Happy Independence Day! Brasil!

So today is Brasil´s 4th of July, and we are super lucky that this computer place is open because 1. Today is a major holiday here and 2. The biggest party/event is happening this whole week here in Porto Nacional and everyone is closed. This party thing that they are having luckily is outside of the city so we don´t have to deal with the iniquity that parties bring here. But today was super sweet because they had a parade of sorts in the street. We watched and took pictures. The parades they have here are weird and tell the story of brasil. All the schools participate and the little kids dress up as slaves and and indians and explorers and presidents of brasil and all sorts of stuff. I was a little disappointed because they didn´t throw out candy... Like, what an expectation when they told me ``there will be a parade!`` and I showed up thinking I´d get a few candies like all the parades we have back home! haha :) But tudo bem.

This week nothing too exciting happened. We spent a lot of time working in the neighborhoods around the church and found a few people. Friday we knocked on the door of a guy and he opened it and said ``come in!!!`` and then ran between two houses inside the gate and to his behind the other two (confusing I know, the houses here are all bunched together) but we followed him and saw that he was cooking pasteis. He almost burned them to answer the door! haha. But we sat with him for a while as he cooked and gave us some. So great when people feed the missionaries :) This guy´s name is Cimario and he reminded me of dad at first site. He had a goatee and had a hat on! haha. Super rad. But he is a great guy that is catholic by birth (like everyone here) but told us he is looking for the church that is right for him. We taught the restoration and he was super interested and will go to church this next Sunday. Hopefully we´ll be able to mark a baptismal date with him this week.

Oh! just remembered one of the coolest stories of the week. Last tuesday evening we were walking down by the lake and saw two kids playing basketball at the park they have there. E. Burock and I talked about it and decided to go talk to them. We just walked up and asked there names and how long they had been playing (because they were airballing like crazy) and soon enough they tossed us the ball. We shot around for a few minutes and asked if we could play a game to 12. They were happy enough to accept the challenge. Before we started I told them that if we won they had to listen to a message and if we lost we would just leave. So we started playing and it was hilarious. I was so out of practice and airballed a ton. But soon remember you have to take the ball to hole! (right dad???) So I just started schooling them with a few moves and doing lay-ups. We ended up winning 12-0. haha! I couldn´t help myself. They all thought I was the best american basketball player ever. But while we were playing a few more of there friends showed up and started watching. So at the end of the game I asked if we could share a message with them and the accepted. And so did there friends! So we ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation on the basketball court as 10 young men all listened intently to what we had to say. It was so awesome and they had questions and comments that were real. We were able to get 6-7 addresses and numbers from them so it was very successful! They all loved it as well and want to play again someday :) haha.

Also, this week during a lesson at Neysa´s and Anevaldo´s house we had a ´funny´ moment. We were teaching in the backyard and just talking. (imagine the backyard, its all open and no walls of neighbors or anything.) So all of sudden about 5-6 people ran out of the house directly behinds there´s screaming ´´fight! run run run!´´ and they all ran whizzing passed us. We all jumped up and grabbed the kids and ran inside! Luckily it was anything serious, just a drunk guy that was mad at somebody. At first it got the adrenaline pumping, but we all ended up laughing afterwards. 

So this next week should be very good. We have a conference here in Palmas with Elder Costa from the Setenta and with Pres. Lundgren. Also its transfers already if you can believe it. But lots of stuff to do this week and it should be very busy. Love you all so much and hope everything is going well. This church is true! I don´t have a doubt about it! Thanks for sharing about the scripture studies :) Super awesome. have a great week!

com amor, Elder Patterfilho

August 31 2015

So my beloved family. I bet you are all wondering why I am emailing so late! I hope dad and mom haven´t stressed out too much. But today we were in Palmas for our zone p-day and it was a blast. Our bus coming back showed up super late, so thats why I am writting so late. So I will talk a little about our activity today. We all chipped in and bought stuff to make pancakes, eggs, cookies, and to buy orange juice and coke. We had an american breakfast activity :) Super legit. I loved it so much and I was a cook. I made 36 scrambled eggs all at once! It was pretty awesome and everyone loved them. We all basically chilled and laughed and joked and relaxed today together. Super fun to be with the other elders and sisters. They are awesome.

But since I am writting so late I don´t have much time and apologize because I won´t write the longest email ever to tell about the week, but I will try to fit in all the important stuff.

So this week we had a district fast, fasting for our investigators and our zone goal of 3 baptisms for this transfer. Let me just say that it was a hard fast and Satan was working hard because every single house we went to offered us food and juice and all sorts of goodies! But we were able to accomplish it just fine. And let me just tell you, that my testimony of fasting is so strong! I know God blesses us greatly when we sacrifice a little. We finished our fast wednesday afternoon and that very night we confirmed a baptism for this sunday and remarked baptismal dates for Neysa and Dandara for Sunday as well! We were super super blessed and I know with a surety that God helped us because of our efforts. 

Now, maybe you are wondering if the baptisms happened or not... Well, they happened! And it was marvilous! Yesterday was a super special day for us. Vilma chose E. Burock to baptize her and we were planning to have Neysa´s husband baptize her and her daughter. But it turned out he has had a problem with coffee lately and said that he´d rather not do it. The Branch President talked to him to work through it but he said it was fine if someone else did the baptism. So the very last minute we had to ask her who she wanted and she chose E. Burock to baptize Dandara and me to baptize her! I was kinda shocked because he has been here for everything but I was super honored. And yesterday morning I had the feeling that I should take my baptismal clothes to the church (whispers from the Holy Ghost) even though I knew I wasn´t going to do it. But I did it anyways and I was prepared when she asked me to do it! So the baptismal service went super good and all three of them were glowing like the flower off of Tangled after. The Spirit was so strong! And want to know something even more special? Baptizing her was super cool because she is pregnant! Its like every missionaries dream to baptize a pregnant woman :) ha! Super cool :) hehe.

