October 3, 2016 | "So even babies can understand."

Elder Rodrigues is second from the left.

This was a great week with Conference and such. Last Wednesday President Silcox called me and he informed me that we´d be getting a new companion this week. We picked the new comp up from the bus station Thursday. His name is Elder Rodrigues from Fortaleza. He was serving in Argentina for 8 months but last week he got a call from his mission president there who called him to his office. His call had been changed in Salt Lake, and he´s now in the Sau Paulo Leste mission. Elder Wengreen is being transfered to Sao Jose Dos Campos, and  Elder Rodrigues and I are staying in Ipiranga. Elder Meireles also was transferred, and Elder Miranda will be in our area with us too. Good stuff!

Teaching English this week to Maria about clothes vocab:
Maria: Is that panters? Elder Wengreen: No, that is jeans.
Don't know why but I laughed quite a bit!

Conference:
I thought there was a huge emfassiss (that is spelled wrong but I don't know how to spell it) on faith and repentance. I also noticed there were many talks that included first two lessons in the missionary discussions-- the Restoration of the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation and how the plan was made to make us all happy. I am trying to learn how to simplify my language a whole lot so even babies that can't speak can understand when I'm teaching the lessons.

I also liked President Eyrings talk about Gratitude and the sabbath day, and Elder Renlund's talk about repentance being joyful, and Elder Bednar´s about do we know things about Christ, or are we learning so we can know Him. Élder Christofferson did his own translation for his talk in Portuguese which was cool! He almost doesn't have any accent, though he said a couple words in Spanish. He served his mission in Argentina which explains that. I'm guessing he did the translations for Spanish and Portuguese on the same day. And I have never heard another talk so fervent about home teaching as Elder Holland's. That was something else.

I also found President Monson’s talk about the Word of Wisdom really interesting. If the Prophet speaks it must be pretty important. That's one of the commandments that has to be lived before baptism, and we teach the principles to all of our investigators. I was happy to receive instruction from our leaders and be taught more about the gospel to better live it.

This week was a really good week and I'm excited for the next transfer here in Ipiranga. Hopefully all goes well. Please pray for us! I know the Gospel is true!
Love you all!!

Elder Hughes

Elder Hirst went home this week.

Ben and Jerry's and Grapefruit Soda are a rarity here -- between conference saturday sessions.
With Elder Merrill, MTC comp.

Zona Ipiranga

Elder Ambriz, Melo, Martins, Hughes (that's me!), Wengreen

Elder Wengreen found a US Air Force toy and became overjoyed.

September 26, 2016 | Pants, Paulino, and experiencing grace

Paulino’s baptism

This was a good week. We taught more lessons this week that I've ever taught on my mission and we found three families to teach! So that was a blessing. We were seriously blessed this week for trying new things to find investigators which confirms that God guides us to those who are prepared to receive the Gospel.

One major experience this week was a baptismal interview I did with a man names Paulino from Cabo Verde, Africa. He is from the Vila Mariana ward so I went there to do the interview since I'm the District Leader of that area. Paulino has been in Brasil for a year and 8 months and works and studies from 5am to 11pm every night to support his family in Africa. He first got in contact with the Church in Africa before he moved here but lost contact after the move. He passed a year and a half here without any contact with the Church. One day about a month or two ago he saw two Elders in the street and called for them to talk with him, and he started going to Church. He lived in the Sisters area in Vila Mariana though so he started getting the lessons from them.

Paulino was very committed to be baptised in the Church but the Sisters found out recently that he was going through some serious family issues and was feeling like he couldn't be baptised last Saturday (when I did the interview). Saturday, he told me all this and was nearly in tears and asked if he could be baptised with such a heavy heart. I told him that he needed to pray for a personal conviction that his baptism was the right thing. I told him we were going to use faith that moment and that if God would give any answer, he would give an answer to know if following His Son was the right thing or not. He prayed and immediately after he asked for a piece of paper. I got him one and he ripped it in four pieces and asked the missionaries to all come to talk with him. We were all wondering what he wanted--yikes! When we all gathered to talk with him, he'd written the names of the four Elders there to choose who would baptise him! Ha! Paulino said that since everyone had the priesthood, it didn't matter to him who it was so he wanted to choose a name. His feelings had completely changed because he had faith that God would inspire him to do what was right.

