Suzano, Week 2

Big hi to all from Brasil! 

I had another fantastic week here in Suzano! This area is so cool, and absolutely ginormous! There really should be another ward here just based on the geography, but there aren't enough members as of right now, but that's what we are here for. The work is going really well here. We are finding a lot of new people to teach. Since I've got here, we´ve made 39 new investigators. Most of them won't progress, but I've still got hopes. Here is what happened this week:

5. Today, I went to play basketball with my district. It was super fun! The last time I had played basketball was the CTM, so I had a blast! We played at the Vila Virginia chapel in Itaqua, so we just hopped on the metro to get there. My district is made up of Elder Johansen (ZL/DL), Elder Tromlitz, Elder Zundel, Elder Pereira, Elder Cabrera, Elder Roniere, Elder Pereira, and me. 

4. On Tuesday, I did a division with Elder Tromlitz in Boa Vista. It was pretty fun. Elder Tromlitz is part of my group. We were in the CTM together, so it was a blast to stick with him for a day. It was really weird. I felt like I was back in the CTM. We gave out 5 Books of Mormon and made some new investigators. Their area is the other part of Suzano, across the train tracks. It is basically just a lot of favelas. 

3.We had an activity in the church on Wednesday. We showed the Restoration film, and it went super well. Twenty members came, and an investigator came with her family! Her name is Adriana. She has a daughter who is serving a mission in Mexico, and her daughter is helping a lot by teaching through emails. She really liked the video. Later that week, she watched all 2 hours of the Book of Mormon Videos in one sitting, so that was awesome! 

2. We are teaching someone that lives in a temple of Umbanda. Umbanda is a pretty crazy religion. They believe in Christ, but they do these weird chants and religious ceremonies. They sacrifice animals in the road and stuff. It's pretty weird. The lady we are teaching doesn´t practice this religion, but her daughter who lives there does. 

1. I turned 19 years old! My birthday was pretty good. It was just a normal day, and we were able to get some good stuff done. During the morning, we went to a bakery for breakfast, which was fun. On the way to lunch, we stopped in a Buddhist temple really quick to take some pictures. It was super cool! I liked it a lot. There are a lot of Japanese people here in Suzano, so there are a lot of Buddhist temples. After lunch, we went to some appointments. It was a good day. I´m really excited for this year. This year of my life is the only of my life that the entirety will be spent as a missionary. I´ve got a lot to do!

Scripture of the week:

1 Nefi 17: 7-16

7 And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been in the land of Bountiful for the space of many days, the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And it came to pass that I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord.

8 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.

9 And I said: Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me?

10 And it came to pass that the Lord told me whither I should go to find ore, that I might make tools.

11 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make a bellows wherewith to blow the fire, of the skins of beasts; and after I had made a bellows, that I might have wherewith to blow the fire, I did smite two stones together that I might make fire.

12 For the Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire, as we journeyed in the wilderness; for he said: I will make thy food become sweet, that ye cook it not;

13 And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

14 Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction; yea, that I did bring you out of the land of Jerusalem.

15 Wherefore, I, Nephi, did strive to keep the commandments of the Lord, and I did exhort my brethren to faithfulness and diligence.

16 And it came to pass that I did make tools of the ore which I did molten out of the rock.

I love representing the Savior in Brasil, I love my companion, I love the Gospel and Atonement of Christ, I love my family, and I love my Redeemer. I am ready and excited to work harder, learn more, and love better this week!    

Love,

Elder Warren Matthew Dudley 

Pictures:

#1-5 The Buddhist Temple

#6 Really cool Suzano wall art underneath the freeway

#7 This picture represents my mission perfectly. US+Brasil=Statue of Liberty+Estatua de Cristo Redentor

#8 A really good baked potato with stroganoff. We got these from a food truck that we passed every night that always looked so good. We finally got them, and it was awesome.

