Merry Christmas Eve everybody!! Young mom recognized my face before she saw my name!

Hey Merry Christmas Eve everybody!!      Wow its hard to believe that Christmas is already here!  I am super excited to be able to talk to you all tomorrow!!!  Its going to be awesome!!  Its been a great week before Christmas here in Vera Cruz.  There's that great buzz around the city as everybody is getting more excited for Christmas and the buildings and houses are decked out with decorations and Christmas lights.  On Saturday our branch had a special Christmas activity.  It ended being a great turnout with a lot of members and family members and even some investigators that we invited.  The party started with musical performances by the primary and the young men, and then the branch president asked me and Elder Fernandes to do a number.  We sang the same song that our district had been practicing for the Christmas Conference, the one that the ZL wrote.  Haha I think that it was quite a bit better when the whole district sang it together with the accompaniment of the piano because we started on a note that made the song reeeeeeeeeeally high!   haha but the members liked it and it was fun  Then we got the special visit of Santa Claus!  or Papai Noel in Portuguese.  All of the kids were super excited to talk to him and he gave them all candy!  It was cool because I recognized Santa as the nephew of Jaci, one of our investigators that we have been visiting, so it was good for him to show up to a church activity.  After that we all enjoyed a huuuuuuuuge Churrasco!  Haha it was great and everyone was definitely satisfied.
     Its also the beginning of a new transfer here and while both me and Elder Fernandes stayed for another transfer, there have been a lot of changes in our district.  There is a new sister, ZL, and also now we have a new DL named Elder Da Costa.  He seems like a really funny and cool guy.  He was in the same district as Sister Gee back in the day and talks a lot about her, maybe you remember him Jamie.  Oh and also something that was cool happened while I was in Santa Cruz.  The DL wasn't available to do a baptismal interview for the ZL´s so the president allowed Elder Fernandes to go there to do it and while he did that I worked with the new ZL in Santa Cruz for an hour or so.  We knocked doors for most of the hour until we went to an appointment with one of their investigators.  She was a young mom named Tati and when she saw me she asked me if I had a relative that served a mission here because I looked just like the sister that began teaching her.  I asked her if it was Sister Gee that began teaching her, but she said she couldn't remember her name, but then I showed her a picture of Jamie and she got really excited and said that was the one!  She told me to send a hug to you Jamie.  The ZL´s said that she is starting to go to church every week now and that she is progressing really well.  Haha its really cool to see that your work here is still continuing and making a difference in people's lives.  Also that night we got to see a little bit of the Christmas activity there and yet again I met a handful of people that wanted to talk to me about Sister Gee.  Haha cool stuff!
     Wow its going to be sooooo cool to talk to you guys in just a little bit more than 24 hours!!!  I hope all you have an awesome Christmas together and can always remember the true meaning of Christmas.  But that's all for now  I love you all a ton and will talk to you very soon!!  Woohoo!!

      Love,  ELDER Gee

Staying in Vera Cruz for Christmas; Hard week; Barbara brought 4 friends to church!

Hellllo from Vera Cruz, still my home for the next 7 weeks!  Haha yep, transfers came and past and I successfully avoided them to stay here in Vera Cruz for a fourth transfer.  I'm really excited just because I really wanted to be able to pass Christmas with the members here that I already have a strong bond with.  Haha I was soooooooo anxious to hear the news these last couple of days and I had the feeling that I was gonna leave so It was such a relief when I heard the good news this morning.  I'm super happy and it should be an awesome upcoming transfer here in Vera Cruz. 
 
   This week I got to go to Porto Alegre for the Christmas Conference.  It was great and I learned a lot of good stuff.  The district talent show was really fun and the song that we practiced turned out really well!  I saw a ton of my roommates from the CTM and got to talk to them.  They all commented that my Portuguese had improved a lot which was nice to har, but also every single one commented that I was a little heavier than I was at the CTM which wasnt as nice haha :(  We went to an awesome buffet for lunch (there's the reason right there) and I got to meet a lot of new missionaries.  Yet again there were a ton who asked me about Jamie and how she was doing.  Good stuff.  Haha I thought the best part of the whole conference though was the end when all of the missionaries received mini preach my gospels from President and Sis Wright!  They are super cool and really convenient to carry around.  And then we picked up our boxes and everybody was asking me about mine.  Haha we didn't know what would be inside such a weird shaped box, but It was so cool when I opened it up and saw all of the decorations and presents that you guys gave me.  Elder Fernandes said he was jealous of me haha, but since I'm such a good guy I shared some of treats with him. 
   
   In other news, the end of this week was kind of hard for us.  We planned a lot of lessons for the weekend but the majority of them fell through and we didn't have anything to do on those days.  Also during the last couple of days I got the sure feeling that I was going to be transferred and I just kind of felt all around discouraged.  Also this week school ended for summer vacation and a lot of the members went on vacation so we had a low attendance at church,  but thankfully we had a great surprise.  Barbara, one of the young women in the branch brought 4 friends to church and introduced them to us.  We got to know them, and also got their addresses and marked a day to go and meet their families!!  Haha that really was encouraging and helped me get in a better mood.  We still haven't had the baptismal interview with Tati because she hasn't been able to completely give up smoking yet, but she is trying hard and making improvements.  That is one of the hard things about this region of Brazil, everyone here works in tobacco plantations or factories so everybody smokes, and it's always quite a battle to quit. 
   
