Hellloooooooooooo world

Wow. What a week. For some reason I am incredibly tired, yet surprisingly happy.   It's weird how the mission is like that. 

Here's a run down of the week. 

This week we spent working our butts off, its was a awesome week! 

On Tuesday, met an awesome new family, johneer, and favio. Wow, they are just plain awesome. Newly married, they both work full time, are looking to start a family and are searching for a place to raise a family right. Sound like a baptism waiting to happen or what?? haha. I'm pretty pumped! 

Wednesday we made a goal to try and teach all of our lessons in under 30 min. We decided that when we have a lesson over 30 min the spirit starts to weaken and people lose interest. Well, we kinda made the goal.. and then forgot about it until about 4:00.... the funny thing is once we started to teach in under 30 min, we doubled the number of lesson we usually teach..... Weird. Its like math or something.. ahhaah. 

Thursday we did splits. I stayed in the area with elder leite... or in english elder milk.. Yes, Brazilian names are strange. It was a good time. since elder rufato is a ZL, and his zl companion, elder perreia is companions with elder leite, elder leite and I get to work together quite a bit. It's actually pretty fun. I really like the guy. We had a awesome day together, we met a bunch of new people and our investigator, miro, he was able to smoke less cigarettes this week. Woot Woot!  Any progress is good progress, 

Friday, well, friday was  kinda of a waste. me and elder rufato had to go and pick up one of the assistants all the way in the city center, bring him to our area, and stay with him for awhile, because he had a medical appointment. It was pretty annoying, but hey, whatever, At least we got to be on the good side of the assistants now.... haha. 

Saturday..... Saturday was about one of the longest day of my life. really, Saturday and Sunday seemed to just blur together because of how busy we were. 

Saturday morning, we got a call from one of our investigators asking if we could help them move. Ah, awesome, I love Saturday morning service projects. Well, little did I know, that here in brazil, they don't use moving trucks to move... They use shopping carts.... yes... Shopping carts. Pretty funny if you ask me. So for like 6 hours loaded up everything in the house, and dragged it up this big hill. Dressers, stove, washing machine, all of it. It's a good thing I'm semi-professinal at hauling heavy, awkward items long distances, up big hills. Brought me back the good old days of hauling a chainsaw on my back for hours. 

Anyway, after all of that, we still had to go out and teach.... Everyone of our investigators. Every. Single. one. of. our. investigators. Why you ask? because Sunday was stake conference and we need to bring as many as our investigators there as possible. Anyways, We did it. I don't know how, but we managed to stop by and teach everyone of our 40 investigator that are progressing in some form. 

After all of that, we still had to wake up at 4:00 the next morning to catch the bus that was going to stake conference. it was a long day.hahah. It all paid off in the end. we managed to bring some 20 investigator to the conference, which is the most that any dupla has brought in a very long time. things are going great. 

Love you all!

I hope everyone one has a safe, and fun week!

Elder Heiner

French toast, and daylight savings time.

Hey everybody!! I hope everyone is having a great week. Things here in brazil are just as crazy as always, this past week we have been running around too crazzy to even count. It's good though. things are working good here in the big old zoo that is porto alegre. 

This week we have been working really hard with our family that we have marked a wedding with. They are super awesome, Juliana and andrelle. The past week they have been having a really hard time with... each other? aghahhaha.  Basically, they've been fighting alot... but, That's what the gospel is for! anyhow, we've been stopping by pretty much every night to help them through this rough patch. It pretty cool to see the progress that they've made already. just another testimony to be that the gospel really can help with whatever problem. Even marriage problems. I think the weirdest part is that we have two 20 year old's here, unmarried, with little relationship advice, counseling a couple with 4 kids... hahahah the mission is a weird thing.. 

We also have been working extensively, with our other family with a baptism date, villençca and carlos. They are progressing really well and we are super excited for their upcoming baptism the 3rd of march. Its crazy how fast they are progressing and being able to help them with their testimony is super awesome.

We've also been working alot with a recent convert named everton. The stake here is getting ready to divide, and we are trying really hard to get all the recent converts ready to receive the M. priesthood. super awesome member, Everybody in the ward just loves him to death. I think he host family home evening like 4 times every week. haha, its pretty awesome. 

This week was a good week, me and elder rufato are getting alot great and he's helping me a ton with portuguese.( swear, I have the hardest time with this language, but I'm improving) .

In my studies this past week, I've been focusing on the spirit, and how we can improve our ability to feel the spirit in every moment possible. Been reading in preach my gospel about our prayers and how we can let the spirit guide our prayers. Well, I was thinking and decided to try something different this past week. Every time I say a prayer in the morning and at night, I will stay on my knees until I feel the spirit. Wow, what a difference this has made. Its incredible what a difference this has made. Seems like this past week I've been able to decerne the whispering of the spirit a whole lot easier and be able to invite the spirit a whole lot easier. My challenge for everyone this week is to try it out. Everytime you say a prayer at night. Stay on you knees until you feel the spirit. some times I've stayed on my knees for a long time, But The consequences are soo worth it. 

