Cheers!

Hey Everyone!

So why is the subjest line cheers? We met a foreign exchange student here in my area that is from New Zealand. He lives in a small twon outside of Wellington the capital. It was a lot of fun to teach in English (not to mention really hard). The kid is turning 18 this week. He was explaining to us that the two main reasons he decided to come to Brazil as a foreign exchange student was to learn a language and learn about religion. He told us that the religious atmosphere in New Zealand was a lot more low key and he wanted to come here to experience it more. I bet he didn´t think he would run into two American missionaries did he? 

This has been an awesome week all around. Last week´s district meeting, my companion Elder Hepworth made a challenge to focus a lot more on marking baptismal dates. We decided that even though we hadn´t had any investigators in Church these past few weeks we would still mark dates with people. We met our goal of 5 marked dates for the week and we were blessed to get four of those 5 to Church on Sunday. We were so blessed this week. We met a group of kids that are all super excited to get to know the Church. I don´t think I´ve ever encountered so much desire in youth before. There is an 18 year old kid Marcelinho who is already baptized but was inactive that told his friends about the Church. We met Rodrigo and his sister Raiane. They are truly elect children of God. Rodrigo is the kind of guy you wouldn´t expect to care about anything we have to say. He is all tattoed up and has gauged ears. But he completely accepted the commitments even of baptism in the first day we taught him. His sister Raiane is amazing as well. She was already participating just like everyone else in Church on Sunday and said a prayer inour lesson Sunday afternoon exactly like youth kids do. She learned super fast. We are planning to baptize them next Friday or Saturday. There are also some little kids that are relatives of Marcelinho that we took to Church as well.

I really learned this week how the Spirit can touch people and influence them to seek the right path. Raiane told us an interesting experience of how she felt that the Church was true. She said her alarm clock failed to go off but her dad woke her up to get to Church on time. This came as an answer to her that the Church is true because her dad usually wouldn´t be up at that time of day and wouldn´t usually care about them going to Church. Rodrigo was asking alot of questions about needing to take out his ear gauges. We also were think about how we would need to ease them into the idea throughout the week of walking themselves to Church. We were a little nervous about that, but out of the blue yesterday afternoon he was asked if they could go alone. He didn´t want to take up car space for other people. Me and my companion just looked at each other and were rather stunned. It was an awesome experience. And we just barely met these kids on Friday of last week. We just need to focus this week on teaching the parents of all these kids and hopefully bringing the whole families into the Church.

We helped one of our ward members this week practice English for a job interview. He wants to work in the garment factory in São Paulo and they require that he knows basic English. We taught him some of the lessons in ENglish which was a major chore. It´s so weird how teaching only in Portuguese makes it difficult to teach in English. It was kind of fun too. We were mixing our phrases in English Portuguese like crazy. it had to be funny to watch. And the good news, he passed his interview. It was fun to be of help to him.

So, to sum up the week. The more we show our faith in doing everything in our power to further this work, the more the Lord will bless us. We dedicated ourselves to marking baptismal dates, and not only did we mark the dates, we got people to CHurch for the first time this transfer. We went from being the only companionship in the Zone not getting anyone to Church to the companionship´with the most investigators at Church. We were so blessed this week. I hope all goes well for everyone of you this week as well. Do everything in your power to do the Lord´s will and He will see your readiness for the blessings and give them to you.

Until next week!

Elder McLelland

1/3!!

Well Everyone, today is the 11th of April. Which means I have been exactly 8 months on the mission. Can you believe that I'm already 1/3 of the way done? I can't believe how much time has already passed. Elder Hepworth hit his one year mark last week. Today we are gonna party it up. Not really, we're just gonna browse around the street vendors in the Centro of the city. But it's amazing how fast the time goes. I wish I could start my two years over again right now with the experience I have now. I wish I could get the time not understanding Portuguese back. I also wish I could get back the wasted time that unfortunately happened in past transfers. But oh well, I just need to work as hard as I can for the time I have left.

Last week the President of the mission made some changes in the way we work. He always set weekly goals for us to work toward as companionships. He has changed it now to a daily standard. It's to fix the unfortunate trend of working hard one day, or for one week and using the next day or week as a rest week. Now that we have to report on our work everyday we are working a lot more efficiently. It's amazing to see how just the President making us this promise has increased our oppurtunities to teach. We are in a really tough area right now and it's been waring down on us. But this last week was a lot better. We taught a lot more people, even though we still didn't get any investigators to church. We haven't been able to get anyone to Church yet this transfer. It's a very difficult area. Everyone promises to go but Sunday morning ``something创 happens and they don't go. But it's improving, every week we are getting a little closer.

