Paulo Baptism

Well what a week. We had a great, hot then cold then rainy week. Gotta love Brasil. 

The story of this week is Paulo Henrique. He is a young lad 12 years old. He is the nephew of Michele a recent baptism in the area. When I got here he was never really interested in the messages and the church. But one day he went to church with Michele and we started to teach him also. Two weeks ago I gave him his personal BoM and he exploded with joy. He started that night to read and pray. Over the course of these two weeks he has already reached 2 Nephi 20 and loves it. He explains to us what he reads and absolutely loves it. He is very timid and doesn’t like to talk to a whole lot of people but really opened up to us. This week we had his interview and Elder Hurd did that. When we left Elder Hurd told me. ´Well done elder he is super well prepared. ´ But in reality he was just a stud and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time to invite the kid to be baptized. 

Elder Guamangallo dunked him and I confirmed him. He is super animated and excited to learn more and more and help his family (that isn’t member yet) come to church. He is already a heck of a missionary. 

Also we talked with a lot of people this week, all with different stories. People that smoking weed, faithful members of other churches, people with problems, people without hope, people that hate us, people that love us, people that insult, people that care for us. But all in all, all need us :) We have the truth that they need, and in the middle of the hate and love we are here, preaching the truth to the people. 

For our spiritual insight of the day. We have 3 Nephi 12:6 The Master is teaching us an incredible lesson. “and blessed are all they who do HUNGER and THIRST after righteousness for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” what a statement. Are we Hungering and Thirsting for righteousness or are we doing our tasks reluctantly. 

WE need to hunger after the right things just like we hunger after a fast Sunday with a 1-4 block ;) we need to love to do the right, because if we do we are blessed to have the holy ghost with us. A God with us. Well then, lets get to it gente :)

Love you all :)

good week for you all :) 

Pollution

The view of the city appears to be rain, but what is it? Pollution !!! Friday was crazy with so much pollution! 

Elder Batman

 This is Munhoz JR. another ward. We had a spilit and I called him Elder Batman and put the name tag on him :) 

Splits

Me and Elder Alves enjoying a little coconut milk after a good day of work :) 

and always with the split comes the pizza with Elder Lima, me, Elder Cinezio, and Elder Alves.

Teaching Paulo

Paulo Henrique with Michele behind cooking some chicken for us. 

 They (Michele and Paulo Henrique) have like 30 cats, one even got my name Iverson :) haha the little kitten was snoozin so I snagged a quick pic with him :) 

Oh the RAIN!

The Sun Came Out

This week was a great one. It appeared that the sun, which was no where to be seen last week, came out in full force. And it was super hot. This week we had a Multi Zone Conf. That was awesome We learned a lot and we had a great spiritual time. I made some new goals and we are determined (or at least I am) to work hard these last two weeks that my comp has. It will be good experience.

This week we had a ward party that was Bake Off Rochadale. :) haha it was awesome. We ate lots of cake. 

Summer is already starting in Brasil :) 

Sorry about the lack of email,

Got to go already. :) 

Keep up the good work. 

and as the leaders are saying.

The Sabbath day needs to be improved.

Like Elder nelson said.

What sign do you want to give the Lord?

I love you all :)

Elder Iverson 

Where did the sun go?

The view of Osasco from the rooftop of a member.

This week was a good one here in the good old Osasco. This week was ridiculous with the amount of rain that we got. In the past 7 days I have seen the sun for like 2 hours and it was Wednesday. 

But this week we got a surprise trip to the temple. On P-day I got a call from the ZL and they said “tell your district that tomorrow we will go to the temple.” Opa!! Well then. So on Tuesday we got to go to the temple. And what a good experience. Elder L. Araujo and Donhal were there and I got to talk to them. It was awesome the spirit that we can feel when we go to the house of the Lord.

On Tuesday it started out raining, and then just got worse..... We got home at about 4 from the temple, and it was raining drizzling. My comp didn’t want to go, but I was like, lets go. We need to visit the folk. So we left in the rain. And here in Brasil the rain is super weird. It rains so so so hard for like 10 min, then returns to what we call "garoa" which is like snow. It falls lightly, and hits you like snow. But it is rain. And then in another 10 min it is raining super hard. And on Tuesday it was like this. We were having difficulties finding the people home. So we were in the street for an hour when it did this switch. Rain, garoa, rain, garoa. and then something crazy happened. It started to rain super hard, and not just rain, the wind started to blow super strong, and we were beneath a canopy, and a piece of sheet wood almost hit my comp..... We were called to enter a bar by a nice guy. We entered and he shut the garage. We got to talk to the guy for 30 min. (you will see a pic of my comp sleeping with a umbrella in his hand. Ya, that is what happened while I was talking.) The power went out, and we we left in the dark in the favela. :) 

We visited Pedro and Dayana who are awesome members in our ward. And we talked to them for a while. Then made the dark walk home in the rain. Luckily at that time the rain was just drizzling and the damage was already done. People lost their roofs, power lines were torn down, transformers exploded, and it was a lot of damage. We returned home. And the worst thing about a power outage … No hot shower.... here in Brasil the water is heated by the shower head.... Luckily the power returned at 9 :) 

This week we started teaching a family from Pernambuco. They are great folk. We are getting along very well with them. After the second visit Fransciso. Who is the man with the mustache :) he asked for us to keep in touch. So we grabbed his address and he is hilarious. He loves us. And we have such a good time. We almost always visit with Dayana and Ludimila came with us. (see picture) Their daughter Mariana (in the middle of the pic) made us bracelets :)

This week something crazy happened. I got a call from UTAH?! What? Well I saw the 801 in the front and I was like what the heck???? and I answered it was a sister from SLC. She called me and told me that she had a reference for me? I was like... wow this is sweet. We had a conference call. A guy who lives near our church, me, and a sister in SLC. :) I was shocked. The sister is from Brazil and explained that at Temple Square they teach people through the phone and email. Which is awesome. The other guy passed the address to me. (he lives in the area of the other elders.) And i left shocked. The first thought was.... "MOM?" haha but it was all good. 

This week was are visiting a dude who is 12. He is the nephew of a member. Last week we gave him the BoM and he is already in 2 Nephi 4... What?:) he is 12, but understands everything so well. We will have his baptism later this month :) 

Well this week was great I had the chance to read what is commonly known as the war chapters in alma. And I learned something incredible. The enemy can be defeated with 2 simple things. Obedience and Preparation. IF we do these two things. The enemy can try. But we will be stronger then the enemy. Try harder everyday to prepare, and be more obedient. Obedience is the only thing that we can give to our Heavenly Father.  Are you putting it in practice? 

Love you all

Elder Iverson :)

Teaching

We also are having a good time teaching Anderson, Leide, and Cristiano.

IT was cold enough to pull out the scarf again :)

This is irmã Socorro. She is Micheles mom. We are working with her so she can be baptized also. 

A little Roof Top Fun!

Elder Escarate, Quaresma, and M. Nascimento. 

I'm Trying My Best at Yoga

The soccer field that reminded me of Fremont?

Photos

Here in SP there are a ton of churches. And this church which is a little crazy used the conference center organ as a picture..... :) WHAT?