Free haircuts, rain and great investigators

So this week went by so fast and I don´t know how! Probaby one of the fastest weeks of this transfer and we only have two more weeks of this transfer. I honestly don´t know what will happen next transfer and am a little nervous because my zone leader said he already knows what will happen with me and wouldn´t tell me! So it will be interesting for sure to see what happens.

So I have to tell you all a few things that happened last monday after email time. ha. E. Neres and I were walking down the road together going to get lunch and buy some groceries before we went to get our haircut. But on the way some lady stopped us and asked if we wanted our haircut for free! and we were so surprised and confused. But turns out it was one of those haircutting schools and they do cuts for free! haha. So we as poor missionaries, accepted a free haircut! The studio was really nice and clean so we felt really good about it! So this guy starts cutting my hair and he ended up cutting his own finger! hahaha. I was trying not to laugh. Rookie mistake! But he got it all bandaged up and finished just fine :) The haircuts turned out super good for being free and we will for sure go back. 

Tuesday was a real rainy day and we worked out in the sticks again of our area. We were literally walking through a forest to find this house we made a contact with last week and luckily we were able to find it just fine. We taught this big ol black dude with white hair and a white beard. I think I mentioned him last week, but we talked with him for a while and he is super cool and says he will read the Book of Mormon cover to cover when he finishes the book he is reading right now. 

Wednesday was way cool because we have our district meetings in Jardim Ingá and I taught two districts the doctrine and did all the practices with everyone. It was super cool and everyone liked it. The cool story from Wednesday is that we sat down on a curb to talk about where we should go because our appointments were cancelled and this guy walked up to us and started asking us tons of questions about how he can get salvation. We taught him a little bit of every lesson and he loved everything we said. We gave him a Book of Mormon and sent him on his way. Unfortunetly he doesn´t live here so we can´t teach him but the other missionaries where he lives will. 

Thursday was great. President Lundgren drove out to our house to help us with something Thursday morning and before he left he offered us a ride to our lunch appointment. The four of us piled in his cary and he saved us money and time going there. The drive there was super awesome because everything he says is super spiritual. Everyone thinks he will be an apostle one day. We also taught our seminary class and we decided to teach on the 10 Commandments and we taught the first 4 that talk about putting God before everything. Next week we are going to teach the next 6. But we found stories in the scriptures that relate with the commandments and had people break off into groups to learn about it and teach afterwards. It was super spiritual and our recent converts are so smart! They are loving it as are we. This next week should be really good. 

Friday was a day of fulfilled promises of scriptures for us. We taught our recent convert and her daughter that is a jehova´s witness. We taught the plan of salvation and it seemed like we were there forever explaining, teaching, and answering questions. This was a lesson we prepared extra special for because JW teach things completely different than what we believe. Every question she had we were able to answer with the scriptures and our testimonies thus fulfilling the scripture that we wouldn´t be confunded ``before men and in the very hour of need it shall given unto you.`` or something like that... But she finally understood everything we said and the importance of baptism! She even accepted a baptismal date! We were so happy because we all even fasted for her and our other investigators that they could have softened hearts and hers definitely was. She is progressing so much and it makes us happy.

Saturday we did a trade and I went out with E. Medina (from paraguay, lives in our house) and it was way fun. He and I laugh so hard together. He has like 5 months on the mission and is a stud. He was a professional soccer player before the mission. I am teaching him english and its so dang funny. The thing he likes to say the most is ``I am hungry.´´ and his accent is hilarious. 

So yesterday was a very good day. We were visiting Liley´s family (Recent convert, where we have seminary and everything...) when I got a phone call. And it just so happened to be Elder P. Lima calling from Palmas! I was so so excited to get the phone call because I knew something happened because they have to call the assistents in order to get permission to talk with us. He told me that one of our other investigators was baptized Saturday! Her name is Joelma and she was the one that we found by inspiration that one day. I was so so happy to hear it and he said that it was super spiritual and she was crying the whole time of happiness :) The best part of the phone call was that he called from Bruno and Mayara´s house and I got to talk with them for a little bit! It was so legit and made me so happy to talk with them. It was like I was calling home :)

