And......It's over! The World Cup and other things.

July 14, 2014
Belford Roxo

Dear Family and Friends,

The subject is in relation to several things now.

First, the world cup. Thank goodness that it's all over. It was a really cool experience to be here for the cup, but it was also getting super annoying to work and be a missionary here.

Second, my time in Belford Roxo. We had transfers TODAY. I am going to Cabo Frio, which is closish to Maricá. I'm wicked excited to go back over to that side of Rio. everything is chiller over there. Way less violence (yay for mom!), and there isn't as much poverty. Sadly I had to leave Elder Montoya and only got to do one half of his training, but I am going to be training again! Already on my second mission son. And I am opening an area (They are splitting the existing area into 2). And I am also the new District Leader there! So many things happening all at once! I'm excited for the change. It'll be a lot of hard work, but I'm excited to go get it done. I get my new newbie tomorrow, and I'll get off to my new area and get to work.

Lastly, we had a baptism, yesterday! It was awesome! C is a super awesome investigator that really was a miracle. She stopped smoking completely in 2 weeks! She read half of the BoM in 2 weeks as well. She was so well prepared for the moment that we started to teach her. We found her by teaching her son, who was a contact on the street! It was a lot of hard work for us, but we never gave up. It was very hard to get her to baptism, but we literally went there every day and we called her nonstop, we wrote her cards to bring to work so she could have spiritual strength while stopping smoking. It was really a struggle against Satan, but we came out on top. It was my last day in that area as well. I'll miss the people of Belford Roxo for sure. The city, not as much haha!

I hope everyone is great. I don't have pics this week, I'm sleeping in Botafogo and my camera is packed up for right now. I love all of you and have a great week!

One year done, one year to go!

July 7, 2014

The Purple Belford

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!! You're my favorite mom in the whole world! Hope you had a good bday!

Happy 4th of July too! I hope all of you watched the fireworks and enjoyed barbecue and family and the lake and everything. We celebrated here by cooking some burgers and sausages with some Brasilan pudding. It was during the Brasil/Colombia game too. My companion was pretty sad to hear that his country lost.

Congrats Bradley and Carlie! I want a wedding invite even though I won't be able to go.

And Happy 1 year birthday to me. This week on Thursday I complete one year that I've been on my mission. Already. Time has flown by so fast, and now I only have one more to go. It's all downhill from here. It's been a great year that I have on my mission so far, but I'm working hard to make this last year even better. I'm confident that in this next year the Rio de Janeiro mission will be having greater and greater success as the Lord prepares this city to receive the Temple that was promised her.

This week was full of meetings and traveling. We got to meet our new mission president on Wednesday! He is amazing and exactly the person who needs to be leading this mission these next three pivotal years here in Rio. He is a really short man, but has a power beyond his stature. When he speaks you can feel the power of his voice, it was a pretty cool experience to meet him. Not to mention that he is a convert to the church, and within 1 year of being baptized he had already been bishop and stake president... He reminded me of Dwight Schrute from the episode of the Office that he gives the speech. President Cabral bangs on the pulpit, and waves his arms around and jumps and runs around and does everything to get his point across. "We are warriors! It is a privilege to fight!" he actually said something similar to this haha.

We are working hard to have a baptism here in Belford Roxo. Remember that woman C? She is preparing right now to be baptized this weekend. She has smoked all her life, but for the past two weeks has stopped besides for one or two cigs. If she can stop completely she can be baptized because besides that she is doing everything right. I'm excited to see the changes that the gospel makes in people's lives. I love being a missionary.

That's about all for this week. Tomorrow we get our pday because of the Brasil/Alemanha game.

Stay classy,

Elder Evans

The biggest LDS Church I've seen so far in Brazil.  Its in Freguesia, RJ.

Elder Montoya on game day!

 

USA, USA, USA! 

All in Português, Can you read it?

June 30, 2014

Oi família e amigos!

Hoje queria escrever meu email para vocês somente em Português. É uma coisa diferente e legal, espero que vocês entendam ou consigam traduzir as coisas que escrevo.

Primeiramente, muito obrigado por todos os emails que recebi hoje. Me lembraram de todo o amor que têm por mim, e também de todas as orações que fazem por mim diariamente. Realmente eu posso sentir o poder das orações em minha vida e trabalho, elas me ajudam que os dias não são tão bons como queremos. E também estou muito animado para receber meu pacote de vocês aqui em algumas semanas! Quero muito os doces americanos e sapatos novos!

