He heard us and answered because of our faith in Him

July 27, 2015

This week the Lord blessed us a lot and we baptized 5 people.

 And also I’ve bought terere to remember Jackson, it’s actually really good if you put lemonade in it instead of water, so that’s what I’ve been doing and I feel like a true Brazilian, even though no one in Fortaleza drinks terere and most of the people don’t even know what it is, haha. 

So this week was lots of work but it paid off. Here in my new area we have a huuuggee ward, and we are also right next to the airport haha. But to get to some of the lunches we have to walk 50ish minutes and then to get back to the neighborhood where we work it’s 50 minutes again. It’s really big. Well at least it’s really big for me because I’m used to small areas, so we’re pretty poor these days because sometimes we have to use the bus because there’s just not enough time to walk, haha. 

So this week we started our week planning our goals and what we wanted to accomplish in the week, then we presented our goals to God and told him what we would like Him to do for us (which was prepare 3 people to be baptized next week). We then promised Him that we would do our part (our goals... lessons taught and new investigators found).. so as the week went on we couldn’t seem to manage to enter in anyone’s house to teach. Everyone was rejecting us, which is pretty rare because we are in Fortaleza and here everyone likes to hear "the word of God". So we had a goal to find 15 new investigators and it was Friday night and we had only found 4. We had promised God that we would find 15 so we continued searching diligently. About 8 o’clock on Friday night we contacted a lady that was friendly and told us we could go to her house to teach her family. When we arrived there was a family of 6, 5 of which were at least 8 years old and thus we found 5 new investigators in the last minutes of our day on Friday. Saturday came around and the same thing happened again only now we needed to find 6 new investigators in order to fulfill our promise to God and we had to interview someone for the other elders in our zone at the church at 6 o’clock and we still hadn’t found any new investigators, so we got back to the area about 7:20. We started to contact some people and look for our 6 new investigators. We found a couple that accepted us well and we taught them in about 20 minutes to have time to find other new investigators in order that we could keep our promise that we made to God. We finished the lesson which went very well and went to a man’s house that we had contacted earlier that week. We still needed 4 new investigators. When we got there, he invited us in right away. We started to small talk with him a little and then asked if his family wanted to sit down with us as well. He said no (of course), as almost all people do haha, so then we asked if we could invite them. We went over and invited everyone that was sitting inside the house watching tv and what naught. They told us to enter and sit down on the sofa. All of a sudden there were 8 people in the room sitting down to hear what we had to say! In the last minutes of Saturday night God helped us find the new investigators!

So then we started to wait for these 3 people that we had asked God to help us find that would be baptized the next week. We had been inviting everyone to be baptized in the next week but almost all of the new investigators (I think all but 1) were unmarried couples, so they would only be able to be baptized after getting married which usually takes 3-4 weeks. So after meeting all of our goals, we were confident that the Lord would bless us according to our promise.

Sunday morning came around, we had planned on visiting a couple that had been going to church for a while but never had accepted to be baptized. They always loved the missionaries though. We went to teach them and with confidence in the promise we had made with the Lord told them that they would be prepared to be baptized this week. They didn’t accept with certainty but they said they would prepare themselves praying to know if they should be baptized this week and that when they know they will follow.

And the third person that God prepared for us to baptize... one of the ladies that was baptized this week called us Sunday afternoon because she was having a lot of stomach pain and said she wouldn’t be able to go to church or her baptism on that day. Elder Vasquez looked at me for a second and said to her, all right I’ll call you back in 2 minutes. And when he hung up the phone the Bishop’s counselor came over to us and said what is it? By the way this member of the bishopric (é o CARA). Elder Vasquez told him that she was sick and couldn’t get up off the bed. This member said, no way, so let’s go get her and give her a blessing because she IS GOING TO BE BAPTIZED TODAY. So he went over and borrowed the keys to someone’s car and went with us to this investigator’s house. When we got there we said that she would be better and that today was her baptism. The confidence that she felt in us that she would be better and baptized made her get up and we told her about blessings and she said that she had already received one in the past. We blessed her that she would be better and would be able to be baptized and she got up and got ready and came with us to church.... so here’s the part where the 3rd person that the Lord was preparing for us comes in. As we were waiting outside for the investigator to get ready a lady passed by and said, Lei’s baptism is today isn’t it? And the member that was with us said, yes, do you want to go? Go get ready and we’ll wait here, and she said you’ll wait?? And the member said, of course! So we waited and she came to church with us, and she loved it. She came out of nowhere and the Lord made it possible that through this ride that we gave to the investigator going to her house and through the invitation to go to church with us from the member, we had one more person at church that God will prepare to be baptized. He heard our prayers and did His part because we did ours. We set goals that were difficult for us and acted with faith. We asked the Lord specifically what we wanted and he heard us and answered because of our faith that was in Him. It was a miracle that she was at church. God heard us and answered. 

