One year and a half

This week we had transfers and I arrived in my new area called São Luis. Its right next to my other area which was Mathias Velho. My companion is Elder Ferreira and I´m teaching him english. He has about 3 months on the mission and he already knows how to teach and plan very well I feel like im here just to kind of back him up, he´s an awesome worker and I´m excited for this transfer. 

Today we went to a chinese food place it was awesome I felt like I was in America again they even had seseame chicken it was awesome. 

When I arrived here in the area we went and visited some members and my companion showed me our potential investigators. We went to this guy named Mateus and he´s awesome we started talking to him when his beautiful neighbor came down and started to talk to us she was very shy but I found out that she knows english so I started talking to her in English and she said that we could come by again some time. If she gets baptized were going to stay in touch. 

Here in São Luis is one of the more difficult areas to baptize because its more of a richer area so we started talking to people at the train station and if anyone stops to speak to us its because they really want to hear a message. 

On Thursday I made a contact with a man and I asked him if he accepted to be baptized on the 21 of June he said yes. We went over to teach him  and to our surprise he said that he is legally maried, already been to our church 2 times at least and knows thats it´s true! He accepted to follow all the commandments and was interviewed for the baptism but on sunday when we went to get him he wasn´t home we´ll try again this week to see if we can baptize him this thursday. But it was really cool to see that god really knows each and every one of us and is preparing people so that they can be baptized. 

Yesterday night we went and visited a lady named Rosy that my companion baptized before I got here. She is super nice and wants to cook a huge barbeque for us tonight should be fun. 

Well I´m super greatful for the gospel in my life and I know that there are many wonderful people here willing to follow these things. 

Love you guys and have an aweosome week! 

transfers - June 8

Yesterday for lunch we were in the church and so I asked one of the other missionarys who we have will we eat lunch with? He´s like I dunno, so we find the sister who were supposed to have lunch with and she´s like I didn´t know you guys would come over today so Im going to need your help to make food. So we went over and we ended up making a bunch of pastels its was pretty awesome, we made chicken, beef, and ham and cheese. And for desert we fried bananas inside of the pastels and I think we made about 50 so she had us take the leftovers to our house so now we´ll have pastels for this week.

We ended up trying to visit alot of our investigators  but unfortunatly we weren't able to get anyone to church. But we were definetly able to find a lot of people and know that in the future we´ll be able to help more people know that the gospel is true. 

Friday we tried to teach some people but it started to rain like crazzy so we ran into a shoe store and bought some new shoes for like 15 bucks. Then we went to a supermarket and explored for a little bit and ended up buying some pizza for 3 reals it was good. 

This week not a lot happened but it was good. I only have four more transfers on the mission before my mission ends, my guess is that I´ll have 4 new companions and 2 new areas to go to and then I´ll be back home. The time is definitely going fast. 

Love you guys and have a good weekk! 

June 1

This week went by fast, a lot of work to be done, went through and found some more cool people to teach. We were teaching a guy named Andereson and he was interviewed and deemed worthy to be baptized on sunday but saturday night he made some wrong choices and didn´t follow our invites or our comitments that we had left with him, it was deffiently an intersting situation. 

This week were going to accompany some people who were already at church and see if they accept to get baptized this week, its going to be a busy week here. 

We started burning orange peels to kill misquitos, its smells terrible and the smell still hasn' left the house! Also while we were in lunch the members dog came up and peed on the elders bag it was pretty great.

Also for the baptismal interview on the way back to lunch I was dumb and took the wrong bus, we ended up in the area of the zone leaders and had to find a way to get back to our area we didn't get back to our area until like 1 in the afternoon!

We´ve been reorganizing the area book like crazy.  It's been cool to really open an area and just do all you can to keep finding people.

I´ve learned that through diligence, and having a strong desire to do all that is possible miracles will happen. Being on the mission until now I´ve really learned that everyone of us has a purpose to fufill. 

well I love you guys and have an aweome week! 

Only 25 more weeks!

This week went by well, we were able to have a baptism of a guy named Lucas he´s 14 and he is super cool. His mom came to church as well and saw his baptism, it was a very neat experience. This week we have some other investigators that we are working with so that they can get baptized as well. Hopefully it all goes well. Being a district leader, and opening an area and teaching an ameican portuguese was one of the most difficult things that I have ever done while on my mission but

 I´ve deffinetly learned alot and how to really help the missionary teach and use techniques to teach more effectivly. 

