Progredindo (Progressing)

(Monday, August 21, 2017)

Hey everyone! 

So this week nothing really eventful happened so this one will be pretty short. 

So we received a list of all the inactivos (people who have been inactive for a while) and we went and tried to pass around to the different people there. We ran into Pedro and Aparecida which was interesting. Pedro is a 90 year old (89 but he said he is 90 so we'll go with that) who lives with his wife and all their kids are connected to their house (I don't know how to explain it you would just have to see it.) His house looks incredible and he actually built it all himself which is even cooler! Only problem that he has been Roman Catholic for all his life so he doesn't want to change his religion but that is up to him. 

We passed by Ingrid and started teaching her brother and are trying to teach her mom as well but she is never there when we pass by. Also, we have just been passing and helping out members and visiting a few less actives. We had a lot more people in church so that was great. 

There really isn't much else other than our LMA (Our ward mission leader (Líder da missão da ala)) is awesome and is actually helping a lot. It has been refreshing to have someone who wants to work with us instead of just being there. But that is it for this week. 

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

A Week of FHEs...and Six Months!!

(Monday, August 28, 2017)

Hello everyone! So first things first.... I hit 6 months today!!!! I can’t believe that I have been out that long it feels like last week I got on the plane to leave for São Paulo and now I am here in Juiz de Fora, 6 months in. 

Anyway this week was good. We started with a person called Catelina. Which was great! We marked a date and she is interested. We then continued working, marking novos (New investigators?) and yesterday we ran into an investigator that was having troubles. He is feeling really down so we had to talk to him and slowly he started to listen to the lesson and we committed him to baptism and he accepted! We kept talking to him but as he was talking he just kept saying "Eu vou ser um Mórmon" (I will be a Mormon). Why yes you will and that is why we are here haha. It was awesome. 

So that leads me to my last point. We tried to have a Noite Familiar (family home evening, it is where you have a message, an activity and usually food) every single night this past week and.... we had 5/7. Which was good! It was really fun and great because you get to see different members with their whole families and share a message from the gospel with them. It is awesome, if you guys don't do family home evening do it! You will see the difference in your week! I know it will bless your lives. Until next week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

New Comp, Same Life

(August 14, 2017)

Oi tudo mundo! Man this week was interesting. 

So on Tuesday, I helped my old companion Elder Bledsoe move to his new house, where I picked up a different elder who was going to the bus station and then waited for my new comp. I then picked up my new companion, Elder Valdiviezo (correct now…I don’t know if I messed it up before but it is right now haha) 

Then, we went straight to an activity after we dropped his bags hahaha. No time for him but oh well. 

The next day we had a training about Dengue for an activity on Saturday and then Saturday, we had the activity with classes, free clinics, and Zumba. I was stationed with the pilates room and they had a machine that helped to tell you your weight, your bmi, percentage of muscle, percentage of fat, percentage of fat in your abdominal area, and your body age. It was really funny to see the different people go up and try it out.... and see their reactions. There was an 18-year old with the body age of 45 (HA) he wasn't too pleased with that. 

AND THEN, the week took a stop this past few days. 

First, we went to visit Fernanda, and we found out that she moved. So now, we need to figure out her new address (they said it was a neighborhood next to them so that is good but still need to search for her). 

Also, since it was Father’s Day here yesterday, all our investigators and some less actives were busy with barbecues or visiting their fathers so we had no one at church and was the lowest attended sacrament meeting since the wards were together. So that is something that we just need to work on this coming week and continue to get some people closer to Christ! 

Talk to everyone next week!

Love, 

Elder Kupferer

All these photos are from a route that we thought was faster, but actually took more time to get to a member’s house. The view was killer though!

What a Packed Week!

Alô tudo mundo! 

Man has this been an interesting week. I will first start with how this week went. This week was packed! 

Nós we were busy because in order to get the three perspective baptisms this week, we needed to go there (visit the investigators?) basically every day to make that happen. So we did that and everything was looking right for that to happen until Thursday.  We talked to the father of Rosimere (she is older but she still lives at home) and her dad said, "oh you can baptize someone who is still smoking" (Which two things, first that was hard to translate that from Portuguese to English and second, she told us that she had stopped smoking and everything) which was a surprise to us.  So we talked to her the next day and continue to talk to her about that.  Then, we talked to the mom of Fernanda, and she didn't give her permission after 20-30 minutes of trying to talk to her (but it went from a straight no to in a few weeks so that is good haha). 

Then, came Saturday. Saturday, we did splits because Elder Western needed to do the interview because he is the zone leader and you need someone who hasn’t been teaching and invested in the person to give the interview. So I was with the other Zone leader when we received a call that Ingrid will get baptized! Man I was super happy.  We had a great turn out and after the baptism I was just filled with so much joy because we helped another person get closer to Christ and it is amazing to see that happen! 

Then, after church (where she got confirmed!) we were having a meeting with the ward missionary leader (Líder de missionária da ala in Portuguese) when the Assistants called (we just finished our last week of the transfer) and we received our next areas and companions. 

So, my companion Elder Bledsoe will leave for Manchester and finish the training of Elder Cunha there. (Still in Juiz de Fora so that is chill). Elder Western and Elder Hilario will stay our zone leaders. AND I WILL... do nothing as well I will stay in Bairu (Antiga Grajaú) and I will pick up my new companion, Elder Valdivieri tomorrow at the rodoviária (bus station lol) which is cool because first, he is from Argentina, and second, this is his last transfer before going home so that will be fun! So yeah that was the week. I will talk to everyone next week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer