TWO YEARS on the 18th, Elder Vernon will be home SOON!

               Elder Vernon is getting a little bit trunky- excited to come home.

September 21, 2015
This week it rained. It rained and rained and rained so we got a little bit wet but we still worked well. Rain feels good. On Sunday it was gaúcho day so we ate churrasco.

The most spiritual lesson we had this week was on Sunday after church. One of the people we are teaching lives in Porto Alegre but visits our ward for the weekend. He said that he would not be able to come to Santa Maria next week so I bore my testimony about how I hope that he will pray about being baptized aso that one day he can go to the temple and have a forever family. Later that same day we went to where he was staying and had a lesson a little bit differently where everyone said a prayer as if it were a personal prayer; we felt the spirit and after wards reinvited him to prepare for his baptism next month.

Another cool thing that happened was that President called us this morning (to our surprise) and said that a brother from Alegrete had talked to him at a church meeting that was in Santa Maria. It made me happy. :) Another funny thing that happened is that for a while I had been searching for doughnuts because I wanted to eat one. After passing by 3 or 4 bakeries that didn´t have any where they even laughed at us for wanting to eat doughnuts my companion decided to ask at one more bakery... We entered the bakery and to celebrate my 2 year mark on the mission we bought some doughnuts and ate them.

Sounds good about the event- the food could be Brazilian hot dogs because then those that want to eat Brazilian can eat Brazilian but those that want to eat American can still do it. One food I want to eat is creamed sausage now that we are on the topic of food.

September 14, 2015
This week my companion and I were able to teach a lot more this week. We didn´t really do anything differently but this week the people we talked to on the street let us in their homes to teach them. It was awesome! :) In one lesson we read Second Nephi 31 verse 4 which takes about Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist to take away the sins of the world. We then talked about how with baptism we accept Jesus Christ´s sacrifice for us and become clean from all of our sins and hurts. We then handed them my backpack that I carry around and said that it was like sin and when we took the bag back they said that they felt relieved. We promised them that following our savior will bring us a relief that is better and bigger that the relief that was felt. I finished reading Jesus the Christ again which was cool as well. It is cool because it explains in detail the life of our Savior.

The church in Santa Maria Brazil

September 7, 2015
Today was Brazilian Independence Day so we nearly didn’t find a lan house that was open. Eventually we found one that was off in a far away neighborhood because other missionaries called us and told us about it. We did a family home evening with American pancakes and talked about the questions of the soul that the Book of Mormon has answers too. It was yummy and spiritual.

New Companion & on his last transfer before coming home!

August 31, 2015
Hello Family. This week I made cookies that I ate. They were yummy. We found some new people to teach visiting some houses that had the records of people who were baptized about 25 years ago. We had a ward family home evening about the atonement. We helped an old lady bury her cat that died too. There were two exchanges this week.

August 24, 2015
This week I got my new companion and we had stake conference. My new companion is Élder Muniz. He is from São Paulo São Paulo and likes art and he is 20 years old. When we were working this week lots of stuff were falling through and we are working on finding new people to teach. At the end of a day knocking doors we decided to say a prayer and then we found a new family to teach! Also we contacted a church website referral (we never get church website referrals so just getting one was a miracle!) and found another family that wants to learn more about the restored gospel.

At stake conference I got to see everybody from São Pedro that I worked with which was awesome. They are all doing well and are happy and when I talked with Irmão Dion he said that he has already gone to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and is excited to go again! He is also working on growing a Brigham Young beard which I thought was cool. Some of the stuff I learned in stake conference was that there is a fable about trees in the old testament about leadership and also that the happiest place on earth is not Disneyland but the temple. :)
:) Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :) :) Sincerely, Élder Vernon :)

We got Elder Vernon's itinerary for coming home, new companion!

