July 31

We didn´t find to many new investigators but we set up a ton of stuff for this week.  I´m very excited to see what will happen.  Beatriz STILL hasn´t been baptised.  I know that she will be baptised though this week!  The mission is going a long pretty good.  Working a lot, and teaching a lot.  It´s really fun to teach. 

 

Oh yeah the bishop of expedcionarios was released this week and another was called.  He was bishop for 5 years.  A lot of members were very emotional during sacrament meeting,  I almost got emotional seeing him bear his testimony of how amazing it was being bishop.  Thought a lot about my bishop.  Bishop Feller.  How blessed are we to have him!  Helped me through so much, and I thought about how much time he has.. . . He is coming up on his 5 year mark.  Hope he doesn´t get released before I get home.  It´s sad to see people released but it has to happen.  Ohhh well!

 

Further developments next week.  Stay tuned ;)

 

 

Elder Diamond!

July 23

This week we had the baptism of Brigida (13) and Tiago (17) .  WOnderful people.  Brigida is the sister of Hercules and Tiago is the brother of Felipe.  Tiago wants to serve a mission and that makes me really happy.  Brigida is enjoying going to church and everything seems to be alright :)

 

The baptism went pretty good except we forgot to set up the chairs..  I totally spaced it and when brigidas family came it was a mess in the baptismal room.  Oops.. >.> 

 

Me and my comp are running around teaching, finding, and baptising.  I feel like i´m getting adapted to the mission now.  The routine is becoming more and more normal as each week passes.  My body is extremely tired always but it´s really satisfying to keep going and keep teaching.  I love teaching.  It´s a really really neat experience.  At times you litilarly feel a surge of the holy ghost when you are explaining a principle or doctrine and it gives the words a lot more power.  My knowledge is increasing,  I´m feeling good.  Life is good haha. 

 

 

Elder Diamond

July 16

As for the week.  Was good, stressful.  Walking around a lot, trying to find people to teach, but I found that the lord is always watching and helping.  Everything is going great and we worked really really hard this week.  Had two baptisms and have 4 possibles this week.  We are gonna do a fast this week to see what number of baptisms we should work for this transfer.  I have a feeling it´s gonna be a really sucessful transfer! 

 

Baptised Jõao Paulo and Mikayele this week.  Was really good.  These kids are so great and have wonderful spirits about them.  They were jumping for joy before and during the baptismal service.  I´ve never seen someone so excited to be baptised!  They were arguing about who would go first and when the time finally came, they were both so nervous neither of them didn´t want to go first.  Ha,  Jõao Paulo went first and when he came out of the water he was so happy!  Great great kids!

 

This next week should be good stay tuned!  Much love to all family, friends.  Please give abby a hug for me, I miss her.
Good luck have a wonderful week

Elder Diamond!

JULY

So the week was extremely good.  Me and Elder Dos Santos prepared the baptisms and let me tell you... It was show ( really good ).  The baptism started out kinda normal,  Raquel (14)  and Felipe (13) were being baptised.  The Mother of Raquel is a member and she went to Church for the first time last week.  I think she hadn´t returned for almost 8 or 9 years??  The Church was always so far away.  But they went last week and when they were walking into the church ( me and elder d.s. were walking in to)   I knew that raquel was gonna be a baptism.  Grabbed her information and we visited her house.  The mom, Persiliana, has always been a member, just never was in distance of church.  The Church oppened about a month ago and is close to her house.  She finally did a visit.  Which turned into her daughter being baptised.  Anyway, the baptismal meeting was great, after the baptism the liders of the young men and women said some words, and Persiliana was crying the whole time and suprisingly some others.  Then a member went up and did a vocal solo.  About half way through it Elder Dos santos walked up and started singing with him.  Pretty soon 20 + people were singing the song and the spirit couldn´t be held back.  Everyone was just crying.  Just felt so much love.  Agh was so awesome.  Anyway, that was basically my week so i´m really excited for what this transfer is going to bring! 

 

 

He lives mom!

Elder Diamond!

say what?

Querido mãe

 

Como você está?  Eu espero que tudo está bem.  Eu tenho muito saudade de você!  Sabia?  Mas tudo está bem comigo.  Estou muito com sono, mas isso é normal.  Eu te amo! 

 

Whoops sorry was typin português haha. 

