December 30, 2014 Cabo Frio, I'm back!

Cabo Frio
December 30, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

As you can see, I'm emailing today because we had transfers yesterday. It was a sad day. Both Elder Luque and I were transferred. But happy news is that we are both in Cabo Frio now! We are both still the zone leaders, but we aren't companions now. We are both zone leader/trainers. I am finishing the second half of training of Elder E. Silva, who happens to be my grandson here on the mission! (One of the missionaries that I trained started his training, and when you train a missionary he becomes your "son") So I am my own grandson's stepdad. Fun huh? 

So we went to Rio yesterday morning, and came back to Cabo Frio last night. I'm so tired today. I lost a pday, and spent like 11 hours in busses in one day...It's rough. But I'm wicked excited to see everyone again here in the ward and the area. And I feel like I know why I came back. 

There is a family that I started to teach my last few weeks about a year ago when I was still in my first area, Maricá. This family moved to Cabo Frio recently. I am going to reactivate the dad and baptize everyone. They are a referral from the one the councilors to the mission president. I'm a little anxious because we are going to have to results and success fast, and plenty. But we can do it. It's weird serving in the same area two different times, but at least this time I already know the streets and the city and I can keep from making the same mistakes as last time.

I don't have much time to talk more. It was great to see most of you on Skype last week! I can't wait until Mothers day already. I'll talk more next Monday!!!

Love you!

Elder Evans

P.S.

We had the baptism on Saturday! I baptized J! He was truly a miracle golden investigator! One more family completed, and preparing to be sealed in the temple.. It was hard to leave them.

December 22, 2014 FELIZ NATAL TODO MUNDO!

Rio das Ostras
December 22, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

Merry Christmas to everyone! I love this time of year, and I love spending it as a missionary. We are feeling the love that all the members and our investigators have for us and we are serving as best as we can to help them. We have been blessed with success and we have nothing to complain about. 

I gave a talk at church yesterday. The thesis of my talk was basically this:

The true joy of Christmas can be found when we choose to live as Christ lived, when we follow his example, learn from his teachings, and feel the divine power of the Atonement working in our lives. 

I think it went well. I love giving talks at church. Such a difference from before my mission. I don't even get nervous.

We had another baptism this week! G, the bride from the wedding 2 weeks ago, was baptized on Friday! Elder Luque baptized her and I confirmed her. It was a very special baptism. And we brought another 10 investigators to the baptism and the christmas dinner afterwards. We are on fire. We will complete another family this Saturday with the baptism of J, and next week is L and the following week we have more. The area presidency wants us to baptize weekly, we'll baptize weekly.

I'm getting nervous for transfers that are going to be the 29th. I really really really really do not want to be transferred ever from here. I would be happy to stay here until the end. In the next few weeks my area is going to be split and we are going to form another branch in this stake. It's the most exciting thing ever for a missionary. 

I got my presents!!!! I haven't opened them yet! I am going to open them on Christmas, but they are tempting me hardcore... Elder Luque says thank you for the mini stocking and candies. When I opened the box and he saw the stocking with his name on it he got super happy. He is also one of my favorite companions, he is ALWAYS happy. ALWAYS. And we work super well as a team. He is teaching me a lot as a missionary.

Merry Christmas to all! I'll skype ya on Christmas!

Love Elder Evans

Minha árvore de Natal

O batismo de G

Elder Luque e eu e nossos presentes

December 15, 2014 A missão Rio De Janeiro é só sucesso!

Rio das Ostras
December 15, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 


A missão Rio De Janeiro é só sucesso. I'm doing well. I'm happy. I love my area, my comp, the people, the work. I have nothing to complain about lately. I hope that I never have to leave here.

This week our baptism fell through, but it's ok, she is getting baptized this Friday. G is the Bride from the wedding that we had last week. She had to travel to her home town becuase her sister is having a baby and she wasn't here to be baptized. She's been waiting for 4 years to be baptized, and this week the wait ends.

We also have been working with another man, L. He will be baptized the next weekend. He is super excited to change his life and be baptized in the church. He loves it. And we are enjoying working with him.

