Natal!!

Hey everyone!!

So here's a quick recap of the week for you all! so this week me and Vawdrey were both pretty sick but we continued to work haha we also had a Christmas conference which was awesome and super spiritual! Oh and me and Elder Vawdrey marked a baptismal date for a man named Cassio and he went to church these past two weeks in a row!! I'm super excited for him to get baptized because this area does not baptize a lot and it would definitely make the members more excited to do missionary work!

This past Sunday we got this huge basket of candies and cakes from the members which was super awesome and made us happy hahah. We just found out that the Christmas package my parents sent me is getting sent back from Brazil because it contains "...unknown and unsecured animal products." They were Slim Jims!! So I guess I'll just share my companion's stuff until my parents can send mine back (minus Slim Jims of course) probably by the end of  next month or so. The Brazilian mail system is kinda whacked.

Today on p-day we played sports with some of the youth and I got a little bit sunburned but my comp got wrecked hahah he's so red right now. hahaha anyways this week is Christmas and I'm super excited for this time of the year because the people think more of Jesus Christ and it helps us teach them his importance! 

I'm excited for Christmas and hope all of you have an amazing Christmas as well!!!!!

Love,

Elder Whelan

Sao Bento do Sul

Sao Bento Do Sul

Hello everyone! Sorry I wasn’t able to email last week! I was transferred to an area called Sao Bento do Sul! I’m the new district leader here and I’m super excited! My new companion is Elder Vawson. He’s from Utah and he’s super awesome! He’s been out for about 6 months and this is his first area on the mission. So he’s probably getting transferred this next transfer.

Anyway, this week flew by but was slow as well. Haha. This are is great! It reminds me of a place called Leavenworth back home because of how much German-looking (Bavarian) stuff there is here. All the houses in the center are super cool-looking. My area is super big by the way. We take buses everywhere. 



Some of the highlights this week were that we marked 2 baptismal dates with two men names Michael and Jose. They are super cool and I’m hoping everything works out with them. Also, we have 7 new investigators who all have so much potential. Something I’ve seen on the mission is that one area can be totally different from another but only be 2 hours away, haha.



The people here are way more accepting and willing to let us into their homes. It’s been pretty nice haha. On Sunday we got an investigator named Cassio to come to church!! This man is 32 and extremely nervous and emotional. We were giving the sacrament and after like 5 minutes he was bawling in the back and had to go to the bathroom to wipe his tears away haha but it was super cool.





The ward here is pretty small but a happy ward. We went to an activity at Sister Cecilia’s house and we had a white elephant and took some pictures then had to go sadly. But I’m already liking this area a lot. 


I’m just so happy to be blessed by the Lord to be here in Sao Bento. Not only because of the investigators but also because I’m in a high elevation so it’s not very hot here!! It gets pretty cold at night and usually is foggy then heats up at day so I’m going to have a great summer here, haha. [Editor’s note: Dalton is in the middle of summer in Brazil right now]

I’m super excited for Christmas and hope everyone has an amazing Christmas next week and never forget that Christmas is one of the best times of the year to remember our Savior and Redeemer’s birth, Jesus Christ.

Love you all and have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Whelan























 

Being Transfer and Becoming District Leader!!

Hey Everyone!

We are leaving shortly for the bus station. I'm being transferred to an area called São Bento do Sul, and I'm going to be the district leader over there. I'll be more inland again and am excited for the new responsibilities. I haven't heard much about the area I'm going to, its always kind of sad to leave the people you have grown to love when you're in an area for a while.

A member gave me a camera that allows me to upload evetything to Wifi! We are still a mission that doesn't have smart phones or ipads.

The comp I'm getting is kind of new but I'm not sure if he is done training or if I'll be finishing that.

So this week went by super quickly and went really well!! On Monday we had a pretty good p-day and we were able to talk with everyone we baptized. Burden’s card doesn’t want to work on any card machine so he can’t really buy anything with his money if he wants. So he’s been pretty stressed out about that and he also broke his camera. So that’s been fun to listen to, about all the things going wrong. Something I’ve come to realize on this mission is that everything works its way out some way and that we shouldn’t complain because God has a plan for each of us.

On Tuesday we had a district conference which was great! We talked about the Book of Mormon and just had a super awesome district conference. 

After that we taught several less actives and investigators and even marked a baptismal date for a teenage kid named Ericky. We also had luck with our neighbors who moved into the house below us. They are

from Rio Grande do Sul and they are super awesome.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we had pretty normal days. Something I can see is that Elder Burden is getting a ton better at teaching in Portuguese and is learning how to be a good missionary!!

On Saturday we had an amazing lunch and we got a camera for Burden. After lunch we worked with some more people and something I saw was that Burden was a little less stressed out. Ha ha

On Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting and ate lunch. Burden was able to switch the $160 dollars he had for around 670 Reals with the member so now Burden has Money!! When I was saying earlier…everything just kinda works out when you just ask. But anyway, after lunch we taught some less actives ad made a ton of contacts with people on the streets. We had a great time.

But anyways, that was my week, nothing crazy happened but I’m super happy to be here doing the Lord’s work!! I’m also super grateful for the family I have and my friends.

I love this gospel. I know it’s true and I’m thankful for my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for everything I have!

Love you all and hope y’all have an amazing week!

Love,
Elder Whelan

Baptism!

So here’s a quick recap of the week

23-11-19

Today was great! We woke up and studied and stuff and then we had lunch with Sister David which was pretty good. After that we taught Keio and Henrique and Marlon and Virginia. We invited Marlon and Virginia to get baptized and excepted! Then we invited Keio and Henrique and they said no ha ha. After that we cleaned the baptismal font and got everything ready for Christian’s baptism. We had the baptism at 8:30 but everyone was late ha ha so it didn’t work out exactly as planned. But Elder Burton was able to have his first baptism! He did it perfectly! After that we all talked for a while and then we had to go home because it was past the hour we had to be home so we ran home and went to bed.

24-11-19

Today was awesome as well and super spiritually uplifting. We woke up and got ready for church we go through a little bit early and waiting for everyone to show up. We then had sacrament which was super amazing and then we give Christian a gift of the Holy Ghost! I’m so excited for Christian and how his life has change so much and will continue changing for the better as long as he stays on the Lord's path. Afterwards we ate lunch with Sister Lana which was great then we taught David and his family, man I love this family. They are all from your Rio de Janiero, they’re super crazy and energetic ha ha. When we left Burden said “man I was understanding everything at lunch but I didn’t understand a single word they said!” ha ha. Elder Burden actually is really good at speaking Portuguese but has a problem understanding. He gave his testimony today at church and it was really good actually!

After that we tried to do some more work and then we got home and deal.

On Tuesday we had a districts reunion which wasn’t too bad. After the reunion we had lunch at this old lady’s house name Dival. She kept talking about how these men put her front door on backwards upside down sideways crooked, Ha ha ha. I got tired of hearing all the things he did wrong but we had a great lunch none the less. During the day we try to teach several people but most of them disappeared or didn’t want to be taught that day well, it happens. On Wednesday we didn’t have much success either it was super hot and we had to take some breaks because Burden was dying ha ha.

On Thursday we had our weekly planning session and we talked to some people the two highlights of Thursday were that Burden got electrocuted by the wall outlet when he was trying to plug in his fan then when I fixed the wall and he got hit with the moving fan but the moving fan doesn’t have protection over the fan blades so he got whacked with the fan ha ha this guy is hilarious. He’s covered in bug bites and just kind of shows he’s new to Brazil ha ha.

On Friday we had the baptism interview of Christian that went well he passed ha ha we ate dinner with Maher and Marcello and our district leader. afterwards we were able to mark a baptism date for a man named Fernando!

Anyways this week absolutely flew by am super happy to be here doing the Lord’s work!

E ai?!

Tudo bem?!

How’s everybody doing! Hope you all had an amazing week! I for sure did ha ha. This past week was definitely hard work at its best! We have been working a ton with Cristiano and now he’s ready ha ha. I had to ask some serious questions to him to see if he wanted to be baptized for real and he’s sure he wants to be baptized! But anyways let’s talk about the week and what happened!

So on Tuesday we had a district meeting which was great! We talked about how Jesus Christ paid for all of the lessons, experiences, and things of our ancestors and the people in the future will have. And we compare this to how our moms paid for all of our lessons like piano, paid for our mistakes and errors. And the question was asked "how do you show our gratitude for what she paid for?" We have to practice and get better to show our gratitude.

The same with Jesus Christ. He paid for every lesson in a life, every feeling, error, mistake that we can never experience. And the question is how can we show our gratitude for what he did for me and you? That’s something I’d like you all to ask yourselves though. How can you show your gratitude to the Savior for what he did for you?

Anyway after the district conference we had lunch with the family that lived in the US for three years so we had fun talking to them a little bit about home. After lunch we did some contacting and then talked some people and that was my Tuesday. Ha ha.

On Wednesday we had a pretty event full day! We tried to references that we got in a neighborhood called Flor de Napolis but they ended up not working out sadly. After that we did a good amount of contacting we found a man named Mourilio. He was super cool and listens to the whole lesson. After Maurilio we taught some recent converts and a last lesson to the investigators then we headed home.

On Thursday we had a day of just rain rain and more rain ha ha. We had to run through the middle of the street sometimes because both sides are flooded. It was awesome and my favorite part was my fun shoes ha ha not! But it happens ha ha. My shoes are not waterproof anymore and they are definitely starting to fall apart ha ha. But it’s all good! At least they’re broken and comfortable. Anyways we tried a lot of people but nothing seemed to work out that day, just it’s all part of the job!

On Friday we had a very motivating day actually. So there was an activity that the church is having in another area here and we aren’t allowed to leave our area without permission so we just stayed home and... [Editor’s note: Dalton sent picts of his handwritten letter but this pict didn’t download so there’s a gap in the story. Feel free to fill in your own version...]
... so we had church which was great and after church we were talking with some members and two people came up to us, Simone and Jorge, wanting Jorge to get baptized Saturday so we are going to reteach all the lessons to him and baptize him as well if everything works out!!

Anyways we ate a super good lunch and after lunch we taught a recent convert we baptized and ran over to a members house to eat even more food ha ha. Then we left and tried to teach Jorge but he wasn’t home. I guess he was doing something with a member or something. After that we went to Christian's house. Taught a quick lesson and headed home. And that was Monday. Something else and that happened there was a brother dropped off this huge platter of sushi out of nowhere. Sushi is super expensive here so we were super surprised and happy ha ha.

But anyways this is going to be another epic week and I hope you all have some happiness the same happiness I have! Hope you all have a wonderful week and thank you for all your emails and support! Especially for my awesome family! I know the families are forever and that this His the one and only church on the face of the planet. 

Love, Elder Whelan