Week 97 -Maraba Não desisto

Belem Mission Leadership Council June 2017

 Sis Stasevskas had an early birthday cake for Clay so he could celebrate with the Leadership Council

 Clay and Elder Rodriguez

 Elder Arevalo, Elder Rodriguez, and Clay with his package delivered by the Stasevskas's daughter Talita who is visiting from California.

 Elder Bartoski and Clay wearing matching ties

 Clay with his last little package

 Everybody looking sad - I guess because Clay is about to go home?

 The hard-working shoes of the Leadership Council

 Clay taking a self-portrait in the mirror

Clay, Elder Rodriguez, Elder Black

Lunch appointment.

Hello!!

We had a good week this week. We spent Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday in Belém. There are not many flights from Belém to Marabá so sometimes we have to wait a long time in Belém... which stinks because we don't have anything to do there! But we had a great meeting with the president who talked a lot about how we can be successful in life or in anything we do. They also talked a lot about the love of Christ and the power of the Book of Mormon. 

When we got back in Marabá we visited a few people. We have many good investigators that are keeping commitments but for some reason can not or do not want to be baptized. We were very firm this week with our investigators and we able to help a few agree to baptism. 

A member took us to teach one of his friends on Friday. We taught her and her family the Restoration and she understood very well but the rest of her family didn't show much interest. We went back on Saturday and  she said that she read the pamphlet and can't stop thinking about Joseph Smith and his story. She came to church yesterday and is really excited to learn more about the church. 

We are teaching another kid who already went to church 1 time and has all the lessons. He stopped drinking coffee and accepted a baptismal dat for the 17th. But in order for him to be baptized he needs to go to church 1 more time. He committed to come to church but didnt go because his friend wasn't able to pass by his house and take him... And his phone doesn't work so we were not able to call him.. So that made us sad but we will bring him to church this Sunday or tell him to go by himself. It will all work out!

Love yall!! Have a great week!

Elder Green

Week 96 -Maraba Real Madrid

 The field is white and ready to harvest.

 Walking through bamboo trees to get to clinic for flu shots

Zone Maraba May 31, 2017

Hello!!

We had a good week. We had our zone conference with the president on Wednesday and interviews on Tuesday. We were advised on Sunday night that we would have to give a training for 30 minutes at the conference. We also had to organize the interviews and where everyone was going to sleep and whatnot so we had very little time to prepare, but it went well.

After the zone conference we had to take  a flu shot. Everyone in the whole mission has to take this flu shot. We had to walk super far to find this place with the entire zone. Finally we found it and everyone was looking at us weird because there was 14 missionaries in this little vaccine house with sister crying not wanting to get a shot, but it all worked out. It was actually fun because in the waiting room there was a big TV showing the cameras throughout the building. There was a camera in the room where everyone had to go to get the shot so we got to see everyone get the shot haha!

Last week we went to eat lunch at a members house and there were 2 guys there eating lunch as well. They are not members so we talked with them during lunch and got their address and whatnot. We visited one of them this week and he is super interested. He lives alone and has 21 years. We always say that the person is an elect if they give us food on the first visit, and he gave us lots of food! We will work a lot more with him.

We have been teaching one lady for a long time. She has already gone to church 3 times and her 22 year old daughter went once. We taught her the Word of Wisdom this week and she accepted to live it and stop drinking coffee. So of course, we threw her coffee away! We threw it in the gutter next to her house! She was happy and committed to keep the commandment. Her daughter was not there during that lesson and apparently she was not very happy when she got home and learned that we threw away her coffee. When I called her to mark our next visit she was not very happy with us, but we went there Saturday night and taught the whole family the Word of Wisdom and now everyone will stop drinking coffee!!

Tomorrow we have our meeting in Belém. Our plane leaves here at 1:15 so we will have to leave here and go straight to the airport. But that's about it for this week.

Love yall!

Elder Green  

Week 95 - Maraba Preciso de mais 6!!

Hello!!!

We had a busy week. Transfers were on Monday and Tuesday so we were running around tring to get everyone in the right spot and what not. Elder Freitas is the new missionary in our house. He is from Elder Steindorfs group so I remember when he arrived in the mission and now he will see me end mine!

The 2 families that were baptized are doing good! The 2 men will recieve the priesthood next week and both families are making plans to go to the temple in a year! 

