Good week; Baptimal date for Tati!; Another talk in church, enduring to the end;

Hello everyone!!  It sounds like everyone had a good thanksgiving!!  And congrats Kyle on getting your Eagle, that's awesome to hear!!  This week has been a good one like it always is here in Vera Cruz.  Thankfully the weather has cooled down this week which is a lot nicer when you are walking throughout the city all day.
   
  Elder Fernandes and I were able to find quite a few new investigators this week.  A lot of them seemed really interested so we are really excited to continue visiting them and hopefully they continue to progress.  Something that was really cool was that we were able to mark a baptismal date with Tati!!  I think I mentioned her before, she is a neighbor and a really good friend of Marilene and is really interested in the church.  She came to church again yesterday and last night we went to her house for a short lesson and that is when she told us that she wanted to be baptized!  Haha I was really surprised, because we were planning on bringing up the topic of baptism and then invite her, but she brought it up before us!  Haha It was an awesome way to end the week and now we are both super pumped!  One thing that has kind of been lame though is that Leoni still hasn't been coming to church.  She is the mom of Douglas and the one that called to us while we were in the street and told us she wanted to start going to church again and be baptized.  We have been visiting her a ton since that day and she had been going to church for the first couple of weeks, but now she has been calling us every Sunday morning before church saying that they wont be able to make it.  It's kinda frustrating because she always is saying that for sure she will come the next week, but then she just keeps coming up with new excuses.  The one yesterday was that she was just too tired to go.  So we are really going to stress the importance of going to church with her this week and hopefully she will understand and take the effort to attend next Sunday with Douglas.
   
    Yesterday, I also gave another talk in church.  This time the branch president warned me a couple of days before so I got time to prepare better.  Haha it went a tooooon better than the one that I gave a few weeks ago!  Its amazing to see how much easier it was when I was able to prepare for the talk rather than trying to just get up there and talk without prior notice.  Also it was probably a little easier since my Portuguese is improving, but I am pretty sure that planning was the biggest difference.  The topic that Pres Henkes gave me was enduring to the end, which is a pretty cool topic because it applies to everybody in the world and its something that all of us still have to continue to do.  I just talked a little bit about how sometimes when people think of enduring to the end they think that that means we have to give up doing fun things in this life and if we can survive we can find happiness in the next life.  But in reality the people that keep the commandments have true happiness in this life and are blessed both spiritually and temporally.  I know that this is true and the reason I am here, to share this glad message with others so they can find this same joy that comes from living in harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I hope all of you guys can remember this throughout your daily lives and can continue on the strait and narrow path that leads to eternal life :)

     But yet again thanks sooooooo much for all the emails you guys!  I love hearing from all of you and about whats going on in your lives.  I cant wait for Christmas when I can talk to you guys face to face!  Hopefully I will still be here in Vera Cruz cuz I'm really loving it and would like to stay here another transfer.  Haha and also Irmã Jo is really hoping Ill be here because we would call from here house and she wants to Sister Jamie Gee again :D  But anyways,  love y'all a bunch!! See ya later!!

Love
Elder Gee

Elder Fernendes, learning Portuguese quicker; Nrew investigator, Tatiani

Hey everybody! Whats going on?  Are you guys excited for thanksgiving??  Haha I'm not gonna mind missing Thanksgiving dinner as much as other people would, but I definitely am going to miss pumpkin pie.  Hows school/work going?  The first week of this is new transfer has been a pretty good one!  I got to meet my new companion on Wednesday, his name is Elder Fernandes and he is from the interior of Sao Paulo.  He´s a cool guy, and hes always super happy.  Haha he is always just making jokes, singing songs in English or just laughing about something as we are walking which is good because it helps us stay excited even when its been a long day. Its been good having a companion that doesn't speak English.  Its definitely a lot harder to express yourself well, but now I am realizing a ton of important words that I don't know and I have been jotting them down in my notebook and then I can look for the translation in my dictionary afterwards.  I'm sure that if I work hard, I'm going to improve more with the language this transfer than I did the first couple of transfers.  Also being with a companion that doesn't know the area is quite a bit different.  I wasn't used to deciding where we should go and leading the way before, but really its not that hard.  Vera Cruz is a pretty small city so I feel comfortable being able to get to all of our members and investigators' houses and that kind of stuff.  So it sounds like Melissa got transferred, wow that's pretty crazy.  Is she liking the new area?? 
   
 This last week we focused on visiting all of the investigators that we have already been visiting for a while to introduce them to Elder Fernandes, but we did end up meeting and teaching a new investigator that seems really cool.  Her name is Tatiani and she is the neighbor and really good friend of Marilene.  Marilene had been talking a lot about the church to Tati and she was really interested and asked for us to come by and visit her.  The visit was really good and she came to church the next day and really liked it!  She said that she wants to keep coming so we are really excited about her and hope that she keeps progressing.  But the work here is continuing going great here in Vera Cruz.  Like I said we still have a lot of investigators and we are trying really hard to keep our little branch growing. 
  
  Well everything is well here!  Thanks for all the emails and support!!  I miss you all and am always praying for you guys!  Have an awesome thanksgiving and eat a lot!! Oh and elder Fernandes wanted me to tell you guys this joke...  What happens when you mix a cow and a smurf?  You get blue cheese!  Haha what a character.   But anyways see ya guys later!  Tchau thau

Elder Gee

100 degrees in November; Elder Stevens transferred; Helena baptized!

