Semana 15 (Happy New Year)

Hey guys.

This week has been pretty mellow, cause well it was christmas and everyone and their mom travels to the 4 corners of the earth so visiting people was a little tough. We did try though!

So first off Christmas Eve was pretty cool. It was deemed p-day by our mission president so we got to relax all day and then were invited to dinner with a member. It was fun to just talk to the people that were there, and the member's house is on the outskirts of town so we could see the whole sky like in a planetarium. And planetariums are cool, and things in real life are always cooler, so obviously it was super cool. AND we had churrasco (brasilian barbeque) to eat so how great is that.

Christmas Day we had lunch (more churrasco) and got to skype with our families! Always a good time. Then we went and spent some time with some recent converts, Lucas and João. All in all a pretty chill day.

Yesterday we went to church, and i love going to church cause everytime we do another miracle happens out of nowhere. Yesterday we actually had 2. First of all, there were lots of people we didnt know visiting family, so we couldnt really judge who was a member and who wasn't. But as we were sitting there in sacrament meeting, the guy behind us out of nowhere asked for our number and wants us to teach him and his girlfriend! Miracle 1. After sacrament meeting, another guy approached us and wanted to go on divisions with us, which is all cool and everything so we did. But later as we were talking to him it turns out he's moving into our ward and has this HUGE desire to do missionary work conosco cause he's a convert. His name is Regivaldo and he was a huge help in fellowshipping (make friends with) our pesquisadores (ahhh can't remember that word in english, but it's the people we teach), so now we have him to help us with our work too. Christmas miracles haha.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Happy new year! Make some resolutions and keep em!

-Elder Seaman

The only house that decorates for Christmas

Chocattone kind of like an Italian chocolate cake that super rad down here

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Playing risk with some investigators

Artsy photo of the lake

Semana 13

I am pleased to announce that i have survived my first transfer in the field (this one was 7 weeks, a little strange) and, as my companion decided to make clear to me yesterday, i have finished 1/8 of my mission. Ugh, that's crazy to think about.

We've been travelling a lot lately, and it seems like every time we've tried to work something comes up or an appointment falls through etc. I guess that's part of being in the farthest city from the mission home. We did have a good zone meeting last week in Araçatuba, and this week (today actually) we have some missionaries dying, and we'll have 3 missionaries training in our zone, which means i'll no longer have the glory of being the newest missionary. what a shame. not really haha.

I also got the opportunity to do some divisions in Araçatuba, which was cool to work in another area with other missionaries, see how they work and teach, etc. For the first time in my mission i had to knock doors (well, clap my hands outside people's gates). It was, well, knocking doors. We just met a lot of people who were SUPER busy and didn't have time to talk to us haha.

We had a branch christmas party this week, which was pretty fun. We got to know our branch members a little better, and i got to hear Christmas music in English, which is far and few between down here. I do like our area though, so i'm glad ill be staying here for (at least) another 6 weeks. It seems like every week in church, we have new investigators as well. This week, a 17 year old guy just wandered in. Didn't know any members or anything. It was crazy. We'll be adding him to our list of people to teach this week. Things like this make me frustrated though, because we have SUCH a good area, but are hardly ever here to work. Hopefully now that it's a new transfer we'll have time to focus more on our investigators instead of 6 hour bus rides and what city we need to be in every day of the week.

Stay sweet,

Elder Seaman

Most of the zone

Elder Martins- zone leader who just went home

Semana 12

Aló!

Things have been just swell in Três Lagoas. Miracles every day. Seriously though, little things. Like when you're walking down the street and someone pull onto the sidewalk on their motorcycle and tells you he talked to the missionaries 5 years ago and wants to again. What do you even say to that. "yes" i think is what came out of my mouth.

Our investigators are all doing quite well, and it seems like we hardly have to do anything to find new ones. They pretty much fall into our laps. In D&C 4 when it says the field is white, i'm pretty sure três lagoas is that field. I would think that everythign that happens is a coincidence, but after 6 weeks of coincidences yuo can kind of tell it's not so much that, as it is something bigger at work.

What's even more amazing though is seeing the healing power of the gospel in families and individuals. People who are broken and hopeless suddenly turn around and have direction in their lives. I just wish we had time to teach all the people we have, because the city is SO big.

Sorry i didnt have much time today, but know that things are great and the church is true haha

Tchau!

Elder Seaman

Our house

A main road

The Church of Brazil

The town Christmas Tree



The Daily Flood

Semana 11

At least, i think it's semana 11. Time is kind of irrelevant here. Today i'm writing from Araçatuba because we had zone conference yesterday. So we bussed to araçatuba and spent the night, then to Rio preto, then back and tonight we'll go to Três lagoas, and then next week we have zone meeting in araçatuba, and then the next week we'll make the 10 hour trip to Ribeirão Preto for transfers. Awesome.

