End of January - Middle of February

Heading to Ribeirão – 2/20/12

I was transferred this week. I will be heading to Ribeirão Preto tonight. I will also be training a brand new missionary! Crazyness. Time for more stress. =) Time is flying fast but things are going well.

We had a really awesome week. A little bit on the emotional side also. We had a lady who has been studying with us for months tell us she isnt interested anymore. We were crushed. Thats always a tough situation.

But life is good. Paula, our baptism a couple weeks ago is thriving in the church. She started studying again also, so she is having a wonderful time. She said some of the sweetest things when I said goodbye to her last night. She said I was always patience and explained things clearly to her. Thats one of the best compliments someone can give a missionary. We were all pretty misty eyed.

Dyego's family threw me a small birthday party. It was really touching. The only problem was that Elder Batista told Giovanna (Dyego's sister) that I love coconut cake and didnt explain afterward that he was joking and I dont like coconut at all. So, she made a coconut cake. It was made with love though and was delicious. Its amazing how attached you get to people. The mission is awesome.

Well, my next email will be from my next area. Até a proxima vez!

Elder Siemers

Long week – 2/13/12

We had lots to do this last week. We helped plan two activities, one for everyone, and a campout for the young men. We also had interviews with President Prieto and a multi zone conference. President Prieto has been bringing every missionary house in the mission a microwave. He wanted to make sure that they were clean and see if they need anything. He and Sister Prieto were quite impressed with our full fridge. I dont think a lot of missionaries buy a lot of food, so they were pretty happy.

Our multizone conference was really good. The focus was on improving our desires and our work through goals and planning. It was Elder Davis'(my trainer) last conference. That was weird. He only had one year when I arrived in the field, and he is going to leave in the next couple months. Im getting old on the mission. =)

The activities were good. The wednesday night activity was to help us be more united. We played games that helped us work together and get to know one another. Friday night, the young men had a campout. I showed them how to make tin foil dinners just like we learned in scouts. I shared a message while dinner was cooking in the coals about how we need to gather ourselves in one place spiritually. This place is the Gospel. I shared 3 Nephi 3:25 and encouraged them to do things to help them stay in the gospel. It was a good night.

The week was long and we didnt teach as much as we wanted, but we are very free this coming week, so we should be able to make up for it. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next week.

Elder Siemers

O mesmo – 2/6/12

Well, this week will probably be another lame email. Not much to report. We have lots of people to teach but not many are wanting to do much. We have been preparing for some activities in the church this week and this month. We are working hard at strengthening the church here and its members with a theme of more unity. We are trying to set up a system of activities and coordination between the missionaries and members that will continue after we leave the area and new missionaries come in. Its important that the ward is actively involved and doesnt need the missionaries to do anything but teach.

Its been really hot this week. Carnaval(Brazilian Mardi Gras) is coming up here soon so we are not looking forward to the lack of sleep we will have. The activities arent very far from our house so we will be able to hear all the shows and people in the street coming and going.

I hope everyone is doing well. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Changes – 1/30/12

This week wasnt as good as the last week. We had a baptism scheduled but it fell through, so we were all disappointed about that. We had lots of people in church though. We did have a very good training from the assistants. They have been making lots of changes and focusing on improving our teaching. I really like the changes they have been making and things are moving more towards my beliefs and ideas of teaching. The mission should have lots more success in the near future with helping others. Well, thats pretty much it. Until next week.

Elder Siemers

Woot Woot – 1/23/12

We had an awesome week last week. We worked hard and had lots of good results including 7 people at church. We baptized a woman who we`ve been working with for the past 2 months or so. There werent tons of people there, but it was really nice and the spirit was strong there. Elder Siemers himself had the honor of baptizing her. It was a really awesome experience.

We also had a conference with Elder M. Russell Balllard, Elder Neil Anderson, Elder Jensen of the presidency of the 70, and Elder Costa the area president of Brazil. It was an awesome conference and we all got to shake the hands of each church leader who came. The conference was very uplifting and helpful. The focus was on working with church members and working more effectively. I learned a lot and am more commited to work harder.

