The "Waters" of Baptism

Baptism of Josué, Leda Maria, and Nanci (from left to right)

Hey Family!

What a great and rewarding week for Elder Leite and I. Miracles have
been happening in Alcãntara and we couldn´t be more grateful. Sorry
about the whole being alone thing without any of your kids for
thanksgiving. (Minus Noodle Poodle, of course). Is Thanksgiving even
this week? Haha being in an apartment with only Brazillians makes me
forget about stuff like that so that I don´t act all trunky and think
of home. I´ll save that only for when I´m at this LAN house writing my
family.

Well, as the title implies, this week was blessed with some marvelous
baptisms in Alcãntara! After Elder Grow left, Elder Leite and I
started working full speed and contacted many references that we
received from the cemetery activity we did at the beginning of the
month. While many people didn´t show a whole lot of interest or gave
us wrong addresses, there were a few really good ones. We´ve been
teaching a lady  named Nanci and two of her grandkids (Josué-9 years
old and Evellyn-14 years old). Yesterday, we were able to baptize
Nanci and Josué! Evellyn really wants to, but her Dad wants  to go to
church with her a few times and receive our lessons before he will
allow her to be baptized. Although we were a little bit frustrated
about it, Elder Leite and I decided we´d try to make lemonade out of
lemons, you know? Sadly, she wasn´t able to attend the baptizm of her
cousin and grandma. I´m still not really sure why :(

ALSO we had lots of help from the members last week bringing
nonmembers to church, which has made Elder Leite and I pretty busy.
One lady named Leda Maria was seriously golden. She accepted
everything we taught and accepted our invitation to be baptized...
before we even invited her. SOOOO she was able to make that sacred
covenent yesterday as well. One thing that made yesterday pretty
stressful, though, was that our Ward Mission Leader didn´t go to
church. He didn´t tell anyone in the ward counsel about the baptisms
we had  prepared, and therefore. no one knew in the ward knew about it
 (except members we had visited and told them and whatever). SOOO We
planned the entire baptisimal service in like an hour... during
sacrament meeting, but it went well. Some members  really helped us
out and relieved us from some of the stress we were having.

Yesterday was really awesome. It was also the primary program for the
Alcãntara ward, so all of the little kiddos sang primary songs, shared
their testimonies, and taught gospel principles. Exactly the same way
it would have been don in the states.... but in portuguese. I was
asked to share a brief experience too with missionary work before my
mission during the program, and I´m pretty sure I was the only one who
had a chance to speak that wasn´t a member of the primary. what what!

There´s another American in our zone named Elder Evans who arrived
last week. He´s being trained by a Brazillian and has been having a
hard time adjusting to the language, teaching style, and overall
Brazil since he got here. He started his mission the same day as me,
but he was serving in Texas for two transfers waiting on his visa. I´ve
been trying to help  him feel a lot more comfortable in Brazil,
because  I remember how tough it was for me to adjust, and I had an
American who trained me. Being able to show that kind of support has
made me pretty excited to eventually be a trainer and to be able to
serve my companions in that same sort of way.

So yeah. WOOOOO!!! Thank you all so much for the love and prayers that
have been heading my way! The Lord really blesses his missionaries,
and I´ve been motivated to be obedient in every way, that way I can be
worthy of the blessings he has prepared for me. There´s still so much
more time left for me t o grow as a missionary, and I´m loving my time
here! But most of all, I love my Family and Friends supporting me all
thoughout my time here.

Love,
Elder Braun

PS I quoted ´´Waters´´ because this past week, I´ve been pretty dang
sick, and, well, I think you can  probably read between the lines. I haven´t
had solid poops for about a week, and I´ve  lost weight even more
rapidly. Woooooooo. Hopefully it´s nothing too serious. There´s no
Pepto Bismol here to save me :(

ME and a pato.

Oops, I blinked.

CRAZY Week, thats for sure.

Hi family and friends,

Thanks a ton Jeff for the email and update with what´s what in your
life. Mom didn´t send an email this week, so it was nice to hear from
someone this week! Go BYU!

In my planner, I titled this transfer ´´A Transfer of Progress´´, and
golly jee that´s exactly what it has been in only one week. I´m
progressing sooooo much in portuguese since I´ve been with Elder
Leite, especially since I´ve had to take control in what we teach our
investigators that Elder Grow and I had. I´ve been doing most of our
planning too since he isn´t familiar with the area and where each of
the communities are in Alcãntara. It´s been pretty stressful, but the
blessings have been FLOWING. WOOO.