Yesterday we went out to make a couple of visits and got caught in the middle of a gnarly hail(hale?) storm. The hail was about the size of a nickel. The storm came out of no where and only lasted about 5 minutes. But it took down some trees and powerlines. And all the Brazilians were out playing in the hail afterwards like it was snow. It was kind of funny. I took a video of the storm so soon you will all be able to see it.

Not much else is new. just plugging along like usual. I'm still super excited for this transfer with Hepworth. We are working together really well. But I have a feeling we won't stay together becasue next transfer we will be getting 18 new missionaries! We finaly are getting more than are leaving. So I have a feeling we will be split up to accomodate. Probably one of us will train (I hope it's Hepworth....I'm not ready for that yet). I guess that's about it. Until next week folks!

Elder McLelland

General Conference is amazing!

I absolutely love General Conference! I got to watch all of the sessions...and in English too! They always set up an english room for the missionaries to watch at the stake centers. I only didn´t get to watch the Priesthood session live, but I did see it early sunday morning. I had to wake up at 5am to see the re-broadcast. I loved all the talks. Elder Holland´s declaration ``God´s word will be heard`` was one of the most chilling testimonies I have ever heard. Also the testimony he bore about President Monson was amazing. Another of my favorite talks, though hard to understand the with just one hear was Elder Pratt´s talk about the ``to be´´ and ´´to do´´. Many of us have to do list lists, but do we have to be lists? It was a fantastic talk. I´m just glad I didn´t have to try and translate that one. Another favorite was Elder Samuelson´s (BYU President) talk about the steps of gaining a personal testimony. ALso closely related with Bednar´s talk comparing light to the gaining of a testimony. Sometimes it is immediate and intense, others it is gradual like the sunrise. I absolutely love conference. None of us could believe it was already over. 

Conference Sunday was marvelous. One of the closed areas in our zone had a baptism and it was done in between the two sessions. The second picture is a group of us from the zone that were involved in the baptism of the girl. It was a real neat experience having it right in between the sessions. The First picture is my district. Starting on the left, Elder Peterson, Elder Shelley, Elder Hepworth and me (notice the tie I´m wearing?). Conference on the mission is so awesome!  The last picture is the last baptism I did while in Birigui before I was transferred. The picture is me and Batista, Sisters Lewis and dos Anjos and the familly of Layana that was baptised.

Last week before conference was probably one of the most difficult weeks of work I´ve experienced so far. We have really hit a slump in the work. We went two days without getting into a single house to teach...which is pretty drastic for the normal Brazilian mission atmosphere. But at the same time I´m about the happiest I´ve ever been on the mission. Elder Hepworth and I are working as hard as we can and we know we are doing our part. I would much rather be giving it my all and having little success than having a little success without giving it my all. It´s definitely been a week of trials but I have grown a lot.

Well I hope everyone enjoyed conference as much I did. I can´t wait to get the Liahona to reread all of them. The notes I took will have to do for now. Até semana que vem!

Elder McLelland

First week in Franca

Howdy everyone!

Well this week has been great. It's been a long time since I've worked so hard. I went through a stretch of companions that didn't want to work super hard. Now with Elder Hepworth we are working a ton again. WE both just had companions that didn't want to work super hard and we are pumped up. The work in this area is a little tough right now but is already improving. The area has gone through quite a few missionaries that were here more to ``make friendship" than to work hard, according as the ward members put it. But they already recognize our desire to change this pattern and work hard. I'm super excited to be here with Elder Hepworth. And so far it has worked out that every transfer I have been close to one of the elders from my CTM group. First transfer with Elder Britton, 2rd and 3rd with Elder Antone, fourth with Britton again, and now with Elder Peterson in my same district. It's been pretty cool.

We did a super p-day today with our zone. Super p-day meaning that our whole zone gets together. We met at the stake center and played soccer for a few hours. I'm not that great at it but I absolutely love playing soccer. I could play for hours on end. But for being a clumsy American I do decently well. Afterwards we went to a member's house to eat. She absolutely loves the missionaries and her home is always available to us on p-days. She made paste (pastels) filled with meat. It was super delicious. I really like my zone. Our zone leaders are a couple of goof balls, I'm going to really like this transfer here.

