We had our mission conference

Nov. 17, 2014

     Oi... So this week was transfers... but all 4 of us are staying here in Guadalajara! So now I’m in my 4th transfer here... however there will be a lot of missionaries leaving the mission on the 15th of December so there will be basically.. an expected emergency transfer... so we’ll see what happens. I can’t believe Slippery Rock lost to Hickory! Seems like they can never manage to make it to state playoffs.. however basketball will be starting soon... maybe the basketball team will have success this year :) 

     So this week we had our mission conference with half the mission. Since our new mission president changed some rules in the mission (like district meeting with only your own district and not being able to watch Disney movies on p-day), of course there’s some missionaries and members who say that there are an extreme amount of rules, and they’re not big fans. However, during the conference President Bonini talked to us and expressed his feelings to us about how we are here to please the Lord... and not members, missionaries or anyone else. I felt grateful to know that my mission president isn’t worried about pleasing men, but is devoted in his calling to serve the Lord. Do what the Lord wants him to do. He inspires us to always do what will please the Lord instead of what will please others... because a lot of the time... most of the time.. desires of men aren’t the desires of the Lord. He cited some parts of the general conference talk "Which Way do you Face" and explained how we are here to please the Lord and to do his will.

     Unfortunately this week’s baptism was postponed, but this Saturday will be the baptism and hopefully the weeks that follow as well. We hope to baptize in all the coming weeks... and especially Christmas week. This week we were able to meet and teach lots of new families.. and parents that are already married! I was reading a talk from President Monson, I think, last week where he talked about a general authority that went to some mission, I don’t know which... and interviewed some of the missionaries. One of the missionaries he interviewed had great success on the mission, and the general authority asked him "I suppose most of the people you’ve baptized here have come from references from the members." .... and the missionary responded... "Actually everyone me and my companion baptized we found while we knocked doors"... so the general authority asked him "What did you do different then the other missionaries to have so much success" ... the missionary responded "Every person I met in every door I tried to baptize. Even if they were smoking or drinking, I imagined the blessings they could receive from being baptized and entering in the temple." He went on to say "When I looked at people this way, I could bare a powerful testimony of the gospel and how it would bless their life" ..He was optimistic, diligent and bore powerful testimony.

     These are 3 things that we applied this week and saw a difference in our results... when appointments fell through, we would knock on the door of the neighbor.. and if that one fell through, we went to the other neighbor knowing that some family would accept. President Monson taught in the same talk that we have a "Responsibility" to see our family and friends as they can become. I am discovering that is a key for missionaries and members in helping the Lord bring others to his true church. If we see those around us in the way they can become and think about the blessings they can receive, blessings of eternal life and exaltation, we will have an increased desire to help them, even when they don’t seem to have much desire to help themselves. However, sooner or later, we will find someone that will want that help, and we will be blessed for our diligent service. 

     I’ll send some pictures from the last week. Hope everything’s good back in good ol PA. Hope Cole is excited to drive soon! Have a good week.. thx for the email :) Love you guys. 

--Elder Udy

We had a service project on my 1 year anniversary

November 10, 2014

Oi, tudo bem?? This week we had a service project on my 1 year anniversary that was pretty wild. Elder Hodge had the idea of helping one of the recent converts clean up her back yard... so Thursday morning we went over to help her. His idea was to clean up all the weeds and leaves. There were... a lot... and make a big pile in the back of the back yard.. and burn them all... the only problem is that we are in the middle of a city... it’s not like good ol' Slippery Rock where you can burn whatever you want and no one will mind. So we started to burn the weeds on the command of the member that was helping us... and we found out that all the neighbors in the area are old and already have trouble breathing... just imagine when the smoke started to enter into their back yards. So the project didn’t really go as well as planned...

 but on the bright side, we did end up cleaning the back yard up alot... and she has a coconut tree... I think I drank 5 coconuts. 

So that night we went to Cezar’s house to burn a shirt and Elder Imperador will have 6 months soon so he decided to burn a tie with me... I designed all my companions on the back of the shirt... I almost decided to keep it because I liked it so much. Of course we had to drink Coke as well.. Here in Brazil (Fortaleza) everyone has a weird obsession with Coke. It’s like the grass water (from Cuiabá) of the north east. Everyone loves it. I’ll send some pictures of the shirt.

I always new Brandon Davies was an animal! Everyone always talked about how they didn’t like him, but now he’s starting in the NBA, haha. Sounds like the young men had a good activity... it’s always good when the branch president or bishop is present. Here our bishop has the problem that he has no time... so he’s almost never able to be present in anything except interviews and church. It makes a huge difference for the members when the bishop is present because they feel his love and concern for them. 