Tuesday last week, Every missionary in the Rio mission went to a big
bus station in Rio for transfers and meeting our new companions. I was
able to see a few people who I knew, Like my companion in the MTC,
Elder Deiffenbach and a few others. It was cool to finally talk to
other missionaries outside of my zone and district. I dropped off
Elder Grow with a Peruvian missionary and now I´m with Elder Leite! We
took a family photo (Since Elder Grow trained both of us).

This has probably been the first week in my mission where I
legitimately felt like I got ´´lost in the work´´. Elder Leite and I
have been teaching, contacting, and overall working nonstop that
there´s no time to take a break for açai or anything. We only have 9
months together of in-field experience, but we´ve been able to help
prepare tons of people for baptism and work a lot with the members
too. We were able to contact one lady named Nancy from the cemetary
activity we did two weeks ago and we´ve been teaching her and two of
her grandkids. They were all able to go to church, and she said she
wants to be baptized next week! She has accepting everything we taught
her, even the word of wisdom. Everyone in Brazil drinks coffee,
especially Nancy, but she said she´s willing to try and stop since she
believes that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. We´re really looking forward
to what´s in store for Nancy, Evelynn. and Josua this next week and
their entire lives as they learn to accept more and more the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.

This past Sunday, we had a total of 8 investigators at church! The
members have really started the get involved in missionary work, which
has kept Elder Leite and I super busy. A member named Alcineira
invited her neighbor Maria to church, and she LOVED IT! We visited
here after church and had a chance to teach her the Restauration,
which seriously couldn´t have gone any better. Maria was telling us
that she was feeling lost in the world and was praying for something
to help her feel purpose in life. She lives alone, nd is about 60
years old, and her husband passed away 10 years ago. Shortly after she
started praying, Alcineira invited her to church and she said that it
was exactly what she needed. She accepted an invitation to be
baptized.... before we even invited her, so naturally, we´re super
thrilled for her desire to learn. We´ll be working with her a lot
this week to prepare her for baptism.

Few random pensamentos… On Tuesday, it rained more than I had even
seen during my mission, with most of the streets being full of water.
When Elder Leite and I took a bus to return home that night, it was
too dark to see outside the windows.

I love you all! Blessings have been sent to Alcãntara and work is
"egg-splode-ding"! Keep the states fresh while I´m here!

Love, Elder Braun

PS. Tell Natalie to check her email if she hasn´t the past couple of
weeks. obrigado

Dad and his two, different raced, sons

Sunset over Alcãntara. Que linda?

Transferencias!!!

Dear family,

I look forward to the package coming my way! I sent one to yáll in Spokane, I think on Wednesday, so we´ll have to see which country has faster shipping.

Lots of fun adventures here, and perhaps if you were able to understand the title, transfers are this week! There´s a few big changes for me as a result, including a NEW COMPANION. That´s right, as of tomorrow, I won´t be companions with Elder Grow anymore. It´s pretty mixed felings for me. He had a ton of experience as a missionary and it was super nice haviing an american companion, but it´s time for a lot more..... well, Brazil. My new companion´s name is Elder Leite (which translates to Milk. Braun Milk. Brown Milk. Haha), and I´m super excited to have him as my companion. He was in my district my first transfer and I even had a chance to have a division with him. He was the first missionary I had a division with in my mission, and he is a super nice guy. I think he started his mission in April, so we both don´t have a ton of time total. Another super cool  fact about him: He was the other missionary that Elder Grow trained! There´s kind of a weird tradition where missionaries call their trainer their dad, and since Elder Leite and I have the same dad, we´re brothers! I´ll be staying in Alcântara, so they haven´t seen the last of me! Elder Grow is going to a place called Caxias, much closer to the center of Rio.

To answer your questions (Mom), I´m not sure the exact number of members (baptized) in our ward (and it is a ward, not a branch) but we usually have a little over 100 members show up each week. Not too much compared to back at home, but enough. Taking showers is still super ghetto here (plugging our showerinto an electrical outlet) but as the weather has gotten hot, I´ve learned to forget about it. Cold showers might be the best thing ever after a hot day of lots of walking and teaching. Our neighborhood isn´t too bad, I think. We live in an  apartment complex on the top floor, so I´m never worried about getting robbed or anything. our apartment is next to the center of Alcãntara, so sometimes it gets a little loud at night, especially on the weekends, but I´ve gotten used to it. I´m usually to tired to notice. 