So that’s about all I got time to write this week, I also had to give a talk for 30 minutes and was given the topic about an hour and a half before church, haha but it went well. Hope you guys have a good week!  Love you guys!

-Elder Udy

I've never eaten so much cake in my life

July 20, 2015

So this week was great. We had lots of things that happened and I don’t even know what all to write in this email because there’s not much time. So I’ll start with the baptisms that we had this week,  We baptized a mom and daughter. Next week is going to be the baptism of her other daughter that is 14 years old, but I’m being transferred to Zona Aldeota, and I’ll be Zone leader of the secretaries and the sisters, haha. It’s the down town super chique zone, so I’m pretty excited. My companion will be Élder Vasquez who was my zone leader the transfer before I came to Beira Rio. I’m really excited because he’s my good friend. So this week I saw a lot of progress in the woman we baptized as she progressed for baptism. She said that in the past she had never had much desire to go to church because the churches all teach things that contend against the others. She said that one time she said a prayer on her knees in her house asking God to show her which was the church that she should go to, but since that day, it’s been a long time, and she had pretty much given up. When we started to teach her we established her baptismal date and told her that God would prepare her for the 19th of July. We then told her that she needed to ask God if the church was true and if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. She asked just as we had invited her, but she hadn’t received an immediate answer. We continued promising her that God would prepare her to be baptized on the 19th and that she would know that the church is true. After she went to church for the first time last week, she said she liked it a lot and that she would continue going. She continued to say that she had never had the desire or feeling to go to church before, until she went to the Church of Jesus Christ. We shared Ether 4:11 with her and told her that she had received her answer. In the lessons with her, she accepted everything we taught her... She has a lot of faith. She was able to leave behind her addictions in that same moment to be able to be baptized and enter into God’s kingdom, and to help her daughters do the same. 

Also, this week was my birthday and I have never eaten so much cake in my life. You know how it is here with the people when it comes to eating, they always want you to eat more, haha. "M" (recent convert of 3 weeks) made me a 2 layer cake that I sent you in a picture, it was with that kind of frosting that you like, Mom. Then everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to me. They tried to make it a surprise but I already knew because none of them are very good at hiding anything haha. They are a great family.  

Also we went to "E" (another recent convert from January) and she had bought me a cake as well and they sang “Happy Birthday” to me Brazilian style and they had a candle in the cake that was impossible to blow out. I sent a picture of the cake. 

Things here are going great. I’m really excited to get to know more people in what will probably be my last area. Élder Vasquez goes home after this transfer so I’ll be his last companion! Again! haha but he’s a great missionary and I’m sure he’s got lots of energy still. So anyways, I don’t have much time because the emails on transfer days are always busyyy, but I hope you guys continue having a great vacation. Have a good week! and enjoy vacation! Tell Grandma and Grandpa (Bitter and Udy) I said hi and I love them. Hope Cole enjoys working on the good ol ranch haha. Have a good week!!! Até depois!

-Élder Udy 

The Lord is blessing us

I have little time to write today because I had to do a survey about the mission. 

So this week was really good. Sounds like for you guys it was too. It must be fun to go on vacation, here we don’t do much vacationing, however, sometimes we get to ride on the bus to go on splits and to some district meetings, haha. 

