President and Sister Soares

Olá!!
Last week went by super fast, there was so much stuff happening in the week that it felt like we only got a little time to work in our area. Last Tuesday we were going to teach the friends of some of our recent converts and when we arrived we found out from their grandma that they had went out fishing in the lake because it had rained a bunch the night before. Cajazeiras has been really dry lately and it has been raining a lot recently so it is helping alot especially because some people aren't getting water in their homes. But that day we really wanted to teach them so we rounded up some people around the house to go on a hunt for them. It was a pretty cool experience, we had a lot of laughs with our recent converts and we ended up in the middle of no where and then someone had the idea to call them finally and we ended up finding out that they were already home haha so we went back and saw all of the fish they caught BY HAND.The next day we didn't even get into our area because the other missionaries had a baptism and that night we traveled to Sousa and slept in the zone leaders house because the bus would leave at 4 o'clock the next day. The zone conference went really well. I always like to hear from our President and sister Soares because when you are looking for a boost or some energy to take with you in your area they always give it to you! I think this was one of the best conferences in my mish.

But about Holy week and the matação where they put money in the road.... was one of the craziest things I have ever seen in my life. On Friday one of the other elders came with me to my area and we knew that the matação started at 7p so we were running to teach everyone before then that we could and it turned out well.

But ill explain to you guys what happens here. So for the past two weeks everyone was in the roads with their masks asking for anything that the people would give to them like money or food and on this friday they put these things that they collected in the street one by one and let the people who have the "courage" to enter. So this holiday or tradition that they do is to show that they are of Christ and not of Judas but I still don't understand it because I don't think Jesus would do something like this or require the people to. But how it is, there are a two doors one on each side like 25 yards apart and Judas is in the middle on a pole they grab like a mannequin. There are more than 10 people on each side in a line and a person has to run through them to grab the money and pass through to the other side. To be able to hit while running through this, that person would need to pay 10 reais, but to just run without hitting is free. Like i said it takes "courage" because these whips are made of rope and tires and the people hitting don’t stop hitting until you pass through to the other side. It’s insane we saw someone pass out . But we only stayed for a lil bit cause it was getting too wild.

But this was my week. We had 4 people come to church last week and we are hoping to help a family be baptized this Sunday. Edison and his son Edwardo so pray for them and also for the mom that she’ll open up her heart and listen to our message because every time we go to their home she always leaves. But those puppies são fofo!! I love you guys ill send some pics

Elder Mauter

Familia,
Another busy week here! Last week went by pretty fast. Me and my comp switched where we were working and it was going well. Then on Friday night we found a bunch of people playing football with someone that i got to know a lil when i first got here in Cajazeiras so it made it so much easier to get to know the people he was with.

So this happened on Friday, then on Saturday I did a division with Elder Cavelcante in my house because his comp was sick so we worked in my area and also in his area on Saturday. I have never walked so much in my life!  Me and him got home that night and we were dead tired from running from area to area. But it all worked out.

So Sunday started a semana santa-Holy Week. This didnt help us alot because here they have a tradition of getting a manican of judus and they dress up with masks and grab whips and dress up with corn stalks on them so that if someone hits them with the whip it won't hurt. Actually i heard this Saturday they will be putting food or money in the middle of the street and anyone can come and try and grab it but also they are waiting with their whips hahha so we'll see if me and my comp can get ourselves some money this Saturday!!!

This week we'll have our zone conference with the mission president so this will be cool idk if this will be the last or second to last conference for Pres Soares.

Sounds like you guys put Gavin to work last week cleaning out the garage and stuff. Get it all cleaned out before I get home so I dont have to do anything in there when i get home! And Josh's, Jac got a dog? I wanna see a picture! So they really drove to Mexico to pick it up? 

Here we are waking up at 6:00 everyday to do p90x. So I'm dead right now. My arms are shaking just writing to you guys.
But love you guys have a good week. Have a good Easter. 
Elder Mauter

Transferss!!!!!

So this week was pretty crazy. Last Monday at like 6 o'clock i got a call telling me that ill be training a new missionary coming into the mission feild! So Tuesday i had to travel to Natal again haha freak..

His name is Elder Carlos. He's from Minas Gerais and is 25 yrs old. Actually a cool thing about him is that when I got to the mission his younger brother was my zone leader. It's already been 8 months since his brother returned home. Elder Carlos is pretty excited to work but this week really hit him hard with all the walking that we do haha. Now, it takes alot more time than usual to get into my area every day. But it'll be good he'll get used to it- haha. I had to give him all of my mole skin because his feet are destroyed. i dont think this was the best week for him because this happened and plus he broke our fridge on accident. He was trying to break the ice out of the freezer with a flat head and the flat head went right through the door and broke the gas. But i think ill take money out of my account to pay for it today and sister Soares said she"ll put the money back in my account if thats ok mom. But this week will be better!

i also am the district leader here so i have alot to worry about expecially cause we are going to try and switch the neighborhood where we were working to find more people closer to the church.  So pray for us please!!! But last week we didnt have much success in our area. Some of our investigators who we were preparing backed out on the date we marked for them. But it will all go good.

