Winter is finally arriving; Tati was excited to go to church yesterday;

     Hey there everybody!  Thanks for all of the emails today.  It sounds like everybody is either enjoying summer or really excited for it to start soon!  Things are well down here in Lagoa Vermelha.  Its actually been quite a bit chilly this last week with a lot of rain.  It feels like winter is finally arriving.  The temperatures aren't really very low here, but it can be pretty cold because all of the buildings and houses feel like the same temperature as it is outside, so Ive been having to start using some of my warm clothes.  The rain has kinda been annoying because a majority of the city here is dirt roads so I've been marching through a lot of mud haha.

     Well it was a pretty productive week this week.  We continued looking for a lot of new investigators and following up the ones that seem to be the most interested.  We met this really cool lady named Tati.  She is probably in about her upper 20's and has a little 2 year old son named Taylor.  We first talked to her by doing a street contact and she was really interested and told us that she has been studying the Bible a lot recently and visiting different churches.  During the visits we've been noticing that she is really intelligent, knows the Bible way better than I do, and is really receptive to what we have to say.  She was super excited to go to church yesterday and even was sending us text messages to us to make sure we would pass by with a ride.  She has already become good friends with us and later today and more this week were are going to help her with a service project in her yard.  On Saturday we were having a pretty rough and rainy day when literally nobody was letting us in, but later that night we were able to teach two young and really cool families.  We had really good first lessons with them both and they both seem excited for us to visit them again.  It was a super good way to end the day and it looks like they are families that can progress a ton!  We still haven't been able to baptize Celso.  We have been trying to figure out whats stopping him and what are his doubts but I have no idea.  He always says he wants to get baptized but then always has little excuses to keep setting the date back.
     I'm not really thinking of any exciting or other interesting stories that happened this last week.  We are working hard here and doing all that we can to find the people that are ready to receive the message.  Thanks everybody for all of the love and support you always give me.  You guys are soooo cool!!  But I hope everyone has a great upcoming week!!  Cya later

Elder Gee

Good week here in Lagoa; I really enjoy small branches;

    Hello there all of you good people.  Whats going on? 

    So I had a good week here in Lagoa.  I'm starting to get more of a feel of the area, the members, and our investigators. 

     Since last Sunday was Stake Conference, I got to experience our branch for the first time yesterday.  Our branch is really small and there were probably 25-30 people there yesterday.  But like Vera Cruz, I really enjoy small branches because all of the members are really close and its good to make good friendships with them.  There was a family visiting from Bento that I met there and they are planning on moving out here which would be cool and help out our branch a lot.  We also found a woman this week that is less active while we were looking for new investigators and she was really happy to talk with us and then she went to church this last week.  I noticed that during the fast and testimony meeting she was feeling the spirit and she told us that she would for sure come next week too.  We will are planning on visiting her this next week and hopefully we can meet and teach her boyfriend that isn't a member.  We also marked a baptism date this Saturday with one of our investigators Celso.  He is a middle age man that is a good friends with some of the members and has already been frequenting the church for months.  He has been really hesitant when it comes to baptism, even though he already passed the baptismal interview with prior missionaries.  He thinks he isn't ready because he has a lot of confusion in his life and wants his life to become more clear and stable before baptism.  We had a good lesson with him and focused on the gift of the Holy Ghost and how it would help him with these important decisions after his baptism.  He was still a little hesitant when we tried to mark the date but then finally accepted.  We are definitely going to have to follow up a lot with him this week to keep him motivated and prepared for this Saturday.

     For this next week I think a majority of our work is going to be looking for new investigators.  Wish us good luck and that we can find some of the ``eleitos``  But I'm doing well here so don't worry about me :)  Thanks for everything and have an awesome week!!

Transfered to a little city called Lagoa Vermelha - farthest away from the mission headquarters; I was called as District Leader; Quite a few baptisms - Diselu

Hello friends!!  Greetings from Elder Gee!  It sounds like everybody had a really busy week finishing up with finals and everything.  But luckily its SUMMER already for you guys!  Oh and happy birthday to everybody who had a birthday recently!  I feel bad for not writing anything in my earlier emails, but I promise I didn't forget about you on the actual birth dates, just when I write my emails. 

     So I'm guessing you all want to hear about my new area... So I got transferred to a little city called Lagoa Vermelha close to Passo Fundo.  Well actually its not that close because its a 2 hour bus ride, but that's the Zone.  I'm pretty sure that Lagoa is the city farthest away to the mission headquarters in Porto Alegre.  To give you a clue, we didn't get to our area until about 4:00 on Wednesday afternoon and the transfers happen on Tuesday morning.  We slept at the LZ´s house in Passo Fundo on Tuesday to save time and money because they next morning was district meeting there.  Also I was called to be a district leader so it was my first meeting, but I hadn't even arrived at our house or unpacked or anything so it was kind of a fast planned training.  But it turned out fine and was a lot easier and calmer than I expected.  So I'm definitely gonna have to get used to long bus rides for this area.  This week we have a conference in Porto Alegre and then also leadership training, so if I understand correctly, we are going to leave Wednesday morning to Passo Fundo and then go as a zone to Porto Alegre and have the conference Thursday morning.  We will return to Passo Fundo and then on Friday have the leadership training and probably get home late that night.  Crazy huh?
    Oh ya, but about the area.  Like I said, its a really small city (I think even smaller than Vera Cruz) with a small branch.  My companion is Elder Simpson, from Washington.  He is a cool and a funny guy and has a little more than 6 months on the mission.  He was one of the missionaries that reopened this area so its really new and is needing a lot of work from the missionaries.  The area was shut for about 6 months from the missionaries, and during that time the number of frequenting members went from 80 down to about 20.  I still don't have a real feel for our branch because this last Sunday was Stake Conference in Passo Fundo.  There were a ton of members there and we had the awesome privilege to hear from General Authorities Stanley Ellis and Elder Richard G Scott from a transmission in Salt Lake.  I remembered Stanley Ellis because I really liked in his talked in General Conference, and he gave another awesome talk about obedience.  I had a little trouble understanding Elder Scott but even a lot of the Brazilians did because he spoke really soft with an interesting accent.  But it was way good.
      But the work has been speeding up here and there have been quite a few baptisms recently, including one that we had on Saturday with a man named Dilseu.  He has a cool story, because his teenage kids are members but he never was too interested in the church and had a drinking problem.  He had to go to the hospital because of all of the alcohol he consumed but while there he decided he wanted to change his life.  The missionaries went there because his kids asked for them  to give him a blessing, and they found that he had read more than half of the Book of Mormon and wanted to be baptized.  In less than 2 weeks we taught him everything and was baptized.  We also have a lot of other good investigators that look promising.  The only problem is that both last week and then this next week, we are losing a lot of time with these long trips.  Almost all of them work during the day so we have a really small window to teach them all.  It will be interesting but we will do our best to make time for all of them.

