Brazil Week 19

Lately, I have been pretty tired from all that had gone on. We had2 baptisms this past Sunday, Luis and Julio. They were great but I got Transfered to another Zone. Right now I am in Piracicaba with Elder Campos. He is cool, the house is nice and the area is small. The only down side is that is hotter than where I was. I dont have time to talk because I wasted my time trying to get the computer to read my SD card with the baptism pictures. I love you all and I am very thankful for all your support.

Love Elder Merrick Reynolds

Brazil Week 18

Família Maravilhosa!

 

Well, this was yet again another interesting week here in good ol´ Campo Limpo. We are baptizing this week, maybe two people. I have been pretty happy with how easy the Lord has made it for me to baptize here. There is this one really cool kid named Marcelo, he came to church, a church activity and soccer with us, he wants to get baptized but one problem...his dad is a pastor of some random church soo it might take some time.

 

Anyway, besides that, I don´t have too much to tell about... Jesus the Christ (LOVE that book!), Preach My Gospel, the Book of Mormon, and other talks by General Authorities. Which by the way, reminded me of something- I think I´ve found my favorite session of General Conference- October 2010 Priesthood Session. haha For those of you who don´t know, I listen to General Conference talks every morning as I´m getting ready, and so far I´ve listened to a bunch of talks from the past 8 years or so. This session of General Conference is awesome, and full of great talks with strong points that really rang true with me. Anyway, check it out. Elder Nelson talks about missionary work, one of the Seventy talks about ´´laying down the weapons of our rebellion´´ and giving our hearts to God in obedience, another Seventy talks about having love in the home, with a really touching story, Elder Uchtdorf gives an awesome talk on pride and references another really famous talk given by President Ezra Taft Benson ´´Beware of Pride´´. Ah yes, I love General Conference!

 

Todo mundo, família, queridos amigos- Eu sei, do fundo do meu coração que esta igreja realmente é a única igreja verdadeira na face da Terra. Realmente, Nosso Bondoso e Amoroso Pai Celestial e Seu Filho Amado Jesus Cristo apareceram ao jovem Joseph Smith e restauraram a plenitude do evangelho de Cristo nestes últimos dias. O Livro de Mórmon é verdadeiro, eu amo esse livro tanto. Ele contém a plenitude do evangelho eterno, e eu amo me banquetear com as palavras dele. O Presidente Thomas S Monson é profeta, vidente, e revelador para nós em nossos dias de hoje. Mas, mais do que tudo, eu sei que vive Meu Salvador e Redentor Jesus Cristo. Ele vive e nos amou tanto para pagar o preço pelos nossos pecados- só basta que a gente faz nossa parte para mostrar nosso amor e gratidão pela Expiação Dele. Ele já fez tudo para nós- só precisa que nós seguimos o exemplo divino e atingir nosso pontencial divino! Quão maravilhoso é o plano do Nosso Pai Celestial!

Translation: Everyone, family, dear friends, I know, from the bottom of my heart that this church is really the only true church on earth. Indeed, Our Gracious and Loving Heavenly Father and his Beloved Son Jesus Christ appeared to the boy Joseph Smith and restored the fullness of the gospel of Christ these days. The Book of Mormon is true, I love this book so much. It contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel, and I love my feast with his words. President Thomas S Monson is a prophet, seer, and revelator in our day for us today. But more than anything, I know who lives: My Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. He lives and loved us enough to pay the price for our sins, not just that we do our part to show our love and gratitude for His Atonement. He has done everything for us-we just need to follow the divine example and achieve our potential divinity! How wonderful is the plan of our Heavenly Father!
 

Amo todos vocês e mando um abraço!

Love you all and send a hug! 

 

Elder Merrick Reynolds

Brazil Week 17

A quick thought. I listened to a talk this morning from a General conference talk by Elder Joseph B Wirthlin. His talks were always awesome, he really portrayed the love of Christ always. He just seemed to show love in all that he said and did. And he talked about this love and how important it is to love everyone and that when we are frustrated with someone, we should love them. When someone annoys us, we need to love them. When someone hurts us, we need to love them. That really is one of the hardest things to do sometimes, but really there´s a lot more peace in having love. It´s definitely something that I´m working on, and I hope to be able to attain.

Brazil Week 16

I hope you tell everyone hello for me. How did the soccer game go? Portuguese is fine, I feel like I can say anything I want or need to say, even if I have to switch the sentence structure. I hope school is going well for you, are you still going to the other side of the city to work? I hope you are doing well. We have a baptism this Sunday. Ill let you know how it goes.

