welp another week já era. we have about another week and a half of this transfer but we still have tons of things left to do before that happens. we hopefully have 5 baptisms this week. were preparing a family of 4 for this sunday. were hoping that everything goes well. last saturday me and elder custer had a "special" fast for them. we thought it was fast sunday but apparently its this weekend so well call that a special fast. we wanted people in church to be able to baptize. the entire family of 4 went to church and we even had 4 others. 2 that want to be baptized the week after. they went to church with their aunt for the first time and now want to be baptized. its easy to see how the Lord is blessing us here in our area. were working working working but are def having problems finding new people. boom members bring people to church or we find someone that is really good. were marking baptisms and running all over the place. were def working a lot. everyone were teaching are actually progessing in the gospel. weve taught very little first lessons because of this. sometimes we dont even have time to look for new people because were teaching our investigators. we have to prepare them all for baptism really really soon. were having a lot of fun here. were working a lot with the members and the young men. weve been challenging all the members to give us at least one reference. we went to one last night and its a family with 5 new investigators and they all wanna go to church on sunday. the young men are leaving with us. it s a great opportunity to show them how the mission is and to get them excited to leave soon. i should have taken more advantage of that when i was home. but now im living it so its all good. this ward is really getting excited. we see members like everwhere we go and theyre always asking how the work is going. always willing to help. i know were gonna have a ton of success here. everything just seems to be falling into place. the lord has def prepared this area for us to come at this exact time. we just need to keep working and doing our best. ive def gained a lot more confidence here. just talk and the lord will help you. its as easy as that. ive seen my portugues getting a lot better. its not even a problem anymore. the mission is such a great experience. ive learned that you just need to make it fun. thats the key to success. if youre not having fun then somethings wrong because fun is apart of the work. you just cant live for 2 years without fun. smile and live life to the fullest even in hard times. this area isnt easy. its probably actually the hardest area ive worked in but God knows our hearts desires and our willingness and has really helped us. im glad the trip to Florida was good. dad im down with going to universal studios. haha. and congrats on the sale. mom id send you our high 80s weather everyday but im pretty sure thats not possible. i just hope that one day it cools down. everything goes well here. we have a multi zone meeting on thursday and next wednesday well go to the temple. enjoy the blessings of the Lord because theyre always there. Count your many blessings. i love this song. anyways have an amzing week!!!!

lots of love

elder desanti III

P days ending i gotta throw in this email real quick. but i do have an excuse. we were at the temple this morning and we never really had time to use email. the temple was great like always. we had the opportunity to do sealings. it really makes you think about how many blessings we can actually receive from the Lord. that families really are together forever and that everything is possible if we are righteous to the Lords commands. this week has been so crazy trying to do everything possible. this week will be even more crazy trying to close everything before the transfer. last week we baptize the family of 3: cantuara alinee and leandro. mom sister brother. a really great family that ill have to tell you about next week. alinees bf ending up not being baptized for reasons unknown but were gonna work with him to get him baptized this sunday. we also have jhenifer and lorrana cousins who are the nieces of a member here in the ward. they are super excited to be baptized and are understanding and enjoying everything that we teach them. we also have ofelia who is like our grandma. she really loves the church and believes in the bom. she was already baptized once and is not sure if she needs to be baptized again. i really want to write more but ive kinda run out of time. we have our english class tonight and were really hoping itll bring us more investigators. but if not its fun to teach english anyways. i think i might try teaching in the mtc like dad did. it would def be a great experience but right now i still have a lot left to do here in Brasil. thank you guys for the love and support and the birthday wish mom. wish a happy birthday for Cassie. youre the best cassie! ill make sure to write a super long email next week telling everything and send some birthday cards to everyone. i love you guys so much. the mission may be hard sometimes but its worth every moment and i know itll only make me strong. remember the Savior in your lives. I know He lives.

 

