Baptism Jerseys

Elder Galvez and Elder Cetraro sporting their Baptism Jerseys

New Companion Elder Hodson (lower right) and Roommates

Overlooking Juazeiro do Norte

P-Day in front of statue of Padre Cicero

Zac with New Member - Brother Donizete

Talent show - Zac with Companion, Elder Hodson, playing Be Still My Soul and The Scientist

Zac and roommates celebrating 6 month mark - Zac is 6-months in and others are 6-months from going home

Zac with 6-month pizza (Sign says Elder Cetraro - 6-Months)

Zac with Jaguar Skin - Grrrrr!

Zac and Elder Hodson getting in the Christmas Spirit

Christmas Feast

Zac and roommates didn't get any of their presents. What they did get was from the Relief Society - Thank You Sisters!

Make shift Christmas Tree made from a water cooler

Zac participating with the members in a Just Dance Party! People just don't know how much of a fun partier Elder Cetraro is.

So I thought it was funny how in your email about Montana of course you had to mention about the food. I think you can look back in my journal too and about half the things I mention are the food. So here I sent a picture of the dinner we had New Years Eve. WOOOOWW comida linda! I don’t think I will ever eat something so pretty again. I really am not even jealous of the food you guys are eating up in Montana. Because just for y'all to understand... I eat like I am in Montana... everyday!! Lol, luckily usually it is only one meal but followed by many snacks from everyone. Also... last week was my 6 month mark, It just happened to land on the End of the World Eve as well!! hahahaha so it was a funny night, we ordered pizzas and kidded around. Got some pictures of that. It is funny though because everyone I am living with basically just has 6 months left! Hahahaha, so here I am saying to myself "ooh man.... 6 months.." and they are like "ooh man... 6 months!" to themselves as well.

Alrighty, I put a couple pictures of Christmas in here as well. Ha, Christmas morning we all slept together in our "ironing/workout" room. We made a little decoration thingy to be festive. Unfortunately nobody had any presents because of slackers in Fortaleza but the Relief Society gave us a huge bag of goodies that looked really good under our tree, ha. It was fun. A couple days after we had a "Just Dance" activity. And guess who was all over that. THIS GUY! Ha oh my gosh, I don’t think the Brazilians here ever have seen a party animal like me before. Ha it was good though because I got a lot of people to participate. So that was super fun. I love dancing. But yeeeaahh it has been a long week for me.... it was filled with fun! Everyday has been very eventful; I can almost say that my holidays competed with yours! Our mission made a goal to have 2060 baptisms this year and we hit it! (There were actually 2060 Sons of Helaman). And yeah, today we just played some basketball, watched Brave for the 3rd week in a row, had a BBQ with a member and we will spend the rest of New Year's Eve with the same members as Christmas eve tonight... ha they are the best! 

So yeeeah. It’s been great. I am super happy, talking to you guys was the cherry on the top of it all. I loved hearing your loving Mom voice, my #1 fan. =) I just know you guys love me so much, and it just makes me so thankful. =) I love you guys too and I am glad that life is just awesome for us. I have learned a lot on the mission that our time here really isn’t anything. Just a little part in the whole scheme of things, but even in my little time I have had here on earth, I just think it is the sweetest thing. "It's a wonderful life" right?

I will talk to you are next year!

Hey Hey!! It just hit me the other day how excited I am to Skype you guys. But I am thinking today I will try to figure out some technology stuff so we will see how much I write.

But guess what... I AM STAYING!! Ha that’s right, I will stay another 7 weeks in Juazeiro. It is a little crazy but I was hoping for it. I want to spend Christmas here.... it is basically my other home. So yeah. Transfers weren’t anything crazy, nothing changed in our house which is chill, because I love everyone in our house, we all get along perfectly, and none of us are fubecas (slackers)!

So yeah, I think I won’t receive letters and packages until Thursday, so we will see if everything made it.  Wow... already doing Christmas stuff eh?? That’s cool. That’s funny that the kids are skipping out on family stuff. I remember when I wanted to do that and everyone was calling me lame. Ha, but now I see that the family stuff is the best stuff! I guess it just is a phase in life. Crazy how Taylor is having a baby... I can’t even imagine... but I guess I don’t need to, eh?

