Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday for whoever had a birthday!

But I want to specifically tell my mom happy birthday! She is the best mom anyone could have!

This past week absolutely flew by! We’ve been working super hard and haven’t really had much to show for it. We could make contacts all day and not get into one house to teach ha ha. This area is much more difficult compared to Concordia.

We had a district conference this week which went well we went out to teach some lessons with a member named Jorge. He is the missionary leader in our ward. Me and Ghaltama taught some people that were really trying to Bible Bash with us. That was so fun Ha ha ha we definitely shut them down. But we tried really really hard not to be disrespectful in anyway.

We taught another family that is super awesome and were able to make baptismal dates the first lesson. We also took a pack of cigarettes from her. Because she has a problem with smoking. There was a wedding at church was really cool. They got baptized after. We ate a bunch of food and cake. 

On Saturday we had a talent show which went really well. There was a ton of people and a bunch people danced, did magic, play the guitar, and sing. It was super fun on Sunday without a good amount actually! We had more success than usual ha ha. We actually were able to get into the house is to teach.

That was my week! Love you all and I’m thankful to be a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. The only true church on this earth that can bring eternal happiness for us and our families. Love you all and hope you all have an amazing week full of fun stuff and missionary work!!

Elder Whelan

Short email... Sorry!!

So these past two weeks have absolutely flown by and they have been soooo amazing!! I got transferred to a new area in Jaragua do Sul!! my new comp is Elder Ghaltama and he's about to go home which is sad because he's super cool. But this area is amazing and the people in the ward help us soooo much. TODAY WE HIKED UP AND MOUNTAIN FOR P-DAY AND SAW ALL OF THE CITY AND LAND AROUND us (Oops I wrote in all caps sorry about that haha) 

I live in apartment with Elders Ghaltama, Pereira, and Pinheiro. they are super cool guys and are all Brazilian. The language is really good and I'm loving it here. Sorry I don't have much time right now but I love you all and Hope you all have an amazing week!!!

Elder Whelan

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mothers Day!! I just want to say real quick that I'm so thankful for my mom. She's been the best influence of righteousness and love for me in my life!! Love you Mom!!

(This email covers the last two weeks)

On Tuesday we had splits again! we had splits with 2 elders named Elder Veronez and Elder Alvarado. We were able to visit so many new people and learn so much from them. Elder Veronez is going home this transfer and he is definitely trunky haha. Our day was so good and we were able to learn a few methods to better our teaching and how to find people to teach more quickly.

On Wednesday I had the longest day of my mission it seemed haha. We worked a TON and had a lot of good results which was really great.I was a little bit sick which didn’t help with the longness of the day haha. But when we get working as hard as we possibly can, I can feel the power of the Holy Ghost working in our lives more then ever. It’s such an amazing feeling that I want with me forever!

On Thursday we had another great day of work! Me and Abarca happened to end up in the richest part of the city and we decided to play a game where we make contacts to the biggest most beautiful houses. If it’s my turn I choose Abarca has to make the contact and vice verse. We didn’t have too much success but it was super fun nonetheless haha.

On Friday we left the house at around 10:30 to visit this person we contacted the day before but he wasn’t available sadly. Then we continued our day. Today I had a pretty fun experience were I was talking about the first vision and I was about to tell this women what Joseph Smith said and I said “right now I’m going to "cantar: exactly what happened at this moment” haha. I accidentally said that I would "sing: Joseph Smith’s experience. So everyone started dying of laughter haha. Usually the moment when we relate the story of Joseph Smith it’s super serious and full of the spirit but not this time. Oops. I was trying to say contar which is to tell in Portuguese but contar and cantar are so similar it’s easy to mess them up. Also, at night Abarca was trying to bless these two women that we were teaching (through a prayer haha) and while he was saying the closing prayer he tried to bless these women by name and he totally forgot their names hahaha. He would say “please bless........ this family with peace and safety. And we ask thee that......... may receive a response through prayer that this gospel is true. We thank thee for this opportunity to be with .......... these sisters.” Haha he did this three times. I was pretty much dying inside because I couldn’t laugh during the prayer.

On Saturday we were able to teach three families that are super amazing! Also, today it rained so much that the streets were pretty much rivers haha. Our last lesson of the day went good but then we had to walk home in the rain which wasn’t so awesome haha. But the temperature here is definitely dropping which is a huge blessing!

On Sunday we had 6 people go to church with us and Abarca had to give a talk. He was pretty nervous haha. I don’t know why though, we literally talk with people all day long haha. After church we pretty much continued our day like normal. It was still raining outside but not too bad. 

Another week

On Tuesday this past week we ate lunch in the house which consisted of lasagna, rice, potatoes, juice and farinha. We left the house to go to the Redloviaria and check when our bus arrives for Chapecó for a zone conference. After that we were back to the area that we were back to the area of the apartment when Abarca said he wasn’t feeling too good. So we went to the apartment to check his temperature and he’s had a fever of 102.6. We walked to the hospital and I waited in that dump waiting room for four and a half hours just for Abarca to receive a prescription for medicine. We got home at around 1:20 in the morning and slept haha. 

The next day Abarca’s fever was even worse. His body was hurting and he was super hot then super cold. We went to the hospital again. This time we were lucky enough to only wait 6 and a half hours for the doctors to say, “Oh just keep taking the medicine we prescribed”. Haha we thought at first that Abarca got Dengue which is a deathly virus from mosquitos but luckily no.

On Thursday we didn’t do much of anything because Abarca was sick. Still we left the house at around 3:00 because Abarca was feeling better. And we went to the bus station to go to Chapecó. We got to Chapecó and Elder Rojas and Ferreira picked us up then we walked to their apartment. That night there were eight elders in the apartment. Me, Abarca, Rojas, Ferreira, Rodriguez, Moura, Webb, and Dos Santos (my father). We all ate pizza, laughed, joked around then went to bed because we had zone conference the next day.

Friday we all woke up at around 5:30 left at around 6:30 and got to the church. We had an amazing zone conference and we learned a ton. We did this contacting activity where as a duplicate we leave to do contacts for a little while and Me and Abarca were able to get a baptismal date haha it was awesome! After that we came back to the church had out interview with. Presidents, left, got on the bus and came home.

Saturday nothing much happened. We got money from a member for lunch so we went to the store and bought our food. Then after that we visited some people during the day then came home.

Sunday was really good! We had stake conference transmitted from Chapecó. After that we visited some families that we weren’t able to visit because Abarca was sick. I was able to drink "Guarana Jesus" which is super good and is only made in Maurañao. Today there was a ton of lightning which was super AWESOME! But that was my week! I want to say that I am thankful for all that I have and I’m thankful for all those that read my emails and email me!

This week went by super quickly and not much happened haha we had our lessons and taught a bunch of people which was great!! we were in the middle of a lesson on Sunday at around 4 when our president called and told me that I´ve been transferred to Jaragua do Sul!!! My new comp is Brazilian and I´m super excited. But I'm sad also because we had some baptisms lined up these next few weeks and I wont be able to be here for them. But we all have purposes so I'm not worried haha. I'm also sad to leave Abarca, over the past few weeks we have really bonded and its going to be sad to say good bye and also its so sad to say goodbye to the members!!! But nothing else really happened this week. 

Hope you all had an amazing week and I love you all!!!!

x

Divisões (splits)

On Tuesday we had an amazing day! We were able to teach a lot of recent converts which always helps them stay active! I taught about the past, present and future in Aula de Ingles (English class) which turned out really well. After that we played a game at church for a while then closed the day.

On Wednesday we worked a good amount. We didn't have lunch with a member so we were able to cook what we needed. Then we played uno just us two for a while. Ha ha

Thursday: we worked a ton, then at night Elder Rodrigues and Moura came to do divisions with us the next day.

On Friday we had divisions. I went with Elder Rodriguez and Abarca went with Moura. We worked so hard that day, we managed to set 4 baptismal dates and got a ton of new investigators! The rest of the day consisted of us watching kids play soccer at church for noite integracao. We also bought a big pizza and played uno.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much the same. We worked a ton with our new investigators and baptismal dates. On Sunday we were walking home when we heard a loud gun shot and saw a ton of people running, so that was great (not really haha). But that was my week.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. I hope you all have amazing weeks and I love you all!

-Elder Whelan

Ups and Down [two weeks worth of emails, sorry! -Editor]

Pday was a normal day. We were asble to talk with our families and such. I've constantly been getting better and better at understanding the language which has been a huge blessing. We didn't' really do anything else later that day.

Tuesday was definitely the hardest day of my mission. We woke up and started off great. Pretty much our whole day was going amazing. Then we started teaching a teenager names Gabriel who was going to get baptized. This Sunday was the baptismal interview. We got to the very last question and that's where he told us he doesn't believe in what we've been teaching him and that he follows another church. We've been teaching him for over a month and a half and he tells us this now?! come on man! haha I was devastated. How? I didn't understand. But anyways that was my all time low of that week.

Wednesday I was still pretty bummed but we managed to work like normal. When I'm bummed out my comp is sad also, haha. So I have to try really hard to be appear happy when investigators or things like this happen. Anyways our day was normal but we found a lizard in our apartment again so we took some more pictures, haha.

Thursday we had a weekly planning which went well. All wee we have been going to the cartorio or marriage place and helping families get married. It's been great. We also stayed and taught the parents of Ronei and Tattila who are incredible people.

On Friday we did our normal stuff in the morning but then we had lunch at Irmao Leonel's hours which is a lunch we dread. haha. Not the lunch so much but the mountain we have to climb every time we eat there! But anyways after lunch we went to the cartorio again to help two more families figure out all their stuff to get married. Then we had noite integracao and we played monkey in the middle for an hour which was super fun.

Saturday was general conference. We woke up did our normal studies then left for lunch. After lunch we argued with bishop forever to open the church secretary room to watch general conference. We invited a bunch of people to watch with us which is why we wanted to use the church. But we watched all the sessions on Saturday, it was so amazing. I've never appreciated the words of prophets as much as I do now. I can testify that we have a true prophet here on this earth today and that if we listen to his words we will have eternal life!

On Sunday we did pretty much the same as the day before. again, the experience was so amazing!! On Sunday I also finished my 12 weeks training so I'm officially out of the 'training' phase. haha. But not really because I always need more training. But anyways that was my week. Just hope you all had an amazing week as well.

(week 2)
Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a marvelously spectacular week. To start off my week we had pday which nothing really happened. I made tortillas with Abarco and then I had the idea to cook with oil and put cinnamon and sugar on the tortilla. Annnnnnd ta duh! Elephant ears haha!  They were exactly the same but the last was really good. So that's all that matters, right?

On Tuesday we had Aula de Ingles which turned out to be Aula de Espanol because I let Abarca teach this one haha. After that we played ping pong. On Wednesday we taught at Irmao Ronei's house a lesson and they were playing Moana so we got to see a little bit of that. We didn't really do very much after that. Haha.

Thursday nothing much happened.

On Friday we managed to walk about 14 kilometers which is about 9 miles. Our lunch was super far away so we had to alk there, then walk back to our area of proselyting for that day. Also, when we were walking to an appointment the google car drove by us and of course we had to pose for the picture haha. We also had Noite integracao which was pretty fun.

On Saturday we taught in the favelas a girl and her family which was great. Her dad got home from prison and he was definitely drinking coke with vodka the smell was horrible. Also we had a birthday party for a man named Emiliano in the church with a tone of members. He turned 90 years old!

On Sunday we worked a ton and had a great day. This week was pretty boring, haha. Well, not boring, but normal. Its never boring here in Brazil haha. That was my week. I hope you all had an amazing week also and I can't wait to hear from you all.

Love you!
Elder Whelan

Lizards and frogs

Semana passado (Last Week).
Mission Tour!

P-day: So on Monday all we sis was relax and talk with our families, it was great! We also cleaned our apartment it is pretty big but we always keep it clean so it doesn’t take that long to tidy everything up. We also bought stuff from the supermarket to make food in the apartment.

On Tuesday we woke up and prepared for our mission tour. We had a super long bus ride (12 hours) but we picked up a ton of people on the way. We drove through the night and arrived in Floripa at 5:30am.