Only me and Elder Calvacante stayed in the house. He is pretty new in the mission only 4 months out but he's the coolest kid, we have so much in common. I'm glad that he stayed! So I thought I'd be the oldest missionary in the house for the first time in the mission but then an American got here that has more time, Elder Zundel haha. He's crazy and super funny so this transfer will be really good. But i love you guys thanks for the package mom. I'll tell you when it gets here.

i love you guys

Elder Mauter

Oi fam!!!! 
This week went by super fast it felt like. After I got home from Natal at 3 in the morning on Tuesday. I was super dead haha but at least this time I was able to sleep on the way back unlike the first time when I sat next to an old woman talking to me the entire time.


We didn't have any baptisms last week but we are planning to have a couple this week and actually help Roberto's mom be baptised too this week. But sometimes its really hard cause her husband is apart of a different church but doesn't even go and doesnt like her going to ours. She was trying to explain the situation to me the other day but then her husband got home right when she started talking.


Last week we didnt have much luck with finding new people to teach we only had 3 new people go to church on Sunday, but we hope we'll have a better one this week. Its hard for me sometimes cause i feel so attached to the people that I baptized, with keeping them going to church.
  

So last week we were able to give 2 young men the preisthood so now we'll beable to go on divisions with them teaching and finding their friends. 
Tomorrow we will be getting the call for transfers. So I hope all goes well, I'm pretty sure that ill stay because this is my first transfer in this area. I hope my new comp brings some energy I'm needing some haha. 


But dad haha said your sister missionary from Texas had a crazy handshake.  What did you mean?  That she squeezed really hard or that she did lots of fist bumps haha. That's how all the missionaries are here haha giving fist bumps. But not to the adults.  I'm glad to hear that you guys gave dinner to the sister missionary's. Thats weird that they get dinner there haha. Here, we never stop working after lunch because its our best time to work unless one of our investigators gives us something to eat which has actually been happening alot recently. Every time I go to someones house they always give me the biggest plate to eat off haha, so i always end up eatting a ton.

But ya mom, i forget to tell you guys about alot of things, like the food and stuff. Because now everything here seems so normal to me. But ya i actually ate pineapple the other day, its way better than at home or Hawaii. And yes, it's so sweet you can eat the core.

But if your sending a package, send me some Gatorade powder and peanut butter with jelly, pop rocks and jolly ranchers and any other thing you can think of.

Mom, your 30 yr high school reunion!!! caraca você tá ficando muito velha kkkkk!!!! 

But love you guys. Im sending you guys some pictures of the  baptisms and a Subway sandwich pic thats bigger than me. There was a buy one get one promotion here so we went to lunch their last week. 

Mas amo vocês, Elder Mauter

bom dia fam!!!

This week was much different from last week but this week I got better and my comp got sick so I think we switched... but ya a bunch of people here are getting sick.  I think its because school started here. I went to my recent converts homes and a bunch of them were sick actually when I walked in their house Fran one of my recent converts was sleeping with a bunch of puke on the ground next to him. I felt super bad for them and I ended up giving a blessing to almost everyone in that house. Just for you guys to understand I didnt have any more oil in my container afterwards... so that night we prayed for all of them to get better and they all did get better the next day! So that was a crazy good miracle and a big faith builder for our new converts.

Last week I told you guys that my comp was sick so we weren't able to move around a lot but he was able to go some in our area so at least we could teach and prepare for our baptisms for this week! We didn't have a lot of people go to church this week because of this but we were able to baptize 3 people. The family of a recent convert of ours. The mom and her two kids. We haven't met the dad because he lives in ceará. But it was super cool to help this family make covenants with the Lord. 

This is our last week before transfers so we have a couple people that we are helping to baptize so if you guys could pray for them it would be great. Erica, Lucas and Maria Edilene! but this week we are going to focus a lot more on bringing people to church so that we can have another good month! 

Right now I'm in in the mission office going on 2 days without sleep. I got a call last week from the secretaries telling me that I had to travel to Natal to renew my Visa. So last night I got on a bus and traveled 8 hours to get here and tonight I have to go back to my area... so this will be super fun, not. 

But ya you asked me if I had any stories to tell about the Atonement. I remember one that one of my comps told me about. Its starts like this: There once was a kid in high school that was always the class clown and always disturbed the class in session. He made almost all the teachers who taught, to eventually give up trying to teach, because of him. But one day a new teacher wanted to help this student understand something bigger than himself and it was about Jesus Christ when he was on the earth. So this teacher called up this student in front of everyone (and you can do this too mom, just call someone up idk how you'll do it with girls but you can make something up) so this teacher brought a bunch of bananas (which you will do too) and told this student that for every student who wanted a banana he had to do 10 pushup's. Then for every student who didn't want a banana this kid still had to do 10 push-ups.  So you continue to ask every body in the room if they want a banana and some will want one and some won't. Some may even ask if they can do their own push-ups to get a banana, but they are not allowed-only the one kid has to do all the push-ups. But after all of this you will explain that Jesus made this sacrifice for every single one of us even if we don't use it to lift our burdens, or want it or feel we deserve it.  The Atonement was given as a gift to each of us. 
I hope this helps in your lesson have a good week!
Love,
Elder Mauter