Another Awesome Week in Alegrete‏

Hey guys!
This week was super awesome! I love being here!
So as the pics (sent so kindly by my companion) show, Sibele and Cauana were baptized on Saturday! It was super special, because they are so firm in the faith, and very well integrated in the ward.

Other good news! Ivo did end up moving ahead his baptismal date to the 23rd of this month! He is such a good guy - I'm really excited to be a part of his baptism. I teared up a little bit when he pulled out a huge stack of papers of his family history work. It was an experience similar to that with Rosane in Ijui when she showed me all her ancestor’s photos. I got to see that the work I’m putting into the mission has a big impact. Clearly, it’s the spirit that does all the work, but he's using me to bring to pass what God wants for this people here in Alegrete.
Renan is still studying well and progressing. He's just the kind of guy that wants to be CERTAIN, you know? Because he belongs to a cult called Saravá, (A cult based on voodoo to summon spirits and such) and he's afraid that if he converted, his gods will punish him. But. I’m confident he will feel the difference between the Holy Spirit and... uhm... other spirits.
Daniel had a huge curveball thrown at him, and it took him a while to recover spiritually. But he seems to be back to normal, and we hope to set his baptism on the 23rd with Ivo.
We still haven’t found any pants for Jorge, but we have made progress in that home - we have been teaching his wife, too.
J and Mirian have been travelling due to sick relatives, but by our phone calls, it seems like their determination of being baptized has risen a lot. They promised us that they’d be at church this upcoming Sunday, so I’m excited. Mirian's mom, Zenira, is also enthused about the idea of baptism.
Zenira, is like, my favorite old lady. Mom, you'd just love her. She's got a severe case of Parkinson's, so she shakes a whole lot. But she always makes it a case to give us a little "lanchinho" or "snack" when we visit her. She's very independent, and so she doesn’t accept help. She pours the juice and serves us sauteéd pears and things, always flinging food and spilling water. She’s just too funny and awesome. We found her, actually, clapping doors. She took us in warmly, and accepted the message happily and readily. She felt the spirit strongly, and agreed to be baptized on the very first visit. Our second visit, we asked if she had prayed about the message. She said she did. We asked what God told her about the truthfulness of the message of the Restoration. She responded "well, YES OF COURSE! What else would He say?!"
This came as a shock to Mirian. According to her, Zenira was always a fervent catholic, and was worried sick (literally) when Mirian's sister converted to an evangelical church. But. Upon hearing the message of the Restoration, she's just fine about leaving the Catholic Church behind.
We also found some good new investigators this week. One of which will join us in a Family Home Evening at Sibele's house. Ivo will also be there.
The mission is just... at a very, very high point. I feel like I inadequately have been describing to you what’s going on over here. But. There’s just so many things.
I love you all very much.
Com Amor,
Elder Wassom

Finishing the story

So, as you can imagine, I had a super busy day today, and I can just write the story about Ivo and Renan.
So they get back all sweaty from helping people from the flood. And the conversation starts. We started off uneasy - not uneasy of being confounded, but uneasy that someone with so much knowledge of the gospel would want to bible bash with us and send the spirit away. But we quickly realized that it wasn’t his intention at all. It was simply to tell us of his desire to return to the church, and to mark a baptismal date. He wanted to mark it for the 13th of February, as it was his birthday then: "I was born on Feb. 13th, and I want to be born again on the same day!" So we reluctantly agreed, knowing that, if it be God's will, teaching more about the concept of the Gospel of Christ would help him to mark the date closer... sometime in January.
After some powerful lessons, now the possibility of this happening is good. But I diverge.
We invited him and his friends so come to church. He came to church the next morning with Renan. There we learned it was apparent that Ivo taught Renan quite a bit. Let’s just say they surprised the Young Men’s leader and the gospel principles teacher, haha. The first question in Gospel Principles from Renan... "If it takes a man and a woman, bound by the sealing power to have spirit children, how did God make us alone? Do we have a Heavenly MOTHER too?" Many questions had to be responded by: "We'll answer that a little later... maybe tonight."
Deep questions such as these were asked, and it sparked an interest in Daniel, who was present as well. That night, we had a great lesson. Yes, Renan and Ivo still had those questions. But it's amazing how many of those questions can be responded to by adhering to the simple yet powerful doctrines: "God is our father. And he loves us." We gave Renan a book of Mormon, and marked a few passages for him to read. We are excited to see how it goes.
Basically, that’s all the story about them until now, but I’m really excited to teach them because they're great young men.
I love you all, and I have to go, but just know I’m still super happy.
Elder Wassom

