October 15 - November 12

November 12: Clowns and Cakes

This last week was good. We got a couple of rain to cool things off a little. On Saturday we went to a birthday party for the daughter of one of our investigators. Afterward it was off to Pereira Barreto to watch a play that the branch there wrote and presented. It was in the classic Pereira Barreto style and was great. It was definitely from the heart. We also travelled to Araçatuba this last week for some follow up training for our new program. It was great. It was 9 hours on the bus round trip for a 2 hour training but it was good. Time is flying by. Its super hot and its only supposed to get hotter but we are surving. Until next week! Tchau!

Elder Siemers

November 5: SW

The new transfer started well. The Elders of Tres Lagoas arrived so our district is back up to full strength. We are doing well. We had quite a few people at church yesterday. We are getting lots of referrals so the work has been moving along lately. We are teaching lots of great people. Nothing too exciting to report this week. But I just got the update that there will be 3 new star wars films! The blessings of the mission! May the force be with all of you...

Elder Siemers

October 29: End of the Transfer

The transfer ended and our entire district stayed. Nobody has been here for very long so it wasnt much of a surprise. There are two elders that are arriving to take over Tres Lagoas so we wont have to work there anymore. It will be nice to focus on one city again. We had branch conference yesterday with a special musical number by the branch members. There were few men at church so we sang the men part with a young man in the ward. Things are going well and we are getting lots of referrals. The weather has been super hot. A man told us yesterday that he has lived here for 36 years and never seen hot weather like we are having. So we are drinking lots of water and getting into lots of doors because people invite us in out of the sun. =) Thats it for this week. Have a great week! Tchau!

Elder Siemers

October 22: New Program

This last week was crazy yet again. I only was in my area for 2 days. I went on a division with Elder Miller to Pereira Barreto to do some baptismal interviews. On wednesday we went to Araçatuba and received some training on the new program the mission is now using. It involves a few new things but mainly its the same thing we are doing with a different introduction to the gospel. This way people can start to feel and see God in their lives a lot sooner. We are all pretty excited for it. We finished up the week with a trip to Três Lagoas which is the hottest city on the mission. We are still covering that city until the next transfer, which was moved to next week instead of today. Things are going well. We had a surprise birthday party for a lady in our branch last night. Its awesome serving in a branch. It feels like everyone is a family. Until next week!

Elder Siemers

October 15: Out of Time

Sorry folks, I ran out of time so this week there wont be an email. Love you guys!

Elder Siemers

September 10 - October 8

October 8, 2012

Conference

General conference was great. it was my last conference of the mission. The next general conference I will be home. Craziness. Things have been hectic here. We have been running back and forth between Tres Lagoas and Ilha Solteira. This week we are going to travel a ton too. We have a zone meeting in Araçatuba so we'll be travelling for 2 days. I am doing great but I am super tired. I cant wait for the new transfer when the new elders of Tres Lagoas arrive so I can rest. We had a barbeque today and were able to relax so I am ready for the week. I hope everyone is doing well. I will talk to you guys next week. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

October 1, 2012

Busy Week

Crazy week this last week. We planned an activity at the church on Saturday night and we ran around all week inviting EVERYONE. The activity turned out great even though all our inviting was in vain. We had an Elder in our district get sick and he and his companion were transferred out this last week. So we will be covering two cities again. Just until the next transfer. Things are going well. The weather cooled off a little with a little rain but the heat is coming back. We'll see how hot it gets when we get into summer... Not much more to report this week. Im excited for General Conference. Até mais pessoal!

Elder Siemers

September 24, 2012

Advertising & Parties

Another week that wasnt too eventful. We've been looking for houses for the elders in Pereira Barreto. We've got a couple options. President Prieto is coming this way to see some of the houses and to do interviews with my district today. 

Elections are coming up so there is lots of advertising in the streets. People drive around with giant speakers blasting annoying campaign music. It was unbearable a couple a weeks ago and it is only getting worse....

We found a couple new families this last week. We've got lots of people to teach but we are having trouble getting people to come to church. There seems to be a party every Saturday night here in Ilha Solteira, so everyone is sleeping in on Sundays. We are starting to do lots of activities with the members here. Things are starting to move along. 

