New Transfer

Well, my second transfer in the field is over. Apparently July went somewhere while I wasnt looking. Elder Davis left yesterday and my new companion, Elder Estrada(I think thats his name), will be here about 6 oclock.

This last week was pretty good. We had a small meeting with the Mission President. He came here to interview everyone, and he had a few words to say to everyone before the interviews. He just emphasized working hard and being responsible. We have a new standard(or pattern), to work with and it gives us more freedom, but more responsibility also. He just wants to make sure we are doing what we should be doing so we can get the most out of our time.

My interview went fine. It was the first time I had ever sat down and talked with him, so it was a tiny bit awkward. He asked about how I am doing and how is family. Those type of questions. It was good though.

Ive been working pretty hard at studying the language this last month or so, and I am really starting to understand how the language works and is structured. I think after this next transfer I will be speaking really well. Having a Brazilian companion will help a whole bunch.

Life is good and things are going well. We made some really good contacts this last week so hopefully we will have some new people to teach this week. There's another companionship in the Center who have been working with a man. He went from smoking 4 packs a day to only smoking one or two cigarettes per day in just a week and a half. That was a week ago, so I have no idea where he is at now, but I imagine that he has stopped completely. Ive met him a couple times and he is really awesome.

I hope everyone is doing well. Have a good week!

Elder Siemers

4 Months!

I've already been out 4 months. Crazy. My second transfer in the field is almost over. Pattern is gone. I can actually have a conversation with some people. Life is good.

Not a whole lot happened this last week. We had a crazy party at the church to celebrate something. I wasn't quite sure what, but it was fun! Festa de Junina. There was lots of good food and there was lots of people there. The bolo(cake) was especially good. The Young Women of the church think I am obsessed with cake for some reason. I might have just mentioned that its important for their salvation to make cake for the missionaries or something like that. I might have also let one of them take pictures off my camera of her birthday party with the price of one cake for each photo. She still hasnt made any yet... The other day we were teaching a lesson with Yasmin. She took us to a friend's house. At the end of the lesson Elder Davis asked, 'do you have any questions? Any doubts? Complaints?' I chimed in with, 'bolo?' Yasmin hit me on the leg, and the girls mom said she would make us cake next time. It was hilarious. I just said that I was joking and that they didnt need to make us cake. But, ya. I have no idea why the young women think I am obsessed with cake.

We are getting together with our District to head up to the Christ statue this afternoon. Transfers are next week, and we have a few missionaries who have been here for a while, so it will probably be a farewell party.

I hope everyone is doing well. Até mais. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Long Week

Oh man. We walked a whole bunch this last week. We were getting a lot of pressure in our Zone to make 'pattern'. We are supposed to contact 160 people every week. This is really hard to do and still actually teach people. So, we walked around, knocked on doors, and got pattern. It wasnt the funnest of weeks, but we definitely worked hard. I got sick this last week also. Elder Davis has been sick for about 2 weeks and I finally caught it. But I am on the downhill of it now and should be back to new in a couple days.

Couple funny things happened this week though. One day we were walking behind a group of young teenage girls. There was probably 15 of them. As we passed them, Elder Davis asked 'bom?'(short for everything good?) The entire group responded at the same time. 'Booom'. It was hilarious. I couldn't resist myself, so I then said, 'tudo bem?' (all well?) and of course they all responded at the same time. 'Tuuudo'. We were dying of laughter for the next couple blocks. Last night I started talking to a guy who was more drunk than I thought he was. He wanted me to open the Book of Mormon to a random page and read a verse. One that touched my heart. I opened it, but he started talking more so I didnt get to read anything. He then grabbed my shoulder and started crying. I could hear him praying for help. After the tears cleared up I turned to Alma 7 and read him a couple verses. He then took the book from me, prayed, opened the book, then picked a random verse. He was really looking for inspiration. He picked some verse that just says some thing like 'and these things all happened in the forty-six year of the reign of judges' or something like that. Not helpful to him at all. Eventually a friend of his walked by and we asked her to walk him home. He left with her, but not before giving me um abraço em Jesus(a hug in Jesus).

