October 24 | Setting off Alarms and Kneeling in Prayer

Hi all I love you to pieces! :)

We went to Vila Mariana on Thursday to do a baptismal interview, and the sisters who were also there had stopped by the Mission office earlier that day, and they brought my box! I was very happy, I do say!! I now have happy feet. Thanks for sending everything!

This was a pretty great week. The busiest day was Friday. We had interviews this Friday so we all went to the Stake Center in Monumento (where we had the independence day activity) and when we got there, President hadn't gotten there yet. We tried to open the chapel but ended up setting off the security alarm so that was fun. It turned off really quickly but we went in and waited for President to get there. We had interviews with Sister Silcox in our duplas about the Area Book and planners and then with President. It was all super quick and then we went home.

That afternoon, we had a lesson with Adriano. We were teaching him (following up really) about the Book of Mormon to see if he felt it was true after reading, and after praying to know. We had a good discussion, and he then asked to be baptised the next day! That was awesome! He will be baptised this coming Saturday because we all felt it better for him to invite his family to come to the baptism. Super happy for Adriano!

At night we taught Eduardo. He is Maria's husband—Maria, who was baptised recently. We called him earlier in the week to schedule, but he couldn't come. He called us Friday morning after the interviews that he could come that evening. We went to the chapel to teach him right after Adriano. It was one of the most strongly spiritual lessons while teaching on my mission. Eduardo has been going to church ever since Maria's baptism some months ago but never has accepted a baptismal date because he wants to wait to know the church and the gospel better. We taught about how we have to open our eyes and ears sometimes to see God in our lives--we have to actually try and work for it. In the end he accepted to go through the baptismal interview which is awesome. He didn't accept a baptismal date but stepping stones! Good lesson.

We also had stake conference which was super good and President Silcox talked about what our life would be like without the gospel, and without divine help, which was perfect for some of the great people we are teaching.

This week I read that in only one place in all of scripture is Christ´s mode of prayer described. In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ kneeled. It is so simple but He kneeled to suffer for our sins. When we kneel to pray every night, we do so in the likeness of the Savior in Gethsemane as He suffered for our sins. That made me think differently about personal prayer. As I repent of my sins on my knees, I do so in the likeness of the Savior as He suffered my sins. I felt that was really interesting too. Prayer is a powerful tool, and I wonder how much I underestimate it at times. And what would the quality of my life be like without prayer? Prayer is powerful and is necessary; it is how we can also seek the Heavenly Father´s will, and not ours.

Well I love you! I hope you have an excellent week filled with foods and good things!

Elder Hughes

Also, I am feeling a little bit with a cold but I'm doing good. It's Elder Rodrigues and Miranda that are sick now. I hope its not because of me! Love you!!

October 17 |

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October 10, 2016 | Learning to pray in Spanish

This week was James’ baptism. James came to Seminary many weeks ago with his friend João, and we were able to start teaching him. He accepted the baptismal invitation and was baptised this past Saturday. On Saturday, James had to work until 12 noon, and the baptism was scheduled at 3. We (missionaries) all got to the chapel at 2 to clean the font and have his interview, but he didn't get there. All of his friends showed up, but we were missing him, the Ward Mission Leader, and a member from the bishopric—so pretty much everyone necessary for the baptism haha. James arrived at 4:00 because he had to work late a little, and the WML and Bishopric counselor arrived at the same time, so that was also great. I shall send photos!

Elder Rodrigues is doing well in his adjustment to Portuguese again haha. He sometimes starts speaking in Spanish without knowing it which can be pretty entertaining. He taught me how to pray in Spanish which is pretty cool! I’m gonna try and take advantage of the three fluent Spanish speakers I live with and learn some Spanish. I think Elder Rodrigues speaks better Spanish than Elder Miranda though (He’s almost forgotten everything. Oh yeah, I live with Elder Miranda who was in Sao Jose and Mogi with me. We’ve essentially followed each other the entire mission, never companions, but always having church in the same chapel. We were in the trio (with Elder Wengreen) only for one working day and then there was General Conference. This week working/serving with Elder Rodrigues went really well. We were blessed helping James prepare for baptism,  and have a baptism scheduled for this week too. Pray for Adriano!

This week I was thinking about how God is present in all of our lives, whether we recognize it or not. Since God really is our Father, I think He wants to be present in our lives just as our earthly parents want to be present. He´s blessing us continually with all sorts of things and sometimes we just don’t see that. We each have a personal history and relationship with Him, but again, at times we don’t realize that He actually wants to make Himself present in our lives. Yesterday we went to a member´s house and left a short message with them. I was planning on sharing a scripture in the Book of Mormon with them, but when I opened up my scriptures; the pages opened to Doctrine & Covenants 31, and I read the first verse I saw, which was verse 9. I read that as well as verses 11-13, and the Sister said that she felt God talking directly to her, and that that verse was exactly what she needed. God made himself present in her life through a scripture, and we were there to witness it. That added to my testimony that God really is our Father, and really does love us!

Well, that was the week. It was super good and super hectic but those are the highlights! I hope you have a great week! Love you!!

Elder Hughes

Cleaning the font before the baptism.

James in the middle, me and Elder Rodrigues.

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