Elder´s Log. Mission Date 24.09.2012.
This shall be my last entry.
The last two years have flown by faster than Jacob´s dream.
My companion asked me how I was feeling. I asked him if he remembered
his last week at home for going to the MTC. I said that it felt a little
like that. I feel that I´m leaving something familiar to start
something new.
I´m in a weird mix of emotions.
I won´t forget the people I´m leaving here.
I´m super excited to come back next year to visit.
´´What can I say more?´´ Jacob 6:12
Com Saudades,
Elder David Short
Monday, September 24, 2012
Monday, September 3, 2012
I don´t know how to feel right now.
There was a lot of sad stuff that happened this week.
On Tuesday I had my last zone conference, and in accordance with tradition, I had to bare my farewell testimony. My deathgrip on the pulpit was all I could do to keep from falling over. I was shaking a lot, and doing my best to not cry. I looked down at the front row and saw that some of the sisters were crying, so I couldn´t look at the front row for the rest of my testimony. I was the first in my group to talk, and after me I was able to hear the testimonies of Elder Grandy and Elder Gubler. After the testimonies we watched Only a Stonecutter. At that point I couldn´t handle it anymore. I broke down and cried like a little girl.
Sunday was pretty amazing. In an effort to get a better church attendence, the ward offered a special lunch for everyone that came to watch the meetings. We had an attendence of over a hundred people. Since it was testimony meeting (and probably my last testimony meeting) I had a great spiritual compulsion to bear my testimony. It was a lot like my testimony at the zone conference (shaky, wanting to cry, etc), but I got through it. I was able to control myself from crying this time.
That´s all I have to say about that.
Love,
Elder David Short
More Baptisms
This week we were delighted with two more baptisms in our area. We baptized Sandra and her grandson Paulo.
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..........
........
I lost my train of thought.
This week we semi-officially divided the area with the sisters. Semi because we have two investigators that we´re still teaching on the sisters´ side. We are now working on one side of the freeway and them on the other. They´re the fortunate ones to be working on the side of the freeway that has the church, but our side is sure to have many of the elect as well. We tracted a lot this week, but starting out in a new area that has very little members is tough work, but we´re excited for new challenges, but I´m going to be careful to not pray for greater mountains to climb, like Elder Eyring.
It appears that the sisters are having some difficulty with opening a new area, but the members are really helpful, and we´re doing what we can.
Saturday, I was making brownies for the baptism, and I fell short one egg. We decided to ask a member who lives on our street if she had one to spare. We walked over, she invited us in, and we sat down. She asked us what was up. We told her that we had a very special message to share with her, but in order to share it we would need an egg. It turned out that she didn´t have an egg, so we apoligized for wasting her time and left. The story may not have been all that interesting to read, but please try to imagine my showmanship during the part when I asked for the egg, and you´re bound to giggle.
Other stuff happened this week, but I´m hard pressed to remember what that stuff is.
Love,
Elder David Short
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
two weeks of awesomeness
A lot has happened in the last two weeks, so I´ll try to summarize.
The week before last, we had one baptism. She´s mom of a recent convert. she used to go to another church, but because of health problems she decided to attend with her daughter. She came, she saw, she liked and she got baptized.
For P-day last week we went with the district to Peropolis, a small city about twenty away by bus. There´s a dinosaur museum there that we wanted to see, but it wasn´t till we got there that we discovered that everything is closed only on Mondays. Our hopes and dreams of seeing dinosaurs were shattered, but were heard that they had some waterfalls nearby so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to do some hiking and take some sweet pics. In the spirit of P-day, Elder Grandy and I decided to sing some songs from our favorite disney movies. The waterfall wasn´t that awesome, but it was fun to do something different.
This last week was busy and complicated.
We received three more companionships in our zone, and one of those was in our area. We had a special meeting on Thursday to announce the new districts in our zone. Sadly I am no longer part of Elder Gubler´s district. Wednesday the sisters arrived to make the number of missionaries in our ward four. They both are Brazilian, which make me one of two Americans in our district.
We have high set goals for the district, in the final weeks of this month, and I´ve set some pretty high set goals for myself in the final weeks of the mission. We had another baptism this week. It wasn´t a baptism to save a soul, because this soul was already saved. Her name is Patricia and she was born with some mental disorders, so she isn´t really accountable for her actions. She´s been going to church with a family in the ward and she told us that she wanted to get baptized. She didn´t need a remission of her sins, but she wanted to be a member of the church. It was a special baptism.