Other than that, the week was pretty much uneventful. We had a few really good lessons. Hopefully they are interested and we can continue teaching them. We are a little low on investigators right now.

I hope everyone is having a fun 4th of July. It's a little weird not having any fireworks or a potluck, but things are good. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Quick One

So, I dont have much time, but this last week was good. It started off slow, but picked up quite a bit at the end. We had another baptism. Bruno. He is 13 and really awesome. His family came to the baptism last night, which was good because there were church leadership meetings so there were only 3 members there. We need two witnesses for baptisms and I was the only one there to witness at first. It was a really nice baptism. Very personal. Elder Davis and I ended up singing a hymn. There wasnt a program planned because of all the missing members and Bruno is not familiar enough with the hymns, so he said to not have any songs. But, I wanted him to have a special baptism, so we sang Nearer My God to Thee in portuguese. The whole baptism was really nice. His mom was crying when she left after the baptism. The people here are so awesome.

We didn't quite have our required number of contacts for the week, but we made a lot yesterday after the baptism so we were close. We have been discussing and debating numbers and missionary work for the past couple weeks. We are trying to find a balance of getting our numbers, and focusing on the people and their needs. Life is good though. Things will only get better and they are already good.

Sorry this email is so short, but I am out of time. Love you all. I will talk to you later.

Elder Siemers

Going Up to Christ

Last pday we were invited to a birthday party. We went up to the Christ statue on the mountain overlooking Poços de Caldas. It was a lot of fun. We met the birthday party on the start of the trail, but we got there before them, so we had some time to waste. We were hanging out in a gift shop when the herd of monkeys showed up. So, of course we bought some bananas to feed to the monkeys. I was taking pictures for Elder Davis and Elder Anderson while they fed the monkeys. Elder Anderson was with us for the day while he waited for his new companion. The man at the gift shop had trained one of the monkeys to sit on your shoulder and eat. All the other monkeys wont touch you unless they are snatching something out of your hand. Before the other Elders were done, all of a sudden a monkey jumped onto my leg. He then started crawling all over me trying to get to the banana in my hand. I quickly handed over my camera to Elder Anderson, but he couldnt switch it to video fast enough. Anyway, this monkey finally got to my hand and latched onto the banana. No matter what I did I could not get this monkey to let go. I eventually started swinging it around through the air and trying to pry it off with my other hand. He eventually grabbed the banana on each end and bit into it right in the middle, through the peel. It was hilarious. After a long struggle and losing half of the banana, I finally got him off. The man who works there said he has never seen that happen. He has worked there for 35 years. We then proceeded to head up the hill. After a quick stop at a shady statue we moved on and up the hill. The statue is really big and really cool. We had the birthday party on the back side of the hill with an awesome view of the country. The cake was super good.

We confirmed our two baptisms yesterday in church. Maria de Lourges and Antonio. We also went to another barbeque after church. We have been teaching an inactive man, who wants to come back to church. He also wants us to meet and start teaching his girlfriend, so he came up with the idea to have FHE tonight. Oh, and it's also going to be a barbeque. Life is really tough here in Brazil. =)

We have a lot of really cool investigators right now. It's crazy how some people are just ready to hear the gospel. We had a lady come up to us on the street and ask us if we could start teaching her. She is already ready for baptism, but we had to ask for special permission for her to be baptised. We havent seen her since we found out but she is going to be really excited when we tell her the good news.

We have not had a relaxing pday since ive been in the field, so today we just took it easy. I did some laundry, wrote some letters, and that was pretty much it. The only problem is that Antonio, wants us to come over today, so we will head out of the house early. Oh well. Anything for a new member.

Life is good, and the food is even better. I will talk to you all later. Tchau!

Elder Siemers