     But I doing well here and super excited for my new assignment.  I love you all and thank you for all of the support.  Have an awesome week!

Elder Gee

Shocker! ..transfer tomorrow; Elder Marques has been saying goodbyes and I am the one leaving ;-) Marcia and Vagner wedding and baptism!

Hey everybody!  Wow, I sure received a shocker this morning.  It turns out that I'm going to be transferred tomorrow.  Haha I definitely wasn't expecting this.  I opened up my email this morning and the transfers was one of the last emails I read because we both were pretty sure that Elder Marques was going to be the guy.  But tomorrow morning I will be leaving and heading to my new area.  To be honest, I'm kinda disappointed because I am really liking it here in Bento Gonçalves and we have a ton of good investigators and awesome members that I´m going to miss.  These last couple of days all of the members were unofficially saying goodbye to Elder Marques and he gave a talk yesterday which for his ``last Sunday in Bento`` and he even has his suitcase all packed and ready for tomorrow.  While I on the other hand haven't even given any though about leaving, have a bunch of dirty laundry because I have been letting Elder Marques wash everything, and am going to have a ton of packing to do later on today.   Wow, yeah it was definitely surprising news and it doesn't look like I'm going to have much time to say goodbye to people or things like that.  But even though its kinda disappointing to all of a sudden leave an area when nobody is expecting it, it will be a good experience in my new area.  All i need to do is just keep on working and helping people out and just trust in the Lord. :)
     But thankfully, my last week here in Bento Gonçalves was a memorable one.  This weekend our investigators Marcia and Vanger had there wedding on Friday night, and then were baptized on the following Saturday. They were both so excited to get married and baptized.  The wedding turned out great with a bunch of help from the ward members and it was a very special night.  I think that it was the first wedding that I have ever attended, maybe I'm forgetting another one, but all in all it was an awesome experience!  Haha a cool thing was that me and Elder Marques got to be 2 of the witnesses of the wedding and I got to feel a little important :)  Oh ya, I just remembered that we had a scare that night because 1 of the 4 registered witnesses said he wouldn't be able to make it, and we learned from the bishop that it has to be the same witnesses that were registered or the wedding process couldn't be completed.  Luckily, they were able to pick him up and everything turned out well besides the 45 minutes that the members sat waiting for it to start.  After the wedding, there was a party with a ton of good food and cake which was the cherry on top of a fantastic night.  Then on Saturday, they were both baptized!!  I baptized Marcia and Elder Marques baptized Vagner, and like always it was a sweet baptism.  I was so happy for them and had a such a good feeling while I was there with them as they made this so important covenant.  Well I don't think there is a better way to leave an area then seeing a family be baptized so all is well.
     Well family and friends, I'm doing great here and ready for my next opportunity to serve my new area.  Since the beginning of my mission, I can tell that my testimony of this work has grown a lot and I know that there are people that are ready to hear the truth of the restored gospel.  I'm very grateful that I have this period of time to focus on helping out in this marvelous work, and for the experiences that will help me throughout the rest of my life.  Thanks for all the love and support.  I hope you have an awesome week and Ill tell you where I am going to serve next Monday.  See you guys later,

Elder Gee

Vagner and Marcia making progress; Flavia and Leandro

Olá amigos!  Whats up?  Thanks for all of the emails today!  Its always great to hear what you guys are up to, and its sounds like everything is good in the neighborhood.  I'm having a blast down here, and we had another exciting week.  The biggest and most exciting news this week was still the progress of Vagner and Marcia.  With the wards help, we were able to help them plan everything for there up coming wedding this Friday!  They are both super excited for the wedding and are both ready for the baptism the next day!  We have already taught them everything they need to know, and now its just the interview this Thursday, the wedding on Friday, and then the baptism on Saturday!!  Wooohooo!!  Wow, they are such a special young couple and they both truly have a strong desire to choose the right and follow Christ´s example.  They are quick to put into practice the teachings and have been willing to make a couple of changes in their normal lifestyle, because they have a strong faith that has been growing and growing every single day.  Vagner is very intelligent and asks many good questions when doubts arise.  There was an awesome experience this week while we were visiting them this weekend when he briefly shared his testimony of the gospel and told us how his goal is to be sealed in the temple with his family! Haha too cool right?
     Flavia and Leandro are still continuing our process to get married.  This week while we were visiting them Leandro firmly stated that he wanted to be baptized and we were able to talk to him a little more and help him understand the process.  This was great news because before he was much more hesitant.  He always has showed that he wants to get married with Flavia but never really wanted to talk to much about going to church or about baptism.  This afternoon we went with them to the registry as witnesses like we did with Vagner and Marcia and completed all of the paperwork necessary.  The date of the wedding is set for the 26th of April.  We still cant plan too much about the date of the baptism and other things, because we have only taught him a couple of times, and he still hasn't come to church.  But it was a really positive and motivating week for them, and we are super excited to continue helping out this awesome family.
     We also had some members bring friends to church which is always good for us.  One of the people that seem to have a lot of potential is Marie.  She and her cousin Berny recently moved to Bento Gonçalves from the Dominican Republic.  Berny was baptized there 5 years ago and when they moved here, they searched and found the church last Sunday.  Berny didn't realize that it was General Conference that weekend so he came at the normal hour, but luckily we were there at the chapel to talk with the Ward Mission Leader Ricardo.  We talked to them a bit and informed them about conference, and they ended up coming to both of the Sunday sessions.  We were really excited to teach them this week, but it appears like they don't have a set place and are just living with some friends.  They are hoping that they can get set place to live this week and then we can hopefully start teaching Marie.  They both went to church this last week and are already making good friends with the members.  Haha they are both super nice and funny and speak Portuguese a little like me, because their first language is French.  But ya they are cool and once we can starting teaching them, I think Marie will quickly get baptized!  

