Monday, February 26, 2018

"Oh okay, come on in! I thought you were the Mormons!"

1. Working hard cause the field is white and ready to harvest!
What a great week we had! We were able to do all the paperwork for Roger and Marciele´s wedding so here in a month they´ll get married and if everything works out baptized the same day! We´re working super hard here, but our members make it easy. We basically just teach member referrals and incomplete families. For the second straight week we had 10 investigators at church so that always makes an Elder happy:)

2. The Talent Show
This week our ward had a talent show! It was a super fun activity and whatever excuse we have to open the church for investigators is great! We had 200+ people present! Well we got thinking and we put on a little skit. I dressed up as a "gaucho" and my comp tried to teach me, and I was your typical Brazilian cowboy, and everyone loved it! Then we sang our mission hymn that talks about bringing the gospel to the gauchos. It was an amazing night!
Talent Show

3. Zone Conference

This we put together our zone conference with President Louza! We had lots of training about the Book of Mormon, how to be better missionaries, etc. President Louza never fails to inspire us and bring a doce spirit to the room!

4. "Well, what church are you from?"
A quick funny experience. We started talking to this lady in her yard and we started explaining to her the blessings of the gospel and such and we asked if we could share a message, and she skeptically looked at us and asked what church we were from. Well of course we said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And she said "Oh that´s okay then! Come on in! I thought you were the Mormons." Then we went in and taught her the restoration:)

Have an amazing week!
Elder Rawson

Pizza!!

FELIPE LAGRECA VISITED ME:)

my fancy shoes now have air conditioning:)

Me!!


Monday, February 19, 2018

CARNAVAL 2018


1. Carnaval and a new transfer
Well things are a popping here in Brazil for the yearly national party called "carnaval". It´s basically a week straight of partying and apostasy. Luckily  my mission is basically the Idaho of Brazil, so things here are pretty calm. We started a new transfer and me and Elder J. Silva are pretty excited! We've got some great things planned. I absolutely love the spirit we feel day to day, makes everything SO worth it.

2. Teaching Seila
So we've been working a lot with the family of Eduarda who got baptized recently. All her siblings and her mom are members, so now we´re just working with her grandma! She´s truly a special lady, but can never make it to church cause she takes care of the great grandma. This week we prepared a special lesson on Christ´s Atonement and the spirit was so strong. It was amazing.

 Joseph Smith once said that "all things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to the Atonement of Jesus Christ" and I truly testify that that is true! We owe everything to Him. Now we just need to have faith in him, repent of our sins, be baptized, and endure to the end.

3. Domingo do Amigo- Santa Marta
So we decided to apply the domingo do amigo (friend's Sunday) here, cause we´re in the best ward in the mission! So we challenged every member to bring a friend, and sacrament meeting was packed!!! The talks were perfect and everyone left better than they entered.

4. Miracles at every moment
Just this morning one of the couples we´re teaching called us and asked if we could go to marriage office to help them get married! We were SO stoked, casue they´re being taught for more than a year, and this morning we put in the paperwork to get them married! God is good to us.

Love you all:)
Elder Rawson

Cool pic from Diogo´s baptism


Santa Maria

Jorge- our ward mission leader

Dinner with Tiago

Dinner

When your comp says something stupid

 Domingo do Amigo

our couple Marilda and Luis:)
AÇAÍ





Monday, February 12, 2018

Interview with a Member of the 70

1. Mission Tour with Elder Del Guerso
We kicked off this week with our mission tour! The entire mission gathered in Santa Maria for the conference. As we were reverently sitting and waiting to start I was informed that I had been chosen to be interviewed by Elder Del Guerso of the 70. We had a great conversation about how my mission experience is going among other things. Five other missionaries got interviewed as well. It was a super cool experience!  He sure did put fire in my bones! Afterwards we were richly instructed on how to be more effective missionaries and we learned some new techniques. I also got to see all my old friends/comps so that was fun!
all my old comps who are currently on the mission #brothers4life

my last pic with Elder Loureiro before he goes home </3

the ancient Bom Fim squad


my new comp, Elder J Silva

2. Diogo´s baptism
This week we happily filled up the baptism font (1 day early this time) for Diogo's baptism! He's a young man that´s been receiving missionary visits for 6 months, but his grandma never let him go to church. We were able to use our charm, with the help of his neighbor the stake patriarch, to win her over. His baptism was so amazing! He even chose the patriarch to baptism him. It was dumping rain most of the day so when we sang "when I am baptized" it was pretty cool.

 Diogo´s baptism



3. São Braz- PDay adventure
Last week we went to an animal preservation place (zoo) and saw a ton of cool animals! Exotic birds, tigers, monkeys, flamingos, and lots more!

The Elders at São Braz

the puma





Love you all! I invite you all to read the Book of Mormon every day cause I know it´ll make the greatest difference in your life!

Elder Rawson








Monday, February 5, 2018

Are you Ready?

1. Be Ready for Everything!!!
What a week! This week we were happy to see the baptism of Eduarda and Sebastian! After all was said and done, it was quite the day! Santa Maria has been having some issues with water faltages (translates to "missing"), and we got word an hour before the baptism that the church had no water. NO! We had half the ward there waiting as well. Fortunately, a neighbor had water so we grabbed buckets and went to work! We were able to get the water to a decent level and they were able to baptized. The Bishop gave a great testimony about the 'water miracle' and truly it was a great experience for all.

Sebastian  and Eduarda  baptism



2. Sebastian's story
Sebastian is the coolest 10 year old ever! His family already are members, but they wanted him to make the decision to be baptized. During my first week in the area I had the strongest prompting that we needed to visit his family, so we changed our plans and went to his house. As we were arriving they had grabbed the phone to call a member to give a blessing to Sebastian, who was pretty sick, but when they saw us at the door they knew that God had sent help! Through this experience Sebastian prepared himself to be baptized. I´m so grateful to have followed the Spirit that day!

Sebastian and his family
3. BE BOLD
Next week we have our mission tour with an area 70, and he challenged us to dedicate 2 hours to inviting people to hear more about Christ. As we prayed about how to do this we felt that we could take a big picture of Christ to the street and talk with everyone! We sure did get some strange looks but it was a powerful experience for me. See pic below.

LOVE YOU ALL:)
Elder Rawson
BE BOLD challenge
the beautiful city of Santa Maria