Week 55 - Santarem

 

Hey everyone! Tudo bem!?

This week we had divisions with some of the other elders in Santarém and it was pretty great! I stayed in their area for almost all week. I left my area monday and returned saturday. I enjoued it, its always great working with other elders. Always a lot of fun, a lot of miracles and a lot things learned. 

As I said I returned Saturday and I have to say, Brasil is amazing! I love working with all of these people and seeing the miracles that they perform by faith, its incredible! 

Monday we also hiked the mountain on the other said of the city. Its not the rocky mountains, but it was still beautiful and it gave us a great view of the city. I enjoyed it a lot. 

We also dif some service monday. We went over to a members house because he asked for help. So the member walks us to tje back of his yard where there are two trees. He then hands us two old machetes and says "get to work" so with the two machetes we trimmed and cut down the two trees! It was honestly pretty fun! 

This week I read in Alma 26 and I love how he started, he said "And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?" God really has bestowed marvelous blessings upon us! He is blessing us in our everyday life and we need to be wise enough to look for it. Life is hard and difficult, everyone has challenges. But just because life is hard and difficult does not mean we aren't getting blessed. Sometimes we need to be humble and look for those blessings, cause they're there. Also y'all should read Alma 26, cause its really good. 

That is about all for this week, and now pictures! 

1. Climbing the mount 

 

2. On top of the mount 

 

3. On top of the mount with the city behind us 

 

4. Sunset on the mount 

 

5. Cutting down the tree 

 

6. A fish that we ate this week! 

 

7. Close up of the fish, I give it a solid 9/10 

 

8. The beauty of Brasil never ceases to surprise me. I wish the photos could really protray it, but they don't.  

 

9. I know I look pasty white in those photos but I am picking up a pretty nice tan 

 

10. Me at the amazon river! It might technically be the Tapajos river but they are honestly so close. As I said this is where these tw9 rivers meet. 

 

11. Some of the boats they use on the river 

 

12. Again the beauty of Brasil! This is a toen we took a bus to, and the name of the town is Salvação (salvation) 

 

13. My comp and I walking home last night after a good day of hard work! This is always a great feeling. 

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 54 - Santarem

 Hey everyone! Tudo bem!?

This week was pretty fun and a little sad. Monday night I had a little party at a members house and it was great! I love the Brasilian culture! And the next day we visited a few members and those kids one more so I could say my goodbye! And the next day I caught a flight to Santarém! 

Santarém is pretty great and a lot more out there. Its still a pretty big city, but our area is one of the biggest in the mission and we have lots of little towns in our area. For example we are teaching a family over the phone that live in a town that is 15 hours away by boat. So it is definitely a change of pace but I am loving it. 

My new companion is Elder Almeida and he is super energetic about the work and new on the mission so he is super excited to work which is great! There is a neighborhood in my area that reminds me a lot of a stereotypical neighborhood in the US, it felt weird walking through it, haha. 

This week I read in Alma about how wicked a people, the Lamanites, were being but then the Lord said that all they needed to do is repent and he would forgive and when I read that part I felt the great Love the savior has for us. Often I get mad when people wrong me or do me bad, and I am slow to forgive. But the savior has a love incomparable and he will always forgive us. He loves and all we need to do is ask for forgiveness and we will feel the live that he has for us! 

That is about all for this week, and now pictures! 

 

1. A delicious cake we got to eat 

 

2. The great little party we had! 

 

3. This is from the plane when we were landing. This is where two rivers join but the color of the water stays seperate! I think its pretty cool

 

4. My comp and I 

 

5. Me holding a spider we killed while filling up the baptismal font 

 

 

6. A mountain that we could see from the neighborhoods we visited! This part of Brasil has some pretty great views! 

 

7. Me on the street with that mount in the back 

 

8. I am also learning to speak street dog

 

9. Alder Almeida and I after a great lunch! 

 

10. A pretty cool car we saw in the city 

 

11. This is the neighborhood that looks the most like the US. And it has a mount in the back 

 

12. Me eating a pretty good fish! 

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.

All about Santarem

 

 

 

  

 

 

Santarém (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɐ̃taˈɾẽj]) is a city and municipality in the western part of the state of Pará in Brazil. Located at the confluence of the Tapajós and Amazon Rivers, it has become a popular tourist destination. It is the second-most important city in the state, and the financial and economic center of the western part of the state. It leads the Santarém Metropolitan Area, made up of Santarém, Belterra and Mojuí dos Campos. It was once home to the Tapajós Indians, a tribe of Native Americans after whom the river was named. They were the leaders of a large, agricultural chiefdom that flourished before the arrival of Europeans.

It is located some 800 km (500 mi) from the two largest cities in the Brazilian Amazon: Manaus, upriver in the state of Amazonas, and the Pará state capital Belém, located downriver at the mouth of the Amazon on the Atlantic Ocean. Santarém has an estimated population of 306,480 people (2020), and is the third most populous city of the state. The city occupies an area of 22 887,087 km²² (14 304,42 sq mi), of which 77 km² are urban areas.

The city was founded by Portuguese colonists in 1661 as New Santarém (after the city in Portugal). It is one of the oldest cities in the Brazilian Amazon. This is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santarém.

