Week 90 - Semana 1 in Maraba

Hello!!

I hope everyone is doing well. I had a good first week in Marabá. We left Belém on Tuesday and it is about a 1 hour flight. There were 2 missionaries that were suppose to leave Marabá on Monday and go to another area, but they missed their flight and were stuck here with us until Saturday.

The city here is really big. REALLY BIG. But it is only a branch here and 4 missionaries. The members are super good and help a lot with bringing people to church.

The people here are super receptive. Really it is super weird because I served almost my entire mission in the city and it is more difficult to find good people knocking doors and whatnot. One day this week we only knocked 3 doors and got in to all 3 houses. Usually when we knock doors we have to tell the people what we do and make our message sound interesting so the person will let us in, but its not like that here. When we knock on a door we just introduce ourselves and the person opens the door and lets us in without knowing who we are!! I even did a test and started telling people that we sell ties and popcorn and even then we got into people houses!!   It is really a good area and we are teaching lots of people.

There is a family that has been taught by a few missionaries but hasnt been baptized yet  because they arent married.  But this week or next week they will be officially married and be baptized. We were also able to find a few families this week that we are teaching. We taught a kid this week who has 17 years. Hie name is Eduardo. He is super cool and went to church all by himself. We also taught his mom and he said he will bring her next week.

We are teaching another women who is pregnant and legally married. Her husband is a member super inactive so we are trying to bring him back to church and baptize her.

We were knocking doors this week and a lady let us in. When we asked her if she was ok she said no because her 16 year old son committed suicide 10 days ago. It was easy to tell that she was not doing very well. We taught her the plan of salvation. The Spirit was super strong. We are going to work more with her. She was one of the people who never went to church but now she started going to church with her neighbor. So we will keep working with her.

It is really easy to stay busy here because there are so many people to teach and everyone wants to talk to us.

Thats about it for this week. Love yall!

Elder Green

Week 89 - Tchau Castanhal!

Zona Castanhal April 2017 (and Aureo)

Clay and Elder Gaspar with Elder Romero and Elder Christensen

 Clay and his brother Aureo - last selfie in Castanhal...

Hello!!

This was a very busy/good week. 

Last Monday we went to the less active members house to teach her son. He got super excited when we got there and basically asked to be baptized. We spent the rest of the week teaching him what he needs to know and he was baptized on Saturday. Sunday he even brought on of his friends to church! So that was exciting.

Tuesday we had a meeting with the president in Belém. It was a very effective and good meeting. The presidente gave an awesome lesson about the doctine of Christ and how we need to have a little more faith and trust in the Lord. All of us need to understand that there only exists 1 way to return to the presence of God and we have to show people the way. We have to understand a little better the importance of our calling and our responsibility.

After the meeting, the assistants came back to Castanhal with us for 2 days. I stayed with elder Christensen and Elder Gaspar stayed with Elder Romero. It was super good. They also stayed for our Zone Meeting on Thursday. WE had a good meeting. We ate lunch at a members house who made lunch for all of us. One of the district leaders has been sick. He went to the doctor in Belém and we werent sure if he was going to be at the meeting or not, but I thought everything would work out. But Wednesday night at he called and said he wouldnt make it. So I had to come up with something to talk about for an hour and a half during his district meeting because he wouldnt be there, and also my 30 minutes for the whole zone. I had to talk a lot that day and everyone was tired of hearing my voice!!!

We found lots of new people to teach this week. Really we found lots of good people and 1 man that was taught only once came to church all by himself. Walking and his house is far!! Too bad I was transfered, but there are people in every area waiting for the gospel!

So yeah this week was transfer week and I was transfered. I am currently at the mission office in Belém and tomorrow my plane leaves at 2 o clock to Marabá!! I am super excited! Everyone says that it is a really good area and I will be companion to elder Bartoski. He arrived with me and might be my last companion.

Well that is about it for this week, I will tell you more next week about the new area!

Love yall!

Elder Green

Week 88 - Castanhal

Hello!!

We had a good week, very busy. We did an exchange with the Elders in Capanema. I stayed here with Elder Santana. Elder Santana has like 2 months in the mission. His companion has been sick so they havent worked very much. WHen Elder Santana got here it seemed like he had just left the CTM! He had never done a contact since he got here and has taught very little because his companion is sick. SO we went to the church where they were playing futebol and there was about 12 non members there. So I talked to 4 or 5 and got their address and whatnot, then I told Elder Santana to go talk to 2 people sitting on the ground and he got SUPER nervous! haha he had never done a contact so he was a little scared, but after 2 or 3 he lost his fear and started talking to everyone. We spent basically the whole next day knocking doors and trying to teach as much as possible. We both learned a lot. We also bought pizza twice!

It rained a lot this week. A LOT! The wind almost took me away a couple of times. It is the same pattern everyday, in the morning it is crazy hot. The sun literally burns, but in the afternoon in rain a ton. So we are trying to adjust and teach as many people we can in the morning. I have had a cold for the last 3 weeks so we have been advised not to walk in the rain when it is really strong so we have to find someone to teach in the afternoon so we dont get stuck in  the rain.

We have been teaching a women and her husband for a couple of weeks. This man was aparently baptized like 30 years ago but he swears that he was never baptized in the church... but nevertheless, we have been teaching him and his wife Joseane. They promised they would come to church 2 times and didnt come. Elder Santana and I went there this week on Wednesday and Joseane was too "busy" to talk to us, so we made the decision to stop visiting them. This Sunday, she showed up at church all by herself! So we have made the decision to start visiting them again this week ;)

Also, a man showed up at church this week who was baptized a long time ago but is inactive. He showed up this week with his wife and kid.. Years without coming to church but he decided to come this week, so we will for sure visit them.

ALSO, another women less active showed up at church with her son who has 9 years and hasnt been baptized. She asked, "Elder, when are you going to baptize my son?", I gladly responded that we could do it this week. The kid knows everything about the church, but we will go there tonight to make sure it is all good.

Well thats about it for this week.

Love Yall!!

Elder Green

Week 87 - Conferencia Castanhal

Hello!!

SO this week was great! I got some bad blisters on my feet and had to stay 1 day without walking very much, but now it is all good and the blisters went away! Our week was full of searching for new people to teach. We have been talking to everyone on the streets and what not and found lots of people that are interested. ALso 2 of our investigators said that they dont want to hear us anymore because their pastor/church doesnt allow them and said that they shouldnt even have the book of mormon in their home.... That kind of stuff makes us really sad because no matter what we say, some people just dont understand the importance of what we are teaching and how it will change their eternities! But the Lord is always preparing people to recieve the Gospel, we just have to find the eleitos!

We were knocking doors one day and came across a HUGE house. Literally one of the nicest houses I have seen here and it is all green. The whole house is green. I try to knock on all the houses that have the house number 71, and with a house that is all green I just had to knock. The guy came on the intercome asking who we were and we explained, so we ended up teaching him and he is super interested. He is 21 and doesnt go to any church and is going to be a doctor or something so he is smart and undertands everything we say. We will work a lot more with him. 

We really enjoyed conferênce this week. I especially liked the talk that President Uchtdorf gave in the preisthood session. He told the stroy of when James and John asked Christ if they would be able to sit on His right and left hand in the last day. Christ responded that the greatest within them would be their servant. Many are called but few are chosen, God doesnt care what our calling is, but they way we serve. The greatest among us, will be those who serve. For that reason Christ gave the 2 greatest commandments- love the Lord thy God and your neighbor, and SERVE them!!

Love yall!!

Elder Green