But unfortunately for him, I was having the time of my life knocking doors!

Hey Y'all,

So this week was super busy and we got a lot of good work done!

 So to follow up on those marriages I wrote about last week..... none happened. Well, kind of. One family went and they said she needs a birth certificate which she doesn't have. She will be going Wednesday to get the documents and try to mark again! We went with another family and got a member to drive us all to the cartorio.(where you mark the marriage) Unfortunately the cartorio was closed. We had called two times to confirm that they would be open and they said they would be! People kinda just do what they want here. So they didn't all work out, but there was effort and a willingness shown. There's always gunna be trials when you try to do the right thing because Satan doesnt want you to and God wants to see if you'll continue to try when it's hard. So the key is the second time. We'll get 'em back there this week and get those suckers marked!!

   On Wednesday we had splits again (I have a ton of splits with other elders. Props of being the comp of the district leader) and it was great!! I normally don't like splits when I travel because I like working in my area but this one was sick!! So the elder I went out with is kinda just a goof and I like to get things done, so we are a little different (I like to goof too but I goof when it's not working time) They don't havea lot of investigators and they only had two appointments that day and the rest was knocking doors. We were able to get in and teach two new investigators in their area and they are pretty sweet too! One of them has a brother that is Mormon and said his brother's never really told him much about the church. When we invited the other guy to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, he said "This is gonna help a lot because I've wanted answers about religion" I love it when that stuff happens!! And it happens a lot out here. 

When it came to be 6:00, the other elder called it good and said it was time to go to a member's house. But unfortunately for him I was having the time of my life knocking doors! I have pretty much hated it when I've had to knock doors here on the mission until this week. Before the mission my job was to knock doors for 8+ hours per day and I loved it and got pretty good. But here, speaking a different language, I had none of the same skill I had before and that frustrated me to death. I just wanted to be able to do it the same way I could before. But Wednesday I turned into myself again! I was talking to everyone and having real conversations with the people. It wasn't the same nervous scripted half fluent mess  was doing. I just quit worrying and talked!!! It was the BEEEST!! So I kept knocking alone while he hung out behind me because he was done for the day. I set about ten appointments for him and had a ton of fun! That was a great day for me because I hit a turning point where I feel like I'm finally myself again. That's happening more and more now and I'm having more and more fun now.

  Our investigators are doing great! We've got a sister that has a member friend that is building a brick wall around her house. We've been doing service projects there to help her and gain her trust. We began teaching her and she's coming to church already! We have another family with a single mom. They've been receiving the messages really well. Unfortunately they didn't make it to church. A lady found us on the street and gave us her address and it turns out they had just moved here and have been inactive for the past 13 years. There was a lot of mess in their last branch and things being tought that shouldn't have and they stopped going. We've been visiting them and they are a great family!! They love the missionaries and are always offering dinner and food.(that's a plus about their family) They have two grandkids that live with them and never went to church. We got their family there yesterday and the grandkids loved it. We're gonna talk to the grandparents this week about baptism for them. 

  

We had one more lady that we started teaching last week. She said she got an answer when reading the Book of Mormon that she needs to go to church or things will get harder for her. She has been having a lot of trials in life and she got the answer that church is the answer. She believes the Book of Mormon is true and that the restoration happened. She's pretty golden!! She as well is a single mom with kids so we're gonna try and get some service project for her too!

   This week was just awesome! A lot of times there's hard times and things that suck out here on the mission. But you can't stay down when you see how much the Lord helps in every aspect of the work! like I said earlier, every trial that happens is just a test to see if we will stay firm. When you stick it out and stay enthusiastic, nothing will stay bad. And God will bless us that much more for pushing through. When you think about trials as nothing more than a test, short learning period before the fountain of blessings, it's so much easier to endure as well. I love being out here and having all these experiences. Good and bad. Wouldn't trade 'em for the world.

So here's my rat. We had the back door open and we were standing in the kitchen talking. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and there was a rat outside. I took off running after it and grabbed the broom on the way out. Caught up to him right behind the house and sacrificed half our broom for him. The good news is, we are rat free and had another broom head (I don't know why, but it's a good thing we did.)

 I love everyone and hope y'all have a blessed week!!

Elder Little

I figured out that success in the field starts with success in the companionship.

This week we got to see a lot of miracles happening in Aracy!! 

