Hello there!
It was definitely a little more calm this week. Things are going great as usual. The assistants decided to move our splits from tomorrow to last week. The divisions went well and I was able to learn a lot from the new AP, Elder Camargo. I went over to their area (Telegrafo) and another elder from my group Elder Emery came here. I worked in Telegrafo for 8 months so I know the area better than Elder Camargo. I was able to show him around to some old investigators' houses and we found some awesome new people including some families that have really good potential.
We went back to Abaetetuba this week to do a baptismal interview for Elder Nitta. It was my first interview so I was really nervous! It went well though and she passed. Her name is Joana. Her an her sister Aldalice were baptized Sunday after church. They had another baptism of a 16 year old boy named Neilton. He is really strong in the church and has a strong testimony of the gospel but his parents, nonmembers, didn't want him to be baptized right now and wanted him to wait a little while to make sure he was ready. Just going there to Abaetetuba and back on Saturday took up our whole day. We got back late then went to a meeting with the bishop and other ward leaders.
Iago went to church again and is excited for his baptism on the 1st. He already chose me to baptize him which is a good sign that he really wants to be baptized.
Well, I gotta run. I love you all tons. Im way excited to see you all in 2 weeks!
Love,
Elder Childs
Showing posts with label The boy in Brazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The boy in Brazil. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Missionary e-mail 10-13-08
Hey there!
What an interesting week! I don't remember If I told you or not, but last week I was asked to conduct a multi-Zone conference with the president and the assistants. There were several zones from here in Belem. It was a great experience. It was the first time I had done that before.
This Tuesday, our zone got together and had its meeting. My companion, Elder Beames, and I had to give an hour long training on how we can work better with the members to get referrals to work with. It went really well. Afterwards, we headed over to pizza hut for an all-you-can eat, and ate away. We went on splits for 2 days with the District Leader from a place called Abaetetuba. The District Leader's companion stayed with Elder Beames in our area, and I went to work with Elder Nitta in his. We took a bus down to Ver-O-Peso then walked over to a nearby dock and took an hour long boat trip down a branch of the Amazon to a large island outside of Belem. Once there, we took a bus for an hour through the forest to the small city of Abaetetuba and then walked a half hour to their house. It was quite the trip. I really liked the area, it reminded me of when I was in Braganca a year and a half ago. It sure was a lot more quiet than Belem and a little cleaner with a lot of forest. It turns out Elder Nitta and I lived in the same stake as kids when I lived in Cypress, CA. What a small world.
This week here in Belem there was a large anual event called Cirio. I believe it's the worlds largest Catholic gathering. Every year on the second Sunday of October, over 1 million Catholics from all around the world come to Belem for this event. They have a statue of Mary on a cart thing attached to a massive cord that they pull from one church to another. The whole route they take is within my area and my last area, Telegrafo. The streets get totally packed full of people as they all try to get a turn at touching the rope. I would have loved to see the actual proccession but we work far away from where it happens. I have seen pictures and video and it is quite an interesting sight. Im sure you can find better info and pictures looking up something like "Cirio de Nazare" or "Cirio Belem" on google.
During Cirio, Belem becomes totally uncontrollable. It was pretty chaotic in our area. Those that aren't at Cirio are at home drinking their brains out. Crime rates rocket that day and the police flood the street. Last year 7 people were trampled to death during the procession. I don't know how many died this year. We had an interesting day yesterday. In the 2 hours between lunch and church, we saw 2 people shot and killed and an armed robbery during broad daylight on the side of a main road(3 different instances). What an awesome holiday... Props to whoever invented that one. Im glad things are back to normal now.
There is a nice little old lady who lives next door to us that is not a member but who loves the missionaries. She invites us over to her house every Sunday to eat cake and other desserts she makes. Im going to miss going there. Its always a great way to end the week.
Our investigators are doing well. We are currently working hard with a teenager named Iago (yes, again... I know I already baptized one... we found another) He is the son of a recent convert who has a ton of friends in the church. He was really sceptical at first when we talked about baptism but we gave him a date of the 1st of November this week. He accepted the date and when we asked him to say the prayer when we taught him, he prayed that his baptism would go well. That was great progress. I hope it does go well.
This week should be pretty busy too. We will be sitting in on a district meeting tomorrow and we will go on splits with another District Leader from our zone. It's a little closer this time. Whew. Next week we will be going on splits with the assistants. Maybe Ill be able to head back to Telegrafo to see some of my recent converts. That would be awesome. Gotta run. Love you all tons. Have a fantistic week!
Love,
Elder Childs
What an interesting week! I don't remember If I told you or not, but last week I was asked to conduct a multi-Zone conference with the president and the assistants. There were several zones from here in Belem. It was a great experience. It was the first time I had done that before.
This Tuesday, our zone got together and had its meeting. My companion, Elder Beames, and I had to give an hour long training on how we can work better with the members to get referrals to work with. It went really well. Afterwards, we headed over to pizza hut for an all-you-can eat, and ate away. We went on splits for 2 days with the District Leader from a place called Abaetetuba. The District Leader's companion stayed with Elder Beames in our area, and I went to work with Elder Nitta in his. We took a bus down to Ver-O-Peso then walked over to a nearby dock and took an hour long boat trip down a branch of the Amazon to a large island outside of Belem. Once there, we took a bus for an hour through the forest to the small city of Abaetetuba and then walked a half hour to their house. It was quite the trip. I really liked the area, it reminded me of when I was in Braganca a year and a half ago. It sure was a lot more quiet than Belem and a little cleaner with a lot of forest. It turns out Elder Nitta and I lived in the same stake as kids when I lived in Cypress, CA. What a small world.
This week here in Belem there was a large anual event called Cirio. I believe it's the worlds largest Catholic gathering. Every year on the second Sunday of October, over 1 million Catholics from all around the world come to Belem for this event. They have a statue of Mary on a cart thing attached to a massive cord that they pull from one church to another. The whole route they take is within my area and my last area, Telegrafo. The streets get totally packed full of people as they all try to get a turn at touching the rope. I would have loved to see the actual proccession but we work far away from where it happens. I have seen pictures and video and it is quite an interesting sight. Im sure you can find better info and pictures looking up something like "Cirio de Nazare" or "Cirio Belem" on google.
During Cirio, Belem becomes totally uncontrollable. It was pretty chaotic in our area. Those that aren't at Cirio are at home drinking their brains out. Crime rates rocket that day and the police flood the street. Last year 7 people were trampled to death during the procession. I don't know how many died this year. We had an interesting day yesterday. In the 2 hours between lunch and church, we saw 2 people shot and killed and an armed robbery during broad daylight on the side of a main road(3 different instances). What an awesome holiday... Props to whoever invented that one. Im glad things are back to normal now.
There is a nice little old lady who lives next door to us that is not a member but who loves the missionaries. She invites us over to her house every Sunday to eat cake and other desserts she makes. Im going to miss going there. Its always a great way to end the week.
Our investigators are doing well. We are currently working hard with a teenager named Iago (yes, again... I know I already baptized one... we found another) He is the son of a recent convert who has a ton of friends in the church. He was really sceptical at first when we talked about baptism but we gave him a date of the 1st of November this week. He accepted the date and when we asked him to say the prayer when we taught him, he prayed that his baptism would go well. That was great progress. I hope it does go well.
This week should be pretty busy too. We will be sitting in on a district meeting tomorrow and we will go on splits with another District Leader from our zone. It's a little closer this time. Whew. Next week we will be going on splits with the assistants. Maybe Ill be able to head back to Telegrafo to see some of my recent converts. That would be awesome. Gotta run. Love you all tons. Have a fantistic week!
Love,
Elder Childs
Monday, October 6, 2008
Trunkie ate o po? Espero que nao
Hey everyone!
What a week. It has been quite the adjustment working in the field full time again. I have to get used to everything still, including the sore and blistered feet. I guess I had gotten weak and lazy in the office :P Im the zone leader of one of the main zones here in belem, called "Belem Zone". As a zone leader you have an elevated responsibility to work even harder and acheive higher numbers and standards than the other missionaries in your zone to show an example. We have been working hard to set that example. Although its tough, its nice having all the pressure to keep me working all the way til the last minute of my mission.