Hey there everybody!!  How you all doing up there?  How's the SNOW?  I've been feeling the exact opposite as the temperatures hit 100 a couple times this week. Wow, we are already coming to the close of another transfer.  This morning we heard the news that everybody expected, I´m staying here while Elder Stevens will be transferred.  I still don't know who is gonna be my new companion because the transfers are a day later than usual so I wont meet him until tomorrow.  But I'm just really glad and excited that I get the opportunity to stay here in Vera Cruz for some more time.  I already have grown to love the area, the members, and investigators that we are teaching.  This definitely should be an exciting transfer. 

     But in other news... on Saturday we had a baptism!!  Helena decided that she was ready to take the step and Elder Stevens got to baptize her on his last weekend here.  It was such a happy day for us and for her.  Haha I have probably already mentioned this but Helena is TERRIFIED of bodies water.  In some of the last visits before the baptism, we could tell that that for some reason she was a little hesitant to be baptized. She had been attending church frequently, living all of the commandments, and seemed to be really enjoying all of the activities and making friends with all of the members so we weren't really sure what the problem was.  After some long visits of just talking to here and trying to understand why she was preoccupied, she finally told us that she wasn't sure if she could handle being dunked into the completely into water. But she knew that she needed to be baptized and we helped her to be calm and assured her that all would be well.  On the day of the baptism, I could still tell that she was a little nervous, but she got into the font just fine and everything worked out fine.  Haha she gave the biggest sigh of relief when she came out of the water and then a couple minutes later she was back to being her normal super happy self.  It was such a great experience and one that I wont ever forget.  So we did have 2 baptisms set for this last Saturday, but it didn't end up working for Leoni.  She just felt that she needed a little more time going to church before she is prepared to be baptized.  We are definitely gonna keep helping her and hopefully we can get her feeling prepared soon.  Its easy to get frustrated when you feel like some is completely ready to be baptized and you really want it to happen before the end of a transfer, but I've already learned that its very important to be patient with investigators.  Our purpose is just to teach and help them understand the gospel of Christ and then invite them to receive and follow it. 

     Also this last week when our district leader came to do the baptismal interviews, I got to go to Rio Pardo again.  Haha its always awesome to go there because I feel super famous.  All the members that we talk to are super excited to meet the brother of Sister Gee.  So ya I got to meet some new people there and had a great time.  But ya that about sums up another awesome week here in Brazil.  I'm definitely learning a lot and having a good time.  Thank you all for the emails and all the support.  I love each of you and think about you often.  Have a great day/week and I cant wait to hear from you all next week!   Everyone that is reading this email is the bomb!!!!
From your pal,
Elder Gee

    

Day of the Dead; Helena and Leoni; Vera Cruz is truly an awesome area

Hey there guys, how is everybody doing?  Wow Kyle and Megan are both at Disneyland right now?  That sounds super fun right now!  How is Justin liking being an only child this week?  And how was Halloween for you guys? Haha I found out that Halloween here in Brazil isn't quite as big as it is back the US.  We saw a couple of kids dressed up as witches that night but that was it.  The real holiday happened a couple of days later when it was Day of the Dead.  Everybody got the day of and every single thing in the whole city was closed.  There was literally nobody in the streets that afternoon and it made it seem like the holiday was day of the dead city.  It seemed just to be like the Brazilian equivalent of Memorial day but It seemed like a bigger deal here.  We hardly saw anybody until we passed down the street of a cemetery where the whole street was lined with cars.  But it was really nice during the night because everybody was home and we were able to teach a lot of lessons :)
  
  It's been a pretty good week here since I've last emailed.  We have been working really hard with our investigators Helena and Leoni to prepare them to get baptized soon.  We have already taught them all of the lessons, they have been going and enjoying church, and they truly want to be baptized but they are both  just a little hesitant and want to keep on putting the date a little farther back.  We set a date with them for the 10th and I think it will work out and they will be baptized, but we just have to keep visiting them frequently, give them support, and keep on praying for them.  We really hope that it works out and that we can have a couple baptisms before the end of the transfer.  That would be nice.
   
 Speaking of the end of the transfer, its already the last week of the transfer now which means next time I write you guys I will know whether I'm staying here in Vera Cruz or if I'm gonna go to a different city.  Last transfer was pretty suspenseful while we were wondering which 2 missionaries would stay here, and which 2 would leave, but this time I'm almost 100% sure that I'll still be here because Elder Stevens will for sure get transferred.  He has already been here for 4 transfers which is almost 6 months!  Haha the mission president basically already told him he was leaving during his interview last week.  President Wright asked him how long he had been here in Vera Cruz and when Elder Stevens responded, he said something along the lines of well I can't tell you 100% that you're going to be transferred, but yeah you're gonna get transferred.  So now the real suspense is waiting to see who my new companion will be or maybe if we get 3 more missionaries and reopen Vera Cruz B.  I'm kinda hoping that I get a Brazilian companion that cant speak English very well because I spoke a ton of English with my first 2 companions and I think the language is coming slower to me because of this.  But we will have to see, I´m just excited that I can stay here in Vera Cruz because it truly is an awesome area.  We are still getting a lot of references from our recent converts and Its awesome to see and help our little branch here grow.  So ya that about sums are week up :)  But anyways, I truly am enjoying it here but I still miss and think of you guys a bunch.  Keep on writing me letters to let me know how the world over there is going.  I love you all and cant wait to see you in a bit!  Tchau tchau!

Love,
Elder Gee