Anyways,

Com amor e respeito! 

Meu queridos irmãos e irmas

Vos amo bastante.

Élder Heiner

IMMM BBAAAACCCKKK, welcome to POA

Just what you guys wanted to here... Yes, I'm still alive, Yes, I love my new companion, And sorry I haven't written for awhile... Its been a crazy past few weeks. I'll give you the low down right now. 

So, I'm in a area Called agronomia. It's a little ''Bairro" or, city right out side of porto alegre. Like literally right outside the city limits of porto alegre. I'd compare it to being bountiful to salt lake. Just a few min away. I'm actually in a porto alegre right now as i write this.

About the area, ITS AWESOME. Right now I'm in the zone that pretty much every missionary want to be in. Why? Because this zone is on fire. There are just so many awesome awesome family's that are living here its insane. 

My companion is named elder Rufato. He's from pato branco parana, Brazil. He's almost like an exact copy of My friend Harrison Mayer. The first few days were together I was super dupe confused because I'd turn around and Harrison would be standing there. hahaha. Needless to say we are getting along great. (Harrison If you reading this, You aren't replaced, I've just found your Brazilian doppelganger.)

Also, This is kinda a weird dupla because hes a Zone líder, and I'm still sitting at junior. The president told me that he put us together so that I could learn how to lead a hold together a zone.... Whatever that mean. 

Because He's a zone leader, and the the other zone leader lives like 5 min away, we are basically in a 4 pack of elders. Mainly because elder rufato, and elder Perreia need to talk about all the zone stuff all the time. Its pretty cool, because Its like I have 3 companions instead of just one. Weird,  But cool at the same time. 

The reason I could email this past week was because Brazil had a their big old holiday.... carnaval.... Which is Brazil's biggest holiday. Basically everything shuts down for 3 day while everyone goes to the city center to party.  We didn't have to stay indoor or anything because Its not that big in our city, but other elders basically had a 3 day nap. 

The work in our area is just plain going great. This is my second week working here and we have already set a date for one of our familys to be married. WHAT? Yes, thats right, we are going to get to marry a family. The process here in Brazil is super complicated so you have to set a date before hand and then go get a bunch of paper work done. Its complicated, but the family, Julianna, and Andrelle are super excited about it. The also have 4 kids, two of with are older than 8 years old. Can I just say that it is sooo much better to teach family's. 

Yesterday me and elder Rufato were trying to find a reference that turned out to be the wrong address when we found a nother awesome family. We knocked on the wrong door and they let us in, we had a super duper powerful lesson, and then after we marked a date for them to be baptized. Bah, its moments like that make the mission sooo awesome. 

this past week has been super busy, Its been strange, but awesome at the same time. I can't believe Whats been going on here. I just love it. 

This week in my scripture study, I reread the story about Martha e mary in the Luke chapter 10. I Love this story so much. Its a story that Illustrates the really, the things in this life are important. be we always need remember that eventually, everything here on earth will go away, and only the things that we put forth into our "eternal Bank" are going to matter. I love the way that jesus answers Martha in verses 41-42. so clear and direct. If we all can try and remember that we need to chose the good part, then through out our day we can continue to make decisions that truely matter. 

Love you all, 

Elder Heiner

Transfered.

Don't have much time today. Its transfers. All i know is that im going to a new area. Sad to leave cachoeria, but happy to start another adventure. Cool thing is elder allen gets to train now! cool beans!

Anyways, love you all, I'll write more this next upcoming week.

Elder Heiner

Workin hard, or hardly workin?

This week was CRAZY! It seemed like we blinked and the week just happened. We've been running around like a halve dead chicken. Its been good, But even with all the work that we've been doing, We still failed to get all of our investigators in church this Sunday. Bummer. BUT, Its alright, everything happens in its due time. 

Some of the highlights this week have been, 

Well, on Tuesday, and Wednesday  we went out and did divisions with victor, a young man that just moved into out branch. Victors 20 years old and is preparing to serve a mission. He just moved here from cuaiba, which is a city like 500 miles north of porto alegre. Anyways, this kid is just awesome, Super prepared to serve a mission, and just an all around awesome kid. He always gets us to laugh, and he loves coming out with the missionarys. We love taking him along because it really help us out and sometimes hes help out translating our accents,.... ahhahaha. anyways, It was a good old time. WE also had TONS of success these days. Seemed like alot of our appointment just worked out and we were able to find like 4 new awesome families. 

Friday, we worked. ATON. on friday we taught over 10 lesson in one day. It was a day super duper good. Like seriously good. And we were able to meet with some less actives that I didn't even know existed in the city. its was a good day. 

