Well, this week was an interesting week, we had to cut almost all of our investigators, nobody wants to go to church or actually discuss the principles of God in the sense of accepting the principles in their life, most of them were just curious about us, if we worship Joseph smith etc....'Oh youre from the USA??? que show (trad: how macho) its a slang that they say here, along with barbaridade tchê! anyways,

the onibus business, Unesul, found my wallet, it fell out of the pocket of my jacket in Passo Fundo, I took a trip to Porto Alegre saturday to go get it, unfortunately my 60 reals was missing, but at least I have my protocol (*ID to be in Brazil, saying that I am registered with the federal police) drivers license, military ID, debit card from the mission...etc... everythings good now :) we took a trip to the beach (zone conference in Capão da Canoas) which was awesome, I took some awesome pictures, but unfortunately this computer is not reading my memory card and so I will have to try again another day, but know I took a ton of photos.

I am extremely excited for Brittany to get here missionary calling, and I am super super super anxious to know where she will go!   When I got mine, my roommate was at home and he took a photo of the envelope and sent the photo to my phone as I was in the middle of chem class....needless to say that I learned absolutely nothing that class......

We found a very poor family this week that is super interested in the gospel, the thing is that they have 15 kids that live with them.  yes, 15, all between the ages of 1 and 24.   we passed by sunday to walk with them to church, and 1 little girl remembered and went with us, actually, we had to wake her up, but thats okay, she was happy.  she is 11, but she said that next week she will wake everybody up early and so we dont have to beat the doors of everybody.  :)

We visited a reference from one of the members in Santo Antonio, which was incredible.  The parents are on the brink of divorce because of the fact that the father doesnt like the catholic ways, and the mother has found spiritualism, which is reincarnation mixed with apostasy.  theyve been fighting for some time and their son who is 17 is studying english, the professor is the group leader in santo antonio, and we visited the family.   it is incredible to see how the gospel can move a family of destruction to union.  It is interesting, because the gosple itself doesn't do anything, but the people change, and the gospel helps them change themselves....and fix the marriage...the entire family will go to church this week.  Im excited.   actually, im SUPER excited, because this weekend is branch conference in Osorio, in the morning, but because of the fact that the son works in the morning, we're going to have a second sacrament meeting in the afternoon in Santo antonio, just so that they can go to church.  Its going to be AWESOME!

Anyways, thats a summary of our week....lots more hotdogs (cachorro quente) every night  EVERY NIGHT.  oh well, its delicious.    and one of our investigators owns a bakery....well, we pass some times to talk to him, and of course, I end up buying a cake....3 reals, or 1.50 dollars, for a 1kg carrot or chocolate cake. so worth it. so worth it.

have a fantastic week, keep me updated

Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, youll land among stars...

keep your stick on the ice.

elder eliason

Well..........Im in Osório, a little beach town some 20 km off the coast!  it has about 60,000 inhabitants, about half of that of the city of Erechim.  We are working in 4 here, so we split the city, I get the west half with my new companion, Elder R. Santos, from ABC São Paulo.  His accent is less thick than my former 2 companions, and so I am learning to speak better Portuguese.  Also, I have started studying Spanish again, and I can now pray in Spanish :) yay.   Something interesting- We have been designated to take care of the city Santo Antônio de Patrúlha. There is a group out there that Sister Bradley and Sister Marques (two of my very good friends) started when they were here.  We are the first elders to pass here in quite some time, beforehand it was just sisters. This week President Wright will council with the leadership here in Osório and decide if he will open a branch out in Santo Antônio.  If so, I will be transferred to live out there, seeing as how it is quite annoying to commute every day (it takes about 45 minutes each direction, and costs about 5$ each bus ride) If we don't get transferred, and we have to continue living here in Osório and commute, it will be a very long weight-loss transfer, as was the last 3.... just to say, Ive lost 20 lbs since arriving in the field.  I was at 180, im down to 160.  woot.  :/  Im not losing fat....just muscle, Tanner, yes, your arms are probable bigger than mine now. 30 minutes of pushups and situps every morning doesn't do a whole lot for muscle building :( oh well, the Lord will bless after the mission right? :D  It's funny because the sisters before us were complaining to me that they were gaining weight, they weren't accustomed to eating a huge meal every day or something... the kid next to me in the Lan House just did a search for games killing dinosaurs. hahahahahahahaha, sorry. okay.  Well, unfortunately, the sisters didn't make any Progress Reports to say who are the investigators progressing, with the most potential, which ward members are helping with them etc...so its been a cold start here, especially in Santo Antônio, which means tons of contacts on the road and knocking doors, which is probably my least favorite thing to do in the entire world. Its dreadful. Truly an almost waste of time.  Much more effective to do contacts, and converse with people on the road.  I love teaching, if I can get into a house, its the best feeling ever. I just remembered that mother asked if I am still the senior companion...Yes, by 1 day.  I arrived in the CTM on August 1, He arrived August 2.  

