May 18th

This week was long, then it was going by fast.. then it went by slow again. I went on splits with the district leader, and I didn't like it. His area is horrible, because its so hilly, and I just didn't find myself enjoying it. My companion and I had two or three good days in the middle of the week, and then on Thursday, everyone in the district went to the area of some sisters to help them out with finding new investigators. Then Friday and Saturday  were slow... again...

Love Elder Moss

May 4th

So this week was interesting haha. It was the last week of transfers, and my companion thought he was going to leave, so we spent practically all week visiting members and investigators and spending a little more time with them. It was good, but I'm glad that this week wont repeat for another 6 weeks. 

At one of these houses, I was half asleep on a couch, and a cat decides to sit right beside me, and pee. I woke up immediately because of an unusual warm sensation on my back.... that was a first.. haha. I was peed on by a cat... one more reason not to like them. But it was okay because I was able to go to the bathroom and clean my shirt.

So I forgot to take pictures, but I made monkey bread for that family! the don't have canned biscuits here, so I had to make the dough out of hand, which was complicated, but it turned out really well. Like if you google monkey bread, the bread that I made looks like the pictures on google images. 

Wow she got my letter now? I sent it a long time ago. The mail here is slower than I thought. 

So I was thinking, and at the end of this transfer, I will only have a year left here in Brazil... time is flying!

My companion will be getting glasses this week, and I talked to them, and they said that I can bring my old glasses( my first pair, that I brought as backup) and for 40 reais they can put new lenses that are the same prescription as the glasses that I use now, which is about 12 dollars. I think I'm gonna do it haha. Its a pretty good deal. 

So my companion and I talked, and our goal for this transfer is 4 baptisms. Its a lot, but he told me that he knew he was gonna be transferred, and so he prayed and told God that if he lets him stay, he will baptize 4 (which is an unusually high number) and so now we are going to work a lot.

Anyways, I'm excited for Sunday!

Love Elder Moss

April 20th

Don't worry about me missing out on the allergy season. It feels like I haven't stopped sneezing since I got here in this city.

So this week was very stressful, but it payed off. We were at a families house last Monday, and the girlfriend of a teenager that we baptized a few weeks ago shows up and she tells us that she wants to be baptized! So we talked to another friend of theirs who has been kind of flaky the past couple of weeks, and we got to baptize them both!! It was awesome! It helps relieve a lot of stress when I baptized. The mission puts a lot of pressure on the missionaries to baptize, and when you don't baptize, you feel like poop. So I'm glad I've been having decent luck here with baptisms. 

My teeth are doing great. I haven't gone back to the dentist yet to get the other three cavities worked on, the ones that showed up because of the glue that the ortho didn't remove. I need to bring the piece of paper that said I already payed for them, and I always forget it.. and I'm scared haha. But I will go back. I won't waste money. I will go back to get them fixed. 

My shoes are great! I ended up buying boots that will last me for hopefully the rest of my mission. And they were actually pretty cheap. 

I don't need anything else. I want to send home with a few shirts that I got here and I don't want to keep packing them up. I just don't use them. but i want to save them for after the mission. It wont be that expensive. 

Love, Elder Moss

March 30th

I will be watching general conference in the other ward here in the city, and hopefully in English. 

This week was full of emotion, in a good way! It was the first week that I worked a full week with my new companion, Elder Portilho. He is Brazilian, which means that I have been blessed to have all of my companions be Brazilian. They all have different accents, which makes it good to get to know Portuguese better and more intimately. 

So on P day, we went to this nature park called Fonte das amores, or the fountain of lovers. The only reason we went is because we heard that there are wild monkeys that come down from the mountain to mooch off of tourists with bananas. So we got there with tons of bananas, and immediately started feeding them! It was so cool! they slowly get really close to you, and take the pieces of banana out of your hand. So that was really cool.

