Week 24 - ROLL TIDE!! ACABOU ÓBIDOS!!

Oi!

To begin, I am super pumped up right now after reading all the emails about Alabama winning the National Championship! My companion thinks I am crazy, but he just doesn't understand... 

So we had a good week here in Obidos. We have found a few really good families we are working with. There is this one lady we have been teaching and she is 19 years old. Her husband is 20 (but they aren't legally married). He works everyday from 6 am until 9 pm so we have only taught him once, but we've taught her bunch of times and she is definitely receiving answers to her prayers. She keeps all the commitments and doesn't let anyone touch her Book of Mormon because she doesn't want it to get messed up. We taught her this past week, all we did was read 3 Nephi 11 with her and she was crying during the whole lesson. She was hesitant about getting married at first but now its all she wants to do. Her husband is really good as well. They have a little girl and really liked church on Sunday. We gave them the papers to get married and they said they will fill them out. So that's good!! We taught this lady's sister for a couple of weeks but she is running from us now. So that stinks.

We had a little miracle this week. We were sitting in our house studying and our lights got shut off. We went outside and the guy said we have 2 months of unpaid bills so he cut our electricity... We went to the place and paid both months and the lady said they will turn it back on in 24 hours. As you know it is really hot here and trying to sleep without a fan isn't fun, and we can't even open windows because there are these bugs that come out only around this time of year but there are thousands of them - literally everywhere. They almost cancelled an activity at church because there were so many of those bugs. So we left the electricity payment place and worked that day, and as we were walking back home we were dreading having to sleep in the heat. So we stopped on the side of the road and prayed - and repented for procrastinating the payment of our bills - and asked the Lord to help us be able to rest comfortably. And you better believe we got home that night and our electricity was on and working just fine. A little miracle for the week.

So a funny story. We were eating lunch at a members house on Saturday, and it is very common that if a child is less than 3 years old he will be butt naked. This member has 3 kids and the youngest is always naked. So we were sitting there eating and this little naked baby is running around the house and then he stopped, and pooped right there on the floor. His mom sent him outside and went to get a towel to clean it up, but sure enough he came back in the house and stepped right in his own poop. It was funny because me and my companion both went "OHHHHHH!!" at the same time. So that's a little funny story.

We ate lunch yesterday with a really good family, and the man wanted to show us a cool trick. He said if you lock you hands, and put a normal egg in between your hands with both points of the egg on your palms, you can squeeze as hard as you can but it won't break. I thought it was crazy, but my companion tried and he was trying so hard but literally couldn't break it. So then I tried. I started squeezing slowly but it didn't break. So I squeezed a little harder, and a little harder, and it wasn't breaking. So then I gave it everything I got. And after about 3 seconds you better believe that thing busted and splattered all over us. Oh they thought it was so funny I was covered in egg. But they were also very impressed because they said I'm the first one they have ever seen do it! 

So transfers. We got the call Sunday morning and I am being transferred to zone Cabanagem, area Cabanagem. That is close to Belém. 30 or 40 minutes from Belém. We will get a boat tonight back to Santarém, and my plane leaves at 10 am tomorrow. I have a lot of mixed feelings. I want to meet new people and what not, but I love Óbidos. We visited all the members to tell them I was leaving and they were pretty sad as well. Today is p-day when we usually don't eat with members but one of the members invited us to his house and did a big ole goodbye barbecue for me. But it is what it is. I am really excited for my new adventure. My new companion will be Elder B. Silva, and Elder S. Oliveira will train here in Óbidos. 

But that's about it for this week. Sorry no pictures again. Maybe the internet will be better in Cabanagem and I can send you some from there next week!

Love yall and hope yall have a good week. 

Elder Green
ROLL TIDE

Week 23 - Just say NO to fish in Obidos!

Hello!

So this week was good. But it started off a little stinky. Tuesday we had lunch at the Ward Mission Leaders house. He called us in the morning and asked us if we eat fish. I have eaten fish a few times since I got to Obidos and my stomach handled it alright but the last time I ate it I got a little sick so I heisitated to answer him. But I didn't want to be rude and I didn't get too sick last time so I said ok. We got there and ate fish and rice. He kept putting more and more on my plate and I tried to eat it all. But after I got through about half of my plate I started feeling a little strange and literally could not eat any more. He seemed a little irritated with me because I didn't eat all of it but I just couldn't. 

