Oi Família

Well this was a pretty good week. I am enjoying it here in Bosque. We planned an activity here in the ward that is going to be alot of fun. It is like a game show. There is going to be alot of things that the members have to do like races and treasure hunts and quizzes and puzzles and etc. On wednesday we were searching for a recent converts house that was outside of our area, but has permission to go to our ward. While we were searching for his house a man about 23 years old offered to help us. While he was helping us he said we had to give him money because he was helping us. All i had was a 20 but he said we would go into the market and trade it. Well he ended up stealing the 20 reais because he kept saying the market would trade him. We tried to convince him to give it back but he wouldn´t. He didn´t even help us find the street we had to ask another man who helped us with his GPS. Then we didn´t have time to go there because we had an appointment so we had to take a bus to get back close to our appointment. Our appointment was with Terezinha and she ended up telling us she didn´t want to hear about the church anymore and also she said she wouldn´t go to church again because her husband doesn´t want to go. She said she knew the church was true but if her husband didn´t want to go then she wouldn´t either. Then we visited Vanda and we talked about preisthood blessing and we offered to give her one to help with the smoking habit and she said yes. She picked me to give it although my portuguese is still not the best. Then we had to go and help and brother in our ward, Paulo França, pick up a glass door and some windows. The door was huge and very heavy we needed 5 people to carry it and load it in the truck. Elder Nagliati ended up loosing his name tag and we went back but the family was no longer home. Then that night we had dinner with Mareci which was really good especially dessert. Luckily for Elder Nagliati his new name tags arrived the next day. Thursday not much happened and we were trying the whole day to get lessons but no one was home or didn´t have time. On thursday night i made pancake mix (homemade) and also made some homemade bread. We ate the bread that night and pancakes the next morning and they both were really good. On Friday we spent most of the day finding new people to teach. We found alot of people with potential. We also ended up going outside of our area without knowing because we don´t have a map of our area and all the areas in Passo Fundo are close. How we found out we were outside of our area is that while we were doing a contact with a family the son who answered the door asked us if our message talked about Joseph Smith seeing God and Jesus Christ and translating the Book of Mormon. We were shocked at first but then he laughed and told us the were members of another ward. The boys name was Joseph and his brothers name was Hyrum. It was funny. But their dad told us the boundaries between our ward and theirs. That night we ended up going back to the families house where Elder Nagliati lost his name tag and they had it and we asked to share a message. They were really interested when we were talking about the Book of Mormon and told us to come back. They are cousins of Paulo França. On saturday we were able to teach quite a few lessons and also Jussara who told us she didn´t want to hear more about the church let us teach her again and she said she received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true and she also wants to go to church this next week. We also found a less active member who was a Sister and served a mission in Brasil. She went less active because here husband doesn´t believe in any religious type thing. We were talking to her and her daughter, who is not a member, but the dad came home and wanted us to leave. On sunday sadly we had another week without investigators at church but a member brought 3 of her friends (all 14 and younger) and we set up times to visit them this week. We also got a new ward mission leader. I had to give my talk about the blessings of fasting. While i was giving my talk it got really hot because i was using a suit and it was a hot day. I was in the middle of my talk and i almost fainted so i hurried and bore my testimony and sat down. It was a bit embarrasing but at least i know have a good story about my first talk in portuguese. On monday we were able to find 3 new people to teach. At lunch the mother had to leave but asked that i give a blessing for her 3 year old daughter. In the middle of the blessing i forgot what the problem was and she wouldn´t stay still so i had to make iot quick but it went well. Then we met a friend of one of the members here and she said she would love to hear more and also that she is going to try to go to church this week with Mara (the member). One of the people we found to teach knew quite abit about the church because her ex-husband was a member and her son who lives with her parents-in-law goes to a different ward. We ended up teaching about the Plan of Salvation because she was asking all the questions that the Plan of Salvation answers. She really liked it and even cried. She asked us to give her a blessing because she was having heart problems. I had to give a blessing again because for some reason Elder Nagliati didn´t want to give the blessing. It was probably the best blessing i have given in portuguese altough it was only my 4th time. Yesterday we also got good news the Vanda finally want to go and visit church this sunday. She won´t be able to be baptized this month but it is still possible this transfer. Yesterday was raining alot but lately it is really hot here. I am having to use Sunscreen everday so i don´t get burned. Well this week seems like it will be another great week. All is going well here in Brasil and i am loving it here in Bosque. Love you all.

Love Elder Cefalo

October 18, 2011

Oi Família!

We had a really good and successful week this last week. This is a really good area and i love it. Last week we were able to get alot of lessons taught more than i have taught in one week since i arrived here in Brasil. We are planning to have even more this week. We also are planning on marking quite a few baptismal dates this week. Vanda is still on for being baptized on the 30th she just has to go to church and stop smoking. She has a goal to only smoke 2 cigarettes a day this week and next week 0! She is a great lady and knows the church is true her only problem is smoking. Sadly Terezinha and Valdir still have to get married along with quite a few of our investigators. We also are having problems getting our investigators to church so we are going to focus on that this week. Last week on Wednesday we found out that two of our new investigators were actually less active members, which was crazy. We also found a less active member who owns her own church now. Also on Wednesday we went and helped the Alves family build onto their house. The are adding a couple rooms and also making the kitchen bigger. It was a holiday (Dia das Crianças= Children´s day but the real holiday is Nossa Senhora Parecida=Celebrating the virgin Mary they just came up with another reason to celebrate because not everyone is catholic) so they didn´t have work. We had to help made cement and a bunch of other things like sift rocks out of dirt to make the stuff the use to but bricks on top of other bricks. It was alot of work. It was fun and everything but the next few days i was feeling really sore. On my one year mark when we were going to visit an investigator we were passing a rest home and we saw an old man just pull down his pants and start peeing. It was funny and luckily we didn´t see anything. That night we did a missionary tradition here in Brasil and burned an old whit shirt. It was alot of fun. It was raining off and on all week. On friday we were doing a fast for our zone and it ended up being our best day of the week. We were able to teach 6 lessons and find some new people to teach. On Saturday it was really hot in the morning and while we were in the middle of teaching a lesson about 5 o´clock it just started pouring rain. It stopped for a bit so we left and started walking and it started pouring rain again. We had nothing with us and the house was far away so we had to walk in the rain and we got soaked until we got back to the house. It rained from about 6 o´clock until 10 o´clock nonstop. We were soaked from head to toe. On Sunday we only had one investigator at church and it is a little girl named Ana Vitoria whose grandma is a member but she hasn´t been baptized because she has a fear of water. The bishop gave me an assignment to speak this Sunday and it will be the first time i am giving a talk here in Brasil in Portuguese so that should be fun. Tonight we are going to visit a family that we have been teaching, that really liked when we talked about the Restoration, and invite them to be baptized. The are a great family and the mom is already a member she is just less active but she is interested in returning to church with her husband and 3 daughters. Well we are having alot of success and i am loving it here in Brasil. All is going great as i hope it is at home. Love you all.

Love Elder Cefalo :)

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 :)