Miracles in July

4 July 2016

Forth of July!

Hello Family!

This week was actually fairly uneventful.  We haven’t met President Leite yet, so we’re just kind of working without keeping in contact with anyone.  It’s actually pretty weird.

But hey!  Happy fourth of July!  Since there are 3 Americans here out of 4, we decided to do a barbeque this morning!

This week is gonna have a lot of photos: 

Here’s a new picture of our zone, we’re the smallest zone in the mission and probably the weirdest…

We found a less active member who works on a little animal farm and look what he had!  A beagle!  I actually got really, really happy to see this beagle and play with him a little bit.  Like way happier than any other kind of dog that I’ve seen here on the mission.  Good memories probably.

Here in Brazil, the second biggest holiday after Christmas is called Festa Junina (June Festival).  It’s basically a week where everyone dresses up like hillbillies and dance around.  I actually really liked it.  Way cooler than Carnival!

This here is a picture of me with a little bow and arrow that some kids in the favela made for me.  It actually works really well.  If it hits you, for example, it hurts, but not too much.  So you can imagine we’ve been having fun with that!

Look what Sister Nevin received today:  (I was in the office today and I saw this there

Alright.  Baptism!  Last Sunday, we were sitting there thinking who we would baptize, because we didn’t have many people who would be ready by this Sunday.  And as we were thinking, we got a call from the other zone telling us of a young man called Igor who has been going to church with his friend in another ward for a month and wants to be baptized who lives in our area.  So…

​We have now gotten to know his HUGE family a little better and will see what happens here in the next few weeks.

Anyways, tomorrow is our first conference with President Leite, so I’ll let you guys know how that goes.  But I love you guys and will talk to you next week!

Valeu,

Elder Biggs

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11 July 2016

President Leite

This week was really quick and not very eventful.

The only thing that is really worth note is President Leite.  On Tuesday, we had our first conference with President Leite.  He is WAY different than President Fusco.  President Fusco is a very serious, professional, closed man.  Nothing wrong with that, it’s just the kind of guy he is.  President Leite on the other hand is very open, charismatic, likes music, etc.  The first thing he did was hug everybody.  That isn’t something that President Fusco did a lot.

President Leite served in the same mission as President Fusco.  In fact, President Leite was President Fusco’s zone leader when he arrived on the mission.  He was also the president’s assistant before President Fusco.  So there are a lot of differences in the types of people that they are, but they have the same idea about work.  They both work like crazy!  President Leite said in the conference, “You guys probably wanna know which rules are going to change, right?  Well, none of them will change.  President Fusco was working hard, and I will too.”  So until now, the mission hasn’t changed too much.

President Leite is also a lawyer and is super SUPER rich.  President Fusco is also rich, but I don’t think he’s as rich as President Leite.  Not that that makes a difference.

One rule that he did add.  When we end our missions, we usually will pray and ask God if our offering was accepted by Him.  But he wants us to ask, not just at the end of our mission, but at the end of every day.  If that day was na acceptable offering, and if it wasn’t, change why it wasn’t and do better tomorrow.  I’ve done that this last week and it’s incredible to see the difference that it makes in the day to day work.

I don’t have very many pictures this week, but check this out.  He, they have sugar cane, and a member taught us that you can just put them in your mouth and suck all the juice out of it.  It’s way good!  They also make a weird sugar juice out of it, which I didn’t like quite as much  :P



I know, I've gotten pretty freaking gorgeous here on the mission. Look out ladies! 



Also, here is a picture of the sunset here.  

If you look close on the left, you’ll see a cool crescent moon.

I love all you guys so much and I’ll talk to you next week!

Elder Biggs

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18 July 2016

Miracles.  Two to be Exact.

This week was any other week,  that ended with some miraculous results!

