TRANSFERRED

First things first, my investigators were few when it came to Sunday because we baptized them all! haha. It was so great and a miracle that they all got baptized. The first one was Cleber, the 19 year old we are teaching. He is so great and has such a strong testimony. The other ones name is Elmison. He is 14 and like a 19 year old. Very very smart and we were worried he wouldn´t get baptized because his parents had to sign the form, so we went to his house and taught his dad and at the end he was more than willing to sign the paper! So it was great. The last baptism was João. Yeah!!! It took him about 5 months to be baptized but finally did it and was so happy! 

The first two were baptized on Saturday (I baptized Cleber) and Joao was baptized Sunday morning before church. I also confirmed Cleber a member of the church and that was a way cool experience. But after all of them received the Holy Ghost they were all so happy and even said how much they were filled with joy. During the gospel principles class we learned about prayer and all of my baptisms this transfer (João 1, João 2, Cleber, and Elmison) all particapted and bore testimony. It was so special and I know they will be strong in the church. 

So now that I talked about the most important part I will talk about transfers! Transfers happened this weekend and guess what?! Yeah... I got transfered and took that 13 hour bus ride down to Brasília! Whoohoo! Sunday was mostly me packing my bags and it was very stressful because I have lots more stuff this time because of christmas but I was able to fit everything just fine without problem. After church I may have cried a little bit saying goodbye to all my recent converts and they all individually thanked me for showing them the way and the gospel. It made me so happy. But even saying goodbye to all the members was very sad. I became really good friends with the majority of them and really great friends with a few. 

Bruno and Mayara took me to the bus station Sunday because I love them so much. They are so great and we had one last family night in there house Saturday Bruno gave me a jersey and it is so legit! When I walked out of there home I felt like I was walking out of mine when I left for the mission. It was an odd and very sad feeling. But Bruno told I´d come back one day, and I surely will. Gabi as well! Our last lunch just happened to be at her house and she is so great! I love them so much, she made me and elder kesler a dinner to go for the bus ride home because we both got transfered! It was super delicious.

Saying goodbye to Bruno and Mayara was super hard. I gave him a tie and her a picture frame with a dollar bill in that said ``coisa de rico´´ and that I loved them! It was an inside joke we had made because lots of people here think all americans are filthy rich. haha! They truly feel like my brasilian family and I already miss them. The bus ride itself wasn´t bad at all. I don´t know if I am getting used to it or what, but I slept the whole night without a problem. Elder Kesler and I sat next to each other and talked for a long time about everything. Love that guy.

Sooo, the time arrived today when I made it to the chapel of Asa Sul (where I was for 3 weeks). TRANSFERS, found out where I was going and who I would be with. My name was called and I am companions with Elder Rogner! Its Jake Grafs friend he met on his mission and the ´son´ of Elder Kesler! He is super rad and I am sure we will get along alright. My new area is in the state of Goias! My zone is Valparaiso and my area is called Luziâna! I am really excited about this area because it is 100 percent different than Palmas. It is about 2 hours away from Brasília and is a huge city. My area is massive and we don´t have a church in our area. How tough is that? They church is like 20-25 minutes away from what I remember they showed me. But we have tons of good investigators from what I hear and am way excited to start teaching them. Luziâna is amazingly beautiful. Tons of buildings and everything it has every type of store that we need as missionaries really close. I am staying in a house with another dupla of missionaries and the house is super spacious and clean! So that is really happy.

I am very happy with it. I don´t exactly how this transfer or the next will go, but it will be a new adventure everyday. I left tons of people I loved in Palmas but I can say I left there feeling like I completed my mission I was sent there to complete. I am so thankful for the time I had there and maybe one day I will go back, but for now, I know that this is the area for me. I love you all and hope that you all have a good week! Se cuida!

con mucho amor, Elder Patterson

Feliz Carnival!!!

Monday we had interviews with the President and it was incredible! He is such an inspired man and I love Presidente Lundgren so so much. The spirit was so strong with him! Monday was also fun because I spent the entire day with Elder Josephson and all the other elders from the zone while we were all waiting for interviews.