Recent events- I lost my wallet, so I am without identity and money. :/ luckily they keep the passports in the mission office, so its secure.  The Financial secretary will put my money on my companions card.

- Our branch president bore testimony about the power of fasting, using the example of his cat, who was ran over by a car. (I chuckled) The cat did a 3 day fast, and was cured.  He bore testimony that the cat knew the power of fasting, and that he now has a firmer testimony.  yeah.  um, when we heard this, we just kind of looked at each other, (the elders) and just chuckled and said, Oh president..... (in the kind loving manner, he's an old japanese man)  funny, my last bishop was from Nigeria, my Branch president now is from Japan.  Fun stuff.

Brandon Blake, you asked about recipes, so here it goes....

-We've been eating a lot of hotdogs lately....Brazilian style of course, take the hotdog sausage, chop it into bits, mix it with garlic, a bit of oil, onion, corn, and salt. and a cup of tomato sauce, in a pot on the stove.  When its all nice and hot, and mixed, serve on rolls (hard crust) with crushed potatoe chips. Very good.

-We also are going to make lunch today- poor mans Strogonoff, rice, done. 

cook chicken chuncks, like normal, in a pan on the stove with a bit of oil, garlic, and onions, salt and parsly. mix in 2 cans of tomato paste, and 1 can of milk cream.  Very good over rice with potato chips crushed above.

one of the sisters, I don't know which, I have my speculations that it was Sister Bradley or Sister Matchiaco, but I don't know, left a piece of home-made apple pie in the fridge.  yeah, that lasted about 2 seconds. Its been a LONG time....anyways, mmmmmm foood.....

mother, would you mind sending me a recipe for Pecan pie? (we have a family in our branch that has a pecan tree (very rare and expensive here :D) :)

anyways, the best of wishes to all yall,

yes, taco means stick as in hockey, or pool, or lacrosse.

Manter teu taco no gelo.
Elder Eliason 

Swell

Well, it has been another week here in Erechim and Viadutos, There have been very little changes, Iliana e Marcelo are continuing to be incredible, Ilianie and Zolan are super sad that I will be transferred because I have been the only person in a long time to be able to calm down their deficient son, Jonny.  We actually were able to teach them the Word of Wisdom through Jonny.  It was incredible to see him smile and tell us about how much he loves watermelon and papaya. We explained to him that it is very healthy, and that our bodies need special fuel.  We have been teaching a kid by the name of Mateus, he has embraced the gospel, and is absolutely loving it, but his father is pretty hard, we had a date marked to be baptized last sunday, but he never told his dad until the night before....yeah, we didn't know that.  His mom sat in on all of the lessons, and is very loving and is willing to support his decision to be baptized, but the fight now is the father.  The interesting thing is that his father was almost baptized in in the 7th day Adventist church some 20 years ago (a church VERY strong and influential here), which means that whether he realizes it or not, he is open to different ideas other than those of Catholicism.  The future missionaries here in Erechim will have to talk to him directly and teach him about the church. This way he will allow his son to be baptized. 

Oh, I litterally just recieved a notice that I will be transfered tonight. Beleza.

Well.  That's what's important. I'm doing fine.  I've eaten my weight in avocado this week.  The brazilians refuse to accept that we eat avocado in normal foods, and not for dessert.  They only eat it in stuff like ice cream, smoothies, and milkshakes.  yeah.  my companion has eaten over 30 avocados with just sugar in the last week.  The problem is that everybody is thinking that they're doing us a favor when we are walking on the road, people hand us avocados.  They grow wildly on the roads here.  Like lemons and oranges.  EVERYWHERE.  Everybody's house we visit they make lemon juice or orange juice (fantastic!) or juice of avocado (not too delicious, but of course I accept and drink and say that it is fantastic).  