Elder Siemers

January So Far

Not much – 1/16/12

Pretty good week but uneventful. Elder B. and I are working really hard. Our recenct convert has been visiting people with us so thats been fun. He's a cool young man. We are preparing for a conference we will be having on Saturday. There will be at least 2 apostles and some members of the 70. I am pretty excited. I didnt hear any apostles speak while in the MTC so this is a pretty special occasion. Well, thats pretty much it for this week. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

1^st Transfer of 2012 – 1/9/12

Things are really starting to pick up. We've been receiving refferals from members and more members are making visits with us. Our apartment is spotless. Elder B. likes a clean house also, so its nice to be living in cleanliness. We have been working tons. And walking tons also. It seems like all our investigators live 30 minutes away. Everytime we try and work close to our house and the church we cant find anyone. When we walk through neighborhoods that are really far away people come up to us and talk to us. We arent going to deny people who iniciate the conversation so we visit them. We had a zone meeting last week some of the best news Ive ever heard. Our standard of excellency was changed again. But this time they tossed out a fake key indicator that we were using. It was made up by the mission and to me never made any sense. It was how many families we were teaching. But anyone could be a family, so you didnt actually have to teach a family to count it. It was weird and confusing. We also tossed out firmes and possiveis. Which are people who are going to be baptized this week and those who could possibly be baptized. We were running ourselves to death trying to turn our possibles into baptisms and werent making any long term plans. Our new pattern puts people on a schedule of weeks so we can help them be better prepared for baptism and help them progress and get to know the church and the members. I almost got up in the middle of the meeting and hugged our Zone Leader when he told us the news. I am really excited. We should have a lot more success in the near future. We also got news that we will have a visit from two of the 12 apostles in our mission. Everyone is really excited. I think it will be Elder Ballard and Elder Anderson. Along with a few members of the 70. I am really excited for January and what it will bring. Ive got a hard working companion so we should be able to accomplish quite a bit, especially since the members of the church here and making lots of missionary oriented goals also. Sacrament meeting had two talks just on missionary work and helping the missionaries. Lots of good to look forward to in the next few weeks. Well, I hope everyone is having a happy 2012. Até mais.

Elder Siemers

Feliz Novo Ano!!! - 1/2/12

New Years was good. We live on the second floor so we had a good view of the fireworks. There wasnt really an official fireworks show, just everyone buys their own fireworks here in Franca. So at midnight we just looked out over the city and there were fireworks everywhere. I panned across the sky with my camera and there were fireworks in every direction. It was pretty cool.

There was an emergency transfer last week and my companion was transfered to another city. I received a new companion, Elder Batista. He has less than one transfer in the field, so it looks like I will complete his training. He is really awesome and is super excited to work. Last week we did a lot, even though we missed out on a day because of the traveling to Ribeirão Preto.

We worked hard at finding new people to teach. We've been working a lot with a member of the Bishopric to coordinate the work a little better. This next month should be really good. The Ward is making goals for the year and we put in our input the other day. We'll see here soon what the Ward's mission plan will be.

Life is good in the mission field. Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Elder Siemers

Christmas

Merry Christmas – 12/26/11

Crazy week. Christmas was definitely different this year. We had a mission Christmas conference. That was good. All the missionaries in the mission were all together. President Prieto always has a Christmas Tree full of chocolate in his house and he carried on the tradition here on the mission. It was good to see all my old companions. Everyone is doing well and we had a lot of fun. The mission staff put on a nice Christmas program with lots of music. Afterward, there were quite a few games, including a banana eating contest.

Christmas was good. The members fed us really well Christmas Eve and Christmas. To top it all off we had a baptism on Christmas. We baptized a young man who we found a few weeks ago. He had already talked to the missionaries when his sister was meeting with the missionaries a long time ago. He was ready and wanted to be baptized so we had a good Christmas. I got to use Skype to call home and it was really good seeing and talking to the family. Everyone looked good and happy. Only one more week left in 2011. 2012 will be interesting. 70% of the missionaries in the mission arrived in 2011 with me. There is only 30% that has more than a year on the mission. There will be a lot of leadership positions to fill here in the next few months. Lets see what 2012 brings before the Mayan calender runs out. :p

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and have a happy New Year!

