The Brazilian Adventure: Week 56 June 23 -- June 29

My Dearest beloved Family and Friends:

"...Therefore, what manner of men ought ye tobe? Verily I say unto you, even as I am."

-3Nephi 27:27

I have talked to many missionaries on my mission so far. And some of them have told me some of the goals that they want to do. Some have told me a lot of interesting goals. I have thought about it a lot. There is one great goal that want to accomplish before my mission ends. I just want to be more like Him. And I feel that desire of mine is getting better everyday. I know that I will never be perfect. But that doesn´t mean that I can´t do my best to do so. There is a Primary Song that I am learning to love. It is called "I´m trying to be like Jesus". I have this song stuck in my head and I sing it all the time in Portugese. I´m learnig how to study out his characteristics and then practice to make them better during the week. This week I have been learning about Hope. It was so good for me. I have been pretty down lately because of some difficulties in our area and I have been frustrated with my self a little. I´m just constantly checking what we are doing wrong, looking what we can do better and sometimes I feel like we are just running into a wall again and again. But I learned how to have more hope that all this is for my good and that the Lord knows what is best for me. I´ve learned that I have to be positive and always happy. Because as long as I´m doing my best and I´m keeping the commandments, everything is going to be great. It is so amazing how the Lord is always there to help me out and answer my prayers. He may not answer right away, but he will answer. I hope that I can learn how to be more like Him. And I hope that you all can see a little difference in me when I do finish my calling from God.

Wow, I can´t believe that I´m still here in Primavera. I made it 5 months here so far. I´ve only had two areas here in Brazil. And that is not normal. I love it though. I love my area. We have a little hard time with ward. We finally got a new relief society President. We didn´t have one for 3 or 4 months. And she is a fire ball. We still don´t have a Quorum´s president. We hav´nt had one ever since I have been here. The ward is having a little hard time. The Bishop has about 7 years of being a bishop and he is a little tired. In the past, there weren´t the best missionaries that past by in this area and so the bishop and the members lost some respect for the missionaries. But we have been able to gain that back and the bishop and members like us now. We are tying to mostly work with the converts and the members and a few leaders. The bishop needs a lot of help on our part. He has a lot to worry about. And to him, missionary work is the last thing on his mind. So we are kinda working on our own, with the other members. And it has been going good. Things are moving, slowly but surely. This ward has always had a little dificulty with retencion, and so we are doing all that we can so that our converts can stay strong in the church. and it is going good. They have a lot of energy to do missionary work also. They have given us referals. 

President Dulton arrived and he is supper excited. I´m excited to work with him. 

I´m doing supper man good. I hope that you all are doing good also. Keep being what the Lord wants you to be.

Be Happy

Love The Elder Jones

The Brazilian Adventure: Week 55 June 16 -- June 22

 My Dearest beloved Family and Friends:

"And now, my sons, I speak unto you thesethings for your profit and learning; for there is aGod, and he hath created all things, both theheavens and the earth, and all things that inthem are, both things to act and things to beacted upon." 2 Nephi 2:14

This scipture is pretty sweet and has some physics to it. I have been learning how to apply it to my mission. We all have been created by the hands of God. And now we just have to make the choice if we are going to be the things that are acting or are we going to be the things that are being acted upon. We all have a great potential to be something great in this life. But sometimes we need to check our selves and see if we are just siting around and letting life pass by and act on us. Or are we going to do the acting and are we going to take control of our lives and are we going to make something out of oursleves with this great opportunity that the Lord has given us. To learn, grow, and turn into an amazing instrument  in the lords hands. We have the choice. Are we going to be the one´s who are acted upon or the one´s who act. 

Yesturday was another game for Brazil. It sounded like they won again. And so we might have to stay in the house all day on Saturday. They are going to play against Chile. My companion Elder Cifuentes is from chile. We will see what happens. Yesturday I was reading a little bit about captain Moroni and I felt inspired to grab one of my old shirts and do as Moroni did. I riped my shirt and made a Flag out of it, writing the things that Moroni did on his flag. "Inmemory of our God, our religion, andfreedom, and our peace, our [families], andour [Investigators]" Alma 46:12 I then took it to the district meeting today to show it to my district. It was a way to motivate them also. The flag is pretty cool. We have been having dificulty finding new strong investigators lately. The other day my companion and I found a family, husband and wife with 7 kids. The husband and wife have to get married. We are going to try to marry them tomorrow. They seem great. But they didn´t go to church this sunday. It would be so cool to help them become members. They live in a very poor house. It is just favela. Wood and cardboard. We will see how they will go in the future. 

