Week

Well, thank you so much for the emails, I thoroughly enjoy reading them and the letters too....

 

NEWS! CONGRATULATIONS TO ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS LIZ KITTELL, OR SHOULD I SAY MRS. LIZ GREEN NOW! WOW, I JUST GOT THE NOTICE THAT SHE GOT MARRIED LAST WEEK. WOOOOOOOTTT!!!!!!! I'm supersuper happy for her.

okay...this week, well, thursday morning we got a call from our leaders telling us to go to Passo Fundo, we arrived there and stayed the night, friday morning we went to Caxias do Sul for a conference with the Doctors from São Paulo, and to recieve orientation from President and Sister Wright, and the assistentes. It was fantastic, but the new theme is inviting people to be baptized in the contacts on the road. Well, everybody was laughing and jesting about it *(its extremely uncomfortable to ask someone if they want to be baptized in the first 30 seconds of knowing them) well....we have found 4 new people to teach this week who accepted. !!!!!!!!!!! How crazy is that. The number of baptisms in this mission is skyrocketing now, in January we had a grand 28, this month we are on track to have more than 100. Yeah, think about that. Here in the south. The state that baptizes the fewest people in all of Brazil. The work is hastening 100x it is incredible.

 

My new greenie? He is incredible. The first week was a little difficult, seeing as how he spent a grande 12 days in the CTM versus the 9 weeks I was there. This week was fantastic, we are both learning tons from each other, and I have certainty that there is a reason that the two of us are here in Erechim. We found out this week that Bispo Udoh has decided to allow the city of Gaurama and Viadutros to host their own sacrament meetings so that the members out there don't have to spend a third of their income to go to church every other week. Well, if it continues like it is, they will have a branch out there in less than a year. We are working really hard to reactivate a bunch of people and here in a little bit, there will be enough preisthood holders to start a branch. I am super excited for this.

 

Reading your letter mother, made me realize that I want to learn Zulu....hmmm, I'll use the internet to learn when I get back. For now Portuguese and Spanish will have to do. Crumb! I just realized that I used a lot of my time reading the emails.... >:P   hmmm, oh well,

 

For all of you people who know the significance of numbers, we taugt a grande 15 lessons this week (as opposed to the normal 35-40) but we now have 9 dates marked for baptism, we had 7 go to church, and we have 14 who are progressing. This week was one of the best and worst weeks yet *(by way of the numbers) but I have decided that I don't care about numbers. I am only going to teach the people who want to be taught, have a desire to be baptized, and live the laws of the Lord. If somebody is going to resist and try and reason around it, I will do exactly the following, tell them to read the scriptures, ponder the things therein and pray. If they feel that God wants to make an exception to the laws, (which he won't) they can feel free to continue, but they can not be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ. I just won't put up with it. I'm done teaching people who are lazy and won't progress or go to chuch. It's that simple. Anyways thats whats been on my mind this week, I hope that my family truly enjoys their journey to NYC (yes mother I knew that there exists a Korea-town, I have a friend that used to live there)

 

Te amo, e A Igreja é verdadeira.

Elder Eliason.

hey

This week has been interesting....

