Hey Everybody!
My week has been pretty great! My new companion Elder Cruz is legit. He is a true example of the power of Christ´s mercy. His life has taken a complete 180. Seeing who he is now you would have never guessed the life that he lived in the past. I feel blessed to have him as a companion and to learn from his desire to change and become a better man.
The area that we are working in right now is a little difficult. Because we split the area i was working in between two companion ships my companion and I ended up in the area that we almost never worked in, so this week we had a lot of knocking doors and contacts to do. But the work was good we were able to find a bunch of new people to teach and the best part is that we also found 3 families!!! Having families to teach is like finding gold as a missionary! The gospel was created to help our families be more united and happy here on the earth.
Although my companion and i worked hard this week to find, teach, and invite people to church unfortunately our efforts did not get the results we were hoping for. Sunday none of our investigators were at church, not even the one with whom we had arranged rides. It was a
little depressing, but it just means that my companion and I have our work cut out for us this next week.
Also an update about Vanessa and Wellington. There were not baptized or married this week but they are still coming to church and working with the other companionship to marry and get baptized.
And here is an update about the families that we are teaching
Cristiani: She is a single mom with three kids: Rafael who is 12 years old and a beast!! haha but seriously he is huge and if you saw him you´d probably think he´s 20, its pretty crazy. Sabrina, she is 8 and loves helping her mom cook. And Natã who is 6 and one day will be as big as his brother. Cristiani loves cooking for people and she usually spends the whole day in the kitchen cooking. She makes cakes and other food for people who order it for parties of other occasions. And she cooks really well too! One time she gave us some cake and it was super good! I love this family a lot and since we have been teaching them they have really taken to heart what we have been saying and want to get to know the church better.
Andrea and Jardel: We found them this week one day when we were knocking doors and they invited us and and made us feel right at home. They have two daughters Gabriela (15 years old) and Vitoria (8 years old). They both work a ton but find time to meet with us to talk more about the gospel.
Marcelo and Carla: We found them knocking doors as well. When we first meet them they were a little closed off, but after just one visit getting to know them and talking about the gospel they opened up to us and said that they wanted to get to know the church and would pray to know if what we shared is true. They have one daughter who is 10 months old.
There is a lot of work for us to do in this area and hundreds of people for us to meet!
Thanks for all the support that you all give to me!
Love,
Elder Rice
Friday, November 6, 2015
October 26, 2015
Hey Everybody!!
This past week my companion and I have tried to follow up well with Vanessa and Wellington and a few other families.
Wellington is the man! I always love when i have the chance to meet people who have a humble spirit. And wellington is this kind of guy. He has accepted all of the things that we have been teaching him and believes in the truthfulness of the church and the Book of Mormon. It is always a beautiful thing to see as people began to accept these truths and let them change their lives. Wellington has been reading from the Book of Mormon, and although he has difficulties understanding everything he has been able to gain a testimony with the help of his wife Vanessa. As they progress together we hope to help them gain roots deep in the foundation of the gospel so that they won´t ever leave again.
We have also been working with a few less active families who expressed a desire to return to church. One of them is Diego and Roberta Cruz. They have been less active for about a year now but when we shared a message with them, they plainly said, ``we know the church is true and that it is where we need to be``. I think that they only thing they may be lacking is a solid friend to help them come back and really feel at home. I hope that this coming week we can help them make the first step and come back to church.
This week also marks the start of another transfer!! Luckily I will be staying here in the Universitário ward! I am so happy that i will be staying here, i think i have mentioned before that i like this area, but i honestly love it. This ward, area and the people here are incredible, I would be happy to stay here for the rest of my mission! My old companion, Elder Juliani, will also be staying here in the same area. We recieved more missionaries this transfer so we have the chance to open up the other half of this area. Me and my new companion, Elder Cruz, (he is a Brazilian and I think he has 6 months in the mission) will go to the other half of the area and work there. I will be living in a different house that is only 5 minutes from the chapel, so that will be really nice.
There is a lot of work to be done her in this area and I am looking forward to the chance to work closer to the chapel. All is well here and I hope that things are going well for you guys as well!
Love,
Elder Rice
This past week my companion and I have tried to follow up well with Vanessa and Wellington and a few other families.
Wellington is the man! I always love when i have the chance to meet people who have a humble spirit. And wellington is this kind of guy. He has accepted all of the things that we have been teaching him and believes in the truthfulness of the church and the Book of Mormon. It is always a beautiful thing to see as people began to accept these truths and let them change their lives. Wellington has been reading from the Book of Mormon, and although he has difficulties understanding everything he has been able to gain a testimony with the help of his wife Vanessa. As they progress together we hope to help them gain roots deep in the foundation of the gospel so that they won´t ever leave again.
We have also been working with a few less active families who expressed a desire to return to church. One of them is Diego and Roberta Cruz. They have been less active for about a year now but when we shared a message with them, they plainly said, ``we know the church is true and that it is where we need to be``. I think that they only thing they may be lacking is a solid friend to help them come back and really feel at home. I hope that this coming week we can help them make the first step and come back to church.
This week also marks the start of another transfer!! Luckily I will be staying here in the Universitário ward! I am so happy that i will be staying here, i think i have mentioned before that i like this area, but i honestly love it. This ward, area and the people here are incredible, I would be happy to stay here for the rest of my mission! My old companion, Elder Juliani, will also be staying here in the same area. We recieved more missionaries this transfer so we have the chance to open up the other half of this area. Me and my new companion, Elder Cruz, (he is a Brazilian and I think he has 6 months in the mission) will go to the other half of the area and work there. I will be living in a different house that is only 5 minutes from the chapel, so that will be really nice.
There is a lot of work to be done her in this area and I am looking forward to the chance to work closer to the chapel. All is well here and I hope that things are going well for you guys as well!
Love,
Elder Rice
October 12, 2015
Hey Everybody!
I think I am getting to used to Brazilian life. This past week it got down to about 17 degrees Celsius and I was freezing! Which is only about 65 degrees... kinda pathetic but after living constantly in a climate that is 90-100 degrees, just about anything is cold!
Even though we had an arctic blast here this week, it was still a good one! My companion and I had a baptism planned for last Saturday but we decided to postpone it because we didn´t have the chance to let many members know. So we have planned to do it this Saturday instead and are planning everything to make sure that it is a special day for Eduardo.
Elder Juliani and I have been working hard to find those who have the desires to hear the gospel and follow its teachings. The common belief amongst almost all Brazilians is that there isn´t a true church and instead that all churches are a pathway different to get to Christ and ultimately our Heavenly Father. Although this logic may make sense to a lot of people it is sad to see this perspective impede so many people from realizing the truth. The apostle Paul said very clearly in Ephesians 4:5 that there is ``one Lord, one faith, and one baptism`` While all churches may be a different path to get to Christ there really is only one faith and one baptism that will bring all of us to the presence of our Heavenly Father again. The truths of the restored gospel are such a blessing in our lives and the light that they give to us is something that we must share with everyone.
I hope that all of us can strive to deepen our understanding of the doctrine and increase our desires to share these truths with all that around us. I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!
I think I am getting to used to Brazilian life. This past week it got down to about 17 degrees Celsius and I was freezing! Which is only about 65 degrees... kinda pathetic but after living constantly in a climate that is 90-100 degrees, just about anything is cold!
Even though we had an arctic blast here this week, it was still a good one! My companion and I had a baptism planned for last Saturday but we decided to postpone it because we didn´t have the chance to let many members know. So we have planned to do it this Saturday instead and are planning everything to make sure that it is a special day for Eduardo.
Elder Juliani and I have been working hard to find those who have the desires to hear the gospel and follow its teachings. The common belief amongst almost all Brazilians is that there isn´t a true church and instead that all churches are a pathway different to get to Christ and ultimately our Heavenly Father. Although this logic may make sense to a lot of people it is sad to see this perspective impede so many people from realizing the truth. The apostle Paul said very clearly in Ephesians 4:5 that there is ``one Lord, one faith, and one baptism`` While all churches may be a different path to get to Christ there really is only one faith and one baptism that will bring all of us to the presence of our Heavenly Father again. The truths of the restored gospel are such a blessing in our lives and the light that they give to us is something that we must share with everyone.
I hope that all of us can strive to deepen our understanding of the doctrine and increase our desires to share these truths with all that around us. I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
October 5, 2015
Hey Everybody!
General Conference this weekend was great! On the mission I have grown to have a much greater appreciation of the words of the living prophets and apostles and the council that they give to us. It is such a blessing to know that there is a man on the earth who receives direct revelation from our Heavenly Father and in turn gives us council on how we can better serve and love our Him.
As I watched the transmission of conference here it took me a little while to get used to listening to the translation, but as I became accustomed to it I was amazed at how the translators were able to relate the message of the apostles and prophets with the same spirit. Every aspect of General Conference really is touched by the spirit and I am grateful for the gifts those translators have to take the words of the prophet to all the ends of the earth.
There was one talk that particularly stuck out to me, I can´t remember the name of the man who spoke but he told about several people who asked God ``what is impeding my progress`` and all those who asked were able to receive answers. This talk highlighted one aspect of God´s love for us. And that is his desire for us to change, and become perfected. In order to help us change he has given us the path of the Gospel doctrine with tools such as prayer and revelation that illuminate this path. The challange he gave to ask God this question is one I hope that all of you take. I did, and I was able to see a weakness that was holding me back that I had never noticed before. It is a great faith building experience!
The work that Elder Juliani and I are doing here in Universitário is going along really well! It seems that every week we see miracles and have the opportunity to feel the spirit strongly in our messages. We have a baptism coming up this next Saturday with a young man named Eduardo. He is very involved with the church and a member of the bishopric has been bringing him to church for the past 4 weeks. I am very excited for the chance to baptize this young man and to start to work with his family and share with them the truth of the gospel that can bless our families. There is nothing better than the doctrine of Christ and keeping the commandments that will make us happy in this life!
Everyday I see the hand of the lord in my life as I help his work, but this is not something just for missionaries. I know that God loves and is watching over each and every one of us! Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!
General Conference this weekend was great! On the mission I have grown to have a much greater appreciation of the words of the living prophets and apostles and the council that they give to us. It is such a blessing to know that there is a man on the earth who receives direct revelation from our Heavenly Father and in turn gives us council on how we can better serve and love our Him.
As I watched the transmission of conference here it took me a little while to get used to listening to the translation, but as I became accustomed to it I was amazed at how the translators were able to relate the message of the apostles and prophets with the same spirit. Every aspect of General Conference really is touched by the spirit and I am grateful for the gifts those translators have to take the words of the prophet to all the ends of the earth.
There was one talk that particularly stuck out to me, I can´t remember the name of the man who spoke but he told about several people who asked God ``what is impeding my progress`` and all those who asked were able to receive answers. This talk highlighted one aspect of God´s love for us. And that is his desire for us to change, and become perfected. In order to help us change he has given us the path of the Gospel doctrine with tools such as prayer and revelation that illuminate this path. The challange he gave to ask God this question is one I hope that all of you take. I did, and I was able to see a weakness that was holding me back that I had never noticed before. It is a great faith building experience!
The work that Elder Juliani and I are doing here in Universitário is going along really well! It seems that every week we see miracles and have the opportunity to feel the spirit strongly in our messages. We have a baptism coming up this next Saturday with a young man named Eduardo. He is very involved with the church and a member of the bishopric has been bringing him to church for the past 4 weeks. I am very excited for the chance to baptize this young man and to start to work with his family and share with them the truth of the gospel that can bless our families. There is nothing better than the doctrine of Christ and keeping the commandments that will make us happy in this life!
Everyday I see the hand of the lord in my life as I help his work, but this is not something just for missionaries. I know that God loves and is watching over each and every one of us! Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Rice
September 28, 2015
Hey Everybody!
It seems like the more time you start to get on the mission the faster time keeps flying by! This week was no exception, but I think that my companion and I made the most of what we could!
My companion, Elder Juliani, is honestly a blessing. In just these last two weeks that we have been together we have been able to accomplish so much! Never before in my mission have I felt that I have been able to teach with the spirit like I am able to right now. And it is because of the spirit and love for the work that he has.
This week Elder Juliani and I were able got to know many knew people, two of whom were very special. Their names are Lauri and Caio. They are both friends of another investigator of ours. And the reason that we found them is actually kind of a funny story. A less active member of the ward and her husband expressed concern that the friends of their daughter were a bad influence of her. My companion and i recognized their concern and offered to speak more with their daughter to help her know and have a testimony of the truth so that she would also walk the correct path. So one night when we went to talk with her and found her out side talking with some of her friends, Lauri and Caio. As far as first impressions go mine wasn´t so great, I kinda just thought ``oh so this is the problem...``. But fortunately I could not have been farther from the truth. While they may have tattoos and be living a crazy life style after a little bit of conversation it became very evident that they were searching for change. We set up a day to come back and talk more with everyone and explained to them that our message would explain where the truth is and how following Christ example helps us to change our lives for the better.
We came back a few days latter and man was it special. Never before in my mission have i taken part of a lesson where the spirit was so strong. As my companion and i talked about the restoration of the church, we made sure to constantly ask for their thoughts and opinions and as the lesson progressed the spirit only got stronger. By the end of the lesson I was feeling the spirit very strongly and the thought came in to my mind, ``help them recognize this feeling`` I then took a moment to explain the whispers of the Holy Ghost and how he speaks to us. After sharing this they all commented that they were feeling the Holy Ghost speak to them and that they loved the message. It really was a special experience and now i really understand what Nephi meant when he said that when ``when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.``
I am so grateful for everyday that i have as a missionary it gives me the opportunity to learn and grow in an incredible way! The holy ghost really is the comforter and a powerful teacher, I am grateful for what he has taught me and what he has helped me to teach others.
I love you all and hope that you all have you own experience with the holy ghost this week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!
It seems like the more time you start to get on the mission the faster time keeps flying by! This week was no exception, but I think that my companion and I made the most of what we could!
My companion, Elder Juliani, is honestly a blessing. In just these last two weeks that we have been together we have been able to accomplish so much! Never before in my mission have I felt that I have been able to teach with the spirit like I am able to right now. And it is because of the spirit and love for the work that he has.