That's the uplifting grace of the Atonement that he felt. That he was baptised for remission of sins, the forgiving power of the Atonement. In one hour, Paulino experienced the fullness of the Atonement´s power, to both lift, and forgive and be forgiven.

That was one of the best experiences of my mission I think because I was taught so much and Paulino was taught by the Spirit God´s will for him so immediately and clearly and distinctly. Heavenly Father knows His children.

In terms of health I'm fine and good and kicking. I've managed to rip two pairs of pants this week. I think I'm being tested with my pants as part of the mission because literally every pair I've worn has ripped :) We´re working hard and getting a lot done. I hope you have a great week and that all goes well! I'm excited to hear what you learn during Conference!

Love you !

Elder Hughes

We were drawing with our eyes closed while waiting at the church for an appointment ...

Independence Day in Brasil

This week was really good. Silvio was baptised Saturday, and confirmed on Sunday. His baptism was full with people from church and his family from Itaquera. He was ecstatic to be baptised. We had some new people at sacrament meeting, and Eduardo, Maria’s husband, is progressing towards baptism! There is a group going to the temple this week and hopefully Eduardo will be able to go. We will be able to teach him in the waiting room there. We also had the Independence Day /7th of September activity which was awesome!

Last Monday night I woke up at 4 am to pouring rain and was thirsty so I went downstairs to get a cup of water but when I went back upstairs, I slammed the door on my finger! That was not an excellent experience, but it was memorable haha. Also, it rained quite a bit this week. 

On Wednesday, we went to the Stake Center which is where the Monumento ward meets, for the Brazilian Independence day activity. While we were there, the missionaries paired off with the young men to hand out pamphlets about families at the actual monument there where Dom Pedro declared independence from Portugal (Elders Ambriz and Martins who are Portuguese had a good time taking pictures there haha). I was with Elder de Souza (who I was gonna train in Penha before I was transferred elsewhere when I left Mogi), and Joao and Juninho from my ward here. We shared a bunch of pamphlets about the importance of families which was awesome. Before we started, President Nigri, the Stake president, asked us to follow the spirit to find the right people to talk to. Joao wanted to talk to a guy and a girl who were sitting on a bench in the park, so we talked to them -- a returned missionary with his girlfriend who isn’t a church member; so that was great! We invited them to go to the church and learn more about family history. Juninho wanted to talk to a security guard we saw, so we talked to him and turned out that he had worked in the Missionary Training Center here in São Paulo for 7 years but wasn’t a church member. He’d lost contact with anything church-related for about 3 years and we were able to refer him to the chapel in Monumento and invited him to join us at church on Sunday. The two young men were guided by the Spirit just like Pres. Nigri asked them to be. 

On Saturday we went to the chapel at 3pm to prepare for Silvio´s baptism. We filled up the font but lo and behold, there was an ant problem that no one saw. We tried to scoop them all out, but there were some visitors in the water during the baptism. However, no one noticed, so that was a nice tender mercy. Silvio´s family from Itaquera was there which was really nice. He has goals to be married in the temple in a year with his girlfriend who is a member. Silvio is the referral I called a few weeks ago, who, when I told him we were the missionaries, asked to be baptized while we were on the phone! It astounds me how the Lord prepares His children to accept the gospel when the opportunity presents. 

This week we taught the mom of a member here in the ward named Marta. Marta is trying to decide which church she wants to go to. She had a lot of questions—whether she should continue in her current church, or join her son´s church now later in her life. It popped in my head to share the parable of the laborers in the field, where the laborers who worked for different amounts of time all received the same pay at the end of the day. I asked her why they all received the same pay and she responded because they all did their part for what the Lord asked them. We then shared in 2 Nephi 31 that the Lord asks us to be baptised and follow His example. We explained the doctrine of baptism and how is has to be done through the restored priesthood authority. She said it made sense to her, and that she would pray to know if it was true. She didn’t come to church Sunday, but we recognized the inspiration to say the things Marta needed to hear for the Restoration to make sense to her. I had a few experiences where words were put into my mouth this week to help investigators better understand the gospel which was awesome. The Lord inspires us through the Spirit, and that is a tender mercy. I love the Lord, and the mission is converting me to Him more than anything else I think.