All in all, the work is going forward here and we are both happy.  I'm grateful that I have this chance to focus on serving my neighbor and the lord here and I know that this a once in a life time opportunity so I'm trying to take advantage of it :)  I love you all a ton and wish you guys the best.  Thanks for the support.

Elder Gee

Great experience to watch and hear general conference; Vagner and Marcia upcoming marriage and baptism

    

Good morning everybody!  How is everybody doing these days?  Wow, how was Spring Break?  It sounds everybody had a great time in Disneyland and at the beaches.  I wont lie I was pretty jealous of you guys and I found my thoughts in California a couple of times this week haha.  But, it was still a great week here, especially with the opportunity we had to watch General Conference this weekend.
      It was a great experience to watch and hear the messages of the Prophet, Apostles, and other church leaders.  In my opinion, Conference is even better on the mission.  So much great counsel that you can use to help other people, and also strengthen your own testimony as you are dedicating this period only to serving the lord.  It also definitely strengthens our testimonies that the church leaders are definitely inspired, and that they are telling us exactly what God wants us to hear.  Thankfully, it was a lot easier to understand the language and maintain my attention this conference, compared to my first on the mission.  I learned a ton and came out this weekend feeling great and refreshed spiritually and physically. 
      So we have still been working really hard with our investigators that are progressing and helping them prepare for baptism.  We spent a lot of time helping out Vagner and Marcia and help them prepare for their up coming marriage.  In the beginning of the week we went with them to help them register the marriage. Luckily, we found out that since the wedding will take place in the church, the 30 day wait isn’t necessary!  We marked the date for the 19th of April, and then they will be baptized the very next day!  Haha right now I'm just getting a tiny taste of all the planning that needs to take place for a wedding, but thankfully the members and relief society president are getting very involved to help out this couple with all of things like food, invitations, wedding dress, etc. that missionaries have no idea how to do.  But even though it is a little frantic, they are both super excited to get married and I can already see the happiness that is coming.  They were both there at the General Conference and it was clear that they both really enjoyed and it was a good family bonding time. 
      Unfortunately, we also had some not so great news.  Our golden investigator Jussie, who has been progressing a ton recently had to travel for work and will be out of the state for 20 or so days.  This was kind of disappointing because we had the baptism marked  for this very weekend.  We visited him before he left and gave him a lot of Book of Mormon passages and told him to try hard to remember the teachings and commandments that we taught during the trip.  We are hoping and praying that all goes well and that we can baptize him soon after he returns, but I’m kind of nervous because we have been visiting him a ton lately to help him, and 3 weeks without contact is a long time.
      Wow this week went by unusually extremely fast! I’m not really remembering any other noteworthy news from this week, but it seems like this email is missing some other exciting stuff that happened.  Well I guess I will share my testimony that Jesus Christ lives and he loves us, and that only through him we can find true joy in this life and in the life to come.  I love all of you a ton and wish you the best!  Thanks for all of the support!

Elder Gee

April Fools; Teaching three couples

Hey there everybody!!  Happy April Fool´s day.  Yeah I remembered about it because it exists here in Brazil too, so you don’t need to send me some crazy news that’s happening up there because I wont believe you.  Haha even if its true, just wait and till me the next week  :) 

I had a fun Easter here, and ate way to many chocolates and other junk.  All of the ward members love to give food to us missionaries, so don’t worry I didn’t miss out on the sweets. Things are going well here, although this week was really hot. Just when it seemed like it was about to become winter time.  But we still had another good and productive week, and are having a lot of investigators that are progressing. The biggest news is that we currently have 3 couples that we are teaching who are planning to get married soon.  There is Vagner and Marcia who I talked about the last week, Leandro and Flavia, and Michelle and Paulo.  Vanger and Marcia both came to church again and are really excited to get baptized.  Vagner is an awesome guy and is reading all of the passages we leave for them, and I can already imagine him as a great priesthood holder that will help out the ward.  Flavia is a recent convert and we have started visiting her boyfriend Leandro.  Leandro is a cool guy and is interested in the church.  We have only been able to visit him a couple of times, but they also are wanting to get married. We have been helping them out with the information and getting the process started.  Leandro also has twins that are 8 years old, so its another family that could all be baptized. 

Then there is Michelle and Paulo who were ex-investigators, but this week one of the members told us that they are really wanting us to come back and visit them.  I met them yesterday and they are a super cool family!  They have 3 sons (2 over 8:)) and Paulo told us that he has been studying a lot of literature from the church recently.  Haha I was really surprised when we went there and saw that he had a trips, and Principles of the Gospel Manual.  I was even more surprised when he told us that he read the entire manual and then asked us to give a lesson about eternal marriages and families.  The lesson was very special I could tell that everyone there felt the spirit!  We are both really excited about these families because all of them are progressing and have potential to be baptized soon.. This week we focused a lot on these families and this week they should all start process and the 30 day countdown that people need to wait before the wedding.Then there is one of our other investigators, Jussie who has been progressing a lot recently. This week we taught him the Word of Wisdom which we knew he had a problem with. We taught the lesson with one of the members of the ward, and it ended up being a great lesson. Jussie promised to live the Word of Wisdom and give up smoking and drinking coffee.  We also traded his coffee that he had in his house for a package of Cevada which is similar, but not against the Word of Wisdom. He is doing really well and is excitedly preparing for his baptism on the 13th of April.  I think that just about sums up our week here in Bento Gonçalves. 

I hope you are all doing well there and I am very jealous that you guys are going to be in Disneyland this week, (if its not an April Fool´s joke :P)  I sent a couple pics this week so send me some back from the trip.  Also, Congratulations on the job offer Ryan!! It sounds like that was a great birthday present for you.  But anyways, have an awesome spring break in Cali!  I love you all!  See ya later,

Elder Gee

Productive week!; Zone conference; Lots of investigators at church!

