March 13 | Pondering, Pie, and Preparation

Comps at the temple

Hi!

I am going to try to eat some pie this week. Tomorrow perhaps, as it will be Pi day! Only here there is no pie like there is in California. I will shed one tear and get over it.

This week was a great week here with a Temple trip, Zone Conference and a baptism.

We went to the Temple Saturday with André and Miriã. We took family names with them on the ward Temple trip. (There was Zone Conference this week so we asked/received permission to go from President Silox). It was a really great experience. They brought their parents´names and were able to be baptized and confirmed for them. Which was amazing. I was able to do the confirmations which was cool. Very good experience, and they are already planning their return trip later next month.

Thursday was Zone Conference, and we´d been asked to read 2 Nephi 31 and 3 Nephi 27 in preparation. Sister Silcox was teaching that part and she explained very thoroughly the Doctrine of Christ which was awesome. She talked about how the Christ’s gospel is: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.  She said that even before faith, the first step is always having desire. Then she read 3 Nephi 27: 1-2 and talked about how Christ’s disciples had desire, how Christ appeared to them asking what they wanted Him to give them, and about the importance of how they needed to ask for an answer from Christ. Great conference. President Silcox also spoke a bit on proper use of technology.

In the temple trip, one of the Temple Presidency members talked about desire, pondering, and meditating as preparation for spiritual experiences. Essentially, this whole week was about preparation and desire for spiritual experiences and receiving answers.

Tamires was baptised! Her interview was Saturday, and yesterday she was baptised. This was a huge miracle; her family is being reactivated now and her brother Ricardo will be able to receive the Priesthood.  Elder Clawson performed the baptism which was his first ever. This is the family that contacted us in the street while we were walking to lunch one day and asked us to go to their house to teach Tamires. Miracles are real!

What I’m studying in the scriptures now is a lot about a lot of things. But recently I was studying the Restoration, and how Joseph was prepared, and how he clearly had desire for some sort of experience with Heavenly Father. Why did he pray? Because he had faith and accepted James’ invitation in the Bible. Why did he read the Bible? Because he was confused and wanted direction from God. Why was he confused? Because the people around him were in a war of words and had so many opinions. Why? The Apostasy. When he needed an answer, he accepted the invitation to ask God. He knew that if he called on God´s name, God would respond to him personally by name—which is exactly what happened. Sometimes we forget that God is a personal God and that He´s actually our Father, and that experience is a great reminder. When he was tempted to quit asking, he kept going and he received in the most difficult moment the answer to his prayer. How can we do the same? We can trust in God´s promises and trust that He will answer us and that He is preparing us for great things to come.

Love you all—you are my favorites!  

Elder Hughes

March 6 | Noite Familiar, Splits, Cidade Jardim and Good Things in Jacareí

Splits with Elders Moura and De Jesus

This was a great week! We had Stake Conference yesterday so I actually went to Cidade Jardim twice! I saw lots of members from Satélite and Cidade Jardim so that was really cool.  Splits was good in Cidade Jardim. We went on Carnaval so almost no one was home... so that was a little tough in terms of teaching people. However, we had a Noite Familiar (family night) with some church members there. We saw Jota Silva, Clayton, Diogo, Renato, and a few others. Overall super cool. We also ate really good pizza so that was a win!

In the area in Jacareí, we are planning on the baptism of Tamires this coming Sunday. She’s excited, and the family is ready to support her and be at church as well. And another young man who plays soccer at the chapel every week also is planning on being baptised on the 18th. His name is Pablo and he is very excited about it! And we are very excited for him.

Also! André, Miriã´s husband who was baptised recently, received the Melchizedek Priesthood at Conference. I think on Saturday we will be going to the temple with them for baptisms. Awesome!

At Stake Conference, Elder Dias of the Area 70 (Uncle of Sister Dias who was in my district for 4-5 months in Ipiranga) came and presided. He spoke for 50 minutes on the doctrine of faith which was literally awesome. One of the best talks I’ve heard on faith. He talked about how sacrifice can help develop our faith which was interesting. I got thinking about the Law of Moses and the various sacrifices that were required as way to prepare the people for the law of the gospel, the higher law. The sacrifices were all types or signs of Christ. The law was there so the children of Israel could learn to look to Christ in all things and begin developing faith in His sacrifice for them—the Atonement. Though at times they they failed to recognize the symbols of Christ's sacrifice. When we take the sacrament and always remember Christ’s sacrifice for us, our faith and trust in His promises grows. When we make sacrifices ourselves to be a little better every day, our faith in Christ can grow too.

