May 15, 2017 - Belo Horizonte, Guarani area

I see a Belo Horizonte.

I received a package from home this week and I decided to start with the Reese's. Brasil has not yet found out the perfection of mixing chocolate and peanut. Maybe, someday they will understand, but today is not that day. 

This week, in honor of mother´s day, all of our lunch messages were aimed at mothers. So, obviously we used the example of the 2000 stripling warriors and the examples that their mothers gave them. The great miracle is that even though they were inexperienced in war none of them died in the fight, this was do to the faith and obedience that they had learned from their mothers. So, learn from your mom and listen to her. Who knows, one day it could save your life.

Shout out to my own mom,to whom I am very greatful for; love you! and thank you for your example.

Sunday was a rather exciting day with the skype call home and transfer calls. It was fun to call home and see everybody. You all look great. After we got home from the skype call we received the call that I will be transferred to Gutierrez and will have a new American companion. I have really enjoyed serving in Guarani with Elder Namauu I have learned a lot, we have had success and there are some very special people here. I am sad to be leaving, but super excited to see what this new area has in store for me.

Abraço

Elder Quain

 In honor of Casey & Trevor's wedding, we sent Elder Quain a matching tie.

Mother's Day skype call :)

May 8, 2017 - Belo Horizonte, Guarani area

I see a belo horizonte

This week feels shorter than most as it has been only a little time since I have written. But, first news. I now have a married sister and I officially feel old. Best Wishes for Casey and Trevor.

Here in Brasil one of the big events this week is that we had a split with the Zone leaders. I was with Elder Gimez. He is from Paraguay and spoke Portuguese before coming to the mission, which is super lucky. He is a really nice guy and we were able to teach a few people and I leaned a lot from how he teaches and adapts his teaching to the people. To finish off the split we all got açaí; because everything is better with açaí. There is an elder that lives in their house that is going home in a week and it is weird to think that in just a little bit that will be me. 

We came back to our area and ran around like crazy people trying to get as much work done as we could in our little work week. I felt like we were unable to do everything that we wanted to, but we actually had quite a few people show up to church and they all really liked it. Jessica (the granddaughter of the women who stopped to ask us if we could have 4 wives) came to church and when she saw everyone bearing their testimonies she was shocked. She said that no one in her church would get up and say their testimony for such little things. They had to have some giant miracle to tell others. That just reminded me that we need to strive each day to see the hand of the Lord in our life and be grateful for what he does for us.

Abraço

Elder Quain

May 2, 2017 - Belo Horizonte, Guarani area

I see a Belo Horizonte

Well this week we had a zone conference. In the conference they talked about some scriptures. The first being, "Ask and ye shall receive." During my study this week I also found a cool scripture that elaborates more on that topic,"Behold this is my will; ask and ye shall receive; but men do not always do my will"(D&C 103:31). We talked a lot about the fact that many times God simply waits for us to ask. It is that simple. Then why do we ask for so little? God has all power and can do all things. So, we just need to ask and trust in him. We do have to act too, we can´t just lie in bed. 

It was fun to talk with the other missionaries at the conference. My former companion, Elder Ribeiro, was there and he is just two weeks from going home. It´s so weird. He was my companion last mother´s day and that has already been almost a year ago. 

Other than that it was a normal week for us. We studied, walked, taught some people and tried to find more people to teach.

This week Casey is getting married. Shout out to her. I would love to have been there, but I´m sending a congrats and best wishes. I´ll have to get to know Trevor after I get home.

Abraço para todo mundo

Elder Quain

Zone Conference

April 24, 2017 - Belo Horizonte, Guarani area

I see a Belo Horizonte

This week we had the baptism of Lorrane. I´m really happy for her and her decision to come unto Christ. She is progressing very well and her and Rosemeire are reading the Book of Mormon together and doing family prayer. It is interesting how many times it is the simple things that are often over looked, but equally as often the most important. 

The baptism was really cool and I was even able to preform the baptism, but the coolest part is when Rosemeire bore her testimony. She talked about how much her life has changed since her baptism and how happy she was for Lorrane. It was just another witness to me how powerful a good example can be for someone else. Especially the good example of a parent.

