July 2 - July 23

Finishing Up

July 23, 2012

We are coming in to the last week of the transfer. Last week we worked hard even though my companion was sick(which I ended up picking up also but not bad). We had a bunch of people at church yesterday and we are working with a couple really awesome families. We have a few baptisms lined up for this Saturday and we are really excited for that. One of them is the granddaughter of Aparecida a recent convert. We have been working with her for 5 months now, so we are really excited that she accepted to be baptized. This being the last week of the transfer we are going to work hard to finish up everything we need to do just in case somebody gets transferred. We had a service project on saturday. It was nice picking up a shovel and getting to work. We clean up a members yard and helped build a gate. I have been looking at my hands lately and they are started to get pretty soft, so it was nice being able to do some physical labor to toughen them up again. I only got one blister though, which was a surprise. I thought 3 hours of shoveling would destroy my hands. I guess they still havent forgotten all the shoveling I did at the ski park. Things are good here. I hope they are good there also. I will talk to you guys next week. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Elder Costa

July 16, 2012

Well, not too much to report this week. We have been running around like crazy.  We have been working in a neighborhood thats on the outskirts of our area. 

At the end of the week we had a conference with Elder Costa, who is the area president of Brazil. It was awesome. We learned a ton. He is really awesome. He has been everywhere and has spent lots of time with the 1st Presidency and the 12 apostles. He is very knowledgable. He told some amazing stories about some of his experiences in life. He did a bunch of firesides and trainings over the weekend and we wanted to watch them all, but unfortunately after our conference we had to work. =) We all came away with another vision of what we should be doing here in the mission and later in our life. 

Other than that, not much more too say. I hope everyone is having a good week. Until next week!

Elder Siemers

Happy 4^th of July!

July 9, 2012

I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July. Amazingly, there were lots of fireworks here also. The Corinthians won their Libertadores championship. I was just drifting off to sleep when it sounded like a war broke out. There was lots of celebrating. And we live in a pretty quiet neighborhood.

Things are going well. We have 3 weeks left in this transfer and we are pretty sure that at least one of will be going to a new area. So we are trying hard to help the people we are teaching while we are still here.

We will have a Mission Tour this week with Elder R.M. Costa. He is the area president of Brazil. It should be really good. Last year Elder Godoy did the mission tour and it was a really awesome training for missionaries. We always come away from these meetings with more excitement and enthusiam to work.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying summer. It should be about the same weather there as it is here even though we are in "winter". Actually its been cooling down at night so thats been nice. Have a good week!

Elder Siemers

Not too much…

July 2, 2012

This last week was pretty uneventful. I renewed my visa, so I am once again a legal visitor. We are a little low on people to teach right now so we are hoping to find quite a few people this week. We went to Wal-Mart today and I found some peanut butter, so I will have to find some jelly so I can party it up hard on the 4th of July. I keep asking people how they are going to celebrate but it doesnt seem that important of a holiday here for some reason... There will be a soccer game the same day though. The Corinthians are going for their first Libertadores championship. If they win its going to be a huge deal. The new elder in our house is from Bolivia, so I am trying to pick up a little Spanish in my spare time.

I hope everyone is well. Things are going well here in Ribeirão Preto. Tchau! Até mais!

Elder Siemers

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

New Beginnings and Soda Cans

May 28, 2012

This week was good but very tiring. We were able to visit lots of people. On Friday the Young Women organization had their New Beginnings activity. We were asked to help set up. So we went there and set all the benches, made roses, and got in touch with our inner young woman to decorate the room. The church was out of propane, so we ended up cooking the food for the activity in our apartment. It was the first New Beginnings that any of us have been to and it was really nice. The young women leaders were really grateful for the help.

The weather has been cooperating. Its been pretty cool and it hasnt been raining. We have been getting lots of rides from the members of the church which is pretty much the best thing ever for a missionary in Brazil.

We learned how to crush soda cans this week. We visited a member who collects them to sell them for a little extra cash and we spent a little time crushing them. Then it escalated so we were trying to crush two cans at once. Its difficult but can be done. You cant be serious all the time on the mission. =)

Well, I hope everyone is doing well. I wanted to send pics but the computer I am using doesnt want to help me out, so Ill send some next week. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Middle of May

Post Mother’s Day

May 21, 2012

This last week was really good. We visited a ton of people. We had a baptism and we are seeing lots of miracles. The baptism was good but since everyone went to the temple, there was only the 4 missionaries and the young woman who gave a ride to Fransisca at the church. Elder De Lima baptized her and I got to confirm her.

