April 29, 2013

Hello pessoal!

This week was rather boring, nothing new happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's a lie.

 

 

 

 

 

WE HAD 5 BAPTISMS!!!!!!!

 

The two families that we had been working with got baptized and they were able to get everything together to be baptized this week. Vera and Carlos quit smoking, Maria and Carlos got married, and we had churrasco (barbeque) on both Saturday and Sunday! It was amazing!

I just have to echo what Elder Hopper #2 said about baptisms being amazing. They are. They're about the best thing. EVER. Especially when you know that many more people will enter into the truth and have the wonderful happiness that the gospel brings because of those people. Victor, a kid that we baptized, wants to serve a mission! I'm so excited for him to do that! And Maria and Carlos are the ones that have a son on a mission in Belém, and so he must be super happy now, too! 

 

I'm not sure what else to say because that's all that's in my head right now!

Oh, right. Well, there's an Elder here named Elder Olsen. He's our Zone Leader. He's going home next Monday. His mission is over. He's from California. Anyways, we saw him here in the center last Monday after sending emails, and he told us that his house had burned down. Two weeks before he was supposed to go home. How sad would that be? So now his family has to go through the trouble of getting themselves a new home and all that. Good thing they have fire insurance! Nobody in the family was hurt, just a painter that was inside the house when it exploded. Literally exploded. He just got 1st and 2nd degree burns, though. But I'll send a picture of Elder Olsen for you all to see him. Along with a picture of our 5 baptisms! 

 

Have a great week! Love you all!

 

-Elder Hopper #1

April 22, 2013

Hello family and friends!

This week was not too eventful in the ways of work in our area. My companion and I ended up going to Bebedouro (another city that is part of our district), and Parque Ribeirão (another area in the district and also one of the poorest areas of the mission). It's very interesting to go from the richest area in the mission to the poorest in a matter of 20 minutes... But it just reminds me of how blessed I am back home and how many luxuries we actually have. We need to always be thankful for everything we have! Which reminds me of a talk I heard this Sunday... We had a sister in the ward get up and talk about the home. How the home should be a refuge from the world - a place where we always want to return to after being in the turbulent storms of life. And I realized how blessed I am to have a home like that! I'm so happy that I have a home that I look forward to going back to. There are so many blessings that I have that I am only realizing now that I'm on the mission.

So this week we'll have 5 baptisms. I think. It could potentially drop down to 2, but it probably won't. 2 of the people have smoking problems, and one of them got cachumba. Which is a terrible sickness that can basically turn you sterile for the rest of your life. Fun, huh? But he should be alright and we should have all 5 this week. Should be a great week and for sure I'll have pictures next week! I've kinda been slacking on that picture part... Oh well. At some point I'm sure I'll get better.

Well I don't have much news for this week, so I think that's about it. But I promise next week will be better! Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love you all!

April 15, 2013

Hello family!

This week not too much happened, but we're seeing results. 

We marked a marriage with Carlos and Maria for the 27th of this month! And then we marked their baptism for that night! So we'll marry them then baptize them on the same day! It's going to be an awesome day!

Also on that day, we've got 3 other baptisms marked already. So on the 27th we'll have 5 baptisms! The only thing that could impede the baptisms is that Carlos smokes, and Vera (one of the other three) smokes. But they really want to be baptized and they have committed to stop smoking! It's great! I'm super happy!

I'm not sure what else to say other than I'm happy and excited to have those baptisms here in two weeks! Oh, and I don't know if I mentioned this, but Carlos and Maria are parents of a missionary who's serving in Belém right now. So he's going to be super happy when he finds out about all this. I'm so glad that I can participate in bringing so much happiness to other people here!

Also, we saw a helicopter land on top of an office building. That guy isn't rich. He just goes to work in his own private helicopter and lands on the helipad that they built specifically for him on top of a 25 story office building called "Times Square." He's not rich.

Have a great week! Love you all!

-Elder Hopper #1

April 8, 2013

Bom dia família e amigos!

This week was another difficult, kind of down week. BUT. It ended super well. With General Conference!!! I LOVE General Conference!

I don't even know what to say this week. I think the only thing that I can say is that everyone should go watch all of the sessions. It was fantastic! On Saturday we went and watched one of the sessions with a family of investigators. We picked the wrong session to watch, though. We saw the Saturday afternoon session, which is the one where they released EVERYONE and called just as many people to replace them. So the beginning was kinda boring, but that's alright. They still liked it. So then we ate dinner with them and left to go to the priesthood session. Then, the next day, they went to watch the morning session at the stake center! And afterwards, they came up to Elder Gade and me, and said that they wanted us to baptize them! It was sooo good! So here on the 27th we'll have 3 baptisms! Plus we'll go and try to marry a couple other people for them to be baptized as well. This month still has great potential to be fantastic!

Everyone should go read/listen to Elder Holland's talk! http://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2013/04?lang=eng&vid=2284842592001&cid=3

There it is!

That's all I got! I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Hopper #1

April 1, 2013

Hello family and everyone else!

 

This week was a week of everything falling through! That seems to be a pretty common theme around her... But that's alright because we managed to get 8 investigators in the church and a few of them are progressing really well! We're gonna go mark the marriage for Maria and Carlos this week, and we got a new family that's really cool. Also, I've got some pretty cool news that was officially announced this week.

 

We can send emails to friends now!!!!

 

Kinda cool, huh? Mom had already said something about it a couple weeks ago, but it was confirmed by our Mission President at the latest Zone Leader Council. Though I don't want that to stop me from getting letters still!

 

Alright, so a little bit about this family that we are now teaching. It's two kids, the mom, and the grandmother. About 6 years ago, they had been taught by and Elder Dalton, but they were never baptized because the kids had little to no interest, and the mom and grandmother smoked. By the way, the two kids are Jessica and Vitor, the mom is Alessandra, and the grandmother is Vera. So recently, Jessica and Vitor had been saying that the family needed a church and that they wanted to go back to the Mormon church. So they talked to Clovis, a member of our ward. Who talked with Renato. Who talked with us. So we talked to the family! And they all want to be baptized. Except for Alessesandra still. We'll give her a bit of time. But Jessica, Vitor, and Vera all have a date marked for the 27th of April. Vera has to stop smoking by then, but Jessica and Vitor have no problems. They just all want to be baptized together! But they are a really cool family, and we're so blessed to have known them!

Other than that, we had a pretty tough week and didn't have much luck with investigators. But that's alright 'cause this week will be better!

The pictures:

The first one is a hat that we saw in a store here in the mall.... Gotta be careful with things you buy in other languages!

The second one is me and Elder Gade in our bathroom with a typical "MySpace" picture with the new sweet shades we bought last week.

 

Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

 

-Elder Hopper #1