Elder Siemers

Feliz Natal! – 12/19/11

Another good week in Franca. Another week with un-Christmas like weather. One of our investigators works in an ice cream shop and we have discovered that they sell buckets of10 liters of ice cream for really cheap. That was a good find. Before church yesterday, we went to pick somebody up to bring them to church. At the meeting spot there was a bunch of vulture like birds that were eating a dog that was hit by a car on the highway. On our way back a little puppy came out from under the bridge we were on and started following us. You could tell he was hungry and thirsty but he followed us anyway. We decided to bring him to a church member's house just to feed him a little bit before sending him out to the street again. We were also pretty sure that his mom was the dog that was on the side of the road. The little guy followed us for a super long distance but then he got tired. Just then, a church member pulled up in his car and offered us a ride to church. I couldnt just leave him in the street so we brought the puppy with us. At the church we found some water for him, and a woman gave him some milk. During church he kept coming in the building, but everyone was very good about it. After the second sunday school class I didnt see him again. I heard that a member took him to an animal shelter, but I have no idea if that really happened. I hope he makes it. He was really cute. It was a very Where the Red Fern Grows type of experience. I gave a talk in church about Happiness in our lives. I think people enjoyed it. People were paying attention anyway. =) There is a Sister missionary who is completing her mission. Her family came down to pick her up and tour Brazil. They are from California also, so it was fun to talk to them, and translate for them. They even have been rafting on the Lower Klamath, so they are somewhat familiar with Northern California. They've got family in Auburn, and so I told them Ive got family in Lincoln. Last night was our Ward Christmas Party. It was a lot of fun. We have been filming ward members, and a man in the ward made a video of everyone saying Merry Christmas. At the end of the film, Carolyn showed up. I was in the back, next to the food table, but I ran to the front to watch. Next was Calvin, Sam and Taron. Next Jay and Rachel and the kids showed up, with Mom, Dad, Ty, Tam, and the kiddos finishing up the Elder Siemers segments. It was awesome. Im not going to lie. The Man of Steel almost shed a few tears. It was a wonderful surprise. Thank you very much! I hope everyone is having an awesome winter. And Merry Christmas!!!!

Elder Siemers

December 12, 2011 - So Close

Well, things are good in Franca. We have a few people who are preparing for baptism but they have difficult challenges to overcome. So we have been working overtime to help them do the things that will help them overcome their problems and get prepared for baptism. The weather has been overcast but it didnt rain much this last week so that was nice because it kept the temperatures down. We had stake conference yesterday. That was really nice and had some really good talks. One lady gave an awesome talk on the importance of marriage and the family. I had some stories to tell this week but I cannot remember any of them. So this will be a short but sweet email. Things are going well and we had a really good week. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

November 7 - December 5

Dec 5 – Corinthians

Another crazy week in Brazil. I received some Root Beer extract recently in a package, so we made Root Beer. We stopped by our house to grab the Root Beer and headed off to the house of someone we are teaching to have Root Beer floats. I accidently left my umbrella in our house and while we were teaching it started POURING. The man grabbed a plastic bag and made a make shift poncho for me. We had one more appointment that night so we headed off into the rain. The gutters were like rivers. We had to forge some of these rivers and some of them were over ankle deep. The streets were just full of water. It was crazy. It was a lot of fun though. We got home thoroughly soaked.

The Corinthians played last night for the Brazil championship. When they won it was insanity in the streets. People were dancing, singing, lighting off fireworks. Cars and motorcycles were driving up and down the streets honking their horns. You would have thought that a 20 year war had just ended. This made it a little difficult to find people to teach, but it was definitely fun to watch.

Things are good. A little hot, but things are good. We have quite a few people to teach, so we arent just walking around the streets all day. Its good to stay busy and productive. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next week.

Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Nov 28 – Staying in Franca

Last week for pday our zone got together for a barbeque and some soccer. I dont think I have played soccer for 10 years, but I decided to give it a shot. And to my surprise I held my own against the Brazilians, so Im pretty happy about that.

This past week was the last week of transfers and word came in that I will be staying in my area with my companion. I pulled out my new planner and realized that this transfer will take us into 2012. Crazy. 2011 passed by very quickly.

