I thought the rockies would be a little more rocky than this!

Olá meus entes queridos,

So I can´t explain how fast this week went by. It was truly truly incredible how fast it went by. It was even a little stressful because we spent the most of our week away from our area. But let me explain everything. So Tuesday was a normal day, we had our district meeting and little zone meeting and it´s always interesting because a new rule we have on the mission is that we have to interview (the zone leaders) a companionship every week. So we interviewed a companionship we felt like was needing it and sure enough, we found out that they were having some issues. Not that they were fighting or not working, but they weren´t working together very well because they have two personalities that are different. So we were able to help them out and give them some advice and turns out this week was incredible for them! One of there best weeks yet. We were so happy for them.

On wednesday we got a curveball thrown at us when we were getting ready for the day and our painter showed up to paint the apartment because that water disaster that happened a few weeks ago wrecked our walls and paint and stuff. So we had to stay inside basically the whole morning while he sanded off old paint made a mess of everything (paint dust every where!!!!) But fortunately, the walls and ceiling turned out good. We were super late for lunch and the painter was a good guy and offered us a ride to our lunch :) So what did we do? We shared the gospel with him and gave him and his family a Finding faith in Christ dvd. Good stuff :)

After lunch we had basically wasted a good part of the day and we had to get our stuff together and head to Cristalina (the land of the crystals). So we spent Wednesday afternoon and night travelling there to do trades with the elders.Thursday was a great day. I stuck with another american that basically has all the same interests as me so it was a good day. Him and his companion where having some difficulties in the area with investigators with baptismal dates. So I really prayed I`d be able to help them out and sure enough I was able to. I realized after Thursday how far I have come as a leader and a missionary. I was able to see the hand of God in my life as I have progressed on the mission. The first 4 visits we did thursday were amazing. We left each house with people that had dates for baptism and the investigators knew what they had to do to really be prepared and receive an answer from our Heavenly Father. At the beginning of the mission I didn´t know how to mark baptismal dates or give out commitments to people, but as we taught it was something so common and easy to do and I realized that. Later in the night I couldn´t help but feel grateful for the Lord and how he had made a weakness a strength to me. ether 12:27 is amazing and so thankful for the promisses in that scripture. 

At the end of the trade we had invited many people to be baptized, taught lots of people about the Savior and His restored church, and we ate lots of sushi. ha! For the first time on the mission I ate sushi. We met up with my comp and the other missionary and we all bought some sushi. It was super super delicious. I don´t know if you all know that about me, but I like sushi and my companion is an addict so it probably won´t be the last time we eat it :) 

Saturday we had a ward activity at a members house that has a picnic area and little field to play soccer. We had a big ol´brasilian bbq and we had about 10 investigators there! (unfortunately those 10 didn´t go to church...) But the actual activity was super awesome and we were able to receive some good references of the members. Sunday, we did a split with two of the young men here and we were able to visit lots and lots of people and we even found lots of other people that seem to have lots of potential. These next few weeks should be super good and I am excited to work with the people that we have and find other people. One of my favorite things to do is find new people to teach. The other day I tried to talk to a lady and she literally started running away from yelling ´´i am late!`´ and then shortly after stopped running. I couldn´t help but laugh because the reaction of lots of people is quite hilarious! Good times here in the streets of brasil for sure :)

I have lots of more things I want to share this week but just don´t have time. The work is going good here and I am loving it. It seems like every week I am working more and more. The trails here are often times so big and great, but I am so thankful for them because I know God is helping me become the man I need to be. I learn so much every week and am so thankful to be here. I love each and every single one of you! have a great week and a happy easter :)

com amor, Elder Patterson

Families.....Mar 14 2016

Olá. 

Well hello everybody. Glad to hear everyones weeks were good and stuff. Cody, hope the interview went well. This week really did fly by. It started out last monday after I sent emails we went to the elders apartment in Guará and it was ridiculous. Soooo small. It was like a hotel room, but a little smaller. I am super glad I am living here in ocidental. Our apartment is like 3 times bigger than theirs. But tuesday morning was awesome. We had the Mission Council with all the zone leaders, president and sister, and the assistants. We talked about a lot of things and learned that our mission is the mission that has the most recent converts that actually stay firm in the church here in brasil. That really is something to be happy about! We really focus on baptizing converts instead of less-actives. The major focus of the council was ´´Qualifying our mission to gain a temple.´´ I don´t know if y´all are aware or not that brasil is the only country in the world that has temples, but doesn´t have a temple in the capital. So we are going to be working hard to do 3 things. 1-Strengthen members 2-Reactivate inactives and 3-baptize. Brasilia is so close to getting a temple and we all want it to happen so bad. It will definitely happen within the next couple years but we are hoping it happens even sooner. The Lord is really preparing this place for a temple. 

Another fun little fact was at the mission conference we had a little contest between all of the companionships of zone leaders to see who could come up with the best idea to get the mission excited and working hard. The funnest part was that the companionship that had the best idea was going to win two little bags of skittles! ha. So the game was on. Elder Ribeiro and myself thought of an idea 2 other groups had which was: The missionaries that work the hardest and do the best this transfer gain a steak dinner with pres. and sis. lundgren. We got up there and our presentation of the idea was so good that we actually ended up winning! Now the mission has applied our idea that we came up with :) and we got some skittles! woohoo! 

