Well, what can I say, another Christmas has come and gone.
My Christmas was great. It was great to talk to you guys and hear that everything is going great. Thanks to all that sent me a package. I loved them all.
Well 12/26/09 I had another baptism. It was a girl named Samiley. She is 15 and her cousins are members. We had been teaching her and she was progressing so well that we decided to baptize her a week early. She was so nervous to be baptized though. She thought that she would have to change her life and stop listening to Michael Jackson music and all that. ha ha When she said that, I just stood up in the living room and started to bust out my MJ moves, and do the "moonwalk." It was so powerful it just about melted her face off. And I said, "Look, I like Michael Jackson and I'm a member of the true Church of Jesus Cristo, so what do you say lets be baptized?" And she said, "Yes."
So I'd like to thank Rob Haynes and Jason Carpenter and all of their friends for teaching me how to "Moonwalk" when I was little. :) It's funny how people think that baptism will change their life too drastically like they can't play basketball or can't wear jeans and stuff. But it's sad at the same time because there are many churches down here that do this, they don't allow anything. So sometimes just at the word "baptism" people get scared and run away. But I love teaching them about true baptism and how the Church of Jesus Cristo [Christ] has this atoritade [authority] to do this work, I know that this church is true and that only through this Church and atoridade [authority] one can be saved.
Happy New Year to Everyone,
Love,
Elder Manis
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Short Man
Eai Familia,
To answer your questions; ya Campos is pretty far away from the coast and ya, it's a big city. Lots and lots of people. It's about the same size as San Diego. My new companion is Elder A. Silva, this week I got to know him a lot better and he is a crack up. Remember "50 First Dates", the little dude that wants to be a body builder? haha Well that's A. Silva. haha In the mornings he always does push ups and stuff, and I always ask him how many push ups he did. He is always like, "I did 37." But he says it in a big tough guy voice. He is funny, he bearly comes up to my shoulder. Let's just say he has "short man syndrome" haha its so funny.
Here in Campos it has been storming a lot lately. There is a huge river that has been overflowing and wrecking houses and stuff, its sad to see. :( And when I say storm in Brazil, I'm talking 500 times crazier than a monsoon in Arizona. It's crazy to the max.
As far as work, its going great. It's so amazing to have members that actually love you and want to help you in any way possible. It's amazing, it's heaven in comparison to Cariasica. The lessons are coming along great. We have found some really good people that I feel that the Lord has prepared for us. It's so amazing to teach someone that actually pays attention. Not only with their ears but with their heart. I can't explain how much less stressed I am here. haha But of course with all the good there is bad as well. We still find the people that don't want anything to do with us. But like I said before, the ones that listen make it more worth while.
As for Christmas. It doesn't feel like Christmas at all. It's still hot here and there is nothing going on Christmas wise, like Christmas trees and stuff. But its all good. I'm looking forward to calling home and talking to all of you. Just a warning, its been a good couple of months that I haven't spoken English so it's probably gonna be a little backwards when I speak to you. But it's gonna be great. I will call home Christmas Eve and give you all the details and stuff, for calling. I'll call about mid-day there, OK?
Thanks guys.
Love ya,
Elder Manis
To answer your questions; ya Campos is pretty far away from the coast and ya, it's a big city. Lots and lots of people. It's about the same size as San Diego. My new companion is Elder A. Silva, this week I got to know him a lot better and he is a crack up. Remember "50 First Dates", the little dude that wants to be a body builder? haha Well that's A. Silva. haha In the mornings he always does push ups and stuff, and I always ask him how many push ups he did. He is always like, "I did 37." But he says it in a big tough guy voice. He is funny, he bearly comes up to my shoulder. Let's just say he has "short man syndrome" haha its so funny.
Here in Campos it has been storming a lot lately. There is a huge river that has been overflowing and wrecking houses and stuff, its sad to see. :( And when I say storm in Brazil, I'm talking 500 times crazier than a monsoon in Arizona. It's crazy to the max.
As far as work, its going great. It's so amazing to have members that actually love you and want to help you in any way possible. It's amazing, it's heaven in comparison to Cariasica. The lessons are coming along great. We have found some really good people that I feel that the Lord has prepared for us. It's so amazing to teach someone that actually pays attention. Not only with their ears but with their heart. I can't explain how much less stressed I am here. haha But of course with all the good there is bad as well. We still find the people that don't want anything to do with us. But like I said before, the ones that listen make it more worth while.