Cory's mission president gave all the missionaries permission to Skype for Brazilian Father's Day which was August 9th so we got to talk to Elder Vernon and he asked his brother's and Dad who have served missions for advice for when he comes home. It was a very special visit! We felt blessed that it all worked out as we were on vacation and only had limited time to access the internet. We got Elder Vernon's itinerary for coming home too! He will be home in 6 weeks! He gets to go to the Porto Allegre temple before he comes home. Pretty AWESOME! (this note was from Tina)

Ollo,
This week was transfers. Élder Albuquerque was transferred to Alegrete but I will stay in the same ward that I am; my new companion will be Elder Muniz, and I do not know anything about him yet but will write next week.

I finished reading ´´el Libro de Mormón´´ this week. Even though I don´t speak Spanish or anything Portuguese is similar enough that I could read the whole book and more or less understand everything. I thought that is was cool and it was also neat because the English, Spanish, and Portuguese all say the same thing but with the specific words used the spirit can teach even more than just reading in one language. One example is the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy. In English its easiest for me to understand, but in Portuguese it is Saturday --because of the law of Moses-- and in Spanish it is the day of rest. So bringing together everything it gives a cool view on what the scriptures are saying.

Èlder Albuquerque also bid farewell to everybody that we were teaching together. It is neat to see how the Lord brings us into people´s lives exactly in the moments that they are prepared to receive the restored gospel or are needing help for something. It makes me super grateful for heavenly father and Our Savior.

There is an atividade in Preach my gospel to ask the family to write about the blessings of keeping a commandment in their lives. I thought it would be cool to ask the family about keeping the Sabbath day holy and the blessings that each get for living it.
Next week is stake conference.
Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :) :)
Sincerely,
Élder Vernon :)

Elder Cory Vernon is transferred to Santa Maria

July 6, 2015
Ollo  :) This week we got transfer calls and I am being transferred to serve in Santa Maria in the Itaimbé ward. My mailbox will be the same address that I had when I was in São Pedro. Also there was Irmão Alex´s baptism and confirmation. It came as a bit of a surprise because we had invited him to prepare for his baptism on the 11th, but Elder Souza Silva felt that we should invite him for this week so he did. It turned out really great and spiritual at the baptism and confirmation. It was the 4th of July so I gave Irmão Alex my little American Flag. The stake president bore his testimony at the end and remembered his own baptism. Also on Sunday after his confirmation Irmão Alex bore his testimony about the Book of Mórmon and shared a scripture that had been an answer to his prayers. I also started bidding farewell to everyone. It is sad to leave when there is a transfer, but I know that the Lord sends us where we need to be to bless his precious children.

July 13, 2015
This week I have started to get to know my new area and my new companion. His name is èlder Albuquerque and is from São Paulo and he played soccer professionally as a goalie before the mission. My new area is in the Santa Maria Stake in the Itaimbé ward, and we got a new bishop and bishopric this week so everybody is excited to work and invite everyone to come unto Christ. One cool thing in Sacrament meeting was that the stake presidente talked about John 2 in the bible and how the Lord gives us blessings that we do not recognize, that we need to do our part to receive blessings, and we need to ask the Lord for help because when we cannot do something The Savior can. We need to ask him to do stuff for us. I liked it. One of our investigators really loves the church and is super excited for her baptism. My first full day in the new area we went to her house and gave her a blessing.
Com muitos Sorrisos! :) :) :) Sincerely, Élder Vernon :)

June 22, 1015
I will be officially old when I turn 20 this week... :) Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone! :)

This week Presidente Parrela came and interviewed us. It was cool because I was reading in 3 Nephi about how Nephi approached the lord when the savior visited the Nephites and felt the spirit strongly. I am grateful that the lord lets us know when we are doing his will and how we can always do better. President told me that my plane ride home will be on September 29th, so it looks like I will get to serve 2 years and a still little bit more.