  We have four families of investigators we are trying to help get married. We have been working with them without a whole lot of movement until this week. The first family is rock solid and come to church without fail and love it! They always love our visits and there's not a better family I could ask for. We first talked about marriage a while back and they kinda just blew it off. This week when we challenged them to set a date to mark it with the state, it went kinda rough. It ended with "we'll talk to see if we really want to get married". So that was kinda scary. When we came back Saturday it all turned out good! They just misunderstood each other at first and they both wanted to get married but didnt know if the other did. They've all ready been practically married for the last 15 years. And they are marking a date and getting documents with the state as I type!!! They are super excited and want to be baptised after the marriage!! 

   

 We also had an awesome zone meeting this week and The Bangerters joined us there. We had interviews with President during the meeting. He is super happy with Elder Rangel and I and we had a great talk about the work. 

  

The work is moving forward soo well! Elder Rangel and I continue to work better and better together. I think I figured out that success in the field starts with success in the companionship. (I'm kinda jelous of Grandma and Grandpa going on their mission together.) Obedience and a succesfull, happy companionship radiate the Spirit and it influences everyone you work with.  We shared a lesson with Angela's family this week about not forgetting the simple things.  Fuelling our fire with the small and simple things realigns everything else in our lives. Don't forget the importance and significance of the Sacrament every week, the daily prayer and scripture study, the time spent as a family, and everything else that is the very basic fundamentals of our spiritual well being.

  I'm so happy I have the privilege to be out here participating in the changing of lives. The gospel is really pretty incredible and I don't go a day without thinking how blessed I am to have it.

Love everyone and hope y'all have a great week!!

Elder Little

This week, we really became the representatives of Christ that missionaries are.

First week of the transfer down, and I couldn't be more satisfied!! So Tuesday I got up early and made a huge breakfast for me and Elder Rangel and went in and woke him up with the food when the 6:30 alarm went off. (He never wakes up on time) Nothin wakes an elder up faster than a hot breakfast! I did that every day this week and by Saturday he was getting up before the six thirty alarm and calling the other elders in the district telling them to wake up and exercise. 

We completley transformed our nightly planning this week. It used to be us sitting on the beds while he sat there thinking then told me what to write down. It wasn't exactly the most effective planning. Now we actually converse and discuss all the investigators individually. not just what time we will go but actually make a lesson plan. Weekly planning was completly different as well. It was pretty much the same as the daily in the past. Write down some goals and write down who we want to baptise. Yesterday we took well over an hour making detailed plans for everyone and what they need. We did companion inventory and talked about what we need to work on individually and as a companionship. Our studies, our planning, our lessons, our lunches, EVERYTHING magically transformed this week. We are actually doing things right! When you start with the simple things like getting up on time, the bigger things fall into place.When you do well in the small and simple things you feel the success and the spirit in that, and it makes you want to have more. Then you start doing a little more and a little more until you are truly excelling in all aspects. The same goes for the other way too. Whether you are or are not obedient, it creates a cycle in which you will either grow or regress. I've gotten to see both sides of that cycle here in the field and its a lot more fun to watch the good side!! The other thing I learned is you can't do this work alone. You and your companion have to be aligned on everything. If your companion isn't doing his part you gotta lovingly kick his butt into gear, cause you can't do it alone.

   

Our work with the investigators went great this week!!! We did some door knocking this week and it turns out I havn't lost all of my door to door salesman yet! I was pretty discouraged a few weeks ago knocking doors because in English, I'm a pretty smooth talker, but in Portugues I was just stumbling through door approaches. This week Elder Rangel and I decided to knock on opposite sides of the street to get more contacts done. We were able to get in and teach 3 out of the 5 people I talked to.  He also found a family that we taught and we picked up 8 new investigators on one street corner!! Allison (new guy) is super cool. He read the Book of Mormon and prayed and said he wanted to keep reading and felt super good after just one day. He said he wanted to come to church and bring the rest of his family. He's super sincere and humble. I'm excited to work with him. Vilma, another newbee, is super straightforward and outgoing.  She says it like it is and tells you how she feels. Super excited to continue working with her as well. Then the family that Rangel found is great. Mom and three kids and they said they don't attend a church right now, but they have gone to a lot and have a lot of questions and confusion about religion. That's the most perfect concern someone could have! This church was restored because someone had the same doubts. They seem to have recieved the lesson of the restoration really well and we will follow up with them tomorrow. Our other family is still progressing super well! They come to church and do family home evening every week without fail! We are working with them on marriage right now so they can be baptised. She believes whole heartedly in the plan of salvation and said she is going to be married because she wants to go to the celestial kingdom with her family!! 

    

This week finally felt like we became missionaries! Before we were some young guys talking about God. This week, we really became the representatives of Christ that missionaries are. We tried to be obedient in everything and put forth a conscious effort to become better. We were so blessed for this and were able to be very successful this week. Not only were we blessed but we are able to bring the blessings of eternities to more and more families. The Lord really does bless us for everything and we will never be able to repay Him for everything we recieve. 

