I'm Alive!!!!
Sorry i didnt get to email you guys last week. My comp and I were going to pass the internet place early in the morning but we thought we would after we went out to eat with our zls but turned out that where we went was too far so it took a while to get back home. But I'm all good. I was a lil sick last week but I'm already better. My back just hurts a ton because last night I slept in the hammock to get a nice breeze haha. But now I'm paying for it. 

So let me tell you guys last week we had two baptisms and also two more this week we baptised 3 more young women and a teenager alil older than gav hes 16. his name is J

onathan. hes super cool he plays soccer really good and hes planningon one day going to the usa so i have been giving him a bunch of books that i found in the house for him to study english and giving tips. its so cool im going to try to get him to apply for byu. but last week we had interviews with pres our last one with him before he goes but well have one last conference next month so im pretty sad about that but itll be all good. 

But this week we have been working really hard with the people we baptized and also to find new people because maybe ill be leaving so i wanted to leave a good group for my comp. My comp doesnt want me to leave because this was his best transfer as a missionary. But if I leave at least he grabbed the vision. haha 

You guys always tell me I only have a lil bit left in my mission but it still hasnt hit me. I feel like this is my life now. I dont ever feel like I'm going home. But dont worry dad ill finish strong I've set some goals in my mission that i havent accomplished yet so if i want to i have to haul.

But thats cool that you are in Idaho. Tell Shayne congrats from me! And thats cool about Mason. Let me know where he ends up going because i always talk about him to people. Everyone usually asks about our Military so I always tell everyone that my cousin Mason is serving.

But I love you guys I'll send pics of the baptisms 
adeus 
Elder Mauter

Oi fam!!!!
My new area!!!! Nova Natal! finally i got to come back to the captial in Natal.  The weather here is so much better ha ha! i haven't sweat once. My new comp is Elder Cunha he only has 3 months in the mission and I'm already seeing that this transfer will be good. We already connected on the first day. He's from Belem where there is going to be a new temple built. He is really prideful about that. So i had to tell him that in AZ we have 6!

Here all the zones of all of the areas are super close unlike in my last area where you have to grab a bus for at least one hour. We get to do lots of stuff together as missionaries like play basketball or volleyball every morning. I know a bunch of people here in this zone and my zone leader is from Mesa AZ. But I'm pretty excited for this transfer I was super tired in my last area.

This week was more about getting to know everyone in my new area here in Natal.  The church is alot stronger and i finally returned to a ward and a frecuncy of 100 members. We dont have a very big group to teach but this week we will focus alot on this and bring more people to church.

Im glad you got to go to Portland last weekend. The Nike company store sounds awesome! But, caraca did dad get a raise?  You bought 18 pairs of Nike shoes??... I hope I got a pair ha ha! If you bought me something leave it at home- but hide them! Portland looks so cool! I've never went there right? I don't think so.

Keaton and Kholer are going to be home so soon!! Only 2 more months?! Time flys.  i was thinking about this the other day.  I only have like 6 more months left to be a missionary so I can't mess around!  I want to make the best out of my last 6 months here.

But women's conference will be cool, mom. You'll have fun. We need to plan something when i get home.  I want to go to General Conference at least one time.  Gavin has been telling me i have to stay in AZ when i get home haha!  i think i want to go to CGCC at least to finish the semester there. When do classes start-in January? Have you guys talked with the Wolff's in awhile? I sent a message to Wolff last week but didn't hear anything back.
I love you guys- until next week!!

Elder Mauter

Transfer week!!

So this week is transfers idk what will happen I'm actually wanting to change some things up. I've only been here 3 months but it feels like forever. I like it here so we'll see what happens. This week it rained a ton here so we were always stopped under a tree or something waiting for it to pass. Also, this week me and my comp spent a day in the other Elders area to help them out and make some contacts. That was nice because i feel like i have talked to everyone in my area and its nice to change things up sometimes. 

This week we also focused alot more on our recent converts and menos (any less) active members who are in our area.  We got to know a really cool guy who is 26 yrs old this week and we are excited to begin teaching him.

There is a sickness passing through here from the mosquito's and everyone is getting it. Everyone who we were teaching was sick by the end of the week.  I've been alright i haven't picked up anything. 

The last two days here there has been a lot of protest's against the government. They have been trying to impeach the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseft. It seems like most of the people didn't like her and they have been trying to impeach her since I got here and finally last night at like 11:30 pm she finally was. There were fireworks and people screaming and cheering like crazy in our apartment building -haha.

This  morning we woke up at like 4 o'clock to hike up a mountain here that has a statue of christ at the top and took some sweet pics of the district for the last time. Mom, send me the pictures that you blew up I want to see the ones you picked. And haha you are more trunky than me mom. But happy 25th wedding anniversary! 

But i got to get going!

Amo Vocês!

Elder Mauter

Ola,
I almost died....

Joel thought I was going to drown him during the baptism-so us laughing.