So the two brothers didn’t get baptized yet.. hopefully this week. We just have to prepare them a little more for the baptism. Next P-day I’ll know if I’m being transferred or not... it’s pretty likely that I will be because I’ve been with Elder Imperador 2 transfers already and in area 3, but you never know haha. I don’t have much time but I’ll send some pictures of this week. Have a good week. Love you guys. I’ll try to send more next week.

-Élder Udy

P.S. Thanks for the addresses and other stuff... o and for future reference, the secretary of the mission said that sometimes Brazil is taxing up to 600 reais ($200) if they discover something expensive is in the package that isn’t written on the label.. so he said not to send things that are very expensive... thanks for everything, have a good week!!

Don't drink the water!

Nov. 3, 2014

     Mom, sounds like Halloween was fun... someone’s got to keep up all the traditions haha.... 6 pumpkins all by yourself. Here we have Halloween, kind of. Its called Day of the Witches... but no one dresses up or does anything cool like Trick or Treat... it’s just another hallow day they have here in Brazil.... they have a lot here haha. I can’t believe I’ve been here for a year already! I’m going to celebrate on the 6th with our district and some of the members... I’ll take pictures and send them to you guys in the next week.

     So we bought a Christmas tree last week...

I never thought I’d see a Christmas tree so beautiful in a missionary’s house. I still remember that little tree.. like 6 inches tall.. that the Elders had in Slippery Rock one year for Christmas haha...  

          I feel your pain with the sickness.. I got sick this week too, but I’m better now... here in the mission we usually don’t go to the doctor though unless we’re on the verge of death... all the members think the missionaries are crazy, but its worked until now. This week one day we decided to visit one of our bishop’s counselors one day. So when we got to his house, naturally he asked us if we wanted a cup of water... and naturally as missionaries we accepted. The only problem is that these members drink the tap water, and Elder Imperador didn’t know when he accepted... we were both really thirsty. So the member brought out 2 litters of refrigerated tap water. You know what they say about the water in Brazil... but I didn’t really care.. I figured after a year I’d become used to the water and could drink it without worrying... so i drank about 1 liter of the water... and for the next 5 days I came to the conclusion that Americans weren’t built to drink the water in Brazil... Brazilian missionaries don’t even drink the water! haha just the members here.. but Brazilian missionaries no. But I wasn’t too sick and got better fast. I wanted to drink a lot in the members house because we didn’t have water in our house... the place where we always ask for water ran out... sometimes we have to boil water and refrigerate it to have water to drink haha.... water’s pretty rough in this area.

     So last week we found a less active mom with 3 kids... I don’t remember if I wrote about them or not... but the 2 older ones are 11 and 14... and are going to get baptized.... this week while we were in church in fast and testimony meeting the younger one wanted to bear his testimony.. so he opened up to a scripture I had showed him about baptism in 3 Nephi 11:33 that says he who is baptized will inherit the kingdom of God... and he went up and shared the scripture with the ward and talked about the baptism haha, These two brothers have been going to all the activities.. mutual, seminary, Sunday meeting, morning and night.. once I asked him what he wants to do when he gets older and he said he wants to be a missionary like us haha. So anyways that’s about all I got for this week.... by the way.. next time you order a pizza be grateful that it makes it to your house every time because here we order a pizza and they say it’ll take 30 minutes and after an hour we call them asking about our pizza and they say it’s already left and when it finally gets to our apartment at 11, after 2 hours of waiting, we’re already asleep haha... who knew it would be so hard just to order pizza. 

     So anyways hope you guys have a good week. Hopefully you’re feeling better. Don’t forget to celebrate on Thursday for my 1 year mark #tranqueza love you guys! Have a good week.  Tenha uma boa semana! 

-Elder Udy

Baptism and lots of pictures...beware of the poisonous one!

October 27, 2014

Our district last transfer

          I sent some pictures... it’s been a while, I can’t even remember which ones I’ve already sent, and which ones I still need to send. But anyways sounds like Jackson’s getting his life figured out. Sounds exciting to travel across the world with your family... if I was him I’d do it. I can’t believe Marshall broke his collar bone! Thats crazy... like we almost aren’t even allowed to leave our house on P-day haha. But that’s good that he won’t have to go home early. 