This week we have two more people who are ready for baptism. I´ll be sure to send pictures next week.
Meu tempo acabou!
Love,
Elder David Short
Monday, August 13, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Casamento!
Dear Family,
First of all, I would like to say that this week I learned to make homemade gnocchi, so my culinary powers are growing.
I´ve been a little nervous recently, because I´m terrified of getting transferred with only one transfer left on the mission. This week marks the last week of my second to last transfer.
A lot of little things happened this week, but most are too insignificant to mention.
The biggest news that I have is that next week our area will be receiving Sister missionaries. So it will two Elders and two Sisters working in the same ward. I´m not sure how I feel about that. I have a lot of mixed feelings about sisters from my Wyoming experiences, but until now I haven´t worked with sisters in Brazil.
The couple that was going to get married last will be getting married this week (because of a paperwork thingy.)
We had lunch with a less active on Friday and she said that she´d only go to church if we came back to eat cake later. When cake is offered I´m not one to complain. We ate cake the next and she came to church Sunday. It was the first time that she had been to church in almost two years.
Everyone is excited about going to the temple in September. We´re getting our recent converts and reactivated members pumped to baptize their ancestors.
Love,
Elder David Short
The Lord Blesses the Patient
The week started out alright, but as the days passed I felt a little deflated (is that something we say in English. I can't remember if that's the right context). The Lord saw my sorrow and in his mercy he decided to bless us with a baptism. At church, one of the members decided to bring her mother, because her mother had previously attended another church, but because of the infirmities of age she couldn't walk by herself anymore. The really liked church, especially the Sunday School classes. After church she told her daughter that she wanted to get baptized. We passed by a little later and they shared the good news. We taught her the first message and marked a baptismal date for the eleventh of August.
On Tuesday, one of the members that we reactivated shared with us that she smokes. I was a little surprised by the news. She explained that her mom wanted to get baptized, but she would only get married if her daughter stopped smoking. Needless to say, we started our stop smoking program with her that night. I tried to get her to drink a cup of cigarette tea (I emptied her cigarettes into a cup and mixed with water) to get her disgusted by the sight and smell of tobacco, but she didn't go for it. This past week we've been passing by her house everyday to make sure that she's staying strong. It's been a fight, but she hasn't smoked once since Tuesday. If she succeeds, her mom and step-dad will get baptized in a month.
One thing that I've seen a lot on my mission is how the Lord tears you down a little so that you can grow and be ready for the coming blessings. "Thank you Mr. Gardener for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me."
Transfers will be coming in two weeks and I'm praying with all my might that I don't get transferred.
That's all I have for today.
Love,
Elder David Short
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
I´m a Missionary that just happens to also be a Ninja
Dear Family,
To start off...
Last Monday we spent P-day making brownies and learning to make brigadeiro at a member’s house. We later used the brownies for family home evening that night.
I think my breath stinks or something, because we were working really hard this last week to find new investigators, but at the second visit people hid, lied, or fled to the hills. People confuse me with what seems to be interest in the first visit, but then they don’t want to see you again.
On Wednesday we helped prepare rice for food storage again. I’ve become quite the professional rice bottler.
We had planned to have our English class on Thursday, but no one showed up....again, so we taught a recent convert how to pray in English.
Friday was the ward talent show. I believe that everyone had about two weeks notice to prepare something, so there weren’t that many performances. I wanted to help out, so I decided to tell some jokes. The microphone wasn’t all that great, and there was a bunch of little kids running around and screaming, so no one laughed at the punchline. It wasn’t all that helpful that I only know about four jokes in Portuguese. There are some jokes that I would’ve been able to translate, but I didn’t have time to prepare anything.
I’ve decided that I love the people here so much that I’m going to get rich, buy my own neighborhood and pay for everyone to come to the US and be my neighbor. I think I’ll call it Shortville.
Yesterday’s lunch was amazing, but Elder Lins ate something that didn’t agree with him, so when we left lunch he started saying stuff like “The pain, Elder! I can’t handle it anymore. I need a bathroom!” “Elder, we’re in the middle of the street. What do you what me to do?” Luckily the Bishop lives nearby, so we were able to get Elder Lins the help he needed.