We have 4 families that are in the process of getting married so that they can be baptized, please pray for them: Indioné and Marisellie, Rodrigo and Sandra,  Diego and Elizianette, and Ilianie and Marcelo. :D

thank you for the wonderful letter, Mother thank you for the photos :) 

You all have a fantastic week, 

Keep your stick on the ice,

(manter seu taco no gelo)

Elder Eliason

Eliason heritage

Well, welcome to one of the most roller-coaster-like weeks of the mission.  Well, started off with last Sunday, having the opportunity to speak to the family, via Skype, which was fantastic.  I am currently eating uma Pedemoleke, which in the end, is just sugar, sweet and condensed milk, and peanuts.  Its incredible and extremely rich.  This one has a chocolate bar melted into it, extremely delicious. Sorry.  okay, well, last Friday, we went to lunch (lunch every day is with a member, rarely is dinner) well, and so we got there and the member just arrived from her class at the local university, and had not prepared anything, so she told us that it will take about an hour to make lunch (normal time, but to wait is a huge waste of time, seeing as how we only have 1 hour to lunch) and so we left and did contacts on the road for the next hour waiting for lunch.  Well, it was my turn to do the contact, and I saw a couple sitting on the curb outside the jewel factory.  I walked up, introduced us, and told them that we will be having a baptismal meeting on the 26th of this month, and we want to know when can we pass in their house to prepare them for this day.  They kind of looked at me funny, and told us to pass on the weekend.  Well, we get a TON of contacts, and it takes a little while to visit them all, because when you get a new investigator, it is necessary to visit them several times during the week.  Well, we visited them that Sunday, (last Sunday) and we arrived at the house, and they live in a neighborhood that I have never set foot in *(yes, I know, I have been here for 5 months almost and there are still neighborhoods that I have never tread, that's how huge our area is) They lost their only son (of 4 months old) about 1 month ago, and have been suffering a lot. Well, we taught them about the Plan of Salvation, the incredible joy that it brings to the families and how we can be with our families for eternity.  Well, they were so incredibly attentive that they stopped me every ten seconds to ask a question.  This is a signal that they are actually interested in what you are teaching.  Many times we are teaching and the investigator just says uh-huh, uh-huh, hmm.... and this really doesn't give us a read on how well they are understanding or if they are even paying attention. Well, we taught them about the Plan of Salvation, and gave them a little booklet about it *(you can ask your missionaries for one, and they would be more than willing to give one to you)*  We returned Wednesday night to check up and see if they read or prayed or did anything about it.  Well, she, Ilianie, read the booklet cover to cover, studied all of the scriptures written therein, and had been praying fervently to know if it is true.  Well, when we returned, the first thing she said is "Those Pastors have returned!!!!" and opened the door, and asked me as we entered, what more she needs to do to enter the Celestial Kingdom to be with her son.  Almost brought a tear to my eye.  Those are GOLDEN WORDS for a missionary to hear.  We taught them about the restoration and invited them to church.  Well, Yesterday, they showed up to church 20 minutes early as to make sure that they didn't miss anything.  there were 5 members in the chapel at that time, including us, the ward mission leader, the relief-society President, and the 2nd counselor in the bishopric.  We all got acquainted and gave a tour of the chapel.  As elders quorum started, our newly ordained Elders Quorum President (we have been without this entire time that I have been here...until this week) introduced himself and asked if Marcelo (the investigator) is just visiting, he responded the following "Today is my first day in this church, my wife and I are looking to find a church, and I would like to stay with this one forever."  our Elders Quorum president, Irmão Gabriel responded with a grin  looking at us "Opa!" which basically is the same thing that they say in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Opa!  It's an exclamation that means excitement.  Yeah, Opa was just the beginning of my emotions.  We visited them again last night and asked them how it was.  They LOVED it!!!!!!  Turns out that that morning, when they woke up, they were feeling the pull of the devil, tired, cold, and a little bit disanimated, but Ilianie opened her Bible and started to read.  She opened to Psalms 107, which talks about the Lord and how he is wiser than us, and that he is guiding every single on of us on a journey to the Promised land, whether we know it or not.  Well, she took this to apply on herself, meaning that all of her trials and tribulations have brought her to this point, to this local, where she was willing to accept the true doctrines of Christ, and when she went to church, this was confirmed.  About 1/3 of the ward was there yesterday, so she had a very nice personalized lesson with the Relief Society president and 2 other women, who are very dedicated to the church *(the caravan from the temple arrived at 2 AM)  yeah, so the President of the Relief Society worked with her to discern her feelings, and turns out that she decided that God sent her son, so that he could have the sickness, so that they would have to move from that small town in the middle of nowhere which didn't have a hospital, to Erechim, where he served his purpose, died, leaving his Parents there to find the gospel.  She told us this last night, and told us that she knows that the church is true and is willing to follow it with everything she's got.  There's only 1 problem, and that is that they aren't legally married.  We can fix that.   They have a couple of avocado trees....last night they gave us 10 kilos of avocado.  I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO WITH THEM, but hey :) Guac anybody?  actually, they make smoothies with avocado, which is actually terrible, they eat them with sugar and other sweets, even to the point of making ice cream out of it.  hmmm.... the other day, i had corn on the cob ice cream, it was delicious. anyways. yeah, that has been the excitement of our week.  we have 1 more week before transfers again.  OH and President Wright asked me to find a house to rent in Viadutos to put missionaries there!!!!! :D :D :D  the Elders in Erechim won't have to blow 2 hours every day and 10 Reals on a bus to get there!  wooo HOooooo!!!!!!!  I'm excited.

anyways, have a fantastic week, 

Keep your stick on the ice

Elder Eliason.

May 6, 2013

Hello Everybody,

first-orders of business.

somebody please tell Bishop Craig Wade that I love recieving his letters, but he needs to stop sending them to the Porto Alegre South mission, I'm in the North  (see the postal address of Caixa Postal on my blogg) 

This week we I have 3 things to talk about.  

1.  We have found an elect of God.  She is incredible. We were wandering in a neighborhood really long away from our house Thursday night, we had no idea what we were doing at that moment, we have no investigators in that neighborhood, nor members.  As we were walking around in the darkness, we decided to go up a hill that we had never been up before. Well, when we reached the top of the hill, an Onibus passed and dropped off a woman and her son.  She got off the buss and called out to us, "Meninos, porfavor, para!"  meaning, my young boys, please stop where you are.  well, naturally we stopped, and waited for her to get to us. When she got close, she bent over and looked real hard at my plackard, and then asked "os Mormóns?"  we responded of course, and she almost burst into tears, she has been looking for us the entire week to no avail, she didn't even know if we had a chapel in the city.  Her sister has been a convert out in Curitiba, for over a year, and last week went to the temple for the first time, and called her sister and told her that it was the best experience of her life.  The two sisters are very close- they both have sons that have mental handicaps. This sister that is part of the church now has a very happy disposition that she didnt have beforehand, so the sister wanted to know what was the difference.  Of course she said the church, so when we appeared, she told us that she wants to know about the church.   XD XD XD fantastic! that was Thursday.  We taugh her about the restoration Saturday night, Sunday she went to church alone, without car ride or anything (*a HUGE indicator to see if the person will stay active in the church or not) and LOVED it, today is Monday, we have plans to teach her entire family tonight, and already she has invited members over to her house to visit, without our knowing.  We will visit Wednesday with the members :)  this is what we call an ELECT OF GOD- somebody who has been prepared by the spirit and angels to hear the truth.  (see Preach my Gospel and 2 Nefi)

2. Tuesday, we went to Viadutos to visit a bunch of investigators (we are teaching more than 10 familys here) well, we left early in the morning to do a service project for an investigator- he lives about an hour and a half by foot in the interior of the interior of the countryside.....we ate sugarcane, chopped a ton of firewood, drank chemarrao, ate a million tangerines (he has amillion tangerine trees).   It was fantastic, he is a farmer that lives alone, and he is the brother of a member here in Viadutos. Today we returned, and spent out P-day chopping wood, eating churrasco, and etc... it was a fantastic P-day.  Also, we did churrasco of armadillo, it was supprisingly delicious.  I took a TON of photos, but this computer is slow and doesn't have an SD jack, so next week will have to do.  :D

3. President Wright asked me to find a place to rent so that we can put missionaries in Viadutos.  YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D   I  am SUPER EXCITED, that would be a dream, to work every day here in Viadutos, they are a people that are ready to receive the Gospel.  The gospel is growing.  :D :D :D

anyways, do what is right, let the consequences follow.

keep your stick on the ice.

Elder Eliason

(from one of 3 computers in Viadutos that has internet access)

This week.