As for Christmas. It doesn't feel like Christmas at all. It's still hot here and there is nothing going on Christmas wise, like Christmas trees and stuff. But its all good. I'm looking forward to calling home and talking to all of you. Just a warning, its been a good couple of months that I haven't spoken English so it's probably gonna be a little backwards when I speak to you. But it's gonna be great. I will call home Christmas Eve and give you all the details and stuff, for calling. I'll call about mid-day there, OK?
Thanks guys.
Love ya,
Elder Manis
Monday, December 7, 2009
Campos
Hey Guys,
Well, yup I got transferred. I'm now it the city of Campos in Rio de Janeiro. It's pretty cool down here. My area is on the outskirts of the big city and is the smallest of the mission. I have no clue why. Missionaries haven't been in this area for about 6 months. The area is known for making missionaries depressed and making them skinny too. Ha Ha Or you could say the food sucks.
Well, to tell you the truth, I don't see any of that. This is almost the best Christmas present ever. The branch is great, the members leave [church] with you and teach lessons. The branch president has about 160 references for us, so now all we have to do is get to work. Ha Ha It's going to be great. I think we are going to have a lot of success here in this city. President said he was holding this area out for 2 missionaries whom he could trust to work hard day in and day out. So I got a lot of motivation from him. He is the best, I love him.
My new companion is Elder A. Silva from Fortaleza. He is cool, he is really short and stocky and is a hard worker. We have been out for the same amount of time in the mission field, so we are both senior companions. Ha Ha I live with 3 other Brazilians again. :) It's great, I never speak English. It's the best.
Well as for the Christmas phone call. I'll call you a week before Christmas to talk to you all about what's going to happen, what number you will use to talk to me and all that. Sorry guys, no Skype ;(
I gotta go. I have a lot of stuff to do to get this new area on a roll. (haha P-day.. relax, haha ya right, hahah)
Love you guys,
Elder Manis
Well, yup I got transferred. I'm now it the city of Campos in Rio de Janeiro. It's pretty cool down here. My area is on the outskirts of the big city and is the smallest of the mission. I have no clue why. Missionaries haven't been in this area for about 6 months. The area is known for making missionaries depressed and making them skinny too. Ha Ha Or you could say the food sucks.
Well, to tell you the truth, I don't see any of that. This is almost the best Christmas present ever. The branch is great, the members leave [church] with you and teach lessons. The branch president has about 160 references for us, so now all we have to do is get to work. Ha Ha It's going to be great. I think we are going to have a lot of success here in this city. President said he was holding this area out for 2 missionaries whom he could trust to work hard day in and day out. So I got a lot of motivation from him. He is the best, I love him.
My new companion is Elder A. Silva from Fortaleza. He is cool, he is really short and stocky and is a hard worker. We have been out for the same amount of time in the mission field, so we are both senior companions. Ha Ha I live with 3 other Brazilians again. :) It's great, I never speak English. It's the best.
Well as for the Christmas phone call. I'll call you a week before Christmas to talk to you all about what's going to happen, what number you will use to talk to me and all that. Sorry guys, no Skype ;(
I gotta go. I have a lot of stuff to do to get this new area on a roll. (haha P-day.. relax, haha ya right, hahah)
Love you guys,
Elder Manis
Monday, November 30, 2009
Answered Prayers
Oi Familia,
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. As for me, it was just another day. Ha Ha
This week has been a crazy week of ups and downs. This week is Elder Adriano's last week in the mission field. As you can imagine it's been a roller coaster for him. Just all the crazy emotions thinking about home and stuff. So that kinda messed things up for me a little bit too. For example; there were a few days where he said about 5 or 6 words to me and that was it. I got all mad, because when I would ask him something all he would say was; "I need to focus." It just didn't make anything easy, because I didn't want his last week to go on like this. One day it was really bad, I was angry and I didn't want to be with him. All day I was thinking about how I only had 4 more days with him and then that's it. (I was being really negative) That day we had an appointment for a lesson with a really good and promising investigator, who I'm 99% sure I will baptize next week. Anyway, this lesson needed to be good, and really good spiritually. I was thinking... how can we have the Spirit with us when I am being like this, this can't work. So I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. I was working straight on faith that this lesson would be perfect. And what do you know... we got to teaching and the nasty feeling that I had in me went away and we were able to teach. To teach and teach with the Spirit was amazing. To feel that the Lord really answered my prayers and that I know that He is listening to me and He is helping me do His work. Lincoln, the investigator, was so into the lesson too. It was amazing.
Well, in other matters, I saw a dog get ran over this week. It was sad because it didn't just die right away, it was screaming and yelping. I wanted to help it out so bad.
