Staying in Castelo and loving it! November 11, 2013

Hello :)

So, I´m already going to apologize from the start because transfers are tomorrow and this email is going to be super short. Elder Chagas and I will be staying in Castelo! AND, 2 Americans straight from the States are going to be our companions! I´m pretty pumped for the opportunity. My companion is going to be Elder Elswick from California. He´s already served for a while in the United States while waiting for his visa, and it finally came! Hopefully the same will happen with Sister Shell. And soon!

Wednesday, Gilbert was baptized!! (again :)) Everything went just fine and he was confirmed this Sunday. It really has been a miracle. 8 years of inactivity and now it´s been 3 weeks straight going to church and all of the activities. Gilbert and Fátima (the parents) already gave us a referral and we´re hoping will get callings soon. Which will happen because our Bishop is way on top of things. Friday we were able to do the interview of Andreia, Sig´s mom. (if you don´t remember, Sig asked me to baptize him 2 weeks ago since I knew him for a while because of the English class). His mom made the decision she wanted to be baptized as well and the sisters in the area called us asking if we could be there for the baptismal service. Which of course was a yes! Sunday directly after church Sig was ordained as a Priest so that he could baptize his mom. We had to run to catch a bus right after church so we could get to the chapel in time to be there at least for the ordinance. Only Sundays the buses are always way slow and we had to wait for 30 minutes to catch one. Sig called me and asked if we´d be getting there soon. I told him the only way we´d make it was if a bus showed up thirty seconds later, so I told him he could start the baptismal service and pray we´d make it in time. Elder Chagas and I said a prayer and, lo and behold, 30 seconds later the bus showed up. We walked into the chapel as Sig and Andreia were headed towards the font. We took a picture really quick with them and then were able to watch Sig baptize his mom :) It was a really special experience, and another tender mercy from the Lord.  Adrianna made it to church in a wheelchair on Sunday, along with a few others, but we need to have a bigger focus on finding now that God has helped the majority of our teaching pool be baptized. I continue to look for more ways to be grateful with everything He´s given us as of late. I don´t quite understand what´s making the difference, other than the incredible ward we´re serving in and His perfect ability to work miracles when He sees fit. 

I´ve gotta go now, but I´m sending the pictures from Andreia´s baptism right now. Oh! I almost forgot, remember the other Andreya from Ponte? I got a phone call from Elder Vianna and his new companion telling me her 18 year-old son was baptized yesterday! That made me realllyy happy. It´s amazing to see how far one seed can go. With her, it was a simple sacrament meeting talk about the Sabbath Day. With Sheila and Ricardo (who are well by the way--Ricardo and Igor received the Aaronic Priesthood this past Sunday! :D), it was an invited to church from a 15 year-old. Miracles are so, so real, especially when it comes to God´s own work.

Love you all! I know I always say that but I mean it. 

Elder Sears

P.S. I also want to say thank you to Sister Helsing (I continue to get your letters and sent a response off last week!), Grandma Julie, and the Powder Springs Stake Presidency who have all written me recently. You are the best!

8382: the sisters from Costa e Silva ward, Andreia, Sig, Elder Chagas

(p.p.s. mom, Andreia asked me specifically to tell you she says thanks for the example she knows you were to me :)  )

Bringing in the Sheaves . . . and other wildlife! November 5, 2013

Bom dia!

I´m really sorry I forgot to mention last week I´d be emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday this week. I´m alive and all is well. Time is also...really short :) So here goes. 

So, last Sunday a little before the baptisms we found out a less active family (the Coelho´s) had come back to church after more than 8 years of inactivity. And when they came, they brought with them their 15 year-old son, Gilbert, who had never been baptized. As soon as sacrament meeting got over his brother-in-law came up to us and said "Elders, you need to visit this family and invite Gilbert to be baptized. He´s ready." So, we marked Monday night with them and said a thank you prayer for yet another miracle in Castelo. Monday we had family night with them and had a good long talk about their activity and (inactivity) in the Church. Fátima, the mom, told us they decided to come back after so long because Gilbert was being bullied a bunch in school (he´s got something similar to autism) and she knew the Church would be a refuge for them and a place where he could make some real friends. We talked about the temple and had them put a sticky-note on their fridge reminding them of their goal to enter there, soon, as a family. Obviously, Gilbert would need to be baptized for that to happen and we told them that. And they basically marked his baptism for this Sunday, we just agreed. It´s incredible how good God is being to me!! We met with them almost every day of the week, took them to the ward activity Wednesday night, and had the pleasure of hearing them say from here on out the plan is for them not to miss a single Sunday. The baptismal service was Sunday afternoon so that Junior, the brother-in-law that gave us the referral, could participate. Gilbert wanted him to do that baptism. So he did. Just with a few minor complications, since Gilbert is pretty terrified of water. He´d never gone completely under in his whole life. We were saying lots of prayers that it would work out, but his foot kept coming out of the water and after the third attempt kneeling down, he´d had it for the day. His whole family tried to convince him for an hour, literally, to give it one more go but he said he´d try again another day. I wasn´t at all worried about the baptism not working out (we marked tomorrow afternoon with them in a member´s pool with a lot less people watching), just how Gilbert was feeling and how his cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents (the vast majority not members) would react. But the ward here was amazing. He and Junior got changed and came back into the chapel and received the welcomes to the young men´s organization and the ward. Everyone was so positive, and congratulated him on his courage in overcoming something he´d never done in his life. I could tell his family members were impressed at how supportive the ward was, and who knows, maybe some of them needed to see that so that they could have a good impression of the Church and be open to an opportunity to learn more in the future. No denying, Elder Chagas and I were pretty exasperated after the third try to baptize him didn´t work out, but we said a prayer and felt a certain peace that everything would work out. So it will. Tomorrow! I´ll still send the pictures of him and his family today though.

