Week Seventeen

"Happy Nilópolis Day! Here in Nilópolis we celebrated the 65th anniversay of the cities foundation. The entire city was decorated in blue and white, the cities official colors! We got some great proselyting done in the Mirandela(Nilópolis´s equivalent of the 16th street mall), grabbed some great street grub, and watched for a moment the city parade, very cool!

More about Nilópolis: the best comparison i can make is if Denver was Rio, Nilópolis would be Littleton. Its not officially a part of Rio but the buildings never stop, so it basically is! Our area covers Mesquita and Pavuna as well, we calculated that if our area was in the states, that a stake would easily fit within the boundaries(three or four stakes if we´re talking about Utah...) City is just like any other city, it has slums and nicer areas. We focus our efforts in the favelas, however, as long as theres cops around!

My feet are doing a lot better this week. We had to work extra hard to make up for lost time in the week prior. We´re pretty much starting fresh, but we´re excited to get to work!

Two baptism dates fell thorugh this last sunday partially due to our inabililty to work. Juciara and Solange, daughter and mother, are our progressing investigators. They have an established faith in the Bible, and we´ve been helping them understand and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. they are really struggling to find new work, they both work on sundays and asking them to find new income is asking them to risk everything! they dont have a lot of money, and great faith will be required of them if they wish to come to church. It also doesnt help that a memeber we brought with us to teach started telling them all about his personal revelations and false doctrines! Its definitely been a step backwards with them, let alone all of our investigators. But we reestablished the baptism date for this sunday, hopefully you guys will seeing a picture of us in white!

During my downtime i cooked like crazy! Im turning myself into a little chef, its something that i am thuroughly enjoying! Thanks to all of those who gave me recepies!

Pretty short e mail this week, hopefully i´ll have some great stories and progress for the crowd next week... Até o Próximo!

Ps the pics are of me, Juciara and Solange, and me in the kitchen!!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Sixteen:
"Progress has decided to take a nap... not much sucess this week! The first few days we actually backtracked, we had to cut many families that weren´t progressing. One of these being Oneida, the wife of Álvaro. We devoted so much time to her but she never committed to baptism. It was funny seeing her though sitting with her husband the next sunday in church, i dont think she quite gets the big picture!

Another family was really hard to cut, Maria Do Ceu and Sérgio have been investigators for 15 years! Missionaries have always found refuge in their home, theyre even on the ward lunch schedule for the missionaries. theyre a sweet old couple, but devout to the catholic faith. it was difficult explaining to them that we couldnt visit them more and the work must continue. Maria replied, ´´i understand, now what would you like to have for lunch tomorrow?`` its very difficult to cut investigators who have become your close friends!

the second half of the week was even slower. i figured out that my feet arent made for walking... i have pretty bad tendonitis on both feet, and its really put a dent in the work. At first i thought that my feet were just sore and theyd work themselvers out, until one morning i literally couldn´t put weight on them. the walk to the doctors wasnt the funnest experience. Doc says my feet are unnaturally flat and theres not much i can do to change it. so instead of work my companion and i sat in our house. We tried our best to be productive, but its amazing how distracted the mind can get when its not at work! we ate all of my precious american junk food, discussed deep doctrine, and for really the first time we swapped stories about pre mission life. he wouldnt believe half of mine! i guess in retrospect ive had a pretty crazy life so far, im grateful for all my crazy adventures!

I hope i didnt sound like i was putting down my companion in my last letter, i love the guy and we´ve developed a great companionship, neither him or i was transfered do 6 more weeks of work!

I was able to study a ton this week due to my feet. how ture are the words of Nephi- my soul delighteth in the scriptures(2 Ne 4:15)! I really enjoyed studying Alma 5 (coinciedence that My sister shared the same scriptures in her farewell talk?). I counted 47 questions that alma asks in the chapter, and i asked myself the same questions. it was a great exercise, i was able to evaluate my faith; i complimented myself on my strong points and made goals to strenghten the areas in which i am lacking. i encourage everyone to do the same exercise!