This week Elder Juliani and I were able got to know many knew people, two of whom were very special. Their names are Lauri and Caio. They are both friends of another investigator of ours. And the reason that we found them is actually kind of a funny story. A less active member of the ward and her husband expressed concern that the friends of their daughter were a bad influence of her. My companion and i recognized their concern and offered to speak more with their daughter to help her know and have a testimony of the truth so that she would also walk the correct path. So one night when we went to talk with her and found her out side talking with some of her friends, Lauri and Caio. As far as first impressions go mine wasn´t so great, I kinda just thought ``oh so this is the problem...``. But fortunately I could not have been farther from the truth. While they may have tattoos and be living a crazy life style after a little bit of conversation it became very evident that they were searching for change. We set up a day to come back and talk more with everyone and explained to them that our message would explain where the truth is and how following Christ example helps us to change our lives for the better.
We came back a few days latter and man was it special. Never before in my mission have i taken part of a lesson where the spirit was so strong. As my companion and i talked about the restoration of the church, we made sure to constantly ask for their thoughts and opinions and as the lesson progressed the spirit only got stronger. By the end of the lesson I was feeling the spirit very strongly and the thought came in to my mind, ``help them recognize this feeling`` I then took a moment to explain the whispers of the Holy Ghost and how he speaks to us. After sharing this they all commented that they were feeling the Holy Ghost speak to them and that they loved the message. It really was a special experience and now i really understand what Nephi meant when he said that when ``when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.``
I am so grateful for everyday that i have as a missionary it gives me the opportunity to learn and grow in an incredible way! The holy ghost really is the comforter and a powerful teacher, I am grateful for what he has taught me and what he has helped me to teach others.
I love you all and hope that you all have you own experience with the holy ghost this week!
Love,
Elder Rice
September 14, 2015
Hey Everybody!!
This week was transfer week! I was pretty certain for the whole transfer that I would end up staying in my area because my companion Elder Dodson was in his last transfer and is on his way home now. Last night I found out who my new companion would be, his name is Elder Juliano, I have never meet him but I have heard that he is a hard worker, and that is all that matters to me! As long as we are working hard the rest will figure its self out.
This week has been a good one with many challenges as well as new opportunities. One of the biggest challanges that Elder Dodson and I faced this week was with a young man who is preparing to be baptized. He is 15 years old and from his appearence you would think the last thing that he is interested in is the church, but he is a very special young man. We were hoping to baptize him last Saturday but as we worked with him this week we found that he still lacked a little bit of preparation. The problem is not with any commandments or even a testimony of the truthfulness and divinity of the Church, the only problem is that he is being haunted by sins from the past and feels that he can not be baptized yet. This is a difficult situation for me to deal with because as we teach him about the atonement of Christ and its healing power, our words can only do so much. The real change will come as one day he gets down on his knees and cries out to his Father in Heaven to help him forgive himself, because I am certain that God has already forgiven him, but he wants to keep the guilt and the burden because he doesn´t feel worthy of God´s love. I really feel for this young man and I hope that my new companion and I can work together to find the best way to help him feel the redeming love of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Besides that and various other challenges from this week there have been an incredible amount of opportunities opening up here in Universitário! One of these is with a man named Robson (pronounced hobson) and his family. Elder Dodson and I made contact with this man one time and in that first visit we felt a special spirit with him. He took a real interest in our message and seemed particularly interested in how the gospel helps to guide our families. After testifying to him the truthfulness of our message and how it had changed our lives we invited him to church and he gladly accepted. As Sunday arrived I was anxious to see if he would really come, and to my surprise when we arrived at church there he was, front and center in the chapel with his young son. Unfortunatly his wife wasn´t able to make it but after the meetings he said that he really enjoyed and would return with his family. I still haven´t had the chance to get to know him too well but I am looking forward to helping him and his family come in to the gospel and enjoy all the blessings that it has to offer.
Every week I am filled with an appreciation for the truthfulness of the gospel and the peace that it brings to each one of us as we dutifully strive to live it!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!!
This week was transfer week! I was pretty certain for the whole transfer that I would end up staying in my area because my companion Elder Dodson was in his last transfer and is on his way home now. Last night I found out who my new companion would be, his name is Elder Juliano, I have never meet him but I have heard that he is a hard worker, and that is all that matters to me! As long as we are working hard the rest will figure its self out.
This week has been a good one with many challenges as well as new opportunities. One of the biggest challanges that Elder Dodson and I faced this week was with a young man who is preparing to be baptized. He is 15 years old and from his appearence you would think the last thing that he is interested in is the church, but he is a very special young man. We were hoping to baptize him last Saturday but as we worked with him this week we found that he still lacked a little bit of preparation. The problem is not with any commandments or even a testimony of the truthfulness and divinity of the Church, the only problem is that he is being haunted by sins from the past and feels that he can not be baptized yet. This is a difficult situation for me to deal with because as we teach him about the atonement of Christ and its healing power, our words can only do so much. The real change will come as one day he gets down on his knees and cries out to his Father in Heaven to help him forgive himself, because I am certain that God has already forgiven him, but he wants to keep the guilt and the burden because he doesn´t feel worthy of God´s love. I really feel for this young man and I hope that my new companion and I can work together to find the best way to help him feel the redeming love of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Besides that and various other challenges from this week there have been an incredible amount of opportunities opening up here in Universitário! One of these is with a man named Robson (pronounced hobson) and his family. Elder Dodson and I made contact with this man one time and in that first visit we felt a special spirit with him. He took a real interest in our message and seemed particularly interested in how the gospel helps to guide our families. After testifying to him the truthfulness of our message and how it had changed our lives we invited him to church and he gladly accepted. As Sunday arrived I was anxious to see if he would really come, and to my surprise when we arrived at church there he was, front and center in the chapel with his young son. Unfortunatly his wife wasn´t able to make it but after the meetings he said that he really enjoyed and would return with his family. I still haven´t had the chance to get to know him too well but I am looking forward to helping him and his family come in to the gospel and enjoy all the blessings that it has to offer.
Every week I am filled with an appreciation for the truthfulness of the gospel and the peace that it brings to each one of us as we dutifully strive to live it!
Love,
Elder Rice
August 31, 2015
Hey Everybody,
Every week as a missionary it seems that you run in to a new set of problems and what matters is just how you adapt to it and make the most of what you have. I expressed that last week was pretty difficult because after weeks of trying to work so hard it seemed like there was little success. But with those individual people came much joy! This week luckily Elder Dodson and I were able to face our challanges and overcome them!
The biggest miracle we had this week was with an investigator of ours, her name is Diana (17 yrs old) and she will be baptized this Saturday along with her best friend Fernanda (18yrs old). Both of these young women are extremely special and as we helped them to progress toward their baptism date this Saturday everything seemed to be perfect, until Diana told us that she didn´t think she would be able to be baptized... Hearing her say this crushed my companion and I and after talking to her for a bit we found out it was because she was afriad her mom would not allow it. My companion and I both knew that she was 100% ready for baptism and needed the guidance of the Holy Ghost in her life, so we were ready to do anything to help her get baptized. We came back another day and taught the pricncipal of tithing and the law of the fast and the power that fasting has. We invited her to do a fast with us that her mom would allow her to be baptized, and she gladly accepted! Sunday, a few days after the fast, Elder Dodson and I went to Diana´s house to speak with her mom. We shared a message about God´s plan for us and what our part is in that plan and then asked her if she would allow Diana to get baptized, and she said that she would allow it!! The lesson that we had with her was great and I could tell that Diana´s mom enjoyed a lot of the truths that we shared. After that visit I was just so happy that Diana would be able to be baptized and recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost.
There really is nothing better than recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost. With this gift we are able to allows enjoy the presence of the spirit and recieve guidance. However this guidance is something that we must constantly be searching, and as we do so the Lord will guide us in our lives.
I hope that we all do our part to seek the guidance of the spirit in our lives everyday. Love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody,
Every week as a missionary it seems that you run in to a new set of problems and what matters is just how you adapt to it and make the most of what you have. I expressed that last week was pretty difficult because after weeks of trying to work so hard it seemed like there was little success. But with those individual people came much joy! This week luckily Elder Dodson and I were able to face our challanges and overcome them!
The biggest miracle we had this week was with an investigator of ours, her name is Diana (17 yrs old) and she will be baptized this Saturday along with her best friend Fernanda (18yrs old). Both of these young women are extremely special and as we helped them to progress toward their baptism date this Saturday everything seemed to be perfect, until Diana told us that she didn´t think she would be able to be baptized... Hearing her say this crushed my companion and I and after talking to her for a bit we found out it was because she was afriad her mom would not allow it. My companion and I both knew that she was 100% ready for baptism and needed the guidance of the Holy Ghost in her life, so we were ready to do anything to help her get baptized. We came back another day and taught the pricncipal of tithing and the law of the fast and the power that fasting has. We invited her to do a fast with us that her mom would allow her to be baptized, and she gladly accepted! Sunday, a few days after the fast, Elder Dodson and I went to Diana´s house to speak with her mom. We shared a message about God´s plan for us and what our part is in that plan and then asked her if she would allow Diana to get baptized, and she said that she would allow it!! The lesson that we had with her was great and I could tell that Diana´s mom enjoyed a lot of the truths that we shared. After that visit I was just so happy that Diana would be able to be baptized and recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost.
There really is nothing better than recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost. With this gift we are able to allows enjoy the presence of the spirit and recieve guidance. However this guidance is something that we must constantly be searching, and as we do so the Lord will guide us in our lives.
I hope that we all do our part to seek the guidance of the spirit in our lives everyday. Love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
August 24, 2015
Hey everybody!!
To be honest, this week has been so-so. It seems that everything my companion and I had planned fell through. Splits with members, family nights, appointments, lunch, literally everything, if it was planned it didn´t happen. But what I want to share with you guys is a new appreciation I have for the scripture D&C 18:10,15 ``Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight if God." And if you were to work all of your days proclaming repentance to this people and bring one soul to me, how great will be your joy in the kingdom of my Father`` (that may not be word for word correct I translated it back from portuguese)
This week it we worked everyday to bring as many souls to our Father (in this case bring them to church), and unfortunately those who we had been working with so firmly didn´t come. But this man (in the attached photo) his name is Jefferson and after months of working with him, finally my companion and I were able to bring him to church. We visited him Saturday night and had a very frank conversation about why he hasn´t been going to church, like any other time he gave a dozen excuses, but finally my companion and I just stopped him and said the only thing holding you back is your guilt. You know you need to be at church and you know that this is the only thing that will get you life back in order. He paused and holding back tears he said ``I know, tomorrow I´ll go to church``.
The next morning we stopped by to go to church with him and we found him and his son, completely ready to go. I can't express how happy it made me to see him in church clothes ready to go. And I felt, the value of every soul in the eyes of God. To see just this one man back at church made me so incredibly happy. I can´t wait to continue to help him get back on track to being a strong member of the church again.
Never forget the worth of all souls in the sight of God, even the worth of your own soul. Work everyday that you can to help others accept this Gospel and the incredible peace that it can bring you our lives.
I love you all and hope you all work to save the soul of another!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey everybody!!
To be honest, this week has been so-so. It seems that everything my companion and I had planned fell through. Splits with members, family nights, appointments, lunch, literally everything, if it was planned it didn´t happen. But what I want to share with you guys is a new appreciation I have for the scripture D&C 18:10,15 ``Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight if God." And if you were to work all of your days proclaming repentance to this people and bring one soul to me, how great will be your joy in the kingdom of my Father`` (that may not be word for word correct I translated it back from portuguese)
This week it we worked everyday to bring as many souls to our Father (in this case bring them to church), and unfortunately those who we had been working with so firmly didn´t come. But this man (in the attached photo) his name is Jefferson and after months of working with him, finally my companion and I were able to bring him to church. We visited him Saturday night and had a very frank conversation about why he hasn´t been going to church, like any other time he gave a dozen excuses, but finally my companion and I just stopped him and said the only thing holding you back is your guilt. You know you need to be at church and you know that this is the only thing that will get you life back in order. He paused and holding back tears he said ``I know, tomorrow I´ll go to church``.
The next morning we stopped by to go to church with him and we found him and his son, completely ready to go. I can't express how happy it made me to see him in church clothes ready to go. And I felt, the value of every soul in the eyes of God. To see just this one man back at church made me so incredibly happy. I can´t wait to continue to help him get back on track to being a strong member of the church again.
Never forget the worth of all souls in the sight of God, even the worth of your own soul. Work everyday that you can to help others accept this Gospel and the incredible peace that it can bring you our lives.
I love you all and hope you all work to save the soul of another!
Love,
Elder Rice
August 17, 2015
Hey Everyone!!
This area is a blessing! The members of this ward are incredible and dedicated to helping the work of the Lord not just continue but accelerate! Every Sunday the leadership in this ward has a quick meeting after sacrament meeting to see how they can help those who are new or coming back to church have a good experience. The leadership here really understands the meaning of magnify your calling and it shows.
Because of the members of this ward all the people that we are teaching or working with become integrated and feel right at home the first time that they visit. Just from watching the way this ward works I am learning a lot of what it means to have charity. From greeting people at the door to visiting people at home everything the people do here is out of love for others or the Lord. I have learned more about charity by seeing it in action than I ever have studying about it.
Because of this ward and my companion we have been able to find people to teach and help them progress. It is amazing to see the difference the gospel can make in someones life in such a short amount of time. There are four people we hope to baptize in the next couple of weeks, Diane, Fernanda, Talia and Laurauna. All of them have already started to make changes in their life and have noticed the difference in how the gospel can bring happiness to us. I am looking forward to helping them enter the waters of baptism and recieve the gift of the holy ghost.
Someone else I would like to mention, is a less active, Elder Dodson and I have been visiting this week. Her name is Lúcia and when she mentioned to us that she was depressed and even thinking of suicide we knew that we had to help out. We told her that we would come by everyday to read the scriptures with her and see how she is doing. Everyday we read one chapter with her and left one with her to read. After just three days there was already a noticable difference in her appearence and she even told us that she felt happier. This is a testimony of the power of the word of God. If we study and apply the principles found in the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible it can transform our lives for the better!
This is my invite to read, study and make a plan on how you can apply the teaching of the scriptures in your life. If you do this you will find that you are able to live a happier and healthier life. I love you all and hope you have a good week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everyone!!
This area is a blessing! The members of this ward are incredible and dedicated to helping the work of the Lord not just continue but accelerate! Every Sunday the leadership in this ward has a quick meeting after sacrament meeting to see how they can help those who are new or coming back to church have a good experience. The leadership here really understands the meaning of magnify your calling and it shows.
