Elder Spencer Mauter

Elder Spencer Mauter

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Whats up fam bam!!

So this week went by so fast! Parnamirim feels like such a different place because it stays like 85 all the time and sometimes it will rain in the morning.  It's not as painful to work in the afternoon like it was in my last area because of the heat. Plus we are always working so time just goes by faster.

Ya mom me and my comp have been eating and drinking the coconut milk a ton. The inside isnt that good but sometimes I'll eat it and we still have a ton in our fridge. We don't really eat tapioca a lot.  We get it sometimes its good i like it. Its pretty much flour then you put some cheese in it or you can put meat too if you want. But about the jello i dont think they like it that much.  I've only eaten it once here but you wanna know what they love is beans rice and chicken(; no but i eat this dessert called moose. Its condensed milk and a package of tang of whatever flavor that you want.

So my package arrived back home. Dang that stinks that you have to send it again- but ya everything in there seems good. Add some tweezers, mine broke.  Did you talk to the orthodontist about what Im supposed to do about my overbite?  I only have 5 trays left and then my 2 final ones for at night.  What retainers? Also put a couple one dollar bills in the package too. I can trade them with missionaries here for stuff and plus its cool to show people.

But dang everyone is growing up back home-haha! Thats sick about Dillion's Jeep, i wanna see a picture of it.

This week we have been working with this man João, who we made contacts with on the street. He's 47yrs old living alone. He's a really relaxed guy. We got him to go to church yesterday and marked him to be baptized next Sunday and he accepted!

We are also working with this other guy that is 37, we call him my friend in english because he always calls us that haha. But he's a cool guy. Its just that he isn't married and is living with a lady thats 46. He smokes a lil but he wants to quit.  He doesn't want to get married because he already got married once and it didn't  go right. So this week we have really been straight up with him and showing him how big of a sin it is to do this stuff we got him to go to church yesterday an he liked it but we are going to have to work with him alot more.

The other 2 girls that we were working with didnt go so we are going to pass by there and see what happened and if they don't have a good reason we are going to cut them, but we will see.

Yesterday we met these two cool kids while we were walking in the street. Me and my com heard this girl speaking a lil bit of english so I came up to them and asked her how long she has been studying. She said only for a year but she knows a couple of things. The other kid already went to church a couple of times and said he will go again. I told them I can help them with their english and time because I already taught in Mossoró.

But other than this we've been working with this young inactive couple too and helping them get back to church. Its just hard for them because the husband works every day.

But everyday I have been here I've had dinner haha and sometimes 2 times because sometimes we'll be passing by and theyll have food and invite us and I can't deny it haha. I had a cool experience with those 2 ladies at that hotdog stand. The one lady has been reading and praying alot and she had a dream of someone in white talking to her but she forgot what happened.. so pay attention to your dreams. I've only learned this in my mission becasue no one told me this before. But its just hard for them because they work everyday too and her husband is in the army so it makes it really difficult.

Love you guys.  I think we are going to the beach and I will take pics later. We are going to call President and see if he will let us.
Elder Mauter


Monday, August 17, 2015

Opppa!
I got transferred!!! I'm in Parnamirim.  It's super pretty here it's close to Natal and the coast. The members here feed me so much, so you know I'm happy hahha. So I got here last Wednesday with my new comp Elder Cardoso. Who is a Brasilerio from São Paulo.  He's really cool and he only has one year in the mission. But it was pretty hard leaving my last area. Leaving some of the members there and the Elder's in my house.  But I'm defiantly way happy to be here. 


So here its only me and my comp in the house because President Soares closed the other area. I guess they weren't baptizing a lot. So our area is huge for us. 

I think I jinxed myself because I was thinking it would suck just living with only your comp.  I haven't done this yet in my mission but its pretty chill so far and its defiantly not as crazy. We've been working a lot contacting people in the street and teaching a few people that my comp already had.  He cut most of the people he had before I got here though. So we are starting from scratch pretty much, but that isn't a problem.

This week we went to an English teaching school to see what time they have classes and what time the classes get out.  We have a bunch of Liahonas in English at our house we want to give out. We have been walking up to people talking in English to them and then we talk in Portuguese.  Just joking with them and but also to get their attention. But it was super funny, when we went to this school, we acted like we were going to sign up for classes there. I was going to sign up for a Portuguese class and my comp for an English class.  We planned this so when we got there my comp was like "ya I want to learn English because I want to help my friend speak Portuguese and stuff." I just sat there like I wasn't  understanding anything they were saying haha. But then at the end I talked to the teacher and we got the hours.

We are working with these 2 woman here that make and sale hotdogs and hamburgers on the street infront of the catholic church. They are really cool. The other elders got in contact with them while eating there and they were always trying to get a chance to go to their house and teach them, but it didn't workout. But finally this week me and my comp got invited to their house to eat and stuff. They live in a military neighborhood. It is super sweet because one lady is married to a soldier, and the other lady is her sister. I got to meet her husband yesterday eating hot dogs and he's really cool but he is always busy with work. I talked with him a lil and he said there are a lot of American soldiers here that train with the Brazilians, in airplanes.  So I hope I can find one of them that doesn't speak Portuguese. I bet it would be cool for them to talk to another American here.

When we went to their house we ate a ton of lasagna, jello and cake. I was dying cause she was forcing me to keep eating more and more haha. I ate a ton and told her I was full, but then she asked if I wanted more?! She ordered her sister to put more food on my plate so I had to eat more hahah. I was telling her that I need to find a wife that can cook like this. Trying to give her a complement and then she started telling me straight up that I can marry with her sister haha!! I was like I didn't mean it like that?! But after this we left them with a message about the restoration.  It was really good because the one lady was crying a lil because she's really big on family and worries about her husband a lot.  We focused a lot on families and how they are important. 

About a week ago we also got a sweet opportunity to help a friend of a lady in our ward that lost her baby not long ago. We taught her about the plan of salvation and how there is life after death and that her daughter is waiting for her in heaven and all that she needed to do was her part in this life to see her again.  We taught her about the story in the Bible when the kids came up to Jesus and his disciples tried to stop them, because they didn't want him to be bothered. But Jesus told the children to come because they are so pure and without sin. It was a really cool experience. And also with the member there to help bear testimony of these things and how the gospel has made a difference in her life. The members here are super cool. They always invite us over, like right now I'm at a members house cause she invited us to lunch and to hangout which is super rare to have lunch on a Pday. 

Also this morning we woke up and went to a recent members house to grab her coconuts from the tree haha. I feel like I'm in Hawaii!  We pulled off like 30 and brought about 14 to our house. We cut them open with this huge knife like Rambo!  So I think we are going to be stocked up until transfers again. 

But I hope everything is going well at home. Dad that campout sounded sick up there at Big Lake. I remember when we would go there as kids a lot. And mom I want to hear your crazy stories from the airport. 

I love you guys,
Elder Mauter   


Sent from my iPhone

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Familia,
How is everyone doing? I got a big letter from Josh this week which was cool, but I don't even know if it was from him. It was probably written by his girlfriend haha. But, ya this week is transfer's but I don't know if I want to leave yet because like what dad said, the harder parts of life make us grow that much more. I can defiantly see that I have grown the most in this area with everything. I don't know who will leave because everyone here has the same time in this area except Baliach. He has one more transfer than all of us.

My companion "is dying" thats what we call missionaries that are going home soon. He leaves after our next transfer. I wouldn't mind a new comp because this kid can be the funniest but also the most annoying. He's been waking up at 6 every morning to tell everyone how much time he has left in the mission and when he's going home.  So today is my 8 month mark so I woke up and started screaming 8 months!!! 


The members love us here now because they all finally realized that my comp is crazy in the head and thats just how he is. So things are starting to go better in this area. But we will see what happens with transfers this week. But ya mom I haven't been sick in a while.  I think its because I'm doing a lot of exercises and stuff now.  I just drop bombs a lot, just ask Chase he knows how it is. Ya, it seems like everyone is coming home from their missions like Josh McDowell and Zach Patten, which is cool.

I don't know if I already told you this but you asked if I was eating any weird stuff still? I am, I ate cow liver and a lil bit of cow heart! But I'm never eating that again though. A family here in my ward are weird at times, they love this kind of stuff and yesterday for Fathers day in Brazil they took all the insides and stuffed it in the stomach and ate it. They were trying to give me some but I just stacked my plate super high with food so I didn't have any room for that junk. That's the only thing here I haven't eaten.  I think its starting to get to much in my head again haha. Probably cause I sit and watch them cut it all up.

Thank you for all the prayers. I'm defiantly feeling them here and I hope everything goes well with the campout and your job mom. I heard that grandpa mauter is having a lot of problems, I'll defiantly keep him in my prayers.
love you guys
Elder Mauter

Sent from my iPad

Monday, August 3, 2015

Hello,
Thank-You for all the birthday wishes! My birthday was legal demais(Awesome) here!!!! I always hear how missionaries birthdays aren't cool or anything special. But my district and the members here really made it cool. I received alot of little gifts and presents. I also received a lot of calls from people in Mossoró (my last area) and other missionaries. One member here Duji, asked me what I usually like to eat for my birthday. I told him I always want cheesecake. So when I got there for lunch he had made a cheesecake, roast beef, mashed potatoes and stuff just like what you mom usually make at home even with green beans on the table haha but I didn't eat those because green beans are still nasty. But over all it was a good day so Thank-You to everyone!

This week was another slow week. Me and my comp are still trying to find that right area that we can find people to teach. But right now we are really just working with a bunch of inactive members in our area and working with this ward because transfers are coming. This Sunday the missionaries got the branch and the ward together. We had one missionary from the ward and one missionary from the branch speak and also a member.  Our purpose was to get these two groups united together and not just be "the ward" or "the branch".  Because there is a problem where everyone just stays in their own area to help the work. They don't have training here with everyone like they do at home.  They don't have activities or anything.  So it's hard to bring new people to church when there isn't any unity. I hope our plan helps here. I didn't get to speak but I learned alot. 

Ohhhhh that sucks that Gavin is starting school back up on his birthday. Happy Birthday to him, hahah!! No, but I hope everything will go all right on his birthday and he can still do something cool. Mom, I bet you are going to have so many more crazy stories working at the airport. Maybe  learn or hear about some cool vacation trips(; But i hope you still get those buddy passes because I want to travel with some of my buddies after the mission.

I like what dad wrote me in his email. This is what I was trying say, that high numbers are good to have but not to just baptize someone that you barely even know and throw them in the water without a testimony of anything. But everything is going ok here, it's just a really hard area. I felt really frustrated last week and stressed about pressure to get those numbers. But I didn't come here to just baptize. It's about helping, serving and strengthening the members too.
I love you guys,
Elder Mauter