Getting back into ocidental was good after being away a day and a half. We started working super hard this week and we have 2 families that are extremely awesome that we are working with! The first family is Marcos and Rute (+2 kids). They were old investigators that the other missionaries weren´t able to help progress because they never went to church. But finally after a long time they went to church and we started working with them. We went there and even marked baptismal dates with them for the end of this month. We have already fasted for them, because the ward here is really needing them. They would be such strong members and leaders here in the ward. The best part is is that they absolutely love us and gave us dinner saturday night. It was soooo funny because they researched utah and found out that a typical ´´dessert´´ was colored jello so they made it for me! so legit :) 

The other family that we are working with is Leandro and Samara. They have two kids as well but aren´t married. However, this is the first family that I have taught that actually have the desire to be married and baptized. So we got their papers and are working towards marraige with them before baptism! Sooo awesome. I am looking forward to the challenge to marry a couple. It has always been something that I have wanted to do and now we are helping them.

That is it for this week. For sure I could spend the whole day writting an email to you all but I am already going crazy sitting down for so long! haha. But I love all of you thanks for all the love and support. Have a great week, Jesus loves you and so do I!!!

com amor, Elder Patterson

Churrasco and soccer in the rain. march 7 2016

I am sorry that I say every p-day I don´t have much time... It´s just that we have been doing lots of fun things on p-days lately that it hasn´t allowed much time for us to write! So today I am in a place called Guará somewhere in Brasilia. We went to Asa Sul today and played soccer with all the zone leaders and it started to rain and it was just a blast. We play on cement courts (indoor soccer kinda) and we were all just loving it. And after we had an old fashioned brasilian bbq. CHURRASCO. Good fun. We even cooked some chicken hearts just because it´s good. And it was awesome because Elder Medina brought me a present he asked his parents to send him from Paraguay for Christmas. It is a leather worked water jug with a cup to drink Tererè. So great :) I doubt any of you will like it, but it´s become a tradition for us here on the mission :) ha.

Working this week with Elder Ribeiro has been a blast. He is one of the funniest guys I have met. We just have a great time all the time and we work incredibly well together as zone leaders. This week was one of the best weeks yet of the zone. Just good stuff and lots of blessings from Heavenly Father. As we started from 0 this week we were able to find some new investigators and mark more baptismal dates. One of the highlight lessons would be with this young man we found (16years). We taught him and set a baptismal date. We went back to visit him and his mom and her friend were their that are both pastors from a church that exists here (full of apostasy). We sat there and they began to ask us questions about our church and beliefs. We just hammered them with doctrine :) Not that we bible bashed, but we taught with authority. They even asked us about the book of mormon at the end of the lesson and we taught them and they were ´´dying´´ to have it. So we marked a visit with them this week. 

We also received a few references of families this week! Families that are married for reals. Such a blessing. So now we have a few families we are working with and I put lots of faith in them that they can progress and be strong members in the church one day. 

I just want to end with a thought. This week I studied Enos as a part of my Book of Mormon reading. Usually we look to him and remember his example of how he went to hunt animals and prayed receiving forgiveness of his sins. But as I studied the rest of his testimony, the last verse really stuck out to me. 

27 And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoicein the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen.

What really stood out to me is that he had such a certainty that he would stand before Christ and see His face with pleasure. He even knew that he would enter into the Kingdom of God because the life he lived. I applied this to myself and asked myself if I would have these same feelings entering into God´s presence. For sure I am not perfect and that gave me some good time to reflect on the things that I still need to improve in my life. But how great it is to have the atonement of Christ that we can one day stand in His presence and see his face with pleasure. I love you all annd hope this week is spectacular for each of you :) have a great week!

com amor de brasil, Elder Patterson

ps check out my outfit... 

playing in the rain.

Medina and I

earth to zika......2/29/2016

Hello. Oi. Tudo bem? beleza.

So dad asked about the zika virus that has been big in the news there. I said I hadn´t heard much about it but as I started to pay attention they talk about it everywhere. But they talk about both the zika and dengue together and how we need to kill mosquitos and stuff like that. Lots and lots of people are sick here because of these dang mosquitos. I sleep with a fan blowing on my so its pretty chill. Even have some bug spray if you can believe it! I don´t like to use it though because that smell of deet reminds me of the mountains and camping and the trek and all that great stuff :) ha.

But anyways! Today was transfers and my companion was transferred! It was actually expected because he had been here for 7.5 months. So we ended the week really good. We had one more baptism of a guy named Clesio. He is a really big dude and really poor. He is 41 I think and has clown hair! He is bald on top but the sides are super long and curly, it´s insanely outrageous. We helped him shave his beard and we were going to pay for a haircut but he didn´t want to cut his hair because he´d be bald (even though he already is). But he has been progressing these last few weeks and has been going to church for quite some time. 