 

I love portugues it´s a lot of fun speaking.  A really beautiful language. 

 

As for the week it was really good.  We are just teaching a lot.  Me and Elder Dos Santos are having a really good time teaching.  I like him a lot, cool kid.  He just got a call though and he is going to be a zone leader :/   so i´m getting a new companion next monday.  We will see what happens.  It was a fun 6 weeks with him though, that´s for sure. 

 

We tryed to find quality new investigators this week.  It´s pretty difficult at times to find the elect, but when you find a family that is elect.  Well it just makes your mission haha.  I´ve come to the conclusion that I am really happy that I was raised in the right church.   I hear a lot of peoples ideas about god and religion and it just blows my mind how people can think like that.  Like at times it doesn´t even make one bit of sense what people are talking about.  But it´s chill, i´m teachin them hah. 

 

Still workin hard, still loving the mission, still tired, still happy.

  

 

 

He lives!

Elder Diamond

June 25

As for me mom, i´m doing great.  Teaching was the same old same old.  We prepared hercules for baptism.  He was baptised yesterday.  15 year old with a lot of energy.  Great kid though.  His name fits him as well.  I´ll send photos next week.  (forgot my memory card). 

Ahhh gotta tell you what happened this week.  Fortaleza just got wrecked with water, I think it was thursday?  But yeah like it litilarly didn´t stop raining all day.  It was the most I have ever seen it rain in my life.  We were walking in water almost up to my knees!  The work of the lord NEVER stops haha!  It was a fun day though.  We got home and we were soaked!  Not even my umbrella could keep the rain out. 

Fun times, as for my areas, they are good, still trying to figure out what I can do to help Gomes de Matos grow.  I´m sure we will find it.  My comp is good, he is a nice kid.  Hope all is well at home.  Tired like always but i´m having a good time.

Much love mom until next week

Elder Diamond

Pictures June

End of June

As for the week though it was really good.  We had the baptism of Michael.  He is a really really good kid.  I´m excited where these kids go.  As with Cidade Oeste there are a lot of kids that want to be baptised in this area.  I love them,  kids seriously rock, they just wanna have fun and do whats right.  It´s as Jesus said, we need to be as the little ones if we want to inhereit the kingdom ;).  The work is unfolding pretty good here.  Still a little stuck as to what we should do in Gomez De Matos.  Still trying to help the less actives there return to church.  I gave a training to the leaders about real growth (will talk about later in the letter) in Gomez de Matos.  Kinda blew my mind, I found myself speaking with out trouble.  Like fluently.  It´s pretty sweet haha.  But yeah me and my comp are really doing good.

 

Espedsionarios is really good.  The work is going along perfectly there.  We have references, quality investigators, and ward help.  It makes all the difference in speeding up the missionary work.  References, helping, you´d be suprised about how the lord prepares his people he wants prepared. 

 

The activities in the church are funny, in every church in brazil they have a quadron.  Like a mini soccer field that is cement.  They play something called footsal.  Basically really really fast paced soccer.  Its so sweet.  I wanna play but we can´t because our president doesn´t want us getting hurt. I think i´m going to play some soccer when I get back for sure :) 

End of May

My week was really really good.  We had two wonderful baptisms.  Luciano and Andrea.  They decided to get married because of the example of a family member that got married and baptised.  A little history really fast.  Andrea wanted to be baptised and she told the missionaries in the other area that she wanted to be baptised.  So we went to her house and started teaching her.  Luciano would always leave whenever we went there.  Finally the third time he sat and gave us mean looks when we started to teach.  We started teaching and started to direct all the questions to him and we focused the lesson around him.  He warmed up almost instantly and was talking with us.  We marked a baptism date with them and they were on the right track to go to church sunday.  Come sunday what do we find when we pass their house.  Luciano was drinking.  Sorry was the only word he could muster up.  I saw something that moment.  He wanted to stop but couldn´t, it´s difficult to stop substances.  So we said to him that we would talk the next week.  We explained the word of wisdom and he commited.  Went the next week to Church and had a great time.  Got married (we were the two witnesses) and he stopped drinking.  He hasn´t drunk alchohol in 18 days.  Truely is a miricle.  The day of the baptism, we were running around getting things ready, but it all worked out.  It makes me so happy to see how the lord really does change peoples lives for the better.  And seeing how he worked the miricle in this family makes me see how great of a family that I have...

