February 29, 2016 - Sete Lagoas

I see a belo horizonte and sete lagoas.

Well, so far my new area seem great.

We live in a house with 4 elders. This means that it can get dirty a little bit faster, but it does make things a little more interesting. We have more people to talk to and joke around during our free time. They are a lot more focused on exercises here, which is good, as I need to gain a little more muscle. The only down side is that we only have one shower and one washing machine. Our house has 2 Americans and to Brasileiros, giving us an even mix. We had one night of hamburgers and one night we bought açaí. I sent some pictures of the hamburgers and will try to remember to bring my camera next time we buy açaí.

My new companion is Elder L. Silva. He is from São Paulo, the district leader and is ready to work. The only problem is that he got sick. Even with being sick and stuck in the house two days we had quite a bit of success.

My new ward is bigger and our chapel is way better. We have air conditioning!! There are three wards that meet in the same chapel so our meeting isn´t until 4 in the afternoon. When we leave it´s already dark.

Randoms:

* There are a lot of lagoons here.

* We went running one day.

* I saw wild monkeys this week, my companion said we can feed them some other time.

Elder Quain

New Companion - Elder L. Silva

Elder Buchanan-maker of hamburgers

Yum!

February 22, 2016 - Ipatinga

I can see a Belo Horizonte

This week was a week of miracles.

The first miracle of the week was that we had a reference given to us that was a contact made by another missionary. When we went to visit him he wasn´t there, but his wife was and she received the message amazingly and said we could return the next day when her husband would be home from work. When we came the next time we found out that her husband had lost his job and gone missing. The wife informed us that he had a drug problem and she was really worried for him. At the end of the lesson we prayed that someone would find him safe. She showed us his picture, but we didn´t think much of it. After walking for about 15 minutes we were stopped by a man that we didn´t recognize. It turned out to be the husband. He wasn´t doing too good, but he was safe. He didn´t let us bring him home and we can´t force him, but we were able to give a little information to the wife, who was very grateful.

The second miracle was how many investigators we had in church this week. It was literally the most I´ve had for the entire mission and the man who gave up coffee and wine was there too. His progress is a witness that the gospel can literally change the life of a person that is willing to accept it in almost no time at all.

So, Elder Gonçalves reached one year and needed to renew his visa. This meant that they told us we needed to travel to Belo Horizonte. We bought the train tickets and were all ready, until they called us and told me that I was being transferred. This gave me about 30 minuets to pack (my shirts are going to be really wrinkly. I am excited to try a new area and I´ve heard that it is a lot more cool there. They´ve told me that my new companion will be Elder L. Silva. he was in my zone when I arrived in Ipatinga, but I haven´t talked with him much. The new area is Recanto da Sierra in Sete Lagoas (7 lagoons). 

Elder Quain

February 15, 2016 - Ipatinga

I see a belo horizonte.

This week was pretty good. It had two highlights.

The first being that we had a zone conference. For people that don´t know, a zone is a group of missionaries. Ours is really small, only 16-18 people. It is the smallest in the mission. President Fernandes came and spoke with us and basically talked about ways that we could improve our missionary efforts and have more success. As always, there are many ways that I can improve and am already beginning top do so. President took us all out to an all-you-can-eat restaurant and gave us ice cream after. Everybody likes ice cream. To top it all off this is when they give us cards, so thank you to all the people that send me cards, they are much appreciated.

The other highlight was one of our investigators. We have only been working with him for about 10 days, but he had a problem with drinking wine and coffee, a lot of coffee. We decided to challenge him to just stop. It took a little convincing, but he said he would. Right now he has gone 3 days without any coffee and says he can already feel the difference.

Oh, and my English class has finally born fruit. We had made a contact with an about 20 year old guy that was interested about 2 weeks ago, but he wouldn´t give us his address. He ended up coming to the English class and we showed him parts of the chapel after. Then, he even came to church. I really hope that he continues to progress.

