World Cup and Politics

Elder Carvalho, Me, Elder Inácio (My Comp), and Elder Heidenreich. 

Just making miracles in the wonderful land of Maricá.

Hey Family!

No, I didn´t fall in any rivers this week, but as far as I know, there were no infections or diseases contracted from last week. Some members here say I got really lucky and ws really blessed about that, so I´m counting my blessings. The World cup is.... NOW. EVERYONE is watching every game in the world cup, rooting for Brazil and against Argentina. We´re still working like normal, except the days that Brazil plays. On the opening game, last Thursday, we cleaned our house hardcore, we did weekly planning, and we played a ton of Uno in our house. When Brasil plays, everything closes. EVERYTHING. Even the emergency rooms and health centers (not hospitals, thank goodness). And everyone watches the game. You can imagine how tough it would be a missionary, diligently trying to share a brief message about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when everyone is at home watching the game. Luckily, since we live far away from Rio, we can still work on the days where there´s a game in Rio. Many missionaries don´t have that same priveledge, because there are lots of people on strike, because of the money the government spent on the cup. Lame.

Now that Winter is starting here, I´m not sweating all the time! WOO! It´s still pretty hot, like 30 degrees celcius, but it´s better than melting like a popsicle like we do in the summer. Congratulations to Bryan and Holly for the wonderful news and new baby! Also to dad for the new calling as ordinance worker in the temple. Ever since I´ve started my mission, learned more about temple ordinances, and now that I CAN´T go to the temple whenever I want, I´ve thought a lot about how awesome it would be to have that calling.

This week had many ups and downs, but overall was pretty good. We´ve started teaching a lady named Vanda who recognized the spirit immediately and has been progressing super well! Although she wasn´t able to go to church yesterday (We´re still not sure why, we´re gonna visit her today to find out), so that was tough since we´ll have to remark her planned date for baptism. She works for the PDT in Maricá, which is like a member of the house of representatives for the state of Rio, at least that´s what I understood from what my companion told me. She´s his secretary, and she invited us to say a prayer at their correlation meeting (Two thumbs up for Brasil. No separation between church and state!). There´s no way I´d deny an offer like that! So we got to meet the PDT in Maricá as well as his campaign group, we said a prayer and invited everyone to learn about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! I mean, if Júlio Carolino joined the church, that´d be cool. I wouldn´t complain. He was really nice and showed a lot of gratitude for our work and we thanked him for caring about this wonderful people of Rio and Maricá. It was a group of about 15-20 people, and I definitely wrote about that in my journal :)

I had an opportunity to meet a family in my first area, Alcãntara, that has been prepared for baptism. As district leader, I did their baptismal interview, and I´ve loved working with them these past few weeks. Their names are Benedito and Elizabeth, and they were baptised last saturday and confirmed yesterday! I´ve loved working with the missionaries there, helping them work with the members and recent converts that I grew so close to while I was serving there.

Another crazy week in the books here in Rio! I´m not sure how the World Cup is doing, all I know is that Brazil won, based on the fireworks, cheering, and horns we heard that day. Plus everyone (including the members) have been talking about it. But like I said last week, It´s the WORLD CUP (or translated from Portuguese, Cup of the World). As representatives of Jesus Christ we should be seperated from the world. I love you all and don´t forget to root for Brasil for me!

Love,

Elder Braun

One of the million decorated houses in spirit of the World Cup

Some Days You Just Fall In a River

Dear Family,

Parabéns for Bryan and Holly!!!! I´m so happy for them and I´m excited to meet my new nephew! When I see him, he´ll probably already be walking, which is crazy to think, since Holly wasn´t even preghant when I left on the mish. Way cool. 

I got a letter this week that contained a wonderful little picture book that you guys made for me. I received it from my zone leaders during stake conference, and all of the elders and members next to me had a look at it too. I loved it and was happy to see all of the wildist adventures you´ve all been doing since last fall. An american elder from my group, Elder Seibers, saw the picture of Bryan with Bill Nye and just about lost it. We then proceeded to sing the Bill Nye theme song and it was a blast.

This week was surely full of... surprises. My new companion is Elder Inácio, a Brazillian Elder from São Paulo. He´s 18 years old, super animated and excited, and has already been a great help here in Maricá. We now have 2 companionships in Maricá, but the other two Elders hadto stay in Rio for a week until we got new beds. We also had a stake conference yesterday which included a broadcast taught by Richard G. Scott (Did you know he speaks Portuguese fluently?) and M. Russel Ballard (Did you know that he is like an awesome apostle?). It was great and they taught a lot about being personally converted in all things and resisting the temptations of Satan in all aspects of your life.

