Week 63 - September 21, 2015

Just Workin'!

New cut and frames!

The gifts from Mama B were a hit!

Someone keeps trying to break into the church building #brasilproblems

Monday: We were able to visit Raul and we decided to take a different approach when we teach him. We downloaded the church library app on his phone and we watched a Mormon message and conference talk with him instead of using the scriptures (which we have tried). We have been using more modern technology and the words of the living prophets to help him and its been working! We had made a goal the week before to get Raul going back to church and starting the whole process again.

Tuesday: So we decided to dedicate our day to knocking doors on a street where we’ve had the most success and we found a couple of people to teach. It started to rain and kinda killed our whole knocking doors idea and so afterwards we went to Raul’s place again to teach him again. (He lives alone and doesn’t work so he is always home.) After that we had a family home evening with a less active member who is super depressed and sad because her husband is making very bad decisions that hurt her a lot. It has been good being able to help her out a little bit.

Wednesday: We had a crazy day visiting some investigators and found two new people to start teaching, which was way cool. That just means that our Wednesdays and Saturdays are just gonna get crazier! We taught Roberson the rest of the Restoration and he has been reading the Book of Mormon.

Thursday: We went back to the same area that we were on Tuesday and found out that one of the families of whom we taught do not have any interest in learning more about the church, so that was a bummer. But we went back to the house of a kid we talked to on Tuesday and we spoke to him about our message and who we are and everything. He was super receptive and willing to listen. We also went back Raul´s house and he was feeling sad about his parents and his life and stuff and we helped him again using the Mormon messages and conference talks. After we went to a family home evening with another less active family and we ate so much food.

Friday: We had conference with president the whole day and we talked a lot about how we can work better with the members. Exactly what I needed to hear and learn about. 

Saturday: We visited a bunch of people and everyone is pretty much on the same page as last week...BUT we visited Raul again and he had shared with us a spiritual experience that he had with the Holy Ghost and how He spoke with him. He committed to go back to church. Earlier that day we visited Luciane and she committed to go to church again too. 

Sunday: Me and Coelho were walking on the street and we saw one of our old investigators walking with her two little boys. We stopped her on the street and asked how she was doing and she said," well not too good, my husband died." We were shocked because only a month ago we had talked with him and took the Book of Mormon back. We asked her what happened and she said ,"Yeah two men broke down our fence and entered in our house and shot my husband twice in the head." We weren’t really surprised because we kind of had the feeling that he wasn’t only washing cars to support his family...but what she said after that was crazy. "It happened the night after you guys came and took the Book back...." Honestly I have learned to understand and appreciate our mission rule of taking back the Book of Mormons when progress with the investigator stops. I think it gives the Book way more value. And really God just protected us by being obedient to that rule. Its better that someone actually used the Book of Mormon to read it and study it, than leave it on the bookshelf to collect dust. So we had to update their information in our area book...BUT we did mark a day to teach her at her mom’s house! Later we went to church and Raul was there! Bishop talked with him and the classes and everything were perfect! And Luciane went as well with her daughter (who we found out is not baptized), which was cool to see. We went to lunch and it got super hot out, but we visited Naor who didn’t go to church because he didn’t wake up on time to go. After that Elder got super sick so we went home. 

That’s all for this week!

Elder Buck

Week 62 - September 14, 2015

Just to make mom happy hahaha

Brasilian missionary style.... NO!

Thanks mom!

Monday: Nothing much....

Tuesday: We were able to return to the house of a person we taught and his mom and sister were also there to listen. They accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon and ask if it is true. Later we visited a less active member and he’s doing good...then we visited a guy from the Congregação Cristã do Brasil. He was willing to hear what we said but he did not listen and it was kind of frustrating. Then we tried visiting Anderson and he wasn’t able to listen to us. BUT we did talk to this lady (seated on a chair on the same property) who was crying. She told us a bunch of bad stuff that happened with her and her husband, but in the middle of her telling us these things, her husband shows up and says, " Are you guys Mormons?!" and Coelho said yes... and after the man proceeded by saying, 'Then GO AWAY! LEAVE my property or I call the police!" So we left... It was weird.

