hmmm.....

I really am not that interested in writing an e-mail this week to everybody......

Okay, I'll repent now,

This week we had 2 baptisms, a couple that decided to come unto Christ.  I'm really happy for them, João Marcos and Silvia.  João Marcos is 50 and Silvia is 46.   They're really happy now.  I am praying constantly that they'll stay firm and that they'll go to the temple to be sealed one day.  João Marcos is a professional Chef.  Yeah, how awesome is that right!!!!   Anyways, It was fantastic to talk to the family yesterday.  Sorry that you guys had to scram to go to church, but thanks for the attention. 

9 more e-mails until I'm on the plane home :)  

mom, I got my birthday package! MUITO OBRIGADO :)  my zone loved the valentines and crabby-patties, and my companion loves cool-aid

oh, and I forgot to say it yesterday with all the chaos, but Happy Mothers day mom :)

Elder Eliason

so this week on the *transfer* is *Wright*

hahahahaha, okay, so I was transferred this week right? Looks like I'm going to finish up my mission out in.......

City: SAPUCAIA do sul

Zone: SAO LEOPOLDO 

Companion: Elder Figueroa

from: Chillán, Chile

With: 4 months of mission time

HABLAMOS MUCHO ESPAÑOL 

Entonces.....

so our house is really fancy, we have air conditioning (REALY RARE), We have a Jet-bathtub (Also EXTREMELY rare).  We have a giant Mandarin-Orange tree in front, so every night, when we get home, we grab the broom, which has a hook on the end and pick the most ripe Mandarin-Oranges, which are super sweet and delicious. 

This week, unfortunately, our baptism fell through, he was called in to guard post duty out in the army this weekend, so hopefully next weekend, he'll be baptised :)  His name is Matheus, pray for him, he's 21 and learning that life isn't just party/sleep/get beaten by a drill sergeant.

Nothing REALLY interesting happened this week, but I did learn that I have zero patience for bible-bashing and getting ran over by people who think they are so smart.  What happened,  

Crazy lady in RED

Elder Eliason in Blue

Elder Figueroa in Green

CONTACT ELDER!!!!!!

Good afternoon young lady (age~40)

You are them mormons aren't you

Yes-sir-ree-doo  You ever talked to us before? You have the desire to learn how you can be more happy being baptized?

No, I believe in Jesus in a very different form. Very different than you guys.

how so? are you Umbandista? (editors note, Umbanda is a devil-worshiping cult that is very popular here in the south, they worship Jesus, along with "his cursed brothers and sisters"...........)

What!?!?!! No! I believe in the Bible, unlike you decieved fools!  How can you possibley believe in the book of mormon, there are parts that you say that a man called Moroni wrote that are almost exactly like the letters of Paul, how do you justify a new bible with new names, and such lies!!!!!! I am appalled that you young peope are such idiots to believe such lies.  I have a book at home the points out all of the different parts of doctrine and they contradict everything in the bible.....(interrupts) I don't really care about your opinions or your questions.....(she shuts up) 

 LET's go Elder, let me bash her! I'm ready, I've studied this, let's burn her to pieces!!!!! 

No, I have one question for you, in all of your knowledge and studies, as you have shown that you are SO intelligent and studious, have you ever asked God if what we believe is correct?

No, why would I do that?

Only God testifies of the truth, ask him, James 1:5 Good day lady.

Tião

Almost the same thing happened again 30 minutes afterwards.  I'm so sick of people not letting us speak.  We say hi and ask people if they are interested and they start talking and they monologue until their own tongue is swollen, and then they stop to breathe and start again.  No. I'm sick of that.  I'm going to run the person over if they try to do that to us, I don't have time to listen to idiots blabber.

have a great week

Elder Eliason

 

p.s. I went on a division with a 22-year old brazilian Sniper this week.  He's deciding if he's going to go on a mission.  I hope my opinion helped him out a bit.  We are going to go on splits every week, he's super excited now that an U.S. Army Elder is in his ward.

