there aren't words

THIS WEEK!!!! I could write a book about this week, so much stuff happened!

First of all, 

MISSÃO BRASIL LONDRINA  is the BEST MISSION EVER!!!!!! 

WE BROKE A MISSION RECORD THIS WEEK!!!!!

192 BAPTISMS IN ONE MONTH!!!!!!! 

Everyone´s freaking out. HA! It´s great!

And I´m so glad that I got to be a part of that! We had a baptism of Carlos Saturday. It was simple, but oh so sweetly good. :)))) And it was the first baptism of my companion, so that´s great!!! 

So basically this week was kind of stressful-preparing Carlos for the baptism, and also because the other sisters here had a baptism on Friday. So we tried to move our baptism to Friday, but yeah that didn´t work out. But it´s all good, in the end people were baptized and we felt the spirit.

ummm.... Saturday was probably the best day of my mission. maybe. we had lunch de poder!!!! SO GOOD! like gormet chef here! then we did an activity which I am not allowed to revel. only that we got permission from our president to do so, as long as we didn´t take any pictures or tell our family, so I´ll tell you all when I get home... haha! Then we had a baptism!!!!!!!!!!! Then we taught a woman, Sueli. She´s great!

And she came to church yesterday. 

I have to tell you about church yesterday. We have this one investigator, Ademir. (maybe I already told about him, but I don´t remember.) anywyas, he came to church on his own one time, but didn´t tell his wife. When we went to teach him, his wife told us to not waste our time- they have their own religion- and to leave. Well he came to church last week AND yesterday.  You can tell he loves it and is soaking it all in. Well we were in Gospel Principles yesterday when there was a knock at the door, and it was his wife. She literally pulled him out of the class. We (sister henrik and I) ran after them and caught them in the hallway. We got the number of Ademir, but the whole time his wife was complaining and whining. (great, right?) Well Ademir tried to tell his wife that he likes the church- that it´s beautiful and great, but she would have none of it. Then they left. 

We returned to the class, said a closing prayer, then I bawled.

And I don´t think I´ve ever felt so sorriful for someone. He LOVES the church, you can see it in his eyes. But what can we do? Preach My Gospel says that you can´t baptize anyone without the consent of the spouse.

One quick thing. They are trying to church the district here into a stake. And so they built a MAGNIFICENT stake center, which opened yesterday and we now attend. I have never seen such a beautiful church in my life. It is by far the most grand I´ve ever seen. (It has a parking garage.) Lots of people are interested about the building. we will have an open house this week.

Love, 

Sister Eliason

 

 

What's up!?

June 23, 2014

BOM DIA COM MUITO ALEGRIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First off- CONGRATULATIONS SISTER RENEE DIONNE and your mission call to PAris, France!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! also COngratulations to Elder Brandon Howard and your mission call to Fiji!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It´s super de duper awesome that I have friends so close to the Lord and willing to serve him. I love you all!

Today is yet again, another jogo do BRASIL!!!!!! So email time is super early. Ok

This week was kind of awesome! A lot happened.

First off, I finally received letters!

This week the sister training leaders came to do divisions. And it was my first time doing that- oh man, it was so great!

Tuesday we had a church activity, and Sister Henrik and I were able to bring one of our investigators, Carlos, and Sister Saldanha happened to mention about baptism. He LOved the activity but had to leave early so we didn´t get a chance to tlak to him a lot.

Wednesday, I let sister Henrik and one of the sister training leaders take all the appointments for the day, and the other, Sister Saldanha (who I lived with in Campo Morão) and I spent the day finding people and new investigators. Basically we took the hard day, but it ended up being very rewarding. We talked with a TON of people and I learned lots. We passed by Carlos at night, but he was already sleeping.

The next day, Sister Henrik and I passed by Carlos again, and the first thing he said to us was this: I have a question about baptism, because I want ot be baptized. 

WWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MISSIONARY DREAM COME TURE!!!!!!!! These past couple weeks have been SUPER difficult- finding people to teach (good people) and bringing people to church. It´s been such a trial of faith. But this week, I decided to fast and pray for a miracle. Oh wow, the Senhor definetly answers prayers. But it´s not for me, it´s for the Lord´s kingdom. Carlos came to church yesterday.

AHHH! So much to say, yet I´m out of time!

Jsut know I love you! Invite the missionaries over for dinner. Give them referneces!! (even if they´re far away) Give them food. Give them love!

Love,

Sister Eliason

P.s. SPEAK WITH EVERYONE ABOUT THE GOSPLE! I invited our apartment neighbor Saturday night to come to church SUnday. HE came. MIRACLE!!!