Today we area going to the temple so thats why I didn´t write yesterday, to get to the temple I walk to the bus station from our house which is like a 30 minute walk and then we grab a train to the air port in porto alegre and then take a 20 minute bus ride close to a mall where we eat and then go over to the temple so its a good little adventure. 

During the week we mostly just stayed within two parts of our tiny neighboorhood. My area half of one big neighboorhood and so its a very small area. We found some cool people to teach. Our main investigators that we´re working with is a guy named Anderson who was at church and were trying to get him baptized this weekend. 

Also another guy named Lucas who was already at church and he likes hearing the messages alot he´s pretty cool. 

Were also teaching a family, the husband is the only one who goes to church but were trying to have there son and daughter go to church so that they can get baptized.

So were going to have alot of work ahead of us this week so its going to be neat to see what the outcome of this week will be! 

Well I love you guys and have a good week! 

May 18, 2015

We decided to group out our area into six groups and every week we started focusing on a different area. We went to the very back of our area and started knocking alot of doors to find alot of different people. 

We found a cool family, the mom is named Isabel, and her son calls him self Uri. They liked the messages alot and they want to go to church alot. Its cool to see the progress different people make as they are taught different principles that will enrich there lives.

This week right now is going to be very busy have to follow up alot of people and many others so that they can go to church. Its deffienty been interesting being a trainer and a district leader at the same time I´ve deffienty learned alot in this short amount of time. 

I have exactly one year and five months since I entered the MTC! Time is deffinetly going by so thats good! Tonight Im going to a family night with the same family that I was at when I used skype so thats going to be alot of fun! 

Sorry this email is kinda short not alot happened this week, we mostly just walked a ton and I think to day Im going to sleep good. 

Love you guys have a good week! 

May 11

This week was awesome we taught a bunch of lessons and lots of walking and the members here helped us out a lot it was awesome.  We´ve been working alot with one family, the mom and dad have problems with alchool but the kids have a lot of interest to get baptized. The dad went to church this past sunday and liked it a lot. I hope that he will now let his son to get baptized that would be awesome. 

Also we´ve teaching this guy named Anderson for awhile he´s liked the messages alot and knows that the book of mormon is true, he also went to church this past Sunday and it was awesome, he liked it a lot and so we're going to go and visit him this week so that he can progress. He´s an awesome guy I see him with alot of potential to get baptized soon. 

We also divided our area in sections so we can really visit as much people with potential as possible, I just hope that this will work so that we can cut down time and visit with more people, its gonna be awesome.

Today for pday its raining a lot so were problaly going to just go and explore some shops and maybe go to the mall to look around so that will be cool. But all in all its been a pretty simple fun week, this next week will be busy as usual I think. 

Well I love you guys, and have an awesome week!

https://www.google.com.br/maps/@-29.899168,-51.201799,3a,22.6y,261.86h,86.7t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sh0nzDnphKzZd-b8b4A8Pbg!2e0!6m1!1e1

this is my house I live on the lower level
Mathias Velho.

this is where the guy osmar that we baptized lives

https://www.google.com.br/maps/@-29.89665,-51.22835,3a,52.6y,274.59h,75.7t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s-icjvgMXRw0riBbDw8YuTg!2e0!6m1!1e1

we go here alot  

we use these green buses to travel around our area

https://www.google.com.br/maps/@-29.909808,-51.184978,3a,75y,180.75h,82.16t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s2buWF3Y5-xfVCLA5cPkCZA!2e0!6m1!1e1

this is the mall that we might go to today

https://www.google.com.br/maps/place/Canoas+Shopping/@-29.910099,-51.1814,3a,75y,324.41h,82.42t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sT3mhiL7K53pzp22GeE6mRA!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x95196fff527557e1:0x64a164171a4168ff!6m1!1e1

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May 4

This week was pretty sweet 

Monday- played board games and then went to a family night and ate sauseges with cheese. 

Tuesday- we went and tracked and visted some streets that we havn´t gone to yet but we didn´t really find any people with alot of potential. 

Wednesday- I went on a division with the other elder and went and visted some cool families that they have in there area so that was cool. I left my companion elder Ritter with Elder Ayerdis and they were able to find some cool people. 

Thursday we went to porto alegre to go buy my box. I had to pay 55 reas to buy my box I though I´d have some candy from america but It only had one box of cake mix. 