General conference this week was incredible. I dont know if I had a favorite talk... they were all so great. I enjoyed Elder Aidukaitis' talk about how he honored his father for the testimony of the Book of Mormon he had and how he did what he knew to be right even in the face of many difficulties. I'm always a big fan of Elder Holland who gave a great talk about the angels in our life that help us through our challenges. 5 new temples announced. Amongst them, Jackson County Missouri and Rome... can you say... Second Coming? Im getting tickets to the next conference in april if someone else wants to join me.
I got to see a ton of my recent converts from Telegrafo, it was great. Domingos is preparing to get the priesthood and had an interview last week. Ulisses is still going on splits with the missionaries at least once or twice a week. Breno and Gabriel went to all of the sessions.
I bought some awesome souveniers from Ver-O-Peso last week. We are going again today to do some more shopping. I already got you all your christmas presents lol. If you have any last minute requests, make them now because you only have 3 more mondays to tell me and Ill only be going there once more.
I love you all tons. I miss you and cant wait to see you all again.
Love,
Elder Childs
What a week. It has been quite the adjustment working in the field full time again. I have to get used to everything still, including the sore and blistered feet. I guess I had gotten weak and lazy in the office :P Im the zone leader of one of the main zones here in belem, called "Belem Zone". As a zone leader you have an elevated responsibility to work even harder and acheive higher numbers and standards than the other missionaries in your zone to show an example. We have been working hard to set that example. Although its tough, its nice having all the pressure to keep me working all the way til the last minute of my mission.
General conference this week was incredible. I dont know if I had a favorite talk... they were all so great. I enjoyed Elder Aidukaitis' talk about how he honored his father for the testimony of the Book of Mormon he had and how he did what he knew to be right even in the face of many difficulties. I'm always a big fan of Elder Holland who gave a great talk about the angels in our life that help us through our challenges. 5 new temples announced. Amongst them, Jackson County Missouri and Rome... can you say... Second Coming? Im getting tickets to the next conference in april if someone else wants to join me.
I got to see a ton of my recent converts from Telegrafo, it was great. Domingos is preparing to get the priesthood and had an interview last week. Ulisses is still going on splits with the missionaries at least once or twice a week. Breno and Gabriel went to all of the sessions.
I bought some awesome souveniers from Ver-O-Peso last week. We are going again today to do some more shopping. I already got you all your christmas presents lol. If you have any last minute requests, make them now because you only have 3 more mondays to tell me and Ill only be going there once more.
I love you all tons. I miss you and cant wait to see you all again.
Love,
Elder Childs
Friday, September 19, 2008
Missionary e-mail 9-19-08
What a week! A lot of interesting things happened this week. Last Saturday we went to go do a service project at a member's house. They make houses out of cement and brick here so it was pretty tough work. There were some paid workers there to help and they mixed cement out front and we hauled the mixed cement in 5 gal. buckets to fill in the floor of the house. We also had to move some 110 lb bags of cement for them to mix... it was pretty tiring.
I learned this week that cement actually wears your skin away and cuts it open... I wish I would have brought gloves lol. I couldn't even believe how sore I was the next couple days. During the project, we had an interesting experience with the military police. I'll have to tell that one after the mission though :P
After I got home last friday, I got a phone call from the office. Next week I'll be going to an area called Arsenal which is here in belem. It is the next area over so its really close to the office and everything still. My companion will be Elder Beames who is a great friend of mine from my group. We will finish our missions the same day so I hope we can manage to not get too trunkie. Im really looking forward to working with him... he's a great guy.
My P-Day is now on Mondays like it was before so you have to remember to write me Sunday nights now. I won't have P-day next week because I'll still be here in the staff on Monday. I'll leave here on Wednesday. Don't forget to write me NEXT Sunday. OK?
Domingos and his mom will be baptized tomorrow. They are way excited. I hope I can baptize my goal next transfer and finish my mission strong. I gotta run. My time is running out here in the cyber. I love you all tons. Talk to you next Monday!
Love,
Elder Childs
I learned this week that cement actually wears your skin away and cuts it open... I wish I would have brought gloves lol. I couldn't even believe how sore I was the next couple days. During the project, we had an interesting experience with the military police. I'll have to tell that one after the mission though :P
After I got home last friday, I got a phone call from the office. Next week I'll be going to an area called Arsenal which is here in belem. It is the next area over so its really close to the office and everything still. My companion will be Elder Beames who is a great friend of mine from my group. We will finish our missions the same day so I hope we can manage to not get too trunkie. Im really looking forward to working with him... he's a great guy.
My P-Day is now on Mondays like it was before so you have to remember to write me Sunday nights now. I won't have P-day next week because I'll still be here in the staff on Monday. I'll leave here on Wednesday. Don't forget to write me NEXT Sunday. OK?
Domingos and his mom will be baptized tomorrow. They are way excited. I hope I can baptize my goal next transfer and finish my mission strong. I gotta run. My time is running out here in the cyber. I love you all tons. Talk to you next Monday!
Love,
Elder Childs
Friday, September 5, 2008
Missionary e-mail 9-5-08
It was a great week. We had a baptism this last saturday and it went well. I have never seen so many people in one baptism. It was totally loaded full of people. We are planning a baptism next week and the week after, and the week after. They are all doing really well including a man named Domingos who really wants to be baptized. He is keeping all the commandments and got an answer this week. He now knows the church is true and told us he wants to be baptized. I wish it were that easy with another invesitigator of ours who is really struggling to be get an answer from God. He has been going to church for some time now. He loves it but feels he hasn't gotten an answer yet. We aren't quite sure what to do... I've never had an investigator that struggled so much to get an answer.
A decision was made this week on who would take my place here in the staff. He is supposed to come in next week for me to train him how to do my job... or so I thought... Last night, president hoggan told the assistants that he wanted to keep me another transfer. I don't know how I could handle yet another 2 months here...staying 9 months in the same area is hard... I guess if that's what the Lord wants, then that's what will happen. I'll get an answer next week of what will happen to me. If I leave, I'll probably be a zone leader here close by but who knows. It would be great to get out in the field and work like a real missionary for a litle while before I head home. We'll see what happens. Well, I love you all tons, I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Childs
A decision was made this week on who would take my place here in the staff. He is supposed to come in next week for me to train him how to do my job... or so I thought... Last night, president hoggan told the assistants that he wanted to keep me another transfer. I don't know how I could handle yet another 2 months here...staying 9 months in the same area is hard... I guess if that's what the Lord wants, then that's what will happen. I'll get an answer next week of what will happen to me. If I leave, I'll probably be a zone leader here close by but who knows. It would be great to get out in the field and work like a real missionary for a litle while before I head home. We'll see what happens. Well, I love you all tons, I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Childs
Friday, August 8, 2008
missionary e-mail 8-8-08
Well, the transfer is coming up next week so things are rushed around the office again. I finished up the mission newsletter which always takes FOREVER but it turned out well. I spent most of my week doing that.
Over the last several months that I have been here, I have been writing a program to keep track of all the missionaries in our mission. It has a list of all the elders and sisters and when you click on their name, it comes up with all their information, picture, info of their family, and stake president and just about everything else. You can then print out personalized envelopes and letters to send home to their family, keep track of converts, baptismal sheets, and print out reports of all the missionaries, who they are with, and where they are at. Basically, it does everything the elders in the office need. I talked to some other missions here in brazil and they loved the idea and wanted it so I spent this week writing a generalized, customizable version of my program and started sending it out. It is now being spread throughout brazil and is being used in the other mission offices. I guess I can say now that I left my mark here before I left :)
I had a really interesting experience on monday. We have a family that has been going to church that wants to get married. Unfortunately, here in brazil, the government makes it really hard and expensive for people to get married so most people dont... they just live together. Every once in a while a church or foundation will offer free marriages for people that want it. There was one in the next city over, that the baptist church was doing so we grabbed this man we are teaching, Benedito, and headed over there monday night to sign up. We got there early so we sat down and watched their meeting. It was really interesting. I have never seen a baptist church meeting before so it was a good learning experience. Unfortunately we ended up needing one more document that costs a ton of money (just as much as the marriage) that he only had a copy, not the original. We talked with a lawyer this week and we're going to try again this monday.
