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

Updates

Okay so sorry I’ve been such a slacker at writing!  Its been like 3 weeks.  Time is flying by.  But its been pretty busy around here.  But I’m back on track and stuff.  I cant remember the last updates so i will try and think of stuff that has happened or will happen in the near future.

I’m still here in Cajuiero Seco/ Prazeres.  I will most likely stay here another transfer to finish up training then probably get transferred to my 4th area (i hope).  But everything is going super good.  We had the mission tour this past week and an area 70 came and talked to us and it was super sweet.  I liked the things he had to say and l left feeling pretty inspired.  I got to see some good friends who i haven’t talked to for a while which was cool also.

The work here is going pretty good.  Were finding a lot of people.  We have  3 investigators who need to get married to get baptized which is tough but worth it.  It will just take a little longer but its fun teaching them.  I have been going through the area book a ton and finding a bunch of people who have been taught already and that seems to work really good.  Its just annoying having to find addresses here because all the numbers are messed up.

I cant believe its already June.  Time is going by super fast!  Its started raining a little bit more which has been nice to get a break from the sun.  But its still super hot.  Were working more with the ward which helps a ton!!!  Its nice when you take care of 2 wards so you have twice as much people to help you haha.

Lots of missionaries are starting to come to our mission and the groups keep getting bigger so i think the president will put another pair in our apartment this next transfer to try and make room for everyone so we will see what happens.  The work is increasing a ton and its easy to see which is super awesome.  Everything seems to get better and better ever week.

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

Much love!

elder Erickson

New Transfer

Hey!  This past week flew by but it was super awesome!  Lots of new stuff happening!

we ended the week with 3 baptisms!!!  so we had 2 on Friday and one on Saturday and both were super good.  especially the baptism for Giselle.  It seemed like a miracle that she got baptized this week.  did i already explain the story with the signature???  we ended up getting her mom to sign the paper since her uncle wouldn’t but it literally was an answer to our prayers within 5 minutes or less.  the mom didn’t want to sign the paper for her to get baptized and saying all this stuff and she went into her room and shut the door and we both said silent prayers and like 4 minutes later she came out and signed the paper!  it was crazy!  so we were all super happy about that.  We took Giselle to see the temple on Friday which was cool and she enjoyed that and we bought her a bunch of stuff from the distribution center to read and  stuff.

Elder Myers just ended his mission. he goes home tomorrow.  he got super sick yesterday but woke up today feeling better which was good.  so i got the call from the zone leaders saying that i will be training a new missionary again!  it caught me off guard but I’m pretty excited.  i still have a lot to learn about these 2 areas were taking care of but it will all workout.  I’m going to be the district leader here also which will be super fun!  its a sweet zone.  so I’m going to pick up my new comp. tomorrow at 3pm.  I cant believe mothers day is in less than a week!  I’m excited to skype you guys!  So there’s a little bit of my week.  Looking forward to seeing you guys on Sunday!  talk to you all soon! love you!

Elder Erickson

Ola’ Pessoal

Hey!!!

Its been a pretty good week!  right now I’m sitting here and I’m super wet because we got off the bus right as a huge rain storm started and we were running through the street trying to find cover and there was super loud thunder and lightning! That never happens so it was pretty cool. 

So i got transferred BUT i didn’t end up going to the area that they told me i was going to go to.  I got transferred to this area that’s watching over 2 areas.  Prazeres and Cajueiro Seco.  I only have 2 weeks to get to know both areas because my comp is going home this transfer so i got lots of work to do but i really like the areas!  They are super cool.  Lots of cool people also.  So we actually had a baptism marked this week for this kid named Ricardo and we ended up marking his brother also for Sunday so we were super stoked for that and finally Sunday came and after church and lunch we got the font all ready and nobody showed up!!!!  so we called this member and she told us that the ward secretary called everyone saying that nobody from the bishopric would be there so he called it off but we never got that memo so that was super annoying but were going to have it this week. 

There’s a girl were teaching also named Giselly and she’s really cool!  She really wants to get baptized and likes the church a lot but the only thing that’s holding her back is her uncle because she lives with him so we went and talked to him yesterday at his house to try and get him to sign the form because she’s 17 but he wouldn’t do it because he said he doesn’t accept our doctrine and doesn’t like our church and all this stuff and we explained to him that he doesn’t need to accept our doctrine and it was really dumb because he wont let her get baptized just because he doesn’t like our church and its so frustrating!  But were praying hard that we will somehow get the signature.