So we left there and I started feeling a little better. We taught a family around 4 o clock and it hit me during the lesson. My stomach started hurting really bad. After the lesson we went to the bishops house and I drank some water hoping to settle my stomach. The 1st counselor to the bishop lives right next door and there was a bunch of members there just chillin, including the women who made the fish for lunch. We started walking over there and it hit me hard. Thank goodness the roads are just sand and bushes because I threw up in some bushes right in front of the bishops house - and right in front of the members. So that was embarrassing but the members gave me some medicine and all and I felt better. It was a memorable experience! And now I can say that I threw up in front of the bishops house! And Óbidos is a small town so the word spread and now all the members know not to make fish for the missionaries!

There is a member here who has lots of kids, I think he has 11. And all but one of his sons served missions and are active in the church, but he has 12 grandkids living with him here in Óbidos. He doesn't have much money and their house is very humble, but they are really good. He has an 18 year old son who has lots of problems. He can't talk very well - he mostly just screams really loud, but he understands what people are saying and everything. He loves the missionaries. The one word you can understand him say is "Elder". He gets so excited everytime he sees us and just starts screaming and smiling huge! At church and at activities he always hangs around with us, so I have gotten to be pretty good friends with him. I was a little uncomfortable with him at first but now I get sad if he isn't at church! He is always smiling and he is just fun to be around. We went by their house to pick up a reference they have for us, and the dad said he has been looking all day but no pharmacy has his son's medicine. He said without his medicine he doesn't understand people, and he can't walk by himself or he'll fall down. But when his son heard that we were there he came walking out smiling. The dad was telling us how bad it gets sometimes when he doesn't have his medicine and we could definitely tell. It was really sad. But we gave him a blessing and they said that he is doing a lot better now. 

The 2nd counselor in the bishopric moved this week. They moved to Manaus. Actually just his family went, he is here for a couple more weeks for his job and then he will go. But we helped them move on Thursday. They had a lot of heavy stuff and they are traveling by boat so we had to load all that stuff up, drive to the boat place, and load it all in the boat. I was sweating like crazy. Literally soaking wet, but it was good we got to help them and do a little bit of service.

We had a baptism ceremony this week, but no baptism... A lady in the ward has a daughter that just turned 8. Her husband isn't a member and she is trying really hard to help her daughter stay firm in the church. The girl is a baptism for the ward so we really didn't even need to be involved, but the mom really wanted us to help. So we went to their house 2 times in the past couple of weeks. We taught the girl the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and told her about baptism and how it will be and what not. We even helped and organized the whole baptism service. We had tons of people there and the girl brought a bunch of non member freinds. And we had cake, it was a super good meeting. The girl wanted the bishop to baptize her, so he was there and everything was ready. 

But when it was time for the actual baptism, the girl refused to get in the water. Everyone was watching, including lots of nonmembers. Apparently she has a terrible fear of water and they have to force her to take showers. So after 40 minutes of people trying to help her, and the bishop even did an example baptism with his daughter (He didnt say a prayer or anything, just put her in the water.. I still don't know if that is allowed or not, but anyway he did it). And it was all for nothing because the girl still would not touch the water. There was a non members that said, "Just grab her and throw her in there!" We explained that we can't force a person to get baptized and we don't want her to remember her baptism as the most traumatic experience of her life. Another non member said, "Just splash a little bit of water on her head!" My forehead was red from smacking myself after all the crazy things people said that day. But she definitely did not get baptized. Some people seemed annoyed with her but you can't get angry with a little 8 year old who is terrified of water. So we ate cake and everthing and it still turned out to be fun.

We had a bunch of people set to go to church on Sunday - 10 people firm and 8 possibles. We did a division with 2 young men in the ward so we could pass all the houses. I went to a house with 4 people who were firm to come to church. But 1 of them was sick and another wasn't at home, so we brought 2 and 1 kid I had never seen before - so 3. We went to another house where two young men live. They said they wanted to come to church but their mom is really against the church and gets angry when they talk about it so they didn't know if she would allow them to go. So we went there, me and a youth who doesn't talk. We called and called and waited for them, and eventually, the mom came out. She met us at the fence and said she will not allow her kids to go to because she wants them to go to another church. I talked with her for about 5 minutes or so and just when I thought she had changed her mind, she said "Sorry, but they're not going to your church". Then she walked inside and slammed the door! So we didn't get all of our people there but the ones who came really liked the meetings.

