Week 92 Letter

Monday, November 26, 2012

Are you still there?  I just finished the essays.  I think that it is a good idea that you proof read them.  I did it on a word document.  Tell me if you can open this.  I am good, tired, but good, and ready to play soccer.  Funny how playing a sport is like resting on the mission.  It gives me a mental break.  I did not find a nativity yet, but I will be able to look today.  The weather is hot and raining.  The lowest that it gets is the high 70's.  Right now it is 12:15.  Just so that you know, my ACT test score was 27 I think.  I have not seen the blog yet, but I will look.  Are you needing anything else for the applications?  What did you think of the essays?  It has been a while...

Alright, I am going to run then.  All is well here and this week was good, although I hardly worked in my area.  I am going to do more division this transfer to help the zone.  We are needing it.  We do have a new missionary living with us.  You know him.  Do you remember Willians from Sinop, whose mission papers I helped with?  He has his call in finally, the branch was complicated, nobody knew how to send mission papers, and he is doing a transfer of a mini mission while he waits.  I never thought that I would train him to be a missionary.  It was awesome doing some splits with him.  He is super excited.  God works in mysterious ways.  It is pretty awesome all everybody is in the right place at the right time.  Well, I love you mom.  Have a great week!!!

Love, Elder Lee

Week 91 Letter

Monday, November 19, 2012

Alright, to start answering questions... the t-shirts of Brazil are going to be a little hard.  The only shirt that you can get that will say Brazil is the Brazilian soccer shirts, uniforms.  For an official, it is 200 R$, or 100 dollars in American money, but that is to get the official that is really Nike.  The thing in Brazil is that there are a lot of false shirts and it is not against the law, so I can get some false jerseys for about 30 R$ or 15 dollars each, but the sizes will be hard to find.  I can try though.  The other thing is the nativity.  I will have to go to the mall to look, but I do not have any idea where I will find one.  And I am sure that it is not cheap, but because you are buying with dollars it cuts the price in half.  I will really have to look though.  Christmas is not what it is in the states here.  In Brazil Christmas might be big, but I am in the poorest capital of the country. It is pretty sad.  I will look though.  Transfers were yesterday and I lucked out because I will stay here with Elder Herrera and the next real transfer is at the end of the year.  My week was good.  I was hardly with my companion because of a bunch of divisions and stuff but I stayed in the area and worked hard.  All is well.  Gisele, the girl who got shot is doing awesome.  She would have been baptized yesterday but her family was traveling so we marked it for this Sunday, another great reason why I stayed here this transfer.  She has read almost all of the gospel principle manual, is in 2 Nephi in the b o m, and she is reading our heritage as well.  She is loving all of it.  She is awesome.  Sadly, one of the families that I am teaching had a car accident so he could not come to church, but he is remarked to come next week and I will pass in his house a few more times this week.  All is well.  Did that answer all of your questions?  Here is a question, where are you at mom with my college applications?  SO, do you need something from me?

Love you all – Elder Lee

Week 90 Letter

Monday, November 12, 2012

Hi everyone!!!

Well, we had a good and busy week again.  We did not baptize, but we sure worked hard.  Gisele, the girl who was shot went to church and she is progressing steadily, although no sudden jumps.  She is liking it all though.  Yesterday we went to visit Aryane's family in the hospital because her grandma is sick and old and so the whole family has been there for the week and we went and paid a visit.  They really appreciated it.  Aryane's dad is really funny in his own way.  He loved that we came to visit and his first words were, hey Elder Lee, I really missed you, you piece of sh**.  When his wife insisted that he not talk like that, he excused himself by saying, hey, I really like this son of a b****.  It was really funny.  He is a really good down to earth guy.  I sure like him.  He said when all of this is over he wants to take us fishing.  He always promised that he is going to go to church a lot more when things calm down with his mom.  He loves that Aryane was baptized and that she is on a good path.  The mom is also very happy with her and with us.  A great family.  Jaiany's dad is warming up to us a lot too.  If all goes well he is going to come and play soccer with us.  I hope that he comes.  A lot of other stuff happened, but I am not remembering anything else.  It seems like the weeks blur and I cannot ever remember what was this week and what was last week or even two weeks ago.  Time on the mission does not exist.  We did meet a new family that we are going to teach.  This guy is really smart, legally married to his wife and has two smart sons who both speak English and have musical talent, which is hard to find in Brazil.  This man Silvio also has 6 different bibles, all a translation different.  We are going to really focus on the Book of Mormon.  I think that he is going to like it.  They are really active in their church, but smart people are attracted to the church because they recognize that the true church makes everything make sense.  We are going to teach them this week and maybe his older son, 18, will play soccer with us too.  We also meet two girls at church yesterday, a girlfriend of a member and her older sister.  They are 17 and 22 I think.  We are also going to teach them this week, although they are only really home on Saturday.  So, there is my week in an email.  I love you all, and I love hearing from you.  Thanks for your prayers and your love.  -Elder Lee

Week 89 Letter

Monday, November 05, 2012

Hello family!!!