I’m really looking forward to May.  Got lots of stuff happening so it will be super busy.  I’m stoked I’m in this area now though.  We should have lots of success.  There’s this little neighborhood in our area and there’s like 35 members that live in it which is really cool. I’ve never seen that here.  Our church building is super nice also!!!  Its got A/C and its updated so that’s really cool also.  So everything is going good here!  I’m excited! 

Love you guys!  have a good week!  Talk to you all soon!

Love Elder Erickson

Some updates

what’s up everyone!

This week has been pretty sweet.  Lots of stuff went down so hopefully i remember everything.  I heard about the attacks in Boston.  Crazy stuff. i heard something today about an attack in Texas? Good thing the people here keep us Americans pretty updated haha.  Not very reliable as far as information goes though haha. 

So we spent part of the week with another missionary in our group and he got transferred on Wednesday which was a relief because it got pretty complicated with 3 people, especially 5 people in our little apartment so I’m happy about that.  Church was really good yesterday too.  We met a bunch of teenagers who live close to us and we have been talking to them a bunch and they are all really cool and fun to talk to.

Yesterday i got a call from one of the assistants and he told me that there was a bunch of confusion with 2 other elders in another area so they are splitting them up and he said I’m getting transferred and i will be with one of them so that really caught me off guard because i was thinking i was going to stay here till the end of the transfer but its all good.  So I’m getting transferred tomorrow and I’m going back to my last zone but a different area so that will be interesting.  I’m taking the district leaders spot there i guess but it will be cool because i know the zone pretty well and some of the missionaries there.

But the coolest thing happened this week!!!!  So 2 elders in my district called me and said they have a baptism this week but they aren’t sure if the guy wants to get baptized yet but they wanted to do the interview anyway so we marked it for Saturday and we went over that day and before the interview we talked with them a little about the guy and his name is Daví and he’s 43 and likes the church a lot and the teachings but there were a few things that happened in his past that are pretty serious so we had our mission president call and talk to him real quick then we talked to the President and he said the guy can go ahead and get baptized if he wants to after i went and did the interview with him and we ended up talking for almost 2 hours!!!!!!!!!!  it was one of the coolest experiences out here on my mission though.  There was a really really strong spirit as we talked and i could feel the spirit working through me as i talked to him.  At points it felt like i couldn’t control my mouth but it was so cool. He’s a really sincere guy and i read to him chapter 2 in Acts  at the end of the interview and long story short he said he would get baptized the next day!!!!!! it seemed like a miracle and i couldn’t believe it but he ended up getting baptized and confirmed yesterday so i was really happy about that.  Its hard to explain the whole situation over email but it was super awesome!!!!  It was one of those moments that really increased my testimony and love for the mission and the importance of missionary work. 

SO there’s that!!!!  its been a good week.  Looking forward to some of the changes that are about to happen.  Miss you guys though! have a great week!  much love!!!

Elder Erickson

Here We Go

Olá!!!!!!!!!!!! what’s up!

This week was super busy!!!  we had lots of stuff throughout the week so we didn’t get a ton of time to go out and work.  But overall it was a super good week and lots of good stuff happened.  So to start out, we went to the temple on Wednesday and ate lunch there then attended the 2pm session and that i think was my favorite part of the week.  I hadn’t gone to the temple since August because the last time i had gotten sick so it seemed like forever.  But being inside always makes me feel good and kind of gives me a boost of spiritual energy.  Then afterwards we went (as always) to Burger King right across the street which was good.  Fast food is expensive so its just a once in a while thing.  Hopefully i can keep it to once in a while when i get back. 

We went to the stake building to watch General Conference Saturday and Sunday and watched all the sessions which was super awesome.  I have been anxious for a while to watch conference.  The talks were awesome.  Its crazy how much the missionary work is increasing!  Pretty sweet though!   I don’t really have a favorite talk because i liked them all.  I always look forward to Elder Holland’s words though. 