Sunday, Ricardo, Sheila, Igor and Diego were all confirmed!! Marvelous! Sheila cried during hers and bore her testimony during fast and testimony meeting, a huge step for her since she gets pretty nervous in front of people. I continue to be amazed at their progress. Friday they invited us over for dinner and we talked about the importance of the gift of the Holy Ghost. We had Igor call us on his phone and cover up his headphones with his hoody. Then we blindfolded him and took him outside in the yard and decided where he´d need to go without telling him. And we told the rest of the family to shout all sorts of wrong directions in his ear, which they seemed to enjoy a little too much :) After him stumbling around a little bit Elder Chagas got on the phone without anyone seeing and started whispering directions to him. Everyone got pretty confused as to how Igor wound up in the right place, and we used the analogy to talk about how the Spirit works and how prepared we need to be to know how to use it. It was something different we did...I think it turned out well?

You remember Adriana right? She´s coming along really well after her surgery. Walking normally and finally good enough to go to Church now. Anndddd, another miracle with her! Sunday night Isabel, an awesome member in the ward, went over to check up on her. During the conversation Adriana asked her if her desire to be baptized was preparation enough for her to be baptized. Isabel bore her testimony and basically finalized Adriana for us. We´re going to do everything we can to pass by today and set a date :) The ward here is amazing. Of all the people we´ve taught or we´re teaching, maybe 10 percent of them we´ve found knocking doors or doing contacts. It´s easy to see why the First Presidency is pushing so much for members and missionaries playing on the same team and on the same page. There´s really no better way.

Funny story (that will come with a picture): I think it was Wednesday that Elder Chagas and I got back from lunch to find a lovely surprise in our kitchen. I was in the bathroom when Elder Chagas started screaming, "Sears, SEARS, get over here!" So I came running to see a VULTURE perched on our kitchen counter. Picking through our groceries. Apparently when Elder Chagas opened the door it came bounding out of the plants and went straight for the kitchen. I didn´t really know how to react, so I got my camera. Haha. Then I went around to the window from the outside and started banging on it with a broom while Elder Chagas shut the door behind the thing. Then I went to the living room window and started banging. Finally we got it outside after a lot of yelling and laughing and screeching. Pretty hilarious to be honest. The next morning I was saying my prayers when I heard more screaming from the other elders. The SAME little twirp had made it into the storage room and was causing more mayhem. I knew Brazil was exotic, but why couldn´t it be a parrot or something? By the way, the word for vulture is "urubú" which I find pretty funny in and of itself. 

Here come the pictures...love you all! is it really only 3 1/2 more weeks til Thanksgiving?

Elder Snow and Brad Oct. 23, 2013

                         Elder Steven E. Snow of the Quorum of the 70
                                    with Brad during a Mission Tour

Oct. 26, 2013 Marriage of Sheila & Ricardo and Oct. 27, 2013 Baptism of their whole family!

Brad at the baptism of Sigfried (one of his English students), Sigfried,
Sigfried's mom, and the sister missionaries who taught him

               Brad playing the wedding music at the marriage of Sheila and Ricardo
                                                      October 26, 2013

                      Brad, Sheila, Ricardo and Elder Chagas at the marriage

                                        The lovely  bride and groom

                 Igor (14 yr. old son of Sheila and Ricardo), E. Chagas, Brad,
                              and Diego (11 yr. old son) at the wedding

                        Igor, Isabella (flower girl), and Brad at the wedding

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Baptism of a whole family!

Igor (14), Diego (11), E. Chagas, Ricardo, Sheila, Brad

October 28, 2013 One mission tour, one wedding and 5 baptisms!