Our recent convert, Lindemberg, is really helpful and is bringing his friends to church.
This next week is going to be awesome.
Love,
Elder David Short
PS Yesterday, while walking, a lady told us to pray for her to get skinny.
Sem Titulo
I would firstly like to thank all those who have written me thus far on the mission.
Thank you so very much:
This past week has been a little....I don´t really have a word to describe it.
Elder Lins and I have been getting used to each other. I´ve always found it harder to have things in common with Brazilians.
I´ve been doing a little bit more of the teaching, as Elder Lins doesn´t have the lessons down yet, but it´s been good for me. Now that I´m doing a little bit more of the teaching, I´ve been seeing a lot of things that I need to improve.
Thursday we had a training meeting with President to see the progress in our teaching. We were able to see a lot of improvement from the last time President visited.
While President was with us, Sister Prieto went to our houses to make inspections and organize a few things. After our the training, Sister Prieto pulled Elder Lins and me aside and gave us some instructions on what we need to improve at our house. Apparently our room has a sweaty man smell, but I don´t see what the problem is.
We were going to have our weekly English class that night, but it was raining, so no one showed up. We ended up helping out with the ward activity. Everyone learned how to store rice for food storage.
My mind drew a blank.
My comments and stories will be more interesting next week.
I´m a little tired.
Love,
Elder Short
Monday, July 9, 2012
Miracles!
Dear Friends
So to start off...
I spent all day Monday in Elder Gubler´s area and then we made the long hike and bus ride back to mine. I wanted to be productive with my time with Elder Gubler, so I decided to have him hold the baptismal interviews with the investigators that we were going to baptize Saturday. Everything went smoothly with the interviews, but we weren´t able to get the dad´s signature of one of our investigators, so the next couple days were spent tracking him down.
Wednesday I was working with Elder Gubler and I we found a couple really cool people to teach. That night, we had to get a ride to the bus terminal to pick up our greenies, because the both of us are training! My new companion is Elder Lins. He´s from the state of Pernambuco, seems to be a really nice, simple and sensitive guy. I´m hoping that my crazy Short personality traits don´t scare him too much.
The really interesting part of this week happened on Saturday. We were getting everything ready for our baptisms and everything was set. The hymns were selected, the font was full, and the cake was looking delicious (I found a black forest cake mix). We were waiting for people to show up and we noticed that the font was pretty full, so we decided to let it empty a little. We went to go grab some soda for the after baptism snack and when we got back the bishop´s counselor hadn´t shown up yet. We made some calls and found out that the bishop´s counselor was traveling, and the bishop couldn´t come because he had to teach institute. We ran around and finally found someone to preside the meeting. Just as everything was calming down, we realized that we left the font draining and when we got there the font was empty!!! We grabbed what buckets we could find and we used every sink, shower and hose we could find to fill the font as fast possible. After about forty-five minutes we only had about a foot of water. With no other options we continued with the baptism, and for the first time I baptized while kneeling.
In the end Everything worked out, but the enemy was trying his hardest to stop this baptism from happening.
There can be miracles when you believe.
Love,
Elder David Short
So to start off...
I spent all day Monday in Elder Gubler´s area and then we made the long hike and bus ride back to mine. I wanted to be productive with my time with Elder Gubler, so I decided to have him hold the baptismal interviews with the investigators that we were going to baptize Saturday. Everything went smoothly with the interviews, but we weren´t able to get the dad´s signature of one of our investigators, so the next couple days were spent tracking him down.
Wednesday I was working with Elder Gubler and I we found a couple really cool people to teach. That night, we had to get a ride to the bus terminal to pick up our greenies, because the both of us are training! My new companion is Elder Lins. He´s from the state of Pernambuco, seems to be a really nice, simple and sensitive guy. I´m hoping that my crazy Short personality traits don´t scare him too much.
The really interesting part of this week happened on Saturday. We were getting everything ready for our baptisms and everything was set. The hymns were selected, the font was full, and the cake was looking delicious (I found a black forest cake mix). We were waiting for people to show up and we noticed that the font was pretty full, so we decided to let it empty a little. We went to go grab some soda for the after baptism snack and when we got back the bishop´s counselor hadn´t shown up yet. We made some calls and found out that the bishop´s counselor was traveling, and the bishop couldn´t come because he had to teach institute. We ran around and finally found someone to preside the meeting. Just as everything was calming down, we realized that we left the font draining and when we got there the font was empty!!! We grabbed what buckets we could find and we used every sink, shower and hose we could find to fill the font as fast possible. After about forty-five minutes we only had about a foot of water. With no other options we continued with the baptism, and for the first time I baptized while kneeling.