The luxurious life of a missionary. At night after planning I spend about 20-30 minutes in my hammock writing in my journal and looking at the stars. There isn't anything better at the end of a long day of work.

Love Y'all; 

Elder Little

Does the Spirit just guide people to you or what?!!!

TRANSFERS!!!! I actually have no exciting news for transfers. We both will be staying. One guy in our house is going and he's pretty sad, but other than that, nothing.

   

So this week started out a little different than I was hoping. Last P-day I busted my ankle in a hole in the road. (The roads here are the pits.) It was the same ankle I busted in February that benched me for a month. Tuesday it was hurting quite a bit so I called Sister Bangerter after lunch just to let her know, and she told me to take the day to rest it and go to the doctor if I needed. I wasn't going to go, but then Elder Rangel was having stomach pains for two days straight, so we decided to go together. He got two injections in the butt cheek and I got four days without walking and a prescription. 

 

 

After almost losing my mind the first day of prison, I gave up and went back to work. Since then it's been fine. Doctors are the worst and so is not working. I did get a lot done at home though. I read the entire "Our Heritage" book, I constructed air conditioning in my room by resurrecting two broken fans, and I made a lot of food. We still went out and made one visit that day to a family that lives close by. The rest of the week has gone great. We got some crazy rain again and helped get all the water out and clean Lucas' house. The waterfall on the street came in this time. It's a lot different than the flood clean up I did back home. We just swept all the water out with squeegees and brooms, then brought a hose in and cleaned with soap. We were done in two hours. These Brazilians know what they're doing with the concrete! We had A LOT of appointments fall through this week and our area is so big we can spend four hours+ just walking around trying to find someone that's home. 

 

   We still had some great visits and progress made with investigators. Irma Silvia and her family came to church again and stayed for all three hours. She said after that she wants to come every week. Her family and kids are so happy at our church that she wants to come!!!! I don't think investigators can say much better things than that.  All their kids loved it and their dad told the bishop (they work together) that he wants to keep coming because it makes his daughters so happy. The power of getting investigators to church is HUGE!! Without good experiences in the chapel with members, and feeling the Spirit in classes, conversion is so much harder. The church and sacrament is a key part of testimony. 

 

 We have a new investigator that approached us at the bus stop in a different area. He asked if we were from a church then asked "Why do bad things happen in life even when you always try to do good?'' and "I've been looking for answers in a church but I still just feel lost." Does the Spirit just guide people to you or what?!!!  We have experiences similar to this all the time! About 20 minutes ago right before I came into the lan house to email, a guy stopped his car on the road and asked if we had a Book of Mormon. He told me as everyone was honking at him that he's really wanted to read one but didn't know where to get one. When you work to find investigators the Lord will always show you who's ready! It's amazing how much the Spirit guides our work everyday. I'm happy to be here and be a tool in bringing salvation to the people of Brazil.

 

 

I finally got my hammock!!! I'm being blinded by the sun here but I really just use it at night. From 9:30-10 I lay in my hammock and write in my journal and look at the stars. It's pretty much paradise.

  

A MEMBER GAVE ME A LICENSE PLATE!!!! I'm going to collect one from everyone of my areas. Every city has a different plate.

 

 The avocado of Mom's dreams. It's as big as my head!!! It's going to be  a whole meal for me.

 

My air conditioning! There was a plate on the wall, so naturally I had to take it off and it was just a tube for more wires. I took parts from two different fans and constructed one that I was able to attach to the wall. The wire comes out right next to a different outlet next to my bed so I can plug in my AC without leaving bed. It's pretty bomb!!  Nothing more than a pocket knife and a little duct tape.

 

 

This was a family home evening slash birthday party. Elder Rangel shared a lesson and I was in charge of games. We played pterodactyl.

 

Love everyone tons, 

 Elder Cam Little

It was a much improved week and I'm happy with the results. Onward and upward from here!!

Here's a picture of your son after a game of soccer having the most severe case of football withdrawls ever to be diagnosed.  It's futebol here (futchybol) but no, its not the same. I havn't been homesick for anything except for football.

So this week I want to start out talking about something I learned this week. This last conference there were many talks about member missionary work and assisting the missionaries. I want to help anyone that's reading this think of some ways they can do that. My first way to help this missionaries is when you see the elders serving in your ward, or even the ones that aren't, ask if they know that the time is gunna change an hour!! We got snuck up on by the time change. It moves the opposite way here so we went forward an hour and we didnt find out till we got a call at 7:00 (really 8:00) Sunday morning. Everything sped up really fast after that!!