But being back here in my first area has been pretty weird but in a good way.  Its been nice to see the members again and talk with them and also with Jaucques and Patricia and their family.  They are getting sealed here pretty soon so I’m stoked to watch that.  We had a few days to go out and work which was nice and i met a bunch of cool people who we are teaching and its been really good!  I really like this area.  Its hard to find new people because of all the apartment buildings so we work a lot closer with ward members which i like a lot.  We share an apartment with another area also (RIO DOCE)  which is pretty fun.  The other elders are really cool and one of them is from my same group.  Its pretty cramped inside but not too bad.  I really enjoyed this week.  Its going to be a good month.  My comp is really cool.  He’s getting stoked to go home as he has 4 more weeks.  He’s funny though.  I’m learning a lot from him too.  He’s a cool guy.  But i also gave my first training at district meeting which was sweet!!!  Its cool to have an opportunity to serve and help the missionaries in my district.  But everything is going good here!!!  Hopefully the weather will get a little cooler here soon.  Miss you guys! have an awesome week! talk to you soon

Love Elder Erickson

Some New Stuff

Hello!!!!!!

Let me just start off by saying I’m exhausted!

My last week in Lagoa Encantada just came to an end! Yup, I got transferred but I was expecting it. So, last night I packed all my bags which took forever! It was sad having to say bye to Peixoto. I’m going to miss him. Our last week went pretty well. We had a baptism marked for this lady but it ended up falling through right at the last minute which sucked but I didn’t want to get down on it so i just kind of brushed it off and kept a good attitude. However, Easter was good! We ate tons and tons of chocolate. People are all about chocolate on Easter here. So I’m over chocolate for a while. But it was nice! We had a good day at church. Sergio got confirmed in sacrament meeting which was sweet.

So transfers were today so we went to the city where they do the transfers and i saw a bunch of people which was cool to talk with them again. My comp who i just finished training (Elder Peixoto) got called to train! Im excited for him and he seems pretty excited also so that will be cool. He will do a good job. So were all sitting there while they are calling out names of people being transferred and stuff and I was towards the end so i was waiting which seemed like a long time and i was excited because I was super stoked to head into my 3rd area. So finally they called my name to go back to....JD ATLÂNTICO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s the first area i passed in here! I couldn’t believe it when he said it. So basically I’m not going to my 3rd area, I’m going back to my 1st hahahaha. So here i am! Im excited to see the members again and stuff. Jacques and Patricia who I baptized almost a year ago are getting sealed May 11th which I’m excited for. My new comp is Elder Blend. He’s from São Paulo and he’s ending his mission in 5 weeks. They called me as the district leader in my zone which will be interesting. This transfer is 5 weeks. We’re going to the temple on Wednesday which I’m super excited for because last time my zone went is when i got sick so i wasn’t able to go.

So there are some updates with me! Im also looking forward to General Conference this week! It will be nice to hear the words from the prophet and apostles. Everything is going super good go. Im a little weirded out to be back in this area again but it’s all good! I love you guys! Hope all is well with everyone. Have a good week!

Much love Elder Erickson

A Good Week!

Hey everyone!  Just finished up a super good week!

So we ended this week with a baptism for Arielle on Saturday and one for Sergio on Sunday.  Arielles baptism was super awesome!  It was cool because her brother Adalberto who we baptized in November baptized her.  Also, because her parents are really supportive of both of them even though the Mom is super Catholic.  Its fun to go over there and talk with all of them and teach them.  It was so cool to see Adalberto baptize his Sister.  He has grown a lot in the gospel since his baptism and is talking about serving a mission which is super cool.  They are a really awesome family.

Then on Sunday Arielle was confirmed in sacrament meeting.  Then after church we had the baptism for Sergio which was really cool.  Elder Peixoto baptized him and it was his first time on his mission so he was super excited about that haha.  It all went really good though.  Sergio is a super smart kid.  He’s 13 but understands everything we teach and always asks questions so we enjoy teaching him.  Its cool because we started teaching him exactly 8 days before his baptism.  He has a friend in our ward named Vanderson who said we could go visit him. 

So were pretty stoked about that this week.  We have one week left in the transfer so hopefully we can finish it up with another baptism.  We have one marked for this lady but we will see what happens.  I think Elder Peixoto might train a new missionary.  Time has passed really fast.  Cant believe his training is basically done.  Its been really sweet being companions with him. 

