The Brazilian Adventure: Week 21 October 21-- October 27

 My Dearest beloved Family and Friends

      Today the computer was supper slow and so this will be short because I don´t have to much time. This week we worked supper hard. We are starting to get the members out with us to help with the work and it is going great. Our bishop finally called a Ward Mission Leader, and him and his family are supper awesome. We are going to start getting a lot of help with him and he is going to be working with the members. Yesterday we had a ward counsel meeting, our first one since I´ve been here in Embu Guaçu. It was supper awesome. The leaders are getting excited about magnifying their callings. And we were able to talk about missionary work. Robson, our WML, Elder Carlos and I had the chance to talk to them all about missionary work and how important it is. We also talked about the Mission program for this Christmas. The Lord again helped me bear a powerful testimony in Portuguese in front of all these leaders. It was so awesome. I knew I said what I needed to say because of the spirit. Brazilians are normally supper loud. And they were so loud the whole meeting haha but when I was speaking, it was dead quite and the spirit touched their hearts. They all were looking at me with tears in there eyes. They all thanked me afterwards for my testimony and some of them call me now Elder Bom, which means Elder Good. All I can do is just thank the Lord for helping me out. It was all the spirit. 

     I´ve been getting some news from people telling me that my brother Max is in North Dakota right now working with my Uncle Melo and Uncle Alvaro. And that he is working hard to save up money for his mission. I started crying when I heard this and the joy in my heart was so large. I´m so proud of my little brother. I am so excited for him to come out here on a mission. I know what a great blessing it is going to be for him. I can´t until he is out here joining me and many others of our friends in this great work. He is going to do so great. I can already see. And it is going to be so awesome to see him change into the man that the Lord wants him to be. I also heard that my younger brother Ossie might get baptised. That is so awesome. I´m kinda upset, because I wanted to be there so bad and watch that. But I´m so excited for him anyway. He is such a great younger brother. I am so thankful for my family and what a great blessing they are to me. They are so amazing and have taught me so much in my life. They are such great examples to me. 

     I´m learning how to be a better missionary everyday. It is so awesome. I hope you are all doing suppper well. Thank you for those who are writting and letting me know what is going on in your lives. I love you all and I hope you are making the best out of life.

Be Happy.

Love, The Elder Jones

The Brazilian Adventure: Week 20 October 14-- October 20

 My Dearest beloved Family and Friends
   I am so incredibly thankful for this great opportunity I have to serve a mission. This is such a great honor and privilege that the Lord has given me to be a missionary and be a part of this great work. Every night I come home and before I turn off the lights, I just thank the Lord for another day of him helping me become just a little better. It truly is one of the greatest blessings to serve a mission. If the Lord wanted to, He can come down here and do this work all on his own and he can get it all done in one day. Or He can send all the great older folks in the church with their great wisdom and Testimonies to come out here and do way more then we can. But no, the Lord actually gives some teenage boys and young women a chance to come out here to do the work. And that is how much he loves us. He actually trust us with his children, it is so amazing. He blesses us with the great opportunity to come out here and learn and grow and actually become more like our older brother, Christ. This mission is teaching me so many great things and is changing my life so much. I flippen Love it. I probably write that every week, and I´m sorry. But I think I´m going to keep on writing it.

    This week, the lord has allowed us to be able to Baptise a 17 year old young women named Marianha. She has been an investigator and has been going to church for 8 months! She completed that one young women program, I think it is called like Personal Progress or something. She also went to General conference and was taking notes. We talk to her and she said that she didn´t feel like she was ready for baptism. She said that she doesn´t feel like she has good enough faith. But with help from the Spirit, we were able to help her realize that she had great faith and that she is more than just ready. We said a lot more things. The spirit help her feel ready and we baptised her this last Friday. It was a great baptism. A lot of youth came to support her. That hardly ever happens. It is sometimes hard to get members at the baptism. But it was so great.

