Dear Family & Friends,

I do appreciate all of the emails, yes. :) I am glad you got to celebrate Grandpa Wright's birthday. No, I can't believe it, ha ha. I hope Chad is doing swell. I've been working on letters to you and everyone, but I am still figuring out how to mail them, so they'll either get sent today or next P-Day.

Nope, my companion is still the same one I have had, Elder Alexandrino from Fortaleza, Brasil, but Elder Reinhardt was in a trio with us for a little bit because his companion got emergency transferred. How it works in Brazil is 2 companionships usually live in the same house to save on costs. And right now, I live with Elder Reinhardt and his new companion Elder Nielson but we are not companions right now.

THAT STORY IS SO COOL! Oh. I am so happy to hear about that! I was talking to Elder Quiroz this week, and he told me you can look up the patriarchal blessings of your ancestors on Family Search, so I have been doing that. It is so cool! That is a splendid goal!

Ha ha, here in Brasil...in the front of our missionary planners they offer finding ideas and my companion, when I got here, told me to put a big X through the family history idea. Not because it is a bad idea, but because it scares people here to death. A lot of the time people aren't married, and so they don't want to find out where they came from. It's just a cultural thing, but my companion said he wants to look through Family Search to see if there were any other members in his family because he was baptized when he was 14.

Your comments remind me of something President Uchtdorf said, "Even Moroni, in the twilight of the Nephite nation, believed in Hope!" Oh! If you want a good laugh, listen to the talk, "Come What May And Love It." Elder Wirthlin shares a hilarious story about his daughter and a date she went on. It's hilarious. I won't try to paraphrase it because I won't do it justice.

Your comments remind me of something. Often we do get "too busy" for others. I think catching up with others who have touched our lives and helped us is one way that we show them and Our Father in Heaven that we appreciate, honor, and most importantly, Love them.

I have so many stories to share with you. Here is one of them: Elder Quiroz, and later my companion Elder Alexandrino gave me some good advice. Many people here in the mission were telling me to forget about my mission in the U.S. because Now my "real" mission has "started." What these two servants of the Lord told me was, "Don't Forget Kansas. But just try to apply what you learned there here in Brasil." I will never forget that.

I hope I can apply THAT to Brasil. We may not have baptized much in the U.S., but I hope to develop at least half of the character of the people I met in Kansas, here in Brasil.

I hope you all know how much I Love you. And how much I can see each of us growing. "...The stronger the Trees."

Eu Te Amo, Para Sempre, e Nas Eternidades,

(Google Translation)

I Love You Forever, and in the Eternities,

Élder Weaver

Mission President Weekly Report

February 24, 2014

Esta semana foi muito especial! Aparecida e Fernanda estiverem na Igreja ontem! Aparecida teve uma entrevista batismal e é muito forte. Nós encontramos Fernanda esta semana. Ela tem dois filhos e um pode ser batizado. Os filhos estiveram na Igreja ontem também. Elas ainda têm datas pelo primeiro de Março. Encontramos Luiz esta semana. Ele teve uma data pelo primeiro também, mas não podia estar na Igreja ontem. Esta próximo Domingo ele vai! Vamos continuar trabalhar com Vitória para ter uma data também. Eu sou grato pelos membros e os Lideres e outros missionários nesta Zona. Eles ajudam me muito.

(Translation with Google)

This week was very special! Fernanda Aparecida was in church yesterday! Ali had a baptismal interview and is very strong. Fernanda we found this week. She has two sons and one can be baptized. The children were at church yesterday too. They still have dates by the first of March.  Luiz we found this week. He had a date on the first too, but could not be in church yesterday. This coming Sunday he will! We will continue to work with Victoria to get a date too. I am grateful to the members and leaders and other missionaries in this area. They help me a lot.

Elder Weaver

I Got The Package This Week!

February 17, 2014

Família!

I got the package this week :) Thank You so much. The goodies were so delicious and I'm sure the hangers will help out a lot. Luckily it doesn't rain much anymore. It turns out the missionary who left his mattress cover behind wanted it back so I still need one of those, but don't feel like you need to send it in a package. I think I'll use my card or emergency money to buy one. And I found out this week I think its a mission rule we can't read Church News :( But the Ensign should be fine so feel free to send those if you can :) We have a DVD player for trainings, which can also play CDs, so, yes.

