All I Feel is Love

Patrícia, Elder Carvalhol, Elder Heidenreich, Elder Inácio, Me, Gelson (the counselor that baptized Ana Karen), and in front Ana Karen. Seriously, the love I have for each and everyone of them is undescribable, and the happiness I feel knowing that their family was blessed again through the gospel fills my heart with profound joy.

Dear Mom and Everyone else,

Dang I loved this week so much. Without a doubt it was one of the best I´ve had here in Brazil. Parabéns for Natalie and the new job! Way to be the only braun kid (for now) that hasn´t had a job in fast food. I have no idea what someone at a clothing store would do.... fold clothes all day? Fun stuff. I love hearing about the missionary news you send each week to me from the stake. Don´t stop doing that. 

Some ideas about food that I eat a lot (although I´m not really sure if it´s a great example). I make lots of toast here. It´s cheap, easy, and I like it. Same with cheese and ham sandwichs. Not quite as cheap, but when you put it in a waffle iron or sandwich maker like we have here, it´s delicious. I also make ramen a lot, again, because it´s cheap and easy. Sometimes when our lunch falls through with a member, we make Stroganoff, which is way different and better down here. Pretty much it´s just rice with the sauce, a mixture between tomato sauce, milk cream, chicken, with farofa and batata palha (I have no idea what patata palha is in English, but its like super tiny potato chips).

Anyway, like I said, this week was aweeeeesome. The family we had reactivated a few weeks ago had incredible results. When we found Ana Karen and Sonia doing contacts on the street, we never though we´d have found people so fantastic than we did at that moment. Ana Karen was baptized on Saturday! Sonia has plans to be baptized in the upcoming future, we´ve just got to help her out with the word of wisdom, but she´s progressing a lot. Ana Karen´s Mom, Patricia, has been a huge blessing for us as well. She was an active member in Maricá, was even the Primary President, but because of losing a bit of trust in the leadership, as well as personal problems, she ended up leaving the church, but always having a respect for it. When we found her and her family, she considered that an answer to her prayers. 

Ana Karen´s Baptism was sooooo special. She´s such an adorable girl, and even though she´s only 9 years old, she´s been reading the Book of Mormon a lot, and has said she´s gonna be a missionary. The counselor in the branch presidency baptized her and we had a pretty good number of people at the baptismal meeting, including Jessica who was baptized last week and one of her neighbors. It was the first baptism this branch has had at the church itself instead of having the baptism at the stake center. Unlike last week, everything went smoothly and we had no problems with water. The Spirit was super strong when Patricia bore her testimony about the church and how happy she felt when Elder Inácio and I were able to start teaching her again and invite her to return back to church.

Other news this week, we´ll have transfers next monday, and I´m super nervous about what will happen. I feel pretty certain that I´ll leave Maricá, which is super tough to accept because I feel I´ve gotten to a point where I truly love the people here. Like a lot. Especially for our members and investigators and recent converts. If there´s something to teach to those in your Mission Prep class that will carry them throughout their mission and help them to accomplish a successful a satisfying mission, first is to gain an understanding of the Lord´s Atonement, second would be to gain a Christlike love for all those you come in contact with. I love you all back at home and want you to know that I´m so happy to be here serving the Lord in his vineyard bringing souls to Christ.

Love,

Elder Braun

Taken right before the ordinance.

Baptism and Boxes

Elder Inácio and I at Jessica´s baptism

Hey Family,

First off, there´s hope in the Brazillian mailing system! I received three boxes this week from a few of my loved ones, including one from Jeff, one from Valerie and Ryan, and another from the fam. It had the CTR ring and some socks. Exactly what I needed! Thanks a ton, it made me happy.

Well, We had our baptism this week! well, by that, I mean it was the baptism of an investigator, Jessica! It´s kind of crazy, because we found Jessica when we were knocking doors close the the house of our other investigator... Jessica! So Jessica 1 was a girl we were teaching with her family who accepted baptism about 3 months ago but it didn´t work out... but her neighbor Jessica 2 got baptised on Saturday! Her baptism was quite a miracle in this branch, because Satan was working really hard against us for it to happen.

First of all, Thursday night was Jessicas baptism interview, and when we showed up at Jessica´s sister´s house (Where she usually is),she wasn´t there! Her phone hasn´t been working, so we had no way to know where she was, but we ran to here parent´s house, about a 40 minute walk away, aand again... NOT THERE. but her step-dad said she should have arrived at her sister´s house by then, so we walked back, 40 minutes again. STILL NOT THERE. At that point, we had to go back home, another 30 minute walk, since our time was running out. Early Friday morning, we passed by her parent´s house after much prayer and the she was there! The interview went well.

