August 26, 2014 CHANGES!

August 26, 2014
Cabo Frio

Dear Family and Friends,

Every week there's something new going on here in Rio. This time it was transfers!

 

Let me explain what happened. So I was serving in Cabo Frio. The ward in Cabo Frio has 4 sets of missionaries that work in it's boundaries (because it's masssssssive). There were 2 sets in Cabo Frio, 1 set in the city São Pedro da Aldeia, and 1 in Araruama. We are working in this ward to create a stake out of our ward and one other ward here. By December, if we have the progress that we need, we could start all of this process by splitting the stake and turning Cabo Frio into a district. It's a little complicated with all the numbers and stuff, but it's all very exciting to be taking a part of. Like I said, I was in Cabo Frio, but we had transfers yesterday.

 

Me and my companion were both transferred... To a different area in the same ward. haha. We are now a second set of missionaries in Araruama. Within the next 3 months Araruama will be turning into a branch. There is a group of people that meet together for a sacrament meeting there, but it's not an official church unit yet. President Cabral sent us two along with other 2 elders to go and start a branch here. Lot's of responsability!  We have to baptize and reactivate a bunch of people. And we are going to do it. I'm still training my comp and I'm still District Leader here. 

It was fun because I had to bring my suitcases 4 hours from here on 2 different buses to get to the transfer meeting, and come back the same way to literally the same place. I moved houses though, I am currently living in São Pedro in a sweet apartment, until we find a house to live in in Araruama. There are 6 elders living in the same house. We only have 1 bathroom too. We need to find that other house.

I'm excited to continue the work here. And I'm really glad that I didn't get transferred out of this region and ward because I love it here. Almost all of my time here in Brasil has been spent on this side of the state and it's so much better. My new area in Araruama borders my first area here in Brasil, Maricá. I guess I was destined to serve near the beach. No complaints!!

 

I hope all of you are doing well.

Tchau,

Elder Evans

August 18, Last week of transfer

August 18, 2014
Cabo Frio

Dear Family and Friends,

I don't have much time to add onto this week It was a good week and we worked hard. I have interviews with president today here in an hour or so, so I need to get going. This week is the last week of the this transfer. I hope that I get to stay here in Cabo Frio and finish the training of my second son. But,  if the Lord needs me somewhere else, I'll go.

 

Thanks for all of the help and support. Continue praying and I'll do the same. I know that our Savior Jesus Christ lives and loves us. I hope that we are all trying to come closer unto him and learn more about what he did for us.

 

Have a great week!

 

Elder Evans

Extras...from Aug 4, 2014

Cabo Frio
August 4, 2014

So the ward's area is massive. There are over 600 people on the ward list, but 160ish are active. But the ward has 2 "groups" that meet in other cities for sacrament meeting as well.

 

One in Araruama, which missionaries are opening right now, which will be a branch here in a few months.

The other is a smaller group in a city called Búzios to the north of cabo frio, it's a rich touristy town.

 

Church starts at 3 PM here. It's the latest that I've ever had church, but as a missionary it's nice. If I was a normal person I would not like to have church so late on Sunday. 

Love,
Alex

August 11, 2014 Cape Cold

August 11, 2014
Cape Cold (Cabo Frio)

Dear Family and Friends,

Big changes again in the mission this week! We had a zone meeting and several things were changed up for us, and I'm excited about the changes that were made in our key-indicators and our work here.

 

First off, NO MORE REQUIRED 210 STREET CONTACTS PER WEEK!! It's not that we won't be doing more street contacts here in Rio, but we won't have a quota of how many to do. Because finally President realized that when you order and make such a big deal about having to do 30 contacts a day, we as missionaries end up stressed out and we do contacts with the intent of being able to say that we did 30 contacts and not the real purpose which is to teach a lesson to every single one of our contacts if possible.

 

We are focusing hard on teaching more and marking more baptismal dates. To get the picture we now have a standard of excellence of 15 lessons with member present, 15 other lessons, and 20 new investigators per week. Every companionship has to baptize. Something different that I am going to be doing this week is inviting everyone that I talk to to be baptized on the 30th of August which is the soonest that someone can go to church twice and be baptized. It'll for sure be something cool and we'll see if we get some success out of it. 

We had another tough week this week. It seemed as if we were stuck in a rut. We got a little disappointed that things weren't working out for us, but we talked and figured out that we need to rely a lot more on the Lord to help us know what to do during our days. We are feeling the Spirit more and having more help too. As we continue to be obedient and work hard, the blessings and baptisms will come in the Lord's time. 

 

This week we are going to work in a cool part of our area. Arrail do Cabo. Look it up!

 

Thanks for all the emails and prayers, love you all,

 

Elder Evans

 

This is my town!

 

Is it just me, or is it getting HOTTER?

August 4, 2014
Cabo Frio, Brazil

Howdy!

All is good here in Cape Cold. Except that I feel like the "cold" is starting to be a lie. The sun out here on the coast is unbearable at times. Here you can get sunburnt through anything. Even a winter coat. I'm starting to turn red again. But all's well.

We had a hard week, to be completely honest and optimistic. It was rough! It seems like nothing was going well for us. None of the contacts that we did went anywhere, all of the doors that we knocked got shut on us, and most of the appointments with investigators and members alike fell through. It is hard to not get discouraged and stressed out about how things turn out sometimes, but we kept working the whole week until the end and at least we feel better for having done so. It's hard to be a missionary. Things don't work out how you want them too. You do all the things that you should, and try all the different ideas that you can think of, and at the end of the week, it seems like nothing was done at all. But I feel like it's those weeks that are the ones that count. They're the occasional tests that God sees fit to give us. Blessings come after the tests. 

We had a hard week, but we had fun. We are teaching an English Class every Saturday here at the church, the ward is getting super involved in the work here, and I'm playing violin at church too. Violin is definitely not as good as Viola, but I miss music so I endure. 

What else is there to update? I still haven't gotten the package. I'll get it at interviews, which were supposed to be last week, then today, but got rescheduled for a third time and we don't know now when. I'm dying for the new shoes and candy!

I'm going to be putting together a package to send home to you guys here in a the next few weeks. I'll send home some things that I don't need to be carrying around with me here and if you want a present, let me know what I can buy for you!

Love you all, the church is true, the book is blue,

Elder Evans

My district. We are all serving in the same ward. Our ward mission leader and Bishop are in this pic too.

My second Son. Elder de Medeiros

Nun chucks that we found in the house. Weird, since sisters lived here before us...

A bar that I passed the other day. I had to get a picture. #BombaFC haha

Americans on United States Street.