We had our Christmas conference in the mission this week. We went back to Rio AGAIN. But it was fun. The entire mission was there at the same time, and it was the first time in years that that has happened. We ate well. Got some presents and got taught even more. My packages hadn't arrived yet on Tuesday when we were there. There is a chance that I can get them this week. There should be a few missionaries in our zone going to Rio for a training, and they should be able to get them for me. I'm excited for Christmas!

Every week that goes by I enjoy myself more, and feel the importance of what I am doing here. I've seen the change in the spirits of the people that I've baptized and helped, and I live to see that change in everyone.

Our mission is going through an incredible period of change, and we are seeing and feeling the change that is taking place in all of us as we come unto Christ and work to bring others with us. We have a goal to baptize weekly. Every missionary is to have baptisms every week. I'm getting there, and it is the only thing that I want. Weekly baptisms. 

I'll see you all on Christmas (family) and the rest I'll see on June 6th, 2015 when I officially get home. (yeah, it moved again, but this time it's for good). Start planning my homecoming party. You've got less than 6 months! 

Love

Elder Evans

The Babilon Circus "The place of happy people" There ya go.

Have you ever seen that big stadium street in Rio where they do the carnaval samba parades? I got to walk down the entire length of the street. They normally don't let normal people enter. We are special.

The mission Christmas conference

Me with President and Sister Cabral

Me and my sweet bike skills.

December 8, 2014 A WEDDING!!!

Rio das Ostras
December 8, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

G & A are married!

Flower Girl

Alex and the Groom

Elders with the Bride and Groom



Crazy eyes Chopping up chicken for the wedding feast!

I won't be writing a long email for everyone this week because I decided to respond more personally to some emails, but I do have some pictures to share with everyone and we'll let them do the talking.

We had a mission tour with Elder Aidukaitis of the 70 and the area presidency. It was rated as "Excellent" by him. Our mission is going to be receiving a lot more help from the church and we are soon going to be the number 1 mission in Brasil. We are already climbing!

The most trunky part of the week was when a couple that we have been working with  finally was married after years of waiting for the burocracia of divorce and marriage nonsense here in Brasil. G & A were married and we can finally baptize G after 4 years of going to church! It was a super happy moment. We were trunky. 

We helped cut the chickens for the dinner, and we set up the chapel for the marriage. It was an overall good and happy week. We also found more people that we marked baptismal dates and we brought them to church and during the sacrament they both said that they would be baptized. 

Só alegria e água!

(Only joy and water!)

 

Love from Rio,

Elder Evans 

December 1, 2014 WATER!!!

Rio das Ostras
December 1, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

It rained a bunch this week here in Rio! There was a lot of water here in our area and our zone. The rain and the 5 baptisms that we had. S-'s family was baptized this week along with E, another boy who is the son of a reactivated woman. We are working hard and having a lot of fun here in Rio das Ostras. I am enjoying my time and myself in the work and the responsibilities that I have as zone leader of an awesome zone!

 

I don't have time to write a whole lot this week. Just know that I am doing fine and everything is going well. We will be having a wedding this week of a family to complete, and her baptism will be next week, and then after that we will be having another 1 or 2 baptisms that we know of right now before the end of the transfer and before the end of the year. All the work that has been put into this area is really bringing the results this transfer. We are working hard together to baptize 9 people this transfer, and we already got 5!

We also set up our Christmas day lunch and where we are going to skype and everything. So that is all taken care of. Right now it's just waiting another 24 days until we all get to see each other on the internet. Can't wait!

This week we are going to be in Rio until Thursday, we are going to have no time to work in our own area. It'll be hard, but mission council and zone conference will be worth it. I'm excited to hear from the area presidency here in our mission and it should help out the mission a ton!

That's it for this week! Hope all is well up there in the States! Have a good week!

 

Elder Evans

November 20, 2014 SO TIRED....

Rio Das Ostras
November 20, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

I want to know how someone can catch a cold when it's sooo dang hot outside. I think this is my body telling me that it wants a break. I'm stuffed up and got a runny nose, but i'm surviving for now.