Queridos,

This week had enough in it to fill a 500 page book! Seriously, it FLEW. And in spite of all the stress, it has been the most rewarding week of my mission and one of the most rewarding weeks of my life. I have to write quickly because we´re at President Lincoln Martin´s house for a zone activity, but I promise to be detailed. I´ll start with the MissionTour. Monday and Tuesday Elder Chagas and I and the secretaries were scrambling to get everything ready, and unfortunately well past 10:30--bus and van rides to Campinas, who slept where, the meeting agenda, lunch preparations, setting up sound, the program, the projector, cleaning the chapel, DEEP cleaning the office, and all that good stuff. But the tour itself was incredible. Half of the mission met on Wednesday and the other on Thursday. Both days started with a 30 minute meeting with Elder Snow and some of the mission leaders. He opened up most of the time for questions and we talked a lot about vision. How to motivate the mission and help them obediently accelerate the work of salvation. That meeting was followed by a 3 hour training, lunch, 1 more hour of training, zone pictures, and interviews. Each in part coordenated by the staff. Fun fun :) Several things that he and his wife said caught my attention. I can´t even count the amount of times he said our goal as missionaries and representatives of the Church is to ESTABLISH THE CHURCH, not just baptize at whatever cost. He told us we needed to try to baptize every body who wanted it, but to make sure to prepare them thoroughly enough to give them the base they´ll need to stay active, As he said, "investigators who can´t keep commitments will be members who can´t keep covenants." I think there´s a lot of improving we can do as a mission in that respect. Sister Snow, seeing that Elder Snow is the Church Historian, talked about the importance of keeping a journal and kindly invited all of us to repent. Challenge accepted :) She also talked about the importance of hymns and invited us to sing more with our investigators, a suggestion I loved. Today on the bus to the activity I stood up and told everyone me and the other 7 missionaries with me were going to sing to them. So we did! Families Can Be Together Forever. Everyone on the bus applauded us afterwards which was really neat. Other impressions from Elder Snow...whenever we´re in a position to influence the life of another, the most important quality we can have is kindness. He said that with words and with his example. Much to our surprise, Elder Chagas and I and the secretaries got back for the day to find 5 ties and a note from Elder Snow waiting for us. He really didn´t need to do that, but it just goes to show the kind of man he is. All in all, the mission tour was a success I feel and much-needed in my case--I learned so much.

Two days later and Saturday came along. Wedding time!!! We got to the chapel early to help Lincoln and Bianca Martins set everything up. President Lincoln is our Stake President in Castelo and he and his wife planned and paid EVERYTHING for the wedding. The decorations were incredible and they even brought in a red carpet for the procession. Kind of last minute, I found out I´d have to play 5 songs on the piano and not 3. But it went really well. Sister Heyer, one of the sisters in the other ward that uses our same chapel, sang for one of them and Sheila loved it. I was at the piano for most of the ceremony so I didn´t get to see as much of it as I´d have liked but I did get to see them make their vows and legally become man and wife. How incredible that was. Pictures are short to come. I´d write more, but to be honest I was much more excited about Sunday than I was about the wedding. Hope that´s allowed! As soon as sacrament meeting got over we got changed and went back to the chapel for the start of the baptismal service. Carlos Martins, the grandfather of the 15 year-old Leo who first invited Ricardo to church, gave a talk that left the 6 of us (Elder Chagas and the family and I) in tears. I had the strangest feeling. It was like I could have stepped out of the chapel and looked down and seen the earth hundreds of miles below. Like we left it for a little bit and went somewhere else. That probably doesn´t make sense and I probably didn´t do justice to the feeling I had, but it´s how I felt. Then the moment finally came for the four of them to be baptized. Ricardo asked me to baptized him and he went first. When he came out of the water he started sobbing. So I hugged him there in the font and he didn´t let go until a good 45 seconds later. It was so...surreal. I don´t know of anything that could have such power if it wasn´t absolutely true and eternal. Igor, the 14 year-old was next, and he asked me to baptize him as well. Then Elder Chagas baptized Diego (11), and Sheila, while Ricardo and Igor watched from the steps. A whole family! I don´t have the slightest idea of the joy we´ll feel when we all make it to the Celestial Kingdom together. I really don´t because the happiness I felt on Sunday was indescribable in and of itself. I´ve prayed so much that I can be truly grateful for the experience, because it was such a miracle. And so perfect. I gave them a copy of my CD and they invited us over next week for a barbecue. Ricardo and Sheila already asked the Bishop who they´ll be visiting and home teaching. Just to give you an idea of how golden this family is. The member support was amazing. The same number of people we had in the ward for sacrament meeting stayed for the baptismal service afterwards. 

