Starving for Information

...thanks for the messages from Jason and Bre. I cant wait to hear from them some more.

Thanks for all the family updates, I love hearing about it. I starve for information down here. It is pretty funny, Elder Perry was going through the pictures that you sent and is a big fan Kelsey and of Laura Goesling.

Also, yeah, Rosangela is awesome. Keep talking to her. My plan was for us to go to her house on our first day here when we come visit Brazil. I will send you the itinerary that I made next week, and we can kind of figure things out from there.

onnnnnnnnnnn to the week (FYI, Bry's emails are generally in lowercase...I think the keyboards there make it a challenge, but also, he's just writing as fast as he can as he only has 1 hour a week online. Sometimes I clean it up. Sometimes not - Bry's Mom) So, things are still going great here in jaraguá...i actually have a keyboard that works this week! anyways, all is well. it is the end of my second transfer here and i am looking forward to another six weeks here in the zone, with some new people. the biggest news in the zone is that one of the areas is splitting and we are getting two new elders for Franco da Rocha. Sweet. Also, the zone is still going super well growth wise, we are in our seventh consecutive week of baptisms! Wahooo. We just gotta keep it going.
It has been a lot of fun with Elder Perry here, we are becoming pretty good friends. He is one of the elders most like me, in terms of not being from the jello belt (idaho, utah, arizona), so we have a lot in common actually. But yeah, the work is just continuing. Big news, we had another baptism last week! It was that girl natasha that i talked about a couple of weeks ago. she wasnt baptized that week because she sprained her ankle and got a cast that couldnt get wet...but she got it off already and was already baptized! it was super cool, there were tons of people at the baptism and it was a super good experience.
Even better, we are going to have another baptism this week! her name is Lucia, and she is about 65ish years old. She has been the best example of someone just prepared by the Lord to be baptized. example, she was just living with her husband for about forty years and just got married a couple years ago, and then moved here. also, she quit smoking and drinking coffee within 10 days...without us teaching about the word of wisdom! it has been way cool with her. hopefully we will baptism her husband and grandchildren soon.

I think thats about it...we dont have any super cool stories from this week. oh yeah, one thing...so we were in a streetside biblebash the other day...kind of interesting. first off, i hate bible bashes...no matter what is said you can never get anywhere. i can not tell you how many times we can just totally pwn someone but they just ignore it and keep with their own opinion. but anyways, this particular one was fun because it was with a guy that has been a professor of theology for the past 10 years...yeah, he knows his bible. but, regardless of that, we were completely guided in the whole thing and there were many times when he just stood there dumbfounded. also, there was a moment where he said stuff that corihor (remember the anti christ in Alma?) said..word for word... anyways, we ended up giving him a book of mormon and ppromising him that if he read that night, he would get his answer. but yeah, bible bashes are stupid...no room for the holy ghost for work, cuz it is just contention.

miss yall and hope you are having a good day! love ya!

Sending people into OUR paths

Pic Elder Parsons, Elder Perry, Me, Elder Vasconcelos
NEW EMAIL ADDRESS:
hey mom! this is my new email address! the whole system just changed and i had to get a new account, so get this on the blog asap. stewart.briggs@myldsmail.net
....onnnnnnnn to the week

So, things have been going pretty awesomely recently. we have really started to figure out what it means to be a representative to the Lord, what it means to call the people to repentance. Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ, to show them the way back to our Heavenly Father...and this is done only through the gospel of Christ, which is faith, repentance, BAPTISM, receive the gift of the holy ghost, and endure til the end. So, before I was already inviting people to be baptized in first lesson and whatnot, but now we have started to invite people to be baptized even in street contacts, testifying that every man must be baptized to enter the kingdom of God (John 3;5). it is CRAZY how inviting just brings the spirit. We do really need to be bold to do the Lord's work. Because of this new realization, we have been having a lot more success and feeling a lot more the presence of the Holy Ghost. It is sweet. Also, because of this, the Lord has been sending people into OUR paths. Literally, we have been stopped in the street tons recently by people asking for us to go by their homes to learn more. sooo cool.

We are still having a super good companionship. yesterday was cool too, as we did a division with the assistents to the president. Just lots of good stuff happened.We found some awesome new families to teach that are interested in knowing for themselves whether the gospel is true or not. Also, a lady that we have been reactivating has been able to quit smoking! Huge miracle. It is just what all the elders say...you just start figuring out how to do missionary work once you are already getting ready to go home.


Bryan

A am a big lumbering American

first pic, three gringos at the playground

second pic, me perry and natasha, the girl that will get baptized, at her house. in the background is a good view of our area

other pics from mission

shout outs to
Katrine! received a letter and sent one
Amy Jones! ditto to the above

onnnnnnnnn to the week
So, things are pretty interesting. There was a ward baptism last week - we had fun preparing for that and we combined it with a baptism from another area, good event, lots of people. Also, we have been able to close in on another baptism for this week. Her name is Natasha, she is 12, and she is Igor´s sister. Even cooler was that their mom came back to church this week! Super awesome. Since I've gotten here, there has been just 70ish members every week in the sacrament meeting, but this past Sunday it got up to about 115! It was awesome! A super good testimony meeting that everyone loved and left our investigators going away impressed. Hopefully there are some more good things coming in the next weeks.

In other interesting news, the sun is finally starting to come out, but there was a huuuuge thunderstorm today that knocked out the power in the entire area! So, we had to get a bus to go to another area and find a lanhouse to send the emails. Actually, this place is a heck of a lot better than the lanhouse we use...I'm kind of contemplating using it every week.

Also, today was a sweet soccer day. We played sand soccer with a bunch of kids in Taipas. I am continually realizing that i am too much of a big lumbering American to play attack, but I am definitely BA in the goal. It was going pretty well haha.

Ive started doing this fun thing recently by just inviting people to be baptized when I talk to them in the street. It isnt as forward as you imagine, and I've actually had some success doing it. I am carrying around a picture of Christ´s baptism and I stop people and say "have you been baptized like Christ was?" and then I invite to be baptized and write down the address. Fun.

Well, I cant think of other stuff to write right now, other than that I am totally bummed that I am missing out on the Winter Olympics...I sooo wanted to go to those in Vancouver! oh well, I guess I will just have to return to Brasil for the olympics in Rio.

Love ya

Bryan

New Pics from the Baptism

New Companion from Texas!!!

This past week was CRAZY!!!! so, now you guys can see why I was so stressed. Elder Mosiah was already pretty depressed and then got dearjohned by his fiance. Then he got even more depressed, hardly would do anything, and then Friday night asked to be transferred and brought down to junior. soooooo Saturday was a day full of packing and traveling and all that stuff, getting things hectic. However, my new comp is awesome! His name is Elder Bryce Perry, from Austin, TX...yes, `the land of chuck norris` as one of our investigators said. Elder Perry has always been one of my best friends here on the mission and we are having a great time together. plus, he works hard and has taught me a lot of things as well. But yeah, it is fun, there are a lot of times when we just stop look at each other and were like...I cant believe you're my companion! it is pretty sweet.

The ice cream on the cake is that we got a baptism on Saturday! woo hoo! His name is Igor and he is 16 years old. The guy is huge and is super cool. It was a battle with him, as he really had to change a few things and some of his attitudes on life. Even better, we are now teaching his sister and trying to reactivate his mom and grandma! lets get them back!

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I'm just chilling in Jaragua hoping to get some miracles and get the work of the Lord rolling.

love ya...

bryan