This week was also a very hot hot week here. Mom is keeping up on the weather app or something but I promise it seems so much hotter. The sunrays are strong here and give sunburns through clothes. But I walk with a bottle of sunscreen in my bag and apply it often :) no worries mommy :) But can you all believe that I am loving it? I couldn´t be happier to be here in Tocantins. I don´t want to ever leave this place! ha. I am sorry this email is short and I am going to think of a million things I could have said right when I sent it, but thats how it goes. love you all, take care and read the scriptures this week and tell me something you learned!

com amor, Elder Patterson

oh! also saw a bunch of monkeys monkeying around here in our area! Its soooooo cool! I love it :) And quick note, we are exercising every morning and running down by the lake. Its amazing, I love it.

Doing Work

Hello.

Thanks for all the emails this week! Glad to hear that everyone is going good and school is starting again. Que saudade da escola... It´s super weird to think that school is starting and all my little sophomores are going to be seniors. Can´t wait to hear about all the sports and stuff that will be going on. All of that stuff (school, sports, homework, activities, etc) feel like a dream. It feels like it all happened a lifetime ago. But I hope all of ya´ll enjoy a new week and survive the heat. I have been using sunscreen a lot (mom, no need to send more... I have got like 5 full bottles still that you´ve sent...) and I started using one brand that I always used at Lake Powell and other trips and the whole day I will catch a wiff of it and remember the lake and it makes me trunky for boating. And it doesn´t help that our area is on a lake and we cross this bridge everyday! Freak! I just want to jump in so badly... But such is life. 

So this week was a good week. Full of visits, new people, spiritual experiences, and sweating. So I want to talk a little about this family that we are teaching. I mentioned them last week. The less active father that is coming back to church and received the priesthood last conference. His family isn´t a member but we are teaching his wife and daughter (they have the age for baptism). They have 3 other little kids that are adorable as well. So Neysa (mom) and Dandara (daughter) had baptismal dates for this weekend. So we passed by a few times this week to see how everything was going with them and Neysa said she was still unsure and nervous about all of it but she wanted to do the interviews still. So Friday we went there with Elder Barbosa and Elder Medina and they did the interviews. Dandara of course passed because she is a child and they don´t have many problems or doubts. And Neysa´s interview lasted a long time so we were pretty nervous the whole time. But they both ended up passing! The only thing was is that Neysa wanted to pray about it and talk with her husband that night to see if she should be baptized yesterday. When we called her Saturday she gave us the answer that she wants to be baptized for sure! But that she didn´t want to do this weekend. She said she wants to have a lunch after and invite her family and stuff so we were really happy with her answer and said thats perfectly fine. SO we are going to help her set a new date that she feels comfortable with and we are super excited for them :)

We also have many more people we marked dates with this week and are helping them progress towards baptism. We have one family that is really quite odd but awesome to visit. So this woman has two daughters that live next door to her. One of them is a less active. The other is 15 and has a baby that turned 1 saturday. When we teach them they always call everyone to listen. The ``dad`` of the family is basically drunk every time we go there but he is a nice drunk. When we taught them last time he wanted to say the first prayer and we were pretty nervous but it ended up being super good so we were surprised at that! But this family lives pretty far from the church and yesterday they walked about 3 miles in the blazing sun to get to church. And Vilma (the 15 year old) carried her child the whole way. It was awesome to see the sacrifice they did. 

Our sacrament meeting was a lot better. Had about 50 people there. This little branch is so great and I love all of them. I just want to help them all so much and I am so thankful for this desire I have. Because if I didn´t have a desire, we´d probably do nothing here. I am the one that has to motivate all of the elders in our house. I am the only one that wakes up on time, does exercises, studies diligently, and says ``lets go work.`` I have already learned so much here and am loving it. The opportunities here are incredible. 

So random side note, this dude here in this internet cafe just started talking to me like I have known him for years calling me elder and everything. Turns out he is from the same city as my ´son´ Elder M. Santos and he knows him! haha. I have no idea what he is doing here and said he is just passing through but will be at church Sunday. Small world eh? 

Also, this next week should be really good. Tomorrow we are going on a trip to Gurupi to have a meeting with our sisters and help them out. It should be a loooong day of travel (almost 10 hours altogether. We will leave super early.). But yeah, this is my little update on the week. I am doing great, eating well, and learning so much. If I could ask for one thing, it would be more pocket listerine breath spray thingies...  ha! Mine are running out. But other than that, no worries here. Have a great week! Love all of you!

com amor, Elder Patterson

Pictures from a service project......

Back in Paradise

Hello! Nossa, eu estou feliz de mais!

So woke up this morning and saw some Toucans flying outside of our window. Just a little picture you all can imagine right now. :)

Here I am! back in Palmas. The bus ride last Tuesday was super awesome. We came back with 3 sisters and 3 elders. We all played games on the bus ride and jokes around. Super fun. We also celebrated after the 14th hour on the bus when the bus stopped we bought a 2 liter of coke and all shared! haha. Freaking missionaries :) 

But yeah, after I got to Palmas I was greeted by sooo many missionaries that I love and missed! Elder Medina and Elder Fernandes are here and they were excited to see me. But the best part was was when all of us missionaries were there in the bus station an elder told me someone wanted to talk to me and I looked and saw Bruno from palmas 3 there! Gosh I got so excited and ran up and gave him a big hug. He´s basically the best! I have missed him so much and it was soooo good to see him again! Made me so happy. But shortly after we had to catch another hour bus ride to Porto Nacional...