Have a great week!
Love you!

Elder Hughes

Noite Familiar

A storm rolling in which let much water fall upon the city

February 27 | Keeping Nothing Back

Hi all,

This week was a pretty great one. Both extremely hot and very rainy. Tomorrow is Carnaval, so since Saturday, everyone has been out of town so there are few people to teach. But all is well. We did a lot of service this week—we painted a house and did a move and cleaned a floor. Success.

Have been thinking about the Apostle Paul—reading in Acts 20 this week—and something he said really stood out to me. Paul is going back to Jerusalem after 3 years in Ephesus as a missionary — and he's meeting with the church leaders there and describing his missionary service, I guess giving a mission report. He says “… I kept nothing back...” He worked and served with everything he had so he could “finish my course with joy.”

I'm excited to see y’all so soon but I also am excited to work a lot before that. I feel like Paul was probably a boss. I will try and be like him this week and work with that goal in mind too. To give it my all. That’s awesome about Jack (Morgan) talking about his mission and how it’s been such a blessing to him even after 50 years. My mission has certainly changed me —and just about everything. It is definitely a blessing just as it's been for Jack. 

We don’t have much time now since everything is closing soon here because of the holiday but I love you all. Have a great week!
Elder Hughes

February 20 | Museu da Missão, Miracle Shoes, and Being Bold in the Work

Hi all!
Today marks two years since I opened my call to serve! Two years goes by quickly!

This week was good! We had interviews with President on Saturday here in Jacareí at 8 am, and I had decided earlier that day that Saturday would be the last day I’d use my brown Sperrys because I had worn completely through the sole … so I was like walking on the ground a little... but President brought my box delivered a few days before with the new Sperrys, and my feet are in heaven! Woot! Miracles are real! Got the envelope with candy and photos too which was great!

Mosquitos are a plague here but we’re getting through it. Not any really huge changes than the hour later time to get up / hour later to return. We do our comp study in the street though so everyone looks at us reading the scriptures haha. Getting noticed.

Training is going very smoothly. The trio is doing great and we are being able to focus well; there were many miracles this week so that’s nice. One man called to us in the street this week while we were on our way to lunch, and he said he was a church member but hadn’t attended in two years and his daughters hadn’t been baptised yet. We were able to teach them, and they are now preparing to return to church, and one of the daughters is preparing to be baptised which is exciting! Huge miracles!

We had the ward activity too, the Museu da Missão, or Mission Museum, where members brought their scriptures, photos, name tags and things to make a mini museum of their missions set up in the chapel. President really liked it. It was pretty cool, I thought, and it was enjoyed by many. The devotional also went well. One of the speakers had to cancel an hour before the program, so I spoke about "What is missionary work?" and the missionary purpose, which actually went surprisingly well with no time to prepare haha. Sister Silcox said she really appreciated it. Lucas Galhardi, who recently finished his mission, spoke about how to prepare for the mission, and Sister Silcox spoke about the Restoration a little, and President spoke on growth and member help and how Jacareí will be a stake. Overall, it was a great activity, and I think all who were in attendance enjoyed it.

This week I was thinking about how we can trust and understand Christ’s promises to better begin to understand Him, like Elder Bednar talked about in conference. Which makes sense since His promises are just as eternal as He is. When we serve Him, and serve other people, He blesses us generously. Always. And when we serve, we come to know Christ better. And that helps us know how to come unto Him to receive and believe in the promised blessings of the gospel. Also read in 2 Timothy where the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy with a reminder that God had called him to do His work boldly and with power, love and a sound mind. Great reminders to be bold in the work.

And that’s essentially it for this week. I will send lots of photos today! Keep praying for us here in Jacareí!
Love you!!

Elder Hughes 

The District

The Zone

A Jacareí sunset

3 Elders and Presidente and Sister Silcox

Wore through the inner sole of the shoe, though I put another temporary one in
so I wasn't totally walking with only a sock on the ground.

February 13 | Generations

Me, Elder Clawson, Elder Freitas

Elder Alves, Elder Amancio´s son (my mission grandson)
and Elder Begnini,  Elder Alves´s mission son (my mission great grandson)

Us ansd (Elder) Vasconcelos who was visiting in the area

February 6 | Transfer and Training

District

Hi!