Hello there everyone,  What's going on??  It sounds like everybody is doing well and staying busy.  The same goes for me here. :)
     We had a good and productive week here.  The highlight of the week for sure was a Conference with various Zones in Caxias on Friday.  There were some doctors there that came and gave a presentation for all of the missionaries on how we can stay more healthy here on the mission.  Then the new Assistants to the President gave a really awesome training for us.  They taught us a lot of new techniques that can help us in our proselyting and shared some really motivating experiences.  They and President Wright talked a lot about how the mission is entering a new era.  President told us that he received revelation that every missionary can begin baptizing weekly and if we do our part the best we can, the Lord will help us find the people that are ready to hear the truth.  This is a very high bar for us in this mission to baptize weekly, but I know that Pres. Wright really does receive revelation for our mission and I'm going to aim to reach this goal.  But it really was a great conference and all of the missionaries left there more motivated and ready to work.
     A great thing this week was that we had some of our investigators come to the church on Sunday.  It was a little discouraging a few of these last weeks when we had so many investigators that promised to come but then didn't end up showing up to church, so I was super excited when he had some of our investigators show up. 
We had a couple that we have been working with named Vagner and Marcia.  Vagner is the son of a recent convert and the missionaries visited him in the past, but he never seemed to show much interest.  We went back to visit him this week and he received us well and we invited him to come to church.  We were both really happy when we he came with Marcia to church, and even more happy while we talked with him and they both told us about how much they liked it.  We visited them that very afternoon and again we had a great lesson, this time talking about baptism.  We invited them to be baptized and they both accepted.  It was super great and we are really excited about them, but we still need to work a lot with them because I don't think they are legally married, but I can really see that they have a strong desire to do what is right. 
We also had another one of our investigators that we have been working with a bit come to church on Sunday.  He is a young adult named Jussir and is a really cool guy.  He is a reference from the elders quorum president and already has a good friendship with him and also us.  He is a really good investigator that has been reading the Book of Mormon frequently and has already told us that he has a testimony of it.  We have been teaching him for about 3 weeks now, and the only thing that was lacking was going to church, so again we were super excited for him when he came.  Daniel, the elders quorum president, sat with him there and he seemed to feel really comfortable and told us he really enjoyed his visit.  He is really progressing now and we are going to visit him a lot to help him prepare for his baptismal date that we set in the beginning of April.  Another cool thing is that we have been receiving a lot of references lately and will have various to contact this up coming week, and references are always awesome because they seem to have a lot better chance of progressing than other investigators that don't know any members. Coisa boa!
       But I'm really doing well here in Bento Gonçalves.  I'm enjoying the work and all of the great experiences and feel very privileged to help out with this marvellous work.  Thanks for always being good supports!  Have a great week and Ill hear from you all later.  Tchau tchau!

Elder Gee

Busy week; Didn't quite reach the Standard of Excellence; Getting investigators to church is hard

     Hello there everybody, how has everybody been?  It sounds like everyone is keeping busy with school, work,  and other activities.  
     We had another busy week here in Bento Gonçalves.  We worked really hard to try to reach our goals with the standard of excellence, but we didn't quite reach all of the key indicators. It was a little harder for us this week because we had to follow up with a ton of our new investigators from our last week so it we didn't have as much time to focus on finding more new investigators. We still were able to reach our 120 contacts which was good and I am sure that it will help us find the people that are ready to hear the gospel. Even though we didn't reach all of our goals we are still going to continue to try to reach these goals because we are desperately needing some investigators that will progress.

The biggest problem that we facing here is trying to get our investigators show up for church. This week we invited everybody we talked to make a visit to the church and many people said they would go, but on Sunday all of our investigators that have baptismal dates didn't show up. It was a kind of frustrating and discouraging for us, but we are still ready to work just as hard this week so we can help out as many people as possible.

The good news is that we had 2 friends of members that came to church and seem to have a lot of potential so we will start working with them right away.  This has been really different here in Bento then it was is Vera Cruz.  There are so many members that usually every week somebody brings somebody new to church so that is good, but its always hard to have to people we are teaching come to church.  But, I'm really enjoying the work here, I am just hoping that we can start having more success with some of our investigators.  

Anyways, sorry for the really short email this week, we did a lot of work but not much progress from investigators to tell for you guys.  But I hope you all can continue doing well and have an awesome week!  I love you all and wish you the best.  See ya later...

Elder Gee

Working HARD in Bento Goncalves; The Standard of Excellence! Letissia

Good Morning family and friends! How is everyone doing these days?  I have been doing well here in Bento.  Can you believe that the transfer has already ended?  This last transfer just flew by.  It was a transfer of only 5 weeks, so a little bit shorter than usual, but still doesn't feel like I've been here this long in Bento.  Neither Elder Marques or I were transferred so nothing much will change for us.  I'm excited that he is going to stay another transfer here because he is a cool guy and a really good missionary so it will be fun.  Another reason I am glad that our companionship will stay the same is because we both made the goal of reaching the Standard of Excellence for the mission this month in March. 

The Standard of Excellence is a bunch of goals in various of our Key Indicators as missionaries that we need to reach weekly for the month.  Also part of this standard is to have 3 baptisms in the month which is a pretty high bar.  So this week we both decided to focus on these numbers to motivate us to work extremely hard and accomplish the goals.  This week was a great experience and I feel like we had a lot more results because of this motivation.  Some of the interesting goals in the standard of excellence are 12 Lessons with a member present and 120 Contacts each week.  I don't think I've ever had these numbers of these categories, definitely a different standard then normal.  We had to force ourselves really hard this week to reach these goals, we had to invite a ton of members to go on visits with us and also literally talk to everybody we saw each day to have enough contacts.  We both saw that by completing these numbers, we would also be finding a lot of investigators with potential and helping our other investigators grow some friendships with members in the church to help them progress more toward baptism.  I think that if we can continue at this rate of completing all of our goals, our goal for 3 baptisms will also happen.  Haha I think it was a great idea or maybe even inspiration for President Wright to make this standard because both Elder Marques and I feel like we are having a lot more success.  We were able to mark 4 baptismal dates this week and also find 25 new investigators and all of our other numbers have risen significantly, so the work is going faster here, and I think we will have a lot more baptisms in the near future.
     One of the investigators that was really cool that we met this week was a young woman named Letissia.  We met her doing contacts and were able to teach her the restoration and the Book of Mormon this week.  She really liked our visits and told us that she would pray to know that the things were true.  The last visit we had with her she told us that she prayed and felt that the things were true.  She accepted an invitation to be baptized and on Sunday Morning when we went to pick her up to go to church, she was standing outside her house waiting for us before we arrived.  I think she is an elect investigator and she will be baptized this month so we are super excited.  We also found quite a few other investigators that seem really interested. 