Wednesday: We visited Wagner and we are trying to get him back to church, but he’s just kind of being lazy and making excuses not to go. Afterward we were able to talk to Erica about prophets and apostasy. We visited Luciane (less active member from Curitiba) and her boyfriend listened to our message and everything! It was cool to see him open up a little bit. Then we visited Leonir and talked a bit about the Catholic Church and testified to him that only Church of Jesus Christ has the fullness of the gospel. After that we visited Valdomiro and seriously this guy is so cool! He just knows how to listen, it is good teaching him. Then we made a visit to Sandro who is a referral from the mini MTC thing that the ward did with the youth where they did contacts on the street and gave us the addresses. We were able to talk to him about prophets and apostasy. Finally we visited Carliane and Davilson and talked about things that will strengthen their relationship (prayer, scripture study, etc...). She is a lot more receptive than he is.

Thursday: We visited Raul and he is really struggling. Then we visited Anderson and asked him if he had heard his neighbor Tuesday night and he said yes. Then he told us how the Neighbor went to the side of Anderson's place and said that Anderson can’t let us in anymore because he hates Mormons. So he told us that we wouldn’t be able to visit him anymore. We took the Book of Mormon back (which is what our Mission President has told us to do) and lost our progressing investigator. After that we went to the house of a referral from one of the members and we showed up and met this 16-year-old kid named Gabriel. We started talking with he and his mom and the same time and when we asked him if he believed in God he said no. We then spent like 30 minutes trying to get more information out of him and tried to give more incentives for him to continue searching. He really didn’t want to hear anything we had to say and we left feeling a little frustrated. Our day was kinda rough...

Friday: We visited some less active members and afterward stopped by a house where we had recently knocked doors. There we met Jaqueline and Edipo. They were a little weird and asked a billion questions and seemed like they wanted to prove us wrong more than they wanted to listen... Later that night I was able to do my first baptismal interview ever which was cool! It was for an investigator of the sisters in our District. It was awesome.

Saturday: We visited Wagner gain and found out that he broke his foot. We visited Luciane again too and taught her and Roberson again. It was a super good lesson! We visited Leonir again and talked more about Gods plan and everything and it went relatively well! After that we went to visit Tulio and Tayane (of whom we marked their baptisms a while ago...) They are uninterested and are dodging us so we unmarked their baptisms. Then later that night we had a super good lesson with Ronald and Silvana about the Atonement.

Sunday: We went to church and Luciane and Roberson went! Yay! And Naor! Yay! But afterward we ate lunch we went to visit Naor and he’s doing good and is healthy enough to go to church (so he says). We visited Jacques and he wasn’t reading the Book of Mormon and he doesn’t want anything to do with the church either. So we took the Book of Mormon with us and went to the house of Raul...He was asleep o his bed, hung over from the party he went to Saturday night. We decided not to teach him because he has serious listening problems. We went to Maria´s house after and she fed us and we finished our week.

Love y’all! Tchau!

Elder Buck

Week 61 - September 8, 2015

Rain Rain Go Away...

The (new) district...

Crazy Caterpillar...

Monday: Mondays are pretty dang slow we just taught a less active member...

Tuesday: We knocked on a lot of doors. We taught some pretty cool people that let us in. We had a lesson with one of our investigators named Anderson who has read the Book of Mormon and accepted a date to be baptized, but he wasn't able to go to church so we'll see what happens there. We also had a family home evening with the old Bishop of this ward and his family and he made some really good food!

Wednesday: So normally Wednesdays are really good days for us and this Wednesday was too. We have taught Wagner about the importance of going to church (because he is not going) and he still seems pretty unexcited about it. We returned to the house of Erica (a girl who we talked to and taught knocking doors) and she wasn't there... BUT one of the people she is living with answered and we were able to talk with him, so that was cool. We taught another lesson in between, but afterward we returned to a house were we had talked to a man (Valdomiro) in the front, knocking doors. We entered and we started talking about what we do as missionaries and talked a little bit about the church and just got to know him a little bit. It was one of the calmest lessons I think I've ever taught with my companion or ever while on my mission. We talked about the organization of the church, about the Book of Mormon and the Gospel, and Jesus Christ. In the middle of the conversation he stopped and said," You guys are so calm when you talk about the Gospel and the things that you believe. Normally when I talk with missionaries from other churches, they always force things on me and its annoying, but the way you two talk is really different." Afterward we asked if we could say a prayer before leaving, and he accepted, and after recognized the spirit super strong and it was super super cool to see that happen on the 1st visit. So that was cool.