 

 In follow up to my last email, I talked with my comp about the obedience stuff and it went better this week. Wasn't perfect, but it went better. I put forth more effort to be firm about the rules and he tried a lot more to be obedient. And we were blessed with two families, Edward, a BAPTISM, and a ton of nonmember family of the baptizee, at sacrament meeting!!!

 

  We had a good week with a handful of new investigators and some others that made steps forward. Last Monday after p-day I was with on splits with Elder Lourero. We were going to go to a family home meeting at a member's house, but that fell through. So we were trying to decide what to go do, and thanks to a little bit of inspiration, I decided to go make a surprise family home evening with Irma Silvia and her family (investigators). We went and had a family home evening, I shared a message about the importance of family and having the gospel in the home. Then after I taught them how to play "não coma Pete" the Brazilian version of "Don't eat Pete". I brought Swedish Fish and gummy worms (thanks mom!) so they could try with American candy, and I of course brought Guaraná as well. It went super well and she said she is going to start doing it every week. I got word yesterday that they will be going to the bishop's house tonight for "Noite familiar". (They are friends with the bishop's family.)

 

  The rest of the week we've been battling some crazy rain and hail here. I love it because it seriously reminds me of home with my good old Texas thunder storms. So you know when it rains real hard and all the ditches fill up with water and run real fast? Imagine if those ditches were roads and you've got Aracy. The roads turn into waterfalls. There's no underground drainage, and no one has yards, so everything is straight run off. The city is also built onto a mountain so it FLOWS!! One of the other Elders in the house hurt his back pretty bad bailing water out of a house, so we spent some time trying to help him at the hospital and went on splits with his companion too.

 

 

Here's me and Elder Maia (zone leader, on splits) siting under a tree next to a creek that is pretty much identical to the one behind the house and sent me right back home. I

was in heaven.

 

  Our investigators are progressing well. Our new ones are receptive and I'm excited to work with them.  Emily, the girl that was baptized is 9 years old. Her mom passed away but was a member and lives with her grandma now. A tooon of her family came to the baptism and her grandma listened to all the lessons and has been coming to church with her!

 

   It was a much improved week and I'm happy with the results. Onward and upward from here!!

Love Y'all tons!!

                      Elder Cam Little

I can change things and it doesn't matter if I'm the brand new greenie.

So remember that week I had in the CTM where I talked about having kind of a turnaround with the district? This week was kinda similar.

 
I'll start back on the last P-day. We stayed at the district leader's house for the weekend for general conference and p-day. After emailing last week we went back and everyone wanted churrrasco, but no one knew how to cook it.  I claimed I did (I know how to make Texas barbecue not Brazilian) so I was dubbed the churrasco boy. I just want to claim that I am the Grill Master. That stuff straight up tasted like Fogo!! I was surprised at myself. That's what I do a lot of times. I act like I know what I'm doing when in all honesty I don't. Kind of like when I cut the entire district's hair in the CTM the last week. Oh - and my haircut in all the pics for the last 5 weeks. Yeah, I did that myself and told an elder what to do for the parts I couldn't do. I'm a haircut master too. You taught me well, Obi Wan.

Then Tuesday we had a district meeting and after we went on splits. I was with another elder for the next 24 hours. I was pretty excited because I got to be the leader and do most of the talking with the investigators. I was also slightly nervous because I got to be the leader and do most of the talking with the investigators. With a lot of prayers and just going for it, it was one of the best days on the mission!!! I extended a baptism invitation, taught the plan of salvation to another visited a lot of the investigators to check with them and share a small message. It was by far the most talking I'd done and it went so smoothly. (I also got a mommy package with peanut butter, candy and toothpaste.  That upped the cool factor as well.)

Shout out to Ashley for sending me honey!  Nothing better than peanut butter and honey toast!

  The next day we did the companion switch. Let me take two seconds to whine about how much I hate the bus. I get sick every time, there are always WAY too many people, and its just not fun. Throw expensive in there too. But anyways, my comp was back and it was a normal day of work.

 

Elder Little and Lucas

  The day after that we went on splits with two members to do some finding. I had gotten pretty sick that day and felt like I was dragging my face through gravel all day. After knocking a few doors Lucas (the member that got home from his mission in Curitiba South 4 months ago) sat me down on a bench to talk and rest for a minute. He said he noticed how happy I was with the other elder that one day, but that I was a lot quieter and didn't look as happy. I then talked about how frustrated I've been lately with the lack of adherence to the rules. It's hard for me to fix things because I didn't have the confidence or the words to really be firm and tell him we gotta get our butts moving and change some things. Lucas helped me out a ton by just listening and telling me I just gotta be firm. We talked a while and I really felt a ton better afterwards. I went back to knocking doors after that and really felt good. I made the best contacts I've ever made. We got into one home and taught the restoration and will be going back soon.

