7/30/12 Email From São Mateus

We had a crazy week this week, we had a lot of big things happen.  We planned to have some baptismal dates marked, but one had to cancel because her mom said said that as long as her daughter was living under her roof that she could not be baptised.  The daughter was really sad, but we will be going back just to keep talking with her and help. 

The best thing about this week was that we got to hear from the area authority, one of the Seventy. He just had a lot of funny things to say with all of the other missionaries.  It is kind of hard to explain everything that goes on. 

Other than that we didn't have too much going on here.  Just knocking doors and trying to teach people.  I have not seen my birthday package yet, but I will probably be getting it on Wednesday.  If not I will be getting it at the transfers.  I have sent you all a package, it has some stuff for you all and a lot of stuff that I am sending home.

We don't have any more baptisms set up for a while and we are trying to find more people.  I don't have too much more to say, other than we need to be constantly working on sharing the gospel with others.  We often forget that when we are sharing the gospel we are also serving our neighbor and when we are serving our neighbor we are also serving or Heavenly Father.  We are the examples that everyone sees of the Church of Jesus Christ by the way that we act and by the way that we help others.  That is how we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints show that we believe in Christ as our Savior and Redeemer.  We are in a war to save our Brothers and Sisters and we will be enlisted until the end.  We need to help our brothers and sisters that have fallen away, we need to do our visits always, if one of the people that we are responsible for was not at church we need to worry about them and show that we missed them at church, we need to show others the pure love of Christ and help each other back on the pathway to our Father in Heaven.

With love

Elder McBarron

7/23/12 Email From São Mateus

The name of the YSA Ward in our home area!

This week we didn't have too much fun, other than the usual stuff, laughing at each other and you know that kind of stuff.  This week was kind of a frustrating week, we marked a few dates and they have already fallen through.  We are going to be going at things differently this week.  Since I don't have too much time here on the mission, and my companion as well, we are trying to figure out what we need to do better to have better success here, that is our focus for this week.  We are going to focus on building the faith of our investigators more and then we will mark baptism dates.  We are starting to see again that we have to work smarter and not harder.

This week we found some oranges that are green and the size of a baby´s head, that was pretty cool.  I will take a picture and send it to you this next week.  We also found a really cool store full of really cool things.  I bought a few things for you guys and I will be sending a package home soon.  I did buy a few things for me as well.

What is good is that we are still working and doing all that we can to help everyone here.  The branch president just said yesterday for all of the branch to do their visits and that they would have more success with the growth of the branch.  That they need to help with the missionary work here too.  We are trying to work with the members more and find people that can be baptized and that are willing to hear the message that we have to bring.

I don't really have too many pictures to send that you have not seen, but I am sending a pic of the last baptism that I forgot to send last week. I found a sign in my area that has the name of the Young Single Adult ward back home on it so I am going to send that picture too.

Miss ya!

Elder McBarron

7/16/12 Email from São Mateus

[How was your week?]  This week was a really good week, we had a baptism this week that was pretty much a surprise.  This investigator has been studying with the missionaries for about 8 months and we hadn't been visiting him, but he was going to church and this last Sunday he said that he wanted to be baptized.  We worked as hard as we could to make sure that the baptism happened this week and it did!  Saturday I helped put up a roof at a members house and now I am really sore. After that we walked around and finished our day off.

Yesterday we were lead by the Spirit pretty much all day.  We helped an investigator know that what she was feeling was the Spirit and know why it is that we do not worship the Catholic Saints and a lot of other things.  After that we got stopped by an inactive member that has been inactive for a long time.  She said that she wants to come back to church and have her husband baptized.  After that we went and talked with a family of members to schedule a family home evening and we asked them about the less active members in the area and they told us about one.  So we went and visited them and when we got there they were just getting home.  We marked to visit them another day but we found out that she is going to a different church now, so we are going to help her  find her testimony if we can.  Then there was this dude that stopped me and my companion in the street and wanted to talk with us.  We talked with him and he took us for a ride around in his car, a really nice one, and we just talked about the Church and our purpose.  After awhile he took us to get something to eat.  We gave him a Book Of Mormon and got his address to send the missionaries to visit with him and his family as he lives in another city.  Yeah that all was pretty cool.  I have been feeling the Spirit guiding us a lot in our work this week.

