Announcements – Archived

Oii meus queridos!! Wow I can’t believe that this transfer is already over!! 6 weeks seriously is not a long time!! I hope your guys weeks were super ótimo!! This week was pretty fire! Let’s hop right into the good stuff!!  

This week we went and visited one of our recent converts Jay! And Jay is about 15 years old and so we went over to the family’s house and we got there and Jay had another friend over! At first we were a little skeptical because it’s usually hard to get Jay to focus on the spiritual side of our visits but this time things went down a little differently!! We started talking to Jay’s friend and his name is Eduardo! He is from São Paulo and his whole family is here! Started talking to him a little bit more and the kid was super intrigued by history in the Bible! I started talking to him about the Boook of Mormon and how the Book of Mormon fills the gap between the Old and New Testament and more! He was super stoked about that.  We then taught the Restoration to him before we left and had Jay there to testify as well!! He was super grateful for the message and was super excited to read the Book of Mormon!! He is such a great kid!!

Well, my Portuguese is still super bad haha I am understanding a lot more but still my Portuguese isn’t the best haha.  This week one of our members came up to me while I was playing prelude and was talking about the hymn “Count Your Many Blessings” and I wasn’t super focused on him talking because I was playing but as always since I don’t know much, I say “Sim, com certeza!!” Which means like “yes, absolutely!” But as I said that it seemed that I agreed to something that he wanted me to do and I have no clue what I agreed to… so let’s hope that he just wanted me to learn that hymn HAHAHA oh man é uma vida né? 

Well to end it off as always, I want to just share what I’ve been reading in the Book of Mormon!! I’m in Ether and finished Mormon this week!  One thing that struck me this week was how alone Moroni felt as he took upon him the plates and witnessed his people including his dad be killed off by the Lamanites.  A few times in Mormon 8 Moroni expresses how he is alone. And how his father was killed as well as his loved ones.  As I read this chapter my heart was filled with such sorrow.  Putting myself in Moroni’s position I can imagine how distraught he was.  But despite this hardship Moroni knew how important it was for the plates to be preserved so that we can have the Book of Mormon today.  I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon.  For the prophets that were faithful and kept the records according to God’s will and especially for Joseph Smith in translating this ancient record.  The peace and joy that I feel as I read the Book of Mormon every day is unmatchable.  I continue to learn each day more precious truths the Lord has need for me to learn!! 

I love you all and hope you guys are healthy and happy!! Boa semana meus amigos!! 

Tchau tchau!!

Elder Castillo

We have been living in the other elders apartment for a week now which is okay but I’m glad I’m not getting bit anymore. We move back in on Tuesday so I’m excited so sleep in my own bed.

Tuesday 

Today was straight garbage. We woke up at 6 to get the apartment ready for the pest control to come at 8 and heat the apartment up to 140 degrees to kill all the bugs. We took all our clothes from the house and went to the laundry mat and we were there for 2 hours washing and drying clothes. We had zone conference and talked about the importance of inviting others to enter the waters of baptism. We came home after the conference and saw nothing had been touched, we went to the office and they said it was happening next Tuesday!! Our housing coordinator mixed up the dates so now we are living out of our car and hopping around elders apartments so we don’t get bed bugs on our fresh clothes. Definitely has been a struggle these past two weeks with so much happening but I just have to find the joy in hard times.

Wednesday 

First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD, LOVE YOU 

Today we got ready for our MLC meeting        ( Missionary leadership council) by planning out the details with the sisters. We finalized our goals and action steps and headed to the mission office. It was my first one so I was nervous but it was pretty chill. Our zone is not very motivated so we are trying to get them to love missionary work. We had a Q and A with the deacons and they asked us some weird questions. Some kid talked about submarines the whole time. We are still sleeping at the Spanish elders house so it’s been a party with these fools.

Thursday 

Today we had to write transfer reports for all the missionaries in the zone. We pretty much talk about how they are doing and if they are dead missionaries or not. We had a lesson where I was bobbing my head because I was so tired and it was a boring lesson. We have our temple trip tomorrow so I’m super excited!

Friday 

We had zone council today and it went pretty well. We had the goofiest training by some elders that did it on bike safety. One elder has a bike with an alarm on it so you can’t touch it or it goes off. Afterwards we headed over to the temple with our zone. It was a great experience and I love that I get something new out of it every time. We have exchanges tonight and I’m with Elder Wanlass who was my old companion from my first month in the mission. He’s a homie 

Saturday 

Exchanges with Elder Wanlass was super chill and it was nice switching it up. We made some nice fried rice together, man is a chef. We tried to contact some many people but it was hard because it’s labor day weekend and a ton of people were gone. We knocked random doors at the end and got the door slammed on us, I haven’t had that in awhile so it felt different this time.