First of all, to start the week:  Elder Kusuda and I went with Elder Pasqualini and Elder Clements (the other 2 missionaries in our house and our ward) to a super fancy restaurant on Monday called “Sal e Brasa” which is “Salt and Coals” in English.  You know its fancy because the name doesn’t make any sense at all!  Its a churrascuria and costs R$32, which is only like $10, so it was all good for us (except for Elder Pasqualini who is Brazilian).  But holy cow!  It was good! This is the first time of my mission that I spent personal money on a restaurant, so don’t worry, I’m not wasting my money here on restaurants (although I think I might have to go back there one more time before I come home!)

Other news, Tuesday was our bishop’s birthday, to which he invited us



This is how we travel around the city here, by bus



And I found Wolverine!



Ok, now the miracles (miracles because more than one).  We have been pretty close these weeks to not baptizing anyone and this week seemed impossible.  To be baptized a person has to have gone to church at least twice.  So a lot of the times, we bring someone to church one Sunday, then the next Sunday, we baptize them after church!  Anyways we’re teaching this young man, William, who wanted to be baptized, but hadn’t gone to church with us.  We talked with him about being baptized next week because he hasn’t gone to church yet, and he said “no, I’ve already gone a couple times, but it was before you guys got here.”  So...

He was baptized yesterday!  He also brought some friends to church with him who are now also interested in being baptized!  That’s one reason why its much easier to baptize here, because baptisms bring more baptisms.  You baptize one and find 10 more!  And you want proof of that?



2nd miracle!  Igor’s brother, Eduardo, turned 8 this week and wanted to be baptized!  This week we were basically out of options.  So we just decided to work, work, and work some more.  And God blessed us not with one, but TWO baptisms, and a LOT of other people to teach for the next few weeks.  I haven’t even talked about Gabriel’s parents who are almost ready to get married, a 19 year old inactive man named Bruno who has a huge family that asked us to baptize them and all of the members flooding us with references to young families!  There really isn’t anything better than working for the Lord! 

I love you guys and I’ll talk to you next week!

Elder Biggs

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25 July 2016

I’ve Been Here 5 Months Now…..

TRANSFERS!

Yesterday we were walking from lunch with Elder Clements and Elder Pasqualini, the other two missionaries in our ward, when we got a call informing us about the transfer!  Only one of us was transferred and it was… Elder Clements.  He was transferred to another city close to Fortaleza that has a beach!  Lucky dog!  



And who is coming here is Elder Ramirez who lived with me in Castelão!  So that’ll be pretty cool!  That means that at the end of this transfer (6 weeks) I will have exactly 7 months in this area!  And then after that I will only have one more transfer. And usually when you only have one more transfer you stay where you are, so there’s a good chance that I’ll be staying here for the rest of my mission!  Which will be such a blessing!  I absolutely love this ward!  This is an amazing neighborhood with some of the best members you’ll find!  The ward is working hard to divide by the end of the year, so it’ll be my privilege to work with them almost until the end!



each one of these planners is one transfer.  A mission for elders is 17 transfers.  So these will be all of my planners of the mission.  Can you tell which two I haven’t used yet?

Alright.  Now that we got that news out of the way, on the pictures!  The first counselor in the bishopric taught me how to make hot chocolate really good!  So now, everyday, I make hot chocolate for everyone in the house.  And I’m not gonna lie, it is pretty good!



Speaking of drinks, this here in TURNIP-juice!  I'm making an ugly face here but it was actually very, very good!  A member in our ward makes Maracujá juice (which I think is Passion Fruit in English) mixed with turnips.  And I learned that the 2 go really well together :)



Sidinei (Sidney) hadn't been confirmed yet because he's been traveling these last few weeks.  Its actually really annoying because its summer vacation here and everyone is traveling :P  But anyway, he made me and the TARDIS in Minecraft!  I gave him the Mad libs Doctor who book that you guys sent me and told him that it was from my family and he loved it.



So after 6:30 am, we cant lay back down, so sometimes when I have difficulty staying awake, I read my little pocket bible...



Apparently, that doesn't work too well :P

Speaking of sleeping!  Sunday after church:



But yeah!  It looks like I’ll be coming home on October 18th.  The mission will call you guys here in about a month or two to buy the plane tickets.  But you guys and my companion are the only ones who know this.  No one else knows because I don’t wanna get trunky and have everybody telling me that I’ve only got 85 days left (I’m not counting).  I’m gonna finish this thing running!

