ONE YEAR!!

Wow, that year blew by fast. It was funny, every time I wrote the date this week after the 14th I thought, "Wait, this day already happened once on my mission." They say the rest is downhill from here but as far as learning and working goes I know theres plenty of uphill still to be made. We celebrated with a pizza (as seen in the attatched photo)

Fobeccas!!

Well we celebrated my 1 year mark by staying in all day. No, that wasn't what I CHOSE to do, my companion was sick. We had brazilian style hot dogs for dinner with a part-member family the night before. The funny thing about Brazilian hot dogs is that they put EVERYthing on them. Corn, peas, mashed potatoes, salad - the works. I loved it but unfortunately it didn't sit to well the next day with Elder Lene.

Transfers

Well Tomorrow is transfers. I sure loved the time I've gotten to work here in Vila Madeiros. Usually we get transfer news sooner in the day but it looks like they're taking their time this time. I would love working in this ward again, there are some truly amazing people here and the work is definitely accelerating here.

Other mixed news - 

 - There was a lady we were teaching that interrupted my companion while he was talking and said "Wow, when I look into your eyes I feel something different, my hands start to tremble. I don't know what it is." We played it off and then later she said. "I am trying to avoid looking in his eyes because when I do my stomach churns" After the lesson he explained to me that he was drowsing off a bit when she said it and maybe it was because his eyes were shutting hahaha oh the strange things you hear on the mission. 

 - We got a call Friday night from the Elders in my district that are in another City WAY out in the middle of nowhere to do a baptismal interview for them Saturday Morning and we had to travel basically two hours both ways to get there between catching buses and walking. It was cool though because my companion hadn't been there before and as we drove along he kept looking in awe at all the greenerie and "Favella" (Ghettos) that we saw on the bus ride.

 If you get a chance, check out the Mormon Message "The Will of God" - I love listening to the original talk that Elder Christofferson uses.

https://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#the-will-of-god

Love you all!!

Elder DP

Just Miracles

Sweet week. I seriously love the ward I'm in and my companion is a freaking stud. We are constantly laughing and joking and having miracles. 

Fransisco

I've already mentioned a few times in my letters about an awesome recent convert in our ward that is on FIRE helping us out with our work here. Well this week he did his first baptism. He is an aquaintance with a lady we were teaching that was baptised this week and she chose him to baptise her. It was so cool to see him reading his lines over and over so he could get it right. Unfortunately when we filled up the font that morning it didn't seal very well to keep the water in and we arived to do the baptism and it was a good 8 inches shallower than we had left it... Maria had to go down three times but the third time he got it right. 

Musically Challenged

This week the brother that was going to play for sacrament meeting had to leave early so during the third hour the 1st counselor to the Bishop passed me a paper during class for me to mark which hymns the ward would sing. I wrote down three that I knew and passed it to him. After a few minutes he passed the paper back to me. He had crossed out the hymn I'd picked and asked me pick another "our congregation doesn't sing that hymn." Curious I wrote down a different hymn and asked why. He wrote and passed it back "They don't know it..." It must have been a pretty bad performance the last time they sang that one. 

The Power of Prayer

This week we saw several miracles that felt like clear answers to prayers. One morning I prayed specifically to find someone that day that we could help be baptised and then in our companionship prayer my companion made the same, specific petition without me saying anything. That day after lunch a member asked "Can I bring you guys to teach my sister after lunch, she's not a member." We went there and she talked about how she was wanting to follow Christ more fully in her life and how she already had been to church several times and she felt the time had come for her to be baptised. Then later this week I prayed personally to find a family that day that we could help prepare for baptism and we showed up at a house that day and the family let us in for a prayer and when I opened my eyes from the prayer I saw that there was already a Book of Mormon open on the floor that other missionaries had left years earlier. When we left the house I told my companion about my prayer and he said "How come you always copy my prayers?"

 I can truly testify that God answers our just pleas, when we ask him for something good he will truly give it.

Matthew 7

7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Love you guys!!! 

Elder Della-Piana

PS Sorry that I havent been able to send photos lately, my memory card has been giving me issues, the photos will come along soon enough

Ò Tio! (O Uncle!)

Yet another great week in Brazil.

They Call Us "Uncle"

So this week we accidentally ended up at a soccer court where we didn't mean to be and ended up kicking a ball around for a few minutes with about 30 kids. When they found out I was american it turned into a huge shouting fest asking questions about what it's like there and why I'm here in Brazil. They all kept shouting at me and my companion "Ò tio! Ò tio!" (Hey uncle, hey uncle) and pestering us with questions. It was quite the site. We managed to get the address of some of the teens to go visit them and their families.