My thought of the week before I finish is this, its something we tell our investigators here:  ``Satan wants us to read our scriptures. He wants us to say our prayers. He wants us to go to church, the temple, and do family home evenings. The only thing is is that he wants us to do all of this tomorrow.´´ I know that is true and we always have these thoughts. But go read the scriptures today and follow the promptings of the Spirit. Things are always much better when we do this. So there is my little thought for the week! Have a good week family that I love so much!

com amor, elder patterson

March Madness

Hello family. So big news first, I got my package this week... hahaha! I was seriously hoping you didn´t send the other one until this week but too late now. The package was amazing. I felt like the people on Survivor when they win a challenge and get those care packages. At least thats what I felt when I saw the deodorant! What a treat. So awesome :) ha! But yeah, package was great and the pictures as well. I love the deseret pictures. Always way awesome. I freaked out when I saw the temple picture. My comp thought I was a freak because I talk about the temple a lot and how much I love it and miss it. :) hehe. So thanks again for the package, the other elders are jealous of the new era magazine. Brasil doesn´t get the new era or friend! Perks of being from Utah I guess :)

So I will start out with Tuesday. We worked in a place called 3 Poderes and it is out in the sticks. We taught this really old black guy that had white hair and beard, super rad. He takes care of his 94 year old mom there. We taught him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He accepted it gladly! He was also surprised that we were there because he said that area is dangerous, but we felt just fine about it :) (don´t worry dad.) Later in the day we went back to Centro where we live to work there. It was the first time we worked there and a lot different than the surrounding areas. Rich people, nice houses, and cars. We always knock on the houses that have cars because it would be easier for them to go to church and pick other people up. 

Wednesday we had a zone meeting with new rules and stuff that the zone leaders got at a conference they had with the president this week. Some cool things are that we are supposed to teach members the lessons to strengthen them and there testimonies. Something that has been really good this week. And we are supposed to really focus on finding the Elect of God. Something that is a real struggle here. We have tons of people to teach but none of them are truly the Elect we are looking for. Wednesday we worked in a town called Vila Guará and taught a girl that is our most progressing investigator. Her name is Tamires. She is 16 and wants to be baptized but wants the support of her mom first. She is super hilarious and reminds me of one of my friends from school. She even took us and introduced us to her friend and we started teaching him as well. 

Thursday was a really cold day. Really stormy and it was perfect because I made one of my hot chocolate packets to eat with breakfast :) reminded me of the holidays! so good. Thursday is the day we teach seminary and this week we taught about Forgiveness and it was an emotional one for our investigators and recent converts. We used a bunch of scripture stories that talk about forgiveness like Enos, Joseph of Egypt, the sons of mosiah, and Jesus on the Cross. It ended with both of our investigators crying. Super cool. We talked with them after and they both have tons of family problems here. (thats actually the case with most everyone in the area. everyone has a family problem of some sort). Seminary is great and I am loving it. 

Friday. Oh man was Friday was interesting and a trial. First lesson of the day was to a recent converts daughter. This girl is 13 years old and a Jehovas Witness... She was taught since her childhood about that religion and wow, such weird things they teach. She is very smart too and questions everything we say. Its always interesting to teach her and very difficult as well... We try to keep away from the Bible Bashing because it is pointless and no one wins. But after her we had every marked visit fall through. We knocked on doors the whole day and no one wanted anything to do with us. So Elder Rogner and I sat down on the curb and said a prayer that we could find the Elect like we were taught and we asked for guidance to know where to go. After the prayer we didn´t feel anything as to where we should go so we said another one and went on our way. The first door we knocked was just like all the rest, wanted nothing. The next door was a nice house and knocked. This guy let us in without saying anything. We got super excited. He invited us into his office and we introduced ourselves. We noticed that he had this huge library of bibles and religious books and we were wondering who this guy was. He then proceeded to tell us he is a pastor. But not a pastor of the catholics, protestants, evangelists, but rather a pastor of the Adventist of the 7th day.... Good grief! These are the people that all missionaries talk about here. We both were super super nervous but just started talking. He was super polite and listened the whole time. Only one point did he try to use the bible against us but we bore testimony that we know what we were saying was true. We left a Book of Mormon with him and a couple pamphlets. It was a stressful lesson but super cool at the end. He also gave us a book and dvd of his church because we gave him the BOM! ha. But yeah, I don´t know if he is our Elect, but it would sure be cool to baptize him. He´d make a great bishop! haha

So I am out of time but nothing else really exciting happened the rest of the week. Just ate more pizza (we love it so much! haha) and I bought diapers for the first time in my life. One of our recent converts had a baby shower and we got invited so we took her diapers :) ha. I love you all so very much and hope all is well! tchau!!

com amor, elder patterson :)

Mom..."are there dogs there?" Elder P....."tons of dogs mother...you'd cry."