Anyway, I gotta get going, we have to go set up for an activity at the church here real soon, and we had to catch a bus to get to this lan house... but here´s something I´ve been thinking about a lot recently- Comparison and the sin that it is. Pride is one of the biggest tools of the adversary and he really knows how to get us to fall into pride, and one of those ways is comparison. We often find ourselves wanting what others have or thinking we deserve something that others have, and we put them down in our minds and try to make ourselves better or equal to others in comparison. There really is danger in comparing ourselves  with other God´s children, because we try to find the speck in others´s eyes without removing the mote in our own eyes. There really is only one type of good comparison- the comparison of ourselves with God´s standard today and what it was yesterday. We all need to be progressing, and working towards improving ourselves in relation to the eternal standard of the basic principles and laws of eternity. Christ was the master teacher of all this and really showed and taught us how to live these virtues. I really have noticed that in my life, I think I compared myself too much with others- it´s quite a natural thing to do, but really nothing good comes of it. I´ve noticed that as I´ve let that go, I recognize that there is a different ´´spirit´´ in comparing ourselves to others rather than comparing our progress eternally. Anyway, I´ve found the spirit to be a lot stronger in my life as I´ve noticed and tried to improve that. We´re all working towards improving ourselves, using this life as our time to prepare to meet God. 

I love my mission, I love the gospel, and I know this church is true. Jesus is the Christ, He lives everyone, and how wonderful and utterly amazing that is!

Love, Elder Merrick Reynolds

Brazil Week 15

Oi Família!!
Wow, this has been an interesting week, let´s see if I can get a couple of cool details of what has happened...
Well, first off, the Sisters in our District are currently teaching the cousin of Elder Mazzargardi of the Seventy and part of the Area Presidency of Brazil. Anyway, we the Elders here in our district were on a division this last Friday, and our District leader Elder Iverson needed to go to the area of the sister´s for an interview with this lady. I was on a division with Elder De Santi, and we met my companion Elder Heilnerder Iverson and the sisters there in Jundiaí. Anyway, as we got to the house of this lady, we find that she is playing Bingo with her friends, FYI she´s about 60 or so years old, so it makes a bit more sense. Anyway, when she told our District leader that she was busy playing bingo and couldn´t do the interview, Elder Iverson said ´´Oh well, can we play??`` She said sure, and so we entered, 4 Elders and 2 Sisters into a garage filled with 6 old ladies who were smoking and playing bingo. It was an experience I´ll never forget.. haha Oh the things missionaries will do to help others come unto Christ eh? Elder Heilner &De Santi joined in for a couple rounds, with no betting of course, and Elder Clay actually won one round.

 

Well... let´s see.I´m learning a bunch, I´m changing every single day, trying to do better and better, and seeing the Lord´s hand a lot. He let´s us struggle, oh yes He does! But if we take the time to stop, and really look at our lives, I testify that we can see how He has helped us and answered our prayers- many times in ways completely different than we had expected. I love this work, it´s really cool to see that as I´ve asked for energy on the days when my legs ache, my toe hurt and the sun is really hot, He´s given me a sense of urgency and energy to do this work. Gosh, I´m learning a bunch here, I see so clearly my faults and my weaknesses- but that´s all a part of the plan right? haha Love you all, and til next time!

 

I´m doing something right now to help grow my testimony of the Savior, I feel like Heavenly Father has been trying to tell me to do it but I´ve just been putting it off. 3 times before I left on the mission, i got to hear Elder Russell M Nelson speak in person. Everytime, he suggested that we got to the Topical Guide, and read all the scriptures under all the topic titles for Jesus Christ. That 16 pages of scriptures references! I finally started it, and I´m going to do it in English actually, because they don´t have the Topical guide completely in Portuguese yet. Already, I've come to learn more about my Savior Jesus Christ. This gospel is so amazing, and we really don´t recognize the depth and significance of it all I think. Truly the fulness of gospel of Jesus Christ was restored through that Prophet Joseph Smith, God speaks to us today and we have the Priesthood authority of God to seal our families forever! How blessed we are to have an eternal perspective with everything. I love my Savior Jesus Christ, I have so many flaws, but He is still patient with me. I try my best, yet i keep stumbling, but that´s okay. I´m doing my best and He´s helping me to stay humble and help me to improve.
I love you all, and testify of the Savior´s love for each of us!