  The next morning I was the only one awake until 8:00 and I started studying like normal. I studied straight through companion study hour, greenie training hour then moved on to language study. At 11:00 I was pretty frustrated. I opened an Ashley letter labeled "when you need an inspiration".. It had a note from everyone in the family for me. I was out behind the house in my little sanctuary reading these notes and crying. I felt super good after wards and there will definately be a lot of things changing in the coming week. It was a good week for me to just realize that I can change things and it doesn't matter if I'm the brand new greenie. I need to take charge if things aren't going like they should ( stay tuned for next weeks episode....)

Texas skies in Brazil!

 A week of a lot of ineffective time usage and when I look back on the week, I can see how ineffective our work was. We taught a lot of lessons, we found new people, we had little miracles, but we did not have any moments where it really  felt like we were changing lives and magnifying the calling. That comes through exact obedience and an effort to always do the extra. We didn't have that this week and it shows. 

   Our investigators are really doing well and we have some new ones. One lady came out and called for us to come pray for her because she was confused about religion!! She has a lot of doubts but is showing tons of faith and progressing well already. My language is getting so much better. I've been putting forth a lot more effort to be a part of conversations and not just be lost in the blur of fast slang filled conversations.

  I'm really grateful for this week because I learned a ton. Everything happens for a reason, and as frustrated as I was this week, it's good it happened here at the beginning so I can learn fast. 

Also, I just want to let everyone know that if you drive outside my house with a loudspeaker announcing " 3 pineapples for 5 real" I will chase you down with money.

Gotta go now! Love you tons and have a happy birthday!!

It's just the most fun ( but fun isn't even the word) I've ever had.

You know, after three weeks I still can't complain about a thing. The Mission is always a great experience!

 There was a lot of time taken off of normal teaching and proselyting this week because of conference and other meetings. We had a multi zone conference with president Bangerter and then the two days of conference. We've had to stay here in São Carlos centro for the last two days. It's too far and too expensive and not enough time to return everyday.

 

  So we had a lot of appointments fall through this week and some people that we weren't even able to make contact with, but we also had some people progress really well.

 

  The two families we are teaching are progressing really well. The next step is to get them to church, but its been difficult for all our investigators because this week and next church is in the centro. It's quite a long ways away. 

 

 

We have a lot of investigators and appointments that we are kind of just frozen with because the entire zone has ZERO Book of Mormons. Just in case you didn't know, being a missionary with no Book of Mormons is extremely difficult. We should get some this week. The secretaries and assistants have been useless, but we talked to President and he's getting things done.

 

  We had a multi Zone conference with President on Thursday which was AMAZING!!! President Bangeter is one of the most incredible speakers and teachers. The dude is a Mary Poppins bag of smart. He gave some amazing council and training. I got to bear my testimony because I'm a greeny. It's kinda nerve racking to speak in front of a whole bunch of people in Portugues. It went well and like I said last week, it's my testimony so I can just speak how I feel.  

 

 I've got to tell you a happy from the multi zone conference. Afterwards,  President Bangerter pulled me outside and said he was really impressed with my letters and I seem to be adjusting super well. I had mentioned something about the pest control and he said its awesome that I did that and asked if I could share with him sometime some of the things I learned and use. I just sent him a letter with my three part formula to being happy, successful and learning. But it just made me really happy that President Bangerter wanted me to share my knowledge!! This is what I shared with him on what I learned.  I hope he's able to use it to help some elders one day. It has helped me more than I can even say. With this stuff and relying on the Lord for the rest, there's no reason you can't be happy during anything that happens. The talk about finding joy in everything reminded me a lot of this because we've definitely had some disappointing times these last three weeks, but because I use this and just the knowledge that everything that happens is part of a bigger plan, and rely on the Spirit to help me in my steps. Man I love the mission! I honestly don't know how to type out how I feel about it here.
It's just the most fun ( but fun isn't even the word) I've ever had.