Because of the members of this ward all the people that we are teaching or working with become integrated and feel right at home the first time that they visit. Just from watching the way this ward works I am learning a lot of what it means to have charity. From greeting people at the door to visiting people at home everything the people do here is out of love for others or the Lord. I have learned more about charity by seeing it in action than I ever have studying about it.
Because of this ward and my companion we have been able to find people to teach and help them progress. It is amazing to see the difference the gospel can make in someones life in such a short amount of time. There are four people we hope to baptize in the next couple of weeks, Diane, Fernanda, Talia and Laurauna. All of them have already started to make changes in their life and have noticed the difference in how the gospel can bring happiness to us. I am looking forward to helping them enter the waters of baptism and recieve the gift of the holy ghost.
Someone else I would like to mention, is a less active, Elder Dodson and I have been visiting this week. Her name is Lúcia and when she mentioned to us that she was depressed and even thinking of suicide we knew that we had to help out. We told her that we would come by everyday to read the scriptures with her and see how she is doing. Everyday we read one chapter with her and left one with her to read. After just three days there was already a noticable difference in her appearence and she even told us that she felt happier. This is a testimony of the power of the word of God. If we study and apply the principles found in the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible it can transform our lives for the better!
This is my invite to read, study and make a plan on how you can apply the teaching of the scriptures in your life. If you do this you will find that you are able to live a happier and healthier life. I love you all and hope you have a good week!
Love,
Elder Rice
July 27, 2015
Hey Everybody!
The weeks really start to fly by as you get more and more time on the mission. This next week will be a new transfer and it seems like this one just started.
This week has been good though. I have had the opportunity to give English lessons twice a week, here in the group, for the past few weeks, which has been an interesting experience. My ability to speak Portuguese is still far from perfect, so trying to explain grammer concepts to people in a language I struggle to speak is a bit of a challenge. So this week I asked the help of a young man here in the group. His name is Cayvn (Kevin) and he is incredible. All on his own he taught himself to speak English. When he told me that he taught himself English, I just assumed his ability to speak was pretty basic and he only knew some simple phrases. But one day when we were planning a lesson together, I asked him ``so how much English do you know? How do you feel about planning the rest of this lesson just in English`` He said he could do it and we started speaking only English, and I was blown away. This kid taught himself to speak english fluently completely alone. He said when he was 10 years old he got a dictionary and just started learning words, then he got some grammer books and started putting things together, and now he´s fluent! I think its incredible and he is a great reminder that if we put our mind to something we can accomplish it!
This coming Saturday Elder Da Silva and I are hopeing to have 3 baptisms. It would be incredible if we were able to accomplish it and I know that if we just work diligently it is possible! Remember the value of hard work and that it will always pay off. I have meet some incredible hardworkers here in the mission and some other who could care less. Those who have the disposition to work hard always seem to have a better understanding of our purpose here in life and what is possible for us after this life. Remember that it is by grace we are saved after ALL that we can do. So get up and get to work and God will make up what you lack!
Love you all and hope you guys have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!
The weeks really start to fly by as you get more and more time on the mission. This next week will be a new transfer and it seems like this one just started.
This week has been good though. I have had the opportunity to give English lessons twice a week, here in the group, for the past few weeks, which has been an interesting experience. My ability to speak Portuguese is still far from perfect, so trying to explain grammer concepts to people in a language I struggle to speak is a bit of a challenge. So this week I asked the help of a young man here in the group. His name is Cayvn (Kevin) and he is incredible. All on his own he taught himself to speak English. When he told me that he taught himself English, I just assumed his ability to speak was pretty basic and he only knew some simple phrases. But one day when we were planning a lesson together, I asked him ``so how much English do you know? How do you feel about planning the rest of this lesson just in English`` He said he could do it and we started speaking only English, and I was blown away. This kid taught himself to speak english fluently completely alone. He said when he was 10 years old he got a dictionary and just started learning words, then he got some grammer books and started putting things together, and now he´s fluent! I think its incredible and he is a great reminder that if we put our mind to something we can accomplish it!
This coming Saturday Elder Da Silva and I are hopeing to have 3 baptisms. It would be incredible if we were able to accomplish it and I know that if we just work diligently it is possible! Remember the value of hard work and that it will always pay off. I have meet some incredible hardworkers here in the mission and some other who could care less. Those who have the disposition to work hard always seem to have a better understanding of our purpose here in life and what is possible for us after this life. Remember that it is by grace we are saved after ALL that we can do. So get up and get to work and God will make up what you lack!
Love you all and hope you guys have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
July 20, 2015
Hey Everybody!
This week has had it ups and downs... Unfortunately the baptism of Gabriel didn´t go through and I don´t think that it will for some time. As we talked more with his family we found out that some of the issues of obedience he had at home were more serious than we thought and are impeding him from being baptized. I still think that he is an outstanding young man, but he just needs a little more time to really be fully prepared for baptism. Although I am sad that he will not get baptized I know that his time will come as he stays active in all of the activites.
There is another family that we have been working with a lot that is incredible! It is a family of three. Maria (mom) Daniel and Rafael (her two sons). Maria unfortunately is passing through some pretty hard times right now and has some very serious health issues, and to make it even worse during these hard times she is being kicked out of her house and must find a new place to live. Luckily we were able to find a house that is for rent about a block from the church and is within her budget. Today Elder Da Silva and I will help her move in to the new house. I think that this move will be really good for her and since she will be so close to the church it will be easy to help her out when she needs it. The real star in this family though is her son Daniel, this kid is something special. Pretty much everytime we have a lesson with them we ask Daniel to close with a prayer because his prayers are just so powerful. He is only 11 years old but his prayers come from the heart. And everynight he gets the family together so he can read the Book of Mormon out loud to his mom and younger brother. We could baptize Daniel and Rafael this week but we want to baptize the whole family together, unfortunately Maria hasn´t been able to make it to church yet because of her heath issues. But we are planning to make sure that when the baptism does happen it is something special.
I would like to leave you all with a scripture that is special to me, it is the scripture that my farwell talk was based off of and I love it. In Mosiah 5:13 it says ``for how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him and is far from the desires and thoughts of his heart?`` it truly is imposible to know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ unless we serve him, and the best way to serve him is to share this incredible gospel with those around us. So let us all strive to the best of our abilities to invite others to come to Christ and enjoy the blessings of his perfect plan.
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!
This week has had it ups and downs... Unfortunately the baptism of Gabriel didn´t go through and I don´t think that it will for some time. As we talked more with his family we found out that some of the issues of obedience he had at home were more serious than we thought and are impeding him from being baptized. I still think that he is an outstanding young man, but he just needs a little more time to really be fully prepared for baptism. Although I am sad that he will not get baptized I know that his time will come as he stays active in all of the activites.
There is another family that we have been working with a lot that is incredible! It is a family of three. Maria (mom) Daniel and Rafael (her two sons). Maria unfortunately is passing through some pretty hard times right now and has some very serious health issues, and to make it even worse during these hard times she is being kicked out of her house and must find a new place to live. Luckily we were able to find a house that is for rent about a block from the church and is within her budget. Today Elder Da Silva and I will help her move in to the new house. I think that this move will be really good for her and since she will be so close to the church it will be easy to help her out when she needs it. The real star in this family though is her son Daniel, this kid is something special. Pretty much everytime we have a lesson with them we ask Daniel to close with a prayer because his prayers are just so powerful. He is only 11 years old but his prayers come from the heart. And everynight he gets the family together so he can read the Book of Mormon out loud to his mom and younger brother. We could baptize Daniel and Rafael this week but we want to baptize the whole family together, unfortunately Maria hasn´t been able to make it to church yet because of her heath issues. But we are planning to make sure that when the baptism does happen it is something special.
I would like to leave you all with a scripture that is special to me, it is the scripture that my farwell talk was based off of and I love it. In Mosiah 5:13 it says ``for how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him and is far from the desires and thoughts of his heart?`` it truly is imposible to know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ unless we serve him, and the best way to serve him is to share this incredible gospel with those around us. So let us all strive to the best of our abilities to invite others to come to Christ and enjoy the blessings of his perfect plan.
Love,
Elder Rice
July 13, 2015
Hey Everybody!!
There really is nothing like living in Brazil other than living in Brazil! When I wake up in the morning I look out my window to see a forest of palm trees in the distance and feel the cool air of the morning (which sometimes isn´t very cool...). And during the day I walk under a ball of fire but luckily the people here are kind enough to welcome you in and give you a ice cold glass of water if you just knock on the door. It's a pretty great experience to live amongst another culture and learn to love it.
This week Elder Da Silva and I were trying to finalize everything for Gabriel´s bapism but unfortunately we had to post-pone it. Although I think it was for the best. The day before his baptism Gabriel fought with his step-father and when we went over there to do the baptismal interview his parents were hesitant about letting him get baptized. They had hoped that as their son frequented our church and prepared for baptism he would change around the house. Gabriel has definatly been changing but unfortunately in the heat of the moment his temper got the better of him. So we are hoping to wait until this Saturday or possibly the next Saturday before we baptism him. We want to show his parents that we respect their interests and want to see the same changes in their their son that they want to see. I know Gabriel is a great young man and that the church would just help him to grow even more, and become an influnence within his family for good.
Other than the work that we did with Gabriel Elder Da Silva and I have been keeping busy with several other families. It seems like nearly every lesson that we have with an investigator or a less active we end up finding new people to teach. One couple, that we found yesterday, to teach that I am very excited to follow up with is Johnathon and his wife Camille. I recited the first vision to them and during the whole thing Camille wouldn´t break eye contact with me. I felt that the spirit really testified strongly to her about what I was saying, and after that her demenor changed. I feel there is great potential there and I can´t wait to see if she prayed about the truthfulness of our message.
The mission is unlike anything else. It is such a great opportunity to learn and grow. I try to take advantage of every minute that I can. It seems like the more I learn the more I realize how little I know. Luckily though I and all of us have the grace of God to make up for all of our short comings. Never forget that his arms of mercy are always extended to help us in every moment of our lives.
I love you all and hope that you all pray in gratitude for your blessing, and always study the scriptures.
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!!
There really is nothing like living in Brazil other than living in Brazil! When I wake up in the morning I look out my window to see a forest of palm trees in the distance and feel the cool air of the morning (which sometimes isn´t very cool...). And during the day I walk under a ball of fire but luckily the people here are kind enough to welcome you in and give you a ice cold glass of water if you just knock on the door. It's a pretty great experience to live amongst another culture and learn to love it.
This week Elder Da Silva and I were trying to finalize everything for Gabriel´s bapism but unfortunately we had to post-pone it. Although I think it was for the best. The day before his baptism Gabriel fought with his step-father and when we went over there to do the baptismal interview his parents were hesitant about letting him get baptized. They had hoped that as their son frequented our church and prepared for baptism he would change around the house. Gabriel has definatly been changing but unfortunately in the heat of the moment his temper got the better of him. So we are hoping to wait until this Saturday or possibly the next Saturday before we baptism him. We want to show his parents that we respect their interests and want to see the same changes in their their son that they want to see. I know Gabriel is a great young man and that the church would just help him to grow even more, and become an influnence within his family for good.
Other than the work that we did with Gabriel Elder Da Silva and I have been keeping busy with several other families. It seems like nearly every lesson that we have with an investigator or a less active we end up finding new people to teach. One couple, that we found yesterday, to teach that I am very excited to follow up with is Johnathon and his wife Camille. I recited the first vision to them and during the whole thing Camille wouldn´t break eye contact with me. I felt that the spirit really testified strongly to her about what I was saying, and after that her demenor changed. I feel there is great potential there and I can´t wait to see if she prayed about the truthfulness of our message.
The mission is unlike anything else. It is such a great opportunity to learn and grow. I try to take advantage of every minute that I can. It seems like the more I learn the more I realize how little I know. Luckily though I and all of us have the grace of God to make up for all of our short comings. Never forget that his arms of mercy are always extended to help us in every moment of our lives.
I love you all and hope that you all pray in gratitude for your blessing, and always study the scriptures.
Love,
Elder Rice
July 6, 2015
Hey Everybody!
I am loving it here in Sao Mateus! This week Elder Da Silva and I have been able to get a little bit more involved with the members. I´m not sure if I already mentioned this but there is a much bigger ward that is located about 45 minutes by car from our group and they help us out a lot. The second counselor in the bishopric is actually our group president. This week we were able to have a meeting with the leader of the ward. It was a great meeting and we set up a day to have splits with the young men’s leaders and visit all of the youth. The strong youth here in our group is great because they really get the atention of the ward. In fact sometimes the ward and the group have activites together and usually there are more young men from the group at the activites than from the ward. It really is a blessing to have the help of this ward for our group and I am impressed with the willingness of some of the members to sacrifice to help us out. It always makes me happy to see members who are willing to give up their own comfort or needs for those of others. These are the members who really understand the importance of the Lord’s work and the importance of our sacrifices to contribute to his work.
This week Elder Da Silva and I will be preparing for a baptism of a young man named Gabriel. He is 12 years old and has pretty much been active in the church for about a month. This Sunday we will have a special conference at the church building in Mapim, (where the ward is) so we hope to be able to do the baptism there after church so we can have a lot of members present to welcome him. This week I was reading a favorite scripture of mine and i wanted to share it. In 2 Corithians 12:7-10 Paul is talking about weaknesses and how he glories in weaknesses and infirmities because in his weakness the grace of Christ is sufficient for him. Sometimes we look at our weaknesses or difficulties that we are passing through in life and just wish that they could be taken from us. Instead we should glory in them and turn to Christ knowing that his grace can strengthen us.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!
I am loving it here in Sao Mateus! This week Elder Da Silva and I have been able to get a little bit more involved with the members. I´m not sure if I already mentioned this but there is a much bigger ward that is located about 45 minutes by car from our group and they help us out a lot. The second counselor in the bishopric is actually our group president. This week we were able to have a meeting with the leader of the ward. It was a great meeting and we set up a day to have splits with the young men’s leaders and visit all of the youth. The strong youth here in our group is great because they really get the atention of the ward. In fact sometimes the ward and the group have activites together and usually there are more young men from the group at the activites than from the ward. It really is a blessing to have the help of this ward for our group and I am impressed with the willingness of some of the members to sacrifice to help us out. It always makes me happy to see members who are willing to give up their own comfort or needs for those of others. These are the members who really understand the importance of the Lord’s work and the importance of our sacrifices to contribute to his work.