  But anyways, I'm super happy today because of the news that I'm staying here for Christmas, and I'm even more happy that I'll get to talk with y'all in just 8 short days.  Thanks for all the love, prayers, emails and support!  Much love from Brazil!

Elder Gee

Christmas conference next week! Transfer right before Christmas?!?

   Hey hey hey!  Whats up everyone?? Hows everything going in Utah??  Its beginning to feel more like Christmas here.  There isn't any snow on the ground, but now there are a lot of Christmas lights and decorations around the city.  The branch has also been planning some Christmas season activities that have been really fun and helped me get in the Christmas mood.  And also this next week the mission is going to have a Christmas Conference in Porto Alegre!!  I'm suuuper excited about it.  Our district has been practicing a musical number that one of the zone leaders wrote and we will sing there for the program.  It should be great and I'm really excited to see some of the missionaries that I haven't seen since we were roommates back in the CTM. 

     Me and Elder Fernandes had another good week of work.  We taught a good number of lessons, but unfortunately we only had 1 investigator that attended church yesterday.  We will work hard and try visit a ton of people so we can get some more this next Sunday.  We had to push back the baptism for Tati another week because we weren't able to have division with the district leader to come down and do the interview, so we are really hoping that it can work out this week because it is already the last week of the transfer!  Planning the baptisms is always a little difficult and stressful because sometimes its hard have the interviews or to find a time that works for everybody to go to Santa Cruz and set up everything, but they always end up working out just fine and always are the greatest experiences.  Something that was kinda cool that happened this week was when we had Elder Rollins stay with us for a day.  The leaders had a conference in Porto Alegre so his companion went with ZL´s and he stayed with us.  Haha it seemed kind of weird working in a 3 some, but it was fun. 

     Wow so transfers are gonna happen this next week so by next Monday I will know whether I´m staying here in Vera Cruz for 7 more weeks or if I get transferred to a new area.  Under normal circumstances I would think that there is a really good chance that I will be transferred since I have already been here for 3 transfers, but I'm think that Pres. Wright might try to limit the amount of missionaries being transferred since it was a shorter transfer than usual and it is happening right before Christmas.  We will just have to wait and see.  Either way would be alright with me, but I think I would prefer to stay in Vera Cruz just for 1 more transfer so I can celebrate Christmas with the members that I already have a good friendship with. :)

     But anyways, I hope you guys have a great upcoming week!  I love you all and wish you the best!  Oh,and only 2 more weeks till I get to talk with you guys on Christmas!!  Cheeaaaaaaahoooo!!

Much love,

Elder Gee

Investigators progressing; Typical weekly routine; Branch organist

Hey there everybody! What have you all been up to lately?  Happy December!!  Thats pretty crazy that its already the month of Christmas, are you all excited??  It should be nice to have a good Christmas break from school and work in a couple of weeks.  Everything's great here, but wow!  This week went by sooo fast!  It feels like it was just a couple of days ago when I was writing you guys an email last Monday.  Haha is it just me or are you guys feeling that too?
    Well Elder Fernandes and I had another good week teaching.  This week we continued working with our investigators and quite a few are progressing, especially Tati.  She really wants to get baptized and we are hoping that she can get the interview and be baptized this week!  Also we started teaching a women named Jo and her 3 kids.  She has a 12 and a 10 year old boy and a 9 year old girl.  Their family seems really cool and are really nice.  We were super excited yesterday when they all came to church and we are looking forward to continue teaching and helping them out.
     Haha so like I said this week just blew by and it feels like there isn't much new news to share with you guys.  I guess I will just talk a little bit more about our weekly routine here in Vera Cruz because I don't think I've really talked about that in much detail.  On Tuesday morning is when we have our weekly planning session and talk about which investigators we should focus on, how we can help them out, and also are goals for lessons, investigators at church, new investigators etc.  Also we can decide what lessons we should teach and do practices to help us think of scriptures to use and questions to ask to make lesson more effective.  On Tuesday night we have a branch family night which is always really fun and helps our branch grow more united.  There is always a spiritual thought along with games and a toooon of food!  On Wednesday night at 8 o'clock we play soccer as a branch.  This is really fun and its really a great way to get investigators to get to know the some of the members of the church.    Haha I really enjoy it even though its clear that I don't have quite the soccer skills that the other Brazilian guys do :)  On Thursday morning we have district meeting in the chapel in Santa Cruz.  Those meetings are cool and the training can really help us out in the work.  Because our branch is brand new and small we have a member that lives in Santa Cruz that helps out our branch, and after district meeting we go eat lunch in his house.  He is a chef so that is always the besssst lunch haha!!  On Friday we eat with the missionary work leader, Irmão Pablo, and we have a brief meeting with him where we talk about our investigators and how they are progressing and how the branch can help out with the work.  Saturday is usually the most successful day for us because nobody is working so we try to visit as many people as we can to remind them and invite them to church the next day.  Then on Sunday church starts at 9 o'clock in the morning.  We usually go early and meet up with some members and then go pick up investigators if they need a ride.  I'm the organist for our branch even though I don't play very well, but I really like being able to help out with the music.  And then Monday, P-day!! Haha P-day is obviously my favorite day, because it's the day I can hear from all y'all!  But yeah that's a normal week in Vera Cruz.  Pretty cool huh??  It's really an awesome area and I'm hoping that I dont get transferred because it would be really cool to spend Christmas here.
     So I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Thanks for the emails and prayers!  You guys are all too cool!!  Have a great Christmas season!

Love your bro/son/relative/amigo

Elder Gee