Thursday: We got to knock a ton of doors and try to teach people about the church of Jesus Christ. It was a long day, but we were able to talk with a handful of people...

Friday: Was a super long day too...but we were able to talk with Anderson again, but this time about the plan of salvation and he had a lot of good questions. It was a really good lesson.

Saturday...was busy! We taught someone we had done a contact with about the restoration and families. Afterward we decided to stop by Erica´s house again to see if she was home and she was. We began talking with her and she was texting someone at the same time, and we ended up asking her who she was talking to, and she said "do you guys really want to know?" And we said sure... she said she was talking with her girlfriend. It was one of the strangest lessons to teach. After that we visited some less actives and then went to Leonir´s house to see if we could have a Book of Mormon back and fortunately he has been reading it...so we are kind of unsure at the moment what to do with him...

Sunday: Church! Testimony meeting didn't involve anyone speaking apostasy or anything, so it was good! We taught Raul and he's kinda in the same boat still...its been a work in progress. And we visited Ronald and Silvana (less actives) and it sounds like they haven't been going to church because they've been feeling guilty.

Monday: Brasilian Independence Day...If you were wondering, this is why I'm writing on a Tuesday...it was as rough!

Tchau!
Elder Buck

Week 60 - August 31, 2015

Saying goodbye to Elder de Jesus.

Monday: We had the opportunity to teach a less active member and her husband about the atonement and how we can become clean if we repent. Her husband has word of wisdom and other serious problems and hasn’t been to church for over a year and a half. He went to church yesterday with her and it was pretty nuts.

Tuesday: We visited Michel and he returned the Book of Mormon and said that he read and prayed and didn’t receive an answer. That was really confusing and hard for us to hear (I’m thinking time is the answer), but he gave us his pastor’s information so we are going to see if we can have a conversation with him. We did a bunch of contacts too...

Wednesday: Wednesdays are some of our two busiest days of the week, but we had visited a less active member in our ward that we found knocking doors (Luciani). Before this we had told the 2nd counselor of bishopric to go visit her and HE DID! Unfortunately, she didn’t go to church on Sunday because she was sick, but I was super happy that the 2nd counselor did that. BUT Luciani gave a referral of another less active member who was living in the same neighborhood. We met them the same day and the man of the family is the nephew of one of the active members of our ward (this ward is kinda nuts). But we also visited Tulio and Tayane and challenged them to read the Book of Mormon and then pray and ask if its true. They said they would and then we challenged them to be baptized and they accepted - so we will have see if that’s going happen. We also visited Anderson later that night and asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon, and he had, but he didn’t feel like he received n answer yet. So we are going to work super hard with him so that he can, because I feel like he hasn’t put a lot of effort into the reading and studying to know if the Book is true.

Thursday: We visited Raul and he is...struggling. He’s 19 with no job, has physical challenges, he lives alone, and currently doesn’t have electricity to his house. He also has some other problems that he going through that are self inflicted so we have been trying to help him make things right. He hasn’t been to church for a super long time, and it has been really difficult for us with him these past few weeks. We had also visited Naor and he isn’t sick anymore so we have been working on getting him back to church. 

Friday: We knocked some doors and found a new person to teach who is 19 and wants to change his life (so he says...). We taught him a littlie bit about our purpose as missionaries and how our message would bless his life. It was good. We also visited a contact that we had who had moved to another house in our same area with her husband. Kelly and Everton... We showed up at 5:00 and left at about 7:45. It was outrageous. After explaining everything we thought he wanted to hear, it actually wasn’t. He just wanted to know about the organization and the commandments of the church, and yeah, Ill let y’all know what happens there. He didn’t accept to read the Book of Mormon but his wife Kelly did - so yeah that was weird.

