opa fam!! 

This week was kinda crazy i lost my hearing in my right ear.  I used that candle thing to pull the junk out. I've never seen so much wax come out, freak!  But even after that i couldn't hear.  I used another candle and a ton came out again.  I waited a couple of days and on saturday i had to go to the hospital because i still couldnt hear. It sucked because there was a huge line so i stayed there all night with my comp and a sister from our ward that drove us there. Hospitals are the real deal here in Brazil.  When i was waiting i saw people who were shot, beat up, people who were hit by cars.  When i got in the line for all the people who have ear problems.. some lil kid had a bean in his ear, another a popcorn seed and then some old dude that was straight up bleeding out of his ear... It turned out that i had a bacteria in my ear so I'm going to take medicine this whole week and then get my ear cleaned out next week. I know when i was there at the hospital everyone was just looking at me like "that white kid is fine" hahha while everyone else was half dead! ill get better so don't worry(:

Last week we have been working with those two families a ton and its going well so pray for them. One lady that we are teaching is Amanda.  She is 19 and has 2 baby girls.  She's pretty cool, her sister is a member in the church so we have been teaching with her a lot.  She has some doubts because what we teach is different than what her church teachs which i dont understand because of course our church teaches different things or i wouldn't be here trying to tell her about the restored gospel? Its been good, she tried to Bible bash us this week but before she even got to the scripture we told her what scripture she was looking for and she was shocked a lil because we already knew what she was looking for. We told her its because everyone uses it against us. We explained it to her. Her and her husband really like our church so we are going to either baptize them this Sunday or the next we just have to work with them some more.

We also have one girl whose 17 and a kid 13 that we will baptize this week and maybe his mom too. We are hoping but shes a lil harder to get her to commit.  But yesterday the members rounded up a bunch of clothes and toys that they don't use and we brought them to her house so that was really cool. Then we have a girl named Julie who read the BoM before she went to church.  She really wants to be baptized.  she knows the church is true but her dad is like the 1 counselor at his church and in their church they have a book just about the mormons that teach about us so he doesn't want to let her get baptized.  We need his authorization because she is 17 so pray for her. We have a member that is visiting them and teaching them. Who is actually her aunt so i think that will help a ton. 

But ya that was my week. I didn't get transferred and everything stayed the same, my comp stayed to. Tomorrow we have conference with the mission so we will see how that goes.

Love you guys, I hope everything is going well. The Moab bike trip sounded sweet thanks for the pics dad. I bet you'll have tons of fun up there in Idaho mom.  Tell Gav and everyone hi and that i miss everyone. 
com amor 
Elder Mauter
ill send some pics of this week. We went to lunch at a members house that has a ton of turkeys and turtles and stuff.  Then, beaner packing a car with 13 people on the way to church with our investigators and some members.

Fammm!

Last week flew by fast, it was a good one and also a bad one. So ill give you guys the bad news first.  So this week we had Dos Anjos ready to be baptised on Sunday. We had everything set up but then Saturday we got a call from her and she told us that after we left Friday her husband got into a big fight with her and told her that she can't be baptized in our church and if we passed by in their house he would fight with us. She told us that she knows the church is true and that she has been searching her whole life to find the peace and spirit she feels there. So I almost went over there to fight this guy last week but I kept my cool and we are going to give it time and prayer.So after this day we were pretty bummed and mad. But turned this into our favor Sunday because we brought 7 people to church with 2 families who have babies (but that doesnt count) and 2 girls. It was really cool.

Me and my comp got sick after lunch on Saturday.  There was a ward activity where there was swimming, volleyball, soccer and a barbecue.   But me and my comp couldn't do anything but just watch everyone.  All the youth were joking with us and we just told them to wait until they serve missions haha. They didn't cook the meat well enough or something and so that night we spent the night in the bathroom and when I woke up I looked and felt like death. But I made it to church. I took some medicine and drank some coke and I'm already felling better. Later that day we had a missionary work devotional or activity with the youth.  We also got 3 investigaters to that meeting  also. After the meeting all three of them told us they want to be baptized.  So will work with that.

I don't know what will happen with transfers this week. My Portuguese is good but I still have an accent that I'm trying to get rid of. It's hard because i have a thick voice and I have an accent from Sao Paulo also because pretty much all of my comps are from there and I just picked it up. I'm trying to learn more words and that book that mom sent me will help. I don't have time to study the language a lot cause we study Preach My Gospel, BoM and the Bible everyday.  So I'm really just learning by talking everyday and Im helping my comp learn english too. 

Something funny that happened this week. You know 'my son' that I have here that always calls me dad?  Well this week he was asking me where mom is? I was like, I don't know her yet, your going to have to help me out with that. So later that week we were at his house teaching a girl that we always teach there and that kid started calling her mom. He told me that he's going to marry us right now and when we left that day he was yelling at me to kiss her hahha! Me and my comp died laughing.
I love you guys. Thanks for all the support.

Te Amo

Elder Mauter

Ola família!!

This last week we worked a bunch teaching people and passing by members homes to get them more involved in the work. Yesterday I got a call from some of the members in Mossoró(my first area). It was really cool to talk to those people that I haven't seen in a while.

Last week wasn't a good one for Dos Anjos because she was visiting her daughter and then when she got back she had to work a ton because her husband is lazy and doesn't do anything. So Sunday we didn't baptize her because when she works late she stays there to sleep.  Where she lives its dangerous and she doesn't want to get killed on her way home at night. She tried getting home before church but wasn't able to. So we'll get her this week. Shes a really cool lady and she doesn't talk that much anymore so its even better. She had a response from God that changed my mission when she visited the church.

This week we were visiting the lady we gave the blessing to and she has been getting so much better with her thoughts and about religion. Especially when we started visiting her regularly. Because she just had surgery she cant come to church yet. We've also been working with her sons, one of them victor we actually met in the street a while back riding a skate board.  He's super cool and he was actually baptized in the church but never received the Holy Ghost. This was 6 years ago he said. He said he never went back to church because he didnt know how to get there. All the times he went there before he always was taken in a car. Victor also has a girlfriend and we have been teaching her and we taught them about the restoration and gave them the Book of Mormon and 2 pamphlets to read. The next day we saw them they had read both pamphlets and a lot of the BofM and she told us that she knows everything to be true. Me and my comp kinda were in shock when she said this and looked at each other speechless hahaha cause this doesn't ever happen!  The other day she brought her friend and me and my comp split up so he could teach one and me the other so they didn't have to listen to the same lessons twice.  I've never met kids my age like this wanting to know the truth about things.  So this was a really cool experience. They weren't able to go to church this week because they already marked something for this Sunday but next Sunday they said they will come.

Today we are going to Natal with some members from our ward because they want to play basketball with me. So today will be pretty cool. Last Pday president didn't answer his phone so we didn't get permission to go to the beach but we got to go on this cool trail in the dunes.  Next Pday  I'll send some pics.

Also last week one of that ladies that we are teaching has a boy who is 10 yrs old and has some mental problems. But I think I won a son because every time we show up there he always comes up to me and calls me dad and calls my comp uncle Bobby hahah!  Its so funny and he always gives me hugs and asks me when I'm going to teach him to play basketball and everything I know. He always asks me if he can do something before he does it and then does everything I say haha.

But I love you guys.  Be safe and don't forget who you are!
Elder Mauter

Opa fam!

How are you guys doing? Last week was pretty sweet but this weekened wasn't very good because today is Brazil's independence day and everyone was gone on vacation last weekend. It was so hard to find people, I swear we passed 12 peoples houses that we teach and no one was home... but what can you do? We didn't have a baptism last week because Dos Anjos traveled to her daughters house over the weekend and is going to get home tomorrow so it'll be this week. 

Last week I got a package from Kim and it had the crazied things haha! She sent me some sweet socks and these pens that you can use to write on peoples car windows. So me and my comp have been messing with members and writing dumb stuff on their cars haha.  

A funny thing that happened last week. On Wednesday we woke up and left to go to downtown to do something and when we left our house there was about 100 Jehovah witnesses in our neighborhood it was insane! I've never seen so many in my life it was like an army haha but they are scared of us.

I had a really cool experience last week. We were walking and knocked on a door and a lady came out and said she was busy. She said she was helping her daughter that had surgery.  We said if she wanted we could help her and give her comfort.  So this old lady left and entered her house without saying anything, so we were about to leave but then she invited us in. We were talking with this family and then two people came in from a different church and they began to teach but everytime the man said something he always looked at us to see if we agreed with what he said. Then he asked us to join in his prayer so we agreed and it was the craziest thing ever!  He just started screaming and me and my comp just looked at each other like 'what the freak' haha!  His wife was doing this weird thing to the woman who was sick like putting her hands on her. They finally left and we got the chance to listen to her and see what was going on in her life.  She has 5 kids and pretty much told us that she has given up on life because she has sufferd so much. We talked to her about the atonement and gave her a blessing and it was the most spiritual moment in my mission.  She was crying and we were too, it was cool.

 I love you guys- this letter was just something quick.  

Tchau,
Elder Mauter

Ola Fam!

Last week was a good one. We are working with alot of people but most of them need to be married so that makes it difficult. We got a new reference from a member in our ward this week, Dos Anjos.  She lost her child 3 years ago and then saw someone got shot outside of her house recently. Because where she lives its really dangerous.  She said this just reminded her of everything with losing her child. We went there the first time with a member who knows her.  We really listened to her for a long time.  It was crazy and it really made me realize how easy my life has been and about how important my job is here. We taught her the plan of salvation. It turned out perfect.  She also asked us why we have so many churches today. We came back another day to teach her the restoration and it went really well. We do have some difficulties with her though. It's just that this woman loves to talk your ear off. When we are trying to give her a lesson she will just talk about random things and talk over you -haha. My comp had to tell her pretty much to stop talking because we were there to help her. She ended up being quite the rest of the lesson haha and we got her to go to church on Sunday. 

João the guy we have been teaching has a health problem where every morning and night he has to take a depression pill that makes him sleepy.  Its difficult to get him to church. He's a super cool dude and he is super relaxed all the time. I could defiantly see that the lord blessed his health last week because he had so much more energy he said. The other day when were teaching him he gave a pamphlet of the plan of salvation to a friend and he explained it to her. It was cool to see this but President doesn't want to baptize him yet because of this problem. He wants him to continue in the church which I can understand.

Saturday night me and my comp got a call at 9 o'clock and were told 2 people that were suppose to talk in church dropped out. So I had to give a 15 min talk haha but it went good. Me and my comp were wanting the opportunity to talk and help remind the members about missionary work.  So we got our chance but we had no time to prepare a lot for this but that's the life of a missionary!  I shared dads conversion story about his friend who was always a good example to him in school and how that prepared him for when the time came to hear the gospel. I don't even know how I remembered that. It literally came to me as I was sitting there before my talk. 

Didn't you say that you got those Ohio state champion shirts? If you have one send me one.  But i cant think of anything else I really need. Just send little stuff that i can give as presents to the people here from the U.S. I fixed my memory card finally.  A guy told me to put all my pictures on a pin drive and then delete them on my camera every time i take 100 pictures so it wont do that again.

But i love you guys. I forgot my funny stories this week but I'm sure ill remember them in a lil. We are going to go on a trail hike today.

Amo Vocês 

Elder Mauter