I have gained a testimony about inspired questions...Yesterday we visited a contact that we did on the street...his name is Amadeus. Yes, like Amadeus motzart. He was just walking down the street and he stopped us and asked us what we do. He is in fact evangelical, but a recent convert to that church and is learning to follow christ. well, he asked us if we preach the end of the world and if we think the end of the world is coming... of course I told him no, but the Second coming of Christ is coming, and his eyes lit up, " you really think so?", "I don't think so, I know so" "Wonderful, would you guys mind passing by my house and we can talk about it for a little bit this saturday?" "we would be glad to". Well, we passed by his house, or his shack more like, you remember the house where the Hulk was staying (in human form) at the begining of the movie the Avengers? where the walls are made of random planks of wood, the roof is plastic bottles and the walls inbetween rooms are thin sheets? yup. We walked in and the wooden stove in the middle of the room was smoking, he ran outside and removed a paint can that was on top of the smoke stack (to prevent rain from entering) just to give a visual about where this man lives. Well, (actually I think I will include this story in the main letter so hmmm...whatever) he started talking and talking and talking and talking, my companion was getting a little annoyed that he was talking so much, but I was listening, listening is a huge part of missionary work, and is definitely something that we all need to work on. Well, it turns out that after about 15 minutes of him talking, he began telling us about how he found Christ...he was a cocaine addict, alcoholic, and 3 boxes of cigarette smoker daily. He overdosed one day and whent to the ICU, afterwards, he decided to go to rehab (a rare thing here in brazil) where he spent 6 months. Six months of battling hell and his own desires (of his body) he was sleeping one night and had a dream, in the dream he was led by the Holy Ghost to the ocean (of which he has never seen in his poor state) and the Holy Ghost asked him what he saw, he replied the Ocean, the Holy Spirit responded that it was a creation of God and that it is beautiful, and perfect, and a giver of life. God gave him his life, and he needs to make it beautiful, perfect, and he needs to help others and help them live. Well, turns out that he was in a coma, 3 days later he woke up. It was the middle of the night and he was in his hospital bed. He looked over to the door of the room, and he said that he saw a man. The man beckoned him to come. He arose and approached the man, and asked him who he was. The man shook his hand and told him that he was Jesus Christ, and that he had knocked at the door and entered. The investigator, Amadeus looked at the door, it was locked and the guards were asleep. The man, Jesus Christ, asked him what his desires were. He responded that he desired to return to the presence of his Father in Heaven. Christ asked him how he plans to do that. He responded that he needed to give up his addiction to Cocaine, Alcohol, and cigarettes. Christ replied, and thus by your faith it shall be done. He did not share the rest of the story, but continued to tell us that the next day he left the Rehab center and has yet to touch cigarette, alcohol or cocaine again. He was wandering in the streets and asked God to give him guidance. He united with the first church he found, and found faith in Christ. Two years later, he asked God through prayer how he can become a better man, grow in faith, and obtain eternal salvation. He decided to dedicate everything he did to God, two hours later, he stopped us on the road and asked us about the second coming of Christ. He is the poorest man I have ever taught, yet he is the richest. I am truely honored to be working with him here in Erechim, and I am excited to see if he accepts the Restored Gospel.

My new companion? Elder P. Souza from Maurillia, interior de São Paulo. He now has 3 weeks on the mission. My old companion? Elder Lucas de Souza, he got transfered to Moreira Cesar, Caxias do Sul. We are here in Erechim.

I know that this church is true, and that God is preparing the world for the second coming of Christ.

Te amo, e A Igreja é verdadeira.

Elder Eliason

hey howdy hey

Well.............I am going crazy, it's eleven ten, and our zone leaders have yet to call us and tell us about the transfer! today is the transfer! AAAAAAKKKKKKK, I know at the very least that I am going to train, I don't know if we are going to open up a new area, fill an old area, or even if I will be transfered, but I got an e-mail with the list of trainers that have to show up in Porto Alegre tomorrow morning to get the greenies or verginhos in portuguese. AAAAAAAKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!! this is definitely a test of my patience.... :( I don't enjoy tests of patience, oh well, what can I do... well, I can call them, but that won't solve the matter. Humpfh. Oh well, this week we...had P-day da zona, which was fun for a bit, but we had not much planned and so it was a lot of sitting around deciding to do nothing...yeah, it was funtastical. :/ Oh well, the really cool thing that happened this week was that we did a "super blitz" a blitz is when a pair of missionaries leave their area and go to another area to work there and increase the number of investigators and such. Well, there exists an area in our zone called Lagoa Vermelha (red lake) and they were having a branch conference, and the president of the mission told them that if they could get 100 people to go to the conference, the branch could upgrade to ward status. Well, the entire zone went over to that area (all 16 of us) and we worked all day there doing contacts on the street, knocking doors *(much to my chagrin- here in Erechim, I refuse to knock doors) and visiting less actives. Well, yesterday, they had 74 people show up, as opposed to the normal 25. Presidente is taking this into consideration, along with the fact that a man (not an investigator prior) showed up and had a dream/vision while he was listening to the speaker. He's going to be baptized this sunday :D how cool is that!

Something really funny about Erechim...Elder Warner went on splits with me and we did a contact and met the garage full of girls right? well, Elder Lucas de Souza and I keep returning and one of the girls, Rafaella, has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. To this moment she hasn't "recieved an answer" but every time we talk to her, I can definitely feel the spirit. She's 17 and super snakey, but thats okay, if she is doing all that we ask of her, we will keep on teaching her. Funny how stuff like that works. hmm...Im going to be training, I wonder if he will be American or Brazilian, or from Africa, we have quite a few Africans in this mission. Im super excited.

hmm...Something interesting from this week in church, a brother was teaching the lesson in Elders Quorum, and he said something about how we show our love through service and dedication to one another, and then he went on to describe how dedication is the true sign of love, using several splendid examples such as missionary work, families, etc...and then he went on to use a negative example that proved his point...negative example? prostitues and how they gain beautiful gifts, but they don't get the dedication. It woke up everybody in the entire quorum and made me laugh. I brought my camera this week, so I'll send a couple of photos here in a bit.

