Last pair of shoes!

Hey we had a baptism this week!  I’m super stoked about that.  I feel like we will have lots of success this transfer.  We found a lot of new and really cool investigators.  Lots of people with lots of potential.  Nothing is better than teaching someone who really appears interested in our message.  Its awesome!  we found 2 really cool families so were excited to pass by again this week.  Its interesting being with another American now.  Everywhere we go everyone seems to look at us haha.  Today a girl stopped us in the road and asked where we were from because we were speaking English and it turned out to be a sweet contact and were going to visit her this week.  I cant believe its November already.  These past months have flown by!  I’m really liking the area I’m in.  Its nice and flat and the ward is super cool.  The baptism we had was for a 10 year old girl named Ana.  She’s basically adopted by a family in our ward but not officially yet.  But the guy is the 2nd counselor and he helped us a lot so it was really cool because there was a really big turn out for the baptism.  I really like this ward because they are super good at visiting people and helping the recent converts.  All the recent converts are super active and awesome people.  One of them is a popular music artist here in Recife and we visit him and his family a lot and he gave me a super sick tie yesterday at church.  He just took it off his neck and gave it to me hahahaha.  I’m really stoked about this transfer.  Lots of good things are happening it seems like.  Right now there’s no water at our apartment because the pump broke which blows because we have to take showers with a bucket of water but hopefully they fix it soon.  I know its been a while since i last wrote a letter telling about my week and i apologize for that! I’ve been slacking at emailing recently.  But all is good here in Cordeiro.  I got attacked by this tiny little dog the other week but luckily it only bit my shoes.  speaking of shoes i bought my 4th pair the other week and no matter how ripped up they get I’m not buying anymore.  So hopefully they last!  Everyone here is getting stoked for the world cup.  Hopefully America kicks butt because everyone here isn’t expecting anything from us!  Alright love you guys! have a great week!

Much love, Elder Erickson

Hey!

Wha’ts up!  Sorry i have been slacking on writing these past couple weeks.

I don’t really even know where to start.  We had the 2 baptism for Tayna and Yara which was good!

Were searching for more people to teach.  We got a few good people who will be baptized pretty soon.  We have been teaching Deise for the past 4 months and she lives with a member who started going back to church and they need to get married first before she gets baptized and they have been trying to get their documents together which has taken a while but FINALLY they got everything so they should be married in about 2 weeks and then we will baptize her int he first week of September. I’m hoping.  But they are really cool people.  I love going over there and teaching them.  We taught her Aunt yesterday night and i don’t think i have laughed so much in my life.  She is the funniest lady ever.  She lives in a part of Pernambuco that doesnt have contact with the church so hopefully that will change soon.  It sucked yesterday because it rained a ton and nobody goes to church if it rains here because all the streets get flooded and super muddy.  and we were waiting for 5 investigators.  Only 1 went. but 1 is better than 0.  But we walked in and there was only 20 members.  and normally there is about 100.  But hopefully next week it wont rain.

Everything is good though! this week has been productive.  Transfers are in 3 weeks.  I sent Brayden an email.  I’m so stoked for him!  when does he leave for Japan???? I need to send some pics.  The weather is about to get even hotter in about a month since it will be summer.  Not looking forward to that.  But luckily an investigator gave me some sun screen spf 50! so that should help.  Oh yeah we also went to the temple which was awesome! i love going to the temple. We ate subway also which was super good.  I cant really think of anything else in the moment.  But if i do i will let you know! miss you guys. have a good week. love ya!

Elder Erickson

weekly update

Hey!

We had a really good week.  We got a reference on Tuesday and we went and contacted the person on Wednesday and we get to this house and ask for Lucas and this lady invited us in and was really nice and stuff which was cool and we talked to this teen who is 13 and he has gone to church a bunch of times in another ward and told us he wanted to get baptized which was really surprising to us.  We found out that the lady who passed this reference was a member in my last area which was cool.  she’s a relative of this family.  A bunch of members of the family are inactive members but like the church.  They left because of issues with rumors and drama.  But they like the missionaries which is good!  so we marked his baptism for this week and we went back on Thursday and he told us he wanted to get baptized this week so we had to teach him everything in 2 days then he got baptized on Sunday after church and it went really good.  His Mom came and watched which was sweet.  But he’s a really cool/smart kid.