And this week was stressful. Super stressful. Because we were out of water like I said. So Tuesday we had interviews with President Lundgren and after we stayed in the areas of the elders in Valparaiso because we had lots of baptisms to do. Staying there was good because we were able to take a shower before we went back to our area. But the rest of the week we had to shower at members houses that had water that live close to us. It was inconvenient for us but the members were more than willing to help. The real struggle was clothes... It was a miracle that we had enough clean clothes to last, but it was cutting it real close. Finally Friday morning the water came back on. BUT that morning one of the water holders on top of our building was cracked and started pooring into our house. It was like a waterfall and it was all coming from the breaker box (the power) so we called a guy and he came and told us it was to dangerous to leave on so he turned our water back off and our power! Ugh. But finally Saturday morning they got it all figured it and now we have water, power, and clean clothes :) smiles all around. But wow, was it a struggle.

Today was transfers like I said and my new companion is Elder Ribeiro. He is brasilian and has 1 year and 3 months on the mission. He is a super funny guy and hard worker. It´s his first time as a zone leader so I get to train him up. It will be awesome. I am really looking forward to working with him. 

Today we stayed in brasilian and we played soccer with the president and a bunch of missionaries. We played for like 3 hours straight and I am exhausted and sunburnt. I even used sunscreen... But it´s unevitable. I also spent some time with elder seth, elder goodsell, and elder josephson! Love those guys. Elder Josephson even gave me a brand new stafford shirt because the one I am wearing today is worn out. lol :) Sister Lundgren probably posted pictures on the website if you want to check them out. Also, elder anderson came down from palmas and when he walked into the church I couldn´t stop laughing. The poor kid was all sunburned and dark skinned! hahaha. Soo funny. That is what comes from being in Palmas. 

Anyways, I love you all. I will send pictures next week! Live long and prosper <3

com amor, Elder Patterson

	Feb 29 (11 days ago)
to me

Live picture from the internet cafe with my comp!Our last lunch and my sun hat ;)Eating açai with some recent converts! (on them hehe)

Brasilian Rainstorms 2/22/2016

Now doesn´t that title sound refreshing? Because it sure is. So last night, a rainstorm came in super strong! I couldn´t believe how hard it rained. It only lasted about 30 minutres then stopped, but it sure brought a fresh breeze into our apartment. I actually thought about taking my shampoo and soap outside to take a shower because turns out, our apartment and some parts of the city are out of water! Ugh. Being without power is one thing, I have already passed two weeks without lights, but without water is almost impossible! So I am praying that we get our water back soon. I accept any extra prayers :) But it´s okay. Today we were invited to eat lunch at a members house with elder p. lima and elder seth with us. So we took a shower at her house. She was called as the relief society president yesterday, so she really is like our mother here in the area :) so thankful!

But wow, this week was great. Full of ups and downs as always. First off, we had a zone meeting and Elder Benedetti and myself interviewed all the missionaries and talked about diligence with each of them because last week was horrible. Nobody did anything. A lack of diligence amongst the missionaries was lacking. So in preach my gospel it says that diligence is steady, consistent, earnest, and energetic effort in doing the Lord’s work. So we told everyone to be diligent and work hard. And this week the zone improved 1000%. 

As this week progressed, we had a rough day. We knocked about 1024 doors and no one wanted to hear us. We returned to the center of the city where it is really hard to work. it was 8:30 and we stopped by a members house to get some water and use the bathroom. The natural man within us told us to go home and begged for rest. We honestly could have gone home and it would have been just fine. But we remembered our lecture about diligence and applied our own lesson. We decided to try and contact a man we met a few weeks ago. We didn´t find his house. 8:55. Give up? We almost gave up. Luckily and with the help of angels pushing most likely, we tried one more road and found the guys house. We knocked and he said he had fallen and was hurt. We could have given up once more and returned another day, but we asked kindly if he wanted to talk for a few minutes. Long story short, he let us in and this dude is married and has 2 kids :) one with the age of baptism (score!). We taught the book of mormon and he accepted it and baptismal dates. He was having a real hard time breathing because of his fall and said his side was hurting. So we gave him a blessing and left. Unfortunatetly, when we went back he had confirmed to us that he had broken 3 ribs when he fell so he wouldn´t be able to go to church. But even so, we found a family that is needing and wanted the church. So hopefully we can continue with them this next transfer. But it is so true that God blesses us after we exercise our diligence. 

So I also want to share an awesome experience I had this week. As zone leaders, we have to do interviews for baptism in other areas. This week I had the priviledge to go back to Luziania! And while I was there, I did an interview at one of my recent converts house, the young kid we baptized. This time his older brother was being interviewed! And I interviewed him and he passed. The joy I had while being there was extremely sweet. I honestly worried when we baptized him that he would stay strong because little luiz fernando is only 11! Its hard for someone so young to stay firm. But he is and now his family is being baptized!!! woohoo! And even better, he is going out with the missionaries and doing visits with them. The little guy is such a stud! It was sooo rewarding to see him progressing so much after about a year! And I even called Priscila, my other convert and she recognized my voice immediately.. I talked to her for a little while and it was great to hear that she too is doing great, firm, and dating another member! haha, so legit. And even Monica is doing good :) I can´t explain the happiness that comes from seeing a convert strong and firm in the gospel. <3