Then on Tuesday, we went to a family who my companion baptized a couple of weeks back, and we were talking to the older brother, who wasn't baptized and didn't want to be baptized. We had some serious and spiritual talks to him and the family, and he said he wanted to be baptized this weekend! So we worked with them this entire week, He was baptized on Sunday after church! And we were working with some of his friends and girlfriend, and we are going to baptize His best friend in between general conference sessions. The only thing with that is that we have to do is talk to his grandpa because his grandpa wants him to be baptized into his church, but we are going to talk to him this week. I hope he listens. We will be also working with the girlfriend and her mom. Their problem is that they hear a lot of stuff that talks junk about the church. 

This new area is extremely hilly! I mean I love it because it is beautiful and is cooler in temperature, but I'm finding my self just physically exhausted at the end of every day. Its so hard to wake up on time because it feels like 8 hours of sleeping doesn't recharge my muscles enough. But my area is the area close to the house. the other area for the other companionship is 1.5 hours walking, just to get to the area. Their furthest neighborhood is 3-4 hours walking from our house, and just as far a way from the church, which makes it hard to get investigators to come to church. They have a lot more hills, too. 

Other than that, this is my week! I hope you guys have an awesome time at the outer banks, and make sure to send me tons of photos!

Love Elder Moss

March 23rd

       This week felt like it lasted forever. I was transferred in an emergency transfer, and I  was transferred to a city called Poças de Caldas. It's in Minas Gerais. It is freaking awesome because the city is literally inbetween two mountains. It was designed by the same person who designed Rio. So if you want to know what it looks like, just look at pictures of Rio, but instead of a beach, there's just another mountain on the other side.

        Its really cold here and it has rained literally every day since I've been here. Which is good, I would rather have wet and cold, rather than hot and dry. We live on the first floor of an apartment complex, and so when our house gets rained on, all the water just stays and our house has a never ending mold smell. I get allergies pretty bad in the house, but its getting better. 

 My companion is awesome. He just has a problem with his knees with all these hills, and so I think he will be transferred here in the next week during normal transfers.  He is the best companion I've had so far.

The people here are a lot more closed. All we did the past 3 days was knock on doors. This is his first transfer here as well, and so he doesn't have the city memorized yet, but we are learning together. We are working with the members a lot because that's the only way we are going to baptize here. We get rejected A LOT but the people that let us talk to them are gold. But anyways, I really like this city, but knocking on doors all day is getting really old, because we don't have investigators. Not yet anyways.

 

Love Elder Moss

March 16th

So on Sunday, we went with an inactive family to church. We have been visiting and teaching them for the past couple of months, and they finally went to church this past Sunday. It was the first time they had gone to church in the past 7 or 8 years. It was an emotional Sunday, because some of the members saw them walk in and got REALLY excited. Everyone started crying. It was so good! The classes and talks in church were fantastic for that family. During one of the talks in sacrament meeting, one member was talking about his family and how glad he was to see Eric and his family ( the inactives) at church again. He started crying and so did Eric and his wife. The kids (which are old enough to be baptized) talked about how they want to keep coming back. The struggle isn't over, we still have some things to work on, but this is the strongest moment on my mission so far that shows me that I'm doing my job. 

We are meeting a lot of new people that are fantastic! Excited, nice, just really great people. We will go back to their houses this week to teach them and continue working with them.

Tonight we are going to teach a guy who teaches karate, judo, and jujitsu. He stopped us in the street because he wants to speak English, and so we are going to teach him about the gospel and English at the same time. Maybe I can learn a few take downs with him too. haha!

Anyways, that's whats happening here,

Love Elder Moss

March 2nd

This week was not nearly as productive as the past few weeks. A lot of our appointments fell through. I'm honestly becoming much more stressed out with the families and people we are teaching because we are literally trying everything, and teaching with the spirit, but its not enough apparently.
But, all in all, I am happier. I am happier wiht my companion, with the weather, and with our teaching. I wish we had better luck, and knew what to do when appointments fall through, but its all a learning experience.

I don't have a lot of other news, except for the fact that we had a baptism!! After a stressful week, we had a baptism. Its interesting because when I'm frustrated in the street, or with other investigators, and I go and teach someone and they can feel the spirit, I become happy, forgetting all of the other things that frustrate me.

I will send photos!

Love, Elder Moss