Also this week lots of the people that we invited to come to church came. It goes to show that the lord really is doing his work and helping his restored gospel fill the earth. We found some new people to teach doing contacts and also went to the cartório to help people get married. One of the coolest things we saw as well was that some of the members were doing their home teaching visits which made us super happy (new home teaching companions and route were assigned in the ward). We also taught Irmão Nilo and Irmã Gladecir about the plan of Salvation and some of the commandments. Com muitos sorrisos! :) Atentamente, Élder Vernon :)

June 14, 2015
Oi estou bem e come vocês estão? :)
This week was stake conference. Some of the stuff that was talked about in the meeting was how we need to live the small and simple things of the gospel like reading the scriptures, praying, and going to church every Sunday and that if we pay our tithing, have family home evenings, read the scriptures as a family and pray as a family that our families will be protected. We are doing a joint English/kung Fu class to find new people to teach. Élder Souza Silva teaches the kung Fu and this week there was 6 non-members that we invited to go to stake conference. I do not think any of them went but they all really liked the class and are getting to know a bit more about the church now.

Teaching Rinato´s family is going well because they all went to stake conference! :) This week we were talking with them about how they want Rinato to stay firm in the church (Rinato´s the only member in his family) so we taught about the plan of salvation and how the Lord wants us to do things as a family. We also read john 3:5 and talked about how reaching the celestial kingdom is more than just faith but also obedience and doing what the Lord asks of us.

We also had some good family home evenings; on Sunday we had a family home evening where we talked about the articles of faith and watched Elder L Tom Perry’s last conference talk-- I am grateful that the Lord inspires good people to lead us and teach us by the spirit. We are running back and forth to try and teach everybody about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ! :)

A little bit about Alegrete is that it is about 100,000 inhabitants and is a stake with 5 wards; however it is more like a district with 5 branches because the wards have about 20 to about 60 that go on Sunday. My ward is kind of funny because it has nearly all of the stake callings. Our apartment is good and we have a microwave and a gas oven and stove. Love ya family! :) Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Sincerely, Élder Vernon :)

Note from Tina. .Elder Vernon actually got his birthday package BEFORE his birthday. All mail takes about a month to get there and packages usually take longer but this one only took about 3 weeks! He always likes Flaming Hot Cheetohs, I think that is the food he misses most from the U.S.

Elder Cory Vernon's 20th Birthday is coming!

Pictures in Alegrete, Brazil May 18, 2015

Penguins Cereal

 My MTC Companion lives in our same house

Family Home Evening!

In my personal study I made a list of scriptures that we can use to invite people to follow our savior´s example and be baptized. It was cool because I realized that in 3rd Nephi there are whole bunches of scriptures inviting us to follow Jesus´s example so that we can be happy with our families forever. Another cool thing that a member showed us was that with the book of Mormon in Portugues the book cover spells the invitation to pray ´´orem´´ (O livRo dE mórMon).

Members help in Alegrete

May 11, 2015

Ollo family! How is life going? Well I know it is going well because we talked with each other on Mother´s day, but I still like to ask, you know, it is a little bit polite.

This week it was interesting because after district meeting I had an exchange where I went to Elder Cardoso´s area where we worked. A cool thing that he had in his area was a little box with pictures of our savior that they use to ask for referencias. Also we went to Irmão Nilo´s house with Bishop Aldemir a few times. It was really great because when we talked about some of the commandments that the Lord asks us to live Irmão Nilo was happy and talked about how it makes sense that the Lord helps us out by giving us commandments. It is also amazing how much the testimony of the members of the church brings the spirit. When Bishop or other members bare their testimonies it brings in the spirit like an eagle swooping down to eat a fishy. Well life is good and there is lots of work to do! ;) :) I will try to write better letters with more stories, normally I forget everything that happened in the week when I am writing about it! :)

May 4, 2015 It rained this week. The weather is just funny that way. Anyway, when it rained we visited people with Bishop Aldemir. One thing that makes the missionary work easier is when the missionaries and the members share the gospel together. One cool thing that I re-learned this week is that when one of our investigators asked why he needed to be baptized is that one of the main reasons to be baptized is the remission of sins. When he asked the question I started to talk about how we qualify for the celestial kingdom, we get happier, we are obedient, etc, but it was the member that said to be cleansed from our sins. I liked it! :)

Sun in Alegrete

Member family that let us Skype home on Mother's day

A Rainbow!