As for next week we are going to try to finish off the transfer with some more baptisms.  We are just teaching and trying to help others.  The missions good, life is great.  I´m excited for transfers next week :)

As for the memory that I have of us.  I remember me and you always trying to get me to school.  We always seemed to be running to catch the bus or get to school on time hahaha.  Was great.  And the pancakes.  That syrup that we used to have was SO SO good.  I absolutely loved it!!.  Thanks for aways being a good mom and showing me the example.  

Good luck, good to hear that the family is great.  Love you lots thanks for the support

He lives

Elder Diamond

 

May 7

SO this week was pretty good.  Taught some more.  No baptisms yet.  We are kinda of focusing on the less actives.  It´s really important to help the people that stray.  Because honestly we ALL stray at some point in our lives.  It´s natural.  But the important part is to remember who we are.  And remember how we feel about our savior.  The rescue effort is a huge responsibility.  All it really is is just helping people remember the joy they felt when they were doing and keeping the commandments of the gospel.  I seriously love keeping the commandments.  At times it´s difficult.  That´s for sure.  But I always am SO happy at the end of the day.  And even during it it´s great.  Ahhhh the gospel is the best!  So yeah fortaleza brazil baptises a ton.  But the activity of the members is very low.  They stray really fast after they are baptised.  So I´d really like to help these people return.  and feel the feelings that they once felt.  I think a large problem as to why people don´t return is because they feel they are unworthy.  That is the biggest lie.  Christ was on his knees suffering for ever fallen moment of our lives so we can return.  Whatever moment, and feel his supreme love and happiness that he has to offer. 

When we fall we get back up.  Learn from it and not stop until we reach perfection.  That is the plan of happiness.  

So i´m quite excited to be calling you Sunday :)  I´ll call saturday morning or afternoon and tell you the time you can call on sunday.  So be on the lookout for the phone call.  Have questions written down that you would like to ask.  But yeah LOVE YOU :D  Until saturday and sunday!

He lives 

Elder Diamond!

April 30

My dear mother!

As always i´m doing well.  Thanks for the letters I always enjoy them!  Thanks for renewing my car,  I hope you´ll let me drive it again when I get home haha.  I have so many plans and so many things I would like to do when I get home i´m quite excited.  But I think if we have the money we should do a vacation or a cruise or something.  That would be really fun :)  anywhooo

My week was good as always.  Unfortunately we did not get any baptisms but oh well.  We are trying.  We had like 5 families we were teaching that said they would go to church and come sunday none of them went.  Only had one investigator at sacrament.  Was kinda sad I sat and thought about it a lot during sacrament meeting.  I wish people would understand the importance of going to church.  It´s such a blessing to go.  To keep ourselves more unspotted from the world.  I understand where they are coming from though.  I remember when I had a problem going to church.  I didn´t realize how important it was.  Now I absolutely love it!

As for the food, the food is basically Rice, beans, and chicken, and noodles.... Everyday haha.  Nothing like Rodizzio.  That´s like really expensive good brazillian food haha.  I miss american food it´s seriously SO good!  America rocks ;)  I did get the easter package and THANKS so much haha.  The card made me crack up laughing!  I loved it.  But that is your last package alright!  Because i´m litilarly going to start getting fat!  I want to actually gain some weight as in muscle weight but I can´t do that when I´m recieving candy ever 2 months haha.  When I get done with the package of candy another one comes ha.  So thank you so much I absolutely loved it but that is your last package you are gonna send until christmas mmk?? Stop spending money on me i´m fineee!  :) LOVEEE YYOUUU. 

As for the weather here it rains a lot.  Every morning I wake up I look outside and it´s all wet.  I sleep well but i´m always tired from working.  When I get a little bit debie downer I just work harder.  A good dose of hard work makes everything better :)  .  I already have what we call "mark of the missionary".  that means that my arms are SUPER tan as is my face.  But my body is bleach white hahaha.  

I am shocked that i´m turning twenty in a month.  A little crazy.  I´m also going to be calling you on mothers day already i´m excited for our conversation.  Please write the things down that you would like to ask me so it will make the talking meaningful.  I don´t want anything for my birthday.  I have everything I need so please do not send anything seriously.  I´ll by myself burger king or something at the day of transfers ( we have one right across the street from the mission office.)  

