Oi Mônica!

Como vai? O que aconteceria se eu escrevesse tudo em Português?! Seria chato né? So anyways, Hello family. Looks like it has been delightful up there. There is nothing better than hearing that my family is having a spiritual summer!! Isso aí! That makes a missionary happy! That’s crazy, I was telling my comp this week about summer vacation, and how in MY FAMILY it’s awesome because we never stop at home. Next summer, right? 

So guess what! I got the Christmas package! Ha, I liked it a lot! Everyone in the Zone thinks I have to be the most spoiled missionary. Ha, I liked the photo album that you sent. I joked about it, how my Mom just sent me a bunch of trunky photos of my last few days in Logan and me saying goodbye to everyone. (I was hoping for some pics of like Lacrosse, karate, etc... things that show my life as before, ya know) Ha, when my comp saw the picture of me saying bye to Mom he said. Wow, that’s got to be the trunkiest picture I have ever seen! Ha, but he liked to see the pics. He confessed, Wow, you have a good life, you actually left behind a lot. Me.... YUP! Ha, he sees me as a super anti-trunky Elder so he probably thinks I didn’t like home or was running away. But we all know that is not true. Thank you family. You all are the best!

Sooo for the week. Well it was the first week of the transfer. One thing I started to do is let my Comp have more responsibility in the work. It was funny because he told me he wants more and I told him, “Alright... today you are senior”. Ha, and he freaked out. But it appears that God wanted it to happen as well because 4 days out of the week I didn’t have my planner because it got locked inside the bishop’s office. So that was good. Also I am responsible for 2 duos of Sisters now, I want to be a good leader so I have been setting District goals with them and following-up every night. The downside is the little free time that I have every night is very little now.

The members this week have been helping us a lot. The baptism we had, Ivanilda, had a lot of help from the members. One night we marked to do an FHE at the house of a member who lived in an area where usually we didn’t work. That night a member flagged us down in the streets and took us to the house of Ivanilda. Earlier that week Ivanilda was talking to this member and asked her which Church she goes to and the member testified about the Church. She wanted to go, but the member said she’d need to talk to the missionaries first. So, we just happened to be there that week and we marked a night to pass by. We passed by her house and turns out that day her sister passed away. Ivanilda already had many problems with depression and especially now she was in a mess. We explained the Plan of Salvation... I don’t think she understood well, but as we left she told us how the whole time that we were there she felt peace in her heart. We took her to church and she LOVED it! She loved the Relief Society and to get to know a group of women for support. Also, one member marked an FHE in her house that week and... Well it just got better and better. So yeah, it was a miracle to be able to help Ivanilda in this desperate moment and now she is inviting everyone (all her depressed lady friends) to get to know the Church. Awesome huh?

Well I got to go. Cya and Love ya! 

June 10, 2013

Helllooo!

What a great letter! I can tell summer has arrived! The emails are packed with good funness, it’s great to hear about how things are going with my family. Wow it seems like yesterday I was receiving emails telling me about the action packed summer, and the thoughts coming to my head.. hmmm I could of been there! WOWZERS!! Next week I will be doing my Hump Day! You can prepare the party, your misery is halfway over!

As for me the week was very good. We didn’t have any really rough days but it was cool because I am feeling the pressure of leadership and I really need to watch closely not to slip. For happily we aren’t very lost. I am amazed at how well I can create a mental map and know my way around. My comp, and the Sisters that I work with were shocked too. I just know how to study the map for 2 seconds, and then I am ready to go for the day. I blame it on all the many days I spent driving around town with my buds. In our many adventures, especially with Braxton; he was always the driver and I the navigator. Ha, I couldn’t help but think of my family too in a whole new place and wondering how they are adapting, and if maybe I could be a good help navigating you all. (Editor’s note: Zac’s family moved June 1^st to a new town, close to where he attended school before his mission)

I helped the Sisters out a bit this week and I got to do my first 2 baptism interviews this last week. It is really great to be there in that step of the person’s conversion. We know that an interview sometimes makes the baptism happen, and is a great help in someone’s decision to baptize. Luckily I had two well-prepared young men, but it is awesome to really be there motivating and inspiring people about the baptism experience. I get to really psyche them up! Besides that our work is going well. We have a few youth that are getting ready to be baptized. I want to help more complete families, maybe you guys could pray for that for me.  But helping Elder Alves is a great joy. He really listens and loves me. He always is telling me how my advice is helping him a lot. Especially since he is very homesick, he is a very clingy type of person (I on the other hand am not) but it’s great. 

So yeah, btw, I GOT THE PACKAGES!! Ha yes, I got 2 in fact. So I hope you can relax now. I thought it was funny, Elder Galves is my Zone Leader now, so it was him that gave me the packages, but knowing him, he can’t give me a package without asking me for some ties. Ha, I told him that I have a bunch of ties back home that my Mom send ages ago waiting for him. I’m sure he’ll be bugging me about it for a while now. Elder Galves really is a great friend and a great missionary. I shouldn’t have been so hard on him during training. But I know we are great friends now.

So yeah. There is my little email for y'all for the day. 

Play on my beloved family!

-Elder Zac Cetraro