Well, This week has been quite the journey. Starting on Monday, there has been much happening, we have reactivated the family of 12, who are the most incredible family, but have only 1 problem, they have to get a car ride to the church because they live over 2 miles away from the church (for us is not a problem) but for them, with a multitude of little kids, doesn't go over too well. We also have the problem that there are only 5 families in the ward that have a car, let alone are disposed to offer a car ride when we ask. Well, we managed, and I had the privilege of baptising Ênya this weekend. She is the sweetest little 10-year old that I have ever met. We had 3 baptisms marked for this last weekend, but one didn't show up, he lives in another city, and the little sister of Ênya, Carla, who is 9, began to bawl when she saw the water in the font, and refused to enter. We shall see what we can do, maybe we will have to wait until the father is worthy to baptise her, which should be here shortly, but who knows. This week we had stake conference, we recieved the conference via satellite here in Erechim, and we had over 150 people show up, 9 were active investigators and a multitude of people that I have no idea who they are, most were from out of town, and so we can't teach them, but anyways it was an incredible experience, President Richard G Scott talked in Portuguese, very slowly, with about a fourth of the vocabulary in spanish, but that's alright, everybody understood what he was saying, he talked on the importance of keeping the commandments and how we may observe and learn of what we need to do in our lives through the examples of the prophets in the scriptures, what we need to dedicate to the Lord. It was swell.

 

My friend and investigator, Vilmar stopped smoking!!!!!!!!!! Woooohoooo!!!!!!! and we are hoping he will be baptized this sunday! :D :D :D :D Thats the plan at least.

 

We got a reference from a person we met in another investigator's house, that her son had received the missionaries some time in the past and had almost been baptized. We passed by his house and learned that he in fact wants to serve a mission! WHAAAAA!!!!!!!!! Well, he asked, "So elders, what does it take to get baptized?" I almost explained sober it in my own words, but then I remembered that there is a very specific verse in Doctrine and Covenants that explains this very question that Joseph Smith made...D&C 20:37, its a good one :)

 

anyways, everybody is asking me if I will have to return to the United States if the USA goes into war with Korea do Norte..... I said, well, we shall see....(I have no idea whatsoever if that is even close to happening), but for now I will focus my thoughts on Erechim.

 

Mother, Pinhão is the equivilant of a cousin of a pinecone seed. it falls from the Pineiros (pine-trees that everybody has in photos and paintings, brazilian trees that are super tall and have no branches until the vere top) they are terrible plain. They are bearable if you cook them in water. They are excelent if you roast them or cook them in water and then take off the cask and then roll them in salt. Irmã Roma put very little salt on them. Angela gave us a TON of them with a bucket of salt to dip them in. SO DELICIOUS. and mother, its not barbacue, thats very very very different, its Churrasco :)

 

anyways, thank you all for the birthday wishes, Yes mother, I got the package last month :) thanks for the music

I'll send photos :)

 

Keep your stick on the Ice.

Elder Eliason

hey

hey you, I just met you, and this is crazy, so here's the chapel- be baptized maybe?

 

yeah....we're fighting to keep a positive attitude, we had 10 investigators go to church yesterday, but neither of the investigators that we had marked a baptism with yesterday went. Vilmar, my dear friend didn't pass the baptismal interview....he passed on a conditional basis, but the fact that he didn't go to church yesterday kills me and made it impossible for him to get baptized. Geo, well, we have yet to hear his justification for not going to church...

I hate excuses. Please, just suck it up and tell us that you overslept or something. Dont blame it on the laundry, or dog, etc....

okay, now that my wrath has settled...we did have a miracle thisweek....

over the last month (without our knowing) Bispo has been searching high and low for a family that supposedly moved into our ward. He had called the bishop of their ward (out in Uruguayana) the grandpa of the family, he had a cell number that wasn't working....etc.... one month in vain. Well, we were walking down the road in a neighborhood about 2 kilometers long of our chapel, and doing contacts on the road. Well, I stopped to do a contact with a young man, and he actually told us that he was a member afastado...inactive. Well, it turns out we were in front of his house, and he invited us to come in. We entered the simple house, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, and a family room....with a decently sized yard. well, there were kids EVERYWHERE. When I say everywhere, I mean everywhere....I asked, so, which of them are part of your family? The response? ALL OF THEM! THEY HAVE 10 KIDS!!!!!!!!! The oldest are twins, they are 17 years old.....here:

Sandro (father)

Kaita (mother)

Karin-17

Karinnie-17

Iago-16

Tiago-13

Enya-10

Carla-9

André-7

Samail-4

Dallesandro-2

Bernardo-10 months

Well.....we were overwhelmed, and asked if all of the kids (of age) were baptized...turns out that Enya and Carla have not! Well........they will be baptized here in a little bit....

