Happy Mother's Day Next Week!

Sorry but again I am running out of time (I've been using more time to talk to individuals and as such my main letter is suffering...)

This week was great!

Yesterday we were looking for a less active, and it appeared that the address didn't exist. As we were going to leave a set of staircases looked familiar and we saw the right number (530 came after 532 instead of before)

 We then had an amazing spiritual lesson with a woman who accepted our message and looks like she has great potential in being baptized! She also told us where her son (less active) is living Agora.

This week we started getting crazy amounts of referrals and we don't have the time to talk with everyone! But hey I've learned it pays to work with members. Visit them, share a quick lesson, help them with something, and then they help you!

Anyway I love you all!

and I will talk to my family on Sunday (and they can tell you more)

Also this transfer was only 5 weeks so-- new transfer! I will be staying, but Elder Correa is being transferred!

Obedience brings Happiness!

I used up most of my time sending individual letters but here is a little about my week

 Obedience is the first law of heaven. also see D&C 130 (i think 18 and 19) There is a law irrevocably decreed.... upon which all blessings are predicated, and it is by obedience to that law that we receive any blessing of God (sorry if the quote is not perfect, I am trying to translate into English) 

As we obey we are happy!

Wednesday we had Zone Conference (President and Sister Cascardi came and talked with the zone) President said that if we are happy in the work he couldn't ask for more because of this principle. He then went on to tell us some rules the mission needs to improve on obeying but hey if you're happy you are obedient!

Sunday evening we passed by the chapel and saw a member sitting outside waiting, so we stopped to talk for a little, and ended up receiving a boatload of referrals (members kept showing up and everyone ended up knowing some less actives who strangely aren't on the ward list, or had a referral  for us so we have our work cut out for us this week)

Well sorry I didnt write much, but I love you all

Dog vs. Hand

I had a very angry dog try to get a piece of me.... and well thankfully I managed to move my hand, but my pants were a little too slow (he didn't get flesh, just my daily planner)
Anyway Fora Disto this week was awesome.
We didn't exactly have stellar numbers, but there were a lot of random miracles (like the fact that I felt like I should look at the dog a half a second before he went to bite me).
Hey could everyone pray for elder Cordeiro, he is in the hospital right now, and it is unlikely that he will be able to return to the field.
We have been teaching an investigator who is really close to being baptized! He wants to be baptized, but he thinks that since he has only known the church for 5 weeks it's a little fast for baptism.
This week we had a really cool experience, when we had 8 appointments and their alternate plan fell through we went and were passing to see if we could move an appointment forward an hour to try to move to another part of the neighborhood, when I stopped in front of a street and asked my companion if he had ever knocked doors on this street. He said no, so we went and knocked the first door and to our surprise we found the son of an investigator (who had never taken part in the lessons with his parents)  and his friend! We had a highly spiritual lesson and gave them baptismal dates.
We had a lot of people want to have appointments with us on Wednesday with us and of course Wednesday is zone conference so we will be in Petropolis.
Well I love you all and remember you often in my prayers!

avante avante meus irmãos 

Insert Subject Here

**His letters are getting to be a mix between English and Portuguese..so good luck reading this. :)

Well this week was awesome!
We had a lesson with a referral, and that went well but the only problem is that she works for "carama" and only has "fogo" one Sunday per month, so it is hard for her to be able to go to church.

We spent almost the entire week in Vista Alegre. We dropped an investigator who lives on a farm another forty minutes walking, so I'm not going to die this week.

We now have a ward mission leader, so I finally had a reunion with our LMA (ward mission leader) and it's great because his wife is the Relief Society President so she helps us a lot too (and made dinner for us). 

This week I talked with three types of Jehovah's Witnesses. First, the type that rudely says no.  Second, the type that will talk to you for a while and then politely say no. And last, the type that lets you teach them. (sadly they didn't accept any challenges or commitments so if we return it will probably be our last lesson for a while with him.

My English is terrible, but I'm trying to teach my companion English, so we are usually talking in the streets in Portuginglish.

Sadly because I'm out of time I've gotta log off!

Te amo!

Para frente e para alto

General Conference

General Conference

Well this week was a little slow, and we had some divisions but GENERAL CONFRENCE WAS AMAZING!!!!

So Saturday was pretty cool.