Saturday: Our Saturdays are super busy like Wednesdays so our schedules were pretty tight. We had been walking on the street in this neighborhood and a woman stopped us and asked us where our church was located. We told her and then she told us that she was a member of the church. We asked for her information and she only gave us her phone number and went on her way. We gave the number to the 2nd counselor and he called them and VISITED THEM and then gave us their address. We went there and she and her husband were both home, so we talked them in to going back to church and they committed to go. We also visited Liliani and Maikon and she hadn’t read the Book of Mormon so we are going to keep working on them. That night we also visited Davilson ad Carliane and spoke to them about the Book of Mormon and challenged them to pray together 2 times a day (because the marriage is struggling at the moment). They accepted and are super elect to receive an answer about the Book of Mormon.

Sunday: We had our meeting with the ward mission leader and he is helping us to do some cool activities with the ward to get the people excited about missionary work. (If any of you have Ideas about what we could do, it would be greatly appreciated. This ward is struggles!) We had family home evening with some members and they had made hamburgers! (It wasn’t Five Guys but it was the effort that counts!) :) That’s all my friends!

Tchau!
Elder Buck

Week 59 - August 24, 2015

Still here in Iririú…

The missionaries from your neighborhood...

So this week was the week of transfers and unfortunately one of my best friends in the mission will be going to my old area...Elder de Jesus. That guy is awesome!

The District

Probably two of my closest friends in the mission...

Monday: We taught a less active member this week and she made a ton of awesome food and stuff and it was so good!

Tuesday: We taught Analise and Michel about the importance of the Book of Mormon again because they didn’t read. We also did a lot of knocking on doors because a ton of appointments fell through, so we found ourselves 3 new people to start teaching so that was way cool! At the end of our day we talked with our recent convert Raul and he’s dug himself a pretty giant hole and basically threw his whole life away...we are working super hard to get him back on his feet.

Wednesday: We visited some of our investigators this day, starting with Liliane. She is 19 with a SUPER bad smoking problem and is going through some financial difficulties. We did some calculating and showed her and her husband how much money she was wasting on cigarettes. We later found out that she has been making one pack of cigarettes last almost half a week, which was cool to hear. We invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Afterward we visited Luis, who has some issues and I’m not sure how much progress he is going to be able to make. After that we visited Wagner, a less active who is way discouraged about going to church. Some of the bishopric committed to visit him and then no one did. We then visited Leonir to see how his reading went and he said it went well and he prayed and afterward felt peace and stuff, but then he started bearing to us his testimony about MARY... and he almost started crying about Mary as the mother of Jesus and said if he goes to hell then at least he is going believing in MARY. And after started saying how praying to MARY is like the same thing as praying to God. <deep sigh>

Thursday: We returned to a bunch of the houses that we knocked on and a ton of people didn’t want to hear what we have to say, but we did bust out some lessons and found some quality people to teach as well so we will see what happens.

Friday: We continued helping Raul with his issues, we taught some less active members, and after that knocked a bunch of doors. (Sounds like I enjoy knocking doors, but the reality is that I don’t...We are just suffering because we have received zero referrals this past transfer and a half.) We found Anderson though! So we knocked on a door and found this guy who suffered a motorcycle accident and we taught him 2 days in a row! And he committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray!

Saturday: We visited Luciani, she’s a less active member who we found knocking doors, and when we showed up she said, " I knew you guys would come today!" And we were kind of confused because we hadn’t really marked anything with her, but she later told us she had a dream that we would visit her that day... so that was pretty cool. She told her husband that morning that we would probably be coming and he made fun of her because she dreamed that we would and he had a really funny look on his face!

Sunday: All of our appointments fell through, but Elder Anderson visited the Brasil, Florianópolis mission area and did a broadcast for all the members yesterday. HE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE! He has an accent (we all do...), but speaks really well! But today he is doing a special training with the missionaries from the 3 closest zones to the island so I didn’t get to go...but I thought that was cool for the missionaries from this mission that had the opportunity the see an apostle. 

But that’s all for this week, Love you all!

Elder Buck

Week 58 - August 17, 2015

A gecko we discovered in our house that got smashed by the door.

A leaf with a bunch of caterpillars!

Me and the Rabbit (Elder Coelho)!