So this week we had 2 baptisms here in the ward. I’ll send you the pictures. One was a lady, that we baptized that is 30 years old, she is the sister of one of those kids that received the priesthood the other week, and the other was a 15 year old girl, who is another recent convert’s sister. 

So I’m 98 percent sure that my camera was robbed the other day when I was on the bus and it was in my bag and the zipper was open. So now I’m just asking everyone to send me their pictures. The camera was good while it lasted, but I’ll still be able to send pictures, so it will all be fine. So this week for my birthday everyone’s inviting us over, haha. All of the recent converts and investigators. So I’m sure it’ll be nice. It’s good to have you birthday in an area where you’ve been for 4 months instead of an area where you’ve only been there for a week like last year. So I’m sure I’ll have some pictures to send this week. 

So these days Elder Menezes and I have been challenging everyone who doesn’t have a marriage problem (meaning those who aren't living together without being married) to be baptized in 2 Sundays. We teach people about how God loves us and about how his gospel was restored and how important it is that they are baptized, and how blessed they will be. What really makes the difference is when we testify sincerely that the gospel is true and really was restored, and that they really will be blessed if they are baptized and keep their covenants with God. We are also singing hymns in every lesson to bring the Spirit. It really is the Spirit that converts people, not time or any other method. We leave our house set to return to our house at night with at least one new baptismal date. I only have 3 minutes, but this week we found a family, mom and 2 daughters, that was extremely prepared and open to hear us. The mom and daughter went to church Sunday and will be baptized this coming Sunday. The Lord is blessing us a lot and increasing our faith. 

I hope you guys have a good week!! Love you guys and have a good vacation! 

Élder Udy

When it rains here, no one wants to leave their house

July 6, 2015

So I received the email from the secretary today asking me which airport I’m going to return to #Trunky So I told him Pittsburgh International, but I just wanted to make sure with you that it’s right. And as for the debit card, I think it would just be easier to withdraw some money I have now on my card and you can just keep the other card until I get back home because I don’t think I can activate it here, although maybe I can, but every time a Brazilian looks at that debit card I have, they ask all kinds of questions and immediately lose confidence that my American debit card will work on the Brazilian credit card readers. But if you think it’s better to do it another way, let me know. 

So sounds like things were pretty busy this week. I still think the old high adventures were better. I remember when we went on the canoe high adventure, Joel and I would sneak up on ducks in our canoe and try and shoot them with the bow and arrow we had. Now the kids just eat funnel cakes and play on the merry-go-round for high adventure, haha. But I’m sure it was fun at Cedar Point and playing laser tag as well. Hopefully vacation’s fun. What all are you guys going to do again? Hopefully Bandit manages to survive this time haha. He must have really gotten old while I’ve been gone.

This week things went great. I sent a picture of the baptism of M, J, and D. It was quite the preparation, but it ended up going well. 

Sunday morning when there’s rain in Pennsylvania it’s just another rainy day. However, Sunday morning when there’s rain here no one wants to leave their house because no one seems to own an umbrella, haha. But there were still quite a few investigators at church including "Ja" who is going to be baptized this week. She is one of our recent convert's older sister. The first time we went to teach her brother and friend, she just pulled up a chair and started listening as well. Last week we challenged her to be baptized and she accepted. She’s already been to watch 2 baptisms and goes to church every week and is excited to be baptized this week. 

Here things are going great. The Lord is blessing us a lot and helping us find people to baptize every week. We found a woman this week who is a single mom with 3 daughters 8, 6, and 4. She was working every Sunday selling fruit downtown, but when we taught her she said that she felt so good and loved everything we said. We challenged her to change her work so that she could be baptized, and she talked with her boss and she said this Sunday she has to work, but after this Sunday she won’t have to. She said her daughter was asking her the other day why we hadn’t passed by yet because we had passed by the 2 days before and her daughter wanted to talk to us again haha. So we’re going to prepare the mom and her daughter to be baptized on the 19th. 

This week I was pondering about how we can strengthen our testimony to be able to touch others and I started to think about the spiritual experiences I’ve had in the past. I learned that when we ponder on the sacred experiences we’ve had in the past, we can be touched with that same spirit that we felt in the past, and in the same way that the experience strengthened us in the past, it can strengthen our testimony again and again. 

