Small World with Baptisms!

 Sonia´s Baptism (Sidney, Sonia, Me, Elder Inácio)

Hey GUYS!

This week was full of building experiences and opportunities. As district leader, Í´m in charge of 4 companionships (including mine) and I had a few chances to go on splits to help out some of them. I can officially say I´ve been in or done a division in every single area in this zone/stake. I´ve beeen in the same stake for practically my entire mission (except one transfer) so I guess it´s not that surprising. 

The temperature is starting to pick up, I got pretty burned last Friday, and I´m back to constantly drinking water and trying to stay hydrated. Yay Rio weather!

Because of some trouble the other dupla in our branch was having with money, losing time taking the bus every day, and working far away from the chapel, we decided to redivide our area, so that they can work coser to the church and not have to take the bus every day. It was a tough decision for Elder Inácio and I to make since all of our recent converts (who haven´t been afraid to give plenty of good references) will be in their area. They´ve been struggling to have some success, so it should work out well for both duplas in the end.

So it´s a small world, did ya know? We were having lunch with an old sister in the branch, Maris do Carmo, and she wanted me to confirm what city in Washington I was from since she said her niece´s son who lives in Utah married a girl from there. I said I was from Spokane, and she said ´´Wow, she´s from there too´´. Surprised, I asked what her name was, and she said Darby, but I didn´t remember anyone with that name at first. Maria do Carmo showed some photos from the wedding on Facebook to us, and it happened to be a girl from the stake that you probably know, mom. Darby Novakavich. She married a dude who is the son of this lady´s niece that I had lunch with last Friday. Cool, huh? I thought it was.

Sonia was baptized on Saturday! Her baptism was super special. Her Brother who lives in Rio came to perform the baptism for her, which was super emotional for him. His name is sidney, and he´s been a member for about 50 years, served a mission, was even bishop, but no one in his family ever joined the church... Until last saturday! It reminded me a lot of dad. Never give up on little opportunities you may have to share the restored gospel with those in your family who haven´t accepted it. You never know just when they´re ready to hear the missionary´s message. Even though Sidney lives about 2-3 hours away from where Sonia lives, and he didn´t even send us a reference, we still found her and she was ready as ever to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, being baptized and confirmed in his true church . She also already has a calling as the relief society service coordenator.

We´ve been working hard, and have so much more to do to help this branch grow. Now that we´ve passed a lot of our investigators to the other elders, we´re gonna knock lots of doors, so lots of contacts, re visit every reference we´ve ever received. It´ll be a blast. I love you all, I love hearing from you and all our your wild activities. I´ve included a few other photos you can choose to use for the christmas card with the orange tie.

I love you!

Elder Braun

Legit Coconut that we hunted and ate.

 

Working With MemBROS

Hey Family,

First of all, a really cool thing about portuguese that I just realized is that the word for members is membros. I think its cool, because some missionaries like to just do their own thing, but we´ve got to work together with the members of the ward/branch to have real success and growth. They should be our bros, and for that reason, membros is a cool word.

Also, I received the box you sent that had an orange tie that you wanted me to use to take pictures for the family photo. There was also some pig candy, which was like really sweet bacon jerky, that also had tons of pepper. Brazillians hate spicy food, so my comp didn´t like it at all, but I thought it was awesome. More for me :)

Alright, enough with that nonsense. 

This week was really cool, although a little tough, with some big downs, but I learned a lot. Staying with the same companion for 3 transfers is really cool because Elder Inácio and I know how to teach really well together now, but at the same time, it´s tough being with the same person 24/7 all day, all night. But hey, it´s good prep for when I get married one day, and I´m sure it´ll be a lot easier to handle an eternity with a babe wife if I can handle 4-5 months with a Brazillian dude.

Do you guys remember Jaqueline and Alexandre? A family that lives in MAricá  that I was teaching while I was in Alcãntara because there weren´t missionaries here? Well, after we divided the area, I wasn´t able to visit them anymore, and the new elders thought they lived too far away. I kept saying "go visit them, go visit them!" and finally after about 3 months, the other elders met them and they came to church yesterday! Also, a really special family from alcantara, Jaqueline´s parents, came to the branch in Maricá. I love them so much, and I couldn´t resist taking a picture with them after the meeting. They're really excited to prepare for baptism, and have really become excited to start receiving the lessons again. I´ll put a picture in the email to show them.... again.

We have a baptism planned for this Saturday for Sônia, Ana Karen´s grandma. She´s pretty dang sweet and has known the church for a long time. She´s always wanted to be a part of it, but... missionaries never invited her, and her brother who´s a bishop in Rio never invited the missionaries to teach her. Soooooo, we´re happy that God didn´t give up on her and still gave her a chance to receive the restored gospel in her life. She was smoking and drinking coffee a lot when we met her, and she´s already had the strength and desire to stop in preparation for her baptism and salvation.

