Back To Brasilandia Part 2

Monday-Normal Monday :) 

     Tuesday-I had a great personal study about the ascension of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. We had to work out an emergency transfer in the mission, and then we had an awesome days work which an especially great lesson about the Plan of Salvation with the family of Alex, which is a 30 year old man, his wife (who unfortunately isn't legally married) and there 6 kids, 4 of which can be baptized :) That night we did a division and I went to Brasilandia with Elder Burt my awesome pal!!! :) 

     Wednesday-Another great personal study in the Book of Mormon and especially some general conference talks. I studied grandpa's talk "What I want my son or grandson ;) to know before he goes on his mission.” I have read this talk so many times, but like your patriarchal blessing at different times in your life or mission different things stand out and are impactful on you. I honestly LOVE my study time in the morning! 

     We had lunch in Pirituba because shortly after we had district meeting and then a world wide broadcast to all of the missionaries in the entire world. The broadcast was called "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts," it was great! The broadcast was to refocus the missionaries of the world to remember their true purpose as missionaries as we read in Matthew 28:19-"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." 

     Great days work with Burt, great to be back in Brasilandia!!! :) 

     Thursday-We had an awesome hard day's work in the favelas of Brasilandia that I have so dearly missed. I showed Burt some of the great places that I had worked in while I was there. We also passed by a family of recent converts that I had lost contact with, that I had baptized in November of 2014 back with Medina. Happily they are 100% active and well and the young teenage boy is 100% firm on his decision to serve a mission here in a few years :) 

     BUT, the heat and strength of the sun took it's toll on me. Even with sunscreen, I got super sunburned, my sick was hurting a ton and I’m peeling, but it's all good haha :) 

     Friday-Today during my personal study it all hit me really hard. Standing out on the third story balcony of the Brasilandia house looking out at the view like I've done so many times in the past made me remember everything. Looking back on everything that has happened on my mission, from who I was when I got here to who I am now, a lot has changed and I don't have a ton of time left, just a few more months left leaves me uneasy. Being back in my first area was amazing, I absolutely loved it, it was such a great experience for me to remember and reflect on everything. Oh yeah and we also got our signature Brasilandia açai with all the fixings, it was absolutely delicious :)

     We ended the division and then hosted a soccer game at the church for all our recent converts and investigators! It is a great chance for them to become more integrated and to bring more of their friends for us to baptize, in this process, they become more converted in helping a friend get to know the Church and to get baptized :) great day! :) 

     Saturday-An awesome day following up with all of our investigators fro church the next day! We also used our little church invites with the candy again, huge success!!! :) 

Guilherme, Emylin, Alex, Wilton, Vitoria, Nataly, and Yazmin on their baptism day with Elder Hunt

     Sunday-We brought 13 people to church and had 7 baptisms! Guilherme, Emylin, Alex, Wilton (2 sons of Alex who we are teaching,) Vitoria, nataly, and yazmin!!! So great! awesome! 

     With still one more week in the month, the mission has 256 baptisms! Goodbye 309! This week should be an amazing one, I'm super excited!!! :) 

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Sete Cinco {7.5.}

Monday-We got pizza to celebrate Elder Flores' 22nd birthday!!!! 

     

At A Division in Itapevi

Tuesday-Early in the morning, Elder Flores and I headed off to Zona Barueri where I did a division with Elder Ellis in his area of Itapevi! Good day! Itapevi is a very interesting city with tons of hills, and it lightly sprinkled all day.

Wednesday-Today was also interesting. In the morning we met and had a meeting with the Stake President of Barueri. It was a good meeting, we talked a lot about how we could work better with members and improve on our side and theirs, it was a good productive discussion. Then we ate lunch with the Bishop of Itapevi and then we ended the division.

After, Elder Flores and I worked in our area like normal! 

Elder Ellis and Elder Hunt

Thursday-We found a ton of new investigators, and followed up with all the people who were going to church and who were going to get baptized! 

The dog's name is Flower

Friday-TODAY WAS AWESOME!!!! So If anyone remembers, back in Brasilandia with Elder Medina we did a game with a chocolate called BIS which involves opening a chocolate with 2 spoons and socks on your hands while a dice is being rolled, it’s super fun and everyone loves it! Well, we did it with two different groups of investigators and recent converts and it rocked! 100% success! 

But the coolest part of it all was our 9 year old recent convert Rodinei and his little friend 8 year old Rafael, who we baptized this week. These two little guys were some of the best missionaries I've ever seen. We asked them to take us to everyone they knew and they did! They talked to everyone in the street and invited everyone they saw in the street whether they knew them or not, to go to church and to get baptized! They are so awesome!! I love them! :)

We got gaxgazzo coxinhas

We even went up to a place called "Sete Cinco," which is a favella that I’ve been hearing about since I had arrived in the area in October, Sete Cinco. It is known as one of the most dangerous places in São Paulo because of the drug violence. It’s on the very top of the favela but I never knew how to get there. But these two little guys took us up there to meet people and the drug dealers were very impressed with these two little missionaries. The good thing about Brasil is that almost all people respect church stuff a lot, so usually we're fine, but I will say, if we'd gone up there without our 2 little body guards, I don’t know how it would have turned out. But in the end of the day we had found 30 new investigators and a family of GOLD. Today was absolutely amazing! I loved seeing the desire and eagerness to preach the gospel of these two little missionaries Rafael and Rodinei.  A truly awesome day, awesome experience!

