bora lá!!!!

New President Colleoni and his wife Tania from Sao Paulo

hahha mom I think youre getting too trunky at home. Don't worry time will fly im sure! But thanks for the birthday package. I hope I will get it this thursday at our zone conference! 

Last week we went back at it working hard trying to find more people to tea

ch and to baptize. We were teaching a young girl last week. Her name is Jamilly, and she is super cool and wants to know about the church! She was super interested after our lesson on the plan of salvation and wanted to understand what will happen with us and our families after this life. We were also able to teach her mom and they both accepted to be baptized! So this week we'll baptize Jamilly and then her mom after hopefully. We hope to be able to teach Jamilly's dad this week too. We are also teaching Victoria, Jó Jó and Lucas from a different family. They all accepted to be baptized but we went to talk to their mom for her permission and she said she would talk to them more about this but we still havent been able to get back with her. We are worried cause their grandparents always try to kick us out of their house. I hope this doesnt effect them.

We also had a funny experience last week. When we were leaving our house on our way into our area. A drunk man called us over so we could talk to him. He wanted to talk to us because he went to church last week and his pastor had told him bad stuff about our church. He told this man if a Mormon enters your house we'll steal his stuff. He told us that he's never seen a Mormon stealing his stuff (he didnt have anything in his house to steal if we wanted to-haha). This gave us a little motivation for our day haha. This man kept telling us that we need to keep working and doing the Lords work. He told us he was going to go talk to his pastor and call him some bad words that i dont think ill repeat here. But we told him that he shouldnt do that. 

Brazilian BBQ

Also, last week me and my comp literally did the best prank in the world! But it  almost went really wrong. We pranked the two other elders who live in our house. One of the elders in our house always talkes about how tough he is and what he would do if someone broke into our house. So one day last week when we got home a little early we thought we would do something to them.  We made the house look like it was robbed. We threw the chairs and suitcases on the ground making it look like our house had been robbed. We didnt put much thought into it because we left our cameras on our desks, haha. But it didnt matter because when they got home the elder that talks alot opened the door and saw that there were chairs and suitcases on the ground and it was looking like someone had robbed our house. He took off running and screaming that he saw someone all the way to a members house haha. We didnt see this because me and my comp were hiding behind the house.  We thought they were in the house and our prank didn't work because they were calling my phone. I didnt answer until i saw that a member was calling me and thats when it struck me that they weren't home.  She told us not to go home because we had been robbed and then she

passed the phone to the missionary who was freaking out telling me that he was headed back home to see what happened. I told him no, dont do that but he hung up and left. I called the member back again and told her it was a joke and she laughed a ton but then ran after the Elder because she saw her son who is huge was going back with the him plus some of the neighbors were coming to our house.  That Elder told them that he saw someone in the house. One of the neighbors grabbed a gun which he can't have, and one had a knife and the members son had a baseball bat. When they got to our house they were banging on the door but luckily the member I called, she got there and told them that it was all just a joke hahhaha we laughed so much at this. 


But yeah, the next time we email I'll be 20:/ 

But to answer your question, I've been in almost all the zones except for the Natal zone. So I think I'll go there the next transfer to finish my mission but idk. But yeah I'm trying to eat more. Me and my zone leader wake up everyday early to workout. He is going home in 3 weeks and his comp is lazy so I hope it helps me gain some weight! But have a good week. Love,
Elder Mauter

Oi!!! 
So last week went by pretty fast! And ya we got to meet our new president last week.  i forgot to mention that to you guys. But he seems like a really inspired man, he's just a little nervous right now.  I'm sure he'll get used to it here in a little bit. They have a 12 yr old son who came with them. He's really cool. I got to talk to him for a while, he likes to bike so I talked to him about Gavin but I didn't have any pictures to show him. But here in 2 weeks we're going to have a zone conference with an authority so it'll be cool. No one new ever comes here,  its always the same person.

Last week we didn't have any baptisms.  The family who we are teaching some of them still have some questions. So we thought it would be better to wait and baptize all of them together as a family,  so pray for us!

That's awesome that trek went well this year. I'm sure it was a big testimony builder for everyone and for the ward! In Brazil they need more activities like that to excite the ward here. Sometimes i pass in wards and they don't have any desire to do missionary work or anything as a ward. Dad what do you mean that someone carried you across the pool? How?  haha So you guys passed through a river or a pool? On the trek?

But my (mission son) is doing good. He's already looking a little more tan. And he is already getting the hang of what we do. Today we played soccer with a bunch of missionaries so he got to know a lot of people that i know.

But ya talk to Keaton and tell him that it'd be down to go up to Utah with him. I also know some missionaries who want me to go up there too. It would be good to get out of AZ but idk, I don't really think about what I'm going to do after the mish. 

But to answer your questions.  Mom, no i didn't get my debit card yet i think ill get it in this next conference though.  When we play soccer it's always on the basketball court. The goal and everything is on the court. So I haven't used my soccer shoes once in the mission. Everyone wears court soccer shoes. 

And Ya, I love it here in Natal! The weather is way better. It's more humid than dry but not hot. I don't even sweat anymore! My mission son was commenting that I never sweat! Haha! I told him it's because I went to the hottest areas first on my mission. And he better not get used to this good weather cause he will be going to Mossorro and Sousa soon, haha! 

