use it today on Wednesday.  This last week was pretty broke too.  During the week we worked read hard but it was a touch week for us.  But on Sunday at church, we received some referrals that we’ve been praying for.  We got 3 referrals from the members.  One is a sone of a member here who we’re gonna teach today, and we’re planning on baptizing him this week with the help of hid dad.  Another is a friend of a member who he took to church with him.  And another is a girl that lives at a really famous beach here about an hour and a half away from here called Salinas.  It’s a tourist place here and as missionaries we’re not allowed there.  But there are actually a lot of inactive members there, and we’re gonna ask for permission from the president to go there to be able to teach this girl.  Our bishop lives kinda close, and he’s gonna have a sacrament meeting there this Sunday, and he’ll take the referral there too.  So hopefully all of this works out!

Yesterday, we had a Zone Conference with 4 zones in Belém.  It was way good.  President Campos talked a lot about what we’re doing and what we’re not doing as a mission to help us.  We received new revelation too and have a goal of 250 baptisms per month as a mission.  We’re really working hard here to get a temple built in Belém.  The goal is to have it announced this next General Conference in October.  When President Campos got here as the mission president, there were only 3 stakes here in the state of Pará and Amapá.  He’s really changed the vision of all the members here cuz just in the 2 years he’s been here so far he’s been able to create 4 new stakes (so now we have 7) and there are 2 more that have been sent already to be approved.  Yeah the work here in the Brazil Belém Mission is amazing, and I’m positive that we’ll get a temple here real soon.

Love you guys and have a good week!

Até próxima!

Élder Andrus

Week 47 - 8 August 2011 What is the word in English?

Hey there pessoal!  This week has been pretty slow.  Not much happened actually.  We worked pretty hard during the week but didn’t have too much success.  We had to cut a lot of investigators cuz they weren’t keeping their... compromissos (wow I can’t even think of the word in English, sorry).

So yeah it was pretty lame and chato.  But it’s okay.  This past week at our district meeting, I gave the training there, and it seemed to motivate our district.  We have 2 sisters in our district who work in Castanhal.  

Man this week was really slow and not much happened.  So I don’t have much to write about.  Sorry about the short email, but I’m pretty short on time.

Love you all!

Élder Andrus

Week 46 - 1 August 2011 Playing catch with Elder Farias

Hey everyone!  This week was a good week, especially because last Tuesday I got that package that you guys sent to me with my 2 baseball mitts and a ball! Haha  That was definitely the best package I’ve gotten yet.  It’s been about 11 months since I’ve last played catch...so I have definitely needed a little tune up.  So actually today, Elder Farias and I went out to a nearby court and were playing catch for about an hour.  It was great.  I found out just how out of shape I am and how bad my arm is haha. But it was amazing to be able to throw again.  I had to teach Elder Farias how to throw and catch and stuff haha but he still couldn’t handle my heat!

So during the week, since all of our investigators that were preparing for baptism on the 30th fell threw, we didn’t have anyone ready. But we were searching, and we started teaching a nephew of a member here in the ward.  His name is Júnior, and he’s actually from Manaus, but is living here with his uncle for a while.  He has already gone to church a few times and liked it a lot.  As we were teaching him on Friday, we couldn’t find any reason for him not to be baptized on just the following day. So we were working with him, but Saturday morning, he confessed to us that the only problem is that he has a little problem with smoking.  But we’re gonna set goals with him to stop so he can be baptized this next week.  He has a great desire to follow Christ, so I know he’ll be able to stop without too many problems.  Besides that not too much else happened.  It was a week tranquilo.

Thanks for the package again!

Oh and P.S. Can you guys send me the picture of Rio in High School Musical 3 in an email so I can develop some here?  All of the little girls here in this ward went crazy when I told them my sister was in it and showed them the picture haha.  Thanks!

Com amor,

Élder Andrus

Ouch! 

Pitching in Capanema