The Lord is Preparing People to Accept the Gospel...The Gospel Blesses Families

Hey guys! Lots to say and little time to say it! 

First off, we had a baptism! Luiz was baptized yesterday! Wahoo! He´s a super cool guy. We ran into him knocking on doors a couple weeks ago. Long story short, he was baptized after church! He´s 17 years old. He´s a bit shy at first, but once you get to know him he´s a awesome guy with a great heart. He started prepping for baptism after our second visit. He was really prepared by the Lord. Yesterday he accepted the challenge to read the entire Book of Mormon in a year. Who knows. Maybe sometime soon he´ll decide to serve a mission too.

The Lord's Thoughts and Ways Aren't Always Our Ways

Hey guys!

First of I just wanted to give a shout out to Mark Lewis his family. Mark was a good neighbor and friend that passed away this week. Keep the Lewis family in your prayers please.

Mark Lewis a friend and neighborhood basketball buddy

This week went well. We have an awesome investigator named Luiz that we´re teaching. We´ve been teaching him for about a week now. We ran into him knocking on a few doors.  He went to church and really liked it. He´s on date too for this Sunday. He´s excited and we´re pretty excited too! We´re hoping it´ll all work out. He´s 17, and he's a bit shy, but he really listens the the messages and looks to learn more. The members seemed to like him a lot too!

Janaína went to church yesterday too! We work going to mark a baptismal date yesterday with her for this Sunday, but she wasn´t home...bummer. And during the week she leaves 7 am and gets back 10 at night. We´re going to see if we can find a day to teach her when she´ll be home. But she´s progressing a lot and is really liking the messages. It looks like she´s changed a bit and opened up a bit more since we started teaching her. 

My Mission is the Best Decision I Have Ever Made!

A tie given to Trevor from Jordyn's mission companion Sis. Sung  from Cambodia.  Matt had been wearing it and was sad to send it away. While he can't wear it on his mission I am sure he will wear it a lot when he gets home.

Bom dia! 

Hey Matt! Happy Birthday bro! Hard to believe you´re gonna be 18 dude! love you bro and hope you have an awesome birthday!

This week was pretty great. We found a lot of really great new investigators! Our teaching pool is starting to get a lot bigger. 

I don´t know if I told you last week, but a recent convert that was baptized in our area a week before I got here had to do a really serious and dangerous surgery this past week. but it went perfectly! It went so well that looks like he´s coming home from the hospital today. Man I was super relieved. We´re teaching his wife, Vivianne. She´s super awesome and believe in everything, but she told us that it will be in her time. But she loves the church and the missionaries. She was what we call and "eternal investigator", which means that they are taught for a long time. She was really touched at the help that the members gave  and the concern that they shared for her and her family. She basically told us recently that she wants to be baptized. She came to church on Sunday too. She knows what's the right decision to make. We´re going over today to see when exactly she wants to be baptized. But she´s super awesome and I sure hope she decides to be baptized before I´m transferred. (I probably on have two more weeks in this area, but we´ll see) I would really love to see her baptism, but we´ll see. Pray for her please!

The Gospel Blesses Families

Aug. 10, 2015

Hey guys!

Where to start! Honestly I wasn´t in my area this week. I went of splits with Elder Antonio. He´s the missionary from Mozambique that I lived with for like 4 months! Man it was awesome! We worked a lot and shared some laughs too. He´s gotta be one of the funniest guys that I know. haha! We worked in his area for a day. He´s doing well.

Oh yeah! The Assistants came to our zone to help out this week! The went on splits with almost all of the missionaries in Apucarana. There are sisters in Arapongas (nearby city) so Elder Monk (assistant) and I went on a blitz over there to look for new people to teach. It was pretty fun. We worked a lot and found a few really awesome and receptive people. And it was pretty cool to work with Elder Monk, he´s a really great missionary and I learned a bunch! it was really great to see the APs come to help out the missionaries here. Most of them are new to the mission or have just turned senior companions. I´m sure it helped out the missionaries a lot. 

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

Bom dia! 

Crazy week! We went to Londrina this week for that meeting with President Genaro. Man it was super awesome to see some of my ex-companions and a few other missionaries. It´s hard to believe that they´re all going home soon! There are some that are going home at the end of this transfer! That was the last time that I would see them on the mission. But the meeting was really awesome. The assistants gave each companionship an assignment to give  a 10 minute training about a specific topic. Ours was how our job isn´t just to supervise and motivate  the missionaries that we take care of, but inspire, uplift, and bless them. It went pretty well. It was super awesome to see the other trainings from the other Elders. Pretty fun. 

I think my companion, Elder De Lima, has a good chance of being the new Assistant!  I´m rooting for him. He´s a really awesome missionary and a really hard worker. He´s a really great companion and he teaches really well. 

The Lord Really Answers Prayers

Bom dia!

What´s up my peeps!

This week was super great! My new comp is Elder De Lima! He´s from Recife, the Northeast of Brazil. Man he´s a super awesome missionary and he loves to work hard. Speaking of work, that´s exactly what we did this week. Lots of contacts and looking for people to teach. 

The zone is completely different now. Only 5 missionaries stayed. Everyone else is new here. They´re kind of lost trying to find their way around, but they´re excited to work here

Do you guys remember Raíssa? she´s an 11 year old girl that´s been coming to church a lot lately. We´ve been teaching her mom and trying to get her to church, but it looks like something always happens to stop her from going. Her mom really wants to know if the church is true though. She´s just gotta come to church.

It's a Small World... Love You Page Family!

Hey family and friends! 

First off: thank you family for the packages! Thanks Mom and Dad! Thanks Aunt Jackie and Aunt Christy! Thank you so much too Grandma Butler and Grandma Jackson! I´m so grateful for such a wonderful family that cares for me so much! You guys are awesome!

We had zone conference this week! It was super awesome! We totally learned a lot from President Genaro! Transfers are today! I´m staying in Apucarana! Wooh! I´m pretty excited! It´s gonna be a great to stay here for 6 more weeks! I was afraid of leaving because things are starting to look up! My new companion is going to be Elder De Lima. He´s a super great missionary. I don´t know him too well but I've heard lots about him. Elder Fagundes is going to Londrina. 

I finally went to see Cida and her family! They´re family members of some of my friends in North Carolina! I went there with one of the missionaries that works in that area, Elder Hendrix. They´re super nice people. We joked around a bit and showed them a church film called Our Heavenly Father´s Plan. They seemed to really enjoy it. Elder Hendrix and his companion are going to start teaching them some more this week. Man they´re such nice people. Unfortunately Rafael wasn't there, but Cida and Morgana were!