Loved hearing the good memories keep em coming.  Good memory I have is just us praying in your room every night before bed.  I know you probably think that I didn´t like it.  But really all those days of prayer are the things that pop into my head now when I think of an example.  I use these things with my investigators.  Like litilarly just about every good example I have about parenting and how the church helps families comes from you and practicing it with me.  Thank you so much for keeping me along the path until the mission.  Words cannot express how thankful I am to have such an AWESOME mom! 

Good luck with the week mom know that you are loved and know that i´m doing fine and all is well.  I love you MORE

He lives!
Elder Diamond

April 19

Mom,

Doing great thanks for the letter as always!  This week was aweeesomee!  I´m pretty sure all things are great where you are.  I was kinda fighting off sickness this week but other than that it was really good.  

The teaching is going good.  We are trying to find new families and help this area out.  I´m going to stay in Cidade Oeste (my area)  for another month and a half.  That will make 6 months in cidade oeste by the time I leave.  I´m staying with Elder Reis again... we will see how that goes!.  We had two baptisms this week.  I would attatch some photos but this computer isn´t that great and can´t read my card.  Yes I do do some baptising.  It´s such a great feeling entering those waters.  Puting my arm to the square and reciting the baptismal prayer.  It never gets old.  Transfers are today.  But i´m staying.  Generally transfers happen every 6 weeks.  I e mail president souza every week.  By the way I gave Sister souza your present for Christmas,  they LOVED it!  and said for me to tell you thanks.  

Good to hear that my bois are doing good.  I hope Josh has more success on his mission.  I´m sure he will he is a good kid.  All of them have great personalities, it´s kinda funny, we all have different personalities but when we are hanging out it works perfect!  

And Ohhhhh man I so remember that coming home from school and doing that HAHAHA I was so bad!  I´m totally busting up at this computer just laughing and laughing.  Good time I remember is when we would used to go to costa vita MMMMMMM so good.  I miss american food haha.  How is Kyle doing by the way?

Anyway the week was really good.  A lot of walking, was kinda sick had mad headaches for like 4 days but it´s getting better now.  The two baptisms were awesome.  By the way this last transfer our zone was the best zone in the mission!  So we got ties as a reward :D.  We are also the smallest zone with the fewest missionaries might I add!  Anyway,  the gospel is true Jesus Christ lives!  and this is his church.  Have a really good week.  LOVE YOU

PS.  I haven´t recieved the card in the mail but i´m 90% sure that i´m going to recieve it tomorrow 

Elder Diamond!

April 4

This week was really good.  We found a really good family and they went to church.  And watched the Baptisms we had this week.  I will attatch photos.  The boy is named Vanderli and he is awesome!  He knows it was the right thing to do being baptised and now he just needs to continue!  The girl is named Daniele.   She is very very smart, the sister of Idaias the young man that was baptised two weeks prior.  

Nothing else is to knew just trying to find these people that are prepared to recieve the gospel.  Yesterday was easter, in which we celebrate the Lords ressurection.  The most important event in human history happened on that day.  A human being who laid down his life, took it up again.  He shattered the chains of death.  He said that he will return and put all enemies under his feet, the last being death (of us).   All knees will bow and all tongues will confess that Jesus is the Christ.  Oh how that is like music to my ear.  I´m SO thankful for what he did.  Because he lives we can live again.  We have the  opportunity to have an eternal family.  We have the opportunity to become even as our father in heaven is.  It´s wonderful!  

I absolutely love my savior and feel it a pleasure to serve him, and help build up his kingdom.  I love you all have a wonderful week, be safe ;)

He LIVES!
Elder Diamond

PICTURES APRIL

March 30

This week I really want to focus on conference and how it was.
First:  What seperates us from other churchs is that we have men and women CALLED of god to bless us with his word every six months.
Second:  These men receive revaltion for US.  Not for themselves,  in the church of Jesus Christ, no one gains money for serving in the church.  It´s all to help other people.
Third:  You will always hear what you need to hear during these conferences.  Hearing the words of the apostles and the Prophet is a privelege.