I forgot about one experience i had that i forgot to mention the in week prior. One of our recent converts called us one night and told us that she wanted nothing to do with the church. we were baffled, shes one of our strongest members! as we walked to her house, we talked about what we planned to say. my companion had the idea to simply bare our testimonies, rather than address whatever personal demons she was facing. we arrived, sat down, and dove right in. we testified of our personal conviction that The Book of Mormon is true, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and the the Church of Jesus Christ is indeed his church here on the earth. We reminded her that great things are expected of us since we are members of said church. we reminded her as well that if shes having a lack of faith, that the only way to regain that faith was through prayer. she was a bit suprised by our approach, we invited her to pray that night and she accepted. the next morning she called us and told us to come back over, we accepted, not knowing what to expect.  she told she didnt recieve an immediate answer to her prayer, but that she had a dream during the night. during the dream, one of her co workers was making fun of my compaion and i. the sister then ´´rebuked`` her, telling her that we were sent from god, and that we represent the only true chruch on the earth. she then realted that she woke up, feeling the spirit of god wrapped around her like a blanket. she knew that the church is true, and now were even teaching her boyfriend the discussions. it was a blesssing to bring this once uncertain sister come back to christ!"

Week Fifteen:
"This week was awesome! this last week was one of the final parts of the twelve week training program that i am undergoing with my trainer. This week was my turn to be the senior companion, meaning that i got to make all the decisions, lead and plan all of our lessons, and many more responibilites. It was pretty difficult at time deciding who to visit, what to teach, where to procelyte, etc. But I think i did pretty good! My knowledge and my confidednce in my knowledge increased, and im overall a better missionary this week. i learned as well that its definitely a lot easier to lead than to follow!

I realised i havent shared much about my trainer during these twelve weeks... thats because there isnt much to share! hes a hard worker, which is exactly what i prayed for while in the CTM. Our personalities however, are almost exactly opposite. I struggled to biuld a strong relationship with him, its been hard partially because we never speak a word of english(not an exaggeration, not a single word of english since ive arrived in rio), but as well hes more interested in talking about the work or the gospel than swapping stories. During my first weeks out in the field, it felt like he wasnt concerned about making friends or getting to know our investigators, whereas i was trying to make friends a little too much! Missionary work requires the right balance, of course you need to have a good relationship with all people you contact, but with your investigators a little firmness is needed. We´ve been learning a lot from eachother, ive learned how to be more firm when the occasion arises, and hes opened up to be a little more charismatic. it was hard at the beginning, trying to get to know someone who didnt really want to get to know me, but as we worked together i realised some of the things he liked, opinions and other characteristics that he had that i didnt my best to relate to. after work and prayer on both of our parts, we have a great relationship, contantly perfecting our teaching strategies and bettering ourselves as missionaries.

We had an interesting experience this week. We´ve been teaching a man named Edilson for over a month now, and its been hard to get him to progress. during our lessons, hes always spoken about how he feels he was some purpose here in Nilópolis. During our last lessons with him we were really emphasizing the importance of church attendance, but then for about two weeks he dropped off the map. When we went to his house to see what the situation was we found something not quite expected... he started his own church! He transformed his house into a mini chapel, bought himself a new suit and a big preachers bible. his body language was completely different, he greeted us his ´´children`` and was constantly looking a little behind us, as if angels were putting ´´bunny ears`` with their two fingers behind our heads. he even had a little congregation(mostly comprised of family members). apparently we didnt a great job on explaining the importance of church service, we only forgot to mention that it was OUR church that he needs to attend. we decided to attend thier little service, just of pure curosity of what would happen. Pastor Edilson comenced the meeting...using the same scriptures we use to teach him the weeks prior! truely baffling. we then had the opportunity to share some scriptures of our own, so we were cheeky and shared some scriptures about authority to preach and baptize. the people didnt quite understand, but after the meeting my companion and i had a good laugh about the change of events. Im not sure where to go from here though its gonna be heart wrentching to tell Brother Edilson and his flock of sheep that their pastor has absolutely no authority... o the life of a missionary!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Thirteen and Fourteen Letter

Week Thirteen:

"This week flew by! theyre getting faster every week, its unreal! It was a good week though, Élder Claudio R.M. Costa visited us here in Rio this week. The guy was a stud! he taught simple doctrine, but clarified it in ways i never thought of before hand. the theme of the day was: who are we? we then were asked to study D&C 138 and think about the question further. this study was more for missionaries but it can apply to anyone! Our mission president spoke to us as well, he is a man who walks with the spirit. he always speaks in soft tones, and always approaches us with love respect. A lot of missionaries arent a fan of him though, any rule that he has the power to enforce, he does! One rule in particulaar that the brazilians arent enjoying is no fútebol, i guess a lot of brazilian missionaries were getting distracted haha but i love our president! He truely is prepping Rio for a temple.