This week was Elder Grows birthday, so Me and the two other missionaries in our apartment made him a dessert called parfait. It´s pretty much like a layered pudding cake. Pictures will be included. We also went to the house of a recently baptised family (one week before I arrived) and they had a nice little party thingy for him. I think I´ve talked about them a bit. Aguinalda and Rogerio. They´re the best. One goofy little thingy that has been happening recently... My socks are all getting close to having holes in them, or they already do. Cadaca I should have expected it with all the walking we do, so I´ll be planning on trying to find some more soon.

This week, Elder Grow and I were working on contacting people and references from the activity we had in the cemetery last week. We also received references to contact from mormon.org and calls that people had made to the church headquarters (pass-along cards and what-not). We were able to teach a lot of new people, and families, so hopefully we´ll be able to have more progressing investigators for Elder Leite and I. It has been pretty tough lately being able to teach our current investigators. A big problem that we have is that we´ll mark a date to teach them ,and when we stop by. nobody´s home. We have a cell phone that we can use, but each companionship is given a few amount of credits each mont which we have to use to confirm lunch appointments with members, call investigators, and so on. We only get 25ish calls, so we can´t call people as much as we´d like.

I finally was able to recieve mail since last month, and got wonderful letters from Valerie, Bryan Holly and Heidi, and The Beehives from the Sullivan Ward. Those letters were truly all that and a bag of chips, and just what I needed to lift up my spirits and keep on working, even if success hasn´t been coming as much as we would like. I´ll plan on writing lettersnext Monday (since today has been pretty busy) for all yáll.

Memories are being made and prayers are definitely being answered. I love this mission. I love this Gospel. And I love you all!

Much love,

Elder Braun

Here´s another picture of Rogerio, Elder Grow, Me, 

and an awesome young convert member of the ward, Feyness

I'm a Tio Again!

Dear Family and others,

WOOOO I´m so excited to be a Tio (uncle) again! Tell Bryan and Holly Congratulations for me! It´s so weird to think that by the time I return home from my mission, their baby will be over a year old and probably able to walk and stuff. Que legal! Halloween sure sounded great at home! I spent halloween here doing a division with a Brazillian elder in my district who likes to sing lots of Brazillian music and talks super fast. I can´t imagine kids going trick or treating here in the middle of the night. When we were telling a family here about that tradition, they called us crazy. ´Merica!

I´m glad you asked what kind of stuff I could really use, because I´ve kept track of a few things that would be nice to receive. You know, stuff that good ol´ Alcãntara doesn´t sell:

-Eyedrops (like eye wettening drops)

-Powerade (the powder stuff would probably be more reasonable to send)

-Glasses cleaner 

-American Candy (Brazillian candy here is pretty lame, and I could really go for some sour patch kids)

Nothing else really comes to mind, but those are a few necessary ones. Writing that stuff down reminded me that I´ve been using my glasses recently! Since it has been super hot on some days, my eyes have gotten a lot more irritated and dry. One day, they were bugging me so much that they were all red and people kept telling me about it, but after I switched to glasses, everything has been better. Well, kindof. I still don´t like wearing glasses very much, but it´s better than having the eyes of Satan staring down our investigators while teaching the Restoration.

Miracles are certainly happening for Elder Grow and I. The biggest one, was that Presodent Lima gave us and the other companionship in our apartment permission to leave our area last Monday to visit Niteroí! It´s a city that´s on the east side of the mission (next to our zone), which has a good view of the bay in Rio, as well as Pão de Açucar and Christ the Redeemer statue! Photos will definitely be included in this email. 

Saturday was a holiday for Brazil and a bunch of other Hispanic contries called Day of the Dead. Many people spend that day visiting loved ones and relatives in cemeteries, so as a whole mission, all the Elders and Sisters in our mission went to different cemeteries to teach people about the Plan of Salvation while many members gave out pass-along-cards. It was a super spiritual experience being able to visit people and bear my testimony of our Father in Heaven´s glorious plan of happiness. I know with all my heart that life doesn´t end with our mortal death, and that this time we have here on Earth is our time to prepare to return in the presence of our Father in Heaven. It was wonderful to see the Spirit touch the hearts of those we visited and I can´t wait to return to their homes to finish teaching them the Fulness of the Gospel of Christ.

