soooo. 8-25-14

so here is the weeks update! 

so we had a good week, we worked real hard and have been trying really hard to prepare a few people for this next week to baptize to reach our monthly goal... it was a valiant effort, but it is looking rather grim for this coming week! haha but im not worried about it, we have some great investigators who are preparing for the first week in september! 

we are working with a guy named junior, he was really catholic, like trying to get into the ministry and eveything when he had a change of mind and started for looking for something else. whenwe started teaching him he talked about how reading the book of mormon and hearing our messages is helping him find something that he didnt know was missing in his life, so that was pretty cool

we also found some new people to teach this week by visiting less actives, it is interesting how many people you can find by doing that! but we are working with several people that have been found doing that! 

we did a division this week and i went to the biggest area in the mission, called aruana, it was huge!! we walked so much, at the end of the day i was dying! haha but it was good Elder De Paula, is a good missionary and i learned lots from him! good times! 

as zone leaders we are responsable for helping the missionaries about there problems and that has just been a roller coaster, especially because pres is new and every little problem he calls us and tells that we need to take care of it! it is kind of a hassel at times! 

well i think that is about all for this week! nothing too exciting is happening! just working hard and trying to do my best! i hope that everyone is doing well!

Love you all! 

Elder Ryan

the first week of the transfer 8-18-14

well well well, so here is the upadate on what happened with the transfer! so i was transfered to Sergipe the other state in our mission, im in the capitol city Aracaju, in the ward of Siquira Campos. I was called as Zone Leader, and my new companion is Elder Lima! he is awesome he is from the state Minas Gerais, he is 25, already majored in math and was a teacher, now he is on the mission, he is a super genius and a super hard worker. i really have liked working with him this last week! he is awesome! really liking it here! 

So tuesday was the transfer and when i heard i was called as Zone Leader i didnt quite believe it, feel so unready, seeing as i only have 9 months and only one as District Leader, but i think God knows the situation a little better than i do and so ill jsut do my best to fufill my calling to the best of my abilities, but then i got on a bus and had my legs crushed for 6 hours... and let me tell you, that was just great! 

rest of the week was just working hard, getting to know the new area, finding some new investigators, we have a few potencial baptisms for the 30th and 6th, so im pretty excited about that, really like working with Elder Lima because he pulls his own weight in everything and he is super motivated! but nothing super exciting happened work wise, just another week of grit spit and duct tape work! the memebers here are good and they help out lots, we have been working lots with referals which is awesome, the area here is way bigger than the last one, so that will mean lots more walking! but im liking it lots so far! just trying to adapt and try and get our teaching styles together, but it takes some time, but i feel like this area has some real potencial, so im excited to be here! 

I think the best of it all is that this house here has air conditioning!!! it is so amazing! ive neverslept so well in my whole mission! 

Elder Lima has a super focus on reaching families, which is awesome. we are working with a couple of families right now, hoping that we can make some miracles happen! 

well i think that is about it for the week! nothing too exciting happened! but thanks for all the emails and support! love you all! have a great week! 

Elder Ryan

 I'm in the capitol city Aracaju, in the ward of Siquira Campos

Work, Miracles, and Transfers 8-11-14

so to start this email outm we had transfers yesterday, and i was transfered, i have no idea where i will be going yet, i find out on tuesday, but im a little sad, i really liked working in this area, they have really great members who helped us out a lot, and i have really liked serving in this district, it was 2 transfers of non stop laughs and fun! im gonna miss it here, but im super excited for the change, to meet new people, new area, and new experiences! i will let you know next week where i am and who my companion is! 

soo this week we worked real good, it was fun! the mission presidente told us that he recieved a note from the first presidency that in our mission they want us to work harder with members and less actives! less knocking on doors and working more with reactivation and referals! so that is what we did, we visit like 20 people on the less active list this week and that was good, trying to help them reactivate and strengthen the church here! but it also helped us find new people to teach, and it was a whole lot easier than having to knock on a ton of doors! 

this week we had some serious miracles happen! so we were with nothing to do, and i was like, well lets just see, just maybe, some one brought someone to seminary to visit.. so we went to church and it was like every one of the youth had brought a friend to visit! what luck!! haha but it was awesome. one of them was an investigator that we taught when i first got here, and he told us that he didnt want to go to church and such and we hadnt see him since. well he was there and came up to me and told me that he wanted to be baptized! MIRACLE! haha but that isnt the end of it.. another kid, the cousin of Anderson, one of the people we baptized here,came up and said that he wanted to be baptized too! well... MIRACLE! so that was awesome! we also have more people that we are working with who were there that night as well! 

