She told us what after our lesson? (Week 66)

Hi Everyone!

The new companion!

Update on the new area I am in:

• This is the first apartment where I have air conditioning

• My apartment is so easy to clean, I'm so grateful! 

• This area is much bigger than my last one

• I still have a lot to learn about this new area, but hopefully I start picking things up quick

Spiritual Experience:
We where knocking on doors and than we made it to this one house. We clap at the door, because knocking is rude here in Brazil, and this woman invited us in, and welcomed us. We started to teach her and she surprisingly already knew everything about the the Book of Mormon. My companion and I were so amazed and happy she already had some knowledge.
She then told us...that she was praying for the Lord to send someone to help her find the correct path, and it just so happened that we showed up and taught her.
BUT THEN...it also turns out that she is very religious...and she is very strong in the other church that she is currently involved with...and the pastor of that church told her that she will be invited to go to other churches and that she should NOT GO...I can tell that the adversary is working hard, but not to worry...so are we ;) 

Gym:

Okay, I am so happy! I'm going to an actual gym today to workout! I know that I walk miles and miles a day but I am so happy to for once for workout at the gym. Anyone that knows me knows I love working out, and I know that the mission is more important right now, but it'll be a nice change to go in this one time and exercise a different way for once. 

Final Remarks: 

Well, I hope everyone has a great week. Thank you all for your love and support and your emails! Merry Christmas!! :) 

Love, 

Elder Arevalo 

Planes, Parties, & Potential (Week 65)

Hi Everyone, 

As you all know...I got transferred, and I am now getting moved AGAIN! Haha they want me to open a new area, so I am officially going to be doing that with my new companion Elder Costa. He is from Sao Paulo, and has been on his mission for 10-11 months so far.  

Off to the new area! 

We took plane and the plane ride was about 45 minutes. The first day in the new area was on Friday, and this past Sunday the new ward had conference so it was good. I didn't get to meet a lot of the members that day, but the ones I did meet were very nice.

Mission Christmas Party:

Christmas Party

So this was a lot of fun! There were games we could play, and I kept going from game to game. We even had a gift exchange, and I had to give something to Elder Silva. I also got a really cool gift! I also saw so many familiar faces, and so many friends that I haven't seen in a long time so that was really great. I am so thankful that our mission president and wife do such nice things for us! They are wonderful. 

Spiritual Experience:

I would say the most spiritual experience I had this week was the Christmas devotional that our mission Christmas party had. The spirit was so strong, and I love every minute of it. 

Investigators:

So in my new area we already have 3 new investigators. Please pray for them!

• Valmir 

• Juvinal

• Vivani

Some last goodbyes from my last area:

I'm going to miss them all so much.

-Love, 
Elder Arevalo 

They're sending me where? (Week 64)

Hey Everyone,
I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas festivities back home!

Visiting The Doctor: 

As you all know...I went to the Doctor this week because I have been having weird white spots on my skin. He gave me a cream to put on my skin and he said everything should be fine, so that's good. 

I'm going to miss my companion! 

I am getting Transferred:

So its official. I am transferring over to a new area. I leave on Thursday, and I am going to my new area in a plane. I will be going to Macapá which is a city and capital in the state of Amapá . It's so far away! Amapá is a state in northern Brazil bordered by Suriname, French Guiana and the Atlantic Ocean. The Amazon Rain forest covers a great portion of its area, and the Oyapock River forms part of its northern border...so that's pretty cool haha. I kinda saw this coming...since I've been in my current area for about 3 months now.

I'm a bit disappointed because this always happens to me haha. I always get transferred before my birthday or before Christmas. For the most part I'm not sad. If anything I am happy to get to know other places. I would have liked to stay, but I am here to do the lords will not mine.
My new companion is going to be Elder Costa, and we will be District Leaders in this new area. 
My current companion that I am training will stay and finish his training. 

Spiritual Experience:

My spiritual experience this week is about Rodrigo. He is a member we are re-activating. He is really feeling the spirit, and he is really excited about coming back. He even gave us a reference. The reference is for us to go visit his his friends, and they seem to be really interested and want to go to church and learn more! In general I have noticed that the spirit never leaves us. If we do not feel the spirit it is because we have left the spirit, and that if we desire the spirit to stay with us he will help and guide us.