This week Elder Da Silva and I will be preparing for a baptism of a young man named Gabriel. He is 12 years old and has pretty much been active in the church for about a month. This Sunday we will have a special conference at the church building in Mapim, (where the ward is) so we hope to be able to do the baptism there after church so we can have a lot of members present to welcome him. This week I was reading a favorite scripture of mine and i wanted to share it. In 2 Corithians 12:7-10 Paul is talking about weaknesses and how he glories in weaknesses and infirmities because in his weakness the grace of Christ is sufficient for him. Sometimes we look at our weaknesses or difficulties that we are passing through in life and just wish that they could be taken from us. Instead we should glory in them and turn to Christ knowing that his grace can strengthen us.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
June 29, 2015
Hey everybody!!!
My first week here in Sao Mateus has been awesome! My new companion Elder Da Silva is great too, also super old... haha he is 25, which is a grandpa out here! He has a great work ethic though and is super humble. By the end of my first day with him I felt really impressed with the Christ-like attributes that he has. All of the love that he has just seems so natural. I strive to be Christ-like, but it seems like I always have to catch myself and correct my actions. For him it was just a stream of goodness. I think will have a great opportunity this transfer to learn from his example. And just a little bit of background info on Elder Da Silva: he is from Rio Janeiro, has six months on the mission, and almost went pro playing soccer. But. because of a knee injury he couldn´t. He is the second youngest of five kids in his family. And, he has a brother who served a mission.
During this first week here in Sao Mateus I had the chance to get to know a ton of people. Which is awesome but also kind of annoying because trying to remember Brazilian names is still super hard for me. So I usually end up asking people what their name is about 10 times before I remember it, but they are usually nice about it. While getting to know the members here in Sao Mateus i was really impressed with the youth here. They are incredible! For such a small group to have 12 youth that are actively engaged in seminary and other activities is incredible. And the best thing is that these youth help us get in to their families and start teaching them! This week we started teaching two brothers, Daniel and Gabriel, and their family. When we sat down to teach the whole family the mom fired about a hundred questions at us. Luckily we were able to answer them all and I could tell that the spirit touched her and her husband. They told us they would go to church this coming week with their sons, which I am sure will start to bring about a big change in their lives.
Other than the youth here in Sao Mateus I am enjoying helping out more with the organization of church. Because the membership is so small the missionaries end up organizing a lot of activities. Every week we have seminary, a movie night and an English class, so there are always plenty of things to stay busy with.
I am loving it here in Sao Mateus and I can tell that we are going to help out with the great work here. I am super excited with this transfer! I hope everyone has another great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey everybody!!!
My first week here in Sao Mateus has been awesome! My new companion Elder Da Silva is great too, also super old... haha he is 25, which is a grandpa out here! He has a great work ethic though and is super humble. By the end of my first day with him I felt really impressed with the Christ-like attributes that he has. All of the love that he has just seems so natural. I strive to be Christ-like, but it seems like I always have to catch myself and correct my actions. For him it was just a stream of goodness. I think will have a great opportunity this transfer to learn from his example. And just a little bit of background info on Elder Da Silva: he is from Rio Janeiro, has six months on the mission, and almost went pro playing soccer. But. because of a knee injury he couldn´t. He is the second youngest of five kids in his family. And, he has a brother who served a mission.
During this first week here in Sao Mateus I had the chance to get to know a ton of people. Which is awesome but also kind of annoying because trying to remember Brazilian names is still super hard for me. So I usually end up asking people what their name is about 10 times before I remember it, but they are usually nice about it. While getting to know the members here in Sao Mateus i was really impressed with the youth here. They are incredible! For such a small group to have 12 youth that are actively engaged in seminary and other activities is incredible. And the best thing is that these youth help us get in to their families and start teaching them! This week we started teaching two brothers, Daniel and Gabriel, and their family. When we sat down to teach the whole family the mom fired about a hundred questions at us. Luckily we were able to answer them all and I could tell that the spirit touched her and her husband. They told us they would go to church this coming week with their sons, which I am sure will start to bring about a big change in their lives.
Other than the youth here in Sao Mateus I am enjoying helping out more with the organization of church. Because the membership is so small the missionaries end up organizing a lot of activities. Every week we have seminary, a movie night and an English class, so there are always plenty of things to stay busy with.
I am loving it here in Sao Mateus and I can tell that we are going to help out with the great work here. I am super excited with this transfer! I hope everyone has another great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
June 15, 2015
Hey Everyone!!
When people say that time flies by while you are on the mission they aren´t kidding. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting down writing another letter to all of you guys. But I have had another busy and productive week with Elder Tibbitts.
This week we had a bunch of service projects with members, everyday, except for Sunday and Friday. It is an awesome opportunity to give service to the members of our ward to gain their trust and show them that we are willing to work hard, but it also made me gain an appreciation for scripture study. Because we did all of the service projects in the morning before lunch we missed out on our daily study almost everyday, and I could definately tell the difference. On the mission I have the blessing of being able to have 3 hours of my morning devoted to studying the scriptures, the language and practice teaching with my companion. And without that this past week I could really feel the difference. Being able to study the scriptures in the morning is a catalyst for growth. Ammon and the Sons of Mosiah, were some of the greatest missionaries ever, and it was because they had given themselves to much fasting, prayer, and study. They waxed strong in knowledge and like them we can do the same if we have effective daily study. This is a habit I hope to keep after my mission as well.
We also made some good progress this week with one of our investigators, Edson. The first time that we visited him I felt really good. He had a desire to learn about the gospel and how it could bless his life. In fact during the lesson he said, ``I want to check out your church, I´ll go there tonight to see what its like``. Which was awesome but we don´t have church on Monday nights so we just explained to him about family home evening and that we only had church on Sundays and made sure to keep this day holy to show reverence to the Lord. He said he would come to church the following Sunday, and he did! In the Sunday Schoool class we talked about prophets and how important it is to have a living prophet today, during the whole lesson Edson was just shaking his head in agreement and afterwards told me about how he liked the lesson. It was so great to see him have such a postitive experience and if he starts getting involved in church I know the rest of his family will follow suit as well. We just need to get him and his wife married so they can be baptized, this is always a problem in Brazil.
We also had a good lesson with Janaina and her husband. We were able to find out the root of his doubts about joining our church and now we know how to better help him. Even though he doesn´t have a desire to be baptized he is willing to support his wife in her decision, so we hope to help get them married as well and then baptize Janaina. And who knows perhaps in the process of helping Janaina prepare for baptism Samuel´s heart will be softened as well. There is a lot of work going on here in Pedra Noventa and everyday seems like a new blessing! I love you all! always remember to look for the good all around you. No matter what the situation you can always learn something about how you can better yourself!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everyone!!
When people say that time flies by while you are on the mission they aren´t kidding. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting down writing another letter to all of you guys. But I have had another busy and productive week with Elder Tibbitts.
This week we had a bunch of service projects with members, everyday, except for Sunday and Friday. It is an awesome opportunity to give service to the members of our ward to gain their trust and show them that we are willing to work hard, but it also made me gain an appreciation for scripture study. Because we did all of the service projects in the morning before lunch we missed out on our daily study almost everyday, and I could definately tell the difference. On the mission I have the blessing of being able to have 3 hours of my morning devoted to studying the scriptures, the language and practice teaching with my companion. And without that this past week I could really feel the difference. Being able to study the scriptures in the morning is a catalyst for growth. Ammon and the Sons of Mosiah, were some of the greatest missionaries ever, and it was because they had given themselves to much fasting, prayer, and study. They waxed strong in knowledge and like them we can do the same if we have effective daily study. This is a habit I hope to keep after my mission as well.
We also made some good progress this week with one of our investigators, Edson. The first time that we visited him I felt really good. He had a desire to learn about the gospel and how it could bless his life. In fact during the lesson he said, ``I want to check out your church, I´ll go there tonight to see what its like``. Which was awesome but we don´t have church on Monday nights so we just explained to him about family home evening and that we only had church on Sundays and made sure to keep this day holy to show reverence to the Lord. He said he would come to church the following Sunday, and he did! In the Sunday Schoool class we talked about prophets and how important it is to have a living prophet today, during the whole lesson Edson was just shaking his head in agreement and afterwards told me about how he liked the lesson. It was so great to see him have such a postitive experience and if he starts getting involved in church I know the rest of his family will follow suit as well. We just need to get him and his wife married so they can be baptized, this is always a problem in Brazil.
We also had a good lesson with Janaina and her husband. We were able to find out the root of his doubts about joining our church and now we know how to better help him. Even though he doesn´t have a desire to be baptized he is willing to support his wife in her decision, so we hope to help get them married as well and then baptize Janaina. And who knows perhaps in the process of helping Janaina prepare for baptism Samuel´s heart will be softened as well. There is a lot of work going on here in Pedra Noventa and everyday seems like a new blessing! I love you all! always remember to look for the good all around you. No matter what the situation you can always learn something about how you can better yourself!
Love,
Elder Rice
June 8, 2015
Hey everybody!!
It has been another awesome week her in Pedra Noventa! The family of Nelia (the young girl who wanted to get baptized) is really starting to get involved in the gospel. This Sunday Nelia´s mom, Janaina, came to church! It was so awesome to see her there and I could tell that she enjoyed it. In between some of the meeting Janaina was talking with one of the members and told them that she got her family together one night to have a scripture study from the Book of Mormon and that they had a family prayer! When I heard that I got so excited. Whenever people start to read the Book of Mormon with the intent to actually understand it changes began to occur in their lives. If Janaina keeps pushing her family to read and come to church it will bless their lives greatly. The only obstacle with them right now is Janaina´s husband Samuel. He is a great guy, but he is kind of indifferent about trying to learn and change with the gospel. He is just content to hear the message.
This week we also found some other peopel who are incredible! One man who´s name is Edson really seems special. We taught him the restoration yesterday and the entire time he was so attentive to what we were saying. At the end of the lesson he had some great questions and said that he would pray about the truthfulness of our message. Tonight we are going to teach him about the Book of Mormon and invite him to read. I always love teaching about the Book of Mormon because it is such a powerful tool to receive an answer about the truthfulness of our message. If the book is true, then so is our church it is that simple.
Everyday I gain a new appreciation for missionary life. There is so much to learn in this life and a mission is such a great place to do it. For two years you spend everyday thinking and working to help others. Nothing that you do as a missionary is for you, it’s all about others. And ironically, the more you focus on others the more you grow yourself. When we look to the example of Christ we can see that in his life he never made one selfish action. He was always focused on others and did everything out of love. To really be a disciple of Christ we must try to put as much of our time and attention to those people around us and as we do this we will grow and learn in a way you cannot accomplish if you focus on yourself. Always remember that as you serve others you are in the service of your God. Think about that and read Mosiah 5:13. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Fique firme!!
Love,
Hey everybody!!
It has been another awesome week her in Pedra Noventa! The family of Nelia (the young girl who wanted to get baptized) is really starting to get involved in the gospel. This Sunday Nelia´s mom, Janaina, came to church! It was so awesome to see her there and I could tell that she enjoyed it. In between some of the meeting Janaina was talking with one of the members and told them that she got her family together one night to have a scripture study from the Book of Mormon and that they had a family prayer! When I heard that I got so excited. Whenever people start to read the Book of Mormon with the intent to actually understand it changes began to occur in their lives. If Janaina keeps pushing her family to read and come to church it will bless their lives greatly. The only obstacle with them right now is Janaina´s husband Samuel. He is a great guy, but he is kind of indifferent about trying to learn and change with the gospel. He is just content to hear the message.
This week we also found some other peopel who are incredible! One man who´s name is Edson really seems special. We taught him the restoration yesterday and the entire time he was so attentive to what we were saying. At the end of the lesson he had some great questions and said that he would pray about the truthfulness of our message. Tonight we are going to teach him about the Book of Mormon and invite him to read. I always love teaching about the Book of Mormon because it is such a powerful tool to receive an answer about the truthfulness of our message. If the book is true, then so is our church it is that simple.
Everyday I gain a new appreciation for missionary life. There is so much to learn in this life and a mission is such a great place to do it. For two years you spend everyday thinking and working to help others. Nothing that you do as a missionary is for you, it’s all about others. And ironically, the more you focus on others the more you grow yourself. When we look to the example of Christ we can see that in his life he never made one selfish action. He was always focused on others and did everything out of love. To really be a disciple of Christ we must try to put as much of our time and attention to those people around us and as we do this we will grow and learn in a way you cannot accomplish if you focus on yourself. Always remember that as you serve others you are in the service of your God. Think about that and read Mosiah 5:13. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Fique firme!!
Love,
June 1, 2015
Hey Everybody!
This week was awesome! Elder Tibbitts and I have been working really hard to start getting some progress with investigators. And we finally have one progressing investigator, but she is only 9 years old... I´m not really a big fan of baptizing little kids becuase it is almost guarenteed that they will go inactive, but I think that this could be good. Yesterday Nelia (our investigator) and two of her siblings (they are both less active) came to church and they all loved it. It was awesome to have them there. Next week their parents said they would come as well. This family is super open to hearing our message and seems like they have a desire to follow the example of Christ more closely. I hope things progress with them and they are able to fully recieve the Gospel. A lot of times people are happy to hear our message and believe that what we are saying is the word of God and even that the Book of Mormon is the word of God but have no desire to change. I just hope that the spirit touches this family so they can all become active in the church together. If the parents get baptized I am sure they will all be able to stay active, the only problem is that they have to get married first... There are very few people in Brazil who are legally married.
Other than this awesome family we have some other very promising investigators. It seems like this last week all the hard work Elder Tibbitts and I put in finally paid off. We have taught a ton of lessons this week and now we are just trying to get some of the members in our lessons too. The message of the Gospel is so special and so powerful, and we want to present it in the best way possible so everyone can enjoy the blessings that come from it.
The mission is so awesome in so many ways, it gives you the opportunity to be immersed in the gospel and always serve others. Everyday I feel that I learn something new. Something that I have realized is the most selfish thing that you can do is to be selfless. When you spend your day in the service of others not only do you learn from your experiences with the people you are serving but God blesses you beyond measure. And when you feel you don´t have the capacity to work any more just thinking about the people you will help is more than enough to conquer any bad attitude. Those who keep the commandments and lose them selves in the service of others will always be ``blessed and happy`` Mosiah (2:41). So you if feel a little down, forget about whatever it was that happened and do someting nice for someone else! I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Look for opportunities to serve!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!