Monday night, we got home from our long bus ride from the other city and found out that a brilliant elder here in belem decided to move houses without telling anyone. The owner of the new house didnt even know he was coming so she didnt give him the keys. He called us at almost 10:00 sitting in from of the house with all his belongings in the most dangerous part of the city. My comps elder Araujo and Elder Dunn ran out there to go work something out. Luckily everything turned out ok and he managed to get everything back to the old apartment.
My companion Elder Rufino was called as a new Zone Leader in a city called Icoaraci and will be leaving the staff. We are all going to miss him but luckily he will be coming in to the office every monday with all the other zone leaders here in Belem to talk to president and the assistants about their work.
Well, Love you guys tons. Have a great week! Talk to you later.
Elder Childs
Over the last several months that I have been here, I have been writing a program to keep track of all the missionaries in our mission. It has a list of all the elders and sisters and when you click on their name, it comes up with all their information, picture, info of their family, and stake president and just about everything else. You can then print out personalized envelopes and letters to send home to their family, keep track of converts, baptismal sheets, and print out reports of all the missionaries, who they are with, and where they are at. Basically, it does everything the elders in the office need. I talked to some other missions here in brazil and they loved the idea and wanted it so I spent this week writing a generalized, customizable version of my program and started sending it out. It is now being spread throughout brazil and is being used in the other mission offices. I guess I can say now that I left my mark here before I left :)
I had a really interesting experience on monday. We have a family that has been going to church that wants to get married. Unfortunately, here in brazil, the government makes it really hard and expensive for people to get married so most people dont... they just live together. Every once in a while a church or foundation will offer free marriages for people that want it. There was one in the next city over, that the baptist church was doing so we grabbed this man we are teaching, Benedito, and headed over there monday night to sign up. We got there early so we sat down and watched their meeting. It was really interesting. I have never seen a baptist church meeting before so it was a good learning experience. Unfortunately we ended up needing one more document that costs a ton of money (just as much as the marriage) that he only had a copy, not the original. We talked with a lawyer this week and we're going to try again this monday.
Monday night, we got home from our long bus ride from the other city and found out that a brilliant elder here in belem decided to move houses without telling anyone. The owner of the new house didnt even know he was coming so she didnt give him the keys. He called us at almost 10:00 sitting in from of the house with all his belongings in the most dangerous part of the city. My comps elder Araujo and Elder Dunn ran out there to go work something out. Luckily everything turned out ok and he managed to get everything back to the old apartment.
My companion Elder Rufino was called as a new Zone Leader in a city called Icoaraci and will be leaving the staff. We are all going to miss him but luckily he will be coming in to the office every monday with all the other zone leaders here in Belem to talk to president and the assistants about their work.
Well, Love you guys tons. Have a great week! Talk to you later.
Elder Childs
Friday, August 1, 2008
Missionary e-mail 8-1-08
Hey everyone!
Last weekend was amazing! We got to baptize 2 people on Saturday. Ulisses and Maria Jose. Ulisses we have been teaching for a while and who has a ton of desire to learn about the gospel. He is about 30 and single and just soaked up everything we taught him. He is preparing to receive the priesthood already. Maria Jose we found months ago when we did a contact with her daughter Naira. We taught and baptized Naira and her 2 kids and after that, Maria started going to church, love it and was baptized this week. I was asked to baptized Maria.
We had some great investigators at church this week. Its been a while since Ive had so many people visiting there. We had 13 people with us at church on Sunday. One man we are teaching, named Lecino, has an interesting story. A while back we taught a preacher from the Assembly of God. He didnt want anything to do with us so we stopped going back. He didnt want the book of mormon but I guess he felt bad throwing it away so he gave it to one of his neighbors. One night, one of my companions was walking by and saw a man in his house reading the book of mormon so they stopped and started talking to him. He has now been to church for the last 2 weeks and accepted a baptismal date for the middle of august.
Things were interesting in the office this week. The internet was out from monday til thursday afternoon which made it impossible to do all the important stuff like making payments, sending numbers, sending baptismal sheets, or giving missionaries their money. Luckily it came back in time to do it all yesterday. If it hadnt come back, Id probably be spending my p-day in the office today.
I was working yesterday when I suddenly got a very trunkie email. This is what it said:
Itinerary for Elder Childs:
04 NOV 08 - TUESDAY
TAM MERIDION 3715 COACH CLASS EQUIP-AIRBUS A320 JET
LV: BELEM 315P NONSTOP MILES- 996 CONFIRMED
AR: BRASILIA 640P ELAPSED TIME- 2:25
SNACK
AIRLINE LOCATOR-JJ -DSXFZN
TAM MERIDION 3583 COACH CLASS EQUIP-AIRBUS A320 JET
LV: BRASILIA 745P NONSTOP MILES- 529 CONFIRMED
AR: SAO PAULO/GRU 920P ELAPSED TIME- 1:35 SNACK AIRLINE LOCATOR-JJ -DSXFZN
AMERICAN 962 COACH CLASS EQUIP-BOEING 777 JET
LV: SAO PAULO/GRU 1140P NONSTOP MILES- 5111 CONFIRMED
AR: DALLAS/FT WOR 605A ELAPSED TIME-10:25 ARVL DATE-05 NOV DINNER-BREAKFAST-MOVIE AIRLINE LOCATOR-AA -JLQPBK
05 NOV 08 - WEDNESDAY
AMERICAN 1123 COACH CLASS EQUIP-MD-80 JET
LV: DALLAS/FT WOR 740A NONSTOP MILES- 868 CONFIRMED
AR: PHOENIX 915A ELAPSED TIME- 2:35
FOOD TO PURCHASE
AIRLINE LOCATOR-AA -JLQPBK
Well, I hope you didnt get too trunkie reading that. I did. Im going to go home and make some chocolate chip cookies. Love you guys tons. Have a great week! Tchau!
Love,
Elder Childs
Last weekend was amazing! We got to baptize 2 people on Saturday. Ulisses and Maria Jose. Ulisses we have been teaching for a while and who has a ton of desire to learn about the gospel. He is about 30 and single and just soaked up everything we taught him. He is preparing to receive the priesthood already. Maria Jose we found months ago when we did a contact with her daughter Naira. We taught and baptized Naira and her 2 kids and after that, Maria started going to church, love it and was baptized this week. I was asked to baptized Maria.
We had some great investigators at church this week. Its been a while since Ive had so many people visiting there. We had 13 people with us at church on Sunday. One man we are teaching, named Lecino, has an interesting story. A while back we taught a preacher from the Assembly of God. He didnt want anything to do with us so we stopped going back. He didnt want the book of mormon but I guess he felt bad throwing it away so he gave it to one of his neighbors. One night, one of my companions was walking by and saw a man in his house reading the book of mormon so they stopped and started talking to him. He has now been to church for the last 2 weeks and accepted a baptismal date for the middle of august.
Things were interesting in the office this week. The internet was out from monday til thursday afternoon which made it impossible to do all the important stuff like making payments, sending numbers, sending baptismal sheets, or giving missionaries their money. Luckily it came back in time to do it all yesterday. If it hadnt come back, Id probably be spending my p-day in the office today.
