June 12, 2017 letter - Jequie (Mandacaru)

well this week was alright. being the last week of the transfer everyone was a little tired and a little stressed out and on top of that it was the last week of elder washingtons mission! so we spent a good portion of the week trying to get him all ready to go home. tuesday we had a trip to conquista for a leadership meeting since elderwashington is still our district leader to get some new training. it was raining really hard when we left jequie and didnt stop until like friday haha. when i got to conquista my birthday packages were sittin all pretty waiting for me!!! i was so dang excited and happy to see all the awesome stuff and eat the candy. the hi chews are already gone and i may or may not have made myself a little sick a few times this week. oops. buuuut i also loved the conference ensign and the back scratcher. scratching my never ending mosquitos bites gives much more satisfaction when done witha back scratcher. 

Jean's Baptism

Jean's Mom, Elder Washington, Jean

WE finally got back to jequie with just enough time to meet with jean's mom about his baptism on saturday. She had a bunch of questoins about the BOM and the restoration but it was late so we had to go and teach her another day. thursday we had a good district meeting but it was the same training i recieved the daybefore so you know how that goes. im already super good at paying attention for long periods of time especially with repetative informaiton hahahahaheheheheh. then we were waiting to go to lunch and this crazy dude (the same one who threw the sandwich at me a few weeks ago) started follwing us around like all up in my grill almost touching us so we used some strategy and serpentine movements to get away from him. elder washington had to go to the bank and we waited awhile. it was a long day. friday was also a very long day. we had to go some more things for elder washington and we had weekly planning which is always sucha blast for me!! but we were able to teach the restoration to jeans mom and she had lots of questions and critizims but we shut her down hard with some good scriptures and we were able to bring the spirit really well to the lesson. i think she really enjoyed it. she tried to argue that other churches have apostles but only like one singular apostle in the whole church and we just straight up asked her, well where are the other 11? lol she got super quiet after that.

then saturday. oh saturday. we did a division to do the interviews for baptism and fill up the font but then we got to jeans house and no one had a clue where he was. after a failed wheres waldo attempt we marked to come back later and went to go figgure out the font and our lunch. no i did not fall in the font this week all of my catlike reflexes have returned and i have stayed on my feet. we had our lunch delieverd two hours late after marking super early to bring it to us. then as soon as we got the food literally the same minute jean called and siad he didnt want to get baptized anymore. we dropped everything and went to figure it out with him and everythingw as all good. we were super late for the meeting but saw some super miracles when the branch pres just happened to be driving down the street where we were walking already late for the meetng.then some lady died in the hospital without a priesthood blessing while we were in conquista so sunday was pretty much just everyone fighting and blaming one another for not going to the hospital. it was a wild weekend

we got the transfer a little early this time and i will be staying here in mandacaru with elder carvalho (brasileiro that i havent met yet) for his last transfer in the missino! its pretty much like i am out here serving with one of the boys who will be going home soon!

i was reading the cnference talks this week and i really liked elder renlunds "good shepard". he said " as His disciples, let us fully mirror his love and love one another so that no one feels abandoned, alone, or hopeless" it really is a powerful talk and i lvoed it so much! go read it and then hug someone and tell them you love the. imagine me hugging you all!!

i love you all so much

sammy boy

June 5, 2017 letter - Jequie

hello fam and friends and loved ones.

another interesting week here in jequie. full of mosquitos, stray dogs, cats, horses and an uncountable number of chickens. also the number of frogs i have found in our house is up at 6! one really interesting thing i have seen here in jequie is the huge number of horses just walking around straight chillin like a normal human being without an owner or anything. it makes me think of harry potter when he gives dobby the sock and dobby yells "dobby is a free elf" idk why tho cuz dobby is an elf and not a horse hahah.

this week we had a really good lunch everyday for the first time here in this area! but it was also the exact same lunch of rice and beans and salad cooked pretty much the exact same way at 5 different houses lol. at this point i still love rice and beans and i am starting to taste the huge difference in the way some people make beans (fun fact that no one cares about). 

tuesday we taught a really good lesson with marinalva about the restoration but it was really hard to do because her family is so nuts. she is sisters with sandro our recent convert! we were teaching her about Joseph smith while here siblings were beating each other up with sticks and running around, or playing laman and lemuel as i thought of it. At the end of the lesson she asked to change her baptismal date to this saturday which was super awesome and cool for us. its so cool to see young people have so much desire in regards to church. 