It was literally a miracle that we found them that day, we returned that night to the church (we were to meet bishop there to go on splits) and we told him about the family. He got silent, and then got super giddy, super happy, so happy that he ran across the street and bought us a bag of cookies... I didn't know that they made cookies here...but he did...and then he called a taxi and we went to go visit the family. It was the family that he was looking for. 2 Young women, 2 young men, 4 in the Primary, and 2 in the nursery...nearly doubles the number of youth in the ward. I know without a doubt that it was inspiration to find them that day because after talking to the mother....turns out that they ate the last of their food that afternoon, the father was working, but the company was not paying him. (he has yet to recieve 3 months pay) well, Bispo intervened, and everything is tranquil now, but we are working with them...everybody in the ward is super excited to recieve them...and they live close to some of the other youth...so there's going to be an awesome increase in the ward.

This was basically the only thing exciting that happened this week, besides the fact that our gas went out (we buy gas by the tank) while I was making lunch last pday and so I ate frozen (already cooked) chicken.

 

We visited a man with lemon trees (they look like oranges and are green, orange and yellow,) and he gave us about 80 lemons, so we have been making a ton of fresh lemonade lately to combat the cold that has been going around. I will include an easy brasilian lemonade recipe that I made this morning:

 

5 lemons with the peel taken off (I use a knife, its easier)

1 banana

a ton of ice cubes

sugar to taste

very cold water to fill the blender.

blend it all together

pour it through a juice filter (looks like a bit of windowscreen stretched in an exterior of a magnifying glass.)

drink

very very good.

anyways Lemons, limes and oranges are in season again. its pretty good

Mother, you asked what Pinão tastes like....well, its got a pretty nuteral meaty flavor, you can prepare it salty or sweet, We had it at Irmã Roma's house salty. Tastes like chicken. yeah. tanner, name that movie. Hint, a parrot says that.

 

anyways. Have a wonderful day. Te amo, e A Igreja é verdadeira.

 

Keep your stick on the ice.

Elder Eliason

P.S. I just got informed that Neither Elder P. Souza nor I will be transfered, so I will stay in Erechim for the next 6 weeks! :)

Bahahahahahahahaha, Brittany, that is AWESOME!!!!!!

Okay, so this week has been good, better, and well, not exactly best because we didn't have a baptism (that makes 8 weeks I think? which puts us as the worst area in the mission? whatever) But...many things did happen. Yesterday, we had an awesome lesson set up for Rodrigo and Sandra, the brother and sister-in-law of irmã Claudia, wife of Irmão Tutti. They went to church (YES!) and went to eat lunch at Tutti's house. Well they forgot that we were on our way to come teach them so they left for São Valentim, a city close, but still in another municipial (county) so we were out of luck...we have 48 municipials/counties that Elder P. Souza and I take care of by the way, its kind of rediculous. Anyways, so I called Tutti to see if we were still on track to teach them and he paused and apologized and said that they just left, but to meet him in front of Irmão Jarede's house. We walked the 45 minutes to Irmão Jarede's house and arrived, and Irmão Jarede was confused and told us that Tutti wasn't there and that nothing was happening. Well, I called Tutti again and he said that he was on his way (he lives 15 minutes away) well, we decided to do contacts on the road, knock doors, etc.... so that we weren't wasting time. Well, after 10 contacts, 1 lesson and 1 hour later, Tutti arrived and said, hey Elders, we need you for a service project we are doing today....roofing and painting the interior of the house of Irmão Jarede. Well.....Being sunday we were a bit confused, but then realized, that Sunday was the only day that anybody in the ward could provide service for each other...so, in our white shirts and ties....which we quickly changed to old cothes of Jarede, we spent the rest of the day helping...he was right, it would have taken a LOT longer and have been much more difficult without us....

Saturday I called a contact that we did on the road to see if she was home and if we could pass by. Well, it turns out that she is an English teacher (basics only...) and was working, but she invited us to talk to her class in English and talk about the United States and what I am doing here in Brazil. Of course we went and helped. It was actually very difficult to talk to the Brazilians in English because to explain a word that they didn't know it is just much simpler to say it in Portuguese...I ended up speaking Portenglish for the majority of the time...and yes, all of them thought that all Americans are super-fat and that we all eat mcdonalds every day for every meal. In response to this I told them that Americans thought that Brazilians lived in grass huts and hunted their own food like indians and that in the cities, its like Carnival all year around. They laughed pretty hard, but didn't believe me. well.....ha.