I was working yesterday when I suddenly got a very trunkie email. This is what it said:
Itinerary for Elder Childs:
04 NOV 08 - TUESDAY
TAM MERIDION 3715 COACH CLASS EQUIP-AIRBUS A320 JET
LV: BELEM 315P NONSTOP MILES- 996 CONFIRMED
AR: BRASILIA 640P ELAPSED TIME- 2:25
SNACK
AIRLINE LOCATOR-JJ -DSXFZN
TAM MERIDION 3583 COACH CLASS EQUIP-AIRBUS A320 JET
LV: BRASILIA 745P NONSTOP MILES- 529 CONFIRMED
AR: SAO PAULO/GRU 920P ELAPSED TIME- 1:35 SNACK AIRLINE LOCATOR-JJ -DSXFZN
AMERICAN 962 COACH CLASS EQUIP-BOEING 777 JET
LV: SAO PAULO/GRU 1140P NONSTOP MILES- 5111 CONFIRMED
AR: DALLAS/FT WOR 605A ELAPSED TIME-10:25 ARVL DATE-05 NOV DINNER-BREAKFAST-MOVIE AIRLINE LOCATOR-AA -JLQPBK
05 NOV 08 - WEDNESDAY
AMERICAN 1123 COACH CLASS EQUIP-MD-80 JET
LV: DALLAS/FT WOR 740A NONSTOP MILES- 868 CONFIRMED
AR: PHOENIX 915A ELAPSED TIME- 2:35
FOOD TO PURCHASE
AIRLINE LOCATOR-AA -JLQPBK
Well, I hope you didnt get too trunkie reading that. I did. Im going to go home and make some chocolate chip cookies. Love you guys tons. Have a great week! Tchau!
Love,
Elder Childs
Friday, July 25, 2008
Missionary e-mail on revelation 7-25-08
Hey everyone!
It was great to hear from you all this week. Things have been pretty calm around here. I managed to get everything done in the office and all caught up in my work. I got a new computer with 2 gigs of ram with makes things a lot easier and faster.
Ulisses is doing great! We told him last Saturday that if he drank coffee again he wouldn't be able to be baptized this week. He didn't know that and told us right away he would stop. And he did. It was really rough the first few days with headaches and fever and stuff but once it all passed, he felt great and hasn't had any coffee since! He is super excited for his baptism tomorrow and so are we.
There's another man that has been going to church a lot but isn't married with his wife. She has been travelling and they haven't had the chance to talk about marriage yet. She got back this week and we got to teach her. She sounds interested in the gospel too and wants to go to church this week. They talked about marriage and are planning it already. Hopefully I will get to see them married and baptized before I go!
I had an interesting story this week on revelation. Like I said last week, President Hoggan told me to pray about someone that could take my place here in the staff. I went into his office this week while he was travelling with a list of names I had thought of. After looking at his board with the pictures of all the missionaries and praying about it, I came out with a totally different person in mind that I had been thinking of. I knew without a doubt who it should be. It wasn't who I WANTED it to be but it was the answer I got. On Monday, I was telling the assistents about my answer. Right then, President Hoggan came in and without me even telling him about who I had thought of, he came up to me and said that he wanted me to stay another 6 weeks here in the staff. The elder that would take my place (the same elder I had thought of) wasn't ready yet and would be ready to come in after another transfer. I thought it was amazing that of over 100 elders who could take my place, me and President Hoggan came up with the same name without consulting with each other. It just goes to show that the Lord really is leading this work and he does answer prayers. That means that I already know who will take my place here but he wont be coming in for another 2 months. I'll spend about a month out in the field (probably close by to not waste a lot of money traveling) before going home. It doesn't seem like much time but I hope it is enough to get a lot of work done.
Well, I went to that place last week, Mangal das Garcas. It was awesome! I got to hold some butterflies, pet a flamingo, take some pictures from the top of Belem's only lighthouse, and a bunch of other cool stuff. If you want to see what it's like, go on google earth and fly over to Belem then type in something like "mangal" or "mangal das garcas" and it should bring you to a place with a ton of pictures. It's a big tourist place so there's a lot of great pics.
Love you all tons. Have a fantastic week!!
Love,
Elder Childs
It was great to hear from you all this week. Things have been pretty calm around here. I managed to get everything done in the office and all caught up in my work. I got a new computer with 2 gigs of ram with makes things a lot easier and faster.
Ulisses is doing great! We told him last Saturday that if he drank coffee again he wouldn't be able to be baptized this week. He didn't know that and told us right away he would stop. And he did. It was really rough the first few days with headaches and fever and stuff but once it all passed, he felt great and hasn't had any coffee since! He is super excited for his baptism tomorrow and so are we.
There's another man that has been going to church a lot but isn't married with his wife. She has been travelling and they haven't had the chance to talk about marriage yet. She got back this week and we got to teach her. She sounds interested in the gospel too and wants to go to church this week. They talked about marriage and are planning it already. Hopefully I will get to see them married and baptized before I go!
I had an interesting story this week on revelation. Like I said last week, President Hoggan told me to pray about someone that could take my place here in the staff. I went into his office this week while he was travelling with a list of names I had thought of. After looking at his board with the pictures of all the missionaries and praying about it, I came out with a totally different person in mind that I had been thinking of. I knew without a doubt who it should be. It wasn't who I WANTED it to be but it was the answer I got. On Monday, I was telling the assistents about my answer. Right then, President Hoggan came in and without me even telling him about who I had thought of, he came up to me and said that he wanted me to stay another 6 weeks here in the staff. The elder that would take my place (the same elder I had thought of) wasn't ready yet and would be ready to come in after another transfer. I thought it was amazing that of over 100 elders who could take my place, me and President Hoggan came up with the same name without consulting with each other. It just goes to show that the Lord really is leading this work and he does answer prayers. That means that I already know who will take my place here but he wont be coming in for another 2 months. I'll spend about a month out in the field (probably close by to not waste a lot of money traveling) before going home. It doesn't seem like much time but I hope it is enough to get a lot of work done.
Well, I went to that place last week, Mangal das Garcas. It was awesome! I got to hold some butterflies, pet a flamingo, take some pictures from the top of Belem's only lighthouse, and a bunch of other cool stuff. If you want to see what it's like, go on google earth and fly over to Belem then type in something like "mangal" or "mangal das garcas" and it should bring you to a place with a ton of pictures. It's a big tourist place so there's a lot of great pics.
Love you all tons. Have a fantastic week!!
Love,
Elder Childs
Friday, July 4, 2008
Missionary e-mail 7-4-08
Hey everyone!
What a week! Things have been so busy around here. Last week I didnt even get much of a p-day. I spent most of it in the office working. I managed to finish the mission newspaper thingy, get the new guys all settled in and handle the transfer. Things went well like always but there have been a lot of changes. The companionship in our zone that wasnt part of the staff, was transfered. Its back to 3 companionships... Me and my comp and my new comp, Elder Pedrosa (he's being trained this transfer to take Elder Rufino's place), Elder Dunn, and Elder Araujo, and the 2 assistants, Elder Stephens and Elder Emery. Its basically all one companionship, since we change companions constantly and we all have the same area and numbers and investigators and everything. It should be pretty interesting.
We had an amazing baptism on saturday. We baptized 2 boys named Breno (15) and Gabriel (12) who are the sons of 2 members. Their parents fell away from the church but their dad came back a little while ago. We reactivated their mom and uncle. Their dad was able to baptize them and it was a really great experience for everyone. Afterwards, they gave us little pictures of christ that they had made that had a letter to each one of us on the back thanking us for having helped them out so much and bringing their family back together again. It was great.
Now that the 2 areas in this ward are back together again, we have a ton of investigators and with the baptisms we were preparing and those that the other elders had prepared when they were here, we should have quite a few this transfer. A girl named Christina and a woman named Maria (the mother of another woman we baptized last month, Naira), are preparing to be baptized next week. The week after that, another couple of people have accepted baptismal dates. We'll see how that goes.
Well, I gotta run. Love you all tons. Hope you have a great week! Happy 4th of July!
Love,
Elder Childs
What a week! Things have been so busy around here. Last week I didnt even get much of a p-day. I spent most of it in the office working. I managed to finish the mission newspaper thingy, get the new guys all settled in and handle the transfer. Things went well like always but there have been a lot of changes. The companionship in our zone that wasnt part of the staff, was transfered. Its back to 3 companionships... Me and my comp and my new comp, Elder Pedrosa (he's being trained this transfer to take Elder Rufino's place), Elder Dunn, and Elder Araujo, and the 2 assistants, Elder Stephens and Elder Emery. Its basically all one companionship, since we change companions constantly and we all have the same area and numbers and investigators and everything. It should be pretty interesting.
