Well,
This transfer has came to itś bitter end. I have had few companions that have been true buddies as me and Elder Latham have become. We have laughed a lot, we have prayed a lot, we have failed a lot, and amongst our failures the Lord saw fit to let us see some success.
In the beginning of my mission my attitude was ´´I am not here to make friends, I am here to work my brains out and be obedient.´´
I have neglected to be the friends of many missionaries because of this early belief. I selfishly did what I thought was right without really thinking too much about the other person. Yet I have learned a powerful lesson. You need to be a true friend if you plan on having the company of the Holy Ghost in your life. You can be the most obedient, you can be the hardest worker, you can know all the doctrine, but if you don truly love who you are teaching or serving with you will never feel a fullness of joy.
As I have passed these last few transfers I have seen this and I know it is true. Elders Luciano, Rowley, and Latham are truly great friends who I have loved and worked with. I know that it is never possible to do everything 100%, but it is always possible to love 100%. You can control tomorrow or five minutes from now, but you can control your attitude.
The work is going amazingly well and the Lord is truly blessing us here.
Elder Luciano has to get knee surgery so he will go home for four months and then he will return to the mission. Today his family came to the temple in Campinas to see him. I went to the temple to meet them. It was fun to remember all the great times we had together and laugh about all the funny stories. His family is great and I think it was good for me to be there for him. I love that guy.
I can believe that all of those tornados came through St. Louis. I got the picture cube from you guys, everyone is looking great. Spencer's wedding invitation picture was quite GQ, they looked great, and classy.
Natalie is getting so big. wow.
Everybody is doing well it seems.
Yesterday was our Multi Zone meeting and president Tanner spoke quite about the importance of prayer, and the importance of why we pray. He said that our prayers began to have more power and purpose once we understand out relationship with Heavenly Father. He is our Father. He watches each step of our life, he wants to talk to us, we wants to have a conversation with us. The growth and spiritual progression of the Savior was greatly due to His relationship and intimacy with the Father. He had conversation with the Father and the Father had conversations with him. He sought the Fatherś will, and we discovered and understood it, he talked with Him some more about it. He was a Son away from home who frequently called and counseled with his Father. The Father could bless and guide him because Christ sought the Father, he constantly sought communion. Because of His faithfulness God the Father was very present in the life of the Savior. His very voice was heard as he presented the Son after his baptism by John. We too can have this relationship with the Father if we seek him through earnest prayer, diligent scripture study, and an honest effort to follow the example of His son.
We don´t pray to change the will of God, his paths are higher than ours. We pray humbly search and understand his will and then we ask for strength to fulfill it. President Tanner said that prayer is the sycronization of the will of man and the will of God.
I love the mission and I love the Brazilian people, it seems like I don´t have enough time or talents to serve them the way that I would like to but I am giving my all.
I love you all and hope that all is well, keep me in your prayers.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Today was a great day. I studied inside the temple. I did a session in the temple. I lunch in the temple. and then I did another session. It was good.
The young woman who we met and whose mom has a brain tumor, Thias, well she was baptized last Sunday. A whole bunch of people from a whole bunch of other wards came to watch it too. Elder Latham and I sand ´´Nearer my God to Thee´´ in English at the end of the baptism. We mixed up the parts in each verse and it sounded pretty good.
Thais´s brother, Fabrício and his friend Daniel will be baptized this Sunday.
They are a great group of young people who gave up jobs, school, and a lot of other stuff so that they could take care of their mom who is in acoma.
Thais was baptized last Sunday and she is already super excited about doing personal progress for young womens.
Since most of my day was spent in the temple I don´t have much time to write, but I love you all and I love my mission and two years isn´t enough.
love,
Elder Nothum
The young woman who we met and whose mom has a brain tumor, Thias, well she was baptized last Sunday. A whole bunch of people from a whole bunch of other wards came to watch it too. Elder Latham and I sand ´´Nearer my God to Thee´´ in English at the end of the baptism. We mixed up the parts in each verse and it sounded pretty good.
Thais´s brother, Fabrício and his friend Daniel will be baptized this Sunday.
They are a great group of young people who gave up jobs, school, and a lot of other stuff so that they could take care of their mom who is in acoma.
Thais was baptized last Sunday and she is already super excited about doing personal progress for young womens.
Since most of my day was spent in the temple I don´t have much time to write, but I love you all and I love my mission and two years isn´t enough.
love,
Elder Nothum
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Well,
Last week I said if nobody writes me a emails and asks questions I will take that as a sign that they could care less. I am happy to report that I received zero emails this week, so I love you all too. I am sure that you all had a lot too do, but I do especially loved this week.
It was a good week. Elder Latham and I get along great and the Lord is blessing us with lots of success. He is from Orem, Utah but he has only lived there for two years, for the rest of his life he lived in California. He is a good guy and together we are working our guts out to fulfill our goals that we set.
Last week was probably the hardest work week of my mission. We were practically running from house to house. We were talking with everyone in the streets and we were teaching as much as possible. Yet it seemed that the harder we tried, the worse and worse thing would get. There was a really scary thing that took place that I don´t feel comfortable writing about, but we are alive and we have a stronger testimony of the priesthood. Then we had three days in a row of the hardest rainfall I have seen my whole life. Yet, we worked and worked.