Last week was pretty busy! So Tuesday we went to the leadership counsel in Natal. It was really cool to hear about how our mission is growing all of the numbers and what we can do to better it as a mission in our zones. One of the new temples that was just announced to be built in Belem Brazil at General Conference my mission President had bought the land where it will be built. So one of the things that was asked in our counsel was what could we do to have President Soares buy the land here in Natal for a temple. We ended up finding out that we are super close to be getting a new temple! Our president told us that usually there needs to be 5 stakes in the area. We already have 4 and in my zone Sousa we are the closest district to being able to become a stake. So that gave us a huge boost to do more work in our zone to make this happen. We also got to hear a really powerful testimony from President Soares about this work and how special it will be to one day hear that they will build a temple in a mission where we all worked so hard to earn. I'm so glad to have him as a President here. It's really going to be sad when he leaves in 2 transfers. 

But last week we were working a lot with some of the people that we have been teaching and helping them go to church and to do the things that we were asking them to do. But we saw that a lot of things were working against them. That young couple that we were teaching after dating for four years broke up and a bunch of people got sick. We didn't have the results we wanted but we understand that sometimes this will happen and that we will work to do better this week!

But I bet you are asking yourself why I said I almost died hahah. So me and Elder Calvacante in my house found out last night that Elder Zundel in our house is dead afraid of crickets and we found a huge cricket outside our house yesterday and brought it inside. This kid is taller than me just so that you guys know. But I have never seen a kid so big run so fast. It was so funny and he ended up grabbing a knife! hahahaha

But that was my week. Ya mom I got the package, thank-you for everything in it. The peanut butter I have been eatting it every single day so far. I've never missed something so much! And the Easter card I got that you forgot to send last Easter but didn't work out haha made me feel 
better because when I read it you said "You have 4 months down!" But now I have 1 yr and 4 months down haha! I'll send some pic's.
amo vocês
Elder Mauter

Olá fam!! 

Wow this week was full of blessings! But today I don't have much time because I'm in Sousa at the zls house and here in a little bit all of the leaders are going to be traveling to Natal for a leader conference, woo again.... hahah no but it'll be good to learn new things on how I can help my district be more efficient in our work! But then again I'm not that excited about traveling all day again.

Last week went by fast! We did so much. Elder Balaich from my CTM group came to work with me. He switched with my comp. We found so many cool families and young couples to teach last week. They all came through those kids that I talked to who were playing football in a field one day. That has definitely been one of the more effective ways for me to meet new people.  By getting to know kids my age and sharing common interests and then inviting them to hear a message from us in their homes. That way you get to know their whole family. But last week was especially a blessing by helping one father and a son enter the waters of baptism. The dads name is Edison and his 12 year old son is Edwardo. They were a family who had already been taught by my old comp Elder Querino who will be super pumped to hear that we baptized them. I'll get to tell him here in a lil bit at the conference. 

We had been reteaching him and his son for a few weeks. When Elder Baliach came he asked Edison how he felt when we were teaching him and he said "Honestly I have been apart of lots of churches, the Catholic, the Baptist and also I spent a year with the Jehovah Witness´ walking door to door inviting people to go to church, but I have never felt the spirit like I have when you Elders sit me down and teach me." When I heard those words from him I really felt the spirit so strong and I knew that the spirit had played such a big part in his conversion. Last Saturday we were able to baptize him and his son Edwardo. I don't have pics with me right now but I'll sent them next week. All we need now is to help his wife. She's a little bit harder to talk to but I bet she will come around!

But you asked me if I watched conference. I'll just say I tried. So on Saturday me and Balaich invited people to come with us to watch. One of them was a guy who we had been teaching all week and he was super excited to come, but then it turned out that someone said something upsetting to him the night before conference.  So we sat with him talking for an hour and ended up missing the first session. Then for the second session we watched it at the Branch Presidents house in Portuguese. 

On Sunday we were headed to Sousa to watch conference which is a different city than where I'm at because there they have a chapel. So with our whole Branch on the bus I was left with the responsibility of everyone because the Branch President stayed home and his counselors traveled by car. And of course on the way to Sousa the big bus broke down right before we got there. So i had to call a bunch of people and it was just crazy. So we missed a big part of the first session on Sunday. 

We also had another baptism on Sunday. Junior, a 16 yr old who has a strong testimony. There were lots of things happening in his life that were trying to stop him from being baptized but everything went well and he was baptized and we had a lot of support from the Branch. 


Then during the second session of conference it turned out during Hollands talk a man had a heart attack in the church so they had to call an ambulance and get him to the hospital! I ended up staying in Sousa.So when i finally got to the house I was just knocked out dead tired haha. But I sure feel like I'm missing something when I don't get to watch all the talks from conference haha its funny how things have changed. But I'll try to download some of the talks on my iPod. 

Today we already went hiking and skipped some rocks in the river and got attacked by bees, haha so I think today the craziness will continue.

Dad, that's sick that you did so good in the race for an old man hahha maybe when I get back I'll have to do something like that with you.

Mom keep taking Gavin to the temple to do baptism's. He'll learn to love it. That's one thing I want to do a lot more of when I get home is to go to the 
Temple.

Com Amor

Elder Mauter

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