Friday- We did an awesome service project and then we went to an activy at the church and ate a ton of pastels. 

Saturday- We did a division with the members and visted all the people that we wanted to go to church. Found some really cool people that have potential to get baptized.

Sunday- We had a cool baptism of a guy named Erlei, It was an awesome experience because he was so happy to know that this is the church of Jesus Christ. 

When is Mother's Day?

This week was good went by fast as usaual we found alot of people but when we went to bring them to church they were all sleeping still! It was like 9:30 when I went over there so its hard when you wnat to help people and they wont even go to the church. The guy Osmar that we baptized the last week is doing well, he knows arabic fluently so thats kinda crazzy. Were going to visit him tonight and watch a movie with him and his family. 

We did a fun activity with seminary and we helped them to a scripture search with doctrine and covenatnts so that was fun.

Alot of the  people that I had taught in my other area are doing really well almost all of them are still going to church. Its been great to see how the gospel changes the lives of so many people. 

Being a district leader is neat, its cool to help the other missionaries and prepare trainings to help them teach and set more affective goals. Alot of days are stressful at times but every day Im learning somthing new. Im greatful for the time that I have and I know that I wont have any regrets. 

Sorry this email is short but I dont have alot of time, 

Love,

Elder Barrus 

April 20, 2015

This week was pretty sweet, we had the aweosme experience to teach Osmar he was super awesome, he has a brother serving a mission and his younger brothers are members of the chuch so that his parents have to still get married and the father isn´t much of a church person. 

He started reading the book of mormon every day and is progressing alot, He´s loving the church alot and was already in the church a bunch of times so it was great to see that he took this step to get baptized this week. 

Than on Sunday we had a huge bbq and it was aweome I definetly ate more than I shold have, it was an awesome day. Than at night time since it was getting dark we had a family night and it was sweet we ate popcorn and hat an awesome family night it was a great experience. 

I dont have a lot of time sorry that the email is short but enjoy the photos!  

Our messy house, haha!

comecei sala de ingles

April 13, 2015

This week was busy, very busy we found alot of people to teach. We found a friend of an old investiagor named Osmar. We  were on the street on saturday night trying to find people to take to church. And we found a guy named Tyson we started talking to him and invited him to church he tells us that he´s looking for a church to go to and so the next day I grab a member and we go and bring him to the church. Then for fast sunday my companion who only has 3 weeks here in Brazil went up to bear his testimony it was pretty aweosme he´s already speaking well and will be a great missionary.

Saturdays the 7 at night we have class of english and we give english for the people and its going great. We had an investigator there named Orlando who is super cool and he liked it alot. And also a lot of members as well it went well and they are excited for our second english class my goal this time is to have 3 investigators at the inglish class. 

Sunday night we went to the other elder´s area and watched the first vision with them and it was awesome then we answered all there questions after it ended. 

Well this email will be short but that basically what happended this week we found some cool people taugh english and im exaughsted haha 

The mission is awesome have an awesome week!

I've baptized 21 people so far, lots of work to be done in Brazil!

Sounds like you guys had a fun week going into D.C.! Thats good the weather is starting to get better. It´s pretty hot over here still. It wont get cold until like June. Its fun training am american, he´s already speaking really well. were practicing together language study for 30 minutes at least every day to get better with the grammer and stuff. He´s already progressing very fast. We´ve found some cool people, I found a guy in our area book named Orlando he was taught by the missionaries like a year ago so I called him up and we started visting him. He has to stop smoking and then he can get baptized. We were walking on the street at saturday night and a cool miracle happened we found a guy named Anderson and he is the friend of  another investiagor named Osmar and Anderson went to church with Osmar so now  the two of them can be baptized this week! Hopé it all works out! 

April 6, 2015

this week was pretty busy, we found a ton of new investigators but alot of people were traveling for easter. On sunday I got a bad fever and just stayed in the chapel and I kind of dozed off wasn´t feeling to well. We found a guy named Jonathan he is 18 and super cool he received an answer that the gospel is true and now we just got to help him go to church this sunday its going to be awesome! We got lost trying to find our house some things never change, for easter as missioaries we ate a huge bbq which was super awesome, and we ate some chocolate people here don´t search for eggs here. But all in all was a good week. Nothing to new going on. 

Hope you guys have  a good week,

Elder Barrus