  

I love you guys and I’ll see you next week!

Elder Biggs

June ,Juazeiro, and the Beginning of the End

6 June 2016

Quick Week

This week was a very quick week, so, this Will probably be a quick email J 

On the mission, you learn things about yourself that you didn’t know before.  Outside of the influence of your parents and friends and family, you discover who YOU are.  And it’s funny to see how I’m actually not much different than my family than I thought I’d be.  For example, I love to play with little kids. Babies and little kids are the best.   We can’t pick kids up or even touch them, but I’ve easily won the “Best Elder award” in the hearts of a lot of kids:  (these are Gabriel's 6 and 7 year old sisters.  They don’t let me concentrate during the lessons)

Another thing I’ve learned is that I love dogs.  I already knew that I liked dogs, but now I LOVE dogs.  When there is a dog or puppy near (which are all over the place here) I cannot concentrate.

Here is a picture of me in my area.  This is a good idea of what it’s like here in Fortaleza.  That big build on the right of the photo behind me is a prison.  Which is very common.  We walk by there every day. Generally when it’s late at night.  I love this place J

Here’s a pretty picture of my companion

This week we baptized a young man named Bruno.  He is Waquisson’s cousin and had wanted to see how church was.  His step dad HATES us with all his dark evil soul.  But luckily, Bruno usually just sticks with Waquisson’s family, so it was all good.

Here in Brazil, everyone is part of one church or another.  There are 4-5 types of churches here:  Catholic (which is growing smaller and smaller), Evangélico (There are Hundreds of Evangélico churches in my area. I’m not kidding.  It is basically every other church that isn’t Catholic or one of the following churches), Jehovah’s Witnesses (which isn’t bigger than the Mormon church, but is pretty big.  A lot of people mix up the 2 here), The Church of Jesus Christ (or known as the Church of the Mormons), and then there are a couple of other really weird churches that believe in aliens, or in reincarnation or stuff like that.  There are very very few people who don’t “belong” to one of these churches.  And everyone believes that all churches are true.  That it doesn’t matter which church you are, you’ll go to heaven if you are good. But a lot of churches teach that the Mormon church isn’t included in that list. 

The Catholic Church in the center of Fortaleza

Our Area

But the people who live here (at least most of them) don’t believe that.  They see the missionaries as complete heroes.  These young men and women who throw their lives away just to serve God and the people around them.  Here in Fortaleza (not just with the members), the Mormon missionaries are extremely respected.  Even the drug dealers don’t allow anyone to touch us. I heard from a drug dealer who we taught, that in all of Fortaleza, if a Mormon missionary is robbed, “just tell us, and we’ll take care of it” (basically kill the dude, so we don’t tell).  But this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and will never happen again, so I’m gonna take advantage of these next 19 weeks (I’m not counting).

I love you guys and will talk to you next week!

Elder Biggs

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13 June 2016

More Animals

This was a pretty cool animal-full week.  I’ll start with a couple of photos:

This is me flirting with a parakeet  at an investigator’s house.  (She liked me I think)

Here is a picture of me with a giant I iguana named Maria

This one is a giant dog called Spike who just kind of lives in the road.  

Remember how I said that I like dogs?  Well they like me too J



This is a picture of me with a little girl named Vitoria.  Her older brother is member of the church and we’re trying to help her and the rest of the family come to church.  And Vitoria here in this picture (I don’t know if you can see too well)  I am sitting on the ground, and she is standing up, and I am still taller, and she is 9 years old!  She’s so freaking tiny, its cute as heck.  We didn’t believe her when she told us, but she is actually really smart, its pretty funny.

Another baptism!  The woman in the middle is named Damila.  She is Gabriel’s aunt.  She a single mom with a little son, Mateus.  Her sister, Jacinta, has already been going to church for years, but couldn’t be baptized because her husband never wanted to get married.  But when me and Elder Camargo got there, the Lord had prepared the 2, and the husband said that it was time and they’ll be married on July 12th, and baptized on July 16th.  But in the meantime we’re gonna baptize her whole family!

