Baptism in Abolição!

HI FAMILY,

My first week in Abolição was certainly a great one. Full of work and sweat, and happiness, and singing, and more work. Before I forget, I sent home about two months ago an sd card with ALL of my photos since the beginning of my mission until september of this year. Did you guys every get that sd card. If not, at least I have a backup. Just let me know if it still hasn´t gotten there.

My first week in Abolição with Elder Gonzales was full of cool little milagres. Just to explain the area a bit, It´s not the safest area in the mission. You don´t have to worry too much, Mom. We´re smart and we don´t do anything dumb that would encourage men bigger than me to steal my pants and whatnot. BUT There´s a big favela called O Complexo do Alemão (The German Complex), which is a pretty big and dangerous area. It´s also a good portion of of area. One half of this favela is in Abolição, and the other half is in one of my past areas, Ramos. So now I can say, I´ve served in the entire Complexo do Alemão! I think they made a movie about this favela, too, called Alemão. Anyway, as you can see in the picture I included in the email, there´s lots of morros (hills) with communities and stuff. We also have to walk for an hour just to arrive in our area. We´re living with missionaries from a different ward, and even though we have a house all settled for us in this area, we´re just waiting on the secretaries from the mission office to buy some furniture for the house. and this has been the case for over a transfer #frustration #walkmyfaceoff

BUT We had a baptism! A lady named Maria da Luz, who Elder Gonzales started teaching last transfer, accepted our invite to be baptized last saturday. She is a very humble lady, who has a big heart. It was a beautiful and simple baptismal meeting and we´re as excited as ever to continue finding people to get to know the Lord´s true church. 

We had a SICK service project on saturday morning. We helped build a house! Funny how mom asked me about that last week, and a member asked us for some help putting in concrete on the roof of this guys house he was building. Normally, our president wouldn't let us do labor like that, but since there were men who aren´t members of the church there, we were able to help out! We did some serious MANual labor, including filling buckets with rocks, carrying them up the stairs, mixing sand with cement mix with the rocks and water, refilling the buckets with this new mix, carrying it up to the roof, and putting it in the mold-things. All in the hot sun. I loved it! It was my first experience in building a house, and we got some good referrals of people to teach.

We also had the Christmas/Book of Mormon mission choir performance yesterday. We´ll be passing each of the stake centers this transfer to sing. The spirit was way strong, and many people´s hearts were touched by the Christmas message that the Book of Mormon offers us. This Saturday, we´ll pass the stake that I passed over a year serving in, the Arsenal Stake!

I love you all so much and am so happy to be where I am serving the Lord in Abolição, Save a slice of pie for me, okay? 

Love,

Elder Braun

Transferred! Again! Abolicao!

Bangu has no view of Cristo Redentor, so I made one of Brauno Redentor

HEY GUYZ,

Well, I had another crazy week, and some crazy newsas well. We had transfers today, and as the titleof the email says, I got transferred! I have left Bangu and was transferred to an area a little bit closer to the center of Rio in the same stake as another ward I served in (Ramos). Now, I´m in the Abolição ward! Abolição means abolition in portuguese, so I´ve decided that I´ll devote my time strive to free those who are imprissioned, or "enslavened", by sin and temptations from Satan. I´m excited . My companion is Elder Gonzalez, a swell and light-hearted Bolivian, with an ever so swell hispanic accent (He´s from Santa Cruz, Bolivia). Although my time was short in Bangu, I learned a lot there, and gained lots of experience through both the ups and downs that I hope I can bring with me through the rest of my mission and life.

Let´s answer those questions!

SHOES

My shoes aren´t a huge worry for now. I´m pretty sure I can make it to the end of my mission without having to buy a new pair. I have one pair that I use for normal proselyting, one on Sundays, and one for Zone Conferences. The Proselyting pair has been trucking along since I bought them last January here, and although the sole is starting to get thin, I´ve got my other Sunday pair that should last until the end

How are the pants holding up?

They´re big. Especially around the waist, the length is fine. None of them have torn (Except for a pocket in one of them, so pants aren´t a big worry for me. Although, all of my black pants have gotten a little faded from washing them which makes them not match perfectly. To me is really doesn´t seem like a problem, but I can see why a mom would worry about that.

How often do I wear my suit coat?

Just on Sundays at church and special events (Zone Conference, Mission Tour, The Mission Choir that we´ll have starting this week.)

What kinds of Service projects have I done?

