Who wants Jesus?! I do!! Mission week 12; Area--Asa Sul

 

Welcome to another wonderful week and more info about life on the mission. Sooo much has happened these past few days, lets dive in.

Transfers:

First up, I've arrived at transfers, second in field one technically, and I get to stay in Asa Sul! It's awesome here so I'm thankful for that. Elder Porter, though, is being transferred to a different area, but he's going to be a district leader in his new area so it'll be great for him. My next comp will be Elder França from Rio, so my first Brasilian companion, this next transfer is gonna be awesome. 

Who wants Jesus?

My comp and I have been doing a lot more contacts with people recently, but we still haven't beat his record of 35 within 15 minutes. How'd that work out, you might ask, I'll tell you. He found this group of somewhat drunk people and just went around asking people, "who wants Jesus?" "Do you love Jesus? I love Jesus. You want to talk about Jesus?" And he got like a bunch of numbers and addresses from it, and someone even ended up getting baptized so it worked out in the end. 

Menu:

Not much as far as new food, but the food here is always good, nothing to complain about at all. Protein powder and frosted flakes is goated, I will say that. 

The work:

So how about we talk about some miracles, huh? I love Asa Sul, but it is a different (read somewhat difficult) area to work in. It's pretty much like America but in Portuguese. It's not as easy to make contacts, about half the people you talk to turn you away, and about a half of those who let you talk to them won't answer their phone or give a wrong address, but the other half are like awesome. These last two weeks we've really put in the work to talk with everyone we walk by and everyone on the bus and just the whole world. And as we've put in the work, we've met some really really wonderful people. (See more in people, ofc.) The point is, this is God's work, and to quote Jeffrey R. Holland, what Jesus needs is, "are disciples—and [He] need them forever. [He] need[s[ someone to feed [His] sheep and save [His] lambs. [He] need[s] someone to preach [His] gospel and defend [His] faith. [He] need[s] someone who loves [Him], truly, truly loves [Him], and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned [Him] to do." The only thing we need is to be those disciples in His work, and it'll all work out in the end.

People:

Okay so awesome people incoming. Verlandio is still just as awesome, and he has such a testimony of the church and the Book of Mormon and knows he needs to be baptized. God really put us in his life exactly when he needed us. And then Katharyna, too. She has a baptism date this upcoming Sunday and is just so excited to be a part of the church and to make that promise with God. Ana and Antônio that we met a while back are still going to church and Ana is really liking the church. It's just wonderful to be able to meet these people and help them know our Savior. 

Spiritual thought:

Okay so this week my thought is gonna be just a little bit different. This week I just want to talk about the absolute blessings of being a missionary and all of the miracles and Spiritual moments I've had so far. Yall, there's a lot. One of the absolutely best feelings ever is when you teach someone how to pray, and they say a prayer to our Father in Heaven for the first time in their lives: it is absolutely one of the most touching moments I've ever had. To hear this 55 year old man pray for the first time, talk to his Father, and be so thankful for all that he has been given in his life. And then one of the other best moments I've had on my mission is when someone accepts to be baptized, and you just know, that they know, that they are doing the thing that they've been missing for so long. That they've found the true church, that has the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that they will be a part of that church, too. And just those two things have happened at least once in this past week alone. It is such a blessing to teach someone something about their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that they may have known, but hadn't truly come to realize, hadn't acknowledged that all Christ did truly is for them as well. The prophet Joseph Smith said that a man full of the love of the Gospel of Christ is not just content with bring his family to the truth, but won't be content until he has preached to everyone, and I can understand why. The revelation given to Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 18 spells out exactly why: "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" (D&C 18:15-16). This work is a joyous work. There is no end to the love God will grant you as you serve Him and His children. Em fim, as Ammon in Alma 26 spoke (and I paraphrazed slightly), God is like awesome yall, I have joy, because God is a God of never-ending joy. Because He loves His Children! And I love y'all too! Have a wonderful week! 

Until Monday!

 

Look at you, you little piece of art! Mission week 11; Area--Asa Sul

 

Another wonderful week has past, and never short of adventures. Still short on capybaras, though, no luck yet. Uhhh hold the phone. Cross that out. We found capybaras. I wrote that about an hour ago and we have since went out to find them and we found them. It was awesome. They are just as chill as people say they are. 

News:

Another new wonderful week has gone by here in mostly sunny Brasil! What a time to be alive if I do say so myself, and I sure do. Another division, 3 baptismal dates, and half of a small town contacted later, and we're still going. This week has been a week full of work and miracles fo shizzle. It turns out that if you work and do you love best to do your part, God will to the rest and you will be blessed. Apart from all of the work down in Asa Sul, we also had another successful division, but this time I still went to São Sebastião, but was there with another newer missionary. (He only has one more transfer (six weeks) than I do.) But it went really well, eventually.

The work:

So this week was one of our best weeks yet, aside from the fact we didn't have a baptism. The rest of everything else, off the charts. It was like awesome. We found a lot of really wonderful people to start teaching and helping and have been able to help so many people that we already have been working with. Like mark a baptismal date with a bus contact and bring the gospel and friends to a dog walker (More about those in People). These overall lesson in all of this week's work is you just have to talk to the entire world, there isn't any way around it as a missionary: it's what you're here for. 

People:

First thing first, shout out to Irmão Ricardo, he is the absolute goat. He went out teaching with us three times this week to 8 different lessons. It's a blessing to have his testimony, thoughts, and insights as we teach and talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ because he is also a convert and so he understands what it's like to be in our investigators shoes. For example: we have this absolutely awesome investigator named Verlandio. He is awesome. We contacted him on the bus right about as we got off and when I messaged him later, he said he'd love to have us over for a visit. Great! That very first lesson we taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the spirit was so strong in the lesson that we asked if he'd like to be baptized and he said yes. It was just an incredible experience. We've taught him a lot since then and then when he came to church he loved it too. And it's only been a week! And then an few days later we met a lady who was walking her little puppy (he's six months old and adorable) and we talked with her on the street some and then a few times through out the week. She already knew a little about the church and when she went to church yesterday she said it was exactly what she was looking for. Her name is Katarynah (it took us a while to figure out how to spell her name) and she also speaks English. (So many people her in Asa Sul do.) But it has just been an amazing week. 

Milagresssss:

So like, I've really come to realize that everything we're able to do as missionaries really is just because of God. We can talk to as many people as we want, and as many people as we may talk to might reject us or push us aside, but all of the good we do here is just because of the love of God in all of the people. God does bless His children.  

Menu:

Arabian burrito? We got shwarma yall, and Iron Man was right, it hit the spot. Also pita chips and fries, twas absolutely delicious. 

Spiritual thought:

Okay, now to talk about the miraculous piece of art that is 🎇✨️YOU✨️🎇!! I was reading a talk given by a mission President titled "The Fourth Missionary." by Lawrence E. Corbridge in June of 2002. In the talk he addressed four different types of missionaries that exist. The first is like an awful, disobedient, Commandment breaking missionary, and the fourth missionary is wholly dedicated, does all that God asks of him, and truly serves his mission. At the beginning of the beginning of the talk he asks this question: "What will be your greatest work? What will be your most important creation?" And shortly thereafter responds with the following: "Your greatest work: your most important creation is and will ever be you. What kind of person will

you become? By this I do not mean what role in life will you take. I don't mean will you be a cowboy, lawyer, surfer,

homemaker, engineer, computer programmer, accountant or the like. I do not refer to what kind of car you will drive;

what kind of clothes you will wear; what kind of house you will live in; what kind of spouse you will marry or what kind

of family will you raise. I mean, when all of that is removed and there you stand alone, who will you be? I mean, you." Truly, without a doubt, our greatest work is ourselves. The only person who we are constantly with. Whom we never get a break from. He went on to say that we have to plan and envision for our greatest creation. We have to be the one at the contro center of our own life. We decide whether to follow the commandments our not. We decide whether to be consecrated missionaries or not. We decide whether to be a disciple of Christ or a disciple of the enemy of all good. That decision, every decision, is wholly laid upon us. He then laid out the very many choices we can make, in a few main sections: Do you want to be powerful or weak?

Certain and confident, or afraid and insecure?

Comfortable with your self or arrogant and abrasive?

Do you want to be filled with light or darkness?

Do you want to have peace or conflict within?

Selfish or generous?

Influential or inconsequential?

Do you want to be free or be a slave?

Happy or miserable?

Do you want to be kind and loving, or mean and cruel?

Honest or dishonest?

Do you want to be forgiving or hard and unforgiving?

Knowledgeable or ignorant?

Do you want to be a person of faith or doubt and fear?

Trustworthy or unreliable?

Hardworking or lazy?

Do you want to be cheerful or despondent?" The choice is up to us. Make like a Jedi and follow the path of light, yall. It's a whole lot better. All in all, make good choices. It sure makes God a whole lot happier. Because He loves you! And I love yall too! Have a wonderful next week!

With love and gratitude for life,

-Elder Hyatt

2+2=6: 2026! Mission week 10; Area---Asa Sul

 New week and a new year?! Time sure flies like a clock thrown out the window for sure. 