Monday: Nothing really special happened…

Tuesday: We had talked with a person at the bus stop who curiously looks like my aunt Leanna and ended up getting to know her. So this past week we went to her house ended up teaching she and her husband about the book of Mormon and the restoration. Was super cool to see their brains starting to work and realize that the things we tell people have a very strong and true argument. They committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

Wednesday: We visited Leonir and asked him if he had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true and he said he wasn’t sure because he just felt good saying a normal prayer from the heart instead of saying a decorated Catholic prayer so that was super cool to hear. He was also able to explain super well the things we marked for him to read which was cool. We visited Laelcio and he said that his mom doesn’t want us to turn her son away form the teachings of the catholic church...so looks like we won’t be visiting him any time soon. It’s a bummer because he seemed super uninterested when we showed up...

Thursday: We knocked SO MANY DOORS but found a person to start teaching named Pamela. We taught her the first part of the restoration and about families and stuff but with a twist using the Liahona from this month. Before leaving I had a super strong impression to ask her if she likes to read and she said, "who doesn’t like to read, I love to read!" SO...we are kind of short on Book of Mormons at the moment so I ended up giving her a copy of the Liahona instead and told her I wanted it back (as an excuse to go back to visit her again)! I’m so smart! Elder wasn’t too pleased with me giving her the only Liahona from the month of August that we had, but I am hoping it’ll turn out okay!

Friday: We walked a lot this day just looking for unknown members of the church that the Bishop gave to us and it was pretty rough... We had dinner at a member’s house though, so that was cool!

Saturday: We had a meeting with the second counselor of the bishopric to talk about the activities we are going to be doing these next few months to get the ward excited about missionary work because this ward is dead! We are hoping that these activities will bring some investigators to church because it has been a while... we knocked a bunch of doors this day and found a married couple! So that was cool, we taught them and they seemed pretty interested!

Sunday: We went to church and taught a couple lessons and it was a great day!

Love you all!

Elder Buck

Week 57 - August 10, 2015

Monday: I don’t really have much to say about this day...

Tuesday: We had a lunch appointment marked at a house on the other side of the universe and we took the bus. The worst choice of bus ever...We ended up taking a tour of a large part of Joinville that was completely out of our area and we showed up at the members house 2 hours late....But we did end up finishing up our day with a bang having family home evening with a less active member and his non member family which was cool. After that, we had a good lesson with Anita and her 10-year-old daughter Mariani. Afterward, Anita PROMISED she would go to church on Sunday too. The visit was really strange actually... Mariani was hosting a Bible study class thing at her house like half hour after we arrived and when we finished, the Catholic ladies started showing up and we thought about sticking around but the Spirit said no hahaha....yeesh. 

Wednesday: We had interviews with President and that guy is super cool! His scriptures are super crazy.

President Silva's scriptures vs. a missionary's scriptures

Thursday: We did a lot of contacting this day and found 4 new people to teach.... It was way cool! The first is Lealcio. He is 22 and when we knocked on his door and started talking about the apostasy he got super interested. He let us in, we taught him about the restoration and then he agreed to let us come back and talk more about it. Then there’s Marilda....she is kind of weird and doesn’t understand very much but yeah... We knocked on a door last week and a guy answered and told us to come back this week and when we returned he let us in and his situation is pretty interesting. He was super interested in the Book of Mormon, and he’s read the Bible 6 times cover to cover…in jail....Soooo we left the book with him and they PROMISED that they would go to church Sunday too.

Friday: We did a ton of trackting again... its rough hahaha, but later that day we visited Naor, a less active member, and he tried convincing us that dentists just want to rip teeth out of people’s heads and that 7 guys tried killing him for leaving the Catholic church and it was weird.... We continued knocking doors after and his dad found us on the street (Naor is a grown man living with his dad...) he told us that he has schizophrenia...that cleared up some stuff for sure.

Saturday: We had a lesson with Leonir and Cleonisse (investigators we found knocking doors...) And Leonir read the part we marked in the Book of Mormon 4 times. It was awesome! Cleonisse is getting there... And we asked him if he prayed to know if the book is true and he said no. He said he didn’t want to pray because he feels like he’s asking God for a sign haha. But he said he would pray anyway and let us know, He’s so cool! 

Sunday: We went to church and none of our investigators showed up. We did have a lesson with some less actives (this is memorable) and this member (Silvana). She just thinks super outside the box and she asked me if the apples in the US taste the same as apples in Brasil and if we have bananas there. Sometimes I feel like I’m from a different planet.

But it was a great week!

Elder Buck