Friday, July 22, 2016
Missão Cumprida, Brasil Brasília 2014-2016
Minha querida família,
Eu sou tão grato pelo privilégio que tenho neste momento para escrever vocês. Eu decidi no primeiro ano que meu último email seria em português. È muito difícil para mim acreditar que dois anos já passaram. Minha vida antes da missão parece um sonho. Parece que uma eternidade tenha passada desde então. Também minha missão passou muito rápido. Agora quero agradecer cada um de vocês pelo apóio que vocês me deram. A missão não foi facil e se não foi por vocês, ela teria sido bem mais difícil. Mãe e Pai, eu amo vocês com todo meu coração e não posso agradecer vocês suficiente por me amarem e por me ajudarem aqui. Eu realmente tenho os melhores pais no mundo! E minha irmã e irmão também. Vocês sempre me mandaram emais e mostraram que vocês não esqueceram de mim. A missão me mostrou quanto a família é importante não somente para Deus, mas para mim tambèm. Eu sou tão abençoado por ter recebido vocês como minha família aqui na terra e para sempre.
As coisas eu aprendi aqui no Brasil são sem preço. Eu cheguei mais perto de nosso Salvador. Eu senti o amor Pai Celestial tem por mim. Eu aprendi como reconhecer o Espírito Santo. Eu recebi um testemunho do Livro de Mórmon que eu não posso negar. O livro é verdadeiro, ele é a palavra de Deus, e ele é nossa bússola nestes últimos dias. Eu recebi respostas de minhas orações, dúvidas e perguntas cada vez eu li o Livro de Mórmon. Sou tão grato que Deus nos deu mais escrituras sagradas que ensinam sobre a vida eterna. Meu testemunho do Profeta Joseph Smith sempre foi forte antes da missão. Este testemunho dele foi testado vez após vez aqui na missão. Eu duvidei que ele era um profeta ás vezes. Mas agora, Eu sei que ele viu Deus e Jesus Cristo e que ele restaurou a única igreja verdadeira aqui na terra. Eu sei que Thomas S. Monson é um profeta chamado por nosso Pai Celestial e Jesus Cristo. Esta Igreja é absolutamente perfeita. Eu sou grato eu faço parte dela e que eu tenho uma família eterna. Essas verdades são preciosas para mim.
Quando eu estava no CTM Elder Holland discursou para nós. Foi um momento muito especial. Ele falou uma coisa que eu nunca esqueci. Ele falou que nós nasceríamos espiritualmente aqui no Brasil. Brasil seria a terra de nosso nascimento espiritual. O lugar aonde nós realmente começaremos essa jornada de discipulado. Eu confirmo as palavras dele. Eu aprendi como ser um seguidor de Jesus Cristo. Eu não sou perfeito, mas eu sei o quê eu preciso fazer para seguir a Cristo e voltar a sua presença um dia. As coisas simples são as coisas que fazem a diferença em nossas vidas como a escritura em Alma 37:6 ensina. Essas coisas são: a leitura das escrituras sagradas, a oração sincera, e indo para Igreja cada Domingo.
A escritura da minha missão é Alma 26:12 que fala o seguinte: ´´ Sim, sei que nada sou; quanto a minha força, sou débil; portanto, não me vangloriarei de mim mesmo, mas gloriar-me-ei em meu Deus, porque com sua força posso fazer todas as coisas; sim, eis que fizemos muitos milagres nesta terra, pelo que louvaremos o seu nome para sempre. ´´ Uau. Essa escrita é perfeita para explicar minha missão. Muitas diriam que fizemos muitos milagres aqui e isso é a verdade. Contudo, não é por causa de mim ou meus companheiros, mas por causa de nosso Deus que permitiu que nós fizéssemos tais milagres. Trabalhàvamos de acordo com a vontade de Deus e ensinávamos com poder e o Espírito Santo. E por causa disso, posso dizer a mesma coisa que Alma disse em 26:31: ´´ Agora, eis que podemos olhar e ver os frutos de nosso trabalho; e são eles poucos? Eu vos digo: Não, são muitos; sim, e podemos testemunhar a sinceridade deles por causa de seu amor a seus irmãos e também a nós.´´ Como grato sou por isso.