This week as we were walking on the street this drunk guy stopped us and started talking to us and asked me if i was German or American and i replied a\American and he just started going off about how he likes us missionaries and thinks were well mannered and stuff and told me he likes my smile hahaha it was pretty funny. Then he said he works for the Federal Police and said if we ever need a passport to anywhere he can get it for us.  So it looks like were not limited as to traveling the world now.  But we went to the airport this week so i could re-new my visa.  This week has been super good though.  Tomorrow we have a zone conferance which I’m looking forward to.  Everything is going good!  I got some pics to send so I’m going to get on that because it takes a while.  Love you guys! talk to you soon have a good week!

Elder Erickson

Ola’

Hello again! 

This week flew by!  Everything went pretty well though.  We had a baptism marked for Arieli (the sister of Adalberto)  which were stoked about but we re marked it for this week along with another that we marked yesterday for this teen named Segio.  He’s really smart and has a friend in our ward.  So we had a really good week as far as that goes.  Were really stoked for this week though.  Its been raining super hard today. it has not rained for a while so all the streets are covered with water but its nice to get a break from the sun.  Transfers are coming up in 2 weeks.  Its been really fun training Elder Peixoto.  He’s a really good guy and a super good missionary.  we have learned a lot from each other and work well together so its been really nice. I’m starting to get anxious to see a new area.  I like it here though. 

This week Elder Peixoto got sick and got a fever and wasn’t feeling good but it only lasted 2 days but he’s doing better now which is good.  There’s been a virus going around. I already got it and don’t want to again.  It was horrible.  Our zone had interviews with President this past week also which was sweet.  Its nice to talk with him once and while and get his opinion on stuff.  I like him a lot.  We also have a zone conference coming up at the end of this month which should be sweet. 

Its been a pretty normal week though.  Nothing crazy happened which is probably a good thing.  I’m super stoked for this week though!  I hope everything goes well with the baptisms we have marked.  It will be cool to watch Adalberto baptize his sister.  He said he wants to serve a mission but his mom doesn’t feel very good about it but she will.  I miss you guys! hope you all have a good week.  Talk to you all next week.  Love you all!

Love Elder Erickson

Pessoal

Whats up everyone!

Just finished up a really good week!  We didn’t end up having the baptism for Kaio and Kawan because their Mom didn’t end up signing the form because she feels they aren’t ready to be baptized yet which was a little frustrating because we felt they were but the Mom likes us and the stuff we teach so were going to continue passing by there and talking with them.  But its all good.  We marked a baptism for this week Saturday for this girl named Arieli who is the sister of Adalberto who we baptized a few months ago so were excited about that and hope that will all go fine. 

We had a full week and got lots of stuff done.  We taught a lot and found some new people to teach which is always awesome.  We did a lot more contacts started doing this thing where you give your comp a random word that he somehow has to use in the contact which makes it pretty interesting and funny.  This lady who we have been teaching for about 5 weeks now finally came to church yesterday!  We were surprised but super happy.  Her name is Francisca and she’s 73 and we were talking to her last week and we visit her a lot and she likes talking with us but we found out that when she was younger she went through some crazy stuff which surprised us both but i hope we can baptize here.  She’s really scared that the people from her other church will stop talking to her and be mean to her if she decides to be baptize but we will continue working with her.

My comps thumb is still hurting from his pull up accident so we might have to go get it checked out.  Its been a super good week though!  I’m getting excited for the end of this month because we have a zone conference and then general conference is coming up soon also.  Were going to the city today to get some stuff which will be fun.  Its super hot outside.  I hope it starts raining a little more soon.  Sorry this email is pretty short this week.  Talk to you guys soon. Hope you all have a good week! i love you guys.

Tchau! love Elder Erickson

Hello!

Hey everyone! just finished up another week! 

This week went really good and we got some good stuff happening.  We got 2 baptisms marked for the end of this week for Kaio and Kawan who we have been teaching this past month so i really really hope that all works out.  They are really smart and like the church so that’s awesome.  We did another division this week with another area and i stayed in my area with another American which was fun. 

Last night there was lightning for the first time since i have been here and our power went out which was bad because it got really hot inside without the fans.  But it was pretty loud and cool to watch.  Cant believe its already March!  so close to general conference!   I’m getting super excited. 

