If you lived in the time of Christ...

Dear family and friends,

 

 

I am sorry but my time is running out so I will be very brief.  I am doing really well. I am a bit under the weather, but other than that I am great.  Sorry about last week.  I had a counsel meeting with Presidente Ribeiro. He is so cool.  I love listening to the man speak, and the best part is because I am a zone leader I get to travel once a month and have a meeting with him.  He is great.  He is a really inspired man, and truly a man of God. The meeting was also good. I learned a lot.  We also got new ideas for us to implement into our teachings.  Now it was commanded by the first presidency of the church that we now have to mark the baptismal date on the first visit.  That is exciting.  A reall test of courage to go up to some one that you do not know at all, and asked them " if you lived in the time of Christ would be part of His Church? Well, His church is here on the earth, so will you be baptized like Christ was baptized?"  It is something great to see, most people are really say yes, I would like that.  I was surprized. 

 

Well, I have to get going.

 

I love you all ,and I will talk to you later,

 

Love,

 

Elder Caleb S. Carriere LZ

Healing and Learning

Dear family and friends,

 

Say hello to Zone Leader Elder Carriere. HAHAHAHAHAHA.  Alright enough of the self glorification.  I am really humbled by my new calling and I am finding myself thinking, "what the heck am I doing?" I am fortunate that my companion is a machine and is well prepared.  I love the kid.  He is teaching me so much, and at times it seems like too much, but then I remember that I have been a Zone Leader for 5 days now, and I really am new at this sort of thing.  I am really happy to be doing the work. 

 

This week has been a rush; I am really supprized at just how quickly the week went by. It was over in a blink of an eye.  My new companions are Elder Vianna, who is my actually companion, and Elder Anthon.  Elder Vianna is from São Paulo and is great.  He is a good leader, and I am learning a lot from him.  I will try to keep up with him though, he is so smart that it is really difficult to keep up with his ability to multitask.  My other companion, who is also my District Leader, is Elder Anthon. He and I actually have known each other since the very first day of our missions.  He was one of the first people that I meet in the Dallas airport waiting for the our plain.  He is from Mesa AZ.  He is also really good.  It is really something interesting watching these guys work.  They are doing things that I had never even thought of doing.  It is really great. 

 

This week was great to.  We had two baptisms and we also marked the dates for two more for this Saturday.  They are great people as well; the people that we baptized this Saturday were a mother and son.  Andréa and Andreas.  They are so excited about the gospel that they want us to teach Andréa´s mother, and maybe her sister.  I am more than willing to do so. 

 

Well family I love you all and just to let you know that my finger that was bitten is healing up just fine, and yes, I did go to the doctor. 

 

I love you all,

 

Elder Caleb S. Carriere 

It's Just a Flesh Wound!!!

Dear family and friends,

I have some exciting news for you all. The first off, last week I was bitten by a dog.  It hurt like nothing else.  I am fine, and I did not need to get stitches or a vacination or anthing of the sort, but how did it bleed, Oh buddy.  It did not stop for serveral hours. I changed the bandaid serveral times. All is good however. I am find and my finger ( the place where the dog got me) is working normally like it should. It just has some holes in it.  That is all. It will most likely leave a mark, but that is just a part of the job, and also a part of life. Who knows, maybe in a couple of months, perphape 12 and a half, people will look at that scar of mine and ask, how did you get it, and I will explain, and they will have simpathy and want to talk to me more. 

The second thing that I have to tell you all is that I will be leaving Santa Rosa.  It is the death of the Santa Rosa Kid, but all is well. I think that it is my time to leave.  I had a good time here. I made lots of friends and baptized a few people along the way, but as they all say, "All good things must come to an end."

The third and last thing I have to say is that I am now a Zone Leader.  I will be going to a city called Cruz Alta and I will be Zone Leader B of the Cruz Alta Zone.  I have a new companion, well two actually because I will be a threesome for a while.  Their names are Elders Viana and Anthon. I know Elder Anthon he arrived on the mission with me. He is a cool guy, and Elder Viana I hear is a cool guy too. I am really excited.  

All is good for me here. I am will, I am alive, and I am working hard. I am every excited for what the future holds and I hope that all will go will with us.  

Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers,

Love,

Elder Caleb S. Carriere

The Power of the Priesthood can bring mighty miracles!

Dear Family and Friends,

How is everyone doing?  I hope that you are keeping warm, because it is downright cold her.  Well not so much cold as it is cold with lots of wind and rain.  It is really miserable weather here in the Big Rive of the South, or Rio Grande do Sul.  I am otherwise fine.  I am in good spirits and relatively good health.

This week was different.  We had lots of lessons; we taught 32, but we did not find many new investigators.  The new form that our new president, Presidente Ribeiro, has us doing really narrows down the playing field, or simply we had a bad week and the hearts of the people are hard and not willing to crack.  I am hoping for the first. 

We did however mark 3 more baptisms for the 28th of August.  They are a family really special.  The only reason that we are waiting one month for the baptism is because they need to get hitched first.  That is the problem here in Brazil. To get married it is wicked expensive and also you have to wait at least 30 days to receive the marriage license.  So we have found many people who are going to marry.  Up until now we have 4 families who want to get baptized, but need to get married first. 
So it is kind of a uphill battle, but a battle that we are winning it seems for the time being.