We had an amazing baptism on saturday. We baptized 2 boys named Breno (15) and Gabriel (12) who are the sons of 2 members. Their parents fell away from the church but their dad came back a little while ago. We reactivated their mom and uncle. Their dad was able to baptize them and it was a really great experience for everyone. Afterwards, they gave us little pictures of christ that they had made that had a letter to each one of us on the back thanking us for having helped them out so much and bringing their family back together again. It was great.
Now that the 2 areas in this ward are back together again, we have a ton of investigators and with the baptisms we were preparing and those that the other elders had prepared when they were here, we should have quite a few this transfer. A girl named Christina and a woman named Maria (the mother of another woman we baptized last month, Naira), are preparing to be baptized next week. The week after that, another couple of people have accepted baptismal dates. We'll see how that goes.
Well, I gotta run. Love you all tons. Hope you have a great week! Happy 4th of July!
Love,
Elder Childs
Friday, June 27, 2008
Pictures from Brazil
Colin recently sent us several pictures from the forest near where he is serving. Enjoy.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Missionary e-mail 6-20-08
Wow, what a week!
Flaviane's baptism went great. She chose me to baptize her which I haven't done in a while. I'm lucky I remembered the words. She has been doing great and we are helping her to keep reading the scriptures every day.
We heard great news about 2 investigators of ours this week. We are teaching 2 boys,12 and 15, who are the sons of less active members. Their parents are divorced and we have never met their father. We worked hard with their mom and she went to church this week for the first time in about 10 years. The boys went to another city and went to church with their dad whom we talked to that day. It turns out that he was inactive but has been going back to church for the last 3 months. Right before we found the boys, he had been praying that in some way his sons would get interested in the gospel and go to church too. The oldest son is already excited to serve a mission and both of them and their parents are excited for their baptism on the 28th.
This week in the office has been pretty productive. One of my jobs is to get all the papers from the new missionaries coming in and enter in their information by hand into the computer which can take quite a bit of time. I had fallen back a little in my work and had 11 american missionaries to enter into the system which would take forever. Since I get their papers through email now, I spent 2 days writing a Visual Basic program and combined it with a massive Excel macro and bam... click a button and it does it instantly now. That should make things a little easier for future secretaries I hope.
We had breakfast at President Hoggan's house again this week. It was a really nice treat to eat pancakes with maple syrup... mmm This week we will be preparing for the transfer in 2 weeks. That means we will be going to Pizza Hut this Tuesday as a treat. Ill try to beat my old record of 17 slices.
Well, thats about it for the week. Love you all tons! Tchau!
Elder Childs
Flaviane's baptism went great. She chose me to baptize her which I haven't done in a while. I'm lucky I remembered the words. She has been doing great and we are helping her to keep reading the scriptures every day.
We heard great news about 2 investigators of ours this week. We are teaching 2 boys,12 and 15, who are the sons of less active members. Their parents are divorced and we have never met their father. We worked hard with their mom and she went to church this week for the first time in about 10 years. The boys went to another city and went to church with their dad whom we talked to that day. It turns out that he was inactive but has been going back to church for the last 3 months. Right before we found the boys, he had been praying that in some way his sons would get interested in the gospel and go to church too. The oldest son is already excited to serve a mission and both of them and their parents are excited for their baptism on the 28th.
This week in the office has been pretty productive. One of my jobs is to get all the papers from the new missionaries coming in and enter in their information by hand into the computer which can take quite a bit of time. I had fallen back a little in my work and had 11 american missionaries to enter into the system which would take forever. Since I get their papers through email now, I spent 2 days writing a Visual Basic program and combined it with a massive Excel macro and bam... click a button and it does it instantly now. That should make things a little easier for future secretaries I hope.
We had breakfast at President Hoggan's house again this week. It was a really nice treat to eat pancakes with maple syrup... mmm This week we will be preparing for the transfer in 2 weeks. That means we will be going to Pizza Hut this Tuesday as a treat. Ill try to beat my old record of 17 slices.
Well, thats about it for the week. Love you all tons! Tchau!
Elder Childs
Friday, May 16, 2008
Missionary e-mail 5-16-08
It was great to be able to talk to you all this sunday! I loved it. I cant wait to be able to talk to you all again. This week was super busy, we had another baptism on saturday but water ran out in our part of the city. Somehow, one of the neighbors of the church had water in their house so we filled up buckets one by one and filled up the baptismal font. It took about an hour and half to do but finally we got enough water in there to baptize.
Things are getting quite a bit more busy now as we are getting closer to another transfer. Things will be changing around here though as the idea of a "Transfer" will be done away with. Starting in a few weeks, transfers will be on a weekly basis instead of every 6 weeks, encouraging the missionaries to work hard all the time and not just a few weeks out of the transfer. It should make things pretty interesting around here. Ill be around just long enough to start seeing the effects of the change.
The poor new guy at home had yet another shocking experience to add to his list of things that have happened just this transfer. Last night, he an his comp were affronted by a man who came up to them, demanded their cell phones, and proceeded to steal it out of their pocket, then took off. He has a tenth of the time I have on the mission and he has already seen so much cool stuff. Lucky...
I gotta go. Love you guys ton. Hope you all have a great week!
Tchau!
Elder Childs
Things are getting quite a bit more busy now as we are getting closer to another transfer. Things will be changing around here though as the idea of a "Transfer" will be done away with. Starting in a few weeks, transfers will be on a weekly basis instead of every 6 weeks, encouraging the missionaries to work hard all the time and not just a few weeks out of the transfer. It should make things pretty interesting around here. Ill be around just long enough to start seeing the effects of the change.
The poor new guy at home had yet another shocking experience to add to his list of things that have happened just this transfer. Last night, he an his comp were affronted by a man who came up to them, demanded their cell phones, and proceeded to steal it out of their pocket, then took off. He has a tenth of the time I have on the mission and he has already seen so much cool stuff. Lucky...
I gotta go. Love you guys ton. Hope you all have a great week!
Tchau!
Elder Childs
Friday, May 2, 2008
Colin's e-mail 5-2-08
Hey there,
Well, like always, I didn't even realize that friday had arrived again. Things in the office have been a bit more calm than before. I managed to get all caught up in my work and used my free time to try to remember my C++ class I took in high school to be able to fix up and improve the system we use to keep track of all the missionaries. Im making a little bit of progress there.
Things around the house are pretty calm too. We are helping out the new guy, Elder Spencer, so he can learn Portuguese. He just got here from Norco, CA and is struggling a little with the language like most american elders do. The poor kid has had quite the culture shock since he got here 3 weeks ago and has already seen a guy run over by a bus, been caught up in a robbery, and seen a guy shot and killed. Soon enough, he will be as desensitized and used to it as the rest of us. I like seeing the new guys come in because I find it interesting to remember what it was like in his shoes a year and a half ago.
We have found some great investigators recently that are showing some potential, including a 15 year old boy named Jadernilson who has been visiting church for a while with his RM neighbor. His mom seems to be showing some interest too. The lawyer I mentioned last week couldn't make it to church but is excited to be there this week.
Well... not much else is going on. Im sorry things are a little boring to hear about here in the Staff. like always, I'll keep looking for something good to be able to tell you next week. I love you all tons and can't wait til the 11th!
Love,
Elder Childs
PS. Send Chapstick in the next package. Im almost out. Thanks! :)
Well, like always, I didn't even realize that friday had arrived again. Things in the office have been a bit more calm than before. I managed to get all caught up in my work and used my free time to try to remember my C++ class I took in high school to be able to fix up and improve the system we use to keep track of all the missionaries. Im making a little bit of progress there.
Things around the house are pretty calm too. We are helping out the new guy, Elder Spencer, so he can learn Portuguese. He just got here from Norco, CA and is struggling a little with the language like most american elders do. The poor kid has had quite the culture shock since he got here 3 weeks ago and has already seen a guy run over by a bus, been caught up in a robbery, and seen a guy shot and killed. Soon enough, he will be as desensitized and used to it as the rest of us. I like seeing the new guys come in because I find it interesting to remember what it was like in his shoes a year and a half ago.