Hmmm I´ve painted a member´s wall once, helped put tiles on a members wall, rearrange furniture, help people move, and the every now and then carrying someheavy object for an elderly lady. We have lots of rules about what kinds of service projects we can and can´t do. We can´t serve for more than an hour, and we need to avoid projects that would require us to work for various days. For that reason, I haven´t been able to participate in quite as many as I would have liked.

Do I play the organ or piano in the ward?

Well, for two weeks in Bangu, I was playing a normal piano, like the one in our house. Now that I got transferred,  I´m back to subtly singing during sacrament meeting. We´ll see if this ward needs someone to help out.

Any advice for young men/young women getting prepared to serve a mission?

As far as prep goes before the mission, one of the biggest regrets I have is not having left with the missionaries at home as I could have. I still remember those few times I left with Elders at home, and they helped me understand what kind of work I´d do in the field, but I definitley could have done more visits with them. I wish I could go back in time and gain more experience by helping them. I hope I can make up for it by helping the missionaries in the home ward much more after returning home.

This reminds me, the bishop in Bangu showed me a book written by a former area seventy and professor at Harvard, Clayton Christensen. The book was called "The Power of the Everyday Missionary". from the parts that I read, I want to EXHORT everyone at home who feels scared or nervous to do missionary work (Which I think is everyone) to buy a copy. Online. I don´t know how, just do it. 

I hope this week will be full of wonderful news about my new area and companion. I´m super dooper excited to be here, fulfilling my dream in serving the Lord in this wonderful army of representatives of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love you all, and let Grandma Pannone know that one of her packages got to me! (It had peanut butter, post-it notes, peanut brittle, and much more! Thank you Grandma!)

Love,

Elder Braun

Yay for Tough Weeks

Maracanã

Hey Family!

 

Well, as always. thanks a ton for the great email and for not forgetting about me. This week, we had tons of cool events for me to share with you all. I think I´ve got the package set to send home to y'all. I´m not finding anything distinctly from Rio since I´m not super close to the downtown, but I hope you like what I´ve put together in the package.  

 

Since the pianist in the ward here left on his mission, The Bangu ward was left without a pianist, so they asked if one of us (Elders) knew how to play the piano, and they picked me to play. So I´m back to playing the hymns in Sacrament meeting! Dang ever since I was a kid, practicing the piano, I never realized how much what I was studying would be needed in my mission, but I´m super grateful for having used that time growing up to help out those here in Rio hear the beautiful hymns in the true church of Jesus Christ.

 

Speaking of music, 4 Zones in this mission (The four closest to Rio) put together a speacial musical performance for the Helping hands convention last saturday. We sang a beautiful arrangement of ´´Sou um Filho de Deus" and "Chamados a Servir" (I´m a Child of God and Called to Serve). We also sang an arrangement of Praise to the MAn that was way bomb-diggity. I saw some members who I had served with in Ramos. And we passed the Maracanã as we came back to our areas. Yes, I took pictures.

 

We were walking down the street one day this week, and we heard a guy singing O Elders de Isreal (To be quite honest, I don´t remember what this hymn is called in English. I think is Elders from Isreal? Maybe? #brainfart), and we went and talked to the guy. He was in a small pizza shop, and he told us that he´s an inactive member from the church, that he served a mission in São Paulo 20 years ago (His wife as well), and that he recently moved here in Bangu. SOOOO we talked to him some more, and he and his wife are excited to come back to church again! Their names are Cesar and Duce. And the best part? You won´t even believe, so I got photo evidence: Cesar looks just like Pat Finley. Yes, the Pat Finley from the Movie Heavyweights. Just a little more tan and with a goofy moustache. 

 

We had found some people from the men we reactivated last week, some really interested in learning more, but they weren´t able to come to church yesterday and we´ll continue to work with them so that they can be blessed with this great gospel. The Ward had a family baptized (by the other missionaries serving here) and the only members there were the bishop (who showed up 30 minutes late) and a young married couple that had taught them once. Can you imagine how these new members must of felt to have such few people supporting them on their special day to be baptized? I made a goal to attend EVERY convert baptism that happens for the rest of my life in every ward that I happen to be living in. For the REST OF MY LIFE. Why? Because these people deserve our love and support for the decision they´ve made to be baptized in the church of Jesus Christ of LAtter-Day Saints. I hope all of you at home can do the same, and even better, help the missionaries find those who can be blessed by the message they share.

 

I love you all and am so magnificently grateful for your love and support.

 

Love,

Elder Braun

  Maracanã (With the Christ Statue in the upper corner)

Me and Pat Fin... I mean Cesar

Answers and Reativocao

45 degree celcius hast day

Hey Family!