 

LOve, Merrick

Brazil Week 14

Dear family,

This week as cool/sad. We baptized 4 people, which the pictures should show if they actually work this time. The names and such should be on the other email. They were a great family and the kids were cool. Elder Williams got transfered however and now I with a kid that as been here for a shorter time than me, Elder Heiler. He is alright, it is hard to be cooler than elder Williams, he is from Texas, super nerdy but not the cool 'I play video games' kind of nerdy, its alright we should have fun and baptise and such. I just need to get him to smile every once and a while. We are late to go the soccer so I am going to be short today, plus there isnt that much to tell. I love all of you! Thank you for everything! D&C 90:11--story of my life learning a new language. 

Loves,

Elder Merrick Reynolds

Brazil Week 13

I was playing soccer earlier today I am sorry for being late, even though it is still early for you guys there. 

This is the last week of the transfer and so next Tuesday I will find out if I leave, if I stay, if Elder Williams leaves or stays and what not. We are having two more baptisms this Sunday so that is pretty neat. 

We had a mission conference with Elder M. Russel Ballard, Neal A. Andersen and Jay E. Jensen this last Saturday. It wascool but the talks were a little weak in my opinion. They left the next day so I bet they just decided to say hi to us the day before they left.

The later two speak Portuguese, well sort of. Elder Ballard had a translator at his side. After that we headed over to Burger King, little did I know that it isnt as cheap as it is in the States, in fact it is very expensive (never will eat there here in Brazil again) It was good to get a good ol American hamburger in the system after the same beans and rice everyday. Things have been going pretty well. I am super tired and fat, I didnt realize how out of shape I have become. I should probably work on that. I hope everything is cool with you guys, I wish it wasnt so cold over there right now, that sound chilly. Well I have been working on inviting the spirt more in my lessons and I read in the Enisgn this quote:

"Faith is like spiritual oxygen. As we allow faith to freely flow within us, it awakens and enlivens our spiritual senses. It breathes life into our very souls. 

"As faith flows, we become sensitively attuned to the whisperings of the Spirit. Our minds are enlightened, our spiritual pulse quickens, our hearts are touched. 

"Faith fuels hope. Our perspective changes; our vision becomes clearer. We begin to look for the best, not the worst, in life and in others. We gain a deeper sense of life's purpose and meaning. Despair gives way to joy."

 I am sorry I write so little, I will probably eternally hate typing/writing unfortunatly

Thanks for everything hwever and alll that you do for me. I love you

Love,

Elder Merrick Reynolds

Brazil Week 12

Oi família, um grande abraço para todos de vocês!!
Translation: Hi family, a big hug to all of you!

Well, one word weather-wise this week- RAIN. And it looks like it's going to keep up for the next half a month or so.. que bênção!! (what a blessing!) haha But I'm just really glad that I don't have holes in my shoes, that would really stink to have to walk in all of this rain and what not. Count your many blessings right??

As I look at this week, I don't really have any funny stories or what not, just life is good, tiring, but amazingly awesome all at the same time. I'm happy, and yet I know that I'm so weak in so many different areas. I'm trying my best every single day, and trust me, the Lord is showing me my weaknesses. I'm working to develop faith right now, and really learn how I can apply it to my life and this work. I know that I'm weak, but I'm getting better each day. That's like the paradox of living the gospel- you are imperfect, and you try to improve. You do your very best and you grow, yet every time there's something to improve. We can't reach perfection in this life but it is the fact of our trying to improve and following the gospel. The best way I can explain is in a math analogy- it's not the point that we are at on the curve of our life, but rather the Slope of our improvement each day. The gospel is really about changing ourselves to be more like the Savior- we are humans, natural beings that need to change ourselves to be able to accept the cleansing and healing the only our Savior can provide. I love a talk that Elder Bednar gave about the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost, and how he related it to the process of making cucumbers. Literally, the gospel is about changing ourselves at the very core and heart of our desires and motives. It is up to us to work each day to get better and change ourselves through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This work is true, and no earthly power can stop the work of the Lord. How grateful I am for the opportunity of 2 short years to give my all to the Lord, and see the Lord help others be changed- including myself! As Elder Neil L Anderson once quoted- ''It's not about what I can get from my mission, but what I can give''.

oh had 1 baptism Sunday and 2 this sunday then 9 in 3 weeks. So far we have had the most in the mission this transfer. just a heads up.

Love, Elder Merrick Reynolds

Brazil Week 11

what up?