So if you missed conference.  Watch it online.

finally I would just like to talk about one of the many talks I enjoyed about conference.  Jeffrey R Holland really gave a clear picture about the mercies of god and how they apply to our lives.  He said that God gives us miricles in our life that sometimes floor us so much that we have to ask ourselves why?  I don´t deserve this.  God will give his tender mercies to who he wants to give his tender mercies.  Relize that we have all recieved these mercies at one point or another in our lives.  


Thank the God who gave you these mercies and love him with all of you heart.  After all it is the greatest commandment.   I love you all have a wonderful week :)

He lives
Elder Diamond

CRAB

Oi!
Tudo bem?!  Last week with Elder Waldron (my trainer),  had to say goodbye to him this morning and I had a lot running through my mind.  I will talk about that later but first the week!  We baptized Tiago this week and it was awesome!  He is a wonderful kid and is setting the example to his family and brothers.  I am hoping that the family of him will soon follow.  Kinda weird week because I didn´t know if I was gonna stay in the Area of Cidade Oeste or be transferred so we were visiting all of our baptisms and trying to set up the next people in the transfer for success!

We had dinner at some members houses this week!  I had the opportunity to eat some crab :)  Unfortunately it 
isn´t as good as new years time with my family =/  but hey it will have to do.  Anywayssssssssss

Friday Night I got the call and I am............................

. Staying :D  my new companion is named Elder Reis (hays)  he is really awesome guy.  He´s brazillian and is twenty three.  He was a member for a year and then left on the mission, what a great example! 

So yeah saying goodbye to Elder Waldron kinda stunk.  He basically showed me everything I needed to know and helped me a lot,  and then he just left,  it was really sublime.  It´s hard saying goodbye to a comp. let alone your trainer and the fact that he is also leaving the mission.  Oh well that´s the circle of the mission!   
Hope all is well family and friends, know that I love you all lots and you are all in my prayers every night.  If anyone needs something just e mail rourkediamond@myldsmail.net  

He Lives!
Elder Diamond

MARCH

Mother!

This week was absolutely wonderful.  I´m trying to keep my companion from not being trunky ( he is leaving back home next week ) but he is awesome.  Just working hard.  We had a baptism this week... Rita,  she is wonderful and the Baptismal service was excellent.

 

Friday the little kids had planned a little "suprise" leaving party for Elder Waldron.  He already new but it was still great I will attatch some photos.  Anyway we went up to the room and shared our testimonies as to how we felt.  The sprit filled the room.  I couldn´t hold my tears back and as I got up to bear my testimoney only thing that filled my heart was joy and love.  I sat back down and to my amazement I saw Bruno, Clayson, and Tiago ( we will baptise him next week ) crying.  Felt so much joy and at that moment so grateful to be able to serve these wonderful people.  They have changed my life for the better and i´m so thankful for it. 

 

I love you all

He lives

Elder Diamond

New PICS March

FEB 27

Dear reader,

 

Not to much new this week,  Me and Elder Waldron were once again blessed to have investigators at sacrement... 13 to be exact.  We are going for 4 baptisms this week if everything works out.  First being Anderson he is 19 years old and went to church and seemed to enjoy it.  We will be teaching him a lot this week.  His little sister Jessica, she has been to church about 5 times and enjoys it.  Rita,  she´s 13 and also Beatriz (10 years) .  Wish us luck! 

 

We have also been finding some really good families it seems.  I really want to baptize a family but it´s really difficult to find a family that is ready.  No doubt we are looking but for a family to be ready it takes a lot of prep time.  There was an activity saturday that our bishop held where the adults of the ward went out and made contacts.  I think we are recieving like 25 references this week because of that.  Some good families should emerge.

 

Oh yeah.  Funnnny story this week.  So I was on divisions this week with another Elder in my area, ( Elder Waldron was in the other elders area) .  Me and this Elder were just about to teach this lesson to some kids outside when one of our investigators starts walking towards us.  He was walking home from school (he is about 16) .  Let´s call him bob.  So bob comes up and I start talking to him, seeing how school was, etc.   Apparently bob is "marked".  ( I had no clue )   Marked means people are trying to kill him.  SO we hear a gunshot, the everyone just starts running,  and I heard 3 other shots I think as we were all running hahaha.  So what apparently happened was like 20 ft away from me some gangsters got in like a fight or something and one of em pulled out a gun shot it in the air first to clear the way I think, then tried to shoot the gangster, missed, hit his little brother in the shoulder, then tried to shoot our investigator bob, but he already ran off.  And yeah so it was pretty crazy.  Needless to say i´m still alive and well haha.