[You said you were on a bus for 10 hours, how come?]  So I was on that bus for 10 hours because I had to go and renew my visa in Vitoria and no I would not have done that just for fun.

 

[I wanted to text you when I was out of town as I was texting your sister and dad too and was a little sad because I couldn't.]  Well, mom I hope that you can hold out just a little bit longer.  I know that I am far away and you miss me, but I only have a little bit more time here, you can't get trunky on me just yet.

[How is your companion and did the other missionaries get to stay in your area?]    My companion is helping me learn how to draw better.  I am the oldest missionary age wise here in the city, the two new missionaries here are both 21 and their missions end at the end of this transfer.  We re-divided the boundaries of our areas for the two companionships here.  We went from teaching in the poorest part of the city to working in the richest part of the city.  We are now teaching some rich people, we will see how that goes.  I am still working near the beach as well, that is still pretty awesome.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that I have, what is called by the missionaries, a snake (a snake is a girl in the mission boundaries that likes a missionary).  Well, my snake is in one of my old areas, but her mom said that she willing to wait for me to end my mission and then she wants to marry me.  That was a little strange for me.

So that is pretty much most of what I can remember from this week.  I am really missing my guitar and ukulele.  Love you and miss you!

Elder McBarron

7/8/12 Email from São Mateus

[How was your week?]  This week was a mess of running around and meetings.  I am no longer the district leader, but that's fine with me as I was losing sleep because of it.  A district is a group of 4 to 8 missionaries and a zone is a group of 10 to 26 missionaries.  We got another companionship here, but both of them will be going home at the end of the transfer.

[What was the funniest thing that happened this week?]  The funniest thing that happened this week was getting the other two missionaries here in the area, they are hilarious.

[Since you were so tired last week, we hope that you got some extra sleep on your p-day?]  I did get a lot of sleep this last p-day.  When I got back from emailing and at lunch I was pretty much out until 5:30 pm.

[We had a thunderstorm last night, did you get to see many?]  I miss thunderstorms, we don't get a lot of those here.  I have only had 2 in my whole mission up until now.

[What is something boring that has happened?]  So something boring, well we took a trip to Vitória this week and that was pretty boring.  I was in a bus for 10 hours with pretty much nothing to do.

[When you say you work your butt off, what do you mean?]  Well, as for working our butts off, we were walking fast and teaching a lot of people and doing everything that we could do that would pretty much make you tired out of your mind.

[What was your best experience this week?]  Well, the single most outstanding thing that happened to me this week was that I had a baptism at a members house and one of my other baptisms got to perform the baptism which was pretty cool! I also got my Visa renewed this week so I should be good to go for a while.

Miss you and love you.

Elder McBarron

7/2/12 Email From São Mateus

This week, me and my companion are really tired from the work that we are doing we have been working our butts off this week to show that we need another companionship here, but if we do not get it we will work together just fine.  We have had a lot of things happen this transfer that we are just exhausted from.  We are probably going to sleep today when we get back to the apartment.

We had our baptism this week that was great!  He was baptized and confirmed the same day to close the tri-mester, that was pretty cool.  I got to preform the confirmation!  Then yesterday he received the Priesthood!

Our week was great but full of work.  We worked our rear ends off this week.  We are probably going to get 2 new missionaries here.  Elder Litchfield and I are staying here.

The winter here is pretty good, it is nice and cool, but it hasn't really been raining much.  It would be nice if it rained a little more.

That is pretty cool that you got the Google translate app for your ipad!  At least now if I want to I can write in Portuguese and you will be able to understand it a little easier.

My best experience this week was when I was prestando meu testemunho por um pesquisador sobre oração e que Deus existe, eu senti o espirito muito forte, foi ótimo [in English:  giving my testimony by a researcher about prayer and that God exists, I felt the Spirit very strong, it was great].

Feliz Quarto De Julho!!!! [in English:  Happy Fourth of July!]  Unfortunately, here it won't be the same.  They don't have the fireworks or anything here because they do not celebrate this holiday.

Well, the best lesson was about oração [in English:  prayer].   That was pretty good and cool!

Well I have to go.  Miss you and love you

Elder McBarron