Well thats about it! I hope yall all had a good week! I will try to send some pictures using our neighbor's wifi tonight. Love yall! And ROLL TIDE!!!!!

Elder Green

Week 22 - Welcome 2016 in Obidos

Hello!

So this was a good week. We have some good investigators so we taught a lot this week. There is an 8 year old boy that we have been teaching because he has been coming to church with a friend  and a lot of his cousins are members. But he is very difficult to teach. I don't think he is in school yet so he doesn't read and he doesn't understand a lot of things we say. So we taught him and his mom and one lesson we taught them was the Word of Wisdom. He doesn't have any problems with that since he's only 8 but he said when he turns 18 he will smoke cigarettes like his dad... His mom told him that smoking is really bad and that his dad is crazy and shouldn't be a role model.. So that was interesting but effective and our 8 year old investigator gave up future smoking...

Anyway I thought a lot about that this week. Here you have an 8 year old boy, parents are separated, his mom is a little crazy and apparently his dad is too. No one put him in school so he is a little behind, and he is counting down the days until he turns 18 so he can smoke like his dad. I started thinking about how important a parent's example really is. Because he is too young to realize that his parents aren't setting the best examples - he just wants to do what they do. And he definitely isn't the only kid like that. It really makes me work harder and want to be a better future father. And it makes me really thank the Lord for the family I have and the situation I grew up in. But anyway the lessons all went well and we baptized him on Saturday!

We finally got a ward mission leader and he was a member less active so this calling will hopefully help him as well as us. So the batismal font gets really dirty during the week - lots of bugs and stuff. And it is a little inconvenient to try and clean the font real fast on Saturday morning before the baptism. So we planned with the new ward mission leader to go on Wednesday morning and clean it. And it was DIRTY. Lots of bugs and lots of stuff on the wall. Pretty sick, but we cleaned it real good and it was perfect when we left. But there are these little black bugs that apparently only come out during this part of the year. They are literally EVERYWHERE. And when we came on Saturday the baptismal font was full of them! So that was great. But we got them cleaned out again!!

We had a New Years party here at the church on Thursday night. In the U.S. fireworks are a big thing on New Years, but here they are a big thing everyday. Apparently the people here think fireworks are really awesome because they are going off constantly. So that wasn't really a big thing on New Years. But most of the people in Óbidos celebrate by getting as drunk as possible, men wearing womens clothes, and doing all kinds of crazy things. Pretty much a day for Satan, so we stayed safe in the church. And guess how many lessons we taught on Thursday and Friday... 1! But we talked with a few drunk men who wanted to hear a word about God. One of them said he has an angel in his house right now, and the other straight up bore his testimony of how he knows that the Mormon church is true! But he for sure has never been... We were laughing the whole time but we invited them both to church on Sunday. 

The New Years activity at church was cool - lots of people and lots of food. The members here decorated the church all cool and everything. We got permission to stay until midnight so that was nice. It was kind of slow for a few hours until it hit midnight. Then everyone went crazy - playing music and dancing and hugging and saying Happy New Year and what not. So that was fun. But we had to leave at midnight so we missed out on a lot of the fun. But apparently the members stayed there until 5 am!!!

On Friday most of Obidos was hungover so we weren't able to make contact with hardly anybody. We got invited to lunch at the same members house who did a big lunch for Christmas and that was super fun. They had this chalk stuff that they were throwing on everybody to celebrate and that was getting a little out of hand, but they had lots of good food and stuff to do there. We were some of the last people to eat and when we went to get food, there were no clean plates left. I already told yall that the people here treat everyone like family and part of that is that they share the same dishes and cups and what not. So when I saw there were no clean dishes I just used the bishops plate once he finished eating. Nope, I didn't wash it or anything, I just put some food on it and ate. I never would have done that before my mission! 

They had another activity Friday night. Everyone was at the church playing volleyball. And since we weren't able to teach anyone the zone leaders said we could play too. But as soon as we got permission they took down the net and started playing soccer! And Mission Rule number 1 is that we can't play soccer. So we were bummed out about that. Brazilians love to play soccer!

We had 3 baptisms on Saturday but only two were for us, One was a baptism for the ward, but we baptised him because his mom wanted us to. So it was really good. The church was an absolute mess because no one cleaned it after the New Years activities but they came right before the baptism and cleaned it and the baptisms were good. Everyone was happy!