No one has said anything that they want me to buy to send home for christmas... Sooooo this is the last week I´m giving you all one last chance to let me know if there´s anything you´d like me to send home. 

ANSWERS:

What does your apartment look like?

It´s kind of a house and an apartment mix, since it´s in a yardish thing called a vila with about 2-3 other houses. There´s an old guy who sells pizzas underneath us for 6 reais (a little less than 3 bucks). and they´re quite fantastic. Our house has a cool balcony on top where we dry our clothes and excercise in the morning. Since there´s 6 missionaries in the same house, it´s a litttle crammed. Elder Silva and I don´t actually have a bed. We just have a mattress that we put on the ground at night to sleep, and suring the day we put up against the wall. Here´s a google street view of our house (Above the gate... We live on the second floor)

https://www.google.com.br/maps/place/R.+Laranjal,+81+-+Realengo,+Rio+de+Janeiro+-+RJ,+21765-360/@-22.8858295,-43.4319159,3a,75y,199.07h,104.44t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sU4l4YzuRhg2rSJ-CgpHq2w!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x9bdf65c065868b:0xad25c56e8cf1eef5!6m1!1e1

What can you hear from your window?

It´s a relatively calm neighborhood where we live, so there´s isn´t much sound. But at night, especially on the weekends we have some nieghbors who have no shame to play their music until late at night. Last saturday, they were playing just Justin Beiber Songs for over an hour straight. Not okay. 

How does it smell?

....Normal. I guess. Bangu is pretty normal. No weird smells like some of my past areas (cough* Alcântara)

Tell me about the streets where you walk.... Or do you tak public transport?

The streets here are also normal. Just a little bit skinnier than in the states. Take a look at the street view to see what they´re like We only take buses/vans when we have to go to a conference or we have an appointment with someone that lives far away. Usually we just walk though. There´s also the train closeby that we use when we have to go to Rio.

Have you put your hand on your companions shoulder and thanked him for being your companion?

I actually have :)

So this next Saturday, four zones (including mine) will we singing at a Helping Hands service activity for the church. I hear it will be broadcasted on the local news and that the area president of Brazil will be there. So I guess that´s cool. We´re also putting together a Book of Mormon Christmas choral that will be performed in many public locations and stake centers throughout the Rio area. I´m excited to be a part of that and help others feel the spirit of Christmas through the wonderful means of music.

This week, we were able to help 3 MEN return back to church, along with a young man and a lady in the relief society. We focused a lot on reactivation, and by that, we´re hoping to help strengthen this Ward with more priesthood holders and future missionaries.

Osair is one of the first members here in Bangu! He was baptized when Bangu was a branch, over 30 years ago. He helped many of the current members meet the church, and having been inactive for over 10 years, many of those members were very happy to hear we had been helping him. Even more happy to see him back at church yesterday.

Benton is a 26 year old guy who was baptized in a city called João Pessoa in the north of Brazil, but he left the church after 3 months. We found him doing street contacts. Kindof. There´s a house next to the chapel that we had always wanted to visit, and this week (Friday, the day we were fasting) we decided to knock the door. Benton answered, and said he was a Mormon. We instantly were surprised (since he literally lives 1 minute walking distance from the chapel) and talked to him about the Book of Mormon and his baptism. He changed a lot and improved his life when he first was baptized (Stopped smoking, stopped drinking afelt more love for Chrost in his life) And when he left the church and everything went back to the way it was, his life instantly got worse. He couldn´t figure out why until he saw us and accepted the invite to come back to church. He says he´s surely gonna stay now. 

We also visited with the Young Mens president a young man who had been less active for several months, João Vitor. We talked to him a bit about commandments and how they bless us if we´re obedient. He said he´s always wanted to serve a mission, but he got less excited when his parents split up. His dad was grateful for our visit, and even though we didn´t know he is also a member of the church with much time not participating, he wanted to be a better example for his son and he returned to church too! YEAH

We´re hoping to make use of these lost sheep who have returned to the Shepards fold so that we can help find many others to come unto Christ to receive the saving ordinances required to live in his presence forever, as well as their family´s.

I love this gospel so much. I felt many of my prayers were ansered this week, and I felt the strength of those sent from y'all at home. Thank you so much. I love you all and wish the very best for you!

Love,

Elder Braun

We had a service project helping an elderly lady in the ward rearrange her furniture and clean up a bit. She gave me this wonderful necklace as a token of thanks. I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

The black guy in front is our ward mission leader. Yesterday was his farewell Sunday, since he leaves to serve in London this week, so he took a picture with a bunch of us in the ward. 

