Elder Comsa - Baptized 2 men

YUS!!!! We baptized 2 men this week (one 18 years old, and the other 20.) Who in fact will BOTH serve missions. This is my dream, to baptize a young man that will be sent on his mission before I´m sent home off of my mission. It´s possible! We found both of these guys 2 weeks ago, and they were both investigating the church, and both already recieve some pretty powerful answers about the Book of Mormon. And the Church. Lo and behold, they both baptized on Saturday!!! (I´ll include pics.) So right now, me and my American powerhouse comp. have 4 baptisms, and we´re in the top of the Zone for the last 2 transfers, if we get 2 more this month, we get to take an 8 hour bus ride to good ol´ Goiania and eat some lunch with the President! But, they aren´t stats, they´re real people that we need to help. Need to remember that. But all in all, I love seeing these people put aside the things of the world to follow the Savior, Jesus Christ. Such a great feeling.

 

Other than the 2 baptisms, the week went by very slow. These 2 investigators lived pretty far away, it´s about a 2 and a half hour bus ride to get there and back. So it took up a LOT of our work time this week. We also went to visit some less actives in a neighborhood called Morumbi (Some Elders passed through there in the 90´s and just tossed people in the baptism font, and so there are TONS of less active members. To put these numbers in reality, there are 602 members in our ward. Yet only around 70 are active) so we´ve got a lot to do here this next week. Along with preparing these next 2 men for baptism before May get´s here.

 

I left my planner at home today, so I can´t remember any good stories from the week. Bleh. I´ll try to think as I keep typing.

 

My companion is like 6´5 and he´s a big guy. But this last week and a half we decided to start up with a good ol´ Elder Comsa weight loss program. He has cut down a ton of food, and we´ve been doing some hardcore weight loss to get his weight down. He lost about 8 kilos last week and half. That´s like 20 pounds or something, I don´t know. Maybe 18. All I know is that 1 kilo is equal to 2.2 pounds and I´m not gonna pull out paper during my email time to figure that out.

 

Hmmm, spiritual experiences, here is a story about a missionary that served here in the Brasil Goiania mission a few years back. He was teaching a family that had been investigating the church for quite some time, maybe for even a year or so. And this family wasn´´t literally a family (The parents were not married.) and when the parents aren´t legally married, it inhibits them from being eligible for baptism. (Surprised I remember big words in english still.) But anyways, this family really liked the church, wanted baptism, but weren´t married... and on top of that, haven´t recieved a REAL sign or answer that this church was indeed true. So after a lot of time, the missionaries kept on passing by to their home. And every single day, it just kept raining and raining and raining. The couple kinda thought about marriage a little, but couldn´t do it because of the rain. And they WANTED their marriage to be in this special place that´s outdoors. As the Elders kept teaching and passing by, it got to a point where they couldn´t waste any more time going there. They weren´t progressing or anything. So this missionary invites them to get married, and to get baptized. They use the excuse "well, it rains everyday. It hasn´t stopped raining straight for 3 weeks. (whjich was true. That´s normal here in Brasil) And we haven´t really recieved an answer on this book of mormon." So the Elder, he says a prayer and immediatly in the moment decides to make a promise to this couple. The Elder looks up and says "This baptism has delayed long enough, you guys are ready. We cannot continue to pass here if you guys aren´t progressing, because we have other families waiting. (Yeah pretty blunt eh?) So, I want to make a promise with both of you. Tomorrow morning, at 11 o´clock. It will stop raining, and there will be sunshine and a rainbow. You guys will be married at 11 and baptized right after." And the couple just kinda looked at him like he´s nuts. But they accepted, and it was explained to them that through faith, this was real. So here is what happens!!! The next day, it rains hard. 9 o´clock still rianing, 10 o´clock, still pouring. But 11 o´clock EXACTLY it stops. And there is a massive rainbow in the sky, and the sun was insanely hot. The couple couldn´t believe it, and they then got married!!! And Baptized right after!!! 12 o´clock, it poured rain again and the rainbow left, it then continued to rain for the rest of the day.

 

Faith is powerful. And these things really happen! Sometimes The Lord will show little signs to us that this church is true, but we need to just pay attention. I see little miracles happen daily that when you think about it, they are actually quite amazing. I´m grateful for this gospel, and for the teachings we have to lead us in the right direction.

 

- Elder Comsa - Sorry this email was garbage. I´m tired.

 

P.S. Did Matt Beach get married?

P.S.S. Zach Hixson - Tu puedes entender meu portspanhol? I speak portuguese mixed with spanish for you

Pictures - 1. Max 2. Gilmar and everyone together 3. Me and Alex the 2nd counselor in the Ward! He is from Rio Grande do Sul! 4. Junior and I, he just returned home from his mission in  Salvador, Brasil!

Elder Comsa's 6th month

Well, it´s my 6th month in the mission, and I didn´t even realize it til my companion asked when I got to the mission. That´s one quarter gone like nothing, and It´s also gonna be my bro Ben´s hump day. For crying out loud!

 

This last week was a great week, sadly we dropped an investigator that I´ve been visiting for the last 4 months because of some personal problems that she´s got. But all in all, I know she´ll be baptized in the future.

 

No funny incidents really happened this week, and there was no girl trouble either. Except for these 2 girls that called me a very strong word in Portuguese as we were walking down the street. But it gets automatically ignored now. No biggy I guess.

 

I wanna share something really quickly. I had a dream the other night that I was on the rocket (the ride that shoots up the tower really fast, and then drops fast, and repeats.) at lagoon. In the dream was Brother Winegar and his son Landon. It was just us 3. The dream was very short but I think it had a good meaning... we were sitting on the ride, and the ride started and shot up really fast. It then did it one more time and got stuck at the very top. As it was stuck I remember looking at Wade Winegar and saying something along the lines of "Look at us, we´re on top of everything!" And he smiled. The reason we were stuck on the top is because the ride was broken, and it wasn´t a good thing. After about a second or 2, something snapped, and the ride dropped and we started to freefall. In the dream, I remember that it was a view of me, looking at myself. And I bowed my head and said a prayer as we were falling. "Heavenly Father, please pick us back up." And at that moment I lifted my head, and 4 angels were standing on the 4 corners of the ride. And had stopped us from freefalling to the ground in a what could have been tragic accident. I then heard a voice saying "I will always pick you back up."

 

I don´t know why I had it, or what it meant at first. So I went and prayed during my study time, and I finally figured it out! The rocket (the ride) represented our life. With the ups and downs constantly. As we got stuck on top, it represented us being on top of the world in success, in our lives, with our families and jobs. As the ride fell, it showed that sometimes when things are good, unexpectedly we´ll fall. But the Lord, he will pick us back up. Whether we have troubles with our familes, with missionary work, with careers, with anything. The Lord will always pick us back up according to our faith, diligence, and keeping the commandments. I agree that the dream seems pretty weird, and kinda outta the blue. But I thought it was really cool. Especially after the last week we had with losing our prime baptism due to some unlikely circumstances. Heavenly Father is always here for us, no matter what happens. And if we´re faithful, he´ll help us.

 

Conference was amazing, I learned a lot of new things. I´m out of time right now but I´ll go ahead and share some things that I learned in conference; next email.

 

This church is the true church. Christ, our Savior is literally guiding this church on Earth, through a living Prophet that speaks with him face to face. There is no doubt in this. It´s not just some belief, it´s a knowledge.

 

Few questions quickly, is Jack Taylor still living? (That probably sounds horrible the way I asked, but I just wanna know.) And Also, how are the Jazz doing? And can you please toss me the Hutchings home address? And how is Kyle?

 

Love you all, and hope everything is well at home. Pray for you every night!

 

- Elder Comsa

Elder Comsa - rough week

I have 2 minutes to type this email so sorry if it´s short!

 

This week was very rough, as one of my dearest investigators is going through something pretty challenging, and the baptism date will either drop or be moved to a future time where I might not be able to participate.

 

But the week was still great. We taught an amazing spiritual lesson with a family, and as we walked out of the house, one of them said to us "You guys were born to teach." And it made me realize how REAL this mission is. That we´re really here teaching people about the only way you can reach the heavens. But in all honesty, it´s the Spirit that teaches. We just say the words. But the Spirit touches their hearts. Maria will baptize this next coming week, and the Mother will also be baptized in April. I´ve seen this family from day one when the daughter was baptized, and right now, I consider them my Brasilian family!

 

I know without a doubt that this church is the Church of Jesus Christ. I have seen things that have amazed me. I´m feeling the lowest of lows, but I´ve seen the highest of highs. But no matter what happens, rely of the Lord. Because he is guiding us in the direction we should take.

 

I love this mission with all my heart, this is my life right now. And I wouldn´t trade it for anything else.

 

Miss you all and love you. I´ll try to get a better email out next week!

 

- Elder Comsa

Letter from Elder DeFreese - 13th ward

This letter was sent in on January 24, 2012.

So this week was pretty interesting. We did a LOT of searching and found a LOT of fake addresses, but it's all good. Haha you know how it is, those who have gone on missions. (except SOME of you happened to have cars or bikes and didn't walk 45 minutes just to get to a fake address... hmm...^^)

No, but it's all good. Elder Mata and I have gotten along really well, we've been studying good and helping each other get better every day. Something we've learned is that you ALWAYS should talk about problems that you have or something that bugs you. For example, I noticed that sometimes we both tried to start teaching at once in lessons sometimes, and we just didn't have unity, that night we had a good talk about it, nice and calm and figured out how we could have more unity. Now I can honestly say that we have a lot more, and we both felt good after the talk. There's something called ''comp. inventory'' that I mentioned last week, which is every thursday during weekly planning where you talk out companionship goals and things we can all do better in, etc.
Well, some missionaries tend to wait for Thursday to roll around to mention those sort of things, and then they forget or feel bad and just end up saying nothing, but I've learned that when something bugs you or you notice something that you both need to do better or something of advice you have for your comp., just say it. There's a thing called place and time, of course. Don't tell it in the middle of a lesson, but with calmness later on out of ear-reach (am I saying that right?) of other people. Well through that we now get along even better, we teach better, contact better, follow the spirit better, etc.
So yeah, all you missionaries, future missionaries, ex missionaries that have wives/girlfriends, or just others in general, pay attention. Don't wait to talk things out, it's always better to let it out, but calmly and with patience. If you feel angry and stressed, maybe just try to cool down first, but don't wait too long, I find that it offends more to tell someone of something that's ''been bugging you the whole transfer'' than ''something I noticed that we did today, that we could do better...'', always.
Anyway though, the shining moment of the week of course has to do with the picture I'll be sending in this email. Noé, his wife Leticia, and their daughters Saraí and Gaby got baptized this Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! Wooh! That's the first time in the mission so far I think I've baptized a family like that. Yes, there are children that still lack, but bit by bit I know they'll get there too. This family is awesome and it's been great to see them learn and grow and the love that they have for us and the gospel. I feel like Ammon in the Book of Mormon when he talks about in chapter... 24 I think, of Alma, and he's talking about how he doesn't glory in himself, but in God, and all that... Well anyway, at one part he mentions how he knows the Lamanites are truly converted because of the love they have towards their brethren, and towards Ammon and his brothers. They really think a lot of us, and it's a motivation. We have to be the missionaries our families and converts think we are. Always.
It's tough, but I know if we strengthen ourselves in the work and in study, we'll really be able to be those missionaries. Baptisms or no baptisms, a missionary's success is measured by his DESIRE to find, teach, baptize, and confirm. The numbers are really just numbers, but if you desire to help people really to come unto Christ, and you do everything in your strength to do so, you are EXACTLY the kind of missionary God wants you to be. Huh, it seems like this week I'm mostly talking to my buddies out in their various missions right now, sorry fam. and other friends!
Anyway though, I'm learning a lot from Elder Mata and enjoying my time, love you all!

Elder DeFreese

1. Elder Mata and I with our investigator, Vale. She should be getting married and baptized this week, soon you should all have the photo of her in white! =)
2. The baptism of Noé and his family.

What is the Hobble Creek Missionaries Blog?

A couple of months ago Terry DeFreese from the 13th ward suggested a Facebook page dedicated to the missionaries in the Hobble Creek West Stake.  A place that members of our stake could go to be updated and uplifted by stories and letters from our missionaries.  I thought that the letters and pictures could be posted on a blog and a Facebook page could be the tool to announce new stories and share comments with each other.  So that is how this blog came to be.  To share a letter or pictures from your missionary email them to hobblecreekmissionaries(at)gmail.com.  I hope you feel the spirit as you read these letters and stories.

Brother Davis - Stake Young Men Presidency