Mission Tour

Hello!

This week we had a mission tour, where we got on a bus starting at my area, and did many stops
throughout different cities, picking up other missionaries. It was a lot of fun. I think we only do that once or twice during my mission. Because it's been a crazy week I didn't have much time to write, sorry.

As I've been here following all the rules I've come to see how blessed I am haha. One day we were about to cross the street and I looked both ways and started across and didn't see this car coming. I like to say it was my amazing reflexes that saved my life but I distinctly felt myself pulled back by something else. I was protected. The car drove by a few feet away from me and we continued on our way haha my comp was literally dying from fear haha but I was super calm haha. I just know that if we are obedient we will always be safe from harm, temptations, or things of the devil. this life is hard but its all worth it if we follow Jesus Christ. there are both good and bad consequence. obedience brings blessings. disobedience brings sadness, sorrow, pain, etc.

Here are some picts of our trip, a panoramic from our apartment, and a pict of the cookies I made :)

RATS!!!

Hello All!

This week absolutely flew by! On Tuesday as had a district reunion which went so well! We missed out bus home, haha . So we woke up pretty early (5pm) got ready and literally had to run to not miss the first bus of the day haha. It was raining a ton so that’s great. It’s kinda strange but when I see clouds in the sky my heart is full of joy and I say today is going to be the best day ever! Because…. I won’t be fried in the sun like a squashed cockroach (a barata) haha. But anyway, we had our bus ride to chapeco, which is 2 ½-3 hours away. We got there and I led us through the gigantic city to the church because Abarca had never been there before. WE had pancakes for lunch (made by a fellow Americano). Then we taught some lessons. Me and Elder Abarca taught about why questions are important in conversion. T’was awesome. After that we ran to catch our bus but we were late. So we waited in the bus station for 6 hours while outside was flooded with rain water. We chilled with our district leader and his comp and two sisters (sisters were waiting for bus also. After waiting forever we got our bus and headed home. WE stopped for about 1 ½ hours because two cars ahead of us crashed and 2 people died. Definitely, we prayed for their families to be comforted. But we got home pretty late and were pretty tired.

On Wednesday we had a fairly normal day. We woke up, did our stuff and left for lunch with a member named Arthur He’s super cool! He’s super old and has a huge testimony and is always happy. After lunch we had some great lessons. We have some investigators super close to baptism so please pray for them! Their names are Ronei, Gabriel, and Elison. Anyway we bought cevada which is a barley drink, kind of like coffee but is not coffee for Gabriel because he had problems with the Word of Wisdom but he promised to never drink coffee again. We tried the cevada with him while eating some cookies and it was actually pretty good with the cookies, haha. Don’t worry, I’m not going to just start drinking coffee because of this, haha.

On Thursday we had some planajamento semenal which is here we plan for the next 10 days our lessons and how we can better help out investigators and ourselves. We do this to be more constructive with our time and to use the Spirit to guide us more. We plan lessons based on where our lunches are and where people live because it doesn’t make much sense to walk 5 kilometers to one hours and 5 back to another and 5 back to another than others. We try to have as much time as possible to teach as we can.

Anyway we also organized our area book because if you didn’t know sometimes 19 year olds can get a little disorganized. We made our own lunch, which consisted of french fries and these chicken nugget things. Foi bom! Wsa pretty good. I made a milkshake, which consisted of ice cream, Toddy (chocolate milk powder) leite (milk) and the peanut butter thing called Pacoca. It was sooooooo good! Ahhh.

Anyway, on Friday we had lunch with Leonel, a member who lives on top of a flippin mountain haha. We’ve had a ton of clouds in the sky lately so that’s been a huge blessing. We had noite integracao which was a disaster, ahah. All the kids were crazy. Fighting, yelling, and creating havoc. Me and Abarco decided not to have soccer anymore because it causes too much contention between the kids. We’ve also been having trouble with the ward because no one is helping us with contacts or references or anything. Really it’s just us working the whole city. We are definitely trying to get the ward more involved in the missionary work because everyone is an instrument in the hand of God. We aren’t just missionaries for 2 years. We are missionaries for the rest of our lives. Constantly striving to better ourselves to come closer to Christ to bring others unto Christ as well. We all need eternal life with our families.

On Saturday we had a really good lunch with a member named Monica. She gave Elder Abarca a cuha to drink chimarrao with a bombo or straw. He was sooo excited haha! Later that day I received a cup for terrere! Chimarrao is a hot drink while terrere is cold with juice depending on how you like it. I like sweet things so I like terrere haha.

On Sunday we had church like normal. We talked to the house of Elison but I think he was asleep. So we weren’t able to bring him the to church which sucks. But church was good. We had lunch with two members named Igor and Patricia. They are super cool! Igor works on cruise ships. He’s a waiter so he lives on the ships for about 6 months. He visits places all over the world. But anyway, we had a ton of good lessons after lunch. In one lesson we were teaching me or Elder Abarca was talking and I see some movement and I see this HUGE rat run across the ground. Abarca noticed also but we didn’t say anything haha. During the lesson we had to have seen over ten rats running around, fighting each other and making a ton of noise. The lesson actually went great thought.

Today it rained all day but it was a really good temperature all day so that was a blessing. Also, Elder Abarca was sick this week with a sore throat and a stuffy nose but he’s better now. We have our mission tour on Wednesday. I’m super excited. I’ve really only gotten to know a few other missionaries while I’ve been out in the field because of how far everyone is from each other. And we get to have a 13 hour bus ride so that's probably the most exciting thing, haha. NOT!

I’m excited though to received training also to be a better missionary and talk with Presidente Goncalves personally. We’ve heard some whisperings that we will receive smartphones pretty soon but I don’t know haha. I can only cross my fingers and hope. I get one while I’m on the mission because smartphones will help the work so much! There’s a lot of disorganization here and smartphones will help the members be more aware of our work. Because a lot of times we don’t have ways to contact people ot let them know our plans so we’ll definitely be better working with members and investigators. But anyways this was my week, pretty uneventful ha ha. Just a normal week in BRASIL!

There’s been shootings in Sao Paulo and New Zealand so please pray for the families there. This is definitely the time when Christ will appear again because of all the calamities that are happening so please pray and try to always help those around you. Because people in the world need to feel more love!

I am so thankful for the love you all show me and for all the things I have in this life. I’ve come to realize how blessed my life is how many things I have that some people here can’t imagine.

This Gospel is beautiful, and when we share it with others they hear the Spirit and feel Christ’s love. I know they do. There’s nothing better than seeing a light click on in someone’s eyes as they come to realize the truth, as they come to see how they can have eternal life. This gospel is literally perfect. The people in the Gospel make mistakes but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is literally perfect. Remember that.

I love you all and hope you all have amazing days full of fun and most important the Spirit!

-Elder Whelan

Ty's Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Tyler-Ann 19 years old!! You are so old, ha ha. Hope you had an amazing birthday.

This week went by super quickly. On Tuesday we had almoco (lunch) really far away so we took a bus back. Nothing much happened after. We had Aula de Ingles (English class). There were two people, an investigator named Gabriel and a recent convert names Christopher. Gabriel is going to get baptized I hope this week. He's super cool. On Wednesday we didn't really do anything too special. Thursday was Elder Abarca's birthday. I bought him a cake and we sane happy birthday in the apartment. He thought his birthday was going to be quiet and uneventful but I told Family Fortes about his birthday. So we had dinner at their house and me and Victor distracted Abarca while Alessandro prepared the cake. It was so cool. We all sang Happy Birthday super loud and I'm sure Elder Abarca felt a ton more happier than before.

We can definitely tell the seasons are changing because it's getting darker earlier during the day. So we have to be more careful to plan our lessons earlier to not be out at night super long. Friday we walked a ton but I felt like we got nothing done. We went to the carterio to help two investigators get married but we didn't have much success. We have four people super close to baptism but all we are waiting for on three of them is marriage. Ahh why does no one get married here?! It's super strange people live together for years and years but don't want to get married.

Anyway these past three days have been a ton of clouds and some rain. It's been so nice because we aren't dying of heat haha. On Sunday we had a ton of success, we taught a ton or people and got a ton of new investigators. It's super strange, some days you work super hard, walk a ton, talk to a ton of people then you have no success. But other days everything just falls into place. Yesterday just fell into place. haha.

But anyways I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to serve my Heavenly Father in any way. My testimony has grown so much while I'm here. I've also finished the Book of Mormon and I get so much more out of it as I read and think about how this affects my life after death and how I can better teach my investigators about eternal life. I read about how when we teach we need to be devastated if our investigators don't follow up on a commitment. Because a lot of the time we don't take this serious. But it's literally eternal life we need to think about. Eternal life for children of God. So I want to invite whoever reads this to seriously think about how you can save someone's life and their family's life forever if you just talk to them, bear your testimony, and just love that person. I know this gospel is true. I know we can receive eternal salvation if we have faith, repent, are baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, partake of the sacrament, and endure to the end. If we keep the commandments of God He will bless us with an unimaginable amount of blessings!

I know this to be true because already I have seen how many people's lives have completely changed here. It's literally amazing.

But anyway, I love you all and am very thankful for your love and friendship.

Love,
Elder Whelan

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TY!!

Chileno!!!!

Since I wasn't able to write last week because of tranfers I get to write for two weeks now, Yay! Anyway, this week has gone very extremely fast. The work has been going great and we've had some success. One week I had Elder dos Santos and the next I have Elder Abarca. Elder Abarca is soooo cool. He's from Chile and loves to mess around and make jokes and laugh. He's definitely not used to the hills here in Concordia because one day we had an almoco (lunch) with a member who lives on top of a mountain haha. We both were dying after that. But I for sure have some stronger things becuase my pants are getting tight. 

I had some great breakthroughs with the language as well. I'm speaking better and better everyday. I bought a ton of food to make also. I love to make food because sometimes I get tired of rice and beans haha. Anyway we've had some problems finding people to teach becuase neither of us know the area very well. we sometimes are stressed because we have soooo many people to teach and we don't have enough time to teach them all in a day or even a week.

Add the fact that sometimes we walk across the city 3 or 4 times to get to meetings or lessons. At the end of the day we are DEFINITELY tired haha. But a good tired. I've had so many good experiences becuase of this hard work we do. But anyway, My comp was transferred on last Monday to Corintibanos which is a smaller city than Concordia but is more cold and gets more rain. I want to serve in Corintibanos, haha it is so hot here. But we were in Cotintibanos last Pday so thats why I couldn't email. But my new comp is so cool, I love him so much already.

Today we woke up and got a haircut that was fun (we waited two flippin hours). After our haircut we ate Subway!! That was great but a tiny bit different. The cheese was that cheap cheese you buy, called American cheese haha. But I was fasting earlier so the food tased like Heaven!

This week has been great, I'm excited to hear from you all and I LOVE YOU ALL!

Love, Elder Whelan

pictures are of a bird that a member had. and that bird ended up pooping on my shoulder soooo that was great hahaha

the flower picture was just a joke haha there are huge flowers everywhere by the way.

there were three toilets on the way to a lesson so i decided to take a picture and sit on one of those extremely clean and great Brazilian toilets haha

theres a ton of huge butterflies here that are all sorts of colors, blue purple, black, brown, white Etc.

I took some pictures of me and my companion with my new comp in corintibanos.
took some pictures of some members of corintibanos.

found a little baby lizard in our apartment, there are some huge lizards here.

we were walking to an appointment and my comp stopped me and stood under this sign and I had to take a picture haha i pretty much says that you cant throw your trash in that spot haha

but ya those are the pics of the week! hope ya liked them!!

Being able to Call Home

We received a short phone call from Dalton. He's doing great. His companion was  supposed to transferred on Saturday, but they missed the bus and he had to stay until Monday. His new companion showed up, he's was from Chile. Dalton didn't have much time to talk because he said his new companion talked to his family, and they were running out of time because they had to get Elder dos Santos to the bus so he didn't miss it again.

Dalton said he was going to send an email the next day, but we never got one. He did speak in Portuguese with us a bit, and Kollin spoke with the new Chilean companion in Spanish. Dalton said "I could understand everything you guys said!" so that was fun to hear him say that.

He looks great, sounds great. We were able to see and hear him just fine this time. When he Facetimed with us the first week they were allowed to, he could see and hear us but we could only hear him and look at a black screen. It was handy because we had snow-day so we were all home the first time.

Hopefully we get more this week. Thanks for all your support!