Elder Fernandes and me

Cemetery

Churros 

Sugar cane 

Cemetery 

Learning some geography of Brazil

The streets are a bit steep.

Brazil is hilly

August 12, 2019



Tuesday,
I am now in my new area, Itapevi. It is loaded with hills and I am not super excited for that. I am staying with a missionary who actually will be leaving here in a month to go to England for his mission. Something happened with his Visa and he had to wait a while longer so they put him in the best mission of the world to learn how to baptize people before heading to the UK. 

I like him quite a bit, his name is Elder Fernandes. He is from São Paulo and he has a Strong desire to work and serve the Lord. I am sure we will do great together!



Wednesday 7th



Today has been good. We had the opportunity to teach a family the restoration today and it went really well. My companion and I have set some goals and got to know each other a lot better today. I met a couple of members and walked up and down a few hills. 

At around 4 we passed a  caldo de cana  stand and we talked with the couple running it and the guy running it almost made me cry. After we talked to him for a bit he told us that when he saw us walking on the other side of the street and he looked at my eyes and was dumb founded because he saw a light or a sparkle in them that was really strong. He said that as soon as it happened I looked to him and stopped for a second and then just walked across the street and up to him and told him I was a representative of Christ. He saw my eyes sparkle again when I said Christ's name and knew that he had to listen to what I had to say. 

It was a really strong experience and I'm super glad I listened to my prompting to go across the busy street and talk to him.



Thursday, 8th

We had the chance to talk to some really good people today that are looking to make their lives better. At the end of the day we had the chance to meet with the first counselor in the bishopric to discuss the missionary work in the ward. It has been great so far with all of the members and I am excited to see what we can do. 



Friday 9th

Today my companion and I decided to set a goal for contacting people and it has helped a lot. We found a guy named João and the contact with him started like most others asking about their faith and how we could help it grow. After a minute or two you could see him start to light up and he asked us a personal question that had been racked in his head for a while and was super happy for our answer that we gave. I am super excited to find him later this week and share more about the gospel. 



Sunday, 11th

Today was my first time seeing all of the members of my new ward and I am excited to be working here with these people. I have already made some good friends and am excited to work with the people here. My last area was very small and had a branch with 30 people or so and I am excited to be In a ward again!



Monday 12th,

For my pday we needed to start it off heading to the mission office to get a package for my companion and afterwards we cane back to the house and hung out for a bit talking to our families. I had the best dinner in my mission so far tonight. We have an investigator who's daughter lives in Kennewick! She made us tacos with hard shells she brought back from America and with american taco sauce! Afterwards she brought out a huge chocolate cake and ice cream! And to top it all off she called us an uber to take us home because it was late. She is such an awesome lady and I am glad I get to meet great people like her in the mission.

I Love Brasil

August 5, 2019

Hello everyone,



I am trying out a new thing because I now have a smartphone! I will be writing a little every day into a draft that I will have sent to everyone on monday. This should be a lot better for you guys and for me because i am really bad about writing emails and in my journal, so this will consist of both more or less.



Today Tuesday the 30th, we went to our local meeting house to use the internet to send some messages and confirm appointments and the wifi wasn't working, so I thought maybe just the wifi was down. We went inside and figured out soon enough that the power was out in the chapel. I knew that yesterday people stopped by to do some maintenance so I thought maybe they were working with electrics and turned off the electricity for the building. We went outside to the electric panel and the disc thing(dad would be proud of my knowledge of nothing electrical) wasnt moving and everything was flipped on so I knew that it wasn't anything that we could do. Afterwards we left and I asked the guy who has a barber shop in the front of the meeting house if it was out for him too. He said yes it had turned off for him too about 15 minutes ago. 

We decided to go to an appointment and soon realized that the energy was out in the entire city center. After walking for a bit we heard some people getting excited and the power came back.

 It was kind of funny to me and my companion going from the realization that the wifi wasn't working and then the buildings electricity was switched off then to the building wasn't getting electricity to the road doesn't have electricity to half of the city doesn't have it. 



Wednesday 31st. 

Today my companion and I left the house a bit earlier than normal to head to the next town over(an hour bus ride)to take part in a district meeting, in the district meeting while talked about our work in our areas and about who we have been teaching that is progressing. Afterwards my companion and I came back to our area and we made ourselves lunch in our house, a missionaries house normally doesn't have all of the normally required things to prepare a meal, so you have to get creative some times. We made a chicken stroganof and ate it over rice and with something called "Batata palha" which are these little fried sticks of potato that you mix in with your food to give it a crunch and some added flavor. Batata palha looks kind of like if you got straw and broke it up super small 

After that we had a couple of commitments around the city and did contacts throughout the day. We have recently been teaching this new family and I am super excited to see how they progress. There names are Michelle(daughter) and Cida(mother) Michelle is around 25 and she is finishing up her fifth year at college to become a lawyer. 



Friday 2nd(no one's perfect)

these last couple of days have been pretty good. Yesterday we had the chance to receive a reference for members a couple of towns away about a family that lives in our area. I am excited to stop by their place tomorrow and see how that goes! Today we had the privilege to have lunch with Irma Iveth. She is an awesome member and her and her family help us out a lot. The only sad part is that she lives 2 hours journey on foot outside of the city so every time we have lunch there it takes about half our day or more. I heard yesterday from my first area in Carapicuíba a non active member I helped get active in the church today is getting married and his soon to be wife I taught is going to get baptized! I am super happy for him and can't wait to see him again when I visit after my mission. 



Monday, 5th.

Today has been really great and a good p day. I found out that I will be leaving my area so I'm all packed up and headed out to Itapevi. I am super excited to go and will definitely miss this area! I love the people here and seeing them grow. They have also helped me grow a ton as well! 



With love and support,

Elder Meyers