Well, that's pretty much it for this week. Talk to you all later. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

September 17, 2012

Crazy Transfers

This last week was super busy. The transfers lasted all week so we were doing exchanges like crazy. One elder didnt arrive until friday. I was only with my companion for 2 days last week. The new elders that will work in Pereira arrived and they are really excited. I went there one day with them to help get them oriented. They are going to have lots of success. Other than the craziness, not much happened this last week. There was a party at the beach on saturday so everyone was sleeping on sunday morning so we didnt have any investigators at church. But things are going to get better. Since we dont have to worry about working in two cities it will be easier to focus on the people here and plan activities. We are going to be doing lots with the members over the next few weeks.

Have a great week!

Elder Siemers

September 10, 2012

Surprises and Weddings

This last week was crazy but really good. Sergio, the dad of our golden family, was baptized on Saturday. We planned it so nobody in his family knew until we started the baptismal service. It was neat. We then did the official wedding ceremony for them later that day at the church. It was a nice ceremony and had amazing food afterward. Things are going great.

Today is the first day of the new transfer. I stayed in Ilha Solteira. My companion was transferred to Ribeirão Preto. We all thought he would stay in Pereira Barreto. President is sending two new missionaries there. I will have to orient them for the first week or so because they arent familiar with anything here. One of them is arriving in the misison field this week. We dont have a house for them yet so they will be staying with us for the time being. Im looking forward to this transfer. We have lots of people to teach. I hope everyone at home is doing well. Talk to you all later.

Elder Siemers

July 30 - September 3

Getting Ready

September 3, 2012

This week wasnt too eventful. We have been getting lots of referrals from the members and have been contacting them so we have a whole new group of people to teach. We spent pday last week at the hydro electric dam here in Ilha Solteira. It was a cool tour and we got to see how the power plant works. There is a new area opening up in Pereira Barreto so we have been getting ready for two new missionaries in the district. It will be nice because its hard when you have two areas to work in. Now we will have missionaries just for Ilha Solteira and just for Pereira Barreto.  Now we just need to find a house in Pereira. Well, thats pretty much it for this week. Até mais!

Elder Siemers

Lots of Water!

August 27, 2012

We started off the week with a trip to the beach. It was a lot of fun throwing the frisby around, playing uno, and volleyball. We had a pretty busy week and married a couple so they could be baptized. We had 5 baptisms on Saturday. It was awesome. The family we are teaching is really special. We hope to baptize the rest in the next few weeks. Sorry this email is short but I'm out of time. Hope you guys enjoy the pics!

Elder Siemers

August 13, 2012

Week 2 was great in Ilha Solteira. We went on exchanges with the zone leaders and did some batismal interviews. We had a baptism yesterday after church. We have a lot of people we are teaching in Pereira Barreto so we were over there almost all week. We have another baptism lined up for this week, and a family for next week. Things are going really well. This week we are going to travel to Araçatuba twice. So we are going to be in the bus a lot. Well, thats pretty much it. Im having a blast here in Ilha Solteira. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Ilha Solteira

August 6, 2012

Things are great in my new area. My new companion is from Recife, Brazil and has been on the mission for 5 months. Ilha Solteira is awesome. Its a small town and the people are really friendly. Its really well organized and clean. We serve here and in another city called Pereira Barreto. Each city has a branch. We received a referral in Pereira Barreto of a family of 8. One of the young men in the family was invited to go to church and he went. He came home almost jumping for joy. He loved it and said he is going to go every week. This got the family interested and we visited them a couple times this week. They are awesome. A really humble, sweet family. One of the daughters has already read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and is super happy about everything. I am really excited to work in this area. We are super far away. It took 10 hours in 2 buses to get here, but it was worth it. It looks like we will have a lot of travelling to do this month for zone meetings and stake conference. There are only two districts in our district. Us and two Elders in Tres Lagoas. Things are going great. I hope everyone is having a great week. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Miracle Week

July 30, 2012

This last week was awesome. President Prieto challenged our zone with a goal of 15 baptisms. We ended up having 18 I think. 4 of them being from our area. It was awesome. We have been working with a family and even the dad was baptized, he being a little reluctant. He was even able to get work off and come to church so he could be confirmed and receive the gift of the holy ghost. It was awesome. 

I was transferred. I am on my way to Ilha Solteira which is near Tres Lagoas. Tres Logoas is the farthest city in our mission. My new area is right next to it, so it looks like letters will be pretty scarcein the near future. Ive got a long bus ride today. I will be the District Leader there. I was transferred and so was Elder Murakami, and our companions are now companions. Our old area will just have one set of missionaries instead of two. 

Things are going well. Yesterday was awesome. It was hard saying goodbye to everyone and there were quite a few tears shed. I am super fortunate to have spent time in Palmares. I hope everyone is doing well. Have a good week!

Elder Siemers

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