Alrighty!

It actually was quite the full week. First, I decided that my comp reminds me a lot of my old boss from the Pita Pit, that helps me like him a lot! He has been a good companion, but it’s funny because we have been so focused on the work that it seems like I don’t know him very well. We did an exchange this week with Elder Whitt.  He talked with me once on a bus ride, and told me that he always wanted to be in my Zone, so I had a good time with him, good laughs as well. We got along instantly. He is in probably one of the best areas in the Zone, but their work needs to match it. Also, we redivided the areas inside of our Ward. When we got here the last 2 transfers that area was divided horribly, the area of the other Elders had all the members, everything close to the chapel, all the lunches and our house. Last transfer I wanted to do it, but no one felt like it. But now we did it!! So it will be interesting, I lost all my recent converts in the divide, but hey it isn’t about me.

I don’t know if I told you but for this month I decided to study Virtue. Something that stood out to me as I was studying is how President Souza is my perfect example of Virtue. He is super Honest, Focused, Pure, and has helped the mission change to a place of integrity with his time here. He always encourages us to excellence. I know that this is something my Heavenly Father wants to be a strong point in my life and wants me to follow in his footsteps and be an example in this as well. My whole mission I can see how President Souza has taught us about virtue and once again I have received a spiritual confirmation that he was prepared by God to be my Mission President. I love him, and what he has made of my mission. This weekend was Stake Conference and it was very good. President spoke in the two sessions that we went to. It’s funny how in the first he was super excited, and in the second super spiritual.

Sunday morning was a treat. We had 17 investigators at church!  We first passed by Emanuel’s and saw that his sister would be going. We then passed by another one of the families that doesn’t seem to have an end to family members and walked with them to grab a bus. It was 8 people and 2 men. Then we swung by Junior’s house and to our surprise, Elieudo, the father-in-law of their daughter was giving them all a ride.  Elieudo also brought his other daughter in law. These are people that we taught in the beginning of February but never made it to church, so that was another 7 people and a very good surprise! Oh it was great!Also it was very special to baptize Emanuel and then afterwards eat lunch with the lady who gave us the referral to teach him. Cool stuffs!

Alrighty, today I saw some Elders I knew from the other mission. I heard that some of the men that I baptized are receiving the Melchizedek priesthood now... YES!!! awesomeness...
Alrighty... gotta go love ya all!

-Elder Zac Cetraro

 Alrighty Mamãe, Boa Tarde! 

Ha, Ooooh Halloween! I definitely love Halloween. As you know I love dressing up, because I am a goof like that.  I don’t know if you remember  last Halloween me and Elder Galves dressed up as each other. I used all his clothes and he used all of mine. It was funny.  I don’t know if I will do anything for Halloween, I sure would like to. They don’t celebrate Halloween really here. It’s kinda like Cinco De Mayo there where we know it is a holiday for another country but you don’t really celebrate it, only a few do. I would like to hear and maybe see what everyone did for Halloween this year.

This last week I learned a lot actually. Me and my companion are still pushing things through so we can have a better companionship and I have learned a lot in personal reflection. One thing, is that I am a "Know-it-all" and I talk a lot. I think since Dad opened up the karate studio, I was always placed in teaching situations. I taught karate, I taught  swimming lessons, I taught snowboarding, I tutored math and  many other subjects.  I honestly have a passion for teaching or you can even say training. I thought about it...why? I think one of the reasons is because I love learning! I love being taught! I am always in  search for knowledge. I am a nerd. But I think maybe sometimes this isn’t the best though. If I like to teach, then that means I treat others like students. Some people don’t like that. Especially when we are the same thing. We are all missionaries here. So now I need to learn how to be a leader without just being a teacher.

I learned a lot this week about Unity. My whole mission I have pushed so that I do my best. But this week I learned that is not enough. That’s why there exists Exaltation over Salvation. Exaltation involves others. So if I am being super obedient, that isn’t enough if I am not helping others do the same. That is why it is so important to understand our purpose. Because to be united, we must be one in purpose as like God, Christ, and the Spirit are one in purpose. Just some thoughts from this week.

So yesterday was the Primary Program, and I helped just a bit. They figured that if they practiced this whole year without the piano they might as well perform without the piano. I am still playing all the music in Sacrament though. This Sunday we had 16 investigators in Sacrament Meeting.  I think that is one of the best I have had in my mission.