July has been a really good month for us as far as work goes.  I hope August is the same.  We got 2 people marked next week to get baptized.  I’m pretty stoked about that.  Transfers are also today and I’m staying (my 3rd) transfer here with Elder Gustavo.  I was pretty happy because i wanted to stay one more.  So hopefully everything goes good!  I think I’m going to end my mission with 4 areas haha.

We had a family night at a less active members house which was really fun.  We gave the message then after as an activity we all sang karaoke. But it was pretty fun. I took a couple vids of everyone singing.  We also bought a sweet bug zapper racquet thing that works really well!  There’s a bunch of mosquitos at night so its nice to have this zapper thing. it even has a built in light!

I went and did a baptismal interview this week for another area.  It was this girls who’s 20 who lives with her Grandma and she used to attend another faith since she was little but she was really excited about her baptism the next day and the interview went really well but i guess she never mentioned her baptism to her grandma who also attends the faith that she used to attend and on the day of the baptism the grandma showed up at the church during the baptism and was saying that God revealed to her that she had to go stop the baptism and all this weird stuff. but long story short, everything went fine haha.

One morning we were studying and we started hearing this shouting from the street so we went and looked out the window and this old guy was holding a bible in the air and shouting that Satan was in the street and all this really weird stuff.  It was pretty crazy!  So basically that’s my week haha.

Oh and congrats to Brayden on his farewell and everything. I’m super stoked for him!!!!

I love you guys! Hope you’re having a good week.  Love you and miss you a ton!

Elder Erickson

Update

hey!

This week was super super awesome! we had the baptism for Edivaldo and Mauricéia!!!  We went over everyday and talked with them and i was nervous the whole week that it wouldn’t happen but everything went smooth and it was a really nice  baptism!!!!  I baptized Mauricéia and my comp baptized Edivaldo.  It was super nice because we have been working with them for a while and they have come a long way.  They are really nice people.

We also have a baptism this week for a kid named Vítor.  Were teaching him and his Mom (Kézia) and they are both really cool.  The Mom needs to get married first and she’s working hard on that because the guy she’s living with is unsure about it. They have been living together for 10 years so i don’t think splitting up is an option for her but she’s really trying hard and we even talked with the guy so pray for her!!!!  But were going to baptize her son this week.  He’s really excited. He watched a baptism this week of a girl in our ward and he really wants to get baptized.  Its cool because he’s really smart for 9 years old.  I hope that his baptism will help his Dad have more of a desire to get married.

We got a couple new investigators also who were working with.  Its been an awesome week though!  July is going to be super good.  Hope everyone had a good 4th!  I’m reading Jesus the Christ right now and its such an awesome book.  I don’t like to read that much but i cant stop reading this book.  I have learned a ton!!!

Okay so there’s my week!  I love you guys!  thanks for all your support!!! have a great week! love you all.

Elder Erickson

Baptismo

hey!

This week was super super awesome! we had the baptism for Edivaldo and Mauricéia!!!  We went over everyday and talked with them and i was nervous the whole week that it wouldn’t happen but everything went smooth and it was a really nice  baptism!!!!  I baptized Mauricéia and my comp baptized Edivaldo.  It was super nice because we have been working with them for a while and they have come a long way.  They are really nice people.

We also have a baptism this week for a kid named Vítor.  Were teaching him and his Mom (Kézia) and they are both really cool.  The Mom needs to get married first and she’s working hard on that because the guy she’s living with is unsure about it. They have been living together for 10 years so i don’t think splitting up is an option for her but she’s really trying hard and we even talked with the guy so pray for her!!!!  But were going to baptize her son this week.  He’s really excited. He watched a baptism this week of a girl in our ward and he really wants to get baptized.  Its cool because he’s really smart for 9 years old.  I hope that his baptism will help his Dad have more of a desire to get married.

We got a couple new investigators also who were working with.  Its been an awesome week though!  July is going to be super good.  Hope everyone had a good 4th!  I’m reading Jesus the Christ right now and its such an awesome book.  I don’t like to read that much but i cant stop reading this book.  I have learned a ton!!!

Okay so there’s my week!  I love you guys!  thanks for all your support!!! have a great week! love you all.

Elder Erickson

o melhor semana!

What’s up!!!!!!!!!!

Just finished up the best week of my mission! yes, THE BEST!!!

I don’t really know where to start off haha

So on Friday Jacques and Patrícia who i baptized last year got sealed in the temple!!!!!  Seriously i cant even describe the happiness i felt seeing them in the temple and doing such a great thing that they have been preparing for, for a really long time.  I will never forget my first day in the field, seeing Jacques smoking a cigarette by his apartment.  Its crazy to thing how far they have come.  Knowing them i think has been the biggest privilege of my mission.  Patrícia has one of the strongest testimonies of someone i have ever met.  It was also nice to see a bunch of members from my first area.  They are so awesome and supportive.  I don’t think i have felt so happy in my entire life when i was watching the sealing.  It was so cool!  I cant even explain it!

Also, we marked a baptism for a married couple last week.  Their names are Edivaldo and Mariceia.  Their entire family are members and we actually met them about a month ago just knocking doors.  So we have gotten to know them pretty well.  They were a little concerned about the baptism being so soon because they didn’t feel prepared.  But we talked to them about it and when we went to visit them this week, they were super excited about the baptism!!!! i was shocked!  They drink so they have stopped doing that and it was really cool to see the change in them, especially in just a couple days.  The Lord is helping them a ton. so the baptism for them will be on Saturday morning so were super happy about that!!!  They are really cool people.  Another person we are working with a lot is this girl named Deise and she’s living with a member but they aren’t married so they got to get married first them we will have the baptism for her so hopefully in 2 weeks if everything goes right.  its super fun to go over there and talk with them though.  They are super cool people!

We also helped with a service project that the ward has been doing for a while.  They have been re doing this house for this lady in our ward.  so we went over there and i got put on roof duty and got to help finish the roof which was pretty sweet.  I was nervous at first because i felt like i was going to fall through at any second because the only thing holding us was a couple pieces of wood.  But we laid down the clay tiles and finished that.  So I learned how to do that!  Everyone thinks its funny that all the houses in America are made out of wood. I really don’t know what to say back to that...  But it was cool to be able to help with that.

So everything is going really good here! Our mission is going to baptize over 200 this month which is good because our president has been wanting that for a while!  I’m super stoked about my area and the people were teaching!  These next couple of weeks should be super good!  São João is on the 24th so there’s going to be a bunch of fire works and fires in the road.

Love you guys!  Hope all the Daddies has a good Fathers Day!!!

Talk to you soon! love Elder Erickson!

Another week!

hey everyone!

Just finished up another week here.

It was pretty good. We went and dropped a bunch of investigators because there are a lot of people who aren’t progressing and were getting super focused on just finding and teaching the people who are really needing the gospel in their lives and the elect.  Its not easy but we have  a few investigators who are super awesome!  They just need to get married...that’s the hard part.

One night we were walking home and it started raining so we took cover under this little over hang thing to wait for the rain to pass and this guy on the other side of the road calls us over and he had an umbrella and we were like okay and we went over and he just gives us the umbrella!!!! i was like what?? He was like yeah take it i have a bunch.  I was shocked because that type of stuff doesn’t happen really often especially to us.  So that was really cool.  So were going to go back and talk with the guy.

Yeah so its June now and its almost São João here so there’s gonna be a lot of fireworks and fires and music and stuff.  Last year was pretty cool so it will be fun to see it again.  Everything is going good though. Were working a lot more with the ward which is helping a ton.  Lots of people went to church this weekend.  SO this week should be super awesome!

Love you guys! have a great week!!! talk to soon.

Love Elder Erickson