Olá from Viamão!

Well, lets start from Monday!

Monday: I finished my day by packing, and saying bye to people... The night ended with a lot of Tererè at the house of Tiago and Helena with all 4 of the missionaries. Elder Viana and Elder Marques stayed in F.O. and Elder Staples went to Rio Grande. That was Monday.

Tuesday: Woke up early, finished packing, took a 3 hour bus ride to Porto Alegre, a 70$ Taxi to Viamão and started working! Well, nobody was home so we ended up talking to a lot of members. This transfer is only 5 weeks, and elder R. Ferreira will probably leave, so I need to know the area and the members... P.s. This area is huge too!!! 

Wednesday: More of the same... Nobody was home, we talked with members and less actives... Less actives is big focus point now becuase Elder Godoy (of the 70) Gave our mission a promise that if we focus 30% of our time on Less actives we will baptize double! So, that´s what we´re doing! We had a leadership meeting that night with all the presidents, bishopric and the ward mission leader... This ward is a lot different... They like to argue about dumb things. Like, if a person has 12 or 13 years... Yup. But they´re good, I still don´t know everyone yet.

Thursday: Well, we recieved a reference from the mission home... This person (Carol) sent an email on the church website saying that she wanted to recieve the missionaries in her house... Well, of course we´re going to go! so, we went, when we got there somebody from Elder R. Ferreira´s last ward was at the house too... They´re friends (Maybe a little more) well, they had a little reunion and then we started talking with Carol... She used to live right next to the church, when she was married, and the missionaries knocked on her door probably 7 times she said, but never let them in... She always was a little curious but, her husband never wanted. Well, now they´re divorced, she lives some where else... She has a good friend in the church, (Rodrigo) that lives an hour and a half away, he´s an RM and everything, so he visited her for a while and talked about the church... We taught the restoration to her, and she liked it a lot, she said it just makes sense... Well, perfect. (p.s. she really likes us too I have high hopes with this) Definitely will return soon.

Friday: Well, we had a Zone meeting, then lunch... Then nothing else happened until we returned to Carol´s house. Uh huh, Rodrigo left, but her son was there.. Guess how old he is... Yup, 9. All the RM´s know the significance of this. ;) well, we planned on teaching the Plan of salvation,and just that... Well, we watched the video,explained it a little more. She cried, we ended up teaching too ``O Dia do Senhor`` and ``Jejum`` The day of the Lord and fasting... why? well, we were fasting so we said no to the coke, and explainedwhy... And with the the day of the Lord she asked why we believe Sunday but some think it´s Saturday... Well, she read the book of mormon, more than what we left with her... Had a notebook of questions, but forgot it at her brothers house..Though, she remembered some. she said I have all these questions because I have a hunger to learn more. She explained all about her rough history, how a church here took all her moms money after her dad died. So she got married at 16 and left the house becuase they didn´t have any money to eat or other things. She´s really excited,she gave the closing prayer after resistence because she didn´t want to in front of us... Promised she would feel good during it. She gave in, prayed and cried again...Man,this could be good.

Saturday: Woke up early (worth it) Payed 10$ To take a crowded smelly bus (Worth it) Then sat for an hour (worth it) waiting for Elder Bednar!!! (Elder Godoy and elder Jeneu of the 70 were there too) man, was it good... I don´t even know what I can say about it other than... He took his spot back as my favorite apostle... He´s actually funny, I never would have thought that. He taught us one thing I liked alot becuse it´s true... He used this phrase... ``Listen, members of the church have  stupid traditions, not the church but the members! We need to stop playing stupid games like Guess what´s in my head! What´s guess what´s in my head? You know, when a teacher asks a question with the answer in their mind. STOP``    Man, he was good... That´s all I´ll say, I´ll send a copy of his training when we recieve them. 

Sunday: We had a stake conference Elder Christensen (presidency of the 70) was supposed to be there, but he was at a different stake being Elder Oaks, becuase Elder Oaks was supposed to be here with the Northen mission but something came up...So, we had Elder Jeneu of the area 70. And president and sister Castro. During the day we watched the news alot, because here, just like Pelotas everyone but members leave their houses to go to the beach... So we watched the breaking news about the accident in Santa Maria... Santa Maria is in the Rio Grande do Sul too, so it´s big news here... And, that was pretty much our day.

