World Cup this month!!! Update -- 6-9-2014

Hey everyone!

We're actually starting to make some real progress here! Yesterday night, we taught an investigator, who said he wants to serve a mission like us, and he also said that the Mormon church is the most correct church on the earth! This guy is seriously awesome! I hope that he actually follows through with this mission dream that he has! It was really funny, last night, during the lesson, Elder Anderson would say one sentence -- or even half a sentence, and then he would start talking again and interrupt him.. XD We only got through the "Where did we come from?" part of the Plan of Salvation lesson, in about 40 minutes.. XD I think it's already pretty clear that this guy will want to be baptized! :) What a blessing! We met him through teaching our English class, along with another investigator who is really awesome as well. The English class is awesome for getting people more comfortable with the church! Plus, it's just a lot of fun to teach it in general. :)

I realized that I posted a bit of personal information, connected with names, here on my blog.. so, I'm going to be a bit more careful about that from now on! I might use fake names or something. Our investigator that we taught last night asked us not to tell anyone anything that he said, when we were leaving, and it made me realize that I need to be careful about what I say. People are very open with us sometimes, because they trust us.

So yeah, the other investigator that we got to know through teaching the English class, is making some pretty significant changes in his life. His family loves us too, and they forbid us to stop being his friend and trying to help him.. haha! Works for me! We basically visit this guy every day, and it's been such a great experience to get to know him. He's probably my best friend in Brazil at this point. He has made this area that I'm serving in, really special, and really awesome. The other day, after going to church on Sunday, he was dropping us off at someone's house, and he said "Hey, you guys performed a miracle!" and we were like "Huh? What did we do??" and he said, "I went to church!" -- he hadn't gone to any church in about 15 years.. I guess he's right! We did perform a miracle! :D He came to church this Sunday as well. Seriously, this guy is awesome.

We're going to try and pass by all 43 of the people that we have addresses for this week, and see who's still interested and who's not. I went through and counted, and we've only taught 10 of them at least once, and 3 of them 2 or more times.. a lot of them, are just never home! It's difficult, but we're persistent!

Have a great week! I love you all!!!

Elder Canto

We all got Brazil soccer jerseys for the World Cup, which is starting this month! :D We also got permission to watch the Brazil games at member's houses! Oh one more thing, we were told this week, that we're going to start focusing 50% on proselyting, and 50% on helping less-active members return to the church. I'm excited for the experiences that we're going to have, and to be able to be a little more creative with our lessons! :)

Weekly Update -- 5/26/14 - The Book of Mormon is true! :D

Hi everyone!

I actually have time to write an update today! I'm getting less and less emails as time goes on, which is a good thing, because when I started out, I was trying to email way too many different people each week, and having to read a ton of emails as a result of that.

So I just went to the dentist about 30 minutes ago, because one of my teeth has been hurting every time that something cold touches it, ever since my first transfer in Brazil -- I just never got around to going to the dentist! The dentist in Brazil is pretty normal, fortunately. XD The hospitals though.. I'm not really sure. But anyways, so they couldn't find any problems with my tooth with the x-rays they took, but I'll be going back later this week to talk with a specialist about it. They mentioned something about a canal, which I'm assuming is a root canal. I've never had one of those.. but it doesn't sound fun, from what I've heard! Hopefully I won't have to do that, or if I do, hopefully it won't be too bad, or expensive!

So this week, we had one investigator at church, finally! But, unfortunately, he didn't seem to happy to be there. We've been teaching him for a long time, pretty much since our first week in Geisel, and things have just been going South lately.. I'm not sure what's going to happen with him, but we'll probably figure it out this week.

Today is P-day (or, Preparation Day -- once a week, on Mondays, till 6pm), and we're going to be playing volleyball at 3pm, and then we're going to get ice cream afterwards. We're going to have members there, and the other 2 Elders, and an investigator. It should be awesome! We did the same thing last week as well. We're planning on doing this every week, if possible. Maybe not volleyball every time, but we'll see.

This week went pretty well. Yesterday, we met this drunk guy, and we decided that we're going to try to help him turn his life around. After we talked to him on the street, about an hour later, we found him sitting in front of his house, and talked to him again. His brother-in-law showed up, and I'm not sure if he was drunk, or just crazy, but I was asking what his name was, and he was like "I don't want anything to do with your church!", in response to this question.. haha! Then he went inside for a minute, and came back out, and asked my companion a question, and he responded with "Uh huh", and then this guy started making fun of him and repeating "Uh huh" over and over again. He said something about how we don't believe in God, then he got on his motorcycle, and continued to say "Uh huh" a few more times, and then he drove away, laughing hysterically, like a maniac... It was hilarious, to be honest. XD

I am still loving being a missionary, and being here on a mission, as usual. :D We have all sorts of experiences, talking to tons of different people each week. Oh, here's something -- we ate Goiaba with cheese the other day, for dessert, at a lunch appointment. It was probably the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten here in Brazil... haha! Oh and the other day, I saw the legendary weird food -- chicken feet, on a plate of chicken, at a different lunch appointment. I didn't eat it, but, it was there!

I saw this huge spider.. last week? I think it was. That's the first time I've seen one here! We also had a tiny scorpion in our house the other night when we got home! There's monkeys here as well, I saw those the other day in some trees, along with an iguana (I think).

It's hot, as always, and I don't think I will ever like living in heat like this.. but I'm used to it, for now.. haha!

Oh, so I had a few cool experiences this week. One of our investigators told us that his family really likes us, and he also said something that really struck me -- "When they look at you, they feel something different." We really are examples to everyone around us, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. One way that people are converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, is by our examples. Keep that in mind, always! Do the right things, and be a good example. Serve others, and show people that you care for them. Don't be afraid to share your beliefs, with anyone. I do it every day! It's not that hard! :)

We also had a cool experience with another investigator. He said that he had prayed about The Book of Mormon, and that he had gotten an answer, that it is true. I feel the Spirit really strongly throughout the rest of the lesson, after he said that. We're going to be teaching him again this week, and I have really high hopes for him! He's awesome! My friend Elder Shields, said something that I will never forget, the other day -- nobody has ever told him that they received an answer that The Book of Mormon was not true. They only say that they didn't receive an answer, or that they did, and that the answer was yes. I myself know that The Book of Mormon is true, and I have a strong testimony of its teachings, which are the teachings of Jesus Christ himself. Anyone who reads this book, and studies it, and ponders about the things that they read, and prays to God, asking Him if these things are true, with faith, and an open heart and mind, WILL receive an answer, through the Holy Ghost. The Book of Mormon IS true -- but I can't convince anyone of this. Only God can, through His holy messenger, the Holy Ghost.

I miss you all so much, and I love you. I hope that you all have a great week! Feel free to send me some emails if you get a chance! :)

Elder Canto

Weekly Update 5/19/14 -- We're teaching an English class!

Hey everyone!

It's been way too long since I've written a weekly update! (once again)

I'm going to try to keep these short for the most part, so that I will have time to write them each week, and so that I can respond to personal emails and read the emails that I get. I know I already promised to try to write more often -- but that didn't happen.. so.. no more promises! But I am going to try to write these more often -- again.. haha!

So I left my first area, Manaira, after 14 weeks, (we had an emergency transfer to my new area, Geisel II), and then after 3 weeks in Geisel II, I once again was not transferred, and did not change companions! Just like transfers #1 and #2! Haha -- So my companion is still Elder Anderson. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, his girlfriend sent him an email saying that she wanted to take a break from their relationship... it's been rough for him, but he's hanging in there! She also didn't show up to Skype with him on Mother's Day.. oh, by the way, I got to talk to pretty much everyone in my family on Mother's Day, and it was awesome! I was not expecting that! Apparently you can do conference calls on Skype now for free! I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to talk to Alissa on the phone or on Skype or anything on Mother's Day, and I was also a little jealous when I heard that she had talked to my mom and my brother that day.. but, all is well. We are patiently waiting for each other still!

So anyways, I've been learning a lot in the mission field, and I am loving it here. I wouldn't want to live here, mostly because of the heat, but I am happy to be serving a mission here for these 2 years. I am meeting so many people here and making lots of friends -- who don't speak English. XD I actually have met a lot of people here who speak English (somewhat). This lady taught us a few words in French the other day when we were talking with her after knocking on her door -- I asked her to teach us some things, because she said she was studying French, haha! Oh by the way, my companion and I are teaching an English class at the church now! Our first class was on Thursday night, and we taught the alphabet (and the song too, haha!), and a few words. Our next class is going to be tomorrow, and we're going to print out the lyrics to "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz, and have someone play the song, and we're going to teach everyone to sing it. The lyric sheets will have English on one side and Portuguese on the other side. I would encourage all of you to learn a second language if you haven't already.. it's really fun! You can just switch languages whenever you want, haha!