Zone conference was cool though. I got to meet lots of new missionaries and the mission president and his wife gave awesome talks. Oh that's another thing, we also just had interviews with the mission president in Andradina. Basically we haven't been home in a week, and i'm a little scared to return and find out i forgot a steak out on the counter or something and now there's a jaguar in my house. It'd be just my luck. But back to zone conference. We talked a lot about how we can help our investigators, and where we usualy fall short in getting them where they need to be. We also talked about repentance, and how it means change, and we often confuse it with suffering. The point was that suffering comes from a lack of repentace, because the suffering has already been suffered. By Christ, ya know? We also learned that faith grows through sacrifice (see luke 17:5-10 it's good). This is kind of tough cause let's be honest, who wants to sacrifice? It's god though, and we learn to love people through it, and i'e found i'm often happier after i've served someone or sacrificed for others. Especially my companion. Next time someone asks something of you or you see a need, try to fill it and see what happens.

Last week we also had divisions with our district leader and his companion. That means i got paired with Elder Sant, another American who only arrived 6 weeks before me. And we took on Três Lagoas. Just kidding, we just taught a lesson. But it was the Plan of salvation, which if you didn't know is the most complex and can bring up the most concerns. But we taught the whole thing in Portuguese and could understand everything our investigator, André, said or asked. It was amazing. Definitely chalk it up to the gift of tongues cause 5 minutes before when i asked some guy on the road the name of the street i couldn't understand anything he said haha. Ever since that lessn though, it's like something clicked with the language and i'ts improved a lot. An elder even told me at zone conference that he thought i was brasileiro when he heard me spoke cause i spoke sem sotaque (without an accent). Honestly it depends on the day but i'm feeling pretty good about it. Still praying for that gift of tongues every day though.

I guess last week was thanksgiving? I had a turkey sandwhich, so that counts. One thing i have been quite disappointed with is the lack of cherished american christmas traditions here. I shouldnt be surprised though, but i did have to explain the story of rudolph the red nosed reindeer the other day. And the names of all the other reindeer, cause that's simply not a thing here.

Otherwise, i'm surviving in the ever increasing heat here. I think the rain keeps it a little cooler, cause it goes 0-hurricane in 10 seconds here just about every day. Once we were walking and we passed a store with open doors and i thought i felt the air conditioning from inside, but then a half a block later i still felt 20 degrees cooler, and it turned out it was just from the approaching storm. The weather is awesome here.

Stay sweet,
Elder Seaman

Semana 10

World,


Hello. This week has been one of my favorites so far. First and foremost, we had a baptism. Our investigator, Reginaldo, got to take the first step closer to Christ and honeslty i've never seen anyone happier. Like a kid in a candy store this guy. The elders from Androgina had a baptism too, so they came and used our building cause we're the closest chapel to them. I got to baptize Reginaldo and he thanked me profusely afterwards haha. His testimony is rock solid, and he's so humble and willing to learn. Love that guy.


We also had the opportunity to attend an english class a member of our branch teaches. It was so funny haha. When everyone found out i'm american they tensed up and didn't want to speak english in front of me. Eventually they got up the courage, and i would say in portuguese what they would practice in english. It was pretty fun, and we're going again tomorrow. The idea is to find investigators there, so we're working on befriending the class.


Twice this week we've been lectured by older religious guys we've met in the street. It can be pretty funny, but it also kind of wastes our time cause they don't really listen to what they say... or to what they're saying either haha. Yesterday an old catholic guy told us we were reincarnations of a holy person in another life, and kind of rambled on and made us an hour late for our lunch haha. He was also blasting some portuguese rendition of the beach boys in the background, which made it hard to hear what he was saying.


Elder Aguirra and I are getting along pretty great with our work. It's helpful that he speaks a decent amount of english, cause i can ask him about concepts or phrases in portuguese and he can explain or clear up anything i can't really wrap my mind around. It also allows me to make all my mistakes in portuguese with him, rather than in public, which is way less embarassing. For example, we were making cookies last p-day (brazilians LOVE cookies) and Elder Aguirra was pouring flour. There's 2 words, bastante and basta which more or less mean "enough." The difference is bastante can mean more when someone is pouring something and basta means no more. Well one thing lead to another and lets just say we made a lot of cookies.


Otherwise, we're out here working, walking for 4+ hours a day, getting tan (burnt), and saving souls. Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. Hope all is well up north.


Stay sweet,
Elder Seaman

Top row left to right is Elder(s) Sant, Digiogio, Aguirra. 

Below is Elder(s) Araujo, Beneton, and Seaman.

Semana 9

Família e amigos,


I hope you guys are all doing well. Things here in Três Lagoas are as strange and wonderful as ever. At the start of the week we had zone conference in Araçatuba, which meant getting to go by my new FAVORITE means of travel, the bus. And i say that half sarcastically half not, because it's really not that bad. We just do it all the time. But that was fun, and it was cool cause i could understand the whole 3 hours of brazilians talking. Afterwards, though, the zone leaders tried talking to me and i couldnt understand what they were saying. Sometimes the gift of tongues comes and goes. Your mind literally feels like it's been exercising after listening to another language for too long haha. But my ability to understand definitely depends on how tired i am, how hungry i am, and my mood. Probably also true for a lot of things.


In the way of miracles, we're never short of them here. We received a list of referalls from Salt Lake (apparently people actually ask to have the missionaries visit them...crazy) that we were going through. One was literally at the very edge of the city limits, that had apparently been tried before twice, but the house could never be found. Perchance, as we were walking down the highway looking for the house number (a little hopelessly) some guy pulled over and asked what we were looking for. What are the odds that his parents and uncle are members, so he recognized us as missionaries, AND that he happened to have an apt knowledge of the area and took us to our appointment. THEN when we met our investigator, he was stoked to see us, and had a grocery list of questions for us to answer. This guy was sitting on the edge of his seat the whole time we talked to him, trying to make sure he heard and understood every word we said, even through the motorcycles passing by, dogs barking, and the thunder... thundering (we dont really have a verb for this, but in português we do). It was awesome. It's always really cool to see the joy that comes to peoples lives when they hear our message and realize its what theyve been looking for. At the same time, it really sucks when they hear it, understand it, and reject it. But, such is life.


Otherwise, things are same old same old. By that i mean i wake up everyday to cats in the house, later slay some cockroaches (i hate those things by the way. I'm pretty sure they report directly to satan himself. the worst is when they can fly. who's idea was that?), later get asked if i'm american (occasionally people will just shout whatever they know in english to me), and sometimes get stuck in thunderstorms on the opposite side of the city from home. Oh, and it's getting so hot now. The other night i couldnt fall asleep it was so hot. It started raining and i just left my window open until i was sufficiently soaked and cooled off. It was great.


Stay sweet,


Elder Seaman

Semana 8

Tudo bem amigos,

Esta semana was filled with... well, excitement i guess you could say. I've renamed this city Três Lagoas e Um Rio, because every time it rains the roads become a river. And it's rained nearly every day. Our house flooded again last night, and we lost power. the whole city did actually. lose power that is. So in the middle of the night i woke up to all the alarms going off because the electric fences that top most of the gates/walls didn't have power. 'twas the worst thing i've ever heard at 3:00 am. And then i woke up to a stray cat in the house. Such is life.

The work is going great here. The member throw references at us like it's going out of style. Two days ago, we visited a man named Reginaldo. This guy is amazing. Seriously. He found a book of mormon at work, all wet and tattered, and started reading it. Then he met a coworker who was mormon. He said none of his other coworkers ever talked about their religion or beliefs or wanted to share anything, but this guy did (hint hint, TELL YOUR FRIENDS). So he came to church one day, loved it, and wanted to talk to us (the missionaries). We visited this guy in his humble little home with his wife, and he was happier than a kid in a candy store. He literally couldnt sit still because he was so excited about our message. He told us about how, for his whole life, he had been searching and searching and didn't find God or truth in any other church. He also told us he didnt believe that other churches baptize correctly. This went on for about 10 minutes, before we even started teaching him. Imagine how thrilled we were. I've never seen faith like this guy has. He came to church yesterday, and plans to be baptized in 2 weeks. Ah, i've never been happier than when i was in this guys house. People are so humble and willing to learn it blows my mind. When Christ talks about becoming as little children in the scriptures, this is it.

Other than missionary work, we do try to have some fun. We've had a couple run ins with wild animals this week. Apparently there are scorpions here that stink rather than use venom, which we didnt figure out until, well after the stink. I also had my first run in with Capybaurus Rex, a remnant left over from when giant rodents ruled the earth. I'll send pictures. One of my favorite things to do is give kids here war heads. they dont really have sour candy down here, so its the greatest and worst thing they've ever tried. I also try to over play the american who doesnt understand card. Sometimes, i'll nod and act like i understood what they said andthen reach into my pocket and hand them a couple centavos haha. They usually just look at the couple of coins and then back at me confusedly and try to reexplain, but i get a kick out of it.

Anyways. Hope you guys are doing well. Probably a little colder than i am, but probably dryer too. Help the missionaries, help your friends, help strangers, just be Christlike.


Love you bye!
Elder Seaman