We went and taught this lady who we did a contact with about 2 weeks ago and we got there and started teaching her and everyone in her house was drinking and pretty drunk and i was teaching her about the restoration and this drunk guy was super annoying and kept saying we were teaching false doctrine hahaha it made it pretty hard to teach but finally he went away and we got to teach her in peace.  But she seemed pretty interested so that was good! 

The ward is starting to help out a lot more with references which helps a ton so were really stoked about that.  My comps Mom sent me a sweet Gremio soccer jersey haha so i guess that’s my new favorite team.  Training has been fun with Elder Peixoto.  We get along super well and he teaches really good.  Were both looking forward to this week.  I think that’s about it though.  Thanks for all the birthday wishes!  i love you guys.  Have a good week and i will talk to you soon!  tchau!

Elder Erickson

oláaaaaa

Bom dia pessoal!!!!

This week was pretty good!  Lots of good stuff is starting to happen here in our area. 

To start out, i think the highlight of my week was an old lady who we taught saying i look like Joseph Smith in the picture of him in the Book of Mormon hahaha.  But last week my comp bought a pull up bar from another missionary who was getting ready to go home and i got excited to use it to so when we got home we put it up and got it all ready and my comp has started to do work outs with me at night and so he’s not quite able to do pull ups yet so i told him i would help him and hold his legs and give him a little support while he did them and i think on his 4th pull up THE BAR GAVE OUT and he went down hard with no legs under him because i was holding them and he landed on his arms (still holding the bar) and it messed up his thumb and bruised it pretty good  but i felt pretty bad after.  But the bar works good still and he’s taking a little break from it but he will try again soon im sure.  But now we just laugh about it haha. 

So we have been going and talking to those 3 teenagers (Kaio, Kawan, and Augusto)  a lot and i love going over there and talking to them because they are really interested and like talking with us.  We went over this past week and ended up talking with their Mom  who didn’t seem to like us very much but we talked with her for a while and it went super good!  She likes us and the things we teach and thinks it would be good for her sons.  The only problem is they grew up in the Catholic church so they don’t know if they want to up and leave.  But they have been to church and like it a lot which is good so i think its just a matter of time.  But they are super cool and I’m sure everything will go fine with them.  There’s a lot of pressure to baptize here in Brazil so sometimes you find yourself thinking just about baptism and not how you can help the people get there.  But were pretty focused out here and trying to get better everyday.  I read the book Tyler gave me before i left again and its helping a lot because im actually putting into practice the stuff it offers. 

I think this week we might go get Churrasco (BBQ)  at this super good place in another area for my birthday.  Cant believe its the last one on my mission!  Its crazy how fast time goes by.  Thanks for the pics you guys sent and for the b-day emails!!! i love you guys and all the support you continue to send me out here! 

This week my comp asked me what my favorite thing has been out here on my mission and I was thinking about it for a while and told him my favorite part was all the people i have met and talked to.  Other missionaries, members, people i teach or already taught or baptized.  There’s so many people who i have met now that i look back at it and its so awesome meeting people!  But its cool because its all centralized around the gospel and helping others.  This past year has been super awesome! I’m excited for this year and all the stuff its going to bring.  Thanks again for all your support everyone!!! i love and miss you all!!!

´´Você nunca estará errado fazendo a coisa certa´´ -Thomas S. Monson

Talk to you guys next week!

Com amor,

‘Elder Erickson

Ola

What’s up everyone!

There’s not a whole lot of updates this week but here’s a little of what happened:

We had a sweet little BBQ last week with 2 other Elders in their area and we bought and grilled a bunch of meat then after we played about 19 rounds of intense UNO with a bunch of crazy Brazillian rules that i wasn’t used to but it was fun.  Carnival finally ended! Were all happy about that because our routine is back to normal and we have the whole day to work.  Transfers are today and everything is staying normal in our area.  I’m thinking this might be my last transfer here and my comp will stay after we finish his training.  But were getting along super good.  He’s a really good missionary and we help each other a lot.

We did a division on Friday until Saturday and i stayed in my area with another Elder from our zone who i like a lot so that was sweet.  We ended up going to another area on Saturday morning to do 5 baptismal interviews!!!!  So we were there for a long time and we ate Chinese food at this restaurant.  But it was a crazy day.  On our way back, we flagged a bus and the driver signaled us to come over to his window and he said for us to give us our money and enter in through the back doors and we were like no way!  Because i guess sometimes they do that and you give them your money and when you walk to the back they just drive off but good thing were smart!   We also saw a guy get beat up super bad for hitting this lady.  It was insane.  I’m not going to go into details on that one though.