Today I´ll give a spirtual thought, a little thing that Elder Bednar taught us... 

He taught, when we have questions about anything, grab a cheap 1 dollar book of mormon, read the book carefully, highlighting the phrases, verses, chapters related to our qeustion,go back and read all the highlighted things, write a 1 page report on what we learned, pray during all this,and ponder...We will recieve our answer,and that answer will change our lives. He said, after you do this, you can read talks of apostles and prophetes and compare your answers..> I promise that your answer will be just as good if not better. Becuse who´s going to recieve reveltion better for you... Exactly, you will.   Elder Bednar has a bookshelf full of cheap BOMs that he won´t let anyone read, his sons always ask if they can, and he tells them no, but I´ll buy you a bookshelf so you can start... Then they asked can we have them when you die... his answer... Before my last words, I will set a match to them...

This is the beauty of person revelation, only YOU can recieve the answer perfect for YOU. 

Eu amo vocês!!!

A week of change!!!!

Biggest news first!!! I will be leaving Pelotas tomorrow. :( I´m pretty sad about it, only 2 transfers here, but that´s okay, I know I´m supposed to leave!!! I´m headed to the city of Viamão! (close to Porto Alegre) The ward name is ``Mountains`` Because it´s one giant mountain, so after my stay here I´m going to have some pretty good looking calfs and thighs. The best news about this transfer is on Saturday I get to go to the conference with Elder Bednar!!! WOOOOOOO! 

Vamos começar com Terça-feira!

Tuesday: We had a district meeting in the morning, lunch with Alexandra and Geison (never talked about them, but they´re part of ``Celestial lunch week``) Then did our usual run through Eldorado talked with Gabriel, and with a couple others. Then we went to Maeline´s house, she´s is/was an investigator of the other 2, (she was baptized on Saturday) and had FHE with her and her family. She made a TON of food, but Elder Staples and Marques were fasting, so I had to eat for everyone... Man, I hope my next comp. eats  more than Elder Viana. 

Wednesday: We didn´t plan anything for the day because we were told that we had a conference from 2 until 7, so we planned just a FHE with Tiago and Helena. But, of course things changed... First we had lunch with Carol, then we got a phone call just as we were about to run to the bus... Oh, sorry Elders, the conference here is tomorrow, today will be a normal day, sorry for the inconvience. Okay... No problem. So we left lunch and walked around trying to talk to people for about 2 hours, until the lunch hour ended... Between 12-4 it´s basically impossible to talk to people without setting up an appointment. So that was that, after 4 we made a lot of new investigators, and that was it!!! Man, it probably seems like we don´t do anything here, huh?

Thursday: Lunch with Tiago and Helena, then we really had a conference!!! President Castro and his wife came along with the AP´s. Each of the 4 gave a training on planning. Well, Sister Castro gave a training on health, but the other 3 were on planning. After that we got cards!!! Thanks everyone!!! I like getting more cards than everyone else! :D Then, we went to Maeline´s again so Elder Viana could do her baptism interview!!!

Friday: It´s Friday, friday... Lunch with Arlei... We taught a killer lesson with Flatima and Wolnay.. Flatima started crying, but she still won´t go to church until after her surgery becuase she doesn´t want to go without nice clothes, and she doesn´t want to buy clothes before she loses all the weight. I haven´t mentioned her before because she´s never gone to church... For people wondering about Renato.. He still wants to be baptized, but still in Rio Grande for work... 1 day he will return, we´ve talked with his wife I think 5 times during this wait.. We had FHE with Max and Jaque... So we ate more... I almost said no to the cake but Elder Viana said something I don´t remember what and she said... ``of course I went all the way to Treichel to buy stuff for tonight`` So, I was stuck with it... Oh well, it tasted good but after a ton of lasagna, rice and beans I didn´t feel like eating... Last time we were there I was a little sick, so I didn´t feel like eating, and I told them that... But I also made the mistake to say next time I will eat enough for today and next time... So... That was that. I ate enough for 2 nights!!! I actually lost weight during the week... I don´t understand... Though I won´t complain.

Saturday: Lunch with the Cruz Family... Then we picked up Tiago so he could work with us for the day... He used his fancy clothes and got a hair cut... He´s really excited about this whole church thing... Still wants to serve a mission, and will start mission prep next week. Saturday was just a normal Saturday until we got the church at 5:30 to prep for the baptism... Baptisms are great!!! It was even better that none of us had to baptize, because when a member baptizes it means more... Arlei baptized Gabriel, and Arlei will continue living next to Gabriel until further notice. Gabriels parents came, until about 30 minutes before his step dad thought he was still being baptized... E. Viana ignored me more or less 5 times during the week when I said ``we should probably talk with Anderson about his baptism`` Well, luckily he wasn´t TOO mad. E. Viana explained when they got to the church that they need to be legally married, and Anderson said, alright, Iwe´ll get married in February. Arlei gave a welcome speech that made Gabriels mom cry... She´s next. ;) Man, I´m leaving a lot of unfinished work here... I counted with Elder Viana... 15 people that can realisticly be baptized in the next 11 weeks. Fun fact, next transfer is only 5 weeks... I don´t know why, just is. 

Sunday: A normal Sunday, I took some pictures with a couple families just in case I would be leaving... Good thing I got photos right??? Lunch was with Diego and Beth. We taugh Anderson (Gabriels step dad) after, he still wants to be baptized, so that´s good... Then finally drank Terere again!!! For 5 weeks the store didn´t have any, but this week they got it again, so I bought some on Thursday after the conference... The store is far away from our house... I´ll drink my last Terere in Fernando Osório tonight with Tiago!!! :(  

I love you all!!! Next time I talk to you will be from a different city... Just think positive. 

Elder Bednar on Saturday!!!

Elder Viana will train again, so I´ll have a baby brother! I don´t know if he´s American or Brazillian, will find out tomorrow!!! Tomorrow I get to sit at the bus station for about 8 hours!!! Wish me luck! 

Te amo!!!

Elder Justin Beary

I´ll start with the bad news for the week!!!!!!!!!!

Next week Elder Bednar will be in Porto Alegre talking with the POS mission!!! Giving a talk, and a training!!! Cool right, why´s that bad news??? This is why, only the northen zones get to go... Oh, but they´re making up for it by sending everyone a copy of the talk through email after, for some reason that just doesn´t quite do it for me... Whatever, I know it´s expensive to send everyone, but it´d be cool to go.

Monday: A normal P day, I really can´t remember anything about that day, other than we couldn´t find anyone to talk to during the night except Marlom, we saw photos of his hand, they were awesomly gross. Then we went to Tiago and Helena´s house, becuase we walked around for an hour and a half and no one was home.

Tuesday: Tuesday we had lunch really far away from our area, still in our ward, but the area of Elder Staples and Elder Marques. After lunch we waited for a bus in the burning sun for 2 hours, I don´t know what happened, but we finally got to our area at about 5, I guess that makes up for the day 2 weeks ago that we started working before 2 :) We talked with Gabriel, and commited him to baptism on the 19th, all we have to do now is get permission from his mom, becaus he´s only 14. Now is the hard part! But he´s been going to church for a month now, and loving it! 

Wednesday: Lunch with Helena and Tiago, was maybe the best lunch I´ve had yet. Helena commented that I´m getting fatter, awesome right? Though, I´m still the same weight, I feel fatter too, I think the muscle in my stomach just turned gooey. Nobody was in their house Wednesday, it kinda seemed like this the whole week, so we made a bunch of new investigators Wednesday, but nothing story worthy.

Thurday: We had Zone conference, I recieved card!!! (Thanks everyone!) Then we had lunch with a member, but she forgot and left her house... So, we were far away from our house, and hungry. Good thing Elder Viana basically refuses to eat at home so he called a member near by and we went and ate there!!! During the day, nobody was home, so we made a bunch of new investigators again.