This week was good. We have some awesome news! On the 29th we are going to have 5 baptisms! We've been working with Simone and her kids so that they can prepare to be baptized, and they have been coming to church for more than a month now, and we were able to remark their baptism for this saturday. I'm super excited because I know that baptism and becoming members of the church are going to help this family in all the ways that they are needing. They are a very humble, but a very loving and united family.

We are also going to baptize the 9 year old son of a woman that we reactivated last transfer. And on top of that we have other baptisms for the following weeks of the transfer too.

Saturday we went to Alcântara, Elder Luque's old area, so that he could baptize an investigator there. It took all day to get there and come back. Alcântara is where I met Elder Braun for the first time, I had already been there several times about a year ago for exchanges and activities. It was crazy to be back in a place that I haven't seen for a year and to think about all that has happened since. I got to talk with a family there that I got to know pretty well back when I was in Maricá. It was good. But it really hurt my wallet. Which after all the times that I've had to go back and forth in between Rio and here I sit here left with 90 cents. I'm waiting for a lot of money in reimbursements from the office, but I'll probably have to go until Friday without money.

Elder Siebers is in alcântara!

Not much else happened this week. But we are going to have a lot more happening the next couple. I'm going to be in Rio for another 2 days on December 2 and 3, we have mission counsel and a mission tour with Elder Aidukaitis from the area presidency of Brasil. It should be interesting. And more baptisms! I'm going to try to get better quick. But our water ran out again today and I don't have anything to relieve the symptoms of a full sinus. It's all part of life.

Until next week, 

Elder Evans

S- and Family

Kittens are cool~

November 18, 2014 New Companion for Elder Evans

Rio Das Ostras
November 18, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

Only 5 more transfers until I step through those pearly white doors of the airplane!  It's sneaking up on me. I'm getting close to my last 6 months. 

We had transfers yesterday, that's why I am writing today. I stayed here in my area Rio das Ostras, but sadly Elder Call was transferred. I really really enjoyed being his comp. We were bummed that it ended after all the awesome work that we did together here in this area. But my new companion is Elder Luque from Ecuador! Landon, you had a companion from Ecuador too didn't you? He is really cool too! He is super excited and funny and full of energy, which is good because I'm tired like all the time. I'm old. He is 18 and this is only his 4th transfer. We´re still zone leaders here in the Cabo Frio zone.

Last week was a good week! On Monday we got to see some sights and I got to buy some presents for everyone. The next step and obstacle will be getting it in the mail to everyone. But I'll figure it out. I took pictures of Rio and have some pictures to send home today. I'm doing well.

This last week we also had a baptism! L- was baptized after a good time of waiting. He is a friend of a young man in the ward and he has been coming to seminary for months and come to the church several times too. He was supposed to be baptized before I even got here, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to do it. But we challenged him again and he felt that it was right this time. He was super happy after the baptism and confirmation. His mom came to the church to watch it all too and we are going to work with her to be baptized too. Even young men can do missionary work. They are both Ethan´s age. 

I've been most of this week in the bus making the trip to Rio and back. We had mission counsel on Tuesday and we had to come back Wednesday and then on Sunday night we got the bus again for transfers and came back yesterday. It's a 4 ish hour trip each time. It's been rough. But I'm getting rested and I'm excited for all the baptisms that we are going to have before Christmas! 

I love all of you and hope you all have a good week!

Elder Call and I in front of the Arcos da Lapa

Baptism of L- (Left). E-baptized him (right)

 District 221 at transfers. Sister Tingey is going home tomorrow for school. We are starting to die. 

Me on the escadaria de selaron

November 10, 2014 Happy one year in Brazil to me!

Rio Das Ostras
November 10, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

The weeks are going by faster and faster, and the end is drawing near. This week right now will mark exactly one year that I have been in Brasil. November 12th. It feels like I've been here for a lot longer already, but at the same time I remember getting here just like it was last week. On the 10th I make one year and 4 months and then I have exactly 7 months left to go. I found out recently that it's confirmed, I'm going home on June 10th. But there is still a ton of work for me to do here.

This last week was a great week. We really were able to get our zone to feel the spirit of missionary work. The Lord is accelerating His work and we have to keep up. Every area in our zone was going after baptisms and reactivation's like never before. At the start of the week the zone started with no one to be baptized this Saturday. We were able to get three. Which is alright for the 6 area zone that we have. We were actually ranked number one in number of baptisms in the mission for the month of October. Elder Call and I are happy about that. We are working nonstop to get things going.

