Independence Day

Hello everyone,

    

Happy Fourth of July!!  One funny story we walked out of our house yesterday morning and a little girl, no older than 7, said today is your Independence day! It made me laugh that she would know that.  It just kind of made our day.  We have had a great week.  I feel like Elder Jones and I have a great companionship we teach with a flow and a spirit that is incredible.  I'm so grateful to be here in Petrolina. This is one of the best wards in the mission. Everyone is so willing to help us. It really is amazing how a member with a smile on his face can make your day ten times better.  This week we have been teaching a 16 year old named Victor he is just amazing.   In testimony meeting on Sunday, he sat there with tears rolling down his face.  After church he told the members that talked to him that he would be baptised next Sunday. I’m so excited for him and to see his progress. 

One story that touched me this week was that on Monday night the other missionaries asked us to go pick up a cake at a members house.   When we passed by the cake wasn’t done.  The family invited us in, to wait and participate in family night, with them.  As I sat there listening to this family, one by one share testimony and say what they had done in the past week I almost teared up.  Sometimes as missionaries you stay so much in the world, teaching people who don’t care about the gospel, who don’t have the desire to follow Christ and when I saw this family together, following the counsel of the prophet, it was just a beautiful thing it helped me remember my purpose here.  I know that I have to go out and use every possible second to help bring families to a knowledge of the truth.  How I love this gospel.  I hope that we are doing the small and simple things to bring about great things.   Small things like family night, reading the Book of Mormon, prayer, and going to church.  I know that these little things bring about great things.  It’s these simple things that got me on a mission.   How I am grateful for my parents and their diligence in doing these things as I was growing up.  I know that my investigators are also grateful for their diligence.

Last night for our Forth of July party we had a churrasco and made chocolate chip cookies.  We had four American Elders and two Brasilian Elders it was a lot of fun to come together and celebrate a wonderful day.  We also decided to have a wrestling competition after we got done eating and don’t worry Dad, I didn’t let you down. I didn’t lose one match. haha it was a ton of fun. 

I sure love you guys,  I hope you all are doing great! Have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Mender 

Memorial Day

Well Mom how are you doing?  I can't believe you're all home and it is Memorial day. Some family barbeque time seems amazing right now.  Well everything is just dandy here in Brasil.  So today is P-day because tomorrow we have a meeting. We are pretty excited.  The work is going great.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get the package you sent.  I hope so.  Well in other news we are working really hard.  I'm pretty happy with life. Did you ever get the pictures I sent home?!!? I'm a little worried its been a few weeks.   Well have a great Memorial day say Hi to the family. Have a great week. Love you mom!!

Hello, Hello, Hello - what a beautiful day to baptise!!!

Well... I would like to say we baptised this week but satan seems to be working triple time on our investigators.  We have one woman named Vanalusia who is just a power house.  I swear when she gets baptised she is going to be the next relief society president of the church.  But she always has work getting in her way and when she doesn't have to work, her family isn't there or some problem.  So She decides to wait one more day but I know this week is going to be the week.  We just have to be strong.  

We also have another family that we are teaching that is just amazing the Grandma is Vania.   She is a well known woman here in Salvador and just amazing.  She has two children Eros and Luana.  Eros is married to a member and is probably one of the smartest guys I have ever met.   He can rap freestyle like nothing else but also is book smart as well.  He is really into philosophy so we have been able to talk about that.  When he read the Book of Mormon he felt an answer that it was true. Now the tricky part is helping him realize it.  I love this family so much.  His sister Luana is also another amazing woman she is single with a 7 year old daughter that has a medical condition which has made it so she couldn't walk her whole life. Her name is Samara. She is just a princess, last month she had a surgery which will help her to walk in the future.  I just love this family.  It is interesting how all three of them have said they can see how God has led us (the missionaries) into their lives.  I'm so grateful for the miracles I have seen with this family.  Last Saturday we had the chance to go do a service project and paint two rooms in the house. It was so much fun to be with the family.  Afterwords they made dinner for us.  I'm pretty sure that's like 100 celestial kingsdom points right there! haha it was amazing.  Sunday the whole family showed up at church.  I'm pretty sure I started crying when I saw that.  They looked like they just fit in the church. I love this work.  You know everyday I wake up tired but something just makes me get out of bed excited and happy.  I love teaching this gospel. It's one of the best feelings in the world.  I know that as we just keep working hard we will see more and more miracles happening in our work. I testify that Christ lives.  He is the son of our loving Heavenly Father and He loves us.  The plan of salvation is perfect. We just gotta do our parts and eternal life is promised to everysingle one of us.  Have a great week everyone.  I love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Mender

