81. Rio das Ostras, Rio de Janeiro

27 January 2015

Good morning family and friends, I hope you are all doing well! 

I'm doing great. I was able to recover from whatever I had last week early this week and things are back to normal health wise. 

This was a very down to earth week. We had another Zone meeting in Cabo Frio which turned into an interesting activity. Each companionship was sent out to find one person and bring them into the church to have a church tour. The zone leaders said that no one could go home until we brought someone in. We said a prayer and 6 companionships went running to speak to closest people around. The chapel in Cabio Frio is located on a majoy highway, and it was 3 o clock in the afternoon so theyre weren't that many people around. Amazingly each companionship was able to bring someone in within an hour. We brought a man in who was leaving his work, which was a woodshop nextdoor to the chapel. The activity was to help us understand that when we are DECIDED to do something, then we will find the way to do it. Many times in my mission I've had the attitude, "I'll work my best and whatever results come from it, so be it", I never really DECIDED that I was going to have certain results. When we are determined to have a certain result, ask God for his assistance, and act, we are much more likely to accomplish more. I digged the activity.

This week we continued to work with some awesome people whom are coming to get to know the church through members. The members are bring tons of people to church each week and we are just doing our part to teach them. 

Not too much else to report from this week, but things are going well! 

I love you all so much! Hope you are all enjoying these winter days, the weather here is beautiful!

Elder Siebers

80. Rio das Ostras, Rio de Janeiro

19 January 2015

Hey Everyone, 

How was everyone's week?  I know mom and dad had a swell time enjoying the beaches in Mexico. It must be nice to sit back and relax. We got nice beaches here, but we don't even go near them, SUPER DANGEROUS TERRITORY! 

Anyways, so this week was pretty excellent for the most part. X's baptism went over swimmingly. Some of his family members were present including his older sister, who cried during the ordinance. She told X how he is setting an example for everyone is the family (there are 11 siblings) and shes already so impressed with the changes he's made in just two weeks. 

That was the highlight of this week. The low light was that entire day (day of X's baptism) I was feeling terrible after lunch. I fought it off the entire day because we had a lot to do. That night I vomited BIG TIME! I felt terrible all day yesterday and I'm still at it today. It feels like the same thing I had in October when I went to the hospital. Thankfully I kept the doctors note on medication so I'll bring that to the pharmacy today to take it again. 

BIG NEWS. I found out today that X2 was baptized!!!! I can't even believe it and I'm soooo happy!!! Almost to the point of shedding tears! 

I love you all so much. Hope you all have an amazing week!

Elder Siebers

"...that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul unto repentance: and this is my joy" Alma 29:9

79. Rio das Ostras, Rio de Janeiro

12 January 2015

Good morning family and friends! 

How is everyone doing? I am well. 

The summer here in Ri odas Ostras is much cooler than Madureira and Alcantara so I'm just trying to enjoy it while it lasts. This week was caught up in several meetings in Cabo Frio. We had our Zone Training with E. Luque and E. Evans on Thursday. It was a great and inspiring meeting and helped us all increase our desire to do more. Presidents main theme is just to have us do ALL that we can, striving to have the most results as possible. President has really help expand our vision as to what we can do. 

My entire understanding of goals have changed while I've been out here. A goal is implemented to push us, to do more, to accomplish more. It's not always reaching the goal that is the point, but to have more success along the way. 

Everyone is going to work harder to achieve our goals and along the way we will find ourselves with more success, which is what Pres. Cabral wants. 

It's like an athlete practicing for the high jump. He places the bar at its highest level. While he fails to clear the bar attempt after attempt, when he goes to compete he finds himself jumping higher than earlier thanks to his efforts in trying to clear the highest bar.

In other news we had interviews with President as well on Friday. My interview was really low key this time around. President just urged me to push harder, to increase my faith and vision and finish off the time left with the most success that I've had yet.

We continued to work with X this week. He´s excited for his baptism and he's doing very well in keeping commitments. His baptism will be this Saturday and we've invited the whole family, so much should come out of the example of a 15 year old boy. 

We had some new people at church including boyfriends of members, spouses of other members, and we booked to teach them all this week. There is a ton of work to be done here, so I'm excited for this week ahead! 

If we don't take chances and step into the unknown, we may find ourselves ripe in age and discover that all the outcomes of our not taken chances have become eternally unknown to us.

I love you all so much and I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Elder Siebers

78. Rio das Ostras, Rio de Janeiro

5 January 2015

Good Morning everyone! Happy New Year! 

My News Years activities including arriving home at 9:00 and crashing at 10:10. I didnt even wake up once to the fireworks I was sooo beat!

So after one week, we got to know our area a bit better. Here's the run down. Our house is located above a members home in county of Jardim Marilea. Get onto Google maps to get a better idea of all this. We don't live in our area, and our area begins on the other side of the bridge that crosses Rio das Ostras ( the river that the city gets its name from). The bridge is about a 30 minute fast paced walk and that begins our area. The chapel is an hour away, and our main area of focus is closer to the chapel. To sum it up, we are walking a TON. Our area goes almost into Cabo Frio, to a place called Unamar. The area is beautiful, but we came at the worst part of the year. The summer holidays everyone comes here to enjoy the beach and to party. We knocked on many doors to find tourists, or people who were just spending the holidays in their summer homes... Its clear that we have to work through the members, especially in an area like this one. 

Actual scenery shot from Cooper, not Google.

Speaking of such, a Irmã R called us Tuesday night telling us about a young man who was shot in the midst of a trafficing incident. She and he husband work at the hospital and asked the lad if she could send two young men to give him a blessing. We went there on Wednesday, gave X (15 years old) a blessing and we've been visiting him almost everyday teaching him the lessons. He even came to church with us with his massive cast that covers his entire arm until his shoulder. He wasn't involved in the trafficing incident but he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. While conversing in the street, other trafficors (does that make sense) shot the 16 year old boy in the back and twice in the head. X and his cousin ran for their lives and X was shot in the upper arm. The experience opened his eyes, he saw death, and is now searching God in his life. 

intense. 

We also helped with a service project this week. We helped a member who is contructing a house. We mixed cement and carried bucket loads into the house for him to work with. I got BAKED in the sun. I will send a picture of my arm which looks like Neopolitan ice cream, white, pink and then brown! Way funny!  President said we had to use our prosylitizing clothes and they got way wrecked, but no problem! The project was awesome though, it's nice to get out of the routine every once in a while.

So thats about it for this week! Things are going well here so far. We have a lot of work to do. The ward is great!

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

Elder Siebers