That was the week! It was a good one despite jamming my finger in the door haha. I started rereading the Book of Mormon this week. Essentially 1 Nephi is all about receiving treasures from heaven according to our obedience and faith. Revelation, tender mercies, miracles, guidance, it’s all there. I liked in 1 Nephi 7:16-18 about Nephi being bound but praying for strength to overcome, instead of praying that his situation be changed. We can all rely on the grace and gift of the Atonement for this—the ability to change instead of lamenting over the imperfections we see. That is why Christ sacrificed for us, and we have the opportunity to follow His example to overcome and progress. As His representative I bear testimony of it!

Hope you all have an excellent week! Hope all is well at home. Love you! 

Elder Hughes 

Silvio is in the red tie!

Monumento ward / Stake Center

Dom Pedro's palace

Zona Ipiranga

Attention: Works of the Lord
(found in our apartment while cleaning)

Mission Conference, Better Navigating, and Living in the Coldest Winter in years in São Paulo

As gerações: Elders Amancio, me, Martins  |  (generations: my trainee, me, my trainer)

Dear family!

It is very cold here, like 3° C which is like 37°F I think. Feeling weak cause I shiver a whole lot. No heat in apartment. Everyone is talking about it being the coldest winter in São Paulo in 30 years! Yikes! I’m good and healthy, just having to blow my nose a bit.

There was crazy rain last week; flooding to the north of us, but this week was fine here. Just cold as heck.

Serving in the capital is pretty cool. Lots of more people to talk to in the streets which is preferable, and there is lots more street food which is delicious. I ate tres leches cake during the week —the Brazilian version! Though I’m sure Lisa’s was better ha ha. We’re navigating through the streets much better because we teach with the young men a whole lot—they know the area way better than us. The companionship is going well!

Elder Meireles and I were supposed to give a training with President Silcox on Sunday for the Stake Ward Mission Leaders and Bishops, and we prepared everything, but at the meeting the Stake President made some adjustments for times’ sake, and so we didn’t teach at all, but that’s ok. President Silcox gave a solo training and called us up to help him a little so was cool ha ha.

We were able to meet and talk with Mateus this week, and all is going well as he is learning more about the gospel. He wants his girlfriend to start learning about the gospel!

Tender mercies this week in the Mission Conference with Elder Pinto from the Area Seventy of Brasil. He talked about things I’ve been thinking about and studying, and that was really cool. President Silcox also talked about things I’d been studying—Sister Silcox too—so pretty much the conference was made just for my needs I think ha ha. I also saw Elder Martins and Elder Amancio and Elder Merrill and a bunch of others so that was also very good! Mini mission reunions are one of the best things there are.

After the conclusion of the Conference (which was in Penha, a Zone very close to Ipiranga) Elder Pinto called all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders into a meeting with him which was a Q&A type thing about anything but “deep doctrine.”  I asked a few questions and got even more answers I was looking for, so that was sweet.

Elder Pinto quoted Elder Oaks in his training for us that “the doctrine of Christ needs to be written on our hearts and right into the marrow of our bones.” I really liked that—are we allowing the Lord to write the gospel in our hearts? It needs to be part of our souls. I've been discovering over the last 11 months that truly reading the scriptures teaches how to invite Christ to do that. And without studying the scriptures, we have no way of knowing that in full.

I love you all! I hope all is well there! Have an excellent week!

Elder Hughes

How we study these days

​Zone Ipiranga after the Stake training activity yesterday

Me and Elder Amancio

Dream team—​Elders Merrill, Martins, Hirst, Miranda, me

June 6th / Navigating in São João Clímaco

Héliópolis*

Dear family!

The transfer went well without any problems and I’m in my new area—São João Clímaco—in the Ipiranga Zone.