In the end Everything worked out, but the enemy was trying his hardest to stop this baptism from happening.
There can be miracles when you believe.
Love,
Elder David Short
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Monday, July 2, 2012
I Am So Lonely
We finally got the call, Thursday afternoon, that Elder De Abreu had to be at the bus terminal at ten-thirty that night. It just so happened that Thursday was the ward family night. We got a ride to the activity and then we had to run home to get the rest of his stuff put together. At the activity, the mom of one of our recent converts told us that she had decided to get baptized on the seventh of July! This next week should have two baptisms to report. We were running to get everything put together and we just barely made it to the bus terminal on time.
I stayed the night Thursday with the district leader, who just happens to be Elder Gubler. I was informed that I survived transfers once again and that Elder Grandy was joining our district.
Friday I worked with Elder Gubler in his area and we ended the night with a baptismal interview in Elder Grandy´s area. Saturday I was working in my area again, and a member from the ward stayed the night so that Elder Gubler could be in his area for church.
It was a little weird working with a member all day, but we got a lot done. Even though we didn´t get much work done during the week, the Lord still blessed me (I say me, because I don´t have a companion) and I had eight investigators at church.
Lunch on Sunday was special, because it was a recent convert´s birthday. As it is my tradition, I made a cake in celebration. I also made a confetti egg that I smashed on her head, right after she blew out the candle.
Sunday night, I went back to stay with Elder Gubler.
Today we once again had the opportunity to play soccer, but I wasn´t too interested, so I went with Elder Grandy to buy souvenirs. I bought a machete, a pocket knife case and some other stuff that you´ll have to wait and see.
It looks like I won´t have a new companion until Wednesday, so today I´ll stay with Elder Gubler and tomorrow He´ll go back with me to my area.
That´s all I have for today.
Love
Elder David Short
P.S. The time of my return is coming. Those who don´t write a letter shall be burnt as stubble at my welcome home talk.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Sad News and Some Good News
Dearest Peoples,
A lot has happened in the past week.
Not too much happened last P-day.
Tuesday we worked our wings off and got a lot done.
The more exciting stuff happened on Wednesday.
Wednesday we had to leave the house super early to get a CAT scan for Elder De Abreu´s knees. He´s been suffering a lot for the past couple weeks so an appointment to get the problem checked out was set. We had everything set for the appointment in the afternoon, but we got a call at lunch from the doctor saying that we needed Elder De Abreu´s CPF(Brazilian social security number), but since Elder De Abreu has been living in the US for the past eight years, he never applied for a card. In order to get the number, we had to run to the post office, but at the post office they told us that we had to go to the federal building to apply for the card. Everything had to be done in a number of minutes or else the clinic was going to cancel our appointment. We got the CPF, but then we found out that it was in fact the number of the doctor that had previously treated Elder De Abreu that we needed. We finally got everything turned in with about a minute to spare, but then we had to wait for a couple more hours for our turn using the scanner. It was a frustrating day, but everything worked out.
Thursday, we had a lot of success with our teaching. Thursday was our second English lesson. It was a little harder to teach this week, because a couple people brought their kids and they liked to yell.
Friday we went to pick up the results of the scan. They gave us about ten sheets of scans and a single sheet of the doctor´s observations. The scan revealed that Elder De Abreu has a second degree degeneration of the meniscus, but we didn´t know what that meant. We ended the night by passing by an investigator´s for her birthday. I made a cake. I think that I´ve made about twenty cakes since getting here.
Saturday we sent the test results to the mission doctor and he said that Elder De Abreu will have to go home for treatment and maybe surgery. So Saturday was a pretty sad day.
Sunday was amazing, because the Lord saw fit to bless Elder De Abreu´s last week in Uberaba. We had nine investigators at church. The afternoon was spent saying goodbye to some choice families. A recent convert´s mom told us today that she had decided to leave her church to join ours. It was a really hard decision for her, since she´s been going to her church for almost ten years, but she decided (after much prayer and fasting) that it was the right thing to do.