We got to the church and kinda just waited around for a couple hours for our president and other people to arrive. We started the meeting at around 9 o’clock and we had a ton of good training. Everyone has to keep standing up because we all were super tired from the bus ride haha. A member of the 70 spoke to us which was awesome. After our training we all got shots to help us not be sick and then we all piled back onto the bus and started our journey back! I slept the whole time pretty much haha it was amazing!

The next day we got to Chapecó which is a huge city and we slept in our district leaders house until the bus arrived. Our bus ride back we had the pleasure of riding with about 10 very loud and very happy Haitian people haha there were these two ladies that for some reason thought it was a good idea to out of nowhere yell WOOOOOHOOOOOO.

Hahaha this was hilarious the first 5 times they did it but it got pretty old after that because they had to have done it over 100 times. But anyway we arrived in Concordia without incident and we started planning for the week because we plan every Thursday.

Friday: Oscar’s Birthday!! Love you little guy!!! Today we left the house and had lunch at Irmāo Fortunato’s house then we went to the Cortorio to settle a bunch of stuff for a marriage of our investigators. After that we had a few other lessons to teach. On the way to our lesson I was almost run over by a car but I wasn’t so all was well haha. We also had Noite Integracáo which is where we teach a little lesson to a bunch of teenagers then they can...

Well it kinda worked because we brought 5 investigators that day and one of them doesn’t want to be baptized anymore. That really struck us pretty hard because missionaries for over 2 years have been working with this family. The wife (Seliane) still is going to get baptized which is amazing but we want the whole family!!

O LAGARTO!!

P-day: We were able to talk with our family and friends which was amazing!! Thank you all for your thought and emails! Love you all! But anyways after that we didn’t do much after that we cleaned our house and whatnot.

On Tuesday we found the biggest frog I’ve ever seen. I have pictures and videos but those don’t do justice for this guy. In portuguese a frog is called Sapo or Rá (pronounced huh) here’s a little fun fact for you guys haha. But as missionaries we thought it was our duty to give this guy some food so we brought him to our apartment and fed him some bugs that we caught haha it was pretty cool actually.

On Wednesday we had lunch with Irmáo Antonio who is the father of our bishop. Then after that we did our normal stuff haha. For dinner we ate at an investigators house because we’ve really been trying to build our relationship with the father of this girl named Stefany because before he didn’t want anything to do with the church. B

On Saturday we had another extremely productive day. We talked a ton with the bishop about how we can better the ward because there's not a lot of fellowship or anything here, but we were able to talk about a lot of stuff and hopefully can help this ward grow! There’s one part in this city that are favelas or houses stacked on house haha. We did some contacting in there and wet this amazing family that can definitely use the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This part of the city if very poor and as I walked down the favela I realized how lucky I am. I can be having the worst day of my life and there is always someone having an even worse day or even worse life! So I have an invitation for you all to thank Heavenly Father for all the things you have. Food, Home, Family, Friends, Car, Phone, Etc. These simple things that we have are often taken for granted are things that a lot of people don’t have. I always think about how Jesus Christ had the worst day possible and he did good things here on this earth. I can have my worst day ever and that day won’t compare to his. He saved me, you, and everyone there ever was through his Atonement. That’s so incredible to me. I’m so thankful for what I have. But you just always remember to be thankful. :)

On Sunday we walked from one end of the city to the other end because we had lunch that was super far away then we taught in a totally different part of the city. Also our sacrament meeting was literally amazing!! We didn’t have anyone yelling at our Bishop and over 60 people in attendance. Me and Abarca opened all the windows and doors and played piano music while people came in. We felt the Spirit very strongly. But anyways after that we had some good lessons in an area of the city named Santa Cruz. On our way to Santa Cruz a lagarto or lizard ran out onto our pathway and we were like oh that’s cool, this little lizard was super fact but he started to get tired so after a while we caught up to him. We wanted to get a closer look so we both went on either sides of the lizard haha and he decided to run and jump over this little divider. And he got smashed by a car!!! We were so distraught, our little buddy!!