Week 51 - Satelite

Olá! Tudo bem!?

This week was great! It had its ups and downs, but was still a great week! We saw some big miracles and now we have a lot more friends and a lot more people progressing well! 

We had a multizone conference with our area 70 seventy and it was pretty great! I got to see other missionaries in our mission and get to know a lot more people. 

Today we played some soccer. It was pretty fun to go to a field and play soccer with the experts that are in my zone. I think it's pretty funny that almost none of the elders in my zone have played soccer on a recreational team with a coach. But every single one can probably play soccer better than any kid in my high school. 

This week I was thinking about a scripture in Moroni 10 in the Book of Mormon. This scripture has a really powerful promise! It says "if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. (5) And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." By the Holy Ghost we can know the truth of all things! All things! Not just spiritual truths or simple easy things. But all! But we need to practice hearing the Homy Ghost. To me, it has seemed to be like learning a new language. It takes practice, you will make mistakes, you will have times when you don't know what the spirit is trying to say to you. But with practice, patience and faith in the promises of God, you will come to recognize the voice of the spirit and will be able to really recieve help in all parts of your life, not just with your spiritual life. I have alao noticed that many promised are for all of our life, not just spiritual. God loves us and wants to bless us in every part of our life. Another example of this is in Mosiah 2:41. God really loves and desires to bless us and will bless us, especially when we are searching to follow the example of Jesus Christ! 

And now pictures! 

 

1. Elder Sant'Anna and I enjoying a meal with members 

 

2. Our big meeting with our area seventy

 

 

3. Elder Sant'Anna and I prepared for our zone conference 

 

 

4. This wonderful elder is doing online CTM right now and he is awesome! He sometimes visits people with us and in 2 weeks he will go to Curitiba! 

 

5. Where we played soccer today. It was the "backyard" of a members property 

 

6. They had goats there! Just casually walking around the field with us. 

This is all for now! Feel free to email me if you would like or if you have any questions or people to pray for! Hope y'all have a great week! 

Com muito amor, 

Elder Sant 

Acreditar. Amar. Fazer. 

Other pictures:

Week 50 - Satelite

 

Bom dia gente! Tudo bem!?

 This week was an up and down week. We had some good things that happened and a lot of our activities and lessons fell through, or they were canceled right before it happened. But we managed to stay relatively busy. 

Also this week I had a great experience com Portuguese! We were visiting a member and we got know him and then when we were leaving we talked to some of their friends for a couple minutes and when we were leaving they asked where in Brasil I was from and when I said I was from the US they were pretty surprised. And it wasn't mocking, I have seen that a lot, hahaha. I think they thought I was Brazilian because they were drunk. 

Besides that it was a pretty basic week in Brasil, lots of walking, talking, and laughing. As always, the members are spectacular. Also, I tried a new shake/smoothie this week. It is Guaraná da Amazona! It is soooo good! Every night that we pass this certain vender we buy it, cause it is irresistible! 

This week I read a scripture in Mosiah 21, verses 6-16. The people in this scripture were put under abundant affliction, lots of terrible things were happening to them, and so, they humbled themselves before God and asked for his help. And this part stood out to me: God did not remove their trials or afflictions, but he gave them strength to get through it and eventually things were much better. I think in our own lives it is often like this. We are all given many trials and we may be pleading with God to remove our trials, and God is just pleading for us to act in faith, move forward, and to let Him make you something better than you could imagine. 

And now pictures! 

1. Elder Sant'Anna and I while visiting some members last week. 

 

2. We had to cross a river to get to a new part of Belém last week (new to me). You can see an old boat in the trees on the rives 

 

3. We got to go the beach last P-Day! 

 

4. Another picture of the beach. You might be able to see islands off in the distance in one of those pictures! 

This is all for now! Feel free to email me if you would like or if you have any questions or people to pray for! Hope y'all have a great week! 

Com muito amor, 

Elder Sant 

Acreditar. Amar. Fazer.

Week 49 - Satelite

 

Bom dia! Tudo bem!?

Então, this was another great week! We found some new people and taught a lot of lessons. We were able to find people this week that are really interested and learning more and doing studies with us daily! I love it! And it helps my portuguese a lot! 

Also, the members here in Brasil are absolutely amazing! In addition to feeding us lunch everyday and sometimes dinner, every lunch we are told about a family (sometimes 2 or 3) that need a visit. And then they wink and say "and there kids aren't baptized" hahaha, I love the members here, they are so missionary focused! And the people of Brasil in general are very church focused. They take it seriously and they really give their all for their church! 

So this week we were walking down the street on our way to a lunch, giving out some Bom Dias to others and some man replied with "Bom Dia Sisters!" Haha, it was great. Sisters have been in this part of Belém for 7 years, so everyone who knows anything about missionaries thinks were sisters, because sister is not a word in portuguese, but sister missionaries are called sisters here. One time a guy read my name tag and said "ah, sister Esante, prazer" and in my head I'm thinking "seriously, it says elder right there, not sister" I think its pretty funny that this happens.  