That´s all I have.
Love,
Elder David Short
A lot has happened in the past week.
Not too much happened last P-day.
Tuesday we worked our wings off and got a lot done.
The more exciting stuff happened on Wednesday.
Wednesday we had to leave the house super early to get a CAT scan for Elder De Abreu´s knees. He´s been suffering a lot for the past couple weeks so an appointment to get the problem checked out was set. We had everything set for the appointment in the afternoon, but we got a call at lunch from the doctor saying that we needed Elder De Abreu´s CPF(Brazilian social security number), but since Elder De Abreu has been living in the US for the past eight years, he never applied for a card. In order to get the number, we had to run to the post office, but at the post office they told us that we had to go to the federal building to apply for the card. Everything had to be done in a number of minutes or else the clinic was going to cancel our appointment. We got the CPF, but then we found out that it was in fact the number of the doctor that had previously treated Elder De Abreu that we needed. We finally got everything turned in with about a minute to spare, but then we had to wait for a couple more hours for our turn using the scanner. It was a frustrating day, but everything worked out.
Thursday, we had a lot of success with our teaching. Thursday was our second English lesson. It was a little harder to teach this week, because a couple people brought their kids and they liked to yell.
Friday we went to pick up the results of the scan. They gave us about ten sheets of scans and a single sheet of the doctor´s observations. The scan revealed that Elder De Abreu has a second degree degeneration of the meniscus, but we didn´t know what that meant. We ended the night by passing by an investigator´s for her birthday. I made a cake. I think that I´ve made about twenty cakes since getting here.
Saturday we sent the test results to the mission doctor and he said that Elder De Abreu will have to go home for treatment and maybe surgery. So Saturday was a pretty sad day.
Sunday was amazing, because the Lord saw fit to bless Elder De Abreu´s last week in Uberaba. We had nine investigators at church. The afternoon was spent saying goodbye to some choice families. A recent convert´s mom told us today that she had decided to leave her church to join ours. It was a really hard decision for her, since she´s been going to her church for almost ten years, but she decided (after much prayer and fasting) that it was the right thing to do.
That´s all I have.
Love,
Elder David Short
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Monday, June 18, 2012
Another Week of the Holy Work
Dearest Dear Ones,
Time is a cruel master that likes to pass by too quickly, and this last week has been no exception. It seems like yesterday that I was in Goiânia renewing my visa, but now we´re on the fourth week of the transfer.
Some of the exciting stuff that has happened this week:
We have been working with a high set of goals for about the last eight months or so, but now we have reached several, which means that its time to set new goals. President also shared some of the rewards for meeting those goals. All companionships that baptize six in the month of June get to go to Goiânia for a festa Junina, which is a basically a corn festival in June. Since Elder De Abreu and I baptized six last week, we´ll be going to Goiânia next week for P-day.
President Prieto came to Uberaba to talk about some of these goals. President also came to talk about the strength of our teaching. We reviewed the lessons and practiced some of the principles. We quickly saw that we had a lot of techniques, but we lacked on teaching the heart of the doctrine. We were all dry rub and no steak. Now we´ve made some plans and now we´re going to be better. We Shall Baptize the World! or at least Uberaba.
Thursday we started up our English class again. This time I´m a little more confident in the success we´ll have. The majority of our class is recent converts, but we´ve had a lot of investigators that have said they´d come.
As we have a bunch of recent converts that are seminary age, we have they the responsibility to take them to seminary for the first time. So Saturday we watched seminary and had the privilege to eat the snack with the rest of the kids.
Sunday was ward conference and the stake brought the stake choir with them. Since we meet in a rented house, it was a little tough to fit everyone in together. After church, we had planned to go on splits with the members , but lunch was late and things didn´t work out. Our young man recent convert said he wanted to make visits with us, so he grabbed a tie and he spent the whole day teaching with us. He´s going to be such a great missionary in a year and a half.
That´s about all I have for this week.
Read Jacob 5!
Love,
Elder David Short
Time is a cruel master that likes to pass by too quickly, and this last week has been no exception. It seems like yesterday that I was in Goiânia renewing my visa, but now we´re on the fourth week of the transfer.
