94. Rio das Ostras, Rio de Janeiro

27 April 2015

Good Morning everyone! I´ll be honest with you all. I feel like the last leaf on the tree,  being beaten by the wind, holding on while the winter approaches. I'm tired, beat, but this week, the sacrifices make it all worth it. The Lord truly prepares people to receive the gospel. X and Y were so open to the gospel. They felt the spirit with each passing day, didnt deny it and make the commitment with God to follow him. It doesnt get any better than that for a missionary. They already are excited to go to the temple next year. I told them I´ll try my best to be there. I look at their two your old daughter  and see a bright future. One where she will grow up with loving parents, and the gospel to orient her life. 

Last night I met the sister of one of our investigators, 15 years old and is living with a 23 year old man. Its those types of things that leave me reflecting deeply on the cruelty the world has to offer. When I was 15, I was still a child, played video games, sports, and messed around. Imagine having your innocent childhood taken away from you at such a young age. Thats not something you can get back. 

That's why when i see little X2, my heart swells that things will be entirely different for her. Her dad said to us, "I just want to be the best father for her that I can be" and now he has truth to become. 

My time has passed. It will be nice when we can talk without time restrictions :D

I love you all so much!

Elder Siebers

93. Rio das Ostras, Rio de Janeiro

21 April 2015

[In case you missed the facebook announcement- Elder Siebers comes home on Saturday June 6th!]

I'm currently seated in Carlos and Ritas home. We are going to feast on churracso here in a bit and I'm stoked! 

In other news, X, the mcdonalds employee and her two daughters were baptized this Saturday. That will always make for a legendary story. The ward is openly receiving all new faces into the ward and the word here is impressive. 

So we've been struggling to have our investigator progress, we've been working hard and God has blessed us with a new family. 

Maybe you will all remember a few weeks ago we met two families from Bahia and they invited us in to share a message. Well we lost contact with X and Ye after that and then last week they appeared at church. We went and taught them Wednesday, they like it so much we returned Thursday and Friday, they are reading for the Book of Mormon each day and are on board for their baptism this Saturday. Another great couple. They have an adorable 2 year old daughter. I'll send some photos this week. 

I love you all so much, off to eat  some churrasco!

Elder Siebers

P.S. just got done eating. They're the type of people who just keep piling food onto your plate. Everyone is stuffed with roasted sausage, beef, ribs, vinagrete, farofa, garlic bread, and roasted buffalo cheese.

92. Rio das Ostras, Rio de Janeiro

12 April 2015

Comfort. I guess it's what we unconsciously feel when we´ve settled into a predictable routine. It's when life is easy, things are going swimmingly, there are few surprises. It's a good feeling, but I also think its something that interferes with our progression. New experiences and changes can bring new enlightenment. 

Wednesday, 1:00 P.M. Elder R and I had just finished eating lunch at home, the member wasn't going to be home so she left us with some cash. We were preparing to leave and we had an awesome day planned. The phone rings. Elder K, our zone leader, asks us how we are doing, how the day is going and then continues, "Are you guys close to home?"  Luckily this very moment we were home. "Elder R, pack your bags, your being transferred." 

That was the shock that came this week. Because of an incident, not any missionary's fault we had to have an emergency transfer. We spent the entire day traveling, finishing up some last minute things for Elder R. 

My new comp is Elder F. L. from Recife.  He's a new missionary with roughly 5 months. He's been in the zone ever since I arrived so we already kinda new each other. He's a great guy, hilarious and we share tons of interests. He break dances so I´m going to have take advantage of that! Although, I tried to mimic a move of his and I tweaked my knee pretty bad... not pretty, but only 7 more weeks :D

That brings me to my next point. Do I have dental and doctor appointments marked, because I need to get myself checked out...

Returning to my original subject. Saying goodbye to Elder R was difficult. We had incredible rhythm, we knew each other so well, so many experiences we've passed through. I love that guy. 

But I'm with a new missionary who is teaching me new things each day. change is good. 

We had some incredible miracles this Sunday, including a mother and son whom entered the church just out of curiosity and stayed. We also had a family that we lost contact with about a month ago suddenly reappear at church. The english class is providing new people to teach each week and we had a new AWESOME couple from the ward be called as ward missionaries (that couple I mentioned that lived in CT. They are like my parents here! ) They have awesome awesome ideas, so I'm stoked!!!

I love you all so much, I hope you are enjoying the warmer weather! 

Elder Siebers

91. Rio das Ostras, Rio de Janeiro

6 April 2015

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend. Sorry for the late letter, we decided to get up and take a stroll to some beautiful sites in Rio das Ostras, I'll have to send the photos via camera a bit later! 

So it was another difficult week, me and my companion are struggling to get one of our investigators to progress.  I can always feel when someone has true desire and is willing to make sacrifices. I can see it in their eyes. I can see it in the way they speak with us.

Although we don't have too much going on for us, I'm still overly excited for X, the lady from McDonalds.  She went to General Conference this week with her 3 kids and is on board for baptism this Saturday. I'm literally freaking out!

Some other highlights from this week,

I participated in the ordinance of the giving of the Holy Ghost for an 8 year old kid from the ward. I can't deny the feeling I get each time the Priesthood Authority is manifested through me. It's always one more conformation that the Priesthood of God is more than real. 

We ran into Guto from Alcantara once more as he travels from chapel to chapel working with chapel maintainance. He informed us that Y spoke in Sacrament meeting this past Sunday! yes.

So General Conference got off to a rocky start. We got informed that the conference would be broadcast to our local chapel which I thought strange since it isn't the stake center, but the bishop said it was all going to work out and they do it every year. So Saturday we are arriving at the church about noon to eat our lunch and we get a call from the bishop asking us to set up the entire thing.... he wasn't going to show up... so we quickly snagged the computer from the secretary's office and got the whole things armed. We had about 15 in attendance but the entire time it was freezing and most of the members left after almost 2 hours had passed and we only had listened to the first two talks...

The second session got better, 2 hours of conference in 3 hours :D

Sunday we had another member bring a laptop and we got much better reception and watched the sessions without flaw. So I watched all the sessions in Portuguese but then I downloaded some of the most intriguing talks and listened to them this morning in personal study. I was a big fan of President Uchtdorf"s talks, as always, and Elder Balllard had a killer talk for returned missionaries in the Priesthood session.

Good week. 

So many other stories to be told but this will have to suffice for now...

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