 

the sister training leaders!

we went to the very top of our apartment complex at dawn and took pictures.

 

GOOOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!

Random things: 

-Tyler, if you open a pastelaria, I would be your best customer.

-Mom, the best line of your letter was this: Did you know that Preston calls school buses "Twinkies?"  His reasoning is that here in Utah the buses are yellow, with extremely white filling.

- I´m a super terrible friend. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ONE WEEK LATE TO MY BEST FRIEND MEGAN HENDRIX!!!!!! 20 years is a feat! WOOOOHOOOO!

- Feliz Anneversario para Elder Parker Ayer aqui em Brasil! I would have to admit, having my cousin so close to me is pretty awesome!

- Congrats to Chloe Anderson who gets set apart tonight to be a full-time missionary! 

- Tomorrow marks the day that I received my mission call! Also marks 6 months that I am in Brasil!!!

- HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!! Dad- you are the best father on the planet! Watch the world cup for me. 

- Gonna make cookies this week for an activity...

- I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday, and what do you know?! I had so much to say, I had to cut my talk short. 

- I don´t think in English- don´t even ask me to speak in English- it comes out about 1/2 and 1/2 and doesn´t make any sense.

- The other day, we talked with a young man on the street who told us that he wants to study and do an internship in the United States. However he didn´t know where, so he asked my opinion of where would be a good place to go. Of course I told him Utah! (hehe what he doesn´t know is that there he will meet a ton of members! and probably the missionaries....) :)

-Our district leader forgot our letters and Liahonas last week. Hopefully he´ll remember tomorrow and I´ll get letters from like 3 months ago...

Speaking of which, My district leader is from Highland Utah! His name is Elder Jewel (I don´t know his first name.) But family, that would be kind of cool if you knew his family. How big is Highland anyways? (Big enough for 3 stakes....) 

THE WORLD CUP.

Ok, let´s be honest. That´s all that anyone talks about here. And it´s a little bit annoying because it interferes with out proselyting time. And my companion is from Argentina, so naturally people are slow to like her. (There is a HUGE competition and bad feeling between Argentina and Brazil when talking about soccer.) 

So we stay in our apartment waiting for the game to end when Brasil plays. And our Mission president is SUPER good at not wasting time, so last time Brasil played, we did weekly planning... I wonder what we´ll do tomorrow.

This work is hard. We finally started finding new investigators (and one woman was super excited and felt the spirit. But when we passed by Saturday to confirm that we would pick her up Sunday, she told us that her husband doesn´t want her to go to our church, but that they would go the the Catholic church Sunday. Talk about a Slap in the Face! aggggggkjahgçiuaehgçiuha sometimes it´s super hard to let people use their agency! Or at least have patience with it. It´s difficult because we have no progressing investigators.

Good things:

We have the best members here!!! Our ward mission leader is AMAZING! We call him capitão (Captin) and he is always wanting to introduce us to everyone he meets. He gives us lots of food too. :) He is so animated about missionary work that he calls up the Elders in the surrounding cities to see if he can work with them, and also to see how thier investigators are.

The youth also are super pumped. I think every single youth has told us that he/she wants to serve a mission. Our ward missionaries consists of one couple and about 8 youth. It´s awesome.

I love you all and pray for you! This work is so true! READ THE SCRIPTURES! Did you know, people who leave the church do so because they first stop reading the Book of Mormon? Yep it´s true.

Love ya!

Sister Eliason

 

Sister Henrik and I!!!

Some of the members.

View from our apartment.

 

So this week...

Let´s play a quick game: the country that I´m in is more excited for the world cup than the country that you´re in. I WIN! haha ok, people here are SUPER excited!

But this week. Let me start with Monday. Sister Solis and I are both triaing, so we were shipped off to Londrina to pick up our new companions and recieve our new assignments. We got there at about 10 at night and ended up staying in one of the other sister´s house with about 12 sisters! AHHHH! (That´s a lot of sisters.) We ended up all sleeping on the ground (and it was FREEZING!) Anyways, the next day we went to orientation for traininers for about an hour then the newbees showed up.... and I´m training Sister Henrik! She´s from... (duh duh duh...) ARGENTINA! And guess who knows Nada in Spanish! ME! And she only knows the Portuguese that she learned in the MTC. So there´s a little of a communication gap, but it´s actually really interesting. WE get along totally fine. She has the ability to understand what I´m saying and I to her. (well most of the time... when it counts.) 