Its nice and cloudy today which is awesome!  Were going to go to this really good place to eat today in our area.  We got a few more investigators this week and were going back to teach them this week which I’m stoked about.  I’m pretty excited about this transfer.  We got lots of people with lots of potential.  That’s about it for this week though. Sorry not a whole lot! Talk to you all next week though!!! 

Um abraço! 

Elder Erickson

Opa!!!!

Well its Carnival here in Brasil!  Its been pretty cool seeing the culture and stuff but people are crazy here!!!  I understand now why our President said we have to be home by 5pm.  Some areas aren’t allowed to leave the house.  But yesterday was the craziest day because here in my area they had a huge block party thing and all the guys were running around dressed as woman and people drinking beer while riding motorcycles and blasting music and just a bunch of crazy stuff and while we were having lunch at a members they told us we should just go straight home to avoid all the craziness so we ended up doing that and just spent the day inside which was sort of a bummer but we got some good study time in.  Yesterday at church there were only about us and 10 members because a lot of people were visiting relatives in the interior of Pernambuco and all the young men and woman went on a annual camping trip that happens during Carnival to get away from all the craziness. 

But this week has been pretty tough because a lot of our investigators are traveling or busy doing stuff so we did a lot of walking and less teaching which was annoying but this week should be a lot better.  On Saturday we went to visit this person in our area book in the morning and after we left her house it started pouring rain and we were completely drenched with water!!!  So we went back home and changed and stuff but it was pretty sweet!  We got some super awesome investigators which I’m excited about so were going to try and visit some of them this week since they will be coming home.  I’m starting to get anxious for general conference coming up at the end of march i think.  This transfer is only 5 weeks so its ending next Monday but i think things will stay the same here in our area since I’m training but we shall see.  I’m excited for Carnival to end though.  It makes working a lot harder haha but its been pretty fun to see all the crazy people. 

That’s about it though!  Its been a slow week but it should start picking up this week!  Talk to you all next week!  I love you all!

Tchau!

Olá!!!!!!!!!

Just wrapping up another week!

To start, i got sick again which really sucked. Luckily it was only for 2 days.  I think it was a virus.  The first day was horrible!  But i got a hold of some medecine which helped.  But when we walked into church yesterday, everyone was asking me if i was feeling better which was funny because i had no idea people knew i got sick.  Only one member knew because my companion got sort of sick right after i did (only for the night) and our Mainha called us and i answered and she yelled ERICKSON!!!! GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!!!!!!!!  hahahaha but i didnt want to do that plus i was feeling better but people are funny about that here. 

Something funny that happened (sort of) was that our big jug or drinking water ran out so my companion went to go exchange it for a new one and i wasnt feeling good so i just waited outside the door on the side walk for him because the place is super close and when he was walking back with the jug on his shoulder  (the jug holds 20 litters so its pretty heavy) there was a little stair that steps down and my comp didnt see it and all of a sudden the jug of water is in the air and my companion fell and the water jug explodes on the street and all over him and he gets up super wet and dirty and everyone was looking hahahahaha but luckily he has a good sense of humor and just laughed it off so then we went and bought another one and i carried it back.

So this week we have 2 marked baptisms for these 2 brothers who are twins. their names are Kaio and Kawan.  They are 14 but super smart!!!! They are smarter than half the people i have taught and they are super receptive to the stuff we teach and were teaching some of their friends too so its pretty fun.  But  Hopefully the baptisms go through.  The only part that might be tough is getting their parents approval but we will see.  So were super happy and excited about that.  We are teaching some really awesome people who have tons of potential. 

Carnival starts on the 8th so our President said we have to return to our houses at 5pm for about a week. I think i might have said that in my last email. i dont remember.  But its going to be interesting to see Carnival for the first time.  Thats about it though for this week!  Im really looking forward to this week and stuff.  Thanks again for all the support!  i love you and miss you guys!  have a good week and i will talk to you soon.

Love Elder Erickson

Ola’

Oi Gente! 

Crazy how fast the weeks are going by.  This week was a lot better and we got lot’s of stuff done and it seems like the weeks are getting better and better.

