June 18 and June 25

Monday, June 25, 2012

Festa de Junina

This last week was a pretty fun week. There was the festa de Junina which is a country-ish party they have here in Brazil. There was tons of food so that was good. Unfortunately as missionaries we couldnt join in with the square dancing type dance they were doing. It made me miss Clint McBroom and his fiddle.

We've also been doing lots of Family Home Evenings with the ward members. Which is a great opportunity to spend time with the members and our recents converts and investigators.  

Yesterday President Prieto gave a fireside to the ward. It was awesome. He talked about how we can do more. We are doing well, but we can be helping a lot more people. He showed us some inspiring video clips and stories. Our life is so short here on earth compared to eternity. We have such a short time to determine where we will be in the eternities. President Prieto is super awesome. All the missionaries love him.

Well, I hope every has a great week. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Monday, June 18, 2012

So the end of the transfer came and both my companion and I stayed here in Palmares. Actually only one of the other elders were transferred. So 3 out of the 4 in our house stayed.

We had a good week. I picked up the cold that has been going around but luckily it hasnt been bad. Ive just had a little bit of a cough. Our zone made a zone t-shirt and I will include all of us wearing it. One of our investigators, Camila, who is 11, competes in Judo tournaments. We got to go watch her one day in the morning. That was a lot of fun. Liandra, who is 6, got to fight also, but unfortunately we didnt get to see it. They are the granddaughters of Aparecida, the lady we baptized in March. They are a really special family.

Well, I am completely drawing a blank now. I know more stuff happened this last week, but who knows what it was. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next week.

Elder Siemers

June 11, 2012

My companion was sick last week so we had a couple days where we stayed home. I took advantage of the time and did some serious studying. I took almost full day just studying the book of Revelation. It was good though because we were pretty worn out and it was nice to be able to relax.

 

The church is doing a Brazil-wide service project. We are packaging rice and beans to ship out to other countries that need the food. Last week we had a day where we learned how to package the food in soda bottles. Yours truly learned how to seperate the bad beans from the good ones. I am pretty much 100% Brazilian now. 

 

The Manaus Brazil temple was dedicated yesterday. There are now 138 dedicated temples in the world, and 6 in Brazil. With number 7 being constructed in Fortaleza. The dedication was broadcasted and we were able to watch. It was awesome. The spirit was really strong. We were able to watch all 3 of the sessions also so it was extra awesome. President Uchtdorf told many stories of the faithful people of Brazil. Manaus is really remote so the area presidency back in the 70s wasnt sending missionaries there. The members of the church kept asking the mission president at the time and he kept denying them. He asked the area presidency many times and finally they told him that he could send 2 missionaries under 3 conditions. 1. The members would have people ready to teach and that the missionaries wouldnt have to spend time finding people. 2. The members would find free air travel for the missionaries. 3. The missionaries would only be there for 4 months. The members asked the mission president again and he told them of the 3 conditions. They agreed and did their part. The missionaries had so much success that they were never taken out after four months. More missionaries were sent. Now there are 8 stakes in Manaus and a temple. This all happened in about 33 years.  

 

While President Uchtdorf was puting mortar on the cornerstone, he invited the other leaders there to do the same, along with their wives. Afterward he invited 4 children to put mortar on the stone also because they are the future of the church. He asked a little girl what her name was and without waiting for the translater she said "my name is Gabriela" in English. It was really funny and really cute. Thats a phrase that every Brazilian knows from school and she responded without hesitation.

 

Well, that was pretty much my week. I hope every had a good one also. Tchau!

 

Elder Siemers

Stake Conference

 

June 4, 2012

 

This last week wasnt too eventful. This upcoming week already has lots of stuff planned. We are doing well even though the heat has returned. Its not as strong as it was but we are supposed to be getting close to winter here so its a little weird.

 

One of our recent convert's mom wants to be baptized. She loved the change she saw in her daughter and is feeling really happy. We are pretty excited.

 

We had stake conference yesterday. It was good. It was a broadcast from Salt Lake city and President Monson spoke.

 

There's not much more to report this week. But I'll send the pictures that I couldnt send last week. Talk to you guys later!

 

Elder Siemers