     We went knocking on a lot of our investigators doors yesterday to go to church with them. But a lot of them either didn´t answer, were sleeping, not ready, or just didn´t want to go. So we didn´t have no one in church yesterday. It was also daylight savings. So time moved forward one hour.

      One day we went to eat at a members house and it was pouring rain outside. And my shoes are all torn up  and tearing off from all the walking during the day. And so my shoes have these holes in them and all this water came inside my shoe. The member, her name was Celia and her daughter Precilia, noticed that my shoes were all torn up and the soles were coming off. So they grabbed my shoes and supered glue them and the used a hair dryer to dry them. Members here are sooo nice. We then took off and were on our way back to work. And about twenty minutes latter they found us in there car walking down the road, and they wiped out a brand new spanken shoes for me. I was sooo happy. I have never been so thankful for a pare of shoes before in my life. I just started crying a little because of how good the Lord is to me and how amazing these members, almost with nothing, can just give so much. I tried giving them back, but they told me to put them on right now. And so I put them on, and they were perfect. And they told me to not be stubborn and to just accept them. They said that it is the least we can do compare to how much we do for them and everyone. I was just so thankful. 

       This mission just keeps getting better and better. It is so hard and there are some bad moments. But the good moments totally out number the bad. I´m so grateful to be a missionary. I love you all. And I hope you guys are doing good and learning how to become the person that the lord wants you to become. 

 

Be happy. 

 

Love your Elder, The Elder Jones (that´s me!)

The Brazilian Adventure: Week 19 October 7-- october 13

 My Dearest beloved Family and Friends

                    This week was a good work week. This week my companion and I did over about 200 contacts one the street. That is so great. We normally have been getting about 115 or less. My tongue is being loosen and I´m just shooting out words in Portuguese as we do our contacts. It can be really tough at times though. Not every one we meet are the nicest people in the world. I´ve been through about everything with contacts. I´ve had people laugh, walk right by and ignore us, moke us, turn around and walk away, run and ect. And so it is hard to keep positive and pushing on to do my best through out the day sometimes. But I just say a little personal prayer and the lord helps me with a smile on my face and to keep going on. It is so awesome. And I´m glad we did. This last Saturday, after a long week of doing contacts. My companion and I found this great family of three in the park here in Embu Guaçu. They were our 208th contact on the street. They were interested right away. We took them to have a church tour and they really enjoyed it. They love how the church focuses on families. We then taught them a lesson in the chapel and the spirit helped me bear a powerful testimony  about families and they were crying. They came to church yesterday and they enjoyed it. We are going to help them get married. Hopefully things keep going good for them and that we can help them be ready for baptism. Their names are Carlos and Mariana.

            We have been helping this lady follow the word of Wisdom this past week. She has a problem with drinking and smoking. But she making some progress. She isn´t all right there in the head, and so it is kinda hard. She has a bit of a temper problem, but she takes some pills to help her. We walked by her house to pick her up for church yesterday. She wasn´t ready at first and said that she didn´t want to go. But we convinced her to go and she got ready and we were off. Just as we were going to walk into the chapel, she got nervous and said that she didn´t want to go in. We tried talking to her and even a member came out to help her come in. But she didn´t want to go in. And so we just walked her home and said a prayer with her. She said that she will do better next week. We are going to continue helping her and hopefully we can help her. 

           Yesterday for the last 10 minutes of church, Elder Carlos and I got everyone together. We planned on talking to them about missionary work. Elder Carlos talked to the adults in one room and I had to talk to the youth in the other room. I was nervous at first to talk. We have about 30 youth in our ward here. And then I can barely speak some Portuguese, and I´m suppose to some how inspire these young teenagers to do missionary work. I didn´t know how I was going to do it. But as I was in front of this group of teenagers and as the leaders silenced them so they can hear me talk, I just opened my mouth and the magic began. I said a couple of jokes and made them laugh. And then at the end, with tears in my eyes, I shared my personal testimony and experience how and when the youth back in Minnesota helped me out in my life. And with the tears in their eyes and with the spirit, I knew that what I said made sense. But most importantly, I new that the Lord helped me say what he wanted me to say. It was an awesome experience. I can´t describe to you how amazing it was. 

