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

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