 

 This is what I wrote him. "On the sales team we had something we called STD´s.(We can probably come up with a better acronym that that) STD stands for Self Thoughts that Destroy. During your day selling you have a lot of time to just think to yourself which can be dangerous if its negative. STD´s are anything negative that you think about during the day and we talked about changing them to something positive that helps instead of hurts. For example, if you thought "Man , it's raining and I'm wet,this sucks." You can either change that to "at least it's not hot" but that is still giving in to the negative and adding a positive. We want to be only positive, so you could change it to "It's not hot outside, everyone will be home because they won't be out in the rain, and they´ll all feel bad for me cause I'm wet. I'm about to sell some contracts" Eventually when you change any negative thought to a positive, you start to think like that and everything is a lot easier. 

 

Second was every time I would find myself getting in a slump and just being frustrated, I would change whatever I was doing and do something to just have fun. When I got down on myself or if the neighborhood was just bad, I would start running from house to house. After a few I was jumping over bushes and hopping and skipping around. It was just something that worked to make me happy. I didn't have time to feel sorry for myself and mozy on to the next house. I was just running and having fun with myself. Or if I had a neighborhood where people were really tired of salesmen or just grumpy, I would forget trying to make sales and make a goal to just make the next person laugh. When I focused on just selling and I didn't sell, it was frustrating. If I focused on having fun and making myself funny and cheerful, I was happier and I sold more contracts.

 
Third and probably something that helped me more than anything else was taking the drive home or ten minutes just sitting at my desk to think about the day. What went well that I want to repeat tomorrow? What was bad that I don't want to do again? And what could I have done to improve the day, that I want to try tomorrow? When you analyze the day, you can learn and progress way faster. You can not analyze your days, but then you have a bad day that you don't learn anything from, or a good day that you've got to be lucky to have again. Or you can analyze and have bad days that you won't repeat and good days that you can make the norm because you know why it was good.

 

  General conference was amazing!! During the opening hymn of the first session the stake president found me and told me I could watch in English if I wanted! He had prepared a room for me with a tv playing in English! I had a private room with a desk, a notebook, of course some candy, and conference in English!!! It was awesome! there were some amazing talks and I took a ton of notes. I can't wait for the Ensign to come out. I'll probably get that in Portugues but that's fine. I can understand at my pace and I already know the messages.

 

  I realized that this email kinda sounds like a lot went wrong but it really was a good week! We taught a lot of good lessons and I learned a ton.

 

Love you more than the stake president letting me watch conference in English. (And that's a lot more than just normal conference)

 

Elder Cam Little

 

 

My most powerful weapon in teaching is testimony

So this week was probably the funnest week ever! And the fastest week ever! It felt like about two days.

   The language is getting better and better.  It's a slow process but it'll happen. I'm just glad I'm not Colton learning Cambodian. Whenever I am frustrated with the language I just think "It's not Cambodian. I can do this." Oh and I pray too! It's not just that. 

 

 

   Teaching went super well this week. So Tuesday, Elder Rangel had a meeting in Piracicaba, so I was in a trio from Monday night to Wednesday morning. I went on splits with Lucas for the night to teach ______ and ______. After we went and knocked doors. We normally don't knock doors after dark because people don't like to open the gate for strangers at night. But we didn't have any other visits to make, so knocking we went. Made two appointments for later in the week, then we got an unexpected surprise. We were just making appointments because it was late and I didn't have my real companion. Then one guy (he's not more that 20-21 and lives alone) says that he's really busy with work so he doesn't know when we can come back, so we could come in and teach then! We taught the first lesson and it went super well! He was super receptive and said he is looking for answers in life through church. He wasn't lying when he said he's busy. It's been hard to meet with him again but we'll get there.

 

 

   We taught __________ and ________ every night this week and on Friday we met with their parents. She said she has noticed how ______ (the older brother) has changed and she is fine with them being baptized if it will help them!!!!!! So I had my first baptism yesterday and now all the kids except for the baby are baptized in that family. The parents are super nice and love the Elders.

 

    On Thursday night the Bishop showed us a family he is friends with for us to teach we got to know them and just talked a little bit about how the gospel blesses families and our purpose in serving a mission then set an appointment for the next day. When we returned, the mom had her sister's family over, so it was the aunt and her two kids as well. We taught the restoration and as I was bearing testimony about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith at the end, I looked over and both the moms and the oldest daughter where crying!! It was an amazing lesson and I can't wait to teach them more!

 

   Then _______ is an investigator of many sets of missionaries. His wife is a member and he comes to church every week. We visit him often and share messages. On Saturday we decided to teach him the Gospel of Christ lesson and ask him whats keeping him from baptism. For the second day in a row as I was bearing testimony at the end of how the steps we make through the gospel make the last step of enduring to the end possible, he started crying too. But... he said he is not ready for baptism yet and he just needs to wait for the right time. Then the next day as we were preparing for the girls' baptism, we walked in and the bishop was talking with _______and his wife. With the bishop, and his wife, and the spirit as backup, he said he wants to be baptised Saturday!! So we will have another this week!