So tuesday morning we got to our apartment and basically the day consisted of us eating lunch, me unpacking, and a dinner with a member family. Our apartment is nice. Small but not to small. There are 4 elders in our apartment and its weird because they are apart of the other zone here in palmas. I don´t know if I told you all or not but the transfer I left Palmas they split this zone so now its Zona Palmas and Zona Tocantins. I am apart of Tocantins. But yeah, so we live in the same house and are in the same area but not apart of the same zone! haha. Its weird but cool. Elder Fox and elder Silva are with us. Elder Fox is an Indian, Navajo. and Elder silva is argentino! haha, I constantly mess with him, its great. 

But Wednesday we had a zone meeting in Palmas and during our bus rides some members from Taquaralto saw me and talked to me. It was super awesome. I am basically loving every part of being back here in Palmas in the heat. Did I mention that its super hot??? Yep. And I love it! Not that I love the heat because I prefer the cold, but its just what I am used to :) hehe. 

This week we spent most of the time meeting members and less actives and our investigators. We have some people that have LOTS of potencial here. We even have two baptisms marked for this week already. A mom and her daughter. Her husband is a less-active that is coming back to church and recently received the priesthood. Our visit with them was incredible and all my feelings and love towards Palmas came back. The people here are so different than the other places in the mission because its so far away. The people where I were are great as well and I sure do love them but I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the people here because they helped me from the beginning :) 

So my area is pretty big and I realized our areas problem super super fast! And that is less actives. We have enough less actives here to have 3 wards but its still a branch because people don´t stay firm. For example, in church we had 27 people, 7 of which were kids. We have 2 youth here. Its crazy how small the amount of people is that go to church and how many members we have. So we will be working a lot with less actives here. We even found a guy yesterday that I consider a ´´less active investigator.´´ His name is Fernando and he went to our church for 3 years straight but was never baptized because of cigarrettes and booze. But he is super super legit! Like he acts and talks like a member of the church. The whole time he was there I could just feel Gods love for him. Like never before have a felt that someone is so special that I just met. I did everything I could to get his address but he said his parents wouldn´t allow it. So we gave him our number and he said he´d call us when he is ready and promised he´d go to church this week. 

Oh! Also, we did a service project this week at a chacara of a member. Its like a farm house of sorts out in the weeds... He is moving out there with his wife and kid and we helped him clean it up. And the title of my email is apart of this project. We had to clean out the house and it had tons of cobwebs on the ceiling and walls and everywhere. I was killing spiders like crazy. Spiders where falling from the ceiling and it was just my worst nightmare... Nossa. It was a nightmare and you all know how much I hate spiders, but after saturday, I conquered my fears and I am sure I killed more spiders that day than I have in my entire life. But yeah, it was fun to serve. Also I painted the bases of trees with white paint to protect them from fungus and stuff... I actually got paint in my left eye and I must have been allergic or something because the very day it got all red around it and seemed like I had fought someone :) haha! But its already good. Just good times here. 

Well, I love you all and hope you all have a great week! Tell everyone that I love them and that I miss them :)

com amor, Elder Patterson

TRANSFERS

So this week was super awesome. we had a mission conference and I got to spend the day with Elder Anderson, Elder Seth, elder goodsell, and elder josephson. Wow, what a great day and such a fun experience. I honestly love being with all of them and we all got trunky talking about our one year mark and elder goodsell already started making plans for all of us when we get home :) he has a house in sunbrook so for sure we all will get together and party... But the conference was great. Learned lots of stuff that I won´t bore all of you with ;) hahaha.

But wedensday we basically spent the whole day doing a service project at the bishops house painting his gate and barred windows. It took forever and at the end of it, I looked like the Hulk! I still have green paint on in my fingernails and we did it last wednesday. 

Thursday we made two visits because I got a cold the night before and barely slept a wink. I was super exhausted, my voice was completely gone, and sore throat. So I called Sis Lundgren and she told us to just go home and rest, so we did for a little while but we still went out at night to make a few visits and Priscila made us a nice dinner for my one year mark! She is the best for sure :) 

Friday was also wayyyy fun! We had an activity in the ward called Festa de Junina. Its like a holiday where people dress up as cowboys and girls where what looks like pioneer clothes and they eat traditional food from brasil. Lots of food made with corn, canjica and soups! We took a few investigators there and they all loved it. Especially luis fernando! he went and made lots of friends. The activity was a huge success and had lots and lots of people.

Saturday we spent the day running from appointment to appointment. We visited lots of people ending with Luis Fernando finalizing everything for his baptism! He is such a stud. But we also visited Valeria and her family because they didn´t go to church the past two weeks because we ``didn´t explain well enough`` for them. Even thought I explained 10 times exactly what she needed to do and the hours of the church and everything. So we visited her and invited her again to go to church and she gladly accepted! And the best part was was when we were on the bus and she got on accompanied by priscila and a few other members. It was great to have help from the members yesterday. Especially because we didn´t really have time to stay with Valeria and her kids the whole time because we were getting everything ready for Luis´ baptism. AND it happened! Our little amigo Luis Fernanda was baptised! I let elder m. santos do it and he was super excited. It was so great and Luis loved it!! Super spiritual and he had tons of support from the ward and his new friends :) Unfortunately Eduardo wasn´t baptized... Don´t know exactly what is stopping him. Well, mostly it is his family that doesn´t support him very much so it makes it super super hard to help him finally get baptized. But I have faith he´ll be baptized one day...

SO some news... #ISURVIVEDLUZIÂNIA. I was transferred!!! I was actually a little surprised about it. I thought I´d stay to finish the trainning of my son but thats not the plans the Lord has for me. And the plans the Lord has for me a super super super great!!! I got transferred and during the transfer meeting they went through every zone and showed the picture of the missionaries faces on the screen. I was more than surpirsed to see my face show up on the PALMAS screen!!! I AM GOING BACK!!!!!  Heck yes!!! I was soooooo excited! I am going to Porto Nacional! It´s an area realitively close to my other areas there and for sure I am going to see everybody there that I left from both Palmas 3 and Taquaralto!!! Nossa! I can´t explain how happy I am and I am going back as district leader. I will get on the bus here in couple hours for the 13 hour bus ride that I have never been so excited to take :) ha. My companions name is Elder Burock, brasilian, and i´ve heard that he is like a more or less missionary that sounds like he is ``dying.´´ So I am going to have to kick his bottom into shape. 