Well that is about it. I had a good week and i hope all of yall did too! I have about 100 pictures to send but the internet here isn't good enough to send them. So next week we'll go to a cyber and I'll send them from there. Love yall.

Elder Green

Week 21 - Looking forward to the New Year in Obidos

Our Skype session! Clay talking to his sister Laura in Idaho!

He had to lean close or his voice was so garbled we couldn't understand him!

Hello!

So it was a good week this week. It started off normal. We have a few investigators we are working with. It has been raining more. Just a little bit everyday. But I think it was Tuesday that it rained a ton! It was coming down really hard and we were teaching a lesson so we hung around at that house until the rain passed! But I am definitely enjoying the rain!

There is a member here who is a fighter. He's really short but really strong and apparently a really good fighter! We went to his house during the week and he wasn't there but we talked to his wife for a bit and helped her change a light bulb. They have one of those big heavy bags that you hit hanging in their living room so we played with that for a while. I was really getting into it. This guy has his own gym where he trains and what not. I'm going to try to see if I can go there and practice with him a little bit. Maybe be a sparring partner or something! I think I want to be a fighter when I return home!

We didn't have time last p day to get haircuts so we got permission to do it on Thursday, which was Christmas eve so all the places were packed full with people trying to look good on Christmas. But eventually we found a little place on the side of the street with a guy cutting hair for $5 so we did that. But he wasn't very clean with it so we had tons of hair all over us afterward and we were itching real bad! At least it was cheap! 

The internet is really slow here so we thought it would be a good idea to test the Skype on Thursday since we were Skyping with our families on Friday. So we got 2 computers from some members here and went to the church to test it. There was a ton of people at the church preparing for the big Christmas party that night so we helped them a little bit. We got permission from the president to stay at the church until midnight that night because they do Christmas a little different here. All day on Christmas eve there were people in the street buying food and presents and what not. Everyone does a big party at night with TONS of food. And everyone stays up really late until Santa Clause comes at midnight and gives everyone presents. It is a little different and in my opinion a little lame but they like it! There was a lot of people at the church that night and lots of food and soda. But by the time it reached midnight I was about to pass out I was so tired! We went home and got a good 6 hours of sleep! The member who drove us home invited us to his house for lunch the next day, and he always has really good lunches so we were excited about that.

We woke up on Christmas morning and studied as normal and what not. Then we went to lunch and there was a ton of people there! Almost the whole ward! it was super cool. He also has a pool table and we played dominos. And of course, ate tons of food. Afterward we went to the church and skyped with our families. There were other people at the church so we hung around there for the rest of the day. And then on Saturday it was all over! 

Saturday we worked as normal during the day and confirmed church with some people. We have a good little handful of investigators but they are all either youth or primary age so our Sunday School class has been a little slim on attendance. So on Saturday night we recieved a phone call from the teacher of the gospel doctrine class reminding us that we had agreed to give the lesson on Sunday. I had completely forgotten! So I had to give the lesson on Sunday with almost zero preparation. But whatever! The Spirit helped me! And I am not really sure why the actual teacher couldn't give the lesson because she was at church like normal, but I guess she just didn't want to do it this week! But it is all good! 

Then on Sunday night when we got home we were starving but we couldnt buy food because of the Sabbath. We should have planned better and bought food on Saturday so we were just going to suffer. But as missionaries we can't be ashamed to ask for help so I called a member and told her we were hungry and asked if she could spare some food. She said yes and afterward we received a phone call from 3 different members saying they heard we were hungry and they wanted to bring us food! That made us feel pretty good! And we didn't go hungry! 

So that was pretty much our week this week! It was a good Christmas and the members here are preparing an even bigger party for New Years so we are looking forward to that!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Love yall!

Elder Green 

 

Obidos Ward party! 

Week 20 - Christmas in Obidos!

Hello!

So this week went by really really fast but it was great. Lots of new investigators, a trip to Santarém for a Christmas party, lots of people at church, and we finished it off with a baptism!

So Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty typical days - a lot of walking and teaching a lot of lessons. Then Wednesday night we caught a boat to Santarém for the big mission party! We arrived there Thursday morning, met up with the sisters from Oriximiná and went to try and find this place. We took a bus and then walked for awhile and had no idea where we were. But then President and Sister Stasevskas came driving by in their little rental car. So we all piled in there and eventually found the place. It was at the end of an old sandy road but it was a really nice place! There was a huge grass field and a big ole pavilion with a pool table and TONS of food! This was the only day of the year we get to play soccer so we spent a lot of the day doing that. I made 2 goals and I felt pretty proud. I also brought my football so we played a little bit of that. And we played a lot of capture the flag as well. And of course we made use of the pool table. We also watched How to Train Your Dragon 2. It was a really fun day. 

Once it ended we went to the Zone Leaders house and stayed there for the night. Bishop Kilgore sent an envelope with lots of pictures and letters from the Bessemer ward. It was really nice. I enjoyed reading through all of it! 

Then early on Friday morning we went down to the boats to buy our lancha tickets. The lancha left at 8:30 and we got there at 7:30. But we found out there wasn't a lancha that went to Oriximina on Friday which meant the sisters were stranded! They took the lancha to Obidos with us and then took a bus from Obidos to Oriximina. So that was a little stressful but it worked out. 

Friday was a difficult day. I was SO sore! We never run or do any sports so after a whole day of running my body was hurting! But we still did lots of walking, slower walking... 

We had a baptism on Saturday - a 13 year old boy who already has a few family members that are less active. But he has lots of friends at church and has already been to church lots of times. We taught him throughout the week and everything was good for the baptism on Saturday at 10 am. when we passed his house at 9:40 he wasn't there. People were already waiting at the church and a member had made a cake and everything. Sometimes he stays with his cousin so I thought maybe he was at the other house or already at the church. So we were going to go look but as we were standing outside his house I said a little prayer and got a strong feeling that we needed to stay right where we were. I told Elder Oliveira that we need to stay put and we waited and waited. It was nerve-wracking but eventually we saw him come running over the hill! He took a quick shower and we made it to the church and baptized him. It might not sound like much but for me it was a really cool experience. It was a great meeting too. Lots of the young men in the ward were there to support him and what not. It was really good.

So earlier in the week we taught the elect couple I told you about a few weeks ago a really good lesson with the Bishop and his wife. We taught about them about the Sabbath day since they are having problems with coming to church. It was a great lesson. The bishop is really good and helped a lot. His wife cried when she bore her testimony and it was just great. The spirit was strong. We set up another visit for Saturday and for the next few days we planned a really cool lesson for them. We felt it was important that they learn to feel the Spirit. So we planned to show a little bit of the movie Finding Faith in Christ - only 10 or 15 minutes. Then once the Spirit was strong, we would show them a picture of Jesus and ask, "If Jesus was here right now, what would you ask him?" Then they would say a couple of things from the heart which we would write down. We would then say that as representatives of Jesus Christ we would like to give a blessing for their family and home. We would then kneel and say a prayer. After the prayer, once the Spirit was at its peak, we would invite them to church the next day and then leave. They say they love our messages and visits but we thought it was important to leave quickly after the prayer so they could continue to feel the Spirit after we left. We felt really good about it and were preparing for it through the day on Saturday. But guess what, we went to their house that night and they weren't there! It was only 7:30 so we sat down and waited, and waited and waited. They never came. Finally we left and bought some dinner. When we returned home I called to invite them to church on Sunday. The husband answered a little rudely (he has our number saved in his phone so he knew it was us). I heard noise in the background like they were maybe at a party or something. I asked how he was and he was still being a little rude with me. I then asked if they were planning on coming to church, and he didn't say anything for a couple of seconds. And then he hung up in my face!! At that point I was a little bit irritated - it was just so strange. A few days before they acted interested and set up a return appointment with us. Anyway, they didn't come to church on Sunday and that night we had the Christmas Devotional broadcast so we called to invite them to that but they didn't answer. So I don't know what we will do with them. I guess back off. But it was really sad that we had this big lesson planned but now they turned on us.

But anyway on Sunday we had 3 progressing investigators at church. We went to this one lady's house to bring her to church but she said she wasn't going.. even though she said that she would come to church and so we told her we would come by her house to get her. So we walked a long way in the heat, and then she said she wasn't going. Straight up lied to us. Not that lying to us is very uncommon. But while we were returning to the church, we found a man who was baptized in another city and has lived in Óbidos for 3 years but hasn't been coming to church. He said on Sunday he felt like he needed to go so we walked to church with him and his woman (She isn't a member and they aren't married). They had a really good experience and we will start teaching them. Then the primary president called me out of our gospel principles class and said she had 8 kids in Primary that are over eight and aren't baptized. We also had 2 young men there that weren't members and 2 adults. So we had a total of 11 potential investigators at church! We got lots of addresses and will visit them all this week! So that was great!