And sneak peek for next week.  This young man is Cristian.  He is the son of a Pastor, and very, very smart.  He went to church for the first time this week and wanted to be baptized with Damila.  We had to explain to him that there  are still some stuff that we need to teach him and he was like, “ok, but next week without a doubt I’m gonna be baptized!”  His dad (who luckily lives in another state, and wont be able to do anything to deter Cristian) and his mom have called him to go to church with them for YEARS and he never felt that it was right.  And he said that when he arrived he opened his heart and felt that everything we were saying was true.  As though he had already heard it before.  It funny because his best friend (who is only like 13) hates us because of the Book of Mormon.  His pastor talked really bad about us and the other day wanted a Book of Mormon.  But the next day Cristian said that he only wanted one to show it to his pastor.  So let’s see if we got any cool Bible bash stories for next week J

​

Anyways, this week is the transfer and we haven’t heard anything yet.  Other than that we’ll probably be getting 2 new sisters and losing 2 Elders.  So that’ll be cool. But if I’m transferred Ill be sure to let you know next week.

Elder Biggs

Alright, one more funny little animal photo that I took: "what do you want?" 

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20 June 2016

Transfers and Getting Sick

So this week was full of waiting, and a lot of it.  Usually when the transfer comes, we get a call on Sunday night telling us who was transferred and whatnot.  But this time, we only got the phone call on Wednesday.  So, the whole mission was just kind of like, ………, and when we finally got the news we were surprised.  Our zone has 5 companionships with 4 wards, 2 companionships in one ward.  Well this one ward has been complaining and hating on President Fusco a lot because a lot of Apostate missionaries have passed through there and convinced the members that President was a terrible president.  So, the ward was closed last week.  There aren’t missionaries there anymore.  One of the companionships was moved to our ward José Walter 4, and the other one was sent to another zone.  Also, a companionship of Elders were transferred and 2 sisters came in their place.  So now, we have 4 companionships (in a whole zone! That’s very, very little) and 2 of them are sisters, 1 has the District leader, and the other is us.  So we’ll see if something happens here in the next few weeks.   But as of now, Elder Kusuda and I are staying here!

All of us lived in the same house for these last 6 week:

One reason that the transfer took forever was probably because the District that Trindade is a part of, The Juazeiro do Norte District, was turned into a Stake this last week!  President Fusco’s dream since he got here was turn that place into a stake!  And he did it with 3 weeks to spare!  I didn’t go, although I’m sure I could’ve had I asked.  But it’s the first stake in the inland of the northeast of Brazil!  And once one gets started, the second, third, fourth, etc just start popping up!

I don’t have any pictures of Juazeiro, but this is a picture of the state division between Pernambuco and Ceará, which is apart of the new stake

Alright, 2 cool things.  1) there’s this really cool soda here cold “Cajuina” and for some reason, they’re sold in beer bottle. Literally, it says “beer” on the side… so as you can imagine, we had to take some pictures’

I promise, there's no alcohol in this

And this here is Sidney.  He’s a friend of Cristen.  We found him at Cristen’s house and started talking with him.  He was very open to our message and even accepted to be baptized this Sunday.  But the cool part, he watches Doctor Who!  He just started and is totally addicted!  I’ve already gotten people addicted to Doctor Who here on the mission, but I’ve never FOUND someone who was already addicted!  So yeah, there’s that!

Oh, and speaking of Cristen, he was baptized yesterday.  He has got to be one of the smartest kids I’ve already encountered.  His dad (a pastor in another state) didn’t like the idea, but his mom totally told off her ex husband, saying that we we’re helping him and that “the Mormons have done 10 times more than you and your church has ever done for anybody!”  And he didn’t say anymore.  So, yeah! 

​

I'm so sick in this photo...