The day after, her baptism day, the water in the church... STOPPED. It just, didn´t run anymore, so we had no water to fill the baptismal font, and we had to hire a van to bring people to a different chapel in the stake. All last minute. And when we went to pick up Jessica´s familyto bring to the baptism, her mom started being completely against her choice to be baptized (note. Jessica is 22, so she´s not a minor). We tried helping her to understand that our church is in fact not a cult and that she´s actually going to be blessed being baptized in the true church of Christ. After many prayers in my heart and trying our best to help her understand the purpose of baptism, her mom finally felt comfortable to let her daughter be baptized. Her baptismal meeting was simple, yet very spiritual, and a wonderful experience for the members in Maricá who were able to attend.

I´m happy to also share that we have another baptism planned for this Saturday for a girl we found while doing contacts in the street whose mom was a less active member and we reactivated two weeks ago. Ana Karen had been going to church when she was younger, but left the church with her brother and mom when she was about 6 years old, and for that reason, never was born in that water. Well, we´ve had the wonderful privelege to work together with her family to return to church and return to receive the wonderful blessings of the restored gospel. Yeah, I´m thrilled and incredibly happy, if you couldn´t notice.

Thank you so much for the prayers sent to me. My companion and I have been so blessed this past week, and are excited to work even more! I love you all and love this work!

Love,

Elder Braun

A funny picture I took on a windy day that makes me look like I´ve got a FAT BELLY. 

(Spoiler alert: I´ve actually gotten really fat) 

Teaching English!

Our fancy, schmancy banner for the Self-sufficiency/english/institute courses

Dear Family,

What another exciting week we had! 

We had interviews with Pres. Cabral this week, the first time since he arrived in Rio, which was a great experience. He´s definitely a powerful man, even if he is only about 5 feet tall, but he sure knows exactly what to say to motivate and inspire us as we strive to fulfill our calling as representatives of Christ. 

The branch in Marica has been going really well, and it seems like with every week, we´re reactivating different people! Right now, our biggest worry or biggest necessity is to work on retaining these members who have returned to the true church. We´re trying our VERY BEST to motivate the leadership in the branch to establish goals and make plans so that these people aren´t left alone, forgotten, and eventually return back to being inactive. We´ve actually had more success finding new referrals through less-actives than through the active members, so that´s bonus points, kindof.

A lady named Patricia returned to church this sunday. She used to be the primary president about 4 years ago, and some of the members were ecstatic to see her again, including a few of the primary aged kiddos. Her 9 year old daughter, Ana Karen, loved coming back to church, and now that she has the age to be baptized, she said she´s excited for baptism! The first time we met her, she wasn´t very sure about it, but there´s always a great spirit we feel when we enter the Lord´s church, testifying of the importance of following Christ´s example in all things, including baptism! 

Which reminds me, we went from 3 firm baptisms this week to only one, marked for this saturday. Why? First of all, I ask that everyone at home could pray for Marlo. Everything was going GREAT for him to be baptized on the 9th, but yesterday, only his wife Juliana (member) showed up at church with their little kids. Juliana said he changed for no reason, didn´t want to come to church, not even have us pass by yesterday like we planned. We were a pretty devastated to hear those news, but our branch president is helping us by following up with him.

Also, a young man aged boy, Vitor, was super excited for this saturday, but his mom (who doesn´t live in our area) didn´t allow him, saying she she´d prefer that he became more familiar with the church. Him and his grandma, a lady we recently activated, cried because of that. Satan knows just as well as God does how blessed and happy we will be when we live the gospel of Christ, and for that he´s working just as hard as we are to make us miserable like he is. That punk.

But the lady we´ve been teaching, Jessica, is as excited as ever for her baptism this saturday! She´s about as elect as they get, and grows in understanding of the gospel with each and every visit. 

On saturday, Elder Heidenreich and I taught English for the first time in the branch, as part of the Self-sufficiency course the branch pres put together! Not many people were there (only 4), but we had one referral that a member invited who was very grateful for our service. We were a little confused why all of the members were excited to be there... and they didn´t show up. But we´ll just have to keep inviting them, over and over and over again.

I love you all! I´m so blessed to come from such a wonderful family. I´m happy to share this gospel and grateful to have been blessed with both awesome and difficult experiences to help me grow as a servant of our Lord here in Maricá.

Love,

Elder Braun 

Our fancy, schmancy banner for the Self-sufficiency/english/institute courses

Good Weather and Awesome Waterfalls

Adriane, Adenilson, and their kiddos.

Hey Family,

As always, another crazy week for us. It was actually a little stressful at the start, since like EVERY SINGLE appointment we made fell through, but we stayed busy, sharing the gospel with everyone. I´m happy to hear everyone had a good week, too. Knowing how efy is, Natalie probably met lots of new people from around the country who probably became her best friends, in just a week. Efy is cool in that way. Parabéns for Ryan and the graduation. Yaaaaay accounting. How long will his course at Gonzaga be? One year? Will they still be in Spokane while I´m home? Will my room not be mine once I´m back at home?

