April 14th-May 20th

On May 20, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Today was a good day for you to e-mail late, haha, because I didn´t get to e-mail until the afternoon today. This week we found a young man named Mateus, who´s the son of a less-active member who hasn´t gone to church in years. He went to church yesterday, and he´s marked to be baptized this Sunday! He´s super elect, and seemed to really like the church, and he comprehends our lessons so well. We know that his example will help his father come back to church, and the rest of family as well.

We´re also working with a 19 year old young man named Caio. I really like him a lot because he talks VERYYY clearly, haha. He´s also super intelligent. He´s currently studying to be a federal judge. He´s very
receptive, and we´re hoping that he too will accept to be baptized when we commit him tonight. He went to church yesterday, so that´s a sign of progression right there!

As for me, you can be assured that my testimony strengthens continuously every day. I´m doing my best to make the most of these 2 years (only 15+ months are left... wow!) That seems like a lot of time now, but I know it´s going to fly by.

As for Leah. Did they find out the gender of the baby??? I´m anxious to know once they find out!

I love you all so very much!! Stay strong and true to the faith! One thing that every companionship does in this mission is that when we arrive home at night, we pray, and after the "amen" we hug our companion and say "te amo, a Igreja é verdadeira" which means "I love you, the Church is true" haha. It´s a little ritual that we all do. But I love you all, and the Church of Jesus Christ is certainly true! I have no doubt, nor any way to doubt.

Love,
Michael

On May 14, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

One more transfer has come and gone! And this transfer I´ll be staying in Valentina with Elder Borges, and the other two Elders in the house also stayed. So essentially nothing changed, ha ha, we´ll just keep working on in our area!

It was great to see everyone on Sunday! I can´t lie, I think I felt a little bit overwhelmed, because I had so much I wanted to tell you all, but it all seemed to have left my mind when I saw the family. I really do have a lot of great experiences, but it all just came at once, I didn´t know where to start! But the main thing is that I got to see everybody´s faces and hear your voices. That was very special for me.

It´s really starting to amaze me how fast time is flying by! I was thinking about it, and it seems like no time at all between Christmas and Mother´s day. But then again, I think about all that has happened in that 5 month period. I spent a month in Hooper, UT, flew for over 24 hours to arrive in João Pessoa, the mission I was called to over a year ago, met my trainer Elder Gilliam and had a wonderful time in Mangabeira, then got transferred to Valentina with Elder Castro, and then I stayed for another transfer (now two) with Elder Borges, and during all this time, I´ve become proficient in a foreign language, received continuous personal revelation, expanded my faith and testimony of the Restored Gospel, and helped shepherd precious children of our Heavenly Father into the fold of the True Church of Jesus Christ. 

If there´s one gift I wish to bring back with me when I return home, it´s the gift of my testimony. I have the sacred opportunity to be a witness of our Savior, and that´s really caused me to reflect on who I am as a son of God, and how it will effect my life on Earth and in the Eternities. I was pondering the title "Elder" the other day, and I remembered the words of Elder Don Clark of the Seventy when he came to visit the Utah Ogden Mission while I was there. The title "Elder" is a title given only to Apostles, Seventies, and Full-time Missionaries who hold the sacred Priesthood of God. It signifies authority, and with the title comes the responsibility of being an official representative of the Church, and of the Savior himself. I have the same commission of the Apostles of old, to go out and preach the Gospel, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 

I can feel that my perspective is being broadened, my mind enlightened, my body rejuvenated, my spirit sanctified. The cleansing fire of the Holy Ghost has a powerful effect when we submit ourselves to the will of the Father. That´s something I´m still beginning to comprehend. At the moment, I´m really still just acting on a seed of faith, as Adam did when he made sacrifices to the Lord without a full understanding of why. But at this time, all that matters is that I know without a doubt that what I´m doing is RIGHT. I like to think that I
have an extensive knowledge of the things pertaining to the Gospel, but I´ve found that the more I think I know, the more the Lord will humble me and show me how much I still have to learn. 

I know that this Gospel is true, and that through the cleansing power of the Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
all mankind may be redeemed from their sins. If only we are willing to accept his love, and endure to the end with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and repenting of our daily sins, making covenants with the Lord such as baptism and confirmation to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. There is always hope, and it is never too late so long as the Lord says there is time. I invite everyone to read Matthew 20 (the parable of the workers in the vineyard) and Moroni 4 and 5 (sacrament prayers). Always remember your covenants, and endure!

I love you all! I will continue to pray for you, and I ask for your prayers to help further this marvelous work!

Love,

Elder Kamilos

On May 5, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

First off, Happy Birthday to Tom! It was Tuesday this past week, right? I hope I´m not off with the date, haha. But still, parabéns!

This week I´ve been doing a lot of thinking about how my mission is going to effect my life. I don´t know why, but my thoughts seem to have been dwelling on that subject this week. Everything I´m learning right now can be applied not only in this life, but in eternity. Everything we do in this life, when centered on the Gospel, is preparation for eternal life. I´ve been doing a lot of pondering on this subject, and it´s really quite an eye-opening subject. Also, I´m reading Jesus the Christ, and it´s amazing how much I´m learning about
our Savior and the example he gave us. I feel myself becoming more converted unto the Lord every day, and I find myself getting more and more happy as a result. My testimony gets strengthened by the day to day miracles, revelations, and applications of the Gospel that occur on the Lord´s errand.

The climate here is pretty static. A typical day is rain during the night, very hot in the morning, a little bit less hot during the afternoon (it´s weird, but that´s how it is. I think the sun is stronger in the morning as it rises from the east, maybe because of the ocean) and then after sunset it´s really quite pleasant. It rains occasionally during the day, and I love it when it does because it cools down dramatically. The rain here comes in waves, where generally it rains for 15-20 minutes, and then the raincloud passes and the sun
comes out, turning the air into a sauna, haha. As for the first question though, I´m well-acclimated by now. I've gotten used to sweating a LOT, almost constantly.

Mother´s Day is approaching! I´ll be Skyping at 5 pm YOUR time (7 pm MY time) from the house of our stake president. He lives at the end of our street, about 6 houses down. I´m assuming you´ll have the family
over for dinner, so it should work out well. I would have Skype ready to go at 4:50 or so, just to give a little slack time. I have 40 minutes to talk, so be prepared to skype for that amount of time. I´m excited to see everyone and hear your voices!

I´ll leave it at that for this week. I´ll see you on Sunday!!

Love,

Michael

On April 28, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well this week was good, but the baptism did fall through. Our investigator got sick on Thursday, but I feel like there´s something else going on besides just her health. We haven´t been able to talk to her since Thursday, despite the fact that we passed by 2 or three times a day for the past 4 days now. We both have this feeling that her husband is keeping us away, and possibly is talking ill of the church and of us. The adversary certainly has his ways. Elder Borges and I are really trying to stay positive, and we´ve made some new goals to help find new people and help our investigators make it to the gate of baptism. Needless to say, it´s been hard. April is the first month of my mission without a baptism. But the work always goes on! Many times in the scriptures, the most joyous moments come after the hardest and most challenging trials. Alma the Younger endured 3 days racked with eternal torment before he arose joyously, converted unto the Lord, becoming a great prophet in the Book of Mormon. The brother of Jared went through great chastisement for forgetting to call the name of the Lord, and later he saw the pre-mortal Savior face to face due to his exceeding faith. I know there are many great things to come!

I was thinking about Brandyn the other day, and I guess he´s still in Vegas. But I know that if he loves it there as much as I loved Utah, it isn´t too much of a trial waiting and serving there. However, I´m sure it still is hard. There are still 5 of the 8 missionaries in my MTC group waiting to come to João Pessoa, 4 of them being in Utah. I hope they make it soon. An interesting thing that they started doing the transfer after I arrived is all missionaries that receive they´re visa in the field go to the Brasil MTC for 2 weeks before reporting to
they´re designated mission. It´s sort of a transition period, and I think it´s a good idea. I don´t know if all Brasil missions are doing that, but I know ours is.

I think that at the time that letter was sent from President, there was a strike going on with the post offices in João Pessoa. That could have caused a delay. I really love President and Sister Nogueira. We had interviews a week and half ago, and Sister Nogueira sat down and talked with us individually as well. I really enjoyed getting to talk with Sister, she really takes care of all of the missionaries very well. She complimented me on my Portuguese as well, which was nice, haha :) I think I´ll be more or less fluent by the end of the next transfer. I´m to the point now where I can understand just about everything that isn´t totally abnormal. Also, the accent of the northeast is kind of the equivalent to a southern accent in the states, so that's still taking some adjusting to, haha.

As for Mother´s Day! That´s in 2 weeks! Wow the time flew by! It´s looking like it´ll be in the evening, probably around 5 pm YOUR time. I think the time change is only two hours, but to be honest I´m not
entirely sure. But I think it´ll work out great because I´m assuming you´ll have the family over for dinner on Mother´s Day, being that it is Sunday and all. I´ll be coordinating with members this week to set up a time and place to Skype. I´ll have more info next week. I´m very excited though!

That´s about all from me for this week. Just two more weeks til Mother´s Day AND transfers (again already?!?). It´s starting to frighten me how fast it´s flying, haha. I really love Valentina, I´d be happy to stay for another transfer.

Keep well! Love you!


Michael

On April 21, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

So this past week was very different, to say the least. First off, it was Holy Week (Semana Santa, how they call it here), which includes Easter, beer, and a loooot of fish. Also, the reason I´m emailing today and not yesterday is because yesterday was also a holiday called "tira dentes" which literally means "pull teeth". Maybe Matt knows more about it than I do; I still don´t understand exactly what they celebrate (dentists maybe? haha), but I know it must be a big deal, because everything was closed, including the lan houses. I honestly think it´s just a "recover from Easter hangovers" day. We got permission from President Nogueira to do emails today due to the holiday.

So good news! We have a baptism coming up this Sunday (possibly 2) of Marinese. We´ve been working with her for about a month or so now, and she finally received a clear answer to her prayers that she needs to baptized. Also, she has 9 children, so it´ll be great to bring in the whole family!

Sounds like things will be a lot different when I get back! Things sure are moving forward in life, and with that comes changes. I look forward to my future. Things really just seem a lot brighter and clearer. Of course, I still don´t know exactly what I´ll do when I get back, but I know there´s a time for everything, and I have faith that the Lord will provide.

The World Cup certainly is starting to buzz a little bit, but not a whole lot. I´m sure it will come May or June. I really hope the U.S. does NOT win, haha. But it´ll certainly be an experience to remember I´m sure!

I hope all is well! Love you all!

Love,
Michael

On April 14, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

One more week passes by!

It´s pretty incredible how fast the time is going now. It really is accelerating with every week and month. And I think it´s funny that you ask if this last transfer was even 5 weeks, because in reality it was the normal 6 weeks. Felt like just a few weeks at most! Haha, anyway, It´ll be easy to know when the next transfer is because it´s the wednesday after Mother´s Day (the 14th I believe). So this transfer will be our Skype time! I´ll start working on how, when, and where I´ll be doing that.

John e-mailed me to let me know of Nathan´s call!!! I got super excited to here that he got it, and he´s going to Chile!! I believe that´s the same mission that David Archuletta went to, although I think he´s already returned. Still! South America! He´ll be coming my direction, more or less.

So this week was pretty good, but now we´re really starting to try and think of new ways to find investigators, and help them commit. That´s the real issue that we have here, is having people willing to commit. It´s easy to find tons of people that will invite us in, listen to our message, accept invites and everything, but more times than not, things fall through when we follow up. But I´m excited! Elder Borges
and I compliment each other well, and we´re starting to be more creative. We will find success, according to the Lord´s will and on His own time. We are always doing our part however, so there are no regrets. That´s one thing I´ve noticed as I´ve been serving. When I´m on the Lord´s errand, and I serve faithfully and diligently, there is no way for me to feel any guilt or regrets regarding the welfare of my own soul. I feel so clean before God, and it´s a feeling that I want and have to guard and keep with me throughout my whole life. It truly is a wonderful calling to be a missionary. I now understand the importance of "becoming a missionary" for life. Because as a missionary, my task is to bring the same light and truth to others, as I know my own personal soul is in good standing before the Lord. It truly is a wonderful feeling.

We received a LOT of references for a lot of families this week, and we marked times to visit them with members and everything. I´m super excited for this week! Everything seems to be in place, now our task
is to execute.

As for myself and the diet/eating routine! We have lunch every day (except p-day) with members. It´s always rice, beans, and pasta, with a few variations on how it´s prepared. Often we have a salad with it,
and occasionally fresh fruit (pineapple of northeast Brasil is the best thing in the world). More often than not we have fresh juice of all kinds of different fruits, like lime, guava, acerola, passion fruit, pineapple, mango, etc. Also, sodas like Guaraná, Coke, and Fanta are very common. Probably the same things Matt had on his
mission. As for my weight, I´m pretty much the same as when I left. I fluctuate around 77 kilograms (I think it's around 170-175ish pounds?) I´m not entirely sure, but I´m pretty sure I´ll come back looking the same, minus the ridiculous tan I have, haha.

That´s about all from me this week. Also, It´s been about a month since I received a letter, so I´m sure I´ll get 1 or 2 this week at District Meeting. I look forward to them! I know I really need to send a handwritten letter now and then. I´ll try to get on top of that soon. But I love you all! I hope everything continues to be well in Fayetteville!

Love
Michael

PS I met someone who served with Elder Young (Bryce) in Brasília! He had a picture and everything, haha. It really is a small world! I forgot his name, but I´ll find out.

3 Week Catch-Up - March 24th-April 9th

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

"We work work work!"

Dear Mom and Dad,

FELIZ ANIVERSÁRIO MÃE!!! SAMANTHA TAMBÉM (in 4 days)!! PARABÉNS!!

"Parabéns pra vocês! Nesta dia querida! Muitos felicidades! Muitos anos de vida!"

That´s the birthday song in Brasil, ha ha. I´ll have to send you pictures of the cake we made! We made a giant strawberry cake on Saturday night, at first because we just wanted cake, but then I remembered your birthday, so we dedicated it to you and Sam, ha ha. It was super good too! We sang Happy Birthday and everything! It was a blast. It´s really difficult to find a place where I can safely  upload pictures. I really really want to send pictures home, but I  don´t want to get a virus from these lanhouses. This week I´ll try to see if we have a member that can help.

This week was super good! The only sad thing is that our baptism of Mayara is being delayed because we need a signature from her mother, and she never seems to be home. Literally. So we´re doing the best we
can to take care of that! But besides that, we´ve been working super hard. In this mission we have what´s called a pattern of excellence, which means we have certain goals for the key indicators that we have to reach every week. It´s basically the minimum standard for all missionaries in the mission. The pattern is 25 lessons, at least 10 with a member present, 10 new investigators, 3 marked for baptism, and 3 at church on Sunday. Elder Castro and I have a goal to reach the numbers for lessons and new investigators by Thursday every week. So by Thursday, we have to have 25 lessons, at least 10 of those with a member, and 10 new investigators. That way on Friday and Saturday we can focus our efforts on confirming the firm investigators for church, contact and teach our new potentials, strengthen less-active members and recent-converts, and service. It´s a great way to work, really. We work work work the first half of the week, and then the second half of the week... we work work work, but it´s a little more relaxed and enjoyable.

I had my first dream in Portuguese!! It wasn´t much, but I distinctly remember one part of my dream where I was speaking Portuguese! I hope that means that my brain is converting over. It´s still very difficult, to be honest. I thought I´d be farther along by now, but I guess the Lord wants me to stay humble and patient. I´m slowly learning, little by little. The important thing is that my testimony strengthens as I experience the day to day miracles in the work of the Lord. It´s a blessing to serve. 

Sounds like the whole family is doing awesome! I really miss yáll a whole lot. This week seemed to have been extra hard for me, as far as homesickness goes. But it hasn´t kept me from focusing on my purpose.
Just know that I love you all and I pray for everyone in the family every day!

Almost out of time. I love you all! Keep well! Hopefully winter ends soon!! You can send the snow down here, ha ha. On that note, this past week was a lot wetter. It rained just about all day Thursday and Friday. Today is sunny and hot though... Hope it rains tonight. Anyway! Until next week!

Amo vocês!
Michael

"I´m picking up Portuguese a lot faster now.."

On March 10, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

It´s really been a great week! But man, it´s exhausting. I found that I´m picking up Portuguese a lot faster now, but it´s still difficult when I want to communicate something but I just don´t exactly know how. But all is well here in Valentina! And those landmarks you described sound right. The church building here is right next to Mercado São José, if you happened to see that at any time. Of course, there a ton of evangelical churches everywhere, haha. I don´t know how it was for Matt in São Paulo exactly, but here it seems that evangelical churches dominate. Of course, almost everyone we talk to was born/baptized Catholic, but as far as activity goes it´s much more towards the evangelical denominations.

I had a very strong spiritual experience the other night in one of our lessons when we were teaching Mayara, one of our investigators. Towards the end of the lesson, we were going to leave a chapter in the Book of Mormon for her to read, but before we did, we had to ask her if she knew how to read (unfortunately, a large percentage of the population is illiterate, so we always have to make sure). The father of the member-family we were with seemed to really make a big deal out of it, and it got to the point where I could tell that Mayara was starting to be uncomfortable. Suddenly, I just felt such a strong force of the Spirit moving through me, and I opened my mouth to talk. I told her that it doesn´t matter whether she knows how to read or not. The feelings that come through the Spirit are much more important. The Gospel is a message of happiness, and we want her to feel good when we have discussions. And then I asked her, "Mayara, how
do you feel right now?" She managed to crack a smile and she replied, "good." Then I smiled and asked, "are ya happy?" She said, "of course!" And then I bore my testimony that that is exactly what the Gospel does for us. We learn much more from our feelings through the Spirit than by what we read.

It was in the very moment following that I realized everyone had their eyes fixed on me, and it seemed that the noise of the world seemed to be silenced. We had truly entered into a spiritual state, and I can´t describe exactly how it was, but it was real.

Sounds like the Springdale Zone is on fire right now! That´s awesome. My comp and I are working super hard right now, and I´m loving the area and the people. We seem to do a lot more work with members here,
and the unity of the membership is just wonderful. And to answer your question, "white-washing" is what they call "shotgunning" in the OTM. It´s when both Elders are new to the area, exactly how you said.

Also, funny thing. You said that we should´ve set our clocks back in February, but to be honest, I forgot about daylight savings. I don´t think they actually do it here. At least, I haven´t heard anything, haha. The cool thing (and I forgot until yesterday) is that here, we´re the first people on American soil to see the sun! I think that´s pretty awesome. Sunrise is about 5 AM here, haha. It was hard to get used to after Utah, where sunrise was about 8:30 due to the mountains and what not.

Anyway, sounds like it´s been a great week! I look forward to the adventures of this week to follow!

Até mais!
Elder Michael

Transfers and New Companions...

On February 26, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

So I have surprising news! I am once again in a new area: Valentina! It´s fairly close to Mangabeira actually, and it´s in the same zone. But needless to say, I was very very surprised. Not only that, but my new companion, Elder Castro (Brasilian. Yay!) and I are white-washing again! On top of that, we´re both still very young missionaries. He actually reported to the MTC in October, a month after me! So we have the same total amount of transfers, but he´s my senior companion, considering I can just barely communicate still, haha. But man, this Elder can cook! He made lunch for the whole house today, and he made bolo de cenoura (carrot-cake, but it´s different) which was awesome! I´m very excited to work here in Valentina! I was devastated to leave another area, but I had a thought: maybe the Lord plans on having me ouch the lives of as many people as possible. I have yet to stay in an area for more than a transfer, but I know the Lord knows what´s best.

Here´s how the mission has gone so far:
4 transfers
4 areas (in two countries/missions) Smithfield, UT; Hooper, UT;
Mangabeira 2, JP-PB; Valentina 2, JP-PB
5 houses/apartments
2 trainers/6 companions (if you include the two short-term trios)
Elder Trujillo (Trainer), Elder Jensen (Trio), Elder Richie, Elder
Patino (Trio), Elder Gilliam (Trainer), Elder Castro

Just when I thought I´d finally have a little bit of stability, the Lord has once again humbled me and set me in yet another place to serve, with new people and experiences. I can definitely say that my mission experience so far has been very unique!

I´m finally starting to get more comfortable with the language. Also, I know I´ll learn much faster now that I have a Brasilian companion and we live with another Brasilian/American companionship in our house (which is huge!). So it´s going to be hard, but I feel like this is going to be quite a growing phase in my mission. I´m excited to see what the Lord has in store for me!

I love you all so much! Keep doing well, and never forget that we have angels and the Hosts of Heaven working for us everyday, even when we can´t see them. I know that our Savior suffered all so that we don´t have to bear the burdens of mortality alone. I know this because I have gone through some of the hardest, most physically, mentally, and spiritually draining experiences of my life, and yet here I stand, getting stronger everyday as my testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ grows. Elder Gilliam shared a revelatory thought with me after we had a very dark experience a couple weeks ago. We realized that Satan is very organized. He probably has his followers organized into missions, zones, districts, etc. We have 80,000 full-time missionaries, but the adversary has a third of all of the hosts of the pre-mortal life. For every missionary on Earth today, doing the Lord´s work, Satan probably has entire districts of his followers working against us. This is why the Apostles in Christ´s time were commanded to cast out devils in the name of Christ. We cannot do this work alone. We MUST rely on divine assistance, and for this to happen, we must remain humble and receptive, and trust in God. With this in mind, I´m even more determined to fulfill the task that God has given me. I have witnessed miracles, and they always give me hope.

This work is true, and I know that with surety. I love our Savior, and I know He loves us!

Until Monday! I look forward to your next email!

Love,

Elder Kamilos

On February 17, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

63 degrees Fahrenheit sounds soooooo nice! It´s almost always above 30 Celsius during the day (upper 80s, sometimes 90s). The humidity just makes it that much hotter, haha. But I´m getting used to it. The nights are pretty pleasant here, we just keep the windows open and a fan blowing.

This last week was... difficult. We had a baptism fall through, and we don´t have anyone marked for this week either. We´re in a finding stage again, but it´s okay, because we actually found a lot of new people yesterday! The work continues.

I really do feel like a child sometimes, haha. I have really good days, and then some not-so-good days with the language. Also, I find that I can keep a conversation going really well with the people that we visit more often. And then there are some people that I can´t understand a single word. But I´ve definitely discovered that my language skills are much better on the days that I do effective personal study. It´s amazing how much of a difference it makes.

Two weeks for letters sounds right, because I did receive your other letter this week. It was so nice to get a letter from the family! Thank you! I´ll be sending a letter home today, hopefully with some pictures if we can find a place to print them. Uploading pictures on these lanhouse computers is just asking for a virus on my camera, so I can´t really send any picks through email. An Elder we live with had all of his pictures on his SD card erased two weeks ago, so I learned vicariously NOT to do that.

Next week is transfer week, so you won´t hear from me until next Wednesday. I´m almost positive that I´ll stay in Mangabeira, because Elder Gilliam is leaving and we just white-washed the area this transfer. But anything is possible! We shall see. I´m hoping my next companion is Brasileiro, I´m ready for a little extra push with the language. I´m learning quickly, but with 4 Americans in our apartment, it´s way too easy to just revert to English. I feel like that would help me a lot. But needless to say, I´ve been very blessed to have
Elder Gilliam as my trainer! He´s an awesome guy, and a great missionary.

I love you all! Hopefully the weather stays nice! I´m just hoping it starts raining here more, because it´s a lot cooler when it does. And don´t everyone leave me so far behind in life!! Haha, love you all. Stay well!

Love,
Elder Kamilos

"Despite my lack of language skills, the Spirit touched her heart..."

Dear Mom and Dad,

Another week in João Pessoa a Missão Celestial!

I feel like this last week has been one of the hardest weeks yet, but I also feel like I´ve improved more rapidly than any other time on the mission. We seemed to do a lot of divisions this week with other missonary companionships, and most of the time I remained in Mangabeira when Elder Gilliam went out to others. I don´t know if I ever mentioned that he´s our District Leader, but that´s why we do a lot of divisions, haha. I feel like it´s a great opportunity for me though, because not only do I get to spend time with more brazilian missionaries, but being "senior" comp in my area helps me feel more responsible, and I feel like I´m a lot more pro-active in those circumstances.

We had a very special baptism this week! Her name is Mel, age 28. She was the VERY first person I ever contacted on the street alone. Let me just say, I feel extremely blessed that she progressed and was
baptized, because 99% of missionaries usually say their first contact was terrible, haha. But it just so happened that Heavenly Father placed an elect person who was very prepared to hear the gospel in front of me, and despite my lack of language skills, the Spirit touched her heart. We first met here on Friday the 17 of January, which was my third day in Brazil. She is so awesome! She even made us dinner on Saturday!

Thanks for the birthday wishes! And yes, I got the card you sent me!! Thank you!! I got it last Tuesday or Wednesday I can´t remember for sure. I don´t know when you sent it, but now you know roughly how long
it takes. I´m planning on sending a letter home this week, so i don´t know how long it´ll take to go the other way.

As for the answers to your questions in your email, yes. It´s VERY hot and VERY humid. Always, haha. But when it rains it feels really nice, and the nights are actually very pleasant. The description of Mangabeira you found sounds exactly right. Also the word Mangabeira means (I think) "next to the mango field" or something like that. It´s basically a word that means it´s near a place that produces mangos.

My shoes are holding up well, but I can tell that they´re really starting to wear down faster now. We aren´t allowed to wear sandals, but I wish we could! I don´t know if that will ever be a possibility, but who knows.

I´ve now met 4 people here who served in SP Interlagos, and 2 of them know Matt! I told Matt about it in my email last week, and I think one of them talked to him this last week. Small world, huh??

I hope the snow slows down up there in Arkansas! That´s just ridiculous! Also, my time is about up. But I love you all! I hope you all are doing great up there! I look forward to next week´s email!

Love,
Elder Kamilos

Life in Brazil

ON FEBRUARY 3, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

More snow?? Sounds like a pretty harsh winter! It´ll be awhile til I see snow again, haha. We´ve been getting a little more rain lately. It rained quite a bit this morning, which was really nice because it cooled it down quite a bit. It really is extremely hot though. I already have a pretty good tan (i´ve been using sunscreen, don´t worry!), and I´m almost constantly sweating. I shower twice a day, at morning and night, just because I get so gross. The morning shower is usually just a rinse though.

I´m really loving the ward and the people here in Mangabeira. Also, I forgot to answer a question Matt asked me in his e-mail. The area I´m in (Mangabeira) is in the city of João Pessoa, but it´s not in the middle of the city, so it feels more like a small town. João Pessoa isn´t nearly as big as São Paulo, but it´s still a big city of about a million (a bit less I think). Also, I mentioned this to Matt as well, but I´ve met a lot of people that served in the Interlagos mission, and two of them said they remember Matt! They saw my nametag and
recognized Kamilos, haha.

We´re continuing to have quite a bit of success! We had another baptism yesterday for a sister named Rosa. She´s absolutely wonderful. Everytime we taught her, she accepted it and knew it was true. Every commandment we committed her to keep, she accepted without any doubt. She gave up smoking a pack of cigarettes a day in just 2 weeks, for real. She hasn´t smoked at all in the last week. The faith of this woman is astounding. And one time, when I was on a division with another american Elder who only has one transfer in Brasil (Elder Motley) we visited her and she asked us if we could give her a prayer with our hands on her head (a blessing, she just didn´t know what to call it). I was the one to be the voice, and although it was a very simple, very broken-worded blessing, when I closed and ended, she had tears in her eyes. She´s truly wonderful.

Anyway, my time is up! I love you all so much!

Love,

Michael

ON JANUARY 27, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well! This has been a buuuuusy busy week. But we had a lot of success! We had another baptism on Saturday for a young man named Markos (the older brother of Nawanna, the girl that was baptized last weekend). They both got confirmed yesterday in church! And Elder Gilliam asked me if I wanted to do one of the confirmations, and I was hesitant at first... but I did it! It was a verrry simple confirmation, but I could really feel the Spirit working, and that brought me comfort and courage to do this confirmation in front of the whole congregation. Not only that, but I also got to do the Sacrament prayer for the blessing of the water. So in the past two weeks, I´ve had a lot of opportunities to take part in our Sacrament services (last week I said the closing prayer). And it´s because I have an awesome companion/trainer! I´ve grown to love him so much in the last week. He´s really pushing me hard, almost beyond my limits, but he´s so helpful and understanding and I´m really learning fast under his leadership and guidance.

As for the water, we don´t have any hot water. It´s just plain water, haha. But it´s good that way, because
it´s so hot here that a cool shower feels really nice at the end of the day.

I´m glad the package got to you!! I actually left that in the care of Elder Richie and Elder Patino (the trio comps I had in Hooper). I left them $20 to send it back, and they said they´d cover whatever was rest, so I'm glad they took care of that!

It sounds like Tom and Lacey are doing well! It´s an exciting thought to think about having a nephew when I get home! And I´m sure Matt is doing really well with the internship! That´s cool that he´s out in the field and getting to experience being on the job.

The diet here is mostly rice and beans (of course), pasta, and lots of couscous. And then there are a lot of different sucos (juice), which is really awesome! My favorites are maracujá (passionfruit) and abacaxi (pineapple). I´ve had a looot of fresh pineapple here, and it´s the bessst. My health has been very good as well! I haven´t gotten even slightly sick since I´ve been on my mission. It´s a real blessing, especially when
I´ve seen plenty of other missionaries get way sick. I hope I´ll continue to be blessed with such good health.
The only thing that slows me down sometimes is that I´m aaalways tired, haha. But that just comes with being a full-time missionary I think.

It sounds like things are going real well at home! Until next week!

Love,
Michael

ON JANUARY 20, 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well, it´s easy to say that this has been one of the hardest, most physically, emotionally, and mentally draining weeks of my life. It´s also easy to say that it´s been one of the most rewarding. Sure, my Português is pretty rusty, but my learning rate is so rapid that I know it´ll come with a lot of work, practice, and hardship. We do aLOOOT of contacts on the street, and many times Elder Gilliam will be talking, and then he´ll stop and just look at me and smile, haha...I´m not going to say that I always seem to know what to say, or that the right thing always just happens to come out, because that isn´t true. Sometimes it does go very well, and I´m actually able to communicate! But many times I´ll freeze up, or I´ll make a mistake, or I´ll just get completely lost and then I get confused, the person we´re contacting gets confused, and we walk away and I honestly want to cry (I actually did once). But it´s all okay! Because that´s how it works. There are trials and opposition in all things so that we can learn from it and grow. I´m growing so much in every way because I
face so many trials every day. But the Work. Pays. Off. We had a baptism yesterday, and we have a few others marked for baptism in the coming weeks (one more for this week!).

It´s such a blessing to see people change and leave behind past problems and become truly clean. And believe me. People here have some reeeaaal problems. I mean with everything. We´ve encountered people
who have problems with financial issues, every part of the word of wisdom, chastity, homosexuality, self-inflicted injuries and suicidal thoughts and just about everything. To see people rise up from a pit of despair; overcome these trials and turn towards Christ is a miracle.

Now I´ll tell you about the actually city and our living conditions! So our apartment is actually pretty nice. In fact, it´s just about as good as any other place I lived in Utah. The only main difference is the lack of AC and American food, haha. We actually have a washing machine though! We dry our clothes by hanging, of course. Also, the showers are different. The shower is just part of the bathroom, and all the water just goes on the floor and drains in the corner. Also, the sun rises at like 5 AM, so I almost always wake up without an
alarm at about 5:30 or so, and it´s hard to fall back asleep because there´s a ton of buses across the street from us. The city is SOOO GREEN! There are trees everywhere (except for in the main part where it´s just tall buildings). Our area is one of the outer parts of the city called Mangabeira, and it´s pretty poor. I love it here though! It´s always hot, I´m always sweating, but I´m loving the work! The people here are so humble, and the ward members are so faithful.

Before I forget! Here´s the address that´ll work!

Elder Kamilos
Rua Deputado Jose Mariz #515, Tambauzinho
Joao Pessoa, PB Brasil
58042-020

I love you all and I look forward to next week!

Elder Kamilos