Tuesday was a blast. We had our zone conference in the morning and President started out with a story that last year Elder Bednar invited him and his wife to his office to watch a movie with him. (yeah big time invite huh?) But E. Bednar showed him the movie Meet the Mormons. (dont know if that is big back home or not, I heard it was in the movie theaters or something). Turns out Presidente has a copy and we watched it! It was so amazing and so so trunky because of a few football scenes and scenes from good old Utah. All the americans were loving it. AND I want to ask and see if its out on DVD yet or not in the United States. If so, I would really like a copy! but if not, its chill. 

The other cool thing that happened Tuesday was that we got caught in the worst rainstorm I have ever seen in my life. We saw it coming  and legit said a prayer that we could make it to the end of the street to Joãos house in safety. We started running (and if felt like we were swimming). I couldn´t see anything at all! It was all a blur! My contacts were distorted in my eyes! The only thing I could do was look at the white shirt of E. Lima in front of me and continue onward. I had to stay close because honestly you couldn´t see anything 5 feet away from you! By the time we made it to João´s house we were completely drenched. Dumped a good couple cups of water out of my shoes and bag! It was so awesome, and the coolest part was that my scriptures weren´t wet! I have a testimony that scriptures and sacred people! haha

Wednesday was an amazing day. We had a meeting with our ward mission leader and he was telling us about this friend of his that emailed asking about what time church starts earlier that day. He said she wanted to visit the church. So the sisters were fighting over who would get the reference and we just decided that to stay out of it! ha. But turns out later that day we had a visit and were walking to the house and E. Lima said ``remember that road you said you wanted to knock every door?`` I said yeah, and we ended up going there. The 3rd house was that friend of our Ward Mission Leader! Totally random! We taught her and she loved it. She even went to church like she said and after sacrament she was balling because she loved it so much! It was so awesome and we know the Lord sent us to her because we are the ones that need to teach her and her family! 

Thursday was just a long day of teaching lessons and finding new people! It was super successful. The thing that sticks out most to me is that we had lunch with the Bishop and he gave us a ride to our first appointment after. He turned on his music and it just so happened to be a cover of ``Miss You´´ by blink-182. I think it was boyce avenue that sang it and it was so hard to try and not listen. Our bishop is hilarious and he said ``Hyrum Smith wrote this song! Its church approved´´ haha! He is awesome.

Friday was much like Thursday. We taught 7 lessons and marked two baptismal dates for these two young men. One is 14 and his name is Elmisson and the other is 19 and his name is Cleber. Elmisson prayed and said he felt really joyful after and said he wants to be baptized. He has already been going to church for a while and we have visited him a few times so we set a date for this Saturday! Not sure how it will go for sure but we are excited for him! 

Saturday was cool because it was the start of the infamous CARNIVAL here in Brasil. But the best part is is that Palmas doesn´t really have Carnival. Everyone leaves and goes to places near the beach and big party towns. We don´t even have a different curfew or anything. So no worries there, its super tranqüillo. The only thing people do here is listen to music really loud and barbeque. Oh! And This one drunk dude was dancing out in the street in his undies! I turned the corner and was just laughing my head off at him!!! haha! Saturday was also Valentines day and to celebrate we all went and got açai. We actually make up any excuse to go get açai :) ha. Its just so delicious and its just so refreshing because of the hotness here.

Yesterday was awesome because we had 6 investigators in the church and the other João we have been teaching for a while, wasn´t there when we showed up. So we went to get him and he was cleaning his house! We waited for him to get ready and he went with us. It was perfect too because he cried a little bit during sacrament meeting. We set another date for him for this Saturday as well. He only didn´t get baptized last time because he doesn´t feel ready but super is. So pray that he can have peace about the whole thing :) We also had a baptism in the ward yesterday of a little girl that turned 8. I got to be a witness, so that was pretty special. 

Today we went to the Palacio. It is supposedly the very center of Brasil and we took tons of pictures there and saw lots of other cool things. We also went to the mall after and bought subway! It was incredible. Lots of fun things today and this week.