So this week President Pinho is leaving and it is so crazy. President Doulton is arriving in two days. It is going to be wierd to have a new president. 

I hope you are all doing great. 

Be Happy.

Love The Elder Jones

The Brazilian Adventure: Week 54 June 9 -- June 15

           My Dearest beloved Family and Friends:

"Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour thatportion that shall be meted unto every man."  D&C 84:85
I´m starting to learn how to practice and to get really good at living in the moment. It is Really hard, but just like everything, it just needs practice. I´m learning how to not worry about the future and worry about the past. I´m learning how to make goals and plans for the future but then just live out the moments where I´m living. It is so awesome and hard. It takes a lot of mental effort. I do notice though when I´m teaching people and when I "treasure up in [my] mind continually the words of life" I feel the Lords promise the words "shall be given [to me] in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man". It is hard, but is so true. 

                    So the stories about Brazil and soccer are true. The people here are so crazy about the world cup. Last Thursday when Brazil played, all the missionaries had to stay in our house´s. It was so crazy outside during the game. And it probably could of been bad with Hispanics and American missionaries walking around. While we were studying in our houses, everyone in the other houses in our neighborhood were screaming using blowing horns. And when Brazil made some goals. you just knew it. Everyone was screaming, horns were blown, it sound like people where dying, and they even had fireworks going off every time Brazil made a goal. When the other team made a goal everyone had such great anger and yelling like it was the end of the world. I didn´t watch the 1st game, but just by hearing the sounds outside. I know that Brazil won 3 to 1. you can see if it is true. It is so crazy. They are playing tomorrow again and we have to stay inside again. and then we have to be in our house all day on Monday and so you all will be getting my next e-mail nest Tuesday. I don´t watch soccer very much, but it would be cool to see the game. But at least I can tell what the points are during the games. So I have these goals for baptizing. But I thought that I would put the goals all together. I want to baptise a huge family of migits who are Jehovah Witnesses. That is my dream. Lets see if it will happen.

I hope you are all doing great. I love you all. keep doing great and keep jaming 

Be Happy

Love The Elder Jones

The Brazilian Adventure: Week 53 June 2 -- June 8

           My Dearest beloved Family and Friends:

I can´t believe it. I´ve been out for one year now. It is so wierd, it went by so fast. I´m all mixed up with emotions. I´m proud that I have been out here serving the Lord and his children for a year. I never thought before my mission that I would be able to wear a tie for that long. I honestly don´t know what to think about it. I´m happy that I´m closser to see my friends and family. I´m sad because I only have one more year of this great service and of this spiritual happiness. I love my mission, I love this experience. It is just wierd to think that it could end. But I´m just living it to the best of my ability. I´m not going to worry about the future or the past. I´m just going to live it day by day. I just got to keep having faith that all things will happen in the Lord´s way and time. I just got to keep my focus in the work and keep giving it my all. I love it. I´m just more greatful for this great opportunity that the Lord has given me to do this mission for a year. And now I´m even more greatful that I get to do it for another. 

This week on June 5th, the whole mission got together. 259 missionaries for a multi-zone conference. It was so awesome. Presidnet Pinho gave long talks about how we can be better missionaries and it was great. I learned a lot about attitude and desire. We also watched a new church movie called "Ephrams Rescue". It was such a great movie. It was about a man from the time of the pioniers and this man had an amazing gift to help others. I cried. It was just motivating for me to look and to magnify my gifts that the lord has given me. I just want to be the best that I can be with the gifts and talents that the Lord has blessed me with. At this conference I saw all my group from the MTC. It was so awesome. We are still lacking a few, but a lot of them were there. It was cool to share funny and great stories with one another. 

