July 15 - Opah!

and so the saga continues....

this week, unfortuantely, was not extremely exciting. we didnt get to go fishing unfortunately, the man who was going to take us got completely sick.  we cut almost all of our investigators, and so we are almost at ground zero, nada.  Fortunately, we got permission to get the documents ready for the wedding of our member inactivo and her boyfriend, so that we can baptize him and his son.   and the famliy can be sealed.   but other than that...not much happend.  Oh, yesterday I set a new record on contacts on the road, I did 41 contacts on people passing through the Rodoviaria (uh, bus parkinglot???) it really doesnt have a good translation.  Oh, Busstation, but with lots of busses. whatever.  It was good. 

We went on splits yesterday, Elder De Oliviera and I went to Santo Antônio da Patrulha, and our companions stayed in Osorio.  It rained. A LOT.  we had a family night where we played the flour game, but in the place of a coin, we placed a hard candy in the center.  It was awesome. I placed 2nd.  I just have to say, I completely love Brazilian food, looking back, I think the only thing that I ate in the united States was sandwiches and pasta....and chicken.  Here we eat black beans and rice, but I found out that you have the sauté the onions that you put in the beans beforehand, or they put a suferic taste in the beans. strange.

Mother- I got the sweater, and the taco seasoning! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! The sweater is not the prettiest of them all, but I still wear it :)  poop-brown with gray pin-striped slacks-looks kinda funny, but hey, the brazilians think its the best thing ever, so whatever.  wear it with a green tie, and we're in business. 

WE ate carne de Javali.... from what they described it as, its Wild Boar.  It was super delicious. placed on a spit over an open fire, it was incredible.  lots of salt on the exterior brings out so much flavor............ hmmm...... okay my mouth is watering now.
  We had a Branch council meeting at 630 sunday morning.. in the end, the Relief society president and the Elders Quorem president were arguing and yelling for the larger part of the time, we are still working on the whole "the spirit of contention is of the devil" thing.  Its kind of funny, because they obey with exactness the branch president, who is a quiet humble japonese man, who has some 4 years as a member of the church. anyways, we are still building the kingdom of God.  It's good. Did I tell you that we found a dead penguin last week with a ton of sand-dollars on the beach of Capão da Canoa, at Zone conference?

Ter um Ultimo dia :)

EE

esta semana

kay...so I realized that once again I blew away the majority of my time writing to brittany and tanner....but hey whatever

Strange-, I am writing this email in civilian clothes-  We are going FISHING with one of the recent converts, he is taking us fishing and we will cook and eat the fish for lunch on the beach of the lake.  Im excited. 
More news- I have not been transfered. I will stay here along with my companion, Elder R. Santos, weird huh? we both will pass 1 year on the mission together, normally this never happens, anybody with more than 8 months being with another of 8 or months... only Zone Leaders... weird, but hey, look, there are benefits, we are baptizing almost EVERY weekend...
This weekend we had the magnificent baptism of 2 super-elect investigators, Luciano and his wife Sonia.  (sonia in portugese means Dream) cool huh? well, a member asked them to come to church because we need more people in the church to get property and to construct the capella.  Well, the went as a favor for him, but they loved it so much that they started coming independent of him, they didnt let us come over to their house for a good chunck of time, but when we passed one day, they were home and we entered.....invited them to read in the book of mormon and pray.  Well, Sonia prayed and recieved an answer VERY VERY VERY clearly, so...she let us back, and we taught them and Saturday, they were baptized! :)  They have a daughter that is slightly rebellious, but not really, she is doing Catecriz, I have no idea what it means in english, but its like a Catholic Barmitzva, but anybody can do it... and she's in the middle right now, so we are trying to teach her about not worshiping Idols and images etc...its complicated, but we will baptize her soon, I pray. 

cool story- He got really really sick on Saturday (the devil trying to stop baptisms right?!?!?!?)  but he mustered up the courage and strength some how to pass the interview and be baptized- but he asked that we heat the water in the font. well....we tried. 2 automatic water heaters, 3 giant 40 liter pots on the stove of boiling water in the 800 liter pool....in the elders quorum room. it was still ice-cold and he still got baptized.

Mom, you asked what I did for the green pumpkin cake...well, I made it in the blender...maybe that was the problem.  I hardly did anything to get my visa, I have no idea why its so difficult to get it in Virginia. Sorry B. The 4th of july fest sounds awesome, I wore my America! t-shirt that night for pajamas...but thats about it.