This week I read in Mosiah 8 and verse 18 really hit me hard. It says "Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings." God really has provided a means that we can work might miracles! When we exercise our faith and trust in God miracles will happen. It may not come how or when you expect it, but it will come. There is no reason or way that I should be able to communicate with almost everyone here in Brasil after only a month. But the Lord has provided a miracle and he will continue to provide miracles for those exercise faith. Also, I love that at the end he mentioned that miracles will happen to benefit our fellow beings. I have really learned this. God often won't bless you for you, but for other people. He has not blessed me and thousands of other missionaries with the gift of tongues so that we can return to home and say we speak another language. He gives us our gifts so that we can bless the lives of others and work miracles for all of Gods children. This really is a great and marvelous work when we go about serving after the manner of the Lord. 

 Sorry if it seemed like I was preaching, but what I said was true and I have learned it through experience. Now it is time for pictures! 

1. A new fruit I got to try 

2. I got to visit Parque de Utinga last week and it was a ton of fun to ride a bike through the Amazon 

3. There is a place around the corner from our house that sells pizzinhas  and pigs in a blanket for really cheap! So naturally we eat dinner there often. 

4-6. more pics of Parque de Utinga 

7-8. Monkeys that we saw just chillin on a wall in the city! I love Brasil. 

This is all for now! Feel free to email me if you would like or if you have any questions or people to pray for! Hope y'all have a great week! 

Com muito amor, 

Elder Sant 

Acreditar. Amar. Fazer.

Week 48 - Satelite

 

Bom dia! Tudo bem!?

This week was a pretty great week! Some of it is always the same, but there also many experiences that are new! 

To start off, a quick update on my portuguese. I feel like it is really starting to take off, but obviously I still have a looong way to go before I am flying. Having a comp that doesn't speak a lot of english really helps, because now I have to communicate in Portuguese. I have no option, and I have honestly been surprised at how much I am able to communicate with him! And like I said, I still make a LOT of mistakes but it is very rewarding to see the progress. Also, something I have learned about Belém is that people here speak really fast, and relax pronunciation, which makes it more diffuclut to understand. I think its kinda funny, I will talk to a missionary from São Paulo or Curitiba and talk with them for like 10 minutes and understand everything. And then I turn around and speak to a native of Belém and it is a whole different ball game haha, but I love the extra challenge and can't wait to be able to understand more of what they say. 

So on Tuesday night I dropped off Elder Ossovski in another part of Belém, Arsenal, and picked up Elder Sant'Anna. He is from Northeast Brasil and has a cool accent that I hope I pick up on. They just pronounce words a little different. It is a little closer to how people in Belém speak so that has really helped! 

Elder Sant'Anna and I worked hard and found some people and have had a lot of foods from the members! I love the people here in Brasil! They are awesome! A quick story: yesterday was mothers day and we had lunch with a member. So we arrive and there is just one man there and he just big chills in the kitchen for probably 20 minutes. And then his wife and 2 grandkids arrive with food and they started cooking. And at this point I am thinking this is pretty good crowd and I am excited to eat. And then about 30 minutes later some of their kids show up. And then more people start showing up. And pretty soon it turned into a party/feast of Brasilians for Mothers Day! I think there were 5 mothers there, so you know it was a party. They fed us a lot of rice, a salad with shrimp, beef stroganoff, lasagna, little bit of beans, and crab! It was soooo good! And for desert we had ice cream, sobremesa (I think is the name ) and cake! And then we rolled to the chapel for church. The people here are quite a party and I love them so much! 

This week I studied pres Nelson's talk from General Conference, and learned so much! He gave 5 things we can go and do to increase our faith and I invite you to go read that talk yourself to find those 5 things and do them to increase your faith! But I learned something important this week about true faith. True faith in Jesus Christ includes being positive. We are going to have challenges. Times will be tough, but we can make every dirty, worthless piece of coal in our lives a diamond. Earlier this week I was having a hard day with the language. I mean every day has its difficulties but this day was especially rough. The right words weren't coming to my mind or the right conjugations. And I started to do the natural thing, complain. I was disappointed, why me? Wasn't I exercising enough faith to speak properly? I had enough faith yesterday, why not today? And then I remembered Pres Nelson's talk, and the 5 tips. And I shifted my thinking and recognized that we can still be exercing mighty faith and encounter mountains that take patience and practice to move. I decided to be more positive in all of my trials and I believe that has made the biggest difference this week! 

Sorry for the long email, and thank you if you read this far, I applaud you but now it is time for pictures!

1. Elder Sant'Anna and I

 

2. Another one of Elder Sant'Anna 

 

 

3. A oicture of me eating crab yesterday. I know its blurry but its the best we have 🤷‍♂️ 

 

4. Elder Sant'Anna and I eating on our little porch. I honestly don't remember the name of this food, but it is a lot like 2 pizza slices that were folded into a sandwich. Of course, it was pretty good! 

 

5. I really enjoy waking up and seeing the sunrise. It always happens and is done in the first 5 minutes of the morning, so it is usually hard to catch a good photo. Cause I am sleepy. 

This is all for now! Feel free to email me if you would like or if you have any questions or people to pray for! Hope y'all have a great week! 

Com muito amor, 

Elder Sant 

Acreditar. Amar. Fazer.