Hello family... Sorry this email won´t be that grand. I forgot to write down everything before I left the house this morning and we left early to do a service project at a members house really far away. We chopped down lots of grass and stuff. It was fun and she fed us cake and hot chocolate for breakfast. Super delicious and healthy ;) ha. But I will try and remember as much as I can for you all. 

The only thing I remember from Tuesday was that it was long, tiring, and very unsuccessful. I am pretty sure we found everyone in this place that doesn´t want to hear our message. So many people always say ``I think your work is beautiful, this world needs more missionaries like yourselves to preach the things of God.´´ and so we ask if they would like to hear our message and they say ´´no, I am good, but everyone else needs it besides me...´´ goodness it is frustrating até o pó. It was like that in Palmas too. At least the people that denied us. Tuesday we also had a family night at the house of a recent  converts and that family is pretty sad. The husband and wife live in the same lot as there drugged up son and one of them always has to stay home to make sure he doesn´t steal there stuff to sell it. But the family night was really good. The wife shared the spiritual message and it was the first one she has ever given. So it was a success.

Wednesday was the complete opposite of Tuesday and everyone was super receptive. The area we worked was really cool as well, it reminded me a lot of palmas and we had some success there. Wednesday night we went and got pizza again with a member that is preparing for a mission. People, I can´t describe to you enough about how delicious the pizzas are here... The 4 of us have a problem and always talk each other into going to get pizza. I am loving it.

Thursday is the day we teach seminary and it sounds like you all had some questions about that. So we teach seminary in the house of a member. We actually taught in the backyard this week under trees with a light hanging from a branch. It was cool. We teach a recent convert family that is super awesome and a few investigators and members. Every week we choose a topic to teach and all take turns teaching. It is actually really awesome because the bishop helped us out and called the mom, Liley (recent convert of like 4 months. Her house is where we teach) as the seminary teacher and they are trying to get seminary started up for reals here! I am super excited about it. I always loved seminary and institute and am glad the youth here will have a chance to go now as well.

Friday was a normal day of work and the only exciting thing that happened was that we did a group fast with the recent convert family. The family consists of Antonio (only one not a member) Liley, and their 3 daughters. Ligia 16, Julia 15, and Bia 13. These young women are so awesome. Bia already read the book of mormon in 3 months and bia and julia are working really hard on there personal progress. Its so cool to see them progressing so much. But we started a group fast with them and it was super spiritual. Super cool experience for sure.

Saturday was interesting because I attended my first New Beginnings. We went because we took 3 young women to it. The new beginnings thing was in jardim inga so we took a bus there late in the afternoon and when we got there everything was pitch black. All the lights in the city were off. It seemed so sketchy walking to the church because it had to street lights or nothing. When we finally got to the church they were already started and speaking in the dark with only security lights on. Lucky after about 20 minutes the lights turned back on and they finished without problem. 

Yesterday was awesome because I love sundays on the mission. Church was really good and we confirmed Priscila a member of the church. Our priesthood meeting was soo good. We have this one guy in our ward that should be an apostle and he was just preaching the whole time. The spirit was so strong and all of us left there talking about how much of a legend he is. Yesterday night Priscila made us dinner and we watched the testaments with her and Lileys family. It was a good way to end the week for sure. Happy and full. ha

But yeah, everything is going good here in Luziânia. love you all. Have a good week!

com amor, Elder Patterson

Mission group

Lou-zee-an-ya = Luziânia

Just to answer some of the questions that you asked in the email, its definitely not Palmas here and I have been freezing here! Its not even that cold either and the other elders think I am a freak but I became accustomed to the heat. The weather here is so so nice. Its usually cloudy and breezy. Perfect weather. I can actually wear long sleeve shirts here! When it rains is when it is most cold but you all know I love that! 

