November 22, 2013

Email 11-18-13

This week was pretty normal.
We taught a bunch of lessons. The best part was, we taught more lessons with members, then other lessons. All of our goals have been increased as of this transfer, and we´re reaching them.   It´s great what faith and hard work can do.
We are teaching a lady but she used to play a big role in her other church.   Every time we bring up a topic, she combats it with something from her church.   We pretty much just told her that we’re not there to compare every little detail of the gospel, but we are here to teach the things that we know to be true.   We ended up watching the Joseph Smith video, the long one.   Afterwards she said, ``from what I understood from that, Joseph Smith was one of Jesus´ original apóstolos.``   wow.. I didn’t think that was possible.   We explained everything to her.  She understands a little bit more every time we pass.   If she doesn’t go to church this week I’m afraid we’re going to have to cut her.   People that don’t go to church, can’t be baptized, obviously.. ha ha
There’s a 17 year old boy,   We reactivated him.  He’s going every week.  This Sunday he was called to be a Priest.  (it’s been like 5 years since he’s gone to church)   And he received a calling.   He’s a new missionary of the ward.   We have been making sure that he gets as much out of this calling as possible.   He leaves to teach with us every day of the week.   It’s pretty awesome. 
We are teaching a bunch of people right now, But it seems like everyone we teach is addicted to crack or is an alcoholic.   I didn’t think it was possible!   One night we did three contacts in the street and all three of them told us they used crack.. 
We pray for the spirit to be able to know what to do to help these people.
We also pray to find people ready to hear the gospel.
I’m so glad I’m here.   I love you all!   Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Kyler Blane Farr
Yeah - happy Christmas!   And it’s actually mu companions hammock.. it was closer to the window so I used his!   We put on normal clothes too ha ha ha :)   this month will be a trunky one!
I think on Thanksgiving we will walk in the road... like ten miles or so… talking to everyone on the way, teaching them about Jesus!
Last week we watched Kung Fu Panda 2!!  It was okay.. they let us watch it in English with Portuguese subtitles which was cool!   Today we’ll probably just watch it in Portuguese. Ha ha I don’t know which one we’ll watch today
Ha ha they don’t have any Christmas traditions here!!!!!    It’s so lame!    They put a tiny tree in the corner and that’s it!   An Elder told me all about it.  I hope he’s wrong, but we’ll see
I can’t believe it!!    Ha ha    that’s so sweet.
This guy is closing up shop!   We’re outa here in a sec!    love you!
PS -- from Shannon -- I kept looking at the picture of him in the hammock with the Christmas lights, wondering why it looked "off".  Then I realized I haven't seen him in a t-shirt, or anything other than a white shirt for almost a year!!!   :)    made me laugh!

Email 11-11-13

yesss!
This was the most successful week of my mission!
We worked out butts off.. It was great!
Our mission president raised all of our goals to meet, by like double. 
That means we get to work harder, faster, and smarter!
We were teaching these two guys that are addicted to crack, we kept passing by there and they were definitely interested but the crack won. They have the desire to stop, but the addiction is huge. I know everything is possible through faith but at this time, they’re not ready. :(
We are destroying our area though! We made 40 new investigators this week, and taught 34 lessons. 
We did an exchange this week and I stayed in my area and I spent the day with my companion from the MTC.  We had a good day, but my favorite lesson we taught was a woman and her six kids. They all love soccer so we related finding out if the church is true to finding out if a soccer jersey is an original. We asked them how we would find out if the jersey was original or not. They said we might need to ask an expert. Or compare it to another that we know for sure is original. They were the best answers I could have hoped for. 
Asking an expert would be asking God, in prayer.
Comparing it to one that we know is an original=comparing it to the Bible!
They liked the example and everything but I was thinking, there has to be more we can work out of this example to introduce baptism! SO I asked, so when we know for sure that the jersey is real, what do we do with it?   You´re going to use it, keep it safe right!?   Ha ha Using the jersey is like being baptized, When we know for sure that the church is true, we are baptized. 
That´s how we explained prayer, and the book of Mormon to a 9,12,13,15,16 year old. And their mom! Ha ha ha Then we marked a baptismal date. ;)
I had an idea, after they get baptized how we can use the jersey example again. When we know it´s real we´re going to want to show it to our friends. (MISSIONARY WORK!!)
We were teaching a less active family, after eating dinner with them. And we decided to talk about the commandments. They aren't keeping all of them and are noticing the unhappiness that’s coming from it.  It got me thinking.  We spend what.. like 85 years?  or however long on this earth.   Are we going to waste our time here not keeping the commandments and not returning to the presence of God after this life... Or are we going to use our time wisely and keep the commandments so that we have everlasting happiness??   I think the answer is clear!
We watched the Restoration video with a member, and his nonmember girlfriend. She’s awesome.  He has to get divorced, then married, so that she can be baptized.   It’ll be a long process, but worth it! ;)   The spirit was so strong after the film ended and we just kind of sat there in silence until they looked at me waiting for me to say something.  I said, ´´I’m not going to say a lot because I want us to be able to focus on the spirit we are all feeling right now``  then I invited her to say a prayer, we knelt down on the concrete floor and we left afterwards.  There is no greater feeling than leaving a home with that feeling inside, and knowing that through you, the lord has touched the lives of many!
Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Kyler Blane Farr


