Elder Evan Church: Parnamirim: Week 3

Skyping on Christmas Day 2014

Christmas Mission Conference 2014

Brazil Natal Mission

Thanks for the questions- I like getting them. I will answer some of them here.

Yes, we always report numbers at the end of the week. Goals are a big part of this mission. We set daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Each of the zones also set monthly goals and the mission sets goals too.

No, there doesn´t seem to be an expected amount of service. I´ve only done it a couple of times on my mission.

Every missionary on the mission goes through the São Paulo CTM. There are some Americans who had to go to the Provo one first, though, because of visa problems.

Lately I´ve been speaking more english than usual because I´m living with an american. I should probably try harder to speak more portuguese, but it´s definitely nice to be able to talk in english sometimes. But in my 4 1/2 months in the mission field I´ve only lived with an american for about 1 1/2 months. It´s very rare to find a native person here that speaks good english, at least where I am. Lots people know very basic phrases though.

The mission conference was great, but it was pretty short because there were a lot of missionaries that came from long distances and they wanted to get them back as soon as possible. It was good to see everyone in the mission. There were lots of missionaries that I hadn´t seen before.

I´ve only been in one ward where we´ve worked a lot with the ward mission leader, but sometimes it´s kind of our fault for not working with them.

We usually see the zone leaders pretty often. There´s always a monthly zone conference. And I´ve lived with the zone leaders once before. And now the zone leaders are in our district so I see them weekly.

No, investigators really don´t ask questions. I wish they did more. It´s rare to find someone who has good questions. Lots of people don´t really understand what the message of the restoration means. They believe the things we say but they don´t really get what it means to them. One of the things that I´ve learned well here is how to explain things in a basic way so people can understand. Most people understand things pretty well, but we have had a couple investigators that didn´t know how to read.

Just so you know, I bought myself a Christmas present this week. There was a guy on the street selling large maps so I bought one of Brazil and one of the state i´m in. Right now they are mounted on the wall over my bed.

Thanks again for the Christmas present! Happy New Year!

Evan