As for Christmas (calling home)a sister in my ward has this thing called Skype. Its like i-chat on the computer. I'm not sure if mac's can have Skype, but you should check it out. All the rules and stuff, because she said that I could use it if I wanted to. (So maybe on Christmas you can see me as well.) I have no clue about it, I just know I can use it if I want. If not I'll have a number for you guys to call on Christmas to just talk to me over the phone.
Well, that's about it for this week.
Love you guys,
Elder Manis
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. As for me, it was just another day. Ha Ha
This week has been a crazy week of ups and downs. This week is Elder Adriano's last week in the mission field. As you can imagine it's been a roller coaster for him. Just all the crazy emotions thinking about home and stuff. So that kinda messed things up for me a little bit too. For example; there were a few days where he said about 5 or 6 words to me and that was it. I got all mad, because when I would ask him something all he would say was; "I need to focus." It just didn't make anything easy, because I didn't want his last week to go on like this. One day it was really bad, I was angry and I didn't want to be with him. All day I was thinking about how I only had 4 more days with him and then that's it. (I was being really negative) That day we had an appointment for a lesson with a really good and promising investigator, who I'm 99% sure I will baptize next week. Anyway, this lesson needed to be good, and really good spiritually. I was thinking... how can we have the Spirit with us when I am being like this, this can't work. So I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. I was working straight on faith that this lesson would be perfect. And what do you know... we got to teaching and the nasty feeling that I had in me went away and we were able to teach. To teach and teach with the Spirit was amazing. To feel that the Lord really answered my prayers and that I know that He is listening to me and He is helping me do His work. Lincoln, the investigator, was so into the lesson too. It was amazing.
Well, in other matters, I saw a dog get ran over this week. It was sad because it didn't just die right away, it was screaming and yelping. I wanted to help it out so bad.
As for Christmas (calling home)a sister in my ward has this thing called Skype. Its like i-chat on the computer. I'm not sure if mac's can have Skype, but you should check it out. All the rules and stuff, because she said that I could use it if I wanted to. (So maybe on Christmas you can see me as well.) I have no clue about it, I just know I can use it if I want. If not I'll have a number for you guys to call on Christmas to just talk to me over the phone.
Well, that's about it for this week.
Love you guys,
Elder Manis
Monday, November 23, 2009
I am Thankful
Oi Familia,
Como voces estão pôwell?
This week has just been another hard week of work. I'm sorry I don't have any cool stories, just been working hard and the results have been coming slowly but they are coming. Elder Adriano and I are getting along great. Of course we have our little brigazinhos now and then, but everything is going great. He is getting a little trunkie, he only has one week left in his mission. So ya, you can imagine how he is feeling.
Well, a random story. This week I had an interview in English with President Pickett and I could hardly speak English. It's so crazy because I have to think so much to speak English and its just facil [easier] to speak Portuguese, :) cool huh? Vai ser muito mais facil se eu escrever minhas cartas do e-mail em portugés... mas vocés náo podem entender. haha [It's easier for me to write letters and e-mails in Portuguese...not that you guys would understand though.]
Well, I just checked my e-mails and I found out that it is almost Thanksgiving. Holy poo, I totally got lost in time. It is summer down here and I'm still waiting for it to get cold, but that will never happen. Ha Ha
Here are the things I am thankful for:
1. My Savior Jesus Christ and o que ele fez pra nos. I have been studying a lot about the life of Christ and trying to develop better Christ-like attributes. In doing so, I realized how much of a sacrifice he made for each and every one of us. He suffered, he wasn't just put up on the cruz [cross]. Ele [He] suffered in the garjim [garden] a pain that no one can describe and then he was persecuted and beaten, spit on and mocked and then he suffered on the cruz [cross]. Guys, know that Jesus Christ loves you and know that He died for you and only traves [through] him we can receber salvação [receive salvation].
2. Cada um de vocés [Each one of you] I love you all. For real's man.
Well I'm sorry I don't have much more to talk about.
Mom, I got my Halloween package. Ha Ha the candy lasted a good 5 seconds. I gave a Reese's peanut butter cup to Elder Adriano and he didn't take the paper off. So he ate the paper and said it was nasty. Ha Ha... burro. Ha Ha
Read the scriptures and know the Church is true.
I love you guys,
Elder Manis
Como voces estão pôwell?
This week has just been another hard week of work. I'm sorry I don't have any cool stories, just been working hard and the results have been coming slowly but they are coming. Elder Adriano and I are getting along great. Of course we have our little brigazinhos now and then, but everything is going great. He is getting a little trunkie, he only has one week left in his mission. So ya, you can imagine how he is feeling.