EE

hey yall

So, this week was good.  Excellent actually.  We had another baptism :D  Woohoooo!!!!! Irmã Selma was baptized yesterday.  I had the wonderful privilege to baptize her.   Here's her story:

21 years ago, her father died, and in search for consolation, her mother got baptized in the Jehovah Witness...  and Selma studied with them and went to church, but something "just wasn't right."   Well, after a long discussion with the last JW missionaries that passed there, she told them to not come back.  That night, her and her son kneeled in prayer to ask God to find the truth.  About 3 minutes later, she found a tinny pamphlet that an Elder had left at her house about 2 years beforehand.  There was our telephone number behind it.  She didn't have credits to call anybody, but she gave it a chance anyways, so she called, and Elder Holmes answered!  She gave us her address (which doesn't exist on any map) and asked if we could pass by.  Well, 4 days passed, we went looking for her house.  At about 7:30 that night, we found it.  As we walked down the road looking for her house, she called out to us.  She was sitting on her porch drinking Chemarrão with her daughter and son and 3 grandkids.  The moment that we showed up, she started crying and told us that we could litterally tell her anything and that she would believe... We were the answer to her prayer.   Cool huh!!!!! Well, we gave her a book of mormon, and told her to read the introduction as her homework and then pray to ask if it were true.   Well, that night, at about 2 am, she couldn't go to sleep, so she went to the kitchen, fixed herself a cup of Cidreira tea (lemon grass?) and began to read.  She didn't read the introduction, she just opened the book and began to read.  2 Nephi 33- It is the declaration of Jacob about the purpose of the book and how it must be esteemed.  She knelt and prayed.  Answers.  We passed by 2 days later and she asked us what she needs to do to follow this path.  Well..........................We baptized her :D  and she's super happy.  She also only has 1/3 of 1 lung that works.... She smoked 4 packs of cigarettes a day for about 40 years.  She also suffers from depression because her husband died 7 years ago.  She quit smoking 5 years ago, and now told us that she doesn't feel any of the depression any more- every time that she feels sad, she picks up the Book of Mormon and begins to read.   I love her.   

I also had an invigorating conversation with her son, Avener, who is 22.  He is incredibly inteligent, and is famishing for the truth.  He is completely disgusted with organized religion (mainly because of the corruption and lack of answers).  I sat and talked to him, and answered all of his questions.  He sat there in silence for about 4 minutes afterwards, while I waited for him to speak, he tried several times, but then stopped.  He teared up and told us that we were the first people that actually answered his questions, and that he wanted to be baptized and learn everything we have to offer.  WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO he also told us that he wants to be a missionary like us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  When you talk to him, he's one of those guys that you can feel the power and influence coming from his person.  He is extremely powerful and influential in his presence.  Unfortunately he is on vacation right now out in Torres (the beach), but he's coming back this week.  Unfortunately, I just found out that I've been transfered, so ............ Looks like the other missionaries will have to take care of him :)

I hope everybody has a fantastic week, 

Elder Eliason

everybody......everybody.....everybody.....

So, first of all, Mom, of all of the photos that you sent me, my favorite BY FAR was that of Tanner's prom dinner.  With Preston as their waiter.  HAHAHAHAHAHA, okay.  

So this week was awesome.  Plain, old AWESOME.  We set some goals that were a bit higher this week that normally we don't come even close to hitting, but as we worked our butts off, we hit them all.

Last Sunday, not yesterday but the one beforehand, we went on splits with a young man from the ward and the Ward mission leader, Osmar.  As I went out with Gabriel, Elder Holmes headed out with Osmar, and went straight to a recent converts house.  It is the family of Lídiamar.  She is a single working mom of 6 kids, who the oldest is 12.  Talk about a little stressed out.  Well, all of the kids who are able are members, but she is not, her parents are and her sister is, but she was not.  They get there, and what does my companion do?  After 5 minutes of talking, he just slams it off the spoon onto her face, "Why haven't you been baptized yet!?"  She just looked at him for a minute and then quietly replied, I don't know.  He then challenged her to be baptized on the 20th.  She accepted to everybodys astonishment.  Well, she starts work at 1300hrs every day, so she had to be baptized before church, at 7:30. Woooohoooo!!!!!!!!!!   Well, she went home after Relief Society to everybodys astonishment.  Why? Well.....her brother died, the very hour that she was being baptized. Her Brother passed away 3 blocks down from the church in the local hospital.  Talk about a crazy day.  Well the funeral was last night (here in Brazil they do that, the funeral is normally the same day or the day after the death) and guess who was stuck playing the slow mourning Hymns during the 3 hour viewing, yup, the ONLY PERSON WHO KNEW HOW TO READ MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Elder Eliason, is now a PRO right hand hymn player, and all of the easy songs that I could sight-read, left hand too.   Yesterday was nuts.  Oh, and they have this crazy tradition of handing out chocolate eggs here, but they're the size of large coconuts usually, so what did the elderes get? EGGS! and lots of other chocolates and candies and stuff, I'll send a photo. Also, We got chocolate covered spiced-bread from Germany. There's traces of peanut-oil in the bread, so my companion, who is deathly allergic to peanuts can't touch them.  YUM! MORE FOR ME :D

