On Wednesday, April 9th Elder Kamilos wrote:
Dear Mom and Dad,
So Transfer Day again! Already! This past transfer fleeeeeew by! And it´s great because for the first time on my mission, I´m staying in my area! This next transfer will only be 5 weeks too, I don´t know why exactly, but oh well. I do have a new companion, Elder Borges of São Paulo (surprise!). I´m very excited to see what happens this transfer!
I enjoyed conference very much, although at times it was difficult because it was all in Portuguese. I understood a lot, but it was easy to lose focus at times. I really enjoyed President Packer´s talk. I don´t know if he´ll make it to next conference, but he certainly left a grand impression on me and everyone.
This past week was tough. We ended up cutting a large portion of our teaching pool, but we found one excellent family that I feel very good about. We first contacted the father on Sunday, and he was drunk like
none other. But he called out to us, saying that he wanted "the word". So we sat down and we plainly explained to him that if he sobered up and had real desire to change, we would stop by the next night to
speak with him. So the next night, we went. And he had cleaned up to the point of being a completely different person. He explained some of the difficulties he had, but he listened very intently to the message
of the Restoration, and when we followed up on Tuesday, he had actually read the assignment we gave him! Not only that, but he´s LEGALLY married (miracle in Brasil) and has 5 kids, and he said he wants to take them to church with him on Sunday. If all goes well, he and his family will be baptized on the 20th this month. Please continue to send your prayers, because I have certainty that something probably WILL happen to try and stop him from progressing.
Keep the missionary fire going in Fayetteville! I think a lot about all the things I want to do when I get home concerning missionary work. I hope to make time every week (or multiple times a week) to help the work back home. And I look forward to receiving that letter! I made pancakes this past week, with maple and everything! It was super good.
Anyway, I love all of you! I look forward to next time!
Love,
Elder Kamilos
On Monday, March 31st Elder Kamilos wrote:
Dear Mom and Dad,
This week was full of challenges, but I have one of the coolest
experiences to share! I don´t have much time, but I have to share
this.
It was monday night last week, and I had gone to bed like normal. But the dream I had that night went like
this (more or less). I was sitting in a van and we were driving. I was in California (I don´t know how I knew I was there, but I just knew. It´s difficult to explain) and we were driving north toward Oregon. I knew this because there was an ocean to the left of us, and I figured it was the Pacific. We were crossing a bridge, and as we crossed I recognized that one of my zone leaders, Elder Georgianna, was driving. I looked at the passenger seat, and I realized that it was Elder Williams, one of the assistants to the president of the mission. It was strange, because I had only met him maybe one time before. There were other details to the dream, but that´s all of the important stuff. I woke up at 2 AM and I felt super compelled to write it down. I wrote down four pages, and as I was finishing, I could hear one of the other Elders I live with wake up. He came in to our study room and I told him all about it, because I felt super overwhelmed, haha. The next morning we had a zone training with the assistants, (I figured that´s probably why I dreamed of the two Elders, but I didn't really know why). The training was super good and all, but what happened after was crazy. Elder Georgianna came up to me and told me that he thought maybe he could help us out in our area (we´ve been having a little trouble lately). He said that he and Elder Williams would spend the afternoon and evening blitzing our area! I had absolutely no idea that this was going to happen at all! And I believe that it was
symbolic how in the dream, we were driving, because the word for driving in Portuguese is "dirigir", which also means to direct or conduct (conduct like how a bishop conducts a meeting). And what was
even more crazy was that afterwords I found out something that I had no knowledge of before. Both Elders are from Oregon! So with this new knowledge, I knew there was a reason that all this was happening. We
ended up directing our focus to Mayara (I´ve mentioned her before I believe. We had a lot of challenges with her situation.) But at the end of the day, everything fell into place, and she was baptized that night!
I don´t have any more time. But this experience made the gifts of the gospel very real to me. I also gained a testimony of leadership, in the mission and in the church. This. Is. Real. I cannot deny it. This work is true, and this gospel is true! I just wanted to share that experience :)
I love you all so much!! And thanks for the pancake recipe!
Hope all is well!
Love,
Michael
On Monday, March 24th Elder Kamilos wrote:
Dear Mom and Dad,
This week has been... a little rougher. We´ve been having a lot of challenges with some of our investigators not progressing or not understanding the full length of the conversion process. Due to this, Elder Castro and I have had to reevaluate our teaching methods, and we both concluded that we need to be more direct. Our baptism fell through again, and we´re both getting very discouraged. We have SO much potential and so many investigators that are prepared, but it seems that no one will commit. I hope the news next week will be very good though, and I feel very positive about this week! We sat down and just talked things out yesterday, and now our companionship is more united than it´s been all transfer. Unity is key, and I totally
understand why.
Before I forget! I wanted to ask you for a few basic recipes that I can use here in Brasil so I can make some "American" food now and then. One that I was thinking of was pancakes... good old classic, fluffy, american pancakes. Any easy-to-make american food would be great. Brasil has all of the principle ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, oil, etc. If it doesn´t involve peanut butter, I can probably make it!
A few that I´ve been thinking of...
Pancakes
Biscuits
Pizza (dough)
Banana bread (or bread in general)
Rolls
Oh, and we have yeast here too, so the recipes can include that too. Feel free to add anything else if you want! These will give me something else to do on p-days or when I have time at night or in the morning.
As for me, I´m doing very well. The language seemed almost natural this week. I was on division with one of my zone leaders, Elder Price, on Thursday and my district leader Elder Vieira on Saturday, and they both said that I was speaking super well. It was very encouraging to get compliments from my leaders here. Of course, I´m with my companion all the time, and we talk solely in português, so naturally I´m picking it up a lot faster. Also, I now have an official soccer team! The Palmeiras (of São Paulo)! I never picked a team before, because I honestly didn´t know which to pick, but Elder Vieira gave me a Palmeiras jersey, so that made the decision for me! I need to ask Matt what team he is, haha. Also, it´s kinda funny. Almost every brazilian missionary here is from São Paulo, and almost every return missionary that lives here served in São Paulo (mostly Interlagos and South).
Love,
Elder Kamilos