Another week has flown by and this one ended on a really high note.  To start, we had a great Sunday turnout, although, as always, we were hoping for more.  We had 7 investigators at church and the other companionship in the ward, Elder Rodriquez and Grantham had 8.  It was awesome.  One of my main investigators came which was a miracle.  Her name is Gisele and she is 22 and suffered two gun shots in the back saving two lives at her work place in a robbery.  The after effect is that she is paralyzed from the hips down and cannot feeling anything in her legs or feet.  It was in the hospital that her aunt, an active member, gave her a Book of Mormon and this last week we found out about her and went to visit her.  She loved our visits and has been reading the Book of Mormon and soaking it up.  To give you an idea, in the gospel principle class I was assigned to teach last minute about obedience and the story of Nephi going to get the plates came up.  I knew that she had read it because you already explained to me Friday the whole story in amazing detail, so I asked her to tell the story to the class, which was full of investigators and some members.  She boldly told the story and all of the members, including her cousin who was with her, were amazed.  It was awesome.  I am going to teach her again Tuesday and invite her to be baptized this next Sunday.  She came with her aunt in the car and they brought a chair for her that is reclined so that she could kind of sit and laydown for the three hours of church.  She loved church.  She has an incredible attitude of everything that has been going on with her.  We transported her by picking up the chair and going from room to room for the classes.  It was awesome.  Last night I talked to her relatives and they all told me about how much she liked church and their faith that she would one day be baptized.  I think that they will be surprised to learn this week that she might be baptized so soon.  It will be fun to tell them after Tuesday if all goes well.  

The highlight of yesterday was Jaiany's baptism.  

She is the girl who I helped write a card to her dad asking for his permission to let her get baptized.  She gave the card to him Thursday and Friday received permission.  The dad really liked the card, even cried, and willing let her be baptized yesterday and even came to the baptism.  It was awesome.  Her mom and 6 year old brother Jair were also there.  It was super special.  She has been waiting 3 months to get baptized.  She was so happy.  Friday, when I found out that her dad was letting her get baptized I almost cried from joy.  One of those moments I guess when you feel like a lot of work and time and prayers were really worth it.  It was, for sure.  So, there are the highlights for you all.  It was a good week and this week I hope that it gets better.  Jaiany will be confirmed, and I am hoping to baptize Gisele.  I love you all, and wish you all a great week!!! 

Love Elder Lee

Week 88 Letter

Monday, October 29, 2012

I am doing well, but sadly the baptisms fell though yesterday in our zone.  We had a great work week, but a bunch of last second problems happened and everything fell, including some people coming to church.  Satan worked hard this week.  I did have two investigators at church, although we were expecting a lot more.  We will work for a better week this week.  Anyways, all is well.  I wish that I really only had to think in one thing, but being a zone leader sometimes seems like it is taking away my focus on where I would like it to be, with my investigators, but I cannot complain because I know that I am were God wants me to be and helping missionaries is part of my personal mission.  Thanks for your kind words and support, it really helps.  I got pics from Jackson.  It is kind of funny to think that he is in the Bahamas and I am in the middle of nowhere.  But this mission is the same.  I sure love the mission.  I am not sure that I am ready to come home.  If I asked to stay another transfer, would you mind?  I know that some other missionaries have asked and they did not let them.  Who knows though? This week I have been doing a lot of exercises so I am hoping not to come home fat.  Good thing that I am in a mission were we have to walk in burning heat every day.  I think that I sweat about 7 lbs. every day.  It has been hot these days, but then again, it is always hot.  I am use to it though.  I think coming home will be a temp shock for sure.  This week I taught an English class of a member who works at an English school.  I went with E Grantham, who has 3 months in Brazil.  They said that it was a lot easier to understand me, but I do not think that that is because my English is better.  I think that it is because I have to talk slower to translate from port to English in my head and because I say things in English the way that they should be said in port.  I think that all of you would understand E Grantham better, hahaha.  I think that I am getting better though because living with two Americans, we talk English every once in a while.  Anyways, I really do not know what else to tell you about this week.  It is getting harder and harder to remember what was this week and last week and today and yesterday.  It is all just a blur.  I love you all and thanks for the Halloween card.  It was awesome.  Here is Brazil they do not really celebrate Halloween, but as the Brazilian culture is to party, there are always some places that do a Halloween party and dance.  Have a great week!!!

Love, Elder Lee

Pictures from our last baptisms