Now my time is running out, but I just want to finish writing about our baptisms we had this week! Lidiane was baptized of course. It was always obvious that she would be because she is so great! And we baptized Larissa as well. She is an older woman that was a reference from a member and we had been visiting her as well. I actually baptized with a jumpsuit because I didn´t have time to iron my baptismal clothes. So that was fun! haha. I felt like I was back at the temple. This week was amazing. Ended great. I love you all and hope you all have great week. I´ll be sure to include pictures below :)

com amor, Elder Patterson

baptism of mayara and gabriely

baptism of Lidiane and Larissa

and p-day with the boys.

feb 15 2016

me and seth. Freaking love this kid so much! #bffs.

lunch with the gang!

me and my old companions :)

Well, here we go again at this computer! So this week should be better than last week´s email. 

This week was another week in the work of the Lord that is for sure. We found some really really awesome people. So the investigator that is the coolest is Lidiane. She is 16 I think. We actually found her two weeks ago walking in the street. We passed her and her mom and didn´t talk to her. Afterwards we both felt like we should have stopped her. Luckily for us an hour later after our visit we were walking and they passed us again so of course we stopped her and her mom. They were both super receptive and accepted our visit. We went there and taught the restoration and she liked it and went to church last week after the first visit. She loved church (which is surprising because no one was there and it was testimony meeting lol) and accepted our visits this last week. When we tried going to her house she wasn´t there but her mom called us and told us she was at her aunts house. We called her and she told us to visit her at her aunts house. We went there and couldn´t find it, so she came looking for us! It was incredible. No one does that to be taught. She was dying to receive the Book of Mormon and now she is reading like crazy. We also call her an investigator of gold because she has already given us 3 references! Saturday she called us and told us she was at the park with her friend and that we should meet her. So we went there and taught both of them in the park. Her friend turns out to be the cousin of the stake president that goes to our ward. So when she should up at church with us yesterday, they were super happy to see her there. So exciting. We have there baptisms marked for this Sunday, so we are working towards that this week.

Our other investigator that is progressing a ton is Mayara´s mom that was baptized last week and received the Holy Ghost yesterday. Her mom is super cool and has problems with coffee, but we went there and taught the word of wisdom and she accepted to live it. When we went back she told us she hadn´t drunken coffee yet! But unfortunately everyone and there dogs offer coffee upon entrance of a house, supermarket, store you name it, and she broke and drank one day. But she is improving tons! It is such a great feeling when investigators chose to follow Jesus Christ and give up the things of the world. Even though she has troubles, she is getting better everyday and we know she´ll be baptized as well :)

This week was also Elder Benedetti´s birthday so he got lots of treats and goodies :) it´s always good when a companion has a birthday because you both celebrate :) hehe. Oh! something I forgot to say last week is that dengue is really making lots of people sick here. Those little mosquitos are soooo annoying, but they bug bombed our city. Or in other words, trucks with these turret like things in the beds drove around launching a smoke/poison into the air to kill all the mosquitos... Crazy stuff here in brasil! haha, I couldn´t believe it but I saw it with my own eyes. :) But all is well.

So today we had our zone activity. It was a lot of fun. We went to a members house that has a really nice bbq place and a little soccer field, so we went there and had a bbq today. I will send some pics in this email, no worries! But I´ll tell you what, when I get home, I am going to make a big brasilian bbq for all of us :) It´s actually funny because they think we are all so weird we eat hamburgers and hot dogs as part of our bbq´s. Because theirs is just tons of meat and a certain dish of beans with coca-cola :) so funny.

But, I just want to end saying how grateful I am to be a missionary. It´s so great and such an honor to be here. I learn so many things every day and my testimony is strengthened every time I put on the badge and leave the house. It for sure is not easy being a missionary, and actually, it´s probably the most stressful thing I think I have ever done in my life to worry about the salvation of other people. Its incredibly sad when someone rejects us or tells us not to come back because they want to continue in there church. But the happiness that comes from finding the few souls that are looking to follow Christ is incredible. Something I have really thought about lately is eternity. This life is sooo short and we are sooo imperfect. Looking at how imperfect we all are is a bit overwhelming knowing that nothing impure can enter into God´s presence. But that is also why I have really tried to understand more about the Saviour and His infinite Atonement. To me it´s something so complex and so complicated that it´s almost impossible to understand or comprehend. But I do know that Christ did suffer and die for all of us and all these people here in my area. That´s why this work is so important. And being able to help others recognize him and know him is amazing. I love you all and hope you all embrace the atonement and apply repentance more fully in your lives, because it´s absolutely necessary for our eternal happiness. I love you all and pray for you all as well daily. Have a great week! The Church is true and the majority of my ties are blue! (#redheadproblems) Loves!!!

com amor, Elder Patterson

Land of Crystals...Feb 8 2016

Hello. Like basically out of time so I have to make this email pretty fast. Sorry.

