Friday, December 19, 2008
Mission Christmas Party
Dear Azalea Mommy and Family, Friends, etc.....
Life on the mission is good, just got back from a huge Christmas conference with the whole mission (around 80 to a hundred missionaries I think) where we had a good time eating McDonalds (yesss!!! so good) slurping milk shakes, playing soccer (1st time with Brazilians, good time) a little basketball, a little time at a gaming area (not really that great, pretty bad actually) and Madagascar II, (also pretty bad) but it was good to see friends from the MTC again. President Silva also spoke a bit about temples and the significance found within them now and in the days of the Old Testament, when I get the time I think it would be really cool to study the Old Testament symbolism end of things. Met another elder who went to BYU-I and lived just two doors down from me at Viking, though at diff. semesters, small world eh? Not a whole lot to report other then that this week, we had a Monday and a bit of Tuesday to work, and tracted into a family, Francisco his wife and I believe it was four kids, he was drunk at the time but seemed to have a sincere desire to change, and his family was open to the message, we'll be heading back there today so we'll have to see how that goes. Also have another family with a similar problem, drinking father, but he honestly seems like he wants to change as well, and has def. been prepared for the message, allot of people drop the church after the 1st or second time we meet with them after they hear some sort of crazy story from a neighbor, that we worship Satan or the like, and so we make a point of telling them that Satan will try to work against them in their decision to follow Christ’s church, the same way people persecuted Christ and His apostles when they were here, and while many seem to set that aside, as we talked with Hamilton this past time he told us that Satan had already started working against them by the words of others, but he recognized it, and is still coming along strong. That’s the amazing thing about it, people accept a message from two strange nineteen -20 year old guys, half of which are from another country and speak with funny accents, and set aside family traditions, and the words of friends and neighbors to follow. They give up things they've done all their life (coffee is huge here) and in this case are willing to go through the hassle the state puts people through to get legally married, because they feel and come to know it is of the Lord.
Also on the big side of success we have a web of sorts forming through novo Itapetinga which is sweet, this past Sunday when we passed by to bring people to church, almost all the people wed invited from the neighborhood that week and then one or two were ready and waiting in the street. (one family which we passed by planning to grab them on our way back apparently had been watching out the window and so when we walked by ran out and asked if we'd forgotten about them, twas an amazing feeling that morning having them all there and ready. This included Clemer btw and his inactive brother. There are some really cool things happening over there.
Jacob
Life on the mission is good, just got back from a huge Christmas conference with the whole mission (around 80 to a hundred missionaries I think) where we had a good time eating McDonalds (yesss!!! so good) slurping milk shakes, playing soccer (1st time with Brazilians, good time) a little basketball, a little time at a gaming area (not really that great, pretty bad actually) and Madagascar II, (also pretty bad) but it was good to see friends from the MTC again. President Silva also spoke a bit about temples and the significance found within them now and in the days of the Old Testament, when I get the time I think it would be really cool to study the Old Testament symbolism end of things. Met another elder who went to BYU-I and lived just two doors down from me at Viking, though at diff. semesters, small world eh? Not a whole lot to report other then that this week, we had a Monday and a bit of Tuesday to work, and tracted into a family, Francisco his wife and I believe it was four kids, he was drunk at the time but seemed to have a sincere desire to change, and his family was open to the message, we'll be heading back there today so we'll have to see how that goes. Also have another family with a similar problem, drinking father, but he honestly seems like he wants to change as well, and has def. been prepared for the message, allot of people drop the church after the 1st or second time we meet with them after they hear some sort of crazy story from a neighbor, that we worship Satan or the like, and so we make a point of telling them that Satan will try to work against them in their decision to follow Christ’s church, the same way people persecuted Christ and His apostles when they were here, and while many seem to set that aside, as we talked with Hamilton this past time he told us that Satan had already started working against them by the words of others, but he recognized it, and is still coming along strong. That’s the amazing thing about it, people accept a message from two strange nineteen -20 year old guys, half of which are from another country and speak with funny accents, and set aside family traditions, and the words of friends and neighbors to follow. They give up things they've done all their life (coffee is huge here) and in this case are willing to go through the hassle the state puts people through to get legally married, because they feel and come to know it is of the Lord.
Also on the big side of success we have a web of sorts forming through novo Itapetinga which is sweet, this past Sunday when we passed by to bring people to church, almost all the people wed invited from the neighborhood that week and then one or two were ready and waiting in the street. (one family which we passed by planning to grab them on our way back apparently had been watching out the window and so when we walked by ran out and asked if we'd forgotten about them, twas an amazing feeling that morning having them all there and ready. This included Clemer btw and his inactive brother. There are some really cool things happening over there.
Jacob
Saturday, December 6, 2008
P-day today! did a lot of cleaning (not sure it would pass your inspection yet, mom, but its a whole lot better then it was, I wonder how many missionaries have gone through this place and not cleaned a thing... and I'm only kind of kidding...
Este semena nos tivemos uma boa experiencia com um rapaz cujo nome é C.O.P. Eu vou descrever em inglese porque eu não tenho muito tempo para escrever a minha familia depois isso, On Sunday, Elder S. was thinking about who we might baptize that day as all our investigators had fallen through, and as he was looking through the area book he came upon a name, H., a now inactive member who I believe was baptized about 8 months ago. The name stood out to him, and as he thought about him, trying to remember who he was, it was brought to his mind that he had a younger brother that wasn't baptized. So that afternoon we headed over, and the first time we passed by C. wasn't home and so we tracted through the surrounding area, then returned to grab a drink of water from H's house. This time C. was there so we began teaching the first lesson, After Elder S. made the baptism challenge, and C. accepted with a big grin on his face, his mom was a little hesitant about the whole thing. She liked the church, and felt it was a good thing, but she didn’t know that C. was ready for baptism, thinking and saying to us that is only 12 years old, and that he may want to keep the commandments today and be baptized, but that tomorrow he might have a change of mind and decide not to. But Elder S. kept on going, during this point in time I was a little mixed about the whole thing, being the anti confrontational being that I am, but I prayed, I prayed and told the Lord that I knew He could make this happen if it was his will, and that if it was his will, that C. mom would let him be baptized, and she did, we left the house, walked to the church... and found that someone had pulled the plug on the font, which takes about 4 hours to fill. So, we did what we could, turned on the faucet in the font, and just about every other faucet we had a bucket for.... 5-10 min later the water pressure began to go, and I prayed, I prayed and told the Lord that I knew HE could make the water flow to fill up the font so C. could be baptized, and that if it was His will, that he would make it so, and the water flowed a bit stronger. Then after an opening hymn, “Come Follow Me”, a prayer, and a short talk by Elder J. , C. was baptized by the power of God, in a cold little font in the Itapetinga ward building. Deus Vive, Cristo é nosso Salvador, este é o trabalho dele, O obra e gloria dele, Ele vai ajudar nos se nosso mostramos nosso Fé em Ele, Em nome de Jesus Cristo, Amém.
Your son, friend and brother,
Jacob
Este semena nos tivemos uma boa experiencia com um rapaz cujo nome é C.O.P. Eu vou descrever em inglese porque eu não tenho muito tempo para escrever a minha familia depois isso, On Sunday, Elder S. was thinking about who we might baptize that day as all our investigators had fallen through, and as he was looking through the area book he came upon a name, H., a now inactive member who I believe was baptized about 8 months ago. The name stood out to him, and as he thought about him, trying to remember who he was, it was brought to his mind that he had a younger brother that wasn't baptized. So that afternoon we headed over, and the first time we passed by C. wasn't home and so we tracted through the surrounding area, then returned to grab a drink of water from H's house. This time C. was there so we began teaching the first lesson, After Elder S. made the baptism challenge, and C. accepted with a big grin on his face, his mom was a little hesitant about the whole thing. She liked the church, and felt it was a good thing, but she didn’t know that C. was ready for baptism, thinking and saying to us that is only 12 years old, and that he may want to keep the commandments today and be baptized, but that tomorrow he might have a change of mind and decide not to. But Elder S. kept on going, during this point in time I was a little mixed about the whole thing, being the anti confrontational being that I am, but I prayed, I prayed and told the Lord that I knew He could make this happen if it was his will, and that if it was his will, that C. mom would let him be baptized, and she did, we left the house, walked to the church... and found that someone had pulled the plug on the font, which takes about 4 hours to fill. So, we did what we could, turned on the faucet in the font, and just about every other faucet we had a bucket for.... 5-10 min later the water pressure began to go, and I prayed, I prayed and told the Lord that I knew HE could make the water flow to fill up the font so C. could be baptized, and that if it was His will, that he would make it so, and the water flowed a bit stronger. Then after an opening hymn, “Come Follow Me”, a prayer, and a short talk by Elder J. , C. was baptized by the power of God, in a cold little font in the Itapetinga ward building. Deus Vive, Cristo é nosso Salvador, este é o trabalho dele, O obra e gloria dele, Ele vai ajudar nos se nosso mostramos nosso Fé em Ele, Em nome de Jesus Cristo, Amém.
Your son, friend and brother,
Jacob
November, 26, 2008
Don’t even have time to read. We flew into Salvador yesterday on a beautiful, rainy, muggier then I ever imagined possible sort of day, we came into the airport and were soon thereafter welcomed by afrobrazilian music and a dancing woman. well gtg, just had a moment to use this comp in a hotel that reminds me alot of the pirates of the carribean, oh and we had a banana tree outside our window, def. a highlight. We´ll find out our first areas a little later today during our training meeting etc. I know this is God´s work.
Elder Pettit
Don’t even have time to read. We flew into Salvador yesterday on a beautiful, rainy, muggier then I ever imagined possible sort of day, we came into the airport and were soon thereafter welcomed by afrobrazilian music and a dancing woman. well gtg, just had a moment to use this comp in a hotel that reminds me alot of the pirates of the carribean, oh and we had a banana tree outside our window, def. a highlight. We´ll find out our first areas a little later today during our training meeting etc. I know this is God´s work.
Elder Pettit
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