"Do The Work": November 2015

Monday, November 30, 2015

Pictures of the Week

Haircut curtesy of Elder Nanco

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Our personal Thanksgiving Feast... That was awesome

Missionaries Love he Kendoma.

Pumpkin bread.. Elder Barton's Family sent to him.

Jessica and Andri (Geraldo's Son)...couple in our ward.. way awesome

Our friend Kyle...He is a crazy guy. We were watching in on a church meeting of another religion.

Hello my friends :) this week was yet again a great one. We always learn a lot and have a heck of a fun time. The fun that I am referring to is of course Natal!!!! :) or as we English speakers know it Christmas!!!! :) it is already Dec. (well tomorrow) and we are super excited, we already decorated our tree and put up our stockings, and are as stoked as ever.

Also as missionaries we are excited to work. This Christmas we have the goal to baptize 4 people before Christmas. And it will be a race to find the people who are ready for us. :) We have recently found some new families to teach and even two that accepted to be baptized. We will need to do our part, and help them get in to the font :)

This week we had a crazy one as far as weather goes. We had a a few days as hot as can be, and a few rainy ones. But the craziest was Saturday. This Saturday we woke up with a crazy sun pounding on us. We were as happy as ever to go to work, and had even planned a split with two members. We were confirming the split and one member was not able to come, in a panic we thought "Who will help us out now?" we had many appointments at the same time and needed another to help. We called Djalma who is a recent convert of the other Elders and asked if he could help us out, he said he would be more than happy to do so. And in less than an hour he was in dress clothes, sweaty and ready to help. :) We went to the first appointment and he wasn’t home, so we went to the next. And luckily caught them home it was a referral from a sister in Baronesa. We talked to them, and Djalma bore his testimony of the church and at the end of the lesson we marked them for baptism. They were excited and not certain but we will do our best to help them out. We then went to visit Roberto who is our friend who will be baptized this week. And we taught him the Word of Wisdom and Chastity. He was very accepting and said. "If the prophet said it, I will obey." WOW :) this guy gets better every time. We did our other visits and ended at 8:30 to undo the split. We had a quick snack with Renato, (the other member who went with Elder Nanco) and headed home, sun burt and tired. And what happened. About halfway home it started to pour cats and dogs!!!! :) it was nuts. After a super hot day we had to run home in the pouring rain. It was awesome. :) Got to love the mission. So I didn’t just return home sunburnt but also soaking wet :)

On Sunday we had planned to have a lot of people with us at church. Unfortunately only Willen went. Who is an investigator for a long time. More than a year. And while watching the meeting he told his friend Douglas(who is member) that he wanted to be baptized :) wow.... :) God is incredible. He works in mysterious ways, but always blesses us. :)

This time of the year, don’t ever forget the reason for the season. We have lots of stuff to do this season, but don’t ever forget "The Heart of Christmas". Share the gospel with your friends. We have been given much, and a simple and incredible thing that we can give to God is our friends who don’t have the gospel like we have. Don’t be afraid. God will help and guide us as we do. :)

Elder Iverson

#NasceuOSalvador

Sunday, November 29, 2015

The Living Christ

Monday, November 23, 2015

Friendship, the Truth, and What Really Matters

Hello my friends, as Christmas gets closer, and the year comes to a close, the world turns a little more to the Savior. We know that we should always have the Savior on our minds, but this season gives a little extra something that the rest of the year doesn't have. So as you go about your activities, (school, work, shopping, soccer, or maybe a cruise?;) always look to do good for all people. We are a light in the world, and we need to be an example of the believers as our loving Prophet told us this last conference.

This week was a great one for us as missionaries. As you will know we started teaching a guy named Roberto. Last Sunday he brought 3 of his friends and we were able to talk to all of them. In the course of this week we were able to visit all of them, and teach them more about the gospel. The enemy in his attempts to shake the faithful will create doubt, lies, and uncertainty in our minds. And sometimes our friends, and neighbors will shake our testimonies. As we talked with Roberto this week with his other Friend Daniel, Roberto sadly told us how their other friend had been shaken from the truth, and desisted before reaching the end. Our fallen friend was shaken by the falsehoods that are often spread about us and our work. But Satan can't and won't EVER conquer the hearts of the strong. Roberto got into a fight with his mom about what some people were saying of the church. In his humble and growing testimony he said "Mom, its not like that there. Its different. They are lying. They are wrong. I felt it." WOW. There is nothing that gives you more goosebumps then when a young testimony is bore with confidence. Roberto was also very saddened by his friend who didn’t want more. He is awesome, and can spin a basketball on whatever surface. (Finger, Knuckle, Hat, Broom, Cellphone, Chair, even an old school Nintendo.)

