December 22nd

To answer your questions, the Christmas party was awesome! It was super spiritual and it really opened my eyes on how God must have felt to send his Son to suffer for all of us. I always thought, well, he's God. He understands that we needed him, but I never really thought if God wanted to. He sent is Son to die, and be the redeemer for all of us.

 Our theme this Christmas is ´´what we are going to give god for Christmas?´´ Sometime this week we are going to make a list of weaknesses that we have and attributes that we want to gain. That will be our gift to God this Christmas. 

I did see my previous companion! He is doing well. His life is kind of a race right now because he is one of the assistants to the president now. Haha everyone jokes that my future is sealed on the mission, becuase my trainer is an assistant to the prez, His trainer was an assistant to the prez, and another american that my trainer trained before me, ´´my brother´´ on the mission, is one of the exectutive secretaries. haha My furture is sealed.

Things are still fantastic with my house mates. there was an emergency transfer this week, and almost every single companionship in our zone was mixed up. Mine and one other stayed the same. We are getting a new missionary in our house today, and so I hope everything stays calm.

So I only got two letters, Yours with the bank card, and sister Austin.  I am getting a package tonight because today is my companions birthday, and the same counselor, president Caravalho is coming again to take us out to dinner. 

Just to give a hint, I know its  too late for the packages now, but always say that the total value of the packages is under 50$ because if its over, I have to go to the post office here and pay to pick it up. I've heard of some boxes and packages costing like 200 or 300 reals JUST to pick it up, not counting what it cost to send it. so no matter what you send, write that the value is under 50 dollars. 

We worked a ton this week and came across two families that are very receptive and just awesome! 

Love Elder Moss

December 15th

So tomorrow we have the Mission Christmas conference in piracicaba, and I will get letters and packages then! 

Haha The Christmas card looks awesome! I love the Bart and Millie appearances. 

This week we worked harder than ever. I was remembering what Elder Holland said in the ctm ´´you should work so hard that you return to your house, and practically faint because you have no energy left.´´

Well that was me this week. We had so much success with our meetings and appointments not falling through this week. On Friday morning, we did the juice at the hospital service again, and Saturday  we went to the super market and passed out Christmas presents! We wrapped Book of Mormons and copies of the church's christmas dvd: Joy to the World.

 

We made it into a ward activity, and so a bunch of the youth helped out. Elder Alves and I made like 78 contacts, and all together we made like 250 contacts. It was really cool. People were really receptive, especially when they asked how much does it cost, and we said free! Some people made me laugh because we would give them the present, and explain about our purpose as missionaries and how we have a message about the real meaning of Christmas, and then people would stop smiling and give us the present back and say ´´oh.. your from the church....´´ Haha I thought it was pretty funny.

Anyways, we had the Christmas party for our ward, and I was hit with homesickness because people don't decorate their houses here like in the US. And the church was decorated like crazy!!! Man it was good. There was a lot of food, so that helped the homesickness haha.

I hope that this next week is just as good as this week! I can definitely see how people are much more receptive to talk about Jesus around Christmas time. Its great. Now we just need to turn them into baptisms. That's the hard part because all we have control of is making contacts. Everything else we do as missionaries depends on other people...

Anyways, I hope you all have a good week too! Make sure to eat enough cookies for me!

Love Elder Moss

December 8th

So the English class... HA umm so my first class was on Wednesday, and 3 people showed up. My companion, and two other members we walked to the church with. We went over some basic verbs and built very basic sentences such as: I like to sleep. I want to eat.

stuff like that. 

My second class was on Saturday, and only had 3 people as well haha. Same three people, but that made it easier to teach and build on what we talked about last time. I taught how to negate (I don´t want to run) and future stuff. A little bit of to be verbs, but not much. I will go over that next class. At the end, we had one of the members pull up a pop song that's on the radio (in English) that we all recognized and translated it. That was pretty fun and I think I will continue to do that. 

On Saturday morning we set up a table outside the hospital and gave out juice to those people waiting to be seen and their families. At first no one wanted some, but after we announced that it was free, everyone had some haha. we didn't try to make contacts, get references, just a service. And it was a great experience. The last hour was us talking to like 20 or 30 people at once just about why we are here, our purpose, where we are from, and it was really fun. I think we will try to do that every Saturday haha.

We have a Christmas party for the ward on Saturday, and tonight we are going to a members house to watch the Christmas devotional that was last night. Next week we have the Christmas conference with our mission, and I'm really looking forward to that. I'm starting to see more and more houses with lights, mini santas (papa noels) and Christmas trees. If we come across one that's not really expensive, I think our house wants to buy one.

Anyways, that's the gist of our week! one of our investigators went on a trip to New York city this week and asked me if i had been there and for advice of things she should do, and that was fun!

Its only getting hotter and raining less and less. But people keep saying that it rains a lot in January... I hope it does.

Love Elder Moss!

December 1st

This past week has been nice with overcast skies. It rained more than usual, and so i have used my umbrella for the first time ever!   But when it rains, it always manages to start right when we leave the house and stop when we get to our the house... its getting kind of annoying. 

We had interviews with the president on Thursday, and all is good :)!! It was a happy thanksgiving because I got a ton of letters from friends and family! Some from friends on missions too! 

We worked a ton this week.,, but we did mark 2 more people to be baptized in two weeks! We keep getting references which is awesome, and the members really like to work with the missionaries!

So for service, this week I will start teaching an English class to members, investigators, and just anyone who wants to learn! I am pretty nervous, but I would rather do this and get like 20 -30 contacts in an hour instead of knocking on doors all day haha. 

I have pictures that don't want to send, but for service two weeks ago we cut someones grass! That was a blast form the past. The other missionaries were slow, and there was only one weed wacker that was a plug in... electric. that was fun too. But i ended up doing most to all of it. It took about 3 hours, but it was fun because It was different than walking and teaching lessons. That stuff is fun too, but sometimes a change is fun. 

Anyways, have an awesome week! 

and congrats emily !!

I love you all :) 

Love Elder Moss