Guess what! I´ve been doing a good job at writing EVERY SINGLE DAY in my journal. Since day 1, July 10th, that way I have something to remember the good times and hard times of my mission. Even though I was terrible doing it before my mission, I´m trying my best to make time every night to write a little, even though most nights I feel like I have nothing exciting to write.

As the snow starts to fall in Spokane, the thought of an existence of cool weather in the world is beginning to disappear for me down south. I love you all! Your prayers have not been left unnoticed, and I´m truly grateful for your love for me while I´m here.

Elder Braun

We ran into a famous actress from some Brazillian soap opera, so here´s a little taste of Brazillian heaven 

for yáll. I think she looked like a Female Michael Jackson, but hey, at leadt she´s famous.

 Me, Elder Grow, Elder Pinheiro, and Elder D. Silva at Niteroí

Our zone at the Cemetery activity

Interviews with President Lima

Dear family and Mom (mostly Mom),

Woot woot, another wonderful week completed here in Alcãntara (I feel like I can´t say Rio since it´s about as far from me as Couer´d alene is from yáll. Lots of marvelous things have happened here recently, so I´ll get started right away! But before I do that, high five to Natalie for signing up for Drivers Ed! Better now than when Mom and Dad buy a new car or something, if you catch my drift.

I feel like my ability to speak and write in English is struggling now that I´ve been surrounded by Portuguese for so long. Sometimes when Elder Grow and I are speaking to each other in English, I don´t know how to say some stuff in anything other than Portuguese. I think that´s a good thing, but hopefully my letters will still be readable throughout the rest of my mission.

We had a training at the beginning of last week, so I was able to see the rest of my group that arrived in Rio the same day as me, including my former companion Elder Deiffenbach. I made a mistake and told President a while back that I could play the piano more-or-less, and he asked me to play prelude and Called to Serve for the training. I could definitely tell it´s been a while since I´ve really practiced (or let alone played) the piano, but it was good. Give Sister Reese a big thank you for me for learning those skills as a youth that were able to help me while on my mission. I haven´t been asked to play in any ward meetings since there´s a guy who knows how to play pretty well already, so I´ll have to see down the road if there are other wards that need a player.

President Lima has been doing interviews this transfer with all of the different zones (Every transfer either has zone conference or interviews; This transfer is interviews). I was a little bit nervous since last time I met with him, one-on-one, I spoke a lot of English. This time was a ton more different though. He kept saying how much I´ve improved and how proud he was to see how far I´ve progressed, which was super nice to hear from him. I´ve heard from other missionaries that he´s usually super strict about being 100% diligent, working with members more, and lots of other stuff with elders´ interviews, but he built me up a lot in mine which helped me to relax a little and recognize how much I really have improved since the plane landed in Rio, or even since I jumped on that plane headed to Provo.

As far as teaching goes this week, Elder Grow and I managed to teach a lot more new investigators, which is what we´ve been really trying to focus on. We have two couples still waiting on marriages before they can be baptized, Adriana and Leonarado plus Jaqcueline and Alexandre. Which reminds me, I can´t decide If I want to stay in Alcãntara (to be here for the baptisms of these couples when they get married) or if I´d like to be moved to a different area (You know, so I can see more of Brazil. Alcãntara is kindof an armpit of this mission). We also have been teaching a few other people who have been progressing a lot, too. We taught a man named Carlos who knows the Bible Front to Back. Genesis to Revelation. ALL OF IT. He believes that there can only be one true church and has spent a lot of his life looking for it. Strangly though, he hadn´t ever had a visit from the elders in our church, so It has been fun teaching him and lots of responses from him about how he knows what we´re teaching to be true. It´s really nice to have investigators like that who have a genuine desire and passion to really learn what we´re teaching them. He has been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy, too. Finally, people who can actually read!

Some sad news... The family of Lú and Valdiné (they have three sons who were marked for baptism: Mateus, Luau, and Miguel) has cut us from teaching them. Well, kind of. Lú started showing a lack of enthusiasm after we taught the Word of Wisdom. She smokes, drinks, and has no desire to stop, even when we promised her that our Father in HEaven would bless her with better health after keeping this law. Their kids still wanted to be baptized, but she wouldn´t approve of it. And now, she has asked that we don´t visit anymore. All we can do for now is put them in our Area Book and hope that later down the road, other Elders will be invited when she is more willing and God has prepared her to accept our message.