Oh yeah, on Friday I got pretty sick, but just kind of blew it off.  The next day I was really sick, but I didn’t want to call President.  Why?  Because I had probably eaten or drinken something bad and the last time this happened, president forced me to fast for 24 hours and that was HORRIBLE.  But then yesterday, I could hardly even sit down, I was wasted.  Every part of my body was exhausted.  When I baptized Cristen, I almost fell into the water with him because I almost didn’t have the strength to lift him.  So I called President who told me to rest and eat chocolate!  Yeah! Really!  Then today I woke up much better!  So, it’s all good now J

I love you guys so much and love the letters and pictures!

Elder Biggs

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28 June 2016

Last Week with President Fusco

I don’t know if anyone reading this has ever had 2 mission presidents, but anyone who had a president end his mission with you, knows that it is very, very hard.  It’s as though your parents had to leave forever and now you’re going to get 2 new parents.  I’m excited for the new president, President Leite, to arrive, but I am completely heart broken to see President and Sister Fusco go.  But I’ll talk a little more about this afterwards.

This week was a very good week.  Our zone, the Sul Zone, is the smallest zone in the mission  with FOUR companionships.  Just to give you an idea, a zone is a combination of 2-4 districts.  And each district has 2-5 companionships.  The Juazeiro zone had at one point 15 companionships.  And our zone has 4...  A normal sized zone is able to baptize about 20 people per month, and our zone of 4 decided today that we were going to baptize 20 people in July.  It’s gonna need a lot of work, but we’re determinedThis photo from last week is already behind.  Sister J Santos, second from the left was transferred yesterday. But we'll take another one here in a bit.

This week was also the 2nd day marked for Jacinta and Pedro’s (Gabriel’s parents) marriage.  Here in Brazil, you have to go to the court, mark a day to come back, return 2 weeks later to mark the actual marriage and pay R$200, then return the 3rd time 2-3 more weeks later to actually get married.  Its such a painful process, BUT, its all working out!

 As for Cristan, who was baptized last week, he was confirmed this week and Sidinei (his Doctor Who loving friend) was baptized!  I always knew that God wanted me to be addicted to Doctor Who. Imagine if I wasn’t, Sidinei (who is really shy) wouldn’t have felt as comfortable talking to us and probably never would’ve been baptized.  Maybe he still would’ve been, but I like to think that I’m know justified in the many, many hours i spent watching Doctor Who were not wasted! :D

Elder Kusuda, Sidinei, Cristan (with my bag), me, and 

Gabriel, who is also a friend of Cristan and Sidinei

Cristan and Sidinei are also total Minecraft nerds.  So they decided to make Minecraft skins of me and Elder Kusuda!

It's funny how everyone sees me as blond with blue eyes here even though I have brown hair and green eyes...

Elder Kusuda (japonese)

Speaking of Elder Kusuda:

Anyways, yesterday was President Fusco’s last conference.  Tomrrow night at 12:00am President Fusco will officially pass his keys to President Leite and President Leite will be our Mission President.  The only thing I can really think of is Dad’s advice to me from a couple of years ago: To love your future President no matter what.  President Fusco was a lot different than what I anticipated, but remembering that advice, I was able to love him and learned SO MUCH from him.  He has shown me so much about the Doctrine of Christ and how to apply it in my life.  But most important, he has taught me how to love my Savior in a way that I never even knew was possible.  Because of that, I am not nearly as sad as I would be.  Because what President Fusco taught me isn’t that I need to love him, but Christ!  And Christ will never leave.  So it really won’t be THAT big of a change.

I don’t have a picture with President Fusco and Sister Fusco, but we did take one.  President has it and will email it to you guys, but you need to do something Ill explain it in another email.  I did however get a picture with his 2 daughters, Wilma and Teka!



I remember thinking that when President Fusco goes home, I’m not far behind.  And I’m really not (16 weeks).  But the last thing President Fusco told me personally was to end my mission running!  Not get trunky or soft.  But to end and end STRONG!  So Im sure that means that there is still a LOT for me to learn in these next 4 months!  So you guys won’t need to worry about that, J  I love you guys and will talk to you guys next week!

Elder Biggs