But some other news is that my package from mom got here! I had to go to Brasilia today to get it. I had to pay 40 reais for it. Which is like 10 american dollars in the moment so it wasn´t so bad. So today was also super excited and fun. Because I had no one to go with to the mail place, I went with sister and Elder Rowe. The senior couple that work in the mission office. they were my companions for the day :) And they are so great! They took me out to lunch in the mall :) I got some Parmesan chicken and some potato bites. Wow, what a treat to eat in a fine restaurant! They are amazing and I love them. Everyone can feel the love they have for the missionaries. But yeah, I have tons of pictures to send of everything that happened this week but I can´t send them from the computers here. Just know that hopefully next week you´ll get some pictures. 

I love you all and hope you all know I am excited for me new adventures in PALMAS! Yeah!!!! haha :) have a great week to all of you. Love you all lots and thanks for everything!

Hump day week and post birthday

This week was a busy week. We taught tons of people and have been working super super hard. Our zone leaders have thrown out challenges every day to help reach the mission goals and they have been challenging for sure. But we worked super hard to accomplish a few of them. This week we had one day where we taught 8 lessons. It was pretty difficult to accomplish for us because lots of times its hard to find someone that wants to listen to a message, but we trusted in the Lord that we would be able to do it (the goals was 7) and we were able to do it! Made us super happy. 

Now I want to give you all an update on Eduardo. We taught him this week and it went super good. As I have said before we are reteaching him all the lessons to help feel better prepared for baptism. He has already had like 4 or 5 dates for baptism but every time he has said the same thing ``very early´´ so thats why we´ve been reteaching. And friday was the day we´d finish all the lessons for the second time. I planned it out well and the last lesson was The Gospel of Jesus Christ that teaches about faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy  Ghost, and enduring to the end. We taught each topic and made sure he understood asking after each one, ``what does this mean to you?´´ and ´´how will you apply this/improve in  your life?´´  And at the end of the lesson I asked, ´´what is stopping you from being baptized?´´ and he said ´´I don´t know.´´ and I asked if he feels prepared for baptism now and he said that he feels a lot better about it. Right then I just said, well, you know that we are here to help people follow Christ and do all the right things in life to make it back to our Father in Heaven, and we want to finally help you do these steps and hold your baptism next sunday. And finally after months of teaching he said ``it´s not early anymore´´   It made me so so so happy to finally hear him say that! He finally made the decision to be baptized and is doing it for himself. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I have had. I could feel that all the words we were saying were guided by the spirit. And I know that this week will still be a battle to make sure the baptism finally happens because Satan is a tool and tries to mess up our work. But pray for Eduardo that he can have the support of his family and finally go through with it!!

Our next lesson that is noteworthy is of a woman named Valeria. Don´t know if I have already talked about her or not. But we planned a lesson with her and planned to visit her with Priscila (my recent convert). We weren´t sure if it was going to work out and we almost cancelled due to time, but we went through with it and everything worked out perfectly! Priscila got home from work just in time to make the visit and Valeria and her kids were all there. We watched The Restoration with them and it was super spiritual. Even the kids watched and payed super close attention! At the end we all bore powerful, strong testimonies and so did Priscila. She even said the last prayer! It was such a great moment to see new investigators progressing but as well as Priscila. So yeah, I learned from this experience that making plans for every lesson is super important and we need to trust in the Lord that if we truly planned with the spirit, we are supposed to execute that plan. And with our faith, everything worked out perfectly! loved it.

This week was super awesome and I had so many spiritual experiences where the precious truth of the gospel were once again confirmed to me through the holy ghost. I am forever grateful that i am here in Luziania. I have found my purpose here in this area and am learning the things the Lord wants me to learn.

BUT this week also had some fun times as well because I did turn 20 and all :) So I will tell you all what I did for my birthday... So I woke up and made myself some brownies of course and for E. M. Santos trainning we got to watch The District so we spent the morning eating brownies and watching ``a movie.`` haha. After we ate lunch at the bishops  house and it was a normal, delicious, brasilian lunch, rice and beans! haha :) But she did make a cake for dessert that I love. After lunch we went to work visiting people and teaching! The work never stops. We made some really good visits in the afternoon and then at night we waited for the elders from Jardim Inga to get here. Once tthey got here we heading to Arte Com Sabor. My favorite pizza place in the world. We all ate soooo much and I ate 11 pizzas. I enjoyed every second of it :) Then we went home! After I had got ready for bed and I was writting in my journal I got some phone calls from some of my favorite people ever (funny thing, every time the phone wrang saturday I thought aunt michelle would be on the other side singing to me! hahaha so great.) But I got a phone call from Elder Nordfelt and Elder Goodsell! Goodness, it was so great to talk with them and it ended the day perfectly! haha. I really loved my birthday and will never forget it. And it didn´t stop there...

Yesterday, after church we didn´t stop eating cake. After lunch, we ate cake... We went to a family night with the bishop and his wife to a members house and she made me a huge delicious cake. And after we went to another family night (I should have known something was going on with all the family nights the members were wanting to do) where I taught about the prophet and after they brought out two more cakes! Nossa! I was so sick of eating cake yesterday! hahaha. But it was so great and I really love all the members here. They all love me as well. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the people He has allowed me to meet, serve, and love here. 

