Best Family Ever!

Dear Best family Ever!!
Hope you liked the fotos, because a picture is worth a thousand words.

We're working really hard here. Elder De Jesus got a bit sick because we are running around, doing splits with a couple companionships that are having problems. Elder De Jesus will do anything for anybody that asks sincerely. He's got a great heart, but poor health! Got a bit sick for being so overwhelmed, I'm trying to help him out with whatever I can.

We had an awesome zone meeting where one district reinacted the story of Amon for everybody, I was impressed.

This week my shopping list is Crackers and fruit. But it's amazing how the Lord provides. One time I talked with someone in the street and they were like, "here, eat a salgado" (there should be salgados in the US!) and then I asked how much a bag of chips costed in the flea market and the guy was like, "take two for free!" I've never gone hungry...

And here's hopping the Elders in the office finally got around to buying our fridge! For now we've got a fan someone borrowed to us that keeps us cool at night, so life is good.

I've never missed a washing machine so much.

I found out that Rio Verde has the cheapest Açai in the mission! YES!!! I'll have to take a pic for you guys!

Love you all so much!
Elder Wallace

 

We made sandwiches for the zone. Another day we bought 10 liters of ice cream for the zone... Because our zone is (quite humbly) the best!

There's only one company that has busses that go to Rio Verde, and they're notorious for breaking down all the time... This trip we broke 2 busses, making a 5 hour trip 9 hours!!!! AH! haha.

Our planners and name tags... Usually I make a cool planner too... but there wasn't time this transfer.

Eating the X-tudo. The hamburger that has tudo.


Some fotos of our last zone meeting!

Missionaries discovered theatrical talents they didn't know they had, re-living the story of Amon.

A Letter To My Sister For Missionary Work

March 17, 2014

Here's a letter I wrote to my sister, since I'm short on time, I'll share it with the rest of you.

Here's the first thing you share with them:
If a missionary is a hard worker, he's got almost no time to write to people... :) He'll only write to you if you are his awesome sister who most certainly deserves letters every week.

Here are some experiences I think you'll like (just for fun)
1. When I got here I was walking in the street at night and fell in a storm drain.. My companion kept walking and didn't even notice.

2. Learning the language I made a lot of errors. One time I was trying to say I like milkshakes, I told a family that I liked Crime. a lot.

3.Once my companion stepped on a dead rat by accident. No one would let us in to teach because his shoe smelled so bad.

4. Sometimes we run to get home before curfew, once we were running and came around a corner, there were some kids smoking there. When they saw us they took off running too. (what would you think if you saw two foreigners in ties charging you?)

5. That awkward moment when you say you're from the US, and the person gets all excited to talk to you in english, just to discover that you don't really speak english anymore.

6. There was a man in minas Gerais that had 14 dogs... he always cooked some strange meat that looked like liver for us... I swear there was always one less dog every time we ate there...

7. Last week for zone meeting we tried to do a demonstration lighting up a light bulb by conducting a current through water and salt. The salt was supposed to represent the spirit. Without the salt nothing happened. My comp dumped 1/2 a kilo of salt in and when we plugged it in it started crackling and throwing out globs of flaming salt. I'm glad no one filmed that.

8. The bus in goiania is always packed. When the doors open and people try to get on you could easily imagine that the bus wasn't in fact a bus, it was the last helicopter out of Vietnam!!!

And now for my message:
For those of you who are thinking of going on a mission but can't decide, I have two words of advice for you. "JUST GO!!!" Serving a mission is way better than anything else you will ever do. Including dating, college, work, winning the lottery, or skydiving. I've seen so many miracles happen in people's lives this last year. But the greatest miracle of all is what the Lord has done in my life and how I've changed.
I've come to not only believe, but to know that The Book of Mormon is true, Christ is my Redeemer and Savior. I've learned how to pray and get answers, real life results to my prayers. I've learned and experienced so many things that some people will never experience in a lifetime, we experience them everyday.