On sunday Ana Vitoria, our forever investigator.. came up to us ofter sacrament meeting and notified us that her baptisms would be next satuday and 7, and that we needed to be there! MIRACLE! after three months of teaching her, she finally has decided that she is ready! 

now that i think about it.. all these miracles happened, and im leaving.. i think i have a problem with that! ;) but im happy that these people are choosing to follow christ, even though i wont be there to see it happen! 

well that is about all i have to say this week! it kind of passed by in a blur... time on the mission is too fast sometimes! it feels so unreal that im already at 9 months and a half... some times i dont believe it is happening! haha

well i hope that everyone is doing well and that every one is missing me beyond belief! :) love you all and hope you have an awesome week! 

MOM: Happy birthday!!! hope it was awesome! 

DAD: Happy Fathers day!! (well it was fathers day here in brazil.. i dont know about there.. i forget what day it is) but none the less!! Happy dads day! 

Até mais!! 

Elder Ryan

Rumor has it--coke is better in South America! 

Finally got a chance to play basketball!

the week update! 8-4-14

so here is what is happening in my life! 

so this week i walked in the flaming hot sun everyday! i talked to people in portuguese, i got really sunburned and realized just how white i really am, we worked real hard, with little sucess.. but nothing new there! haha 

now ill give you the details! 

so this week was a real stuggle to find new people to teach! we did everything you can imagine to try and find people! we decided to do a fast on saturday.. (well it was fast sunday and here in brazil the main meal is lunch so we start our fast saturday after lunch!) but we had a pretty good day planned, we had done contacts and had planned with a few people to pass by there houses that day! so we were going around to our planned events and we had this one around 4 in the afternoon that looked really promising, when we close to his house we saw him running away, drunk! so that was a bummer.. i was pretty down, walking away from his house when his neighbor waved us down and told us to come in and teach her! she told us how she wanted to follow christ and how she had talked to missionaries a while back and she had invited them to come and teach her, but they never showed! she was really interested and told us how our message had answered many answers that she and her husband were looking for! it was real legit! some times the lord works through the drunks to get us to the people who are ready to accept what we have for them! it was a real cool experience! 

went to a churrascaria here.. ate soo much meat that i think i might xplode! there is no way that it was good for me.. but it was really good so..... what do you do?!? 

we have been having lots of sucess with Auracele. she is married to a less active member and they have been having lots of dificulties with there marriage! we have been helping her try to realize how followin christ can help her and her family be more united and have something that they can found their family upon, the Gospel. we have been teahing her lots this week and have had lots of really awesome experiences there! hoping this week to work more with Ricardo, her husband and try and reactivate him to help save their family! makes me real greatful to know that my family has an eternal perspective of things and that this helps us work through our differneces and disagreements, and to work together towards our eternal purpose! 

this week i also passed the "keys" of senior companion to Elder Corderio, this will probably be our last week together, seeing as there is a transfre next week! but i left him to call the shots this week! it was a cool experience to watch him learn how to do what is best for the people and for the lord! he wasnt too happy with me at the beginning of the week! i think he realized that it isnt a cake walk having to make tough decisions in tough situations! but with a little (or big) push he made things happen! im a proud Dad to say the least! ;)

Did a division with elder Garcia this week! he is the newsest member of my district. he has about 1 month on his mission, and he is a fire ball. he was really fun to work with, ive never seen anyone so excited to do the work more than he is! he takes joy in every little thing that happens which i thought was super cool and something that i will try and apply more in my life! he was fun to work with and we did some damage together! he will be an awesome missionary! 

we had a fireside that we and our ward mission leader had planned! i even called Pres Gomes to be there and give a talk! but he bailed on us the last minute. but it was a really good meeting, we invited other branches and wards to watch as well which was good because about no one from our ward showed but it was a good meeting none the less! 

this week i was notified that the assistants to the pres would be watching my District meeting, good thing that im a champ under pressure! ;) but it went well and they said that i killed it.. soo looks like ill be the next president of the mission.. its no big deal! ;) 

well that seems like about it for this week! things are good! hope that all is well for you! love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Ryan