So to start off, we have continued doing more contacts to try and find more people to teach.  We ended up finding 9 people this week which i was happy about.  Our President came and visited our zone on Wednesday so we all met together and he gave a little training which was awesome.  I always like hearing the President speak and he does a good job of getting people excited and stuff.  We have some good goals established for next month which I’m stoked about!  I guess Carnival starts on the 8th because we have been told we have to be in our houses at 5pm for the night for about a week which will take a lot of time away from teaching which sucks.  But I’m pretty excited for February.   We started teaching this group of 3 teens who are 14 and they all go to the Catholic church but they are super smart and know lots of stuff so its fun to teach them and they are really receptive to what we talk about and they really listen and its awesome teaching them. 

Sunday was sort of a bummer because we had a baptism marked for a lady who lives super close to the church and for her to get baptized she needs to go to church 2 times so we were planning on her getting baptized on the 3rd but we went to pick her up for church in the morning and she came out and told us she couldn’t go and we ended up talking to her for 20 minutes and she told us that it wouldnt be a good idea for her to go because it would cause lots of attention to her other church because her other church is right next to our church and she said the Pastor of her church would humiliate her in public and call her to repentance in front of everyone and embarrass her and all this stuff which was super sad and frustrating because she says she thinks our church is true and she loves talking to us when we go visit her so were going to have to go back this week and try and get her to go to church this week.  But that whole thing kind of frustrated me for the rest of the day.  Its crazy to think that her church would do something like that!  But hopefully we can help her out. Its been a good week though!  Were going to try and mark 3 baptisms this week for those 3 teens.  We started visiting the family of Adalberto again so I’m excited about that. its always fun going over there and talking with them. 

Nothing too crazy really happened this week.  Tim, i never heard of that fire thing that happened down South.  That’s crazy though! 

Hope you all have a good week!  i miss you and love you all and appreciate all the support you continue to send me! 

Love Elder Erickson

Some new photos

End of the week

Hey everyone!  Just finished up a another pretty good week here.

So I got my new companion last week Tuesday.  His name is Elder Peixoto and he’s from Rio Grande do Sul.  Hes really awesome and I’m stoked to be able to train him.  It will be nice having a brazillian this time haha.  I can tell he’s going to be a really good missionary so I’m doing my best to be a good example to him and help him.  Its crazy how fast time is going by though.  It feels like yesterday i was being trained.  While we were all waiting to get our new companions i was sitting next to 2 new American Elders who had just arrived from the MTC and one of them asked me if i knew Brandon Mecham and i freaked out and told him he’s in my home ward and stuff and he told me he was his roommate at BYU idaho which was pretty cool.  I didn’t have  a whole lot of time to talk to him but it was pretty sweet.

So we finished up a good week together.  We have gotten to know each other pretty well in such a short amount of time.  But were out working hard and trying to find some more new people to teach.  We knocked on this one ladies door and she said we could come in and teach her and at the end of the lesson she told us she has been really stressed because her house sits right on this little river and it had rained super hard about a week previous and the river over flooded and and bunch of water got in her house and she said she thought she was going to lose her house and everything and i was just thinking after that i could never imagine that happening!  But I’m glad we found her.

It has been super hot which makes doing contacts pretty hard.  But everything is paying off.  I’m stoked to be training again.  I really like my comp and i can tell we will have success together and have fun.  This week were just going to continue to try and find more new people and hopefully get some baptisms marked.  Its crazy how much of a difference it makes just forcing yourself to have a good attitude when it gets tough.  We spent a lot of these past days walking around talking to people and knocking doors in the super hot sun and after people lie to you or tell you they don’t want to listen or stuff like that and you know how awesome the message is your tying to give it gets frustrating! But I have focused on just keeping a good attitude and it helps a ton.  We knocked on this door and this kid answers and says we come in so we walk in and were waiting for one the parents and the Dad comes out and talks to us and we told him who we are and everything and after he just said NO.  and it was awkward because we were already in his house hahaha but its was fine.  There’s so many churches here so its hard to talk to people who are members of other faiths because they just think we want to convert them.  But its nice to get those people who listen. 

But that’s our week pretty much.  It has been good overall and it will just keep getting better!  I miss you guys! Thanks again for all your support!  I love you all.  Talk to you all next week!