E ai, vocês provavelmente querem ouvir histórias também sobre minha última semana aqui na missão. Então, vou vos dizer que foi incrível. Na última semana eu vi várias milagres. O primeiro foi uma lição com a Thaiane na terça-feira. Nós chegamos lá e foi uma lição muito importante por que foi a lição perguntamos se ela ia ser batizada. Eu já sabia o que ia ser a resposta dela por que sonhei a noite antes com a mesma cena. Nós começamos a lição e perguntamos ´´ Como foi sua oração?´´ e ela respondeu, ´´ o que horas é meu batismo no Sábado?´´ Foi exatamente como meu sonho. Ela recebeu uma resposta muito forte and decidiu seguir o exemplo de nosso Salvador.
Nós tivemos lições bem importantes também com o João e a Vilane. Ela estava indeciso durante a semana, mas Vilane foi para a entrevista batismal . Depois a entrevista ela tinha decidido que o batismo era a coisa certa. João nunca desistiu no batismo. Ele tinha certeza que ele queria ser batizado. Eu fiz duas entrevistas para Elder Seth e Elder Medina também essa semana. E na sexta-feira tivemos mais duas entrevistas da Thaiane e a Jessica. Todos passaram nas entrevista! E depois das entrevistas, nós fomos num lugar para celebrar e comer juntos. Foi uma noite muito especial.
Sábado de manhã nós limpamos todas as coisas na igreja pelos batismos. Quando todo mundo chegou nós trocamos de roupa e tiramos muitas fotos! Foi tão legal tirar fotos com doze pessoas vestidas de roupa branca. A reunião batismal foi muito espiritual. Presidente Lundgren e Sister Lundgren estavam lá também. Eu não tenho muitas palavras que eu posso usar para descrever os sentimentos todo mundo tinha lá. Depois dos batismos muitos deles estavam chorando porque a reunião foi tão especial. Por ser minha última reunião batismal, ele foi a mais especial de todas.
Ontem nós tivemos o privilegio de assistir todos deles receberam o Espírito Santo. A reunião sacramental foi muito espiritual. Elder Seth e Eu fomos chamados pelo Bispo para discursar. Falamos sobre nossas missões e tudo que aprendemos e passamos. Eu fiquei triste ao ver nossos conversos chorando naquele momento porque tivemos tantas experiencias espirituais juntos e temos criados amizades fortes. A ala Guará 2 mudou minha vida e sou tão grato que tive o privilegio de servi-los. Eles fazem parte da minha família brasileira e nunca imaginei que isso ia acontecer num período de tempo tão curto.
Minha família, eu amo vocês muito. Nem vocês sabem o tanto que vos amo. O plano de Deus por nós é absolutamente perfeito. Nós só temos que confiar Nele e sermos dignos do Espírito Santo. Eu sou tão grato que eu carreguei o nome de nosso Salvador no meu peito por esses dois anos mas também sou grato que carreguei o nome Patterson. A maior bênção tenho na vida é minha eterna família. <3 Estes últimas semanas pensei se eu tenho dado tudo e se o Salvador realmente aceitou a minha missão. Apesar de eu ser imperfeito, humano, e com muitas falhas, eu tenho a certeza que O Salvador aceitou minha missão aqui no Brasil. Eu tenho sentido isso e o Espírito Santo confirmou no meu coração. Minha missão de servir o Salvador não terminou aqui mas eu vou continuar a seguir Ele, seus mandamentos, e ajudar a ele crescer seu reino aqui na terra. Este Sábado vai ser um dia muito especial. Agora eu posso dizer que eu estou trunky. Eu estou com muitas saudades de vocês. Eu não consigo esperar até eu ver vocês este Sábado.
Esta igreja é verdadeira. Cristo vive e nos ama. Até Sábado!
With love, Elder Cason Craig Patterson
3 John 1:13-14....July 11, 2016
Hi family!
I love this scripture. It says a lot in so little :) hehe. Seth and I chose this as our second to last email header because it perfectly describes our current situation.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the cabin and whatnot! It was good to finally get some news about how the trip was and stuff! I miss that cabin so much. I think it will be a good hideout for me after the mish.
I am not going to take much time to write today because this last week was just really fast and I feel it better to write just a few details this week and leave my last letter for a good one. I had an experience so spiritual Saturday and Sunday that I don´t find it fitting to write and tell this story through email. But I´ll just say that God answered a few of my prayers that I said exactly 3 years ago this month. It was a weekend joy and tears of happiness. God´s plan is so perfect. I know I have said it a million times, but it is. When we are following Jesus Christ and his teachings, everything always happens the way God wants it too. Anyways, I´ll just leave you all curious with that one for a while.