AND, 2 hours later I was able to baptize Sigfried from the Costa e Silva ward. He´s been coming to my English classes and 3 weeks ago I felt to invite him to meet with the missionaries. He´d already by invited and taught loads of times but this time something clicked. The Sisters taught and prepared him for baptism this Sunday, and he asked me if I could be the one to baptize him. So of course I said yes :) His mom came up to me afterward and thanked me repeatedly for the miracles that have happened with her son. The sisters told me she´s set for baptism 2 weeks from now because of the example of her son. I really don´t feel like I did anything--it was a simple invite, but still, God let me be part of yet another miracle and yet another baptism. I´ve been really pensive and speechless over these last 24 hours because of His goodness. If I had to choose the happiest day of my mission until now (and that´s a hard task), I´d have to choose yesterday. It was beyond incredible. 

Hope that was detailed enough! I love you all, and Happy Halloween! 

This work is true and its message is perfect. I know that because its messengers are so weak and yet it still manages to roll forward, like a stone cut out the mountain without hands. I KNOW this Church is true.

Love, Elder Sears

P.S. I´m going to send the pictures as soon as I get back home. This computer doesn´t have an entrance for my memory card. 

October 21, 2013 Upcoming baptisms and preparing for visit from Elder Snow

Querido family and friends,

Yesterday the time changed--jumped an hour forward. So you all will probably be getting this super early in the morning. Sorry about that! I´ll try to swing back around at the end of the day and respond to the emails you´d normally send during the day. I am doing well! This week has been an instructive one for me. Wednesday and Thursday I was just feeling...off. Not really sure why. Some days are just like that. So I was praying that I could get out of that feeling, and Saturday the answer came. We were teaching Adrianna and emphasizing the importance of baptism in our salvation. The conversation was going really well and I was planning to read Mosiah 18 with her. When I started setting the context for that part in the Book of Mormon something told me I should use 2 Nephi 31:17 instead. So I went with it, and talked about repentance and baptism as the door to salvation. I read with her and she started looking all puzzled at me. After a little silence she said a long, long time back she had a dream in which she was in front of a small, simple wooden door. She saw a light emanating from it and wanting to open it, but something was holding her back. She knew there awaited only good things on the other side but was afraid. And didn´t open it. She told me that when I read that scripture in 2 Nephi it brought back that dream to her. I asked her if she believed baptism was the door she needed to open. She said yes. I asked her if this time she´d overcome her fears and open it. Another yes. So that was really cool for us. She´s still recovering from her surgery and is going to take out the stitches (there are loads of them) Thursday. 4 days after that she´s clear for basic physical activities (baptism included!) So we´re hoping to baptize her before the end of October. That´d be awesome.

We also received a referral from another area. His name´s Daniel, he´s 42, and he was one of the major pastors of the "Assembleia de Deus" church here in Brazil. He was in charge of the church in Campinas (which would be the equivalent of the responsibility of 4 stake presidents) and preached all over the world in front of congregations up to 50,000. But he got fed up with the corruption at the top and saw the whole thing was turning into a business. So he walked away, leaving behind his farm, mansion, and several imported cars he´d gained while serving as pastor. And now he´s taking the discussions! He has a photographic memory and has already read The Book of Mormon cover to cover well more than once. And 50 times with the Bible. It´s incredible. We can cite any scripture and he knows the content word for word, the context, where it´s found, and everything. But he is extremely humble. Which is amazing to me with all the knowledge he has. He has a baptismal date marked for November 3rd but we need to get him to church! He bailed on us yesterday.

Among the other people we´re teaching (so you can pray for them if you´d be so kind :) ...) are Gislane and Leonardo (still needing to get things straight with her boyfriend but coming to church every week), Hamad (a 15 year-old who told me he wanted to learn more after one of our English classes with him), Patrícia and Jorge (Rodrigo´s sister and dad), Cristina and Letícia (baptism marked for the 3rd), and SHEYLA, RICARDO, IGOR AND DIEGO!! Who just so happen to be getting married and baptized this week after 2 months of waiting! I´m beyond excited. Their interviews are set for tomorrow, and we´re planning their wedding presents and all that goodness. I´m going to have to practice today on the piano to be ready for their reception. Sheyla bore the best testimony Friday night. She told us that her first fast and testimony she felt a little bit uncomfortable with everyone saying they knew The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the only true church, but as she´s prayed and gotten to know more she can say the same thing. I promise to take lots of pictures and all that goodness :) 

Last thing, this Wednesday and Thursday Elder Steven Snow from the Seventy is coming to do a mission tour with Missão Brasil Campinas! So we´re running all over the place to get things ready, but I´m excited for what we´ll be able to learn with him. He´s asked for 4 hours to talk to the whole mission. So everyone´s coming to Castelo Wednesday and Thursday to hear what he has to say. Should be awesome! I´ll report more on that next week.

Love you all, and until next week! And Happy Birthday Sister Shell!!

Elder Sears

October 14, 2012 Rodrigo's Baptism

        Baptism of Rodrigo by member Jose Roberto, flanked by Roberto's

        father and sister on the left and Elder Chagas and Brad on the right