So my week was pretty awesome here in Luziânia. Tuesday was a hard day of service. We moved a recent convert family out of there old house and into their new one. It was a lot of work, even with 4 missionaries. Their old house was trash. It will be demolished and when we got everything moved out of the house we got to punch out windows and stuff! ha, it was fun. The worst part of the move was probably the end when I had to carry their two dogs in a dog carrier to the new house. They were so heavy and I had to walk like a mile uphill to the house! Phew, I was glad when it was over. ha.

Wednesday was pretty awesome because it was the first time I saw my church here. We travelled to Jardim Ingá (where our church is in a different city) and had a zone/district meeting. I am liking it because I am getting to know more of the other missionaries now that I am here in Brasília. After our zone meeting we headed back to our area and had lunch. Our lunches here never flakeout which is awesome. We eat with the same 7 families every week because Luziânia doesn´t have many members yet. The best part was that after lunch I found r$20 on the ground. Elder Rogner was mad because if it was a snake, it would have bit him ;) haha. But we spent the day Wednesday meeting some of the members of the church and teaching some investigators. One of the families we taught was awesome. Especially the mom, Beatriz, she loves the church and wants to be baptized but has to get married first. So it will be interesting to see how it goes with her.

Thursday was awesome because we, the four missionaries in Luziânia, teach seminary. We taught a group of investigators/members/recent converts ``how to develop love in the home.´´ It was awesome. I loved it. We each taught about a specific subject that helps us develop love in the home. We taught Prayer, scripture study, family nights, and fasting. I taught on fasting and it was great because yesterday was fast Sunday and everyone there fasted.  :)

Friday was epic. We had tons of lessons and walked to the ends of the earth. I can´t explain how much we walk here. Our area is gigantic and built on hills... I will only tell you about the most interesting visit that happened... It was with this really old lady that lives in the ghettos. She is like 90 and super sweet. The only thing was is that she offered us juice and we accepted, then she went and washed her feet and leg that is all bruised and stuff. We were grossed out!!! When she finally brought out the juice we took a little bit and whenever she went inside we would pour it back into the jug! I felt so bad but it was so hilarious at the same time. 

This story gets its own paragraph...Friday we worked so hard and it was great because for our dinner hour we went to a restaurant with the other elders. We don´t usually eat dinner but friday we wanted pizza so we went to this pizzaria. And I´ll just say it was the best thing ever! You just sit down at the table and tons of guys all with different pizzas come around and give you what you want. I ate 10 slices which is equivalent to an entire pizza! haha, the other guys as well. They even have dessert pizzas and I ate 3 slices of that. Banana/chocolate/carmel with a big scoop of icecream on top! ohh it was magnificent! We all left happy :)

Saturday was probably the hardest day of the week because we didn´t have many  commitments so we spent the day contacting in the street. It was super long and tiring. People here are a lot less open about the gospel then the people of Palmas, but we were still able to find a few great new investigators.

Sunday was the best. We got up and took a bus to church and I was super happy because it felt like normal there. They have sacrament first here and I love that. I don´t know if I mentioned that before but most all wards in my mission have sacrament last. So it was good to go back to normal. After church we ate at a members house and it was way good because it was a bbq. We all left there smelling like camping! ha. Sunday was also really really great because we baptized one of our investigators! Her name is Pricila and she is super great. She is like 20 and super strong already in the church. I taught her my first day here and almost everyday since. Elder Rogner and I taught her almost everything this week and it was all super spiritual. She loved the baptism as well and cried a lot. :) haha, it was awesome. 

But yeah, thats my week. I am loving my house. It is the first actual house I have lived in and is massive. I am also really enjoying staying with 4 elderes as well. Elder Neres and Elder Medina live with us and I love them. I just laugh my head off every night with them. Elder Rogner is good, he teaches really well and works, so things are good for now! Some other tidbits, just to put it into perspective about how far away our church is, its like the people of santa clara going to Hurricane for church every sunday. So the work here is a little slower and Luziânia only recently opened up, so yeah. But I am liking it! Its great and the members here are super strong. Our house is also in the center of the city and has absolutely everything we need close and I am really happy about that because Palmas 3 didnt have much close. Love you all! hope all is good. have a great week!

com amor, Elder Patterson :)