This was one of the things that I think is part of President Wright´s vision.  Talk to as many people as possible to find the elect investigators every week, and don't spend as much time with the investigators that aren't progressing.  In order to reach this goal every week we cant spend very much time with investigator that don't have a very strong desire to know the truth or willing to follow the example of Christ, so we are trying to talk to everyone and find the elect investigators . 

I'm really excited for this week and am hoping that we can continue to find the people that are prepared to hear the gospel and be baptized.  We are going to keep working really hard to hit our goals to help as many people as possible.  I really am grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission and serve God's children.  I know how important this work is and its a privilege for me that I can help out a little bit.  Thanks for the love and support from everyone.  I just want you guys to keep staying awesome!  Keep sending me emails and stuff and if you have any specific questions I´ll try to answer them all.  But have a great week!

Love
Elder Gee

References from members, Janice and Gabriel; Evandro

     Hey there family!  How is everybody doing? How is school/work going for everyone? It was really cool to hear about the baby blessing of Celecta and see some of those pictures.  Haha she looks really cute and happy, so congratulations Celecta and Ryan and also Grandpa and Grandma!
     We had a pretty good week here.  We focused on teaching our investigators that had already visited the church and have the most potential and also on finding new investigators.  We received some good references that are friends of members which are always really good.  We had 2 of the references come to church and they both said that they really liked it! One is named Janice and is a friend of one of the young women in the ward, and the other is named Gabriel and is a good friend of one of the young men.  Both of them are youth and we are really excited for them because usually the youth have a good chance of continuing going to church, especially if they have friends there. We are going to work extra hard to teach them and hopefully they will continue to progress.   
     Also something cool happened as we were trying to find new investigators.  We had a car pull up in front of us and the man inside told us that he wanted us to pass by his house because he had talked to missionaries before in another city.  His name is Evandro and he gave us his telephone number and his address.  We tried visiting with him a couple of times this week, but he was really busy this week and we couldn't meet up with him.  But he is probably is interested because he stopped us and asked for us to visit him, and that's not something that is super common. We will try to visit him this up coming week and hopefully we can help him out.
     One of the things that was kind of disappointing is that we had a baptism date fall because Leandra and her family still are having troubles coming to church, even though every time we visit them in their house, they say that they want to go to church.  We visited them with a member that lives near by and we set up a plan that the member would pick them up on Sunday, but early that morning they called the member and said that they wouldn't be able to make it to church that day.  Elder Marques and I are trying to find out what is stopping them and understand how we can help out the family.  They are all really cool and receive us very well, always paying attention and participating in the lessons, but something always seems to come up for them on  Sunday morning. 
     Well we need to run today because we are going to Caxias for this P-day.  The plan is to go play some volleyball at a park but its really rainy here in Bento Gonçalves so maybe we are going to have to do an alternative plan.   But I hope you guys have an awesome week!  Take care!

Love,
Elder Gee

Rainy but good week in Bento Gonçalves; Mario and Sandra; Vanderlei and Marcia

Hey everybody!  How are you all doing?  How was Presidents Day and Valentines day?  Did you guys to anything fun for the day out of school?
     Its been a rainy but good week here in Bento Gonçalves.  Haha there were several days that we got caught in the rain without umbrellas because the beginning of the days were really sunny but then later in the afternoon some storms came in.  One of the only days that didn't rain was the day we brought our umbrellas the morning was cloudy, but then it cleared up and was a hot day.  But besides that its been good.  I am finally getting a little more orientated and comfortable in this city that's new to me.  One of the things that has been really different for me has been planning in a bigger city.  In Vera Cruz we were able to just decide which investigator we should visit and we could visit them any day of the week.  Here in Bento, we need to plan which neighborhoods we will work in for the certain day because we´re not able to walk throughout the whole city like we did in Vera Cruz.  Also, one thing that has been a little bit harder here is helping our investigators to get to church because here there are a lot of investigators that live out of walking distance from the church especially with all of the hills, so we need a lot of help from the members to give rides to our investigators.  But this week me and Elder Marques were able to have a lot of success and visit a lot of people. 

We have good investigators  all throughout the city so we never our left without anything to do. A lot of the investigators have a lot of potential and we are working hard to help them out.  One of the families we are working hard with is Mario, Sandra, and their two sons Lucas and Gabriel.  They are all really cool and the missionaries here have been working with them for a while.  Sandra is reading the book of Mormon and is really interested and went to church this last week.  We haven't been able to mark a date for her to be baptized though because they aren't married and while Mario likes our visits and says that he knows that the church can help their family, he doesn't ever feel like going to church on Sunday morning. 

Also we have been visiting a inactive family, Vanderlei and Marcia and they have a 10-year old daughter that hasn't been baptized yet.  Vanderlei really likes us missionaries and is always joking around with us when we go visit them.  He has said that he wants Leandra to be baptized and for his family to return to church but both weeks that I've been here they ended up not going to church.  We will have to work with them and try to find out whats holding them back.  Also there is a young girl named Karine that went to church for the last couple of weeks.  We've never taught her, but she comes to church with her friend that is a member and has really enjoyed coming to church.  We are planning on visiting her tonight so that we can get to know her and her family better and it looks like she has a ton of potential to be baptized. 

Any other news this week?  I've been feeling a little sick today and last night but its hasn't been to bad.  I just hope it doesn't get worst because we have a lot of work to do this week so maybe just keep me in your prayers :)  But I love you all and am very grateful to have such an awesome family!  Oh and have a happy birthday Justin!  13 wooohooo!!  And the rest of you all have an awesome week!!  Thanks for everything!  Buh-bye!!