Love Elder Erickson

Stuff this week

hello again!

Alright well this week had a few ups and downs. Last Tuesday after lunch we went and visited a few people then i started to feel sort of weird so we stopped by our house real quick and i laid down and when i got up i felt sort of sick and later that night i ended up getting a high fever and was pretty uncomfortable and i had it until the end up Wednesday and the rest of the week it slowly started to get better so i did a lot of resting trying to pass it so we didn’t get a whole lot of work done which i was sort of bummed about.

On Sunday at church we were sitting in sacrament meeting and this lady signaled for me to go talk to her so i went over and she asked me to do her talk for her because she wasn’t feeling well and i was really caught off guard by it. I said today?????? and she said yes you will be the 2nd person to speak and it has to be 10 min okay? i will pass your name. So i just said okay and walked back to my seat freaking out because i had to prepare a talk in the amount of time to pass the sacrament so about 5 min. So i quickly threw some stuff together and went up and gave about a 6 minute talk on baptismal covenant haha. It went a lot better than i thought it would. I felt like i kind of got thrown under the bus but i guess that’s just part of the mission haha.

Also, its transfers this week so we got the call last night and found out I’m staying in the area and will be training a new missionary again which should be pretty fun. I was kind of expecting something like that. So now I’m with 3 other missionaries who will be training also and we get our companions tomorrow at 3pm. So I’m pretty happy about that. It looks like i will pass a lot of time in this area like i did in my first. But overall its been pretty good. I’m excited for this transfer. I got the wards Christmas notes everyone wrote on and i really enjoyed that so thanks everyone for that. And thanks to the Farris family for sending it. I also got a letter from Brandon Mecham so I’m going to try and get a letter to him before he heads out on his mission! I’m super stoked for him. Well thats about it though for this week! i love you guys! have an awesome week and i will talk to you next Monday with some more updates.

Much love, Elder Erickson

Past week updates

Hey everyone!

i have been horrible at emailing these past few weeks but its just been so crazy with the new years and Christmas and stuff so the internet house wasn’t open because nobody works here on holidays. so i will do my best to fill in everything from the past two weeks!

Well we had the baptism for Wellington which was super awesome! none of the baptism clothes would fit him because he has a huge belly so he wore my companions white pants and just wore his shirt during the baptism. But it all worked out! I don’t know if i said this already but the morning of his baptism we got up extra early and got all prepared and right as we were leaving we realized we didn’t have the key to get out of our house so we were running around looking for it and it was no where to be found. i couldn’t believe it was happening. locked in our house on the day of a baptism! so all i did was say a simple prayer with my comp to get us out of the house and within 5 minutes after the prayer we were on our way to church! My companion realized he left it in a shop right down the street and we talked to a guy walking past our house if he had the number of the owner of the shop and he did luckily so we called and the guys wife answered and said the owner was gone and had the key but she would try calling him and then all of a sudden the owner pulls up in his car with our key! so that was a huge relief. So that day was full of complications but it was nice to have gotten through them.

We also had a baptism for a girl named Nelly yesterday who we have been teaching for the past 3 months. The baptism went super good and i also ended up baptizing this little girl in our ward who just turned 8 which reminded me back when i baptized Samantha when she turned 8. It was a really good day though. Its also nice to start 2013 off on a good note. so happy new year everyone! the day of new years we had a BBQ with some other missionaries then went back to our house and stayed up studying outside of our house until the new year and watched all the fire works that everyone here was blasting off. People here love fire works so we got to watch a good show. The only bad part is they like fire works way too much so we had to listen to them all night long. i woke up and people were still lighting them off. But we woke up the next morning to go to District meeting and it was a ghost town outside. The only people walking appeared to be hung over or drunk from the night before haha. But i had a nice Christmas and New years. Thanks for all the support!!! But now I’m super excited for this year! i got some goals established and stuff.

Transfers are coming up next Monday and i have no idea if i will stay or leave so we will find out Sunday night. Everything is going good though! I’m liking the area and the people. I’m finally getting used to all the hills and stairs now. Just not the sun. Well that’s about it for updates that i can think of...i miss you guys and appreciate all your support for me. Its helped a ton! have a good week and i will talk to you next Monday!

TCHAU!

Elder Erickson