True to The Faith

Elder Braun and Elder Evans

Hey Errybody!!

What a grest week Elder Evans and I had! Maricá is still beautiful and although our area is GI-FLIPPING-NORMOUS, we´re still having little miracles every day that keeps us busy and faithful. Our apartment is pretty big, with two bedrooms (in one we sleep, the other has our suitcases and closet), a spacious kitchen. and a big room where we study and dry our clothes. There´s also a balcony that over looks the highway that heads to the city´s beaches, which stays plenty busy at night. At times it´s pretty loud at night, but we´re usually to tired for it to be a big deal. The house smells... fine. Ha

It was a normal transfer, although I was pretty surprised that I left Ramos after only being there for one transfer. Elder Evans has the same time that I have on the mission, like we entered the mtc on the same day, but he was in a different zone there, so we never met eachother. He didn´t get his Visa until November last year, and he served in Houston for 3 months, so he only has 4 months in Brasil. He speaks pretty well, though. Probably better than I did at 4 months in the mission. We´ll see if I get my birthday package before my birthday this week, since we´ll have zone meeting. If it isn´t here by then, I probably won´t receive it until next month. Maybe I deserve that since I opened the Christmas package early . But if I get my birthday package this week, I´ll wait until the 18th to open it.

So I´m playing the piano in sacrament meeting!!!! Let Sister Reese know about that. It´s crazy, since it´s like an organ with two different groups of piano keys, and I never learned how to play organ, but I´m getting the hang of it. It´s old and doesn't work perfectly, but the branch asked me if I could play, I said 'kindof', and I guess in Portuguese, kindof means YES. So cool beans. They haven´t had a piano player there in years, so even though I made a few mistakes here or there, they all thanked me a lot for my talents. Those 8 years of piano lessons were totally worth it.

This week, we focused a lot of contacting references of people who were baptized in the church, fell away, and the church was able to find them again. It started out pretty tough finishing these references, since there were many that lived in areas that were 2-3 bus rides away from the church house, and many were addresses that didn´t exist. 

HOWEVER, we found some awesome people this week too. There´s a lady named Rosemary and her son Fernando who were super firm members when they lived in Rio, but they moved to a community in our area called Saquarema 4 years ago. She tried to find the church building closest to her, but without a computer or members who lived closeby. she was never able to fin it. When we knocked on her door, she greeted us saying, ´´ELDERS! I´ve been praying that one day you would find me!´´ She still reads the Book of Mormon, and she was able to visit the church in Maricá yesterday. 2 bus rides is nothing for those who love this gospel.

Also, we met a man named Márcio and his wife and daughter Simone and Isabel... Dang were we so happy to meet them. Such a wonderful family. The moment that Elder Evans and I met them, they treated us like we were family, like we were already their best friends, and I already love them to death. Márcio was baptized in Alcãntara, yep my first area, 20 years ago, but because of members and the distance required to travel there, he found himself becoming less active after about a year. He now has a pretty big role in a different church, but said that since God sent us to his front door step, God must have sent Elder Evans and I for a purpose for him and his family. Márcio was baptized before he met his wife simone, and their 17 years old daughter Isabel instantly accepted the Restauration and are reading the Book of Mormon. They even told us that the day we met them, Márcio´s mom, Rosimar who we are also teaching, was praying that God would bless their family, and they interpreted our visit to be that exact answer!! Haha God works in mysterious, yet wonderful ways.

Anyway, we´re finding wonderful families every day and working super hard to help them accept this restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. I´m loving every second of it! I love you all and the support I receive from you.

Love,

Elder Braun

1) Elder Evans and I being bosses with our most powerful tools.

2) The piano/organ we use in the church house.

Eu Sou Marican

This picture is with Karch's old companion who was a member in Ramos. 

He was formerly known as  Elder Silva Santos. 

Elder Evans and the church´s hot tub.... No I´m kidding. It´s the baptismal font.

There´s a business called B Braun on the highway entering our area.... So that´s Remarkable. 

Family,

I love reading the weekly letters I receive every week. I´m sad to hear about the japanese dude who hit that shiny new car. I guess when you don´t have a teenage son at home to give our cars beauty marks, you gotta hire a japanese immigrant to do it for you.

Such another crazy week in the mission and I´m so happy for everything I  learn every week! I´m certainly serving in a whole new world here in Maricá. Seriously. I joke with Elder Evans all the time saying that I feel like I´m serving in a whole new mission in this area. There´s a lot less buildings, streets, and a ton more fields, trees, and....water! There´s a bunch of lakes and the coast close to where we live and work. Don´t worry though. We aren´t passing much time there. Everything in this area is also more expensive, especially bus rides. I had to go to Rio this past week to get my visa updated and paid a whopping 20+ bucks to get there and back. If I was still in Ramos, it would have been a tad bit more than 2 bucks, so I´m getting used to that here.

Also, serving in this branch is certainly a learning experience for me. The Maricá branch started having missionaries in October last year after being closed for 3ish years. So we´re doing our best to help the members work with the us to do missionary work. Luckily, the church is still true :) With an attendance of 26 yesterday, we´ve got tons to do to work towards building a chapel here. We´re determined. Elder Evans and I teach super well together and we get along super well, too. So I´m having a blast here. Church is also in a rented house. The baptismal font is a little pool in the backyard, and each bedroom is a classroom or meeting room for the different groups in the church. It´s a different world, but I´m loving it. I´m sure you´ll have questions that I´m willing to answer about it.

We were able to visit Jaqueline and Alexandre last saturday!!! Oh that was sooo fun seeing them with Aguinalda and Rogerio, the coolest family I´ve met in Rio. We were able to teach them about eternal families and they said they´re get back to working on the wedding process next week (They started back when I was in Alcântara, but they became a bit disanimated, and since it was tough for us to keep up with them in Alcântara, they stopped) But now that we´re here closish to them, we´ll be able to help them and keep up with they´re progress waaaaaay better. They live in a super rural area and we have to take two buses to get to their house, though, plus we don´t have any other investigators close to them. 

We had a baptismal date marked for a teenage girl, MArcela, that we have been teaching for this saturday, but she wasn´t able to go to church yesterday. However, there´s a Haitian guy named Volson who has been to church 3 times already and we´re working with him tons to progress towards baptism. He loves the church and has already said that he knows it´s the place for him. So we got started running and we´re hoping to keep it that way. 

I love you all at home and I´m proud to say that I´m loving this new area, Maricá! I was just starting to get used to the city in Rio, but here in the country, it´s more comfortable and relaxed, which I like. I feel more safe, which should be a sigh of relief for you, mamma. But when you´re doing the Lord´s work, there is nothing to worry about. Tchau, everyone!

Love, 

Elder Braun

IT'S TRANSFER TIME!!!

Family,

Soooooo.... Sup

Haha before I forget, I received Valeries Christmas Package at the beginning of January. I sent her a letter thanking her for it. I think I sent it to where she was living in California, so if she didn´t receive it... dang. Hopefully she´ll get it somehow. As far as the Plan of Salvation and package from Mike, they´re still traveling to me!!! As well as the birthday package.

I don´t want to delay this crazy news, but I´m getting Transferred!!!! I´m super surprised, like a ton, because usually the trainers and newbies stick together for two transfers, but Pres Lima decided that he needs me in MARICÁ!!!! Dang I´m soooooooo FREAKING EXCITED to go to Maricá. MAricá is a branch (first time serving in a branch!) and is fixed beautifully with a marvelous coastline. I´ve visited there one time already, and there´s lots of trees and it´s beautiful there. Maricá is in the same district as Alcântara, and the family we were working with (Jacqueline and Alexandre, the same lady that looks like HAnnah Jensen) Lives there!!!!! CARACA I´m so excited to get back to working with them. My new companion will be Elder Evans, seriously the coolest guy I´ve met since I got here in the mission. He´s from the same group as me, but served in Houston for 3 months waiting for a visa, and we´ve already done a division and we get along super well. He´s from Kansas and lived in the building next to me at BYU! I´ll have more to say once we start serving together tomorrow. I´m pretty sad to have to say goodbye to Elder Acevedo. He´s super great and was a great companion. We got along really well (Better than any other companion I´ve had) and we worked well together.

So It´s kind of tough to talk about our investigators here in Ramos knowing that I´ll be leaving tomorrow, but there is one lady in particular that I can´t go without talking about her. Helena went back to church for the first time in a long time and she loved it! She lives super long and travels more than an hour to arrive at the church. Sacrifices to attend church... Inspiring. We´re also working on reactivating a family named Fátima and Adimir. They were baptized 2 years ago, but shortly left the church because Ademir started visiting a different one that is closer to their house. Fátima only wanted to go if her husband was with her... so yeah. We built quite a trust with them and are helping them prepare to become faithful members of the church and prepare to be sealed in the temple.

There was some super tragic and sad news for Elder Acevedo and I. A lady that we were teaching, Regina, passed away last week. Dang we felt so sad to hear about it. She had been having problems for a long time with pains resulting from years and years of smoking. We started teaching her, ashe started to change, but our Father in Heaven decided it was her time to return to his presence. She was super receptive and willing to be baptised, but her and the guy we were teaching, Jorge, were living together and had to be married first. So yeah, don´t smoke.

Craziness this week, I love you all so much and am so excited for all of the craziness and changes that are in store for me this next transfer. Rio: Mission of miracles. I´ll miss having a view of the Christ astatue on every corner, but all is well.

Love,

Elder Braun

 This computer won´t read my sd card, so hopefully next week I´ll be able to send some fancy fotos.

Post Carnaval and Gondolas

Elder França, Elder Xavier, Me, and Elder Acevedo in the Teleférico.... Gondola.

Yeah... That's where I bring Salvation. Complexo do Alemao.

After a huge rain, Elder Acevedo took a picture of me while I was talking with other Elders on the phone. Instead of raining cats and dogs, it rains horses and elephants here.

Hey Family,

Put yo hands up for another crazy week! Lots of work, training experiences, and progression in my mission this past week. Elder Acevedo and I were able to attend a training last week for him. Every 4 weeks there´s a big meeting with President Lima and all of the other Elders in Elder Acevedos group. Twas awesome. At times I wonder why I was chosen to train a newbie and be district leader with such little experience in the mission, but we are working hard and having no regrets.

Thanks a ton Jeff for the letter he sent me. I´ll write a brief message to him thanking for the news. Happy to hear that Betsy is doing great. Really 15 more years? Daaaaaaaaang. Stick in a nice stereo system and Betsy will be set! Haha

Last P day we rode a gondola with the other companionship´in our ward and a member in the ward named Edson. It was pretty awesome, especially because the gondola rides above one of the biggest favelas in all of Brazil, which. naturally, is a big part of our area. It´s called the Complexo do Alemão, which translates to German Complex. Not sure why, there ain´t no germans here, but it´s cool. Photos will be included in this e-mail, for shizzle. 

Elder Acevedo and I decided to try and work more with reactivating members this week, and we found a lady, who lives seriously in the other side of the galaxy, but she´s super cool. Her name is Helena and to arrive at her house, we have to either take two buses or only one and walk another 40 minutes to arrive at her house. She has moved a lot these past few years and didn´t which ward she was living in, and at times was visiting a chapel that was closer to her. (Imagine our family going to the Evergreen building instead of the Foothills). Her son João Vitor is super quiet and is 12 years old, and also has a difficult relationship with Helena. Ever since we met them, he´s
opened up a lot and we´ve been working with them a lot to strengthen the relationship they have in their family through the teachings in the scriptures. It´ll be a slow preocess to prepare João Vitor for baptism, but we have lots of faith that everything will work out with patience and hard work (and long bus rides).

Hey I found a place that sells Brazil soccer jerseys for 20 reais a piece (about 8 dollars). If you could add 100 bucks or so in my account, with a bit more for shipping, I´m willing to hook yáll up with jerseys before the world cup starts in June. That way everyone at home can root for the best country in the world :) Also, if you could let me know how much money is in my checking acount, that would be greatly appreciated. I don´t have anyway to find out for myself. Thanks!

I love you all and love this Gospel! Lots of saudades of everyone at home and I´m grateful for the prayers. Sempre. Until next week, homeboys.

Love,
Elder Braun

This is a photographical representation why missionaries in Brazil do NOT have cars or bikes.

It's Carnaval!

 We visited a place called Igreja da Penha last P-day

The moving crew after the work was done. Captain America rulz. Represent. ´MERICA!

Wooooo hey guysz,

Dang the jealousy I had seeing Bryan with Bill Nye made me cry. Mr. Hollenbeck used to show videos of that guy a ton when I was in his class. Very cool. Gostei. Well it´s been a pretty cool and crazy week. A little stressful because of some of the responsabilities that come with being District Leader, but hey, in the words of Coldplay ´´Nobody said it was easy´´. Anyway, I´m so happy to hear about all of the cool mission calls that you sent me. I told Elder Acevedo that Landon Toth was going to Lima Peru, and he wants to know which Lima Peru mission
(Elder Acevedo lives in the Lima Central mission). Elder Carter sent me an email about the war in Ukraine. He says he´s safe in Dnepropetrovsk, but he says it´s pretty cray cray.

NOOOOOO not Betsy! I felt sad to hear about the truck, but dang was I surprised you guys wanted to pay the big bucks to keep him alive. I understand you didn´t have the money necessary to buy a new one having bought that other shiny fancy schmancy piece of metal that shares the garage with Betsy. Oh well.

Let Bro. Van Matre know that I ate lunch with one of Karch´s companions. Karch´s companion Elder Souza Silva lives in our ward and we had lunch with him . Him and his wife are super awesome and a cute young couple. Next time I get a chance, I´ll take a picture with them so you can show Bro. Van Matre. Other random news, I weighed myself last week for the first time in over a month.... 66 kilos... around 146 pounds, which means I´ve lost about 20 pounds since I started my mission. If you send me powdered sports drinks again, don´t feel the need to send the zero-cal. I needs to get fats.

So Carnaval is this week! In reality, it hasn´t affected our area at allllll. Carnaval is still pretty annoying because, like seriously, EVERY investigator is traveling, has lots of family in town, or spending lots of time away from home because of it. And the only people in the streets are drunk old men. Elder Acevedo and I still managed to keep busy, knocking doors and visiting members less-actives. AOcassionally we see someone wearing crazy clothes, but nothing extraordinary. I was expecting crazier news too :/

Oh yeah, we moved last week too. All of the members that have heard about it called us crazy because now we live even further away from everything, and in an area that is more dangerous, but it´s been pretty chill since we moved. I´ll include a picture in front of our new house.

Here´s some cool news and a nice little miracle for us in Ramos: Elder Acevedo and I showed up at church, and there was a lady there we had never met who lives in Texas! She lives in Austin, I told her I was born in Longview, we had a good laugh. Anyway, she said that she´s visiting her mother here, and invited her to church (Her name is Alexandra, her mom, Vera, isn´t a member of the church). Vera was raised in the catholic church, but she loved church yesterday! She invited us to visit her while Alexandra is still here in Ramos, and hopefully all will go well! Alexandra joined the church in the States, and has always wanted her mom to hear the missionaries messages. so yeah. Cool story.

Guess what? I love you all and am always smiling when I think about the wonderful support I get from everyone at home. Sorry if at times as a missionary, I don´t show it super well, because I donpt have much time at all to send emails. One hour every week, which includes the letter I write to president Lima. Oh well. What a great Gospel this is that our Savior has given to us!

Lots of love,
Elder Braun

PS. I included a photo of Bruno´s baptism that Elder Leite sent me. Dang was I super happy to hear about that. I was super sad to not have been able to attend, but I am still so happy for the decision him and Ranna have made to accept the restored gospel of Christ aand prepare to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.

Bruno´s Baptism in Alcântara on February 22nd.

Pre-Carnaval

Hey bretheren,

As I´ve said many times already in my mission, and will probably many more in the future, it was another crazy week here in Rio! Unfortunately, mother, I didn´t see Jon Schmidt here in Rio. I didn´t even hear anyone talking about him passing here, but he was probably in Zona Sul, the super rich part of Rio where Americans live and...well, rich people. I´m like almost seriously busting a gut about what happened with the letter I sent to Natalie back in September. Seriously? It finally arrived, and was completely opened. Brazillian class, setting new limits. HA.

Because of scheduling conflicts with the guy in the ward who was going to help us move to the new house, it  won´t happen until tomorrow. The new house won´t be furnished, but we´ll be bringing everything from our current house to the new one. us 4 elders will still be living together, but the new house is part of the other elders area, so Elder Acevedo and I will have to walk 20 minutes just to arrive in our area.... and our area is freaking ginormous. Lots of walking, taking the bus, and planning will have to be done to get as much work done as possible.

So Carnaval will start here next week. For those of you that don´t know what carnaval is, it´s mardi gras here in Brasil, but on steroids. At least that´s what I hear. Everyone goes to the streets, does lots of promiscuous activities (I fascinated myself and my english vocabulary with that word), wear skimpy clothing, and pretty
much give in to anything and everything Satan would want us to do. It´s so bad in this area that all of the youth in this area have a youth conference the entire week awhere they go camping somewhere else and have like a miny EFY to stay away from the apostasy that goes on during Carnaval. One of two things will probably happen with us as missionaries in Ramos. We´ll either try to work as normal, staying away from the busy streets that will have the most activity or we´ll go on a division in a different area that isn´t as cray cray. Should be an interesting week.... wooooo.

Elder Acevedo and I have been teaching lots of new people, especially since we´ve opened this area and had to start everything out fresh. There´s a super cool married couple that we started teaching last week. They´re names are Jorge and Regina. Regina has been having lots of health problems as a result of smoking, and they became really scared. Trouble breathing, lotsa of chest pains, and difficulties using muscles. Her neighbor is a member and this member, Marle, said that Regina wanted a health blessing. We were able to visit them, teach a bit about the priesthood and authority, and I gave her a blessing. Her response after the blessing is seriously unreal. She said she started feeling much better. 3 days later when we followed up and taught them the Restoration, she was feeling almost completely better. Still some chest pains, but she thanked us so much and have received our lessons super well. Thery´re reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and have accepted everything, but for now they just need to get married in order to be baptized. Hopefully that won´t be a problem for them and we´ll get them in the wedding process as soon as possible.

I want to end with a funny experience that happened last week. Elder Acevedo and I were doing contacts at 8:00 at night, and suddenly there was a giant green explosion, probably 200 feet in front of us. Seriously it had to have beaten any 4th of July fireworks show I´ve ever seen. A transformer exploded, and all the community lost power. It was like 8 o clock, and pitch black. Luckily, we were close to a members home and we were able to pass by there rather than stay the rest of the night in the completely dark streets.

I love you all! I love telling the members and investigators here about how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed my family. I want every family here in Brasil to have and feel the same happiness in their families that I was able to have during my life. Tchau!!

Love,
Elder Braun

Sorry, I didn´t have a chance to take any other cool photos this week :(

Dee El

Our Zone of studs.... and two sisters

Me and Elder Acevedo after a huge dump..... of rain.

Hey Family,

I loved the letter this week! Especially that sweet story you shared about me as a kid saying a prayer and wanting help. I loved it, because there have been some lessons throughout my mission where the investigators we teach say they don´t know how to say a prayer and they ask us missionaries for help to do so. Super precious. Also, just an FYI, we have Zone training once every month, the first week of each month, which is when we get mail/boxed. At times, in special situations like a big mission activity, we receive mail two times a month. That might happen this week since we will have zone conference, which only happens once every three months.

Goodness stinkin gracious what a crazy week here in Ramos. Elder Acevedo and I have been working like crazy, talking toeveryone in the streets and inviting everyone to receive a message about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Here´s some crazy stuff that happened this past week:

-Maybe the title of this email gave it away, but I have been called as the District Leader! There wasan emergency transfer last wednesday, and our DL, Elder Bendoski who was serving in Ramos 2, was transferred to a different area. Elder França, a brazillian elder, replaced him, so now I´m back to being the only American in our house. I got a call from president saying that I now have the responsibilities that he had, which includes being leader over three companionships, one being a dupla of sisters. So yeah, wooooooo!!!! It´s been kind of a surprise and a lot more work and responsibility. I keep in touch with all of the elders and sisters in our district to see how their investigators are progressing and what not. It´s cool, but Itotally wasn´t expecting it, having only 1 week as senior companion when President Lima called me.

-So we´re moving!!!! not to a new a new area or anything like that, but our house is too small for 4 elders, and President Lima told us we needed to look for a new place to live. One of the members here offered a house that they own that has been vacant for a long time. President checked it out, liked it, and we´ll be moving in this Wednesday. I´ve been keeping in touch with Pres. Lima a lot this week, if you hadn´t noticed... Also, this new house will be a 45 minute walk to our church building and 25ish minute walk just to get to our area. And our area is huge, so we´ll be walking tons. Let the weight continue to drop! Send me lard or something to keep my weight in balance. No don´t do that. I kid.

-I lost my missionary manuel on a bus when I was traveling to Ramos two weeks ago with Elder Acevedo. I always keep it inmy shirt pocket, but with all my suitcases and my new companion, I seemed to have forgotten to put the manual back in my pocket and lost 100+ reais, my identification (the secretaries weren´t too happy about that), and my white bible.... Sadness.

- The man, Valdir,  that we had been preparing for baptism last week had a huge financial problem. when we passed by for him to be interviewed for baptism and said he didn´t want to get baptized anymore. It was really sad and he kinda went crazy, but we´re gonna work with some ward members to find a type of service for him to do to earn a bit of money and help him out with his tough situation.

So wooooo Ramos training district leader funness that´s fur sure. It was actually a pretty stressful week, since I´m still trying to get to know the members in this enormous area,and haven´t been having the success that we would like. I still do my best to serve the Lord always with a smile, but prayers will always be appreciated to help me
out. I love yáll, my american beauties!

Com Fé e Amor,
Elder Braun

Curious about the story about Steven when he was 3? Here it is:

Jan 4, 1998

"Steven is talking... and we understand him. One night I asked him to say the prayer. 

"Help me" he replied.

I told him he needed to say the prayer by himself because he was a big boy and could do it by himself.

"Help me, mommy" he repeated.

When I said 'no' he looked at Bryan. "Help me, Bryan".

"You can do it", answered Bryan.

"Help me, Jeffrey."

"You can do it", answered Jeff.

He continued around the table. "Help me, Valerie"

"You do it by yourself", she replied.

"Help me, Michael".

"You do it", Mike answered.

"Oh, man!" Steven said in disgust. He had asked everyone and no one would help him so he decided to do it himself. It went something like this: "Heavenly Father. Thankful for food. Please bless Mommy and Daddy, Jeffrey and Bryan, Michael and Valerie, Justin and the new baby. And bless the food and we'll be happy. In Jesus Christ, Amen."

So of course we all had to cheer and ever since then, he wants to say the prayer at meal time, by himself."

 -Brenda Braun