          So this week was A’s (51) baptism. We’ve been teaching him for several weeks now. We first found him when he was standing outside of his house with his mom (84) and we asked to talk to him a little and asked if we could share our message with them and he accepted. Soon we discovered that he had a problem with drinking. We taught him for about 3 weeks, but we didn’t teach very well. He didn’t understand it all, but he was accepting to be baptized, so we figured everything would go well. So when the day came for the interview for his baptism, he decided he wanted to wait one more week because he wasn’t feeling prepared mentally. Consequently, that next day he went back to drinking.   We almost gave up, but he told us "I have faith in Jesus Christ that I’ll stop" .... so we decided to teach him again... but teach him for real this time. Step by step. Teach him the Gospel. Teaching repentance and what it means to have a broken heart and contrite spirit. Teaching about the plan of salvation and how Jesus atoned for our sins. Teaching about how we will have to be clean to live with our Father in Heaven one day. And he started to feel a change in his desires... ONLY once he started to understand the gospel. Since we started teaching him this way, instead of focusing mainly on the part about baptism, its been about 3 weeks. He said he’s lost his desire to drink and he knows he’s on the right path, I know this because he says it every time we see him. He can’t read... and he can harldy walk, but he’s received a testimony that this is the only true church and that he’s doing exactly what his Father in Heaven desires. I’ve learned a lot while teaching him, about the process of conversion. A lot of the time we sin because we don’t understand the price of sin. We don’t understand what’s at stake, or we haven’t received a testimony that our Father in Heaven loves us and wants to live with us again. As we learn about the gospel, feel the spirit bearing witness of it, and therefore gain a testimony of it, we start to lose our desire to sin. Maybe the temptations won’t leave all together, but the desire will. 

Baptism day

        This week I also gave a talk. Everyone liked it... Elder Imperador likes to listen to Jeffery R. Holland’s talk in English from 2 years ago.. when he talked about the first and great commandment... so as a result I’ve basically memorized that talk. And most of my talk I was quoting Elder Holland’s talk, just translating it into portuguese... cuz I have it all memorized.. it went pretty good. It’s the first time I’ve given a talk since my first area.  (Below is Elder Holland's talk from October 2012, "The First and Great Commandment")

       

          So I don’t have much time today, but sounds like things are good back home. We’re getting pretty excited for Christmas. We are going to buy a tree today. I think it’s pretty expensive, but Elder Wilhelm’s dad is a doctor so maybe he´ll cough up some money.... but it’s pretty rough because he’s about as slow to open up his wallet as Rand is. But anyways.. hope you guys have a good week. Thanks for the package that's coming :) and I got a belt from a member in the ward that’ll last me until the end of the mission. Thanks for everything. Have a good week :)

-Elder Udy

Giant bug found in our apartment

Scorpion in our apartment

Another scorpion in our apartment

Service Project...rewiring a house

Our zone 

We are pretty excited for Christmas

       October 20, 2014

     

       Oi... I can't believe that guy is running across the US and he stopped at our house haha that’s pretty wild. Imagine running across the US... and I thought it was a lot running to Giant Eagle and back. I can't believe you found the Doctrine of Salvation books! They pretty much don't exist in Brazil haha.              
       So this week I got the letter you sent me. I really liked Uncle Kevin's mission journal entries. I still can't believe the one about them getting robbed while they were sleeping. And that the robber stole their car haha. I decided to write more detailed journal entries and specific experiences rather than just about the day. 

        So here we are pretty excited for Christmas... we were talking about decorating the house with lights and a tree and everything already... but seeing as Christmas will happen in the next transfer.... I don't even know if I'll be here haha so maybe we'll wait to find out. O and by the way that was me using my debit card... I bought a hammock and a basketball and maybe something else I can't remember... but the hammock's pretty nice... these days I sleep in the hammock every night. Our house is really hot because we don't have windows... so the other night it was like 90 degrees in the other bedroom where Elder Wilhelm and Elder Hodge sleep so they decided to sleep in our room now because there's a little tiny window where some wind enters sometimes at night and its about 10 degrees cooler. So now the 4 of us sleep in the same room. Me and Elder Imperador in hammocks and the others in the beds. 

       So this week was pretty good. We met a family that was inactive for awhile. The mom of the family told her son that when he sees the missionaries walking in the road that he needs to tell them to visit because she wants to go to church. So the other day this kid comes up to us in the road and says hey elders my mom wants to talk to you because she wants to be mormon. haha so we tried to enter in the apartment complex all week but the telephone in her house is broken and the guard in the front never lets us in unless she authorizes it. So after trying everyday all week and being a little discouraged... the kid found us in the road again and told us he set up an appointment with the guard at 5 o'clock and that we wouldn't have anymore problems entering in the apartment. So finally when we got to talk to the family, the mom asked us for a Book of Mormon and told us how she had worked in the primary and how she was feeling bad that she wasn't going to church and she wanted to return... soon after her son went to church and asked me when he could be baptized and I told him... in about 2 weeks... and he asked if it couldn't be sooner! haha

So that's about all I got for this week. Hope everything's going good at home. Have a good week. Love you guys!

-Élder Udy

I'll be teaching every week...