           Well that is about all I can write for this week. I flippen LOVE my mission. It´s changing my life. It´s supper hard, with a lot of challenges that I have never dealt with in my life. But the Lords helping me out. I know that it is all for my own good. And it really is. My mission is such a blessing to me. I hope you all are doing fantastic and as Elder Sanderson says, keeping it real.

Be happy.

Love, The Elder Jones

        

The Brazilian Adventure: Week 18 September 30-- October 6

 My Dearest beloved Family and Friends

         This week was honestly amazing. I seriously think that this was probably the best or one of the best weeks on my mission so far. There were just way to many great things that happen. 

       Last couple of weeks, my Brazilian paps was been having a little bit of a hard time with all the stress that comes from being a missionary and it all kinda just got to him. Which is understandable, we can´t be perfect all the time. And so he started to have a little attitude. So he would build it all up from a days work and then take it all out on me at the end of the day. My patience and love were being put to the test. And it was a bit frustrating because I wanted to help him but there were two main things that didn´t help. I couldn´t speak the Portuguese good enough to give him some counsel and help, and at the time he was kinda full of pride to be corrected. So it was supper frustrating. I didn´t know what to do. I almost just wanted to just give up. But I prayed a lot for guidance on what to do. And I had an answer I believe. I had a feeling that I just had to Love and serve him, and leave it to heavenly father. And that is what I did, it was hard, but I did it with the Lords help. And with time and patience and the lords help. My companions heart started to soften and receive more peace and he started to change. And the lord helped me talk to him and give him some advice. And he started to take the advice and completely change. It was a miracle. I was so surprised. We had a companion innovatory this last week and he told me the coolest things. He told me that during these last six weeks that we have been together. He said that he has learned so much from me. And I was like "Whattt??" He told me that I have soften his heart and that I have taught him how to love and to have charity. He told me that he finally understand why the lord gave me to him as a companion for him to train. He said to me something like this with tears in his eyes "I trained you how to do missionary stuff, but you trained me how to be more like Christ. And that is knowledge that is more precious than anything. You Elder Jones, changed my life. I have had a lot of companions on my mission this past year and 5 months and there have only been 3 who have been my "saviors" and you are one of them." all I could do is just cry and just thank heavenly father for  teaching me how do what ever I did these last 6 weeks. Heavenly father has been guiding me so much and has been helping me out, it´s just amazing. It was a miracle. 

       Also this week, I got really sick on night. The first time I have ever gotten sick on my mission. I was up for most of the night doing some stuff in the bathroom haha the next day, it wasn´t that much better. I had the flu. I went to the pharmacy to get some medicine and I took it. And then I tried continuing with the work, but I was just to weak and to sick. I felt really bad. I had a big head ache. So we went home and I asked my companion for a blessing and then I went to my bed and said a powerful prayer asking the lord to help me feel better so that I can continue with the work, if it be thy will. I then went to sleep. I woke up two hours latter and guess what. I was better. I jumped out of bed and got dressed and went right back to work feeling like a champ. It was a miracle. 

      This weekend was supper cool also. Elder Carlos and I have been working with this less active family for a couple weeks now and they are coming back to church. They have already been to church three Sunday now. And what is supper cool though, is that Elder Carlos told me that they haven´t been to church for almost 5 years now. I was so surprised. So with the Lords help, we were able to bring back Decio and his wife and their five children back to church. The lord helped us help them feel the spirit when we visited them and helped soften the fathers heart. This last Saturday, with the Lords help, we were able to baptize decio´s 9 year old son between General conference. It was an awesome baptism. And bringing this family back was so great. They thank us all the time. I´m so happy that the Lord allowed me to be apart of that. It was a miracle. 