This week was an essencial week for us in teaching João and Vilane. It was the weekend we had to go over and teach a few of the commandments that were missing. I was most nervous about teaching the word of wisdom because João mentioned a few days ago that he drinks a lot of coffee. When we taught them, they accepted and João promised to give it up. And sure enough he has! He hasn´t drunken coffee since then. We also went to visit them one night and when we got there they had gotten in an argument and we taught according to the Spirit. We ended up teaching about the Atonement and the love of Christ and what we can do in our families to avoid contention. When we got there the vibe in the room was just unpleasant, but as we talked and taught the mood changed. We left their house with love and hope. It was just a good feeling to help them resolve family problems with the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
We are also teaching Thaiane. She is just sooo great. She is 25 and speaks english fluently basically. It´s always so fun for us to teach her because she has so much in common with us. She is a little unsure about baptism this week, but we know she is ready. If you all could please pray for them each day and night I would be so grateful.
Funny story of the week, the Bishop called us Saturday night and asked Medina and Nascimento to give a talk. Well, they are ´´burros´´ as we say and didn´t prepare anything because we had a bbq that night at our house. The topic was Jesus Christ and the Atonement, so they said it would be super easy (in theory it is easy). But the funny thing is that when we got to Sacrament meeting, an area 70 was there! Nascimento looked at me and said ´´oh freak!´´ I laughed so hard. They ended up doing an amazing job though. It was just a great day at church.
Oh, and this week we went to the zoo! It was a lot of fun. I will send pictures :) We also had a lunch that was in the woods and lots of monkeys started coming out after we had eaten. The family that gave us lunch sells churros and that was our dessert. Needless to say, we shared churros with the monkeys! I will be sure to include some pictures for y´all to see. Anyways, that is it for now. Don´t be trunky yet!! I know that I am not. I don´t want to come home! lol (Relax, I am coming home) but I just want to say is that I am loving it. Things have been going so great lately and I am so blessed. How grateful I am to have a Savior that loves me and a Heavenly Father that looks out for me! Have a good and safe week!
com amor, Elder Patterson!
1. Selfie with the monkeys eating churros at lunch!
2. Selfie with the Elefantes!
3. Picture with Red (our driver). ´´don´t give food to the animals´´
4. The entrance sign of the zoo.
5. Tigers!
spoiled by Sister Lundgren....
So something real quick that I didn´t include in the email that happened today. Today was our Exclusive Lunch with the President. Which means the best companionship's from the mission get to eat with him at his house. And of course we went today and it was super special because it was Fourth of July! And Sister Lundgren out did herself. We had pulled pork sandwiches, bbq chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, salad with croutons salad (lol, so much salads) and for dessert, strawberry shortcake! I was loving it. I hung around in the kitchen afterwards with her and she cut up a bunch more strawberries for me and put them in a bowl to eat :) I am so spoiled! ha :) I love it. But yeah, I just wanted to send a few more pictures of today before I forget. I think today was the best 4th ever!
com amor, Elder Patterson
1-Me and my comps. (yeah, a trio again because E. Batista is taking E. Nascimento´s spot next transfer so he is being trainned.)
2-A plate of heaven.
3-Dessert!
"I'm coming home..... July 4th
Tudo bem minha família?
Maybe you all noticed the title of this email is rather trunky… Well, as we were walking out of church yesterday E. Seth started singing ´´I'm coming home, I'm coming home, tell the World I'm coming home….´´ ha! It was hilarious. The things that come out of his mouth sometimes just crack me up. He is crazy, I don´t think you guys even understand. But I can´t wait for you to meet him one day. As I am on the topic of E. Seth, here are some of the things he said this week ´´My wedding is going to be a riot. My 7 sisters are crazy…´´ ´´I gotta be rich by 25. I gotta have a wife, 6 kids, a helicopter, and private jet by 25! Gotta get started now patdaddy!´´ ´´Here in 10 years I´m going to be living in Florida. Don´t ask me why! It´s a part of the plan.´´ Yeah, he is basically a hoot. Love this kid so much. We both bore our last testimonies together during a fast and testimony meeting, it was a pretty special moment because we started together and now we are finishing things up together.
In other news, this week flew by in the blink of an eye and I realized that two sacrament cups stand in the way of me and my mother. Talk about a giddy feeling eh? But I got so much more stuff to finish before that day comes and I am just super excited for the weeks to come. Why? Because we just have amazing investigators that all have baptismal dates for the 17 of July baby!