I won't be dating, but I've learned to Love the Lord, his work, and his children.
I won't be earning money but I'm working for the best Boss in the World, and the work is so amazing that I won't ever ask for a day off.
I'm not studying at college but we study the scriptures at least 2 hours alone daily, and many other hours with other families.
I'm not eating dinner with the family, but I'm eating lunch with a different family every day, each one with their own challenges and weaknesses that need to be strengthened.

Don't worry about anything. If you're ready or not, don't have money, or will sacrifice something. Just remember that "If ye have the desire to serve God, You are called to the Work" (DC 4) and he qualifies his servants.
And like Sid Going said, "The blessings of serving a full time mission far out-weigh anything you will ever sacrifice."
I've known countless missionaries that when it's time to go home, they've cried and cried, pleading to stay just one more transfer.

Love you sis, keep letting your light shine!
Elder Wallace

Using Internet Explorer :P

So, my excuse for a short letter this week is that I'm using Internet explorer! Do you guys remember when you couldn't use the phone while dialing up the internet? haha.

The fantastic news of the week is that we've moved to promissao!!! Finally! I was only in that other house for 2 weeks, but it was 2 weeks too many! The new house is very... new! It's got a few problems but slowly we're killing the roaches and buying padlocks for the windows! haha.

We're hoping the appliances and furniture gets here as fast as possible. I'm figuring out what I can buy and eat that doesn't require a fridge, microwave, stove or oven... So far it's bananas, fruit, and crackers. The good news is we found an ironing board on the street (right!?!) and we've good two mattresses, water, and light. Who would throw away a perfectly good ironing board?

So this week Elder de Jesus ate something that wreaked havoc with his stomach. I'm not sure how I got away safely, since I eat everything he eats, but I'll count my blessings. A lot of my time is being spent to help the zone. It's a little crazy sometimes, what we've got to do to get some people in the water! I'm sure Spencer knows what I'm talking about.

This week church was awesome! Did I mention we have a mini-bus that pics up everybody here in promissao and takes to the church and back? It's so cool I've always dreamed of having a bus to pick up investigators!
Here are some pics of me and my comp soaked (finaly bought an umbrella Saturday), and the zone.

Love,
Elder Wallace

What River?

March 3, 2014

I got here in Rio Verde tuesday and it was straight to work! I still haven't unpacked my bags!
Part of the reason for that is that we're temporarily in Bandeirantes until we get the key for the house that's in our area. Bandeirantes is a house with 4 elders, (6 for now!) and I continue to count my blessings for a mom that tought me that I should keep the house clean. You can imagine how it gets... or maybe not... haha

For now we're waking up early to walk an hour until we get to our prosylyting area, but it's totally worth it! Promissão is a neighborhood that is really white for the harvest. There are tons of people in the street and In 5 days I talked to more than 70 people that accepted to hear a lesson another day! That's pretty good odds, since I talked to 200 people.

The only problem is people that aren't married living together... well that's kind of the problem in the whole mission, nothing new there. The good thing is is super easy to get them married!

Love you all and I'll send you some fotos of my comp next week!
Elder Wallace

Leaving The Best 9 Months, But The Best Is Yet To Come!

Weeeeeeeeeeeell
This week was one of the hardest/best, but that's just life here in the mission. We have been feeling the spirit so much better this week, and seeing the results of following it's promptings!
Things started out awesome! We marked 7 baptismal dates with 3 families. One of them had already been taught many times by missionaries in the past, but we taught a lesson about our purpose here and why we have so many difficulties that really touched her heart and helped her see the importance of accepting the gospel NOW.
As the week went one things just got better, we took the single mom and her daughters to young woman's mutual, and they loved it. We taught the other Woman with sister Vani (from christmas remember?) and it turned out she had already passed the same problems that the investigator was passing. We were feeling so awesome!