 

And that is my story, everything is fine guess I just need to start asking people if they are "marked" haha. It´s not as bad as it sounds but it is haha?  anyway I love you all

Have an EXCELLENT week!

He lives!

Elder Diamond

SPIDER

Strange Week

This week was a bit strange, pffft what am I say all  weeks are strange i´m in a foreign country.  But seriously this week was strange.  A holiday started called Carnival...  Basically it´s like a 6 day ordeal when people just throw flour and eggs at eachother, wear silly masks, and have a nother excuse to get drunk!  Mix it all together and you got "set sail for fail!" .  Carnival is a missionaries nightmare.  People that you teach aren´t paying attention and not even the members went to church this week haha.  We managed to get 3 investigators to sacrament meeting.  All is well though it was still a really good week.  Learned more gospel truth, teaching better, and starting to get the hang of the language.  I still have difficulties but it´s not to the point where I want to run to a corner and slam my face against the wall :D  

Another fun thing was I was on a division with the zone leader this week.  And it was the day carnival start I think.  So we got flour and eggs and just started going crazy in the house.  4 missionaries doing that = lots of fun.  Except clean up wasn´t to great.  It´s great to have some real life fun every once in a while.  You kind of just in the habit of doing work work work work never have time to do anything or think about yourself.  so that was a nice 1 hour break.  

The thing i´ve learned this week is how prayers are answered.  On Heavenly Fathers time, and if you actually want to find an answer and are willing to act on that answer he will give it to you.  We need to be searching diligently for this answer,  it won´t be thrown in your face.  Faith is required.  Lastly a humble heart.  <---- if you don´´t have that good luck getting an answer haha.  But yeah just this gospel is so perfect I absolutely love this mission,  and my life.  

Be strong and have patience everything will be alright
Love you all!
He lives
Elder Diamond

Life is Awesome

Family, friends, abby (my dog)
I hope all is well :) My life is pretty darn awesome right now.  Just doing work.  This week was good, we had 3 baptisms.  Thais (9), Thaissa (13), and Kaline (11).   We got the service ready... It was really last minute because they were leaving next day to Carnival ( brazilian holiday).  And started it.  Let me tell you one thing.  Girls are DIFFICULT.  We give Thaissa the baptismal clothing (it was pretty big) and she wouldn´t put it on because it was to big!  So we had to baptise Kaline first then Thaissa put on the baptismal clothing that fit her better.  We couldn´t even get a picture with them because they wouldn´t let us take a picture >..>  oh well.  I´m really excited to see where they go.  All the kids we have been baptizing.  They are all amazing, I love them so very much!  We were talking to the bishop about why we weren´t finding any families that are "elect" and he pointed out a really good thing.  The ward isn´t ready to recieve a family.  If we were to baptize a family they would go inactive the next week because the support isn´t to strong in the ward.  So heavenly father has been giving us SO many kids.  This sunday we have our group of kids we baptize (it´s like a possie of 14 kids) all come to church and sit in the front row!  I love it!  They bring their friends and they all just wanna get baptized and hear the message of Jesus Christ!  :):):):):):):):):):):)  did you just say you want to be baptized and you want us to teach you??  When can we come hahaha.  But yeah this week was another great one 

Went to the police station earlier this week and got to see my District from the CTM and it was AWESOME to see how everyone is doing.  We all look so tan it´s pretty funny,  we caught up a little bit then had to say our goodbyes.  Time is flying by I love it just so much to learn and do while i´m here.  

Have a blessed week family, friends, and abby.

I love you all
He lives
Elder Diamond (Gee - uh - mon- ch ) 

Caught a Mouse

Oi Tudo Bem??! 

I hope all is well with everyone back home.  You are all in my prayers every night and you should feel loved because I am nice enough to put you into my thoughts :)  Just kidding it´s a pleasure!  Anyway this week was sort of strange.  Great, but strange.  Just finished my first transfer and the other two missionaries that were living with me and Elder waldon went home.  So we got new missionaries and the first couple of days were sort of annoying because they weren´t really getting along.  But now they are so it´s alright :)  

So we have been looking for people and didn´t really have that much success.  Not to many of our appointments worked out.  A lot of people were gone.  Somehow it all worked out.  We found two really good investigators and are hoping to baptise three this week,,.,..  and that´s about it for this week it was pretty amazing.