Mother's Day Skype

Skyping on Mother's Day with our missionary, this is his new companion with him.

April 13, 2015 Hello! :) This week was great! We had Zone Conference on Wednesday in Alegrete. The focus of the meeting was how we need to find people to teach so that they can get baptized and thus be prepared to go to the celestial kingdom with their families. As missionaries and as members we cannot have fear to share the gospel; there is even a scripture that says that those who have fear will not enter into the kingdom of God (I think it was Revelation chapter 4) Sister Parrela also gave a training about Jacob 5 which is about the tame and wild olive tree.  It is an allegory that shows the Lords love for us and how he keeps working with us. (and Irmão Alcir during the week was reading Jacob 5!). Irmão Cézar and irmão Luis and Irmão Alcir are all learning everything super fast. I like it! :) One thing that I recognize is hard for lots of people that investigate the church is that after their baptisms they need to keep changing and improving. Even though baptism is the first step, it is a step that people need to be prepared to take. After being baptized the people have a commitment with the Lord to always remember Jesus Christ, to serve our neighbor, and live the commandments (especially go to church and partake of the sacrament). One of the times that I felt the spirit this week was during fast and testimony meeting a returned missionary bore her testimony about how one of the people she taught on her mission made it to the temple. The testimony then explained that the worth of even one soul to our heavenly father and Jesus Christ is worth all of our work during the mission and more! Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :) Atentamente, Élder Vernon :)

Another one bites the dust!

Capybaras run wild.   It is the only time I have seen them when they are not meat on my plate. 

A bus ride to zone conference!

Páscoa e Conferência Geral! :) :) :)

April 6, 2015 Páscoa e Conferência Geral! :) :) :)

Hello! :) This week was general conference so it was awesomer than normal. Because every time we get tho hear the prophet and apostles talk about our savior the spirit is always strong and felt.

One of the conference talks that I especially liked was Elder Dallin H Oaks because he talked about how we need to have our roots in the gospel of Jesus Christ and that our soil needs to be good so that we can one day partake of and share the fruit of the tree of life (eternal life with our Heavenly father and families).

We read 2 Nephi 31 with some investigators and when we read verse 18 with Irmão Cézar it was in response to a question that he had. It goes to show how the Lord uses the Book of Mormon to answer our questions. (Here is what that scripture says "And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, whichwitnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive."

We are also trying to use the video BecasueHeLives with people and it is going well because generally everybody wants to see a small video about our savior even if they do not want to be part of a lesson. We found one new family to teach using the video.

We also had a family home evening that we used the Liahona magazine´s preparation for Easter section that went really well even though it nearly fell through.

Lots more happened this week too, but there is not enough time to write everything. Happy Easter! :)

Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :) :) :) :)

Atentamente, Elder Vernon :)

Carnival floats and a Package!

March 16, 2015

Ollo! :)

This week I got a package with cheetohs and starbursts and maple that was yummy in my tummy! Also I got a letter with Dad´s dad´s patriarchal blessing which was cool. 

Something funny was that I asked a member ´´Como está odor?´´ but I wanted to say ´´como está a dor´´ (how is the smell verses how is the pain). I just thought it was funny and stuff. :)

With one of the investigators we are teaching we read John 3 with him and talked about how baptism is essential and that the spirit will teach us that it is the right thing to do. We also talked with a recent convert about what happens after baptism using john 14; we need to receive the gift of the holy ghost and then live the commandments because we love our heavenly father and our Savior.

We contancted a referal and found a family too.

