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.