This week was a pretty exciting week and I had the opportunity to do some things I always wanted to do when I was here in Luziânia but never got the chance. So we started this week out by travelling to the area that is the farthest in our zone. It is called Cristalina. I don´t know exactly the translation but Land of Crystals is good enough for me. So we went there to Cristalina to do a trade with the elders there and have a mini zone meeting because its far enough away that they don´t participate with us every week. But anyways, this place is wonderful! it has it´s name for a reason. The roads are just full of crystals! It´s so unreal. It´s a major tourist attraction as well. So of course, I bought a bunch of crystals and cool souvenirs while we were there :) hehe. 

So we lost lots of time in our own area this week because of the trade we went on, we stayed there two days, so when we got back we focused a lot on our baptisms that we had marked for this week. We worked with three people, Mayara, Gabriely, and Francivanea. We really saw miracles this week as they all progressed and in the end Mayara and Gabriely where baptized! It was super super awesome. I baptized Gabriely and and elder bene baptized mayara. I won´t send pics because the internet dude is kicking us out! sorry. But it was a great week :)

I love you all, super sorry its a short one this week. I will definitely send pictures next week okay? Sorry again! love you all

com amor, Elder Patterson

feb 1 2016. Some delicious sarapatel!

Hey my family!

So I can´t even begin to explain everything that happened this last week. Sooo much stuff. But we worked so incredibly hard. We were able to find 26 new investigators this week and we marked baptismal dates with 8 of them. I think the 3 most important are three young women we found. Their names are Taisla, Francivanea, and Gabriella. We found them this week and taught the restoration, book of mormon, and the gospel of jesus christ already. We told them that we were going to stop by there house on the way to church to go with them and when we went, they were all ready to go! And they loved the church. So they are 3 girls that do the necessary things to be baptized 1. Read the book of mormon. 2. Go to church. and 3. pray! So they are progressing a lot. 

I think this is the week I have taught the restoration more than I have an any other week of my life! Every house we knocked on instead of mark another day to go back, we just said we have a message for you and your family that we want to share with you right now. And surprisingly enough, most everyone let us in to teach. So we taught the restoration and invited everyone and there dogs to be baptized. Its actually really funny the conversations we have here walking in the roads here because there are so many dogs we´ll just start asking if they want to be baptized. If they bark that means the accepted! lol. The things we find funny on the mission...

But also, I don´t think I have invited so many people to be baptized than I have these last two weeks. In these last two weeks we have invited almost 60 people to be baptized. Whoever they are, whatever church they go to, whatever there age (8 years and up duh) we invite everyone to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by us, because we have the authority of God. It´s so great! Doing this we are able to find the people who are really ready. And let me just say we are finding them!

Alright, now the major blessing for this week. So yesterday in the church we were handling our 9 investigators that we had and getting them to all the right classes when one of them, a young man came up to us. This young man´s name is Isac. He is 12 and has been going to the church for 1 month. His sister was baptized a few weeks ago and confirmed this week. Inbetween the classes he came up to us and said ``I want to be baptized.´´ Woohoo! He wasn´t baptized early because he was going to another church full of apostasy, but yesterday he decided what he really wanted. So we asked if we could do it this next week because nothing was prepared, but he said ´´no, I want to be baptized today!´´ So as fast as lightening we cleaned the baptismal font (our little set up pool. lol), getting jumpsuits, and setting up a baptismal interview with him. Our bishop is so great as well. He is super young and we told him we wanted to do the baptism after church and he was all for it! When church ended we decided to give the chance to a newly ordained elder that is getting ready to go on his mission that has never baptized before. So we had to teach him how to baptized and everything, it was a great experience. So we had our first baptism this transfer yesterday and it was wonderful! I will send pictures next week because the members forgot to forward them to me...

So I don´t know if you all wonder about the weird foods we eat here every once and a while, but yesterday I ate some weird stuff. It´s called sarapatel and is like a meat soup that is made with pig liver, tongue, heart, and stomach... Yuck right? Well, I ate it and it was actually really good, but I didn´t get seconds just because of the fact it was a bunch of weird pug meats.... *shiver 

And mom is asking about my release date. So I talked to president a few weeks ago through email and he said that it will most likely (95%) will be August 5th, 2016. That means I´d leave the 5th and get there the 6th of august. That is all I know of right now. I also completed 1 year and 6 months this last week. Woohoo! I finished the mission of a Sister! lol. So I have more 6 months of baptizing and doing the Lord´s wonderful work!

I love you all! Stay strong and continue with a smile on your faces! have a great week!

com amor, Elder Patterson

1-25-16....Hello

Holler!

So whats good in the hood? This week was great and a half. Things are going so good and I am so happy with where I am at on the mission and whats going on. So let me just try and write a little bit about what is going on. I am about out of time so I will have to write more next week. But Elder Benedetti and I are working great together. He is on the same level as me and we are just killing it here. We have two baptism dates that we marked for this week. An older lady that told us her dream is to enter into the temple! and another deacon aged kid that has already gone to church a few times and his mom is a recent convert, so we´ll see what we can do this week with these two. We also marked 8 other baptismal dates but probably we will cut them because they didn´t go to church. Elder Benedetti and myself aren´t missionaries that waste time with people that aren´t the ´elect´ of God. We have the same mindset and its great. 