        I went to our stake center ward yesterday to hear General Conference in English. We had to drive on the bus for about an hour to get there. General conference was so amazing this time. I loved every talk so much. They all helped me out so much. I´m so thankful that the Lord has blessed us with our Prophet Thomas S. Monson today and the apostles. And I ´m so thankful for our leaders in Christ´s church today. They all help me out so much. I don´t know if it is just because I am a missionary now, but I thought that this General Conference was the best one I have ever seen. I didn´t fall asleep not one time! I listen to every talk and learned so much. I love General Conference. I especially loved the words of Henry B. Eyring, Thomas S. Monson, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf. haha that sounds kinda obvious. But i seriously  I love their talks. I loved all the talks. I would write more about General Conference, but I just have one more amazing story to share. Yesterday during 1st and 2nd Session, the missionaries in that ward were talking to this nonmember lady. This lady told them that she has been looking for the true church all her life and has never been able to find it. But one day a member was talking to her she met the local bishop. The bishop told her to go to the stake ward this Sunday to try our Sunday services. But this Sunday was general conference. The lady came and the members invited her in and she watched the first session. Afterwards she was talking to the missionaries and she told them that this is the church that she has been looking for. This is the true church of the lord. Finally, the lord has answered my prayers. Elder Eliott and Elder Melo then started teaching her the lessons. They taught her ALL the lessons and she followed all the commandments and was just perfect.  Then Elder Eliott told her that they could baptize her on the 19th of this month, but then she said well why not next week on the 12th, and then he just asked well how about today? The lady smiled and said yes. She then had the baptism interview and she was ready. We then asked the mission president for permission and he said it was ok. We then all watched the 2nd session and afterwards, she was baptized. This lady found the true church, learned ALL the lessons, was ready for baptism, and was baptized. All in the same day!!!! The Lord has truly prepared people to hear the gospel, and man was this lady prepared. It was a miracle.

     This week was just soooooooo amazing! I think it is going to be my greatest week on my mission. But we will see what happen. I flippen Love my mission! it is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but it is the greatest thing i have ever done. The challenges get bigger as I go, but so does my strength and testimony. The lord is so amazing to me, I am so thankful to be a missionary. I am especially grateful to know that this is his true gospel on this earth today. I´m so thankful to be apart of it. 

     I love you all so much. I miss you all like crazy. I think about you all all the time. I hope you are doing good.

Be happy

Love your Elder, The Elder Jones

The Brazilian Adventure: Week 17 September 23-- September 29

 My Dearest beloved Family and Friends

       Wow, I guess I´m just going to have to start getting use to these fast weeks. My mission is flying by. I got a letter last week from my stake president, President Nattjes, back home from Minnesota. And I also got a e-mail from Brother Evans back from my home ward, Burnsville Minnesota, telling me about the missionary work back in Minnesota and how it is picking up big time. They also told me about how a lot of my friends back in our youth days are getting ready to go on their missions. We have about 60 missionary back in the Lakeville stake either on their missions serving right now or are under call, that is SO many! it is so awesome. It is so exciting to see the names of my friends back in Minnesota getting ready to join this great work. The army of helamen is getting some more stripling warriors help in the lords work. I started crying when I saw that. I´m so proud of all of you who are getting ready to come out here or who are already in the field. President Nattjes said that we are becoming the largest missionary force that the lord has ever seen. I´m especially excited for you all because I know what a great blessing your mission is going to be for you. There are so many sisters coming out on missions now, it is so awesome. If you are 19 and not married, I would seriously advice you to just go on a mission. In this weekly letter I would like to tell you all some words of encouragement or advice or something like that. 