Randoms:

* Our member meal dropped so I had oatmeal , milk, and chocolate powder cooked in the microwave.

* I am definitely going to buy fruit today.

* One of the things that I miss the most is going to the Muir Woods area and beach with family and friends. Just the clean crisp, cool air, redwoods and the beach.

* Oh, in Ipatinga carnival involves everything closing, and people leaving to celebrate somewhere else.

Elder Quain

                                 Zone Conference                                

Z

 English Class

February 8, 2016 - Ipatinga **6 months!**

I see a belo horizonte

I´ve now been out for 6 months! (I burned a tie)

This week we had a split and went to João Monlevade. It´s about 2 and a half hour train ride away. It was nice because this time it was with 4 elders and a guy from the other companionship's ward. I am actually able to keep up and add to the conversation now and sometime I just forget that I am speaking in another language.

We had a good day of proselyting and I bought a new pair of shoes(for about $14US) and learned from each other. I was paired with Elder Voloso who is even newer than me. We walked a lot and taught a good group of people. One of the senhors that we taught was very Catholic. He didn´t agree with our view of there being an apostasy (loss of the authority of Christ) with the death of the apostles. We asked him who had it after them, that seemed to get his interest. With every question that was asked he went and grabbed a new bible. It was kind of comical. I don´t know if he had real interest or just wanted to argue with us more, but he set another time for the other missionaries to return.

We went and visited a part member family and as we were getting ready to leave we asked one of the members to pray. He said that his brother (not a member) should be the one to say the pray, because " a prayer is from the heart and my heart is an idiot." The member is actually really smart as this got his brother to pray.

I can say that the book 'Preach my Gospel' is an inspired book for missionaries and implore all that plan to serve a mission, or that want to know how to better share the gospel, read this book as part of their study of the scriptures. Any problem that we have had in the work has disappeared when we have studied and followed the guidance in the book given to us be modern day prophets.

Randoms:

* The member who´s car tried to roll over us bore her testimony about it.

* I bore my testimony in front of the congregation. Very nerve-racking.

* We had 2 surprise investigators come to sacrament meeting.

* We have a barber just down the street that cuts our hair about once a month. They use goat milk in your hair and use a razor for the lines in your hair.

* I finished reading the entire Book of Mormon in Portuguese!!

Elder Quain

Elder Campelo - Brother Magalhães - Sister Basilio - Elder Gonclaves

February 1, 2016 - Ipatinga

I see a belo horizonte

This week was interesting. It was really good and we were able to have a bunch of lessons.

P-day I didn´t feel like playing soccer so we did a split and just stayed in the apartment with my district leader Elder Campelo. It was nice, we just sat, talked and ate jelly bellies.

This week heated up again, but it still wasn't as hot as before, which is awesome. Something I still haven´t quite adapted to here is the eating pattern, they have a giant lunch which tries to put me to sleep the moment I sit down for the next appointment. This week has been especially difficult and we have been more busy and running around more than normal. It is the best tired feeling ever. You feel really accomplished knowing that you are helping people come to know their Savior better.

My companion was thirsty suddenly and wanted a drink, so we knock a door, turns out the person that lived there had already had the missionaries there and a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We are now trying to help her understand the importance of this knowledge. Moral of the story, follow the promptings of the spirit.

We are missionaries which means we are protected, it doesn´t mean we don´t feel fear. We were making visits with a member in their car way up on a super steep hill. The car wasn´t going to make it up the last part and me and my companion felt that we should just park it on the flat area and walk the rest. The member decided to try a different way. While we were going up, the car ran out of gas, so they just stopped the car and got out. Here´s the part where my companion and I are stupid. We get out and stand down hill from the car which starts to roll down the hill. We held it for a second, realized it was way to heavy for us and jumped out of the way. We are fine, but the car is a little beat up. Moral of the story, follow the promptings of the spirit.(Theme of the week)

Randoms:

* One of the members has a singing bird

Elder Quain