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     

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