Whenever you send the next package, mom, one thing I´m really needing is socks. Good black socks aren´t cheap here in Maricá, like 3 bucks a pair, and I´m left with lots of pairs that have holes in them. Sometimes I walk 500 miles, and sometimes I walk 500 more. 

The weather has gotten waaaaaay better. Everyone here gets their winter jacket, a blanket, and bundles up in their house... because it´s 60ish degrees. I find it kind of humorous, but it´s the culture her. It has been raining every once and a while as well, which I love, but my umbrella broke the other day. I opened it up, and one of the metal arm things snapped. It still works, it just has a limp in one of it´s legs, more or less.

This week, we have been working more with a family to complete, Marlo and Juliana. Marlo wasn´t able to go to church yesterday, because their house ,  has been flooding, so he had to build a little wall thing, but Juliana still went with her parents (Another family tp complete, Ana and João) and her cute little kiddos, 2 little boys named Rafael and Pedro. Marlo´s been reading the book of mormon and said he feels ready for baptism! We had to remark his baptismal date for the 9th of August, but he´s way excited. On that same date, we have 3 baptisms planned in the branch, so it should be a special day in Maricá. 

We´ve also been working with a lady named Cristiane, who was starting to lose faith in God, and since we met her, she´s been feeling a lot happier about life. She´s divorced, has two kids, and works a lot, so she feels overwelmed about life, and since we taught her the plan of salvation, she has been progressing a lot. She´s been to church 2 times already.

Adenilson and Adriane and their family is also going really well. It seems like every sunday, something comes up which makes it hard for them to progress, but we´re teaching the importance of sanctifying the sabbath and their getting more and more interested with each message we leave with them.

This Saturday, Elder Heidenreich and I are starting a... (drum roll please)..... ENGLISH CLASS!!!! We´ve been planning it for a few weeks now, and together with the institute and self-sufficiency classes that will start this saturday, we´re teaching English! Which means I need to get back to studying english because I can´t speak no more. Writing these letters home has gotten harder and harder with each and every week. But we´re hoping to find lots of people to help through this english course. 

I love all the Brauns in the whole world! You are all wonderful and not a day goes by that I´m not grateful for my wonderful, supportive, and gospel centered family that has been a blessing in my life.

Love,

Elder Braun

 A wonderful water fountain that I just could not resist to take a picture of. I hope you enjoy.

The Power of Prayer

Hey Family!

Would you believe it if I told you this week was boring? Don´t, because it wasn´t!! I hope everyone has fun on their different road trips and travel safely. When I read the stories about the fires in Spokane and the rain in Rexburg, all I could think of was the Adele song called ´´I Set Fire to the Rain´´. If only the two things were happening in the same place. That would be perfect.

Elder Inácio and I have had lots of miracles recently. We´ve had lots of reasons to be thankful, and our work has been progressing little by little. I´ll let you know right now why there´s no photos in this email, because I lost my camera last week and was freaking out. Luckily, a brother in the branch who was giving us a ride called me saying I left my camera in his car, and that he would give it to me tomorrow. 6 months of photos almost lost. 

Our branch president has planned a self reliance class, with scripture study and english study that way we can invite our investigators and less actives and.... everyone! Elder Heidenreich and I will be teaching the english course. I´m still not really sure how, but we´re excited! It starts next Saturday.

We recently reactivated a married lady whose husband isn´t a member and started teaching him last week. heir names are Marlo and Juliana. They´ve been going super well, and Marlo even accepted a baptismal invite! He says he already has a lot of respect for the church because of the importance it teaches about familes, and they have two little ones, one that´s 3 and the other is 9 months. The only issue is that he works in the army and studys, and is at home for only 4 hours each day. I´m still not sure how he managed to find time to read the passages we left with him in the Book of Mormon, but he´s really enjoying it.

We´re working really hard to help the few members in Maricá help us do missionary work and receive our investigators in a more friendly manner so that they can recognize better that this is the true church of Christ. I love you all and love this wonderful Gospel! Without the sealing power restored through Joseph Smith to seal our families for eternity, there would be no validity in any other ordinace that we do. This is the Lord´s true church.

Love,

Elder Braun

ONE YEAR?

Lagoa de Araçatiba

Dear Family,

Last Thursday, I hit the one year mark of my mission. It gave me an opportunity to look back on all of the wonderful tender mercies and tender moments since I left the airport in Spokane and started what I was called to do. It´s been a crazy up and down rollar coaster, but I´m pleaed to say I have very little regrets and I can´t wait for what the rest of my mission has in store for me! 

Wow, hearing about all of these lost packages frustrates me quite a bit. One of the best things ever as a missionary is receiving a fancy package from home. As far as packages goes, I haven´t heard of other missionaries having problems, it just seems like I´ve had bad luck :(

Transfers are this week! Not a whole lot happened in the mission, probably because of the new mission President. I´m staying in Maricá with Elder Inácio, the other two elders in our branch are staying with us as well. I was super worried because I LOVE Maricá. I have no idea how I´ll be able to leave this place, because I love this people and the members are getting animated to help us, we´ve been able to reactivate lots of members recently, and investigators are really progressing now.

We had a big branch activity on Saturday that lots of people went to. It was called a Festa Julhina. Lots of people dressed up like cowboys, eating weird food like sweet potato candy (for being a fan of sweet potatoes, I´m surprised that it actually was kinda nasty), and other stuff. Our mission president didn´t authorize (is that a good word to use?) us to attend the party, so we worked like normal. The members weren´t very happy about that, but obedience brings miracles. We´re looking for miracles here.

Our investigator Shirlei is progressing really well, she said she already knows that the church is true, but she wouldn´t give us a sure answer if she´ll be baptized until our visit with her... tonight! Pray for us! Ana and João are also doing really well, we just need to help them be patient and prepared for their wedding. Ana told me that mom accepted her friend request on facebook? carumba gente

We´re really excited in Maricá, especially since we´re having some great growth in the branch because of members coming to church every sundaynow and reactivations. Now we´re working really hard with the leadership and members to work with us so that we can prepare new converts to fill the church house. Our goal is to have a piece of land already bought to build a chapel before the end of the year!

I love you all! I love packages too, so don´t give up on me and the world sketchy postage system! 

Elder Braun

Families and Birthdays!

Me and Elder Bitnoff, one of the Elders from my district in the MTC. His first area in Brazil is Ramos, 

my second area! He arrived about a month ago... 11 months after he started his mission.

HI FAMILY

What a wonderful week it sounds like you´ve all had. I can see Natalie has certainly taken in some of the Brazillian culture in her life, wearing shorts that almost don´t exist (watch yourself, missy). It sounds like these past few weeks were a blast, and although I would have loved to be in Star Valley celebrating with everyone back at home, there´s no other place I´d rather be than right here in Maricá.

We met our new mission president last Friday, which was an awesome experience. President Cabral is definitely a powerful man, and as stake president in Fortaleza, he had so much growth that the stake he was leading divided 2 times. 

I´m pleased to say that my week was quite swell as well. Thursday (July 3rd) was Elder Inácio´s birthday, so I made him a cake that ended up kind of being brownies. I´ve lately fallen in the habit of forgetting to take pictures of cool things that I see or do, so unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it and I´m realizing that right now. Drats. 

Saturday was one of our investigators birthdays, so we went to her party she had to say hi and wish her happy birthday. It´s the same investigator that works for one of the city representatives campaign (Vanda), and she invited us to leave a short message with everyone at the party! Golden! We shared with everyone a breif message about the Book of Mormon and how blessed we are to have the fullness of the gospel restore through the words of our beloved prophets with the book. Lots of people were interested and Vanda shared her testimony of the Book of Mormon with them. What a party! Vanda is progressing really well, but because of her work duties, she still has not been able to come to church. Luckily, she went to a relief society activity last week, met some of the sisters there, and instantly started to be friends with them. 

We recently reactivated a part member family, where the mom is a member and the dad isn´t, they have a daughter who is a member, but her husband isn´t. Ana and João (the mom and dad) have already committed to stay firm in the church, we´re working really hard for them to get married now. Juliana and Marlo (the daughter and her husband) also came to church, and it was Marlo´s first time. He loved it! Since he works in the Army, during the World Cup, he´s been working a ton (14 days in a row, away from his family), but after the world cup, he´ll be back at home like normal, and we´re super excited to help prepare him for baptism!!!! :) !!!!

This month is ´´Missionary Work Month´´ in the branch, with lots of activities and such planned for the members to get more involved with missioanry work and helping the elders. This Saturday, there´s a huge activity planned, and that morning, they will be working with us, knocking allllllll of the doors close to the church and inviting everyone to the activity.

We also have another investigator who came to church for the first time yesterday, Shirlei, who has a son who´s a member in Rio. She loved it, had lots of questions answered by the members, and even offered to help out with the activity this Saturday by making a cake to share. I mean, I won´t complain or anything. 

I´ve learned a LOT these past few weeks about love and charity. With transfers next week, I´m trembling with the thought that I might be transferred. Elder Inácio and I are building a great rhythm together, and we´re starting to get great results in Maricá. I feel like my work here is only beginning, and the love I have for everyone in this area is incredible. I love this work and the gratifying feeling I get from planning and teaching with all the power of the Spirit I´m capable to harness.

Love,

Elder Braun

Elder Inácio and I after a lesson with Ana and João