We opened a new area in the city of President Prudente. This city is famous in our mission for having lots of baptisms, so there´s a lot of pressure. One thing about the people here in São Paulo, is that their hearts are a lot more hard!!!! We get rejected a TON! In paraná, people were really open to hear us (a little bit lazy, but they at least liked us.) But here it´s really hard. The sisters before us left us 4 investigators to teach and baptize, but what do you know, when we got here, they cut us! (this means they decided to not listed to us and our messages anymore.) so this meant that we literally had nobody to teach. And what does Preach my Gospel say? "nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach." 

So this week we walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.

So we spent a lot of the week searching for new investigators. It´s been difficult. We finally found a couple really interested who promised to come to church... but when we clapped at their door sunday morning, nobody answered. So to my shame and embarrassment, we had no investigators at church. OUCH!!!!! 

Yeah, I kind of want to cry. It´s hard. Really hard. But I have faith that things will get better. I was thinking about my situation this morning. And I had a thought that I need to have patience. I need to do my best and trust in the Lord. 

I hope you are all doing well! HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! (I totally forgot because father´s day here is in October... I think.)

Um, well I´m out of time. Hope you are praying and reading your scriptures EVERY DAY. But really, that is what is important. 

Love,

Sister Eliason

MIRACLES AND TRANSFER

GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!

?!?!?!?!?!?!

1- had a baptism this week

2- I´m being transferred.

Ok- Miracle baptism!! Story: last Sunday, a woman stopped us on the street and asked when the church service was. We got a-talkin´and it turns out that shés less active and recently moved here to Sarandi. She told us that her 10 year old son likes church and was asking her if they could go. So what did we do? We marked a day to pass by her house and talk more. So Wednesday we went there and her 10 year old, Fellipe, just happened to stay home sick from school. We ended up setting a baptismal date for him! HE was super excited and when he prayed, he prayed that his baptism wouldn´t be delayed. WE passed by the next day, and his mother told us that the day that would work best for them (for the baptism) is Saturday. Yeah. Factors: Fellipe has been to church a couple of times with his Aunt and Uncle who live in the nearby city, Maringá, so all we had to do is get permission from our mission president and the Bishop. It was a little hectic, and definitely felt some pressure, but in the end, the Lord works miracles, and Fellipe was baptized. AHHHH!!! This family is so great! They love us! Every time we showed up at their front door, the kids come running and screaming, YAYYYY! SISTERS!!!  It´s wonderful.

But it´s also kind of sad because today is TRANSFERS!!!!! And you-know-who (not Voldemort) is getting Transferred!!! I have really grown to love Sarandi, and the members have grown to love us too. (funny side note, yesterday when we told people that someone would probably be leaving, 3 men cried. (Alcides, the grandfather of the ward, the ward mission leader, and the assistant ward mission leader.) At different times. I don´t think any woman cried.... 

Anyways, I´M TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´M FREAKING OUT!!! I STILL FEEL SO YOUNG IN THE MISSION! LIKE, I´M THE NEW ONE STILL!  I don´t even have 6 months in Brazil- sure, the language is getting better every day- I don´t really speak English anymore- but still... WHAT?! TRAINING!? ummm all I know is that I´m being transferred to somewhere in São Paulo. For all those who don´t know- São Paulo is like New York. There exists a city which is very different from the state. I´m going to the state part. SUPER NERVOUS, but so excited. One downer is that now I´m Senior companion and stuck with the cellphone. AGGG!! I really don´t like talking on the cellphone- and it´s difficult because it´s in Portuguese.  Also, because I´m being transferred AND training, this means that I will be opening a new area. Basically all on my own. Well not all on my own because I´ll have the Lord´s help.  

I just need to trust in Him and His will. I am learning so much! So much about trusting others and myself too. 

But, it will all be good. This work is so rewarding. Seeing people´s lives change for the better as we invite them to come unto Christ. Like this is the most important thing we can do in our lives- improve our relationship with Christ and Heavenly Father. I testify of this. 

I love you all! Hope all is well! Hope you all are enjoying the weather getting warmer there as it is getting colder here. 

Love,

Sister Eliason

Promise given to Noah

Why, may you ask, would I give a subject of an email "Promise given to Noah?"

Well.......... It is to remind myself that the rain will not cover the earth and will not last for more than 40 days, right? (well I hope not for more than 40 days...) Because this week was WET and COLD!!!!! I think the last time I was warm was Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Ok , first off, 

CONGRATULATIONS ELDER TANNER ELIASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN´T BELIEVE THAT MY VERY OWN BROTHER GOT HIS MISSION CALL TO URAGUAY!!!!!! That is actually really close to where the other Elder Eliason is! And I´m really close to him too. So it´s like this:

I´m on top. 

Elder Eliason is in the middle.

Elder Eliason is below. (Speaking Spanish...)

Oh, speaking of Spanish, please TANNER, please please please please work on your pronunciation!!!!! I remember how high school spanish was for you...

Ok this week. This week was pretty normal. but wet. Well, not normal normal, but normal for a missionary. It was hard. ok what happened:

-Our baptisms of 2 brothers fell through. (That stincks.) (Geez, my spelling is horrible- and it doesn´t help that spell check here is in Portuguese. and I´m too lazy to change it to english...)

- We had marked a baptismal date for a young man who is 15 years old. (remember the new rule that we can´t baptize any child under 16 years old unless we get special permission from the president.) well, Buno is really progressing. He´s going to church, all the activities, and even earlymorning seminary. (For someone who is not even a member, this is huge!!!) Ok, we we marked a baptismal date for this Saturday, but we visited him and his family this week. And guess what, we went there and his mom and his step-dad spent almost 45 minutes telling us what a bad child he is. Like they were seriously slamming on him and basically I´m so glad I don´t live there or I would have no self confidence. Parents, I cannot stress this enough: 

DO NOT EVER  START TELLING PEOPLE HOW BAD YOUR CHILD IS IN FRONT OF HIM/HER. Seriously, it was HORRIBLE!!!!!!! No child should ever have to endure this. I felt SO bad for him.

 And then we went there yesterday and the mother refused to sign the paper for him to be baptized. (His mother is really confusing because she loves us... but yet doesn´t like her son.) 

- The other sisters in the area had a baptism yesterday, and one of our investigators came. :) 

-I made cookies today. My companion made Mbeju (Paraguayn food) It´s really good. Really similar to the tapioca here. (also pretty good, except the time I threw it up....) 

Anyways....

I am learning so much. Little things in my personal study (i.e. this morning I learned that Moses never died, but that he was translated so that he could later appear in the Kirtland Temple.)

I´ve learned bigger things like how to have patience with myself (still working on this) and more of how the spirit works within us. How Satan tries to tempt us in our weaknesses but really that the church is PERFECT. (Members are not.) I´ve learned that our leaders are indeed inspired of God and that when we are exactly obeident, we will see miracles.  I feel like my testimony has grown tremendously and my will is more in line with the will of Heavenly Father. Of course I´m not perfect, but it´s all a process, right?

Hey I love all of you! Tanner, I am so thrilled for you! (I´ll see you in October of 2016 (ah! So far away!)) 

I testify that this church is true!!! It is the same church that Jesus Christ established!

Love ya!

Sister Eliason

 

 

Maio....

First off, HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!!!!!!! hope everyone is super excited for Family Home Evening tonight!!!! (but really... I think you should all start using/studying Preach my Gospel for FHE.)

Ok- this week we had a tons of good lessons and met a bunch of people really interested. They all were super excited about church and the Book of Mormon and everything, and when Sunday rolled around, almost nobody came! It´s really frustrating because I WANT to trust them, but I can´t. Yet again, I´m reminded to trust 100% in the Lord (but not in man.) 

Our difficulty this week was that all our possibilities for baptism are available to be taught after 6h30 at night- so we would spend our days finding and teaching, then once 6h30 hit, we used whatever energy is left to run all around our half of Sarandi teaching our possibilities the commandments. And then we ended up cutting 2 of them- (not progressing and going to church for the wrong reasons.) 

 

Thursday we had an activity at the church- integration night! It turned out really great! We had a bunch of member, new converts, and investigators too. Basically the bishop gave a short spiritual message, then we, the missionaries, took charge with the activities (which was a little stressful because as consequeces of a life of a missionary, you have ZERO extra time.) We had a couple of games, but the best one of all was this:

 

Everyone is sitting in a circle in chairs minus 2 people who are standing. They say something and if it applies to you, you have to move. (Like everyone wearing tennis shoes) But the 2 people left standing have to go to a table and dip their faces in water then dig for candy in a plate full of flour. Everyone loved it, and then at the end, we missionaries were pressured to do it too. (I´ll send photos.)

Friday we had interviews with President Genaro! He is really great and I know he is inspired and called of God.  He gives wonderful advice and I am constantly learning about obedience. Like I know that if I do as he says, I will be blessed and also, avoid lots of harmful situations. The same thing with our Heavenly Father and his commandments.  2 Néfi 2:41

Love you all!

Sister Eliason

P.S. We are sharing something with the members here called The 21 Day Promise- by Elder Robert E. Wells of the Seventy. Look it up and DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! POR FAVOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!