We had some miracles this week. There was a girl that a member had already brought to church a couple of times, her name is Fernanda. She is 16 years-old.  When we went to teach her for the first time I asked her how she is feeling as she has been getting to know the church and she just went off on how she just feels so good, how she feels a lot of unity and peace that she has never felt in any other church, of how this just gives her the desire to change and that she has already decided to be baptized. The next day she broke up with her boyfriend (without us saying anything) and she said she did it because she knew that he wouldn’t help her follow Christ and she just wants to be surrounded by people who will help her with that. WOW. 

The second Elect was a friend of that recent convert family that I told you about. She is dating a member who just got reactivated and they visited accidentally the wrong ward this last week. She said that during the week she had many dreams about being in a meeting with everyone wearing white, so you know what that means... Baptism!  So I feel very blessed to have been chosen to help these two elects with their baptism.

So yeah.  Things are going better, now we just need to help the Zone better as well.  I love you all and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

-Elder Zachary Cetraro

Ha heyya Mamãe!

Ha, you know it! Of course I enjoyed singing that song (There is Sunshine in my Soul). I was with 4 other Americans in a small little room, but I belted out that song! Ha, I sure am a loud singer... have I always been? But yes, it’s good to be able to sing my theme-hymn in English after so much time. I even commented to the Elders, I bet my Mom is crying right now, maybe you didn’t, you have gotten a little tougher haven’t ya? A little more ready for when we send Riley off!

I loved Conference... of course!! I have always said that Conference is the closest thing to a Holiday Break that we get here on the mish, for a weekend we just have to take people to church and let the Apostles and Prophets do all the work. I felt a little bit bad though because last conference I used the opportunity to answer the questions of my investigators, but this week I basically didn’t even know anyone or our investigators, so I just had to encourage the Elders in the Zone to do so.

It was cool because Friday, I did my first split in the last 3 months, Wow, I forgot  how much I freakin love splits. The Assistants (One being Elder Galves now) came here to help Elder Wadsworth find a new house, so we could put some Sisters here in the zone. (The mission is going crazy because we will have 58 new missionaries in the next two transfers and we don’t even have houses to put them in) And I stayed with Elder Pedrosa, and we passed a bunch of his investigators to invite to Conference. But something interesting happened. As we were passing everyone, I felt inspired to also invite everyone to baptism and mark a baptismal date. So I did and I marked baptisms for 4 different people. I have never really been so bold like that, I believe that it comes with being a leader. Sometimes God empowers you to be the example He needs to give to others. It was great to see how because of this good work, Elder Wadsworth & Elder Pedrosa took more investigators to Conference then the whole Zone put together! It is great because they were getting a bit discouraged but I hope this lifts up their faith.

As for me, I feel like we could of done more. I will have to really pump some good work in this week. I felt like this last week we were doing more visiting or you could say "Home Teaching" (Arrive, chat, chat, chat, short message, tchau) than actually preaching. But it’ll work out. I also went to a counsel of the leadership of the mission, and it was super sweet. (I felt like I was part of a 'Jedi Counsel')  As for Conference itself, I had a lot of answers as well. I found a good theme of  Priesthood Power and My Load is Light. Two things I was looking for. It was cool because Tiara showed up there as well, she even tried to watch a bit in English. She’s awesome. 

I guess I could tell you a bit about my Companion, Elder John Taylor Soares. He is a short, little, but very cool sly guy. He has a very dry humor and he likes to chat on the phone at night. He has 1 year and 8 months on the mission and we are getting along really well. He is a good companion. I like him.

By the way I would like to follow-up on my challenge to all of you that I made a little while back about you all having personal missionary moments. Did you not listen to Conference! You guys need to get in there as well! Elder Ballard’s talk was very good. Don’t be scared to pray for missionary moments knowing that you will receive them.

I love you guys and keep me updated with everything! 

Tchau Minha Família Eterna!

-Élder Zachary Cetraro

(Editor's note: on Tuesday, August 20, I got a call from the mission office saying Elder Cetraro had been mugged and got his debit card taken and it needed to be cancelled. This is the experience he is speaking of in the beginning.)