 

   So what I learned this week is that  my most powerful weapon in teaching is testimony. After those couple of experiences, I remembered a line in my patriarchal blessing that said I would bless lives through my testimony. I also read a letter that Ashley wrote me that said testimony is the most important part of teaching. It is the cue for the spirit to come and testify of my testimony and nobody can dispute pure testimony. So in these first few months as I may not have all the words to teach with the power and grace I would like, I do have a testimony that doesn't need grace or beauty. It's my testimony of the things I teach and the spirit gives it all the power I need. 

Love you more than calda de cana,

Elder Cam Little

 

PS.  Calda de cana is like drinking tears from an angel! Changed my life!! This lady has a volkswagon hippie van with a sugar cane crusher machine thingy. For 2 real we get a pitcher of sugar cane juice with lime. SOOOOOOOOO good. 

Then there's this other fruit that is equally scrumptious, but in solid form. I can't even compare it to anything we have in the US, but its incredible. It's kinda tart and has theses pearly brown seeds inside. They don't stick to the fruit at all. Ease of eating adds to the wow factor.

There is nowhere I would rather be than right here!! I love this work , I love the People , and I love My Savior!!

 

It's been a long time since my last P-day!! I absolutely loooooove it there in the field!! I have an awesome trainer so thanks so much for all the prayers for my trainer as well. We arrived here last Tuesday and had a lot of meetings and training stuff go on with the Bangerters then we got to meet our trainers about 3:00. All us greenies were in the local chappel singing "called to serve" and when we got to the chorus all of our trainers opened up the curtain in the back and came running in. My companion's name is Elder Rangel. He´s 19 and has six moths in the missions and this is his second time training but I'm his first American. He's super cool and patient with me and the language. 

 

 

We didn't get out to my zone until like 8:00 because of all the bus and logistical junk. I'm serving in the São Carlos zone in the Aracy area. My area is huge and we've split it with the other companionship in our house. Aracy is the very outer part of São Carlos and has cliffs and bluffs on one side and huge rolling open hills and farm land on the other. It's beautiful. The actual area is just lots and lots and lots of houses and lojas (little shops) all smacked together. The average house would easily fit in our main hallway. They're all skinny and long and everything is attached to the house next door. 

 

 

 As for language ability and all that mess, going incredibly well!! The first two days I barely understood anything and wasn't super functional speaking either. I've got a tiny notebook I keep in my shirt pocket and write down new words I hear or words in English that I need and want to find in my dictionary. The third day I took a huge leap and I can understand almost everything people are saying as long as their accent is reasonable and I can talk waaay better. It's definitely not easy but hard work pays off. Any spare moment I have I pull out my notebook and keep reviewing so I can make the words usable. And in the mornings I start off by defining any words I need to and writing ones I think will be useful then I review a grammar principle to work on during the day, then I either read my scriptures or other books in Portugues. 

 

I got a Gospel Principles book in Portugues that is awesome! it explains important gospel topics in simple language I can understand and learn new words from while looking for the grammar principle I'm working on. I read more at night after we get home. I'm learning the language SO fast out here in the field. I'm writing and retaining 50 words a day and that's just what I write down. I'm able to make a contact or door approach from start to finish by myself and I teach and share in all the lessons.I'm gunna admit that I could've worked a lot harder while in the CTM. I was learning well and got comfortable and I was to worried about not studying too much because I was going crazy being cooped up all day. I talked about how the gift of tongues was real in the CTM but I had no idea. When you are doing everything you can 24/7 and serving the Lord when you're not studying, that is when you receive the gift of tongues. 

 

   We've got a pretty good teaching pool and there's really only two people I haven't been involved with from lesson one.  One of our investigators is 11 years old, and she's one of the smartest people 

I know. she asks the most intelligent questions during the lessons and never bats an eye. She pays all the attention in the world. She reads her scriptures in between visits and asks questions about it when we come. All the kids here think its awesome that I'm an American too. I brought my pictures to show her and she ran around and gathered all the other kids  and I sat there with like six kids while they looked at my pictures and asked questions about the US. Yesterday she came to church and after we showed her the baptismal font and I committed her to be baptized. She was so excited she went to tell all the kids in primary right after. 

