Week Thirty-Two

"This letter will be breif, I´m heading into Rio today so I´m already pressed on time. Transfers were today, and im staying here with my boy Élder Moraes! We´ve got a ton of work to do here and i wouldn´t want to do it with anyone else.

 

We´re really stuggling to find investigators in the ward here in Resende. the city is very well off, so the people are very content and its hard to find open hearts. Meanwhile in Itatiaia, our branch, the work is exploding! we had 6 families ready for baptism here, one problem is that 4 of the 6 aren´t married... another is that we only ´´take care of`` Itatiaia, its expensive to work there because it costs time and money each time we visit. Luckily, theres some members in the branch that are hepling us a ton, theyre the danas and lindas of brazil!

 

One couple we met is called Pedro and Jéssica. theyre pure gold!! Pedros already helping us with our teaching visits(even though he´s still an investigator), and the background of Jéssicas cell phone is the tample of Campinas. They really understand the doctrine of eternal marriage, there a match made in heaven! Only they hace started their papers for marriage this week, so they´ll be ready for baptism at a minimum of 2 months... i really wanna be here for that! Theyve become our good friends, on our last visit, Jéssica tearfully said that we(Élder Moraes and i) would never be forgotten, and would always be a part of their lives. I guess thats what happens when we live worthy of the spirit. Miracle happen! Im so excited for these future saints. i hope i get the privelage of seeing them sealed in the temple. they´re a part of me that will never leave!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Thirty-One

"Loving life here in Resende!(spelt with an s, sounds like a z, he-zen-gee) tons of Progress this week. We have about 5 families who are ready and want to be baptised... what were the other elders doing?! there hasnt been a baptism here in months but theres so many golden investigators here. my blood boils when i think about all the blessings that these righteous future saints have been missing out on all this time, but at least we´re get to help them now! The Ward members are really trusting us now, With elder Moraes´s charisma and my goofiness we´re really winning back their hearts. we´ve actually done a ton of work with the members this week, especially in the branch we watch over. the few members in Itatiaia (ee-ta-chai-ya) are giants in faith. on couple brought 4 investigators to stake conference that Élder Moraes and i had little knowldge about(we´re still getting to used to the area). there´s tons of potential and tons of work to be done. Caution: Baptisms ahead!!

 

One miracle happened this week as we were making street contacts near the chapel. My companion and i spotted a young woman and the holy ghost said,´´eliete!`` but before we could stop her she stopped us! she quickly explained that much of her family is active in the church, in fact her brother is serving up in Fortaleza. shes just moved in to the area(in fact lives RIGHT behind the chapel), want to attend church but lacks the courage to go alone, so we set a date to visit her and her family. we returned and found out shes a wife and mother of two, and has always seen/felt that the church was different from all others. the spirit in the lesson we taught in that visit was so strong, the poor girl was waterworks the entire visit. she explained to us the only other time she felt this way was when her brother went off on his mission, we explained to her that is was the holy ghost and that he was testifiying of the validity of her brothers mission. Never felt the spirit stronger than in this moment! shes so ready to be baptised, shes just scared of what her husband might think(we havent met him yet). we´ve got some work ahead of us but i love encountering the elietes!!

 

ps to anyone interested google Itatiaia national park, i did some crazy jungle hiking there today! im out of time so maybe i´ll type more aout it next monday, craziest p day of my mission!

 

EU AMO ESSE TRABALHO!!!"

Week Thirty

" Tons to write with little time. may the spirit of the Lord be with me!

 

Emergency transfer! i´ll begin with a quote from my last letter,´´ i know why ive been kept here in Nilópolis until now! to witness the completion and comencement of a family united in the faith.`` literally an hour after typing this, i get a call that im being transferred. the Lord acts in marvelous ways!

 

So ive said goodbye to Nilópolis and now im here in Rezende! We´re closer to São Paulo than Rio now, it seems like im in a whole different country! Where to begin. the accent is goofy, the food is different, the culture is foreign, its like im startin the mission all over again! its beautiful here though, the best way i can describe it is hawaii mixed with switzerland... cant wait to show photos!

 

The area was whitewashed, which means taking out both elders and putting in new ones. apparently some sisters caught the former companionship breaking some pretty serious rules, so an emergency transfer was required. now my companion and i are having to start the work over here(there hadn´t been any area book enteries for months). its like opening up a new area, only its worse because the members here are pretty unconfident in us because of the other elders. this has been the hardest week of the mission, knocking on doors from lunch til nine is hard enough, but fixing a problem you didnt cause is even harder still!

 

Luckily i have THE greatest companion at my side. Élder De Moraes is a Gaúcho from Porto Alegre, ive never seen such a perfectly rounded missionary! Hes hilarious, good lookng, humble, inteligent, charismatic, hard working, a born leader, and best of all, fluent in english!(he speaks better than i do...) he says he discovered that he speaks english in the CTM, what kind of person discovers that they speak another language? its beyond me but anyways i love this guy!

 

we´ve really been bleeding out here in Rezende, im honored to think though that the president has enough trust in us to put us into this suffering area. he must have seen our sucess because we both baptised/completed a family in our former areas this last sunday, and now hes sending in the titans to do work! haha i think we´ve both been pretty humbled though, its difficult starting from scratch, we look at eachother frequently thinking,´´what the heck to we do now?`` we somehow always find a way to laugh it off and keep on pushing. and because of the lords patience and understanding with us we´ve actually picked up many families to teach! many of which have the potential to be baptised this transfer. we´re going to be spending a lot of time on our knees for sure!"