elder de santi III

Feb 15, 2012

Boa dia America

man where to even start...another crazy week of the mish. we had some crazy hot days and some days where it just poured. i have no idea what season it is. its been good practicing portugues this transfer. sometimes my mind does not want to switch over completely to Português so i end up speaking english to my companion. he knows zero english. its improving though. he says i speak really well and i understand almost everything. i just need to tidy it up a bit. like make sure all the words are right and learn more how to speak like a brasilian. elder ferreira da silva is cool. he wants to learn english so im down for helping him. he likes basketball so we get along well. theres still that cultural difference between us so im trying to break that barrier learning as mch as i can about brasil. its obvious that were both new on the mission. we had a tough week of work. our investigators have been really lazy so weve ended up leaving a few of them aside for a while because theyre not progressing. one of our best left us because he doesnt wanna pay tithing. i guess for us its just like second nature. a commandment of god. something we need to do. but for him its like the world. he told us all his numbers. hours he works and how much he earns. it was a really big deal for him and he didnt want to investigate the church anymore because of this. its really sad for us when this happens. i dont want to see anyone leave the church. it breaks my heart. sometimes people dont realize how important the church really is. i tell them and tell them but sometimes they dont listen and sometimes they dont understand how it could be. the method here is all churches are good. that were all folowing christ. but really theres one true church of christ that we need to follow. i know that for a fact. so this week weve been knocking lots of doors making contacts and finding new investigators. you gotta start somewhere huh? work work work. weve been working like crazy and after a week yesterday it looked as if it was starting to pay off. we visited a lady with whom we left a bom. she has her husband one daughter and 3 grand kids. she read the bom of mormon and prayed to know if it is true. she still doesnt know if shes received an answer but she is going to continue reading and go to church on sunday woth her family. im excited. also i went on division with a rapaz in the ward who is 18 and preparing to go on a mission. reminding me of going out with the missionaries. time passes fast. but we taught a man who had the question what church is of god. he really seems interested and we told him to write down his questions so that we could pass by later and explain them for him. its people like these that make me really happy. you walk into their houses and you feel a diffference than the rest. like they have a desire and have been prepared for us. were here to find people willing to listen. we just need to work to get there. we had a serious scare with our best investigators this week. ana and lucas. we went there a couple times last week and everything was really good. they were excited to go to church again and had lots of questions for us. they have really turned into our good friends. but when we went there on thursday night lucas told us that ana started working and that this wouldnt work anymore to hear our lessons. i dont think ive ever been so sad in my life walking away not wanting to do anything else. we werent really sure if we heard right because we didnt think it was possible. it was almost as if someone had broken my heart. thats when i started praying like crazy. this couldnt happen. they are so elect and are perfect for the church. i asked god to help them understand the importance of this message. with fear in our hearts we passed by again on saturday night. lucas opened the door and invited us in. we acted all normal talking about the day and asking how they were. we asked them if they had any questions. ana told us lucas doesnt want to continue anymore because he is getting tired after working and studying and then having us over so that h doesnt have time for his family. so we fought our case that this message is to bring happiness and to unite the family and that we could compromise to one day a week. lucas then told us his whole history about his family and how him and ana met. they were both crying and we had no idea what to say. they accepted to having us over one time a week and ana accepted to go to church as lucas rested the next day. i learned two things: the gospel really blesses families and God will always answers our prayers. its been a tough week to switch over to senior. but now im starting to feel in the groove and things are moving forward. were really gonna hit hard with the inactives here getting them to church and helping the rest of the family to know the church. the church is true and the work is ture. love you guys and best of the best for you.

beijos elder desanti III

Feb 8, 2012

FAM

so im starting over again. new companion, new situation. ill get to that later. so we had another solid week in itupeva. what i forgot to tell you guys last week is we got to go to the temple. elder iverson´s group to go home was there. the session was really good. i always feel so at peace and happy at the temple. i love that feeling. that night our ward mission leader took us to all you can eat barbeque. i think i ate a little too much because the next day i got sick. walking in the sun all day after eating looks of food isnt the best for you. but hey i learn from my mistakes right? i was on division with elder miller and he had to baby me and take care of all my needs. i love my brother. good thing i didnt get really sick until that night so we were able to work and teach several really good lessons. friday we had a breakfast celebration with french toast peanut butter and maple syrup. we tried to go as american as possible for us. luckily i was feeling better so i was good to eat. i do miss american breakfastes. they really dont have that here. friday was our last day to work entirely with elder iverson. we were able to go and visit all of our investigators. ana and lucas even made us dinner. man i really like them. she even made us our favorite dessert. moosé de maracujá. like passion fruit pudding. it was amazing and we had coke which is always a blessing. saturday we had to do an interview for the sisters and then elder iverson packed his bags. sad to see him go. we had some good times. sunday we had almost no one at church which was sad for elder iversons last sunday. but you could tell that the members really liked him saying good bye to him and such. after church our ward mission leader gave us a ride to campinas. we actually have a wet n´wild and a huge amusement park in our area. who knew? haha too bad we cant go...apparently i accidentally send my email already whoops. still have more to send...ana and lucas actually invited us to go there haha we had to turn them down. elder iverson had his interview with president and we actually got to stay at his house. its like a huge castle resort. sister tanner make us fresh waffles that were amazing and president just sat there telling stories. i love president and sister tanner. the best night of the mission by far. comfortable beds in a mansion. it felt like i went back home for a night. haha that morning elder iverson caught his plan and i was left in the mission office. i got to do some secret missions. at least thats what i called them. i was bored...me and another elder actually had to go all the way back to Jundiaí hour by bus to find a house that we didnt know where it was and rent it for a companionship. the task took 5 hours but we accomplished it successfully. random experiences on the mission. tuesday was transfers and im now officially with my first brasilian. elder ferreira da silva from the Bahia which is north eastern brasilian. he has 4 months on the mission. yup ive moved up in the world. senior companion and im officially not sending someone home at the end of the transfer. im excited. its gonna be really good. i really have a lot of stuff to learn this transfer but i know that lord will always be here to help me. i love you guys. dad...got the package thanks for everything especially the peanut butter. brynna...got your letter and pics. thanks a ton. mom...thanks for reminding me of valentines day. love you too and i dont know what they do here for it. anyways have the best week ever guys!

elder desanti III