We have found some great investigators recently that are showing some potential, including a 15 year old boy named Jadernilson who has been visiting church for a while with his RM neighbor. His mom seems to be showing some interest too. The lawyer I mentioned last week couldn't make it to church but is excited to be there this week.
Well... not much else is going on. Im sorry things are a little boring to hear about here in the Staff. like always, I'll keep looking for something good to be able to tell you next week. I love you all tons and can't wait til the 11th!
Love,
Elder Childs
PS. Send Chapstick in the next package. Im almost out. Thanks! :)
Friday, April 18, 2008
Colin's e-mail 4-18-08
Belem Brazil is right off of the Amazon...the river, not the dot com company.
Hello,
Believe it or not, I changed areas already. Kinda. It was a prety interesting week this week with the transfers. Here in the staff, things get pretty hectic the week before and week of a transfer. We got a bunch of new elders and sisters this week so a bunch of new areas were opened. President Hoggan decided that he would put an extra companionship in every ward in the mission that was just about ready to split including ours, here in Telegrafo. There is now a companionship of an american and his new greenie american comp who will be staying in our house and working full time in our area. President also decided to split our area in half so that all 8 elders wouldnt be in the same place. 4 elders stayed in the half with all our investigators and 4 will be going to open the other half of the area where elders havent been working. I am one of those 4. I thought I wouldnt have to open another area on my mission seeing as I already held the current record of 4 times opening and area. This makes 5. It will be little challenging because we have to start over fresh with no investigators or anything but it should be great. Me and elder Hinsdale found 2 married families last night that are showing some great interest. It was a spiritual lesson and they accepted all the invitations. We are already off to a good start I guess. I will be staying in the same house with the same comp and everything but now we will be working a little further away and I pretty much have only 3 comps instead of 5.
The transfer was great. It made things so rushed around the office trying to get everthing ready but everything went well. I got to see a ton of my friends and elders from my group at the MTC so It was really fun. I was still just as nervous anouncing the transfers as the first time but I still got some laughs and cheers out of everyone so its all good.
Yesterday I participated in the mission Council again with all the zone leaders in the mission. It was really spiritual and the assistants and president hoggan gave great talks. It was pretty nerve racking having to do my little part of telling them all what they can be doing better to make my job easier but it went well.
Well, thats all I can think of that was exciting this week so I better get going. I love you. I cant wait for our phone call in a few weeks. Tchau!
Elder Childs
Friday, April 4, 2008
Colin's E-mail 4-4-08
How is everyone?
This week was awesome! We had a great baptism on Saturday... that lady who's daughter was baptized last week. Her boss is a member of our ward and helped a ton in her conversion and helped make the baptism really spiritual.
Sunday was incredible. Me and Elder Stephens, the AP, worked together the whole day and things went really well. We were contacting some referrals we had gotten from the church website when we knocked on a man's door. He had called to receive a Book of Mormon and was really excited to let us in. It was probably the most amazing, spiritual lesson I have ever taught. I wish I could describe it. We got to the part where we explain how the true church of Jesus Christ was lost when he broke in and started to teach the lesson for us. He said that he read how the Christians in that time period were really persecuted and many were killed including the apostles and that he believed that many of the pure truths that Jesus taught were lost, including his true church. We were shocked when he said that but so excited. I told him "Thats why we are here! His true church was lost but has been restored to the earth again. We as representatives of Jesus Christ testify that His true church with apostles and prophets and ALL the truths is on the earth again."
With tears in his eyes he told us that he has been searching for this church for years and finally found it. He told us that he was born and raised Catholic but noticed so many errors in the doctrine but was never able to find the truth. He said "My heart is pounding... I feel so good right now. I feel like a little child that just got a huge present!" He accepted a baptismal date on the spot for the 19th. We explained that church was going to be a little further away than usual because of the general conference and he replied "It doesnt matter where it is... I'm going". Elder Stephens and I walked away from that lesson totaly stunned. It was great.
I love it so much in this area. I have never seen so many miracles happen in my mission. This week we won't have a baptism but the next week a woman named Naira will be baptized. I don't remember if I told you her story but she was a miracle too. Elder Hinsdale, the financial secretary, and I were walking down the street when a member called us over and invited us to eat some cake. We were in a hurry as it was but couldn't turn it down. After eating and talking for a bit we got back on our way and almost immediately a woman stopped us in the street. She started right away saying, "I visited your church in Tapana (an area far away from ours) and they told me there is a church closer to my home and that missionaries would come by to talk to me. Why havent you come to my home yet?" We explained that nobody had told us and that we would visit her right away. We did. She went to church this week and loved it. She eats up everything we have to say and out of nowhere, told us the other day "I have no doubt that I will be baptized in your church" Next week she will.
Well, things are going great. I love you all tons. Have a great week!
Elder Childs
This week was awesome! We had a great baptism on Saturday... that lady who's daughter was baptized last week. Her boss is a member of our ward and helped a ton in her conversion and helped make the baptism really spiritual.
Sunday was incredible. Me and Elder Stephens, the AP, worked together the whole day and things went really well. We were contacting some referrals we had gotten from the church website when we knocked on a man's door. He had called to receive a Book of Mormon and was really excited to let us in. It was probably the most amazing, spiritual lesson I have ever taught. I wish I could describe it. We got to the part where we explain how the true church of Jesus Christ was lost when he broke in and started to teach the lesson for us. He said that he read how the Christians in that time period were really persecuted and many were killed including the apostles and that he believed that many of the pure truths that Jesus taught were lost, including his true church. We were shocked when he said that but so excited. I told him "Thats why we are here! His true church was lost but has been restored to the earth again. We as representatives of Jesus Christ testify that His true church with apostles and prophets and ALL the truths is on the earth again."
With tears in his eyes he told us that he has been searching for this church for years and finally found it. He told us that he was born and raised Catholic but noticed so many errors in the doctrine but was never able to find the truth. He said "My heart is pounding... I feel so good right now. I feel like a little child that just got a huge present!" He accepted a baptismal date on the spot for the 19th. We explained that church was going to be a little further away than usual because of the general conference and he replied "It doesnt matter where it is... I'm going". Elder Stephens and I walked away from that lesson totaly stunned. It was great.
I love it so much in this area. I have never seen so many miracles happen in my mission. This week we won't have a baptism but the next week a woman named Naira will be baptized. I don't remember if I told you her story but she was a miracle too. Elder Hinsdale, the financial secretary, and I were walking down the street when a member called us over and invited us to eat some cake. We were in a hurry as it was but couldn't turn it down. After eating and talking for a bit we got back on our way and almost immediately a woman stopped us in the street. She started right away saying, "I visited your church in Tapana (an area far away from ours) and they told me there is a church closer to my home and that missionaries would come by to talk to me. Why havent you come to my home yet?" We explained that nobody had told us and that we would visit her right away. We did. She went to church this week and loved it. She eats up everything we have to say and out of nowhere, told us the other day "I have no doubt that I will be baptized in your church" Next week she will.
Well, things are going great. I love you all tons. Have a great week!
Elder Childs
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Colin's E-mail 3-6-08
Yup, Sorry to say it, but my p-day moved again this week. Unfortunately, I didnt get any emails again but for sure I will next week. My p-day should permanently be on fridays, but just for today, it had to switch.
What an eventful week! I cant beleive all the stuff that happened this week, Ill do my best to tell you everything before my time is up here.
Saturday I had 4 baptisms set up in my last area so I got permission from President Hoggan to go watch them. There were 3 little girls, 2 of them twins whos parents are members that were reactivated recently and the other who is the daughter of a woman that wants to be baptized but has a problem with marriage that probably wont be resolved soon. The othr was supposd to be Euvira, a woman that me and Elder Corob found and stuggled to get baptized. When I got to the chapel that night, Euvira wasnt there but sitting down waiting to be baptized was Eliana, a woman who has been wanting to be baptized for 2 years but who has been living with her paralized, vegetable husband. He died a few weeks ago, enabling her to finally be baptized. She wasnt sure if sh was ready yet when I left an I didnt know if I would ever be able to see her get baptizd. That night was really special and really spiritual for me to be able to see her enter into the baptismal font after waiting so long. There we so many people at the baptism that we had to hold the opening meeting in the sacrament room and do the baptisms seperately to be able to fit everyone in the room with the font to watch. It was a great night.