Friday: We had a big lunch with Bete and Arno (Arno is the High Priest president) It was all 4 missionaries, Tiago (because Tiago went on splits with us for the day) Bete and Arno (obviously) and 2 more families from the ward I´ve never talked about. They made a weird stuffed chicken thing, and it was delicious! After that we went to Eldorado, where almost everyone is home all day. (It´s government housing so a lot of people don´t have jobs) Nothing special happened besides Tiago bore a powerful testimoney for Lucio, and one more time he commited to stop smoking so he can be baptized! WE had dinner With Paulina, because she thought that she had lunch for the missionaries EVERY Friday during January... So at about 1 she called and asked where we were, we told her we were eating, and she asked why? I have lunch on the table here for 4 missionaries! Which means she has enough food for a small village. She told us she wasn´t going to let that food go to waste, so we would be at her house at 7 to eat it, no excuses... Couldn´t say no to that.   During the morning Elder Viana did a baptism interview for the sisters, one of them was looking at my photos during and commented that I´ve gotten bigger during my mission... I guess it´s time to worry about it!

Saturday: we had lunch at the house of Anna Protti, it´s about a one hour walk. Well, lunch there is always the same... Potatoe salad, rice, beans and room temperature Guaraná. I personally like it, along with the other 2, only Elder Viana deoesn´t. After that we went to talk with Gabriels mom... Scary! After about 20 minutes of her resisting, she signed his baptism papers. Now, his step dad wants to be baptized too! Cool right, problem is he wants to be baptized Saturday, so we told him if he goes to church tomorrow (he only needs to go once, because he´s gone before) then he can be baptized with Gabriel! Also, we don´t think they´re married, but we´ll worry about that if he goes to church. We had dinner with Helena and Tiago, becuase our plan was to eat with them Friday, but then the Paulina thing happened, and Helena had all the food. So, we ate there Saturday!

Sunday: What a day!!! Church with President and Sister Castro! They gave their talks on the obligation of members in missionary work. The ward is really excited now. It was kind of a bummer for us, because only 1 investigator went to church and we´re used to about 10 every week. But, tudo bem. (We had a slow week, but made 16 new investigators, made the best of the worst.) After church we went to lunch at the house of Daniel, he´s the 1st counselor in the bishopric, Arlei (Second counselor) and family went. Marco and Jose went (War mission leaders). Sister Castro invited Paulina and talked to us about how good of a person she is for the ward. 2 other families went too, but I don´t know the names... Bishop didn´t go because he´s out of town. They had a churrasco, I seriously don´t think there´s a ward in the world that likes meat more than this one... Easily 200 Rais worth of food there but they were happy spending every penny for President Castro and his family. After lunch P.C. gave a little message, then Arlei had to of course too, then even Paulina had to say a few words. After Paulina said ``and they´re all my sons`` President Castro said ``And they´re working hard right?`` Paulina replied with ``hmmmm, no`` Everyone started laughing, and President Castro said ``That wasn´t the answer I was hoping to hear`` I don´t think she heard the question. Oh, Irmã Paulina. We had to FHE´s last night, so we ate 2 more times... And yes, I am getting fat, I know.

I don´t have any photos this week, sorry. There´s a rumor going around about all the missions in the Rio Grande Do Sul becoming one, becuase we don´t baptize much, and it´s expensive to have 3 presidents. We´ll see if anything actually happens.

I love you all, have a good week!!!

Last week of transfers, probably last week with Elder Viana, who knows if I´ll even be staying here! Elder Viana wants to leave, and I want to stay... So we know that I´ll be leaving, and he´ll be staying. :(

Baptism

The week of the baptisms!!!!!! the biggest bestest news, not for me, but for God (and for me too) is that I entered the water for the first time!!! I entered the freezing water because the water heater at the church is broken right now (we didn´t know that until we got there) but I was able to baptize Helena, while Elder Viana baptized Tiago. That was Saturday... The whole week was in preperation for the big day so lets recap!!!

Monday (31-12-12) after the last email, well, it wasn´t a lot of prepping for the baptism, but we stopped the house of Helena and Tiago before we went to our ``festa``. The ``Festa`` was with 10 missionaries, and the family of Marco and Jose, we had a Churrasco (claro) and played tradional gauchão songs on the drums basically for 3 hours...

Tuesday (1-1-13) We went over the interview questions with Tiago and Helena and taught tithing (the one thing we thought Helena would have a problem with) they didn´t have any problems and were definitely prepared. Other than that, not a lot happened on Tuesday.