In our area we were having some difficulties with some people, but after a lot of prayer and fasting everything just kind of seemed to resolve itself and almost all of our investigators are progressing really well. We both really want to stay together in our area for the next transfer. It will be transfer of Christmas, we are going to have several baptisms in the next month too. Transfers are next Monday, so I'm hoping we get to stay. It would be the best present that President could give us. I want to help the people in this area.

I have a request for everyone! I've got a special Book of Mormon that I'm marking up right now and I want to know everyone's favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon. Send it to me as quick as you can! Mine is in 2 Nephi 4:16 to the end. I want to hear yours!

I don't have too much more time. I'm downtown in Rio today for p-day because of a meeting we are going to have, so I've got to go see the sights and buy some things! I hope everyone is doing well. 

Elder Evans

November 2, 2014 Sick Halloween!

Rio Das Ostras
November 2, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

We had a sick halloween here in our zone! The best thing that happened this past week was on Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Friday we had interviews with President. They showed up super late from another zone's interviews and Pres was only able to do 3 areas. We were in Cabo Frio for the day. when president showed up he told all of us to pull out our planners so that he could see what we had planned for that night. He looked and said, "I want all of you to cancel everything for tonight because we are going to have a barbecue at the elders' house in Cabo Frio after some interviews." It was awesome!  Our whole zone, plus the assistents and secretaries and President all slept in that house in Cabo Frio that night. We got to have the very first official churrasco of the Rio de Janeiro mission. What was better was to see President Cabral come out of the house at 10 PM to the driveway where we were grilling the meat in shorts and a soccer jersey and then just sit down on the ground and we all talked until almost midnight. It was a really cool experience and really fun. President slept outside in a hammock that night and the other 18 missionaries had to sleep on the 4 beds and the floor. That was a good way to celebrate Halloween here in Brasil. Because nothing else happened here.

Saturday I got to go back to Araruama for another Zone activity that we did there. I did an exchange with Elder Neu, an Elder from my MTC district if you remember, who has been one of the assistents for 2 transfers now. It was cool to see how different we are now compared to July of 2013.

Sunday was a great day to end the week. We had 8 investigators at church. Including a referral from God. A man that walked up to the gate of the church at 9 and told us that he just felt impelled to visit the church today and see how it is. He even bore a testimony in Sacrament meeting cool huh?

I'm doing really well lately. I'm happy and ready to work. We are being the examples for our zone in the work and how we interact with our investigators and others. And we are trying our best to help them do better too.

Elder Evans

October 27, 2014 Its been an AWESOME WEEK!!

Rio Das Ostras
Octoiber 27, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

You know those Sunday nights when you lay down in your bed watching the lightning and rain outside and you think back on the whole week that you just had and you are just happy because of how everything just seemed to work out in the end? That was my night last night, and my week last week. Elder Call and I are rockin it together. We are doing everything that we can to improve our area and get our baptisms confirmed and strong for these next 3 weeks. We are already in November and half way through our transfer, but this last week was a turning point in our area. Not that things were bad, or that we had nothing to do before, but this last week we went non-stop everyday and we managed to hit all of our goals for the week, except for the baptism that we were going to find somehow. We noticed how well we were really doing on Saturday, when everything that we had planned to do and teach happened on the times that we planned to do them (A miracle in itself). We had several opportunities to teach investigators with members present and help them come closer unto Christ by reading the Book of Mormon, and accepting baptismal dates, and going to church.

I am getting more and more excited every day to be a missionary, and to get out of my junky bed and go walk on the streets and invite people to be baptized. It's been on my head for months now. Invite everyone that you talk to to be baptized. Why not? It's what we elders want to do anyways. Why not invite them? Anyways, we now have about 7 people preparing to be baptized within the next 3 weeks. And you can bet that Elder Call and I are going to be there with them every moment to help them feel the truthfulness and to really help them with what they need.