This week has been really hectic in the office. The transfer meeting was yesterday so preparing everything for the meeting made vrything rush. Added on top of all that, The mission baptized a huge numbr of people this last week and all the baptismal documents are coming in to me to be entered in the computer and sent to church headquarters. Its a lot of work an I hope I can get my way out of the pile of papers on my desk that seems to be growing more every day.
It has been quite interesting working here in the office with the other staff. I STILL havent actually worked with my companion, Elder Rufino. I have been out every night with either the APs or the Zone Leader working in my area. Maybe this week we will be able to work together one night.
Elder Fernando, my 2nd comp, went home this week. It was sad to see him go. Everyone lovd him so much. The new AP isnt announced until the tensfer meeting so everyone keeps guessing until then. It was funny because everyone thought it was me since I was called into the office a week early to be trained. I keep getting people asking me things like "Hey, how was the call with the President to be the new AP?" Some people told me thy were surprised to see me take the place as secretary.
Every day, I learn that I have more and more responsibilities than I thought. Yesterday at the transfer meeting with about half the missionaries in the mission, I was announced as the new secretary and I had to announce the transfers. It was hard because its kinda like an improv stand up act that you have to keep everyone excited, laughing, and clapping... It went pretty well though and I had the privilege to announce Casey Taylor who is my good friend from school that got into the field yesterday.
This morning I had to go to the Mission Council which is a meeting with the President, the APs and all the Zone leaders in the whole mission, and tell the zone leaders what they can be doing differently to help the work run a little more smoothly. Its pretty nerve racking to have to stand up in front of all the best elders in the mission and tell them what they can be doing better, but it went pretty well. After Im done here, I will be returning to the meeting and eating lunch with them all too.
Like I said, the staff is pretty nicely treated with some things other elders dont get like AC and catered lunches and other nice bonuses. Recently we went to Pizza Hut again for all-you-can-eat. I didnt manage to get 17 slices down like last time but I still ate 12. I think I will be gaining a lot of weight in this area, eating so much and sitting down all day.
Hey dad, I forgot to tell you last week, The man that fixed the ipod was reactivatd before I left Entroncamento and recieved a calling in the ward 2 weeks ago. Elder Reynolds, a great friend of mine here on the mission, finished this week and went home. He got home yesterday with a package from me to everyone. I wrote a note inside explain what goes to who. He should be calling you soon to see when he can get it over to you.
Well I love you all and Ill talk to you next week (Friday this time). Tchau!
Elder Childs
Monday, February 25, 2008
Missionary e-mail 2-25-08
Hey there!
What an eventful week! Man I wish I could have more time to explain everything that happened this week. I hope I can remember all the important stuff. Well first of all, we made some killer no-bake cookies on P-day that we gave to a couple members. Everyone loved them and wants to try to make them themselves. We walked down a new street this week that we have never been on. We passed by a house and had to take a picture of what we saw inside. Inside the gate was easily the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life. Believe it or not, the tops of its ears come up to my shoulders. Its huge. I'll have to have my comp make me a copy of the picture when he develops it since I didnt have my camera on me. That and the picture of "Beethoven" the second most massive dog I have seen in my life. It is bigger than the guy the owners pay to walk him.
Monday night, we found this girl name Annie that we gave a book of mormon to and she told us she would read it. When we came back wednesday night, to our total surprise, she had read the whole book of mormon from cover to cover. She was way more open to our message after that and accepted a baptisimal date. Unfortunately, she had to go somewhere yesterday and couldnt make it to church. I hope she gets baptized soon.
Sunday was just full of miracles. We had a ton of investigators at church this week and it was a great meeting. All of our investigators loved the talks and felt the spirit. We have been working with one lady named Euvira that has had one foot in her church, one in ours. Last week, she told us she didn't want us teaching her any more and almost threw us out of her house like she did the last elders that were there. We managed to talk her into praying to find out what God wanted her to do. She made it to church and felt the spirit, asked for an interview with the bishop who gave her some advice and after church decided that she would be baptized this saturday(the 1st).
Eliana, the woman who has been hearing from the missionaries for 2 years but couldn't be baptized because of her husband, accepted a date for the 1st too. We have 5 baptisms marked for this weekend.
I got a call from the assistants to the president on saturday night at 10 PM I was worried about what the heck it could possibly be. They told me I needed to call the President the next night. It left me totally nervous wondering what it could be. When I called him last night, he told me I was being called to serve on the staff in the mission office and would be leaving on tuesday morning (tomorrow). I will be the Historian/Secretary and probably taking the place of the last elder as Zone Leader of that zone. I have to leave a whole week early to stay in the office to be shown what my new job will be. I won't even be here to help my investigators but my comp will stay with other elders from a nearby area until his new companion comes. I still have very little idea of what I will be doing but I'll be sure to write next week and explain more. To tell the truth, this isn't exactly what I wanted to do but I guess its what the Lord wants me to be doing so I'll just have to do my best. I know its kinda trunkie but this should be my second to last area. What a weird thought. Man... time flies by fast. Im at that point in my mission that I'm trying to put on the brakes to make time go a little slower so I can do everything I want but it just keeps flying on by.
Well I have to head home to start packing my bags. I have to be out the door at 7 AM tomorrow morning to head out to my new area. I love you guys tons and hope you have a great week. Tchau!
Elder Childs
What an eventful week! Man I wish I could have more time to explain everything that happened this week. I hope I can remember all the important stuff. Well first of all, we made some killer no-bake cookies on P-day that we gave to a couple members. Everyone loved them and wants to try to make them themselves. We walked down a new street this week that we have never been on. We passed by a house and had to take a picture of what we saw inside. Inside the gate was easily the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life. Believe it or not, the tops of its ears come up to my shoulders. Its huge. I'll have to have my comp make me a copy of the picture when he develops it since I didnt have my camera on me. That and the picture of "Beethoven" the second most massive dog I have seen in my life. It is bigger than the guy the owners pay to walk him.
Monday night, we found this girl name Annie that we gave a book of mormon to and she told us she would read it. When we came back wednesday night, to our total surprise, she had read the whole book of mormon from cover to cover. She was way more open to our message after that and accepted a baptisimal date. Unfortunately, she had to go somewhere yesterday and couldnt make it to church. I hope she gets baptized soon.
Sunday was just full of miracles. We had a ton of investigators at church this week and it was a great meeting. All of our investigators loved the talks and felt the spirit. We have been working with one lady named Euvira that has had one foot in her church, one in ours. Last week, she told us she didn't want us teaching her any more and almost threw us out of her house like she did the last elders that were there. We managed to talk her into praying to find out what God wanted her to do. She made it to church and felt the spirit, asked for an interview with the bishop who gave her some advice and after church decided that she would be baptized this saturday(the 1st).
Eliana, the woman who has been hearing from the missionaries for 2 years but couldn't be baptized because of her husband, accepted a date for the 1st too. We have 5 baptisms marked for this weekend.
I got a call from the assistants to the president on saturday night at 10 PM I was worried about what the heck it could possibly be. They told me I needed to call the President the next night. It left me totally nervous wondering what it could be. When I called him last night, he told me I was being called to serve on the staff in the mission office and would be leaving on tuesday morning (tomorrow). I will be the Historian/Secretary and probably taking the place of the last elder as Zone Leader of that zone. I have to leave a whole week early to stay in the office to be shown what my new job will be. I won't even be here to help my investigators but my comp will stay with other elders from a nearby area until his new companion comes. I still have very little idea of what I will be doing but I'll be sure to write next week and explain more. To tell the truth, this isn't exactly what I wanted to do but I guess its what the Lord wants me to be doing so I'll just have to do my best. I know its kinda trunkie but this should be my second to last area. What a weird thought. Man... time flies by fast. Im at that point in my mission that I'm trying to put on the brakes to make time go a little slower so I can do everything I want but it just keeps flying on by.
