Changes & Zone Conference

(Monday, September 4, 2017)

Alô tudo mundo! Tudo brite? 

This week was pretty awesome! So first off we have this investigator called Andre and he is honestly the best. We have been working with him and it has been good. On Tuesday, after Zone Conference (which I will talk about after) we went by to check on him and to teach him a little more, but when he walked up, we didn't even recognize him! He cut his hair, fez um barba (shaved) and was dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt. He said that he was trying to be more like us and we then talked to him about how he can be more like someone better, Christ! Haha so that has been good. 

So, Zone Conference. Zone conference was really good. Our mission president wants to have 100 baptisms in the month of September so we talked about ideas on how we can get that going and what would be impeding that. 

Also, the secretários showed us a video of what they do on a regular basis para a gente entender (for us to understand) and then we watched a guy who explained the power of doing an angel Gabriel contact. He said that we need to have the same conviction as the angel Gabriel when he was talking to Mary. He said that Gabriel told her what would happen and that we as representatives as Jesus Christ have the same power. I really took this to heart and have been doing my best to apply it because I AM a representative of Jesus Christ and I am doing the same thing He would be doing if he was here in Brazil. I am going from house to house, blessing the lives of people, and sharing a message of eternal families and how we can live with our Heavenly Father once again. I know that this is the true church and I know that I am doing His work. 

Hope you guys have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

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

God is Great

Hey so this week was amazing.

So first off, we have been working a lot.  We received uma referencia [a reference] from Andre, a 13 year old member and we talked with two of his friends and marked dates. 

Then on Friday, things went south. The past week almost all our dates fell through, my comp and I were a little tired of knocking doors, and were a little tired of the area. It got a little better but was hard. 

Then Saturday, we went to Homero, a member and his daughter was there so we started to give her a message, but then turned it into a lesson and then committed to the 5th for baptism! Then we talked to Homero and he was in shock haha. 

Then on Sunday God blessed us with miracles. So first, we went to wake up a member João Victor because he usually sleeps in past church and when we arrived, an investigator was there and he said that he would go too. Wha... alright. 

We had two other girls that thought church started at 7 so they were there... at 7 lol. Fernanda was mad at Ingride (the two girls) but after church we committed them to the 5th as well so I will hopefully have some pictures that day. And that night we were trying to hit the standard of new investigators. (from Dahrl:  When I asked him what this means, he said 15.  What I think he is saying is that they have a goal of getting 15 new investigators in a week or a month.)  So we started and got 4 IN 25 MINUTES. That was a record and I just turned to my comp and said, "Why don’t we do this all the time?" So you will see more from us hahaha. 

I have been trying to teach my comp English and the other Brazilian with the other American and it is hilarious. We are reading the Book of Mormon in English and it is hilarious. 

Well, this week was awesome. I will talk to you guys next week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Festa Junina

Ai caras beleza?! Man this week was hard but a lot of fun as well. 

So this week, we had two Festa Juninas [*] and if you ask, what is that, well.... good question. I don’t know haha but our ward threw it and it was really cool. We also went to a birthday/Festa Junina para um menino [for a boy] called Diego, who is one of our investigators. 

Also, we went out and worked some members which is always fun. 

Oh and I am teaching my comp some hymns in English which is pretty entertaining.

 Also, we had a baptismal interview but she was drinking coffee the day before so the next one is for this week! And we had a date fell through so that was hard because she is awesome but fell through because she didn’t want to go to church because of some of the people there (long story) but Ronaldo and Miriam are stronger than ever, asking awesome questions, just need to get married! They made food for me and my companion every week for the past three weeks and it is amazing. 

I also hiked up to the Christ statue again so that was awesome. 

Thanks for all the love and support. Talk to you all next week!

Elder Kupferer

[*] “Festa Junina” is the term used to describe the traditional festivities that happen at the beginning of the Brazilian winter in June. It is a month to commemorate some of the most famous saints for Catholics; namely Saint Anthony, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Peter. It is also a month to honor rain, the harvest season and marital union.