We went to lunch with a member who lives way far away and rather then have us be late to conference we watched with them. Also they are way rich, like their house is bigger than mine, they have a swimming pool, four cars, and tal. but anyway we watched conference with them, then worked in the neighborhood then watched conference, then came home.

Sunday we went to the stake center and watched there (and since i was watching in Portuguese my. 

Sunday morning was awesome, the spirit was strong, and it was cool to hear about all the temples.)

General conference in a few words: fasting marrage easter Atonement

The Work is Growing Fast!

Well February flew by, and at this rate I feel like I'll be home in another month or two.

This week I literally walked through the entire city, from one end to the other, and out to a farm nearly in Bananal. Nothing to worry about but one of my pairs of shoes already has holes in the bottom of them (as in my socks were destroyed by the pavement) but thankfully it doesn't cost too much to get them repaired, only about twenty dollars. 

Anyway, this week was great, and we are preparing a white Saturday.We have 11 baptisms planed for the 21st. We are mainly working in three areas right now, Sinderlandia, Vila Independencia and Villa Maria. Sinderlandia is where about 8 of our baptismal dates are, so daily someone is there visiting all of them, and somebody else visits Vila Maria or Vila Independencia. (in case you were wondering its really easy to do divisions with ward members in a trio because we only need one member in order to do the divisions so we do them almost daily) Vila Maria is a area that has no members, and records of missionaries working there are non-existent. I have yet to talk to someone who has seen the missionaries in Vila Maria, so we are all but opening there.

On Friday we were working in Vila Maria, and for a while nothing was feeling right. We were talking to everyone but not giving any lessons, and I had a feeling that the next person with whom we should talk would recognize us as ministers. We walked for about 10 minutes, and due to the heat we stopped to eat some açai (its like ice cream, but without cream and açai flavored) and the woman who owns the shop asked us if we were from the church, we responded yes, and she accepted a lesson.

Yesterday I was with a young man in the ward when he said his grandfather had just gotten out of the hospital and I asked him if he would like to visit his grandfather. We went there and briefly shared the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation, and the young man asked if his grandparents would like blessings, so I had the opportunity to give them blessings of comfort. Afterwords they warmed up a lot and we were able to make an appointment to return and visit this week.

Here is his testimony of the gospel in Portuguese :) 

Sei que Jesus vive, sei que ele é o meu Salvador, e que por meio dele podemos ser limpos, e livres. Sei que a Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias é a igreja guiado por Deus, e Seus santos profetas. 

I love you all. 

-Elder Lindsey

Barra Mansa

Well this semana foi ótimo! I am currently in a trio with Elder Conceção and Elder Dias, which is pretty awesome because it makes it easy to do daily divisions. I have worked several times with members in the ward, and other times with one or two Elders. 

Yesterday we were knocking doors in a neighborhood called Villa Coringa, and we started teaching a man who seriously appeared interested, but we weren't able to finish the lesson because his uncle came over (who is a deacon in a nearby church) and talked to us for an hour plus about how our church is wrong. We simply bore testimony at the end, and invited him to humble himself in prayer and ask God which church is His. It was really hard to see a man with such potential have to hear someone talk in such a manner and not be able to hear the message of the Restoration.

This week we spent a lot of time knocking doors, as we have had several investigators tell us that they don't want to get baptized, so we need to start finding a lot more people to make up for the lack that we have right now. It's really interesting to know that you are in the area that God wants you to be and some days you can knock every door on a street and not have anyone accept the messages. and other days you knock four doors and have four lessons with four people who become new investigators.

The other day we had a lot of commitments in different parts of the city, so we went to centro before lunch (not too far) then to Colonia (far away) then to Sinderlandia (really far) then to Villa Coringa (again really far) then to Cutiara (not too far) before returning home (again not too far) and we totaled it at nearly 30 km) 

This week I went on a division with a recent convert, and since he doesn't know too much about the church, during the lessons he only says that he knows the church is true, so I had to give the entire lesson the whole day, and we had lots of lessons that day. It helped me feel more confident that I know enough that I can speak and not have to rely on the other missionaries.

Well I love you all

and yall are in my prayers

Remember, the first four principles and ordinances of the gospel are Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Daily strive to increase your faith, repent, and better listen to the Holy Ghost