Oí Família,
Wow, there´s nothing like family pics to make you trunky! haha I´m just kidding! It looks like you guys had a great time. How tall is Joshua now? He looks pretty tall, really skinny too, but don´t tell him that I said that. He shouldn´t worry though, he´ll get fat on the mission. haha I think I´ve gained about 10 pounds. Its been going up and then down my whole mission though. Its not fat though. I´ve been doing excercises every morning since I´ve been out so I haven´t gotten fat. haha Anyway so this week has been great. We had a baptism this last Sunday: Joelma and her daughter, Raquel. They´re the family that we´ve been teaching awhile now. They have a grown a lot during this time. At the beginning They said that there was no way that they´d wear a skirt to church, but then yesterday when we talked to them they said that they had been looking for skirts in the stores. :) I´ll send you some photos. We are still working with the family though. There is one daughter who needs to get married and we´ve already started the process of marriage for them. She´ll probably get married this month, because it takes awhile to get married here. There´s also one other son that said he will go to church this Sunday. His problem is that he works a lot so its hard to teach him, but he´s cool. Then there´s Camila...the other daughter who listens to all our messages and participates, but doesn´t want to got church, pray, or get baptzed...I really don´t understand why, but we´ll see. The Lord is very good at changing people´s hearts, I´ve seen it more then once. We also found another family this week: a mom and her daughter. They excepted baptism in the first visit without thinking twice. She said that when we talked to her in the street she didn´t want to stop to talk to us, but something told her stop and then after we taught her she said she knew why. It was very awesome. The Lord really is blessing us with a ton of awesome families here. Well anyway that´s about it. thanks for telling me about Jaren, Mother. I hope he´s doing good. Have a great week. Love you guys.
Elder Jolstead

August 18, 2012

Oí Family!
So this week was awesome! I traveled with Pres. Ribeiro to do Zone Conference. I gave a training on helping the investigator receive revelation through prayer. It was pretty good. Pres. Ribeiro taught about how we as missionaries can recieve a testimony of Jesus Christ like an apostle because as missionaries we are an extension of the qurom of the 12 apostles. It was very good. The week seemed to go by slowly though and it was pretty tireing to travel all week. I did have a oppurtunity to get to know Pres. and Sis. Ribeiro more though. They´re very funny. Pres. Ribeiro is usually very serious and direct and sis Ribeiro is the opposite. Its funny because she´s always spending money to buy food for the missionaries and she always takes a long time to do things so president always gets frustrated because he likes to get things done right and in the smallest amount of time possible so that he can go on to work on something else. Its pretty funny. President Ribeiro also explained how mission presidents get called and ordained which I´ve been wondering about for awhile. It sounds like a pretty awesome experience and a testimony builder about the fact that mission presidents are called of God. Another cool thing is that they get trained by the whole quorum of apostles and the first presidency, personally, in the MTC for one week. I can´t even imagine what that would be like. That has definitly got to be an awesome experience. We talked about other things too. All and all it was an awesome experience to travel with them. So that´s about all I did this week. Just a lot of traveling. We´re still preparing that family to be baptized on the 26th. I didn´t get to teach them this week though. The mom has gone 2 weeks without smoking now! I´m so happy! She is really progressing. That is cool about the baby! Another neice that I won´t see. haha That´s funny that there is whooping cough there, here there have been problems with the flu. I´m good, but its been really dry here so my nose has been bothering me. I´ve been sneezing a lot. haha
Its also been really hot here. I feel that this year I won´t have a winter :( Oh well we have to work regardless of the weather. Oh so I talked to a missionary here from Brasília. I wanted to know where he´s from to see if mybe Jared passed through there. He said he´s from the Nova Cruzeira part of Brasília or something like that. May be Jared knows where that´s at. Anyway That´s about it. Have a great week. love you guys
Elder Jolstead

August 10,2012

Oí Família,
So I´m sure by now that the baby has been born. So that´s cool. That missionary shower is a good idea. They do that here too and usually its very helpful for the missionary. Its still hot here too. I feel that I´ll be jipped this winter. :) Oh well I´ll just have to deal with it. The Preach My Gospel study is a great idea. It will help a lot with the younger boys who will be going on missions later on too. The key to being a great missionary is doing everything that that manual says word for word. Its amazing how when we follow the words that are written in that manual, words inspired from God, that it just seems that everything goes right. The Lord always keeps his promises. So this week is the first week of transfers so it was pretty hectic. Monday I organized the transfers. I set up the email to show where all the missionaries would be transfered to. Then tuesday we took the ´´dieing`` missionaries to Porto Alegre and picked up the new missionaries there. Then on wednesday we gave a training for all the new missionaries. Then yesterday we gave trainings for all the leaders of the mission. Today is P-day thankfully, but next week I´m going to all the zones with the President to give trainings to all the missionaries in their individual zones. I just know I´ll be very tired by the end of all of this. haha The week after will go back to normal though. But as you can see its pretty crazy to be the assistant. We almost don´t have time to do the actual work the first two weeks of the transfer. haha But even with all this time taken away the Lord helps us and our investigators. Its crazy that with this small of time we are able to still find and teach our investigators and how well they progress too. Anyway that´s what is going on with me. Have a great week everybody! Love you guys
Elder Jolstead

August 3, 2012

Olã Família!
Happy Birthday Braeden! I didn´t forget I just forgot to put it in my email last week. :) 12 years old! Now you have the priesthood! That´s awesome! Just 7 more years and you´ll be out here in the mission field. So My week was great. We now have a family to baptize this month and 2 more in September. I think the best thing about a mission is when you have the opportunity to teach whole families! You get to see them change and grow together. One helping the other overcome their challenges. Its really cool. It´s also cool to see how the Lord blesses you when you do the best you can. Its like He waits until you´ve done all you can then everything just goes well by itself or miraculously things happen. Somedays it feels like we are working really hard with very little success, and then out of no where after we´ve gone as far as we can, the Lord just drops a family or someone infront of us ready to be taught and baptized. Its like the baptisms fall from the heavens. Its really awesome. So anyway that´s good news. The winter here is being stupid. Its been really hot and humid. It rained a ton this last week and then just got really hot and stuffy. That´s the worst. Oh and President Ribeiro went out to teach with us this last Monday. That was awesome. I was a little nervous though. haha I made bread today too. It looks like it turned out good. I haven´t eaten it yet though. Oh and I´m here illegally in Brasil for about 3 months now. haha I´v been waiting forever for the secretaries here to get everything ready so I can renew my visa. I´m fine though. Nothing will happen. haha That´s sad about the baby shower for Rebecca. No one came? So how´s Jared doing? He hasn´t sent me anything for the last month so I have no idea what´s going on with him. I better not get a surprise wedding invitation, because if he gets married before I get home he´ll be married for a short time because I´ll kill him when I get back. hahaha... I´m not kidding though He better not get married while I´m out here. So anyway another transfer has come and gone. And with everyone I get a sick pit in my stomach. They go by so fast. Anyway that´s about it. Have a great week. Love you guys!
Elder Jolstead