We had a really cool family home evening yesterday with some members (and investigators) and we gave everyone a doctrinal question to study (For example: Why do we not drink coffee or alcoholic beverages as members of the church? or If I was baptized in another church, why would I have to be baptized in the LDS church to become a member?), and next week, at another family home evening, we´re gonna try to bring more investigators and the members will share they answers through the study they do this week. Pretty cool, eh? Anyway, we´re starting to get some gears turning with the members, which is AWESOME.

I love you all! Never forget the wonderful privelege that all of you at home have to do missionary work, and to help those fine young men at home with fancy name tags who are trying to bless your wards where you serve. Don´t let them teach their investigators without your help! I know this church is true, and there´s no other service more gratifying than missionary service.

Love,

Elder Braun

I Love This Work

Hey Family,

I´m not sure I´ll have much time to write this letter. Our LAN house that we usually go to is without internet, so 

we´re at one that´s a lot more dumpy and slow. Oh well. But this week was seriously awesome.

Congrats to Jeff for the great marathon finish! Sorry that everybody´s got school starting soon. It´s kinda weird to think that close to or by the end of the school year, I´ll have already finished my mission. Dang, where does that time go?

Hey, Remember Jessica? Our convert baptism from 3 weeks ago? She already received a calling as a young women´s counselor and She gave a talk in church yesterday! It was like her 5th or 6th time at church and she already gave a talk! We were surprised that our branch president did that so soon, but her talk was way strong. Lots of members were brought to tears as she shared her testimony of the church, the book of mormon, and showed gratitude for missionary work. I was losing it, the spirit was so strong. I love this work, I know that I was called to be in this branch for as long as I´ve been here because I know the Lord has prepared his children to hear my testimony, and I know that true joy and happiness only comes from living and sharing the gospel with others.

I´ve gotten a pretty nasty cold, which has been a bit tough physically, and verbally. People haven´t been understanding me as well because together with the slight american accent, I have the nasally side effects of a cold. By the time we get home I feel practically dead, but I know that by diligence and hard work, I´ll get better and feel more in rhythm.

This past week we were really focusing on finding new investigators, and we reached our goal to have 20 new investigators. Some are going well, others have already cut us or won´t let us mark a return visit yet, but we worked hard this week, and that makes me happy.

I love you all! Keep up the good work and good luck at school for everybody!

Love,

Elder Braun

Doodle

Rockin' and Rollin' Again In 'Marica

Elder Inácio and I walking... Like we do for about 10 miles every day

My dearest and wonderful family,

As the title of this email says, I´m staying another transfer in Maricá! I´m actually really really excited about this given the awesome success this past week. My love for this people continues to grow more and more, and for now, I´m just fearing the day that I have to leave this area. I´ll stay with Elder Inácio as well, which is pretty cool. He´s a funny guy, and although he´s a greenie and just finished his training, he´s already got the abilities of a top notch missionary. The other companionship in Maricá (Elder Heidenreich and Elder Carvalho) got split up and Elder Carvalho was transferred. I should receive a call any minute now about who his new companion will be. So I´m still playing the piano for the branch sacrament meetings, and couldn´t be happier. (Please thank Sister Reese again for me. Even though I don´t have the time to practice at all during the week, my experience back at home together with an incredible gift by the spirit has surprisingly given me the ability to play just about any hymn, even ones I had never played in my life)

Thanks for the wonderful email mom, you always do a great job at keeping me informed on what goes on during the week. I love it! Jeff also sent a great email about everything going on in his life. Good luck on the Marathon this week! 

I thought it might be nice to start the email with a goofy story. This actually happened over a week ago, but for some reason I forgot to include it in last week´s letter. Elder Inácio and I passed by the church to start to fill up the baptismal font for Ana Karen´s baptism, and we were frustrated to see that there wasn´t any water (This was luckily two days before the baptism and all was well before the meeting). As I was taking a look in the water system underneath the church, I squated to get a better look, and..... RIPPPPPPP. There went my pants. The entire back side. Ripped and for the whole world to see my garments. So unless I find someone who knows who to sew a giant tear in church pants, I´m down a pair. It was pretty funny, and luckily it was just me and Elder Inácio at the church at that time.

This past weekend, Jeffery R Holland was in Rio! There was a conference with all of the bishops and branch presidents in the mission with him on saturday, also there was a conference for all of the members that night which was broadcasted to many chapels.... but the missionaries weren´t invited :( That´s got to be one of the biggest forms of torture that has to exist. Put me in the other side of the world, suddenly my favorite apostle passes and I can´t even have the opportunity to attend???? Oh well, I´m over it. 