Wednesday after district meeting and working in our own area we went to help the sisters with a few lessons. We tried teaching this investigator about the restoration and apostasy but he and his sister just wanted to argue about the catholic church not changing lots of doctrine (they did) and why when we feel the spirit during church we dont scream twirl in circles and fall to the ground dramatically like people do in other churches here. nevertheless it was an interesting afternoon. 

Thursday we had an awesome lesson with some less actives and their nonmember cousin who accepted a baptismal date! she was the one who showed more interest the other times we have visited them so it was super awesome for us!! i have really enjoyed trying to teach and reactivate them because they
truly have the knowledge but they also live a little far away and they are busy. also its fun to visit them because they just have chickens running wild in their house and it can be pretty entertaining during the lessons having chickens going inbetween everyones legs lol. later in the day marinalva was super excited when we taught her about all the powerful blessings of following the commandments and on friday she
rocked the preinterview we did before her interview. the gospel is so simple yet so perfect. 

friday was pretty chill we decided we need to renew our group so we tried to start doing more contacts especially with men and families and in parts of area that we dont go to very much. and then i bought myself a milkshake, chocolate of course(TREAT YOSELF) happy birthday to me. the sisters made this card for me.

Marinalva's Baptism

saturday was super hectic trying to get ready for the baptism. we had to do an interview for the other elders and fill up the font before lunch. someone (me) may or may not have fallen in the font while trying to clean it, then it may or may not have rained as soon as that person got dry. but the baptism went really well lolol. the power of having investigators in the baptismal meetings is super strong. it has helped in almost everysingle one of our baptism for them to see the baptism and feel the spirit in that incredible moment. then sunday it rained and one of the members flaked on our division we were gonna do so we were late to church trying to find our investigators.

spiritual thought: elder washington gave a super awesome message at lunch yesterday. all throughout the BOM the lamanites and nephites were always fighting. they always had different motives, the lamanites want revenge and blood while the nephites want to protect their families and their God. In alma 43 the nephites are afraid of the lamanites but capitan moroni reminds thme to fight for "their liberty
and their freedom from bondage" after this they were strenghtened by the lord and pushed back the attack of the lamanites. i hope that we can all have more confidence and faith in everything that we do this week because the lord is on our side! fight for what is right! also our mission just started reading the book of mormon and im gonna try really hard to do it all in portuguese! wish me luck!

i love you all.
sammy

May 29, 2017 letter - Jequie

Hello family and friends and everyone else who reads this!!

I hope you all had good weeks because mine was fantastic. we started off the week with a trip to conquista for a zone conference. i didn't hardly know anyone in the zone so it was cool to meet some new missionaries. we also got to play basketball but i have completely forgotten how to play. i dont think i have ever thrown up more bricks or airbals in my life, derek bunting please forgive me. but also the zone conference was super awesome. it was one of those meetings where you go in without a single question of great importance and come out with a million answers that penetrate the deepest parts of your soul. President talked about the importance of always talking about and making the goal of baptism with our investigators. he also drilled into our brains the importance of teaching and inviting people with authority and confidence. 

