Hey mom and dad,

    As I always say, I am learning so much in this new calling.
  Studying the scriptures this week I came to understand that God
doesn´t expect anything more than me fulfilling my duties of my
calling. Many times I get caught up in thinking, ´´what more could I
do? What needs to be better? Am I giving my all?``
    The Lord doesn´t want us to do anything more than we are called to do.
                  ´´Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and
to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.`` D&C
107:99
      I have just been overwhelming myself with a whole bunch of
tasks that truely were not a part of my duty. Elder Rowley, Elders Dos
Anjos, and Elder Hansen and I all had a talk about what we are doing
and what we can do better. I felt that a lot of the things that I had
been doing to help the mission were causing more problems than
helping. Elder Hansen and the other assistants all gave a lot of good
advice to me so I excited t try things new things out and help the
mission.
      I have learned that as a leader I am not here to tell everyone
what to do and how to do it, at least not as an assistant. I need to
set an example and always ancourage and inspire the zone leaders. That
is going to make my work a lot easier.
  Our new area is going great. The members help the missionaries a
ton. We got to the area last week and there was nobody to be baptized.
Then we went to go visit the bishop´s son who had denied being
baptized for 9 years and he basically asked us to be baptized. Then
another woman that we found whose son is a member told us that she
wanted to be baptized as well.
    The Lord blessed us in our first week there with two great
converts. We have met tons of great people to be baptized in the
upcoming weeks as well.
    Elder Machado and I have broken our backs working these last few
weeks and nothing, nothing, nothing was happening. We are finally
seeing the Lord´s hand blessing us with great people to teach.
  I am extremely excited and happy to see what the next few weeks bring to us.
  I love you both so much and hope you had a good easter. Give a kiss
to Noodle from me and tell her I love her so much.
  I´ll talk to you on mother´s day!

        -Elder Nothum

     Hello there mom and dad,

   Elder Machado and i were transfered this week. We were in the costa e silva ward, but we moved to the Ouro Verde ward.
 The President has been telling us how we must be an example to the intire mission of success. We have beptized a lot of great people in our two transfers in costa e silva, but I want to be a better example to the mission and I know that Heavenly Father wants mr to do so as well. Costa e Silva has thr best members in the mission, they hrlp with everything and they intrgrate new members extremely well, but the area in itself has been way worked and it is super small.
    When Elder Machado arrived in costa e silva, we put our peddel to the metal and we gave it everything we had for two weeks. We slaved in the hot sun and talked with every single person in the street and almost every single person we found that was good ended up falling through in the end. It was rough. Thoughts went through my mind every passing day ´´am I just a bad missionary? It has never been so hard to have success my whole mission? What am I doing wrong?´´
    These questions just left me doubting myself. After much prayer and questioning I got a call from Elder Dos Anjos, one of the other assistants. He asked me if I wanted to go on splits with the zone leaders in ouro verde. I like Elder Stone a lot and he works there so it sounded good.
     While we were there he said it would be best for him to change areas. That night we found many great peopleand I felt that I should start to work there. I called the president, he approved and now we are here. This area has a lot of potential and I am sure we will have a lot of success, the Lord is present here in this work and I can seeing working in front of me. I am learning a lot about faith and determination, and I am excited to work here.
   Elder Dos Anjos ends his mission next transfer and he will study at BYU. He won´t be able to go back to brazil for christmas, so I want to know if he could spend christmas with us in missouri? Think about it.
   I lovr you all and I will talk to you on mother´s day. We can talk on skype so get that all organized.

-love Elder Nothum

Hey mom and dad,

 

    Thank you for sending the pictures, that is favorite thing to get. Pictures say more than a thousand words. I can´t believe how big the trees are on the birm and how big the river birches have gotten. I also can´t believe how big natalie is. SEND MORE PICTURES.

     We had a leadership meeting this past monday. I gave a discourse on putting on the whole armor of God. I started out with the most recente card that I got from Dad. I read it to all the leaders in the mission and I spoke of the importance of setting and example of hard work and diligence. President Tanner said that he enjoyed the letter and he said that it was the best leadership training meeting since he has been President.

   Elder Lembranzi was transfrered and my new companion is Elder Machado, he is a great and hardworking young missionary.

    I am so busy and I always have so much on my mind as assistant. The more I learn the more responsible I feel for teaching the missionaries.

   Things are going good in the mission. I feel like we have had some major breakthroughs in progress and I feel that the next transfer is going to be a big jump for the mission.
   President Tanner told me that the next assistant will be Elder Christensen. Yep, my companion from the MTC. I am excited to work together and I am sure that we have a lot to do.

   I can talk to you guys on skype at a members home for sure. I just don´t know how to use skype, but I can figure it out. Find out how to use it so that we can get it ready.

         I love you all so much and I am trying my best out here, I am seeing the Lords hand and I know that true eternal growth and success cannot be reached without Him. He loves us and knows what we need. I know that this is true. I can see Him teaching me and molding me. I have such a long way to go, but I am getting a good start out here. I love the Temple, everytime I go, I leave more sure that this is the true and living gospel. There is so much to learn and to on this earth and we need to be careful how we spend our time.

        

   You two don´t know how much you have taught me. I am starting to understand now what you wanted to do with so many things. Thank you so much, I am so grateful for the many lessons I learned with you and the many things you taught by example. You are the best. I miss being able to talk to you and I miss the conversations about movie ideas, about fun family memories, and about gospel truths. But, I am happy and I know that this is where I need to be.

 

   - Love,

         Elder Nothum

Today and yesterday a whole bunch of Americans who had been waiting for their visas for months finally got them and came to Brazil. So Elder Dos Anjos and I had to do a bunch of things for them to get them situated. We also did orientations for them. It was good to see them excited to be here to start of their Brazilian experience. I got to work with one of them for a night. Elder Stephen Smith. It was fun and we also got to have some spiritual experiences together.

But because of all this I am dead and I get one day to rest, and that day is today.

Give baby Olivia a big hug and kiss from me okay!

-Elder Nothum