Cachoeiras

Phew! 

So, remember when we climbed the stairs to the Redeemer Statue? Well we found out that if you descend by the other side, you can pass a bunch of cool waterfalls....

I try to get the camera from elder Winkel in a bit. But it was awesome!!! quite the workout. I counted the stairs more or less 1058... It's like Kung Fu Panda when he gets to the top and is all out of breath.

Ah man I love it here. We were pretty disappointed this weekend, almost all of our investigators didn't come to church, and a lot of less actives didn't come.

The good news is that we are hoping to baptize 5 people this week, we're super excited because one of them finally decided to get married, (with the papers) we'll go with them to sign the papers tomorrow.

Here are some photos

It's a workout and the trail is a little crazy, but there were like 7-8 different waterfalls, two of them were pretty big.

Sending these photos will probably take up the rest of my time.

Minute to win it we had 6 people. It was because we had a baptism right before, so people were still at the church.

After church we got buckets because we have to empty the font by hand a lot, it doesn't drain very well!

President Prieto is coming out here this next weekend. I'm excited for that, he better not bring missionaries to transfer!!! :)

Love you all tons!

Elder Wallace

Aulas De Ingles

Hey! So I've got a couple things to write about.

This week we went to the school where the Branch president works and gave english lessons. The other teachers asked us to come and Elder Winkel and I went not really knowing what to expect. We thought we were giving a lesson for an hour. Turned out we gave FIVE lessons.. It took up a lot of our time but It was really fun, I'm not really sure they learned a whole lot but now we know half the kids that live in Aragarças! haha. 

The kids loved it and the teachers loved it. Two other schools want us to come by and do the same thing. President already approved it, it's a good way to get the church's name out there. When we taught the lessons we didn't talk about the church but at the end we opened for questions and were able to say a lot about it. The teachers asked a lot of questions like why we're sometimes called mormons.

This week at church was awesome!!! For the entire time we've been here Elder winkel and I have been trying to reactivate this really big family that hasn't been to church in a looooong time. Years and years. We've been passing the mom and two of the sons that have kids.

Sunday morning everyone that commited to come to church with us fell through. They weren't home. We were almost to the church, kinda depressed when a car FULL of people passed by, honking and waving. It was that family!!! I wasn't really even thinking about them! Oh it was so good to seem them  in the church. We still have to get the mom and some of the grandsons to come, but I was elated.

The Lord touched their hearts and made the difference. This was another example for me that miracles are real and they happen every day.

Ok here I'm gonna need some help. Our Saturday night activities are failing! haha. Last time we only had one person. Part of it is we need to announce it better. The week of Mother's day we had a cake competition (I sent you a photo of ours). All the men in the branch made cakes and the women judged them. We lost. but hey, it was delicious.

I think these activities are a great idea, but I just need more ideas. This week we're going to do minute to win it.

If anybody has ideas for cool lessons (like the food coloring and bleach for the atonement, or the lighting a fire in a bottle to suck a boiled egg in. We need ideas!

If you have a cool family night idea or seminary lesson Jess really liked Let me know!

Other than that... hmm.. I've been making popcorn to snack on because it's cheap... haha. last week was kinda a stretch with the money for all of us. I'm excited for President Prieto to come out here in 2 weeks and see the Branch. Also if a package arrived in the office he'll probably bring it.

next week I'll tell you about another cool investigator that lived in the us for 9 years, and a dream one of our investigators had (oh boy!). We're still walking a lot and working hard, I've never slept so well. 

Love you all and the church is true, the scriptures contain all of it, and the President Monson is a prophet chosen by God. We heard about his wife and are praying for him, I thankful that we have his guidance and this connection to know the will of God for us.

Love Elder Wallace.

Baptism and Mother's Day

Hey It was really great to hear from you all, sorry I got kinda choked up at the end and couldn't say anything I wanted to.

What I wanted to tell you guys was how lucky we are to have the Gospel and to be living it like it's an everyday normal thing. AND how lucky we are to have a happy healthy family. I've met sooo many families here. It's hard to find a basic family. I know everyone has their problems but there are just so many things that tear families apart these days. So I really want to thank mom and dad, and to a greater extent, the grandparents for doing you part and getting me where I am. 

Thank you so much.

Well I'm super pumped to get those recipes mom. Especially the Jay and Laura's waffles and cinnamon syrup. Oh my lanta. Like I said there's nothing like Maple syrup or peanut butter and those are the two things I miss haha.

I took your advice and made a list. Here goes.