Ana Karen´s Grandma accepted baptism this week, and she´s excited to prepare to be baptized on the 13th of September. I would appreciate if all at home to include Sônia in your personal prayers as she prepares for this special day in her life. She is getting over smoking problems, but has a great desire to follow Christ´s example and be baptized.

One beautiful night last week, as Elder Inácio and I were returning home, a random stranger passed us and offered us a ride home. We didn´t recognize him, but he said he was a member of the church, which made me excited to know him, so we entered the car. This dude´s name is Hélio, and he´s been less active for about 10 years, but.... He served a mission in Brasília about 25 years ago! He stopped going to church because his wife wasn´t interested and at that time, there was no church in Maricá and he had to travel by car for over and hour to attend the nearest chapel. Now that there´s a branch in Maricá and his wife passed away recently, encouraging him even more to come back to church, he´s exactly to be a part here in Maricá! He also has 3 teenage kids that he´s hoping to involve and prepare for baptism. Tender mercies for us!

I love you all back at home! I´m so excited for what this next transfer has in store for me. Most missionaries were saying something along the lines of ´´ahhh another transfer in a branch?´´ or ´´Wow, you´re STILL in the same area again´´, but all I feel is happy because I truly love the work and progress we´re having here. Learn to love your callings and commitments, that´s what I´ve learned a lot these past few months.

Love,

Elder Braun

My dearest and wonderful family,

As the title of this email says, I´m staying another transfer in Maricá! I´m actually really really excited about this given the awesome success this past week. My love for this people continues to grow more and more, and for now, I´m just fearing the day that I have to leave this area. I´ll stay with Elder Inácio as well, which is pretty cool. He´s a funny guy, and although he´s a greenie and just finished his training, he´s already got the abilities of a top notch missionary. The other companionship in Maricá (Elder Heidenreich and Elder Carvalho) got split up and Elder Carvalho was transferred. I should receive a call any minute now about who his new companion will be. So I´m still playing the piano for the branch sacrament meetings, and couldn´t be happier. (Please thank Sister Reese again for me. Even though I don´t have the time to practice at all during the week, my experience back at home together with an incredible gift by the spirit has surprisingly given me the ability to play just about any hymn, even ones I had never played in my life)

Thanks for the wonderful email mom, you always do a great job at keeping me informed on what goes on during the week. I love it! Jeff also sent a great email about everything going on in his life. Good luck on the Marathon this week! 

I thought it might be nice to start the email with a goofy story. This actually happened over a week ago, but for some reason I forgot to include it in last week´s letter. Elder Inácio and I passed by the church to start to fill up the baptismal font for Ana Karen´s baptism, and we were frustrated to see that there wasn´t any water (This was luckily two days before the baptism and all was well before the meeting). As I was taking a look in the water system underneath the church, I squated to get a better look, and..... RIPPPPPPP. There went my pants. The entire back side. Ripped and for the whole world to see my garments. So unless I find someone who knows who to sew a giant tear in church pants, I´m down a pair. It was pretty funny, and luckily it was just me and Elder Inácio at the church at that time.

This past weekend, Jeffery R Holland was in Rio! There was a conference with all of the bishops and branch presidents in the mission with him on Saturday, also there was a conference for all of the members that night which was broadcast to many chapels.... but the missionaries weren´t invited :( That´s got to be one of the biggest forms of torture that has to exist. Put me in the other side of the world, suddenly my favorite apostle passes and I can´t even have the opportunity to attend???? Oh, well.

Ana Karen´s Grandma accepted baptism this week, and she´s excited to prepare to be baptized on the 13th of September. I would appreciate if all at home to include Sônia in your personal prayers as she prepares for this special day in her life. She is getting over smoking problems, but has a great desire to follow Christ´s example and be baptized.

One beautiful night last week, as Elder Inácio and I were returning home, a random stranger passed us and offered us a ride home. We didn´t recognize him, but he said he was a member of the church, which made me excited to know him, so we entered the car. This dude´s name is Hélio, and he´s been less active for about 10 years, but.... He served a mission in Brasília about 25 years ago! He stopped going to church because his wife wasn´t interested and at that time, there was no church in Maricá and he had to travel by car for over and hour to attend the nearest chapel. Now that there´s a branch in Maricá and his wife passed away recently, encouraging him even more to come back to church, he´s excited to be a part here in Maricá! He also has 3 teenage kids that he´s hoping to involve and prepare for baptism. Tender mercies for us!

I love you all back at home! I´m so excited for what this next transfer has in store for me. Most missionaries were saying something along the lines of ´´ahhh another transfer in a branch?´´ or ´´Wow, you´re STILL in the same area again´´, but all I feel is happy because I truly love the work and progress we´re having here. Learn to love your callings and commitments, that´s what I´ve learned a lot these past few months.

Love,

Elder Braun

Us four after lunch with a fam in Maricá (Francisco, Gizélia, and Gizelda)

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