This week had some rather interesting events including:

1 - We came to a house where we had marked to teach and there wasn´t a man there. We explained that as missionaries we don´t enter into a house that doesn´t have an adult male. They really wanted us to enter and the 18 year old granddaughter asked if she could count as the adult male if she put on man clothes. But then the Grandma went out and got some neighbor to sit through the lesson with us.

2 - I was trying to buy some food to make lunch and as we were paying the cashier told me that my eyes looked fake and asked my why I used lenses. (nope, They´re real)

3 - We were stopped by a group of kids that asked us to speak English and thought that we were from Argentina because we could speak English.

4 - The same group of kids asked what color I dye my hair. (nope, my hair is real too)

abraço

Elder Quain

We made homemade tortillas(Me and my companion. the guy from Argentina doesn´t know how, but I learned from Elder Erazo) and we made enchilada casserole

April 17, 2017 - Belo Horizonte, Guarani area

I see a Belo Horizonte

This week we had a new addition to the House. Elder Florencio is now training Elder Cardozo. He is from Argentina and is learning the language right now. It can be a little funny because sometimes he´ll say something and everyone just looks at him in utter confusion. I have had to use more of the Spanish that I learned in school(which is practically nothing) during this past week than in the rest of my life. Words like huevos and queso.

This week was Easter and the ward did a fun Easter egg hunt. So, we got volunteered to help hide the eggs. I don´t know if they will ask the Elders to help with that again. They told us not to make it super easy. We decided to climb and place some high on the church and also bury some. They had just put in new grass, so the side could be lifted up and easily hide a candy. People were still searching for candies on Sunday.

We have been working with Lorrane for awhile now. She is the daughter of Rosemeire, who is a recent convert. We have been inviting her to be baptized for quite some time now. She kept saying that she didn´t feel ready yet. We had tried just about everything that we could think of when, this Sunday she stopped us and asked when she could be interviewed to be baptized. We quickly marked her interview for this week and she is excited and progressing. 

That´s the hot of the press weekly letter.

Elder Quain

April 10, 2017 - Belo Horizonte, Guarani area

I see a belo horizonte,

This week was fairly normal with quite a few lessons and some new people to teach. We are teaching more Seventh-day Adventists. They are actually more prevalent here than in the US. Usually they are really chill, polite and give us food. But, there was one guy last week that tried to convince us for about a half hour that we had to honor Saturday as the Lord´s day. His argument was pretty two dimensional and he quoted some scriptures with weird references as his evidence(they were wrong). My companion and I did a study on the day of the Lord and we both came to the conclusion that we will continue to go to church on Sunday.

We also had a family home evening where we taught about Nephi and how he was able to build a boat without a lot of former knowledge. First he did what he knew how to do, then he asked God for guidance and trusted in the Lord as he fulfilled the will of the Lord. It was a good lesson and I was rather impressed that we got through it with about 7 rambunctious kids.

That's all folks

Abraço

Elder Quain

making pizza - with Elder Namauu

April 3, 2017 - Belo Horizonte, Guarani area

I see a Belo Horizonte.

This week went by really fast, but without much news to tell. To start off the week we did splits with the other companionship in our district. I was with Elder Dantas, who now has only one week left on the mission. We were able to teach a few lessons and it was good to hear another way of teaching and he asked some really good questions to our investigator. 

Also, on the thirtieth it was Elder Namauu´s Birthday. We celebrated with homemade pizza and açaí.You get the best of both worlds. 

After that we got to watch four sessions of conference. We weren´t allowed to watch priesthood session as it ended at 11 o´clock at night. That´s a little late for us. But, the conferences were super good. They seemed to be talking directly to me and what I needed to do to meet the needs of my investigators. The main focus seemed to be about love and the light of Christ was talked about more than once. 

They also talked about how we need to keep doing the basics; praying, reading scriptures and going to church. Also, they spoke on living the doctrine of Christ. Mix these to topics together and you have the key to happiness.

Well, that´s my week.

Abraço

Elder Quain