This week my heart has been drawn to the sacred attonement of our savior Jesus Christ.  I searched the scribetures and there are but few things that talk directly about it.  The only thing we really know is that he felt every kind of affliction and pain that you felt.  He payed the price for the sins YOU commited.  And he bled from everypore so that you can have the opportunity to return to your father in heaven.  Looking at this we can see that this accomplished a lot. I wrote a couple of sentences but I decided to delete them.  I can´t really explain the attonement because it´s something that you have to find out more for yourself.  I will say however that this is litilarly the key to our salvation.  If Christ would have just come to the earth lived a perfect life but not have completed the attonement.  It would have been pointless for us.  We all would have been damned.  But because he humbled himself to the will of his father we recieve the gift of immortality.  But not Eternal life.  This is where we decide if we want to go after true lasting happiness, or become swallowed up in sin.  You can´t stand in the middle of the road or else you will be hit by both sides of traffic.  

I absolutely love my Heavenly Father, and my Savior for giving me this opportunity to learn and grow.  Because of the Savior Jesus Christ, we can have eternal life

Have a wonderful week  I love you all

Elder Diamond

Ps I caught a mouse this week

Photos

Jan 17

This week was very very good
We were blessed to have 12 investigators at sacrement (woot woooot).  It´s awesome to see people interested in the gospel.  Me and Elder Waldron have just been doing work, we are trying to get better day by day.  Here it is difficult to get people to keep commitments.  and Actually do a commitment right.  Example we can go around knock on every door if we wanted and they would let us in and we can present the message.  sure that sounds great and easy, but there is a better way.  Because if we do things that way their is no trust built.  It´s a very odd atmosphere for the spirit to work in because here you got two people you have never met telling you that their message is true and YOU need to pray about it to know.  More then likely they won´t listen.  But if you work through the members and recent converts it creats a mutual trust where you can really start to open their hears to allow the spirit to enter and testify of truth.  so the key to missionary work is the members and recent converts.  There is a saying that the "elect" are near the "elect".  so we´ve been trying to build the members trust with us so that we can teach their friends and family about the gospel.  And it´s been pretty good.  Our star investigator Bruno has been gone all week.  He left with his dad, but his dad got arrested and was put in Jail apparently.  so sunday finally comes and we are making our rounds to go to church and we see Bruno, he told us he just got back and he is gonna get ready for church real fast and come.  It´s incredible this 13 year old is like the perfect investigator.  He reads every night.  Knows the gospel is true.  And likes church.  I can´t wait to see where he goes with the gospel, he´d be a really good missionary.

This week read up on personal revelation if you can.  This is the key to spiritual growth and more direction in your life.  The truth is heavenly father does speak to his children.  We are all diferent and have different needs,  if you go looking for and desire more direction in your life he is going to give it to you.  It´s an enormous blessing to have this in my life and thank everyone for all the things they do I am out of time LOVE YOU have a wonderful week 
He lives
Elder Diamond

PHOTOS JAN 1

Cute story

Oh t So these kids where playing this game in the street where the pitchers have to knock down a bottle with a ball and the batters have to guard it with a stick. so 4 kids are playing 2 pitchers and 2 batters 1 pitcher and batter on one side the others on the other. THe 2 pitchers are on the same team and 2 batters on the other. if you hit the ball and block the ball from being knocked down the batters can run to the other side to get points. ( it´s called criket I think??) anywhooo. so this kid hits it and it´s like 3 seven year olds and one 5 year old. the 5 and 7 year old were batting. the 7 year old hits it and starts running to the cone. the 5 year old sat there and didn´t know what to do so the bottle on the other side got knocked down and they lost. the 7 year old gets frustraited points to the five year old and starts calling him a Burro (donkey in english) and we just start bustin up laughing. Brazilians and their craazy language.

Jan 2 New Year Update

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Hope all is wonderful and you all made new years goals :) I knowww I did! Anyway it was a great week, we baptized Eduardo and Isaq tuesday and yesterday (sunday) we baptized a boy named Noilson. I absolutely love these kids, they have such wonderful spirits about them! I know the Baptismal Prayer in portguês :)
but yeeah I had a pretty crazy new years haha.