 Part of my e-chat with Elder Kyler
I have gotten all of them (pictures).   I got the one from grandpa also.   I put them in my album so when we teach our investigators I can show them all of the awesome people in my family.. It’s a really big thing here.   All of the members love seeing the pictures of the missionaries, so all of us have albums. :)

I love getting pictures!!  Don’t ever worry about sending too many.  Pictures are my favorite!
(I lamented that I haven’t had time to learn any Portuguese like I had planned to do)  He replied - I’ll be sure and help you guys when I get home.   I mean….I´ll have to teach you guys the words in Portuguese, that I forgot in English!   Ha ha
(I asked him if he thought he would still eat rice and beans every day when he got home and what kind of milk he was drinking)    He replied -To be 100% honest.. I am so sick of eating beans.. except for black beans, like in feijoada.  But I love the rice. Even if I had a choice, I think I would still enjoy eating it every day.   The milk.. I don’t even know.  It goes bad in like 3 days in the fridge. The pasteurização  (forgot how to spell this in English..) process is just different I guess.
I loved talking to you! And I can’t wait to get the pictures.
I love you mom!! Have a wonderful week and tell everyone hi for me!
love you tons!!
TCHAU!
te-amo muito.  Tenha uma boa semana.
a gente vai para casa agora a fazer almoço. Não sei o que vamos comer, talvez macarrão nada! :) haha  
Love you mom! And dad!
until next week!!!!! :)

Email 11-4-13

This week was pretty good! Last week the mom of a member (who's is not a member) asked us to come over to lunch on Saturday. She would not accept no for an answer... ha ha So our plan was to eat at our normal lunch at the normal time then go to her house and eat a little bit and teach her a lesson. We ended up getting to our real lunch appointment with the sister in the ward but she had forgotten! We explained everything to her and she didn't feel so bad, because we already had somewhere else to eat!  So we got to the other house with the nonmember lady and she had invited her friend there to eat with us.  We had our books of Mormon in our hands when we walked in and she was looking at it the whole time.   She finally asked about it and we explained.  Then she asked us who the founder of our church was.  We responded with the truth.  Jesus Christ is the one who started our church.  She got confused and asked again, we responded the same way.  She sat forward and said,``now you have my attention.``  We taught her the first lesson right there, but during the lesson this super loud annoying fan was on, but when I got to the first vision, the member who lives there turned the fan off. The room got so quiet and when I finished the first vision she asked what happened next.  We explained, and invited her to be baptized.   She accepted.   I have never gotten a reference like this from a nonmember before.
After church a man received the priesthood and they asked us to sit in.   Right before, I took off my bag and set it down on the floor.   We got done and I left the bishops office without it. We were about to leave when I finally realized I didn't have it.   I went back to look for it and it wasn’t there.   I figured someone had taken it accidentally because all of the missionaries here have the same style of bag, even the return missionaries.   So we went to our lunch appointment with out it, with the plan to get it later, to see if anyone had returned it.  So we went back to the church for our meeting and a member walked in with my bag!   He said, ``before I give this back I have to tell you a story``.   He said when he was walking to the chapel a lady stopped him in the street asking about the church and stuff.   He explained a little bit and she liked what she heard.  She asked him if he had any kind of pamphlets or anything to give to her.  He looked down at his bag, thinking it was his and said no.   He opened it to see if he had a pass along card or anything, to his surprise he had my bag, full of pamphlets!   He gave her one and took down her address. 
Pretty much the coolest story ever.
This church is the only true church on the face of this earth. 
Things don't happen like that on accident.
Have a wonderful week!!
-Elder Kyler Blane Farr
  
Portion of our e-chat:  Elder Kyler in blue:
We’re here... was cooking breakfast.... HOW ARE YOU!!!
I’m so good!!   We came early today because we’re going to watch a movie at the chapel after this! :)       What did you make for breakfast!? Ah ha
Usually dad and I have a v8 and a banana but we're doing bacon, eggs and country potatoes for company.         
What movie are you going to watch?
I’m not sure what movie.   I’m mostly just excited to sit in air conditioning for two hours! 
I chuckled when you wrote that the movie didn't matter.. .just the air conditioning!!!
I loved both of your stories!!  Amazing!!!!   Totally amazing!!!
Brazil doesn't have tortillas, right?
Yeah the only tortillas I found were in a huge supermarket in the center. A pack of like 5 is R$20   ten dollars!      It’s so sad!!