It's a new year: the year that I shall be a missionary for the whole year, crazy! And a good year it will be for sure!

News: 

What's there to tell? A lot, that's what. We started a whole new year, did another division (it worked out this time, no hospital visits!), and we made bagels. It's been a good week yall. 

USA is still better:

So Brasil likes its fireworks, that's for sure. During soccer games, Christmas, NEW YEARSSSSS 🎆🎇, and as cool as they are here, I do think we've got em beat just a bit in the firework section. Although people here sure do like setting fireworks off until very early in the morning, despite whether people, or missionaries, want to sleep or not. Buuut, it definitely was cool to get to experience the culture of Brasil with Christmas and New Years and how the people here celebrate. 

Capybara:

Randomly this morning my companion's mom suggested we go look for capybaras today, so that's what we're gonna do! There's definitely perks in having a big area, and being in the Capitol city surrounded by water: there's places to find capybaras, and alligators, and anacondas, so we'll see how it goes. 

People:

Uhhhh, so how about families? Cuz that's what we've got. We've been teaching this one family, the parents are like 60s and their son is almost 40, for about a week now and they've been just awesome. We met the dad, Antônio on Christmas night, just walking around bringing cookies to people, and he was super open to talking with us. Then a few days after that we went by where he lives (he's the caretaker of an apartment building so he's always home haha) and we met his wife, who, during the first lesson, asked us where our church is because she wanted to go. How about yes? And then as we kept visiting them we met their son, who has a kidney problem and so he's waiting for a kidney transplant, but is just so optimistic about his life and loves visiting with us: this family has been wonderful. And then when they came to church this past Sunday for the first time, they just loved it. And then we're still teaching a family that we've been teaching for a while here, and they do really like the gospel. I smell baptism coming up...

Menu:

Bagels are good. Protein shakes are good, too. Also, I ate so much food on New Years day: members are very very willing to give Elders food, so I'm thankful for that. 

The work:

So like I said earlier, we did another division that actually worked out this time, thank goodness. I did still go over to São Sebastião, but this time Elder Oliveria stayed there with me. Elder Oliveria is from São Paulo and has a sister mission and almost a month: so just about 19 months. We had a full day, and then most of it fell, but we still did what we could. As we went about the day, we didn't always know who we were gonna visit, or when, but we knew what we were going to do. Why? Because we had made goals for the day. We knew how many contacts we were going to make, and how many lessons we were going to try to teach. I asked him what was one lesson that really changed his mission up to that point. And he talked about goals. In our mission we have 7 goals set by Presidente Santos. 5 out of the 7 are in our control, the other 2 are in our control. It's up to us to set goals daily to reach those weekly goals, and then we have to work to reach those goals, its up to us. (More in spiritual thought)

Spiritual thought:

What better is there to talk about than goals and plans for this new year's email? More goals and plans! But first, the birthday mentality: the best way to think y'all. My companion told me to think like every day is your birthday and God wants to give us gifts on our birthday so we just have to find the gifts. That's about that. Back to plans. Like Elder Oliveria talked about, those goals were set by Presidente Santos, through revelation, so by revelation, we are promised that we can achieve those goals as long as we do our part. And when we do our part, outing forth our effort, God will, in turn, do His part because he wants to bless us. He truly wants to bless His Children, and we're His children. As we enter into this new year and make plans and goals, if we seek revelation from God in setting those goals, we will be able to achieve them. When we have parts of our goals that are outside our control, if we do our part, God will do the rest. Because He loves us! And I love yall too!

With much love,

-Elder Hyatt

Music Man, Papai Noel (Santa), and Bees. Mission week 9; Area---Asa Sul

 Goooood new week to everyone!

What a week it has been, my goodness. But as always, what I wonderful week it has been as well. Between Christmas, two hospital trips, and 100+ cookies, it's been an adventure to say the least. 

Primeira coisa: Christmasssss

First Christmas as a missionary and away from home, but it was pretty great to say the least. A big tradition here in Brasil is to have like the big Christmas meal around 11-12 pm, and then to open their gifts right as Christmas comes around. So obviously we couldn't go to any members houses that evening, so we just celebrated in our house. I made a little Christmas tree for us to put our gifts and whatnot under, and then around 10pm we made crepes and played Skull king, it was a fun night, even if I did loose, Presidente said we could stay up to talk with family and celebrate. Buuut, come Christmas day, it just got better. We ended up making about 100 cookies (and then some), to give out to people that we were teaching, members, new members, and just about anyone we saw on the street. It was wonderful seeing their eyes light up cuz who doesn't love cookies and a message about Christ on Christmas. It was kind of like being like Santa. 

Bees?

