Routine

       So weeks seem to pass very much the same and also very different.  Every week on the mission you basically do the same stuff.  But every week every day is completely different because you are teaching different people. You are doing things different in such a way that the days are never boring (always tiring but never boring); but at the same time very similar, and time seems to pass by rather quickly.  It's beginning to be very difficult for me to count the weeks that I have been on the mission. Only the months are countable now and they are becoming rather numerous as well.  I think it is going well.

      We had a really cool thing happen in the Branch this week. Saturday afternoon Elder De Oliveira and I were stopped by a random car and asked where the chapel was in Votuporanga.  We explained its location and after a minute or two more of conversation the man drove off.  The next day the man showed up at church with his entire extended family. He explained that he had been trying to find his family again for many years after he and his brother had moved away to Northern Brazil. He had finally encountered his father again and two more siblings after many years. None of them were members of the church. It is interesting to think that after finding his family after so many years, the first thing he wanted to do was help them find the gospel. It was so important to him that he travelled all over the state of Sao Paulo picking them all up to bring them to Church. I guess his beliefs are important to him.  I can understand that.

I hope you all have a great week. I love you all!

Elder Russell

Portuspanglish

It is interesting to try and speak to a Chilean in Portuguese. Sometimes it is almost impossible to understand him and he is amazed that the Brazilians understand me (which they usually do at least).  Now that the missionaries here in Votuporanga are much more international, things are definitely more interesting.  It’s funny that Elder Silva (the Chilean) sometimes has problems with things that were never a problem for me. You would think Spanish and Portuguese are basically the same thing but he speaks with a very strong accent. He has a lot of trouble with z's because I guess in Spanish, z's make an s sound. Funny that in English, we have the same sounds for these letters that they have in Portuguese but in Spanish they don't.

But enough language talk. My week was good. We have been working hard to be more concrete when we invite people to do stuff. This week did okay.  As a matter fact, we talked to people and in the first visit they accepted not only to be baptized but were willing to set a date for their baptism. Often times these dates fall through but it is crazy to think that there are people out there that are that ready to accept the Gospel. It was a good testimony of what the Mission President has been saying because it’s been a while that he has said we should do this and I never completely believed it would work as well as it has been. Sometimes we just need to have a little more faith and try stuff out.

My mission is good well. I am almost a quarter of the way done. It is crazy to think that I only get to serve this long three more times.

I hope you all have a good week.  I love you all!

Elder Russell

This is a picture of my district right now. From right to left: Elders De Oliviera, Silva, Sibenichler, and me.

Sick

So this week was rather normal except that I got sick.  I woke up in the early morning on Wednesday vomiting my guts out!  It was a lot of fun.  We called the Mission President's wife who is in charge of missionary health and she told us to go get some medicine and stay in bed for the day, which I did.  By night time I had developed a fever so I got to go to.... The Brazilian Hospital!!!!  But for some reason I haven't been registered in the mission medical plan yet (which seems to me to be a fault in the administration since I've been here 4 months, but whatever) so we got to go to the free hospital--which was really a lot better than one might expect!  The doctor (or at least I think he was a doctor, my medical vocabulary is not very well developed in Portuguese) basically just asked me some questions and prescribed antibiotics which, my sister Hannah will be happy to know, I am still taking even though I am better since I still have pills. That was my adventure for the week.

I have a little more to share. When I talked to my parents last week, my Mom asked me what my favorite part of the mission is and I didn't know but I do know now and I would like to share with all of you. My favorite part of the mission is when you get to meet with someone who was recently baptized and confirmed and they testify of the difference the Holy Ghost has made in their life. This has happened to me twice already and if I never baptize another person in my entire mission, it was all worth it for those two people.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Russell 

Another Baptism

Hello everyone! I was able to talk to my family yesterday and that was nice.  I haven’t missed them as much as I thought I might, but it was nice to see them just the same and I think they enjoyed it. This week was pretty slow but I have a great story to tell so I will just do the story and not bother with the other stuff because not much else happened anyway.

We got to baptize somebody this week! And he must be more than usually important because there were a lot of miracles along the way.  His name is Bruno. The missionaries first found him last summer (you guy’s summer that is). His brother was baptized soon after but he wasn't because he said he didn't know that the church was true so he didn't want to be baptized. He had stopped going to church (his brother too) and wasn't really doing much so soon after we got here, we decided to stop teaching him.

About a month later we went to visit his brother Ralph who is a member since he wasn't coming to church. Ralph wasn't there but Bruno was so we decided to at least share a short message with him, basically so the visit wouldn't be completely wasted.  We said an opening prayer and immediately after that he said, "I prayed and received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true."  I have already taught a good number of people and even baptized a few but to this day, I have never heard an investigator bear a testimony of the Book of Mormon as he did with this simple sentence.

Unfortunately that was almost three months ago and he was leaving to go to college in another city. We were hoping that he would find the missionaries there but there wasn't much we could do about it, or so we thought. About a month and a half later we decided to go visit Ralph again, basically because it was a vacation day and nobody was at home to visit.  It turned out that Bruno had returned for the vacation. So we talked to him again and he said that it was probable that there would be a strike at his College (which is crazy common here in Brazil). Two weeks later he returned home because he had decided to just go to college in Votuporanga.

About a month later (and after more teaching because he wasn't just going to do something he didn't understand) he was baptized.  I am very grateful that I had the pleasure to teach and baptize such an amazing person. His mother and sister do not support his decision to be baptized but he did it anyway because he knew what was right and what was true.  He was baptized Friday and confirmed Sunday.

It was a good week. I hope you all have a good week as well. I love you all!

Elder Russell

The pictures: One is the baptism and the other is us with a bunch of members.

Miracles and Tell Your Friends

Hello everyone! It is funny how weeks pass sometimes and you hardly realize it. It seems like only yesterday I was writing, but it has been a week! Things continue normally here. Miracles happen everyday here in the mission. Some of them I know about; and I am sure that some of them, I have no idea that I even saw them.

Transfers are coming up again and this time, I don't think I will stay here with Elder De Oliveira again. Something will probably change. It’s just a matter of statistics. Missionaries don't usually stay together for six months straight. But I am sure that whatever happens, it will be awesome.

We had a training with the Mission President this week and he told us that we have to work with the members more. I would like to encourage all of you who know about this whole church thing to tell your friends about it and if they are interested, talk to the missionaries. They can help. Now that I have given my speech. I really don't have a whole lot of news this week. Hopefully, I will have a story next week for you all that is awesome.

I love you all.

Elder Russell

Mistakes On Purpose

28 April 2014

So this week was good but a little tough because all four of us missionaries here in Votuporanga caught a cold.  So we were all sniffling our way through our lessons last week until today when we can sleep a bit since its P-day.  But we did have a baptism this week!  It was a very cool story which I shall tell you all right now:

We met Annalice about two weeks ago.  I have actually already written about her.  We met her on a Saturday night in the house of two investigators that weren't really very interested in the message but they had invited their neighbor, Annalice, to listen as well.  We invited them all to Church the next day.  Annalice said she would go but I didn't really think it was all that likely since she didn't seem that interested.  But, like I related a few weeks ago, when we got to church the next day she was already in the Chapel waiting for the meeting to start.  

The next Tuesday we taught her and invited her to be baptized and she accepted.  So we marked a date for April 27th because I forgot that Saturday was the 26th which would have been better because then she could be confirmed the next day. But I mixed up the days and we marked the 27th. This will become important in the story later.

        The following Friday we returned to teach her again and to see how she was doing.  We had asked her to read two specific chapters of the Book of Mormon because she liked to read.  When we got there, she had already read the two chapters and had started from the beginning of the book and was now in Chapter 58 of Alma, which is more than half way through the book for those of you who aren't familiar with the BoM.  

          We then asked her what her favorite part was (which we often ask people to see if they really are reading) and she related to us the entire story of the 2000 Stripling Warriors with lots of details.  She really read.

The next Sunday she didn't go to church because she has insommnia and couldn't sleep the night before.  This was a problem because a person has to go to church at least two times before their baptism.  So since the 27th was the date for her, it worked out after all.  It turned out the 27th was her birthday.  So she was born to the earth and to the gospel on the same day.  Sometimes we make mistakes on purpose.

I hope you enjoyed the story.

I love you all.

Elder Russell

Easter in Votuporanga

So Easter in Brazil is kind of strange.  In the first place there ends up being a holiday on Friday for Good Friday and one on Monday for some dentist who was a revolutionary in Brazil.  So there was a four day weekend or feriadão, as they call it here, which just means big holiday.  This also meant that basically everyone left town and everything closed because unlike in the United States, people observe national holidays and nothing opens.  We were lucky to find a LAN-house opened. But this also means that not a whole lot happens to observe Easter except the giving of monstrous chocolate eggs, often between people who are in some kind of romantic relationships which makes it kind of like Valentine's Day at the same time.

I think that it is important that we remember what Easter is really for--the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  His Atoning Sacrifice is very important and most of the Catholic festivals and rituals that are observed in Brazil (and in the Catholic world in general) are centered on this.  But as Mormons, we remember that every week when we partake of the Sacrament.  Easter is to remember a different gift that the Savior gave us, His triumph over mortal death.  He died and rose again, never to die again.  And because of that, all of us, regardless of how we live, will be resurrected to a body of glory, without physical pain or sickness.  That is pretty awesome.

The week has been pretty good.  This week we have a picture of the Votuporanga District (and Thales, a member of the branch who stole a tag for the picture)  wishing you all a happy Easter.

I love you all and hope you had a great and meaningful Easter.

Elder Russell 

Votuporanga District

After watching General Conference