I just want to end and say that the experiences I had this week are enumerable. Especially the spiritual experiences. It has been incredibly humbling to receive answers to almost all of my prayers lately. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of each and every one of us. I know that Jesus Christ Atoned for the sins of mankind. I am eternally grateful for the Atonement and how it has changed my life and is changing my life as I partake of it. The Atonement is so much more than repentance. It can change us and our desires. It has already changed mine. I looked back at how far I have come on my mission already this week and have truly seen the changes that have happened within me. I am no longer the same person I once was. But a person much better, all thanks to Christ and His infinite Atonement. I hope and pray that I can continue to become the son, brother, grandson, relative, and friend that Christ expects me to be for all of you. I love you all so much and bear my testimony that I know this church is true with all my heart in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, amém.

I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

com amor, Elder Patterson

``Faithless is he who says farewell when the road darkens.´´ -Lord of the rings

So this week was a blur and it was crazy full of stuff. I will just start with Wednesday.  Wednesday was a really really hard day when we had 2 baptismal dates that fell through because João doesn´t feel ready, but actually is, and Junior has a problem with coffee, so we are working with him. Lots of other things just went wrong Wednesday  but I didn´t give up hope for better things to come during the week. I always remember that quote in the email header when things are tough. Its so true that we live with faith and people give up on the church, or Christ, or whatever else because a lack of faith. So I just pressed forward with faith and sure enough, great came of it.

Thursday we did a trade and I was with Elder Sanchez in my area. He has less time on the mission than me so I was helping him out and I was in charge all day. We had a lot of great lessons with our investigators! Lots of spiritual experiences. I really relied on the spirit Thursday because I had to be the Senior companion and teach all the lessons and find all the investigators. It was a great learning experience.

Friday was just a blast. The zone leaders did a trade with us here and I got to go with Elder Kesler! It was just like old times and we never stopped laughing. AND they were here to do a baptismal interview with our other João!!! And the good news is that he passed! He is the one that is almost done with the Book of Mormon and we gave it to him like 2 weeks ago. Every time we leave a pamphlet with him he studies it like crazy and then teaches us the lesson when we get there! hahahaha! It took 20 days for him to be baptized from our first lesson. He is a celestial individual. But I´ll talk more about him later... Friday night we had a activity planned by us and the ward mission leader. It was a ``Torta na Cara´´ or Pie in the Face night. We had lots of members there and a few investigators as well! Of course I participated but ended up getting a couple pies right in the face. I don´t think it was entirely fair because one question was about outerspace and I havent studied words from outer space and another was about soccer! Like come on, how is that even fair? ha! But it was a blast none the less.

Saturday was Elder Lima´s birthday and we spend the morning assembling a tri-bunkbed for the sisters. We actually made the first one Wednesday morning and it took 5 hours! But this time it was so much easier because we knew what we were doing. So we finished that pretty quick and had lunch with a member that speaks english. Pretty fun to always talk to him. After we had to clean the baptismal font for João´s baptism Saturday night! We cleaned it up all nice and good and arranged all the chairs perfectly. We went to his house after and asked if he wanted to bear his testimony after and he said no because he wasn´t ready for that. But time came for his baptism and everyone was there! It was so awesome, we took lots and lots of photos. He chose the president of the stake to baptize him so it was way awesome. Me and elder P lima were the witnesses. It was such a special experience because when joão came out of the water he gave the president the longest hug ever. We all went into the chapel waiting for him to get ready and when he came back in and after the final speaker he bore his testimony!!! He started crying and everything. He said it was the most special day of his life and he thanked us for teaching him and showing him the way back to our Heavenly Father. It was incredible! And to top it all off a Sister of the church made E. Lima a birthday cake that was like a mountain! We all enjoyed it so much.  Saturday was a great day and a blessing for us.

So that is the summary of my week! It has been awesome and I have learned so much. I don´t really have a pday today because president flew up here to palmas this morning and we have interviews later today and a zone conference/training tomorrow.  So we are all way excited for that! Exciting things to come this week. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures I sent and everything :) I sure am thankful for all of you!!! Have a good week!

com amor, Elder Patterson

P day in the Amazon!

Hello errbody! I wish I could say its good to hear everyone is doing good! Sounds like the old man went to hard in the paint! Sinto muito, espero que você esteja sem dor! But heck yeah, Tom Brady pulling it out big this year! thats what I like to hear :) Especial because the missionary I replaced here in Palmas was a Seattle freak haha! So great. 