It hasn't really felt like Christmas time to me. I am used to Christmas being a little cold and every day here it is a solid 95 degrees. But Sunday it felt a lot more like Christmas. Papai Noel (Santa Claus) visited Óbidos Sunday and was giving out free presents to the kids here. I swear every kid in Óbidos was out there, in the middle of the dirt street, waiting for Papai Noel. SO many people. But eventually, Papai Noel arrived on the back of a beat up truck throwing candy! He was kind of funny looking - skinny and dark skinned - but the kids went nuts! And in the midst of all this, a big storm passed through and it started raining really hard! But that didnt stop them! It was hilarious. There were tons of little kids, soaking wet and muddy. But they had big ole smiles and were guarding their presents like their life depended on it! It was really cool that those people gave free gifts to all the kids here. I enjoyed it! We thought about going around offering all the people the gift of Eternal Life but the rain stopped us! 

After that we went to the church to practice singing in the ity bity Óbidos ward choir we were forced to join. But since we sang Christmas songs it was fun. After that we watched the Christmas Devotional. During the Devotional I got some really strong Christmas time feelings. The music and the messages were really good. It finally feels like Christmas! Sunday was a good day!

So that's about it for this week. I love being a missionary. Alma 29:9 "I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy."

I am learning so much here. It is sad to think that my time in Óbidos could be coming to an end soon. I don't know for sure that I'll be transferred in January but I've heard that the president usually doesn't leave missionaries in one area longer than 3 transfers and this is my third one here. I have made so many friends here. To think that I couldn't really speak any Portuguese when I arrived is crazy. I have learned a lot from these people.

Love you all and have a Merry Christmas!

Elder Green 

Week 19 - Working with Elder S. Oliveira in Obidos!

Clay with Elder Galindo and new companion Elder Oliveira

Ola!!

It sounds like everything is going good back home! I was so happy to hear that Derrick Henry got the Heisman! Can you send me some pictures of the award ceremony? I am pretty pumped about that. And what time do yall want to Skype on Christmas so we can plan?

So it has been kind of a crazy week and I didn't write in my journal all week so I will just have to try and remember what happened.

I was in Santarem to pick up my companion Elder Oliveira last Monday and we were supposed to leave on Tuesday but the boat left early and so we missed it and were stuck there another day. So we didn't arrive back here in Obidos until Wednesday. And when we arrived our house was kind of a mess because last week we had the surprise Zone Meeting and then the trio with Elder Lourenco and Elder Capello leaving and then me going to Santarem again to get Elder Oliveira. And my new companion is a clean freak so we did some deep cleaning on Thursday because he couldn't stand it! 

Then our focus was on finding new investigators. We found a bunch and our main goal for this week is finding more!

Our zone Christmas party is in Santarem on Thursday so that is exciting. We will have tons of food and we get to play soccer and pool and all kinds of stuff. So I am excited about that. I have literally travelled to Santarem every week for the past month! I don't know how I have any money left!

There is a funny story that happened this week. We taught a woman and she committed to come to church. Before she can be baptized she would have to attend for two weeks and since she is going to be out of town on the 26th it was essential that she come this Sunday. She doesn't have a phone so we couldn't call and remind her. But she said she would spend the night at her brother's house since he lives closer to the church and promised that she would come on her own. 

So Sunday came around and we waited and waited but she didn't come. So I know her aunt who is a member and lives close so we went to her house and asked her where the woman's brother lives. The aunt didn't know the address but said he lives right next to the place where all the prostitutes are. We didn't know where that was so we thought we were at a dead end. Then I thought to myself, "We have to bring this woman to church and as missionaries we can't be afraid to ask anyone anything." So I straight up went back to church and asked the bishop where this prostitute joint is located. He didn't say anything for a few seconds and then told us to go ask another ward member. We asked the ward mission leader and he said, "Oh Elders you don't want to go there!" Haha! But when we explained the situation he helped us. After all that we never did find the woman and she didn't come to church. But it is still a good story!