Grandma "Glory"

We had lunch on Sunday with a lady in the ward named Gloria (Glory) that was baptised about a year ago when she went to Salt Lake City to visit her daughter that is a member. We got talking and she mentioned that her daughter works in Salt Lake Temple which is funny because I remember that when I went there about a year ago with Grandma and Grandpa we talked to a lady from Brazil that works there and it all adds up to be her daughter haha what a small world. She talked about how she called the missionaries that baptised her her grandsons haha.

More Exchanges

I worked outside of the area a lot again this week for exchanges. One of the cool thing I noticed as I did an exchange with one of our leaders was the way that he praises all the people around him. I started trying to apply the same thing with my companion and realized how I started to notice the great things that he is doing as well. I think that is a great thing for any relationship is to praise the people around you. 

I'm loving the mission and learning a ton. 

Love you! Keep strong everyone!

Elder Della-Piana

Accelerando a Obra

The work is going great here. The week was a little weird because I got to do a bunch of baptismal interviews in other areas but that was a great problem to have haha

The 'At Will' Restaurant

This week we ate lunch at a restaurant in another area so we could have time to make it to do interviews for the Sisters. In portuguese they say "at will" instead of "all you can eat." We went and after 6 plates I was feeling pretty full. As I got up to pay my companion said "You're done already!?" and I said "Yes, I'm stuffed" and he said "You won't get another plate." "You're right, I won't, I'm stuffed."  That's when he said, "Don't be a girl" - I ate 7 times...

Baptism!!

This week we baptised Elvis and his brother Ruiz (no I haven't heard him sing yet). They are Bolivian and the rest of their family doesn't speak much portuguese but is super supportive of them joining the church. Elvis has already read the entire Book of Mormon and is participating in and loving Seminary. 

Elvis told my companion "I'm going to stump you right now with a scripture" and read Moroni 7 about Charity and showing love to others and then asked "So if you have a plate of food in front of you and you see a man walking past in the street that is clearly homeless and hungry and needing a bath, what should you do?" Elder Lene replied, "I would give him the food and let him take a bath and help him out." Elvis replied, "Wrong! You should have invited him to church" haha Elvis will be a great missionary someday.

Church

Our president told us this week that we're not here to sit in church meetings by ourselves, we're here to help people come to church, if we don't have investigators at church, we should go get some! We had one person in church but she went to Relief Society and so we were alone for the first hour. After waiting to see if people would show up late we left and started calling everyone to come. We finally woke up an investigator that wanted to come but forgot the alarm and she came and had an awesome experience. It was something small and normal that we did but to me it showed how those little victories we have every day make all the difference. 

Something I learned this week to help notice the needs of the people around us is to observe, listen, discern and then act on the things we notic about other people. As I've been more observant I've been able to have more effective lessons and feel like I'm helping people more individually as I seek to serve and bless them. I love the work here!! Being a missionary is hard but it's also freaking AWESOME!!

Fiquem firmes,

Elder DP

Hurrah for Israel!!!!

Well we're finally getting to know the area better. It's been a neat experience to open an area. It's a great excuse to ask help from the members and offer to help them as well. This week we found a ton of new people to teach, in fact each of the companionships in our district did really well at finding this week, everyone had at least 24 new investigators which was sweet!!

Mariporã

On Tuesday I got to do an exchange in an area that is basically what I imagined the mission would be like when I got my call to Brazil. We left district meeting and we caught a bus for about an hour with a ton of forrest and landscape to get to another city where the missionaries cover one ward and it has a ton of other neighborhoods that they have to catch a bus to work in the different parts of their area. It was cool to be in an area with way less congestion and traffic, nice and calm, people were super-receptive. We found a ton of new people to teach that day that all had a good amount of interest. 

Growing Ward

Serving here is cool because in the last year there have been a lot of people baptized in this ward. There is one recent convert that showed up at the church on his own without ever having contact with the missionaries and was later baptized. He went to lessons with us twice this week and is super strong in the church. There's another that is recently returning to the church and is preparing to serve a mission that we got to meet and visit. It's cool to see the influence that the great missionaries that passed through this area have left. 

Well I love it here. We had interviews with President this week and he directed me to Matthew 25:30-46 about how Christ will seperate the sheep from the goats. The interesting thing that I found afterwards is that the sheep didn't see that they had done great service and the goats didn't see how many oppertunities they had missed to serve. I want to be a great sheep alongside the good shepherd.

Love you all!! 

Elder DP

VILLA MADEIROS

Well I'm sure glad the World Cup is over and we can get back to business. It was funny this week because everybody here think's I'm German which was great yesterday when they won the World Cup but a little less awesome on Tuesday when Brazil lost to them 7-1. We got to lunch one day this week and my companion intruduced me as being from Germany. The Irmã that fed us nearly kicked me out of the house before I clarified that I'm just a plain old 'Merican. 