Anyways, Happy Birthday Brandon Blake Eliason, you're turning 12 and recieving the Aaronic Priesthood. I'm bummed that I'm not there to see it, but I'll be thinking of you :)  oh, and Happy anniversary mom and dad. You've been married 22 years now :)

Weird- The owner of this Lan House, just left and took off in a motorcycle. he left the computer house completely open and whatever..... I don't think I'll ever understand Brazilians XD

 Everybody have a most fantastic week :)

Elder Eliason

woohooo!!!!!! semana de EXCELÊNCIA!!!!

so, this week we had 2 baptisms, Cida, our eternal investigator was baptized Saturday, and on Sunday, we baptised the baptism that fell through last week :D  Larissa.  Larissas brother is an return-missionary and only member in the family, we were asking the members who are the part-member families and the recomended his family, his parents aren't members and his sister isnt either, so we got on that boat and sailed it away :D 

Besides that, not much happened, I went on a division with the Elderes from Elizabeth, here in Porto Alegre to do their interviews....VERY CRAZY interviews again.  They're a ton of fun.  They live in 4, and for the last 6 month's Ive been living only my companion and I, so, it was a fun experience again, but I'm glad to only live in 2, it can get hectic with more.

Last night Internacional (my soccer team) played Gremio (our in-state rival) in the final of the Gauchão, or the Cowboy cup...... and Inter beat Gremio 4-1 so last night we had to take a LOT of care not to mix with anybody wearing blue, for our own safety.......it was nuts!  oh- home-made mortar-fireworks exploding everywhere of Red and White..... but because they are home-made, about half of them explode about 5 feet off the ground.  We had to run out of a neighborhood lastnight because it was getting WAY rowdy.  But it was fun :D

have a fantastic Pascoa,

Elder Eliason

Um irmão after grenial

Yup

So...... This week was SUPER SLOW except for general conference that flew by.  I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE.  Weird right? That anybody would enjoy sitting on a wooden bench listening to old gentlemen talk for 10 hours?  I always get super sad when it ends, I always want more.  Seriously, this time, we were able to open the stake secretary's office and watch it in English on the computer!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!!! This was good because my companion still doesn't understand much Portuguese when people talk fast, like translators.  There was also a greenie sisiter that was with us, so she needed it too.  Funny huh?  My first time watching conference in English is my last conference on the mission??? hahaha, anyways.... LOVED Elder Oak's talk, Loved Boyd K Packer's farewell testimony, and of course I love the Bednar and Holland talks, they always put fire in my bones!!!!!  I don't think I've ever heard that in English, but we say it a lot in Portuguese..

Our baptism this week fell through, unfortunately. We were preparing to give the final check-mate lesson when the other Elderes called needing interviews, so we did a division, and the other elder didn't finish her off.  She'll be baptised this week along with this week's baptism.  This week's baptism has been investigating the church for 17 years now, and this week, we will finally get her baptised.  She's 68. Her son is serving a mission in Brazilia. yeah.

funny story, so last night, we were doing contacts at the giant park of iniquity- every Sunday night, all of the rebels, hooligans, pot-heads, stoners, Daisy-dukes, and Preps all come out to the giant park 3 blocks from our house to dance, eat, smoke, and drink (eh....be merry, for on the morrow they will die...)  etc.... It's a bunch of nonsense, but lots of people go just because it's a city-wide activity.  There are tons of cotton-candy, popcorn, kabob sellers that walk around with carts, or have bbqs going so they can earn some money.  We were doing some contacts, and I got a bunch of addresses to visit, when one of the candied popcorn salesman called me over.  His popcorn stand is one that you set up and stay there untill you take it home...  He called me over and asked me what I am doing (I was doing contacts in front of his stand, I thought he would ask me to do them somewhere else, a typpical thing for these aggressive entrepreneurs....) I told him that I was an official representative of Jesus Christ here to help everybody repent and be baptized.  He chuckled, and then almost in panic, he asked me to watch his stand for a minute while he goes to the bathroom...he had been needing to go for the last 3 hours, but couldn't leave the stand alone for fear of people robbing or stealing the stand....  I agreed, and when he came back, he gave me some free chocolate popcorn.  Unfortunately he wasn't interessted in the church, but he told me that I was an answer to a slight plea unto the Lord.  Funny stuff.

anyways,

stay in there everybody,

Elder Eliason

hey everybody

I am so sorry, I have no time to write today, I have to register for classes at byu.  This week was really slow, but in the end we had 9 investigators come to church, and we are starting to get organized...our escalador of investigators is getting full....don't get an elevator, by the time it hits the top (batismo) theres few people, and you have to descend and get new people at the end....escaladors are full and whensomebody gets off, there are others already progressing....we have baptisms already marked every week for the next 5 weeks....Im excited.

mom, you asked what major I chose....now that I'm no longer an engineer.....bumbumbumbum........ molecular biology. I'm super pumped.

anyways, thanks for everything.