This week was awesome! Elder Tibbitts and I have been working really hard to start getting some progress with investigators. And we finally have one progressing investigator, but she is only 9 years old... I´m not really a big fan of baptizing little kids becuase it is almost guarenteed that they will go inactive, but I think that this could be good. Yesterday Nelia (our investigator) and two of her siblings (they are both less active) came to church and they all loved it. It was awesome to have them there. Next week their parents said they would come as well. This family is super open to hearing our message and seems like they have a desire to follow the example of Christ more closely. I hope things progress with them and they are able to fully recieve the Gospel. A lot of times people are happy to hear our message and believe that what we are saying is the word of God and even that the Book of Mormon is the word of God but have no desire to change. I just hope that the spirit touches this family so they can all become active in the church together. If the parents get baptized I am sure they will all be able to stay active, the only problem is that they have to get married first... There are very few people in Brazil who are legally married.
Other than this awesome family we have some other very promising investigators. It seems like this last week all the hard work Elder Tibbitts and I put in finally paid off. We have taught a ton of lessons this week and now we are just trying to get some of the members in our lessons too. The message of the Gospel is so special and so powerful, and we want to present it in the best way possible so everyone can enjoy the blessings that come from it.
The mission is so awesome in so many ways, it gives you the opportunity to be immersed in the gospel and always serve others. Everyday I feel that I learn something new. Something that I have realized is the most selfish thing that you can do is to be selfless. When you spend your day in the service of others not only do you learn from your experiences with the people you are serving but God blesses you beyond measure. And when you feel you don´t have the capacity to work any more just thinking about the people you will help is more than enough to conquer any bad attitude. Those who keep the commandments and lose them selves in the service of others will always be ``blessed and happy`` Mosiah (2:41). So you if feel a little down, forget about whatever it was that happened and do someting nice for someone else! I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Look for opportunities to serve!
Love,
Elder Rice
Monday, May 25, 2015
Hey Everybody!
It has been another good week here in Brazil! Elder Tibbitts and I have been trying to find some people who are ready to accept the Gospel. Right now we don´t have any progressing investigators and some people who we had found that seemed really interested in our message, now seem indifferent. This is something that can be really difficult at times. The only reason that Elder Tibbitts and I are here on the mission is to help others be happy. That is honestly all it is, we just want everyone to be happy. You´d think with a purpose like that people would be lining up to hear what we have to say. Unfortunately though others don´t quite understand our purpose.
This week we have really just been trying to find people. We have been working a lot with less active families. Its kinda crazy how many less actives there are. Just in this ward here in Pedra Noventa there are probably 150-200 less active members and only 50 that are active. We like to work with them less actives because we hope to be able to bring them and all of their friends back to church haha! But sometimes the less actives are just as indifferent about coming back to church as our investigators. I am hopeful for this next week though, Elder Tibbitts likes to work hard and is determined to find those who have been prepared by God.
This morning I was reading in 1 nephi 15 and I found a verse that i really liked. It is verse 24. Nephi explains the significance of the iron rod as the word of God, he then tells his brothers that those who hold tight to the word of God will never perish and the fiery darts of the adversary cannot bring them to destruction. I love it when the scripture talk simply. If we hold to the word of God we will never perish, and the Devil will have no power over us. So lets hold to the word of God and make the Devil powerless!
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
It has been another good week here in Brazil! Elder Tibbitts and I have been trying to find some people who are ready to accept the Gospel. Right now we don´t have any progressing investigators and some people who we had found that seemed really interested in our message, now seem indifferent. This is something that can be really difficult at times. The only reason that Elder Tibbitts and I are here on the mission is to help others be happy. That is honestly all it is, we just want everyone to be happy. You´d think with a purpose like that people would be lining up to hear what we have to say. Unfortunately though others don´t quite understand our purpose.
This week we have really just been trying to find people. We have been working a lot with less active families. Its kinda crazy how many less actives there are. Just in this ward here in Pedra Noventa there are probably 150-200 less active members and only 50 that are active. We like to work with them less actives because we hope to be able to bring them and all of their friends back to church haha! But sometimes the less actives are just as indifferent about coming back to church as our investigators. I am hopeful for this next week though, Elder Tibbitts likes to work hard and is determined to find those who have been prepared by God.
This morning I was reading in 1 nephi 15 and I found a verse that i really liked. It is verse 24. Nephi explains the significance of the iron rod as the word of God, he then tells his brothers that those who hold tight to the word of God will never perish and the fiery darts of the adversary cannot bring them to destruction. I love it when the scripture talk simply. If we hold to the word of God we will never perish, and the Devil will have no power over us. So lets hold to the word of God and make the Devil powerless!
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Rice
May 18, 2015
Hey everybody!
This week has been awesome! My new companion Elder Tibbitts is great! He works hard and effectively. That is something that I am learning more about now. You could be a hard working missionary, go out and knock doors all day, but it wouldn´t be the most effective thing to be doing all day. During different hours of the day there are different activities that are best. Also it is important to always try and involve the members in the work that you are doing. This is something that we are striving to do now. I think will help to bring miracles for us! Members are the key to keeping converts in the church.
This week we had a few really cool experiences. One of them was with a man named Benjamin. He is a little bit older and lives with a lot of other members of his extended family. We met him while we were trying to find a less active member. We explained who we were as missionaries and asked if we could come back and visit him. He was really happy and said that he would love for us to come and visit him. So we left him with a Book of Mormon and told him to read from it. The next time that we saw him he said that he read and really enjoyed it. He told us he felt good while he was reading and we explained to him that it was the Holy Ghost testifying of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Benjamin just has a humble soul and is so open to learning about our message. It feels so good to be able to teach people who are willing to listen and accept the word of God.
Yesterday and today I was thinking a lot about forgiveness. There is a less active member who had many horrible things happen to her and her family and she harbors so much hate and resentment about these actions. It is so unfortunate to see, becuase as terrible as the things that happened were, she will always carry it with her until she learns to just forgive and turn everything over to the Savior. These things happened about 5 years ago, but when she talks about it, it sounds like it was just the other day. You can hear the pain she has in her heart when she talks about it. I wish that I could just take the burden away from her and make her forget all the pain. But she is the only one that can do that. Even though she was wronged in the past now she is just hurting herself but holding on to these feelings. She needs to forgive and let these feelings of hate and anger leave or she will just continue to suffer. It is so difficult to see someone like this. But we must do as Christ commands and love everyone even our enimies Matt 5:43-45.
I love you all and hope that you have a good week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey everybody!
This week has been awesome! My new companion Elder Tibbitts is great! He works hard and effectively. That is something that I am learning more about now. You could be a hard working missionary, go out and knock doors all day, but it wouldn´t be the most effective thing to be doing all day. During different hours of the day there are different activities that are best. Also it is important to always try and involve the members in the work that you are doing. This is something that we are striving to do now. I think will help to bring miracles for us! Members are the key to keeping converts in the church.
This week we had a few really cool experiences. One of them was with a man named Benjamin. He is a little bit older and lives with a lot of other members of his extended family. We met him while we were trying to find a less active member. We explained who we were as missionaries and asked if we could come back and visit him. He was really happy and said that he would love for us to come and visit him. So we left him with a Book of Mormon and told him to read from it. The next time that we saw him he said that he read and really enjoyed it. He told us he felt good while he was reading and we explained to him that it was the Holy Ghost testifying of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Benjamin just has a humble soul and is so open to learning about our message. It feels so good to be able to teach people who are willing to listen and accept the word of God.
Yesterday and today I was thinking a lot about forgiveness. There is a less active member who had many horrible things happen to her and her family and she harbors so much hate and resentment about these actions. It is so unfortunate to see, becuase as terrible as the things that happened were, she will always carry it with her until she learns to just forgive and turn everything over to the Savior. These things happened about 5 years ago, but when she talks about it, it sounds like it was just the other day. You can hear the pain she has in her heart when she talks about it. I wish that I could just take the burden away from her and make her forget all the pain. But she is the only one that can do that. Even though she was wronged in the past now she is just hurting herself but holding on to these feelings. She needs to forgive and let these feelings of hate and anger leave or she will just continue to suffer. It is so difficult to see someone like this. But we must do as Christ commands and love everyone even our enimies Matt 5:43-45.
I love you all and hope that you have a good week!
Love,
Elder Rice
May 11, 2015
Hey Everybody!
This week was pretty crazy! I was able to celebrate my birthday, have a baptism, send a missionary home and have an awesome exchange with one of my zone leaders.
This week was the last week of the mission for my companion Elder Machado. He was a great companion for me. I learned so much from him. He was such a genuine and loving person, All of the members felt like he was a part of their family and were very sad to see him leave. He taught me the importance of loving others and getting to know them personally so you can teach them the Gospel in a way that will help them the best. Last night we said a final goodbye and he left to stay in the mission home for the night. It was a little strange to be sending someone home when it feels like I have just started my mission.
This Friday, on my birthday, we were able to have a baptism! It was a great experience and i think that Marcos really enjoyed it. Unfortunately though there were no members at the baptism. One thing we need to help the wards with is welcoming new people and making them feel at home. But the baptism was good and afterward I went on exchanges with Elder Rocha. Elder Rocha is awesome! He is one of my zone leaders and is such a great example of a good missionary. A lot of the missionaries here in Brazil use the laid back culture as a little bit of an excuse to be relaxed about studies, work and rules in general. But when I am with him we work hard, and I can feel the spirit so strongly. He is also super nice. He found out it was my birthday so for dinner he took me to this all you can eat pizza place. Because it was my birthday my meal was free! I had 14 pieces of pizza... it was so good. And as we were about to leave some of the workers came out and started singing happy birthday to me. They were shouting and beating drums it was pretty crazy! It was nice to have such a good birthday while I was on the mission and the best part was just working hard with Elder Rocha!
Last night we found out about transfers. My new companion is Elder Tibbetts and I will be staying here in Pedra Noventa. I have heard that he is a hard working and obedient missionary, so I hope that this next transfer will be a good one! I love you all and hope that you all have a good week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!
This week was pretty crazy! I was able to celebrate my birthday, have a baptism, send a missionary home and have an awesome exchange with one of my zone leaders.
This week was the last week of the mission for my companion Elder Machado. He was a great companion for me. I learned so much from him. He was such a genuine and loving person, All of the members felt like he was a part of their family and were very sad to see him leave. He taught me the importance of loving others and getting to know them personally so you can teach them the Gospel in a way that will help them the best. Last night we said a final goodbye and he left to stay in the mission home for the night. It was a little strange to be sending someone home when it feels like I have just started my mission.
This Friday, on my birthday, we were able to have a baptism! It was a great experience and i think that Marcos really enjoyed it. Unfortunately though there were no members at the baptism. One thing we need to help the wards with is welcoming new people and making them feel at home. But the baptism was good and afterward I went on exchanges with Elder Rocha. Elder Rocha is awesome! He is one of my zone leaders and is such a great example of a good missionary. A lot of the missionaries here in Brazil use the laid back culture as a little bit of an excuse to be relaxed about studies, work and rules in general. But when I am with him we work hard, and I can feel the spirit so strongly. He is also super nice. He found out it was my birthday so for dinner he took me to this all you can eat pizza place. Because it was my birthday my meal was free! I had 14 pieces of pizza... it was so good. And as we were about to leave some of the workers came out and started singing happy birthday to me. They were shouting and beating drums it was pretty crazy! It was nice to have such a good birthday while I was on the mission and the best part was just working hard with Elder Rocha!
Last night we found out about transfers. My new companion is Elder Tibbetts and I will be staying here in Pedra Noventa. I have heard that he is a hard working and obedient missionary, so I hope that this next transfer will be a good one! I love you all and hope that you all have a good week!
Love,
Elder Rice
May 4, 2015
Hey Everybody!!!
This week has been good! We are helping to reactivate a family and we will hopefully baptize their son this Friday! The parents/ names are Cilianne and Wendell unfortunately they are not married and Wendell isn´t a member but that will change. Right now they just have one son living with them, Marcos, he is 8 years old. Every time we go over there they tell us that they want to get back in to the church and change their habits. They are such an awesome family and we always feel good with them.
This week though we had an interesting lesson with them. Since we are preparing their son, Marcos, for baptism this Friday we planned on focusing on him and making sure that he understood everything. We said a prayer and then we asked Marcos to get the pamphlet that talks about the Gospel of Jesus Christ so we could talk about it. Marcos didn´t move and then he just started crying and wouldn´t stop. And I just thought, ´´oh wow, what just happened´´ we tried to talk to him but he just wouldn´t listen and kept crying. then Wendell said to Cilianne, ´´why are you making him get baptized he doesn´t want to´´ and she said ´´yes he does we talked about it´´ and they argued a little more and he kept crying. so I kind of just felt like everything was falling apart. but I just stood up and went over took Marcos and tried to talk to him in broken Portuguese. I showed him a picture of Christ and asked him how he felt when he looked at it. he calmed down a little bit and I told him to follow me. then I had him stand in front of a fan as we taught him about faith and how even though we can´t see the wind we can still feel it. just like we can feel Christ in our lives. After this Cilianne took him aside and talked to him about what was bothering him and he was all better! The rest of the lesson went well and I felt so good! I was so glad to be able to have this teaching experience, becuase most of the time I just sit there and listen to what everyone says and have no idea what is happening. Sometimes it feels like I don´t really contribute so it felt good to know that I helped Marcos a little bit.
Then this Sunday Marcos and Wendell came to church and they both enjoyed it. It felt so good to know that they liked it and wanted to come back to feel the spirit. I also had the chance to bear my testimony, which was awesome.
I feel so much love among the people here and they need a lot of help so they can be guided to the right path. I think it is important that we remember what Christ says in John 8:29 ´´and he that sent me is with me: the father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him´´ just as Christ we were sent here by the Father as well, we have a different purpose but we too have not been left alone. We have family, friends the support of the church and most importantly the Holy Ghost. We never have to feel alone in this life if we just do those things that please our Father. I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Rice
Hey Everybody!!!
This week has been good! We are helping to reactivate a family and we will hopefully baptize their son this Friday! The parents/ names are Cilianne and Wendell unfortunately they are not married and Wendell isn´t a member but that will change. Right now they just have one son living with them, Marcos, he is 8 years old. Every time we go over there they tell us that they want to get back in to the church and change their habits. They are such an awesome family and we always feel good with them.