Because of the crystalline waters of the Tapajós River, Santarém has more than 100 km (62 mi) of natural beaches, such as those of the village of Alter do Chão, known as the "Caribbean in Brazil." The Guardian ranked the latter beach as one of the most beautiful in Brazil and the most beautiful beach on freshwater. Alter do Chão is also home to Sairé, one of the most important folklore festivals of the region, which is held annually in September.

Week 53 - Satelite

Hey everyone! Tudo bem!?

This week I passed my one year mark on the mission! 🥳 I can't believe how fast the time has flown! I have learned so much and I am so grateful for the many experiences I have had! I am looking forward to my next year in Brasil! 

To celebrate my year mark one of the members made me an awesome cake! Also there was a sister who was finishing her mission, so it was really for both of us, and it was sooo good! And then there was a kid getting baptized that night so we got to go witness a baptism and afterwards the father picked me to assist in the confirmation blessing afterwards! I was pretty touched by that. And afterwards we left and it was late and we had to walk an elder home who was doing online MTC and is leaving to Curitiba next week. But one of us elders (may or may not have been me) forget the keys to the church in their pocket and so we had to rush back to the church and then back to drop off the other elder and then back to our apartment. And miraculously we were only 5 minutes late to our apartment. 

Also, this week we found a whole vunch of children to teach! They started going to church with their friend who is a member, and then the mom was like "wait, if they are consistently going to church they should get baptized" and she gave us a call and now we are teaching all 10 kids. Not all are old enough to be baptized and we still need permission from a few parents but this weekend 3 of them will get baptized along with their friend who is the child of a member! 🥳 and I just have to say it is a blast teaching 10 super hyper kids all at once! I had them and the family convinced I was Brasilian until about 20 minutes in, then they all were like "nahhh, for sure he is not Brasilian." 

This upcoming week is transfers and Friday we got a call from president. He was checking up on us and then he said we will stay todether this next transfer because we are working well together. And then Saturday we stopped by a birthday party to say hi and eat some cake. And president sent out the transfer pic. And my companion noticed that his companion was another american. And we looked to find where I was, and found out I will be going to Santarém! It is a city in the middle of the amazon rain forest! (Remember the conference talk by elder Soares where he talked about the two rivers that combine but their waters remain different colors? I think that is near Santarém.) And I will be training a new Elder there, whooo. But luckily he has already been there for a few weeks, so were chillin. Wednesday morning I will catch a plane to fly out there(because to take a boat there is like 3 days and president is impatient haha)! Also President usually keeps people out there for 6+ months so I probably won't be going back to Belém or another city until December or maybe later. This also means I will miss the baptism of the children which I am pretty sad about! Also, my current companion, Elder Sant'Anna, bless his heart, will be getting another american who has never been here. 

That is about all for this week, and now pictures! 

1. The Belém Brasil temple is almost done! 

 

 

2. The baptism of the ward member we went to this week. With Elder Mesquita, who is will be leaving to Curitiba tomorrow! 

 

3. A cake Elder Sant'Anna made for the sister in our zone who went home this week. She "died" in mission lingo. 

 

4. The amazing and delicious birthday cake! 

 

 

5. My minnie me 

 

6. This. This is called love. It is chocolate and strawberry ice cream, with chocolate fudge on top. And strawberries. 

 

7. Me about to eat the bowl of love. 

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 52 - Satelite

Olá gente! Tudo bem!?

Almost one year! I reach my one year mark in a few days! It is crazy to see how fast the time flew! But I am excited to see what the next year hasin store! (maybe only 11 monthsbecause americans usually go home a month early) 

This week was a pretty good week! It had its ups and downs, but our friend, Gabrielly, got baptized this weekend! Woohoo! I am so happy for her and to see what she will do! 

Besides that it was a lot of rushing back and forth and running all over the place. We are only allowed to visit people if we planned a visit through messaging them. But by now Elder Sant'Anna and I know the area and people well and we have so many people to visit that now we are rarely in our house. Maybe one extra hour than our studies, which is not a lot of time to me. But it is a ton of fun and I love my time here in Brasil! It is absolutely amazing! 

This week I read 3 Nephi 9:20, which says "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost," I really love this scripture because it teaches us of the sacrifices we can make for God. We all make a lot of sacrifices in our life, but what sacrifice does Christ want? Here it says he wants a broken heart. He does not want or need perfect people. God will mercifully work through his imperfect servants to accomplish His purposes, we just have to give him our imperfections and see what he can do with us. The second thing mentioned is a contrite spirit. He wants people who want to repent and be better. People who are looking for a better way, a better life. These are the sacrifices that Christ wants, the Sacrifices that we can give him. 

And now pictures!

1. Forgot to include this last week. 

2. Lunch earlier this week. The food here is always amazing! 

 

3. A dessert we had this week!

  

 

4+5. This is pastels and they are sooo good! 

 

 

6. Some more Brasilian food! 

 

7. Elder Sant'Anna snapped this photo in the bathroom. You can probably see the 3 different shades of white that I have on, hahaha. That was my whitest shirt and the tie and pants I usually only use in the temple. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8+ Gabrielly and her baptism! 🥳 

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.