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

Bruna

Eh Familia, FELIZ NATAL!

OK, I get to the chase, I'll call home 4:00 my time which should be 12:00 noon your time. Leave your Skype open because I'm going to try and call before Christmas just to get the kinks and stuff worked out, and to see if I can find you guys. I think I did my name as zack.manis. I looked for mom and I think I found her. But she didn't tell me in this email if she had found me or not. I hope everything will work out, but remember KEEP SKYPE OPEN SO I CAN SEE IF I CAN FIND YOU GUYS AND CONNECT WITH YOU GUYS. I don't want Saturday to come around and things get all screwed up.

This week was a good week. We had the baptism of Bruna, she was all pumped up to be baptised. She started jumping up and down as if she was a football player about to run into the game. haha It was so funny. But this baptism was probably one of the most frustraiting baptisms ever. Many things where just screwed up. First off, she forgot a towell and underware and she was always leaving the Church to go find her friends in the street. And then she got caught up in drama in the middle of sacrament meeting. Her phone was ringing off the hook. My blood was just boiling. I was not in a good mood because Saturday I got really really really sick and basically stayed home all day throwing up. So I was still feeling horrible and I was asked to preside the meeting. So I had to sit on the stand and our chaple doesn't have air, so I was all sweaty and nasty. But pffeeeww, she was baptised. (PS- I think I have dange... but oh well.)
Christmas is comming up. No, I haven't gotten the packages yet and I still have no idea if they are even here in Brazil yet. But I sure hope so. A lady gave us a broken Christmas tree this week. The lights where burnt out so I tried to re-wire it. But instead the wireing box exploded in my face and burnt me a little. haha This week was just a stressfull week, but I am glad today, I get to relax a little. Everyone here is starting to travel and starting to go to the beach for the holiday, so the work is getting a little harder because people just wanna get out.
Any way, I love being a missionary even the stressfull weeks are fun and all you get to do is smile it out. :) I love my mission. :)
Looking foward to Saturday.
Love ya,
Elder Manis

Serra

Hello Familia,
Well, my new area is Serra. It's really close to where Andre Carloni is, in fact, I can often see the area where I used to work. It's good to be back in Vitoria. I love the ocean breeze and the smell of fish markets and the salty air. haha It's the best.
My new comp' is Elder Costa, from Manus. Yupp, he is a Lamenite. haha He is really short and way funny. He is basically like the Brazilian version of my first companion Elder Hale my trainer.
This week was full of laughs and good times we already have a baptism coming up too. It's Bruna, she is an amazing lady. She has 24 years and is really looking forward to being baptised. But she doesn't have a lot of support. Like just this morning she called me telling me that she didn't want to be baptized because her friends are telling her that she is crazy. She basically is just getting confused about stuff because of her friends. But it's all good. We will go there tonight and sort things out. We also have Pamela. We found her knocking doors. She is really really depressed, like she has thought about killing herself and stuff. But our messages have really helped her out. It's amazing to see how simple the Gospel is, but how much it can effect the life of someone. So if everything goes right she will be baptised on Christmas.

I live in a house with another couple of missionaries. Elder F. Silva and Elder Ostermiller, they are pretty legit. Elder Ostermiller and Elder Costa both have only 5 months on the mission. Elder Ostermiller is sooo funny! I think he is so funny because he is so young on the mission. haha Like he has been saying slang stuff that I haven't heard in so long, so I just start cracking up. hahah It's so funny. My area is really good but really big, so we end up spending a lot of money on buses. But it's OK at least we have lunch.

I sent you guys a Christmas package last week. It will probably get there in January but oh well, I hope you guys like it. I threw some random stuff in it for all of you, and a random thing for Cara. I still haven't gotten my Christmas package. Being that it hasn't even arrived in Brazil yet, (they usually call and tell you if you got a package) but that's only happened to me 2 times on the mission, with Jel's package and my birthday package - that took 7 months to get here. We will see.

I hope all is well with you. If everything goes well, I'll see you on Christmas using Skype. I'm going to create my own account.

Love ya guys,
Elder Manis

ps- Preston got hitched??

Tell Wyatt to go to BYU or any Utah college, they will hold your scholarship.

Elect of the Lord

Minha nossa Hannah, realmente tem aquela altura?
(Oh my Hannah, has it really been that much time?)

Well, this week was an amazing week because we had the baptisms of Isabella and Valeria. Let's just say that she was the most elect person that I have ever met. :) We found her knocking doors, and at first she didn't want to let us in. But I insisted that we had a message that would change her life. So she said; "Fine, come on in." And from there, the ball went rolling down hill. Everything we wanted her to do, she did. She is one of the elect of the Lord, and it's an honor to be a part of this process of bringing her to the true Church of God. Here are some pictures.
Hey Mom, don't worry about what you hear. Some people are so afraid of what's going to happen in the last days. But the question we need to ask is, "What are you doing to prepare for the last days?" Many people just sit back and watch the things fall apart before them. But then there are others that say, "Nope this is not going to happen to me." or you can say that they put their faith to work and are blessed because of that. Those who suffer say, "I had faith, I did this and that. I went to church everyday, I paid my tithing, I did enough. But all God will say is ... "Well where are your works, that you gave through your faith." Ya, I know what you feel Mom, but don't worry they will get the big picture some day.

But in other news, I got transferred. I'm going back to Vitoria. I'm still a Zone Leader so we will see how things will play out.
I haven't much time, so I'll try to come back in the afternoon to write more.
I gotta send a package to you guys.

:)
Love,
Elder Manis