Most of these 7 is an awesome family that we started teaching this week. S- and her 4 kids. S- and 3 of the kids are some of our students in our weekly english class that we teach on Wednesday nights at the Church. Two weeks ago I had finished the class and reminded all the students that as missionaries we would like to visit them in their homes and share the message of the Restored Gospel with their families. This Wednesday S- came to us after the class and expressed that she wanted us to visit her and her family and share our message. We taught them on Saturday for the first time. They live in a very humble house. The walls are just brick, with holes all over, the floor is just dirt and concrete, they dont have running water, just a well and a cistern outside. And surely not enough beds for the six of them that live there. But they are all intelligent and great people. S- has had some challenges.  In Brasil there is no such thing as child support. Finishing up, they loved the message, they went to church yesterday, we visited again and taught a very powerful lesson of the Plan of Salvation, and are going to be baptized on the 8th. 

God is there to help us. He loves us. His plan is perfect. I know that what He really wants is to see us happy, living with Him for eternity. That's why I'm here.

Love

Elder Evans

Me and my new Official Grêmio soccer jersey that a less active member just decided to give to me at our lunch with them. It's legit. And expensive here in Brasil. I'm honored.

They decided that it was a good idea to build their house around the tree. Sweet. 

The best type of Godam Juice. Straight up Passion Fruit.

My breakfast on Saturday. It's called a "dream". It's way too good to be real.

The view of the Rio farm land in front of Simone's house.

Me and Elder A. Santos. One of our DLs. on an exchange.

October 13, 2014 When the well runs dry.....

Rio Das Ostras
October 13, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

How are all of you!? I'm great here in Rio Das Ostras, or in english, River of the oysters. Elder Call and I are doing good here and we do a really good job working together. I'm excited to work with him for as long as we are together.
We even have a few people to baptize this transfer, and a couple others who are in the process of getting legally married so that we can baptize them too! I like this area a lot, besides the fact that everything is still really expensive here because it's a turist beach city. I can't imagine how full it gets during carnaval. 

This week we had a fun story. The whole week we didn't have running water in our house. Because of the pretty weak infrastructure that Brasil has, we can't have water if it doesn't rain. So it hasn't rained in a while, and we stopped getting water pumped into our cistern to be used in our house. Luckily nobody lives in the house underneath us, so we hopped the wall everymorning and took showers on their driveway with the outdoor showerhead. We also had to steal buckets of water to flush the toilet and clean other things in the house. It was an experience for sure. The water was pretty chilly outside at 7AM. 

This week was a lot of planning and a lot of organizing our area and work and also our zone. We are doing what we can to get baptisms and reactivations and hit our mission standard of excellence. We as zone leaders are doing our best to be the example for our zone. We've got a lot of work to do this coming week, especially since we will be out of our area for 2 whole days. Friday I'll be in Rio for a leadership training, and Saturday I'll be in Araruama again for another giant missionary activity. Lots of time on the bus for me! And money...

That's about it for this week. I love all of you and was happy to hear about everything going on. Happy late Birthday to Landon! 

Elder Evans

Borrowing water from neighbors

Sad, sad, shoes

Working in Araruama

October 7, 2014 Better Late Than Never

Rio Das Ostras
October 7, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Well as you can tell, I didn't have a chance to email yesterday because of transfers. I was transferred again. I'm sad and happy at the same time, but way excited overall. 

So in this region I started off as DL trainer in Cabo Frio, was then moved to Araruama to open the branch there, and now I was moved within the same region again to the other ward that is going to join with Cabo Frio to create this stake. I am currently in Rio Das Ostras. And I was also made to be Zone Leader this transfer. Zone Leader of the Cabo Frio zone. haha. I think it's awesome that God put me here. I really had and still have a strong desire to help these wards split and turn into the stake that it needs to be. Really my prayers have been answered ever since I've gotten to Cabo Frio to be able to stay here and do my best to help this stake. 

What's fun is that while I've stayed here, I've also been transferred a few different times within the same zone and wards. President made me the zone leader leader without any zone leader experience before too. I don't know why, but I'm excited to learn with my new companion, Elder G. Call from Loveland, Colorado. Elder Call was my zone leader in Nova Iguaçu, and he was also serving in Araruama these last 2 transfers with me. And now we are comps! He has one more transfer than me on the mission.