Sunday 

It was a solid Sabbath day. We had some good sacraments and I got to bear my testimony in them. It’s funny because I never ever would bear it in sacrament back home but know it’s just second nature. We had some good meetings with our stake and then had a youth devotional at night. The Spanish elders invited us to a dinner and the Chilean family gave us thr hottest pepper I’ve ever had. My mouth was numb. 

Spiritual thought:

2 Nephi 27:23

For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

We see miracles in our life after our trials of faith. Without faith we can do nothing. God blesses our life when we have faith and trust in him. 

Our area right now has been super slow and it’s been hard to find those who are willing to hear our message. In those times faith is the hardest to keep but I know if we put in that effort and have exceeding faith, we can find success even in the hardest areas. 

Elder Willis 

Wow. These last couple months have been amazing. I’m still in Smyrna, TN I won’t even be able to express in an email the joy and love and miracles but here a couple of the huge ones 

☆ a couple days after I left Lawrenceburg 2 of my favorite people were baptized!! And a few weeks after that another one of my favorite people got baptized!! #eternalfamilies

☆  Jonathan has been taught for about 8 months and was supposed to get baptized in a month or 2. After our weekly Friday morning lesson we were sitting there thinking about how he is so ready and could literally be baptized today. The more we thought about it the more we realized he really could. When we walked outside and he was still in his car so we asked him if he wanted to get baptized that night. To make a long story short 7 hours later Jonathan was baptized and it was the best baptismal service I’ve seen!! Yall it was incredible!! For the next 2 weeks he would talk every day about how he still feels that peaceful and warm feeling he had at his baptism 

☆ we are teaching a family where the mom is a member but the dad and 4 kids aren’t. The mom doesn’t remember a whole lot about the church bc it’s been a long time so we’re basically starting from scratch! They are so amazing, the kids are some special spirits

☆ another part member family we are teaching is learning and growing so much everyday. They also are so special and the kids have expressed over and over how they just want to be closer as a family and they know this is the way. The parents are so set on committing to this and turning their lives around for their family. I love them!! Getting in contact with them in the first place was a miracle, the mom called us and said she hasn’t come to church in years and now her husband and 2 youngest kids want to get baptized! Great way to start a day hahah

Basically I’m just loving it out here and learning so much every day. These have been some of the hardest times and most rewarding times!! I’ve been learning a lot about the enabling power of the Atonement which is a game changer! The first 6 chapters of Mosiah have so much that help focus me on good – better – best and that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ my nature can be changed. We don’t have to be stuck in bad habits and weakness. By small and simple means we can be a little better today than we were yesterday. That’s been something I really needed lately. It’s hard to feel like since I’m a missionary I need to be absolutely perfect in every way. Obviously that’s not possible in this life but there’s been so much hope in knowing that’s not what I’ve been called to do and Christ will help me become what He needs me to become. I love this work!!! I love being a missionary and feeling even a fraction of the love God feels for His children!!! And I love you all! 

Oii tudo bem meus amigos!! Bom dia! Well here we are yet another week!! Crazy this is the last full week of the transfer already!! Time sure does fly!! Well I hope you are all doing well I really do love you all and am so grateful for each and every one of you!! Realmente eu sou grato por vocês!!  

Well this week was pretty fire! We’ve been getting so many referrals lately because we can now run English class ads so that’s been super awesome!! We were also able to take Elder Silva who is an Elder who was in the home MTC in our branch!! Such a stud, it was so fun to have him tag along with us!! We were able to teach a few lessons and have him experience mission life on the field!! Haha it kind of got me thinking how far I’ve come since I first got here!! Still, I need a TON of learning and growing to do of course but it was fun to reflect back on those times when I first got in the field!! 

Well this week we had a day where everything fell through haha é uma vida né?? Haha but we took the bus and train and on the way back home we missed one of our bus stops which pushed us back another 30 min waiting for another bus.  We then decided we’d walk down the street to another bus stop hoping to catch it a little sooner.  So we are walking pass this intersection and a man in his car yells, “Elders, Elders!! Have you guys eaten lunch yet?”  We were like “no we haven’t yet!” And bear in mind this is in the middle of a Miami intersection haha and he just pulls over the side of the road and says, “Hop in let’s go eat!”.  He was in a rundown Chevy truck and only had the passenger seat available so I had to sit on Elder Bell haha!! But his name was Roberto, and Roberto had been through a lot! He went through a nasty divorce and went to BYU and was even sealed in the Salt Lake temple.  He had been inactive for many years now and was super happy to see us. He said he’s missed the missionaries and was so happy to take us out to eat!! We were able to talk to him about his life and share some things that we thought would uplift him.  He shed some tears as he shared his life story with us.  He took us to this Latin store and bought us lunch and also like 100 dollars worth of snacks. He was very generous and loving!! We got his number and are staying in touch with him!! He knew all the workers at that store and even told them that every time we go there to feed us and for us not to pay. It was crazy!! Such an incredible miracle from the Lord in leading us to his children in need!! 

Sorry that was kind of long!! I hope it gave that story justice.  I’ve just learned over these past almost 9 months that I really feel I’m being uplifted most of the time by people out here!!  The love I feel from people we serve everyday is something that I cherish and am grateful every day!!  When you are in the service of your fellowmen you truly are serving your Heavenly Father!!

Em fim, espero que vocês tenham uma boa semana!! Keep spreading the love! I love you guys and am again very grateful for all you do!! Keep being amazing!! 

Até proxima!! Tchauzinhos!!

Elder Castillo 

Good Morning!!

This week was good but also sucked. I’m itchy all over my body and have been sleeping on the floor with dryer sheets cause I guess they hate them. But we found 6 new people to teach.

Tuesday 

For the past 2 days I’ve woken up and found red dots throughout my entire body and thought they were just mosquito bites until a member told me otherwise. She said I had bed bug bites all over the place and I need to spray the apartment. I went home and checked all around the bed and found bed bugs crawling in the frame. At this point I’m not even surprised this crap happens to me, there’s always something. I’m sleeping on the ground tonight with lavender oil caked onto my body because I guess the bugs don’t like it. It’s oil for the humidifier so I hope I don’t wake up with my skin falling off.

Wednesday

Woke up with some more bites which is awesome. Today we contacted the housing missionary and told him about the bugs. He said a company is going to have to come in and treat the apartment. I guess they heat this place up above 120 degrees and kill all of them. It rained a ton today which was awesome and we also had the great opportunity to give blessings to a family. The kids were going back to school and didn’t have a father in the home so they asked us. We had a Ramen cook off with the young men and made some exquisite stir fry with peppers and chicken in it. We were told the bed bugs hate dryer sheets so I’m sleeping with 50 of them around me tonight:)

Thursday 

Today was pretty chill. We had a service at a house and the guy didn’t answer so we just started cleaning the yard. We were asked today to make a carpool karaoke video to a youth album song for a video the mission is making. It was the cringiest thing I’ve ever been a part of but it was a good time with all the elders piled in the car. We had a great lesson with kayzlee on the plan of salvation. I love teaching it because I have a strong testimony of families being together for eternity. We ended the night with soccer with all these dudes. Half of them had Messi and Ronaldo jerseys on. I scored 2 goals somehow which was awesome. My companion said being the only white dude dude and scoring brings it up a few notches 

Friday 

Today was chill. We played 3v3 soccer with the Spanish elders for our exercise this morning which was a good time. They are the goofiest dudes. We had district council and then got some celestial food at Costco. Tonight the highschool team in Magna had a football game so everyone was there. It reminded me of my first month in the mission hearing all the fireworks at the football football in Grantsville and getting trunky. We still grinded and got some people to come to church Sunday 

Saturday 

We had a ton of meetings today on planning out our goals for September. We went to the park to go to the bathroom and saw a whole car show there with cars that could go almost completely vertical with all the hydraulics it had. It was straight out of the cars movie. An absolute Karen answered the door today with RBF. Its sad when the kids answer the door all happy to see us and the parents come out pissed off. It’s just annoying when people take their anger on the church out on us. Bless her soul. This dude today tried to hand me a beer so that was pretty interesting. I don’t drink modelo.

Sunday

Pretty chill Sabbath overall. Had some people come to church which was awesome to see. My companion lectured me for 10 minutes because I said ” this week felt long”. He overthinks a lot of things and thought I was implying that this week was bad and I hated it. I thought I was bad at overthinking but holy crap this dude turns into the fbi. 

Spiritual thought: 

Matthew 18:21-22

21: Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

22:  Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

The lord asked us to forgive others 70 times 7. So why is it so hard to think the lord can’t forgive us of our sins? Why do we hold onto these sins we have repented of? 

 The savior is merciful and knows our struggles personally. We can be forgiven as we truly repent and forsake our sins. The lord will remember your sins no more so why let those past mistakes hold you from progressing forward. We must forgive ourselves.

Elder Willis