So that basically sums up my week! it was sure a week and a birthday to remember! Thanks again for everything that you all do for me! Have a great week! 

com amor, Elder Patterson

Elder Patterson is turning 20!

Playing capture the flag....

Wow! I can´t believe that this week is my birthday! Thanks to everyone that wished me a happy birthday :) Makes me feel loved and appreciated. But yeah, 20 years already! No longer a teenage punk... All grown up now. haha :) The members here are all really excited for my birthday and I will probably receive some cakes :) so no worries. And the only candles I they have here are those stupid trick candles that don´t go out when you blow on them! Its hilarious. 

So this week I have a few fun things to tell all yáll! First I will start with the lessons and spiritual stuff because. So we had a zone meeting and we learned about a technique of teaching that we applied that very day and had success. What we did was before a lesson started was that we taught about the holy ghost and how we can know what we are teaching is the truth or not. We shared a few scriptures and explained clearly what the holy ghost can feel like and then we started teaching. We taught this lady and her kids the restoration and during the lesson, especially after the First Vision we asked what they were feeling and then explained that they were feeling the holy ghost testifying to them that what we were teaching was true. It was a super spiritual lesson and even though we may not have taught perfectly or explained everything in the most simple way, the spirit was there and makes up for anything we lack. But after the lesson we invited them to be baptized and they accepted and we set a date for them in August. I am excited to see if they progress and how the gospel will bless their lives because they definitely need the blessings.

But I don´t know if I have given an update on Eduardo in a little while. We are still teaching him and working hard to help him progress to baptism. Its sorta hard to teach him and lots of other people because its like ´´summer break´´ here and everyone is travelling and going on trips. But we are reteaching him all the lessons and he is understanding a lot better and writting down questions super interesting that normal investigators don´t ask. He is super smart and will be a great leader in the church one day if he´s baptised. 

But this week we also had a baptism in Jardim Inga and an activity after. We took Luiz Fernando with us and he was super excited and loved the baptism. We played capture the flag after and it was super fun and tiring. Needless to say I think I am out of shape... 

So a few things that are super interesting and fun here is that in the late afternoon here, you can look up in the sky and see 50 kites flying. A big thing about the culture is to have kite fights. Kids and adults of all ages fight kites. It is so awesome to watch and see. Yesterday we passed a kid and stopped to talk to him because he was prepping his kite. And what they do is take glass and break it up into powder and mix it in a mixture of glue and water and then apply it to the kite string to make the string a thing of death. ha. But they fly the kites super high and its awesome to see how much control they have over the kites. The kid yesterday flew his kite into another neighborhood and chased down a kite and cut the string of it. It was pretty legit. The power lines here are full of ´kite bones´how I like to put it. I will try and take some pictures for all of you if I can. But something really crazy is that people actually die because of these kites that have string with glass. Its rare, but happens with people that drive motocycles and stuff... Flying kites seems like such a weird thing but a cultural thing super cool all the kids that do kite fights.

But yeah, I am planning to each a pizza buffet this week for free on my birthday :) Its free for the birthday boy and I am going to celebrate my brasilian birthday by eating the delicious pizza here! ha. And I will make myself some brownies or something as well on Saturday. I am super excited because I have been saving one of the brownie packages for a while now ;) But don´t worry, my birthday is going to be awesome and to be honest I had forgotten about it until I read the emails wishing me a happy birthday :) Love you all! have a great week! 

com amor, Elder Patterson

July 13, 2015

Goodness, this week got sooo cold! I couldn´t believe it. We had one day that was pretty hot and the next it was as if Santa was coming. SOOO cold (and when I say sooo cold it was probably only 50 degress, but I have become brasilian blooded :0 haha!). But really, one day it was all just dark and cloudy and had a breeze that made the soul cold. It was also raining and just all stormy. I loved it! I think all of you know how much I love this type of weather. Big dark storm clouds that just make you want to bundle up and watch a movie :) I just want all of you to imagine the nice weather I am having while St. George is super super hot! hahaha. But yeah, this week was difficult to find anyone in the streets because of the weather. And even when it was raining people didn´t even open the gates for us because they didn´t want to leave their houses, freaking meanies. ha

So wow! another week has come and gone! It seems to be going by so fast and I don´t know how. The one year mark is coming up and its all downhill after that! Sheesh! 

I will highlight a few major points from this week. Friday was a really fun day because we were able to go to Jardim Inga and participate in an activity us missionaries all did. A night of integration with investigators and members. We shared a little message and played charades. It was super funny. I got the card to act out cake pan... Like seriously, how on earth do you act out cake pan??? ha, anyways, that activity was really fun and everyone loved it. The members really came through as well and brought lots of food for everyone :P ha. Its not a church activity if there is no food involved! But after we stayed the night in Jardim Inga and its always such a blast to stay with other missionaries for a night. 

Then Saturday morning E. Benedetti and E. Figueiredo came back with us to Luziania to help a member of the church move her house. And it was a very difficult day. We spent 10 hours moving her house and at the end of the day we were all exhausted beyond belief. It was a circus as well trying to get her fridge out of the tiny apartment. We had to take the doors off the fridge and doors off the apartment to get it out! and not to mention it weighed like 200 pounds or something. But we were finally able to do it. And we ate lunch with her and she started crying blessing the food because she was so thankful for our help. It made us all feel so good that we were able to help her. She is a single mom and had no one else to help. Serving others is really so gratifying and truly brings us closer to Christ. <3

This week was a very difficult week as far as lessons and finding new people. I don´t know exactly why some weeks are harder than others when we are working our tails off and following all the rules, but these weeks I seem to always grow more and learn more. And trusting in the Lord, because it truly is His work, is the only way to get through the times when no one wants to hear about the gospel. But it is amazing to be here doing His work and trying to help our fellow bretheren learn about and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. I studied a lot about our premortal life and the plans Satan and Christ presented. I have never studied much about this topic but I am so thankful that all of us here chose to follow Christ. Christ´s plan truly is perfect and I am learning more and more each day about it and how I can help not only others reach salvation, but myself as well. The church is true people!

I love you all and hope this week is the best for all of you :) Don´t forget to read the scriptures daily and say personal and family prayers! The little things are the things that are most important! AMO VOCÊS, FIQUEM FIRME! 

com amor, Elder Patterson

Luziania Goias

Goodness the weeks pass by so fast...

So this week was way rushed and just full of twist and turns for me. Lots of good and exciting news for sure :)

Monday after I finished emailing we received some news about the other dupla in our house, elder Labrada and Elder ramos. The news was that Elder Labrada would stay in asa sul tuesday night and tuesday elder ramos would be transferred! We all thought another missionary would come to replace Labrada but that wasn´t the case. We were all super suprised and we stayed up pretty dang late monday night going over every investigator of the other elders. So as of Tuesday I inherited another area to take care of and visit! It has been insane this week visiting all of our people and all of their people. We have seriously got home everyday exhausted and crashed. We plan and have gone to sleep at like 9:45. It has been amazing to be so tired from working so hard.  

So to explain a little more about my current situation is this... E. Santos and I are the only missionaries in the biggest area of the mission with just tons of people to visit and most likely new missionaries will get here next transfer, August 3rd. And if you think about it, I have a super high probability of staying here one more transfer after this one because ´training´´ of a missionary lasts two transfers and if new missionaries get here they will be all sorts of lost and I´d be the only capable of showing them the area. ha! So that means I will have about 8 months in one area! haha! its insane but honestly so great. I love it here. Luziania is amazing and I love the members here. They all love me a lot as well and are planning my birthday already... Goodness. ha :) But yeah, looks like my mission packet should be changed to Mission Luziânia Goias! :) hehe.

But this week was also really good and way fun and way spiritual. I am learning so much and have progressed more these last few weeks than any other time on my mission. I have truly felt the Holy Ghost speaking through me and gift of tongues is really real. This week we taught many lessons and it has been so cool because as I am the trainer, my comp doesn´t know how to do anything basically so I basically teach everything but when I am teaching I feel that it isn´t really me that is teaching. I have received so much help from my Heavenly Father as I have been called to bear these loads here in Luziania. I know that I couldn´t do it without Him. Christ´s enabling power of the Atonement is amazing and I have truly witness the power of it these few weeks.

Now a few exciting things that happened this week was that Elder Labrada finished his mission but he was released here and his mom came to pick him up. While they were here we had a family night with them and the members of Luziana. It was sooo cool and so weird to see Elder Labrada as a normal person hugging women and stuff :) But the family night was super special at the bishops house and very spiritual as everyone bore testimonies. E. Labrada also left some shirts and stuff for me to use as well so I was excited about that. 

So I will tell you about a few investigators now before I sign off, the first is Luiz Fernando. He is 10 years old and a little brother of a less active family. He is super legit and we started teaching him. He is super smart and loves the gospel already. He watched the restoration video and memorized the first vision! ha :) so cool. And we asked if he wanted to go to church with us even if his brother was working and he said yes. So we passed by his house yesterday morning and he was waiting for us already! He loved the church and wants to be baptized really bad, so we are helping him prepare. He is a stud and I know he will really help reactivate his family. Good things to come with him.

Also, Eduardo, he is still super prepared for baptism but still says he thinks it is to early. We are going to give him a few weeks and reteach some stuff. I don´t doubt that he will be baptized.

Something else that is exciting is that I played the piano in sacrament yesterday! hahaha. I only played the prelude and the closing music because the dude was begging me. So I did! I only played with one hand but I brought everyone to tears ;) hehe. I enjoyed it. It was a fun experience. 

Something else interesting that I think all of you will love is that I had a conversation about the Wright Brothers this week! haha. We have this investigator that is like 25 years old and is super into the PBR and he knows all about the Wright Brothers and I shared with him that family is all basically from the same small little town of Milford where they grew up and stuff. He thought it was so cool :) ha! So that is just a small fun thing to end with this week :) Anyways, love you all. have a great week and remember to read your scriptures and say your prayers!

com amor, Elder Patterson.

Captain Brazil

Hello Family and everyone that I love in the world! So this week was one of the most interesting weeks that I have had yet on the mission. I had many experiences very spiritual and have learned so much this week.

I´ll just get right to it and give an update on everything that is happening here. This will be the last week of transfers and I have a 50/50 of leaving and staying. President Lundgren was told by the apostles and all that good stuff that presidents should think about leaving missionaries in there areas for 4 transfers, or in other words 6 months. I already have 3 transfers here and I could easily see myself staying one more here in Luziania. So it will be interesting to see how that goes next week.

Our investigator that had a baptismal date for yesterday, Eduardo, wasn´t baptized unfortunately. But the story with him is really really awesome and I have no doubt he will be baptized. He wasn´t baptized because his mom thinks its to early and his sister always talks bad about the church. But we were able to teach her this week and we answered lots of questions she had! The funny thing too is that his mom loves the church, loves us, always gives us food, but doesn´t quite understand the importance of baptism. So we are really going to hit it hard with the sister and mom this week. Eduardo is a stud. He has 14 years and is way goofy but way smart. The bishop and his family looove eduardo along with the bishops dad and mom (who is the stake patriarch) so basically this kid is integrated with the most powerful and spiritual people of the ward and stake! The Patriarch even ´gave´him a room at his house and he slept theresaturday night and went with them to the stake conference and sat in the reserved space! haha. So legit. This week pray for him and that his mom can understand how important this is :)

An update on our seminary program. So this week the four of us here were invited to teach a lesson on the second coming of Jesus Christ for the ´real´ seminary. It was way awesome and I was able to teach about some of the major signs that will happen before the second coming and let me just say people, that it is coming. Basically every thing has already happened or is happening. It is always funny to see graphiti or homeless guys on the road that says ``The end is near!!! Christ is coming!´´ but in reality it is so true! Something to think about is a question we asked everyone at the seminary and that question is, what would we do if Christ came tomorrow? Would we say ``Wait a little longer! Let me pray real quick and repent.`` Would we be worried about the sins we did today, yesterday, last week? Would we want to hide? Or would we rejoice that our savior was here? Would we cry out with joyous strains knowing that we have done the things he has asked us to do here on earth? Questions that all of us really should ask ourselves every day. Something to think about.