That’s about all I got for this week, but I hope you guys have a good vacation! Nothin’ like the good ol 3 week vacations that always interrupted summer basketball, haha. Love you guys, have a good week! 

Elder Udy

I have more certainty than I've ever had that God lives and answers all our prayers

June 29, 2015

Sounds like life’s good at home. I can’t believe Cole got such a good deal! Who was it that interviewed him?? I knew there were better jobs in life than working at Oakview for minimum wage, however Cole will be folding clothes instead of doing man’s work. I’m sure he´ll like it there. It’ll be nice to buy clothes from him at the Nike outlet, haha. Is Cole excited to be moving? Probably not.. but he´ll be going on his mission soon and off to college anyway. Sounds like Jackson and May are enjoying the married life and finding fun things to do in Utah. I still want to know if Jackson’s going to sell his car to me when I get home :) I liked the picture of Ben’s daughter in the Mustang too, haha. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a little blonde girl like her haha. Hopefully you get better from you black eye, Mom. I was remembering the other day when I hit Cole in the eye with that stick and he went to school, I think it was the first day of school, with a black eye haha. 

So this week was really great. Israel and his less active friend that’s been going to church with him for 6 weeks  received the priesthood, and I had the opportunity to give the priesthood to Israel which was cool because I’ve never done that before. This week they’re going to get some church clothes so he will be able to pass the sacrament next week. It’s great to see the progress of the recent converts. Also, this last week we decided to have a fast on Tuesday to find some golden investigators. So we started looking and talking to everyone and after teaching one lady who just about punched us when we told he about the first vision, we found a 19 year old guy that was sitting on his door step reading the Bible. We went over to him and started talking to him about what he was reading. He said he wanted to read because he worries about his salvation, and then we started to teach him about salvation. We soon entered and discovered that in his house lives a family of 6 people. After teaching them for one week, 3 of them went to church this week, J (19 years old), M (23 years old) and D (13 years old) and they’re getting ready to be baptized this Sunday. D was really ready to be taught. Before we even taught him his Mom told us how D had told her that he wants to be baptized, before we even taught him! We hope to see the whole family at church this week and to start working on the parent’s marriage so they can be baptized as well. 

So to help them feel welcome in the ward we organized with all the organizations (Elders Quorum, Relief Society, and YM) to pass by their house this week to visit them/ invite them to mutual or what not. All the members were excited to help and to see the ward grow.

... Satan really is the father of lies as it says in 2 Nephi 2:18. He makes people, especially youth, believe in various theories about the existence of God and the truthfulness of the church. I´ve already seen multiple friends of mine from BYU fall away from the church because of doubts that turn into barriers for their spiritual growth, and I remember a talk that Jeffery R Holland gave https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/lord-i-believe?lang=eng, I think its called "Lord I Believe" when he says that we should always recognize what we already do know to help us discover what we don’t know yet. He says leading with our unbelief is like stuffing a turkey through the beak, haha. Everyone has doubts and everyone falls down every once in a while, but this must be one of the reasons that we have families in this life. To help us get back up and reach exaltation. This week on my mission I have more certainty than I have ever had that God lives and hears all of our prayers and that the Atonement is very real. I saw it this week change a family in 5 days from breaking all kinds of commandments to being ready to be baptized. No normal worldly influence could have made them change if not the Spirit made possible through the Atonement. I feel the power of God as I study and teach. It is all so real to me this week. Satan wants to trick everyone, but we have our families to help us. 

Well I don’t have much more time, but I hope you guys have a good week. Don’t forget to buy pizza for the missionaries :) haha Love you guys and hope your eye gets better!