An upside down selfie

 Saturday-We followed up with everyone who was going to get baptized and go to church the next day! We even made little reminders to help everyone remember to wake up on time to go to church!!! It was great! :) 

Rafael, Cleriston, Mauricio, and Andrea on their baptism day.

A family!!!!

Sunday-We had the amazing baptisms of Rafael, Cleriston, Mauricio, and Andrea!!!! :))))) Families! 

Some wonderful members who are my comps friends from his old ward

The mission baptized 80 this week and with two more weeks in the month, our goal of 360 is very probable!!! :) Let's GO!!!! 

Elder Hunt

Love, Serve, Elevate

Monday-Regular Monday stuff, numbers, meeting with President, lunch, and a bit of sleep.

Tuesday-Today we had to plan to do A TON of stuff for the week. We very rarely work in the office, but today was filled with power points, slide shows, numbers, and statistics.

Elder Hunt with new missionaries

That night all of the missionaries who have one transfer in the field and their trainers came to spend the night for the training the next day.

Wednesday-We split up into two groups with two APs in each group. Elder Da Silva and I took the group of new missionaries in the van to President's house and Elder Felix and Flores stayed in the office to train the trainers.

Great day! :) I gave training on resilience, which is much like determination. I used an audio clip of when Buster Douglas became the first man to knock out Mike Tyson, along with other scriptures and quotes such as- "Perseverance is demonstrated by those who keep going when the going gets tough, who don’t give up even when others say, “It can’t be done.”-James E. Faust. We also talked a lot about our "whys" of being on the mission, it was a very powerful training and the spirit was very strong, great, great day. 

Thursday-Today we had leadership counsel in Barueri, a good two hours by train and bus at 5am. We talked about a lot of new things and passed a ton of new information. It went well. 

That afternoon we returned to our area and we did a division with Elder Messick(my old comp) and Elder A Souza in our area because Elder Messick and other missionaries such as Elder Alvis ;) had to go to the police station the next day very early in the morning to renew their American visas. Awesome day! :)

Friday-WE found tons of new investigators today!!! We started working in another huge favela that we found close to where we were already working. We found tons of great people who The Lord has prepared to accept his message. The time is right, and the time is now! :) 

Elder Barros from Africa with Elder Hunt

Saturday-We did a division and stayed in our area with Elder Barros from Africa to do interviews! :) Another great day of hard work! 

Cynthia, Cristian, Rodini, and Anderson with Elder Hunt on their baptism day

Sunday-Today we had the baptism of brothers 19 year old Cristian and his little brother Rodini. Their mother just wasn’t baptized with them because it was that time of the month and she didn't want to get in the water. Also, Cynthia and Anderson were baptized! Cynthia is super elect! She lives close to the church and has changed so much in such a short time due to the miracle which is The Gospel Of Christ :) 

Happy Birthday Elder Flores!

Amazing day, and to make it better, it was also, Elder Flores' 22nd birthday!!! :) Tambien, estoy aprendiendo español con el, muy bien!!! :) 

The Assistants

A cool shot

This was a great week, the mission also did better with 63 baptisms in the week, but much more is yet to come! :) 

So Vai

A Beautiful Rainbow!

Monday- Our p day that is never p day- haha. Today was spent helping pack Elder Rebouças' and Da Silva's bags, meeting my new comp Elder Flores from Peru, and preparing everything for transfers on Tuesday.

Tuesday-5am up early for the oh so familiar route to get to President's house in Santo Amaro. The hectic, stressful, sweaty, nerve wracking two hours by bus and metro gets easier every time, with this being the third transfer. Welcoming the new missionaries, listening to their testimonies, and seeing their desire to start missionary life.  It’s always a special treat. 

The transfer meeting went well along with a special training we gave for the zone leaders. Successful transfer.

Sister Lindalva is the sweetest lady in our ward.  She loves the missionaries and is so good to us.

Wednesday-Elder Rebouças went home :( Very sad day for all of us, Elder Rebouças has made a huge impact on mission and my life, he is a very dear friend and our friendship will be maintained forever. Elder Flores, Da Silva, Felix, and I stayed in our area to do interviews and find new people to teach.  Today was a good productive day.

Thursday-Like you would imagine, New Years Eve in the favela is pretty wild, it's even more alive than usual. With this comes good and bad, haha. The work was a little tough due to the parties, drinking, and drug bust by 30 armed Brazilian drug unit cops. We made it happen, but the welcoming in of the New Year definitely took its toll on the Cemiterio do Horto favela in Cantareira. 

Friday-If you thought Thursday was tough; imagine the day after, the aftermath of New Years. Everyone was hung-over and sleeping in until 5pm in the afternoon. Only our elect investigators we were able to follow up with. 

Saturday- Very hectic day. I did a division in our area with Elder Barros from Capa Verde, Africa, he is super cool, I really like him a lot! We had tons of lessons and people to follow up with to go to church on Sunday! 

Elder Hunt with Emyli on her baptism day

Sunday- Emyli was baptized! Woohoo! Emyli is a cousin of our recent convert Andrezza! So cool! The best group of references are recent converts, they all feel the effect of the gospel in their lives and they want to share it with EVERYONE!!!! So great! 

This upcoming busy will be super busy with a training at President's house for the new missionaries along with leadership counsel on Thursday! Much is changing in São Paulo Norte!

Elder Hunt