Our seminary class this week was good as well. We taught about some of the Christlike attributes. I taught about charity and love and really learned a lot! My invitation for all of you this week is that you can study 1 corinthians 13, Moroni 7 and ask yourselves the questions ´`what does charity and love mean?´´ And then study 1 nephi 19:9, ether 13:33-34, alma 7:11-13 and ask yourselves ´´how did christ demonstrate love and charity?´´ And at the end, make goals to develop love and charity in your personal lives. I remember a quote from the conference in october last year that says if everyone in the world had a little more christlike love in there hearts, this world wouldn´t be so bad or fallen. But yeah, seminaries were good. Spiritual and super fun.

So yesterday was our stake conference and it was sooo awesome! I got to see Elder Seth and Elder Josephson. Love those guys so much. Elder Seth gave me skittles! Score :) They are both doing really good and it was a happy reunion. But also, the stake split yesterday :) We had Elder Mazzagardi there from the setenta and he spoke with another new setenta Elder Toledo. It was incredibly spiritual. Something I loved a lot that really hit home with me was something Elder Toledo said. He was talking about hell, and what hell would be for him. He said this: ``Hell would be being far away from my wife, kids, and family... for all eternity...´´ Wow, it was awesome. It really gave me a boost here to try my best so that I can live with my awesome family again for all eternity as well as help other families have the same blessings. 

But in the stake conference our Bishop was called as the 1st counselor of the Stake Presidency! This is huge for Luziania because he will be a real influence to help bring a Branch here. It would make everything progress here so much more. The distance and cost of bus is a real hassle to get investigators to church. The work of the Lord is definitely progressing here in Brasil and it is awesome to be apart of it.

So a little about today, we played soccer with our zone on turf grass! It was so fun. The field was small but way fun. We played for a couple hours. After Elder Nordfelt and I went to the chapel in Jardim Ingá and practiced the piano. It was so awesome to play and practice for a little while. I am learning lots of hymns and of course the music you all sent me. I honestly love the piano so much and am glad that I can still play a little bit. I will definitely continue to practice throughout my mission and my goal is to get to the point to play for the ward. 

But now to finish I just want to say a few more things and bear my testimony once again for all of you. This week was full of experiences very very spiritual. One experience that happened this week is far to spiritual to merely share over the computer or share with everyone. I prayed to know what to say and write today and received an answer that I won´t write anything. I hope that you all won´t be upset with this answer, but its for the best for sure. Maybe, and just maybe I will send a letter home that explains all the cool things that happened but if not, you will all have to wait until next year ;) But honestly, this church is so true and I am so thankful for our Savior. I know that He lives and loves each and everyone of us. God answers prayers, this I know. God and His Holy Priesthood are so powerful and with His help we can do anything. I love all of you and hope that all of you are doing the things we need to do to one day all live together again one day with our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. I am praying for all of you! Have a great week and remember who you are and what you stand for!

com amor, Elder Patterson

Field Trip to Brasilia

Outside of Catholic Cathedral

Inside Catholic Cathedral 

So if you are wondering why this email is getting in so late today is because I have been trying for an hour to get into my email! I actually gave up and decided I´d email a different day this week but it finally went through and loaded. But also, I have spent the whole day in Brasília! We saw almost everything super cool and touristy today. I took a bunch of pictures and will probably just send a bunch today if I have time. 

So this morning we got on the bus early and headed to Brasília. It took about an hour and a half to get there and we spent about 4 hours there visiting all the cool sites and taking tons of pictures. We visited the National Congress building and the Catholic church that is way cool and a bunch of other places that were awesome to see. Mom, you would have been proud of me, I was able to pack myself a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the trip. haha. Today was a great day.

This week I don´t have a bunch of time because of our trip today and the computer problems so I will try to highlight a few things this week. The first noteworthy thing this week would be our seminary we had this week. We had seminary in an area called Vila Guará. It is pretty far from where we live and we had it in a recent converts house. We taught about the Sabbath day and how we can keep it holy and what we should do and everything. It was truly inspired of us because people here don´t understand the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy and not buying things on Sunday. Some members buy some little snacks and stuff going to church! It´s frustrating sometimes because they don´t set the best examples. But I talked and taught about what we should do to ´´sanctify`` this day. And I will pass some of the things I learned this week from my studies with you all. I learned that going to church isn´t sufficient to ``keep the sabbath day holy.`` We truly have to do so much more to keep this commandment. For example, things we should do on Sunday: Read scriptures, read the words from the living prophets, read magazines from the church, watch videos that the church are making (and they are making tons!!!), pray, meditate about things, watch or listen to material that only invites the Spirit, spend time with the family and we should make visits to those that are needing our help. I truly learned that I could have done so much more before my mission and hope to improve when I return. Because as a missionary it is super easy to keep the sabbath day holy. But yeah, seminary went really well and I hope that all of you at home can learn of the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy. Always remember Christ and what he would do on this day. 