On Wednesday.... ohhhhh Wednesday. What an unforgettable day of my misiion/life. It was Elder Inácios second day in the mission, and we were walking to na appointment we had in a very undeveloped neighborhood in our área. We were a little late, and because I´m dumb, I thought it would be a good idea to take a shortcut. According to the map we have, all was fine taking the road we decided to take, but because it was a little dark and we had rain all of last week, it didn´t work out as planned. We started walking through some tall grass, the road started to dissapear, and what appeared to be a trail of fine grained dirt, was actually a RIVER with sediment on top (At night, I swear, it looked like a trail). So I fell in a river with water that went up to my shoulders. It was not a clean river, may I add. Luckily Elder Inácio stopped before he fell in the river. Needless to say, we weren´t able to make it to our appointment, but our branch pres was able to get us and bring us home. I´m really grateful for that. I had to buy some expensive soap and alcohol to dissinfect my body for two days, since canals and rivers here usually have tons of bactéria and diseases. I haven´t had any side affects, and I´ve still been able to work, so I´ve been blessed in that way. But I did end up torching our cell phone and my brand new watch that I bought that morning. Luckily, my scriptures and other importante materials like my câmera survived as well.

Now that we have two companionships, we have lots of plans to visit every member on our branch list. Our branch pres will visit many of them with us, and we´re working to receive references from EVERYONE. We´re hoping than by doing this, we´ll be able to spread the gospel to everyone in a way that will streaghten the less active members here as well.

We´ve been able to teach many new people this week, and I´ve loved being able to help this wondeful people recognize the fulness of the gospel for the first tme in their life. I´m trying to put myself in their shoes and see for my self how diferente it would be to here for the first time in your life that the true church of Jesus Christ has been restored on this Earth. and what significance that should have in my life, that way I can help others apply the restored principles and ordenances of the gospel in theirs.

I love my Family soooo much! I wish you all the very best this week. The world cup starts this thursday, and I hope you enjoy following the worlds best football teams compete against eachother. Here in Maricá, it´ll be completely madness, and all missionaries in our mission will stay at home all day on the days that Brasil plays, and when there is a game in Rio in the Maracanã stadium.

Lots of Love,

Elder Braun 

Training, Round 3

Elder Heidenreich and I, doing our Stripling Warrior pose

Hey Family!

Since we have transfers this week, lots of crazy stuff has happened, which I´m excited to share with you all. My prayers go out to Grandma and Grandpa. I wish them the best and hope that the visit this week goes well. Sorrry that this letter is showing up a little later than usual. Like last week, I had to travel to Rio on our p-day today, but this time, in stead of getting a new companion, it was because Elder Heidenreich and I went to a training for the trainers this transfer. Wait, what does that mean??? That´s right, I´m training again! I´m pretty excited, now being my 3rd time training in my mission, my hopes are high and I´m priveledged to have the oportunity to once again, welcome one of the Lord´s newest missionaries into this wonderful force of good. I´ll find out who my companion is tomorrow.

Elder Heidenreich, my companion for one week, will also be training and Marica will have two companionships!!!!!! This is WONDERFUL NEWS!!! Now that we have a new branch presidency that´s all geared to work miracles, as well as twice the workers to carry on the workload, we´re sure to have some incredible growth in Maricá! I´ll be here for probably another 3 months while I train my new companion, and I´m very excited. 

This is actually a huge answer to a prayer I had sunday of last week (the 25th) I remember Elder Porfirio and I returned back to our house, but he didn´t want to plan since he knew he would be going home. I was feeling ver y frustrated, a little helpless and didn´t feel completely satisfied with anything going on. I decided to have a true Enos-like prayer and, in a way, wrestle with the Lord. That night, I went into one of our rooms, closed the door, and gratified and pleaded for what the spirit guided me to ask for. One thing I asked was for a miracle to happen the following day. I wasn´t sure why I asked that, but I felt inspired to do so. I begged for a miracle to happen the following day, and that´s when I found out Elder Porfirio was going home. That wasn´t the miracle I was hoping for, but what was impressive was I discovered that Maricá would have two companionships. Although it will require a lot of planning, especially with regard to lunches which was already difficult to arrange with one companionship, I know that this branch is ready for the workload.

With the world cup around the corner, we´ve already been notified that some days will not include us working at all: Each day that Brazil has a match, and each game in Rio in the Maracanã stadium. We´ll be able to have lunch, but after that, we´ll come back home and clean and study and do whatever is necesary so that we can still have the spirit with us. People here get crazy during the world cup, and even more so now that the cup will be in Brazil.

Sorry I don´t have much time since today was super rushed with the trainer training we had in Rio. I still have lots of people to write back, but I´ll do that next week. I love you all, I love this Gospel. There is nothing more rewarding in my life other than that of dedicated service, and there´s no other place I want to be than right HERE!!! 

Love,

 Elder Braun

The last sunday that Elder Porfirio was here, we had luch with a member who lives on the BEACH. 

Here´s a cool photo there.

Transferencia?

Dear família,

CRAZY week for us in Maricá. Congrats to Ryan for being accepted at Gonzaga! That´s awesome they´ll be staying with the rest of the fam at home, and Certainly Natalie will love the company.

It was a relatively sad week in Maricá since my companion Elder Porfírio decided he would go home and no one could do anything about it. It was really tough for me to accept the decision he made, since I´ve had marvelous experiences during my mission, but he was certain that no one could change his mind.

But I´m keeping my head up and looking towards the bright future that we´ll have here in Maricá rather than looking behind. My new companion is a Texan named Elder Heidenreich. He´s from Dallas and knows where Longview is, so that´s cool. He had to go home for a surgery about a month ago, and after he recooperated, he came right back down to Brazil last week. He´s been serving for 7 months, and is super excited to get back to work after his month long break. He´ll stay with me for this week, and next week, Maricá will have two companionships! So I´ll be showing him the area, our investigators and members, and next monday, we´ll find out who our new companions are. I´m stoked to stay here in Maricá since I already have a huge love for this branch. I have no doubt that it will become a ward in the nw future now that the members have been learning our to help us do missionary work and fulfill their callings.

We had a change in the branch leadership, and we´re SUPER excited about the future here because of it! Our new branch president served as MISSION PRESIDENT in Recife, Brazil between the years 2002 and 2005. His name is Saul and has already put together some incredible plans for the members and misionaries have some great progress.

I wantto thank everyone who sent me words of encouragement this week. I don´t have enough time to read them right now, but I´ll print them out and read them on the bus ride home. I don´t have a ton of time right now to say much more that happened this past week, but I am truly grateful for the love that my wonderful family members and friends have shared with me. I´ve gained a great love for the Lord´s atonement in my life and mission and have become amazed at how much I´vegrown these past few weeks. Keep Spokane funky fresh and let everyone back at home know that I love them!

Tchau tchau,

Elder Braun

I left my camera at home and don´t have any way to show you all my pictures from this past week :(

Nobody Said It Was Easy

Dear family,

I´ll be straight up. This week was pretty rough. Not an easy week, that´s for sure. But you have to have some difficult weeks to be able to enjoy the rest of your time serving a mission, right? I don´t think there are lilacs here in Brasil, mom. I honestly don´t see many flowers here, but every now and then, there are people who have flower pots and grow them. I like to take my chance and smell them whenever possible.

Unfortunately, what we never would have expected, Jessica´s baptism fell through this past week. Elder Porfirio and I were so excited for her, especially her ability to recognize the spirit grow with every lesson we taught her and her family. But on Wednesday, she said she wasn´t sure she could get baptized anymore because she wasn´t sure she could keep every commandment. We promised her blessings, invited her to pray and read the Book of Mormon, but she still wasn´t feeling like it was the right thing for her. She didn´t return to church on sunday and we´ve had trouble reaching her by phone. Satan knows what will strengthen us, and for that reason, he has a powerful ability to tempt us right at our strongest moments. 

On the bright side, we were knocking doors close to our house last week and that family I told you about, Julia and Tiago, is an AWESOME family. They read the book of mormon and understood it! (That´s actually a really big miracle here) They even accepted baptism, but they weren´t able to come to church this past sunday because of a family emergency. They´re really interested and are truly seeking to understand our messages and applying the doctrine of Christ in their own lifes. 

I have a question for everyone at home. Anyone is invited to help me out, whether it be mom, dad, siblings, cousins, etc. We´ve been having difficulties involving members in our teaching and integrating of investigators in the church. There aren´t many members here in Maricá, and none of them have cars, and very few live close to the church, where we´ve been encouraged to work. Every time this week we invited a member to visit someone with us, knock doors with us, they weren´t available and they said they´d talk to us when they would be. When we call back, they usually say the same thing. We haven´t had much luck with investigators wanting to visit again because frankly, they don´t like it. The members don´t talk to them, instead of a beautiful chapel, it´s an old, rented party house, and they don´t feel like it´s the restored Church of Jesus Christ we´ve been teaching them about. If anyone has helpful advice, I would be sooo grateful. I love this area so much, but there needs to be some changes here if it´ll ever progress enough to become a ward.

Please don´t forget to pray for me. At times I just don´t know what more I can do to help these wonderful people feel the same love for this restored gospel that I have. Please pray for my companion as well. He´s having difficulties and could really use some help understanding his purpose as a missionary and the sacred significance of his calling. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that through his atonement, we can receive relief and comfort from our trials and infirmities. It was never easy for him, so we have no reason to think that our life or trials we pass will be easy for us. I love you all and wish you the best!

Love,

Elder Braun 

Long Time, No See

Mother's Day 2014-Google Hangout with the Family

Hey Family,

It´s been a good 16 hours since we had a wonderful chat. I guess that would explain why I didn´t receive an email from home, but there´s no hard feelings. I honestly have no idea what to say in this letter since I told yáll about everything that happened this week, but I guess there´s nothing wrong with receiving it again in written form. 

Elder Porfirio and I were doing a lot of door-knocking this week, and we found a great, MARRIED, family named Tiago and Julia. They have been looking for a church and had never really found one that felt right to them. They accepted to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Wha-What!

Jessica accepted baptism and is preparing to be baptized this sunday (18th)!!! We are super happy for her and the progress she has had with her parents, who only need to get married in order to be baptized as well. Things have been going super well for us here in Maricá, and hopefully everything keeps improving.

I really don´t know what else to say, but Mother´s day was awesome! We always joke with people when they ask ´´why don´t you guys have holidays like the rest of us?´´ and we tell them, ´´as missionaries, the only holidays we have are Christmas and Mother´s Day´´. Haha. I love you all and wish you a wonderful week! The gospel blesses familes! Let´s strengthen our family while we share the gospel with everyone they know so thay can have the same happiness that we have!

Love,

Elder Braun

Time to get Louco

Me and Elder Porfírio and a member family in Maricá.

Hey guys!

I hear that Melanie is roommates with Katie at BYU? Like, Melanie my cousin and Katie my best friend? Is that true? If so, DANG that´s cool. How´s it going for everybody at home? What does this new company do that Dad will be working for? At times people here in Brasil like to ask what my parents do for a living, and it would be nice to have some sort of idea what Esterline specializes in. Way to go Dad!

Like I said last week, I´m training now and my new son´s name is Elder Porfírio! He´s from a city called Sobral in Brazil, it´s close to Fortaleza, and I like to call him my little fireball. He arrived here in Rio super animated to work, he has a great knowledge of the scriptures and the missionary lessons, and we´ve been working hard since day 1. And some miracles have definitely resulted! He´s a convert, was baptized when he was 16, served in the army in Brazil, and is 22 years old. Weird, huh? Training a guy who´s more than 2 years older than me? But he´s seriously great. He was super scared when I told he we were serving in a branch, but he´s already been a great help. 

We had a guy get reactivated this Sunday! His name is Adalberto and when I was still with Elder Evans, he stopped us one day on the street and said ´´I´, mormon!  The church is here in Maricá?´´ He´s from Recife, but moved to Rio because he had cancer and had to have serious treatment, but he´s starting to recover. I gave him one of my white shirts and ties, and he was super grateful to have found us so that he could return to church and continue being nurtured by the good word of God! He was an awesome miracle for us, and it makes me wonder how many there must be in this giant area that are members who never were able to find the branch here in Maricá

After the wonderful feedback from our activity last week, we´ve decided to have activities on a more regular basis in Maricá so that members can invite their friends, the Missionaries can receive more references, and more people can receive knowledge of the Restoration of the Gospel. Our next activity will be on the 24th of May, and we´re gonna have a dinner at the church house with a great message planned. The members are all really excited and we´re happy about that.

A man named Paulo that has been investigating the church for about 20 YEARS accepted baptism! His wife is a member (who has already received her endowment), as well as their daughter. He never was willing to give up drinking, but with the help of his doctor who told him he needs to stop because of his growing problem with diabetes, he has finally stopped. He has been calling himself a member of the church for years, has even taught the Gospel Principles class a few times. We have his baptism marked for this Saturday, the 10th of May.

I love you all very much and am SOOOOO excited to talk to you on Sunday. You guys in Washington get out of church at 2, right? I´ll try and call around 2:15ish or 2:20 (6:15ish) Here in brasil. I´ll be able to use Google+ to talk to the siblings who are interested to talk to me too! If Google+ doesn´t work, I´ll use Skype as my backup plan, so have that up and ready just in case. If Skype doesn´t work, I´ll just scream, maybe it´ll be loud enough for you to hear. Can´t wait for the 11th!

Love,

Elder Braun