The area itself, ocidental is super big and full of people. We talk to as many people as possible every day and invite everyone to be baptized :) Super good stuff. Our ward doesn´t have a chapel yet, and we meet in a two story building that is actually pretty nice. The only weird thing is that the sacrament part has a bunch of pillars in the middle of the benches so some seats can´t see the pulpit. The wards frequency is about 120 and that is great. WE are working hard to increase that because the more people that are going to church, the faster we are going to get a chapel here for these wonderful saints. 

I can´t even begin to tell you about the weather. I actually passed a few days without sweating! Can you believe it??? Its unreal. Rains everyday, but not to much that it stops us from working. I am eating more than in palmas because the heat just made everyone lose their appetite. I don´t know if I told y´all, but I lost about 15-20 pounds in palmas because it was so hot. But I will get it all back here in muscle because we work out in the mornings :) haha. #gymrat

A cool story of the week is that this guy at church was asking me about where I am from and I told him I am from Utah and he asked where. I said from the Santa Clara, and he started to get excited and asked if I knew an elder that served with him in Porto Alegria South mission that is from Santa Clara. He said this elders name was Elder Lindsey and he couldn´t remember his first name, I said ´´Mckay?´´ and he went nuts! haha. It was so funny. This world is so small, this member started talking about our very own mckay lindsey and how he was a great friend on his mission. He also said that he was legend in his mission and that made me happy to hear such good things about him and know that our ward has great missionaries all over the world! haha! So legit. This guys name is Vinicios Weslen (ex-Elder Weslen) if mom wants to tell mckay that I am serving in his friends ward here in ocidental. 

But another cool story of the week is that finally after 1 year and 6 months, I found a pug!!! We were walking in the street and this young lady had a dog and I looked and it was the cutest little pug I have seen since I left home! We started teaching this family of course because I couldn´t help but run over to the little guy and give him a big hug :) His name is Zion oddly enough and soft and friendly! Man, it was awesome :) lol.

So I am 100% sure I have left lots of stuff out, but I will definitely try my best to write more details about everything next week. The work is going great here and it is such a blessing to be here with elder benedetti. I love you all and hope this week goes great for you all!

com amor, Elder Patterson

Goodbye my dearly beloved Palmas, Tocantins.. Jan 18 2016

TRANSFERRED!  Ha. 

Now where to begin??? So this last week was a rush and a half it seems like. Now I am so lost as to what all happened this last week I am sure I will forget something, but I will do my best. First of all, we found some really cool people to teach this week but unfortunately, none of them progress. Almost everyone in Palmas will let you in and let you teach them, but they are horrible when it comes to commitments. ´´one of these days I will visit the church´´ ´´if its God will I will go to church (blasphemy)´´ ´´If its not raining I will go to church (and they don´t go when its not)´´   ´´yeah, I´ll read the book of mormon. tomorrow...´´ Oh my, I could go on with things people say here but I won´t waste to much time with that. But we were able to teach a lady we helped carry her groceries home one day and she said ´´I am going to be waiting for you boys to come back!´´ And we went back this last week and she was pretty emotional saying how she knew we were truly men of God and that we are just good people. I felt so happy to have helped her. We taught her and her husband and invited them to baptism, they accepted but didn´t go to church (go figure). But it was a pretty great experience this week.

This week we also had a bible bash with a dude that thinks he knows the scriptures. He belongs to one of these churches that are just full of apostasy here and he´s been going to his church for some 30 years. He tore out the old testament of his bibles saying it was useless and saying how Christ´s grace has already saved us and the only commandments we have are to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as well... Oh my, the thing is as a missionary we get this a lot. People teaching and believing in lies from the ´cunning one´ but this week it just happened a lot. Elder Alarcon and myself talked about it yesterday and we both testified one to each other that the Holy Ghost was always with us confirming to us what we know and what we preach is true. Look, I know that the world is all sorts of confused family and we all don´t hear about all these churches back home, but I know without a doubt that we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ. I know it with all my heart. I know we are in the last days and am thankful for the truth that we have. 

So cool story. Saturday I went with Elder Barker to Miracema to do a baptismal interview. I interviewed a little girl of 11 years of age and she passed. Just a sweet, cute little girl. But while we were there we ate lunch with the sisters because we would have returned late to our own area. So we went to a house that I immediately recognized as a house I had eaten at before almost 1 year and 3 months ago my first transfer on the mission. The family remembered me and I them. It was even more cool because the girl that lives there just received her mission call to the Salt Lake Temple Square mission! She is leaving in april and we just talked a bunch about utah and what it is like. I even promised her mom that I was going to buy her and her companion lunch one day to repay her for the lunches she so graciously made for us. It was a very touching encounter with them. 

While I was in Miracema I received the transfer calls. And the first name he said that was going to Brasilia was me! I almost didn´t believe it because I was completely expecting to stay another transfer there. So we made it back to our area and I started packing my bags. And let much just tell you, I am sick of packing bags... I think that might be the worst part of the mission is packing bags... Like seriously, mom and lauren sent me with all my stuff in those airtight/space bags, but no one ever thought that brasil wouldn´t have vacumns! So it makes it complicated getting everything in those bags... But with a few prayers and a few miracles the zipper always shuts!!! woohoo! So, yep. I was transferred.