Got the transfer call yesterday and I’ll be training indeed in Jacareí. Elder Freitas will be training as well! We’re staying in the same area, same district, and same house—the house is quite large actually—so we’ll all be here! We have the trainers’ meeting tomorrow at 9 am at the escritorio. We´re about three hours away by ônibus so we’ll go tonight which will be good—we’ll be on time. 

This week wasn’t too rainy actually! Only at night it rains now and sometimes during the afternoon after lunch. It’s been getting pretty hot other than that. I’m looking a wee bit tan! Woot!—only it’s the odd tan lines on the neck and arms though, so that’s cool. There hasn’t been any flooding where we are which is good, though they say its a frequent problem in Sao Paulo this time of year. We’re hoping none of it comes this way. The only difference in how we work when it’s raining … is that we use an umbrella... only mine broke this week so I’m fixin to get me a new one. 

We got a good bit done this week here in Jacareí which was great—loving the work and the people. Rita and Adriana have been difficult to contact this week so that was a bummer but we´ll keep trying this coming week. On the 18th, we are going to have a ward activity about missionary work to help the youngsters get excited about serving missions. President Silcox is going to be here and speak which should be awesome. We´re working on getting everything all planned out and such—we´re going have a mission “museum” with photos from ward members who served missions—have their mission shoes and scriptures and such here too. Should be good! Pray it goes well! 

I had the realization again this week that when we partake of the sacrament, we show that we want to align ourselves with Christ, and as we do that He promises that He will sustain us as His. It´s a “where is my heart?” relationship that we can renew each week, where we are able to evaluate ourselves and start over and recommit to be better the next week. And He promises that we can have His spirit with us and receive a remission of sins. Sounds like a pretty good relationship to me. 

And that was essentially the week! This week should be awesome and filled with good stuff with two greenies in the area! We´re hoping it goes really well. Keep praying for us and I will pray for you. Have a great week!! 

Love you lots,

Elder Hughes

About to rain

In a hammock hammoc hammok? Don´t remember how to spell that word. ’Tis a mystery!

January 31 | Miracles are happening!

Sunday—sunny outside with rain falling

Dear family,

This week was a good one. There was a worldwide devotional/training meeting for all missionaries on Wednesday which was very cool. We were gonna get the bus to lunch and then go back to the downtown area of the city to get another bus to the stake center here to watch the transmission from Salt Lake. However all buses were running late and we were late to every appointment that day haha. However, we got there—and the training meeting was great. We sat in on a missionary executive council meeting with Elder Oaks, Elder Bedar and several others. The transmission from last January's meeting was recapped, and there were also some sweet new schedule changes announced for missionaries. We were also reminded about our purpose as a missionary to invite others to Christ, trusting and living the gospel ourselves as missionaries, and how to be better teachers.

The schedule for us may still be adapted, but in South America most missionaries will now be up at 7:30! Bed will be 11:30pm—so the schedule just shifted a little bit to be able to be more flexible with most people's schedules here. Comp study after lunch and planning for the day in the morning. 

Sacrament was awesome here yesterday. A man spoke who served here twenty years ago and is now married and is a father. He was visiting, and was able to bear his testimony about serving a mission and how it has blessed him in his life.

Something I learned this week: In the Book of Mormon reading that President invited us to do as a mission this year—we are highlighting each name or pronoun of Christ in the Book of Mormon, along with every word that Christ says—with the promise through recognizing that we will come to know Him and not just know things about Him. However, as I was reading in Second Nephi, highlighting names and quotes, it almost became second nature and I realized I wasn’t focusing on what I was reading and what it was meaning. So I began asking myself two questions: How does my belief in Christ strengthen and change my life? And: Do I personally believe and have faith in Christ, and are His words part of me?

Asking myself those questions as I continue reading. I’m coming to better know the Savior through unexpected ways, and am learning that believing Him is trusting Him.

We saw the Lord’s hand yesterday when two investigators came to Church wanting to be baptised! We’ll be teaching them more this week. Please pray for them. Miracles are happening!

I love you!

Elder Hughes

The district

I have a year and 6 months in the mission and only have 5 more left,
Elder Freitas has 5 months in the mission and has a year and 6 left.