That 17 year old kid was not baptized.. We were able to convince his mom to let him be baptized but now his dad will not allow it. Someone (satan) showed the dad a bunch of false stuff about the church on the internet and now he is all freaked out and wont let his son be baptized. He was very sad but we wont give up on him. We will still visit him and he will go to church still. Sometimes we just have to be patient, but it will all work out!

We have a few really good investigators! But all of them have difficulties that are keeping them from going to church or be baptized, but we wont give up!

These next few weeks will be really busy. This week the presidente comes to Marabá to have a zone conference and do interviews. We are exited!

It is finally back in açaí season! We eating a ton of açaí to the point of getting sick! But I have to take advantage while I can. haha

Love yall!! Have a great week!

Elder Green

p.s sorry but I didnt take any pictures this week..

Week 94 - Maraba - Last Transfer!

Hello!

We had a great week! Transfers were yesterday and 1 elder from our house was transfered and also another elder and a sister. But we are super excited!

We had a district meeting on Wednesday. Because our zone is so distant we only have district meetings once a month, sometimes twice a month. But is was great. We went to Parauapebas. The church recently changed the way we do district meetings. At least here we use to do District meetings once a week and zone meeting once a month. A Zone meeting is different because the whole zone stays together and the zone leaders talk and do trainings and what not for the whole zone. But now we cant do that anymore, we can only have district meetings and everything has to be separated in districts.

We were able to find lots of new people to teach this week. Remember that 17 year old kid that was suppose to be baptized last week but his mom didnt allow it? So we worked a lot with him this week and finally we received permission from his parents to baptize him!!! We are trying to plan his baptism for this week. We will go there tonight to try and confirm everything.

The members in the branch have started helping us a lot more. They are bringing people to church and giving lots of referrals.

We had district conference yesterday. And because there is not a stake here yet the mission is in charge of the 3 branches in the district. President Gama came to preside and spoke. It was super good and everyone learned a lot.

I will try to have more to write next week! 

Love yall!!

Elder Green 

 

Week 93 - Baptisms in Maraba and Mother's Day Skype

Mother's Day Skype

Baptism of 2 families 

Hello!!!

This was a really good week. We left last Monday and went to Belém. We stayed there until Wednesday and got back here Wednesday night. It was a really good meeting with the president. We also got to eat at burger king 2 times!

When we got back we were super tired but we had a lot of stuff to do this week and did not have any time to rest. We had 6 baptisms this week. 2 families. It was very special and the members helped a lot and organized a really nice baptismal meeting with food and everything. One of the families was married on Friday so we also got to see a wedding. It was a very busy week!

On Saturday we had a ward church cleaning where the whole branch went to the house on Saturday morningto clean because next week is district conference. We stayed there all morning cleaning and then ate lunch. It was very productive and we were able to clean really well.

I am sitting here trying to think of something to write but I already said everything yesterday about my week!! I guess this will be a short email! I loved seeing you all yesterday!

Love yall!! Have a great week!

May Leadership Council Meeting in Belem

Branch Service Project - Cleaning the Church

Week 92 - Elder Costa Maraba

Hello!!

THis was a good week. We got to hear from Presidente Costa on Wednesday, well kind of. We were suppose to watch the transmission from Belém with the whole zone in Parauapebas. We got there and found out the internet was not working at the church... No member there has good internet so we had to think fast and decided to go to Canaã Wednesday morning to watch it there. But, the internet was SUPER slow and we missed the first 2 hours... So we ran to a cyber to see if the internet was better. We were not able to get the video but we were at least able to hear a little bit. It was buffering every 10 seconds so we got bits and pieces, but it was really good what we got to hear!!

While we were in Canaã we decided to take advantage and stay 1 more day to work with the elders there. It is a really cool city! And the elders there are teaching a guy named John Lennon. No one calls him John, you have to say John Lennon every time. It was difficult to teach him because I wanted to start laughing everytime I said his name, but now I can always say that I invited John Lennon to keep the Word of Wisdom!;)

I told you about that family we are teaching that has 3 kids and 2 of them with age to be baptized. THey are getting ready to be baptized this Saturday. 2 of there kids are super funny. One of them has 7 years old and the other one has 9. They try to be just like us! They put on their backpacks and walk together and start teaching their mom trying to be like us. Haha they did it yesterday while we were there and it was hilarious! Even the way they talk is exactly like missionaries! We made them throw away their coffee this week and the little kid almost cried! He got the coffee container after we had thrown it away and was looking inside and smelling it like he could not believe we had thrown his coffee away! We are praying that the other family will be married this week and baptized as well.