Surprise! And Happy New Year!‏

Hey Guys,
I have so so much to say. Thankfully I have Monday as well to write to yall.
First thing's first, I learned that the phrase: "Time flies fast when you’re having fun" isn’t always true. These two and a half weeks have been what I think to be the slowest in the mission. But they have also been, without a doubt, the best two and a half weeks of my life. And the slowness just made it better, as I could then enjoy every precious moment, as there have been a lot of them. I feel like the skype call certainly didn’t give my happiness the justice it needed, because I was still a little stunned by the massive amount of flooding the city was undergoing. The pictures show what I’m talking about, I think. All of those flood photos (and the churrasco photo) were taken on Christmas. Saturday it got even worse, but then it all went back down. It’s still flooded, and some people are still out of their houses, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was.
So what makes my week so really awesome? Well, I am constantly at the side of two of my very best friends - Elder Anfuso and the Holy Spirit. The three of us make a pretty awesome team. Actually, the Holy Spirit's doing all of the work, but Elder Anfuso and I are just along for the incredible, sweaty, ride.
It seems like I've been here in Alegrete forever, because so much has happened. I will have to tell you guys about one person at a time. I won’t get to everyone, but I’ll get the rest on Monday.
Daniel - Daniel is 18. When I first met him, he was doubting his faith in God. He didn’t know if God existed. But in just two weeks, his faith is strong, He accepted to be baptized on the 9th of January, and he has decided that he will serve a mission. When he talks to us, his very countenance glows in his eyes - a huge change. Yesterday, we asked him if he was praying and reading the scriptures daily. He said he has been waking up at 4AM every morning just to find time to do just that. We were pleasantly surprised. He said "I saw a little video clip called "Patterns of Light" by a man in the church (David A Bednar) that said that sometimes the spirit talks to us in the form of memories. He said that the spirit can let us remember, like, our mom telling him to say our morning prayers. My mom doesn’t do that, but I remember you guys." He then went on to explain that he has seen all the bible videos and Mormon messages on LDS.org
Ivo and Renan - I don’t even know how to begin. Like, wow. Ivo was taught by the missionaries 3 years ago, but stopped going to church, and stopped receiving the lessons. Well, he is part of a service-oriented society, that, every time they meet, a prayer is offered and a scripture is read. There are a ton of different religions there, so sometimes it’s the Bible, sometimes it’s the Koran, sometimes it’s the Torah, etc. Well. It was Ivo's turn to share a scripture. He thought "Well, the Book of Mormon is scripture to me, I'll share one from the Book of Mormon." This sparked some... discussions within his youth group. He then defended the Book of Mormon and the LDS faith. After his defense, he had many opportunities to share the message of the restored gospel with his friends. One of these friends is Renan. More on him later. But anyways, he started studying again.
Then, Elder Anfuso and Elder Sousa (his last companion) were doing a service project in a nursing home, and Ivo and his group were there as well. He seemed like a nice kid, so they got his address. However, they did not know how much Ivo had been prepared. The missionary exchange happened, and I came in. We passed by Ivo's house a few times, but he was never there. Anyways, the flood happened, and at its worst point, (Saturday Night) only two small parts of our area were not underwater, and separated by about 40 minutes of walking on the train tracks (because the roads and bridge were all underwater). Our plans had all been completed by about 7:30 that night, and we were on "our side" of town (the part with our house). We thought about teaching some short lessons with some recent-converts and less-actives close to home, but then we thought about Ivo. The spirit pressed us to make the hike. So we took the perilous train trail across the flooded city of Alegrete and got to Ivo's house. His mom greeted us and took us in. My companion's eyes widened. Firstly, he had never seen such an elegant house, but secondly, he directed my attention to the bookshelf. There, on the bookshelf, were all 15 of the "Teachings of the Prophets", the Book of Mormon, Gospel Principles, and other LDS books. There was even a Book of Mormon in English, haha.
Soon, Ivo and his friends all showed up, sweaty from helping other people in the flood.
I’m sorry, guys, for the cliffhanger, but I have to sign out. For now.
Até Segunda!
Com Muito Amor,
Elder Wassom