Elder Christofferson and Sam at Zone Conference 

Bus ride to Conquista for Zone Conference

3 Nephi 5:13 "Behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called to declare His word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

Lelis' Baptism

We all have this same call that Mormon does! the blue book that i read all day might not have my name on it like it has his but my call is just as important! it was a super spiritual and inspiring meeting. unfortunately after this i was eaten alive by mosquitos. it was the itchiest i have been in my life. We spent the week really working with Lelis, felipe and sandro to be ready for the baptisms. it been crazy to see the change in lelis and the way that the word of wisdom has really changed his life. he is so much happier and feels so much betterr physically and spiritually. the baptism went really well but when we showed up to fill the font it was full of dirty water from like two weeks ago hahahah and then we couldnt figure out how to drain it. so we got to work with the buckets to drain the font. Everything was done in time and i got to conduct the meetings so that was super sweet. i was kinda nervous at first but idk speaking aabout the gospel and stuff like that is so much easier in portuguese so lets just say that there was a lot less trembling and shaking that there was at my farewell hahahah.

Felipe and Sandro's Baptisms

Spiritual thought for this week. president shared a really good thought with us that President costa used when he visited a few weeks ago. 

Mark 9:23

" Jesus said unto him if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth"

We have the ability to do all things thru our faith. Faith moves mountains! try a ittle bit harder not to just have faith this week but to put your faith in ACTIONS. when we trust and act on our faith everything works out in the way it needs to.

i love you all stay classy san diego (from Anchorman)

sam

ps. all of you! try family prayer kneeling. it will bring you all closer and invite the spirit more

May 22, 2017 Letter - Jequie

Good week again this week. we have been seeing a lot the blessings of our prayers and fasting this week. President gave a us a goal for this week to do twice as many contacts and try to find twice as many new investigators so it goes without saying that we talked with a lot of new people this week. it is a huge blessing that most of the people here in brazil are super out going and love to talk about Jesus. also people love to just sit in the street outside of their homes, they might not always accept a visit or even let you talk but they will tell you their point of view... or at least what their pastor thinks hahaha

On tuesday and wednesday we were able to give baptismal dates to a pair of sisters Catiele and Naiele. they have a lot of interest and questions but they also have open minds and they are set more or less in the right direction. Our investigators Felipe Sandro and Lelis are really prepared for their baptisms this wee so please keep them in your prayers that everything will go well!! Usually when we teach felipe and sandro we teach them in the street outside of Felipe's house and we alwasy have a couple of their friends tune in for the lesson but they kinda run away when we ask who wants to pray so it feels kinda like when mom tries to gather the family for family prayers haha. It is so awesome to see the interest and desire to learn more about Christ that theese kids have because i certainly did not have this much when i was 13 or 14. 

This week we were also able to visit sandro and his family at their home and their mom told us "you need to take all my kids to church and baptize them as fast as possible because they are sinners" just the way she said it made me laugh so hard but she was so serious so we are gonna start working with them. they were able to come to church on sunday and they loved it so im super excited for the next few weeks!!just another blessing of fast and prayer. We did an exposition on saturday night in the big public square in downtown jequie so us six misionaries set up a table with book of mormons and passalong cards to give out to people. We spent the night trying to get people not to buy ice cream or beer and come reaad our magazines about Jesus. It was pretty fun and we talked to a lot of interesting people. 

We did some really good practices this week in our district meeting about promissing blessings to people and the commandment of keeping the sabbath day holy. in DC 59 the Lord gives us a great promise if we go to church and keep the sabbath day holy. "Verily I say that in as much as ye do this, the fulness of the earth is yours" so who doesnt want all the blessings  and treasures of the earth?? i KNOW THAT if we make the effort to get to church this week we can all be more happy and have more peace and unity in our families.  have a good week.

I LOVE YOU ALL

May 8, 2017 letter - Jequie, Brazil

Hey everybody! 

So it turns out that in our mission there is a place even hotter than Salvador! Jequie is too hot to handle (just like me) hahah i have never felt a sun so strong in my life, you can literally feel yourself burning as soon as you get out into the sun. The plus side is that its not too humid here so if you can find some shade the temperature drops about 10 degrees instantly. But i think i brought the rain with me from salvador because it rained pretty hard for the first few days. this week was way sweet its been pretty fun to get to know the new area and the new companion Elder Washington. Jequie is a 6 hour bus ride from salvador so i spent all of monday night on a bus. 