 

The food here is amazing and so much better than the CTM. We get lunch everyday at members' houses and the other two at home. We just work through dinner every day and eat when we get home at 9. The house is too far away to take a break, plus you can really only teach after dark because people won't open the door for you if they don't know you when it's dark. I love cooking my own food everyday too!! I eat a lot of eggs and a lot of salad. Pretty much all I make is some variation of egg or salad. It's pretty scrumptious. I got stuff to make tacos today. It's hard to find stuff for that in Brazil. For tortillas I had to buy mini pizza crusts so it's gunna be more like a chalupa but it'll be great.

 

Well everything is going really well and I'm enjoying the heck out of the field. I had a moment as I was sitting in the favelas teaching after dark, and I looked around and there's all these houses made of scraps and stray dogs and trash, there's a whole bunch of random noises going on , then I look forward and there's a little girl hugging her Book of Mormon hanging onto every word my companion said. I just had a super strong witness from the spirit that that is what I was supposed to be doing. There is nowhere I would rather be than right here!! I love this work , I love the People , and I love My Savior!!

 

  Oh and I love you tons too.

  -Elder Cam Little

A Visit from an Apostle - Last Email from the CTM!

So this week was pretty killer sweet!! Last Saturday we had proselitismo day out on Paulista Ave. in Sao Paulo. Last time we went out I placed 3 Book of Mormons in an hour in the rain. This time went a little differently.... We placed 7 BOM´s in an hour and got 5 references of people that wanted to meet with the missionaries!! It was amazing! We were able to understand EVERYTHING people said. The gift of tongues was in full effect during that. I wasn't able to say everything quite how I wanted to, but they understood everything and it was enough.

We talked to these two girls probably in their late twenties. One wasn't really religious and one was an evangelical. They had heard of Mormons but really didn't know much. We explained the Book of Mormon and showed them Moroni 10:4-5, which we had marked. Before we even asked about the reference they said they wanted to learn more. They continued to ask questions about the temple and said they wanted to go there. They asked about our name "elder" and we explained the significance of not focusing on ourselves but that we were just representatives of Jesus Christ. They were super interested and we were given all the words we needed to communicate.

There were a number of other cool experiences, but I think the one other that sticks out is there was one guy that said he didn't believe in God. He told us that too many bad things happen for there to be a God. We showed him the Book of Mormon and explained that it was a record about Christ and his teachings. We showed him Moroni 10 as well and promised him if he did what it said in those verses and really wanted to know if God was real, he would. We felt the spirit super strong and he accepted the Book and seemed interested. I can't wait till I'm doing this work all day, every day!! ONLY 4 MORE DAYS!!!

 The language is coming faster and faster. We have learned all the verb tenses now.  There's like 6 that don't exist in English, so it was pretty hard to figure out when you couldn't even explain how it worked in your language. I found that you won't learn Portugues if you think like an American. You have to think in Portugues if you want to understand. In my last 4 days here at the CTM I'm feeling pretty confident in my language  abilities. There is a TON still yet to learn but I know enough now to be able to talk about all the gospel lessons, and hold a normal conversation. The biggest thing is that I understand enough to be able to continue to learn from listening and my own study. And its a good thing I feel ready because I'm starting to go stir crazy in this compound! I'm not exactly a big fan of sitting in a class for 13 hours a day. I couldn't even make it through school and I've been LIVING in a school. Its a good thing the Spirit helped me stay sane. I've loved it here at the CTM but I am just itching to be serving for real.

  So normally my P-day was yesterday but we got bumped out a day. It was ok though because it was Elder Neil L. Anderson himself that came and moved our day. We got to have a devotional with him yesterday morning! I have never heard an Apostle in a setting like that before and it was absolutely incredible!! He talked about the gospel of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end.) It was amazing to hear the insights he had on the doctrine I will be preaching every day.

 

 I think the thing he said that stood out to me the most was when he talked about repentance. He said the people here in Brasil are a people of great faith. When we run into people like this we tend to skip the important step of repentance. Without a true sincere experience with repentance, the people we teach will not truly understand the significance of baptism. Repentance and a personal experience with the atonement of Jesus Christ is what truly converts. We need to focus on teaching people about repentance and not just focusing on the baptism. Repentance comes first for a reason. I took a ton of notes and I'll probably share more in the future when I have time. And we got to sit in the front row and shake his hand.  Keeler and I got a double meeting with Elder Anderson. When he walked out we were right on the corner and he came over and patted us on the backs and said Bye.

 

 It was a great week and I've only got two more days of classes before we prepare for the field. Next email I send will be from Piracicaba (and I'll have more time!!) Love you guys and thanks for all your prayers! Ive truly felt them and have received a ton of help here.

 

Until next week, Elder Little