My area is in the city of São Paulo. It’s the first time that I’ve been in the capital to work in an area. There are lots of buildings and streets that confuse us and such. Our area has Heliópolis in it, which is the largest favela in São Paulo. Woot! Navigating those streets is a difficult thing since we only have a map to use to try to figure things out ha ha. My comp is Elder Meireles from Recife, Pernambuco in the northeast of Brasil. He’s on the downhill slope of his mission. He has about 7 months left of the mission. We live with Elder Machado who goes home in 5 weeks and Elder D Silva who has a year and 8.

There are 16 missionaries here in the Zone including all the office elders and sisters, so Elder Martins and Elder Hirst are in the Zone! It’s awesome! I know almost everyone—just two missionaries I haven’t met yet—but we’re having a Zone training on Tuesday, so I’ll meet them then.

The first Sunday here was good. We were able to meet many members, and had a meeting with the Ward Mission Leader and the Bishop which has helped us with getting going. There’s a ward here called Monumento, because there’s an important monument commemorating the spot where Brasil declared independence from Portugal! Elder Holland visited Stake Conference here 2 weeks ago ... bummer ... just missed it!

One awesome miracle that happened this week was that a member, Wanderson, brought his cousin Mateus to church and Mateus asked to be baptised! Righteous!  He’s come with his cousin several times before missionaries were in the area, and we’ve been able to teach him this week and help him learn and prepare for baptism! It will be the first baptism in the ward in a long time, so everyone is very excited for him!

I’ve really liked reading and thinking about Mosiah 3:19 this week—about becoming better and becoming a saint through the Atonement of Christ, and becoming more like Him through learning and developing patience, humility and love.

Elder Meireles and I are going to help with a "working with the missionaries" training with President Silcox this Sunday evening for the Ward Mission Leaders and Bishops in the stake; will be awesome! And this Saturday, an Area Seventy, Elder Pinto, is coming to talk to our mission and it should be pretty cool. The entire mission will be together in one chapel for the meeting so should be pretty great I think. Looking forward to learning a good deal of things and seeing mission people!

That’s pretty much it. Oh, and there is indeed pizza here, and its tasty. I think Brazilian pizza is generally better than American pizza. Don’t’ know why, but it’s rull good.

I think that’s it! It’s been a good week! Love you all and hope you are doing well!

Elder Hughes

Elder Meireles and me

Before transfer, Zona Mogi

* Favela image, courtesy the internet

May 30th / Transfer to São João Clímaco

Dear family!

How is Syd in Africa? Doing well? I haven’t gotten her emails for a few weeks but I’m sure she’s fine. Awesome that she was able to help the chillens get glasses! How was the Vets home? I remember going to the cemetery after the Linger Longers and walking up and down the rows and really liking being there. It’s crazy to think about how many people have dedicated their lives to the service of the country.

Seminary ended! Man, was it bittersweet? What last verses did you read in the Book of Mormon? Reading the Book of Mormon is an awesome goal! I read the Book of Mormon in Portuguese with Elder Amancio during his training which was a really neat experience. I was able to notice things that I hadn’t ever noticed in English as I read which was really cool to me. Will next seminary year be Doctrine & Covenants? Book of Mormon? New Testament? I think New Testament, right? I’m reading in Romans right now in the New Testament. Awesome stuff!

+ A teaching experience this week: I was in splits with Elder Ewerton this past week and we went to visit Kaué to teach him more about the Plan of Salvation. We taught him the lesson which he really responded to, and we were able to help him resolve some of the questions that he had about the importance of the gospel, and why it is important to find answers for ourselves through the Spirit. It was a really good experience for all of us, and we felt the Spirit strongly.

+ Service: We helped build Irma Ana´s house this week!

+ P-day plans are pizza

+ I’ve been reading a lot about the Atonement lately and why its so necessary to overcome the natural man and the effects of the fall. A church member told me this week during lunch that a demonstration of having a testimony of the Atonement is how willing we are to fight the natural man in our lives, which I really liked and thought was really interesting. The gift and power of the Atonement of Christ can really be something amazing in our lives.