Well I have to head home to start packing my bags. I have to be out the door at 7 AM tomorrow morning to head out to my new area. I love you guys tons and hope you have a great week. Tchau!
Elder Childs
Monday, February 18, 2008
Missionary E-Mail 2-18-08
Hey there everyone!
Sounds like you all had an exciting week. Mine wasn't all that exciting but it was better than last week for sure!
Like I said I would, I took some photos this week to send to you guys. Nothing too exciting but hey that's all I've got. Some investigators gave us some weird fruit to eat. They were both really good. You have to cut them open and pull out the seeds with your hands then suck all the fruit off of them. Kinda weird but tasty.
The fist one is called Beribá I think.
and the one with the purple seeds
is called Cacau (or cocoa in english)
apparently it is from this fruit that we get cocoa. I didn't know that. Surprisingly enough, the fruit doesnt taste anything like chocolate.
Carnaval ended last week but this week, the results from Vestibular came in. Colleges here accept people based solely on one test (kinda like the SAT or ACT) and not based on any previous achievements like in the US. Each school has a different test based on different Majors you chose. They announce the results of this test, Vestibular, on the radio, internet, TV... its a big deal. Those that pass spend the whole day partying and have a few customs that have been going on for years and years such as shaving their head, covering people with flower and eggs and just about anything else you can find in the kitchen, and of course, drinking a huge amount of beer while blaring loud music in front of their house (mainly the "I Passed Vestibular" song which gets played and repeated and gets on your nerves real fast). It was way more wild here the day the results came out than it was for Carnaval. Go figure.
Well this week was super busy. We have a ton of investigators spread out all over our area so we have to take at least one bus a day sometimes more and do a ton of walking. It all payed off though since we had a ton of people at church this week and a lot of people that will be baptized soon.
We have an investigator that I might have told you about but I don't remember. Her name is Eliana and she has been living with her husband for years, but they never got married. About 17 years ago, he got sick and his situation just got worse and worse over the years. He became paralyzed about 10 years ago and about 5 years ago turned into a total vegetable, not being able to talk, or respond in any way. Since she lived with him, she could not be baptized even though Nobody fully understood why, the mission president just refused it. For the last 2 years she has been investigating the church but finds it hard to go since she had to constantly stay home with her husband. She has already read the Book of Mormon once through and about half way again. Last week her husband passed away. Finally we will be able to help Eliana get baptized... something she has been wanting for so long.
There are several other people we are teaching like this that have had things been getting in the way of their baptism for a long time but finally are getting things resolved. One family we are teaching will finally get their divorce papers this week from a previous marriage and will be able to get married this month. We are seeing a lot of miracles like this recently and are being really blessed. With another transfer coming up soon, I am praying to not be sent away so I can see all these people we have been working with for so long finally be able to get baptized.
Well thats all for now. I love you tons and hope you all have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Childs
Sounds like you all had an exciting week. Mine wasn't all that exciting but it was better than last week for sure!
Like I said I would, I took some photos this week to send to you guys. Nothing too exciting but hey that's all I've got. Some investigators gave us some weird fruit to eat. They were both really good. You have to cut them open and pull out the seeds with your hands then suck all the fruit off of them. Kinda weird but tasty.
The fist one is called Beribá I think.
and the one with the purple seeds
is called Cacau (or cocoa in english)
apparently it is from this fruit that we get cocoa. I didn't know that. Surprisingly enough, the fruit doesnt taste anything like chocolate. Carnaval ended last week but this week, the results from Vestibular came in. Colleges here accept people based solely on one test (kinda like the SAT or ACT) and not based on any previous achievements like in the US. Each school has a different test based on different Majors you chose. They announce the results of this test, Vestibular, on the radio, internet, TV... its a big deal. Those that pass spend the whole day partying and have a few customs that have been going on for years and years such as shaving their head, covering people with flower and eggs and just about anything else you can find in the kitchen, and of course, drinking a huge amount of beer while blaring loud music in front of their house (mainly the "I Passed Vestibular" song which gets played and repeated and gets on your nerves real fast). It was way more wild here the day the results came out than it was for Carnaval. Go figure.
Well this week was super busy. We have a ton of investigators spread out all over our area so we have to take at least one bus a day sometimes more and do a ton of walking. It all payed off though since we had a ton of people at church this week and a lot of people that will be baptized soon.
We have an investigator that I might have told you about but I don't remember. Her name is Eliana and she has been living with her husband for years, but they never got married. About 17 years ago, he got sick and his situation just got worse and worse over the years. He became paralyzed about 10 years ago and about 5 years ago turned into a total vegetable, not being able to talk, or respond in any way. Since she lived with him, she could not be baptized even though Nobody fully understood why, the mission president just refused it. For the last 2 years she has been investigating the church but finds it hard to go since she had to constantly stay home with her husband. She has already read the Book of Mormon once through and about half way again. Last week her husband passed away. Finally we will be able to help Eliana get baptized... something she has been wanting for so long.
There are several other people we are teaching like this that have had things been getting in the way of their baptism for a long time but finally are getting things resolved. One family we are teaching will finally get their divorce papers this week from a previous marriage and will be able to get married this month. We are seeing a lot of miracles like this recently and are being really blessed. With another transfer coming up soon, I am praying to not be sent away so I can see all these people we have been working with for so long finally be able to get baptized.
Well thats all for now. I love you tons and hope you all have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Childs
Monday, February 11, 2008
Missionary e-mail 2-11-07
Hey there everyone,
Carnaval ended... thank goodness. It was much more mild than last year but we still had to duck into other streets and alleys to avoid some large parades of people. Not too bad. The worst part was, all of our investigators were out of town or busy during canaval and it was impossible to find new investigators with everyone partying so it made the work a little tough but all in all, it was a pretty good week.
A couple miracles happened, including that a ton of people showed up to church. More people at church means more baptisms which is a good thing. We taught a man a month ago and that same week he left for Sao Paulo for a month to study. We were walking down the street this week and found him washing his car. The first thing he said to us was that he had read in the book we had left for him a month ago and wanted to go to church with us this sunday. He did. Ill keep you up to date on how that goes.
We were supposed to have a baptism this week but it fell through. The lady didnt feel ready yet and has to make the decision to leave her church to join ours. It has been hard for her but she is trying. Hopefully in a week or 2 she will make the decision and be baptized.
I know I promised you some good stories and pics and stuff this week but really, this week was pretty uneventful and nothing good to take pictures of. Ill try harder this week to come up with something good. I love you all tons and hope you have a great week. Get well soon all of you that are sick. Tchau!!
Carnaval ended... thank goodness. It was much more mild than last year but we still had to duck into other streets and alleys to avoid some large parades of people. Not too bad. The worst part was, all of our investigators were out of town or busy during canaval and it was impossible to find new investigators with everyone partying so it made the work a little tough but all in all, it was a pretty good week.
A couple miracles happened, including that a ton of people showed up to church. More people at church means more baptisms which is a good thing. We taught a man a month ago and that same week he left for Sao Paulo for a month to study. We were walking down the street this week and found him washing his car. The first thing he said to us was that he had read in the book we had left for him a month ago and wanted to go to church with us this sunday. He did. Ill keep you up to date on how that goes.
We were supposed to have a baptism this week but it fell through. The lady didnt feel ready yet and has to make the decision to leave her church to join ours. It has been hard for her but she is trying. Hopefully in a week or 2 she will make the decision and be baptized.
I know I promised you some good stories and pics and stuff this week but really, this week was pretty uneventful and nothing good to take pictures of. Ill try harder this week to come up with something good. I love you all tons and hope you have a great week. Get well soon all of you that are sick. Tchau!!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Colin's latest 1-21-08
Colin has been in the field for 15 months. Prior to today, he had only e-mailed us one video, so when I read in today's e-mail that he had attached another, I was pretty excited. I was curious to see how he looked, if he had gained weight, lost weight, turned green... However, it was not to be. Apparently he killed a rat in his apartment, and he felt that was video worthy. However, it is always great to hear his voice from so far away. By the way, it is a pass along card sitting on the ground next to the rat, so it really was a big rat!
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