I love my companion and Elder Reinhardt and he is always hilarious to live with. President Bell does email me every once in a while which is amazing to me since he has billions of emails to read from missionaries in his own mission anyway, let alone a missionary in some distant part of our world.

Yeah, I haven't noticed anything about the Olympics, just the "Copo Do Mundo" because everyone lovvvves soccer! I don't think Carnival is for a few months. It's funny. The stakes here have a youth conference every Carnival where they get the youth away from all of the smut and stay in a resort or a member's home that lives far away or something, haha.

I think that will be a wonderful thing to teach your Young Women. When you get into the "real world" it's better to be prepared with all of the right habits. It's too late if you arrive and sink rather than swim.

We had some interesting experiences this week. I was reminded of the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants, "... The ^{aSon of Man} hath ^bdescended below them all. Art thou greater than he?" 

Joseph was not greater than The Son of Man, and neither are any of us. Also, there is a scripture that became the favorite of my teacher, Brother Rosemore, from the MTC. "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they ^aspit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving ^bkindness and his ^{clong-suffering} towards the children of men." 1 Nephi 19:9

And we must suffer, too. Not that we suffer even a decimal of what He suffered, but rather, we learn of Him when we take His yoke upon us. And He did it because He loves us. And we can have joy because we can be brought back into the presence of our Father in Heaven. I don't have much time, but above all, know that I Love all of you. I will email you first every week before all of my friends.  I hope you know because you are my first emailing priority :)

Love,

Elder Weaver

Looking out from our area

Will explain later

Letter To Mission President - February 17, 2014

February 17, 2014

RE: Letter To Mission President

Nossa fé em nosso Salvador foi construido esta semana também. Continuamos para trabalhar com Aparecida. Ela recebeu um testemunho, mas ela tem muito medo para ser batizada. Ela irá a Conferência da Estaca o proximo Domingo. Acho que isso vai ajudar ela. Encontramos Vitória e Cecilia também e elas tem muito potencial ser batizado. Estou mais feliz.

(Google Translation)

Our faith in our Savior was built this week too. We continue to work with Ali. She received a testimony, but she's too afraid to be baptized. She will go to Stake Conference the next Sunday. I think this will help her. We found Victoria and Cecilia and they also have a lot of potential to be baptized. I'm happier.

My Birthday Was Awesome!

February 10, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

Yes! The birthday was awesome! Probably better than I was expecting. In our District, Sister Piris celebrated a birthday this week, too (the 8th, so I'm older). I thought everyone forgot, but after our District Meeting on Thursday my companion led me into the primary room and everyone else was there with balloons, cake, candy and soda. The Elders all gave me a new tie, too :) I was definitely surprised. I don't know how they pulled it off because Elder Alexandrino must have made phone calls and I'm with him all the time so I should have overheard, but then again, I'm still learning português, haha. I hope Allison had her best birthday yet! :)

That is crazy to hear about all of the storms! Especially when the weather is so drastically different here, haha! I do remember the Rutherford name. I am saddened to hear of her passing.

Thank you for that quote. I will try to grow where I currently serve. I am also looking forward to studying the life of Joseph Fielding Smith. I hope you all don't mind receiving my updates in Portuguese. I just copy them from my letter to President usually, so I hope Google Translate does a decent enough job for all of you. If you want I can start doing it in english, too. I will, I Love Allison.

I read something neat in The Book of Mormon today: "And it came to pass when Alma had heard these words he ^awrote them down that he might have them, and that he might judge the people of that church according to the commandments of God." Mosiah 26:33.  Even Alma a prophet writes things down to remember them. I am going to set a goal to write down more impressions and experiences so he doesn't forget them. I Love You All. I'll never forget all of you. You are here with me in Brasil.

Love,

Elder Weaver

The President's Letter

February 10, 2014

The Haps:

Esta semana, encontramos Aparacida, uma mulher que tem Um Livro de Mórmon por 30 anos! E ela leu tudo, mas nunca orei. Então, convidamos ela para orar e perguntar Deus sobre-lo, e ela fez isso conosco. Ela disse que ela sente um calor, e explicamos que isso foi O Espírito de Deus. Convidamos ela para ser batizada em 20 de Fevereiro. Ela tem duvidas que talvez ela já estava batizada. Vamos perguntar os secretários sobre ela, se ela tem um registro de membro ou não. Nós continuamos a trabalhar com Márcia, Jonathan, e nossa família. Eu continuo a confiar no Senhor.

Translation from Word:

The Haps:  

This week, we found Aparacida, a woman who has a Book of Mórmon per 30 years! She has read it, but never had prayed about it. Then, we invited her to pray and ask God on it, and she shared this with us. She said that she feels a heat, and we explained that this was the Spirit of God. We invited her to be baptized on 20 of February. She has doubts that perhaps she already was baptized. We went to ask the secretaries on it, if she was a member registered or not. We continue to work with Márcia, Jonathan, and family. I continue to trust Mr.

Yes, Everything Was Fantastic!

My New Room Mate, Elder Rinehardt

February 3, 2013

To Family & Friends,

Yes, everything was fantastic! Thank you for forwarding all of those letters from the ward. I will work on responding to them today. And I'm going to put The Winnie The Pooh puzzle together :)! And, no, I don't think anyone opened it up. It's hard to believe Allison and I will be 20 this week. This year will be very special to me because 2014, and my 20th year, will be the one year of my life completely spent in missionary service. Yeah, I think this is Allison and I's first birthday apart.

I'm glad Ashley got to hear Sister Kapp Perry. I know she is doing well. I Love being a missionary! When we were in the MTC we sang the songs of Janice Kapp Perry, with her singing along, it was very powerful. During Army of Helaman we sang "...and we are Now the Lord's Missionaries, We'll bring the world His Truth." Muito Chique.

Haha, I'm glad the Seahawks won.

My hat goes off to Dad. The LA airport is a joke. So crazy! But I know he'll do great.

Thank You for the quote I will reflect on it much.

One of my favorite Church-produced movies is "To This End Was I Born" and we got to watch it during our Christmas party in Kansas. Elder Sutherland, a missionary who served in Wellington also, told me that he knows many of the actors in that movie because they're from his stake in California. He told me during the Crucifixion scene the mob couldn't shout "Crucify Him!" so they actually shout "Crysanthemum, Crysanthemum!" because the actors couldn't bring themselves to shout their line. I've been thinking a lot about Him.

If you ever miss me, if you're ever thinking about me, if you want to send me a message about how much you Love me, be a missionary. I'm not saying you need to wear a badge and be "full-time" but be a missionary everyday and lift where you stand. Even if what you have to lift is a mini-cross. Elder Holland said during a seminar for new mission presidents, "When you're missionaries say, 'President, why aren't people just flocking to the baptismal font? Why aren't they embracing the Savior? Why is this so hard?' Now this isn't Church Doctrine per say, but I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because SALVATION WAS NOT A CHEAP EXPERIENCE. Because Salvation Was Never easy! I am not trying to say that we should expect to suffer anything close to The Savior. That would be presumptuous and quite frankly sacrilegious. But if we are to be followers of Christ we must understand that we need to be prepared to suffer on our little mini-version of the path that He walked..." You can do me no greater honor than continuing to follow the example of the Savior. I Love You all so much. If you ever want to feel like I'm near, follow His path. I am not trying to sound as Elder Holland said presumptuous or sacrilegious, but if we all follow the path of The Savior, we'll be walking together.

Also, if you have time listen to "Sunday Will Come" by Elder Wirthlin. It changed my life. Perseverar até O Fim! (Persevere until the End).

Te Amo, Para Sempre, (I love you, Forever)

Elder Weaver

The Weekly Report To The President

February 3, 2014

The report to the President

Presidente Araujo,

Esta semana foi muito bom! Elder Alexandrino e eu oramos para saber onde nós devemos trabalhar esta transferência e sentimos que devemos trocar nossa Área a Setor Asia. Encontramos Joice que tive uma data por batismo. Ela tem perguntas sobre autoridade e Lição 1, então vamos explicar mais sobre a Restauração e como ela pode receber uma resposta da verdade. Temos outros pesquisadores em potencial que vamos tentar a ensinar. 

Te Amo,

(Translation from MS Word)

President Araujo,

This week was very good! Elder Alexandrino and I pray to know where we must work this transference and feel that we must change to our Area the Asia Sector. We find Joice that I had a date for baptism. It has questions on authority and Lesson 1, then we go to explain more on the Restoration and as it can receive a reply from the truth. We have other researchers in potential that we go to try to teach.  

I love you,

Elder Weaver