Thanks for the photos and love, I love it. Best of luck to my friend Jenny Lee who left for the mission a couple of weeks ago NY, NY, North, Mandarin speaking, parabens ela :)

Te amo, e A Igreja é verdadeira,

Elder Eliason (whose stomach is feeling a lot better, thank you)

Alo!

Weeheww.... this week has been crazy. That is an understatement, this week has been nutz! We started the week off with a bunch of investigators that weren't exactly doing so hot, we cut them. BUMMER when your investigators aren't progressing, but they are doing it to themselves, not you. We taught a family of 10 girls last weekend right? They all acepted the invitation to read the first livrinho and pray. Well, we returned and there was only one girl there, the 16-year old... bummed and slightly disapointed, we asked her if she prayed and read. The people here are typically very honest with us because they have the fear of lying before God, so normally people say, "to be truthfull, no, I didn't..." and then continue with excuses about laundry and such...but she responded yes, I read and I prayed, I didn't feel anything for now, but I'll continue! We gave her a Book of Mormon and explained it and had an excelent lesson, that was one of the highlights of the week. The other highlight was when we went to go visit the family that went to church last week, of whom we had no idea who they were. Their house reminds me a lot of Brother Grigsby's, poor, but a home filled of love, comfort food made on a wood stove, and lots of chemarrão, LOTS of chemarrão. Well, we visited them thursday night, they live an hour away from Erechim, but are still part of our area, so we took a bus out there. they live in a little farming community out in the mountains of Viadutros, close to Gaurama. I absolutely love it there, away from the city, I have learned recently that I do not enjoy the city life, I want a farm when I am older. That is beside the point. They have 5 kids, the youngest of which is 9, and two of which do not live at home. We invited them all to continue going to the church and to study the Book of Mormon and pray. We also invited them all to be baptized on the 24th of this month. They all said that if they feel prepared, the would love to be baptized! They are incredible. The mother was telling me while I was drinking the chemarrão, that during the winter, when it gets really cold (about 20 degrees farenheit) everybody in their family gathers around the wood stove every night and they tell stories about their past and read scriptures together, what a family perfect for the church. The only problem is that their income is EXTREMELY limited, and it costs 10 reals round trip to go to Erechim, X5 for each person in the family each Sunday, would be a HUGE burden on the family so they are going to try and come every other week. Bishop wants to go out there with the missionaries every other week that they don't come and host a sacrament meeting out there with all the members out in those two towns. We are currently asking President Wright to see if we can open a branch out there and put a permanent set of missionaries out there (of course I would volunteer, that place would be heaven to work in, everybody is humble, but sincere, and they keep commitments.... :D) we shall see. For now, due to our limited income and time, we can only visit once a week, but we will see, we will see....

Today we are having our PDAY da Zona!!!! here in Passo Fundo, we have 18 elders in our Zone, and so we are playing football *(soccer), which is very not fun to play because the brazileiros are so good that when anybody (me) let the ball go, and is a clutz...they get upset. Volleyball, which is fun because I am actually pretty good at it, and of course the intense goofieness that happens when you put 18 elders together....due to the lack of sisters in our zone, photos of girlfriends, exgirlfriend, future girlfriends, and a couple of fiancés get passed around, compliments are always expected. It's pretty funny and good humored.

To the bummer part of the week. Wednesday afternoon, I got sick. We ate lunch, were walking aound visiting some people (about half an hours walk away from our apartment) and all of a sudden I hit a wall. Well, more like my stomach got flung against a wall. For the next few days I puked and killed all of the cockroaches that live in the pipes below the toilet...if you catch my drift....(I get double points for the play on words hahaha) but seriously, the last few days have been miserable...and just as I think I'm getting better, I start puking again. I am starting to see a pattern though, usually when I eat meat, I puke, so I'm going easy on the churrasco, which we have had several times since then, normally I would be overjoyed to eat churrasco, but, hey, what am I to do huh?

Anyway, I am so glad to hear from you guys, here in a couple of weeks I will call and set an hour to skype with yall on mothers day...which is different than in the US, so, yeah. Help the missionaries in your ward, go on visits with them, (TANNER DO THIS!) learn the principles taught in Preach my Gosple, live them, love them. BE AWESOME

 

Te amo, e A Igreja é verdadeira

Elder Eliason