Oi Família,

This week was a great week. We were able to accomplish most of our goals for teaching and passed some of our goals. I do not have alot of time to write so it will be a quick e-mail. This week we taught alot of lessons to many people and found 7 new people who want to hear more about the gospel. Sadly the problems we keep running into in our area is people not being married and people smoking,drinking, etc. We also are having a hard time getting people to church. But we are going to work on all those problems and hopefully get them resolved. The problem is getting people married is hard in Brasil because of the process they have to go through to get a marriage certificate. We also had a couple of service project oppurtunties this last week, one was helping put an older lady into a chair so that the other lady could give her a bath and then having to put her back into the bed. The other was helping a couple people with pushing their car out of the road because it died. It is getting really hot here and i am wishing the Brasil had air conditioning in their houses because all the have are fans that barely help at all. Luckily on Saturday and Sunday it rained a bit so it cooled down. Akready today it is really hot. Today we had a churrasco with a family here in our ward it was alot of fun but we spent so much time there that we don´t have as much time to write e-mails. Vanda who has a baptismal date is slowly getting rid of cigarretes, she was smoking 8 or more per day but now she is only to 4 and sometimes 5. We just have to help her stop and get her to church and she will be baptized. Terezinha and Valdir are still not too certain about marriage but we offered to help and they said they would pray about it and tell us the answer this week. On friday we met a family that had just moved into a less actives house. They were there to help the less active old lady because she has problems with her ankles. Only the wife is a member but she also is less active. They have 3 girls who are older than 8. We had a family home evening with them on Sunday and it went really well and the husband was asking alot of questions and was really interested in learning more. It looks like things will go well we just have to find out if they are married or not and also get them to chuirch. We had some really good cake that night.Yesterday was a good start to the week because we were able to teach quite a bit of lessons and also mark times to visit other investigators. We are going to work on getting the ward more involved in missionary work so it starts to go even faster and better. Today we went to go and take showers but our apartment didn´t have any water so we weren´t able to take a shower and we have to wait until tonight to take a shower. We also went and got our hair cut by a lady in the ward. Church was really good on Sunday and the bishop had me stand up in sacrament meeting to be introduced to the whole ward. He is a great bishop. The day before he was really sick and we had lunch with his family but he didn´t even eat but just layed in bed. He came out and asked us to give him a blessing. I got the oppurtunity to give him a blessing. It was great for it being my first time giving the blessing in portuguese and not just annointing with oil like the other times. On sunday i got to try a juice that had beats, carrots, and oranges, it was weird but good at the same time. I love this area and all is going well and we have many people to teach that i don´t even have time to describe them all and what we are teaching. Well i love you all very much and hope all is well back at home.

Love Elder Cefalo

October 4, 2011

Oi Família, As you all know i got tranfered. I am now in a city called Passo Fundo (Deep Step) my area is called Bosque (Grove) because there are 4 areas in the city of Passo Fundo. It is a great area that has mostly just houses and small markets and no banks. We have to go to the main city (out of our area) to use the bank and send e-mails. Luckily the small markets are usually cheaper than the big markets so it is not too bad to have small markets. Our are is small and our apartment is way small. My companion is Elder Nagliati (Na-glee-ah-chee). He is from São Paulo and only has 2 months on the mission, and since this is only his 2nd transfer i am technically his 2nd trainer. Our area is great and we have alot of people to teach. Right now we have 5 people with a marked baptismal date (Terezinha Valdir and their 2 kids and also Vanda). The only problems with the family is marriage which they need money for and Vanda just needs to stop smoking. We have many more people to teach we usually don´t have time to think of what to do next which is great. The lunches here so far have been really good. We have already had a couple family nights which are alot of fun. Not way too much happened this week other than getting to know the area and the people we are teaching. I have a felling it will be a great transfer. I am already loving this area and it has only been a week here. I hope i am still in the area for Christmas which is only three transfers away including this transfer. It is crazy how fast the time passes here on the mission. On saturday and sunday we got to watch Genral Conference all except Preishtood session. We got to watch a little bit of priesthood session on Sunday morning. Some weird/crazy things that have happened here in our area: Yesterday while we were walking to an appointment there was a random pig´s head laying on the sidewalk, that is also an idea of how clean this city is outside of the city part. It is not a dirty city but it is not clean like my last area.On Sunday when we were at the stake center before conference we turned on the piano to play it and it just started smoking and smelt like coffee in the church. Another crazy thing is i didn´t get to see our church (where our ward goes) until yesterday because we had to go and write down where all our lunches are. It is older than the one in Lajeado but alot bigger with a soccer/basketball court. On Saturday between the two sessions we were trying to visit a bunch of people and get back to the church. During that time we were able to visit 4 people and do a couple other things and get back to the church but we were basically running and doing quick visits the entire time. Also on Saturday a bunch of drunk people kept stopping us and having us do prayers with them it was kinda weird. I can barely understand what the drunk people are saying other than that i understand about 90% of what people say. I am starting to learn alot more Portuguese again since i have a Brazilian companion. He speaks pretty well in English and he understands alot of it. Oh another thing is the first day i was here our shower was broken so i had to take a cold shower and it was not fun at all. It is really hot here and our area has alot of hills so i am dying when i am climbing up all the hills. It is really hot already and it is only spring here. I will probably die during the summer. I hear that the South of Brasil is the hottest during the summer but also the coldest during the winter because of the humidity. Well i am loving my area and my companion and my mission. It is crazy it has almost been a year. I love you all very much and hope all is well back at home. Love Elder Cefalo

September 26, 2011

Oi Família,

Everything is well here in Brasil. I just got over a fever and sinus infection, i still have it a little bit but it is not too bad at all. I am not sure why i had bad luck with health the last two weeks of the transfer but i did. Well the big news for this week is that i am finally leaving Lajeado and will go to my second area in Brasil. I am not sure where it will be or who will be my companion but i am excited to go to a new city and see other things. As for what happened last week. . . On wednesday we got a big huge pot of carreteiro from the party on monday. We did a bit of cleaning on our house because it needed it. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find people. We found a couple people with some interest. Then we got a map from a member of how to get to a referral from him. We also found more less actives who moved or their house didnt exist. Then we went and visited Marroni and found out that he was no longer interested in learning about the gospel so we had to drop him. On thursday we had our district meeting like usual. Then we had a really good lunch at a members house that has an amazing view of the city of Lajeado. It was one of the best lunches i have had. Then we spent the afternoon making a mapa da vizinhança, which would be the map of the neighborhood. What we did is marked where all the members and investigators lived and also some potentials. It will help out alot so we can know where to go to do the best finding with members help. The we tried to visit a few people who weren´t home. Then we went to the market to get some things we needed at home. Then we went and had english class. We taught about how to talk about time using verbs. Then i got to teach the class how to sing "Once there was a Snowman". I looked really funny doing it but it was funnier to see the Brazilians doing it and singing it. It was alot of fun. We sadly didn´t have any investigators there so we talked about them getting investigators there or we will have to stop doing it. Then we had a meeting with our ward mission leader. Then on friday morning i woke up feeling absolutely horrible. I had a really high fever that started the night before and i was sweating really bad just sitting there although it was cold outside. We got money from a member for lunch because the forgot and we went to a churrascaria (bbq restuarant). Then i decided to try and do a couple visits so we visited Gessy and Lorena and taught them once again about baptism and then invited them to be baptized on the 15th of October and they accepted. It started raining and we didn´t have any rain supplies but Lorena letus borrow her umbrella. I almost passed out a couple times just wallking so we decided to go home and i took some medecine and slept. At night we were supposed to have family night with a investigator but they couldn´t come but we decided to go and have it with the members anyway. It went really well and they were glad we came. I still ws not doing to well so when i got home i took some medicine and tried to sleep but i couldn´t fall asleep because i wasn´t feeling to great. The next day we had to get a bus to go to lunch because it was far. Then after lunch we found a lady named Liane who seems really inerested. Then we got a ride back to the church to do an activity with the young men. It went well and we just talked about missionarys and mission things. Then we went and visted Gelci, a less active, and she said she was coming to church. Then we went and visited Vanderlei and Viviane and talked about church and they also said they were coming to church. I was still not doing to well so we went home early and i slept very well. Then on sunday i woke up still feeling horrible. We went to church and had 8 non members there including Thayla, Cleber, Vanderlei, Viviane, and their kids and also a couple people who don´t live in Lajeado. It was good and they all liked it. Then we went to lunch and it was churrasco, with a couple families from the ward. It went well but i was still feeling horrible so we went home and i just took medicine and slept. I also decided to fast for my health and so far my health is improving since yesterday so i know that fasting really helps in our lives. Wel that is it for this week. Love you all very much.

Love Elder Cefalo

September 21, 2011

Oi Família,

Not too much news for this last week. Last tuesday we had the baptism of a little girl in our ward named Camila. It went really well and we had a couple non members there including her dad. It is always great to see baptisms because it means another person who opens the gates to the Celestial Kingdom and will make it to the Celestial kingdom if they do what is right with all their force until the end. On wednesday we tried to visit a bunch of less actives to help with the ward attendance. We found out that alot of the houses didn´t exist or the people moved. We visited Marroni at night and he seemed like he was not very interested in baptism anymore we tried to get him excited again but it didn´t really work too much. We also visited Vanderlei and Viviane and their kids were there as well. Vanderlei said he started to read the Book of Mormon as well as their 9 year old daughter Kauane. It was great and the only sad part of the lesson is that we found out the need to get married before they can be baptized, which getting married in Brasil takes a long time to get paperwork and everything done. But they definately are progressing and i am sure one day they wil be baptized. On thursday we went to a churrasco (BBQ) place in Estrela with one of the members. It was really good. We also had English class at night, which was really fun because we taught them the song "head shoulders knees and toes" and had each of them do it individually in front of everyone else there. Then we had our meeting with our ward mission leader and he gave us alot of really good ideas to try working with the ward. As for friday we had lunch with the Bishop and his family, it was really good. Sadly that day my toe was hurting really bad. It had been hurting a little bit for awhile but i thought it was just because of walking so much. I found out it was another ingrown toenail and on the same toe. So i had to go looking for a foot doctor, we had to go to Estrela to find one that had time for us. He took it out and it was about 3 times bigger than the last one. He cauterized it so that i supposedly should not get another ingrown toenail and also gave me some cream to be putting on top of my toenail. He also put a bandage/cast on it to keep it protected. I had to stay in the night, saturday, and sunday and until there was no pain according to Sister Pavan. I had to use sandals on Saturday to got to lunch but luckily we got a ride there and back from members. On sunday we had church and i wore regular shoes but it was killing my toe. Cleber, Francine, Thayla and a friend of Camila who was baptized were at church. Then we had lunch and luckily it was close to our apartment so i didn´t have to walk to far. The whole time staying in the house all i did was read scriptures and watch The Testaments and Preach My Gospel DVD´s. On sunday night we visited João and Camila and we watched The Testaments with them and tlked a bit about the Book of Mormon. On monday my toe was still not doing to great so we didn´t do anything until the night. We went and helped with a ward activity since it was a holiday yesterday and they were celebrating it the night before. It was Gáucho day which is the day when all the people from Rio Grade do Sul (the state that my mission is in) celebrates for being a state and no longer being owned by Portugal or something like that. The celebrate it by having a big party the night before and then spend all day at home on the holiday. At the ward activity they had a dinner, and a dance group came an did a bunch of dances. It was alot of fun but we didn´t get to stay for it all because it went past 9:30 which is our time to e home. It was alot of fun. Yesterday everything was closed since it was a holiday and that is why i am e-mailing today. Well that is about all that has happened this week. Love you all.

Love Elder Cefalo

September 13, 2011

Oi Família! Another pretty great week this last week. On last wednesday we went to Estrela and had to help Cleber, a member from our ward, move the Wizard. (The Wizard is a place where the teach English and it was created by a returned missionary here in Brasil, they supposedly are the best at teaching English). We moved it from a small office space to a big house that was a couple blocks of way. It was alot of work but fun. We had churrasco (BBQ) for lunch which is always great to have. Then on thursday we got invited to a local school to teach about the United States and our culture and also American views on Brasil. It went really well other than people kept asking weird questions. Then we also had English class at night. We had a couple more people there this time but it was still just all members so we told them they need to invite their friends soon or we might have to hold it off for awhile. We taught them about the alphabet and all the pronunciations, it is really fun to teach others how to speak English but they sound funny for the first few tries on one word. On Friday we had to go to Santa Cruz to have a special meeting with President Pavan and the assistants. It went well. We all recieved one portable DVD player to use for companionship study because we have Preach My Gospel DVD´s that teach about a bunch of missionary techniques like planning teaching with the Holy Ghost and a bunch of other things. It is kinda crazy that we have DVD players but they are just for studying not for having fun except on P-day we can watch church movies but only after we get everything done like cleaning, e-mail, etc. On friday i also got my package that had the new shoes and candy and shirts. It was great to finally get the package. The shoes fit great and they are really comfortable, way better than the other ones i had. Well on saturday we did a bunch of walking with plans falling left and right and having to come up with plans as we go along. Sunday went pretty well. Cleber and Thayla came to church. It was testimony meeting since last week was stake conference. Cleber got up and bore his testimony about how he knew the church was true. He sadly is still not baptized but it is because he doesn´t want to get baptized until his mom wants to get baptized as well. It is alot of work trying to get him baptized but he definately will someday. We also found out there would be a ward baptism today and so we are having to help out with a bunch of things. Yesterday we had to walk an hour to lunch and it was way hot like it has been for about a week now. We went and walked about another hour and taught the girl that is going to be baptized today since she is 8 and the bishop wanted us to go and explain about baptism and everything. Then we taught Francine at the church and it went well but she is still not 100% ready to accept baptism. Then at night we had dinner with Paloma and Evandro and it was really good. Well this week was long and crazy and we were running around alot but it went really well. Love you all very much! Love Elder Cefalo :)