So I am going to start out by telling you all the exciting stories that happened today before the boring weekly update about teaching and stuff ;) haha! But as you can tell by the title, it hints as to what I did today. Today Elder Kesler and his comp came and did there studies at our house so we could leave exactly at 10am together. Where did we go? Bruno (my favorite guy ever) took the 4 of us to Taquaraçu. Its about 30 minutes away from our area straight into the amazon. Today we went on a hike with him that he likes a lot and it was amazing. I can´t describe how beautiful it all was. We started walking and were sad that the monkeys he had once seen weren´t there and about 5 minutes later monkeys started jumping right above us and everything!!! It was so sweet walking through the jungle and those cute little things were climbing and jumping. I got some pretty legit videos of them but it was to hard to take a picture because they are so fast. The jungle is was cool too because it has vines and stuff just like Tarzan! As we continued our little walk we came across a massive cobra right next to the trail!!! it was about 10 feet long and black and yellow. That kind isn´t poisoness but very aggressive I heard. Luckily it didn´t mind us. But yeah, we hiked about a kilometer to this little waterfall and it was so sweet! The mist was so refreshing and it smelt so good, even though we couldn´t jump in. ha. We also hiked to another waterfall that was massive and way beautiful!!! I took lots of pictures and wished I had my gopro. Even though we didn´t get to jump in the water the rain started and we might as well have jumped in. Rain in the rainforest is for reals! Today was so legit. We stopped at this little restaurant on the way home and we all ate together. Bruno is such a great guy, he gave us the best pday ever. 

Okay, so this week was also really great! Tuesday we found this family that has 8 KIDS!!! We started teaching them and all the kids are so interested and love us. I have a great hope for them. One of the kids has gone to church 2 times already and he loves it. Things are looking good for them in the next couple weeks. Tuesday I had a cool lesson where I found myself teaching with the power and authority of a missionary. We were teaching an investigator and he kept asking questions that weren´t true and when I started to testify I could feel the authority in my voice. It was pretty sweet. I know that missionaries are called of God and literally have a power and authority in there sacred calling.

Wednesday we planned a few activities for the ward coming up with our ward mission leader. This week we are having a pie in the face night with gospel questions! I am looking forward to that. But we also taught this one guy João, he is the brother of Alcides our old ward mission leader, and joão is amazing! He read half the book of mormon in 3 days and already read all of the gospel principles manual! He has a baptismal date for the 14th and probably the most firm out of any investigators that I had. (The other João is having doubts and we fasted for him. We reviewed the questions for baptism and everything with him but just doesn´t feel ready yet...So he won´t be baptized for a little while :/)

Thursday was really cool because we taught this one investigator that really likes us and he gave me his really nice umbrella! I have already gone through 3 umbrellas here... Why can´t people make sturdy umbrellas huh? But yeah, Thursday we taught this married couple that are older and they are so humble and receptive its awesome. They accepted baptismal dates for the 21 of Feb. the last day of the transfer!

Friday was awesome. Happy 6th month anniversary for me!!! We taught this really old dude named Tim and when we taught the first vision the spirit was so strong and we asked him what he was feeling and he said ``rapaz, I feel an immense amount of joy.´´ That was a cool lesson. We also taught this other 19 year old that went to church with us yesterday and he downloaded the gospel app and read all by himself! He already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon because he says it just makes sense! So great.

Saturday was another day of teaching. The highlights were the hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch. That family likes to make food from that missionaries country for them :) it was awesome. We also had a family night with Weltinho and I felt the spirit so strongly and my soul was just filled with the love of Christ and I felt Gods love for me and everyone in that was there with us. 

Sunday we spent the day teaching a few of the sisters investigators in the ward because they needed help and we had already accomplished the mission goal, so we helped them and it was a great feeling. Our testimony meeting was spot on, it was everything our investigators needed to here and I was so happy with our ward yesterday. It was a good day.

Well... I hope this email makes sense and I hope you all enjoy :) My fingers are here burning up I am typing so fast! Please pray for João 1, João 2, Junior, and Pedro and Marinalva, they can be baptized this transfer as long as we work harder than Satan, they could use your prayers!!! Love you all! thanks for everything have a good week.

Com amor, Elder Patterson.