This week I read a story about a man on a boat. He was trying to keep his sense of direction by looking at the north star. But soon he realized that it wasn't the north star he was following - it was a firefly! How could he confuse a little firefly with such a brilliant star? The shaky and twisty boat made it easy for him to mistake the two. In life temptations seem more attractive because they are right in front of us and easy to grasp while the promised blessings of the Lord seem distant and far away. But the blessings of God are so much brighter and greater. We have to always strive to keep an eternal perspective and look beyond the things of the world no matter how attractive they are. We have to put off the natural man and become a saint through the Lord Jesus Christ. Mosiah 3:19.

Well that's it for this week. I love you all!

Elder Green

 Making plans in Santarem

 Love those dusty shoes!

Clay and Elder Oliveira

Week 18 - Changes in Obidos

So, this was a very busy week full of changes and surprises. The Zone Leaders went to Belem this week for their monthly meeting and when they returned Tuesday night they decided we needed to have a Zone Meeting. So Wednesday night we caught the boat for Santarem. We got there Thursday morning and had a really good Zone Meeting. Me and Elder Capello have had really good numbers the past two transfers. But that's more credit to the Lord than to us. 

Since Elder Capello is going home this week he was scheduled to ride a smaller (faster) boat than the one we usually ride from Obidos to Santarem on Saturday. But transfers didn't come out until Sunday with my new companion assignment and I couldn't stay here by myself. So when we returned to Obidos after the Zone Meeting on Thursday night Elder Lourenco came back with us. We had a trio for one day then Elder Capello left. I'm attaching pictures. I won't lie it was sad. 

Then transfers came out on Sunday and my new companion is Elder S. Oliveira. I did an exchange with him a few weeks back and he is super cool. So I am excited about that. On Sunday night Elder Lourenco and I caught a boat back to Santarem so he could get back to his companion and I could pick up mine. I am in Santarem now with Elder S. Oliveira and we will return to Obidos tonight.

We baptized two young men this week. One was taught by other missionaries a while ago. He knew the Church was true but never committed to a baptism date and kind of got dropped. I believe it was a miracle that we found him. He already had a Book of Mormon and all the pamphlets. We taught him for two weeks and on Friday asked him about baptism. He said he had a testimony but was real nervous about getting baptized and kept making weird excuses. We shared lots of scriptures with him and finally he closed his eyes and we sat in silence for a minute or so. When he opened his eyes he asked us to share another scripture. Elder Lourenco said he had a good one about baptism. After the young man read the scripture he stood up, shook all our hands, and said, "Thanks. See you tomorrow at 10 o'clock!" It was super cool. 

The other young man is 13 and he has been firm since the first lesson we taught him. He is very smart and for sure a future missionary! His mother has refused all our invitations to come to church so we were a little scared that she might not give permission. But when he said he wanted to be baptized she just said, "What does he need to bring to the baptism?" Haha! And she even came to the baptism to support him as well! It was really good.

After Elder Capello left on Saturday we worked our tails off trying to visit everyone and confirm church. We confirmed with 7 people and 2 others said maybe. I passed those numbers on to the Zone Leaders that night feeling good. But then guess what happened on Sunday? Nobody came. I called everyone that morning and they all had excuses. Our Gospel Principles class had one recent convert and some random old lady from off the street. Obviously we were very disappointed. But it was a crazy week with lots of traveling and changing companions. So this week we are starting fresh and we are going to get it done!

Missionary work isn't easy but it isn't supposed to be. Salvation isn't easy either! But even though its hard I love my mission. It is the best mission in the whole world and I am having awesome experiences every day! We have a couple of mottos here in Missao Brasil Belem - Missao de macho. "No breeze is cold!" and "Only the strong serve in the north!"

I love wearing the Savior's name on my chest! We came across a family who are all baptized but left the Church three years ago because a member said something and hurt the man's feelings. So he says he will never go back. When we were talking to them I took off my tag and showed it to him. We read the name of the Church - the Church of JESUS CRISTO. I told him I go to Church because I love Jesus Christ. I came on a mission because I love Jesus Christ - not because of any member or anyone besides Jesus. His attitude changed after that. But it's the truth. I love the Gospel and I know it's true!

Love yall!

Elder Green

 Mustaches from Grace's Christmas box!

 Goodbye to a good trainer. I'm not a greenie anymore.

 Working the crowd at a basketball game. 

 This outhouse was not made for me.