Monday, May 14, 2012

Sorry about the wait.... here's Branden's last few letters. :)

April 23rd, 2012
 
Oi!
 
TRANSFERS CAME THIS LAST FRIDAY AND CURRENTLY I AM IN CECILIA FORTALEZA WITH ELDER MAURÌCIO!!!!!!!!!!! My new comp is from sau paulo and he is really awesome!
 
Before we received the phone call I was feeling pretty darn ready to see a new area and to meet more people or to have a chapel. But when I actually got the call that I was leaving I stopped and thought... maybe I don't want to go. Staying in this area for so long, I got really attached to a lot of people and I made a lot of really good friendships. I never thought that Saying goodbye would be so difficult to everyone. There is one family that helped me so much with the language and always feeling welcomed and they were always there for me. Almir, Alini, Victoria, Sabrina, nana. When we went to their house to tell them I was leaving The words came out and a tear came from my eye. It was really sad, and the little 2 year old started crying as well. I was thinking ow crazy the life of a missionary is. We get so attached to the people here and we have so many good times together, then one day we have to pack up and leave and maybe never return! crazy!
 
But We had a really cool experience yesterday at church. We have been doing activities and those have been getting the ward excited! So we have had more and more people visiting church on Sunday. But there was this girl that had visited church for 4 weeks now but every time we went to her house to teach her, she was never home. But during her Sunday school she went p to the teacher and she said I don't know why I feel this way, but I feel like I need to be baptized today! The teacher ran to get up and to talk too us. We found out but we had not taught this girl anything! How can we baptize someone we have not prepared? So we stopped, said a prayer and we started talking to this investigator. She said she has this special feeling and it was like some small voice was telling her that she needed to be baptized that day. So we decided to do what we could. We went to talk to her parents about baptism and they have lots of family that are already members and they were very open to the idea of baptism, and that if she feels that way she should follow her feeling. That alone was a miracle because that was a first for us. Then we went on a wild chicken race to find our district leader to do an interview! We searched and searched and searched..... and finally found them walking. We pulled over our car, and they did the interview in the car. Because there were no other member close. She passed the interview and so everything was good to go with the baptism. It was amazing to how much she knew about the church, from going to church for 1 month and from having other family members in the church! We basically didn't need to teach her anything! We went back, ate a little lunch and then we had the baptism at 4 that afternoon! It was a miracle! This goes to show that when someone has the will to do something you can always find a way, because Our heavenly father will prepare a way for us!
 
I love all of you!
 
Elder Heath
 
April 30th, 2012
 
Familia!

You guys look awesome in the pictures that you sent me! And it sounds like once again you all had a busy week! Stealing swing sets and buying ophnoes and tennis matches! Sounds like my family is having an awesome time! That makes me happy! But this week has been Awesome! I will explain a little about what has happened! My New companion is from Santos which is close to Sao Paulo. And he lives right on the beach! He has one year and 8 months here and he is an awesome missionary! We have a lot in common! He loves singing and he Speaks English FLUENTLY!!!!!!!!!! And he hardly has no accent which is really cool! So we have a good time singing in English in the streets! We decided that we are going to try out to sing with the Mormon tab after the mission! He also sings with SOUL! We have a good time singing music from Remember the Titans! ``Aint no mountain high, aint no valley low``! haha but he also has a personality really similar to mine. He likes talking to everyone and he has lots of good examples for lessons! We now bring our hymn books with us to start lessons to invite the spirit! haha its awesome! 

Our new area is a lot different than my last area. We don't have any dirt roads here and there are a lot more shops and main road here. And we have a chapel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woo hoo!!! Air conditioning!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a lot different than having church in our house church! Our area is also pretty stinking big! Lots of walking and I'm getting buff legs! I have also been doing push ups everyday and I'm up to about 50 now at one time! haha But we also live with 2 more missionaries in a little house. It is ok though, we are never in our house haha. One other Elder who is our LZ (brazillian) lived in provo for 2 years as well. cool stuff!

But we had 9 people at church this week and we are looking at having lots of baptisms this next week! We are definitly getting blessed with references and this week it seems like everything went perfectly! haha Everyone read and everyone went to church! I love it! Definitely a good way to start off a new area! I am also teaching an English Class here! It is funny all the questions people have, and how in English we don't have rules! You just have to memorize words haha

But I love my life and I am learning a ton of things! Keep busy and achieving all you want!

YOUR Elder Heath 

Also next week I will send information about the calling time and what is happening! I will try to plan it for about 3 o'clock your time. I am sending this letter at 4 46 here :) 
 
May 7th, 2012

Hola!!!!
 
Man it is good to hear from my beloved family!
 
So really quick I will update you guys on the phone call. Ya it is going to be the same thing as Christmas. We will call you and then you will call us back! Man its going to be nice in that air conditioned room! ;) So I am going to be calling at 7:00 pm Brazil time on Sunday . So I believe that is 3:00 your time :) But before that we are going to call on Saturday to set up the call. I will try to call the cell phone around the same time. 3:00 your time. :) We will get everything squared away haha there is one downside though. We have a new rule that we can only talk for 40 min. I don't know what happened or why, but what presidente says is for our good...
 
Sounds like this week you all are getting to spend some good family time together! Dad, the name teancum timbers sounds really really familiar. As you are going up to blue wood is it on the right hand side, where you go down a little and there is a river and everything? Maybe I am remembering another place. But I'm sure you MEN had a good time camping! I loved fathers and sons so much! I remember going with dad, Jordan and christian and Neal and Preston. Good old times! Do you remember that time christian and I were breaking rocks and one flew back and hit me in the forehead and left a huge goose egg? haha oh boy. And Mom you played mario cart! That is awesome! It is on here in a year and 4 months! haha That coconut icecream sounds delicious!
 
This week was awesome! Our mission President has been making a new focus in the mission. We are going and re activating members in our areas more. And at first this sounded a little strange but it really was inspiration. There are so many non active members here in Brazil it is crazy! Because of missionaries baptising people that don't have testimonies and just want to baptize. So we have been working with the less active members and we found a great family two weeks ago. We started teaching them again and they decided to come back to church because they knew something was missing in their lives. It was awesome to see them and one other ls active family come back to church. But later this week we were visiting with the first family and found out that their daughter was not baptized yet. We spoke to them about baptism and the daughter was really excited! It was a really special meeting to have the whole family smiling together watching the baptism of their daughter, or sister.
 
I love you all and I know that this church is the true church of Christ. He is our Salvador and redeemer. I love him. I also know that the power of the priesthood is real! and that we need to be worthy to use our priesthood at all times.
 
Elder Heath
 
photos
1 Baptism with new comp
2 THE HULK!!!!!!!!
3 Showing brazillians how to stick pull! haha
 
 

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