Parabens

Hey Mamas,
I'm attaching some pictures that we took a while back, it's of when the city water failed for a week. Basically, we went a week with out taking a bath or anything. But one night the Lord blessed us with a rainstorm so we ran out in the street at night to take some quick rain shower baths. haha Yup, just a bunch of hippies. That was funny. In the pictures you can really see my farmers tan and how bad it is, and ya, you can see how skinny I'm getting.
I think this week was Dad's birthday and today is Hannah's, so
PARABENS for you guys. (Happy Birthday) So what does that make dad? He is like 40 [50] is years old and Hannah is like 16 [14] now or something. I think that Valentine's Day is coming up as well, but I can't remember what day it is.

This week went by so fast and slow at the same time. Monday and Tuesday we had trainings so that took up the whole day. I had the chance to get some letters but I got nothing. Everyone says that when you get to this stage on your mission that everyone forgets about you. The last letter I got was on the first week of November... so whats up?? Get to writing! P resident changed up a lot of rules so I can't e-mail my friends. But hey, I still have some time on the mission so keep cards comin'!!

During the week we had the opportunity to put in practice what we had learned in training, and it really payed off. In the end we were able to find a lot of promising people. People that went to church and are progressing well. We have a family of 5 that are going to be baptised on the 20th, so we are running after them and getting them taught. :) They are a really humble family they live in a one room house that has dirt floor. It's amazing to see how the gospel blesses the lives of many. They don't have much, and not even much to eat, but they have the Gospel and that's enough for any man to be eternally happy. I love this Gospel.
This week my companion did the counting and I have something like 13 or 14 weeks left. It's scary, but I'm sucking in every last moment of my mission. I seriously love it. It's amazing how much I have grown to love this people and care about them and will do anything to help them to be happy. Because they are part of my family now.
I love Brazil :)
In my studies I'm reading Jesus the Christ and I'm studying about the atonement.
I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and the things he has done for me. I love Him. :) It's amazing how He helps us.

I'm going to send this e mail off because people are saying that they are having problems with the site. :)
Love ya,
Elder Manis

Endure to the end

Hey Mom,
Ya, I'm pretty much in tears right now. Reading the e-mail you sent me. Ya, I miss London too. It's amazing to see how Heavenly Father blesses us when we do what he asks. (which usually requires sacrifice) Through our sacrifices we can be blessed. No, we will be blessed. It's just like you said Mom. There are times that we just can't take it anymore, but that's when Heavenly Father pulls us up and finishes the race with us. He is on our side with his angles in front and behind us, and it is in these times that the miracles happen. Be it what you expected or not.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple;
1 Faith
2 Repentance
3 Baptism
4 Holy Ghost
and 5- Enduring to the end
One thing I tell everyone of the people I teach is that enduring to the end isn't walking or skipping to the end, it straight up fighting until the end. Fighting against everything that is of the world.
But what does Christ bless us with when we do these things? Eternal life. What greater gift than eternal life in happiness and joy forever and ever. There is no greater gift than this from God. It has been his plan from the beginning, that "all men can return unto me." That is why we have the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. If it wasn't for Him, nothing eternal could ever happen. He suffered for every person that ever lived or will live, for this He knows us. He knows what we are going through and what we need to keep up the good fight. The Gospel is simple, it's "SALVATION" through Jesus Christ.

I am so grateful for this Gospel and for the little things that I learn everyday that help me along in that fight.

This week was a good one... Well, frustrating as well, but I'm only going to talk about the good stuff. My division with President was good. He likes the way we teach and he likes the way we are working. He also loves the way we worry about the salvation of everyone we teach. It was really good.

This week we got invited to eat AÇAÌ at a members restaurant. Açaí is really good. It's like ice cream but kinda like a slurpy too. sei lá haha Anyway, a member dared me to eat 2 leters of it and.... yup, I did. haha So I went home saturday night with a barriga (belly) full of 2 liters of açaí. Yummmmmmm
Here are some pictures of it. My comp' is the guy giving a thumbs up. haha The big bowl is only 1 liter.
Things are going great. Just running after the zone and getting some baptisms in there.
We found another good family of 4, so we are really excited to progress with them. :)
Love ya guys,

Elder Manis

PS: Lookin' tan huh? haha

The Things That Matter Most

Hey Mom, I'm really sorry but I have almost no time to pass e-mail today.

