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.

Losing Time!

July 28, 2014
Cabo Frio

Dear Family and Friends, 

I don't have any time again! It's getting harder and harder to get everything done in just one hour.

This week we had a great success. We reactivated 2 Men. Which is a key indicator here in the Marvelous Mission. We had trials the whole week doing work, but the Lord is aware of us and how hard that we worked and even though we didnt accomplish all that we wanted, we were blessed in recompense.

Cool fact. My district is the best district in the mission. We are having the most success here in Rio. We were given the challenge to test the new standard of excellence this past week, we went from having to teach 12 lessons with members to 15! And we saw huge blessings come from working harder to achieve this goal. We are going to have some great work to do with the members in this awesome ward. 

I got my hands on a violin yesterday and am starting to practice so I can play at church! I'm super excited! 

Can't believe that Marissa got married and everything that is going on there.

Gotta go! Pics next week!

Love, 

Elder Evans

CABO FRIO- Let's Build a Stake Here!

July 21, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

I feel lately like this is a pivotal transfer of my mission. I've got more responsabilities and I've got a bigger work to complete. Our goal here is to turn this ward into a stake. I'm excited to work even harder here to make that happen. I don't have much time today to write anything big, so it'll be a short update this week.

My new companion, my second son is Elder de Medeiros he is awesome! He's a Brasilian and he is from Rio Grande do Norte. He is a great guy and ready to work hard with me here in Cabo Frio. Cabo Frio is a beautiful city! It's so nice and it's not so hot here like it was in Belford Roxo. The ward is super excited to have all of us here. My district is 4 areas, and all 8 Elders work in the same ward. Whoa. Watch out here comes the Power of the Priesthood.

This week we just did our best to get to know our part of the city, and the members here. We have nobody to teach. We are literally starting from the ground up. But that's exciting for us. We have to do all of the work with the members. There's no other way to do missionary work.

That's all I got this week. I'll have more time and news next week!

Love all of you!

 

Elder Evans

 

 

Here is C at her Baptism last week!

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