Wednesday (2-1-13) I went on splits with Elder Lindsey, Elder Lindsey is a ZL, from St. George and I went to school with his cousin. I didn´t really know her, but I knew of her. During the day, I learned a lot, I learned way more about the importance of the 1st Lesson (Restoration) (1 thing that Elder Viana didn´t really believe in before becuase it is kind of strange to walk into somebodies house and tell them why their church is wrong, it can come off kind of harsh so almost always we would start with the 2nd lesson (plan of salvation). But now, we´ve started teaching a lot of powerful first lessons using the Restoration.) During the day Elder Staples was on splits too, with Elder Erico (I was in the CTM with him, but during the stay at the CTM his name was Elder Do Rego, Do Rego is also a bad word so President Castro had him change.) All 4 of us had lunch with Tiago and Helena, and dang was it good. Then those 2 left and Elder Lindsey did the baptism interviews for them (Elder Viana is a DL so we have to have a ZL do our interviews). They passed with flying colors and all was ready for the baptisms!!!!!! Also, it was the birthday of Gulia and Guliana 2 of the daughters of Marlom and Gilsele. Well, Elder Lindsey and I stopped by and the whole house was running, all that stuff, but the parents were gone, and their uncle was at their house... They were panicking getting ready to leave because Marlom cut off his right middle finger at work, so they were all going to the hospital.

Thursday (3-1-13) We ended up going to a funeral for a member in the ward... I didn´t know her because she´d been sick for quite a while, but it was still sad to see everyone crying. Other than that, not much happened. We stopped by Tiago and Helena before we returned to the house just to talk and read a scripture.

Friday (4-1-13) We passed by the house of Marlom and Gisele but, Marlom was still in the hospital so we didn´t stay long. (we´ll visit tonight) Random thing, Jesus the Christ is one of the coolest books I´ve read. We taught our last lesson with Investigators Tiago and Helena, and not much more happened.

Saturday (5-1-13) Lunch with the bishop. We taught our first lesson with Renato (his son (Cristiano) is a member but not in our ward, a different city. Cristiano is visiting and basically taught him all the lessons, so we´re just recapping) He has a baptismal date for the 19th of January.   At 7 was the Baptism!!!! Was cool and cold. After the baptism we went to their house for cake and soda.

Sunday (6-1-13) We found out that next Sunday President Castro is visiting just our ward, then having lunch with us, the bishopric (Minus the bishop, he´ll be out of town) and Marco and Jose. Cristiano talked to us about his dad, and wants to move the baptism to this Saturday, we thought about that too but didn´t know if he was still drinking coffe. He´s not, Cristiano switched him over to Cevada already. So, tonight we´ll talk to him and swith the baptism if he wants. (Cristiano leaves Pelotas on the 14th, so he wants to be here for the baptism, can´t blame him) 

That was my week in a nut shell... Oh, 1 more thing, I found out on Saturday that about a month ago Elder Marques and Elder Staples were held up, in MY area... I didn´t understand when they told us a month ago, but it was brought up and I understood this time. They were walking after lunch at about 3 in the afternoon through the Apartments of Pestano (which is mine and Elder Vianas area) when a guy walked around the corner and told them to give them their watches... They didn´t, because Elder Marques, I don´t know if he´s brave or just stupid. But, Elder Marques said, no. I won´t, my girlfriend gave me this watch (elder Staples gave him his before Elder Marques started talking). So the burglar said, Do you want to die? Elder Marques said, show your weapon. The guy lifted his shirt and had a gun in his pants. Again, the burglar said do you want to die... Elder Marques said no, but you can choose. If you shoot us, we´ll be safe, but you´ll have an eternity of hell. Go ahead and shoot 2 representitives of Jesus Christ... The burglar one more time said give me your bags... Elder Marques said, no... I won´t give it to you. All I have are books and pamphlets that you don´t know how to read anyway. After the burglar realized this wasn´t going anywhere, he told Elder Staples and Elder Marques to leave.... Hmmm, that was that.. 

ON that note!!! Love you all!!!! See you soon...ish!

New Year's Eve

picture is from new years eve, in just 2 minutes of running from the bus to the house of a member (Marco and Jose), this is what happened... And yes, I lost my name tag, still have the tie