Two is Better than One!

1. The story of the baptism of Isaac
Last month we visited a found a man named Carlos who was a member, served a mission, but had a bad experience and never went back to Church. We started visiting him and we talked a lot about his mission to try and help him remember the blessings of the Gospel! As we were leaving one day he told us "They say the harder you work the better looking your wife will be! You better run to that next appointment!" So naturally, I took of running with a Book of Mormon above my head yelling about how it could bless your life! Through being a little crazy we were able to gain his confidence and help him come back! His son visited him for summer break here, and we were able to teach him the Gospel and this week Carlos baptized him! Isaac´s goal is to be a missionary, and I´m happy to see the fruits of my mission!

2. The baptism of Juliana
Awhile back I had an investigator called Dica, but when our area in the ward switched the other Elders kept teaching her! She is still fighting to stop smoking, but through her we were able to find her granddaughter Juliana! Two days before her baptism her uncle showed up and flipped out at what she was doing! He´s homosexual and the leader of a devil worshipper 'church' so things got a little complicated. Everyone sat down to talk about it and in the middle of her uncles scolding of us she said 'I´m going to be baptized regardless of what anyone thinks cause I know it´s the right thing to do," and sure enough she did! Her courage made me so happy and now she´s a member!

That´s about all! We have transfers next Tuesday and I´ll probably be heading to a new area. I hope everyone is great and if you need anything I´m only an email away:)

Love,
Elder Rawson
Moroni 8: 24-25

P-day shopping with Elder Oliver!

Sunsets here are AMAZING

Victory pizza:)  **tradition calls for getting pizza to celebrate a baptism

It's always good to be at the baptismal font!

These 4  Elders of Salgado Filho sang a song for the baptism

One Soul at a Time

1. Iasmyn Got Baptized!!!!!!!!

This week was super awesome cause we had the baptism of a little girl! When I started the mission we did a lot of street contacts and door knocking, but it wasn't going great so we tried working through less actives, and that is how we found her! Reactivating a family and a baptism sure did raise our spirits though! Nothing is better than seeing someone have the desire to follow Christ and make the covenant of baptism.

2. #FreeEnglish

We had our first English class this week and we were happy to see 50+ non-members show up! It was cool to help people learn the language and explain the basics of our church to people! Funny side story: I stood up with our mission president to announce the start of the class and how it would go, and a woman sitting front and center started to breast feed and converse with us! Apparently it´s normal for the culture here, but I was a bit shocked to say the least! All in all though it was a great experience!

3. Stake Conference

We had stake conference this week! It´s definitely a challenge to bring people, but we were happy to have one of our investigators there! Elder Grahl of the 70 gave a great talk about mission work and how members can help and at the end of his talk he called all the missionaries to the stand and had us sing called to serve! It was funny to see the Carols of the Brazil crying in the crowd:)

4. Lazy Lunch Time

Here in South Brazil there is a lot of influence from Argentina and Uruguay, and one of those things is that people enjoy their nap time after lunch! Between noon and three its basically impossible to get into anyone's house without an appointment, so we try and visit less actives or do service usually.

That´s all folks! Love you all.

Elder Rawson

Psalms 91:2

6 Months Already??

Time has been flying! Love where I´m at and what I`m doing.

1. O Livro de Mormon
This week I met my goal by finishing the Book of Mormon in Portuguese before my 6 months! It was rough going at the beginning, but really it helped my language skills grow and my testimony as well! The promise in Moroni 10 is real and praying to know it´s true can help your testimony increase in ways only the Lord knows!

2. Splits with the Legends
I got to go on 2 different exchanges with different missionaries this week! One was with the old assistant to the president and the other with the zone leader. I love working with others to take teaching techniques and street contact strategies from others and apply them in mine! It was good to have a little break from my normal comp, haha but Uncle Brad´s advice always helps: after a long day with an annoying companion, sit down and enjoy a nice bowl of ice cream to help the worries go away!

3. Advertising our English Class
We are starting an English Class at our stake center to help get people into the church who normally wouldn't enter, so this week we handed out a ton of advertisements during our district meeting! ! I got the job of holding up the big sign and twirling it around like the pizza guys do on the side of the road and shouting English to the crowds of people. We handed out 800 flyers so I would say it was a success!