October 13, 2014

       Heyyyy mom... sounds like Slippery Rock High School football has come a long way in just a few years from being the worst team in school history to 42 in the state. Sounds like everyone's enjoying themselves back home. I heard about that movie “Meet the Mormons” but I didn’t know it was playing in all the theaters across the US... I’ll add it to my list of things to do after the mission haha. Ask Dad if we have the book at home Doctrines of Salvation by Joseph Fielding Smith... I thought maybe he’d have it since he’s always buying new books.  Or maybe Grandpa has it... Udy or Bitter... there’s 3 volumes.. and we have one here... but it’s pretty much impossible to find because it’s old and they aren’t printed anymore. So ask Dad if we have it :) its a good book. If you can find it on the internet or in the house you should send them to me :)

       So this week was good. I don’t know if I told you guys or not but President Bonini changed our district meetings. We used to meet with everyone in the zone (24 missionaries) every Wednesday morning, but now all the districts in the mission will meet separate in their own church buildings. Which means now I’ll be teaching every week haha. It’ll be good to have the meeting more focused on the difficulties of our district and our investigators... Also we could watch Disney movies before but that was done away with as well haha... maybe now I’ll finally be able to convince the Brazilians to play basketball with me because there won’t be anything else to do haha. 

       So Christmas is arriving... we’ve been singing Christmas hymns every morning since August. Now its only 2 months away! Maybe you don’t have the best yard on the street (grubs)... but you can still have the most Christmas lights of the neighborhood! I always wanted to set up millions of Christmas lights.. or maybe I didn’t really want to do it that bad because I never ended up actually doing it.. but it would make for a good picture for Christmas this year :) I’m sure Cole would like to do it. 

       So right outside our house there’s a bird’s nest. And while we were studying this morning a baby bird fell out of the nest right in front of our door. I think the mom pushed it so it could learn how to fly, but anyways it waited there for a few seconds and then entered our house and started to fly around.... and Elder Wilhelm tried hitting it with a broom, and it got scared and hid behind our washing machine... I remembered those birds that always entered in the garage and flew around and would never leave (hummingbirds). But eventually elder Hodge grabbed it in his hand and left it outside. 

       So here in the ward things are pretty much the same. We have some baptisms that fell through these days, but that’s how it goes sometimes here on the mission. I’ll send you guys some pictures of the happenings these days. Hope everything’s going good. Sounds like Jackson’s getting lots of job opportunities... good thing he didn’t study economics ;) have a good week! Love you guys.

Elder Udy

Everyone here liked the talk by Elder Klebingat

October 6, 2014

Hey...Hope everything’s going well in good ‘ol Slippery Rock... sounds like Cole is doing good in school.... I know he’s not that smart, but at least he can manage getting an A in some of the elective classes ;) hopefully he will be able to get into BYU... I heard that Taysom Hill broke his leg the other day... one of the other missionaries that serves in the other ward in our church was all sad one day because he likes BYU football so much haha. I was hoping he’d win the hysman (I’m pretty sure I spelled that wrong, but I cant remember how to spell very well anymore.) 

So in the package can you send a BYU shirt for my companion...and more mix to make maple syrup... and more deodorant sticks :) I gave some away so now I’m running out. So this week it turned out that J didn’t end up getting baptized... actually none of the people we were preparing ended up getting baptized. But in the weeks that come we’ll work things out. So tomorrow is transfers but we get the email on p-day... I’ll be staying here in Guadalajara with Elder Imperador which is good cuz you never know what you’re going to get when a new companion shows up haha. It always makes you nervous... so I’ll try to look for a good leather belt... my other one was spent, but Elder Imperador gave me one that should last at least 3 or 4 weeks... it’s the same as those ones from the US, but I’ll look for a good one. 

So this past week one day we were walking down the street and we saw in the distance a big truck filled with furniture and bags. Then we saw a white guy leave the van dressed in a white shirt and tie... I was kinda confused because you never see other missionaries in your area so I thought it must be a pastor... but turns out our zone leaders were helping someone move into our ward and they asked us for help when we got closer and we ended up helping them move all their furniture into the apartment on the 4th floor! haha so we helped from 4 until 9. 

So this week at conference everyone here liked the talk by elder Jorg alsjkdgjkal (Klebingat) .... I don’t remember his last name... but he talked about 6 points that will protect us. I really liked as well the talk from President Eyring about revelation. And as well the talk... I think it was the second talk from the first session on Saturday, that talked about how we can’t lower the standard of the Lord to please the members of the church.. he said it’s apostasty... he was lifting his hands up and down as an example... he’s one of the 70 I think. I also really like the image of Presidente Monson giving all he had to help those who were in need.. as always Elder Holland’s talk was good too... As we learn more about the prophets life, we learn more about how we can serve others better and be true disciples of Jesus Christ.  (To read or watch the talks referred to here, go to this web address   https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/10?cid=HPSU100514465&lang=eng

So I hope Dad and Cole are doing good. Tell them I said hi... This is about all I got for this week. Hope everything goes well at home, and Cole doesn’t get too full of himself haha. Have a good week. Love you guys. 

-Élder Udy