My grandpa keeps asking me if I've had any converts yet -- and the answer is still no, for now. But, I've had quite a few people who I met with a bunch of times, and they listened to all of our lessons. Nobody seems to want to go to church, or they just don't have time (or don't want to make time). It's been about 6-7 weeks since I've had someone come to church -- it's pretty disappointing! Every week, we get all these people who say they'll go, or they'll try to, and then Sunday arrives, and nobody is there! I don't understand it.. but I'll keep trying, until the very end! We are supposed to endure to the end, aren't we? So why not endure to the end of my mission? :)

Right now, we're trying to get to know people better, and have better relationships with the people we teach, because this Elder we were living with in our last transfer, said that the people that you will baptize on your mission, are the people who are your best friends. So we're trying to be really good friends with people, and not just jump right into a lesson every time we visit someone in their house, and just follow the promptings of the Spirit. We're getting to know this guy named Daniel right now, who was best friends with these other Elders about 10 years ago, and he's been going to the English classes every week (Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6pm, until 7pm). He's pretty awesome. He has problems with drinking and smoking, and he said he only believes in things that he can see, but, we have high hopes for him. We're going to start moving more toward teaching lessons this week I think.

I guess that's all for this week. We cleaned our house a ton this morning, because after all of the missionaries who have passed through there.. it was filthy! And we're planning on moving to a place that's actually inside of our area soon -- our president said for us to look for one, so we needed to do some cleaning.

I miss you all, I love you, and I'm always praying for you. Keep me in your prayers as well please, and please write to me! :)

Sempre fiel!

Elder Canto

Mission Update -- Transfer #3!

Hey everyone!

So I just started my third transfer here in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. I'm still in my first area, but that's fine with me, because my ward is awesome, and this area is one of the best areas in the mission (I heard this -- I believe it). There are lots of rich people here.. hah -- our lunches are always really awesome. My new companion is Elder Anderson, who's from Pennsylvania (we're neighbors in the US! hah). We've only been working together since last Wednesday, but I am loving this transfer already. We both have only been in Brazil for 3 months (as of today), and so I thought that we would have trouble understanding people -- but we've been doing really well! It's nice that we're at about the same level with Portuguese, because with my other companion, who is Brazilian, we would be talking with someone, and then I would get lost, but the conversation would continue between him and the other person -- so in the end, I had no idea what was said. It's hard to get to know people in situations like this. But now, we both have to understand everything that the other person is saying, and so we're learning/improving a lot more with our Portuguese than we were in our other transfers. It's awesome! I feel a greater connection with the people I'm teaching now, because of this. Also, another thing that I was surprised about with this transfer, is that I'm senior companion. My companion served in the US in Oregon for 6 months, so he has been on his mission for 9 months already -- I've only been on a mission for 4 months! The one reason that I can see for this, is that he is new to the area, and I've been here for 12 weeks already -- so I know the area and the people better. Nevertheless, this is a good opportunity for me to learn and grow. That's part of the reason why I'm here, serving a mission! So I'm happy to have this opportunity.

We're teaching quite a few people right now -- but nobody made it to church yesterday, unfortunately. We also had a baptism scheduled for yesterday, but our investigator -- Cicero -- didn't show up! He said that he needed to have his barber shop open because he needed the money and Sunday is one of the busiest days of the week for him. I talked to him about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy by not working on Sundays, and he said he'll alternate weeks having it open and closed.. at least that's a start.. hah. He also said that he didn't feel prepared for baptism yet, so this week we're going to really focus on teaching him and making sure he understands everything and truly has a testimony of The Restored Gospel.

We went to a Ward Council Meeting yesterday night, which was really good, because we got a bunch of phone numbers so that we can work more with the members here. Afterwards, my companion and I were talking with this American guy in our ward, and I spoke in English for a second, and he was like "Hey, you're cheating! You have to speak Portuguese!" haha! He's an English professor here in Brazil, but he speaks Portuguese too -- his wife is Brazilian.

Anyways.. what else.. I'm doing really well here in Brazil. All of the stomach sickness has stopped for the most part, which I'm really happy about! Alissa leaves for the MTC this Wednesday, and I am so excited for her!

I love you all, and you are in my prayers!

Elder Canto

Mission Update -- 3/31/14

Hey everyone! I hope you're all having a great week!

This past week was tough, we had a lot of teaching appointments fall through, and the person we had set up a baptismal interview with for Friday didn't make it to the interview. But, he still wants to be baptized this Sunday, so all is well! Our district has a goal for this week to double all of our goals for lessons and finding new people to teach. We're going to have to work really hard, but it is going to be awesome. Everyone is really excited to try and reach these goals this week.

On Saturday, my companion and I were stuck at the church for just about the whole day, because someone's son passed away in our ward, and there was also a double-wedding (2 seperate couples) the same day. Imagine that, a funeral and a wedding in the same building, at almost the same time.. crazy! The funeral was supposed to be at 3pm, but it got moved to 8pm. They had to tell everyone to come back later in the day. We got stuck watching the gate and letting people in (there are walls and gates around our chapel, and just about every building here!) for a few hours -- but it wasn't too bad. We even got wedding cake at the end of the reception! The funeral was after that... we had this idea to try and help people out though, which I hope works out. We set up tables by the doors and gave out copies of The Liahona (church magazine) and "The Plan of Salvation" pamphlets to people, and got a bunch of names and addresses to share a message about the plan of salvation to help comfort people. We're going to be teaching this lesson to probably 6 people tomorrow. I really hope that we can help these people out in this hard time in their lives. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, made this wonderful plan for us to return to live with Him and with God after this life -- The Plan of Salvation. I am so grateful for this knowledge.