Saturday, we decided to try something different to get people to church so we spent it swing by as many people as we could to get them pumped up for church. By the end of the night, we were feeling pretty sure that we were going to have a ton of people in church... everyone said they were super excited and that they would for sure be there on sunday...  

And then sunday morning rolled around... Its pretty sad to basicly have all your work of the week mean nothing in less than 15 minutes... But! whatever, we have one more week to try and get all of the peeps in the doors of the big white building. !! 

Oh, and I gave a talk in sacrament. GULP. 

Yes, I talked in portuguese, to like 50 people, for 30 minutes. WHAT. 

originally I was only going to talk for like 10... and then the other speaker didn't show up... and as much as everyone like leaving sacrament 40 minutes early, the branch president wouldn't have been too happy about htat 

This transfer has flew by and now we are at the end of it. I'm not sure whats going to happen but theirs a pretty big chance that I'll be heading to a new area. I'm not really sure how I feel about going to a new area, whatever though.  

The one thing that I've learned from this transfer is patience. Me and elder Allen have been pounding this area to the ground. Literally working as hard as possible, and yet, we haven't seen the fruits of our work. something, that at times is pretty frustrating. The lord has a different time schedule than us. At times we want our fruit to be ready immediately, we in reality we all need to wait until fall to harvest. All though me and elder allen haven't been seeing the fruit of our labor, we both know, through dedication and work here that the lord is pleased with what we have been trying to grow. I don't know If I, personaly, will be the one that get to see this area explode, but I do know that the work that I've put in has pleased the lord. 

Love you all, have a safe week

Elder Heiner

Two white americans...

Wellp, this week was pretty good, but Sunday was a pretty big let down. 

So, all of this past transfer, me and elder allan had been working super hard to mark a bunch of baptisms for the end of this month, the 30th, and well Sunday, they pretty much all fell through.

So, for a investigator to get baptized they need to be in church at least 2 times before the baptism. Well, this past sunday was make it or break it because its two sundays out from the 30th.. 

So all week, we were pumping people up for the baptism. Giving super powerful lessons, we made super cool invitations for all of our investigators, stopped by all their houses on saturday, and well we though we were going to have a TON of people in church... So sunday morning, decided to get to chruch early and wait for everyone by the front door.... welll, churchs starts and how many investigators do we have in church? 0.... Yep, Pretty dang big disappointment. but, life goes on. Looks like me and elder allan won't get the opportunity to baptize together, with is a pretty sad thing.. but everything is in the lords time. We were feeling pretty down but then we realized that at the end of the day, we did our part and thats all the lord asks for us. 

Oh, something cool that happened this past week is we got notice that this up coming wendsday we are going to have like general conference for missionarys..  The twelve aparently has some big news to share with us... That should be pretty exciting:):) 

Anywhoe, thats pretty much everything i've got to say. it's been a super hot week again... But thats ok. we are kinda getting used to it... 

Love you all, Hope you have a great week!

Elder Heiner

Woah, woah, woah...

wow.. This week was... HOT. 

seriously, I thought i was getting pretty warm... and then this week happened. hahah, I don't think i've stopped sweating since last Monday.. ahhaha, Its a blast!

Other than it being super duper hot, we got down to work and got a lot done this past week. I don't have alot of time to write this week, so I'll just tell you guys a little about some of our investigators. 

Roberson and family: Super duper awesome family. He married a less active woman( haeile) about 6 years ago. They have two kids and are super duper awesome. They have been searching for a church for quite awhile and finally met with the missionary's. Its super fun to meet with them because their kids LOVE the missionary's. Abousluty love them. Every-time we show up they start getting super excited and start saying that their "tios" are here... or their uncles. super awesome family. 

Elosea, and her daughter, Another family that we meet knocking doors( I swear, I've never had so much success knocking doors until with elder Allan #american-power). They are like our grandma and mom here. Seems like everything we head over their they are feeding us cake or something. ahaha. They have a super strong testimony of the gospel, the only problem is they can't seem to come to church.... Darn it satan. 

Talihna, e taisha. two girls that we found knocking again. They are friends and are super awesome. They are actually immigrants from syria.... But they moved here like 6 years ago. They are both going to college here and are seaching for something to give their life a little more purpose. 

Anyways, things are good. We've got some super good investigators and everything. Me and elder allan keep tearing things up here. Its great to be able to speak english in front of people if we need to talk about something with out everyone else knowing. Its kinda mean, but Its cool at the same time. Since alot of our lunches here just give money, we've been honeing our cooking skill pretty great. This past week we made Eggs in a frame with stragnoff like 3 times #missionarycooking. 

Anyways, 

Love you all! Hope you have a good week. Stay safe and if your not safe, Stay smart. 

Elder Heiner