Not One Card

Mom,


So here everything is amazing.  We just go out everyday and teach the Gospel. I'm with Elder Ercek.  Its been a blast, its really funny because he thinks he is a profesional comedian.   So every night he does stand up routines for us.   It's pretty wonderful.  We are seeing improvements with the langauge (his).   I feel like this transfer I'm working my hardest.  I definately feel good about life right now.  Like all pistons are running 100%.   Just gotta teach and work with the spirit and all things will work out for my good.   So one bit of sad news.  Last week we had a training with President and I didn't ONE CARD!!!   This is trhe first time on my mission I didn't get ONE CARD.  Do you know what that means? people have forgotten about me.  I thought that would never happen to me, but as it happens to all, it happened to me.  Haha but at least I had an email from you,  dad, and Owen!!!!! Probably the best p-day of my life today.   I dont think its ever happened that I got an email from all three of you on the same day.  I feel good Mom,  I feel like everything is just working out how it should.  I know the Lord has got it all covered.   Can you believe I turn 21 in two weeks?! Man my life has just passed by way too fast. No... its passed by at JUST THE RIGHT speed. I'm happy! No, I'm more than happy with my life! Thanks Mom. have a great week!!!

Love,


Mitch

Mother's Day Call

Sunday was Mother's Day and that means we were able to talk to Mitch, in Brazil...this was the first time we have been able to use Skype and that was just a technological wonder!  I did a couple of dry runs with some friends since I've only used Skype once or twice before the big day.   We also bought a little connector so that we could view the call on the big screen.   How is that for cool?

The kids all came to the house and we all got the chance to talk to Mitch.  Nothing is as fun as listening to your grown kids talk and laugh together!    The video element of Skype allowed for lots of interaction that just isn't possible on the phone.   Of course Adelynne and her interactions with an Uncle that she only knows (and remembers) from photos was just too cute for words.   I wonder how she will do when she actually gets to meet again in person!

I loved listening to everyone plan what we would do as a family when Mitch comes home.....knowing he will be here for such a short time before heading off to school.   I am so happy that we have a family vacation planned for December and knowing that trip will be at a bit more relaxing pace!

Easter

On Easter we had family and friends to dinner at the house, 

before dinner Adelynne came over for a small egg hunt at Grandma's house.   

Grandpa hid eggs all over the house and most of them were hidden in plain sight 

but it was still alot of fun!   

(Adelynne also looked for eggs when she came to visit on Mother's Day)

 Here is one in the bowl!

 And another on the couch!

My full haul of eggs!

 The table set for dinner!

 Dinner with Family and friends!

Three in ONE!

29 March 2011

Hello all!!!

What a crazy couple of weeks. Lets start off with two weeks ago. We had a party for two of our investigators where I made two cakes and bought soda we filled up balloons and had a sweet little get together at the church it went really well and was a lot of fun and then on that Saturday was their baptism!! His name is William and her name is Sandra they are two of the most special people I have ever met.  He told me the on that Sunday that he would serve a mission in New York. It was a very fun day. 

   One night as my comp and I were walking home we found a stray kitten in the road and you know me! We couldn’t leave him in the road so we picked it up took it home gave it a bath and food.  We kept it in our house for the next few days as we found a new home for her. It was the a ton of fun to watch this little kitten learn and grow. Lucky for us, she has a wonderful new home and is quite happy. 

  This last Saturday we had the chance to go out to a farm and do a service project building a new house but the farmers here are so nice they just want to go around feeding you and showing their fruits that we didn’t really get a TON of work done at the house... ha-ha I had to tell him about a hundred times "irmao we are here to work on the house what can we do to help?"  And he always said shut up and eats this fruit. Ha-ha I got to eat cocoa…. did you know it was a fruit? I didn’t... java, sugar cane, coconut, tangerines, oranges, banana and a bunch of other fruits that I don’t even remember the names but it was a very fun day and I learned a lot about a loving people I’m pretty sure they would give away all their fruit and end up with nothing to sell...

    This week we had the baptism of irmao Dina she is the mother of a member and she was also baptized with her other son. It was amazing to see their baptism after we spent so much time teaching them.  They are so special.  The son Eder, won a modeling contest this week... he is 10! Ha-ha I’m so grateful foot the chance I had to serve is Santo Antonio de Jesus because well... it ended.  Today was transfers and I got moved to Barbalho a neighborhood in Salvador. Which should be really interesting. It has a ton of hills and is kind of like the ghetto of Salvador.  I’m excited to serve here since I’ve spent my whole mission in the interior. My new companion is Elder Gross, he is from Idaho!  Yep an American. This will sure be am interesting transfer. Well last night we had to take a bus from our area to Salvador at 2:30 in the morning... well it broke dawn at 3:30 and we had to wait on the highway another hour for the second bus then another bus broke down and we had to wait another two hours to help the second bus that was broken down.  That turned our two-hour bus ride into a 6-hour bus ride and for some crazy reason they decided to not turn on the air conditioning, which normally isn’t a problem, but this bus didn’t have windows that you could open up!!!!! How lame is that. I’m pretty sure I lost about 5 kilos in sweat on the bus ride but hey I guess that’s a good start on my new years resolution huh? 

