April 8 2013

Hey everyone!

This week was great. I really enjoyed General Conference. I got to watch all four sessions live in our chapel in Venâncio Aires, which was awesome. The Priesthood sesssion wasn´t aired until 9 PM, and only in the stake headquarters, so I will have to download that today. I think my favorite talks were of President Eyering, Élder Holland, but all of them were excellent.

I´m having a ton of fun here. Fun fact about Venâncio Aires: It is the national capital of chimarrão in Brasil, which is really great because chimarrão is awesome. Seriously, I make a chimarrão everyday before the morning studies. It´s the best.

We are teaching a ton of people right now, and having a lot of success. Venâncio is only a branch, and it´s part of the district Santa Cruz. The district has a goal to become a stake by the end of the year, so we are working really hard to make that happen, and so far it´s working! 

Thanks for your support!

Sincerely,

Elder Day

March 26 2013

Hey everyone!

This week was a lot of fun! We got to go to Porto Alegre yesterday for a conference with three other zones, and President Wright, so that was cool. We received some cool trainings. President Wright says that he wants to send another companionship of missionaries to Venâncio Aires next transfer, which would be the coolest. Four missionaries in one apartment. IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITES! 

The people here in Venâncio are really great. We are teaching a ton of people, and I am having a great time. Thursday, I hit one year, and Sunday is Easter! Woohoo! This is gonna be a good week.

Last week the First Presidency authorized missionaries in the whole world to email friens, as well as family! Anyone who would like to contact me through email, my adress is: 

samuel.day@myldsmail.net

Now I will be able to respond through email, which is a lot better than through letters!

Thanks everyone!

Sincerely,

Elder Day

March 18 2013

Hey everyone!

Transfers again! I got transfered to a city called Venâncio Aires, and it´s awesome! My companion is Elder Costa, and he is from Manaus, which is really close to the Amazon rainforest. He´s really cool. 

When I was riding down from Passo Fundo to Porto Alegre last week, we passed through a mountain range. I kept my eye out for secret Gadianton Robber caves, but I didn´t see any. I guess it does say that they were pretty well hidden...

Last week, in Carazinho, we had the opportunity to do something really cool! In the Passo Fundo zone, there is a small city called Lagoa Vermelha. They have a branch, and they meet in a rented house. They have land to build a chapel when their attendance is higher, but they have been struggling to increase the attendance for the past few years. In fact, the attendance was so low, that they are in risk of losing the land for the future chapel. To help them, our entire zone (8 companionships) went to Lagoa Vermelha to blitz the city on Saturday. Sunday was their ward conference, and they had a goal to have 100 people there. On a normal week, they only have 30 people at church. We spent about 4 hours on Saturday, going from house to house, and inviting them to church the next day. Then we all left and returned to our areas. Sunday night, the missionaries in Lago Vermelha called us all to tell us that they had 105 people at church, and 74 non-members were there. It was pretty cool to say the least.

Thanks for your support everyone!

Sincerely,

Elder Day

February 4 2013

Hey everyone!

This week was great! I think the most interesting thing that happened was lunch on Friday. We ate lunch with one of the coolest members of the ward here in Carazinho. He served us pig heart and pig kidney. The pig heart was really good, but the kidney was strange. I thought it tasted like pig urine, but as I don´t know what pig urine tastes like, my suspiscions remain unconfirmed. The next day we ate an animal called capivara. They say it´s the biggest rodent in the world. It looks like a huge beaver, and it tastes really weird. We ate it at the Bishop´s house. He said, "Elders, have you ever eaten this type of meat before?" "No Bishop, what is it?" "Just eat it, and I´ll tell you what it is after you finish." It was pretty funny.

Transfers tomorrow! I´m staying in Carazinho with my companion Elder R. Santos, so that´s good. 

Thanks for the support everyone!

Sincerely,

Elder Day

January 28 2013

Hey everyone!

This past week was really great! Today makes 10 months since I started my mission, so that´s pretty cool. Time is flying really fast.

Today something really cool happened. This week, we received a reference from a member. They are family of four. João Vitor is the dad, and Noeli is the mom. We contacted them on Friday. We taught them the first lesson, and it went really well. They told us that they had just moved here from the North east of Brasil, and they don´t have very much money. We invited them to church on Sunday, and offered to arrange a ride with member. They excepted. Yesterday, we got a member, and picked them up and brought them to church. During Elders quorum, the father of the family spoke with the President of the Quorum, and said they were struggling finanicially. Last night, the President of the quorum called us and we arranged to visit João e Noeli. This morning, when we showed up at the members house, he and some other members had gathered about 150 pounds of food and clothing to give to the family. We delivered it to them this morning, and it was awesome. It was really amazing to see how fast members church can unite to help people in need. João and his family were really greatful, and they are doing really well.

Transfers in eight days! I will let you know next week what happens! Thanks for your support everyone!

Sincerely,

Elder Day

January 7th 2013

Hey everyone!

Sorry for not writing the past couple of weeks! This week was really great. The new year was a ton of fun. People here in Brasil go nuts and throw huge parties. At midnight, the whole city was launching fireworks. It was awesome and really, really loud. 

We´re teaching somebody really interesting right now. She's really great, and is keeping all of her comittments. She has read part of the Book of Mormon, prayed about it, and received a response. The only problems are she is super evangelical, and she takes up at least 2 hours of our time every time we visit her. We teach a principle, and she tells a 20 minute story. We teach another principle, and she tells another story. It´s really funny, but it ends up wasting a lot of our time. We´ll see what happens.

Thanks everybody, have a great week!

Sincerely,

Elder Day

December 17, 2012

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven´t written in a while. Things have been pretty busy!

This week was great! Probably the best part was the Christmas conference that we had on Friday. It was combined with one other zone, and President and Sister Wright were there. Every district had a small presentation, then President and Sister Wright played "Away in a Manger." Sister Wright plays the fiddle, and President plays the piano. Before their missions, they played in an orchestra toghether, so that´s pretty cool. President and Sister also got us Christmas presents! We all got a miniature "Preach My Gosple" in Portuguese! They´re great! I also got to see my first companion, Elder Black, for the first time since my first transfer in Brasil. That was a lot of fun. He has definitely been my favorite companion so far.

Transfers again! This transfer was only 5 weeks because of Christmas. My companion is getting transfered tomorrow, so I will be getting another new companion tomorrow night. Hopefully he´s cool, because this next transfer is going to be 7 weeks to compensate for the 5 week transfer. 

Other than that, things are really normal. Thanks for your support everyone!

Sincerely,

Elder Day