The end of the exchange with Elder Alves in Santiago:

The floods in Alegrete:

The churrasco photo:

My Last Email until Christmas‏

Hey yall, to make a long story short, i only have 5 minutes now to write you all this morning. I will writ in the afternoon too. SO I can just tell you that I have news. Sort of crazy news. I’m being transferred to Alegrete, Rio Grande do Sul. I will serve in Ala Nova with Elder Anfuso as my companion. I have served up to this point, exactly 2/3 of my mission in the field in the same house as this crazy Argentinian, and now he will be my comp. I’m really super excited. Chances are, I will be taking off at 6pm today.
Like I said, recently my letters make the mission seem small, but it really isn’t. The mission is changing so much, though. Imagine, the last transfer, 18 missionaries returned home, and 25 came. This transfer, 18 left, and 18 are coming. That means that practically everyone possible is either being trained, training, or in leadership positions.
For example, Sister Porter just got here 5 weeks ago, and she’s already going to Uruguaiana.

So guys,
This is my last email until Christmas. Christmas will be our pday next week, so I won’t be writing yall next Monday. This does have me slightly concerned as I have no Idea what Elder Anfuso’s plans are about skyping from Alegrete. BUT. Let´s stick to the plan, 6pm my time, 2pm yours, unless I send a tiny message from Skype warning otherwise. (Which is likely) So stay alert.
new address-
Elder Mitchell Bart Wassom
Caixa Postal 310
Centro - Alegrete - RS
97541-910
First thing, I said that there have been some massive changes. Let me state some. I think you’d be interested to know that Elder Capistrano and Elder Sena split up. Elder Sena left the Urlandia area (Lucky him) and is completing the training of another Elder. Elder Capistrano is also completing the training of an Elder. That means I'm a GRANDPA! Coolio!
Sister Porter is headed to Uruguaiana as a Sister Training Leader (not sure if that’s right in English). Sister da Silva is going to São Gabriel to complete the training of a sister (yes, with just 4 months of experience). They will be replaced by Sister Hennefer and her new "daughter". Elder Alvarenga will go to Livramento to finish a training, and will be replaced by Elder Santos to finish the training of ELder Jose Silva. Sister Vera will go to Santo Angelo to be Senior Companion to Sister Cornick. Both of them only have 3 months of training, and neither speak Portuguese very well, especially Sister Cornick. Sister Magallanes will be transferred to her house in Argentina after 1-1/2 years of dedicated service. Santiago B will close. I will, as stated, go to Alegrete to be Zone Leader with Elder Anfuso. Elder Donoso will take my place here as District Leader in Vila Rica A, training Elder Alves.
Like I said. Massive changes.
One of the first things I’d like to state in my letter is my gratitude to my awesome parents. I say this because Sister Porter got her package, and opened it in front of us… All healthy food. vitamins, Dried fruit, and trail mix. All good stuff, but it doesn’t take the place of chocolate. I wouldn’t spend 80 bucks sending walnuts to my missionary kids. For this alone, and several other reasons, my parents still reign supreme. Way to go on the super great package, once again.
I know this last week, I didn’t go really deep into the "work" part of the letter. Well, that’s sort of because it was a good week, but no one went with us to church. We went and searched every house, but everyone was sleeping or "on a morning stroll", apparently. This week was no different, as our list of "investigators who went to church" was empty yet again. This was frustrating, as an investigator seems to stop progressing spiritually if they can’t seem to make it to church. It was a little more frustrating this week, because it was a FANTASTIC Stake Conference. Presidente Maicá (StakePres.), Presidente Parrella, and Sister Parrella all hit it out of the park, and I felt the whole time "wouldn’t it be good if _____ was here?"
I felt a little sad, as I reflected on my time here in Santiago. Yes, we baptized Alexandra and Juliandra, but we hardly didn’t even teach them. They were prepared almost 100% by Elder Capistrano and Elder Moore. I started to feel like I hadn’t made much of a difference. But then I started going through the Area Book, updating it the best I could. And I looked at all the people I taught. All the lessons I taught. All the seeds I had planted. Who knows if those seeds will germinate and grow? It gave me a little hope, as I still have planted in my heart D+C 123:17 - If I do all I can with a good attitude, then I will see miracles.
Of all the miracles I’ve seen in the mission, the lives I’ve been a part in changing - perhaps the greatest life I’ve seen change is my own. I marvel to think of the difference of who I was before and of who I am now. I have been changed very very much. And it’s fantastic. I’ve got a ways to go; and a lot of work to do - but I also see the amount of work that’s been done, and it gives me faith, hope, and joy - because the promises of the Lord are being fulfilled.
I love the Lord. I love these gaúchos. I love this place. I love this gospel.
I love all of yall, and wish you the best.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Com amor,
Elder Wassom

