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

Post Mother's Day Skype

SKYPE

We enjoyed every minute (63 minutes to be exact) of our skype with Elder Patterson yesterday.  He is so fluent in the portuguese language now that he had to stop and think a few times of words in English.  He was upbeat, so happy and so thankful for his family and friends.  We had a good connection and felt so happy after we finished up.  

Hello people!

Skype yesterday was awesome. Loved every minute of it! It was a lot better than the first time. It was hilarious to see your faces when I said I didn´t have a skype camera! ha. Little jokes like that are fun :) But yeah, thanks for all being there and loving me so much :) I can feel the love through the computer! 

So this email really will be pretty short because I said everything yesterday pretty much. But I will give you an update on this transfer. No one in our house got transfered! We are all staying here for the transfer. Should be interesting. I thought that I would leave but nope! At least 6 more weeks here. Since none of us got transfered we planned on going to brasil today to do some site seeing but we woke up and its raining cats and dogs here. So we will go another week. 

So this is probably like the lamest email ever but I don´t really have much more to say! And I swear I left my credit card there. I am almost sure I left it on top of my dresser under/in that little wooden box. I don´t even know how to use it! ha. So it would be pointless for me to have it. But I will let you know if I find it. Maybe if I do find it you can send me instructions on how to use it or something ;) ha! I don´t plan on it, but just incase I ever did use it. But thanks again for everything! Love you all and can´t wait to hear how your weeks went. Hope you had a great mothers day mother. Cody, I hope that Mtn Dew made you sick! Love you all :) have a good week!

com amor, Elder Patterson

Prayers answered....

Baptism of Monica! :)

Hello!

So congrats to the greatest mom in the world for doing the iron man! How cool is that!!! You are amazing mother and are truly an inspiration for me. I love you with all my heart.

I guess I will just get right into it. I don´t know how detailed everything will be because lot of things happened this week. So E. Fernandes and I spent a lot of time this week visiting Monica (13yrs) preparing her for baptism. I know I have already said it but incase you all forgot she is the daughter of a recent convert here and she was a jehovas witness. 5 months ago when the missionaries showed up at there door, Monica didn´t even shake their hands and just locked herself in her room. But little by little she started to listen to the missionaries. When E. Rogner was here we started teaching her and I have probably learned the most teaching her resolving all her doubts and questions. (PS Jehova = Jesus!!!!!!) haha. I also learned a lot and a lot of patience teaching her... She doesn´t like to express her feelings much about what we teach or anything. But with lots of patience, prayer, and fasting she has opened up to us. We practiced the baptismal questions with her this Wednesday and she did perfectly fine with everything besides Thomas S. Monson because that wasn´t something we taught a lot. So what did we do? We taught our seminary lessonThursday night about prophets :) haha. And it was spectacular. I love teaching about prophets and bearing testimony that Thomas Spencer Monson is a prophet of God. We continued to visit her until her baptismal interview Saturdaynight. E. Medina did the baptismal interview with her Saturday night and I was nervous the whole time. But thankfully it went super well and she passed! And the best part is that she choose me to do the baptism!!! I felt so honored :)

Sunday morning we woke up earlier and went to her house to make sure her and her mom were ready to catch the bus on time. The baptism was after church and we had 3 baptisms of our ward, Monica, and a girl that lives in Jardim Ingá and another older lady from Elder Medina and Elder Nordfelt dupla. It was super awesome. Everyone got super frustrated though because Monica was being stubborn about the pictures. I got some though that I will send. She was super nervous about the whole time about it and I had to help her every step of the way. She was the last to be baptized and a little hesitant to finally go through with it. I walked down into the water first and lied telling her it was warm... The water was so so so cold! It was like I was becoming a polar bear scout all over again! ha. But the cold water didn´t stop her. And next thing you know it, she was baptized! I was thankful because I didn´t have to go all the way down under the water, but the cool thing is is that the spirit is so strong during a baptism that the feeling of coldness is replaced by the spirit. It was a great baptism and she was so thrilled after smiling from ear to ear. Its hard to explain everything but it was awesome. (I even made a cake for after, everyone loved it.) But yeah! Finally after working so hard here we had a few baptisms this week! 

Today we played soccer with our zone and it was way fun. After we all went and got lunch. We went to a churrasco and that basically means buffet and endless meat. Guys just come around with big iron rods of meat and they cut off a slab or two for you. So good! Dad you would love it. But the baptism was the highlight of the week and I am out of time already but I will tell you all more Sunday when I call! :) ha. I love you all! hope you all have a safe week. 

com amor, Elder Patterson!!