#9 Great view of the center of the city

#10 More great all wart

Suzano, Week 1

Well, I was transferred again. This is my fifth transfer including the CTM, and fourth in the field. This is my third area. I have yet to stay with a companion for more than one transfer. However, I really hope I stay here in Suzano for a while, and I would love to stay with Elder Pereira for a while. This is my first time in the Capital (São Paulo), and it is super cool. It isn't just buildings like I thought. It is a lot of houses! Our area is huge, but it is super cool. Elder Pereira is super awesome, too! He has exactly 6 more months than I do. He is from Goiás,  Brasil. He is also coming off a tough companion, and he is super motivated to work, just like me. We worked so hard this week! It was awesome! We literally talked to everyone on the road and knocked so many doors. We made 25 new investigators and gave out 27 Books of Mormon! We taught the Restoration of the Gospel to anyone that would listen to us on the road or when we knocked a door. It's the best way to do a contact.

The church building is super cool here. It is two stories and has a basketball hoop. Elder Pereira loves basketball. He actually speaks some English, too. I´m going to do an English study with him every day to help him improve even more. The members are super awesome here. They are willing to help out the missionaries and are all pretty down-to-earth. I bore my testimony on the request of the Bishop, and it went really well. I think that I´ve started to gain the trust of the members here because they see that I am willing to work. 

We did a service project this week for a school. One of the members of our ward is the director of the school, and the inside needs to be completely cleaned out. We helped him scrub walls and ceilings for a couple of hours. It was pretty cool. I discovered that one of the other Elders in my district, Elder Roniere, was taught by Riley Robertson, who is from my ward, the Mount Pleasant Ward! She served in Fortaleza and taught Elder Roniere a few years ago! It was super crazy to discover that!

This week, I recognized the Spirit guiding us to specific areas and people in multiple occasions. Here are a couple:

1. So, we spent 2 hours looking for a bar. Just kidding. We were looking for a house, but we didn´t have the address, just the road name and this bar as a reference point. We were looking for a particular person that we had made a contact with that seemed really good. We didn´t end up finding her, even when we found the bar, but we kept on looking for two hours because we really felt like we should. When we finally gave up, we looked in our planner for ideas. We ended up calling the number of another lady that we did a contact with but didn´t have her address. She answered the phone, and we found out that we were 3 houses away from her! It was super cool. We went there and gave her a Book of Mormon, and she got super excited. It was awesome!

2. Yesterday (Sunday) we tried to go visit a part-member family. When we got there, we found out that they had moved. We ended up being on the same street as an elderly couple that goes to church every week, but hasn´t been baptized. We went there and started talking with them. We explained about the Atonement of Christ, and how we need to follow the Gospel of Christ and make covenants and ordinances to feel all of the effects of the Atonement. We talked with them about baptism and found out that they haven´t been baptized because they are not legally married because they don´t have money. We made plans with them of how to accomplish these two goals. The Spirit was really present. It was awesome.

This week, I really recognized how much of a difference being optimistic makes. The choice to be happy can really affect everything. This week was really, really awesome.

I studied a little in 1 Nefi 17. In verses 1-2, I like the connection between affliction and blessings of the Lord. Anytime that we have trials, challenges, and hardships in our lives, we should look for the blessings and tender mercies of the Lord that are inevitably there. I also like verses 5 and 6. They reach the land of Bountiful. I think that one of the reasons that Laman and Lemuel had problems later on is that they mistook Bountiful for the promised land. It says that they were very content in Bountiful. We should be careful not to be content before we reach the Promised Land.

1 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness.

2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.

5 And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish. And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which, being interpreted, is many waters.

6 And it came to pass that we did pitch our tents by the seashore; and notwithstanding we had suffered many afflictions and much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all, we were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore; and we called the place Bountiful, because of its much fruit.

I love representing the Savior in Brasil, I love my companion, I love the Gospel and Atonement of Christ, I love my family, and I love my Redeemer. I am ready and excited to work harder, learn more, and love better this week!   