So I will tell about the first two. João and Vilani. They are cousins and it was divine design that we found them. I honestly don´t remember if I told you all how we found them. Three Sundays ago we were walking to lunch and E. Nascimento said ´´Let´s talk to him´´ and it was João sitting on the ground. We talked to him but he didn´t have his address because he came here from another state recently and just moved. We gave him our number and he told us he would call. (Which he never did) A few days later we were looking for another address and decided to knock a random gate. That gate was his and the rest is history. So, they went to church last week and loved it. We went to a family night with them this week (the one with E. Anderson) and it was a good environment for them to learn about the Gospel. This week we also helped them out a ton because they don´t have a stove or anything. They were basically using a scout method of making food in there house. It was super sad, but we were able to get an old stove for them and propane tank to cook. When we visited them Friday night they confirmed that they´d go to church and that they´d be there before us. We got there 45 minutes before and sure enough, they were already there, all ready to go. First time ever that an investigator got there before us. They are progressing so much. Remember them in your prayers.
Thaiane, she is just a gem. She is a young adult (22-23) and is awesome. She is super outgoing and goes to church all by herself (found her helping push her car that was out of gas). She speaks English fluently and goes to our English class we have every Tuesday. We marked a baptismal date with her this week. We went to her house and she started telling us about her family and how her parents both died when she was young, so we taught the Plan of Salvation and asked what she had to do to make it to the Celestial Kingdom and she responded ´´be baptized.´´ It´s an answer that we always want to hear but rarely do. She is super integrated with a family of the ward that likes to sing and we happened to have lunch with that family today so they invited her. Walking home after lunch we were talking to her about baptism and all the good feelings she has in the church, reading the Book of Mormon, and praying, and she basically said that she feels good about baptism! It is just a blessing to be able to teach her. Pray for her as well!
Now, we have Laila. She is a moça that is super awesome. She was the first investigator I meant here in the area. After our first visit she disappeared just super busy with school and family stuff. Finally, Saturday we were able to visit her. She accepted to go to church with us again and she went. She loves the church and wants to be baptized. The only problem is that she is going to travel the 17th, so we are going to see if another date beforehand works for her. Please pray for her as well. These wonderful people need some extra strength and prayers these next few weeks.
This week, we also found two teenagers that are less-actives that haven´t been to church in 2 years. We found the girl and her parents that aren´t members. Her older brother wasn´t there. But we shared a simple message with her and invited her to come to church with us and she accepted. You all should have seen the members when she came in. They all went up and gave her big hugs and kisses. One of the young women that knows her just grabbed her by the arm and they didn´t separate the entire time. Now, we have a family night with the families for this week. It is incredible how a simple invitation can make a big difference in the lives of people. All she was waiting for was an invitation to come back and she went. ´´By small and simple things, are great things brought to pass.´´
Now to summarize real fast about my adventures here in the office… This week was transfers and boy was that just a mess! I was basically travelling all day with Red in the van to pick-up and drop off missionaries at the bus station or in their areas. The best part of the whole day was picking up the greenies at the airport Tuesday morning. We took them to Presidents house for their special first day lunch (which was just delicious). There, we had to give a training about the mission and all the do´s and do not´s. Sister Lundgren and I just talked for the longest time about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness afterward. And if you all saw that picture, she showed me her pantry and I just died with all the Mountain Dew, Mac-n-cheese, and delicious goodies they had. Needless to say, she didn´t let me leave without sneaking a can of Mountain Dew J ha. Good times here on the mission! Oh, also got my last hair cut this week. I have been wanting to cut my hair since I got her in the office but E. Seth wouldn´t let me cut mine without him. So finally we did it. Now we are looking sharp and handsome. I love you all so much! The church is true, miracles happen every day, and God and Christ love us more than we can imagine. Have an amazing week. Talk to you all soon!
Com amor, Elder Patterson
1-Getting açai with the boys on our 1 year and 11 month mark.
2-Felicidade
3-These really ghetto ´´work out´´ parks they have all over the place. We love to joke around on them :) haha
4-The boys at our last transfer meeting.
5-In the office with the bros!
A quick note and "a week without a letter, almost"... June 30, 2016
So today is going to be nuts. We have a zone party because we won the Celestial Zone of the mission (zone that baptizes most) so we are going to be setting up everything and having a great time today. I will try to send email later tonight if I have time. Tomorrow will be even more complicated with transfers. So if I don´t send anything today, I´ll send something probably later this week sometime. Sorry! But we are just rushed and whatnot. Love you mother!
Well, hello family. I am truly sorry that I have taken so long to write! I hope that the few photos that Sis. Lundgren has taken these passed few days have been enough to keep you guys happy. It´s just been suuuper crazy here in the office because the week of transfers and what not. Now I just hope I can remember to tell you all all the important and cool stuff that happened last week.
Alright, so last week was a week full of the same old stuff basically. Travelling to all sorts of government buildings to be sure all the documents for all the missionaries are good to go. This week was the week that I had to renew my visa. I renewed it Tuesday afternoon with Elder Goodsell. It was funny that we had to do it with only a month left in brasil, but now my passport is full of stickers, stamps, and dates. They even had to take our fingerprints and pictures and stuff. Now we are official to stay here another month and now we won´t have problems going through brasilian customs! lol.
Tuesday morning we also went to the American Embassy. Another visa waiter finally got called to get his american visa, so we had to drop him off there. I really wanted to go in because they have an american grocery store that has about everything and anything. But the security is tight there. We know a few members that work inside and we are going to have one of them get us in one of these days to eat lunch and buy some goodies for sure!
This week was a stressful week as well in Aguas Lindas. We had to get everything set for the new missionaries that are reopening the area. We had to finish buying everything a house needs and we had to be there Thursday morning/afternoon to let a guy in to build all the bunkbeds, desks, closets, etc. We were so tired that we just slept on the plastic covered mattress while he put everything together. Friday was another day we started at 4am. We took the last group of missionaries that are going home this transfer to the airport. It was a small group of 4, but one of them was E. Rogner, my old companheiro. He was always a good friend. Oh! One of the funny things that happened was when we were dropping them off at the terminal of Azul Airlines. As we know, we have connections with this specific airline and us missionaries don´t have to pay excess baggage. Well, one of the elders had a suitcase that was way over the limit. So we told the lady we are from the church and don´t pay. She started typing a few things and was like ´´I am not finding anything here...´´ In the meantime a guy next to us was listening and watching. Elder Nascimento said ´´where is the manager? I want to talk to the manager here.´´ And the guy listening jumped right up and went over to help her. He said ´´they are the mormons, just let them pass!´´ haha. I laughed so hard. The panic we bring to the employees there is hilarious because they know the CEO´s son is always with us and whatnot. Good times for sure :)
Saturday was suuuper awesome. We did two service projects. One before lunch and one after lunch. We pulled some weeds and cleaned the yard of the lady´s house we ate lunch at. And after lunch we helped two single ladies of the ward move out of there apartment. I wasn´t too thrilled with them because before we had got there they had shut all the drawers and cupboards with rope and tape without taking stuff out first. So everything was super super heavy. All my upper body muscles were sore afterwards. But it was super good to help them and they even bought popsicles for us afterwards. Score :)
Saturday night was way special. We had a ward activity called Festa Junina which looks a little like a thanksgiving/halloween type of festival combined. Before the activity we called all the people we have been teaching and have done contacts with these passed few weeks. We ended up having 8 investigators there with us! And tons of members where there with lots of delicious food. It was just a perfect activity and all the members are basically returned missionaries so they all greeted and talked to our investigators. It was amazing for our peeps.
And because of the activity we ended up having 5 investigators in church Sunday morning. We loved it. The gospel principles class was on keeping the Sabbath day holy and the other was on keeping the commandments. It was exactly what our investigators needed to hear. I was very pleased with church this week J
Sunday night we had to go to the mission office to resolve and finish all the things for the transfers and get all the numbers from all the missionaries for the transfer. And it was just a good experience to help and teach some of the missionaries… Because the picture missionaries have of us secretaries here on the mission is that we sit in the office all day drinking lemonade and eating apple pie. That was true in the past for some of the secretaries, but we have changed that. We use all of our precious teaching time to actually go out, find, and teach new people. People were super surprised to know that we have been working and doing our best here. And I honestly feel like the Lord is blessing us greatly for our efforts.
I will end by telling about Monday, because if I update you everything that has happened up until now, I won´t have anything to say. So Monday was our Celestial Zone activity, which means our zone had the most baptisms this last transfer. We started out by playing soccer like we always do. And we rented out one of those blow-up fighting things. Where there is 4 pedestals and you stand there with a giant Q-tip thing knocking each other off. It was a blast. We also played dodgeball and the brasilians didn´t stand a chance :) Elder Josephson made the teams and choose all of us americans on his because we know how to throw and use our arms, brasilians and hispanics only know how to use their feet! lol. We also had some mini pizzas for lunch and watched a movie, Zootopia, suuuper hilarious! And to end, we played some basketball. I felt like the mvp because I was just on fire! Lol. I could hear dad´s voice in the back of my head ´´take the rock to the hole!´´ haha. Awesome stuff J
Oh! Almost forgot. Monday night we had a family night marked with João and his cousin Vilani. Our two investigators that have baptismal date and went to church Sunday. Elder Nascimento had to stay at the office to finish up so stuff for the transfers Tuesday so I went out with one of the elders that was staying at our house, Elder Hayden Anderson. Haha! It was a blast. We passed by their house to get them and the whole time they were talking about how great church was and how they were planning on going to a party but after learning about the Sabbath they didn´t go. They looooved the church! And we taught the Restoration at the members’ house and it was just super spiritual. It was a great way to end a great night. I love you all, sorry this email took so long to send off but y´all know that I love you J have a great week and enjoy the pictures!
Com amor, Elder Patterson
A Sunday with the Lundgrens...June 20, 2016
Where did the week go? That is the only thing I can say. I can not believe how fast it went by. This week was just another crazy week full of stuff to do and get done...
I was super sad to hear that our beloved Uncle Lamar passed away. But it makes me super happy to know that he is in a better place and no longer suffering. I can´t describe the love and respect I have for that man. I remember the last conversation I had with him before I left. I was saying goodbye at the door when he gave me a great big hug, those big warm hugs of his that just make you feel loved and special. He told me how proud of me he was and how happy that he was that I was going to serve the Lord. He told me that it was going to be the last time I saw him in this life and that was something I just didn´t want to believe. But he also told me that we´d see each other again and he´d be giving me the same old hugs he always gave. I truly am so thankful for the Gospel and the sure knowledge we have that this life isn´t all there is. I am forever thankful for the example Uncle Mo left for us. I will truly miss him <3
So I´ll give an update on the week. First, Thursday was probably one of the most trunky days ever (and one of the most tiring). We sent off 7 missionaries Thursday. We had to wake up at 4:30 to drop off the first two. We got home, rested for just a little bit, and then we were out the door again. Thursday was fun because it was our last day with E. Brown and some of the others that I love. Elder and Sister Rowe took us out to eat fast food for there last meal. ha. We had to drop E. Brown off with two of the other americans in the afternoon. It was sooo sad to say goodbye. I would have cried I think if we hadn´t of ripped the bandaid off quickly. lol. E. Brown is such a good friend and I loved being with him for a couple of weeks. I know for sure that I will see him again one day when he is in Utah studying. We had one more drop off later in the evening. We dropped off E. Frias. I lived with him in Porto and we became good buddies (Cody, his brother was an assistant of your mission, more or less the same time you were there. From peru...) so it was hard to say goodbye to him as well. So in the end, we made 4 trips to the airport and it was just trunky for sure, I am sure you can all imagine why. But that all passed real fast because we are just so dang busy. Oh! Fun fact. When we all got our flight plans Elder Seth emailed his dad and asked why we weren´t taking the Azul flight to São Paulo. Within an hour we got an email confirming the change so all of us in our group are going to São Paulo with the best airline here in Brasil :)
Friday was the busiest day I think I have had yet here in the office. I was just resolving so many things. It´s very interesting because now I am learning if I will like to work in an office job. lol. I have actually liked it. I have learned so much. But we´ll see if it´s what I want to do in life ;) ha. I´ve basically marked tons of doctors appointments (which is hard, medical terms in portuguese are difficult...) this week and it´s crazy how many people get sick or have problems... I think to myself ´´just rub some dirt on it and go out and work´´ :) But we gotta help all the sicklies.
This week we also bought supplies for two houses on the mission, ie Beds, fridges, dressers, tables, chairs etc. We are getting everything set up and ready for this next transfer that is going to start next week. Lots of things to do and get in order as well.
We had some amazing and some not so amazing lessons this week. Monday afternoon we went to teach this young adult and she basically disagreed with everything we said. I think she was just trying to be difficult because at first she said ´´I don´t believe in the Bible. Nor does God answers prayers.´´ But then at the end of the lesson she said ´´I will pray about it. God will give me an answer today...´´ Ugh. But the lesson after was just amazing! We found another person super ready to receive the Gospel, or so we thought. The lesson we gave was perfect. She answered everything exactly how you want to hear. Accepted to go to church, to read the Book of Mormon, to pray, all of it. But when we went back to visit her she was just not interested anymore. We think she read some stuff on the internet about the church and so she didn´t really want to talk anymore. That happens a lot. We tried to ask what was wrong and why she didn´t want to go, but she just said that one day she´ll go... So that was lame.
Yesterday was super legit! Elder Nascimento and myself didn´t go to our own ward because an area that E. Nascimento opened became a branch. So we got permission from the President to go and watch that ward conference. It was even more fun because we went with President and Sister Lundgren in their car. It was our Sunday out with the Lundgrens :) I chatted with Sister Lundgren the whole time because it was quite the trip to make it there. After church we all went and ate lunch together at a members house and I talked with Sis. and Pres. for quite a while. I laughed my head off with them. President and Sister are so awesome and funny together :) She also gave me lots of life advice that I loved while President was just cracking jokes the whole time. Super hilarious. Then on the way home we just talked about St. George the whole time and how much she misses it. They are going to buy a house there after the mission again :) She even showed me pictures of her kids and there families pictures taken in Zion. I just loved it all! Such a great day.
Well, I hope all of you are doing good! Shout out to my old man, the Craiganator, my pops, my friend, and the world´s BEST FATHER ever. Love you daddio.
com amor, Elder Patterson
doing work. . .
Some of the missionaries we sent home today.
Us at the airport #trunky.
Goodbye hug to my brother Elder Brown
I'm surrounded by crazies. . . June13, 2016
Dear Family.
Firstly, this letter was well planned out so that I could send it to you all today. It´s been a combination of a few different days to send it and I did it so you all can get a good update on whats going on because these next weeks, I won´t have much time or no time at all. Dad wants a weekly Monday email, so here it is :) ha. Let me just say that this week was one of the craziest weeks of my mission. The things we did and saw were incredible. I have learned sooo much this week and am so thankful for the many opportunities I have been given here on the mission. This opportunity that I have to be working in the office is just incredible and I want to share with all y´all what we did this week...
But actually, I want to talk about the people I am with right now. My companions: Elder Brown and Elder Nascimento. Elder Brown was born in the England, lived there for like 5 years and now he lives in Philadelphia. He is super awesome. I am taking his place and he is teaching me everything. We have just been like two peas in a pod. And he is the center of all the trunky jokes because he is going home this week, on Thursday. Then I´ll just be with Nascimento.
Elder Nascimento is crazy. From São Paulo He is incredibly hilarious. The best way to describe him is that he is the same as Matt off the movie Grind, Cody would understand best. But he is just insane and it has been so much fun.
Now I have to tell you about Red (Hedge). He is our driver and he stays with us the whole day basically. He as well is hilarious. So being with these guys has been a blast. I don´t think I have stopped laughing the entire time I have been here. This next week I will try to write down some of the things that are said during the day. He has a nickname for all the elders and mine is ´´ferrugem´´ which means rust, because of my hair. Oh man, it´s just been funny stuff.
As you all know, I am with Elder Medina and Elder Seth again. We live with them and at times they are with us in the office doing stuff. But in the CTM Elder Seth and I made a prophecy that we would end the mission together and it has come to pass. Let me just tell you, I have lived with Elder Medina for a total of 7 months on the mission and will be with him for another month before I go home. Him and I are like brothers and we talk about everything we have done and been through on the mission so far. Elder Seth and I are best buds and always have been. Now imagine all of these 5 crazy guys together. It makes for a good time for sure. :) The other night we got home and decided to play soccer in our little area in front of our house. (tile ground) and so played together and by the end of it I had blisters on my feet.
We also work with Rowe´s here in the mission office. They are the senior couple that take care of mission finances and mission supplies. They are so awesome. I love them a lot and she made cinamon rolls for us this week :) score! She was a food teacher :)
And a quick note about today and last night. Last night was Sis. Rowes birthday, so before going to the mission office we stopped by her and E. Rowes apartment building. Us and the assistents took her some cards we wrote and made. She loved them! And then she invited us to eat dinner. She is the best :) We love them. And then they Rowes took us out to lunch today for brown´s goodbye lunch. We ate at the mall at a place called American Prime Steakhouse :) I won´t say much or Cody will say I am spoiled, but I´ll send a picture :) hehe
So this week we did quite a bit. I will summarize basically the things we have done. Tuesday we had a trunky moment when we went to the airport that night to take a visa waiter there. He is going to Salt Lake. But there was a lot of americans there and I was like ´´it´s my kind!´´ and Brown said ´´yeah, the next time we´ll be here, you´ll be dropping me off! hahaha.´´
We also had to go to Recanto das Emas, an area where the missionaries are changing houses. We went there to see the house, check it out, talk to the owner, and see if it would be good for them. I´m lucky my comp is in charge of all the house paperwork, so at least I don´t have to deal with that, but I get to do the fun part to see the houses and stuff :) We also went to another area called Aguas Lindas. It´s an area that got shutdown due to safety issues but will reopen this next transfer, so we are getting everything set up for the new missionaries that will serve there.
One of the funnier things that happened this week was when we went to the mall to get money out of the bank and pay some bills, Elder Nascimento went and got in the line. And it takes forever to pay bills in these lines. But luckily Elder Rowe was with us and went and grabbed the papers from him and went to the ´´senior´´ line where he didn´t have to wait :) Being with a senior couple sure has it´s perks! lol
And just to resume all my responsibilities here in the office, I put into the system all of the baptismal records that are done, I take care of medical insurance, I receive calls from all the sick missionaries, I confirm with Sis. Lundgren what type of doctor appointments the sicklies need and make appointments, and I of course help my comp with his stuff.
But lots of people think we just stay here in the office the whole day but that isn´t true. We work everyday. When we have an appointment Red drives us to and from which is a blessing :) And we have all of Saturday and Sunday to work. Saturday night we were doing lots of contacts in the road inviting everyone to go to church and it was a blast. It´s actually really easy to talk to people when you start out saying ´´hey! how are you? I am from the United States, he is from São Paulo, and he is from England!´´ gets peoples attention for sure :) Saturday night we had an awesome lesson with an inactive. He hasn´t been to church for 20 years. We went there and sat down with him on the curb and taught the lesson about the 99 sheeps and the 1 lost sheep. He told us he always felt that if he went back to church nobody would want him there and everyone would throw rocks at him. We all had a good laugh about that one. But we left a simple message, bore testimony, promised blessings, and sure enough, he was there yesterday morning! It was so awesome to have him back. He was received so warmly and he was the happiest that no one threw rocks at him :) lol. We are also teaching a lady that is fluent in english. She goes to a church here that is just full of apostasy. We invited her to church and she went! She loved it as well. At the end of church she was singing hymns with some of the ladies from the ward and it was the first time we left before an investigator :) So awesome.
I also want to share an experience I had this week that really opened my eyes. Saturday the quorum of elders had a lunch activity at a family club sort of place near the lake here in brasilia. We got permission from Pres. Lundgren to go. There they had tons of patios to have a bbq and have a party. While we were there a group of young adults started to show up in the patio next to us. As the morning/afternoon went on I realized some things in common and some things really different than the two groups. Our group was a group of elders, worthy priesthood holders. We played volleyball together and laughed. We talked about missions, the church, what we can do to help the others, our families, and funny experiences. We ate bbq and all were happy.
The second group of young adults dressed immodestly also talked, laughed, ate bbq, listened to music, and had some alcoholic beverages. They also seemed to be fairly happy.
I thought about and reflected upon that afternoon. I noticed that both groups did basically the same thing, but in a different way. I also thought about how they seemed so happy to be ´´in the world´´ doing things of the world. I thought to myself ´´how can they be happy when Alma 41:10 says wickedness never was happiness?´´ I than realized another difference between us. Our groups happiness is and will be lasting. We created bonds and friendships that afternoon based upon principles of righteousness. It was the first day I met many members of the new ward and we all joked together in church after and acted as if we had been friends for years. Now, the other group I realized that they were truly happy as well. They truly did have a sense of happiness that afternoon, only that the happiness that they felt that day isn´t a lasting happiness. Satan makes the things of the world look so attractive to us and in the moment it may appear as if we are happy. But that all comes crashing down in the end. I learned a great lesson that day, even though things of the world look appealing, they truly aren´t. I am so thankful that we have the gospel of Jesus Christ. That we have modern day prophets and apostles that guide us and warn of us of such temptations of Satan. What a blessing it is to have Christ as our Redeemer. I love you all dearly. I am praying for you all so much. Have a wonderful week, read your scriptures, say your prayers, and prepare to take the sacrament Sunday. Beijos!
com amor, Elder Patterson
Sunday at church with 4 of my companions current and past :)
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