To the Resue

Hey Family!

I was delighted to receive an email from Mike! Bonus points for him. I had another week full of learning opportunities, and even though the success here in Bangu is still a little slow for us, we´ve been blessed with a few tender mercies that I´m excited to share with you all.

First of all, I´ve forgotten how much money I have in my checking account. Could you send in next weeks email where I´m at? I´m wanting ideas for stuff I can send home for christmas, since it´s aleady almost November. Let me know if there´s something the family would like. I woul like peanut butter, a new belt, and gatorade. At least that´s what I´m craving at this very moment.

So, We were visiting a reference from other Elders on Friday, and we happened to find a lady who became a member of the church in São Paulo and has been passing through many difficulites in her marriage recently. She felt really sad for leaving the church, where she always had a supporting family to help her out, and after teaching her a bit about the atonement of Christ, she promissed to come back. Her 9 year old son also said he wasnted to get baptized.... so I mean we can´t complain. The lady, Denise, lives in the other duplas area, though, but I´m happy for the Lord putting her and her son in our path to remind her of this great Gospel!

We also had a quick meeting with one of the counselors in the bishopric when he mentioned a man who lived on the other side of his street who has been inactive for over 10 years. We decided to pass by his house, and he shared with us many incredible experiences he´s had in the church. His wife recently passed away, and he has been feeling really sad because of that. We taught Osair the Doctrine of Christ with a bit about the Plan of Salvation, and after saying the prayer to end our message, he promised to be at church this sunday. After 10 years not coming to church, we´re thrilled to help him come back to true church of Christ.

We had many cool experiences finding less-actives this week, and those two are just a taste of them. I hope all of you at home can include in your prayers a desire to help those who had accepted to Follow Christ in their life, but for whatever reason, left that pathway. I know that we can make a difference by sharing our testimony to all of our Father in Heaven´s children in the spirit of prayer (D&C 84:61)

I love you all, and love this glorious work!

Love,

Elder Braun

Understanding the Atonement

Hey Guyz,

As always, I´m so grateful to hear from you all and the wonderful adventures that take place back at home. Ever since I´ve heard about it, I´ve been dying to see the new "Meet the Mormons" movie that recently came out. Jealous.

I´m planning on putting together a Christmas package for you guys. What do you want? Is there anything brazillian that you´ve always wanted or that you want me to include in the package. I´ll try to have it sent by next week. Brazillian postage is so unpredictable :(

So this week.... was tough. One of the toughest I´ve had my entire mission. Since we´re opening this area, we arrived with a teaching group of 0 people. Starting from the ground up, and at the start of this week, I did a fast that way we could find people to come to church this past sunday. I´ve never worked so hard than this past week. My companion, is a bit special. He has social problems and doesn´t have a very good memory, so I´ve learned a lot of humility being with him, but I´ve taken on about all of the responsibility on my shoulders. Planning, most of the teaching, just about everything. And it hs been overwelming. Unfortuntely, even though we had 5 investigators who said they´d be at church, we had none. Even after passing by their houses on saturday to confirm their visit, calling sunday morning, and even passing by some of their houses. I felt like a failure during all of the church meetings and have been really self-critical.

I´m been feeling really lonely lately, and negative against myself. I´ve been praying a lot, begging for help, but it just seemed like nothing was working out in the end. But as I entered my email today, I read a super touching email that Marlon sent me (The man we were teaching in Maricá whose wife was reactivated). He thanked me for teaching him and shared breifly the difference the gospel made in his life. He included pictures from his baptism last saturday (The 11th of October, the Saturday after I left Maricá). Words can´t describe the joy and happiness I felt hearing his brief testimony and seeing the pictures from his baptism.

Even though our life is full of dissapointments and trials, we can always have certainty that our Father in Heaven is watching over us and cares for us. Even though I haven´t found his elects in Bangu yet, I felt comfort knowing that the work I did in Maricá helped the branch grow there a lot. I´ve truly learned how to understand the Lord´s atonement in my life, and I wanted all people to have this same knowledge. As a representative of Christ, I know it´s necessary for me to pass moments of rejection, humiliation, suffering, even lonliness, for if I never passed through moments like these, a tiny price of what was payed during our Savior´s atoning sacrifice, I´d never have a true testimony of the Atonement.

Please continue to include me in your prayers as I faithfully seek to do good for this people in Bangu. It´s been a tough (and hot) 2 weeks, and I need all the help I can get. I love you all and am happy to have your wonderful support!

Love,

Elder Braun

Some sick graffiti in the heart of our area.

We had a churrasco.

This is the email I received from Marlon, who was baptized last saturday in Maricá. I hope you enjoy the pictures! It brought tears to my eyes to see this wonderful family prepare to be sealed for eternity, starting off by following the example of Jesus Christ, being baptized. The Branch President baptized him. I love you all! 

Elder Braun,

Olá meu amigo! fiquei muito triste mesmo com a troca de missionarios. Mesmo com pouco tempo considero você como uma pessoa muito importante na minha vida! Nesta ultima semana realmente eu senti o espirito santo tocar minha vida, vejo a iluminaçao que isso trouxe para mim e minha familia. Espero que o Pai Celestial esteja com voce e pode ter certeza de que a sua missao já é vitoriosa! 

Thank's for all my brother!

Marlon,

Talvez demorou alguns dias para mandar as fotos para vocês, mas aqui são as fotos que prometi. Não sei se Elders Inácio e Floriano falaram, mas eu foi para Bangu! Estou muito animado por você e seu batismo este Sábado. Estou triste que eu não vou conseguir assistir a reunião, mas eu vou estar lá em espírito. Qualquer coisa que você quer compartilhar/falar para mim, pode usar este e-mail. Manda um abraço para a família toda para mim! Amo muito vocês.

Elder Braun

Clowns on The Train

HI GUYS,

Well, It´s been another crazy week as always. Getting to know a new area as well as the members here with a companion that is getting to know the area with me isn´t always the easiest task in the world, but I´m learning to recognize all of the tender mercies that God places in my life each day. I hope all goes swell in Star Valley for Grandma and Grandpa. I´ll include a special place for them in my daily prayers. Let grandpa know that I love him and wish the very best for him in his situation.

It has been very tough to not be in Maricá anymore. If I had the opportunity to do so, I would totally choose living there after my mission. My love for the culture and the people and everything there is immense. Change is tough, so I´m doing my best to just accept it. Here in Bangu, just like everyone says, is HOT. Like, HAWT. It
already hit 44 degrees celcius, and it´s still the beginning of fall. I have to drink something like 2 gallons of water just to survive here. It´s cray. And since we didn´t have a teaching group, at all, when we got here, we´ve spent pretty much all day walking, trying to visit ex-investigators, walking, doing street contacts, walking, visiting members and inviting them to help ud do missionary work (That´s the hard part), more walking, knocking doors, and to top it all off, walking some more in this good ol Rio sun.

But it really hasn´t been completely a miserable experience. I´ve been studying even more the atonement of Jesus Christ to help me realize that in whatever hard situation or diffitulty we pass through, we can always rely in the power of the Lord´s atoning sacrifice to help us push on through and come out stronger, wiser, and more prepared for life´s challenges in the days to come. This week, we tried to visit a lady who we found the the area book that was baptized, but wash´t confirmed (yeah.... ), and we met her sister and neighbor. We took the
chance to share a message briefly with them about the restoration, and it was incredible how Mayara and Natália understood the doctrine. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and prepare for baptism, and they accepted! We´re hoping to help them continue to feel the same spirit that that they felt during that brief, but powerful visit.

We also met a lady who´s passing through trials and is being prepared in the Lord´s hands to receive our message. Marcia, whose nephew was baptized about 6 months ago, has had some emotional turmoil since her
son died recently and she´s having trouble gaining the custody of her grandson who has been abused at his mother´s house. We´ve taught her about the Book of Mormon and how it can be a guide and answer for all
of life´s difficulties. she felt peace hearing our message, and we hope she can have that same feeling as we visit her and her nephew more.

We will have a special musical number sung by 4 zones in the mission for Christmas. As we were returning home from the practice, on the train, a goofy old guy with a yellow wig, big glasses, a guitar, and a Brazil flag used as a cape entered the train and proceeded to play a bunch of music. Both Brazillian and American music. It was probably one of the most inspiring and delightful moments in my life. I didn´t take any pictures, but I´m happy to say I filmed almost the entire thing on my camara. I´ll have to show you guys when I get home since I have no way to send videos through email.

I love alllllll of you! This Gospel is soo true I can practically taste it. No matter how much Satan wants to tempt me in whatever form he does, there´s no way I can deny the powerful force of our Lord´s atoning sacrifice in my own life, and the ability that his gospel has to cure lives and families.

Love,
Elder Braun