Love, 

Elder Warren Matthew Dudley

Pictures:

#1 Elder Pereira and I in the apartment

#2 My first Monkey sighting!!

#3, 4, 7,8  Rose and Claudevandro’s house for lunch (Churrasco!!!)

#5 and 6 - The favela in Vila Fatima

#9 I Love Suzano!!!

Vista Verde, Weeks 3, 4, 5, And 6

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! 


Well, it has been a couple of weeks since I sent an email. This transfer has definitely been by far the hardest of my mission. It is really hard to get my companion to work and be obedient. Lots of stuff has happened. I´ve gotten a couple calls from President to make sure I´m ok, and we´ve had emergency interviews because of something my comp did. It hasn´t been exactly fun, but I´ve sure learned a lot. Even though it´s been really tough, there are still some good things that happened.

4. New Years and Christmas in Brasil was certainly an experience. The only Christmas traditions I was able to discover were a ton of food, fireworks, fireworks, fireworks, fireworks, and more fireworks. There were literally fireworks all night long. Apparently, everyone here has access to the huge, launch-in-the-sky fireworks, and they all like to spend at least half of their savings on fireworks to use on Christmas and New Year’s. The sky was literally completely lit up all night. It was so loud!

3. I forgot to talk about this last time, but on New Year´s Day, our district made a Churrasco (barbecue). The other three Americans and I did the grilling. It was super fun. It felt like the Fourth of July - grilling, speaking English, hot summer day, and fireworks going off in the city.

 2. I was able to go to the Temple a second time this transfer. We took two people that were recently baptized, and they were able to be baptized for their deceased ancestors. As always, there was a really sweet Spirit there. It was really neat to see the faces of the two people we helped as they felt the Spirit in the Temple for the first time.

1. Aline is going to get baptized this week! We have taught her all the lessons, and she has such a strong testimony! She read part of the Book of Mormon, prayed about it, and received an answer that it is true. It has been incredible to see her conversion take place.

This week, I spent some time pondering 3 Nephi 5:13. I really thought about what it means to be a disciple of Christ and why I believe and have faith in Christ. I think that this is something really important for all of us to do, to actually ask ourselves why we believe. The four main reasons I isolated are: 

       1) I was born to incredible parents that taught me the Gospel of Christ and set examples for me

       2) I choose to believe in Him

       3) testimonies of prophets in the scriptures and modern-day

       4) the testimony I have received from the Holy Spirit

My invitation for all of you this week is to ponder why you believe in Christ.

I love representing the Savior in Brasil, I love my companion, I love the Gospel and Atonement of Christ, I love my family, and I love my Redeemer. I am ready and excited to work harder, learn more, and love better this week!   

Love, 

Elder Warren Matthew Dudley 

Week 3

Pictures:

#1 Vista Verde (Green View) at its finest

#2-3 Elder Cuadra and me

#4 Up on the roads

#5 The long walk to lunch

#6 A great view of one tiny part of our huge area

#7 Some really good parmesan chicken and coconut rice that I made. It did turn out a little spicy (I thought red cayenne pepper could be substituted for paprika), but I still liked it.

#8-10 The farms by Irmão Shagas’s house

Week 4
Pictures:

#1 Rafael and I on the way to the Campinas Temple with our ward

#2 The Campinas Temple

#3-4 Elder Cuadra, Roberto, Rafael, and I at the Campinas Temple

#5 - The way back from the temple

#6 The Relief Society Christmas present for us (lots of food and chocolate)

#7-8 Christmas Day

#10 View from the bus stop in the Santa Ines 3 neighborhood

Week 5
Pictures:

#1 District Meeting on New Year’s Day

#2 Americans grilling a Churrasco. From left to right: Elder Hill, Elder Miller, Me, Elder Maia

#3 Churrasco ready to eat!!