We had an excellent experience yesterday.  Well it started out bad, but ended out good.  What happened because of the rain and the cold hardly anyone from our branch actually went to church, so it is a bit of a stretch to think that our investigators would.  So we had no one at Church yesterday.  My companion and I were a bit upset or rather concerned with this.  We quickly changed our plan of attack for that day to revisit our investigators who said that they would go to Church.  We did and we discovered that the better part of them were sick in some fashion.  The first was a family that the mother has an inner ear infection and asthma and had an attack.  They did not go because of that.  We said alright we left a quick message and bang, we were off like a rocket to visit the next family. This family I have the most highest expectations for. They really wanted to go to church and get baptized, but simply the father suffered an accident many years ago and because of that his back is all out of shape, to such point that he has such pain that he cannot drive.   So we discovered this, and my companion began to teach a lesson about the priesthood and how it can bless our lives.  He wanted a blessing, so we gave him one.  He began to cry and simply says his testimony about how he knows that we are servants of God, and we are different and more "faithful" than the others.  It was something special. 

Well family I am getting hunger and I need to get going, while the going is still good.

I will talk to you all next week,

Love,

Elder Caleb S. Carriere

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

I really have nothing really exciting to say, other than Happy Fourth of July, well it is now the Fifth of July, but I did not have the chance to send you a letter yesterday, so I am sending one today.

Also I have not yet met my new mission president. I will have this chance on Thursday. He is going to interview the entire mission. Every missionary for 30 minutes so that is going to be an exciting time. I am really excited.

I am finally sending those photos that I have been taking. I think you guys will enjoy them a lot. I have been hard at work. Although this week to be honest my companion and I became really lazy. I think the pass that we were making finally caught up with us and said hello. But this week will be better, although we are going to be out of the area Thursday for interviews and Friday for zone conference, which will not actually take place in our zone. go figure, but that is the true.

I am well. I have lost more weight. I started the mission with 198 lbs, now I am at 168. 30 lbs Waahooo Wooooooooo !!!!!!!!!! Who knew that walking a lot and eating beans and rice everyday would make my so skinny. I am almost at my goal of 165. I am so close I can smell it.

Well family, I have got to go now. My buck has ran out.


Com Amor,

Elder Caleb S. Carriere

Becoming that which we wish to be.

Dear family and friends,

This week is the last week of the mission of dear Presidente and Sister Myrrha. They are leaving on a jet plan, in two days. (June 30th for those who are counting.)

It is an emotional time for the mission, and everyone is a little sad to see them go. They have made a great difference in the history of the mission and also in our lives. It was interesting, we gave them a farewell, in place of a zone conference. It was very much like a fryer´s club roast, but with out all the swearing and with more skits.

I got to sing, that was nice. I have the nick name of Pavarotti, one of the three tenor who died not too long ago. You know the really fat one. Any who, I sang together forever in Portuguese with a sister in my district. It was something special. I tried to upload it on this computer, but I have decided that computers in Brazil, especially which we use in internet cafés suck and bit the big one if you get my drift.

I got some interesting advice from Presidente Myrrha. I gave him and his wife a good farewell hug and he whispered in my ear said said, "your history is not yet complete; continue to write it." Which is something that I take literally and metaphorically. This is also something interesting; I was cleaning up my desk and happened upon a couple of papers that had been stapled together. It was about the duties of a leader in the church both in the mission and in other auxiliary callings. It was interesting. There was a quote from George Bernard Shaw which said this, "A vida não consiste em discobrir quem somos, mas em tornar-nos aquilo que desejamos ser." Which translates to, "Life does not consist of discovering who we are, but in becoming that which we wish to be." I do not know if that is the correct translation. I was translating it, but the thought is still the same.

I am going to do that.

Love you all,

Elder Caleb S. Carriere

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is the world cup and everyone is crazy. We tried hard to work, but our numbers this week went to the toilet because of the games. It is crazy. It was ordered by our mission president that we have to arrive in our houses half and hour or an hour before the Brazil games start and we cannot leave until half and hour after. It is really crazy, my companion and I were studying and we could hear our neighbors yelling, cheering, and making all sorts of noise. It is a real deal here. For an example, the banks in Brazil held a special meeting to discuss that they would not open there branches during the games, so a little bit before each Brazil game they close up shop and then after then all open up later with extended hours, to make up for the two or three hour loss. It is crazy.

I am doing well. This week... lets just say that I am glad that it is over. A lot of things happened that left my companion and I high and dry. We are teaching a family that the oldest daughter was baptized a little bit before I arrived. The family was progressing so well, and still are I really hope, but she goes and makes a rather immature and stupid decision to runaway from home and starting living with a drug/arms dealer. Oh, I also forgot she has a one and a half year old daughter who she also took with her. Her family is heart broken and is thinking about moving away from the city to a smaller city that does not have our church. I am really worried about that.

A lot of thinks like that happened,but I know that this week will be better. I have all the confidence and faith that it will be. But as always keep me in your prayers and thoughts.

Love,

Elder Caleb S. Carriere