Tuesday September 6, 2011

Oi Família!
This week was pretty good. It was a busy week but definately it went good. We were able to finally teach Thayla at her house and she asked alot of questions about our church and we just made sure she didn´t have anymore questions or even any doubts. She ended up asking how she could become a member and we talked about baptism. She seemed really interested so when we visit her again tomorrow we are going to try and mark a baptismal date. We finally got to teach english class this last week. It went pretty well but it was just 3 people and they all were members. We taught them how to pray in English. It went pretty well but was funny to hear them try to speak English. On friday we taught Marroni about Baptism and he told us he was reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted to be baptized on the 17th. He is doing really well and progressing. On saturday we basically didn´t get anything done because there was a party and parade all weekend because tomorrow is Independence Day here in Brasil. We ended up getting home early and cleaning the house. As for sunday we had stake conference in Montenegro which is about 1 hour and a half away. We had to ride on a bus with all of the ward members. We had Thayla and Cleber come with us. It was really good and the temple president and President Pavan were there with their wives and they talked. It was really good. Well i know this is short but not too much more happened and also we don´t have much time today because we are in estrela at the Wizard and it only has two computers to share for 4 Elders. Just know i love you all and that all is going well.
Love Elder Cefalo
P.S. I will send some pictures next week since i don´t have time today. :)

Tuesday August 30, 2011

Oi Família,This week was a good week other than the rainy and cold weather towards the end of the week. Last P-day at night we had a family home evening type of thing with Paloma and Evandro. It was really fun and we played a couple games and had popcorn because Brazilians love to eat popcorn with seasoning for meat or with sugar or just a bunch of other things. Then on wednesday we had meetings at night and set up thursdays, starting this thursday, to do English class at night. The ward is really liking that idea since we have two american missionaries. Then we also set up a program called Book of Mormon program which is where every sunday we bring 2 copies of the Book of Mormon and two members from a specific group dedicate a Book of Mormon and give to us to take to that person. Then on thursday we took a bus for my first time inside the city of Lajeado. We went to an area that is an hour and a half away. We visited a lady that called us and wanted us to visit but it was kind of a waste of time because she didn´t want to read the Book of Mormon or even go to church. But we visited her because we promised we would. Then at night we went to the church and taught the young women how to make cookies. They wanted to see an american do it so that they didn´t do it wrong, because they don´t make cookies here in Brasil they just buy them from the store. Then we also visited Marroni and got him to start reading the Book of Mormon. Then on friday we did alot of finding and found a new lady to teach named Noeli, she seems pretty interested but it is going to be some work. Then we also visited Cleber and Vali, his mom, and taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of baptism. We invited them to be baptized and Vali said she was not ready because she is not sure if her husband will be alright with it and etc. She said if Cleber wanted he could be baptized but for some reason he still doesn´t want to be baptized. We told him to write down his doubts or questions and next time we come by we can dicuss them all. On saturday we did alot of finding as well and we found a couple potential investigators, one of them was a referral that the Azevedos gave us and we are going to visit them tonight. On sunday only Cleber came to church but that is because Francine got in a small motorcycle accident so she couldn´t really come but she is planning on coming this week although it is stake conference in another city. It also was raining all day and night on sunday. At night we visited João and Camila and had dinner and talked, the Elders from Estrela were also there. We also met a man who speaks english and was talking to us mostly in English it was funny. Yesterday we got 3 referals from members and also visited 2 others that we had recieved from last week. It is going good in the ward and we are starting to get a few referrals and also finding other people through their help which is great. Well that is about all for my week except i don´t remember what day exactly but i hit my back while i was trying to get onto the bottom bunk bed and i scratched it up pretty good and it was hurting the whole next day while my backpack was rubbing up against it. Well that is it i believe. Love you all vey much. Até semana que vem.Love Elder Cefalo