+ I got the transfer call last night and President wanted to talk to me. He reassigned me as a District Leader Trainer to finish the training of a new elder in “one of the best areas of the mission.” I accepted the assignment but I got a call this morning from him again that I’d be a Zone Leader in a different zone because of some different something there. I’ll be going to the Zone Ipiranga, area São João Clímaco, next to the mission office area. I’ll be opening an area again for the 4th time, so that’ll be fun! I was gonna be in the same zone as Sister Kinnaman and Elder Merrill from the MTC; he was also gonna be a ZL there and I was also gonna live with Elder Miranda again. Oh well. I’m excited to go get to work now!

I hope you are all doing well and that you are happy and healthy! There’s lots of good rain here and I’m really liking it! I hope you have a great week! Love you!

Elder Hughes

May 23rd / A Left Shoe, a Blitz, and a Fireside

Zone Photo! We were going for a super hero theme!

Dear family! You are excellent!

Thank you for sending the left shoe to me!! :D

I do have a jacket that is warm enough, thank you! For p-day today I’m gonna buy a sweater and pants that fit since my others are too big now haha.

Ah man! Wild how soon seminary is ending! I remember Arbitrary Chef Fridays. Those were good days I thought. I always liked the hot chocolate that had chili in it. That stuff was awesome! Hot chocolate almost doesn’t exist here, so I make chocolate milk in the morning and put it in the microwave that we have and its almost the same thing. Only just a little different haha.

+ The Zone Leader responsibilities are going well! We always have district meetings on Tuesday mornings here in Vila Lavínia. The whole zone comes here and then divides into their districts and I go to one meeting and Elder David goes to the other.

+ We did a blitz this week in Guararema, an area in the Zone. We all traveled there early Saturday morning and it’s kinda far so we got up at 5:30am and got there at 8:30am, had breakfast really quick at the chapel, and we all left with members to contact people and visit less-actives and inactive church members. It was very cool and we had an excellent time supporting the Branch there. The area is really touristy—reminds me of St. Helena and Calistoga! I’d gone there once with Elder Rojas in December when there were a bunch of Christmas lights and tons of decorations. There was also a bunch of heavy rain which was crazy, and lunch for everyone when we got back to the chapel around 12:30pm.

+ Only lunch appointments this week, though we got pizza last Saturday night.

+ I’ve been reading in Chapter 6 / Preach My Gospel about Christlike Attributes. It’s amazing to me that Christ mastered all of them. I really liked Moroni 7 and 10 from the reading. In 7, Moroni talks about faith and real intent which he then explains are necessary to receive a testimony of anything in Moroni 10: 3-5. I thought that was pretty cool. I’d never thought to read Moroni 7 with Paul’s writings—1 Corinthians 13 is about charity—so I’ve been reading there too. I've recently noticed that he says that charity is what defines a true follower of Jesus Christ—which is kind of intimidating. Means that we should probably try and develop that haha. I think that it means that we become the sons of God because we learn and develop his nature and we start keeping the first and second great commandments better, and that makes us eligible for greater blessings. We can become more like He is. I’ve had experiences with investigators, and it’s a very cool thing to feel that charity for them. Sister Silcox told me one time that actions are the fruits of our charity.

+ We’ve found great people to teach this week! We found a family of 4 to teach this week, and they came to church on Sunday! Please keep Kaué and his family in your prayers.

+ We were able to teach a lot of lessons which was awesome, and we were able to find many of new people to teach. We’re having a great time here and we’re working hard. We went to a fireside last night with the Stake President, President Bernardo, who will be released in two weeks at Stake Conference. He’s been the Stake President for about 11 years (a really, really long time!) and he had never spoken at a fireside before. He recounted the history of the Stake during his time as president—the changes that have happened, new people that joined the Church, missionary work there over the years, and so many things over the course of his service. It was very cool. He bore his testimony at the end and said essentially, “I’ve given it all I have,” and then bore his strong testimony of the church being the true Church of Jesus Christ here on the earth. It was beautiful and there were tears shed and laughing and everything. I really loved being there with the saints, and was struck by his testimony and how emotional he was. He shared Mosiah 2:17, which I really like—when we serve others, we are only serving God, and we serve others in order to better serve God. It was an awesome experience and has helped strengthen my testimony.

Well that was it! I hope you have an excellent week! Love you all!

Elder Hughes