Esta semana foi uma semana de pequenos milagres que resultaram em felicidade. Faz sentido? Deixa me explicar. Nossa missão tem um padrão de excelência de nosso indicadores-chave e nós temos que ensinar 12 lições com membro presente, 15 outras lições, e ter 20 novos pesquisadores semanalmente. Também ter 6 pessoas com data de batismo, 6 na igreja domingo, e 210 contatos na rua. Eu em minha missão nunca atingi esse padrão. É muito difícil, mas como foi ordenado por um servo de Deus, eu sei que é o que Deus quer feito em Rio. Então, como foi a última semana de Pres. Lima, eu queria muito atingir essas metas, e fazer o que é requerido de mim como um missionário. Nós nos esforçamos essa semana e por meio de pequenas bênçãos e milagres e a ajuda de nosso Pai Celestial atingimos o padrão por lições e novos. Eu senti muito feliz sabendo que quando temos fé, nós temos o poder de Deus em nossas vidas para fazer o que parece conveniente a Ele. 

Partes da semana foram difíceis. Eu estava doente com um resfriado muito ruim, meu companheiro também, tivemos dias em que nossos planos todos caíram e tinha nada a fazer, mas fomos dado a inspiração e ajuda para fazer e encontrar e ensinar as pessoas que Deus coloca em nossa frente. 

Eu amo a missão. Eu amo esta obra. E eu amo a oportunidade que tenho para ser o mensageiro por nosso Pai Celestial. 

Espero que todos tenham uma boa semana e desfrutem a Copa do Mundo!

Estados Unidos vai ganhar!

Com amor,

Elder Evans

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Hi family and friends! 

Today I wanted to write my email to you only in Portuguese. It is a different and cool thing, I hope you understand or be able to translate what I write.

First, thanks for all the emails I received today. Reminded me of all the love you have for me, and also for all the prayers that do for me every day. I can really feel the power of prayer in my life and work, they help me that the days are not as good as we want. And I'm also very excited to receive my package from you here in a few weeks! Americans want very sweet and new shoes!

This week was a week of small miracles that resulted in happiness. Does it make sense? Let me explain. Our mission has a standard of excellence of our key indicators and we have to teach 12 lessons with a member present, 15 other lessons, and have 20 new researchers weekly. Also have 6 people with date of baptism, 6 in church Sunday, and 210 contacts on the street. I never hit my mission in this pattern. It is very difficult, but as was ordered by a servant of God, I know that is what God wants done in Rio So how was the last weekend of Pres. Lima, I really wanted to achieve these goals, and do what is required of me as a missionary. We strive this week and through small miracles and blessings and the help of our Heavenly Father reached the standard for lessons and new. I felt very happy knowing that when we have faith, we have the power of God in our lives to do what seems appropriate to Him

Parts of the week were tough. I was sick with a very bad cold, my partner also had days when our plans all fell and had nothing to do, but we were given the inspiration and help to make and find and teach people that God puts in front of us.

I love the mission. I love this work. And I love the opportunity I have to be the messenger for our Heavenly Father.

I hope everyone has a good week and enjoy the World Cup!

United States will win!

With love,

Elder Evans

The Purple Belford

June 24, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

What a long week full of trains, buses, subways, and walking! This week was a little different than normal because my comp is new in Brasil, so we had to go to Flamengo where the mission office is on the Largo Do Machado (a big plaza) so that he could go to the Polícia Federal with some of the other hispanic newbies. I enjoyed my time waiting at the office with the assistants and secretaries. We had a pretty fun day on last Monday. 

Tuesday, like I think that I mentioned, was our Pday last week. because of the Brasil game in the Cup. Just like today too, we have to spend the entire day indoors at our house on Brasil game days. For the best too, it can get a little crazy.  

Thursday we had a very spiritual experience at zone conference. It was the last time that we'll see President and Sister Lima, until after the mission. They both had plenty of inspiring words to share with us. I learned a lot about the things that I need to do better and really about the things that all of us need to get better at being disciples of Christ. It was a really sad night when President gave his last talk to us and bore his powerful testimony. He and Sister Lima are amazing people and I can't wait to get to see him every year at BYU when he has to come up to Salt Lake for General Conference. But that also means that this week will be an interesting week when our new President arrives on Friday.

We have an awesome week planned out. We are going to do a lot of work to make up for this past week that we didn't have the time for, plus we keep on meeting more and more prepared people to teach and bring to church. We planned out an open house for the chapel here with the ward that we are going to do on Wednesday, and we are hoping and praying that we can have lots of visitors at the church on Wednesday night.

 I love this work, and I love Brasil. I hope all of you are seeking to have your own missionary experiences wherever you find yourself.

Thanks for all of the support back home and I hope that everything continues to go well for all of you.

Love,
Elder Evans

 Me and 3 of my comps.

The original District 220, at least some of us!

 Reunited and it feels so good... Elder Mountain (My very first companion) finally made it to Brasil 6 weeks ago. Thursday was the first time that I'd seen him in almost a year now. 

The mission family tree. Me and my son with my dad and my brother and his sons. 

May 26 Another week "Na Baixada"

Dear Family and Friends,

One more week done already here in the baixada (bye-shada) fluminense (what they call this region of rio). Time has been flying lately for me. I'm quickly coming up on my one year mark here in July. Caramba. Sounds like it has been a good, busy week for all of you back at home. My week was pretty good. It didn't seem like much was accomplished but we did what we could.