#4 Eating the Churrasco with our district

#5 View from a park after really hiking to visit a widow in our ward

#6 My new study of O Livro de Mórmon

Week 6

Well, this has definitely been an interesting 6 weeks. A new area, a new comp, and all sorts of other things in between. It was really tough. I had a really tough comp. I really like this area, but both my comp and I were transferred to new areas. I leave tomorrow for Suzano to be comps with Elder Perreira, which will be very different from anything I have experienced yet. I’m going to the Capital. I´m excited, but also sad to be leaving here.

5. I ate the weirdest thing I have eaten yet. It is called mocoto, and it is a soup made out of beans, bones, fat, cow feet, chicken feet, and all sorts of other things. It actually wasn´t that bad. I just ate the broth and beans part, so it was fine, just like broth. Also, speaking of food, I tried cabbage juice. It was mixed with lime, so it wasn´t that bad.

4. We saw something pretty crazy. We were trying to visit someone one night. They lived at the bottom of a huge, super steep hill. At the top, we saw a guy collapsed on the ground, underneath his bike. At first we thought he was dead, but then we realized he was super drunk. We tried to help him, but he didn´t want our help. We went to the bottom of the hill. When we reached the bottom, we looked back up and saw him trying to stand up. He tried a couple times but fell every time. He finally succeeded in getting up, and somehow got on his bike. Then he went shooting all the way down the hill, super fast, and crashed super hard into a brick wall and barbed wire right next to his house. His son came running at the same time we did. We tried to help him out, 'cause he was bleeding all over, but his son was so ashamed, he just dragged him inside. 

3. We had a ward activity on Saturday at a Shakra, which is kind of like a little farmette. They made a huge Churrasco there, too. It was a blast. It took us a while to find it. We took a bus for 45 minutes, and then we just had to find the right street. We walked for an hour, but we couldn´t find it. We ended up getting directions from a drunk guy that we found in the street. We carried him to his house, which happened to be on the same street as the activity. It turned out to be a win for him and us - he got home without being run over, and we got to lunch.

2. We found a new family to teach. they have already asked to be baptized. We´re going to have to leave that for the next missionaries in this area. They are friends of a less active member that we have been helping. They are super awesome and have kept all of the commitments we left - to read the Book of Mormon, go to church, and attend the BAPTISM OF ALINE. 

1. Aline was baptized! She has been taught since a little bit before I got here. She is super awesome. Aline is a single mom, about 35, with a 15-year-old and a 4-year-old. She is super smart and understands and remembers everything we teach her. However, it is not because of anything that we have done that she is being baptized. She read the Book of Mormon, and prayed to know whether it is true, and if we have a prophet on the earth today. She received a very strong confirmation from the Holy Spirit of the truth of the Restored Gospel of Christ. 

Scripture of the week: Ether 12:4, follow the footnote for glorificar Deus to Nephi 12:16, follow the footnote to luz to 3 Nephi 18:24, follow the footnote to Mosias 16:9.

When we have faith and hope in this life, we glorify God. But how do we glorify God? We have to shine our light before all. What is our light? Christ. How do we make it shine? By trying to be like him and by talking about him and testifying of him. My invitation this week is to make your light shine to glorify our Father in Heaven.

I love representing the Savior in Brasil, I love my companion, I love the Gospel and Atonement of Christ, I love my family, and I love my Redeemer. I am ready and excited to work harder, learn more, and love better this week!   

Love, 

Elder Warren Matthew Dudley 

Pictures:

#1 Aline’s baptism

#2-4, 6-7 Saying goodbye to ward members 

#2 Saying goodbye to Rose’s family

#3 Saying goodbye to the Shagas family

#4 Saying goodbye to Fabricio and his family

#5 Packing up again

#6 Saying Goodbye to Eleni and Kenai, Less Active members of the ward that we visited a lot

#7 Saying Goodbye to the Venezuelan refugees in our ward

#8 the Map of Vista Verde