This week though we had an interesting lesson with them. Since we are preparing their son, Marcos, for baptism this Friday we planned on focusing on him and making sure that he understood everything. We said a prayer and then we asked Marcos to get the pamphlet that talks about the Gospel of Jesus Christ so we could talk about it. Marcos didn´t move and then he just started crying and wouldn´t stop. And I just thought, ´´oh wow, what just happened´´ we tried to talk to him but he just wouldn´t listen and kept crying. then Wendell said to Cilianne, ´´why are you making him get baptized he doesn´t want to´´ and she said ´´yes he does we talked about it´´ and they argued a little more and he kept crying. so I kind of just felt like everything was falling apart. but I just stood up and went over took Marcos and tried to talk to him in broken Portuguese. I showed him a picture of Christ and asked him how he felt when he looked at it. he calmed down a little bit and I told him to follow me. then I had him stand in front of a fan as we taught him about faith and how even though we can´t see the wind we can still feel it. just like we can feel Christ in our lives. After this Cilianne took him aside and talked to him about what was bothering him and he was all better! The rest of the lesson went well and I felt so good! I was so glad to be able to have this teaching experience, becuase most of the time I just sit there and listen to what everyone says and have no idea what is happening. Sometimes it feels like I don´t really contribute so it felt good to know that I helped Marcos a little bit.
Then this Sunday Marcos and Wendell came to church and they both enjoyed it. It felt so good to know that they liked it and wanted to come back to feel the spirit. I also had the chance to bear my testimony, which was awesome.
I feel so much love among the people here and they need a lot of help so they can be guided to the right path. I think it is important that we remember what Christ says in John 8:29 ´´and he that sent me is with me: the father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him´´ just as Christ we were sent here by the Father as well, we have a different purpose but we too have not been left alone. We have family, friends the support of the church and most importantly the Holy Ghost. We never have to feel alone in this life if we just do those things that please our Father. I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Rice
Monday, April 27, 2015
Hey everybody!
So many great opportunities this week! Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and spoke to some of the missionaries serving near Cuiaba. It was such an amazing opportunity to hear him speak in person. Before the meeting he had all the missionaries come up and shake his hand. We also got to hear from the Presiding Bishop and a member of the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy. It was basically a mini general conference in Cuiaba! it was super cool!
Elder Clayton (the member of the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy) talked about when Christ asked his disciples ´´whom say ye that I am´´ and Peter replied saying ´´Thou art Christ the Son of God´´.
Elder Clayton went on to explain that we too must answer this question, and that we answer this questions through our actions. If we want to be able to stand before Christ and tell him that we know he is the son of God then we too must be able to stand for righteousness in all times and places. Whether that be in the morning or evening when we have the chance to read the scriptures or when we are out in public and we have to stand up for our beliefs. All of the actions that we take answer this question. I really enjoyed what he said and felt the spirit as he spoke.
Elder Christofferson was the last one to speak and to be honest I don´t remember much of what he said but I do remember being impressed with the kindness in his eyes, and the love on his face. As he spoke I felt like he spoke to me and I just felt that he was a man of God.
I love this church and the wonderful men that we have as leaders. It is such a blessing to know that there are prophets who live today and that can reveal the secrets of the lord to his people (Amos 3:7)
One last things that I would like to share is a parable that I came across this week while I was studying. It is the parable of the two sons and their father found in Matthew 21:28-30. In this parable there are two sons who are asked to go work in the vineyard. The first says that he does not want to, but then repents and goes to work. The second son says that he will go, but then does not go. Out of these two sons the first one did the will of his father. At first it was not what he wanted to do but he repented and went to work. Likewise there are times when we do not want to do Heavenly Father´s will, and this is okay, as long as we realize our mistake and go to work. God does not expect us to be perfect he only expects us to try and correct our mistakes. Heavenly father loves us all very much, I know this and this is why I am so happy to try and share the message of the gospel.
I love you all and hope you have a good week!
Love,
Elder Rice
So many great opportunities this week! Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and spoke to some of the missionaries serving near Cuiaba. It was such an amazing opportunity to hear him speak in person. Before the meeting he had all the missionaries come up and shake his hand. We also got to hear from the Presiding Bishop and a member of the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy. It was basically a mini general conference in Cuiaba! it was super cool!
Elder Clayton (the member of the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy) talked about when Christ asked his disciples ´´whom say ye that I am´´ and Peter replied saying ´´Thou art Christ the Son of God´´.
Elder Clayton went on to explain that we too must answer this question, and that we answer this questions through our actions. If we want to be able to stand before Christ and tell him that we know he is the son of God then we too must be able to stand for righteousness in all times and places. Whether that be in the morning or evening when we have the chance to read the scriptures or when we are out in public and we have to stand up for our beliefs. All of the actions that we take answer this question. I really enjoyed what he said and felt the spirit as he spoke.
Elder Christofferson was the last one to speak and to be honest I don´t remember much of what he said but I do remember being impressed with the kindness in his eyes, and the love on his face. As he spoke I felt like he spoke to me and I just felt that he was a man of God.
I love this church and the wonderful men that we have as leaders. It is such a blessing to know that there are prophets who live today and that can reveal the secrets of the lord to his people (Amos 3:7)
One last things that I would like to share is a parable that I came across this week while I was studying. It is the parable of the two sons and their father found in Matthew 21:28-30. In this parable there are two sons who are asked to go work in the vineyard. The first says that he does not want to, but then repents and goes to work. The second son says that he will go, but then does not go. Out of these two sons the first one did the will of his father. At first it was not what he wanted to do but he repented and went to work. Likewise there are times when we do not want to do Heavenly Father´s will, and this is okay, as long as we realize our mistake and go to work. God does not expect us to be perfect he only expects us to try and correct our mistakes. Heavenly father loves us all very much, I know this and this is why I am so happy to try and share the message of the gospel.
I love you all and hope you have a good week!
Love,
Elder Rice
Monday, April 20, 2015
Hi Everybody,
My week has been really good! This week we found a young man named Lucas who was interested in hearing what we had to say. He seems to really like the message but with Brazilians sometimes it’s hard to tell if they are feeling the spirit or just being agreeable. He came to church and enjoyed the meeting. He gets along well with a recent convert named Adrian, so hopefully they will be able to make a friendship that helps him feel welcomed to the ward.
We also found a less active family who was baptized a few years ago and then just kind of stopped coming to church. It’s sad that so many Brazilians accept the gospel so willingly but then don´t hold to it. The Gospel truly is the one thing in this world that can bring peace and joy to our lives. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have struggles but we will come to know a fullness of joy in this life only through the gospel.
I love the church so much, and the more you give to it the more you will get. Do not hold anything back from God, once we truly give up ourselves and all of our unrighteous desires to him, then we come to know his will and want what he would want for us in our lives. I am trying so hard right now to know what his will is for me. I want to be able to stand before him one day and know I did what he wanted me to. It is not easy but I know if I persist in my efforts to know him he will reward me. Of course I have had struggles as well but they are all helping me to learn and grow. I love Brazil and want to make the most of my time here!
I love you all!!!
Elder Rice
My week has been really good! This week we found a young man named Lucas who was interested in hearing what we had to say. He seems to really like the message but with Brazilians sometimes it’s hard to tell if they are feeling the spirit or just being agreeable. He came to church and enjoyed the meeting. He gets along well with a recent convert named Adrian, so hopefully they will be able to make a friendship that helps him feel welcomed to the ward.
We also found a less active family who was baptized a few years ago and then just kind of stopped coming to church. It’s sad that so many Brazilians accept the gospel so willingly but then don´t hold to it. The Gospel truly is the one thing in this world that can bring peace and joy to our lives. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have struggles but we will come to know a fullness of joy in this life only through the gospel.
I love the church so much, and the more you give to it the more you will get. Do not hold anything back from God, once we truly give up ourselves and all of our unrighteous desires to him, then we come to know his will and want what he would want for us in our lives. I am trying so hard right now to know what his will is for me. I want to be able to stand before him one day and know I did what he wanted me to. It is not easy but I know if I persist in my efforts to know him he will reward me. Of course I have had struggles as well but they are all helping me to learn and grow. I love Brazil and want to make the most of my time here!
I love you all!!!
Elder Rice
April 13, 2015
Hey Everyone!!
So much has happened in the past two weeks there is no way that I can fit it all into one little email! It took about 48 hours of travel to finally get to my new area in Brazil. I am in a small satellite city of Cuiaba called Pedra Noventa. The people here are very, very poor. My companion who leaves after this transfer said that this is the poorest area he has been in.
Now I want to tell you a little bit about the people. Like I had mentioned they are super poor, the poorest people here basically just live in big wooden shacks that are just two rooms. One has a stove to cook and a refrigerator and the other has a bed to sleep. The nicer houses here are made of brick but are still very small. Despite the financial difficulties of the people they all want to feed the missionaries. They are sooo loving. The sisters argue over who feeds us the most. We get feed for lunch and dinner almost every day. The big meal here is lunch, so we always have that with a member but so far this last week they fed us dinner every night as well. If anyone was worried about me losing weight you don´t need to! Oh and the members try to talk to me but I pretty much have no idea what anybody is saying ever. Occasionally I can pick up on a few words and understand what they are talking about but for the most part I have no idea.... But I can still feel their love.
My companion is Elder Machado. He is great, I already feel like we are friends and he is easy to talk to about anything. The biggest thing he is helping me to understand right now is to work with the spirit. He is so in tune and it seems like he always knows what the Lord wants us to be doing. I can tell that I have a lot that I can learn from him, and I look forward to the short time I have with him before he goes home. (this is his last transfer)
There is so much I want to tell you all about but just know that I am loving Brazil. There are some things that take a little getting used to, like not having any water for the past 3 days and electricity that shuts off randomly, but it is great here!
I love you all!
Elder Rice
Hey Everyone!!
So much has happened in the past two weeks there is no way that I can fit it all into one little email! It took about 48 hours of travel to finally get to my new area in Brazil. I am in a small satellite city of Cuiaba called Pedra Noventa. The people here are very, very poor. My companion who leaves after this transfer said that this is the poorest area he has been in.
Now I want to tell you a little bit about the people. Like I had mentioned they are super poor, the poorest people here basically just live in big wooden shacks that are just two rooms. One has a stove to cook and a refrigerator and the other has a bed to sleep. The nicer houses here are made of brick but are still very small. Despite the financial difficulties of the people they all want to feed the missionaries. They are sooo loving. The sisters argue over who feeds us the most. We get feed for lunch and dinner almost every day. The big meal here is lunch, so we always have that with a member but so far this last week they fed us dinner every night as well. If anyone was worried about me losing weight you don´t need to! Oh and the members try to talk to me but I pretty much have no idea what anybody is saying ever. Occasionally I can pick up on a few words and understand what they are talking about but for the most part I have no idea.... But I can still feel their love.
My companion is Elder Machado. He is great, I already feel like we are friends and he is easy to talk to about anything. The biggest thing he is helping me to understand right now is to work with the spirit. He is so in tune and it seems like he always knows what the Lord wants us to be doing. I can tell that I have a lot that I can learn from him, and I look forward to the short time I have with him before he goes home. (this is his last transfer)
There is so much I want to tell you all about but just know that I am loving Brazil. There are some things that take a little getting used to, like not having any water for the past 3 days and electricity that shuts off randomly, but it is great here!
I love you all!
Elder Rice
March 23, 2015
Hey Everyone!
Only two more weeks until I leave for Brazil! I can't believe that I am finally going to go to Brazil, it’s crazy and I'm not really sure what to expect! But I'm super excited
So this week Elder Holomon and I have been able to stay pretty busy and we gave quite a bit of service which isn't something we get to do that often. We chopped some wood, helped out a returned senior couple, and lifted heavy stuff! It was great. We also had some great teaching opportunities. While I have been out these past few weeks I have given more blessings than I ever thought I would. It has been incredible to see how they help people heal according to their faith and to see how the priesthood can touch other peoples lives! One of these opportunities was with a man named Gerald Anaya. He is living in extremely humble circumstances and can't work, because of a back injury which he had to have surgery on. The day before the surgery we went over to share a message with him and give him a blessing. He was very excited to see us and couldn't wait to recieve the blessing. After we gave him a blessing he couldn't stop smiling and he said that he felt the spirit in him. I was so happy to see him recognize the spirit like that. He had his surgery and the next day we saw him. The doctors said it would take a week or so to recover but the next day he was up and feeling great! He knew it was because of the blessing and is looking forward to having us return and talk to him.
It is so great to be able to have experiences like this with complete strangers. The spirit speaks a universal language of love that is easy to understand. I feel so blessed to be able to be a missionary.
I hope you all have a great week, I love you all!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everyone!
Only two more weeks until I leave for Brazil! I can't believe that I am finally going to go to Brazil, it’s crazy and I'm not really sure what to expect! But I'm super excited
So this week Elder Holomon and I have been able to stay pretty busy and we gave quite a bit of service which isn't something we get to do that often. We chopped some wood, helped out a returned senior couple, and lifted heavy stuff! It was great. We also had some great teaching opportunities. While I have been out these past few weeks I have given more blessings than I ever thought I would. It has been incredible to see how they help people heal according to their faith and to see how the priesthood can touch other peoples lives! One of these opportunities was with a man named Gerald Anaya. He is living in extremely humble circumstances and can't work, because of a back injury which he had to have surgery on. The day before the surgery we went over to share a message with him and give him a blessing. He was very excited to see us and couldn't wait to recieve the blessing. After we gave him a blessing he couldn't stop smiling and he said that he felt the spirit in him. I was so happy to see him recognize the spirit like that. He had his surgery and the next day we saw him. The doctors said it would take a week or so to recover but the next day he was up and feeling great! He knew it was because of the blessing and is looking forward to having us return and talk to him.
It is so great to be able to have experiences like this with complete strangers. The spirit speaks a universal language of love that is easy to understand. I feel so blessed to be able to be a missionary.
I hope you all have a great week, I love you all!
Love,
Elder Rice
March 16, 2015
Hey Everyone,
This has been yet another awesome week! Farmington is so great. Even though I've only been here for a few weeks I can tell that it will be hard to leave it behind. I am starting to love everyone so much and I want to see them all become members of the church. There are so, so many people who are looking for the truth and I want them all to find it. Being out on a mission I look back on my life and see the countless ways that God has blessed me and my family and I am so grateful for that. The Gospel gives me so much peace and hope I could never live my life without it now, I've come to know too much joy with the gospel to ever turn away from it. I really can't express how much I love our church and its teaching. If you ever have doubts just read the Book of Mormon for 20 minutes a day and I promise all those doubts will go away.
