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

Como vocês estão???!!

I'm doing good here but not much happened last week. It seemed to have passed by super fast.  I got a little sick here and ended up staying home one day cause I threw-up, but the next day I was able to leave the house and work. I think its because of the water that people sale us off the road but I'm better now! So don't worry!

It seems like a bunch of people are getting sick here because of it. We didn't have any baptisms last week because of this. We weren't able to teach our investigators but we'll get on it this week.

Interviews went well, haha. It was one of my better interviews because we went to Subway to eat after. I thought sister Soares would almost punch me haha because we were asking for the things we wanted on our sandwich and the guy put tomatoes on my sandwich without me saying and then he was like oops, you want it or I can take it off.  He started to take them off and I was like, alright you can take them off. Then sister Soares gave me a death glare haha! So I asked for onions and I don't even like onions just to take the heat off of me hahah! But I like my President couple, they are super supportive and there to help when you need it. Pres ended up calling me last Monday after internet time to congraduate me on what I'm doing in my area. 

But this is what happened in my area last week, not much. Mom I don't need anything for my ears, or shoes or sunscreen. Just send a bunch of candy from the USA that I can give away and protein bars.  I want to get bigger!

Love you guys
Elder Mauter

Whats up fam!!!!!

Happy Vday hahha! No they don't celebrate valentines day here but they have a different holiday coming up that is called Dia Das Namoradas. This holiday is pretty much the same thing as Vday. But ya mom Carnaval was pretty crazy here the last two days of it. Last Tuesday me and my comp were working a ton and lost track of time so we got home late and the area where they have the big party is on our street so we have to pass by there to get home haha so I told my comp "just look down and walk fast."  It was pretty crazy. This holiday used to be a religious holiday that gave people a day to sin and then three days to repent and become clean. Well it has changed a ton. Now people take the holiday for two weeks. What I mean by that is that they take two weeks and sin all that they can and then they take about four days to repent. 

But about your question ya where my apartment is its pretty loud but its nice sometimes cause I don't have trouble waking up haha. But last week we had another good week. We baptised 5 people. Fernanda who has a baby and her two brothers, Fernando 17 and Felipe 10 ill send a pic! Last week I got a call from the assistant asking me what I'm doing in my area that's working so well. Then yesterday I got a call from my old comp W Silvia who is also an assistant. So me and my comp have really seen the blessings in our area this transfer. Its so cool to see that every time we go and visit these people they are always wanting to know more. When we leave they are wanting to study the things we leave them to read.  Yesterday was funny we have this 7 year old who has been coming to church with us and when we were baptising everyone he was almost crying cause he wanted to be baptized too. 

But its good to hear that you guys are all healthy and doing good. This week we have interviews with President Soares so I hope it goes well. This will be his last time for interviews before we get a new mission President. But mom where I'm at now is like 9 hours from Natal. But hahah mom, thanks for reminding me how long I've been out and how long I have left in the mish you are more trunky than me haha! 

Love you guys have a good week!

Elder Mauter

Baptismos!!!! 

Last week was super crazy here in Cajazeiras  because on Friday  Carnival began.  This city is one of the biggest parties for carnival in Brazil. There were a bunch of people traveling here to see the shows and party...and it doesnt end  until tomorrow. Last year I was in Mossoró when this was happening but it wasnt even that big. Mossoró had some things going on but not like here but let me tell you about some of the stuff they do. 

But first I'll tell you on Saturday I had to go home super early because of all the parties haha. But freak I don't know why they do this but all the guys here dress up like girls? I was in a division with my district leader on Saturday because he was doing some intrevistas for me. We had some crazy people stopping us. So on our way home we actually had to walk head down and fast hahha. But other than that last week went really well. We had 6 baptisms on Sunday and also brought 12 people to church. We are really seeing the blessings in our work and we hope to baptize more people this week. A bunch of people are getting sick here so some of them couldn't come to church that we had marked to be baptized. But we will keep working hard to accomplish our goals.  We had a member help us out this week with a ride for our investigators.  It was funny because the first house we passed we only grabbed 2 people then the next house no one came to the door and then like 10 people in the next house haha. 

Sorry but i have to go, thanks for the support.  Tell kim and the Wagstaff's that I liked the package. She sent me a t -shirt with the state of Arizona that says home! I think ill use it every day and a box of Trix, finally some American cereal!! Mom, sorry if I'm using the card alot its because here in my area we only have 3 lunches with members in the week and the other 4 days we have to buy food.

Love you guys sorry for the short email ill send pics next week.  I hope Gavin gets better!
Elder Mauter

e ai fam!!! 

So I got the news that I was going to be transferred again to the furthest area in the mission and its in a different state! So now I'm in cajazeiras, Paraiba. It's a pretty small city where the church is just starting up in. So here the church building is a house.  Actually two houses put together this is the first time in my mish that the church building is like this. And plus, to help us out there is a catholic church in front of ours that's a castle, haha. There are like 3 like this in the city.

My new comp has only 3 months in the mish so I was called to be the senior comp.  He was telling me about the difficulties in the area with bringing people to church. I told him from the start that he needs to forget everything he thinks about this area and we will try new ideas to get this area going.

Last week we brought 6 people to church. Walking for a hour in the hot sun plus we also got attacked by a dog getting to the church haha freak. This really showed the faith of these people who we brought to church that we met on Friday. Pray for them that they will have the courage to come to church again.  I'll also apply that principle you taught me mom.  Ill expect that they'll come!

My new comp, elder Querino is from the south of Brazil and lives on a farm. I was joking with him and telling him I have family who are farmers in Idaho that live on a farm and has bunches of tractors and farm stuff. Then he told me that his dad sold his tractor so when he gets home he has to study to get a job.  He's funny, we'll have a good transfer. 

Yesterday we had a baptism, Roberto he's 14 and lives with his mom and a lil brother. I want to start teaching his mom and help her be baptized. She already has been taught by the missionaries but never really accepted to be baptized. We also have other great people that we found that we will be starting the preparation to be baptized this month. We ended up finding two big groups of people on Friday on two seperate roads but on one road no one came. Last week when I got here my comp had been teaching a lady who is 22. We teach her in her glass store. Shes really strong in her religion and doesnt really believe in any other church. My comp wanted me to try last week to get her to go to church. So we stopped by the first day and got to know her and we made friends with her real fast and found out some of the questions she has and things she believes. She told me about when she was baptized in her church and she received the gift of tongues and started speaking in a language that no one understands. We also found out that in her church they don't receive the holy ghost.  So the next day we taught her a powerful lesson about the gospel of jesus christ and when I got to the part about the holy ghost I explained about the gift of the holy ghost and also how we can receive Spiritual gifts from god after we are baptized.  But I focused more about gift of tongues and showed her in 1 Corinthians 14 where when we receive these gifts its to help edify and strenghten the church. Because when you speak to people in a language where no one understands what your saying you look crazy and it wont help anyone. I told her the gift of tongues is what I'm doing right now, speaking to her in her own language.  She understood all of this but at the end when we asked her to pray if these things were true she wouldn't even accept. Its sad to see people like this but our job is only to teach the truths.  I cant force anyone to do what I want.

So that was my week. Don't  go traveling without me!  Hey I found out it'll be Jenns bday so send her a happy bday from Brazil!

But no i haven't heard about this mosquito sickness mom. I think ill be fine so don't worry. Tell Gavin congrats on the bball season and tell him he has to get the w! Also tell him i got his letter but didn't have time to write back. 

but love you guys elder mauter

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