Sunshine From Brazil

Heeeyyy there! 

Email will be fun today, because for sure I have a boatload to tell! Well... I got transferred!! It’s official, I am here in Fortaleza. I will be serving in the ward Castelão. Google Castelão, supposedly it is where some of the World Cup games are going to be played! It is kinda crazy, it is right down the street and it is MASSIVE. So just about every day now I will be passing by that. It is seriously like 3 blocks away from my new house.

So the new Comp is actually a fun story. His name is Elder McLaws. He actually arrived in my zone Juazeiro last transfer right before Christmas. He was a district leader so the zone leaders did divisions with him, and he lived with some Elders in our district so we did divisions there. So I actually knew him pretty well. He actually has a little bit of roots there in Cache Valley. His said he was raised there until age 8 and then moved to Oregon. He then came back for college; Go Aggies Go Aggies HEY HEY HEY! (I also worked with his sister a little bit at the Pita Pit, small world) So on the brutal bus ride here last night we ended up sitting/sleeping next to each other, little did we know we’d be companions the next day! Lol. It doesn’t seem like we are real companions and that we are just on a division right now. But he is pretty chill, same group as Elder Hodson. A very calm guy.

Anyways, we are opening an area, which means we are starting from nothing. Ha, kinda like last area. It looks like we are taking care of two wards. So Mom, and Family. I WILL NEED YOUR PRAYERS. Pray so that we can get the work rolling here. That we can get our feet steadied. Pray that I can fill the missionary pants and that I can replace all fear with faith and that I can do all the things that a missionary does. This will be my transfer where I shift from junior to senior. So there is that. I'll let you know how it goes this next week. It will be interesting.

Dude, who won the Super Bowl? 49er’s? Ha, I’m sure I’ll find out by next week. But how was my last week? It was good! Elder Hodson had surgery on his toe. So we swung by the hospital a lot this week to clean that up. So the work got a little bit slow, but it was a little weird to be making new investigators that I will never see again. Elder Hodson taught me this week that to be a good leader and a good missionary, the secret is to just be happy with the people and to make sure the missionaries are happy. It’s simple but it is true.

The miracle of the week is this picture that I sent here. My last Sunday, ALL my recent converts were there at church. (Except Agnaldo, who had work but I will never worry about him becoming inactive) That is rare. It really touched my heart. I was lucky enough to bear my last testimony in fast meeting, and I gave my last lesson which was on the creation. I had everyone say one thing that they were grateful for on this EARTH. Ha, but it turned into everyone just saying how grateful they are for the gospel in their lives, and how grateful they are for the missionaries... ha, and me! It was perfect. Donizete is going to get a calling; Cícero and Frank got the Aaronic Priesthood. WOW. I am so grateful for the opportunity to help the Lord with all this work.

ALSO! My last night I had the biggest surprise of my life! Ha, I have never had a surprise party before and I had no clue that this one was coming. So yeah, the same family that celebrated Christmas and New Years with us, offered to give me a ride with my bags to the bus stop. So their son picked me up a little early with everyone, and he said he had to grab something real quick in the house, so I went in just to say goodbye to Ivana and Urandy and SURPRISE!! Cake and everything inside waiting for me. Wow, I was so loved there. I love my mission. I want to be able to leave all my areas and my mission itself like this. I couldn’t of asked for better. 

Well, it is great to hear from you all. I will send a little bit more about Juazeiro and it’s impact next week, mmkay?

Muito obrigado, e eu am vocês!

-Elder Cetraro