I Am 1 Year Old Today!; Mission Week 52; Area: Almirante Tamandare

 Thank you! For coming to my mission party! I'm 1 Year Old Today! Everything is going great!” 

Hello everyone! It's true I've officially hit 365 days…it's strange that a whole year ago I started this whole journey and now I only have a year left. Man I feel like this past year has both flown by and not. I've had many great and memorable experiences so far and now I have a year left to make many more! Anyway, let me tell y'all how this week has gone.

Splits️

Did two splits this week, one in Uberaba and the other in Cachoeira. Tuesday we spent the night with Elder Gustin and Elder Rocha in Uberaba and it was good. We ate pizza, talked a little and then fell asleep. I started off the day with Elder Rocha who is a master at talking with people. I learned a lot from him, but I also killed him because apparently I'm a bit of a speed walker now so yeah… It was a great morning and then after I went with Elder Gustin and he just had fun the rest of the day. Wednesday we went to Cachoeira and I stayed with my great Spainard friend Elder Diego! I love that dog. He's so nice and funny. I had a wonderful time being in a new area and talking with completely new people. We had some good lessons as well.

Newbie Arrivals

Friday after an amazing lunch with Bispo we had to go into Curitiba and pick up two new missionaries who arrived to the field. We picked up Elder Granados (from Mexico) and Elder Bastos (from Logan, UT). They both lived with us for the past 3 days and it was great. I had Elder Bastos as my companion for that time and man I was laughing a lot. He is hilarious, but has a powerful spirit with him. He also is similar in personality to me so we hit pretty well together. We had fun teaching people the gospel and inviting our friends to be baptized. I'll never forget his testimonies that he would leave with his broken Portuguese. One time he said that he, “Love baptized, I know baptized is good, when I am 8 year old son I baptized.” It was so funny at the time, but together people understood what he wanted to get across. We also ate quite a bit of pizza and made pastels.

Transfers

Welp we both stayed, but the Zone has now changed. We have many new people who have come in. That includes my second son Elder Slaugh. It's crazy how that all turns out. We also have two Sister missionaries and they are the only ones in the entire zone, so we will see how that all turns out. There are a lot of things changing and I'm excited to see what miracles will come.

Here are some pictures I totally didn't forget last week:  

O Lord, Bless Everyone; Mission Weeks 49-50; Area: Almirante Tamandare

 I knelt to pray when day was done 

And prayed, “O Lord, bless everyone;

Lift from each saddened heart the pain, 

And let the sick be well again.”

And then I woke another day 

And carelessly went on my way;

The whole day long, I did not try 

To wipe a tear from any eye.

I did not try to share the load 

Of any brother on the road;

I did not even go to see 

The sick man, just next door to me.

Yet, once again, when day was done,

I prayed, “O Lord, bless everyone.”

But as I prayed, into my ear 

There came a voice that whispered clear:

“Pause now, my son, before you pray;

Whom have you tried to bless today?

God’s sweetest blessings always go 

By hands that serve Him here below.”

And then I hid my face and cried,

“Forgive me, God, I have not tried.

Let me but live another day, 

And I will live the way I pray.”

“Who have I tried to bless today?” Clearly being here serving a mission and bringing people unto Christ is great, but what in particular do I decide to do, aside from being a missionary, to bless someone? I think back to times before the mission where I could've done more and chose not to out of pure selfishness. I can remember times where I prayed for others to be blessed, but where I did nothing to bless them. I've been pondering a bit more about this recently. When we ask people what blessings they want from the Lord or what they ask us to put into prayers, the most common responses are: Health, Family, Peace in the Home/ World Peace, Help to find Jobs, or Just to give thanks. All of these are great and wonderful things and they are things that are common, but prayer doesn't work just by asking. In the poem above we can learn that the man would pray, but never did anything. When the end of the day came and he was preparing to go to bed he heard the Lord explain that he could've been the blessing in his own prayer. Oftentimes we are so reliant on the Lord that we forget that we have a part to play. I love the word Oração in Portuguese because you can split it into two parts: Ora = To Pray / Ação = To Act. We all must pray, but not some repeated prayer. We should pray with all sincerity in our heart and have a conversation with him telling what we are grateful for and to ask for his help, but if we truly want answers or his help we have to act. We need to try, and only after we try will we receive what we need. I love at the very end of the poem he asks for one more day, so that he can live the way he prays. The fact that we wake up everyday is a miracle for we know not the time when we will depart this life, so we should all strive to live the way we pray and to try to be the blessing in someone else's life. So whom have you tried to bless today?

City in the Mountains

Two weeks ago we went to a city that we take care of called Rio Branco do Sul (Southern White River). It was my first time there and let me say, I have mixed feelings about it. It is a small city literally in the mountains, they are not hills they are mountains! There is not a single flat part in the entire area. It is either you are climbing or descending roads that are 45⁰ angles or worse. There are roads that literally look like they just end at a cliff, but turns out it's just a very steep descent. A lot of the roads have stairs that people have made because of how steep it is. I do think the area has a ton of potential and the people there are all nice and open. We are just now starting to open up the city a little more. I'll keep you guys updated on how that all goes.

São Lourenço 

Had the opportunity to do a split with Elder Farrar in São Lourenço. It's a nice area with all kinds of people. We talked to this one guy on the road mid-day and at night he gave us avocados. We also talked with many people in areas that Elder Farrar didn't even recognize. In the end it was a fun and chill day. We got food at the end of the day and had some great Churros with doce de leite.

Random

- We got a new house! It's so clean and big

- We made Pastels one night and it was awesome. 

- Got bit in the ankle by a dog, but was saved by my boots

- Got stuck for 3 hours in a tiny city because no uber nor buses were picking us up

- Had the best juice in my life from a family from Fortaleza Ceará

                                            Largest Moth in the World!

                

                                                   Large Grasshopper!

Splitting Waters; Mission Weeks 47 & 48; Area: Almirante Tamandare

 Bão?

These past two weeks have been a lot of traveling. I guess I never realized how much you travel as a Zone Leader, however, it's been going great.

Guabirotuba 

I had the opportunity to split/division with my friend Elder Rizo-Patron in Guabirotuba. It is basically a small area South of the center of Curitiba. We had a great day where we visited Felipe, this 19 year old who speaks English and has a funny dog. We get over there and talk with him for a little bit and he basically tells us that he wants to be baptized to have the presence of the Lord with him. We were so happy and he ended up getting baptized this past Saturday. The rest of the split/division went very well where we talked with quite a few people and laughed a lot on the way.

Neuza 

2 Sundays ago our friend Neuza was baptized and she is just wonderful. She was actually a friend with one of the members here and has been going to church for awhile. We passed by her house and she told us that she was already baptized in another church, but that she wanted to be baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ. It was just a great and spiritual Time for both her and us. Then this past week she gave us a massive lunch and it was so good.

Pants  

Welp, just like the subtitle I had to get some pants. To explain, when I started the mission I had 7 pairs of pants. In my first area, when I was bit in the butt by a dog, it put a hole in those pants and so I had to throw them away. In my second area, another pair was completely ruined from the red dirt and the sun and also I ripped a hole in them, so they were thrown away as well. Now down to 5 pairs and they are all sun bleached and oversized, so I finally went and got new pants. I was basically forced to by my parents, my sister, and my companion because, yeah, I really needed new pants. So on P-day we went into Curitiba into a massive mall and I finally bought 2 more pairs of pants. I forgot that I had to buy one when I was still in Ponta Grossa. Anyway, I now have pants that look nice, fit well, and are not completely ruined by the sun.

Ahú  

This past week I got to see what it is like to work in the Center of Curitiba. I split/division with Elder Da Silva and it was great. It is definitely harder, but we still had a good time visiting and talking with people. I never realized how fast everything moves and all the buses flying down the roads are crazy.

Ala 2 

Oh yeah, also in the center of Curitiba here. I was with Elder Martin who is basically like me and so we were laughing the entire day and just having a great time. We talked to so many people in the parks, and then we went to this super nice apartment where this old couple was waiting for us. They are hotel owners and asked for a Book of Mormon. It was such a great experience and at the end she was crying. It was a great day.

Church Activity

Saturday night we (the Elders) organized an activity for the ward and anyone who wanted to get involved. We left a spiritual thought on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and then we played a game and then we ate cookies…cookies which we spent hours making. Elder Peterson, our Gordon Ramsey, taught us how to make amazing cookies and we spent an entire morning making them. We made probably about 100-150 cookies and they were all gone at the end. Everyone loved them. At the activity there were two youth who have been going to church since they were children and they said that they want to be baptized, so next Sunday we hope to help them get baptized  and receive the Holy Ghost

Jair

Sunday our friend Jair was baptized! We've been teaching him since I got here and he is so nice. He lives so far away, literally in the middle of the forest, but he is awesome.

That has basically been the past two weeks

Any questions?

Elder Hyatt

Here are some pictures: