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