Some of the exciting stuff that has happened this week:
We have been working with a high set of goals for about the last eight months or so, but now we have reached several, which means that its time to set new goals. President also shared some of the rewards for meeting those goals. All companionships that baptize six in the month of June get to go to Goiânia for a festa Junina, which is a basically a corn festival in June. Since Elder De Abreu and I baptized six last week, we´ll be going to Goiânia next week for P-day.
President Prieto came to Uberaba to talk about some of these goals. President also came to talk about the strength of our teaching. We reviewed the lessons and practiced some of the principles. We quickly saw that we had a lot of techniques, but we lacked on teaching the heart of the doctrine. We were all dry rub and no steak. Now we´ve made some plans and now we´re going to be better. We Shall Baptize the World! or at least Uberaba.
Thursday we started up our English class again. This time I´m a little more confident in the success we´ll have. The majority of our class is recent converts, but we´ve had a lot of investigators that have said they´d come.
As we have a bunch of recent converts that are seminary age, we have they the responsibility to take them to seminary for the first time. So Saturday we watched seminary and had the privilege to eat the snack with the rest of the kids.
Sunday was ward conference and the stake brought the stake choir with them. Since we meet in a rented house, it was a little tough to fit everyone in together. After church, we had planned to go on splits with the members , but lunch was late and things didn´t work out. Our young man recent convert said he wanted to make visits with us, so he grabbed a tie and he spent the whole day teaching with us. He´s going to be such a great missionary in a year and a half.
That´s about all I have for this week.
Read Jacob 5!
Love,
Elder David Short
Monday, June 11, 2012
Baptisms!!!
This last week had many ups and downs.
Some of the downs included Elder De Abreu getting sick, and we had to wait an entire day to get him checked out at the hospital.
Some of the ups included us baptizing six people on Saturday! We were working to get that huge family baptized and we accomplished our goal a week early. We had everyone baptized and confirmed on Saturday so that they could all watch the Manaus Temple Dedication on Sunday.
Because we hit the mission president´s baptismal goal, we´ll be having a celestial P-Day with president.(it will probably be at the beginning of next month.)
The Temple dedication was amazing. President Uchtdorf presided and gave the dedicatory prayer. Now Brazil has six working temples and another on the way.
Because of this family that we found, we have another four baptisms planned for the beginning of next month.
Besides Elder De Abreu getting sick and the baptisms, I can´t really think of anything too exciting that happened.
One of the members started a chess class on Saturdays, so we passed by and helped with the class a little. I got sucked into playing a couple games and ended up winning. I know that if I had been playing against someone over the age of 15 I would have lost.
I received a couple letters, last week, from some people who haven´t written me in over a year, which made me really happy, but there are many who still have never written me. For those of you in the latter category, I would exhort you to repent quickly, lest ye be burnt as stubble at my coming.
The time is passing by so quickly. I can hardly keep up with it, if I do at all.
That is all I have to report this week.
The church is true, the Lord loves us and wants us to be happy, and the gospel is the only path to eternal life.
Love,
Elder David Short
Some of the downs included Elder De Abreu getting sick, and we had to wait an entire day to get him checked out at the hospital.
Some of the ups included us baptizing six people on Saturday! We were working to get that huge family baptized and we accomplished our goal a week early. We had everyone baptized and confirmed on Saturday so that they could all watch the Manaus Temple Dedication on Sunday.
Because we hit the mission president´s baptismal goal, we´ll be having a celestial P-Day with president.(it will probably be at the beginning of next month.)
The Temple dedication was amazing. President Uchtdorf presided and gave the dedicatory prayer. Now Brazil has six working temples and another on the way.
Because of this family that we found, we have another four baptisms planned for the beginning of next month.
Besides Elder De Abreu getting sick and the baptisms, I can´t really think of anything too exciting that happened.
One of the members started a chess class on Saturdays, so we passed by and helped with the class a little. I got sucked into playing a couple games and ended up winning. I know that if I had been playing against someone over the age of 15 I would have lost.
I received a couple letters, last week, from some people who haven´t written me in over a year, which made me really happy, but there are many who still have never written me. For those of you in the latter category, I would exhort you to repent quickly, lest ye be burnt as stubble at my coming.
The time is passing by so quickly. I can hardly keep up with it, if I do at all.
That is all I have to report this week.
The church is true, the Lord loves us and wants us to be happy, and the gospel is the only path to eternal life.