During my personal study I read about Alma and the Sons of King Mosiah and how they were converted. I like how they stopped suffering and found true happiness and then worked without ceasing for the rest of their life’s to share that same joy and happiness with everybody. And how did they do it? Through missionary work! Faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins (our first covenant), the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end are all wonderful because they help us to be happy because of the atonement. :) :) :) :) :)

Atentamente, Élder Vernon :) :) :) :)

March 9, 2015

Ollo!

There was transfers and I will be staying in the same place.

This week was carnival during the weekend so we worked like normal. Our area is far away from the center of the city so we did not see very much carnival stuff. Other than today going to the lanhouse we saw a bunch of parade floats on the city´s main street.

We watched the restoration with Irmão Cézar so he no longer has doubts about Joseph Smith and that her was called to be a prophet. It was also great because we started teaching the rest of his family and after his sister prayed to know if what we taught by the spirit was true she said that she felt the spirit. It was funny because she then left the room and Irmão Cézar started to talk about how neat it is to feel the spirit confirm that something is true.

Vitor, who we are teaching looks like he is moving to a new city, but we are still excited for him and his family that is staying in Uruguaiana. We started teaching his grandparents and uncles. Among other things there was an older man that started listening to our conversation and talked about he had already visited all the churches except for the Mormons and that he would like to visit the church. It was great because he was really interested in the organization of the church and how it is the same as when Jesus Christ organized his church; we shared Joseph Smith´s first vision with him and invited him to pray about baptism.

We had some good family home evenings with some members too about how the Plan of Salvation helps us to think about the eternal perspective and how baptism is essential to have an eternal family.

As always more stuff happened but there is not enough time to write everything! :)

Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :) :) Love, Elder Vernon :)

Time for new shoes!

March 2, 2015

 My shoes that broke.

My new shoes that a sister in the ward gave me, they are good I just need my feet to adjust to them.

:) This week we visited Irmão Cézar with Bishop Claudio and followed the spirit as we taught about the 10 commandments as well as the word of wisdom law of chastity and tithing. It went great because Bishop bore his testimony about each of the commandments and talked about how they help us prepare for our eternal families. Also our prayers were answered because when Irmão Cézar tried the barley he liked it.

All of Alberto´s family came to church this Sunday which was really great. And another family that we are working with came to church too! :)

Also during this week my shoes broke but Irmã Ramona in the ward gave me new shoes that she would have sent to her son that is serving a mission but she bought the wrong size which just happened to be the size of my feet.

Lots of other stuff happened too. Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :) Sincerely, Elder Vernon

 :)

Elder Vernon gets to train a new missionary!

This is Cory's new companion that is a "Greenie"  He is from Brazil.  

February 2, 2015

This week started off with a long bus ride to Santa Maria to meet my new companion. My new companion is  from Feira de Santana in the Bahia (close to Salvador Brazil). He is the only member in his family is 22 years old and was a PE teacher before the mission.

When we were there and staying at the hotel I was praying and felt the spirit tell me that I need to be my new companion's companion, that was cool to feel.

Also I saw McDonalds, the only one in our mission, but decided not to buy anything because it was 20+ reais (around $7.00)for a big mac. On p-day we play basketball now which is fun.

When we returned from Santa Maria it was another 7 hours on the bus but we arrived Wednesday night and went to a Book of Mormon study group that we started.

Deise would have been baptized by Alberto but it did not work out because the baptismal font broke; she will have her baptism this week and is super excited! :)

I am running out of time at the lanhouse, so I do not have time to write more! :) I would like too, but we have to be obedient.

February 9, 2015  :)

During the week one interesting thing was that we said a prayer with a group of pastors in an evangelical church and then traded pass along cards. Also during one lesson the investigator just wanted to argue with questions about tiny details that are answered by simply reading the scripture that talks his little questions, so we bore testimony that the only way to know if the Book of Mormon is true and if the restoration of the gospel is true is to pray, read the Book of Mormon, think about it, and then try it out (go to church and live the commandments). It was cool because the spirit was there and the investigator accepted what we said.