This saturday we had our ´´Festa Junina,´´ it was a big ward party, and it was a huge sucess! All month we´ve been spreading the word about the party, and it paid off: we have tons of new investigators! The party itself was fun as well, there was a ton of food that i had never tried, and all the little girls were dressed up like porcelin dolls. the atmosphere was great, they had a lot of games set up for the kids and they had a dance floor for anyone who wanted to cut loose! We, however, spent all of our time with our investigators. we refused to be those missionaries who sit in the corner eating sweeties while theres people to be taught. at first they were a bit uncomfortable, but by the end they were all laughing and having a good time! the night was a big hit, the ward was pretty incredible for putting it together. It reminded me of the cottage meetimgs back home, and the sacrifices that my parents made every month to host the parties. the ward is learning and growing, i´ll talk a bit more about them next week!

we had a pretty interesting teaching experience this week. we made a street contact last tuesday and the following day we scheduled an appointment to return and start the lessons. he was a middle aged guy, nothing out of the ordinary. we planned to teach the restoration since its the foundation for the other lessons, but after the opneing prayer the spirit informed me that he had other plans. i looked to my companion to verify but he was already a step ahead of me, he asked him what the role of god was in his life. the man explained that he believed in God but didnt belong to a church. The spirit took over the lesson and we continued to ask inspired questions. He realized that we were there to help him and he let down his guard. he then explained that he felt that God didnt love him... because he was gay! that one threw us through a loop! He described to us how his family and friends had deserted him, and how hes been through psychiatrists, tests, and all manner of experts to ´´cure him of his disease,´´ but to no avail.  He said that he knows his lifestlye is wrong but doesnt have the tools to change. We continued to listen, we cared to hear what he had to say and we could see the pain in the mans eyes. he explained that god must hate him for creating him this way. he then looked at us for an answer: talk about pressure! We shared with him the first half of the plan of salvation, about how we are spirit children of our heavenly father and he loves every one of us. we shared as well 1 Ne 3:7 how the lord never gives us a commandment that we cant follow, and how the very first command adam was given was to multiply and replenish the earth. we explained that through christ we and do all things. he wasnt quite convinced, he explained that he had faith in christ but not in himself. we then tesified that we had faith in him, and that christ loves him and will help him if he has faith.We also just happened to have a copy of the proclamation to the world, which we gave and asked him to read, and if we could return to share more. he said yes and that this was the first time men of churches has come to him with love and understanding, rather than approach him as if hes someone inferior or not worthy of another chance. it was such a blessing to watch as the spirit taught this man, had we ingored the holy ghost, im convinced that we would not have recieved an invitation to return. the spirit is a missionaries best friend. i love being an instrument of the lord!"

Week Fourteen Letter:

"this week has been full of ups and downs. The shooting in Denver has reached our ears, and now everytime i say where im from, people look at me like im some kind of survivor! its pretty sad that my city has this kind of reputation, even here in rio.

We´ve been striving to work with our ward a lot more, we´ve pretty sucessful! Our bishops awesome, hes a really young guy who fell away from the church, but is fully active now and excited about our work. hes learning a lot, after a three year gap without a bishop hes got his work cut out for him! hes got big goals, he wants to spilt our ward before his ´´term´´ is up. our first step is reactivating the elite. we spent a lot of time chasing down old records and fleeing from agitated apostates... its been tough work! 

one day in particilar was extremely dificult. every single one of our promising investigators fell through, so we turned to our ward records. we worked all day trying to find the less actives. tons of walking and tons of rejection. at the end of the day i rememeber thinking to myself, why the heck am i doing this? they fell away for a reason, they dont want the blessings the church of christ has to offer. we absolutely wasted todays efforts, what am i doing here?! i wasnt in the most optimistic mood to say the least. before we called it a day however we stopped by a home where half the family is inactive. the mom is especially stubborn, but we stopped by anyways! we gave a quick message about the book of mormon, and how if the book is true, that everything else concerning christ and his church follows. we then asked her son, whos preparing to serve a mission, to bear his testimony concerning the book of mormon. his testimony blew everyone away! tears rolled down his cheeks, but his voice was constant as he testified of the validity of this sacred book. it was incredible to watch as he moved his mother in a way that we never could, there was a change in her eyes as her own child testified that her way of living was wrong, and that she needed to come back to church. she said she would go, and as we returned to our house, my trainer looked at me and said, as if percieving my previous thoughts, ´´this is why we´re elder.`` for the first time in 15 years we saw her happy face sitting next to her husband in the chapel, it was worth all the trails and difficulties we´ve passed through to have sucess!

thats all for this week, pretty short especially since i have so much to share! i feel like in the scriptures, when the prophets write ´´and not a hundreth part can be written,`` haha i have so many more experiences to share! maybe i´ll have more time next week...

ps to clear up any and all confusion once and for all, write to the address with the street Dois de Dezembro in the address. most people have been sending them here so no biggie!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen