November 2, 2015

Fam!!!
There was an earthquake in AZ last night? Freak, why does all the cool stuff happen when I'm not home.....

There is no Halloween down here in Brazil which I don't understand because everyday is a holiday it seems. Even today is a holiday and everything is closed. We are passing by at a sisters house today from our ward. Transfers happened this week and I stayed but I got a new companion Elder Henrique.  He is also a Brasilerio, from the northeast. Actually not that far from the mission. They keep us Americans with Brazilians so we can teach them English. He is funny and we are going home the same day together. He is really trunkey (means  he's ready to go home now). He found out the date we are going home when he was at the mission office. So next week I'll only have one more year left in the mission.  November 10 I'll be home hahah. 

Not my new comp. I've known this Elder for awhile.

To answer your questions, in the mornings I go to a little market and buy bread, eggs and chocolate milk. At night I usually cook a hamburger or eat peanut butter if someone hasn't made us something to eat. I'm getting the cards and letters from the ward members so tell everyone Thank-You!

Last week we really worked hard and had 6 people come to church and we will try to baptize at least 2 people this week. One couple needs to marry but they want to be baptized. But last week something funny happened.  So Friday me and my comp went out to eat with one sister in our ward and since we were returning late we asked her if she knew a different route to get back home and she told us to go through the jungle by her house. She said we could pass through it and it would end or get close to our house so we went. It was totally dark and we had to jump through barb wire fence and we walked for a while in the dark and then got to a wall. We didn't see an exit and my comp is super short so he couldn't jump it so we kept walking along the wall until we found a house in the middle of no where and all of a sudden three big dogs started barking.  We were like freak lets go back but these dogs didn't stop barking and actually started running after us so we had to run. My comp had a flashlight in his hand and every time he flashed it they stopped but then started again. But it gave us time to get out of there haha.

But that's all that really happened in my week. I went to the mission office and got to say goodbye to some of the elders that I know that were returning home. But your Halloween looked sweet. I bet you guys had fun and that pic with Gavin was that at homecoming?  Dad I have been thinking a lot about grandpa lately and how he is doing with his health.  I hope this will help him and that he can get an electric wheelchair or something.  I know that's what grandma was wanting and know that would help her a lot too because I know she is doing a ton to keep him well. But ya tell Gavin that I'll try to send that hat in a lil bit and a couple of other things but I have to see how much it is cause I'm a poor missionary. 

I love you guys. 

Elder Mauter

November 9, 2015

olá família como vocês estão? 

Everything is going good here. Me and my new comp got used to each other real quick, he's super chill so this transfer will be fun and go by fast I know it. But this week we had Stake conference and we got to hear from the President of our mission and also a Seventy and testimony's from missionaries that just got home and also those about to go out in the field. It really reminded me of when I was leaving.  All the talks were focused on making the right decisions. Like serving a mission, marriage, the sabbath day and following the prophet. It was really cool and there were really good speakers and you could feel the spirit strong in that meeting. I really got a big boost to want to work harder and know my importance here. Which I already know, but it increased.

It was funny because we had to travel to a different church to watch the conference. There were a bunch of people there and I remember I passed this kid and he just looked at me and said whhhhat? I guess because I was so big, hahah. Then when I was sitting and listening to the speakers I heard a couple adults behind me debating if I was Brazilian or not. Then after the meeting a lady came up to me and asked if I was Brazilian, I told her ya and she believed me hahah, but then I told her no.

My Zone

We also had a baptism marked for last Sunday, with a woman named Claudina. She was super excited all week and then something happened and she didn't want to be baptized. I got pretty mad, not the fact that she didn't want to get baptised but the way she was trying to hide it. We got there at like  4o'clock because the baptism would be at 5p and when we were pulling up I saw her run into the house. I thought she was going to get dressed or something but then we asked her boyfriend if she was getting dressed and he said that she wasn't there and I was like what.......and i just looked at him and told him that I'm not retarded, I just saw her when we pulled up. But he still said she wasn't there. I almost walked in the house to prove it to him but I kept my cool. We will go back tomorrow to see what happened.

Other than this my week was really good I think today we will do something cool with our district in the afternoon. Yesterday we met some really cool people outside our house when we were coming back from the ladies house and we got to talk to them for a while. How are the cards doing? and my brothers?

I love you guys,

Elder Mauter

November 16, 2015

Ola Familia!! 

Not much to say in this email because not much happened this week. We tried working with the one lady again and give her another chance. It turns out, her mom was being super annoying and didn't want to let her be baptised so we told her we'll help her through the process and help to build up her faith.  I asked her what was missing for her to be baptized. She has health problems  and she told us that she wants to be cured to be baptized. We tried to explain it doesn't work like that haha. We left a spiritual message with her and talked about Moses and the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness and were discouraged. When the fiery serpents were among the people….Moses made a brass serpent and put it on a pole. He told the people that those who would look up at it would be cured, but the people didn't want to even look. We explained how this represented having faith in Christ and his atonement and we need to look to Christ.  We explained the steps of the gospel and that Christ is only asking us to take these steps to receive these blessings. Unfortunately she didn't go to church on Sunday so we had to cut her. 

We are starting a new group closer to the church. It's a lil harder but it'll help the people that we baptised stay strong and active in the church. So that's really what I did this week. We have some cool people but no one super strong but it'll get better.

Ya I heard about the attacks in Paris that makes me sad but happy you guys got out of there. Tell Gavin he's weak for not trying out for the bball team... and yes finally the Cards are doing good. Brantley told me that the Suns are looking good too so I hope they can pull it out. Send me a pic of Gavin's dirt bike after he finishes putting those new graphics on. And sweet, thanks mom for the package! We don't have much planned today. I think just me and my comp will hangout with some members after this. 

I love you guys. 

Elder Mauter