We had a zones conference the other day that was really good. We learned a lot about goal setting. It was good to see a lot of missionaries that I know there also. There is a sister here who is serving a mini mission and she is from Poços De Caldas so all of the missionaries who have served in Poços took a pic with her.

We are doing really well. The weather has cooled off so it feels like spring. Its actually been pretty nice. We went on a few exchanges last week and we got a lot of work done. We even found a few really good people to teach. Last week really was awesome. It even ended with a barbeque! I think we will eat acaí today also, so Im pretty much in heaven. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next week!

Elder Siemers

Mother’s Day

May 14, 2012

This last week was good. Mother's day was awesome. We bought chocolate bonbons and glued a couple together with a small note and gave them out to all the women and young women at church. They really appreciated it. We were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting. We had to follow a lady who spoke about when her son was on a mission and the primary, which sang a pretty song about mothers. It was all over for us. We all cried during our talks. Its rough having to speak about mothers while you are a missionary on mother's day. It was awesome talking to the family. It was great seeing the nieces and nephews. It was the first time I got to seen Calvin in action. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next week!

Elder Siemers

Last Week of the Transfer

May 7, 2012

So, this last week was crazy. We had all kinds of stuff happen, so we didnt get a lot of teaching in, but we had a baptism! Ingra was super ready and is really awesome. Her family has been taking her to church and teaching her more than us, so we didnt do much.

As for transfers, my entire district stayed. So I will be here for at least another 6 weeks. We had interviews with President Prieto this week also. He is really awesome. He came up with a new rule for our area. When somebody gets to 100 kilos they will be transfered out of Palmares. The women in the ward are always giving us food.

Well, Im a little short on time. I hope all is well. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Racing Around

April 30, 2012

This week was crazy busy. We were running around everywhere. We went on tons of exchanges and visited tons of people. Our Zone Leaders interviewed a lot of people we are teaching. We had one woman all ready to be baptized but at the last moment her husband did want her to, so our baptism fell through. We are working with them and we should be able to baptize her in the next couple weeks.

The weather has finally calmed down a little. Its been raining the last couple days, which is a little tough, but it hasnt been too bad.

I have been making cheater cookies for Family Home Evenings. They have been a huge hit. I made them this morning for the lady in the ward who was cutting our hair, and I will be making them again for Family Home Evening tonight.

We are tired, but we are excited for the next couple weeks. We have two really good families we are working with who want to be baptized. This week is the last week of the transfer and I am hoping I will stay. This area is awesome. The members are super awesome. We are all wanting to stay here for many more transfers. Let's see what President Prieto has in mind. He's the one in charge.

I hope everyone is doing well. Tchau!

April 16-23

April 23, 2012

Well, not too much to tell this week. This last week we planned on making more contacts. During our planning session at night, we put the names of the streets where we were going to contact. Everytime we visited these streets we found people that were interested. One day we even went to a street where we already contacted a lot of people. We realized that when we got there, but we had planned to do it, so I looked around saw a lady sitting out in front of her house. We went over there and talked to her and she was really interested. She is even looking for a church to join. It was like that all week. We made just a few contacts every time, but we ended up with lots of addresses to visit.

We have been visiting a family, and recently they have been buying acaí, so everytime we go there they pull out the tub and give us some. They know I cant say no to acaí, so its been awesome eating acaí and being able to apease my addiction a little. =)

We had a couple people accept to be baptized this last week so we are pretty excited. So we will be helping them prepare over the next couple weeks.

Well, thats it from Ribeirão Preto. Until next week! Tchau!

Elder Siemers

April 16, 2012

Not too much

Not much to report this week. We had kind of a slow week, but we having been helping a lot of people. We have been dealing with a few challenges in our area, but have been learning more how to rely on the Lord to overcome these challenges. We really need to start finding new people to teach and we have made goals to accomplish that. Our English classes are going well and people are enjoying them. Well, sorry not too exciting this week. I hope everyone is well. Tchau!

Elder Siemers