September 30, 2013

Ha! What a killer letter you sent. Aaah, Gratitude has always been a tender subject for me. So there is nothing like receiving a Gratitude  letter! You know, it’s amazing to recognize the tender mercies in our lives and we get that great feeling of gratitude in the heart that comes from the spirit. And then you share that with me, and just you sharing your personal gratitude hits me hard. Muito Obrigado for sharing Mom! You know, as missionaries we always know that God will bless our families while we are out. But being isolated from the family as a missionary, sometimes it is hard to really see Him pouring out the blessings. I can’t wait to go on some morning walks with you, It’s definitely going to happen since I already have the habit of waking up early, and then putting on the 3 hours of time change. Well I am so glad, you made my day, and that is saying something.

Well I guess I will share what happened today with transfers. I WAS TRANSFERRED! The crazy thing as well, so was my compnion, Elder Monical. There were some surprises in the transfers for sure. First of all, today is Elder Galves’ birthday, and what a better gift then being called to be Assistant of the President for your last transfer! Ha, wowzers! Good for him. It will help him finish off his mission working hard and not getting trunky! My very first companion is an Assistant! I guess that is cool! As for my companion, Elder Monical, here is a good surprise, he got put on Staff! He will be our Referral Secretary. So he will be doing a bit of what Gma & Gpa Smith do on their mission and he gets to spend some good time in downtown Aldeota. I think it will be very good for him. It was cool because I got to eat lunch with him today there, and I also have a lot of contact with him. Sister Bailey got put as the First Sister Trainer Leader thingy. Ha, funny thing is now she is the most experienced Sister in the Mission, and I think she will be returning home with me!

Oh yeah, and as for me! You might want to know that,right? Well I got transferred to a place called Conjunt de Ceará. It is very condensed here. I will be with Élder Soares. Also, I am a Zone Leader now! Ha, I must be getting old!  Bishop called that one. I am the first of my group. But wow, Zone Leader. Zone Leaders have always been my heroes in my mission. I have had a few that have made a big difference to me and now I am so happy to have this same privilege to serve and help raise these Elders up as great servants of the Lord. So Yeah! Crazy Stuff! I am excited, It will be interesting though, I will be sure to fill you in on the adventures we will have in our Zone.

Pheeeww... And I have still have a ton to tell you about Expedicionários and the last week I had in it. I had to work very hard this last transfer to keep our quality of work up. Tuesday we had weekly planning and for one of the first times in my mission I was kinda dreading to do it. (Usually weekly planning and Tuesdays are my "WOOT WOOT! Let’s get pumped for the next week" time) I wanted to finish off strong. Ha, in fact this last transfer was probably the most stress I have ever had in my life.... and if you know me, I am not a very stressed out person. I may be high-wired and hyper-active, but stressed... nooo.. Anyways, that left me pondering a bit about stress. That day I learned a lot. I liked a scripture that I found in Alma 7:24 which states "And see that ye have ^afaith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works." Usually we get stressed when we have so much to do.  We get stressed when we don’t have faith, hope or charity. Also I thought a lot about how we must have a perfect balance of Patience and Diligence in our working lives. 

Anyways, after Tuesday, things started to look up. We started to find new people to teach, and then I also had a gratitude moment. I really realized how much the Lord has made me into a very capable Elder. Wow, it’s really incredible I would make the little Greenie Elder Cetraro so proud. When I have a great attitude of abundance, full of faith, hope, and charity, I really can move things along. It made me happy. The Lord prepares the way when you have the faith. 

Also everybody kinda already knew that I would be leaving. So this last week was definitely used to say my good-byes. Evellyn got confirmed, and we did good work this last week intergrading her, and her Mom with some members. So I hope the work will continue on there, especially after all the work we invested there this whole transfer. Ivanilda and Patric are doing well. Patric passed the sacrament to me Sunday. Wow, first time someone I baptized used their priesthood to give me the sacrament. He also is starting to bring his kids again to church. The Ward will do a service project there in Eliza’s house, that will be a great miracle! As for Tiara, Wow, she never ceases to amaze me. She gave me a little pocket Bible that I can use in proselyting, and then she gave a talk this last Sunday in Sacrament Meeting. She is a star. Of course, as well, my best friend Bishop Feitosa gave me plenty of thanks in every meeting we had there. He testified that I really left a mark there in the Ward, and that I will never be forgotten. I love Bishop, So yeah, that is how it went down.

As for my time I spent there in Expedicionários, wow, it really was a place of growth for me. It was there that I really learned and grew in leadership and I believe the turning point of my mission where I began to really be an instrument in the Lord´s hands, blessing many. I know that the Lord is always there to invest in us, and what He asks in return is to do service, joyfully with great happiness in our hearts. I know that the Learning Journey Never Ends. I am very happy. There isn’t a bigger blessing than being able to participate in the Lord’s work, and I sure do know that I have a loving family that is backing it all up. I love you all and I hope God’s mercies continue to pour upon us both as we press forward in our new chapters of our lives. Até Próxima Semana!