The very next day, my companion and I did a division with the Zone Leaders, which pretty just means the zone leaders split us up, one of them comes to our area and the other stays in their area and one of us goes there. Soooo, I got to spend the day in São Sebastião with Elder Da Cruz, one of the Zone Leaders, and Elder Porter stayed here in Asa Sul with Elder Oliveria. The sad thing for me though, was that Elder Da Cruz was like dying, he felt so sick. He slept until lunch, then after lunch we spent pretty much the rest of the day in the Hospital, not awful though because I got to study a lot of the Book of Mormon in Portuguese, awesome. Buuuut, while we were at the hospital, Sister Santos, the wife of the mission President, started calling and asking about the other Elders going to the hospital cuz they got stung by bees. And a lot of them. Pretty much a whole beehive of bees went after them and they both got stung a bunch and had to go to the hospital. So, all in all, it was an adventure of a day for the four of us. 

The Music Man:

Michael Jackson anyone? Not in Brasil, at least that's what I thought. I got to church on Sunday and there was this member who started talking to us in English, but like with and American accent. Come to find out, he is American, born and raised in Hollywood. He served a mission here way back when, and married a Brazilian. As he was talking about his life as a professional musician, he told us that he had worked on the Book of Mormon cartoons, stuff for Bible videos, and was Michael Jackson's music director. Like just such a random person to meet in Asa Sul, and he had wonderful insights into missionary work, too. 

The work:

Speaking of the work it has been amazing. We've been able to talk with and teach so many people this past week, especially because it had been Christmas time. One thing that we told a lot of people, is that we need to keep our focus on Christ and His Atonement throughout the entire year, not just at Christmas or Easter. Those times of year are incredible and the gift to be able to celebrate the significance of these events with family and with loved ones is incredible as well. Just having this opportunity to be a full time servant of the Lord is incredible without description. (More in my spiritual thought.)

People:

So Brasil is like awesome yall. If there's one place I'd live other than the Grand Ol' US of A it'd be Brasil just cuz of the people, some of them at least. One thing that is just awesome about the people here is that no one ever turns away a prayer. If you ask if you can pray with them or for them real quick they almost always say yes, and it's such a blessing to be able to pray so many times throughout the day with so many people. We have this one lady who we've now started teaching just because we asked if we could pray with her. And there's this family we're teaching, who should get baptized soon, who are just always so excited to have us over and the first thing they always ask to do is to have us pray for them. That aside, the other people we've been teaching have been awesome as well, and it's never without a story. There's this one guy, who's not a member of the church but his brother is and the brother who's a member has a daughter serving a mission in Italy and so the brother is excited to have us over because he knows more or less what we do since his niece is serving and he's excited about the church. 

Menu:

A lot. 

Spiritual thought:

Something that I've really come to realize is just the magnitude of my calling as a missionary and as a disciple of Christ. In light of the passing of Jeffery R. Holland, I had been listening to his talks, and one that really stuck out to me was his talk titled The First Great Commandment from October of 2012. He recounts the story of shortly after the Savior's death, the disciples decide to just go back to fishing, and, after a long night of nothing but water and not a fish in sight, they see a figure standing on the shore. The figure then calls out, "And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find." (John 21:6) With nothing more than a few words from their Master and Savior, they immediately realize who had called to them, and did as commanded. They then were unable to retrieve their nets due to the vast multitude of fishes. (153, they counted.) The Savior then asked to Peter, "lovest thou me, more then these?" Peter was of course quick to respond, saying " yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee." He, the Resurrected all knowing Savior of all mankind, asked Peter again the same question, drawing the same reply. And yet again, He asked, for the third time, and for the third time Peter's response was just the same. In reply to this, Jesus spoke the words, "Feed my sheep." Elder Holland gave his own commentary on perhaps how Jesus may have responded, saying: "What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter, for the second and presumably the last time, I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.” Elder Holland later then commented on the fact that nothing ever will be the same, nor was meant to be the same, after hearing and knowing the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is meant to change and to better people, and it is meant to be preached to every human creature on the Earth. It is this following promise given in Doctrine and Covenants section 90 verse 11 that missionaries are called: "For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ." Every person will have a chance to hear the majesty that is the plan of our Heavenly Father for all of His children, that is His promise to us. He just needs disciples, people to feed His sheep. That's why every missionary world wide is doing what he or she is doing, to help this great work move along: they're putting their shoulders to the wheel, and they're pushing along. (Hymn 252.) Because they love their God, and God loves each and every one of them. And you guys too! 

With much love and happiness and prospect for a new year to come,

-Elder Hyatt

Elder Holland's talk: 

The First Great Commandment

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment?lang=eng