Please forward this for the ward newsletter:

Feliz Natal Cliffside 1st Ward! Tudo Bem?

Hope all is well and white there where my testimony was born and raised. Brazil has been very good to me and I am loving the missionary life. It’s amazing and easy to see here how the gospel really is the root of all happiness. It also is interesting to see that it is my job to make it easy for other people to see that as well. I love learning from the scriptures and modern-day counsel and applying it into my life and the life of others. This can be done everyday. I will miss drinking some good ol’ hot chocolate this Christmas but drinking a cold açaí smoothie will have to do. Hope you all have a holly jolly Christmas!

-Elder Cetraro

This week has been a pretty eventful week for me but... all good though! This week was interesting because it was the Christmas/talent show/zone conference. So that was fun stuff. It felt like I didn’t work in my area at all this week because I went on 2 divisions and took the day off for the Conference. The Zone Conference was soooo good. I KNOW that we have inspired leaders that receive revelation from God here in the mission. One of the things I think you would like to know that was inspired was the cleanliness part. The week before I begged Elder Reynolds to teach me his ways of cleanliness. I am naturally a slob. You know that, you lived with me. But I have been trying to organize myself and yeah. He taught us "The 5 S’s" - Sort (basically sort everything to see what is necessary and what it not... what is not, throw away - sooo hard for me) Straighten (a place for everything, and everything in its place) Shine (Be clean! If you dirtied it, clean it) Standardize (don’t remember this one) and then Sustain (daily keep it clean, this one is hard for me too)

Anyways, after this was the Talent show and OMG I need to find a way to get that to ya’ll. It was reeaally cool. So last P-day my comp said he wanted to play The Scientist (by Coldplay) for the talent show, and that morning we sang, "Be Still My Soul" in Portuguese. I realized that they were in the same key so I threw out the idea we should try to put them together. Then we realized we both wanted to play the piano. So we had the idea to switch off. So I won’t tell you the entire creative process but in the end it came out like this. My comp started on the piano and shortly after, I came in on the guitar and we are playing The Scientist. When we get to the chorus I put down the guitar and we play together and he slides off and grabs his harmonica. I figured out how to play chords so we made a transition into Be Still My Soul but Scientist style and in the transition he plays the harmonica. And then we sing Be Still My Soul in Portuguese..... And WOW, everyone marveled and wondered.... but most of all I did too! I never knew I had such musical talent to do something like that... YAY! =D

Then came the Christmas part. So President and his wife both shared stories, and they basically are my parents here. And it wasn’t until we all sang Silent Night that the Christmassy spirit hit me. I could just imagine a silent winter Christmas night and breathing some fresh cold crisp winter air. I could see that President and his wife really love us. After I just wanted a big mommy hug. It made me think of how every Christmas season, my mom always worked so hard to celebrate Christmas. You always tried to make it special together. I miss that. I miss you...and our full family. But it’s all good. I will really try this year to make Christmas more about Jesus than family, I guess. I am excited to study and find how I can fill myself with the spirit of Christmas and preach to others so they can have a special Christmas like what you did for me.

So there, that is all that is new with me! Wow. Fun stuff. So I read your Christmas letter. Wow, it has been an eventful year hasn’t it? It is weird to think I spent half of it with you guys. It seems like I have been here forever. Ha, and I think it is so funny that you mentioned the kids growing because I was looking at the pictures you sent me from a couple letters before. And I compared them with the old school pictures I had before and WOW! They really have changed. One thing is for sure though when I get back, Keegan and Riley will be my best friends! I just know. I think about it all the time how much I will love to hang out with them when I get back and how much COOLER they will be, ha. It is also sad though that we are a grown family now. No more KIDS.

LOVE YA FAM!

-Elder Cetraro

HEEEYY!! Tudo Bem?

YAAAAYY for Christmas! Ha, Christmas music is something we can listen to, so one of the best parts of Christmas is here. Ha, some snakes gave us a cute golden Christmas tree and another snake gave us a present so we are getting festive down here!