Like I said, I'll try to write updates more often from now on! Even if they're not very long sometimes, I'll try to at least be more consistent. I appreciate all of the emails that I've gotten -- I'll try to respond to as many as I can! Have a great week everyone!

I love you all and I am always praying for you!

Elder Canto

Mission Update -- 10 Weeks in Brazil

OI TUDO MUNDO! (hi everyone) I'M BACK! Still living, yep.

(Wow, when I post this, it'll have been 6 weeks since my last update... oops...)

So we have transfers every 6 weeks, and I have 2 weeks left in my second transfer right now (hard to believe). I stayed in the same area with the same companion this transfer. I like this area a lot, so I didn't mind staying here for another 6 weeks. My companion is pretty awesome as well, so I'm glad to have had another transfer working with him. We haven't had any baptisms, yet -- but we have had people come to church a few times, and we're always finding new people to teach. We just have to keep trying -- I have faith! When we exercise our faith, we will see miracles.

Anyways, I'm getting the hang of Portuguese now! Speaking is getting to be easier -- more natural. Understand other people is the hard part! I'm getting better at that as well though. Before I got my mission call in July, I wasn't sure where I wanted to go, but I wanted to learn Spanish. Portuguese isn't Spanish, but it's really close! I actually like it a lot more than Spanish, to be honest. I think I'll try to learn Spanish during my second year in the mission field.


For the first 8 weeks here, I had been feeling sick (my stomach) on and off all the time, but I had another Elder give me a Priesthood blessing, and for the past 2 weeks, I haven't had any problems whatsoever! I think that was only the second time in my life that I'd gotten a Priesthood blessing -- but I definitely have a testimony of the healing power of the Priesthood now. I also had Dengue in my sixth and seventh weeks here (fever/headache/feeling really weak -- you get it from mosquitos). Brazil was kicking my butt for a while there! All is well now though. :)

I'm getting used to the heat -- it's not so bad once the sun sets around 5pm. The food here is always really good (and is always beans and rice, haha!). I don't mind walking everywhere since everything is pretty close. I kinda like living in the city -- but I still prefer suburban living over urban or country living. But yeah, I'm happy here in Brazil. I'm really enjoying teaching (and still have lots of room for improvement, hah), and talking with people, and helping people. My testimony and faith have grown so much since I left for my mission in December, and I am learning a lot here. I'm so grateful for this experience.

Oh, one last thing. My fiancee, Alissa, got her mission call this month! She'll be serving in the Chesapeake, Virginia mission, from April 16th, 2014 to October 16th, 2015. So she'll be getting back 1 month before I do (November 17th, 2015). I'm really excited for her to serve a mission -- I know that she is going to do great things on her mission! She's amazing, and has such a strong testimony of the gospel, and a lot of faith. It'll also be good, because we'll be able to help each other and give each other advice on missionary work and things.

I'll try to write updates more often in the future! I love and miss you all! I'm always praying for you.

Have a great week!

Feel free to write! Tchau!

-Elder Canto

P.S. I should be getting a voice recorder next month! (thank you, Alissa! :) )

By The Way:

Alissa here. By the way:::

Joseph will be posting things on his blog while I am away. There is a way to do this, and I taught him how. I know how a lot of you are asking about who will update his blog. HE will! Him and I both will update our blogs on our own while we are away (By the way, my blog is in the links section on his blog, and his blog is in the link section in mine!).

Anyways! Hopefully Joseph will post soon!

And be sure to be on the lookout for my postings sometime after April 16th on my blog! How exciting will this be!

I hope you guys have a great day!

Also:

1.) Joseph is feeling well.
2.) He is more fluent in the language, and he is able to have conversations with people now.
3.) He feels trunky from time to time
4.) I've sent him a voice recorder on the 13th of March. Hopefully it gets to him by next month
5.) I also sent him some American food
6.) He says the milk tastes funny up there
7.) Yes we still are making plans to get married after we get back (A lot of Prayer involved; I cannot doubt anything about this man! ;) )

Anyways --
He is gorgeous. <3 ;)
Even with his deep farmers tan!
I love him.

I don't know what his new post will say, but it may go in more detail about what is in my list above (minus number 5 and number 7. He doesn't know about the details of number 5).  

-Alissa Marshall