This week has been pretty cool. That family got confirmed Sunday. We made a contact 2 weeks ago on the street and finally went to this guys house this week. We stopped by but he wasnt home but we stopped by a couple hours later. His name is Lima and he has a family of  6. We chatted for awhile then taught them the first lesson. They all accepted baptism and to come to church, which was awesome. We stopped by yesterday with a member and he bore a inspiring testimony. Things are going great. I´d like to express just the overwhelming gratitude that I´ve felt this week. About a week ago exactly, I was really overcome with some things that had been bothering me. I spent a lot of time on my knees in mighty prayer. Something changed as I got up from my prayer. I hadn´t received an answer, but somehow my mind knew that that was a test, and that I needed to learn something. So I promised to just to keep working the best I could, and to have the patience until the answer or some relief came. Something changed, the next day I woke up with a joy and energy to work and do my very best. As I got on my knees, I just felt humility and just thanked my Heavenly Father for all the things I had. Then it came- not a strong burning feeling, but just a sense of confidence that was not there before. I don´t know how to explain, it was as if my worries were completely erased. I found a new confidence or knowledge and a growing feeling or urge to share this message. Doubt was removed and replaced with faith. Ever since that day, I´ve felt overwhelming joy. I know this church is true, the Lord is in this work. I don´t have the eloquent vocabulary of my brother to be able to describe the sweet joy I feel to just know it´s all true- the Book of Mormon, this Church, Joseph Smith as a Prophet, and most of all, the reality of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. None of this knowledge comes from me. The Lord knows what is best for us, I testify that is true, and I love this work. I love the scriptures, the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I love you all and if I haven´t said it enough.

Love, Elder Merrick

Brazil Week 10

1st off we had 3 baptisms this last Sunday. Marcelo, Alessandra, and Gabriella, a family! I baptised the mother and the 8 year old girl and Elder Williams baptized Marcelo. We baptized them right after church and such, we even made some chocolate cake. Speaking of cooking can some one hook me up with instructions on how to make some good french toast and maple syrup? thanks. Anyway it was pretty great. We are starting to grow the Ward here and we have started up some cool activities such as English class, film night and such. I am doing a lot better with my new companion and having alot of fun. He went to BYU as well, he is from Medford Oregon which is a big meth town he says ha. So we have been doing pretty well here.

So heads up, dont buy yogurt that is ony a dollar for a kilo. It will wreck your system. Me and Elder W. had a terrible Monday because of said yogurt. We were kings of the bathroom throne for awhile. It is all good now.

Oh something pretty cool. The was a panther chilling on the road when we were walking to an appointment. It was a huge deal because we called the police and they started chasing it and trying to catch it before something bad happened. It was pretty cool to see though.

on the 28th we will have twoApostoles come to our mission on the 28th. Anderson and Ballard, Im not sure if that is a good thing or if we will get burned for being the worst baptizing mission in Brazil. Ill let you know.

Thanks for all the news updates and such I love you all. Thank you for the cards and the gifts!

"By the way you live the gospel, you reflect [the Savior's] light. Your example will have a powerful effect for good on the earth. 'Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations' (D&C 115:5) is a call to each of you. It is a call to move to higher ground. It is a call to leadership葉o lead out in decency, purity, modesty, and holiness. It is a call to share this light with others. It is time to 'arise and shine forth.' "

Love, Elder Merrick Reynolds

Brazil 2012!

HAPPY NEW YEARS! 2012!

love you all e espero que vocês tenham um próspero ano novo!

(and i hope that you have a prosperous new year!) 

First off thanks for the gifts/cards/support and all that I recieved from all of you, it keeps me going. This week has been pretty dope with my new companion. He is way chill. We are headed to the city after this to play some soccer. We have been working hard however and will be baptising a family of 3 this Sunday so pray for them. I am lost in thought and have no idea what to write...well anyway my new years eve was spent at home, I went to bed a 10:30 then was awoken by the blasting of cheap fireworks and bombs. It was kinda cool but annoying at the same time. It is crazy that I have been gone for 1/2 a year and this next year I will be on the mission every day of the year. It has been chill and fun so far. In my zone we have 4 out of 6 missionaries that were in my MTC group so that is pretty sweet. 

So I love you all and here is a little bit from President Monson:

"Heavenly Father is ever mindful of those who need, who seek, who trust, who pray, and who listen when He speaks. 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life' (John 3:16). God's gift becomes our blessing. May every heart open wide and welcome Him--Christmas day and always." 

Love, Elder Merrick Reynolds