This week the big news was that we had interviews with our mission President who starting in July will fully take over his responsiblilities as an area 70 for Brasil (He currently is working as both area 70 and mission president). I've got huge respect for President Lima. You can tell that he is incredibly inspired by the spirit and it seems as if he can look right through you into your spirit. Intimidating a little, but amazing because every bit of advice that he gives is exactly what you need to hear every time. Interviews were good for all of us in the zone. My comp got 4 packages delivered to him too, so that is nice for me as well! There is a funny story that goes along with those packages, but I'll explain later.

There was a fun thing that happened here in Rio this week that I'm sure will scare mom a little. On Wednesday there was a 24 hour police strike in the entire state! Zero policemen were on duty for the entire day and night! Crazy! Don't worry too much. We got sent home early before dark so that nothing bad could happen, but that was definitely a neat experience. You don't hear that too often, all the police stop working for a day AND announce it to everyone. They are protesting for more money because of the world cup, just like everyone else. It's starting to get crazy down here with the cup fever. I wish I could watch some games because nobody is going to be available to teach during any gameday. it'll be hard for sure. 

I ate blood sausage on Tuesday and 3 yr old pumpkin yesterday. Gotta love it!

Hope you all have a good week!

#Brasil #TheRioLife

#ElderEvans

June 16 Training Week 2, Belleford Roxo

Truth is Light

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was great! We have been blessed with an awesome investigator who is progressing amazingly. Her name is C, and actually we started to teach her probably 6 weeks ago. She is the mom of another investigator that we have been teaching.  One day she came in the apartment as we were teaching him and she asked, Who is Mormon? What is that book that you gave to my son? I want to know more about it. Perfect! We can help! We taught her, gave her a book.    We hadn't seen her since and this past week we passed her on the street.  We stopped and I talked to her and she said hey, I started to read that book of Mormon, I'm almost to the chapter that you marked with me. She had read all of 1st and 2nd Nephi by herself and without us there to help her. Wow!   I invited her to church and she came with us. We taught her again after church and she has a baptismal date for July. She is awesome! 

We had to stay inside Thursday.  We found out that every day that Brasil plays we will have to stay home. It's boring, and I'm dying to watch a game or two. It's very hard to be here right now. But it's also an experience of a lifetime.

On a mission in Rio, and while the World Cup is in Brasil. Never would have guessed that.

Well, that's it for this week, I'll have more next week! Stay classy!

Love, Elder Evans

June 9 World Cup Fever Begins!

Dear Friends and Family, 

Man it's hot today. And they had said that winter had started here in Brasil. Caramba!  Sounds like everyone is doing pretty well there in the states, or Canada, wherever you happen to be. I had a good, and stressful week this week as a missionary here in Rio. As I mentioned last week, I got called to be a trainer, and on Tuesday I picked up my new companion, my son, and took him home to Belford Roxo. I felt a little bad for him at first because this is a rough area to have your first look at Rio. He was having a little hard of a time adjusting to everything at once, like all missionaries, but he is starting to feel better, and he is a pro missionary already. My son's name is Elder Montoya, the first thing I thought of was the Princess Bride quote "My name is Elder Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die" haha. He is from the great South American country of Colombia. He is fresh out of whatever the equivalent of high school is there, with 18 years of life, and practically is training me how to be a missionary. We are becoming good friends and are having success already together. I can't wait to see all the things that he will do on his mission.

As in specific stories, we had stake conference this week and it was legit! We all got to go to Salt Lake for the conference to hear M. Russel Ballard, Richard G. Scott, Carole M Stephens, and the Area Presidency of Brasil speak to us. Well, we didn't literally go to Salt Lake, it was a broadcast transmission to the Brasilian states of Rio, São Paulo, and Espírito Santo. It was cool to get to hear the apostles speak to us again. Richard G Scott gave his talk in Portuguese too! the others had to have translators. What was also funny was that Richard G. Scott gave a talk to us while I was in the MTC almost a year ago. And yesterday he gave the exact same talk that he gave to the missionaries in the MTC, just in Portuguese this time. It was about prayer, it was really good.

Many have asked how the world cup will work with us serving in Rio. On the 12th, the day it starts, we were told that we will be at home all day. We will leave for lunch like normal, but we need to be back at our houses by2 PM and we will stay home the rest of the day. But after that we just have to be careful. We are not allowed to even talk about the cup with anyone. It'll be hard. And I hope that everything will be safe for us serving. But that's it. I am looking forward to having a good week and an exciting time in the missão maravilhosa.

Love y'all, enjoy the cup for me, I'll take pictures of what I can. What a time to remember, huh?

Elder Evans

 Me in front of the maracanã! Where the championship games will be held!

 Me and my Brelder, Brelder Braun. We are both training right now. 

 Elder Siebers, Me, Elder Kunzler (my missionary brother), and Elder Heidenreich. Some of my American buds, all training.

Me and my son Elder Montoya. I feel like I look so different now than before the mission.