October 23, 2017 - Bom Jesus Da Lapa

well fam this week was an adventure. 

starting monday our transfer was changed and i was going to ilheus! then as i was standing in the bus station about to buy my ticket president changed the transfer and i was going to bom jesus da lapa again and had to wait until tuesday to pick up the bus. 

so tuesday i was able to say goodbye to members and investigators and it was a good time. its hard to get attached to people then have to move areas. its like leaving home again. im super grateful for all the experiences i had in aeroporto and the wonderful members that helped us out so much. tuesday night i was on the bus and got to BJDL about 5 am and waited for the other elders to come pick me up. [Sam reports the bus ride was about 7 hours by himself.] 

Elder Vasconcelos, Semedo, Pereira

Wednesday morning, straight from the bus without showering we were onto the next activity of shopping for the tables and beds and all that junk that you need in a house to live (update still dont have dressers so my suitcase looks like it got hit by a nuclear bomb). we have also been sleeping on mattresses on the floor cuz dont have bed frames yet hahahha. [A senior couple came to get the house, and now the missionaries are furnishing it.] being in a group is very different. [A group is smaller than a branch.] we have been making our own food and everything so just a whole new experience for me. [In other areas, members have cooked for the missionaries.] wednesday night we were able to visit a family that they have been teaching here and the daughters name is karianne!! spelled exactly like mom spells it.

thursday was the first real day in the city. after a hot stuffy sweaty night trying to sleep we were able to plan and visit some of the awesome people that have already been letting the missionaries in to visit. Bom Jesus Da Lapa (BJDL) has nice cobblestone streets just like the ones i loved in jequie so will send the update about newly ingrown toenails in a few weeks hahaha [Sam described the area as a desert with a lot of ugly trees and bushes. The temperatures have been over 100 F each day this week.]

friday we were able to finish up the preparation for Neia, Caio and Caue so they could be baptized on saturday. neia decided she wasnt ready to be baptized yet so it should happen in the upcoming weeks. caio and caue are some super cool young men who truly have a desire to follow Crhist. We were also able to have a super spiritual lesson about the importance of prayer and how to recognize answers that we receive with the family of karianne. they are a super awesome family and they all have a pretty good knowledge of the bible and have investigated lots of other religions so its awesome to teach them. 

                                                                  Caio and Caue

saturday we had the baptism of Caio and Caue in the morning but the van we had set up to take us to the river bailed on us... so we went to the river in...... CHARIOTS WE RODE HORSES TO THE RIVER FOR A BAPTISM I FELT SO COOL HAHAHHA. will send more pics next week the computer here is awful. when we got to the river we had to move locations a few times to avoid random people swimming and the marines who told us the water was too deep, we later found out that 2 people had drowned earlier in the week. we ended up baptizing on our knees another new experience and everything ended up perfectly. 

sunday was another adventure. with a total of 11 people in attendance at church i blessed and passed the sacrament then gave a 30 minute talk. and yes it was a lot better than my farewell talk because i didnt get up to the pulpit trembling and nervous. lets just say blessing the sacrament without a white table cloth and sitting on plastic lawn chairs made by beer companies was a new experience. also the meetings on sunday are held in the garage of a hotel. this transfer should be an adventure.

love you guys tons.

sam

Map of Bom Jesus da Lapa, Bahia, Brazil (October 17 - November 8, 2017)

October 16, 2017 - Aeroporto (Vitoria da Conquista)

well fam this week was interesting. I caught a cold in 90 mostly sunny and its completely wrecked me ahhha. also my jumprope broke and a bunch of our investigators went on vacation so that was just icing on the cake hahah

monday we went downtown and i bought some new ties and the best chocolate i have ever had in this store called cacau show. i spent so much money on chocolate my addiciton is still real.

tuesday the cold hit hard but we got to work anyways. we explored a new part of our area super far away trying to get to an appoointment we had set up but then thehouse just didnt exist so that was sweet hahah. we also were able to find a less active member by accident! we had a super aweosme lesson about the restoration with her. 

wednesday we had a lot of stuff fall thru and not a super ton of success gettin in any houses.thursday was weekly planning and a holiday so the streets were empty! but we had a few lessons marked and taught a super awesome lesson to leticia about temples and the importance of doing work in family history. she is so close to being baptized and she talks about it without us even bringing it up. but just patience with her. we also had a pretty fun activity in the church with the whole ward.

                                                   elielton and Geovana

saturday we had a awesome lesson reteaching the restoration to elielton and geovana and they promisedus they would make more efforts to go to church and prayer for guidance from heavely father. the holy ghost really is so key and so powerful in missionary work and some of the best ways to invite him to our prescense are thru bearing testimony and reading our scriptures! we also had a birthday party/family home eveing for a member in our ward and i taught sadly my last english class in this ward. teaching english is actually super cool.

                                                Icaro and Elder Bitencourt

sunday we had ward council for the first time in six months in this ward and lets just say it did not go super smoothly. we got chewed out by the ward council for not having more baptisms. while they have not even lifted a finger or done a single thing to help us. they want to blame everything on the missionaries but are unwiling to help us or support us in the things we are trying to do. oh well.