Love,
Elder David Short
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Transfers
We all knew that this day would come. We didn´t want to come, but it did. Monday night I got the call that Elder Lindsey would be transferred, and that I had to go with him to Goiânia to renew my visa. We were left with very little time to say goodbye. It was all rather sad, but it´s part of missionary life.
We left early Tuesday morning for Goiânia. From Uberaba its about a eight hour drive. About forty minutes into the trip, our bus motor burnt out and we had to wait for a replacement bus to show up. When we finally got Goiânia, I had to say my goodbyes to Elder Lindsey, and went with Elder Thompson, who was also renewing his visa.
We had to get up early Wednesday to get to the mission office and go with the secretaries to the police department, but when we got to the office no one was there. We walked in the street trying to find a payphone to call someone, but we found some other missionaries walked to them to the stake center. This transfer was the largest in President Prieto history. There was about seventy missionaries at the church waiting to see where their next area would be. It was there that I got to see Elder Grandy and Elder Gubler. I also received my new companion, Elder De Abréu. He´s Brazilian, but he moved to the US when he was fifteen. He´s a young entrepreneur and is featured in the book Young Entrepreneur.
Since I wasn´t able to get my visa renewed on Wednesday, I had to stay another night and wait for the next morning to get everything worked out with the federal police.
Since getting back to our area, not too too much has happened. We did find another amazing family, that live two blocks from the church.
We marked baptismal dates with that huge family came to church last week and the rest of the family came to church with them. I´m super excited for them.
This Sunday will be the Manaus temple dedication, so we won´t have any investigators at church, but we might baptize and confirm everyone this Saturday, so that they can watch the dedication.
My mind has gone blank.
The gospel is true. The work is excellent.
The Lord´s love in eternal.
Love,
Elder David Short
Monday, May 28, 2012
Elder Ellis and others
Dearest Family, (and Friends)
I know that I say it often, but this week was awesome.
Firstly, we had an awesome P-day with the zone and played a number of Soccer based games (but not actually soccer, because soccer isn´t allowed). One game we played was the Brazilian version of Dodge Ball called Queimado.
Because of chasing down baptisms last week, we had spent very little time trying to find new investigators, so this week we had a determination to find some elect. Our efforts are focused in the areas closest to the church.
Wednesday we woke up super early to get our van to Uberlândia for our conference with Elder Ellis of the Seventy. The Bishop´s wife served in the São Paulo north mission when Elder Ellis was President there. Elder Ellis and his wife were amazing. They´re from Texas and have nine children and what appeared to be about thirty grandchildren. Sister Ellis first spoke about developing our faith and afterwards Elder Ellis spoke about how God know everything from the beginning to the end and the end is eternal life. The lesson that he applied was that we need to think of our investigators and less actives in terms of where they are in the gospel plan and what the next step they need to take is.
Thursday was the ward family home evening, and I was honored to play the part of the frog in a primary puppet show.
Saturday we were praying really hard to find a golden family to baptize. We were trying to contact less actives when we came across a family where the mother and grandmother had gotten baptized about 13 years ago, but had fallen away. Before starting our message we asked if there was anyone else who would like listen, so they invited the rest of the family. We soon found out that 15 people live in that house and the 10 can get baptized! The Lord answers prayers!
On Sunday 8 of the family of 15 came to church (the others were working.)
I hit a all time personal record of 13 investigators at church, so to say the least, I´m a little happy.
That´s all for now.
Awake from the dust and write me a letter.
Love,
Elder David Short
I know that I say it often, but this week was awesome.
Firstly, we had an awesome P-day with the zone and played a number of Soccer based games (but not actually soccer, because soccer isn´t allowed). One game we played was the Brazilian version of Dodge Ball called Queimado.
Because of chasing down baptisms last week, we had spent very little time trying to find new investigators, so this week we had a determination to find some elect. Our efforts are focused in the areas closest to the church.
Wednesday we woke up super early to get our van to Uberlândia for our conference with Elder Ellis of the Seventy. The Bishop´s wife served in the São Paulo north mission when Elder Ellis was President there. Elder Ellis and his wife were amazing. They´re from Texas and have nine children and what appeared to be about thirty grandchildren. Sister Ellis first spoke about developing our faith and afterwards Elder Ellis spoke about how God know everything from the beginning to the end and the end is eternal life. The lesson that he applied was that we need to think of our investigators and less actives in terms of where they are in the gospel plan and what the next step they need to take is.