-Élder Udy   

Crazy how small the world can be

June 22, 2015

Companions

Cole finally got a smart phone! Its about time, haha. Even here in Brazil where phones are about 6 times more expensive, everyone has smart phones, haha. Sounds like Dad’s really living the life there without a job, haha, it’s like a mini retirement, so has it been decided where he’s going to work?? Is it going to be in Washington for sure?? The Cavs lost??? Everyone here was telling me they won?? But then again no one in Brazil even watches the NBA haha at least not here in the north western part of Brazil. I met a guy this week who is less active, he is 19, who plays like semi professional travel basketball here.. I don’t really understand the system, but he travels all over the state, and we were going to plan at church to play today during our p-day... however he didn’t go to church  -_- so the plans didn’t go too well, haha. But one of these days it’ll work out. I can’t believe the Cabin has a toilet now! Chique! I miss the good ol cabin. I feel like I haven’t been there for 5 years. 

This week we had our mission Leadership Council which is always quite the experience. We talked more about following up and after the council this Sunday I was seeing how these things that we learn on the mission apply in all parts of life. While we were at leadership council we talked about faith and miracles. Then while we were talking, someone entered into the church and Sister Bonini and one of the Assistants went to talk to him as we continued the training in the chapel. When they came back they told us what happened. A man was there and he said that he had always wanted to enter into this church, but it was always closed so he never entered. He lived on the other side of the road. They then told him about how the church was the restored church of Jesus Christ and about how his family should be baptized and he said he would come back on Sunday, and they invited him to be baptized in 3 weeks and he accepted and said he'll bring his whole family! 

Also, this week we learned about teaching by the Spirit. In D&C 42:14 it says that if we don’t receive the Spirit we "shall not teach" and many times many members and missionaries think this means that we aren’t allowed to teach if we aren’t feeling the Spirit. However, that’s not what it’s saying. It’s saying that we don’t have the capacity to teach the gospel without the Spirit. We preach the gospel, but never teach. The spirit teaches. So if we don’t have the Spirit the person WON’T be taught. It’s the Spirit that changes the person. So our most important role as instructors isn’t to perfectly explain apostasy and the components of the church, but our most important role is to make sure the person being taught feels the Spirit and is moved by the Spirit. 

Also this week was Israel’s baptism. I’ll send a picture to you guys.

You don’t need to send a package for my birthday, but I'll accept presents in October :) haha Have a good week. Love you guys.

--Elder Udy

P.S. I forgot to say that this week I was waiting at a bus stop to get on the bus during splits and there was a guy that looked at me and said, “Elder Udy, I met an Elder Udy in my mission.  I think he’s your brother!”  His name on the mission, I think, was Elder Martins and he’s been home for only 3 months.  I think he lived with Jackson when Jackson was ending his mission, and Elder Martins was just starting.  Pretty crazy how small the world can be.

Faith can bring power from heaven

June 15, 2015

So sounds like your week was pretty exciting. Is there anyone in the family that’s not married yet?? haha Seems like everyone’s getting married while I’ve been on the mission. That’s exciting that most of the family was able to go to Heather’s wedding. I miss being in the temple. I’m sure it was great for everyone to be there together.

Here our week was great. We’re planning Israel’s baptism for next week and finding lots of people to teach. Here in Fortaleza the people are very receptive.  Here you can talk to anyone in the street and they’ll be happy to have you visit them in their house and talk about "the Word of God.” My new companion Elder Menezes is great. He´s really dedicated. He’s from São Paulo and arrived from the CTM into the mission with me. He’s really excited to do everything he can to help the zone baptize more. This week we’re planning on having 10 baptism in the zone. 7 of the 9 companionships will have baptisms! 

This week I read a talk called "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" by Elder Gene R. Cook of the Seventy. www.lds.org/new-era/1982/10/faith-in-the-lord-jesus-christ?lang=eng It's kind of old. I think he gave it in the 80s but it changed my attitude about what faith really is and how it works. How faith can bring power from heaven into our lives and those of the people around us to help us pursue our righteous desires. 

So I don’t have much time, but I’ll write more about how this talk made a difference in my mission next week. But, I hope you guys have a good week and that Cole has a good birthday! Sounds like he’s been enjoying his time with Dad and his friends.  I hope you guys have a good week. Love you guys! I'll send a picture of me and Elder Menezes. Boa Semana!!!

-Élder Udy