Well, a random story. This week I had an interview in English with President Pickett and I could hardly speak English. It's so crazy because I have to think so much to speak English and its just facil [easier] to speak Portuguese, :) cool huh? Vai ser muito mais facil se eu escrever minhas cartas do e-mail em portugés... mas vocés náo podem entender. haha [It's easier for me to write letters and e-mails in Portuguese...not that you guys would understand though.]
Well, I just checked my e-mails and I found out that it is almost Thanksgiving. Holy poo, I totally got lost in time. It is summer down here and I'm still waiting for it to get cold, but that will never happen. Ha Ha
Here are the things I am thankful for:
1. My Savior Jesus Christ and o que ele fez pra nos. I have been studying a lot about the life of Christ and trying to develop better Christ-like attributes. In doing so, I realized how much of a sacrifice he made for each and every one of us. He suffered, he wasn't just put up on the cruz [cross]. Ele [He] suffered in the garjim [garden] a pain that no one can describe and then he was persecuted and beaten, spit on and mocked and then he suffered on the cruz [cross]. Guys, know that Jesus Christ loves you and know that He died for you and only traves [through] him we can receber salvação [receive salvation].
2. Cada um de vocés [Each one of you] I love you all. For real's man.
Well I'm sorry I don't have much more to talk about.
Mom, I got my Halloween package. Ha Ha the candy lasted a good 5 seconds. I gave a Reese's peanut butter cup to Elder Adriano and he didn't take the paper off. So he ate the paper and said it was nasty. Ha Ha... burro. Ha Ha
Read the scriptures and know the Church is true.
I love you guys,
Elder Manis
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Migraine
Oi Familia,
How goes it in the AZ??
Everything going OK?
Things are going great down here. Well kinda - as far as work- it's going perfect, but this week I found out that I am my mother's son and my grandpa's grandson. In other words MIGRAINES, and they are killer too. Just yesterday during church I started to get a headache. I thought nothing of it, drank a bunch of water, but still it was pounding. I was sure it would just pass because I was almost positive my head hurt because I was dehydrated. So [after church] we went to teach a lesson. I was fine-ish, then BAM, I couldn't talk, I could hardly see and I was sweating like crazy. It was crazy. So we hurried up the lesson and left. Then BAM I threw up like 10 times in the street. I had Elder Adriano help to walk me home because I was basically blind. It was crazy! I couldn't see and I felt like I was going to pass out. It felt like a horse was kicking me in the head. I just went to bed and crashed. I'm not sure if it was caused by stress or the hot sun or something else, but it sucked big time.
How goes it in the AZ??
Everything going OK?
Things are going great down here. Well kinda - as far as work- it's going perfect, but this week I found out that I am my mother's son and my grandpa's grandson. In other words MIGRAINES, and they are killer too. Just yesterday during church I started to get a headache. I thought nothing of it, drank a bunch of water, but still it was pounding. I was sure it would just pass because I was almost positive my head hurt because I was dehydrated. So [after church] we went to teach a lesson. I was fine-ish, then BAM, I couldn't talk, I could hardly see and I was sweating like crazy. It was crazy. So we hurried up the lesson and left. Then BAM I threw up like 10 times in the street. I had Elder Adriano help to walk me home because I was basically blind. It was crazy! I couldn't see and I felt like I was going to pass out. It felt like a horse was kicking me in the head. I just went to bed and crashed. I'm not sure if it was caused by stress or the hot sun or something else, but it sucked big time.
As for work, it was, well...OK
We have been finding a lot of people to teach. But they are all burros. (donkeys) You can teach and teach and teach and your words go in one ear and out the other. It's really frustrating. But we found a real good kid named Lincoln, he is 19 years old and is just looking for the right path in life, which is amazing. He is not a burro. He is really smart and actually pays attention to what your are saying. It's so much easier and makes you happier when you teach someone that cares. As far as Elizete, she is progressing so well. Just this Sunday she paid her tithing. It is so amazing to see her progress.
We have been finding a lot of people to teach. But they are all burros. (donkeys) You can teach and teach and teach and your words go in one ear and out the other. It's really frustrating. But we found a real good kid named Lincoln, he is 19 years old and is just looking for the right path in life, which is amazing. He is not a burro. He is really smart and actually pays attention to what your are saying. It's so much easier and makes you happier when you teach someone that cares. As far as Elizete, she is progressing so well. Just this Sunday she paid her tithing. It is so amazing to see her progress.
Things have really been looking up. Elder Adriano is a little trunkie, but its all good. He only has 3 weeks left in his mission so he is now thinking about what he wants to do with his life. He always talks to me about what I want to do in life, and its made me realize that I have no clue. Ha Ha Oh well.
Hope everything is going great,
Elder Manis
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