The weather is getting a lot better and no more people are dieing. There is only about 2 young men it my ward, and no, they don't do anything cool like a break-the-fast. Even if they did, no one would come...Brazilians are lazy.
The zone is going great we are having a lot of success. My new companion is Elder Araujo from São Paulo. I love the kid. He is an amazing Elder. He has always been a good mission friend so it's really good to be companions with him. He skated like I did growing up, and he loves basketball, so we get along great and never have that awkward silence while we are walking in the street.
I'm really bummed out though, because I wanted to send you guys a really good spiritual e-mail but the e-mails of President and all the trainings we are going to have took up a lot of time. So basically I have no time and I'm really bummed.

President has had his garments up in a wad lately. Man, let's just say he is like a bomb waiting to go off. He will be going home a transfer after me so he only has 5 months left. He is trying to get the mission all in order and is almost turning into a crazy man. Making up some crazy rules, and stuff like that. I went and looked at a new house with him (a house bigger for us 4 missionaries) and he was just like a business man to me. He basically didn't put any frosting on what he thought of me and what I could do to be better. I just sat and took it because well...let's face it, he is correct. But man. He is coming to do a division with us tomorrow. So we will see how that goes.
I'm seriously taking it all in for experience. Because I know that the real world is going to be like that, and the mission is to prepare you for your whole life.

I have been reading the Liahona lately. The conference talks have been helping out a lot. I love Elder Ukdorf's talk "The Things that Matter Most" (as coisas que mais importam)
The talk had just made me realize what are the most important things in my life.
1. Family
2. The Gospel
3. My testimony of Jesus Christ
It also talks about seeing how things get all crazy in life and the one thing we need to do is just stop and look at the basics. There is a cool quote that he uses "there is more to life than increasing it's speed". Just take a chill pill and look at the things that really matter and then run after them. haha Let's just say that I have been doing that lately.
My mission is ending and I feel that Satan is working harder than ever to get me to just give up and rationalize my work. We are always in the constant fight. But I love how my testimony grows through the trials.

I Love you all.
Look at the things that mean most.

Zack

Mudslides

Can you say "Death"?
It's just like you said. Here in Rio and in Espirito Santo there have been some pretty sad things that have been happening. They aren't floods that are happening, they are mudslides in the mountain regions. Here in Brazil the cities are built on the side of the mountain or in the valley. And last week there was a mega amount of rain. So that weekend the soil just gave way and basically a whole city was swallowed up by the mudslide. There was a family if 15 people that all died. It's pretty scary because we live at the foot of the tallest mountain in Espirito Santo. Everyone is always looking at the mountain and talking about what's going on, and what will happen next. It's mega sad. Basically a mountain swallowing up a whole entire city the size of down town Mesa. Like from the temple to Nana's house, all gone and everyone dead. Scary huh? But don't worry, I'm OK. It's all good.
Mom, you asked a lot about the zone. Well, this week was an OK week. Some baptisms fell through unfortunately, but for the 30th the zone has 27 baptisms planned. So let's cross our fingers and pray that everything will work out. This week we found a family of 11 people and 8 of them accepted the challenge to be baptised on the 30th. So I'm doing all I can to run after these people. This would help out so much with my mission goal of baptisms. It's a huge family that we found on Friday. It's sad because I don't know much about them, because I have been to their house all of 3 times. But they want to be baptised so I'm running after them and doing all I can to prepare these people. :) It was a lot of hard work that payed off with the finding of that family.
This week I found out that my Companion "STITCH" (Elder Costa) is getting transferred. I'm a little bummed about that. I think I will continue as a zone leader. But who knows? I do know that I will stay in the same area, so ya, there was a lot of changes in the mission this transfer.

Also, I'm trying to get us a new house. It's the coolest house on the mission. It's so amazing. It's a member's house and she wants to rent it out to us. Guess what? It has a MICROWAVE and a COUCH!! Man oh man, I'm running after this house as well. I have a busy week planned out. Ha Ha

Mom you mentioned about reading Jesus the Christ. I tried reading it, but it was so hard. The English is like reading Master Yoda. So I got a copy in Portuguese and it's a lot easier to understand.