This week I have really learned what really matters in our lives. As I ponder on the Life of Christ I learn what he gave value, and what I need to do as well. We are here to do what God wants. Yes we can have fun, go to the movies, play soccer, even video games. But what happens is we put more focus on these things, we need to put our focus on God. God needs to be our everything. IF we can do this. We will be extremely Blessed :)

I love you all, remember what really is important.

Elder Iverson

PS. I was able to complete Nana's challenge, even before the cruise. :)

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

A Fun Week

Homemade Cookies - Compliments of Elder Iverson "I've made these many times for the Brazilians and they all love them."

Chilleanos Elder Nanco and Elder Escarate

Rafiel is a member from Caucia. He was visiting our area.

Elder Nanco's newest companion. They went on splits. He followed us for almost a mile.

Elder Nanco

Common Villa's in Sao Paulo

Coca-Cola

Monday, November 16, 2015

Ficarei

Well life is all good here in Vila Menk. Me and Elder Ñanco are having a great time. This week was a great one as far as work goes.

This week I had to help out in an English class. The other elders in our ward were walking and a guy did a contact with them. He said "Are there any english speakers that you know?" They grabbed his number and asked me to call him. I got to go to his english class that is just 4 woman that are trying to learn some english. It was a cool experience that I could bare my testimony in English, and tell them about somethings. Only the teacher and one woman understood exactly what I was saying but it was cool. I was able to tell where I live, what I like to do here in Brasil, and what my schedule is. They were amazed at the work we do every day visiting the people. They said that they would come to church with us some day. :)

Also we had a great chance to teach some new people this week. One of the things that amazes me is how incredible the people of Brasil are. They are so kind and loving and are willing to give you the shirt off your back. This week the weather turned up the heater. It was a good hot one this week. There is nothing better than sweating in church clothes....;) but it is part of the mission. The people are so ready to give you water or food if you just clap at their door :)

This week we finally got to take a picture with John Lenon and Paul Mckartney :) There is a guy Carlos who is a super fan of The Beatles and he named his kids John and Paul. Who would have thought? It was a little weird asking if John Lenon lived at the house 😎

We have a cool story. So when we went to visit a investigator with Douglas who is a member, and he wasn’t home we were walking back and ran into one of Douglas's friends we invited him to the church and he came the next day which was Sunday. We weren’t able to teach him during the week, but he came again on Sunday, he even invited a friend that didn’t come. But after the church we had the chance to teach him. It was awesome because he brought two other friends. This guy is awesome. He is already giving us references and helping us out before his baptism. That we are helping him prepare for late Nov Early Dec. His date is the 6th for now, but could be sooner :) It is awesome always a great spiritual lesson with him.

And on Sunday was the day of the famous transfer call. And.......... we didn’t get one. The Chile/USA combo will be reppin it for another transfer. We will do well, we are working well together and have a great group of people to visit.

Read John 16;33 we have a lot of things that happen in our lives, but we always have Jesus Christ to help us out, he has already conquered the world :)

I love you all

Elder Iverson

PS just so you all know, the Christmas music is already being played here. We love Christmas!!!!:)

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Julia's Baptism

Julia was so scared of the water. She was in tears through the whole thing. What a brave, faithful little girl to conquer her fear of water in order to join the Lord's kingdom.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Week of Unfortunate Events

Sorry about the email that didn't come on Monday. Here we visited the street 25th of March. It is in the center and is just stores and more stores. We also visited Sé which is the very center of Sao Paulo. The pictures with the giant catholic church is the park. It was awesome go to the center again. I bought some new ties (always good for elders):)

On the journey home we got caught by a crazy rain storm. It started out of no where and rained like crazy, we were waiting at the bus stop, and it rained hard for 15 min after the rain stopped and then the sun came out again....:) haha then we were arriving home and a tree fell in the middle of the street, breaking the power lines and it happened in the same storm that we were caught in... the power went out in almost all of the neighborhood :)

This week was a tough week. Our main investigator got lazy with us and unfortunately Lucas wont be baptized as quickly as we thought. This week was crazy with rain and sunshine on the same days.

There are some recording that we did this week :) unfortunately we are already out of time here.

I love you all, the church is true:)

Elder Iverson

transfers are the 17th we will see what happens. ;)

well sadly there was an error on the memory card and all the stuff that I had, was washed away.................. Sad..... but it is good that the mission isnt about the pictures we take, :) love you and have a great week :)