Jequie is a city set in between some "mountains" (big hills) but my part of the city is very flat so thats awesome. I think all of the roads here besides the main roads are dirt and cobble stone so thats a big change from salvador but its also really cool. The second day here i thought to myself "wow i feel a whole lot more like im in brazil right now hahah." There are lots of frogs and real life vultures here!! Like condors but smaller and all black they're cool.

Elder washington is from Nicuragua and he is in his final transfer of the mission (not too trunky yet) I feel really blessed because he still has the fire to work really hard. He doesnt want to get lazy and he wants to help me to learn from him so im really excited for this transfer! he also wants to be a fluent english speaker by the time he goes home so we are working hard with that!

The group of investigators here is awesome. we have been working hard with a group of young men and they love hearing our messages.. and playing futbol with all the rest of the kids in the branch. They have made some really good friends and one of them actually asked to be baptized before we could even give him the invitation to be baptized! he still has to have all the lessons so we gotta give it some time. One of the others is Israel, he has a date for this saturday so please keep him in your prayers! Lelis is a man progressing in our area, he had some problems with the word of wisdom but he had an accident so he has dedicated himself to put off his old habits and get in the church! 

On saturday we had a mini mtc with all the ward missionaries in our branch. It went really well but we only had 3 people of 15 show up haha it was way cool to teach members how to teach the lesson and i felt like i learned a lot.

This week i thought a lot about the importance of listening. Listening is a really important skill in missionary work but also in life. Everyone is surrounded by loved ones but they may not recognize the importance of talking and listening to the concerns or problems they might have. Give someone in your life someone to talk to this week and really be there to help them!

"if we listen with love we won't need to wonder what to say, it will be given to us by the Spirit and by our friends"  - Jeffrey R Holland

i love you all! have a good week

sam

PS: I got sick this week because i ate too many hot dogs. also they don't eat the whole hot dog here they cut them up in little pieces hahaha. I have over 21 bug bites on one arm and my face is red from sunburn i will be using bug spray and sunscreen from now on hahahahah

Pictures from the Pelourinho (Historic Center of Salvador) before Sam got transferred.

Elder Cruz and Elder Gifford

Map of Mandacaru, Jequie, Bahia, Brazil (May 2 - July 24, 2017)

April 30, 2017 letter - Amaralina (but getting transferred)

Hello everyone 

We had a pretty good but busy week this week! our zone is working really well at the moment so we had to go around and do a bunch of baptismal interview this week! Our water finally came back for the whole city on monday night so i have been very grateful to be able to shower this week hahahah.

Tuesday we had a weird encounter with one of our investigators Valmira. She does bible study with kids from the neighborhood and we showed up during one on accident! During the study one of the kids was acting up really badly and so when the study finished Valmira offered a prayer just to ask God to cast the devil out of the kid and then started laughing way hard still praying haha. She´s real interesting. 

One thing i have noticed during my time here in Brazil is how slowly everyone sings. Its literally like the hymns are at half speed. I always catch myself starting to sing the next note way loud before everyone else even thinks about it . 

We had some really good lessons this week about the Gospel  of Christ and it really made me think about the importance of the sacrament and the importance of attending church! Weekly meetings give us the chance to use the redeeming power of the sacrament every single week, We have the chance to receive a remission of our sins and renew our baptismal covenants. 

We talked a lot this week about the importance and power of our prayers. The story of Enos is so cool to me and I really love how it shows the power of prayer not only for ourselves but for anything/anyone we are praying for. I know without a doubt that heavenly father is listening to every single one of our prayers and answering them! have faith! Enos 1:12

Today is transfer day but still no one in our house has received any news so we are just waiting to hear about that!! 

love elder prince

[Elder Prince is being transferred to the Mandacaru area in the city of Jequie.]