4. Finding Tatiane
The other day a woman stopped us on the street and told us to visit her cause her family has members and she is interested! Well Brazilian streets make no sense and houses sometimes are next to impossible to find, and we could not find hers! I saw a guy sipping a cold one on the side of the road and I the Spirit told me to talk to him cause he would know! I kind of doubted it, but I went and sure enough he gave us spot on directions and we found her and set up an appointment! It was cool to see the Spirit helping us find the elect!

Scripture of the week is Moroni 6:4!

Elder Rawson

Fill up the Chapel Boys!

1. Less active success
We saw some good improvement here in Salgado Filho this week! This week we decided to focus on visiting less actives to bring them back to church, and we definitley saw the fruit of our labors! We had 3 investigators and 7 less actives at church! Before Sacrament meeting I just looked out over our whole ward chatting happily and I just was so happy. We filled up the chapel completely for the first time 5 months here, so I was pumped. The ward is getting more excited about the Work which is a dream for missionaries!

2. Miracle of the open window
I saw a miracle this week during a crazy rain storm that we had! We left for lunch with clear skies and by the time we got to lunch it was dumping rain! The road literally was a river. We had to take cover till it passed, and it was then that I remembered that I had left my window open! I keep all my books and scriptures on my desk pushed against the wall right under the window. Ha, I almost cried, but I said a prayer that everything would work out. When we got back my desk was destroyed with water, but miraculously none of my scriptures were wet and the only the cover of my Portuguese book took some damage! I am blessed to say the least.

3. Leno
We have a member of the church who lives across the street from us who is super cool! He is like 70 and has some special needs, but every time he sees us he asks when our next baptism will be! The veil really is thin for him as a special Son! If the picture below doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will!

4. Children are great
In our effort to visit less actives we discovered that a lot of them have children who aren't baptized yet, so we have been teaching some children! 2 of them should get baptized this month, so send your prayers to Iasmyn and Isaque! I just love their young innocence and desire to do what's right!

Make every day count! Scripture of the week is Ether 4.19!
Elder Rawson

Rafael, my Friend, RM.

Emerson!

When It Rains, It Pours

1. Rainy Days
This week was superrrr good! We had 4 days of Brazilian rainstorms so that was a new experience! People basically just hide in their houses, so that makes our work a bit tricky. We just ran bus stop to bus stop trying to talk to people! We actually taught all of the Plan of Salvation to a woman there. After our "lesson" a huge truck drove by and drenched us all, but she said "At least God gave me 1 good thing today: you guys!"

2. Church Talk
This week I had my first talk in church! I knew it was bound to come eventually. Whenever a speaker falls through one of the Elders gets the opportunity to prepare a talk 5 minutes before the meeting:)) I wasn't super stressed, I just got up there and talked! Turns out it was 9 minutes too! I mispronounced 'calçadão' which means main street, and apparently said something else so people laughed at me, but all in all it went well!

3. Embarrassing Moment
This week wasn't my hottest.. We had the baptism of one a kid in the ward this week, and we had more people come to his baptism party than to a sacrament meeting! They asked me to lead the music for the opening song, and their was a slight breakdown of communication. I thought he said we would only have 1 verse, so after the first verse I gave a thumbs up and sat down, but everyone kept on going! By the time I stood back up everyone was looking at me laughing, cause my music leading skills are less than sufficent, but the baptism went really well so it all worked out!

4. The sacrifice of missionaries
I've had the chance to talk to a ton of missionaries who are from pretty humble circumstances, and it makes me so grateful for what I have! Some missionaries were only baptized themselves 1 year ago, others sold everything they have just to be here, the stories never end! I´m truly humbled to see the sacrifice of people to fulfill the missionary calling!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas Break! Love you all!
Elder Rawson

It took over a month -- but the package from home arrived!

sunset on New Years Eve was spectacular

my selfie game wasn't on point this week.... 0/1 

my selfie game wasn't on point this week.... 0/2

Mission Christmas Video filmed in the city center.  Elder Rawson says the second portion "is hilarous".  Since we don't understand Portuguese or Brazilian missionary humor, we'll have to take his word for it!