DA HORA

Yes! I'm offically back into the dub! Yee haw. I'm excited to get there. Re the recommendations for the internship - I need them in 2 weeks by email.
onnnnn to the week...Well, still more normal stuff going on. We are teaching some people and we are excited for them to be baptized soon. Our strongest investigators are Kleber (30 year old tech guy), and Lilian (18 year old girlfriend of a member), and that one family of three. They will all probably be baptized here in April. Excited! So thats going cool. The best lately was Kleber. He asked us soooo, just saying that I get baptized, what would happen if I move. Would I be able to go to that church over there in the other neighborhood?
I told Kleber...you could move anywhere in the world and you would automatically become a part of that other unit, with someone assigned to take care of you.
He said...da hora (that is way freaking cool) yea, he will be baptized soon. He is reading the Book of Mormon and loving it every time he goes to church. He is a great friend of ours too.
Lilian showed a lot of progress this week too. She has successfully stopped drinking coffee, committed to live the law of chastity, is reading the Book of Mormon, and has accepted the laws of the Sabbath and tithing. We were just like, look, we have invited you to baptism lots of times, and we know that you know that these things are true, and that you know that baptism is essential for your salvation....you will now choose your own baptismal date. She left pretty exited about things. Yes!
The biggest thing that we have been working on lately though is getting the ward running super well. Preach my Gospel was made for missionary work, which is central to the church's growth and Stake Leadership to get more effectively used in the Stake. Chapter 13 rocks! I am super excited to work with this and see the results. As one of the profets said, if the Ward grasped the spirit of helping in the mission and reactivation efforts, the Ward spirituality would increase and the Ward would improve in every way. Super fun!
Not a lot of other developments here. My companionship with the Texan is still going super well and we are hoping to stay here for a lot more time. Who knows?
The other big thing....GO DAWGS! SWEET SIXTEEN BABY!

All Tranquilo...6 months to go

Shout out to Caryn, got your letter!

Onnn to the week

Things have been fairly low key here in the past week. Not a whole bunch of new things, but we are making some progress with some good people. We are preparing a great family to be baptized here in the next couple of weeks, they are all super excited and loving everything. The Mom in the family is super happy because she said it is the first time that they have ever gone to a church as a family. YES! Also, another guy that we are teaching, Cleber, is super excited too. He keeps going to church and is always like, man! it's everything that I have always thought! I love this place! It is super cool. Plus, he cooks pretty good too. Right now we are working on his girlfriend to try to get them married, baptized, and then sealed in the temple after a year. Hot Dog!

We had an awesome zone conference yesterday. I am a big fan of the President and of the leaders we have on the mission right now. When I got to the mission, it seemed like the leaders were just holding vacancies, but now they are thinking of new stuff and really getting this mission going. Super stoked.

I can't really remember too much of what else happened this past week. But, yeah, things are all good, all tranquilo. Oh! I almost forgot, I got my trunky letter yesterday! It is a letter that you get from the mission when you have size months to go specifying the day you go home and asking for information. Way exciting! Yes! I'm pumped.

Brazi's are an interesting people....

Pic...Pouring Hard Liquer Down the Sink.

So thanks for the sweet update on Dayna. It's cool about testimony meeting and I can't wait to hear more about it. Definitely keep me updated. The Shoe box did finally make it (took 2 months to get here) I got it at mission counsel. Thanks for the shoes. They Rock! I was really needing them. Also thanks for all the sweets and stuff.

Shout out to Supreme Krispy Kreme, hey I got your letter and sent one back out to you.

Onnnnnnn to the week.

So the past week has been fairly laid back, with some interesting things happening. Everybody has been talking about the earthquakes in diverse places and all that stuff...the most common question we get is..."is the world going to end in 2012? It is kinda funny to me that everyone is concerned about the end of the world but nobody wants to do anything. Brazi's are an interesting people. Everyone always seems to be working or studying but I'm just not seeing much progress as a result.

Anyway, the coolest thing from this past week were the investigators that went to church this week. One is a family that is actually a reference from a young woman from another ward. The family went to church and really like it and has a baptismal date. They have been reading the Book of Mormon and doing what they need to do. It is cool. It will be just the second complete family that I baptize here. The first on being that family that I took to the temple last year. The other cool thing that is happening is a member from the center of Sao Paulo has been taking his girlfriend, lilian, to church. She is liking it a lot and is progressing a bunch. Super cool to see. Last night we taught about the plan of salvation and it was pretty sweet. The only problem is that, while she is reading the book of Mormon, and going the church, she still hasn't prayed to ask God if what we teach is true. Without this testimony from Heavenly Father she can only progress so much, and most likely won't get baptized. There are other people that w have been teaching as well that are super excited to get to know everything. Actually, we are going to go over to one of their houses tonight to eat dinner and reteach the restoration, as people have a hard time understanding this concept.

Also, the weather has gotton a heck of a lot better here the past couple days. I love sun, it is a lot better here than it was last year out in Boituva...man that place is hot. I guess they just had another baptism out there a few weeks ago. First one since I left. GH

Unfortunately, things are pretty tight here on the mission, with the area presidency putting in a heck of a lot more rules...it is pretty frustrating sometimes. The problem with it is that some in the church seems to see the missionaries as emotion-less robots that don't ever get stressed or anything. But I won't rant about it or anything...I will go and I will do.

Zone Rap

Pics...Picco, Crazyness, Baptism...

...The shoes sent in January still have not made it, but the padded envelope with shirts did. I bet I will receive the shoes within the month. There are a few opportunities for me to get the package, with mission counsel next week, zone conference the next, and interviews in 4 weeks. Man time flies here. But still, I'm TRUNKEZA

Shout out to Lauren! Got your letter, am sending one back.

onnnn to the week!

BAPTISMO!!!WOOT! So Lucia got baptized this last week, and it was super cool. She is an incredible lady, she just does everything, never makes up excuses. She got to the baptism early, got everything ready, and it was great! Lots of people were there to support her. Hopefully we can start working on her family members one by one now. Her husband is showing some real interest, but he is currently working on Sundays. He says that he wants to get baptized in the future so that he can be sealed for time and all eternity to his family. Yeah!

Also, we have been blessed with some awesome new people as we've been forced to leave some people as they don't want to follow the commandments. The one that caught me most by surprise was a 50 year old mom that absolutely disagreed with the law of chastity! Didn't see that one coming. But, yeah I'm super excited for things here. Things in the zone are going awesomely as well...with great elders and everyone believing that we can do miracles...I love it.

Even better, we did a big zone activity today toing to the Picco de Jaragua. It was about a 2 hour trip, 45 minutes to get up, 30 minutes goofing around and 45 minutes getting back to home base. It was a cool hike through some jungle and over rocks...first time hiking in forever! Anyway, it was a lot of fun and a great way to get the Zone united and excited to work together. We even did a zone rap session at the very top (yes, I am an uh-oh oreo) Plus we went to the mission office today so that Elder Perry could sign something so he wouldn't be deported. Seems like everything is going pretty great right now.

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