Baptism This Week:

I had another baptism this week.  I unfortunately am not able to send pictures right now, because the computer is not letting me...so I am going to put them up next week. Thanks everyone!

Baptism picture from last week!

Love, 

Elder Arevalo 

I Have A Disease? (Week 63)

Hi Everyone,  

This week was pretty good, I don't have much time to write today, but here we go: 

New Member

So Leo, a newly baptized member, is very happy and he is very excited to help others. He even helped baptized his cousin! He also invited us to do a service project with him so that we can get to know his family, and eventually help baptize them. 

Service Project

Leo is just filled with the spirit, and he is happily sharing the Gospel. I think we can all learn from Leo. We should all be happily sharing the Gospel, just like him! I am very happy for Leo, and I know he will be a great leader in the future.

Baptism

In other news...we will be having a baptism this upcoming week. Woohoo! We had 10 in the Month of November, and starting off December with one as well! What a blessing!

What Disease?

Also, I am going to the doctor this week. I have some white spots on my skin. I don't think its anything really bad, but I don't want anything to get worse...so its definitely more of a precaution thing. I bet its just because my skin isn't used to all this sun and heat. Who knows...anyways, I'll let you all know what the Doctors say next week! Thanks everyone for your support. My family always tells me how many views and supporters I have back home, and I couldn't be happier to know that my missionary work is hopefully influencing as many people as possible.
Until next week! Love you all.
Love,
Elder Arevalo :) 

The AP told me what? (Week 62)

Hey Everyone!

Guess what! Five people got baptized this week! I AM SO HAPPY! We had 6 people get baptized two weeks ago, and now we have ANOTHER 4 this week!! THATS 10 TOTAL! AND we are hoping to have ANOTHER 3 NEXT WEEK. It's so amazing to see the Lord help us find people ready to receive the Gospel! Check it out! Sorry the picture is blurry.



The AP told me the other day that I am leading the mission in baptisms this month. I was so touched to hear that. I am so honored, but I cannot take the credit. This is the Lords work, and I am just honored to be here to help. 

Me, Jessica, Raisa, Evny, Bishop, Larissa, Elder [Left to Right]

Spiritual Experience:

So as you know...we had the 4 baptisms. This family is great. We are helping Evny (mother) and her children Jessica (youngest), Larissa (oldest), and Raisa (middle child) currently. We also are helping Rodrigo (oldest son) to come back to church. It has been going very well, but oh my goodness guys. You should have been here when these 4 got baptized. Larissa, Jessica, and Raisa where baptized, and shortly after tears flowed from their eyes as they looked up at my companion and Bishop the second they came out the water. At this moment I knew they felt the Love of the Lord. At this very moment they knew happiness and the knew what it felt like to follow Chirst our savior. 

They loved there baptism. Larissa even told me that she wants to go on a mission and the Lord is blessing them a lot, I can tell. 

I can only say that we made it at the right time, and the lord did the rest. My companion and I just expressed our love and concern for them and they said they felt the spirit. It was a great experience for them and I am going to continue to help them continue to be great members of the church. I know the Lord prepares people for us, and all we need to do is trust in the Lord and do what is right.

Another experience:

At one point I was very lost, and had no idea what I should, where to go, what to do, or who I should talk to. When all of a sudden....a member passed by and said, "Hello!" and said, "We where going to visit some people...Oh I also have references for you guys". He gave us 4 new investigators that wanted to hear our message!!! So that's exactly what we did. We went to these 4 and shared our message about Christ, and they where so happy to hear our message. The lesson was on the plan of salvation. The member that gave us the reference is Eric, and I was with elder Ferrieha.  The visit was amazing. Eric's friend Carol, cried and they knew for themselves that the lord has a plan for us, and what an amazing joy that brought me.   

I Was Wrong (Week 61)

Hey Everyone, 

Do I look Native Next To My Fellow Brazilians?  

Here is a summary of my week:

My new companion is doing good. He is having a bit of a hard time studying for 1 hr and staying focused, but I can tell he is trying. Which is great. So that's good.

Also, I recently found out that two missionaries from my district have been lying to me and saying that they are getting along very well when in fact they are always fighting. Two members recently just told me that they are a bit concerned about them always fighting.