It’s interesting to find what we really miss when we just get down to the basics!!   You grew up on a lot of burritos!!   Do you still make pancakes sometimes?
(pic of him after helping a member move – dirty and very sweaty but still very handsome!)
Holy cow!!!!    You worked hard!!!   Are you used to the heat now?
No! No one is used to the heat.  Every day is hotter than the day before!
Ha ha like today... it’s ridiculous!
ha ha....  I guess people just put up with it!   We’re supposed to get snow today - but only 30 % chance.    Do they make tamales there?   What is their "Specialty" food that people make a lot - besides rice and beans?   Does your comp speak English?
He’s learning, we do language study together, but as of right now.. almost nothing.,
Specialty food….Literally every single day the people make Rice, beans, noodles and some kind of meat. Literally every single day!!!!
At the ward parties they make churrasco; Brazilian barbecue; slow cooked thin slices of meat over coals. But with the churrasco they have rice and beans! Ha ha..
Sometimes the people make lasanha for our lunches…. forgot how to spell it in English…..lasagna???    But it’s always with rice and beans too on the side.
We don’t really make pancakes, but I remember how.
But the recipe for tortillas would be cool!
Hey, this place is about to close...we should have like twenty minutes left but he’s about to kick us out!   lame, but that’s the way it is.    Love you though,  I’m glad we got talk!!
Have a great week
oh....stink....okay --  I'm so glad we got to talk too.... WE LOVE YOU!!!   LOVE YOU AND KEEP THE FAITH AND KEEP WORKING SMART
you’re the best!! 
LUV UUUUUUUUUU
Later that day :
Hey since we got cut twenty minutes this morning we decided to come now when we have a little bit of extra time so my comp could write his fam, he didn’t have time earlier. I don’t know if you’ll see it when I’m on, but I just wanted to say that I LOVE YOU!!   You guys are seriously the best ever! :)

Email 10-28-13

OH HEY!
This week was great! A man was baptized. We stopped by his house like thirty minutes before the baptism just to make sure he was ready then we walked together. He said he was kind of nervous and he didn't want us taking pictures! Haha.. We just went and knew he would give in when we got there. The others in the other ward had three baptisms and they were using the baptismal clothes. The only one left was a HUGE one that would have been big enough for two of me. But he put it on, and we tied it in the back. He was worried about how he would look and thought he looked ridiculous. We talked about how it doesn't matter how we look, because the baptism is the most important part. He agreed and then let us take some pics. The baptism was awesome! :) His cousin, who has been inactive for years, got so excited for helping us help his cousin come unto Christ. He is super excited about the church and is already talking about a mission! It´s great. 

It has been super hard to get in contact with our African friends. We talked to them only once this week and everything is super busy for them trying to find work and get settled in for real. They are all still excited about learning more about the Gospel and going to church but they had some family come into town and didn't want to leave them to go to church. It will work out this week and we´ll put em in the water eventually. 

This week teaching wise was pretty stressful. All of the appointments we had marked, fell. We got in kind of a routine of visiting all of the same people that are not really progressing. During one of our planning sessions we decided to cut the people that wont progress and go find new people. We made 10 new investigators on Sunday alone. And taught a bunch of lessons. I wish we would have thought of it much sooner, but we learn with experience, huh?

This week was really good. One of the other missionaries that live with us, was my companions companion in the MTC. Yesterday he came into the house and said." you´ve changed. You´re a different person than you were a month ago.`` That made me feel good that I got to be a part of his learning process. He hasn´t been a member for too long, but it´s good he´s here to grow in the gospel during this time of service.

We taught a lesson to a family with a lady that lives next door to them. We got done with the first lesson and the neighbor lady started yelling at us about how we don't watch T.V. and how we´re a cult. I always put on the innocent face and ask the person what the word ``cult`` means. I know what it means but i know the person doesn't know. They always throw the word around without knowing what it actually means.. Anyways, We explained all  about it, and how members of the church DO watch t.v. Then the best part happened. The man of the house stood up and ``invited`` the lady to leave his house! Then we finished the lesson for real. 
It was awesome. We´ll be inviting them to be married, then baptized next lesson without the crazy lady there. :)

Have a good week!
Elder Kyler Blane Farr