Baptism: Like I said it was my first. Kind of an awesome story of how we met him. I was with Elder Falcon, we took the bus to this remote neighborhood to find a kid that had randomly visited the church during General conference. We walked around asking for directions for like 30 minutes. We found the kid and 3 other less active members!!! which is really exciting because we really want to make this branch grow. 

After teaching them they told us about one of the sisters that lived nearby, another less active. We went there and she asked for a blessing because she was sick, and her son asked to be baptized. Woooh!

It was my first here in Brazil. I found out after the fact that he had a fear of water because he had drowned once... That would have been nice to know. The water was cold for him. Alright, so the first time I messed up one of the words. The second time his finger didn't go under, at this point he started to cry when we told him we had to do it again. But he was brave and went one more.

I felt horrible at the time but We are friends now haha. 

His name is Caio Gomes Azanki.

We had a cake competition and this is Elder Winkel's and my creation.  The pizza was amazing.

Wow times up.... Write you more next week!

Love you tons!

Elder Wallace.

Happy P-Day!

Hey it's great to hear from you and dad. Thanks for all the medicinal advice. I'm feeling much much better nowadays. I'm pretty excited for pday today because I only have an orange and a banana left, We recieved more money now, wooooh! We live on 57 us Dollars 2 times per month! And I have everything I need. Would you guess that oranges here are cheaper than dirt!?? You can buy 6 of them for 50 cents.

Today I'm going to buy Kaki, if the store has it. It's pretty wild, looks just like a big red tomatoe but has a flavor all it's own. I would say kind of like a peach but it's not.

Also today I will try to make bread! wooh. I got a recipe from the Branch President that looks pretty easy.

Which reminds me, I was going to ask for a recipe for pizza crust and waffles. Believe it or not Elder Cain has a waffle iron!?!? Awesome. Maybe a recipe for cookies too.

So I really want to know how the branch in Philadelphia grew like that! We've started ''Integration night" Every Saturday. First time was watching the testaments and I made french toast because we didnt have a waffle recipe, haha. 

Last time I shared a message about the atonement, using water and ink to make the water dirty, then bleach to make it clean again. Unfortunately only 2 people were there to hear it. more came after we finished. haha.

Oh, so two Sundays ago I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting! The sunday before we were all going to talk about a principal of the Gospel, but ran out of time before it got to me, so I was half the meeting this time. Literally half because I play the hymns for us on the keyboard the branch has.

   Ha, I was remembering how spencer talked about how he had to just plow on because people don't follow the music. So true. I just play really loud and push fast, because the branch is used to singing really, really slowly. 

Hmm.. So we taught a LOT this week! we had quite a few good lessons, (meaning people actually kept the commitments) That seems to be the hard thing here. One thing that is frustrating for me is when people just agree with everything you say, you just want to grab them and shake them so they realize the importance of it!!! There's a question we ask a lot, "if you prayed and felt that these things are true, recieving an answer from God, would that make a difference/ change something in your life?" and people answer No. Then I want to say, you didn't understand anything we just taught!!! haha.

Usually Elder Winkel says, "what we're saying is, if Christ were here teaching, would you go to where he was teaching? yes? Well that's what we're saying, that this is his church, the same one."

Oh we met some really cool people this week. One was a family that teaches music lessons and plays sax, guitar, keyboard, etc. One was a Lady that is here studying with her son, and they came to church! yay! The other was Josehulgo, who saw us coming to get him for church and came out to meet us, shirt tie and bible. AWESOME!!! He says he wants to do the same thing as us, serve a mission. I love his enthusiasm.

This next week we're having a cake competition where only the men make the cakes. We're planning to make a cheesecake, haha, unheard of here. 

Josehulgo was saying he would make and bring a cake (21yrs old) he said that his church had an activity but he is going to come to ours because the people there are nice and talk to him! wow.

Just goes to show the difference just talking and being nice make.

This week I've been thinking a lot about expectations. I'm lucky to be in a mission that has really high expectations for obedience, for teaching, for baptisms...

In my studies I'm trying to memorize all the points of the all paragraphs of the lessons in chapter  three. Before I got here that would have sounded a little excessive, but here it is the norm, the standard. It makes me want to work hard and get all the lessons passed off quickly.

Expectations determine who we become. Our expectations for ourselves and for others. The two things we can control are our desires and efforts.

Love you all and look forward to talking with you mothers day.

Which reminds me that I have such great parents. Thank you Mom and Dad. Thanks for teaching me all that I know, for teaching me to love the scriptures. For getting me to church each sunday. For teaching me to work hard.

I look forward to talking to you 5:00 p.m. my time. haha.

Love,

Elder Wallace