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.