I just found out I'm being transferred to Bom Jesus Da Lapa! Its a city! the area opened up last transfer and its just a group there so im gonna be giving talks every week i think someone was praying for this to happen to me (you). my companion will be Elder Pereira, but i don't know him yet. he's brazilian.

Sam

Wikipedia page on Bom Jesus Da Lapa

October 9, 2017 -- Aeroporto (Vitoria Da Conquista)

super proud of you mom you learned to zoom hahah i laughed super hard when i read that. a good attitude makes all the difference mom youre right and i can testify to that after all this time in the mission. its all about how you look at the painting that makes it beautiful not about the brushstrokes. im on fire with analogies today wow.

this week was nothing short of a normal week and i dont have a whole lot to report. We spend almost a whole day waiting in the rodoviaria (bus station) for an elder that never showed up and no one told us that he wasnt actually coming anymore until after we waited for like 4 hours hahaha. 

we got involved in the stake choir and sang at a hospital for new borns (yes im a yellow angel). liek that special hospital that only lets in babies and mothers, had so many paintings of boobs it was kinda weird and i felt like i needed to repent after. I had a pretty good division with our zone leader and we were able to find some cool new investigators anda sweet new family! im excited because the lesson was super spiritual and the lady started cried and saying it was all true before the even got to finish telling her about Joseph smith! 

my english class was pretty good this week and i taught some english to some guy whol wil be moving to boston in january so hes super excited to learn more enlgish, then to our suprise he stayed for the institute class that ws right after, where he was able to learn about family history work and eternal families, he livesin the other area and met with the missionaries yeserday so im super happy about that hes freaking dope. 

 

sacrament meeting was super exciting this week while during the passing of the sacrament there were kids jumping off the steps near the pulpit and following their older brothers around while they passed. needless to say it was less then reverent. then during the testimony meeting part people like made a line in front of the pulpit. like no onewas sitting downand everyone just stayed standing up while people bore testimony. super weird and im worried my ward might fall into apostasy, jk its all good here. 

please keep leticia brenda cris lucia bianca camilo josias and eliene and vitorio in your prayers this week!!

i love you guys

October 2, 2017 -- Aeroporto (Vitoria Da Conquista)

hey fam and others.

im glad you guys liked conference and had so much fun! i was able to watch IN ENGLISH WOOOO HOOO and it was super uplifitng because the stake had provided some headphones for the americans hahaha i really enjoyed conference and the spirit that was felt. 

me watching conference in english with headphones

our week was alright we had a bit of a struggle to find people but it all turned out alright! we were able to go visit some of our investigators with members so i think that will really help them have more desire to go to church and always three minds and testimonies are better than two! 

tuesday we were able to teach the plan of salvation or at least a part of it to cesar who is always full of questions so just getting thru our life on earth took almost an hour hahah. its really nice to teach people who are truly interested in hearing our message and have questions. I was able to bear testimony about how we are all wonderful children of our Heavenly Father and He cares and has a plan for each of us. 

thrusday we had super good lessons with elielton and geovana and leticia. after explaining for the 4th time to elielton and geovana about the need for the priesthood and the correct baptism we had gotten no futher than we were when we started because geovana is "just happy with my baptism and i dont need another" and elielton is super whipped and gets super excited and wants to be baptized but when geovana is a little sketchy he just follows her. we will keep trying and praying for them! we also found the problem with leticia is that she is still drinking a little bit of coffee because of her husband (member) who started to drink coffee again because of something his doctor said. its a very interesting situation but we are very certain that now that leticia has stopped she will be jumpin in the water very quickly.

this weekend was an amazing general conference where we could here from our modern day apostles and prophets. i loved all of the talks given especially those about the Book of Mormon. i encourage you all to read thme again as well as read the Book of Mormon everyday and your lives will change!! It is the word of God and an amazing blessing in our lives. 

i hope you all have a good week! loves

sam

a sweet church we found near our house that perfectly describes the religious situation here in Bahia. Translation of Garagem da Bencao is "Garage Blessings"

September 25, 2017 - Aeroporto (Vitoria Da Conquista)

HELLO MOTHER and everyone else

super glad that its cold there because its getting hot here again. i have actually missed the heat a little bit so im excited for it to come back. also extremely happy that harold got out of the hospital and dad got over the flu. so glad you were able to relax you super swim team mom sucha  stud. DONT REBUILD SKYLINE THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN THOSE UGLY COLORED WALL PANELS HAHAHAH but thats actually way cool hooray. fun day to have megs home from provo. i feel like if i was home i would visit a lot more. mommas boy. im glad all the churchy stuff was super good. bens a stud i think he'll be a great missionary. 

my week was pretty chill not a whole lot to report on sometimes some weeks are a little bit slower and some a little faster!

on tuesday i got to go to an english class with one of our ward members and kinda give a little presentation in english so it was super weird to talk about life and the church and stuff in english but i really enjoyed it. he takes class in a super nice part of the city so i felt like i was back in downtown salt lake for a minute there hahah. it was really intersting to watch a brazilian teach the english class because her pronuncation was not great but her grammar was impeccable. 