        When I first came out on my mission, I was first thinking that I´m going to come out here and serve and that I´m going to give so much to the people of the world and to the Lord. But the more I´ve been out here, I´ve realized how opposite that really is. My mission is giving me so much more then i could have ever imagined. The purpose of YOU in your mission is to change lives, but the purpose of YOUR mission is to change your life. So let it. I´m SO thankful for the Lord guiding my life to go on this mission. I will be honest with you, your mission is going to be the most hardest thing you have ever done in your life. But it is the greatest thing that will happen to you. These trials will make you so much stronger in your life. With great trials and great hardships can come great things if you let it. The perfect example of this is the Atonement. Christ suffered and went through the hardest thing that anyone on earth has ever been through, but what outcome it was. Let your mission do the same for you. And I promise you that your mission will make you into something that is way greater than you can ever imagine. 

        I will tell you also, on your mission, you are going to be dealing with a lot of numbers. Don´t you ever forget that those numbers are real people. Some missionaries come out here and forget that, and they start wanting all these numbers and lose them selves. I want you to also remember this, you are coming out here on your mission to become the missionary that the LORD wants you to become, not the missionary that YOU want. You are out here to do that lords work his way, so don´t be upset when things don´t go your way. On that subject, I would also want to tell you guys to never forget that you missionaries are never alone. We can´t do this great work on our own. It is impossible. If you try to do it on your own, you´ll only last about three months before you go crazy. Don´t ever forget that the Lord is always by your side. I´ve have never been so mentally and spiritually exhausted in my life, I would say physically too, but I have some awesome brothers at home who take that title, haha. I can´t tell you how many times I have been so weak and things become so tough and seem impossible to do. But then I just say a little prayer for help, and I promise you I can literally feel this light come over me and I am filled with energy to continue. The promise in D&C 84:88 is so true. The Lord wants to help you and he will, all you need to do is ask. 

            Don´t ever forget your purpose as a missionary on your mission. Your purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel by faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. My mission is at its peak when I Understand, Live, and Love my purpose. And it is so simple. A lot of missionaries panic at the beginning of their missions because they feel like they don´t know enough of the gospel. They feel like they need to know everything and be like all the older folks back home who are flippen smart. I´m going tell right now, don´t worry about it so much. I´m the perfect example of this. I came on my mission close to knowing about nothing about the gospel. But all those things come as you go. I swear if you just know a little bit, all you need is the spirit. The phrase "I know this church is Christ church today" can be so powerful and can change a life when the spirit is helping you. And let me tell you, if you truly know your purpose, if you truly know the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its five basic principles. You will do wonders. For example, and these are all just examples, if you truly knew what faith was, you will trust the lord and you will work so hard. If you truly knew what Repentance was, you and your companion will become best friends, you will be able to change and become something incredible. If you truly knew what baptism was, you have the greatest desire to help and find people to baptise. If you truly knew about the Holy Ghost, you understand it´s promptings and would become a pro at following it´s promptings. If you truly knew what Enduring to the End was, you would learn how to have great diligence and give your mission your all every single moment. So study the basics first and truly understand what they mean before you move on the bigger things. Create a firm foundation.
        Don´t ever forget who you are representing on your mission, don´t ever forget who´s names are on that name tag. You first have the name of Jesus Christ who you are representing and then you have his church. You also have your families last name. wear this name tag with honor and give it the best reputation you can. Just do your best on your mission and the lord will do the rest. And please just be you, but be the best you you can be. 

     I want to thank my Burnsville ward back in Minnesota for changing my life and helping me walk on this path that the Lord has prepared for me. I want to thank the Lakeville Stake, especially the Burnsville ward,  for taking me, my brothers and my sisters and parents into your "familly" and changing our lives. I can´t express how thankful I am for you all helping me get here today. I want to also thank my amazing family and friends back home for the love and support. I would write more, but I´m out of time again. I´m so pumped up for general conference! I love you all, I hope you are doing amazing. Good luck and kick some butt. 

love your Elder, The Elder Jones