Today we are at a members house. We usually come to their house on Pday. It's alot better than staying at our house. Especially because this family is super cool. I love this family! But idk what we are going to do the rest of the day, maybe we will clean our house. 

Hey, tell Tanner Peterson that there is a member here in Natal who was his old companion. I don't know his last name but I'll try and send pics so he will remember. I played soccer with him today. Also Elder Guilherme Andrade my old zone leader said Tanners last area was in his ward ala 4. Elder Andrade says he remembers Tanner cause he was super cool! But I'll try to send pics soon.

But love you guys! 
Elder Mauter

Boa tarde fam!!!
We had transfers last week and i really thought that i was going to leave Natal but i stayed in my area. I'm going to train another new missionary in the mission!!! idk what president was thinking but it'll be good haha alot more work for me though. So now i have two sons in the mission.(if you train a missionary - missionary's call them their sons) His name is elder t. silva, he's from são paulo. He is a pretty nerdy kid but its fun. We played some soccer and made breakfast with our whole zone today. I made my son get out there and play to loosen up those legs hahha.


Last week we really got to work, contacting alot of people to have a bigger group to teach and more people attend church. Last week we were able to baptize Derrick, who is a members brother that was never baptized. We didn't think it was going to work out because when we were teaching him his dad didn't like it. I could tell in his face but he never said anything to us and it turned out great.  My son got to baptized his first of many! Also last week we were able to find alot of people but not a lot of people who would commit to come to church. Saturday night when we were leaving a members home he saw a bunch of his friends outside of their homes so we stopped by and talked to them and were able to invite all of them to church.  We were blessed because when we went over to talk their crazy grandpa came out to stop us from talking with his grandkids. He started saying a bunch of negative stuff about our church but we were able to break him so it was pretty funny.  He told us that he was born catholic and will die catholic even if it takes him to heaven or hell it didn't matter. 


We ended up explaining to him if he wants to be catholic he actually has to start going to his church. But he didn't want to do that either. There's a lot of people that are scared of what they don't  know or understand. Thats one of the biggest problems that I have seen here on my mission. If anyone on the street says something about a religion or an person they believe it and dont what anything to do with it. This is the biggest tool that satan has in some peoples lives. These lies make people scared of what they dont know. This is why we are counseled to study and to live the gospel because if we aren't practicing it in our lives our faith wont be strong enought to carry us when temptation comes. 

Thinking about you guys going to trek this week I remembered about the pioneers that knew this when they were going to Utah.  They could have stayed in their own countries or nice homes and most likely would have had an easier life. But they were willing to sacrifice to start from nothing. They did this for those that would come after them. Most of them would never see churches, temples everything that we have. They gave up so much for the principles they believed so strongly in and to not be persecuted. Good luck this week on trek, I'm sure it will be hard especially in the heat but it'll be a good experience for you guys and Gavin! 


But ya i was going to tell you to go to Elder Phillips homecoming talk.  But I knew you were going to still be  up in Utah. Elder Phillips went to William's field H.S.  I didn't know him before but me and him know a lot of people in common. He's super cool and he was a good missionary!


But love you guys.  Ill send some pics. My memory card got a virus from the computers.  But I got it fixed so now i can send some 

mas até mais 
Elder Mauter

Merica!!!
Ya, here in Brazil it definetly isn't the same when it comes to American holidays.  It's pretty dead in the road right now which isn't very normal. I'm sure ill hear some fireworks today because Brazilians like to shoot them off at anytime even for an American holiday. They dont have laws like we do saying they can't. So it can be like 8 oclock if they want. But transfers hasn't happend yet we will find out tomorrow where we will go or stay. We just had an emergancy transfer last week so I'm the only American left here to celebrate the 4th haha but its pretty cool.

That's awesome that you guys went to Utah to see the Tim McGraw concert! Chase didn't end up going? But ya we really havent felt the change of our new Mission President yet. President and sister Colleoni got here on Friday and sent us a message on our phones on Sunday.  That's the only notice that we have gotten from them. I'm sure next transfer he'll visit all the zones to get to know the missionaries.

But last week was pretty cool, we ended up entering in a new area that we have never worked in. We were actually trying to find a members brother who isnt baptized. We tried last week to find him but we ended up getting ourselves lost and walking for like 2 hours haha so that wasn't good so this time we used google maps to find his house and we found out its not as far as we thought it was. We ended up finding him this week in the road playing soccer with his friends. Which was funny cause I told my comp before that I bet he won't be home but playing soccer haha. When we got there and we got to know a bunch of people there.  His uncles and friends that are my age a bunch of cool kids that like to talk a lot! A bunch of them werent able to go this Sunday but told us they'll go next week so now I want to stay here haha. Its cool cause where they live its been a really long time since missionaries have worked there and some older people still remember. People from other religions calling us over to talk to them and wanting us to help the people in their neighborhood! I can tell that your prayers have been working! It seem like everytime on my mission that we are doing so well the Lord literally throws people in our way!

Ill let you guys know what happens with transfers. I liked the pics that you sent! One group of them didnt go threw though. But love you guys!
Elder Mauter