Its hot here so it does not feel like November. I didnt remember until the afternoon on Thursday about Thanksgiving because its summer here. I hope everyone had a good Turkey day. Thanksgiving is not celebrated here, but everyone knows what it is. Brazilians seem to have a bunch of holidays, but not too many people actually celebrate. Today is a holiday. I think its the birthday of the city I'm in, but I am not exactly sure.

Last night the Corinthians, a Brazilian soccer team, won the game they played. I think they took first place overall. It sounded like a warzone in the neighborhood I was in. People were lighting off fireworks everywhere. Everyone was yelling and celebrating. Soccer is definitely a big deal here.

Well, I hope everyone is well. Today will be a relaxing pday for me and my companion, which is always a good thing. There is always something going on during pday so I feel like we hardly ever rest. Tchau! Até mais!

Elder Siemers

Nov 21 – LOTS of walking

Oh man. I have never walked so much in my life. This was a really busy week and we were all over the place. Lots of our investigators are having lots of problems so we are working overtime to help some of them. We are finding lots of good people to teach though, so thats a huge plus. Sorry this email is short again, but I am sending pictures to the mission office for the Christmas slideshow. I hope everyone is well.

Elder Siemers

Nov 14 - Rain & Açai

Not much to report this week. We had a huge rainstorm Sunday morning so hardly anyone was at church. We have a new Ward Mission Leader so we will be able to start working with him to work more with the members. Im excited about that. We only have so many credits on our cell phone, and generally they run out after 2 weeks and we have to wait for 2 more weeks to recieve more. A ward mission leader should help us plan more in advance and coordinate with the members a little better. They are building a new Açai restaurant here in our area and I am really excited about that. Our district leader told me about another place that you can get a lot of açai for 5 reais. Açai is an amazing fruit that I love. I will definitely miss it when I head back to the states. Well, thats pretty much it. I hope everyone is doing well. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Nov 7 - Out of Time

Sorry everyone, but I literally have 2 minutes to write this email. It was a good week. We walked a lot but our teaching is really improving. We have a few people who want to be baptized and we are helping them be prepared, so we should have a few baptisms this month. Other than that not tons is going on. Until next week.

Elder Siemers

Franca week 2

Good week. I feel like we were teaching a lot better and that the people we are teaching are progressing. We went to a really pretty waterfall last pday with our zone. That was a lot of fun and really pretty. My companion and I have really different views on missionary work and how to teach, but we are getting along really well. We passed a family that was loading up a moving truck the other day and we stopped to help them. It felt so good to serve with my hands. This was my first service project in 6 months. Generally people dont let us serve them because our clothes are nice or they dont want to bother us. Im used to cutting firewood for the widows in my home ward, so its been weird not serving others with my hands. Sorry this is short, but so is my time, and I honestly am drawing a blank of what to write. Hope everyone is doing well. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Franca!

This was an interesting week. The first time in a new area, so It was weird being dependent on my companion because I didnt know the area or the people her. We found a few really good people last week, so I have high hopes for this transfer.

I stepped into Wal - Mart the other day. That was weird. Never thought I would do that in Brazil. It was pretty much the same. I dont think I will bring myself to eat at McDonalds though. Maybe one time to see if it tastes the same, but I really dont have much of a desire to go there.

When I arrived here, I seperated my white shirts, to make sure I use the same ones, so I can use them up and keep some others nice to use later. This way I always have nice white shirts, and free up a little space in my suitcase instead of having lots of creme colored shirts and no space in my suitcase. I was washing my frequently used shirts so I used a shirt that I have not used very much. I walked past a tree that had a nail sticking out of it that I didnt see and snagged my shirt. Riiiiiiipp! So much for keeping some shirts nicer than others. At least I have a little more room in my suitcase now.

Yesterday it was raining. I left my umbrella outside of the church because I didnt put it with all the other umbrellas, just in case there was a mix up. I didnt want somebody to walk off with it on accident. My companion told me not to keep my umbrella outside so I grabbed it and put it inside with the others. At the end of church I found it. Then I went to grab some thing and two minutes later somebody had grabbed it by accident! Luckily it did not rain much yesterday.

Well, that was pretty much my week. I am excited for this area. I think it will be a really good city to work in.

Elder Siemers