We started teaching a reference from a young-woman in the ward. Her best friend is dating this guy, named Adriano. Well, when he sleeps he dreams, and his dreams are super vivid and he remembers them, he told his teacher this- his teacher is spiritualist and believes in doing whatever possible to communicate with the other side of the veil- an she has been directing him in a direction that is not beneficial for the spiritual welfare of him. We arrived at his house and turns out that he is an almost-neo-nazi, just because of how incredible of a leader Hitler was....it's true, he was an incredible leader, but I know better. His friend gave him a Book of Mormon, and so we directed him to Alma 43 to 62....a new and better more honorable leader....Capitain Moroni. We also read Moroni 10 together about gifts and that people do have gifts of visions and dreams, but they are from God through the Holy Spirit, and that they are to be used for the benefit of others, in a manner that God wants them to be used, not to communicate and try and learn about the other side, we already know what we need from the scriptures and latter day revelation. Anyways, we contacted him, began teaching, and then reported to his friend who gave us the refference, she gave us 2 more references. Another young woman heard that we were teaching him, and didn't believe us. Well, while we were talking to her, a friend of hers walked down the road on the other side. He waved to her and she waved back. Me, being me of course asked hey, does he want to learn about the gosple? She kind of laughed and said "I guess".... so we bolted across the road and talked to him and set up an appointment with him. We returned to the young woman and she was staring in unbelief. We told her that we will pass at his house thursday...etc... and she said look Elders, I was thinking of 1 or 2 references for you all, but now I have a huge list for you guys....everybody accepts the elders if they have friends with them that are testifying of the truth. It was really cool to see how it works. Now we have the young women giving us 4-5 references every week. Well, its fantastic to say the least. 

updates.....:

-Amadeus=loco demais he's a nut. and although he believes we are litterally angels sent to him to proclaim the truth, he has yet to fulfill any of our challenges for him (read the scriptures, go to church, etc...) he prays but in his evangelical fall to the ground style...very obnoxious. So we have stopped teaching him (he lives very far away from our other investigators, and if he is not fulfilling the challenges, there's no reason to keep teaching him sadly)

-Paulo and fam- no new news excpet that we were walking down the road and Paulo jr. (he is 9) called out from a sandpit -their construction site that has sand, an equivilant of a kids dream of a giant sandbox- to us that he wants to be baptized in our church. Well, atleast that removes some doubts that I had...

-Gizzelie is still psycho, but we think that she resolved the problems with her husband, and can be baptized this weekend...we hope

-Alipio found out that church starts at 8:30 normally and told us that it was too early, and that he will still be sleeping at 8:30...because it will be cold and that it is good to sleep when it is cold. well, he's 85, we can't really make him do anything, or reason with him.... besides that, he is looking to get a girlfriend....shes a girl that is taking care of her mother (also of much age) and is nice to him ...hahahahahaha...well, we shall see....

-Vilmar got a new job that travels a lot on the weekend, but he still has his baptism scheduled for this weekend also. He loves the Book of Mormon more than I have seen anybody ever.

-Carlos returned from his month-long vacation trip around the south, and has begun giving hundreds of references again. I think I figured out how he gets all of them....he has a facebook, and whoever is willing to befriend him on FB he sends the missionaries to their house. he is so funny.

anyways, my time has expired on the computer. Te amo e A Igreja é verdadeira.

Keep your stick on the Ice.

Elder Eliason

conference​time

Well, after Sarah Ayer's fantastic email,my computerhas decided thatthespace baris no longer important. No,I amnottrying to replicateher email, but it is truely annoying to slam the space bar every word. So lately I have been concentrating really hard on my Portuguese gramar and spelling, as I have been writing emails in portuguese and taking notes,etc.... but Ihavenoticed a very bad trend, my spelling ofthe English languagehas been taking a huge downfall....anyways, this week. Well, we sufferedthis week. Not interms of my legs *(which wouldbe muchmuchmore enjoyable), but in terms of investigators being slackers and the temptations ofthe devil being ever more present.

 

Our incredible elect family of 5 still hasyettobe baptized. Paulo is smoking 3 cigarettes daily, but has yet to give itup entirely. We aretrying really hard toemphasizeforhim that eternal salvation of his family isresting on his responsability. I think that he has fear of stopping smoking, because he stopped for3 weeks a coupleof years ago. cold turkey. During thosethree weeks, his body did not permit him to sleep, work, or do anything. Hebecame depressed, outraged, and felt useless. Not good for a man who on a weekly basis has to look for new work. On the other hand, his wife is almost done with 2 Nephi. They live in Viadutos, so weonly get to visit them one day every week, this week, we will have a family home Evening with themand anotherfamily,so we shall see.

 

I have decided to learn capoera when I get back, I saw a couple of guys doing it onthe streets, and I really want to learn. "super show" in portugese.... (very macho) but very very cool.