First we wake up get ready go out and start doing the normal work and we go to like our first house (Isaq) and we are outside the front of his house talking to the family and him when his sister runs around the corner, and shes like someones shooting so we all go and get inside. and like five minutes later like 200 feet away I think?? More or less... someone got shot in the head!! Weirdest part is everyone starts running to see the guy that got killed. Crazy! Me and my comp were kinda laughing about it because everyone like goes to see the guy dead haha so weird like in america that doesn´t happen. But yeah so the police are on strike so somepeople just pull out there guns and shoot the air hahaha. So we wait there for like an hour finally decide to go home we start walking and some lady says to us "you might not wanna go that way because there is a guy with two revolvers" hahaha so we just turn around and take another route home. we went in at like 5 to be safe hahaha but yeah it was hard to sleep that night because when new years came people were lighting off fireworks and bombs like crazy SOOOO much noise ha.
ps don´t fret it´s not normal for shootings apparently, it´s only because the police are on strike... And why should I fear I have angels all around me helping me :) and the Holy Ghost!
but yeah we got our two baptisms from last week done and noilsen on sunday so it was a great week :) I really love teaching and i´m starting to really enjoy all that brazil has to offer. I know it´s only going to get better from here.
So this week the thing that has REALLY sparked my interest is the restoration of the gospel. I always knew it was true but I never really had a strong testimoney of it or anything like that. But just this last week it´s all like clicked in my mind. It all makes perfect sence and the "veil" ( like to call things that I don´t really know veiled ) is being taken off. Joseph Smith SAW god and his son Jesus Christ, I know that I will tell you more of why this makes sence when I get home in two years :) but yeah so many experiences sooo little time to type it. Love one another
till next week!
Elder Diamond (always move forward)

Dec 26

Anyways so the CTM experience in Sao paulo was pretty great ha.  I remember when I first got into the CTM (mtc) and was thinking to myself.  This is the hardest thing i´ve ever done in my life.... By the end of it, it was so easy I was getting bored haha.  And now i´m in Fortaleza.  FIRST missions are no joke haha.  They are so absolutely hard.  Let me rephrase that.  TO be obedient on a mission is so absolutely hard haha.  A lot of missionaries don´t follow the rules (especially here because fortaleza is in the top 3 baptising missions in the world) so missionaries think they are doing a good job so they slack off..... Luckfully my companion (Elder Waldron) is very obidient so that is a ton of help :) it makes it a lot easier when you have someone else being obedient with you.  but yeah the first like 4 days in Fortaleza I didn´t get to bed until like 11:30 - 12:00... and waking up at 6:30.... So tired... but it´s getting better.  I think the true beauty and the thing that god wants us to be doing is constantly pushing ourselves to the limit.  So just when you are getting confortable and/or bored of something he throws a new challenge at you... It´s not a bad thing it´s just because faith is constantly being tried.  And when you conquer it he is going to take you to the next level.  Like right now it´s really hard to keep pushing forward, but I know that when I get used to it, he is gonna give me something to keep bettering myself.... after all that is what he wants us to do. Learn and grow.  But I feel like a mission is a bit different.  I´m taking like LEAPS of growth rather then steps.  Missions ask for a 100% of your well being, mentally, physically, and emotionally.  It´s hard but there is nothing like going and telling Heavenly Father in your prayer that you gave it your all that day.  VERY satisfying :) So I know it will get better I just need to endure the trial and learn to teach and help people with more conviction.  When Christ was here during his mortal ministry he took upon himself the form of a servant!  Missions are basically what Christ did ( except he didn´t have a p day :D ) .  I´ve been really blessed to be able to have the opportunity to get to know my savior better through the service I am doing.  He really does love us and want us to suceed.  Which brings me to the next thing I´d like to say is the one thing that never fails is charity.  Charity is the perfect love of Christ.  It never EVER fails.  I´m trying to develop charity so I can give these people the thing that they need most, and that is love.  It´s what everybody deep down inside wants and the savior has the perfected version of love.  I forgot the scribeture but it tells a lot about what it is I think it´s like Moroni 7?? IDK but yeah hope all is well at home I love you all tons and you´re all in my prayers every night! PS I have two baptisms tomorrow :) later! love you all
Elder Diamond