Besides that...I am good. We found an inactive member and they have 3 little children that want to be baptized so we have 3 baptisms this week.

We also found other family that wants to be baptized. Three of them want to get baptized next month. They are very happy. So in total: Three for this week and then possibly for 4 the next month. We are definitely having this success because the members like us and go out with us when we ask. Its great! I am so glad poeple respect us a lot here.

Spiritual Experience: (Reason I was wrong) 

Good Times

So this week I had the privilege to go on splits with Elder Nougeira. He taught me a very important lesson. In the past, I would always pass these two people and I never bothered to make contact with them, but this time around...Elder Noungeira decided to stop and we shared a message with these two people that I always neglected and they loved it. They are married on paper here in Para (which is a miracle) and they have a true desire to come unto Christ. I pre-judged based on their looks. They have tattoos and they didn't look very spiritual but they were completely ready to hear our message and I felt so bad for thinking these two people didn't want the Gospel in their lives...I HOPE ALL OF YOU LEARN FROM ME...and the mistake I made. Everyone deserves to hear our message. If you ever think "Nah, they won't want to hear this" please think again and give it a shot, because it may be EXACTLY what they are looking for. 

People To Pray For:

Jose Maria Silis Larica Jessica Raisa Raquel Bruno Kadija (recent convert needs lots of help) Adalia

Thanks everyone.
Love,
Elder Arevalo 

Everyone in White (Week 60)

The Baptism

 Hey Everyone,

I heard that Daylight savings time has finally come around to all of you this week. Here in Brazil we don't worry about changing the time. Anyway, this week was pretty amazing and here is why:

Fun Facts About New Companion: 

• He is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!
• He is very new on the mission (1 week in the field)
• He is a bit shy
• He is funny!
• A bit different than me, but I like him! 

I think its funny how both of my sons are from the same place (RIO), but they are both very different people. 

I think this is a sign that I need to go to Rio de Janeiro. Haha! 

Spiritual Experience:

So we planned to meet a family at their home around 7 at night on Saturday. Once we arrived they let us in, and this was our conversation:

Wife:       "Hello Elders Come in"

Me:         "Thank you" 

Father:    "Are you two in any rush to leave right away?

Me:         " No not really you are our last appointment. 

Father:    "Great! Then you two can stay for the "Ceula" (Its like Family Home Evening but for this other religion)

Now, we didn't want the pastor from the other church mad so we tried to get out of it by saying that it was far away and he said 

Father:    "No worries I will take you home after, you are our guest. 

So we stayed. I personally felt uncomfortable, but when we all prayed (I also said a personal prayer), and the spirit comforted me (even during the yelling and all the noises they call praying) and when the pastor tried to explain everything as to why they did what they did...he had no scriptural references.

My New Companion

The spirit guided me to the scriptures...I felt like I needed to at least do my best to explain my beliefs to those around me. I started to share some scriptures (with their permission) and I felt the spirit guide me towards certain ones, and you can see that the people where more interested and they felt the spirit. I know they did and the people liked us a lot better then the other pastor (I don't mean that in a prideful way). 

One man even asked us to give him a blessing haha! So cool! I felt the spirit and it was funny because after I finished talking...no one had anything to say. One more thing...these people who were in the other religion said that they where saying they turned to their church only because of this miracle or something...and then I once again felt prompted to share with them how I realized what I believe to be true. I told them that I prayed and that the Lord confirmed to me that I am on the right path, and that is what we need to do with all of our choices in our lives. 

So happy for these two!

During this entire thing my companion didn't have much to say (mostly because he has only been out here in the field for a week), but the one thing he did say to me was "Elder Arevalo you are crazy and bold. The pastor had no words after you spoke! You where just saying one scripture after other and it was incredible!" 

Marriage:

This week I also had the opportunity to marry a couple named, "Leo and Sulie". They where baptized and they where married last week. The marriage was simple and small, but they didn't care because they were just happy that their family and the president of the branch was there. So they loved it. 

Baptism:

Then there was the baptism. You can see (in the photos) that the family was so happy and so excited to make  ever lasting covenants to the Lord. I felt the spirit that day (for this family) and that they are very happy to be following the Lord. I know for a fact that the Lord has big plans for Leo and his family to be future leaders and a great blessing to other.