Finding Home

So I know I mentioned that I was transfered this week but I don't think I mentioned that I am opening an area with my companion. In other words the two elders that were here went to the mission office, handed me the keys, cell phone and a sheet of paper with some instructions and headed off to catch a bus to their new areas. There was a brother from the ward that picked up our bags but we had to stay for a meeting with our President so we had to catch a bus home. The only trick was finding home. Long story short we waited until the game ended since the bus didn't pass during the Brazil Game, then our Zone Leaders caught a bus with us and left us to catch another bus to our area. We waited there for about an hour and it was getting late before we stopped a different bus and asked if ours would pass by and they told us that people were burning buses downtown and so our bus wouldn't pass that night. We finally got into contact with our Bishop and fortunately he was able to give us a ride. Turns out the bus we stopped would have brought us to the same spot... ahh

View from apartment window

New Companion 

So my new companion is Elder Lene. He's from New Zealand and his first name has 26 letters in it. He's hilarious and is always happy and talking to people in the streets. When we had our first meeting with our new ward mission leader he asked us, "Have you guys watched 'The Other Side of Heaven?' Because I can't look at you guys without wanting to call Elder Della-Piana 'Kolipoke'" hahaha

Elder Lene & Elder DP

It's really cool serving in this ward because I either served with or nearby nearly all of the missionaries that have served here in the last 8 months so I already know the missionaries that baptized the recent converts here and have already heard about some of the members. I am really looking forward to it here. We found a ton of new people to teach this week since we know nobody and just talk to everyone in the streets but it's been a great experience. 

Our president taught us to follow Christ's example when he multiplied the fish as we start this transfer:

1) What do we have? (6 loafs of bread, 2 fish)

2) Give thanks (Matthew 6:41)

3) Have miracles - (Fed thousands)

What a great formula for any situation. I'm thankful for all the blessings the Lord has given me and my family. 

Love you All,

Elder DP

Tchau São Bento

Well this morning I found out that tomorrow I will be leaving São Bento to go to Villa Madeiro in the City of São Paulo. After 6 months in an area it will be hard to say goodbye to a lot of people here.

New President

Timothy L. and Linsey A. Farnes

So we got to meet our new Mission President and his family this week. They are amazing people. As my companion and I were entering the church gate he pulled up in his car parked and ran right out to embrace us and tell us how excited he was. His wife and family speak very little portuguese and he is trying to remember but even in broken portuguese his love for us and for the Lord was very evident. He talked a lot about winning the daily victories. LiVE - Little Victories Everyday (forget the i because we need to be unselfish). We all came away super excited (and he's an athlete so it looks like he's going to liberate basketball!!)

Member Missionaries

We had an awesome miracle that has been happening this week. There is a young man in our ward that when I got here was not active in the church. He had a rough background and he went to church only every once in a while. Suddenly these last few weeks he started coming to church regularly and participating in the ward. This week he told us that he wants to serve a mission!!! The sweet part is that he is bringing his friend along to everything and we've been teaching his friend as well!

Baptism

This week we had a baptism that the day before the investigator told us that she showed up at her neighbor's house (where we were telling her member friend that she would pray at the baptism) and told us that she wasn't going to be baptised the next day because she felt like she was being pressured into it. We talked to her a bit, read scriptures and such trying to help her but she insisted on the baptism being another date. We left and went to dinner at a member's home and while we were there we got a call from her "Hey have you told everyone to cancel my baptism yet" "No why?" "Because I talked to my member friend a bit more and I'm going to be baptised tomorrow" *FISTPUMP*

There were even fireworks going on during her baptism to celebrate (it was just because of Brazil winning in the world cup but we'll credit the baptism)

I am going to miss this area, there are so many other families and miracles that I will share when I get home, the mission is amazing. It is such a blessing to be able to help people every day learn about the Gospel and how their family can be together forever.

Love you All,

~Elder Della-Piana

THE NEW MISSION PRESIDENT AND WIFE

Timothy Lowell Farnes, 44, and Linsey Anne Farnes, five children, Bridlewood Ward, Bountiful Utah Orchard Stake, succeeding President Marcus H. Martins and Sister Mirian B. Martins. Brother Farnes is a former counselor in a stake presidency, high councilor, bishop, counselor in a ward Young Men presidency, and missionary in the Brazil Porto Alegre Mission. Founder/CEO, Aspire Holdings. Born in Baltimore, Md., to Gary William and Mary Ellen Farnes.

Sister Farnes is a former ward Young Women president, counselor in a ward Relief Society presidency, counselor in a ward Primary presidency, Relief Society instructor, and Primary teacher. Born in Provo, Utah, to David Roos and Judith Lynn Skinner.