Well, this last week we saw miracles happen at General Conference! The missionaries in my district baptized a family of 5 and another man. All because of the spirit that they felt at conference.

Testifico que temos profetas hoje em dia, e eles são homens inspirados por Deus para ajudar todos nós. Eu amo esta Igreja, pois é a Igreja de Cristo, a única verdadeira. 

Conference was awesome and I'm happy to be here on my mission. I know for sure that God answers our prayers and that I am in the place that I need to be and doing exactly what I need to be doing.

Have a good week. Go Royals.

Elder Evans

September 29, 2014 Araruama week 5. 1 more to go.

Araruama
September 29, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

We are officially on the last week of this transfer. It feels like it flew by. This week was a very different week. We had zone conferences and we did an activity in my area with the whole zone, President and Sister Cabral, the APs and secretaries too. I'll get into that later.

The week started off slow for us. We honestly had very little time in our area to work. It was hard to start and we were having problems planning and working with the members. beyond that it was a busy week for me because my district is balling it up and baptizing everyone, so I have to take time out to do baptismal interviews and help the other elders with these baptisms. This ward has had baptisms weekly for the past 6 weeks, and it is going to continue that way. One of the baptisms that happened Saturday was of D-, a young man 21 years old that Elder de Medeiros and I found and started to teach while we were still in Cabo Frio. That made me happy because I had the chance to be there for almost all of it to help him make the huge changes in his life that he made. I played violin at his baptism too haha.

Zone conference was awesome. We learned a lot and it's always good to hear from President Cabral. He has got this fire inside of him that is just crazy. He jumps around and he bangs his hand on the pulpit and he yells, but with everything he says you can feel what he is saying.

The activity was awesome. We had 11 sets of missionaries to visit every single less active member on the ward list in Araruama. Also to find new investigators and teach everyone. I think I hit a personal record when we found 26 new investigators in one day. We have a busy week ahead of us to follow up with all of these people, but the work is moving along.

General conference is this week and I hope that everyone is going to watch it. It is my favorite weekend on the mission because I get the chance to renew my testimony and receive revelation from God through his authorized prophet and apostles here on Earth in these days.

I got my package, thanks for all that was in it!

Elder Evans

September 22, 2014 Milagres no Rio

Araruama
September 22, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Rio de Janeiro is starting to heat up a bit, and not just because summer is rolling in. Miracles in our mission are happening like crazy right now. This month we are having success here that I have never seen since I've been in this mission. We are really focused on going out and doing work. Finding, Inviting, and Baptizing. President Cabral said something like Michael Scott in the mission counsel, "There's no secret to baptize, it's all very simple." I remembered K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid.

With that said, we are having success here in my district as well. We have been baptizing every week here in the Cabo Frio ward, and what's cool is that the Elders in Cabo Frio are going to baptize a guy that I found and started teaching while I was there, and the other elders in Araruama are going to baptize another man that I found and passed to them. I seem to always find baptisms for other missionaries. But it's all good. We were sent a family yesterday to reactivate and complete. We were walking in the rain yesterday after lunch going to try to teach an investigator that we have been having trouble getting in contact with, and as we were going, a guy and his girlfriend stopped us on the sidewalk and he asked, "are you the missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?? There are elders in Araruama!?" He set a visit with us with his family who is all member except his stepdad, and who are less active for 3 years because they moved here from Manaus and there wasn't a group here yet. It's going to be awesome to meet the rest of the family, I'm excited to teach and help them come back to the church and teach the rest of the family and friends.

I finished reading the Book of Mormon all the way through in Portuguese again this Wednesday. I had been reading for the past 2 months or so during parts of my personal study and bus rides and things. What's funny is that it's a book that once you finish reading it, you just get the urge to start reading it all again and again. I know that it's true, and I know that if you read it, there is no chance that you will not know that it is true. It's so powerful and perfect. I encourage all to read it, and read it again and again. Everyday.

Congrats to Bradley and Carly on the marriage! Looks like everyone had a good time on the small vacation and I hope all went/goes well on the travels home.