I am INCREDIBLY jealous of Ryan, flying F-15s... Its my dream to one-day fly in one of them (they have 2-man cabins right?!?!?!?!?)

Parabéns Tanner on your high SAT and AP and ACT scores!

Facebook IS worse than Cocaine....
facebook---we have a ton of investigators that we have challenged them to read and pray about the book of mormon right? well, almost all of them say when we return, bah! elderes, I didnt have time! I had to cook, and clean the house, and take care of the kids, and etc......  and then we ask the kids, or the husband, or spouse how much time they spend on facebook.  usually about 3 hours. then we look at the investigator and ask, really? they always turn red and then admit that its true...really annoying right? dont have time to read 12 verses of the book of mormon and consider what they read and pray, but they have enough time to blow 3 hours on facebook every day...etc... well, its obvious that they dont care...and so we threaten them that well never return.  this usually motivates them for about 5 minutes. But then the pleasures of the world aka facebook set in, known as "Facey-Bookie" in portugues.

Acabou tempo

Amo Vocês!

Elder Eliason

well....

this week was very very interesting...we had a ton of activity in the ward, we are working our butts off, and the branch is growing.  over the last 6 months, the branch has been fighting to have enough members to buy land to construct a chapel, -we are using a rented out house right now- while the sisters were here, the numbers were floating about 70 and 75.  After 3 weeks of us being here, the numbers started averaging between 90 and 95.  we needed 1 trimester of average 80, and as of yesterday, we performed this goal, so today they are buying land, but we have to keep this number until september to get permission to begin constructing.  In doing so, one of the members of the branch invited his friends to "give him a hand" so their family of 4 went to church to help grow our numbers that was 4 weeks ago, I am still deciding if that was the stupidest or wisest reason....because they are going to be baptized Saturday!  they LOVE it! we are working really hard, I know that it sounds like we are slacking and just having fun in my letters, but really every day is focused very very directly on the investigators, its just that stuff happens EVERY week that is fun, funny, and interesting, and thats what I send...so here it goes
we had a chicken in the church sunday, he was in the entrance of the church, and my companion decided to try and scare him away, but instead of running back home, the chicken fled underneath some pews... after 3 minutes, I finally grabbed him and took him to his owners (the neighbors of the church)

we had the competition of male cake makers....it was AWESOME huge success, and it was super cheap-ideas you leaders of the church...

every man made his own cake *(without the help of any woman)*  and the investigators were the judges, all 14 that showed up! we had 9 cakes, I made mothers chocolate zucchini cake, but turned out more like a brick....so i broke a couple of cookies above it in the shape of a tie, and well....yeah.  we each had to introduce our cake to the judges and the congregation, and we received a score, between 1 and 50 depending on creativity, taste, and appearance...unfortunately, I got last place on taste and appearance...it was terrible, terribly terrible.  actually there were only 2 that were edible, but we had a super fun time laughing...and integrating the investigators with the members....our super awesome family of 4 that went to church just to increase our numbers were there and commented afterwards that they dont feel like they do in the other churches, but that they feel at home, with a family.  I am so excited for them. I think my companion threw away the rest of my cake this morning. hahahaha

there was a riot this last weekend here in Osório...the problem is that the city in total has about 60,000 inhabitants, and so the riot had about 40 people...and nothing happened. hahahahahah  some of our investigators went, they said that the biggest thing was that their daughter rode her bicycle and that 3 dogs chased her....and that that was the biggest commotion there. 

sunday had an interesting talk done by my friend Fabio....(he is a professional singer..look up "A palavra é uma semente, por Fabio Severo" on youtube if you want an example...)  he commented about his friend of 1 and a half years old, who when he fell, got up and brushed off his hands.  at only 1.5 years old, the kid already realized that he needs to stay clean, that he needs to be away from anything dirty, how this is incorporated into our minds before we can speak, act for ourselves, etc...it is a principle of God.  Interesting huh?  We are also doing a course of "teaching, no higher calling" master-teaching, interesting, I think it is really cool, a preach-my-gosple for sunday school teachers, but im still learning things from both books...its awesome.

By the way, Brasil won the Cup of the Confederations yesterday, smoking Spain 3-0, yeah, it was really really really hard to find anybody who would listen to us during the game. :/ its going to get complicated during the World Cup next year....hahaha, normally the mission presidents just give in and let the missionaries watch the games in which their country is playing and the country of which they are staying (brasil). Unfortunately, I realized lately that my jersey is of a Uruguayano, Forlan, but he plays for my team, Inter, so whatever. 

Facebook is worse than cocaine

Elder Eliason

hey howdy hey!

So, its been another week here in the fantastic cities of Osório and Santo Antônio de Patrulha.  We had 2 baptisms this week, Malvina and Joel! they are an incredible couple with tons of faith. The sisters found them about 4 months ago contacting people on the road, and they have been teaching them ever since.  There were some complications 1- they weren't married (they got married on Friday at 4 pm) 2- He drank about 3 liters of coffee every day (stopped cold turkey).  Well.....they were baptized on Friday after the wedding at 6 pm.  what an exciting day for them. 

We didnt have the opporunity to watch the devotional, we will watch it here in a couple of weeks after it has been translated, copied, sent to the mission, copied sent to the district, copied, sent to the branch, and then we will find a member with a computer and then watch it...I will tell you all how I liked it in a couple of weeks.

It has been a crazy and slow week, unfortunately we had to cut a TON of our investigators, they had no desire to progress.... we had to coordinate the baptism, wedding, etc.... so in the end, we only taught 25 lessons this week...I felt very ineffective, but hey, we had baptisms :)

Things that I think would make you laugh....depending on your knowledge....

-here in brazil they have created a new animated telivision show called "the adventures of the Kratts brothers"  cool huh? ITS BEEN FOREVER.

-one of our inactive friends that we are working with, is 9 years old, asked me if there really exists the law of the least exertion, meaning that the best way to do something is to do it using the least amount of energy.  we explained to him the value of work.  5 minutes later he asked if there are such things as false friendships. realize he is 9.  He told us that he suspects some of his collegues from school are trying to build frienship with him to gain money, and he needs to know how to discern this from true friendship.  He used a ton of vocabulary that I did not know, but was able to figure out what they meant by context. every time I work with him and his family, I am flabbergasted. 

-there have been quite a few riots lately.  the people here are very tired of the 1/3 tax on income. and paying 3 reals for 1 passage on the buss that last year was 85 centavos. next p-day, a member in our ward that lives in our apartment building is going to show us how to make smoke grenades.  Im pumped. 

anyways, love your missionaries, make them cookies, brownies, and all sorts of other goodies.  give them dinner, make sure that they have dinner EVERY day, its not okay for them to go without dinner.

keep your stick on the ice,

Elder Eliason

its the most, crazy time, of the year.............

well, its been a pretty crazy week, we have been working in 2 cities, Santo Antonio and Osório
in Santo antonio, we have found a family on the brink of destruction, but their son of 18 years old, *who looks like david beckham and is an AWESOME investigator* told us that he wants to serve a mission! well, he also asked what he has to do to qualify for a mission, the first thing? Baptism....so we marked the day of 9 of July.  Im excited. He speaks perfect english, so I figure that he probably will serve in the USA....

We have an investigator that is missing a leg, we teach him on occasion, but he is pretty funny.  well, we got to know his wife last monday night, she came in after work (she is a cook) and we were preparing to talk about the Book of mormon.  Well, she started commenting on how she is having a terrible time with her reseraitory system, but is smoking...well, we know how to solve that... there are a variety of ways to help a person stop smoking...2 main ways actually, help the diminish the number (people who smoke more than 2 boxes of cigarettes daily) and stop on the hour (almost everybody, but is much rougher)

well....we employed the stop on the hour technique..

to this day she has yet to smoke or drink coffee again. :)

we also were looking for a contact that the other elders did, when we ran into Juracy.  She is a woman who is 73 years old, has received the missionaries for more than 20 years *(we had no idea)* and had gone to church many times. We entered the house and asked why she was never baptized, she looked at us and blinked, and told us that she has no idea.  Her sister was baptized 5 years ago, and ever since then, she has read every copy of the liahona cover to cover.  well, we invited her to be baptized last sunday.  (4 days after finding her) well.... she passed the interview and was VERY excited to be baptized, but when we passed sunday morning to bring her to church, the door was locked with a padlock from the outside with a piece of paper rolled up in the door....with the following

Respeitosamente (repectively)

Disculpe para incomudar-los (Im sorry to bother you)

mas, depois da intreviesta, um caminhão passou para mudar minhas coisas pra se-mudar pra São Fransisco de Paola (but, after the interview, a large truck passed to pick up my stuff and I moved to the city of São Francisco de Paola)

Eu vou me-batizar lá (I will be baptized there)

address of her new house.

Juracy

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO who does that!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!
well....in the end we had 7 other investigators come to church, so it was okay in the end...but AKKKKK how obnoxious!!!]

anyways, easy come easy go right? whatever

have an incredible week
EE

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)