Another spiritual experience came after our seminary class. We taught and ended at around 8:30. Just enough time to get a bus. But the problem was was that we were super far away from our house and had to catch a bus in the BR. The BR is the main highway in brasil. We just happened to be in an area very dark and dangerous as well. We were waiting for a bus for about an hour and nothing was coming, the only bus that passed didn´t stop for us because bus drivers often times are scared to pick people up where we were. The four of us ended up saying a prayer asking for help and asking that we could be protected and make it home safely. We waited a lot longer. It passed our curfew and we got worried. We continued to wait and E. Nordfelt had the idea to get out his flashlight to flag down a bus to pick us up because there weren´t any lights where we were. So when we saw a bus coming we where all waving him down and E. Nordfelt with his flashlight. But he passed us as well. 3 seconds later we heard his breaks screaching and he came to a stop so we started running in the dark after him! haha. Can you imagine four missionaries running in the night after a bus? It was pretty funny for the situation we were in. So we approached the bus and he opened the doors for us and let us on for free! Which was a miracle because we all didn´t have any money of our allowance. It just happened that the bus driver wasn´t going to stop for us and he stopped because the other bus dude that takes peoples money told him to stop. He told us that a few years ago a couple missionaries went to his house where he lives in another city. He told us that he really loved those ``mormons´´ and he told the bus driver to stop for us. It was a miracle. We were talking about it later that night and knew that God had helped us and that his plan is perfect. He placed 2 missionaries in the house of that man many years earlier so that in the night we were needing a ride, we got one. Those missionaries maybe wondered why they visited that man and why they wasted there time with him because he never progressed or got baptized, but I know why. It was because it became an answer to our prayers. I know that God´s plan is perfect and there is a purpose for everything. How wonderful it is.

On the light side of things this week, my comp and I started teaching english this week! We are teaching in a members house to a few investigators and a few kids that are members. It went pretty well and we taught them how to pray in english! It was awesome and I am thankful for the experiences I am having. Well, I have to go now because I am pretty much out of time and I have to get my haircut still because we have interviews with the president tomorrow. Also, I want to try and send a few photos. So have a good week to all! I love each and every one of you!!!

com amor, Elder Patterson.

I left the house without a tie today....

Want to know how embarrased I was when I saw that I didn´t have a tie on??? Freak. We left for 5 minutes to buy some bread and eggs and I noticed I didn´t have a tie on. Rookie mistake to the max! ha :) Sure enough I put one on as soon as I could.

So to get letters really good, sometimes you have to get letters not so good. Today may not be the best because I am hungry and want to go eat! haha. But I love you all so I will still try my best to make something of this email.

This week I taught a family night for Liley and her family. It was super fun to teach and everyone loved it. I taught about the 3 kingdoms of glory. I first made up a different life for everybody and wrote down what they did during their lives on a piece of paper and let them all choose from a hat. After they all read out loud what they did in their lives, I ``judged´´ them and put them in their assigned kingdoms. Each kingdom had a different thing they had to eat. The Telestial people ate a whole piece of lemon which was bitter and sour, the terrestial people ate a piece of bread that was exactly that, a plain piece of bread. And the celestial kingdom ate a little cupcake filled with chocolate that was super delicious. After we studying in DandC 76(I think) about each kingdom and it was aweomse. Our goal here in this life is the Celestial Kingdom people, and we need to live our lives worthy of the celestial kingdom. So my challenge for everyone now, is to simple choose the right, keep the commandments, and repent every day of our lives!

Tuesday was an exciting day and I returned to the house with a blood stained shirt... But don´t worry, it wasn´t my blood. So the story goes we were eating a little snack that night with a recent convert and we saw this dude with a sack in his hands wobbling and running down the street. He looked super super drunk. We saw him fall behind a car so I ran right away to help him. Me and this other guy we were with grabbed him and put his arms around us we started walking with him but he couldn´t support his weight so we set him down on the curb. He landed on his face and was bleeding like crazy. He kept saying ``I knew I was going to fall.´´ It was soo soo sad! He wasn´t drunk, but just really really old and went out to buy some bread to eat. I helped wipe the blood off his face and supported him until the ambulance came. When they took him away he couldn´t thank me enough and I was so happy that I was there to help him. And I found out later that he ended up alright and his daughter is with him now. So no worries, everything is good :)

This week we also taught our seminary and it was legit. We taught Lehis vision and the iron rod and all that good stuff. We used an example with everyone in the yard of a member because she had a tree in the middle of yard. It was perfect. So we did an example and explained everything after. It went super well and was very spiritual. I especially love chapters 8,11,12 of 1 Nephi! All of you should read those chapters this week because they are so important for all of us. Hold to the rod, the iron rod! :)

So this week was also full of funny experiences. For example, after we taught the restoration one day we asked a lady, ``so, if you pray about our message and Joseph Smith and receive an answer from God that everything we said is true, What would change in your life?`` She responded with, ´´ahh I guess I wouldn´t wear such short clothes...´´ Freaking so random and she was old too! I just tried not to laugh as Elder Fernandes tried explaining what the right answer would be! haha. Another funny experience was when Elder Fernandes left a message with a recent convert and a little girl that was there. He was talking about how we need to be good and follow the rules, go to church, and listen to our parents and she screamed out ``I already know God will give me blessings anyways!´´ she is 6 years old! ha. He was speechless for the time being and I was lol´ling for sure! ha :) good times here on the mission.

Yesterday was another awesome day because I had the opportunity to give Irma Rosa a blessing. She is the little old lady we sing to and is going through radiation treatment. She is so great and I love her. Such a sweet spirit and giving her a blessing was so special. Being an instrument in the hands of God is such an honor and I am thankful that I am worthy to exercise the Priesthood which I hold among these people here. Its wonderful! But yeah, this week was pretty good and went by super fast! I hope to have more experiences next week that I can tell for all of you! Love you all and hope you all feel God´s and Christ´s love in your lives! Bye bye!

com amor, Elder Patterson