Ever since last week has ended we have only seen miracles here in our area. The bishop´s wife called us to give a priesthood blessing to a woman who was in a coma with a brain tumor. We searched and searched for the address and after a good long hour of searching one street for house number 520, we gave up. As we started to leave the street I was a approached by an extremely drunk man with 6 teeth. He grabbed my body, mumbled something and they he layed a big long wet whisky filled smooch on my neck then he smelled my neck. A group of nearby teenage boys saw the commotion and asked if I wanted a kiss form them too. At this point we said that we were leaving and never coming back to this part of town.
As we walked we started to see a part of the road that we had not seen before. We followed it and a little bit later we were standing in the front of house number 520.
We rang. To the front divider wall came a jolly little 16 year old girl named Thais. It was her mom Luiza who had the tumor. We gave her a priesthood blessing and it was an amazing experience. As we talked to the family afterwards we found out that Thais had been to church a ton of times and only wasn´t baptized because she moved. We taught the whole family the message of the restoration and all accepted the invitation to be baptized. It was truly a miracle.
Then we met another great family that night. Luis and Erica. They are amazing and are reading a ton in the Book of Mormon.
There is a family here in the ward with whom I have developed quite a friendship. The family of Cláudio, Márcia, Kathleen, Lucas, and Gabriel. Claudio is helping us a lot with teaching and finding people and we are helping his son Lucas prepare for a mission.
We got a picture of my new comp cleaning dishes today.
We got Christmas with Elder Rowely
The one with the food is the family of Valquiria and Acácio that prepared our Christmas day Lunch.
There is a shot of my trainer (Elder Freitas), with me and the missionary I trained (Elder Luciano).
And Elder Rowley and me celebrating Christmas in style with some non- alcoholic apple cider.
Things could not be going better out here. I feel great and I am so happy with the opportunity that I have to learn and serve. I know that this id the true and living gospel and the none can feel the fullness of joy without living and striving to follow the Gospel and example of Christ. He is the only way and he has once again established his Gospel among the children of men. The mission is the best.
Love,
Elder Nothum
Last week I said if nobody writes me a emails and asks questions I will take that as a sign that they could care less. I am happy to report that I received zero emails this week, so I love you all too. I am sure that you all had a lot too do, but I do especially loved this week.
It was a good week. Elder Latham and I get along great and the Lord is blessing us with lots of success. He is from Orem, Utah but he has only lived there for two years, for the rest of his life he lived in California. He is a good guy and together we are working our guts out to fulfill our goals that we set.
Last week was probably the hardest work week of my mission. We were practically running from house to house. We were talking with everyone in the streets and we were teaching as much as possible. Yet it seemed that the harder we tried, the worse and worse thing would get. There was a really scary thing that took place that I don´t feel comfortable writing about, but we are alive and we have a stronger testimony of the priesthood. Then we had three days in a row of the hardest rainfall I have seen my whole life. Yet, we worked and worked.
Ever since last week has ended we have only seen miracles here in our area. The bishop´s wife called us to give a priesthood blessing to a woman who was in a coma with a brain tumor. We searched and searched for the address and after a good long hour of searching one street for house number 520, we gave up. As we started to leave the street I was a approached by an extremely drunk man with 6 teeth. He grabbed my body, mumbled something and they he layed a big long wet whisky filled smooch on my neck then he smelled my neck. A group of nearby teenage boys saw the commotion and asked if I wanted a kiss form them too. At this point we said that we were leaving and never coming back to this part of town.
As we walked we started to see a part of the road that we had not seen before. We followed it and a little bit later we were standing in the front of house number 520.
We rang. To the front divider wall came a jolly little 16 year old girl named Thais. It was her mom Luiza who had the tumor. We gave her a priesthood blessing and it was an amazing experience. As we talked to the family afterwards we found out that Thais had been to church a ton of times and only wasn´t baptized because she moved. We taught the whole family the message of the restoration and all accepted the invitation to be baptized. It was truly a miracle.
Then we met another great family that night. Luis and Erica. They are amazing and are reading a ton in the Book of Mormon.
There is a family here in the ward with whom I have developed quite a friendship. The family of Cláudio, Márcia, Kathleen, Lucas, and Gabriel. Claudio is helping us a lot with teaching and finding people and we are helping his son Lucas prepare for a mission.
We got a picture of my new comp cleaning dishes today.
We got Christmas with Elder Rowely
The one with the food is the family of Valquiria and Acácio that prepared our Christmas day Lunch.
There is a shot of my trainer (Elder Freitas), with me and the missionary I trained (Elder Luciano).
And Elder Rowley and me celebrating Christmas in style with some non- alcoholic apple cider.
Things could not be going better out here. I feel great and I am so happy with the opportunity that I have to learn and serve. I know that this id the true and living gospel and the none can feel the fullness of joy without living and striving to follow the Gospel and example of Christ. He is the only way and he has once again established his Gospel among the children of men. The mission is the best.
Love,
Elder Nothum
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
HEY!!!!
I am hitting a blank right now and I am not sure what to write. How are you all? Good?
Tell you what, how about you all, every last one who receives this, write me a letter of questions. Then next week I will just respond to them all. I really just would like to see what you want to know. Deal? If you don´t ask questions I will take that as a sign that you could care less.
I am happy, I´m workin´ my brains out and things are good. Also, time is short today because our BBQ went a little to long.
love Elder Nothum
I am hitting a blank right now and I am not sure what to write. How are you all? Good?
Tell you what, how about you all, every last one who receives this, write me a letter of questions. Then next week I will just respond to them all. I really just would like to see what you want to know. Deal? If you don´t ask questions I will take that as a sign that you could care less.
I am happy, I´m workin´ my brains out and things are good. Also, time is short today because our BBQ went a little to long.
love Elder Nothum
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