Love,

Elder Evans

P.S.

I know I haven't been sending pictures. But it's because I haven't taken any pictures for a few weeks... Work.

Getting tanner though. Check out the difference in the skin tone of my arm and the little bit of leg you can see. Madi, I think that I'm going to win this 2 year "tan off".

 

September 15, 2014 Arar-youwannagetbaptized?

Araruama
September 15, 2014

Hey family and friends!

I hope that you are all doing great still. It sounds like everyone is excited to go on vacation. Lucky. I get 8 hours off once a week. Pday is like a vacation. Except for busy ones like today where I have to get a haircut and wait at the post office for an hour to send a letter, and afterwards go home to lay on the floor in hunger because I don't have money to buy food, or anything. We have to spend at least 8 reais a day on the bus just to get to and from our area. besides that I have to do exchanges with everyone and pay a lot more money. And we are only getting 120 reais for 15 days. It'll be interesting to see how that works out because just on the bus rides we'll have to pay about 130 these next two weeks...

This week was good for the ward. My area this week was left a little untended though. I had to do exchanges with our ZLs in Rio das Ostras and it is far from Araruama. 2 hours on a bus that costs 20 reais. It's ridiculous. We lost a lot of time to work and it hurt us a little in the end. But we are going to recover quickly. But our ward with the 4 sets of missionaries brought plenty of people to church. And there are going to be several baptisms in the next two saturdays. It's really busy. A lot of baptismal interviews for me to do.

One cool thing that I've learned how to do really well here in Brasil is walk. Walk all day, walk everywhere, walk, walk, walk. We have an investigator preparing to be baptized and we had the challenge this past week to try to find her house without a map, car, or cell phone that works. We had the street name and a house number, and the name of the neighborhood. Doesn't sound like it would be "that" hard to do. And then you remember that you are in a rural area of Brasil where streets don't have signs, and houses don't have numbers, and noone knows the name of any other street besides the one they live on. It took 3 hours of walking on dirt roads completely lost to find the house. It was hot too. But on the up side, I don't think my calves have ever been so toned haha.

The changing of the seasons are coming on here. I'm preparing to lose another winter of my life, and prepping to start sweating a lot. It's only spring here and I'm already afraid of the sun.

Have fun on vacation! Enjoy life! Give a referral to the missionaries in your area!

Elder Evans

September 8, 2014 Araruama is a Gold Mine

Zona Cabo Frio

Araruama
September 8, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, we had another baptism this last Saturday.  I'm frankly amazied at what is happening in this city.  It's a GOLD MINE!.  And we are finding and mining the golden investigators.  But in reality, they are finding us.  In the past 2 weeks I have had 3 people ask me if they can be baptized in the church.  It's exciting to take part.  I get excited just to walk on the streets of my area because people contact us an dask us if they can go to church.  I don't know what to do anymore because its so different than ever before. 

For example, last Thursday, we were walking to our lunch apointment.  We were pretty stressed out so we were walking fast and looking kinda down  (it was an incredibly stressful week).  We heard a woman calling us from the other side of the street.  She ran over and asked, " The Church is in Araruama?!  I thought the closest church was all the way in Cabo Frio?!  Where is the address and what are the meeting times and I'll be there!"  We talked for a few minutes about how she knw the church and go her info so we could call and pass her the church address (because we don't know the actual address of the church). 

Saturday after the baptism of L-, I talked to a member there to see if he could pass the address to P- the woman we met on the street.  He called her, and offered her a ride to church.  While she was at church yesterday she asked, " Can I be baptized, too?"  YES YOU CAN, HOW ABOUT THE 20TH??? It was a cool experience.  P- used to live in Rio and had investigated the church there.  But when she moved here, and wanted to go to church, it was too far to get to Cabo Frio. 

So that is the miracle of the week!  We are establishing Zion and the Kingdom of God here in Araruama.  We'll be having even more baptisms these next few weeks. My area is every Elder's dream!

I'm doing well.  I've been stressed, but I'm getting through it.  I'm excited to get another package.  I was happy to see all the pictures this week back at home and hope that everyone is doing fine and being happy. 

Love,
Elder Evans  

 

L and her Mom