So Sunday night I said goodbye to everyone and loaded all the missionaries into the bus. It is super weird to think that I was the leader of all of them that went down to brasilia because I am the oldest in the mission out of all of them and that was the 9th time I have taken the bus ride. I can say it was a bittersweet moment because now, there is little to no chance that I go back to palmas on the mission. But we all got here this morning and headed to Asa Sul Chapel where they give us the transfers. I got transferred back to the zone I was before I went to Palmas! ha. Valparaíso is the name of the zone. My area is called Ocidental and I am zone leader still with Elder Benedetti. He is brasilian and he is known to be one of the missionaries that baptizes the most. So I am super excited to be here with him and I actually was with him when I was in Luziana (the same ward, but not the same area) so we are good buds already. I am like 20 minutes from Luziana and will be able to go back there on trades and to do interviews! So most likely I will see old friends and faces. Something else that is really interesting is that I am known on the mission as the elder that was called to serve in the brasil BRASILIA mission but has never served there. I have never actually served in brasilia and its crazy! I am in the state of Goias again and love it. I don´t know much about my area besides its super big and full of people that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don´t know what the Lord has in store for me but I can say I am more than excited to discover what He wants of me and what He wants me to become here while I am in His sacred service. I love you all so much and hope you all are reading your scriptures everyday and saying your prayers often. The church is true! 

com amor, Elder Patterson

The st. George boys. I had to say goodbye to them... sad day.

and my last day in palmas, hence the peace out sign. (blue building on the left was my apartment)

the view from my new apartment. hashtag hardcore swag. haha

Rednecks, rain, raisins.....01-11-16

Howdy... Well I am thinking I could get real redneck in this email if I wanted, but I will explain that a little later on. 

This week was a week of learning how to love in my book. Love the missionaries in my zone, love the areas in palmas, love the people, love the work, and love being a missionary. Not that I have never loved these things, but I was able to do it in abundance this week. So we have our district meetings every week on tuesday morning, and we always have all the districts in the same chapel and we do our studies and after we have our meetings. So during personal study one of the elders came up to me asking to talk. So I went with him and we had a long talk. This elder is having lots of troubles with his companion. He came to me with some pretty heavy problems and as I sat there listening to him I was able to bear unto him my testimony and give him the comforting words that he needed. He humbly asked for a blessing and I gave him one. When I put my hands on his head the spirit just filled my sould and he received a blessing from Heavenly Father. At the end of the blessing he was just crying and thanked me so much for what I had done. My love for him was so big that I was filled with joy. I am so thankful that in that moment I was able to be the hands of the Lord and give the comfort he needed. It was an amazing experience. 

Then another sister in our zone came up to me and our district leader and asked for a blessing of comfort as well because she got a phone call from her mom that morning that her dad had been in an accident at her house and broke his back. So once again, we were able to be the Lords servants and give another blessing of comfort. I stand all amazed that God has given us a little of His power to bless the lives of others. I am so thankful for the priesthood and acknowledge in all times and  in all places that anything done by my hands is because of my Heavenly Father and Savior. Being their servant here always humbles me and teaches me more about them.

But Tuesday we also did a trade where I went with a new missionary to where? Back to Porto Nacional! haha. It was awesome to spend a day back in Porto. I was able to work with that new missionary and was amazed at the things he has already learned here. Being in porto again was also a very good experience. I remembered the love I have for that place and all the people there. The funny redneck story of the week was when i was leaving porto wednesday morning I was walking with elder alarcon to catch the bus to palmas when I heard ´´yup, he´s ´murican!´´ I turned on a dime to see big 3 white guys looking at me. I asked ´´you guys americans?´´ Yup. was the reply. I asked them what the freak they were doing here and they replied with the simple answer ´´farmin...´´ I was in awe! 3 dudes that ended up in porto nacional to farm! haha. One was from colorado, idaho, and kansas. They had on cowboy boots, wranglers, and that classic cowboy button up shirt. They reminded me so much of the folk from milford! I was expecting one of them to ask if I was ´´craigs son´´ like that always happens there! hahaha. I talked with them for a little while and left to catch my bus. My mind is still trying to figure out the whole thing :) lol

Thursday, I did annother trade with Elder Christensen. He is from St. George and went to piine view. It was one of the best trades ever because we talked about everything from st. george and we have some friends in common! When I was with him I also got his ´going home´ phone call when they called to see what airport he´d land in. When he said St. George airport we were both just laughing and being trunky together for a little bit. Sooo much fun. I am actually going to send a package with him and he´ll deliver it to you guys this next month he said :) so that is pretty awesome. And we have been blessed with tons of rain this week, the weather has cooled off quite a bit and I am sooo thankful because I am so sick of sweating 24/7.

So real fast because I am out of time. Today we had a ´´district p´day´´ and we went to the worlds second largest park.. Which I have already been too, but no one else had. So we went there with elder barker, elder lorenzone, and the two sisters from our district. After we went and bought some stuff to make a brasillan food, pastels. (pastries in english, but they aren´t even pastries...) It was also way legit beccause we met up with elder anderson and elder schinigoski at the church where we made lunch and we hung out with them for the day. Elder schinigoski is finishing his mission this week! So sad to see my ´dad´going home, but it was good to be with him. And we played some games with coins and flour. A game where you put flour in a cup, make a sand castle, and put a coin on top. Each person takes a turn cutting away parts and when the coin falls you have to get it out with your mouth. I´ll send a pic of Elder Anderson losing. It was hilarious! haha. But I have to go. Sorry if my email was super spiritual, exciting, but I tried my best. I love each of you and hope this week is great! Next week is transfers, but I don´t expect any changes with me. I´ll let you know though! love you all! The church is true! Trust in Christ and have FAITH in all things good always!

com amor, Elder patterson

....and a Happy New Year. 1-4-2016

Well hello errbody. 

Just typing an email to wish you all a very happy new year! My new year was pretty normal as a missionary. The 4 of us in the house woke up at 11:50 to do the countdown until midnight and the new year. I of course made some tereré to drink because that has become tradition for me on the mission at new years.lol. But we all went to our window to watch and see some fireworks... Unfortunately we only saw two fireworks go off. Fortunately is how we saw them. So across the street from our house is two churches that were just yelling ´´glory to God! hallelujah!´´ and a bunch of other apostasy. So they were having a huge party and some of the church dudes went out to set off the fireworks atmidnight. When they set them off they didn´t shoot up into the air but stayed on the ground! They were the fireworks meant for the sky but blew up on the ground! It was sooooo cool! I was laughing my head off as the dudes, pastors, started running and the other one went off on the ground as well! hahaha. I think it was like the most epic thing ever. Definitely worth waking up and watching. I even got it on video because I was recording with my camera. But unfortunately, I am not able to send videos because the files are too big. But my new years was super legit full of laughs, pastors, and firework bombs. :)

This week was fairly interesting. Last monday night we were out looking for an address and asked a dude on the road for help. He was on his phone and just told us he didn´t know. We kept walking and he was going the same direction as us but on the other side of the road. As we approached the other end of the road he called over to us ´´are you the mormons´´ and when anyone says that I immediately talk to them. So I went over to him and he told us he wants one of our books. Of course I had one with me but the tactics of the mission were on my mind, I told him that we have one for him but it´s in our house and we´d deliver it to him the next day. So we scored his address and number and went there tuesday night. At first he seemed like a really rough guy, tattoos, didn´t even shake our hands, and just seemed uninterested. But we sat down with him and started to talk about the book of mormon and why he asked for one. He said he had seen it online and was interested. I explained a little bit about the book to him and then he started asking if it was Moroni that buried it. I was super surprised because we hadn´t mentioned Moroni´s name at that point. Then we gave him the book and he said ´´i just feel exactly like joseph smith, really confused about all the religions here and want to know the truth.´´ I was just in awe because we hadn´t even talked about joseph smith either. The best part is his name, Whanderuarly. He is a stud. The only problem is that he is only here a few days of the week because he doesn´t live in our area but stays at his moms house. So we are going there later today and see if we can talk to him. 

Another super awesome experience was new years day. No one is in the roads here because everyone travels and the people that were here were drunk or the designated driver (thank goodness some people have enough sense to have those here..) And we were walking and these dudes in a car stopped us and said ´´how does it work?`` they were wanted to know all about our religion because they are looking for changes in there lives. So we were super happy to give it to them. We marked a visit with them for the next day and taught about 5 people that seem interested. We are excited to continue working with them. 

As far as a hard week goes to find people, the Lord really blessed us and helped us find His children that are lost and needing us. Unfortunately we haven´t been able to find many of our investigators with dates because they are all travelling. But we are doing our best. Another awesome story is that we did a contact with this lady a few weeks ago, we went there and she received us really well. She is super weird and seems like she isn´t understanding a single thing we say, but she is. We asked her if she would go to church with us because she lives on the same street and she said yeah. So we went by sunday and she was ready to go! She went with us and it was good. She told us about a dream she had where it was the end of the world and two men (us) were guiding her to safety. So for sure we are going to set a date with her for this transfer and we´ll see if the Lord will bless us. :) But we´re excited.

Mom had asked me about my new years resolutions and I decided I´d share some with you all. The goals I set last year I was able to complete and it made me super happy. The inspired goals I set last year CHANGED my life. At the time I didn´t even know why I was setting them, but I did as the spirit said and I can honestly say the goals were inspired for my life and this amazing work. This year I set some goals for the mission and after the mission. Some of my mission goals are to baptized every single transfer and work until the end returning with honor. I also am going to re-read the book of mormon in portugues again. I have also set some study goals to help me grow closer to my Savior. The goals I set for after the mission are to go to the temple once a week, continue my scripture studies, do family nights everyweek with y´all, and some other little things. But I know that goals are super important for us to grow and progress. I am super excited for this new year. It has been super strange this transition know that this year I will be home and studying, but it has also excited me and I am more ready than ever to keep working hard here doing the Lords work. I love you all and hope that this year starts off amazing for each of you! Loves and kisses!

com amor, Elder Patterson