   Well people I’m super duper excited for conference this week and I hope you are too! It isn’t everyday that we get to hear the words of living prophet.  Take advantage of it and don’t fall asleep like I used to do!!! You miss so much!! Have a great week I love you guy’s tons thank you so much for the support.  I hope to get letters out next week folks so hopefully here un 3 or four weeks you’ll get some cards.  te ammo

Love,

Elder Mender

5 April 2011

Hello all!!!

Well I just want to let you all know I think my area is CRAZY. I swear there is some parts of my area that is worse then rock climbing.  So let me explain real quickly how they built Salvador they took an area of steep hills and built houses on them.... crazy huh? So there are some parts where you literally feel like you are rock climbing.  It’s an adventure. The good news is my legs are getting way strong. I'm quite proud of them. 

   But the good news is we have a pizza place in our area that if you buy ten pizzas you get one free!  So our district has become addicted to pizza I don’t know what it is about missionaries but we love free stuff!

    This last week was general conference and it was amazing. We got to watch the four normal sessions with investigators.  It was just amazing.  I love listening to the words of the Prophets.  It was a lot of fun because I understood everything! I remember my first conference when I didn’t understand anything.  It truly is a miracle to think that now I can kind of speak Portuguese or at least enough to get through teaching people.  Speaking of teaching people we have amazing people that we are teaching here.  We have a man called Luciano who is joining the marines but preparing for baptism this week he is just a complete stud. We have a member named Ceju and his wife that are preparing to get married next month and then they will be baptized. I love teaching people here.  It’s the only time in my life when I know exactly what to say and how to help people.  I’m so grateful for my chance to be a missionary and I love the chance that I have to testify of Jesus Christ ever day.  I know that he is our Redeemer.  I testify that He loves us and is here to help us we just have to go to him.  I love you all hope you have a great week!!  Hopefully next week I can write more. 

Love,

Elder Mender

12 April 2011

Hello all,

Well it’s been another amazing week her in Salvador.   The new area is kicking my trash but I think ill get used to it.  For example one night we were hiking up Mount Everest and when I got to the top I was out of breath ….  for real its crazy! And for a sign the woman that were at the top said, "look at the big one he is dying!!"  I just stopped looked at them and said "yep its true" and we laughed but its not really that funny.  I’m sure I’m going to lose a ton of weight here but I guess that’s a good thing.  Since we heard this week from our President that we are supposed to get married in less than year after my mission.  So I guess now is the time to start that LGN diet. 

   Our investigators are amazing.  Elder Gross and I are teaching like crazy. He is a spiritual power giant.   I love teaching with him.   Last night we taught a lesson to a man who didn’t want to get baptized because he didn’t want to give up relations before marriage and Elder Gross just started dropping what we call spirit bombs on him it was amazing. I'm learning a ton with him.  By the end of the lesson the man said he would prepare for baptism this Sunday! Always a good sign.  My favorite part of a new area is meeting the new members.   And boy do we have some great members here.  This week we ate lunch with a 75-year-old woman and she piled my plate a mile high with food and made of me when I couldn’t finish it!!  She is so funny.  Her husband lives in another state and I said oh that’s sad she said "nope its perfect I lived with him for 50 years if he doesn’t want to stay here now that’s fine with me!!!" it cracked me up hard core.

    Well I sure love you all I hope you have a great week.  And remember READ THE BOOK OF MORMON it’s the best thing in the world. 

Love,

Elder Mender

A Really Happy Week

BOM DIA!!!!

How is everyone doing today?  I'm doing great this last week was a really long week and a really happy week. This Sunday was the baptism of a young man named Crislam.  He plays soccer semi-professional.  He is such an amazing guy. I was so happy he decided to be baptized. He will be an amazing missionary.   We are preparing a man named William and his girlfriend Sandra to be baptized this Saturday. They are so special. I love teaching them they just soak up everything. William told us the other day how Sandra would have to wait for him because he wants to serve a mission. It was such a powerful lesson.  Im pretty sure we all cried.   I love this area when i got here we had a bad rap because the missionaries before us did some pretty bad things but i can tell the mood of the ward is changing and people are starting to trust us more.  I love this work and i can’t imagine a better thing to do with my time. 

   The past few weeks we have been working a ton with the members.  And man has it been helping.  Everyday we do a division with a young man or we do splits with the quorum of elders. And they bear powerful testimony.  They don’t always know how to teach perfectly but you can tell when they bear testimony that the investigator feels the spirit. I love this work. I love that we have to work closely with the spirit or nothing happens. We have to teach people how to gain a testimony of Christ.  I have to run but just to wrap up i want to say read the Book of Mormon. It should be an IMPORTANT part of our lives. Family and personal. We need to read it love it and use it.   I can’t stress it enough and we can’t stress it enough for our investigators.   I hope everyone is getting ready for general conference it will be a great few days when we can refill our spiritual batteries.  I sure love you guys. Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Mender