I love you all so much
!!!!!!!!

Keep on being great and remaining faithful. Our Father in Heaven really does love his children. Don´t forget to pray to recognize all that he has blessed you with. Prayer is what gets me out of bed every day, and what keeps to working hard every day. 

Love,

Elder Braun

PS I´m putting together a Christmas package and will probs send it next week. I have no idea what to send though since there are no souvenirs or anything. Let me know next e-mail is there´s anything in particular that yáll back at home would like.

Attitude Changes Everything

My Dear Amigos e Família,

Today is Tuesday, and not my P-day. I know, I´m breaking rules, but President Lima allowed it because yesterday, there was some goofy holiday where EVERYTHING is closed. Grocery Stores? CLOSED. Drug/Convenience Stores? CLOSED. Internet Cafe? FECHADO. So, that is why I am writing my loved ones on this wonderful day. 

Anyway, this week was truly incredible and I certainly had a chance to grow a lot as a missionary, and overall as a person. (For some reason, I feel like those two aren´t considered the same thing right now). Speaking of growing as a person, I´m only talking quite figuratively. As far as literally growing, like size/weight sort of stuff, the exact opposite has been happening. I thing I´m the same height as I was when I left, but I´ve already lost 15 pounds since I left the MTC, and none of my shirts fit me anymore. I can easily fit two of me in each shirt. So that´s cool. Maybe I´ll try and so something, like work out more in the morning, to try and gain weight, but with all the walking we do and blazing summer heat around the corner, it´ll be tough.

WHICH REMINDS ME. It´s hot here. Like so hot, my deoderant melted. It started to sweat a bit (ironinc, huh?) and it melted. There´s no AC in our house, and all we have to keep us from, well, dying is a fan that Elser Grow and I share between us. It was 45 degrees celsius yesterday. Go ahead and check for yallselfs how hot it is here. Plus humidity. I wake up sweating, walk out of the shower sweating, and pretty much breath hot water vapor all day. AND YET I hear that there are areas in our mission that are far worse than Alcãntara. Fun stuff happening in the life of Elder Braun. But really though, I´m loving it here. Taking a shower is probably my favorite time of the day.

So I was able to have a couple of divisions this week. One with my zone leader, Elder Fontes. He´s from Uraguai, but he did an exchange in the States for a few months when he was in high school, so he speaks pretty good english. I think I could understand his portuguese better though, since he had a pretty strong accent on English. It was the first time in my mission that I had to plan for myself what proselyring and teaching we´d do for the day since Elder Grow was in the Zone Leader´s area, Itaboraí. I was so nervous and stressed about it, but we used our time pretty well and were able to visit a family that was baptized about two years ago and quickly stopped attending church after baptism. We´ve been teaching them a bit this past week and have been working with them to return. One of their sons, named Patrique, is 8 years old and wants to get baptised! That should take place pretty soon, so I´ll keep you posted on that.

Also, Friday, Elder Grow and the other District Leader in our zone had a training in Rio, so I had another division with his companion. I did the division with Elder Kunzler, and he´s from Utah (Somewhere close to Nevada, I don´t remember). Elder Kunzler arrived in Rio the same day as me, but he had been reassigned and served in Richmond, Virginia for 5 months (WOOHOO Elder Jensen! I´ve been keeping in touch with him, beeteedubs). Again, I was sooooo stressed and nervous since again, it was in Alcãntara and I mostly planned who we´d teach and what we´d do. Somehow  (Seriously, this is seriously a miracle) in the 4 hours we had, we managed to contact 2 people we received eference from, teach 3 lessons, and have 4 new investigators as a result. It´s funny too, since combined, we onle had 16 weeks combined of experience in Brazil. I feel like I can speak the language pretty wellm especially with the Spirit during lessons, but I still can´t understand everything being saidby natives here. And Elder Kunzler can understand almost everything, but he has a really strong accent and Brazilians had trouble understanding him. Together, we made a great team :)

Elder Grow and I have ´´grow´´n a lot this past week. Starting about 2-3 weeks ago, I was starting to get a little frustrated with him. I felt like he was being a little bit rough on me during practices and teaching, and overall expected a lot of me. He started to notice this in me this past week, and we sat down and had a real companionship inventory to resolve any problems we had. Being with  Elder Kunzler and Elder Fontes this past week helped me to truly recognize how much I´ve been able to learn from having Elder Grow as a companion. I´ve finally been able to see that although at times he pushes me a bit and tests my patience with learning the language or how to teach, I´ve really learned a lot and have already become a powerful missionary in only 10 weeks in Brazil. Truly a blessing that I had been looking for since I jumped on that plane about 3 and a half months ago. 

