Bring the Rain

hello, Hello, HELLO! How are you doing on this wonderful day? I am excited you are reading and learnign along with me. We had another interesting week here in Vinhedo with successes and heartaches, triumphs and failures, so keep tuned in! Our New Year´s was uneventful with missionaries over for district meeting and a big ol´ fest of BANG! the best Wild West Game ever made. That combined with fruitcake and powdered juice made for a good time before district meeting the next day. I then gave some doctrine about the how we qualify to have the Spirit, that is much more than keeping the rules and praying. I then talked about how we must invite the Spirit to our teaching and allow him to touch the hearts of our investigators. So we practiced the First Vision and the Atonement which, for me, bring the Spirit so quickly to the lesson if presented correctly. The Restoration and the Atonement, with the Fall, are the most important events in history and thus leave a significant impact on the investigators. After that it was just work until now. We have been hitting doors, doing contacts, visiting inactives, and asking references all to increase our teaching group and we have had mixed results. Because the area is so large and we are in charge of two wards and I only have two feet we are trying to decide exactly how to focus on one specific area to be effective. We finally decided on two neighborhoods and have found many elects. It´s raining. We´ve been in the investigator´s house for too long so decide to book it. I recommend we go to a member´s house. My comp forgets so we end up under a bus stop. We call the ward mission leader to send someone to give us a ride (because we are drenched). He says Geraldo will stop by in a little. A car pulls up and tells us to get in. We do and tell Geraldo thanks. Dun, Dun, Dun! It´s not Geraldo, but Aginaldo. He was taught four years ago and went to church for three months straight. Now we are marking his marriage and he will be baptized next month! Yeah! Stuff like that just doesn´t happen everyday! We are being so blessed as we do our part. This next week we will have 10 members leaving with us and a bunch of references to receive. I love you guys and hope you really know that and feel that. I think about you and pray for you and hope you too can fell this love for the gospel! This work is true. This is not something relative to me and what I feel. It does not vary from one person or another. As a ward missionary put it so eloquently in his testimony on Sunday, ´´Joseph Smith saw God the Father and his son Jesus Christ. This not my belief, but actual fact.´´ Come on really, Elder Healy

VINHEDO! WOOHOO

Dear Beloved Family and Friends, I write you on this lovely day from a Japanese LAN House drinking a banana and chocolate milk shake. Life couldn´t be much better than that. And to make me even happier, we had another wonderful week. My last email from the area was quite superficial so I will try and get yall the inside scoop. First things first, my companion had only 27 days in the field when I picked him up so I am back to training again. YEAH! It is super fun having three hours of study every day. He is a big, happy Brazilian who never complains about anything so we get along great. He is eager to learn and has a lot to learn. My district here is pretty spread out. One of the areas is like three hours away by bus which totally stinks for meetings and interviews, but I will survive. Everyone in the district is American except my companion :) so we end up speaking alot of English. I am in charge of two wards here which is a whole ton of work. The area is huge. Anyways, when I got here they had one investigator who had been to church twice so I invited her to be baptized that very Sunday. And with some teaching, helping, and some power from on high she was! It was truly a miracle. This last week we had many elects placed in our path who went to church and are preparing for baptism. I am really excited to see what this transfer brings and am praying for large amounts of success. The members help a ton and give lots of references. Two families just brought friends who we will hopefully baptize in a week or two. Only downer, they give us so much food here that Im gonna turn into a whale. Come on really, Elder Healy

Transfers

Dear People, So I am being transfered after 6 1/2 months. That is a looong time. I have loved all the time I have had here in Sousas and all the people here. They have treated me so well and helped me so much and it will be truly difficult to go. I am going to a near by city called Vinhedo to finish the training of another Elder. That will be exciting! I cannot wait to get to work and get back to baptizing. Next week will be better... sorry! Love, Elder Healy

Good Day

Dear Family, This week was challenging and a great learning experience. I learned why planning is so important, how to do contacts even better, and more about the great love that my Older Brother has for me. Have a great week. Come on really, Elder Healy

The Road

Hello my fellow travelers, I felt inspired by my father to talk about the road that each one of us will follow in life. In this last bend of my life there were ups and downs, highs and lows, triumphs and failures. My companion and I started the week slowly. We had some long lunches, bad lessons, and weak investigators. By Thursday we were feeling pretty down. And then it all turned around. We decided to plan more effectively, we taught more efficiently, and we were blessed because of it. We were able to bring several new people to church and I believe at least one of them will certainly be baptized this week. We also were able to follow up with Tiago and he was baptized on Sunday! Every time we asked him how he was feeling or if he had questions, he just said he was peaceful and ready! What an elect! I am excited to see where that couple goes in the years to come. In the last couple of weeks I have been receiving praise from the members, leaders, and president that I feel completely unworthy of. I just am doing my best and trying to follow all that Preach My Gospel and the Missionary Manual teaches. I feel like I am being congratulated for paying my tithing or something. What makes me so happy to realize now is that I am not doing this for them, or for me, just for the wonderful people of Campinas and the Lord. That is why I serve and that is why I work. As I said before, we all have a road in front of us. We don´t know where it goes or what will happen along it. But to a degree, we either control or are controlled. We can choose left or right, forward or backward, fast or slow. But what we can´t control is the consequences of those choices. So let´s think and plan before we go, but not be afraid to change if needs arise. Let´s choose our destiny and not let it be chosen for us. Every moment is a choose. So let´s take advantage of every moment. Come on really, Elder Healy

Laughing myself to death

Thanksgiving is what I love to do! This years thanksgiving turned out to not be all that special. We were super pumped to be going to eat at an older couples apartment in the temple, but when we got there we found out they had to work and just wanted to give us money. So we ended up eating our Thanksgiving feast in the temple cafeteria. Rice, beans, beef and potatoe Suprise!, fruit, and a cup of juice... but we made some cookies to make ourselves feel better. I still need to make the pumpkin pie Mom sent em materials for. I am still in Sousas with another new missionary, Elder Hale. It is his 2nd transfer on the mission and had the first part of the training done by one of my friends, Elder Heilner. Elder Hale and I have hit it off great. He´s from Bountiful Utah, and is fresh out of High School. He is a pro golfer and ping pong player, and has the cutest dimples ever. His Dad was a mission president in Florida and is personal friends with President Uchtdorf. Our mission president called me on Teusday and said that I will only be here for another 4 weeks and will be emergency transfered before Christmas because of flight problems for the Elders going home. So now I have only three weeks to finalize the investigators for baptism. Speaking of which, Tiago marked his baptism for Sunday at 5 pm! (Air Punch) So that will be cool and we have a bunch of others for the weeks to come. This week we did a whole bunch of tracting and contacting. We entered a ton of houses, but than every person either was soft in the lesson or in follow-up one, much to our disappointment. We had some very entertaining lessons to say the least. One of our investigators has had some serious problems with the law of chastity in the past, like five children with five different people, and was telling us about it in front of his 9 year old son who just looked at him in horror. We were cracking up afterwards. Another investigator told us that she had been rebaptized in the Jordan River. My companion is still learning the language and understood this as Jesus was baptized there so just kept on teaching. I looked at the member, Kaie, who was with us and we both just cracked up and the Spirit just went right out the window. We were practicing using a video camera this week to give better critiques, but we could not look at one another without dying. Its gonna be a great transfer. I love you all and miss you all and hope you know I am healthy, happy, and hard at work. Hope your holiday season is full of love and laughter as I know mine will be. Who can´t be happy making cookies and gingerbread houses? Come on really, Elder Healy P.S. I´m gonna be in a choir and I can´t sing!

Im pretty much a member now...

Hello, So last night I was informed that I will be staying here for another transfer. And my son, Elder Barros, will be leaving. That was a definite suprise for me. Did not see that one coming. So by the time I leave I will have been here for a good 7 months... NBD. I will be sad not to continue with Elder Barros and I dont really know what will happen to me here. But the Lord and President know what they are doing. Larissa decided to be baptized this week and the service was simple, but special. Her member friend/co-worker came to see which I think really helped her. Her husband, Tiago wanted to see a baptism first and we hope to baptize him Saturday. We found a very rich lawyer recently and taught him a quick plan of salvation. We invited him ti church and he went by himself! Nobody does that! We are tying to help him understand the gorspel after losing his wife and he truly seems interested. The rest is pretty much same old, same old. I will be making cookies (Thanks Dawn and Dad!) so that will be great. We are doing okay here and will keep baptizing. Come on really, Elder Healy