Thursday was Deise´s baptism! She was sad that it wasn´t last Saturday but because the baptismal font was broken it had to be on Thursday. The best part was that Alberto was able to baptize her and when he did the ordinance he did it perfectly the first try. I felt the spirit when Deise entered the water. Their whole family is super happy with going to church and doing what needs to be done. We had lunch with them Sunday after church and Deise´s confirmation to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, so I shared the family tradition of everyone sharing something that they learned at church as we ate.

This week on Friday we had mission tour with Elder Mazzagardi (he is in the Brazilian area presidency of the seventy). It was cool because he talked about how we are doing really well with lots of things but we simply need to invite people to be baptized more often and also more directly.

February 16, 2015

This week lots of good stuff happened. Good stuff like eat pancakes and invite people to follow the savior´s example by being baptized, and we had a good meeting with Bishop. :) :) :)

One cool thing that happened was that during one of our companionship studies Presidente Parrela called us and said that we would have a companionship study together with him. We read Doctrine and Covenants 31 over the phone and talked about how our call as a missionary is super important and that the Lord makes sure that everything will work out even though we need to do our absolute best. After wards we studied Jacob 5 in the book of Mormon. It is amazing how the scriptures always have more hidden treasures in them that we can find in uncountable ways.

I had an exchange with my district leader Elder Matoso on a day that rained a lot. Stuff fell through, but at the end of the day there was an amazing family home evening that we had. The message we left was the cross paper that Elder Sol taught me and during the family home evening I made American pancakes. In Brazil everyone eats salty pancakes, but at home we eat them with maple syrup and stuff. After we left the family home evening one of our investigators forgave one of the members about something that had happened years ago and then they hugged each other. It is cool to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ changes people to be better, more forgiving, and more loving. :) :) :) :)

Feburary 23, 2015

This week was great like every other week, but a few of the great stuff that happened are the following:

We had weekly planning and our Zone Leaders showed up to see how we plan. It was good because as we followed what preach my gospel says they also gave us ideas about how we can do even better by creating extra goals that use numbers.

Irmão Cézar had the addiction of drinking coffee, but when we invited the spirit to teach the word of wisdom he liked it. He said how coffee is the least bad of the things we do not consume for our health but liked how the word of wisdom helps us to be healthy and receptive to the spirit. Also we gave him some cevada (barley) to start drinking instead of coffee and he was excited to try it out. It reminded me of how at the start of the mission teaching Aúreo and Sam that the Lord prepares the way so that we can live his commandments.

There was also a family that returned to church this Sunday. We started talking with them because another member was on the street talking with them and then we started talking about the church and now everyone is a little bit happier!

Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :)  Elder Cory Vernon

January 26, 2015 Cory is going to be a trainer!

Ollo family! :)

This week was cool because even though I sweated abunch we worked with lots of members and Alberto blessed the sacrament in sacrament meeting. Also Alberto´s Sister Deise is preparing for her baptism and when all goes well o Alberto will be able to baptize her!

We had a family home evening that nearly did not happen.It was scheduled and everything, but everything was happening so that it would not happen.But even though it rained and the family home evening was in a different house than planned it turned out being really cool. We watched a short Mormon message about how in our relationships we need to let people know that we love them. Jesus Christ never stops loving us.

One thing liked during my studies this week  read Mormon 9:11-14 which I liked because it gives a good summary of lots of the plan of salvation and how the Atonement frees us if we will only accept what Christ has done for us.

When Elder Farias bid farewell to Bishop Claudio it was cool because Bishop talked about how with the social media today that we will always be able to have contact with the people that we meet and help during the mission and that the gospel blesses families and that when a missionary serves a mission pretty soon (20 years or so) that same missionary will be sending children into the mission field to help even more people find out how to have the most happiness in life that is possible.