Sad news... I feel like I have to say this a lot. The wedding that we had planned for Leonardo and Adriana for this Saturdayfell through. The guy that we marked with to do the ceremony... well, dissapeared. So, it´s back to the waiting game for them. It should be about 2-3 months before they can be married and baptized. PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE... That´s what I keep telling myself. Paciência, muito paciência.

Way to go Ryan!!! I´m so proud for him for getting the internship he was looking for. He asked me to pray for him, and I managed to make room for him in my daily prayers to do that. Weird, our loving Father in Heaven really blesses those who have faith to sek for his help. If Ryan´s still working for them 4-5 years from now, I wouldn´t mind a good word or two to help a brotha(in-law) out. 

I love you all and I promise, I don´t think of Taylor Swift that much while I´m hete. Only enough to keep me to push myself even harder. Like she says in one of her songs, ´´Baptize me, Juliet, you never have to be alone´´... at least I think that´s how it goes.

Love,

Elder Braun

Milagres

Hey there, Mom and Fam,

 

It´s been a great week for Elder Grow and I. Truly for sure. I guess all of the banks in Brazil (or maybe just Rio) were on Strike against the Government. It didn´t really affect us too much, and although I´m not really sure why it happened, there was some small riots in downtown Rio. I think it finished today though, whatever the problem was. HEY, I received the package you sent to São Paulo!! I was so surprised it arrived. I considered it a lost cause, but the ties and calender you sent arrived to son safe and sound, even if it took a little over 2 months to get here.

 

So I was studying in the New Testament a little bit this week, and was reading in Acts. I came across a really cool scripture, so cool that I think I want to make it my lema, or motto for my mission. If yáll want to look it up, it´s in Acts 6:8. Voçês vão gostar. You´ll see why I like it so much. One of the churchs next to where we live writes their own newspaper, usually with a bunch of articles attacking other churchs and celebrities and people who aren´t members of their church and what not. There was an article about Taylor Swift titled , ´´This is for the weak´´, Obviously in portuguese. It was talking about how she has ruined the definition of strong relationships because of the songs she writes and how she uses men to have a career. Needless to say, I didn´t like it... like at all.

 

As far as portuguese goes, I feel like I get more and more comfortable with speaking each and every day. Understanding people is still something I need to work on more, since so many people here have different accents and dialects, but my testimony of prayer and patience has difinitely been tested and grown as a result of it. Missions are tough, but I know through the help of my Father in heaven and the atoning sacrifice of his beloved son, Jesus Christ, I can withstand any trials that are placed in my life.

 

Elder Grow and I have had a tough time finding new investigators this past week. We have lots of references from contacts that missionaries in other areas did, as long as our own contacts, but people are almost never at home when we visit, even when they say they´ll be available. It makes it tough for us since we walk everywhere that we visit, so we have to plan really well to visit every house that is close to each other each day.

 

HOWEVER, we had a nice little miracle happen this week. Thursday night, Elder Grow and I decided to visit a couple (Leonardo and Adriana) that we had been teaching. They were attending church every week when I first arrived in Alcântara, but because Leonardo got another job, he wasn´t able to go to church anymore. Adriana didn´t want to go to church without him, and since he was never home because of his two jobs except to sleep, they became disanimated to get married, even though they still wanted to be baptized. Anyway, we visited them after not having stopped by for a few weeks, and Leonardo was back to only having one job. We taught a great lesson about commandments and they expressed how willing they are to get married and baptized! We´ll be working with the Bishop and Ward mission leader to have them married and baptized the 26th this month and have them confirmed on the 27th. Elder Grow and I are super excited for them and love seeing their faith.

 

I love you all so much! Mom, you are seriously a blessing in my life. I couldn´t be more happy to have you as my loving mother, supporting me all thoughout my mission and sending me lovely packages with a wonderful calender and goofy ties (One has a letter to bryan written on the inside, i found out). Keep me in your prayers as I strive to spread the Lords work to everyone here in Alcântara!

 

Love,

Elder Braun

 

Here´s a photo with one of the priests in our world. His name is Feynner and he´s always willing to acompany us with our teaching and visits.