September 7 - 75 day countdown

this is my chapel it´s 3 stories! Its bigger than the temple! Im in an area called Primavera its pretty cool, I'm liking the area here a lot its way better than my other area and the members here are super cool!

Mom its going to take along time to put the reas in envelopes Im alreay coming come basically I only have 10 more weeks. Could you put 200 dollars in my account if you do Ill have like 800 reas to buy stuff

I used the 100 reas you gave me alreay on buses. Im poor I only have 35 reas and Im hungry. The dollar is 1 for 4 reas now in Brasil and the food here is super expensive so Im eating like super cheap like one small bottle of coke is 5 reas so like I can´t buy anything. I´ve definetly learned on my mission to survive off of nothing haha. But if you could just put in like 200 dollars on my account I´ll seriously love you forever! 

Today I was in a parade for the church it was pretty cool and then the president took us out to lunch. Everything here is closed so Im using a computer on the second level of this chapel. But im doing good, Im super happy to have left Sao Luis and I feel like a missionary again! Got lots of work to do here and we found some really cool people to teach this last week found a mom and daughter who told us that they are search for the true church a church that when they enter they feel somthing special. They loved the message we shared and were going to keep visiting them this week as well. Were going to try to baptise the daughter on the 20th and some other people as well. This area is super cool and Im going to enjoy the little bit of time that I have left! 

Love you guys glad you had a great summer and that Carter is doing better it will be fun to see you all soon! Please put some money in my account I´ll babysit alot when I get back for you guys :) 

Love, 

Elder Barrus 

100 Day countdown! August 18, 2015

What's up!

So this week we found a family of atheists and they didn't want us to teach them about the gospel.  But they love hearing stories about America and they think it's cool that me and my companion are from the USA.  So they invited us over Saturday night and we ate a huge BBQ with them, it was sweet!  They BBQ'd a whole rack of ribs off a cow!!  So I got to eat lots of meat this week so that was pretty awesome.

Our main investigator with potential for baptism is named Roberta.  She is super cool.  We're teaching her  English which is something fun to do.  She is liking the messages as well. If everything goes well there is a sister that is returned from her mission so we are going to take her with us to teach Roberta this Thursday.

If everything goes well she will get baptized soon.

Today we get to go to the temple so it will be faun to go to Porto Alegre.  I'll be able to see my last companion so it's always fun seeing old acquaintances.

To fix up our house I bought a hot glue stick thing and melted it in the stove so that I could glue up the hole in the wall.  Hopefully no more rain water will enter our house!

But for now everything is going well we're going to have mission conference tomorrow so it will be cool to see the seventy and I know a lot of important things will be said.

Well things are going good .  Hope you guys enjoy summer vacation before it ends and I hope things get better with Carter.  Love you guys and until soon.

Austin

Semana de churrasco - August 10, 2015

This week was pretty cool.  We ate a bunch of BBQ and I built a house.  I wanted to send pictures but my computer won't let me send them.

We found an investigator that speaks English so it was fun to reach him and he is very interested in the message we had to offer.  His name is Tiago and he's pretty cool.  On the 20th of August we were going to give a discussion given by a seventy so that will be cool.  I'm excited to see what we'll be taught.

The same day that Elder Hintze returned home a sister returned and so I got to hear a homecoming talk as well.  I wonder what I'll have to talk about when I get back.  Should be interesting.

On Wednesday we had interviews with the president and then we went out to lunch together.   It was pretty awesome.  Then he started going to the houses of the missionaries to see if the houses were clean.  Not awesome.  Haha.  I lucked out.  He ended up not going to our house so that was good.  Our house is old and the walls should be white but are black, and there is a hole in the wall so when it rains our house fills up with water.  But I told Sister Campos and I think we're going to be moving soon.

We were teaching a girl named Roberta.  She likes going to church and she likes reading the Book of Mormon.  We're going to challenge her again for baptism this week.

Well that was my week. Hope everything keeps going well!

August 3, 2015

Seeing Nick was super funny and strange.  I got to kinda see what it's like to time travel a bit - haha.  Mike is huge, and Katie looks even a little different - more mature.  Nick had more of a spiritual presence to him.  I wonder if I'll look a little different to you guys as well?  It was cool to see the Hintzes.  It gave me a boost to keep staying strong on my mission.  I don't have much time left so I got to make the most of it.  Soon I'll be going off to college and have to do a lot of hard stuff, so I have to enjoy the time I have here on my mission now.

I slept over with the other missionaries last night and today we were going to do a BBQ but now there are going to be a bunch of annoying protests so now I have to stay inside all day!  BUt things are going well.  We're going to try and find some people to teach this week.  The area I'm in is one of the richest areas I've seen.  Nick said that my area is the nicest area he has ever seen in Brazil - haha.  Nick, I think, spent a lot of his mission in the middle of nowhere based on what he told me.  So we'll see what happens.  This area is one of the more difficult areas that I have passed by.

July 27, 2015

Sounds like you guys had a fun time at the beach.  That's cool you guys were able to do a surprise bday party for Grandpa.  I bet he liked that!  The beach looks cool, and the house as well!  Looks like you guys did a great job with it!

That's good Carter is doing better.  Hopefully the recovery process will be faster this time around.  Nick is trying to take me out to lunch tomorrow.  We'll see what happens.  Haha.  Murray probably wants to stay inside the house and hide from the sand!  Having a black lab at the beach is probably a lot of fun.  Does Finn love the water and digging in the sand?

Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun family bonding.

This week I got a new companion named Elder Raposa.  He's from Salt Lake.  He's a really cool guy.  We worked hard here this week.  We were able to find some more cool people to teach, and this week we're going to try to visit some families where not everyone is a member.  This Thursday I'm going to have to go to Porto Alegre to a meeting from 9 in the morning until 4 so should be interesting.  We tried going through the area book and visiting some old investigators but it didn't work out too well, a lot of them didn't accept or didn't live in the designated address anymore.

We found Julieta again.  We ran into her Saturday night and she told us we could come over.  So we are going to return and see if she will want to go to church.  On Thursday I gave a training about the importance of using scriptures in lessons and we did some practices and it went well.  This transfer will be my last as District Leader.  It will be interesting to see where I'll go after this area.  I've definitely learned a lot being a leader of different districts on the mission.

Well hope all keeps going well, and I hope that I'll be able to report something interesting this next week!

July 20, 2015

Today are transfers.  I should be getting an email soon to know if I will be staying here or if I'll be going to another area.

That's good Carter is doing better, probably in a few weeks he'll get out of ICU.  That's good he's able to talk now.

These past two weeks there has been a lot of rain and I got soaked  a few times.  My umbrella broke.  I've never had good luck with umbrellas on my mission.  Hope you guys have fun at the beach.  Things are going good down here too.  Not a lot has been going on.  You need to use my Facebook to see more pictures.  There should be some good pictures on there.  You just need to accept all the friend requests for me since I can't get on there.  But you'll see some pictures members post.   This week I ate fried fish.  I had to eat the head and the eyes and everything but it was good.  During the weekend we had a bunch of BBQ's so that was a bunch of fun.  Things are going good here.  I'll be staying here in this area I think until the 1st of September.  Then I'l be going to my very last area of my mission!

New Mission President - July 6, 2015

This week my new mission president arrived.  His name is President Campos and he's going to be awesome.  We received a training from him and his wife and they let us ask questions to help us get to know him.  He's super friendly and has a vast knowledge of the scriptures.  I know I'm going to learn a lot with my new mission president.

I received my packages!  It was perfect timing!  You guys sent me a ton of Pringles - hahaha.  My companion freaked out when he saw all the Pringles!  I also got the package from Grandpa and Grandma, with the big packages of Starburst and Skittles.  I also received the blankets and a bunch of candy.  I left Porto Alegre with 5 boxes so that was a fun surprise.

This week was pretty bad.  We were kind of hoping we would be able to find a person that would be willing to at least go to church or something but it was a long week.  We found a family last week, and they all accepted to be baptized and go to church  We went over there this week and during the 3rd visit  the wife said they wanted to end the visits.  It was crazy.  I've never had  a family super interested to be completely against the message.  It was super weird.

And almost all our investigators don't want to be taught anymore so it was definitely a strange week  Then last night we tried to go over to visit a guy named Mateus.  We went over and his mom yells he's not home and then slammed the door.  I felt like I was in America this week.  This area is very strange. In my other areas people are friendly but here the people are more reserved and don't wasn't us to enter.

But this week we're going to visit some addresses that we obtained from people on the road and hopefully we'll be able to teach a few more lessons.

June 29, 2015

So this week was pretty awesome, we were able to baptize a guy named Roberto 

on Wednesday, and we found a family that is super cool. They all liked the message a lot and all acepted to be baptized! It's a family of four and the last time a family was baptized in this area hasn´t been in years so its super awesome to have the opurtunity to help amazing people. 

Saturday night we went and invited a girl named Roberta to go to church and she went with a member named Gabriel, she said she liked the church a lot and we went over Sunday night and she also accepted to get baptized it was awesome!

During the week I was walking along the road and we found this wooden hut kinda close to where we live so we went over and found a lady named Nair. She said she already went to our church before but was never baptized. We're going to go over there some more to see if we can help her go again to church this Sunday. 

Also we made a bbq inside of our house we used my sword to grill this big piece of pork it was sweet. 

Well hope you guys have an awesome week! 

My zone here in North Canoas

 We went with a recent convert to show her the temple.  She liked it a lot and she said that she wants to serve a temple mission in a year.  It was her first time at the temple and she has about one month as a member.  Her name is Rosy and she is super awesome!

My house  

https://www.google.com.br/maps/@-29.880972,-51.166265,3a,75y,55.04h,98.29t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdYO95cjosxEpwHPLwDnlgQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

June 25, 2015

We had a BBQ on Monday because our P Day got cancelled because I'm going to the temple today.  We didn't have lunch so we bought some meat and went over to our neighbor's house.  It was awesome!

Me and Elder Ferreira

 This is Gabriel.  He's a guy that does lessons with us.  He's pretty crazy!

Baptism of Roberto.  I'm not in the pics because I was on a division.   He was baptized yesterday!

June 22, 2015

My new area is called São Luis this is my second to last area on the mission. I´ll stay here one more transfer and then go to my very last area before leaving for home. There are alot of cool members here. I ate breakfast with our neighboors so its a fun area I like it a lot here. It's difficult to find people because there's not as many people walking on the streets so we do lots of contacts at the train station.   

These are some cool people we are teaching: