First Talk in Portugese

BOM DIA DE ELDER STILSON!!! Well this week has been much better. No flooding this week. This past P-day we were able to do a lot of fun things! First, we went to the Garoto Factory. It is a HUGE chocolate factory and is the ONLY one in the world! It was awesome! You have 10 mins during the tour to eat as many bonbons as you can!! ... The first 2-3 mins you love life and think, How many can I eat?! But after that you kind of start to feel sick and by min 8 you are DONE and you feel like you NEVER want to eat another bonbon EVER again! Haha it was great though even if I did eat myself sick. I didn’t feel so good (as you can imagine after eating over 30 bonbons...) and just wanted to go home and sleep haha but my old companion, Elder Torres wanted us to go with them back to the Convento da Penha.  I am so glad he asked us, it was a lot prettier this time going on a beautiful sunny day.  I have a ton of pictures that are awesome!!!

Tuesday we found a new investigator we weren’t planning on encountering!! What a huge blessing. Her name is Tereza and she is awesome!!! She has a HUGE Mango tree at her house and she gave us a mountain of mangos! That is basically all I have eaten the past 2 days and yes they are almost gone. :( But she said she has more for us when we visit with her this week! She has 4 children and every time we have visited with her last week we met a different one.  Haha so NOW we know the whole family and they are all awesome! We are really hoping to get them all to come to church this week.

On Thursday I was asked to give a talk on forgiveness in Sacrament. I have never learned SO much in my entire life. I don’t know why but Saturday I felt confused with repentance. But after writing the talk I have a clear understanding of it and I am SO grateful for that opportunity to learn.

I had to give my talk in Portuguese. It was so hard but it went good! Also yesterday we received a referral to a couple and they are awesome! They aren’t married but they want to get married soon. They have tried to have 2 kids already but they both died before birth. She is pregnant again and having problems again. It is really hard to talk about but we are excited to tell them the amazing news about the Plan of Salvation and how they can meet their children again and be able to raise them in the next life! They are amazing people and really open to what we have had to say.

Alma 8:9-10, 15, 20 really helped me out this week and can help anyone else who is having problems. I love the work even though it is hard. Everything was good this week and can’t wait to write you the blessings that I WILL receive this week! Thanks for the letters, emails and prayers that I have received!!! I love you all!!

EU TE AMO!!!!
ELDER STILSON!!!

Xavier's First Monkey Sighting

Finding The Missionary In You!

Oi todo mundo! Todo bom?? Aqui em Conilândia todo é perfeito!;) Well, that is about the extent of my Portuguese. Haha, just kidding. This week has been really good and my Portuguese is getting a little better every day! I also have a goal to not have ANY of my American accent left by my one year mark. It’s hard but everyday that gets better too!

Well P-day we went to the Convento da Penha! This is a HUGE Catholic Church on top of one of the Morros here in Vila Velha! When you are on the top you can see the Third Bridge which is AWESOME!! It is the thing to see when you are in Espirito Santo! The HUGE Chocolate factory here in Vila Velha is another big tourist attraction and we are going to visit it on the 2nd of December.

This week was awesome though!!! We didn’t have any baptisms but we have 3 marked for the 7th of December! Their names are Lucas, Daniel, and Gabriel! These are 3 young kids that we met on the street. Daniel was the first that we contacted and we went back to his house and his mom was really interested in our message as well! We want her to be baptized but she smokes so that pushes her date back just a little bit. But while we were teaching Daniel and his mother, Gabriel shows up. Daniel and Gabriel are twins so it was kind of funny when he came in! But then he started to listen and really liked the message. Then Lucas came in. He is very timid and didn’t say anything the first visit but when we went back he came and sat down by himself and loved the message!!! We went back a third time and they had all read the Intro to the BOM but Lucas read up to 1 Nephi 2! When he got to the pictures he read all the descriptions as well as the scriptures!!!! He is VERY Bible smart and when we talked about everything in the bible he knew all the answers but accepted the "new" doctrine. He says that he LOVES the BOM! That is amazing!!! They are great kids and will be even better Missionaries!!!

We were supposed to have a baptism this week but it fell through because the Lady says she isn’t quite ready. We have done everything we can with her and the spirit is so strong when we teach her but Satan is working on her NONSTOP!!! It is really frustrating working with someone to the point of baptism and then have it fall through, especially when they have a testimony.  I guess this is just one of the frustrations of being a missionary. We are going to continue to work with her and I know that one day she will be baptized.

 

I wish we were given more time to email.  There is so much more I would like to share with you all but I am out of time. I would like to thank those of you who have written me! You really have no idea how much those letters mean to me and how some of the simple things you have said have meant the world to me. I love reading your letters and if you have time, please write a little note about how your family is doing when you send your Christmas card so I can have something to write back!!!:) AND DONT FORGET THE CHRISTMAS CARD!!!;) Haha well I love you all so much. God speed be with you!

One more quick thing, this Saturday and Sunday we had an opportunity to hear from Elder Môroni Torgan of the 70 and he talked a lot about missionary work with members! Missionary work is so hard sometimes. 90 percent of our success comes from member referrals! SOMEONE you know needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They either need a blessing or prayer or service or SOMETHING! Please share these people with the missionaries! Even if you are afraid, talk to the missionaries, they will be able to help you. We don’t want to push people away. The missionaries don’t even have to talk about the Gospel in the beginning.  Just having the opportunity to meet with them and find things that they need is the perfect way for the spirit to reach these people’s hearts. Have faith!! And if you have wavering faith as Peter did while walking on water, or the un-surety of the man who brought his son to Christ, do as they did!!! Pray to Heavenly Father and ask him for faith to be able to reach out to these friends and neighbors! I have a testimony about this! It is so hard to approach random people on the street every day.  I ask Heavenly Father to help me with my faith to be able to overcome this and talk to everyone!!! HE WILL HELP YOU just like he is helping me!!! In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

LOVE,
Elder Stilson

McDonalds & a Package!

Bom dia! Well, this week went by really fast again. Most of this week was spent getting addresses, then going to the church to call and set up appointments, then being told that they either don’t have time or to call back later (AKA call back later so I know your phone number and know NOT to answer your call... EVER!)  Just another way of having a door slammed in your face. Haha but it’s whatever.
Tuesday we were given a list of people whose kids hadn’t been baptized so we went and visited some of them. The first person on our list who lives in our area was Adelina and her son Felipe. We went over and talked to Adelina and it turns out that her son was baptized but that they are inactive right now. We taught her and met with her father who has been really sick. Later in the week they took him to the hospital and sadly found out he is very sick.  

Wednesday was a frustrating day. It’s hard when you work with and teach your investigators and get them to the point where they are ready to set a baptism date and then you have help from others. Even though their intentions are good, because they are not used to our area, they seem to do more damage than good.  Hopefully through the Spirit these investigators will know that even though some people do things differently and seem to be pushy, the Church is still true. Even though we have taken several steps back, we will continue to teach and love these investigators and hopefully get them back on track and lessons can continue again in a few weeks.

McDonalds Run!

Thursday we helped our Fatíma Ma Mãe with giving her husband a blessing. He isn’t doing very well but hopefully he will be ok!! After the blessing she says "I am hungry, let’s go to McDonalds".......... WHAT?!?! YAY!!!!! I haven’t been to McDonalds in months! IT WAS AWESOME! She is amazing! Wow, McDonalds is expensive here, it is ridiculous!!! It was worth it though.  She is amazing!

Friday I got my SUNSHINE PACKAGE!!! First off thanks to Lisa Letts, Denise Webb, Kris Harrop, the other moms and the BEST MOM IN THE WORLD, my MOM, for such an amazing box!!! Everything that was in it made my week!!

William, Adelina, Angela & Mae

Well back to Adelina, on Sunday she came to church with her non-member husband! She is going to be active again!!! We were able to teach her husband and we really think that we will get him baptized in the next couple of weeks!

Well thanks everyone for all of the emails! This week I had so many and it was amazing!!I love knowing how everyone is doing! I love you all and hope to hear from you again soon!!!!!

LOVE YOUR GIANT ELDER,

 

  ELDER STILSON

 

End of Transfer

BOM DIA!!

Holy cow this week really flew by... The days seemed like they took forever, but honestly this week has gone by really fast! Last P-Day was hectic trying to get things done and trying to help out Elder Torres put together a CD of all the Pics we have taken then we went back, ate, and went to work! Also Monday afternoon I got a haircut... RULE #1 when you are on a mission, DON’T trust elders to cut your hair. Haha the pictures are great.... But hey in 2 weeks it will all be alright again... I hope haha. After my haircut, Elder Conde asked me to cut his hair.  Haha, I think I did a pretty good job!! I am proud of it too! :)

I honestly don’t know where Tuesday went; all day Wednesday I thought it was Tuesday. Haha Actually, Tuesday, we went to a grocery store that is really close to our house that we got a referral for the owner. We went in there to meet with him and he has the biggest desire to do his family history work and wants to learn more about the church.  So we had our first lesson then talked to him about how he can do his family history work right at the church.  He was really excited and I am pretty sure he has already contacted the ladies who run the family history center! It was so awesome; he gave us some free fruit while we were teaching him.  That's always a plus, right;) After that we had an awesome lunch with some members! The guy is in his mid to late 60’s and his wife died not too long ago. One morning he wakes up, not wanting to break the law of chastity, marries the maid who already lives in the house. :) Haha he is a great guy and his second wife is a very good cook!

After that we got a call from our Zone Leaders, telling us that we need to fast for baptisms this transfer! Like I have said in the past, I LOVE fasting and the blessings that it brings but the whole "God will not be mocked" fraise came to my mind.  Why are we fasting for some crazy amount of baptisms that are our ZLs want to happen this Sunday? Shouldn't we have done this at the beginning of the transfer, or even last week?  Even though I disagreed with the timing I participated in the fast and had a great attitude and faith that we would have baptisms.

On our way back to our area from lunch we went into the store where my companion’s camera has been being worked on for the past 4 weeks. The camera still isn’t fixed but we are teaching the owners of the store now! The owner hasn’t been feeling well so we gave him a blessing and when we invited them to church later in the week he was feeling ALOT better!!

Thursday we went to yet another Dr's appointment haha. Since my glasses were stolen and I have NO clue what my prescription is, we had to get my eyes checked again and they dilated my eyes... Not a fun day!  I couldn’t see anything after the appointment and because my sunglasses were taken as well I had to have Elder Torres be my guide dog Haha

Friday was long, hard, but pretty fun! We woke up and went to help out a member. They are building a house for their daughter and soon to be son-in-law so we had to haul concrete for close to 3 1/2 hours.  I really liked it and worked hard! But my body has hated me since then but it felt great to work.  When we finished working we were supposed to have lunch for us at the church.  We were so hungry after all of that working but when we got to the church there was no food.  We called the lady that was supposed to feed us and she just said that she couldn’t do it.  That was a little rough haha but everything worked out and it was still a great day!

Service project for Adilson

 

Saturday we just walked and walked and walked and walked!! Our lunch was an hour and a half walk away from our house. Yeah, it was a little rough because after we ate lunch we had to walk back to walk back to the OTHER edge of our area to start teaching.  It was a great workout if not anything else.

I am staying in Jardim da Penha for one more transfer and hopefully I won’t have to be ETed again ha ha!  The blessings have started to roll and I really hope that they continue. I just need to remember my fear of God and to keep moving forward. The one song that has saved my life is Stand by Rascal Flatts. Anyone who is having a hard time with anything, look that up.  It helps even if you don’t like country! 

Eu amo Vocês!!

Amor Elder Stilson:)

 

Left is Elder Stilson & Isabel Weber (She is wearing high heels), Top right is Elder Stilson & Joao Henrique (He reminds X of Taeten), Bottom right is inside the Church in Elder Stilson's area.



Left is Elder Stilson & Adilson, Top right is Elder Stilson, Fernanda, Regina & Elder Torres, Bottom right is Regina having her dog Mel Honey fold her arms