Conferencewasreally really incredible. Father wasright, it iscompletely different as a missionary. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Different in the fact that every talk, I sat there thinking, alright, howcan I apply this in my teachings, andhow canthe investigatorsapply this in their life. Satrudays sessions wereexcelent, we had a fantastic 10 people in thechapel and I brought a quia of chemarrao and my new garrafa termica (thermal waterbottle,thatholds 2litresof hotwater) and we drank chemarrão and listenedto the talks. Sunday morning we had Alipio (an 85 yearold man who I made friends with on the streets, wears bombachas and drinks only chemarrão, and practically yells when he talks, but is super excited about life) show up, along withthe mother of oneof ourmembers, who we havebeen teaching slowly (she doesn't pick up on a lot of stuff, so everything has tobe explained slowly and clearly multiple times, but whatever) Immediately afterwards, we went to São Valentine, a city about 30 minutes tothe west of Erechim, wherewe taught a new family, the brother of a sister in our ward, whose wife didnt believe thatthe missionaries would actually come, but was cryinging joywhen we arrived. Theyare AWESOME, we talked with the member, and she saidthat she has been trying to getthem to cometo church forthe last 4 years, but theynever have come, the missionaries never went to their house, and they felt thatthe church was a foreign thing. Well, we came to their house, talkedabout families, howto fortify them through Jesus Christ, modern day revelation, and Baptism. They need to be married, butthey definitely have means by which,so yeah! Im superexcited.

 

Anyways,elder P. Souza andI willmake hamburgers today. YEAH! woot! okay, and I willbuy a new metal strawthatwont rust (made from stainless steel)....my other metal straw/filter, called a bomba, got corroded overthelast couple of days..(superbummer)....ioh weelll..........te amo e A Igreja é verdadeira

 

Keep your stick on the Ice

ElderEliason

This week

This week has been awesome, terrible, but awesome.

1- Viadutos. We started the group out in Viadutos. Well, we arrived, and the house that we were planning to use was full of people. When we inquired as to what was happening, the response was that everybody was waiting for the new pastors to arrive *(us)* well, we had 33 people attend our little sacrament meeting. With the Rap/Funk that was playing on a boom box from a nearby neighbor, we had the most spiritual meeting that I have ever had. We went on splits with some members of the ward, so I went to Viadutos while Elder P. Souza went to Erechim.

 

2. Our incredible investigators Paulo and his family have yet to be baptized, they are waiting for him to stop smoking. Pray for them

3. The Ward has all of a sudden realized the urgency of new members in our ward, so they are bringing literally all of their friends to church and giving tons of references. It is incredible and a miracle, but we are getting run ragged running from appointment to appointment, one side of the city to another, because people in this city work a LOT. so they only have a little time each week to recieve us, so we have to be there when they are available....very complicated schedules

 

4. Tons of datas for batismo, but few are actually going to happen. When I said we invite on first lesson, yes, we already always do that, but to try and mark a baptismal date the first contact on the road is difficult, strange, but fantastic.

 

5. We had a family home evening with a family who is very against the church, their son is a member, but it almost destroyed the familywhen he told them. He actually ran away from home to be baptized...but things are getting better. We made sloppy Joes with them (build repor) and watched the Testaments with them (always brings the spirit) which was incredible. We gave them a book of mormon and the mother said that this time she will actually try and read and pray about the truthfullness of these things. I have a lot of hope for them :D

 

6. Last night we visited a reference from a member, we arrived, and the family was super happy to have us. Aparently they have tons of friends that are members and awesome examples for them. The father started out by bashing literally every church I have every heard of by all of their faults and how they are all created by man, and how. He then turned to me and told me quite literally, that he has no idea how to bash our church, well, we steered him in the right direction, and told him that there are a lot of things that people say about the church, but we have to use the spirit to discern what is true and what is not. He was fascinated that we actually teach the members of the church to pray and ask God for answers, not the pastors, and that we are to act by the whisperings and promptings of the spirit. We gave them a book of Mormon and invited them to be baptized and read and pray, they accepted, and while we were drinking chemmarrao afterwards *as is custom in their house* the son, (age 18-ish) read the entire chapter that we marked *(alma 36) and pointed out some of the verse that he liked, especially about repentance and the feeling of joy that accompanies this righteous act. I am super excited for them (they've already been to church one time, and they will come to general conference this weekend. ) YEAH!!!!!

 

Anyways, It was fantastic to hear about the trip to NYC, Enjoy life

Te amo, e A Igreja é verdadeira

Elder Eliason