Love
Elder Gee

Missionary work in a big city; rain and hills; Mario and Sandra; Vanderlei and Marcia; Karine

Hey everybody!  How are you all doing?  How was Presidents Day and Valentines day?  Did you guys to anything fun for the day out of school?
     Its been a rainy but good week here in Bento Gonçalves.  Haha there were several days that we got caught in the rain without umbrellas because the beginning of the days were really sunny but then later in the afternoon some storms came in.  One of the only days that didn't rain was the day we brought our umbrellas the morning was cloudy, but then it cleared up and was a hot day.  But besides that its been good.  I am finally getting a little more orientated and comfortable in this city that's new to me.  One of the things that has been really different for me has been planning in a bigger city.  In Vera Cruz we were able to just decide which investigator we should visit and we could visit them any day of the week.  Here in Bento, we need to plan which neighborhoods we will work in for the certain day because we´re not able to walk throughout the whole city like we did in Vera Cruz.  Also, one thing that has been a little bit harder here is helping our investigators to get to church because here there are a lot of investigators that live out of walking distance from the church especially with all of the hills, so we need a lot of help from the members to give rides to our investigators.

But this week me and Elder Marques were able to have a lot of success and visit a lot of people.  We have good investigators  all throughout the city so we never our left without anything to do. A lot of the investigators have a lot of potential and we are working hard to help them out.  One of the families we are working hard with is Mario, Sandra, and their two sons Lucas and Gabriel.  They are all really cool and the missionaries here have been working with them for a while.  Sandra is reading the Book of Mormon and is really interested and went to church this last week.  We haven't been able to mark a date for her to be baptized though because they aren't married and while Mario likes our visits and says that he knows that the church can help their family, he doesn't ever feel like going to church on Sunday morning.

Also we have been visiting a inactive family, Vanderlei and Marcia and they have a 10-year old daughter that hasn't been baptized yet.  Vanderlei really likes us missionaries and is always joking around with us when we go visit them.  He has said that he wants Leandra to be baptized and for his family to return to church but both weeks that I've been here they ended up not going to church.  We will have to work with them and try to find out whats holding them back.  Also there is a young girl named Karine that went to church for the last couple of weeks.  We've never taught her, but she comes to church with her friend that is a member and has really enjoyed coming to church.  We are planning on visiting her tonight so that we can get to know her and her family better and it looks like she has a ton of potential to be baptized.  Any other news this week?  I've been feeling a little sick today and last night but its hasn't been to bad.  I just hope it doesn't get worst because we have a lot of work to do this week so maybe just keep me in your prayers :)  But I love you all and am very grateful to have such an awesome family!  Oh and have a happy birthday Justin!  13 wooohooo!!  And the rest of you all have an awesome week!!  Thanks for everything!  Buh-bye!!

Love
Elder Gee

New Area: Bento Gonçalves; HILLS! "only flat spot is in our apartment" Senior companion

Hey there everybody!  How have you all been doing lately??  How has school and work been going.  Is it warming up there or is still a super cold winter?  I've been doing good here in Rio Grande do Sul.  I got transferred this last week so this week I have been learning in my new area.  The city that I'm working in is called Bento Gonçalves.  What I've learned so far from this past week here is that Bento feels really big.  I'm sure its not really that big, but having only served in the little city of Vera Cruz, I feel like the city is ginormous.  I would guess that it has about the same number of people as Provo.  But like I said its been quite a bit different then Vera Cruz.

The ward has a lot of active members.  Yesterday I would guess there was probably 100 people there at the sacrament meeting, but my companion said there were a lot of people that weren't there because of Youth Conference and also an activity for the Young Adults that happens every year during the week of Carnival.  So its not huge but like I said, its really different from the 25-35 people that attended the branch in Vera Cruz.

So my new companion is a pretty cool guy.  His name is Elder Marques and he is from Manaus up near the Amazons.  He is a new missionary, its only his second transfer but he already knows the area well and has been getting me a littler orientated.  Haha I was pretty surprised when I saw that my new companion had less time then me because I still feel like I'm brand new.  I guess I'm not really that new now but I still have a ton to learn and I'm sure that we are both going to learn a lot together and it will be a good learning experience to have a little more responsibility.

Ya but one of the first things that I noticed here in Bento is all of the HILLS.  Haha to help you guys imagine, the city is just like our and the other neighborhoods above Timpview (probably less flat actually), but literally  its the entire city.  While we are walking we are either going up a hill, or going down a hill, never walking on flat ground.haha.  I heard Jamie said that the only flat place in Bento is our apartment, haha so true, so true.  My legs have been hurting a little this week but I hoping that It wont take long for me to get used to them.  Its a lot cooler here because its up higher and there is a lot of wind.  Its been really nice since it was a really hot summer here, but I'm thinking that if I stay here during the winter I'm going to have to prepare for a cold one.  Also there are a lot of good people here in Bento.  The members seem to really like to help the missionaries and also we have some good investigators here.  Thankfully Elder Marques knows the people and the area well and has been guiding me to the correct houses.  I've been trying to memorize some the the streets already, but after an entire week I still feel as lost as I was on the first day.  Haha I definitely couldn't find my way back to our house at this point from the LAN House but I'm just going to have to walk up and down these hills until I learn the area as well as I knew Vera Cruz.

 But its been a really good week and also a really good P-day as always because I get to read all of your emails and feel your support.  I'm doing well health wise, just a little more tired than usual because of the terrain but nothing to worry about.  Thanks for everything and I hope you guys have an fantastic up coming week. You guys are all awesome!!  Haha see ya next week...

Love
Elder Gee

Tati's baptism!! Transferred!! but my last week in Vera Cruz was a GREAT one!

     Good morning everybody.  I'm writing you guys early today because we are having a P-day de Zona in Santa Cruz later on today.  We get to have this P-day together because our zone ended up reaching our goal for baptisms for the month of January.  We are gonna go to a place called Parque da Gruta dos Índios here in Santa Cruz, maybe Jamie went there or heard of it when she passed here but it sounds like it should be a lot of fun and its always fun to hang out with more missionaries then just staying with your one companion.

Well this is gonna be my last time writing you guys from Vera Cruz.  This morning the LZ´s called and not surprisingly they informed us that I was being transferred.  I definitely was expecting this but it still is kinda sad because I have grown to love so many people here in Vera Cruz and its going to be hard to say goodbye to everybody.  It almost feels like my mission is ending and I'm about to go start a new one haha.  But my last week in Vera Cruz was a great one!