Also there was transfers and I will be staying in Uruguaiana in Ala Porto and will be training a new missionary, Elder Farias will be going to Ijuí.I am taking a bus to Santa Maria today to pick up my new companion and think that I will only return tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon.

Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :) :) :)

Atentamente,

Élder Vernon :)

I asked Cory some specific questions and I thought you would like to hear some of this kind of things too. 

When I go shopping I normally buy a loaf of bread and some fruit to eat.which lasts for about 2 weeks. Sometimes I buy eggs or stuff to make pancakes. Sometimes I buy Sonhos form a bakery that we walk buy. We walk everywhere, my area in Uruguaiana is really small so we do not walk very much. it normally takes 15 minutes to 30 minutes to get from one place to another. we see smell and hear dogs cats, birds and horses. We live in an apartment with 2 other missionaries (another companionship) and unlike the other areas my room in the apartment has air conditioning! :) We normally eat at the members houses but sometimes I make Ramen, Fetticinni, rice and beans, Polenta, etc, for lunch in our apartment.

Meet the Mormon's Article in Sao Pedro Newspaper

Here is the translation- Cory's Big Brother Aaron served in Brazil so was able to translate for us,  Cory is on the right in the picture, it is hard to tell.

"Meet “the Mormons”

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost,” said Jesus Christ to his followers at the end of the book of Matthew chapter 28 in the Holy Bible. As representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the nickname of the Church is “the Mormons”) we do with power and authority what Jesus commanded; or rather, we teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we help people come unto Him through baptism.

We declare that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He lives and guides His Church through a living Prophet. The first prophet in our days was Joseph Smith. He was called to be Prophet in the year 1820 when he prayed and God, the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. The Prophet today is President Thomas S. Monson.

With joy in our hearts we are called by the Prophet of God to be here in Sao Pedro do Sul and teach about Jesus Christ to the people here. But, we always ask that people ask God if what we say is true; for if you “ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ… with a sincere heart and real intent, having faith in Christ, He will manifest the truth [of all things] by the power of the Holy Ghost” (The Book of Mormon, Moroni 10:4, page 618).

Mormon.org explains more about the Church and how to learn more

Christmas Week

December 29, 2014

Ollo! :)

This week and last week were great. It was cool doing Skype with the family even though it did not work at the start.

Christmas was great; we ate churrasco (lots and lots of meat!), Skyped with the family, and saw puppies and a little lizard.

Also the family wants me to write more about my feelings-- well I am happy. :) Also the spirit guides us every day and I know that because of Jesus Christ it does not matter if some days I am puking my guts :P out, if it’s raining and below 0 degrees Celsius :), or if there is not a cloud in the sky with the sun beating down nearly 50 :) degrees Celsius, if rocks are thrown at us or if we are spat ;) on, etc... it is all a joy :D  to be a part of. Every once in a while the spirit testifies strongly when I bear testimony of how families are for forever or I am led to a place that I otherwise would not go, or there is a scripture that suddenly takes on new meaning; however, the most important feeling of the spirit is the calm assurance of the gift of the holy ghost that is constant and never falters. There is an assurance that I know Heavenly father is happy with me. :) :) :)

One cool thing is that this Sunday it was raining so we were searching out investigators before church in the morning. When it rains generally no one leaves their houses and it is just us walking on the street getting wet and getting blessings. Family after family either did not answer their door when we passed by their house or said that they would not go because of the rain. After we passed by everyone except for the last family that we would pass by it was still raining. Thus we started heading towards this last family who could go to church. As we started walking the bishop pulled up in his car and asked if we were searching for someone to go to church! We knocked on the family´s door and then two of them came to church and loved it! 

Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :)

Atentamente, Élder Vernon :)

At the bridge where the other side is Argentina.

Family that fed us at Christmas and let us Skype.

Trying to Get Skype to work- it was hard but was totally worth it!