Alrighty..

Hello Fam!

Yeesss, I am totally fine. I’m sorry if that first heads-up wasn’t detailed enough, I was standing there next to the secretary ready to fill you in if you freaked out. But it was chill. I guess I can tell you a bit more about it but I would like to forget about it a bit.

So like I told you in my last week’s email. I was in a different area with different missionaries who were all waiting to pick up their new companions. Like what I also said in the email we will probably go check out the ocean. Well it was the combination of these two that pretty much caused what happened. So Tuesday we were supposed to go to the office at 4 o´clock. After lunch me and another American got a glimpse of the ocean from afar and went all "goo-goo gah-gah... omg omg omg omg" If you can understand, I haven’t seen the ocean the whole time I have been here. Well what happened was the Elder whose area it was said, "Well you guys are in luck, because our next appointment is right by the beach." And then while we were going there he said "Oh! On the way there is a great view, it’s a bit dangerous though."

So yeah, we swung up by this hill that really did have a great view and I of course had my camera for that. But as we were leaving there appeared a bunch of kids. (like 12-16 years or so) and one of them had a broken beer bottle yelling at us to get down on our knees. I wanted to run, it would have been the best idea. But sadly though, the other two missionaries got down on their knees and if I would of booked it or fought back (I’m a black belt so I definitely already had an action kick-butt plan in my head) but if I would of done that, the situation would turned active and I would of put the other two Elders in danger. So they ended up taking my camera (I already hid the memory card in my back pocket) and my Missionary Manual, which had the (debit) card and money for a taxi. Funny thing is usually I don’t carry these things but due to the occasion I had them. I didn’t have a bag I just had these two things in my pocket so I couldn’t hide them. The other American Elder had his camera and wallet well hidden in his bag so he got away lucky.

But yeah, don’t worry, it wasn’t anything I couldn’t of handled, nothing crazy. I do kinda feel bad though because I was the oldest Elder there, so I should of been more responsible, but then again, I didn’t know the area at all to make those judgment calls. But yeah.

Anyways as for the rest of the week. So we stayed in Expedicionários and I am with Elder Monical. He is a tall kinda quiet guy and he kinda reminds me of Uncle Jared with how calm and athletic he is. Anyways, he basically forgot most of his Portuguese because he spent 3 months out of the MTC not using it. So it has been interesting. I will have to really focus to help him participate in the work and really grow in this transfer. I am able to do the work but I can’t do it all and neglect him the growing experience and practice that he needs, so hopefully this next week we will figure it out.

As for the work I felt like it was a little slow this week since I didn’t have the opportunity to do weekly planning or do weekly goals. It is amazing how slothful we become without these two things. I will want to do this weekly planning and goals after the mission for sure! But it was waaay cool though because I didn’t tell you about Tiara from last week.

So last Friday I got a phone call from the office that they had a great referral for me to baptize. So we swung by Saturday afternoon and she actually was just about leaving. But real briefly I asked her how does she already know about the Church. She shared with me how at the moment she is without religion because she has studied the Catholic church’s history as well as the Baptist church’s history and she didn’t like what she has seen. She said that she already has looked into and studied a bit about the Mormon Church and has a return missionary co-worker that took her to some church things and gave her a Book of Mormon. I know an elect when I see one so I just briefly bore my testimony of how God has answered her prayers and sent us and gave her the first 3 lessons to read. So she did, she went to church with us, she loved it.  We passed by her house last Sunday afternoon (while I was still with Elder Medrado) and we ended up teaching her the Restoration and about the Gospel of Christ and she accepted to be baptized. We then tried to pass by during the week to teach the commandments but basically with studying and work she has no time whatsoever. So we ended up just teaching her everything that afternoon. She already was living all the commandments. We really could of baptized her right then and there. Thing is though that night was transfers which means a night of packing bags and not baptisms.... so we put it off for this week. But yeah, she was the driest Mormon I have ever met and wow she is 19 years old and I think she has a desire to serve a mission. I am excited to see her blossom in the church.

Ha, but thanks for the updates. My companion actually already told me about the temple video he was there last week..... Jealousy....... and I am excited to see it as well but I am sure that just being in the temple will be good enough for me.

Gotta go! Love you all, have a great week!

-Elder Zachary 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

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