Serino, know that I still don't know you, but I pray for your sake that the U.S. doesn't blow russia to smithereens here in a little bit. That would be unfortunate seeing as how you somehow got a visa to serve there for now. hehehehe,.

love you all.

Elder Eliason

well...! Guess who's Back!!! I'm back!, I'll give a hint, my name is not Slim Shady....

I'm back in Porto Alegre!!!!!!!

I've been transfered to Alvorada.

My new companion is Elder Holmes

He has 6 weeks here in Brazil
He is from Bel Air, MD

His first name is not Carlton, but he is the Fresh Prince.

XD

okay, back to reality, op´there goes gravity....

etc...

I am no longer a ZL, but Im atleast the District leader....funny enough, everybody in my district were at one point zone leaders.  (except for the greenies.....) but all of the sr. companions are ex-super-stars...so district meetings are AWESOME. 
I didn't get to send my letter yesterday because today is my p-day....because I'm going to the temple here in a couple of hours, and the temple is closed on Monday.  WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO I Havent gone to the temple since January of 2013....I'm excited :D

so.. the work.  It's really hard getting oriented because my companion is almost as lost as I am.....he's been here for 6 weeks and is still learning Portuguese....So it's pretty chaotic.  To give an example.... Wednesday, we had a service project... and afterwards... the member dropped us off close to lunch and left.  Well, my companion just said, come, follow me. I know the way. Well, after an hour of walking down a dirt road into the middle of the forest....the lunch called asking us where we were.  Well, we were about 2.5 miles in the wrong direction, so we had to walk back. Turns out that the member let us out of the car in front of the house of lunch XD  it's been a fun week hahahahaaha
anyways, so Tuesday we got a call from an Elder in our district that stayed, he called and passed us a reference...a family whose grandparents he had baptized 2 weeks beforehand, and the family had gone to watch the confirmation.  We finally found the house Thursday, taught them and invited them to be baptized.  EVERYBODY accepted, the question was when/???? We asked the parents if they were married, and unfortunately they are not, so we have to have a wedding for them, but the kids wanted to be baptized anyways, so we taught them the gosple of Jesus Christ, and about the Restauration and the 10 commandments, and Sunday, Francielly and Vitoria were baptized!!!! :D Yeah! They had their entire family there.....all 8 of them.  Funny...the mom is 28 and the dad is 22....and they have 5 kids. Francielly is 11, and Vitoria is 9.  Don't try and think about that. Brazil is so funny.

Anyways, the Brazilian Consistution states that if the persons who want to marry do not have the financial means, the state has the responsability to pay for it, all you have to do is create a declaration of poverty.  Woohooo!!!! I know how to do that and make it legalized, so we'll marry them for free :D

Anyways, those were the highlights of the week, I love my new companion, he's awesome.

Te amo, e a Igreja é verdadeira

Elder Eliason

Semana 12 in Passo fundo

Well...this week was nuts.  on MANY LEVELS

1- We had 2 baptisms this week, 2 investigators that we have been working with over the last 6 months..... actually, the other elders before us cut them, and we found them in the Area Book...  They are the kids of an inactive Return-missionary-sister.  Well, with love and patience, we have reactivated the family, and the 2 kids were baptized yesterday.  Amanda and Guilherme.  Amanda is 13, and Guilherme is 10.  They were going to be baptized 2 weeks ago, last week, and like, every week beforehand, but "Something" ALWAYS happened.....until we discovered that they don't make friendships very easily, and they feel uncomfortable at church.... so what did we do? I made a phone-call. EVERYTHING can be resolved with a phone-call.  Who did I call???  The craziest, loudest, most doida beehive in the ward.  What did we do? We met at the entrance of the investigators house with another beehive, and we played Uno for 3 hours.  (yes, this may appear fubeccagen ...aka being a slacker....but I don't care).  it was AWESOME and PERFECT.  They became fast friends, and now they hang out every day, go to seminary together, our investigator got the nutty beehive, Carol, into dance-class with here at the local university....etc. It's awesome. :D #gointegration

2- We had the Leadership conference in Porto Alegre, so again, we took the 4 1/2 bus ride to Porto Alegre. Stayed there the night, and then returned Wednesday, so we lost 2 days of proscelyting time.  