This Sunday we had 7 investigators at church! It was crazy and one of them was a guy that we just invited to come that morning and he loved it. He told us he would be back next week with his wife!
One last thing that I want to share is something that I came across in my personal studies. I wish I could remember the scripture but I can’t... and I don’t have them with me so I can't look it up either. But it is in the Book of Jacob. Jacob is talking to the people and warning them of their sin and how they will be punished if they do not repent and then he talks about a few of the Lamanites who have been converted to the "true faith". And he says that the Lord would not waver because of their faith. In all of our lives there comes a point where we are converted to the Lord and the true faith. It’s not just the social aspects of the church, or that we are family centered, and we give service to others, as good as those things are, if we are not converted to the Lord and the true faith there will come times in our lives where we will waver. I am not quite to that point of conversion yet but I strive to get there every day, and every doubt or wavering thought that I overcome brings me one step closer. If you ever feel like you are wavering or doubting pray and study the scriptures for strength to overcome it and you will deepen the roots of your conversion until you get to the point where you will not waver because you are converted to the "true faith"
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Rice
Hey Everyone,
This has been yet another awesome week! Farmington is so great. Even though I've only been here for a few weeks I can tell that it will be hard to leave it behind. I am starting to love everyone so much and I want to see them all become members of the church. There are so, so many people who are looking for the truth and I want them all to find it. Being out on a mission I look back on my life and see the countless ways that God has blessed me and my family and I am so grateful for that. The Gospel gives me so much peace and hope I could never live my life without it now, I've come to know too much joy with the gospel to ever turn away from it. I really can't express how much I love our church and its teaching. If you ever have doubts just read the Book of Mormon for 20 minutes a day and I promise all those doubts will go away.
This Sunday we had 7 investigators at church! It was crazy and one of them was a guy that we just invited to come that morning and he loved it. He told us he would be back next week with his wife!
One last thing that I want to share is something that I came across in my personal studies. I wish I could remember the scripture but I can’t... and I don’t have them with me so I can't look it up either. But it is in the Book of Jacob. Jacob is talking to the people and warning them of their sin and how they will be punished if they do not repent and then he talks about a few of the Lamanites who have been converted to the "true faith". And he says that the Lord would not waver because of their faith. In all of our lives there comes a point where we are converted to the Lord and the true faith. It’s not just the social aspects of the church, or that we are family centered, and we give service to others, as good as those things are, if we are not converted to the Lord and the true faith there will come times in our lives where we will waver. I am not quite to that point of conversion yet but I strive to get there every day, and every doubt or wavering thought that I overcome brings me one step closer. If you ever feel like you are wavering or doubting pray and study the scriptures for strength to overcome it and you will deepen the roots of your conversion until you get to the point where you will not waver because you are converted to the "true faith"
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Rice
March 9, 2105
Hey Everyone!
This week has been awesome! One highlight of my week was when we went over to a part member family’s house. (The dad isn't a member but his whole family is). So first off Anthony (the dad) made some of the best ribs I have ever had, oh my gosh I could not stop eating they were so delicious! So we had an awesome dinner and then we shared a message with him. He has agreed to take the missionary lessons (and a quick cool back story on that. A member of the first quorum of the seventy invited him to take the lessons) and he is ready to hear everything that we have to teach. I think that it has been about 15-20 years since he married his wife and hasn't really been that interested in learning but now he is ready. And he says that he feels very comfortable with me and my companion and like he has just been waiting for us to teach him. Pretty cool. So we just talked briefly about the Book of Mormon and mentioned the restoration because we didn't have much time. But we are going to teach him the restoration on Thursday and commit him to baptism. I know he will accept and work toward being baptized. He is ready.
All it takes is to pray sincerely to God to know if what we are teaching is true. God doesn't lie and he wants us to know the truth so as we seek it diligently he will give it to us. Often times it isn't easy but I don't think it is supposed to be. The harder we work to earn something the more it means to us. So the more effort we put in to getting a testimony the more precious it will be to us and it will be harder for us to ever turn away from it! I love Heavenly Father and I know that he will answer all our prayers.
One scripture that I was reading this week that I really like is 2 Cor. 12:7-10. Paul is speaking and he is saying that he glories in his infirmities because when he is weak then he is strong. As we come before God and acknowledge our weaknesses he makes us stronger than we could ever be on our own. Let’s all turn to the Lord and pray that he may be a strength to us so we can be as strong as he wants us to be!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey Everyone!
This week has been awesome! One highlight of my week was when we went over to a part member family’s house. (The dad isn't a member but his whole family is). So first off Anthony (the dad) made some of the best ribs I have ever had, oh my gosh I could not stop eating they were so delicious! So we had an awesome dinner and then we shared a message with him. He has agreed to take the missionary lessons (and a quick cool back story on that. A member of the first quorum of the seventy invited him to take the lessons) and he is ready to hear everything that we have to teach. I think that it has been about 15-20 years since he married his wife and hasn't really been that interested in learning but now he is ready. And he says that he feels very comfortable with me and my companion and like he has just been waiting for us to teach him. Pretty cool. So we just talked briefly about the Book of Mormon and mentioned the restoration because we didn't have much time. But we are going to teach him the restoration on Thursday and commit him to baptism. I know he will accept and work toward being baptized. He is ready.
All it takes is to pray sincerely to God to know if what we are teaching is true. God doesn't lie and he wants us to know the truth so as we seek it diligently he will give it to us. Often times it isn't easy but I don't think it is supposed to be. The harder we work to earn something the more it means to us. So the more effort we put in to getting a testimony the more precious it will be to us and it will be harder for us to ever turn away from it! I love Heavenly Father and I know that he will answer all our prayers.
One scripture that I was reading this week that I really like is 2 Cor. 12:7-10. Paul is speaking and he is saying that he glories in his infirmities because when he is weak then he is strong. As we come before God and acknowledge our weaknesses he makes us stronger than we could ever be on our own. Let’s all turn to the Lord and pray that he may be a strength to us so we can be as strong as he wants us to be!
Love,
Elder Rice
February 24, 2015
Hi:
This is my first day in the Farmington Mission! it is great. The mission president, president Batt, is one of the nicest people i have ever met. He was so welcoming and made me feel like this was just where i needed to be. My trainers name is Elder Holomon. He is a really good guy and has done a great job of helping me get prepared so far. But i have barely even started yet. Anyway, President Batt told me to send a quick email to my parents to let you guys know that i have arrived safely. I feel good and am very healthy. And I’m not sure if i mentioned this before but when i read that i was going to be reassigned to Farmington New Mexico i felt the spirit distinctly as i read it and i just felt like there is a reason i have to be here, especially since the travel office received my visa while i was laid over in the airport. So after this transfer i will go to Brazil. They told me i would be leaving on April 6th. I'm excited to serve here and i can't wait to go to Brazil.
Love,
Elder Rice
Hi:
This is my first day in the Farmington Mission! it is great. The mission president, president Batt, is one of the nicest people i have ever met. He was so welcoming and made me feel like this was just where i needed to be. My trainers name is Elder Holomon. He is a really good guy and has done a great job of helping me get prepared so far. But i have barely even started yet. Anyway, President Batt told me to send a quick email to my parents to let you guys know that i have arrived safely. I feel good and am very healthy. And I’m not sure if i mentioned this before but when i read that i was going to be reassigned to Farmington New Mexico i felt the spirit distinctly as i read it and i just felt like there is a reason i have to be here, especially since the travel office received my visa while i was laid over in the airport. So after this transfer i will go to Brazil. They told me i would be leaving on April 6th. I'm excited to serve here and i can't wait to go to Brazil.
Love,
Elder Rice
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Hey Everyone!!!
Yet another awesome week at the MTC. This week we were able to celebrate Valentine's Day, although the MTC didn't celebrate it my district did! And it was awesome. We all wore pink, red and purple and put pink dots on our name tags. I’m not sure why but it was just a super awesome day, everyone was really happy and I taught some good lessons with my companion. As I have been in the MTC my teaching ability has grown so much. I have realized that the most important element to your lesson is getting to know and love your investigators. That is something that my companion and I have tried to improve on. Another thing that is a huge testimony of the truthfulness of this Gospel is how they are teaching us to teach. We honestly don't receive a ton of instruction as to how we are to teach. We are given guidelines and then told to simply teach by the spirit. Every teaching skill we learn is coupled by telling us to do it but the spirit. God knows all of his children and knows what they need to hear. So if in our lessons we listen to the spirit, God will tell us, by the power of the Holy Ghost, what to say. I have experienced this as I have had the opportunity to role play teaching situations. Even though it isn't "real" the spirit tells me what to say and what scriptures to share. It’s an incredible feeling when you walk out of a lesson and know that you weren't the one teaching but the spirit was. I pray every day that I may be able to have the spirit with me because without it I would not be able to do anything.
Another cool experience I was able to have with my district was the chance to fast for an Elder in our district. He is having some medical issues, the details of which you guys probably don't want to know... Anyway Elder Hoese suggested that we have a fast on his behalf and it was awesome. As I was fasting for him I felt an increase of love for him and I know that Elder Sanford (the elder we fasted for) could feel our love for him. He said that nowhere else in the world would he be able to receive the love and support that he got from us. I felt so special to be able to be a part of that. This week I have read and studied more about charity. In Moroni chapter 7 it says that if we don't have charity we are nothing, NOTHING. If we are incapable of loving others as Christ does we are nothing. That hit me very hard and motivated me to have more charity. Something else that hit me about charity was an answer to a question that my teacher gave me. I asked him if he had advice for me on how to be a better missionary and he just told me love. If I want to learn the language better I need to love the people more and it will come. If I want to work harder I need to love the Lord more. If I get home sick I need to love the culture more so I enjoy where I am at. If I just learn to love as Christ did I will be able to do his will and earn his trust. We all need to be filled with more love towards one another. I challenge everyone who reads this to get down on their knees every night and pray to be filled with love. I promise as you do you will have a greater joy and happiness in your life. It won't be easy sometimes to love others but it will always be worth it.
I love you all. Read Moroni Chapter 7 it talks about faith and charity and hope!
Love,
Elder Rice
Yet another awesome week at the MTC. This week we were able to celebrate Valentine's Day, although the MTC didn't celebrate it my district did! And it was awesome. We all wore pink, red and purple and put pink dots on our name tags. I’m not sure why but it was just a super awesome day, everyone was really happy and I taught some good lessons with my companion. As I have been in the MTC my teaching ability has grown so much. I have realized that the most important element to your lesson is getting to know and love your investigators. That is something that my companion and I have tried to improve on. Another thing that is a huge testimony of the truthfulness of this Gospel is how they are teaching us to teach. We honestly don't receive a ton of instruction as to how we are to teach. We are given guidelines and then told to simply teach by the spirit. Every teaching skill we learn is coupled by telling us to do it but the spirit. God knows all of his children and knows what they need to hear. So if in our lessons we listen to the spirit, God will tell us, by the power of the Holy Ghost, what to say. I have experienced this as I have had the opportunity to role play teaching situations. Even though it isn't "real" the spirit tells me what to say and what scriptures to share. It’s an incredible feeling when you walk out of a lesson and know that you weren't the one teaching but the spirit was. I pray every day that I may be able to have the spirit with me because without it I would not be able to do anything.
Another cool experience I was able to have with my district was the chance to fast for an Elder in our district. He is having some medical issues, the details of which you guys probably don't want to know... Anyway Elder Hoese suggested that we have a fast on his behalf and it was awesome. As I was fasting for him I felt an increase of love for him and I know that Elder Sanford (the elder we fasted for) could feel our love for him. He said that nowhere else in the world would he be able to receive the love and support that he got from us. I felt so special to be able to be a part of that. This week I have read and studied more about charity. In Moroni chapter 7 it says that if we don't have charity we are nothing, NOTHING. If we are incapable of loving others as Christ does we are nothing. That hit me very hard and motivated me to have more charity. Something else that hit me about charity was an answer to a question that my teacher gave me. I asked him if he had advice for me on how to be a better missionary and he just told me love. If I want to learn the language better I need to love the people more and it will come. If I want to work harder I need to love the Lord more. If I get home sick I need to love the culture more so I enjoy where I am at. If I just learn to love as Christ did I will be able to do his will and earn his trust. We all need to be filled with more love towards one another. I challenge everyone who reads this to get down on their knees every night and pray to be filled with love. I promise as you do you will have a greater joy and happiness in your life. It won't be easy sometimes to love others but it will always be worth it.
I love you all. Read Moroni Chapter 7 it talks about faith and charity and hope!
Love,
Elder Rice
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Hey Everyone!!!
Life in the MTC is good! We have had some really cool experiences. Oh and I was called as a district leader this past week. Yesterday everyone in our district did an English fast, so we only spoke Portuguese all day. It was difficult but I feel like I learned a lot. You learn so fast in the MTC. I know it is because the spirit is with us. The Holy Ghost is the best teacher.
Our zone also got three new districts this past week so it was fun to meet all the new missionaries coming in. And my district was able to host new incoming missionaries as well. It was super fun. We got to welcome them to the MTC and tell them how great it is going to be. Luckily all of the people I hosted didn't have families that cried a bunch at the curb. In fact one of them said good bye in about 30 seconds, I think it might have been a new MTC record!
I have also been reading the Book of Mormon a ton. The first day that we got here they challenged us to read the whole book by the end of our 6 weeks here. I am 30 pages away from finishing it and as I have read it my testimony as been strengthened so much. The Book of Mormon is a true book I can feel it every time I read from its pages.
Something that I want to share this week was a passage that I read in 3 Nephi when Christ was ministering to the Nephites. In Chapter 19 verses 19-23 Christ says a prayer on behalf of the Nephites. In his prayer he asks the Father to bless them with the Holy Ghost so that they can feel its influence. Out of all the things he could have prayed for he prayed for the Holy Ghost. I think that says a lot about how important it is that we have the Holy Ghost with us at all times. In a devotional we had Sunday night our speaker said that the Holy Ghost was a largely untapped resources by the members of the Church let alone the World. God's work can only progress if we have the spirit with us. So let us strive to be worthy of the Holy Ghost and pray for its influence. I love you all!!
Love,
Elder Rice
Life in the MTC is good! We have had some really cool experiences. Oh and I was called as a district leader this past week. Yesterday everyone in our district did an English fast, so we only spoke Portuguese all day. It was difficult but I feel like I learned a lot. You learn so fast in the MTC. I know it is because the spirit is with us. The Holy Ghost is the best teacher.
Our zone also got three new districts this past week so it was fun to meet all the new missionaries coming in. And my district was able to host new incoming missionaries as well. It was super fun. We got to welcome them to the MTC and tell them how great it is going to be. Luckily all of the people I hosted didn't have families that cried a bunch at the curb. In fact one of them said good bye in about 30 seconds, I think it might have been a new MTC record!
I have also been reading the Book of Mormon a ton. The first day that we got here they challenged us to read the whole book by the end of our 6 weeks here. I am 30 pages away from finishing it and as I have read it my testimony as been strengthened so much. The Book of Mormon is a true book I can feel it every time I read from its pages.
Something that I want to share this week was a passage that I read in 3 Nephi when Christ was ministering to the Nephites. In Chapter 19 verses 19-23 Christ says a prayer on behalf of the Nephites. In his prayer he asks the Father to bless them with the Holy Ghost so that they can feel its influence. Out of all the things he could have prayed for he prayed for the Holy Ghost. I think that says a lot about how important it is that we have the Holy Ghost with us at all times. In a devotional we had Sunday night our speaker said that the Holy Ghost was a largely untapped resources by the members of the Church let alone the World. God's work can only progress if we have the spirit with us. So let us strive to be worthy of the Holy Ghost and pray for its influence. I love you all!!
Love,
Elder Rice
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Hey Everyone!
Yet another awesome week at the MTC!! The MTC is such an amazing place because of its spirituality and the awesome people inside of it. I have some amazing brothers and sisters in my district and I feel blessed to be able to serve beside them for this short period of time.
My companion, Elder Nelson, and I are becoming closer than ever. We try to get to know each other a little bit better every day. At times we both get on each other’s nerves but we feel blessed to be able to have each other as companions. We both want to work hard and try to express love to all of our investigators.
One thing that I really want to share with everyone at home is an impression that I had this week. More than ever as I feel the spirit more strongly I have an intense desire to change for the better so that I can serve others. While watching a video in class I felt such a strong desire to be a diligent servant of God. I have felt this before, it is a yearning or a hunger deep inside of me to come closer to God and be better for him and his children. The only problem though is that this feeling fades and with it my desire to be diligent in my service to God. After class I talked with my teacher about how I can keep this desire burning inside me so that I will always be motivated to do right by God and serve others. He told me about a phrase they say in Brazil which is to feed your feelings. To feed your feelings is to make them grow. If you feed feelings of hate or anger you will hold grudges for years and be bitter over small disputes. While on the other hand if we feed righteous desires and feelings of love we will feel and increased desire to serve and love others. That is the key to act on the feeling you have immediately after feeling them and then continue to feed them for a life time.
As I was doing some personal study I read over Ether chapter 12. There are many great scriptures in this chapter but the one that really impressed me was verse 27, which says that God gives us weakness so that we can be made strong in him. I believe that this is the biggest way that we can feed our righteous desire. To recognize before God all the weaknesses we have then ask him to help us improve. It is not always easy to see our fault but I know that God can strengthen us to do all things. I have made a list of my weaknesses and every week I try to work on one of them praying to God that he will help me. I pray that all of you will feed your righteous desires and come closer to God. I love you all!!! Soooo much!
Love,
Elder Rice
Yet another awesome week at the MTC!! The MTC is such an amazing place because of its spirituality and the awesome people inside of it. I have some amazing brothers and sisters in my district and I feel blessed to be able to serve beside them for this short period of time.
My companion, Elder Nelson, and I are becoming closer than ever. We try to get to know each other a little bit better every day. At times we both get on each other’s nerves but we feel blessed to be able to have each other as companions. We both want to work hard and try to express love to all of our investigators.
One thing that I really want to share with everyone at home is an impression that I had this week. More than ever as I feel the spirit more strongly I have an intense desire to change for the better so that I can serve others. While watching a video in class I felt such a strong desire to be a diligent servant of God. I have felt this before, it is a yearning or a hunger deep inside of me to come closer to God and be better for him and his children. The only problem though is that this feeling fades and with it my desire to be diligent in my service to God. After class I talked with my teacher about how I can keep this desire burning inside me so that I will always be motivated to do right by God and serve others. He told me about a phrase they say in Brazil which is to feed your feelings. To feed your feelings is to make them grow. If you feed feelings of hate or anger you will hold grudges for years and be bitter over small disputes. While on the other hand if we feed righteous desires and feelings of love we will feel and increased desire to serve and love others. That is the key to act on the feeling you have immediately after feeling them and then continue to feed them for a life time.
As I was doing some personal study I read over Ether chapter 12. There are many great scriptures in this chapter but the one that really impressed me was verse 27, which says that God gives us weakness so that we can be made strong in him. I believe that this is the biggest way that we can feed our righteous desire. To recognize before God all the weaknesses we have then ask him to help us improve. It is not always easy to see our fault but I know that God can strengthen us to do all things. I have made a list of my weaknesses and every week I try to work on one of them praying to God that he will help me. I pray that all of you will feed your righteous desires and come closer to God. I love you all!!! Soooo much!
Love,
Elder Rice
1/27/15
Hi:
The MTC is awesome!! I just gets better every day! some pretty cool things happened this week. First off we got a new teacher her name is Sister Dangerfield, It a legit name I know. She is the best!! She is so happy all the time it’s ridiculous! She always has a smile on her face and you can’t help but be happy while you are around her. We still have Brother Machado as a teacher too. They switch off between teaching morning and evenings. I think they are the two best teachers in the MTC.
I don't know why our district is so blessed but I’m glad that we are. Some other pretty cool things happened this week as well. Our district was chosen to go and test out some new classrooms that they will be using at the MTC in a couple of years. Again I'm not sure why our district gets all the best stuff but we do and it’s awesome. The classroom was super nice it had big desks and nice chairs and was about 3x as big as our last classroom. I really wished we could have just gone there every day to learn.
As class was going on there was some guy watching us on the other side of a one-way mirror. Even though we couldn’t see him it was kinda weird to know that we were being watched...
Another super cool thing that happened was our district was filmed by some Italian film crew to be part of a church training video, I think. That was also kinda weird. They told us to just act natural and not look at the camera even though they had about two feet away from our face at times. So hopefully I'll be a Mormon celebrity by the time i get off my mission!
Other than that I had about a million spiritual experiences which is super awesome. It is such a good feeling to have the Holy Ghost testify to you every day. I think my favorite part of the MTC right now is the opportunity to teach fake investigators. Even though it is all practice I can feel the spirit so strongly as my companion and I teach.
In Moroni 10:5 it says " and by the power of the holy ghost ye may know the truth of all things" I know we have all heard this scripture several times but it is so true! having the Holy Ghost as a constant companion is an amazing blessings and allows me to have insights that I would never be able to perceive on my own. If you ever have doubts about the truthfulness of the Gospel just pray to God and search the scriptures diligently. And if you don’t get an answer do it again, and again, and again. God will always be true to his promises and he has promised that if we seek the truth diligently he will give it to us. I know the Holy Ghost testifies the truth of all things and i pray that we can all strive to have him as a constant companion.
I love you all! Read the Book of Mormon every day!!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hi:
The MTC is awesome!! I just gets better every day! some pretty cool things happened this week. First off we got a new teacher her name is Sister Dangerfield, It a legit name I know. She is the best!! She is so happy all the time it’s ridiculous! She always has a smile on her face and you can’t help but be happy while you are around her. We still have Brother Machado as a teacher too. They switch off between teaching morning and evenings. I think they are the two best teachers in the MTC.
I don't know why our district is so blessed but I’m glad that we are. Some other pretty cool things happened this week as well. Our district was chosen to go and test out some new classrooms that they will be using at the MTC in a couple of years. Again I'm not sure why our district gets all the best stuff but we do and it’s awesome. The classroom was super nice it had big desks and nice chairs and was about 3x as big as our last classroom. I really wished we could have just gone there every day to learn.
As class was going on there was some guy watching us on the other side of a one-way mirror. Even though we couldn’t see him it was kinda weird to know that we were being watched...
Another super cool thing that happened was our district was filmed by some Italian film crew to be part of a church training video, I think. That was also kinda weird. They told us to just act natural and not look at the camera even though they had about two feet away from our face at times. So hopefully I'll be a Mormon celebrity by the time i get off my mission!
Other than that I had about a million spiritual experiences which is super awesome. It is such a good feeling to have the Holy Ghost testify to you every day. I think my favorite part of the MTC right now is the opportunity to teach fake investigators. Even though it is all practice I can feel the spirit so strongly as my companion and I teach.
In Moroni 10:5 it says " and by the power of the holy ghost ye may know the truth of all things" I know we have all heard this scripture several times but it is so true! having the Holy Ghost as a constant companion is an amazing blessings and allows me to have insights that I would never be able to perceive on my own. If you ever have doubts about the truthfulness of the Gospel just pray to God and search the scriptures diligently. And if you don’t get an answer do it again, and again, and again. God will always be true to his promises and he has promised that if we seek the truth diligently he will give it to us. I know the Holy Ghost testifies the truth of all things and i pray that we can all strive to have him as a constant companion.
I love you all! Read the Book of Mormon every day!!
Love,
Elder Rice
1/20/15
Hey,
The first week at the MTC has been so great! There is no down time here. It’s always work, work, work - which is so awesome. The first day I got here so much happened, the same with the second day. It was a little overwhelming but I have settled in to the schedule and I'm learning so much. My district is great. It’s kinda crazy. My companions name is Elder Nelson.. He is hard working and super obedient. He keeps me line and makes sure that I’m working hard! We made a goal as a companionship to strive to be 100% obedient to everything we are told. So far I think we've done pretty well but its only day 7 so hopefully we can keep it up.
So every day at the MTC we manage to study for about 10 hours. 6-7 of those hours are spent with a teacher. Our teacher is Brother Machado, He is such a great guy and an amazing teacher. What I love most about being in the MTC is that everybody loves everyone else. We are all trying to become better people so that we can go and serve the people of Brazil. I feel Brother Machado's love for me and all the people in my district. The language study is coming along but is difficult. The second day that we were here we had to teach a lesson to an "investigator" in Portuguese. The task seemed a little daunting but it was an awesome experience. Having absolutely no knowledge forced me to rely on the spirit and I could feel it strongly. We teach our "investigator", Viviane, almost every day. We will be giving her our 4th lesson tomorrow and our teacher challenged us to do it without any notes. All my companion and I will have is 6 days of Portuguese, the book of Mormon, the Bible, and the spirit. It’s gonna be AWESOME! 2 of the 10 hours we spend studying every day is spent in personal and companion study. I have already grown to love reading and studying the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel so much. There is so much knowledge within those pages. I love them so much. oh we also have to memorize a bunch of things in Portuguese. At the end of the day my brain feel fried from reading and studying so much. But we also have a lot of fun! The people in my district are so hilarious. They keep things interesting!
I love all of you and I just want to share my favorite scripture with you guys. If you read in 2 Nephi 4:20 to the end Nephi talks about trusting in God and about how having Christ as the rock of our salvation gives him the hope to know he can do all things. The more I study and read in the scriptures the more powerful and confident I feel in my faith. I have no doubt that I can do anything as long as it is in line with the will of God. Faith should always lead us to action and that action will build even stronger faith. If you think you may lack faith in Jesus don't doubt yourself instead read more diligently through the book of Mormon and pray to god for an increase in faith. I think the greatest way for us to strengthen our faith is through using Christ atonement. it gives us the ability to be forgiven but also the ability to be enabled through his grace. I love this Gospel and I know that it is true. If you wish to develop stronger faith, read the blessing promised in the scriptures to those that are faithful and then test it. If you do as God commands then he is bound by his word to bless you. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Rice
Hey,
The first week at the MTC has been so great! There is no down time here. It’s always work, work, work - which is so awesome. The first day I got here so much happened, the same with the second day. It was a little overwhelming but I have settled in to the schedule and I'm learning so much. My district is great. It’s kinda crazy. My companions name is Elder Nelson.. He is hard working and super obedient. He keeps me line and makes sure that I’m working hard! We made a goal as a companionship to strive to be 100% obedient to everything we are told. So far I think we've done pretty well but its only day 7 so hopefully we can keep it up.
So every day at the MTC we manage to study for about 10 hours. 6-7 of those hours are spent with a teacher. Our teacher is Brother Machado, He is such a great guy and an amazing teacher. What I love most about being in the MTC is that everybody loves everyone else. We are all trying to become better people so that we can go and serve the people of Brazil. I feel Brother Machado's love for me and all the people in my district. The language study is coming along but is difficult. The second day that we were here we had to teach a lesson to an "investigator" in Portuguese. The task seemed a little daunting but it was an awesome experience. Having absolutely no knowledge forced me to rely on the spirit and I could feel it strongly. We teach our "investigator", Viviane, almost every day. We will be giving her our 4th lesson tomorrow and our teacher challenged us to do it without any notes. All my companion and I will have is 6 days of Portuguese, the book of Mormon, the Bible, and the spirit. It’s gonna be AWESOME! 2 of the 10 hours we spend studying every day is spent in personal and companion study. I have already grown to love reading and studying the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel so much. There is so much knowledge within those pages. I love them so much. oh we also have to memorize a bunch of things in Portuguese. At the end of the day my brain feel fried from reading and studying so much. But we also have a lot of fun! The people in my district are so hilarious. They keep things interesting!
I love all of you and I just want to share my favorite scripture with you guys. If you read in 2 Nephi 4:20 to the end Nephi talks about trusting in God and about how having Christ as the rock of our salvation gives him the hope to know he can do all things. The more I study and read in the scriptures the more powerful and confident I feel in my faith. I have no doubt that I can do anything as long as it is in line with the will of God. Faith should always lead us to action and that action will build even stronger faith. If you think you may lack faith in Jesus don't doubt yourself instead read more diligently through the book of Mormon and pray to god for an increase in faith. I think the greatest way for us to strengthen our faith is through using Christ atonement. it gives us the ability to be forgiven but also the ability to be enabled through his grace. I love this Gospel and I know that it is true. If you wish to develop stronger faith, read the blessing promised in the scriptures to those that are faithful and then test it. If you do as God commands then he is bound by his word to bless you. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Rice