wednesday we were able to invite elielton and geovana to be baptized october 7th and they accepted! they are still a little bit doubting because they already were baptized but we are working super hard with them to clear everything up. please keep them in your prayers. we were able to help them to see the importance of the gift of the holy ghost as part of the baptism which really helped them to have more desire!

thursday we were able to do almost exactly the same thing with leticia! she accepted a date for the exact same day and it was a super spiritual time as my companion was able to share some experiences about when he was baptized and we asked her using some scriptures what was stopping her from being baptized and she said nothing! so i think everythings all set there!

saturday i was able to teach a super awesome english class. we had a bunch of members there and it was super fun to talk with them all. since ive been here i have notice that a lot of people have been able to learn a good amount of english just from watching netflix and listening to music. idk if they are praying for the gift of tongues but i know that the gifts of the spirit are real. its been such a blessing to have the help of the Lord in trying to learn and speak portuguese and i know i couldnt have gotten this far without His help. all hard things can be done if we have a righteous motive!

sunday we recieved a lot of new ward members because of realignment in the stake here so it should help our ward a ton! we were also about to find an old investigator in the street and reteach her about Joseph Smith and the miracle of the restoration. Nothing like testifiying in the pouring rain haha. Its such a blessing that we have the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and that we are able to be a part of his church. Never forget that!

i read a talk from elder holland this week in the this months liahona and it reminded me a lot of one of my favorite quotes from Abraham Lincoln "most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be" [this quote has been on the back of our front door for years. I'm glad to see it made an impression.] DON'T FORGET TO BE HAPPY. i know that living the gospel of Christ and following his commandments with willingness are what allow us to reach higher and higher on the scale of joy and peace.

love sam

September 18, 2017 -- Aeroporto (Vitoria Da Conquista)

it was a week very good week. I learned how to make oatmeal and im feelin pretty sweet cuz now i eat breakfast and im not just dead all the day. also all that fiber is helping a ton with my poops so that makes life 100x more enjoyable hahahah oatmeal isnt actually that good but ya know ya gotta do what ya gotta do hahahaha i just put a ton of chocolate milk powder in when i make it so that helps a ton haha. animal count went up i saw some bunnies and was able to pet them it was super nice and relax and a lot of dead animals that were getting eaten by vultures so ya welcome to bahia hahahah people just leave dead animals in the middle of busy streets. 

tuesday we had a super dope lesson with elielton and geovana about temples and eternal familes! they are legally married which is actually more rare than seeing a white person in salvador so im super happy and they love hearing our messages. geovana is normally super quiet during the lessons but as soon as we started talking about eternal marriage she became a completely new person!!! they really are such an awesome couple and they do all the readings and THEY WENT TO CHURCH YESTERDAY ALONE I FREAKED OUT DURING SACRAMENT MEETING cuz they werent there when it started but they showed up in the middle. please please please pray for them. its kinda difficult because elielton works nights on the weekends so its really hard for him to get to church. 

wednesday we had a dope lessons with poliana about the restoration and the importance of the priesthood on the earth. she is part of the espirito religion idk what it is in english so lessons with her are super interesting and she is full of great questions. we also got the chapel ready for zone conference. thursday was zone conference and it was super good. recieving training from president and having an interview always makes me more excited so im super happy about that. and the best part was that the training was about the plan of salvation. and i got my paackage too and it had everything... but could have had more mike and ikes ahahah. then we did a little "pre interview" for ruan and his baptism. i asked him who THomas S monson was and he said "the man who invented the airplane right?" so we were able to have a sweet little teaching moment right there hahahha. it was hilarious hahah

on saturday i taught a sweet little english class and POLIANA WENT and we got to give her a tour of the church and i think she really liked it so i was super super super happy. teaching english is not actually that easy i was having a little bit of trouble even speaking it because portuguese is becoming so much more natural so i think the gift of tongues is real hahah. but i think having more activities like this english class is really gonna get our ward more excited so im anxious to see how it goes!

in my studies of the scriptures and conference talks i came across a theme that struck me really hard. alma and amulek are debating with zeezrom and they start to rock his world then alma says this alma 13:28

"but that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call upon his holy name, and watch and PRAY CONTINUALLY, THAT YE MAY NOT BE TEMPTED ABOVE THAT WHICH YE CAN BEAR, and thus be led by the holy spirit, becoming humble meek submissive,patient AND FULL OF LOVE, and all long suffering"

i was then reading a talk from conference i forgot the name of the talk and who wrote it so bear with me hahaha. but he talks about simply doing the small things to strengthen our faith. the commandment most mention in the scriptures is to pray WITH REAL INTENT but it is also the most broken of the commandments. doing the small and simple things in our lives will help us to overcome any problems or difficulties. God and Christ want to lift us up but they cant if we dont tell them what we need! PRAY MORE

i love you all.

sam

[Sam also performed the baptism of a young boy from a part-member family this week.]