3- *PLEASE CENSOR FOR UN-LEARNED EARS*  Prostitution has become a legalized tax-paying profession here in Brazil this week, so this week we have been harassed several times by "less-than-beachwear-clad women/men/she-man-he-women."  It's becoming obnoxious.

4- Preston and Brandon jr. ----in memory of you guys and your famous pi-day, I bought a pack of key lime pie cookies on 3/14

5- Fall registration for Sophomores at BYU begins this week, so I got permission from President to register.

6- I went on splits with the Elderes from Carazinho Friday.  That was cool.

7- I've been transferred. I find out tomorrow morning where I'll be going.

that's all.

love you all

Elder Eliason

Well, this week was nuts

Woohooo!!!!!! Well, as the title of the e-mail stated, this week was nuts.  We taught LOTS of people, tons of new investigators, tons of new people to work with.  

1- We are coordinating a wedding of a less-active and her husband (yeah, we're doing it tonight XD )  His cousin actually was an investigator that Elder DeYoung found on a division, so  SWEET we're going to baptize his cousin  next weekend XD and here in a month when the wedding papers actually go throuh, we'll baptize him.  

2- Supprise Sleep-over of the Assistents....oh, the joys of being a LZ.... We get a call at 8:45 one night, from them (not abnormal) asking what was the number of our appartment (abnormal question). They were in front. 30 minutes later when we arrived, they were waiting 13 blocks away. (fun stuff....) Well..... suprise Zone conference the next day.  yay.  President  Wright arrived and brought the AP's (Elder Anastácio e Elder Nelson) (the two are from my group in the MTC) crazy nah?!?  Well, our cubicle of an apartament was packed with 4 Elderes...Elder Anastácio had to sleep in the kitchen, which is about the size of our computer desk at home....XD Oh well, all's well there.

3- We had a baptism of Rainesca (pronounced hi-neh-skah).  Awesome- she was a reference of a member recently baptized.... we were walking down the street and the member called to us, and said, hey! this is my friend! She's not baptized, can you teach her?  hahahahahahahaha sometimes it feels too easy! We work and fight and bite and claw to work with people all day, and at the end of the day, nothing goes right, but then the next day, the blessing comes and it falls in you lap.  WOOOHOOO so, after 2 weeks of teaching, our new Cearense friend was baptized yesterday.  Seriously, the best integrated and most functional baptisms are friends of members who are "afastado da verdade porque não sabem onde encontrar-la"  I really don't know the translation, away from the truth because they don't know where to find it?  Go D&C.

Anyways, For the first time in this transfer, I feel organized, and prepared, we have 4 solid baptisms planned for the next 4 weeks, *(1-per week, so we can meet all requirements for the baptisms...., funny how it worked out like that, but I'm feeling very prepared)  I'm excited.

We are really blessed here and to be working in this time....When I arrived, an Elder that was leaving told us that this is the South, where it is really hard to work, and If we were lucky, we would baptise 24 people (1 per month).  Bahahahahahahahahaha.  Well, we just work. Work work and work. Slackers baptize 24 people nowdays.  The challenge is different here than in the other places.  We baptize.  Baptize is easy, you just have to be a good salesman, use all the techniques in Preach My Gospel, and help the investigator feel the Spirit.  The hard part is the integration, making friends, and adapting to the LDS culture whiech is very different than typical Brazilian... it involves commitments XD but it's true (our ward has over 1,000 members) but a frequency of 175 last Sunday (which is actually better than most wards here...most wards have frequencies of more or less 100 people) I am excited and I love working here in Passo Fundo (translation?:  Back Step, or Deep Step) When I arrived, everybody was sluggish and vey unmotivated...but as of lately, the ward is starting to work and we are seeing LOTS of results.  I really hope that I am not transfered next week....XD oh well. I love Brazil.

amo vocês,

Elder Eliason

P.S. Quote of the Stake conference w/ Elder Grande (70)

"The difference between the Terestrial Kindom and Celestial, is not that of obedience. Those who obeyed and did everything that was asked will go to the Terestrial kingdom.  The difference is that those who obeyed and did everything that was asked of them, and became that thing, will go to the Celestial Kingdom.  We must BECOME and LOVE what has been asked of us. That is the difference."

EE 

Baptism of Rainesca

we bought pastels the size of a large plate....full of white chocolate and strawberries----SO GOOD!!!!! (about 1 kg the weight)