So I saw on the first day of December that I left in month 6 and now it is month twelve. Crazy huh!? I pulled out my journal and it was great to see where I was a year ago and 6 months ago. 6 months ago was when I first went through the Logan Temple on Grandpa’s birthday. My soul thirsts for the Temple and it is funny how eternal families and temple work are a soft spot for me now.

WOW... I think it is sooo cool all the adventures you guys write me about. I am pretty sure I hear more about you guys than you hear from me. I like that - I am not missing out on anything. Wow! I am so jealous that you went to the Christmas Devotional. I WENT WHEN I WAS LIKE 8.... no fair. Ha, but it is funny because I tell all the members that I am from Utah and the Prophet is like my neighbor. It is funny how Utah is like a wonderland here and everyone dreams of going there.

Anyways... I think it is funny you are asking about my investigators. Padme and Tierre and Rosa are long gone. Something that I have been learning here with Elder Hodson is that in being an effective missionary you need to learn how to "cut" people. It is kind of sad but it is true. We are looking for the elects who are prepared. Like Donizete, for example. Ha, the man that I baptized yesterday! He just showed up at church a couple weeks ago. He felt the spirit, knew the Church was true. And it was super smooth getting him to the font. He in fact (when I baptized him) dunked himself more than me dunking him. But yeah. It is cool though because it turns out that I gave him a Book of Mormon 3 months ago and he prepared himself. That is something that I am really learning is how God really prepares people in this work.

Some news from here is... I dunno. Just working! I’m sure you were checking the weather and it actually was a very cool week. Yes, it still had its hot times but pretty chill. Last P-day was really sweet. We had pizza and stuff with some members that turn out are from the Amazon. Once we got them started on the Amazon they started telling stories for the next 2 hours. But I LOVED it. OMG, me and Riley are going to come down here and do an Amazon tour. It is just so cool because I have always read and dreamed about it as a kid. And here I was hearing first hand stories. It was awesome, ha!

So for this week, my spiritual focus will be on going the extra mile. This is the healing power of Christ (Stand a Little Taller thought this week) I will try to do that in praying with love. For really I am responsible for the people here and I can receive revelation about teaching them. We need to pray for people but also pray how we can help them.

Also something totally cool is that an Argentinean was talking to us the other day. And I wasn’t paying attention because he was talking more to the other missionaries but I understood when I was listening. But then after they were done talking, the missionary said that he was speaking Spanish the whole time. So yeah... I UNDERSTAND SPANISH! Crazy huh? Ha, that was a cool experience.

Also once again, Karate. I was talking to one of the zone leaders and he said he did a lot of karate. It was funny cause I busted out Kan Ku Dai like it was nothing. It is so weird how I remember everything. We will have to do some karate when I get home. 

Sound good? Maybe I can finally whoop you, Dad!

Love ya all

-Elder Cetraro

Heeellllooo!

Ta bom, Eu acho que é engracado por que eu sempre quer falar contigo em Portuguese. Bet you don’t understand that, do ya?  Sooo Thanksgiving eh? Wanna hear about my Thanksgiving? You will like what sparked it all. Ha, so the day of Thanksgiving I went on a split with E. Burnham. He is hilarious and another junior here, so we work pretty well together. Well anyways it was good because the other Elders were in a different city and it just so happened that that day was money so we had plenty to spend, ha. So we ate at a little fancier restaurant, ordered a little juice and had plenty of snacks from the street (everyone has a snack shop here in Brazil, just about every street has someone selling something, but usually I’m too cheap to buy anything) But it dawned on us half way through the day that I forgot the keys in the house. So the second half of the day we spent trying to find a cell phone to use to call the leaders to call the owner of the house, but that didn’t work so we ended up joining our companions in another part of the city. So we had 6 Elders in one house, so it kinda turned into a party. We ordered some huge burgers (Which I think Brazilians have accepted the fact that they can’t make a burger anything like an American burger so they just throw just about everything in there, hotdogs, corn and peas, bacon, ham, burger, eggs, etc...) and an Elder had some pumpkin pie prepared. We also had a dance party to some John Schmidt Paradise/African song. I then slept in a hammock in a crowded room. So it was an adventurous day. But I was thankful for my adventure, ha.

