Saturday, April 19, 2014

Our shiny new legs.


Week 35: Happy 8 Months!

Hey everybody,

Thats right, today marks 8 months that Ive been doing this work as a missionary!! I entered the MTC in Utah on August 14, fat, sweaty, and not really sure what I was doing. Now, on the bright side, I only still have the sweatiness. Progress is beautiful indeed.

ill be quite honest, this week was a bit more difficult for us. We spent a whole lot of time focusing on Joelson and his baptism, and unfortunately, it didnt happen again. The rest of our week was focusing on new people, where we had more success.

Joelson- You can listen to the voicemail for the whole story, but basically, Joelson pulled out at the last minute. Were not gonna waste any time to get working with him again this week, with a goal to baptize him on the 26th of April, so that he doesnt lose any more momentum.

Larissa (perhaps new?)- I dont remember if Ive ever talked about Larissa here. I contacted her with Elder Sepulveda a long time ago. We taught her (15 years old) with her friends, and she had interest; however, she never came to church, so we eventually dropped her. But one night, Elder Taveira and I were walking and saw her, and invited her one last time to church. And she ended up coming. Since then, weve been working with her, and this week, she said that she wants to be baptized! Shes not incredibly intelligent, but she likes the church and wants to learn more.

(Again, these past couple weeks, weve been focusing more on finding new people. Were starting to establish a larger teaching group.)

Other notes:

My electric razor broke last week. Thank you, Brazilian power systems. I think it just burned out my razor while it was charging. It started having to recharge more and more frequently, and now, its dead. Ive had to relearn how to shave with a razor. I feel primitive.

Ill send photos of this, but this week has been hot, and in an attempt to cool down/have house bonding, we all shaved a bit of our legs. (I just shaved the lower half.) Its quite attractive. Yes, ladies, Ill send you pictures. Be excited.

Alright, thank you all for continuing to write to me! I shall keep working hard, and you shall all continue supporting me! Love you all!

Elder Youd

With Elder Taveira and Elder Baldera.



Me in front of the house. Moms been asking that I take a picture in front of the house, although I dont know why. Its a slightly ugly house. But its nice for us.



Week 34: Conference!


Firstly, since everybody asked me about General Conference, I dedicated my entire voicemail to this. Basically, all the talks were super good, I didnt get to listen to Priesthood, and D. Todd Christofferson rocked the entire house down to the ground. But you can listen to my voicemail for that.

This week, conference aside, was good. We worked our butts off to be able to watch conference without too much stress about work. Although we have mostly focused on news, heres our progress thus far:

Joelson- Hes still doing good. Hes planning on being baptized this Saturday (giving him and Aline time to talk to family and invite them, and so that it wont interfere with conference.) Although hell likely freak out at the last minute, he should be good for baptism this Saturday. Pray for Joelson!

Hilda and Placido- Theyre getting pretty weak on invitations. They didnt stop drinking coffee, and they dont want to stop. But they said theyd at least pray to see if this was a true commandment. But theyre gonna travel this week, so we wont get to talk to them until next week. So you wont hear from them next email.


Really, not much else happened this week. I do apologize that this note is a bit smaller than my others, but I promise that Ill send some photos to make up for it, and that next week will be longer!! Love you all!

Elder Youd

Week 33: Do you speak in languages?

Hey everybody! (refer to the voicemail for this subject. Basically, an arrogant Catholic woman tried to prove to me that she spoke in languages, so I started speaking English with her until I won. Im a missionary, but I still have dignity.)

This week was a bit more difficult for us. Between a division, a conference, and a sickness, we didnt work as much as we usually like to work, so it feels like we didnt get a lot accomplished. But, we still have some success, including the following:

Joelson- Finally, after weeks of working with him (and 7 years of other missionaries working with him, he really was an eternal investigator), Joelson was interviewed, and passed! On wednesday night, we had a pretty intense lesson with him (he said that he didnt have a desire to be baptized, so I just started talking incredibly frankly with him and his wife,) and I dont know what got his attention, but he decided that night that, for the sake of his family, hes going to be baptized! We have to talk about a date with him tonight (possibly Friday or Saturday morning), but its gonna happen! Que bom!

Hilda and Placido- THeyre getting a bit more limp. Hilda has been begging us to talk about why coffee isnt allowed, so we explained the word of wisdom. At first, they were talking about how they didnt have any sort of addiction and could get rid of it easily. But when we asked them to stop drinking coffee, it suddenly became a life-long love for them. But they accepted, and theyll hopefully keep on progressing, even if itll be a slightly longer journey for them.


Other notes:

Yes, I got sick this Saturday. You can listen to the voicemail to hear the pukey details, but basically, I just ate something wrong, and I got rid of everything in my system. After doing emails, Ill go eat lunch, the first real solid food I will have eaten in almost 48 hours. Im getting skinny!

Sorry, not a whole lot to say this week. But this week is General Conference (for you non-Mormons, General Conference happens every 6 months. We get to hear talks given by living-day apostles and prophets. So its a pretty cool deal.)

Alright, love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Youd