November 30, 2012

Querida Família, How´s everyone doing? How´s the new diet going? Have you been able to go without sugar? ( I say as a eat a cookie. hehehe) That picture I drew was of my old companion and his fiance. I drew it for his birthday. I can´t believe its Christmas already too. I came in the office today and it was all decorated. I think it was Sister Ribeiro how decorated. So my week has been very enlightening. I´ve been very frustrated these last couple of weeks, because it seems like out of no where the work in my area just stopped, and I can´t figure out why. But, at the same time its been good. I´ve realized how blessed I´ve been these last couple months. The Lord has been helping us so much. We have had a lot of success. I was getting a accustomed to the ease of it all and the Lord doesn´t let us stay comfortable for too long. He can´t, because that is the exact opposite of the purpose of His plan for us. We need to keep progressing and so the Lord, I think, felt like I needed to grow a little more. And let me tell you He really did a good job. These last weeks I´ve really seen how much I have to do better and where I really need to change. Its exactly how that scripture in Ether says: He will show us our weaknesses so that we can change them and with His help we and make them strengths. I´ve really had to stop this week and really think about what I´m doing here. We´re literally helping the Heavenly Father´s children came back to Him. Why should that be an easy process? It wasn't easy for our Savior. Why would it be any easier for us? So in a way my week was very good. I still have a lot to learn. But I really am grateful for the opportunity to serve; during the goods times and the hard times. There is nothing better to be here on the mission, serving the Lord. Well anyway that´s about it. Have a great week everyone! Love you guys. Elder Jolstead the Older

November 23, 2012

Oí Minha Família! How´s everyone doing? Happy Thanksgiving! I think I´ll celebrate by making clover rolls. You found a Jumanji Game? Was it fun? No animals appeared? haha That must have been terrible for that drummer. Poor guy. Those kinds of things seemed to happen to me everytime I played at the school. I think out of all the times I played at the school 2 times I didn´t have trouble with the bass drum sliding away. haha That´s good that the missionaries back home are having success. Unfortunately we´re not having too much success right now, but that´s just part of being on a mission. Sometimes you do good and other times you don´t. If it was all good everyday you wouldn´t learn or grow and there would be no point. We just need to keep working and the Lord will help us out. So yeah nothing very notable happened this week. Just work like normal. Have a great week though! Love you guys Elder Jolstead the Older

November 17, 2012

Hey Family! How´s everyone doing? Sounds like the regular winter fun. Driving in the snow is not something I´m looking forward to when I get back. So yes I can email Joshua. Last week I didn´t get a chance because of a trip that we had to do to see how a missionary was that burned himself with hot oil. It wasn´t that bad though. When I first heard about it though, my firat thought was two-face from the Dark Knight. haha Don´t worry too much about the packages Mother, I´m doing alright. Just send them when you´re able. I´ve been trying to eat better too. Instead of rice and beans I´ve been trying to eat beans and rice. haha No but really I´ve been trying to eat less, because now how its so hot here, if you eat a lot you don´t feel to good later. I´ve lost weight I think. So my week was alright. I still haven´t had a full working week this transfer. We had another training for the leaders yesterday. But with the time we have been working we have been walking a ton. We´re trying to update the members´ list for our ward, so we basically walk from one side of the street to the other looking for the addresses on the list. It would be easier if the addresses here were in order and didn´t jump from 30 to 589 at the house after it. haha We hope the Lord will bless us with an incomplete family as we do the ward´s job of cleaning up the members´ list. At this point we basically have no real investigators. We´ve cut and baptized them all, so we´re back to doing the fun part which is finding new investigators. Anyway that´s all that happened this week. I hope you all have a great week! Love you guys Elder Jolstead the Older

Oí família! How is everyone doing? So yes I heard about Obama and also about our state legalizing gay marriage and marajuana. The scriptures say that the world will get worse before it gets better so this is just a fulfillment of that. Oh well. We live in the world but we´re not of the world. Our example and us sharing the gospel, can influence others and make a difference in the world where we are. Little by little we can fight against wickedness in the world. Well Anyway, this week was good. We went traveling with President. Its always cool to do that. You get to learn a lot talking with him. Unfortunately all our ´´Golden`` investigators decided to go on vacation and not come back. haha Oh well it just proves that they aren´t the ones who we need to help with the gospel at this time. We´ve been praying and fasting to find an entire family and we know the Lord will bless us with a family, its just a matter of time and work on our part. Well that´s about it for now. Have a great week! Love you guys! Elder Jolstead the Older

November 3, 2012

Oí família, Oh! how I love Halloween! Yes, I carved a Pumpkin! I´ll have to send you guys photos next week. The Brazilians thought is was cool, because I think they´ve never seen a Jack-o´-lanturn with a real pumpkin. Our play did have a good turn out...of members... Well I guess you can´t always get what you want. haha It was good though, and very spiritual. I´ll be honest to hear that Kelleene is sick again was a bit of a shock, but like you said the Lord uses our life to test and try us to make us into the people he wants us to be. She´ll be alright though. The Lord will be with her every step of the way. Well anyway my week was alright. I have a new companion...well actually he´s the same companion that I had in Livramento, before I became assistant. Round 2! His name is Elder Morrison and he´s actually from Tacoma, so that´s cool. We went to Porto Alegre this week to get the new missionaries and then we gave trainings all week. So unfortunately we didn´t have a lot of time to work this week and next week will be about the same because we´ll travel all over the mission to do Zone Conferences. Its cool though. I like to see all the missionaries in the mission. Anyway that´s about it. Have a great week! Love you guys Elder Jolstead the Older