Thursday was the ward family home evening, and I was honored to play the part of the frog in a primary puppet show.
Saturday we were praying really hard to find a golden family to baptize. We were trying to contact less actives when we came across a family where the mother and grandmother had gotten baptized about 13 years ago, but had fallen away. Before starting our message we asked if there was anyone else who would like listen, so they invited the rest of the family. We soon found out that 15 people live in that house and the 10 can get baptized! The Lord answers prayers!
On Sunday 8 of the family of 15 came to church (the others were working.)
I hit a all time personal record of 13 investigators at church, so to say the least, I´m a little happy.
That´s all for now.
Awake from the dust and write me a letter.
Love,
Elder David Short
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Happy Birthday to Me
Dear Family,
This week was truly awesome. This past week we had 25 lessons with members. Our goal from the mission president is 10, so we were really proud of our efforts.
To start off the week, we super cleaned our house on Monday. There is a slight possibility that Elder Ellis of the Seventy might give us an inspection, so we had to prepare. On P-day Elder Lindsey and I found a second hand store, and some awesome suits for 25 reais (about 13 dollars). As a birthday present to me, I bought the suit, and destroyed my old one that didn't fit me anymore (because of the weight loss).
The day of my birthday we didn't have anyone signed up for almo's, so we made milkshakes, french toast, and bacon. No one made mention of my birthday, in the ward. We had previously had a family home evening planned with a less active family, so we prepared a small message/activity. We were told that the primary president (the one whose computer we used for the mother's day call) would be showing up, but then it was a little surprising to have the bishop and his family show up. While we were waiting for the bishop's family we made tapioca and not the tapioca that we eat in the US. This tapioca is a pancakey thingy that they fill with whatever they want and eat like a crepe. They were delicious. After the message and closing prayer, the primary president said that she had prepared another game to close up the night. Everyone retreated to the kitchen and returned with cake and balloons, and singing "parabens." It was the best mission birthday ever. I later found out that the primary president had been planning the surprise party for about three weeks and it had been her idea to have the family home evening.
We were planning the baptism of a recently activated member, so while we were at it, we decided to tract down two other children whose families were members, but they hadn't yet been baptized. It was probably the best baptismal service we've had yet. So many people from the ward came to participate.
Life is good and productive.
The Gospel is true.
The Keys of the Priesthood are restored.
The Heavens are open.
Love,
Elder David Short
PS Thanks be to all who wished me a happy birthday.
This week was truly awesome. This past week we had 25 lessons with members. Our goal from the mission president is 10, so we were really proud of our efforts.
To start off the week, we super cleaned our house on Monday. There is a slight possibility that Elder Ellis of the Seventy might give us an inspection, so we had to prepare. On P-day Elder Lindsey and I found a second hand store, and some awesome suits for 25 reais (about 13 dollars). As a birthday present to me, I bought the suit, and destroyed my old one that didn't fit me anymore (because of the weight loss).
The day of my birthday we didn't have anyone signed up for almo's, so we made milkshakes, french toast, and bacon. No one made mention of my birthday, in the ward. We had previously had a family home evening planned with a less active family, so we prepared a small message/activity. We were told that the primary president (the one whose computer we used for the mother's day call) would be showing up, but then it was a little surprising to have the bishop and his family show up. While we were waiting for the bishop's family we made tapioca and not the tapioca that we eat in the US. This tapioca is a pancakey thingy that they fill with whatever they want and eat like a crepe. They were delicious. After the message and closing prayer, the primary president said that she had prepared another game to close up the night. Everyone retreated to the kitchen and returned with cake and balloons, and singing "parabens." It was the best mission birthday ever. I later found out that the primary president had been planning the surprise party for about three weeks and it had been her idea to have the family home evening.
We were planning the baptism of a recently activated member, so while we were at it, we decided to tract down two other children whose families were members, but they hadn't yet been baptized. It was probably the best baptismal service we've had yet. So many people from the ward came to participate.
Life is good and productive.
The Gospel is true.
The Keys of the Priesthood are restored.
The Heavens are open.
Love,
Elder David Short
PS Thanks be to all who wished me a happy birthday.
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