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

January 25, 2016 - Ipatinga

I see a belo horizonte

We realized something this week. It´s hard to get people to let you into their house to teach a lesson. We also realized that if we simply start teaching the first lesson during they initial contact things go a lot better. It´s pretty much:

"How are you?"

"Call me elder."

"What´s your name?"

"We are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints and we have a message for you. It is simple and easy to comprehend....(entire First lesson)"

This has worked way better than our old system as it allows a person to feel the spirit and generally people accept the invitation to learn more.

We have also been trying to excite the ward and get the ball rolling. It´s the reason that we are giving an English class. The weird thing is this is probably my most nervous time of the week. You know, speaking in English. Personally, I don´t think that I will grow up to be an English teacher, but it is a good experience. Some of the people there have better grammar than an American. People think how we ask someone´s age is funny, 'how old are you?'(como velho você está). Here they ask; 'how many years do you have?'

We have succeeded in gaining one member´s trust and he has given us a few referrals. He even goes out to visit them with us. We usually drop by his house to walk with him and it is fun to be in his house as he has 4 kittens, their parents and 4 puppy's and their parents all running around together. We have a noite Familiar planned in their house today (I´ll try to remember my camera).

Randoms:

* I had someone ask me how many kids I had 

* People don´t believe that I am only 19. When will I actually look my age? I hope not to look 45 when I´m 30.

Elder Quain

English Class

January 18, 2016 - Ipatinga

I see a belo horizonte.

This week it started to rain. It hasn´t stopped for about 3 days now. It´s real nice because it cools things down for us. I actually had two nights where I didn´t have to use a fan the entire night. Unfortunately, one of those day I was woken us at 5 in the morning by someone blasting Brasilian rap. I might be a little biased due to how tired I was, but I don´t like Brasilian rap.

Right now we are searching for different ways to introduce people to the gospel. The first idea was to start up soccer with the members and have them invite friend. I was fine with this. The second was to teach an English class. I had a little more fear about this one, but it turned out well. Next time I hope we have more than two members show up.

Highlight of the week. We had a family home evening with a part member family. I´ve actually been working with them for almost my entire mission and the dad always leaves the room, or sometimes the house when we have a gospel message. Elder Gonçalves turned to me right before we started and told me that I would give the message. I was left there just thinking about what I should say and only had the time of a hymn to think about it. I finally just thought, start with Christ. I did, which lead to the atonement and the power it gives to each of us. The most amazing thing was that the father stayed and listened. After, when we were having refreshments he even started joking around with me.

Randoms:

* There was a humming bird that thought my tie could be a flower, so it hovered a foot in front of me for awhile.

* I ate a lot of fried chicken fillet and feijão tropeiro this week.

* We were walking to an appointment and stopped to talk to a member. He said he needed help to give homebound sacrament. It was my first time in 6 months and my first time in Portuguese.

Elder Quain

January 11, 2016 - Ipatinga

I can see a belo horizonte.

So, this week was pretty slow for the work around here, but it has been picking up a little bit. The real key here is working with the members. Without the members we just stall a little, but when they work with us we are able to gain real traction.

We also had a zone meeting this week and it was pretty good. Learned a lot and got to see some familiar faces. We talked a little in English too. My language skills in Portuguese are greatly improved. the only bad part about this is my English is worse now. I might have to start looking over my emails to make sure that I didn´t throw any Portuguese in it.

I´ve noticed transfers are a lot like groundhog day. Not getting a call is like seeing the shadow. It means that you have six more weeks in the area. This week I am going to start my 4th transfer here in Ipatinga. I am nowhere near what our zone leader was, he had one year in here, I think he was happy to get a call and get to go to a new location.

Randoms:

* We are trying to start up an English class right now.

* Hope I don´t teach it wrong.

* I really like the song "I understand Why I am Here" by David Archulleta in Portuguese and Spanish. The Other Brazilian Missionaries are surprised that I can already use my knowledge of Portuguese to understand a lot of Spanish.

Elder Quain