Some Funny Stories

Hey guys,
This week was pretty normal. It had some ups and downs. AND I had some administrative business to take care of. So. I thought I'd share some funny things about my week.
1. In Brazil, funny thing is people like to wear shirts written in English, even if they have no idea what it says. A good number of those shirts have some typos, making me think that they were made to be shipped to the United States, and rejected. It makes me re-think buying a shirt in French, or something. Anyways, the other day, I saw a member of the church, and she asked me what her shirt meant. It says: "LET`S GET WASTED" I had a good laugh, and the member felt pretty ripped off. It was her fault. She should’ve done her research, lol
2. I got paid back quite a bit, though. I never had any horrible Portuguese mix-up story, but on Sunday, I had one similar. I was translating the sacrament meeting talk into sign language for Fernanda, a deaf recent-convert, (I’m not awesome at Sign Language, but I get by) and the lady said in her testimony "I love this month" but I translated it: "I love bananas." after explaining to Fernanda that the lady wasn’t actually bearing her testimony about bananas, she started laughing so hard. It was hard for Fernanda to focus the rest of the meeting. And it was my fault.
3. The state of São Paulo just passed a law, (supported by the media, and soon to be followed by other states) that when a woman openly breastfeeds in the middle of a public place, whoever makes that woman feel out of place is fined 500 reais. Their reasoning? "Breastfeeding is a tender moment between mother and child and shouldn’t be restrained to privacy". I think "okay, but she can at least carry a blanket or something." The result? Millions of photos hitting the internet, news, and other public places of supermodels breastfeeding random children.
Brazil is an awesome place. A funny Place, too. I love you all, and sorry for the short letter.
Com Amor,
Elder Wassom

Merry Christmas, Elder Wassom! (Christmas Package arrived!)


A good homemade meal including a Tuscan sausage rice, a marinated ham-and-cheese wrapped chicken breast, topped with roasted tomatoes, and a broccoli salad.