Well I hope all is going well with all of you. I love you all. I have really learned this week the difference in the spirit you feel when you are more obedient and make sure that your environment is in accordance with the Lord. It truly brings blessings.

Elder McLelland

Transfarências!

Who would have thought? After near certainty that Elder Batista was getting transferred and that I would stay, it turns out we were both transferred. My last area, Pérola was closed, but it should be closed for only one transfer. I am now in Franca, a different zone in the mission. My new companion is Elder Hepworth, he is from West Valley, Utah. I´m super excited to work with him. We are both fed up with slacker missionaries and I know this is going to be an amazing transfer.

Last week turned out great. I told you all a few weeks ago about a girl in the Sisters´ area that had specifically asked that I baptize her. Well it didn´t work out the first time we went there to baptize her because of a bunch of problems in her family. But last week it worked out. I went on Saturday and baptized her. It waz quite and amazing experience.

I was really sad to leave my last area. I really liked the people there a lot. But as soon as I found out I was leaving I also got really excited to get to know a new area. I spent Sunday visiting people for the last time. I had a nice visit with the recent convert family that I have been talking about a lot. I know I had a big impact on them. We still weren´t able to reactivate the mom of these two girls, but I know I helped in some way. I hope that one day it will all work out.

Well I´m a bit rushed on time today so I have to cut it a little short. Next week I´ll send some pictures, I forgot to bring my camera with me. I hope you all have a great week, I´m certain this will be a great one for me too. Até Segunda-Feira! (until next monday)

Elder McLelland

Mais uma semana

Hey Everyone!

 

It´s been another good week here in Pérola. We didn´t baptized but we found some great new people to teach and are it looks like there is a good chance we will baptize this week. Last monday we had a great P-Day with the whole zone. We all got together to play Soccer at the Stake Center and afterwards went to our house to have a BBQ. It was a lot of fun. The first picture is all of us together. The other two pictures are from the baptisms the week before. I learned a couple of Brazilian card games that are super fun. I can´t wait to share them when I get home.

 

My companion got sick yesterday and he still feeling terrible today. We will see what´s going to happen with this week. He says that when he gets sick it lasts a long time. I hope we will still be able to get a good week´s worth of work. Last week we had to use a couple of days moving all of the stuff out of one of the missionary houses here that is getting closed. There used to be 4 companionships here in Birigüi and now there will be only 3. The number of missionaries in the mission is still falling. When I got here there were 150 and now there are only 116. And before I got here it was as high 220. All the missions are really suffering because of a lack of missionaries. But we will just keep plugging along. President said that there should be a bunch coming in soon...according to the plan of calls issued. We´ll see.

 

It´s been a pretty basic week, compared to the especialy great week I had the week before. things are going well and I hope you all have another great week too! And next monday is transfers aga in already. This transfer has to be only 5 weeks. And we are almost certain that Batista will be transferred so it looks like I will have yet another new companion next week.

 

Tchau!

Elder McLelland

Batismo!!

Hey Everyone!

 

Well, it´s been quite a week of miracles. I spoke a little bit last week about a family we met that has two daughters un-baptized. Well, in one short week we met them, taught them and baptized. It was such a wonderful experience. The names of the two girls are Franciele (19) and Larissa (13). They went to a youth activity at the Bishop´s house and absolutely loved it. And the younger is now at another youth camping activity. Right now it is Carnaval here in Brasil, a holiday infamous for being very sinful. The Church here always does camping to get all hte youth away from the cities that have horrible stuff going on. I have learned the value of integrating investigators and new members with the ward. It is crucial that people have strong friendships in the ward. All of you reading, never hesitate to talk to new people you see at Church. Just go up and talk to them! Be a friend!

 

The Sisters in my district also baptized last week. They baptized a married couple with that have two little kids not old enough to be baptized. The husband, Pedro was a heavy smoker. But it goes to show how faith in Jesus Christ can conquer any trial. He was smoking at least 40 cigarettes a day but he stopped cold turkey. He went from 40 in one day to 2 the next day and 0 the next. It´s quite amazing to see the progress he made and he is the newest member of a the Boa Vista Ward. It´s sucha  miracle to see the blessings of the gospel.

 

Today our whole zone is getting together for P-Day it is the the birthday of one of the sisters here and we are going to BBQ together. It should be pretty fun. I hope all of you have a great week. I´m sure it will be another good one for us here! Love you all

 

 

Elder McLelland

 

P.S. I´ll have to wait until next week to send pictures. I´m using a computer with a bunch of dumb restrictions that don´t allow me to send pictures.