As you guys remember, last week was pretty rough for us when Tati sent us some messages the night before her baptism saying that she no longer wanted to be baptized.  We tried contacting her but she left her house and wouldn’t answer our phone calls.  But last Monday night she finally gave us a call and told us that she wanted to talk with us the next day.  The next day we visited her and she told us that somebody close to her told her a lot of negative things about the church and she panicked and felt overwhelmed and that’s why she didn’t want to be baptized.  But she told us that she had been thinking and praying a lot about everything and she told us that she made the wrong decision about not being baptized.  She told us that the knew in her heart that the church is true and the right path for her.  Wow, we were all super shocked, excited, and super happy and to make sure that she had real intentions and that there wouldn’t be time for the adversary try to send her doubts, we set the baptism for the very next day.  She came to the branch family night and told all of the members the happy news. One of our LZs, Elder Medeiros came to give her another interview that night and he told us that she for sure was ready.  The next day, we were able to have the baptism!!!  I got the opportunity to perform the ordinance and it was such a great experience.  It was just so amazing because we have been teaching and helping her for so long and to see all the changes she made in her life to keep the commandments and although it was really hard for her to quit smoking and doing some of the things she was accustomed to do, she definitely gained a greater happiness.  Yesterday she bore her testimony and talked about how happy she was and that she knows the path that she will stay on for this happiness continue throughout her life.  Haha wow it was so amazing.  Seeing someone you have helped being baptized is the greatest part of the mission and I don't think any other joy or satisfaction can compete with it.  I don't think I could have imagined a better way to finish serving here in Vera Cruz.  Well I don't have too much time today because we are rushing to go to Santa Cruz but I´ll send some pics next week.

I'm loving being able to serve here in Brazil  Its going to be kinda hard saying good bye to all of my friends here in Vera Cruz but I am truly grateful for this opportunity I had to serve the Lord, our branch, and all of the people here.  I'm ready to continue giving everything I've got to help the Lord's kingdom in whatever area I will be transferred to.  I love you all a bunch and am so grateful to have such an awesome family!  I can't wait to hear from you next week but until then,  Tchau tchau!

Love

Elder Gee

Hard weekend - Tati not ready to be baptized; 10 investigators in church yesterday!

     Hello everybody, how have you all been this past week? This week has definitely been an interesting one.  So the beginning of the week started off really well.  We focused on trying to find more people to teach that live close to our house and to a good number of the members.  We were lucky to be able to teach a lot of people including a family of 6 kids!  All of the kids were really cool and friendly and were all really interested as we taught them.  Most of the kids want to come to church but the parents are still a little hesitant.  Also Maicons mom is progressing and is trying to stop smoking so she can be baptized like Maicon and Diego were.  It always is a little hard for people to quit smoking but I can tell that she has real intentions and faith to be able to do it.  She has already lowered the number of cigarettes per day and is excited and determined for the change.
       We also had been working a lot with Tati to help her prepare for her baptism.  She has always been a little bit hesitant when it comes to baptism but when we went to her house to teach a lesson with our Branch President she was very calm and told us that she felt ready to be baptized!!  Woohoo!!  On Thursday we did a division and our district leader came and interviewed her for the baptism.  She passed and we set the baptism for Saturday morning.  We were all super excited for the baptism until we woke up Saturday morning and saw that Tati sent us a message in the middle of the night saying she didn't want to be baptized any more and that she didn't want us to visit her anymore.  We were all shocked and completely devastated.  We tried calling her and trying to contact her but we haven't been able to talk with her since then.  I have know idea what happened.  She said she was super excited Friday afternoon when we talked to her on the phone but then she sent that message right before the baptism.  That morning was one of the hardest days for us. We had to call several members and also the LZ´s to inform the baptism wasn't going to happen.  None of us wanted to go out and work that day because we were so discouraged.  Thankfully the afternoon was a little better as we were able to visit with the family with 6 kids again and the sons Douglas and Ivan ended up coming to church with us.  On sunday we had 10 investigators there which is a really great number which lifted our moods a bit, but even now Im still kind of disappointed.  Hopefully these  investigators will continue to progress and that we can have a good up coming week.  It will probably be my last week here in Vera Cruz so Im already feeling a little sad that I will have to leave all of the friends I have made here.  But that's what happens on the mission, once you get accustomed to the area, and all people the people, It's time to move on to something new.  But thanks everybody for all the emails, they always make me feel happier and I feel loved.  I'm doing well here and even though its a little tough right now I know that it will get better and that I will be able to help people change there lives for the better.  I know that this church is true and Im really greatful for this oppurtunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ her in Brasil.  I love you all and can't wait to read your emails next week!! 

Elder Gee

In a threesome; Maicon's mom came to church

Hey there family!!  How have you all been doing? Life is good here in Vera Cruz.  Elder Fernandes, Elder Cabral, and I have been working a lot and been having a good time.  Haha ya that´s the big news from this week, we have been in a trio of missionaries since Friday when Elder Cabral came from an other area  in our zone to work with us in Vera Cruz for these last two weeks of the transfer. From these last couple of days working with Elder Cabral he seems like a really cool and chill guy.  He is from the country Cabo Verde so he already spoke Portuguese before the mission but there's a little bit of a difference in some of the words and the accent.  I still don't know how I feel about working in a trio.  Its definitely been a little more fun today on p-day as we were able to play some card games and play a little catch with a football that Elder Fernandes bought.  Its been good for teaching lessons too, but now the transitions of teaching and talking have been a little different than the way me and Elder Fernandes had been practicing for the last 10 weeks.  But for me, having new companions is always really really helpful.  Every time that we go on divisions and I get to work with somebody else I can see some of the different ways that each missionary tries to find new investigators and how they teach.  Then I try to take the good parts that I learned from them and try to apply it in the way I work. 
     So other noo-nooz from this week is that the mom of Maicon came to church on Sunday along with his 9 year old cousin.  Maicon is a 17 year old young man and recent convert that was baptized 3 or 4 months ago and he is really firm in the church.  He comes to church every single week and prepares and blessing the sacrament.  I'm not sure what I've written about him but he is a really cool guy and good friend of ours.  He has even gone out and done some proselyting with us in preparation to serve a mission in October.  So we have been visiting him regularly and have always talked with his mom at his house.  She is really nice and is really happy with how we have been helping her son but usually when we invite her to make a visit to church she says that she will some day but not this week.  Recently we have been focusing the visits on helping her and have already taught her a couple of the lessons.  This week when we taught her we taught her more about the church and how we receive blessings when we go there on Sundays.  We invited her to come and she said `maybe` so I was pretty surprised but really really happy when she showed up on Sunday.  The sisters in the branch were really friendly with her and I could tell that she enjoyed it.  We will keep on visiting her and hopefully she will continue to progress!
     Wow it was so cool to see pictures of Celecta Rose! Congratulations to you Celecta and Ryan!  oh and to me too, I'm an uncle!! Haha on Thursday one of the members Kassia came up to me and asked me if I had already seen pictures of my neice and it took me a couple of seconds to understand what she was talking about before I realized that Celecta must have been born.  She is friends with Jamie on Facebook so she heard the news before showed me some pictures of the baby on her phone.  Awww she is so cuuute!!  I cant wait to be able to see her in person but by the time that happens she wont even be a baby anymore haha :)  But it was great to get all of these emails today and be able to feel a little closer to home.  I miss you guys a ton, but I'm having a lot of great learning and spiritual experiences here on the mission  Thanks a ton for everything and have an awesome week!!  Love you!!

Elder
Gee

Good and productive week here in Vera Cruz; teaching 5 granddaughters; start holding English classes

Sorriso means "smile" in Portuguese

Hey everybody!!  How are you all doing?  I have been wondering the whole week whether or not I was an uncle but it looks like I´ll have to wait just a little longer.  Haha that's alright patience is a virtue.  Just make sure to send me pictures of her when she comes.  It sounds like you guys are having a lot of good family bonding time inside while it just keeps getting colder and colder outside. Haha I'm not missing the snow enough yet to be jealous of you guys but maybe after 2 full years under the Brazilian sun I will be ready to go out and shovel sidewalks again. 
     We've had a pretty good and productive week here in Vera Cruz.  The biggest news for sure is that we got to begin teaching 5 granddaughters of one of the members.  They lived in Vera Cruz before but now they are living with their grandma for the summer vacation and possibly longer.  We are pretty excited because teaching family of members is always good and they have a better chance of progressing and going to church together.  The ages of the granddaughters are from 15-10 so If we can get them coming to church it would be a real boost for the youth here in our branch.  We taught them the restoration of the gospel and after invited them to be baptized when they prayed to know it is true.  They all accepted and we really excited to have them come to church on Sunday, but none of them showed up.  We arranged with a member to pick them up and give them a ride to the chapel but they didn't come out of the house while he was there.  We will just have to keep visiting them and help them see how going to church can help and bless there lives.  Other news, we have been visiting Tati regularly to help her prepare for baptism.  One of the visits we went with branch president Henkes and had a great lesson.  She told us that she knows how important baptism is and that its the path that she wants to follow.  Haha also she told us that she would like to be a sister missionary someday so that cant be a bad sign ;)  What else has happened this week,  hmm One thing that will be interesting is that we are gonna start holding English classes in the chapel for anybody that's interested.  Hopefully it will be a good way to meet new people that we can help out and get them more interested in the church. Im pretty excited for that, it should be fun to go from the person that always is asking how to say something, to the person that that is teaching words :)
     But that about sums up this last week.  Thanks again for all the emails and support.  Good luck to y'all in school, work, and everything else.  I love you all a ton!  Until next week...

Elder Gee

Christmas and New Year's in Brazil; Tati is progressing; Simone and Durlan

Hey there everybody!!  Happy 2013!!  Ya, sorry that I didn't send an email last p-day, the LAN house that we go to didn't open that afternoon because of New Year´s eve.  I was worried on Christmas eve that maybe the LAN house wouldn't be open, but I didn't even think about it last week.  I'm sure it was hard for you guys to survive without hearing from me, but don't worry I had to go through the same thing.  But other than that, it was a good couple of holiday weeks here.  It was great to experience Christmas and New Year's in a different country.  These holidays are celebrated a little differently then back in the US.  Since it is summer here right now, Christmas and New Years are great days to be outside and go to the beach, play soccer, use fireworks, or make churrasco.  It was nice having both new years and Christmas eve on p-day because we were able to celebrate a bit with the members. It was really fun to bond with the members and it made missing you guys not quite so bad :)  Haha the only annoying thing was that there was a party at one of our neighbor´s on New Years Eve and they blasted loud music all night till about 10 in the morning, but what can you do right?
      It has been a pretty interesting 2 weeks here in Vera Cruz.  It has been a little different for us missionaries because a lot of members and some of our investigators have been taking advantage of the holidays and gone out of town.  This is the bad part of the holidays, but also we have been teaching quite a few families that are visiting members.  Its been pretty cool and a lot of them went to church, so now we will be able to send their addresses and info to the missionaries working in there cities.  Also, one of the members introduced us to her daughter and her family who recently moved back to Vera Cruz.  We visited them and they seem really cool, and then on Sunday they were all came to church.  Their names are Simone and Durlan? (haha don't know how to spell it) and they have a baby girl. They seem really interested in the church and want to get married soon so its gonna be good to work with them. 
     Also we had been working really hard with Tati to help her stop smoking.  She has been lowering the number of cigarettes per day  and also she said she has been reading the Book of Mormon daily so that's great news!  She also went out of town to visit family during the holidays but will get back tomorrow so we will go see how she is doing and how we can help her out.  Her goal for baptism is now on the 19th of January so keep her in your prayers that she can be ready for that date.
     Other interesting things, we had divisions both of these weeks so I went to both Santa Cruz and Rio Pardo.  I think that Jamie´s mãezinha, Fernanda, demands the Rio Pardo missionaries to visit her when we have divisions because we go there every time.  Haha but there family is really cool so I'm definitely not complaining, it was fun seeing them again.  Also President Wright has been telling all of the missionaries that we need to do a lot more street contacts and that our weekly goal should be 120 at the minimum.  All of my companions have generally done more knocking doors so it will be different focusing on contacts. Hopefully we can have a lot of success doing this and can find new investigators that really are interested in our message.
     Buuuut thanks everybody for the emails, love,  and support!  You are all great and I really miss each and everyone of you!  And Happy birthday tomorrow, Kyle!  I sent  you a letter by MissionTies so make sure to keep checking your email every once in a while.  Lots of love from...

Elder Gee