Then came sunday morning.... haha. So the other day we had bought a bunch of ties from Adriana's mom, who works in a thrift store (Mom I know how you love thrift stores, you should see the ones in Brazil... it's like wading in a flood of garage sell substance.) Elder Lee found an awesome pair of shoes that he bought for $1.50!
Sunday morning the left shoe lasted about twenty minutes and then it started to come apart at the seams. 5 minutes later it literally fell off his foot. We had 13 people to bring to church and we were worried about being able to pass them all, but we just laughed it off, I made him a electric tape sandle (remembering Nate's graham cracker box socks)

Adriana and her daughter went to church (single mom with 3 kids.)
The other people with baptismal dates were working and sick, the last family had left to find a house (they have to move from the rented house today because the owner is going to start reforming things whether they've left or not)
Long story short all the baptismal dates fell through except for Adriana and her daughters.

We had marked to visit adriana in Vani's house because her dad was furious when he discovered she was meeting with us. The situation in her house is terrible.
So She called us and told us she couldn't meet with us any more. Which broke our hearts. I talked to her a little bit and she decided to let us have one more lesson.
I know she needs the blessings of the Gospel and she needs them NOW! God guides us these people that are needing it so badly, and it's super hard to watch them struggle. The ones with faith to overcome fear will always make it, while the others... I just pray they have another chance in the future.

Certainly living the Gospel is a priveledge!!! I've seen the difference it makes in the lives of our Recent converts! Being a new member is very hard! Especially if you are the only one in your family. We all feel what is right and wrong but fear to do what is right so often prevails. I'll visit them today before I leave for Rio Verde tomorrow.
I gave Wilson a tie and white shirt, and we recieved ties from Jhonny and Luciana, (they're so awesome!!! did I tell you they made a book of mormon cake? who does that? they just love the church!"

I'm off to Rio Verde tomorrow and I know there they baptize a lot. Every missionary that serves there comes back with all his shirts yellowed from the red dust.

I know the lord loves us, and that nothing can frustrate his designs. Thanks for all the love and support family!
Elder Wallace




A night shot of Uberlandia
Elder Lee's improvised sandal
A fruit called 'Ata' or 'pinha' you eat these slimy slug-like things inside.
Dusting the cobwebs off my suitcase.

Book of Mormon Cake

Feb. 17, 2014

Well this week has been pretty fantastic!

Tuesday the whole zone worked in our area to give the zone a boost for this month. We were really pumped with all the great work that was done, but a lot of the missionaries wrote down addresses wrong and we spent a lot of time hunting down false addresses. Some of them told us they had found people that were super interested, but turned out to be really really REALLY old.

I attended my 2nd stake conference in planalto. haha! I think I've beaten the record for time spent in an area. It's going to be super hard to leave!

Here in Brazil there aren't any rest homes, which means sometimes we meet very very old people, they're usually fantastic and like to talk and converse a lot. I also think rice and beans must be the secret to long life, I've met some people that have already broken the 100's and are still active!

We met a family that is super cool! Adriana and her daughters. I went to pick her up with a brother from the ward, we woke her up and it turned out her daughters had already gone! haha. Besides them we have 2 investigators with a date for the first week of march, Lourdes and Geovanna. Referalls from the MEMBERS!!! YES!

I've run out of time.

Our recent converts made a book of mormon cake! hahaha, they're so awesome. Jhonny is making plans to serve a mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you all tons,
Tchau!
Elder Wallace

Basquete

This week we had some great investigators at church. We're working with a few families. One of them is really good, but are waiting to get married because the ex-husband won't let her divorce. Luckily my comp from são Paulo says there are some places that will help you do it quick.

The couple loved a family night that we did. They were kind of nervous because we brought out a plate with a candle to do an analogy and they thought it might be "macumba" or black magic. After they understood they laughed and joked with us. 

This week is Festa Junina! I don't have fotos of last year in uberlândia because I didn't buy a camera yet. It includes square dancing, and many foods made of corn. My favorite is Canjica. It's like a sweet soup made with corn and peanuts and lots of other things. We're excited for the visitors it will bring. 

Today we played basketball! Our investigator, Job, showed up when we were leaving, so we played around a little more with him. His team beat us and I already know he's not going to let us live it down. haha. He's going to arizona next year to play for a team of retired people haha.

Love you all tons and here are some pics.

Elder Almeida shaving