Sunday we had Branch Conference and it was focused on missionary service. It is crazy here how missionary service here is a big deal. Truly, here in a branch, missionaries are the heart of it all. Everyone here is a recent convert and all the immigrant members want to bring the fullness of a Stake here. We had some people (all which I have worked with) come and bear testimonies. One was a 17 year old who is preparing and as he bore his testimony I could see his parents out in the congregation crying... made me think of you guys =') got to me, you know. Then to follow up the Branch President spoke about how quick a mission goes by and remembering finishing it all and it seemed like a dream that he just wants to return to. That got everyone crying and we followed it up with "Whenever I Hear the Song of a Bird" which I played... it was funny how emotional everyone was though, but it was good =)

But yeah... Stuff is good here! We are working hard, and it’s hard because we aren’t seeing many fruits..... yet! But it is all good!

Love you all, and there is my splurb for the week =)

Thank you Dad for the email. I appreciate hearing your details with everything. I never worry much about home because I always get such good news from you all.

One thing, for the last few weeks I have really been focusing on Hope. It is funny, as I explored into it, I found that I am already quite the hopeful person. This includes being enthusiastic, optimistic, confident, and with patient perserverence. We need hope to stay happy in all times, even the hard ones. I found a lot of lessons that you taught me start to pop up like the importance of having long-term goals and “what you see is what you get.” It is knowing that everything will work out for your own good, putting your dreams out there, and being able to dance in the rain. Good stuff. Love ya, ciao!

Photos from Juazeiro do Norte - Elder Cetraro's first area.

 Dressing up like each other for Halloween

Swapped name tags - no one noticed

Elder Cetraro overlooking Juazeiro do Norte

Elder Cetraro blowing his own horn

Elder Cetraro and Elder Galvez out on the road together

My first baptism- Adriano Cardosa do Nascimento

Elder Cetraro and other Missionaries at Adriano's Baptism

Bottling Factory

Suiting up for the tour of the water/cajuinha factory

I baptized Jose Jackson Costa do Santos (16) and my companion baptized Natanael Bezerra da Silva (19)

Suit'n up after baptism - Their member friend is in the middle who brought them to church

Party after the baptism

McDonalds... It was a big deal for everyone else but it was normal and expensive for me

Some more photos from the Sao Paulo MTC (CTM)

My MTC companion - Elder Anderson

Where my District members are going to

In my classroom I was positioned perfectly so I could behold the gorgeous sunsets every day - Sao Paulo 

Elder Pazini - My companion for 8 hours between the MTC and Fortaleza

Zac's good friend at the MTC - Elder Boehme

Dancing with Elder Silva - He would always enter our room and start singing my name and dancing

MTC President and his wife - Ralph and Maryann Degn (from Wellsville)

The missionaries heading to Fortaleza - Zac is the only North American

The coolest Janitor ever!

My last batch of Brazilian roommates playing some beats

My first day proselyting in Sao Paulo while at the MTC

Zac's MTC District and Teacher - Irmao Israel

WOW!! =) Well I am happy today not just for the great news I have seen from you but from my friends!! I had Tay, Brady, and Scott write me!  So that started the week off good. =) And ooooh boooyy, what a loong week it was - in a good way! I am amazed at all the work we fit into one week! When today arrived I was so surprised that it has only been one week.

So my Comp rocks! He is a total Zoobie (Epitome of a BYU person) but it is all good cuz I like him and he likes to work. He is seriously my hero. My prayers and dreams have been heard of being the best missionary because he is really showing me how the work should be done. We doubled or tripled the numbers I would expect with Elder Galves. So it has been good, and I am still alive. I just hope that I can catch on to this.

Something that is cool. Elder Orchard and Elder Burnham and I are the oldest in the zone now (of being HERE ya know) so it is really cool how I have a lot of responsibility and say now. All the members know me, I know where things are, and yeah, I kind of feel like a leader already´;)

But Yeah, that’s great to hear about music. Honestly, I think some of my most spiritual moments have happened because of music. It really takes it to the soul. I am surprised to see that my skills and understanding of music are growing. I might actually return a better piano player! =D

Anyways... I am loving the mission. I am loving the mission life, and I am really having a lot of fun with my Americans =) and we speak only Portuguese! Crazy huh? Anyways, I have got to write some of my other homies, but happy Thanksgiving, don’t you worry I am stuffed like a turkey every day! We don’t need that silly holiday here =P

Eu Te Amo! =) -Elder Cetraro

Alrighty mummie!!

