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