THe sisters from Parauapebas told us about a guy they were teaching but now he moved to our area. He went to church 2 times with them. We went this week and found him with his mom and his sister. They are in a very difficult situation but were very receptive. After the lesson the man said he had seen a priesthood blessing when he visited the church in the other city and asked us to give him and his family a blessing. After the lesson we were able to give each on of them a priesthood blessing and they came to church yesterday.

We are finding lots of good people to teach!

Love yall!

Elder Green  

Week 91 - Maraba Week 2

Hello!!

We had a good week. Very busy but it was good.

Last Monday night we left at night to visit a few people. We actually only had 1 appointment, but that person wasnt at home so we tried one other person that lives close by, but that person also was not home. So we decided to walk a little far to visit a women who promised to go to church last Sunday but didnt. We had planned to visit her on Tuesday but we went on Monday because we did not have any one else to visit. When we got there at 7 o clock, she was sleeping. We talked to another person that lives at that house and we decided to wake her up. She came out and we taught her. She felt so bad because she forgot to set her alarm and slept in on Sunday. We showed her that we were really sad that she did not go and she felt even worse. Then she told us that she prayed on Sunday and asked for forgivness and asked God to send us back to her house and give her another chance. She waited for us on Monday! When we showed up she cried and said she knows what we are teaching is true and that God has responded to her prayers. The only problem is that she lives with a guy and they are not married..... But we are still working with her.

We had our zone meeting on Thursday in Parauapebas. There are only 3 branches in the zone and 4 missionaries per branch. We have our meetings in Parauapebas because it is more central and easier for everyone. It is about 3 and a half hours from here. It was a good meeting and we got lots of stuff done. We will catch a bus today as soon as we leave the cyber to go Parauapebas because President Costa is visiting the mission and tomorrowthere will be a meeting with him. But because our zone is so far away we will receive a transmission from Belém to Parauapebas to watch the meeting. I always knew that would happen. I spent my entire mission close to the city in Belém and now my last 2 transfers I got sent far away and President Costa visits the mission and I will not see him personally!! Just my luck. But we are super excited to hear him.

We are teaching a lady we found knocking doors and her 12 year old son. She has a lot of kids and her house is crazy because it is only her who takes care of them. Seriously it is like a brazilian Green family house, little kids all over the place. But we are teaching them and she is very interested. Her son went to church by himself on Sunday because her youngest child was sick with fever and what not. We taught them the Word of Wisdom Friday night. All of them drink coffee. LOTS of coffee. And she smokes. It was night and we explained everything to her and she said she will stop drinking coffee and smoking. So we asked her to bring us the coffee she had in her house. She hesitated and said she didnt have anything else to give her kids the following morning. We told her we would bring her cevada (something that all the member of the church drink here. it tastes like coffee but is super healthy and actually really good!) the next day. She still didnt want to give it to us and said she did not have anything else to give her kids. We told her to give them water the next morning. She got sad and said that she could not bring herself to give her kids water to drink in the morning. We reminded her of the commandment and promised her that if she really cares for her kids she would give us all her coffee. We were very persistent and eventually she gave us her coffee and we let her son throw it all away. She seemed really sad and I felt a little bad afterward but we knew we had done the right thing. We bought her cevada the next day and she hasnt drank coffee since that day we threw it away!!! Now we just have to get rid of those cigarettes!!

We are teaching another kid with 17 years. He is super excited for his baptism and is going to church every week!

We are teaching a family that we are marrying. We have to go see today if they are already married because you have to wait like 30 days before it is official. SO we will check on that today and if it is all good they will be baptized this Saturday!! There is one more family that we are teaching and they are already married and have 2 kids with age to be baptized. We were worried that they didnt want to learn more about the church because they didnt go to church, but we went there last night and they were super excited! They felt bad because they didnt go to church and spent the day reading the pamphlets we gave them. It was a super good lesson and we invited all of them to be baptized and they all accepted!

I am loving this area!!

Love yall!

Elder Green