Received the ties today! Ha, how sweet eh! Ha, definitely from the D.I. (pretty nice from the DI if you ask me) but I love them I think they are rad. HA! and the oatmeal, I was laughing my pants off when I received that, I forgot about that, I am so excited to have a fast easy and healthy breakfast every morning (which is basically the only meal that I feed myself)

But today I am suuuuuuppppeeeerrrr Excited!!! Why?! Well many reasons.... lately I think I have been breaking out of my shell a little bit. Having fun with people and such. I think the transfer helps too! So I will start with transfers right now. My trainer got swapped. It was time, but we learned sooo much with each other. A lot of good feelings and experiences that I think will help with the future. But we are great friends fo sho. But hooooolllllyy smmooookeess... Remember how I felt so honored to be in such a leadershippy place? Well that grew by a bagillion. So I don’t know if I have told you that my zone goal is to turn this place into a stake. We are so close and it is easy to see that President is anxious because this transfer we are STACKED!! My house is now filled with two more legends. Elder Reynolds, was secretary for the President. He was the first (only) American friend I had in Fortaleza that one day. And my new comp! Elder Hodson! He was a killer Zone Leader and now he is with me. HE WANTS TO WOORRRKK!!! As weird as that is, that is soo relieving. I’d rather be dragged to work than me doing the dragging. I am going to learn so much, IT’S AWESOME =) I know President is giving me only the best. So yeah there is that.

So some thoughts I wanted to share. One, Thanks =) There was a moment this week where I had a familiar feeling. It was kinda the feeling I get when you would sign me up for EFY or some leadership thing or something. And then I realized that this thing is AWESOME and something I need, and then I am happy I have "funders" like you. My Mission is great. I have never felt so much like a hero. Which is every boy’s dream. And I am living it =´)

Primary was great! It is a little crazy though because right after they asked me to play next week, 2 difficult Young Women songs, and after P-day today, it looks like that isn’t going to happen.

So yeah. I will talk to more next week. Please collect addresses of my friends if you can =)

Love you Mom! =D

So Riley and yáll.... You think I didn’t hear about Star Wars?!? Hahaha, I was actually lucky to hear about that on Halloween. Which by the way, I guess I will tell you about Halloween. So you guys know... I love Halloween and I love dressing up!! So I couldn’t just let Halloween go by. So the night before Halloween while I was writing in my journal with my Comp... it came to me... we’ll dress up as each other! Ha, so we did! I wore all his clothes; Boots, pants, tie and everything. And he tried wearing all of mine! (My pants didn’t work out for him) We did a little photo shoot and it was pretty great. Here comes the naughty part... heh heh heh... we even switched nametags! Ha, but nobody noticed! It was fun =) I bought some American candy, Twix and KitKats, and I had all my investigators attempt to say trick or treat (which it is hilarious to hear Brazilians attempt, lol) then I would give them candy.. AMERICA!!!

That night we scheduled a family home evening with basically the missionary mom, which was very good because the girlfriend of her son is not a member and she brought her family. We made delicious brownies with ice cream stuff and of course they fed me up to the rim. BARF/YUM! It was here that I saw on the news about Mitt Romney, Hurricane Sandy, and STAR WARS!!!!! I gave a lesson from the hurricane (Helaman 5:12 and Matthew 7:24) but I was freaking out the whole night about STAR WARS.... still am freakin out kinda... so continue to fill me in!

THANK YOU FOR THE PRAYERS. I know God listens and answers. I have learned that even though sometimes it may seem repetitive with the words, it is the consistency and the feeling that shows that it really does matter to you. This week was great! My goal for this transfer was to get things rolling since that is what we lacked last transfer and in these last two weeks it has been a miracle to see how God has blessed us. I received tons of referrals this week and we found two elite people. One is Tierre and Rosa. They are a couple with two twins. This is what we need! The President wants us to focus on men and families and we found one. They are really good. We only taught them once and they didn’t make it to church, but I still have faith that they will make it to the font.

The other referral is a girl who lives on her own, is 21 years old, works two jobs, and studying to be a teacher.  She is kinda like a little Joseph Smith because she wants religion in her life and she prays almost identical to us, but she doesn’t trust the religions here. She accepted to be baptized if she receives an answer. As we closed our lesson she gave a prayer and in that prayer she asked to find what she feels like she has been lacking in her life. After the prayer she started to cry, we testified that she felt the Holy Ghost and that could be her answer. So we will see where things go with her. But it felt so good to run into somebody who almost has just been waiting for us.

And now to tell about my baptisms! They both went through! I baptized José Jackson Costa dos Santos (age 16) and my Comp baptized Natanael Bezerra da Silva (age 19). It was real chill because we are all basically the same age so we are pretty good friends and it was fun getting them ready that day. They were psyched. They both could be missionaries! =) After we celebrated a birthday with the member that brought Natanael to church. It was fun to celebrate!

So for Primary, I am playing! I will play this next Sunday the new Primary song and “Whenever I Hear the Song of a Bird”. I only will be playing those two. I will be honest because the rest of the songs the Smart Piano can play perfectly with the touch of a button. She just needed me for those two songs. But it has been great to practice with them, I plan on learning as many Primary songs as I can and maybe I can start playing some at baptisms =)

So I hope that was enough stuff for yáll!  Soooo love yáll! Take care!

Elder Cetraro 

...Thanks for the thought on Christ. I have been thinking a lot about 
Christ lately, I think it is important to focus on Christ. I have been 
reading a lot of the gospels which I have never read them 
chronologically before.
One lesson I learned two weeks ago was about Courage. I learned there 
are three steps of faith, and this helped me understand more about 
courage. First step is Believe, which I always have had big hopes and 
beliefs. I believe in myself. Second step is Trust. This is where I 
learned the difference between being confident and being courageous. 
Confidence is all about trust. You know how I learned that? Portuguese. 
Trust here is confiança. So I am pretty confident with myself and with 
God and with 'the universe' but I think I lacked the last step of faith 
which is to Act - and this is where courage comes in. It is interesting 
though. Just like what you have always taught. Fear is the Enemy. In 
each step fear creates doubts, mistrust, and lack of action. So I've 
been trying to be a little more courageous down here.
Love ya pops, you da man.
-Elder Cetraro

…So we were supposed to have 2 baptisms this last Sunday but things fell through because the moms couldn’t make it! Ha, I guess that is a valid reason. One’s name is Jackson. I will be the one dunking him, and the other is Nathanial, who we have been working with since week 1. Jackson is 16 and is really eager to join the church. He has been getting along well with the youth and he wants to be a missionary! Nathanial is very timid but he knows the church is true. It has been great watching him grow the last few months. I will send you pictures next week!

So I had an interview with President and it was pretty good. It looks like I will be staying and my companion will be leaving. It isn’t for certain though. But I am asking you guys and the whole family to pray extra hard for me these next two weeks. Transfers end the 11th and until then I will be the Senior. Which I am suuuper excited for! I feel my trainer did everything, (more than train me) and had troubles inside lessons letting me do things. So it will be like going from doing nothing to everything so I need the Lord’s help for sure. Please do that for me.

WOW, the holidays are coming up! Ha, I have been thinking about Halloween. I want to do something but I don’t know what. I am thinking about wearing like white socks.... psssh lame! You guys should send me a pull-up bar. If you do, I promise I won’t return fat. I would love that more than anything right now.

Some thoughts I wanted to share with you the last couple of weeks. One, I think someone is praying that I am well fed... because I am weeelll fed. The lunches are so good here and I am only hungry when I choose to be ;) Also in the house I always have food. Sometimes the others run out but I never do! I blame it on my thriftiness that I got from you! This is something my comp admires of me... he also thinks I am a bit crazy! He was spoiled before the mish and he always talks about it. So yeah. I got to go, Love ya, Mom

-Elder Cetraro