-Elder Zachary Cetraro

Hey!! 

Wow!! I got a letter from the whole fam today! Sweeeet! Writing back is a little more difficult but that’s alright. I can type fast!! Much faster than write.

So I guess I’ll fill you in on my week. I actually am feeling a lot better. I hope whatever it was is gone completely. I really am lucky though that my sickness didn’t get me down. Umm... This week the work was actually a lot better. We got back into the groove talking with a lot of people, and teaching a lot. I am helping Elder Monical teach more, but I still feel like I have to prompt him to do it still. But he is getting better for sure.

The District of Sisters that I am helping is having a lot of success. It is good to see how the Lord is blessing them, and it is good to see how each Sister is growing, especially since I have known half of them for over 3 months now. Sister Bailey really liked the Sympathy card you sent by the way.

Probably the funniest story of the week would have to be when I found an old drunk man scooting around in the road. I decided to help him a bit because being in the middle of the road is a bit dangerous you know. So we held his hands and helped him walk to a corner for him to lie down. When we got there he started mumbling something that I didn’t understand. He let go of my hand and looked down to see that his shorts were leaking... Eita! I then understood him, he was saying "I want to pee" so he hurried and did his business in the middle of the road but the funny part was to see my companion there, still holding his hand, having no clue what was going on while this old man is taking a leak in the middle of the road. He couldn’t let go because then he would fall, so yeah. He was a trooper. It was hilarious though.

Besides that, Bishop’s Wife is about to pop, she will have her baby this next Friday. Bishop is happy. I’m happy. It’s going good. I have two big goals right now. One is to be more organized in everything, with planning and cleaning and yeah. The other is to work more with the members. Because I know there are plenty of willing members.... you just have to plan everything and call them first. So we will see. But I am good and it is good to hear from everyone in the family.

Love you guys and have a great week!

-Elder Zac Cetraro

July 1, 2013

Hello family!

How is it going up there! Ha, sounds like you guys are hoppin’ around! Lol, I can honestly relate with that. When I lived down in Orem I was always hoppin’ around from Orem to SLC to Logan, and to many other places. I like it. I am jealous of you guys, sounds like fun. I can imagine I will be doing the same thing NEXT summer when I return. (Can you believe it?!?! next summer I will home aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!) But that’s great. I am pretty sure the mission field is exploding now since it is summer. Scotty G keeps me updated on many farewells and returns. It is pretty exciting huh? Looks like there are plenty of lasses that I knew that are going out to serve as well, cool.

Ha, I have put a lot of thought into the 4th of July. I wanted to have a fun activity, but Bishop doesn’t want to and my Ward Mission Leader just got married and will be at the Temple in Recife all week, so we shall see! I remember a year ago I was in the CTM, eating tons of ice cream and that night we watched a soccer game on the 4th.

Well as for me and my week. The mission is flying by already. Like I said this last week, I really feel like God has invested a lot in me. My capacity is great, but now I just need to learn how to really apply it. I have the strength to do many things but now I just need to work with all my might.

So this last week was good. We focused a lot on 3 people. 1) This lady we have been working with for a while. We have got her to quit drinking and now she just needs to stop smoking so she can get baptized this week. Please pray for Elisa. And we are hoping the rest of her kids will be baptized as well. A family! Woo!  2) This lady that is really searching for the true church. It was interesting though, because she was perfect to be taught the restoration. But the first day we got there, her sister died that day, so this whole week we just taught about the miracle of Christ, the resurrection and the plan of salvation. 3) We found a less-active family, with a couple girls baptized and the mom and the brothers not. It was amazing how I was asked to say a prayer, and when I finished the Mom was crying. Wow, the spirit was strong and we testified about families and the achurcha. It is amazing how these two girls Amanda and Sara have been lit up this last week returning to the church. Sunday, yesterday she bore her testimony of the spiritual impressions she had in church, which brought her to tears. There was one day this week where each one of these families in their prayers thanked God for the "presence of these 2 angels"

Besides that Bishop passed a day with us and it was very cool. He is suuuuper trunky of the mission so he is loving it when he has opportunities to preach the gospel. He showed us something that I have been wanting to know how to do for a long time. Teach short and sweet lessons, and how to teach many new people in one day, and how to keep the attention during a lesson. It was awesome to have this demonstrated to me finally. Now I just need to learn how to really apply it. He is awesome, but annoying at the same time. He likes to nag at us all the time about lil’ things.

But yeah, it was a good week, my numbers weren’t the best, but as you can see it had some good quality. This is the last week of many of my friends, E. Reynolds, E. Hodson, E. Queiroz, E. McLaws, E. Ribeiro, and many more.  The area is going very well though, we have got to really learn how to work with the members like in the broadcast, and how to really meet and help many new people to bust out even more fruits.

Love you guys. I hope each one of you has put a letter in the mail to me and I hope the summer continues on well. I miss and love you guys too. It is especially during the summer when I remember all the family vacation fun we always had together. But like I said in the beginning. NEXT SUMMER, I’ll be there!