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

The Plague

So this week was great!

haha unfortunately I was sick for 2 days and a little. I did nothing but sleep Thursday. I dont remember anything that happened except sleeping. Wow I'm really glad to be feeling better. Also I'm thankful for the armada of Medicine that dad sent me with. Especially one in particular. I forgot what one of the capsuls is for, I'll find out the name and ask next week. but Thank you dad!

Other than that we walked a lot. wow. I've seen the outskirts of our area, which is saying something, Aragarças is really long and gets wider the farther you go. Barra is pretty long too. One day we had lunch in this house where we had to scale these rocks to get to it. I was pretty out of breath, and wondering how the old lady that lived there could do this everyday! But it was really cool they built a pool around a spring and there were trees and lots of Acerola, a really tasty fruit.

Love you guys lots and I'm looking forward to talking with you Mother's day, though I try not to think about it during the day. haha. Thanks for everything and much love!

One more thing. I never realized how much truth we have. You get out here talking to all the different people and igrejas... Wow where do they get off? They get their minds fixed on something, even if it's just an idea or phrase without scriptural base. 

We have the truth. Wow we have all of it, even the simplest things that other people don't know. and all of it agrees with the scriptures. All the prophets words agree with all the truth we have. I can't believe how people confuse things. We dont realize what we have. It's Awesome.

Love,

Elder Wallace

BARRA DO GARÇAS!!!

Hello!

From Barra Do Garcas, the best area in the mission.

Yep I was told the night before that I was going to be transferred, but I didn't know where. When we were all in the chapel President gave an awesome talk about teaching DOUTRINA! So for transfers he had all the bus tickets in a pile, and everyone seemed to want two that were different from the rest. I was the last one to get called, I would be going to Barra do Garcas (baha do garsas) with Elder Winkel! (From Colorado)

Just a little about Barra do Garcas

It's an Eight hour bus ride from Goiania and is the farthest area from the rest of the mission. It's also the farthest north and the hottest (oh man it is toasty here). When we got here I was thinking, "wow this place is pretty cool.) and I just got more and more excited as the day went on.

Goainia is pretty flat, but Barra has hills, and two big Rivers, wow it is beautiful. The hills are covered in jungle and the tallest has a statue of the Redeemer, very cool. We hiked up there this morning and had our District meeting "district meeting" because it's just the four of us, elders Falcao, Cain, and Elder Winkel. Man it was crazy! they have a flight of stairs going up this hill/mountain... Straight stairs for 30 minutes. Wow our legs were spaghetti when we got back.

So there are 3 cities: Aragarças, Pontal, and Barra do Garças. We live in Aragarças, and elder Winkel and I will work there and Pontal.

Pontal is inbetween the two rivers, So cool and way pretty! and Barra is across the two bridges. Barra isn't in the state of Goias, it's in Mato Grosso, another state in Brasil.

The church has been here quite some time, but the Branch has about 30 members that are active. We're finding out there are a bunch of people that don't come but were baptized.

We have sacrament meeting in this house-church deal, with tons of fans... haha. It is way cool, when we have 80 members we will get a chapel. I want to see that happen before I leave Brazil. 

The Saturday (third day I was here) Elder Cain had an activity with the Branch, and we had some investigators come!!! We watched the Testiments, and I made everybody French Toast.

(an american food, haha.) 

Wow I am so excited to be here and super pumped to be with Elder Winkel. I've never walked so much and slept so well. 

I've noticed all the miraculous things happen when we COULD go home, or call it a day, but we knock just ONE more door, talk to ONE more person... awesome. 

Also this week we knocked a door and there was this parrot that was telling us "shooh!" (andar logo!) haha. The guy said dont worry he says that to everyone.

Love love!

Elder Wallace.

Happy Birthday!! (Parabens, Parabens!)

Holy smokes, I only have 6 minutes to email, I was reading letters from friends!

Parabens Dad! If I knew it I would sing you the birthday song of Brazil, with a bunch of clapping and such.

Today I was fasting to be able to have the spirit more, and making a list of things that distance me from the spirit that I will avoid all next transfer. (Word on the street is I will be transfered this week). 

Tanner sorry about the dedo. Hope it heals fast. Isn't there a song about the first cut is the most painful or something? maybe not. 

Oh! miracle story time!

I was with the assistants and we knocked on this door and found a guy who was super receptive. I assumed he knew the assistants somehow, because he told them that since they had met he had stopped drinking. (2 months ago!!!)

Apparently they had found him drunk in his car one night, calling to them to help. he was depressed and they helped him get to his house.  We didn't know it was his house we knocked on.  When we asked him how an answer from God (about the truth of these things) would change his life, he said. I will follow that answer and never step out of the path.

Very cool.

Love you all and next week I will tell you some language slip ups I've had here....

Love! Elder Wallace.

Conference!!!

Hey!

I guess I'll start with the bad news... It's not the display. if it was I should be able to take pictures still. You don't happen to have the first camera I broke still do you?

We can't use any other sites, so I can't purchase or watch videos. 

Maybe you could send that camera to me for my christmas or something? I'm really sorry, maybe I'm meant to teach you how to deal with frustration... haha, remember the talk in conference about how we are all imperfect? Then he said, 'all God has to work with is Imperfect people, that must be immensely frustrating, but he deals with it...

Well this week was really exciting what with Conference. I was able to watch the first in English on an ipad a member had. The second I got English Subtitles, Priesthood session was Portuguese (D'oh!) and Sunday 7 of us crammed into the Clerks office to watch in English. 

It

Was

Awesome.

Where to start... Throughout the whole thing I was just calmed and got a feeling of peace. There were two really good talks (they're all really good!) on Forgivness and Repentance. Also two more that talked about peace. I had all the questions I had written about what I need to change or do answered. One of them I prayed about and it was answered in the talk right after that. I'm really looking forward to reading the Liahona when it comes.

There were a lot of great talks about missionary work as well!!! I hope we all take the opportunities that God gives us, no matter how quiet. Quickly I bear testimony that if we seize even the smallest opportunity, even if it's out of our way or Uncomfortable, God will bless us and the other person immensely. He will also start trusting us with more. 

I also bear testimony that if we let the opportunity pass us by, we will feel bad. God will not give you those opportunities because you didn't show you could be trusted. 

But always we can repent!!!

It feels so wonderful when you choose to do the right thing.

It seems weird at first, even to others, when we go out of the way or do something unusual. For example asking if you can help bag groceries or help set the table. I learned pretty quickly that I can either hide behind not knowing the language or I can try try try to use it anyway. Even if people have no idea what this american is trying to do or say, haha. 

We can either hide behind our weaknesses or we can plow through them.

We have lot of potential investigators, but a lot of them are flakey. Spencer, if you have any advice for how to get ahold of people or get back for another lesson, any tips are welcome. I'm still learning here but I'll use my ''phone a friend'' lifeline.

Love you, and here are some pics.

That was the good news. 

Love,

Elder Wallace