Love you guys, have a good week, and pray for me and the zone. :)
Elder Manis

Lucia

Hi,
I got one more package from you guys. I got the one that was full of toys. :) Thanks. Ha Ha, it was funny to open all of the little toys and see the retarded looks of the Brazilians. They were like, where is the food that I can steal from you? Ha Ha! But it was good.
This week was a good week for us. It was successful in the sense that we had a baptism. But unsuccessful in the sense that we didn't find hardly anyone to baptise for next week.
The baptism was amazing, it was of Lucia. She is an older lady of 54 years. But she was more than happy and willing to be baptised. This week we taught her the Book of Mormon, I think it was on Tuesday, and then we went back on Wednesday at night to see how she was doing. She had read all the way to 4th Nephi! I basically stared at her with my mouth open. She was like "Ya, I love this book. It tells me everything that I need to know." She went on and on telling us about Ammon and how he cut the arms off of the bad guys, and how Alma the Younger got stricken dumb. All stuff like that. It was just amazing. So when Saturday came around she was way ready to be baptised. Fabio the convert of about 2 months baptised her which was amazing! It was seriously one of the most awesome baptisms of my mission.
Until now it wasn't that I did this of that. It was just that the Spirit was so strong that I will never forget this baptism. Lucia is already a missionary too. She is taking us to all of her friend's houses to teach them. She basically tells them that they need to be baptised in the true church of God. :) What a blessing! Hopefully we should be having some baptisms coming up because of her. :)
Other than that, this week was just a normal week of missionary work. Clapping doors, running after members to teach with us, etc. The zone is doing MMMMMUUUUCCCHHH better. We had 7 baptisms this past week and 12 coming up this next week so the zone is doing amazingly better.
I officially love my mission and I love learning a boat load about the Gospel so I can help the people of Brazil. :)
I count my blessings everyday and thank my Heavenly Father for the chance I have to be here. :)
Love you all,
Remember, the Church is true. :)
XXooXoXoooxXX
Elder Manis

and then they died. (nacho voice)

Happy New Year

Hey Family,
Well, this week was a goodish week. I say "ish" because I know it could have turned out a little better. But as for me and my comp' I know we did our part. This week was New Year's so you could imagine that everyone was drinking and partying all week long. Ya, it was a little rough. Brazilians basically have no rules, so it seemed as if they were basically blowing up blocks of c4 for fireworks. The fireworks shook the house and woke every one up. It's so crazy to see that 2010 is over. Man, it went by so fast.
We closed December out for the mission and it was the worst month for the mission. President wasn't too happy with that. I had an interview with him this past week and man let me tell you, he crucified me. I have never felt more horrible on the mission. I closed the month out with 3 baptisms but I felt that I needed to baptize 30 people to make him happy. It was a rough interview. I have never seen President so mad. But it wasn't just with me, it was with the whole mission, but as the Zone Leader of the biggest zone of the mission, I got the short end of the stick.
On the bright side, we are going to have a baptism this week. Irmã Lucia, she is about 54 years old and is so accepting all of the things we teach her. She loves the Church and can't wait 'till she is baptised. This Saturday, she frequented another church "DEUS È AMOR" pretty much the church of Satan. They just make the people feel like poo. They told her that she couldn't be baptised because she is divorced. But as soon as we explained that that doesn't matter she has been crazy to be baptised.
That's about all that happened to me this week. I have been sleeping really good these days. I have been coming home dead tired, so it's been good to sleep well because I just pass out.

Mommy, it's like you said, looking back on 2010 you see how much you have been blessed. I was kinda bummed out because I came up 1 baptism short of my goals for 2010. But now I'm in high gear working hard to get my goal for the rest of my mission.

Love you guys, :)
Elder Manis

Oh, PS - Jandira and Rosangela, 2 of my baptisms went to the temple this week and received callings in the ward. :)

After Christmas

Hey Mom,
It's good to hear the whole side of the story about Dad and all the stuff he has gone through. But it's good to know that all is getting taken care of. I'm praying a lot for him and all of you guys. Well, just like you I have almost nothing to say because I just talked to you the other day. But know that God lives and He loves us.
I love you guys, :)
Zack

PS Happy Birthday Mom