Week 3 - CTM (Brazil MTC) Adventure continues....

March 20, 2012 

Well it's been a great week in sao paulo!!! it's finally starting to cool down a bit, the first few nights we were here we would sleep with no blankets, and would wake up in the middle of the night, and have to sleep the opposite direction because we would be sweating so much in our bed. But lately it has been perfect :) 

The language has been very tough, there will be points where i feel great and i feel like i could teach a lesson, and there will be points when i dont even think i can say hi.. haha, its pretty much a battle all the time to stay diligent and not let yourself get down.

I think that one of satans most powerful tools is telling us that we are not good enough to do things. However, we are all Children of God, so what is holding us back? It is in our nature to be able to do all things through Faith in His son, Jesus Christ.

Today we were on the bus on our way to the Campinas temple, and i thought that we were going the wrong way, and we were! so we drove to sao paulo adn had to turn around and go to campinas which took waaayyy long!!! haha, i love you guys!! Please pray for the missionary and pray for opportunities to show your love to others through service, or missionary work, or whatever tool you have to use to be the hands of our Savior.

Elder Halls

Week 2 - The adventure has begun!

March 13, 2012

Família! How is everyone doing? That sounds crazy with the suburban! You would be suprised if you saw the cars in brazil. There are only motercycles, small cars, small trucks, busses and semis. There are no silverados or F-250s! haha, anyways

today was an amazing experience. The São Paulo temple was closed so we drove to the campinas temple. It was soo beautiful. The drive there gave me a bit of a taste of what my mission will be like. From what I have been told, my mission has alot of Favelas, which are just houses build on top of each other to form a huge neighborhood, with no space. They are insane. I wish you could see the things I have seen. The craziest part is that there is jungle wilderness, then one of these will pop up on the side of the freeway and go for miles.

The language is getting way better. Elder Bangerter and I have had a lot of success while teaching our mock investigator Carlos. We committed him to baptism, and then just last night he said it was going too rapido (fast) so we changed our whole lesson plan, went by the spirit, and found the root of the problem. When someone says they dont think they can be baptized, they usually will tell you excuses, but you just need to listen to the spirit, and understand what the root of the problem is. Sometimes it´s as simple as they dont have the money to buy a white shirt and tie and they dont feel comfortable getting baptized wearing their normal clothes, sometimes they dont feel like they could ever be worthy to be baptized. Either way, the Lord has a way for us to accomplish everything he asks of us.

Before the lesson, we prayed that our tounges would be loosed, and that the spirit would guide our thoughs and minds. That lesson, my mind was so clear, and I spoke the best portuguese yet. I put sentances together, and he could understand what I was saying without having to read off of my paper of everything that we wrote.

I love you all!!!! I love brazil!! can anyone ask where in Chile wesley served? I am friends with alot of chilean missionaries!

I went to the campinas distribution center and was in heaven!!! I wanted to buy a book of mormon childrens reader, but they were all out, so i bought a portuguese doctrine and covenantes childrens reader, simplified hymn book, about 5 liahonas, and 3 cds of portuges primary songs,.

out of time,

Love you all!

Elder Halls

Elder Brandon Halls - 1st Letter from the Brazil CTM!

March 6, 2012

Family, Friends, Everybody!!!! I love you all so much!!!! I hope that you are all doing well! I only have 30 minutes, and it's already at 25, and i Havent even read your email!!!!! The CTM is amazing!!! The people of Brazil are amazing. I wish I could describe the emotions and the feelings I have felt this week. The Temple was amazing. I was talking to a roomate, Elder Gucca, I think, and he is amazing. I asked him about how when he joined the church, and he told me it was a year ago. He then dropped out of the second best law school in sao paulo, and came on a mission. He is so obideint and stalwart in his covenants. I then told him that i was going to the temple today, and he gave me a family name to do for him! It was so amazing to do a seesion in the sao paulo temple and to do a name from brazil. These are the kind of people that i want to be like. they are so humble, and love life soooo much!!!! The brazillians are so funny, yet there is still always such a beautiful and peaceful spirit in the CTM. My companion is Elder Bangerter, and he is from Utah, St. George. He is such an example to me, haha, we're very similar. It is pretty funny that they put the two football players in one companionship. How is everything back home!!!?? I love you guys!!! It was so hard saying goodbye, but as soon as I began working on the language and the doctrine, I immediately knew why I came here. The gospel is so amazing. Why wouldn't anyone want to go on a mission? I still cant believe I'm in brazil, and a servent of the Lord. It is such a blessing, and there is a strong spirit that is with us. Well, I think ill read you letter now. Oh, i forgot to give details, I am in sao paulo. Haha, the roads are crazy, the city is amazing, my room is on the 6th floor of the CTM and we dont get elevators. The temple took 1 hour for us to get there. The language is very discouraging, and my english isnt even that good.. hahaha, I am so excited to be out here, and I already love the people here. Oh and dont send any packages to the CTM, just send them to my mission. I cant believe it's been a week! It's gone by so fast!

Ok. I am just about out of time! I love you guys!-Elder Halls