Sister da Silva drawing me and Elder,

a cool member that helps us,

and the families of João, Baixinha (Sueli), and Fernanda and Dani

14 months‏

Dear Family and Friends,
Sorry, this week I didn’t take any pictures. I brought my camera to the chapel this morning for our district volleyball game. But it fell through, unfortunately.
In respect to the work here in Vila Rica A, It’s been alright. Maria and Patrique ended in a shocking turn of events. Estefan, our Branch Mission Leader, did visits with us on Tuesday. When we showed up at Maria's house, she abruptly said "I was just going to church because of the boy (Patrique), but now that he's gone, I don’t want anything to do with the church. Bye." When we followed up with her on Saturday, she still remained indignant about the situation, and expulsed us from her front lawn. Net, net - I think Patrique’s parents re-gained custody of him, and I think this has Maria stressed out.
These things are tough on a young pup like Elder Sales. Speaking of Elder Sales, he changed his mission name to his preferred last name. He is now Elder Alves. So from now on, I may refer to one name or the other, but just know he's the same guy. Anyways, he does (rightfully) get frustrated with these things (I do too, but not as much as him). But he’s taking it really well. In fact, he's sort of funny about it. The other day, we saw a man without legs. He said "FINALLY. A man who's not gonna run away from us." haha
It was a sort of weird week, to be honest, because we wanted to do a "filter" of our too-large, too-weak teaching pool, but it turns out, almost no one was at home. So. We did a lot of door clapping, and we found some good new investigators, thus enlarging our teaching pool even more. So that’s good news, and bad news, I think, haha.
Yesterday was yet another day without any investigators in Sacrament Meeting. We had everything worked out perfectly, and we left our house at 7am to search, (wake up) and pick up everyone at their houses and walk with them to church. BUT. "Não deu" (It didn’t work out).
At the end of this somewhat sad letter, I will say that this week, I am much more optimistic. When we trip, (or in this case, when other people trip us,) we just have to get back on our feet and keep going. This’ll be a good learning experience for Elder Alves.
Big news - starting on this last Thursday, our whole focus shifted towards re-activation. Presidente Parrella, Presidente Maicá (our stake president) and I had a conference call (Talk about a nerve-racking conference call) about what to do with respect to turning this Branch into a ward, because the Sacrament Meeting attendance, and other key-indicators are ward-worthy. Our focus now is to re-activate the Melchizedek Priesthood holders. So we have started to work with a list of these prospect re-activate-ees. We called the Branch President for him to pray to find 6 names of men to pass to us and the Sisters. The Branch President came up with 7. And during the week, we were able to contact them all, and a lot of progress was made on most. Some of them, including Ricardo and Derlei, went to church on Sunday. It was pretty special.
Actually, Derlei wasn’t even on the list. We were clapping doors, when we saw Derlei, a 19-year old less-active, watching over Tiago Brolo's house. (Tiago Brolo went on the temple trip) We decided to pay him a visit. Turns out, we talked to him about him serving a mission. It was a good lesson. At the end, I flashed back to the beginning of the mission when Elder Molina showed "The atonement and Missionary work" for me in a sad time in my mission. So I did the same. At the end of the clip, Derlei and my comp were in tears. Derlei offered the closing prayer, and thanked God for his "Power to Answer Prayers." It felt good to be part in the answer to someone’s prayer. I know God guides us. He went to church on Sunday, had an interview with the Branch President, and is preparing to serve a mission now.
I love the Lord, and all He does for us. I have a strong testimony of His Power.
I love you all.
Com Amor,
Elder Wassom

A good, tiresome week

Hey family and friends,
This week went over well. The baptism of Alexandra and Juliandra was super special! The branch pitched in, and the service was awesome. Elder Sales baptized Alexandra, and Lucas Vargas baptized Juliandra. Then we had cake and sandwiches and juice. We tried to be all fancy and make juice with sparkling water, but I think it would have been better without.
Unfortunately, looks like we might have to push back the baptism of Patrique and Maria, but we'll get after it.
I talked really briefly about my comp last week, so I’ll share some more fun facts. Sure he's fun-sized, but I don't dare mess with him, as he is a Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai champion. He’s really creative, and gives really good ideas on how to teach our investigators. AND he laughs at my corny sense of humor. Elder Capistrano and I got along very well, but my humor was almost intolerable to him. I still smile at the idea that he’s with Elder Sena right now.
On Tuesday, I went on Splits with Elder Pierce (yes, AGAIN) in Santo Angelo. That left my 1-week-expirienced trainee alone to lead the area for 2 days. I was concerned that this would be a tough time for him. BUT... When I got back, we had a ton of new investigators, and great progress. But the splits turned out good. We had a good time.

There’s a couple that we're working with named Cristiano and Daiane. They’re super awesome. Daiane has more questions than anyone I’ve ever taught. Cristiano had a super neat experience to tell us, and I’m not sure if I’ve already shared it with yall. When we started teaching them, they both started asking us a load of questions about the Book of Mormon. Eventually I had to ask why they were so interested. Cristiano said: "One day, the Mormons gave us the Book of Mormon, and immediately, everyone was telling me about how awful of a book it is. Some people even said it was the foundation of a cult! Even my wife told me to just throw it away. I’ve tried several times to throw it away, but there’s always an outside force prohibiting me to do so; and I physically cannot bring myself to throw the book away. Over time, I realized: How can this book be the foundation of something so terrible, if its bearing a name so powerful on the front and back cover!? (Points to the letters: JESUS CHRIST)" Pretty cool story, huh?
So I gotta go. Love Yall!
Com Amor,
Elder Wassom
Yet again, I’m not particularly fond of how our hemi-zone picture went, as the 10-second-timer-photo I haven’t quite mastered. But at least it shows a few things, such as the stature of my comp. haha.

But I HAVE mastered the 100 seminary scriptures in Portuguese, woohoo. And the baptism! Woop!