So this weekend we had a wedding! We helped a inactive member named Eder get maried to his wife Viviane. And after the wedding we went to the church building and we baptised viviane. It was so awesome. I was blessed to be able to baptise her. It was a great day. The cool part about this baptism is that in the past Eder never wanted to get married before. Viviane has been going to church a day here and a day there for almost one year. And she never got baptised because of Eder. But one day we found them and we began to talk to them. We talked to Viviane and she said that she wanted to get baptised and married. And she told us that Eder didn´t want to get married. We then walked up to Eder and asked him if we can come by the next day and talk to him and Viviane. And he told us that we could and he knew why we wanted to talk to him. The next day Edler Cifuentes and I were thinking how we were going to help Eder have a desire to get married and we thought that we will just be bold with out words. When we got there we talked about getting married with Eder and at first he was laughing and just trying to change the subject. But then I told him really directly Eder something like this. do you love Viviane? and he said yes and then I asked  Viviane if she loved Eder and she said yes. And then I said perfect, and that is all you two need. So how about it Eder, will you get married. He thought for a while and then a miracle happened and he said alright. After that we prepared Viviane for baptism and she was married and baptised. After the baptism Elder Cifuentes told me something that Viviane told Elder Almeida (our Zone Leader who did the Interview for the baptism) that the day after we talked to Eder about marriage, that night, Viviane said a prayer to God. She told the Lord something like this. "God, if this church is really true. Please touch Eder´s heart and help hime have a desire to get married." I was like OPA! agora vai meu amigo. It was so awesome. Miracle. 

I´m doing great. Things are jamming! I have learned a lot but I got a lot more to learn. I hope you are all doing fine. Keep doing the things that the Lord wants you to do, and I promised if you do, you will be happy. 

Be happy.

Love The Elder Jones

The Brazilian Adventure: Week 52 May 26 -- June 1

    My Dearest beloved Family and Friends:

Man, sometimes it is challenging to be a missionary in São Paulo. It is just so crazy here. It is hard for Investigators to feel the spirit during lessons. It is so noisy. When we teach people in their house´s or talk to people on the street. There are a lot of distractions and noise. It is tough. For example, there are a million of dogs barking (everyone has a dog), loud engines on  trucks and cars driving by, every car has this very loud music with really nice systems just blasting a type called funky here and it is bad music, there are also a lot of motos driving by that are really loud, and just a lot of people yelling out side working. And until now on my mission, we have taught a lot of women, the great part of our baptisms have been women. I guess women are just naturally more open and elect. Us men a very stubborn and have a harder time changing when it comes to the Gospel. But anyway, a lot of times we have to teach outside in the noise because they don´t have a man in the house. I don´t think I have ever had a lesson when it was quite.  A city life is crazy! But it is all just a blessing. The spirit still touches the hearts of the people and they feel the truthfulness of our message. I see a lot of great miracles like that. 

Another thing that I started to understand on my mission when I came here in São Paulo, is the Importance of dog ponds. I believe that they don´t have any here. I have never thought about the important of dog ponds. One reason why is because dogs like to bite, I have already had three companions who have been bitten by dogs. It was so funny. I still havn´t been bitten, but this week one dog got really close. I hope that I can make it through my whole mission with out getting bitten. But we will see. haha I´ve heard Elder Zambrano got bitten one time and that was funny to hear. Another reason, and I talked about this reason in my first paragraph, they bark a lot. The barking of these dogs is like dominoes. When one dog barks, they all just start barking one after another. And they don´t stop for a good while. Sometimes we have some dogs barking at us and I look at them with a serious face and then they stop, and then I turn around and then they bark like crazy, and then I turn around again to look at them and they stop and the pattern continues. Sometimes I find the other reason under my shoes and this reason stinks. There is a lot of poop on the streets from these dogs. And it is everywhere! There are a lot of dogs. I kinda liked dogs before my mission, but now, things change man. 

I´m learning a lot about the spirit this week. I´m learning to understand and follow the spirit. It is really hard. I want to be able to learn how to follow the Holy Ghost on my mission. I´m love feeling the Spirit on my mission. I´m trying to learn about the gift of discernment, I think that is the word, to learn how to recognize people who are elect more faster. This week we dropped a lot of people and we are trying to find a new teaching group. 

I forgot to write about this last week. But last Saturday, us missionaries did a fun activity for the ward. many members weren´t there but the bishop brick and a lot of new members were there and it was fun. We did on activity of the Kings and Queens falling through the chairs. The game that we use to do when I was a kid with my family. And also when we did it with the youth in the Burns ville ward. It was so funny. We had a lot of people fall. 

I´m doing superman good. Just so that some of you know, I am getting your written letters in the mail and they are so great. I´m just having some hard time writing you all back because of time. We can only write on P-day. And I also write really slow and so be patient with me. I hope that everyone is doing good also. I hope you all are being the best that you can be. Love you all and miss ya tons. 

Be happy

Love the Elder Jones