Moore on a Mission in Florianopolis, Brazil: Doing work and getting organized in the Office

Well another week has flown by here in the office. I have been trying to get more organized with the documents of foreigners, with their ID cards and CPF numbers and renewing visas! I am working my butt off and time just flies by, but everything in the office is getting organized. I even built a really good relationship with the people at the police station where we do Visa paperwork. The package you sent arrived on Tuesday, so I will wait until Valentine’s Day to open it. You guys did awesome on the package, it was super heavy but didn’t get taxed at all. Other packages that come here that don’t weigh even close get super taxed, so props to you for sending it correctly.

Dad, I just wanted to say thank you so much, that video you sent I will Prepare the Way about 1 Nephi 17:32, about the faith Nephi had in building a ship and how it applies to our lives and how we should follow the promptings in missionary work was awesome! Actually last Sunday for lunch during our lunch message I shared it with the family, and it was great! I had always liked that scripture, but I had never viewed the rest of the chapter in that way. The family that fed us are so nice, you can tell that they have a lot of love for the missionaries.

We have a new Elder here in the office Elder Salomão is Elder Keller’s new companion. He is going to help a lot with the work in the ward and bridging relationships. He is a a great missionary, he is 26 years old from Cape Verde. We have the best-est district in the whole mission! All of the office staff and the sisters from Rio Tavares. The last week we also had Elder Delaney here in the office helping out, he was companions with Elder Zamorano who finished up his mission and had to go home a few weeks early because of his visa expiring. Elder Delaney has helped out a ton with all of the preparations for transfers this coming week. Elder Sierras has taught me how to get packages out from the post office without having to pay the huge fines. So now I am in charge of that process and getting them to the missionaries. I have also been learning and helping Elder Cardenas with the reimbursement of things missionaries send into the office.

We have been teaching some awesome families, we taught Paulo and Sueli and Ana Vitoria (their little daughter that is super cute and sweet). They are awesome! We taught them all about the Book of Mormon, it was a really cool lesson and we had a member there with us. We went and picked them up on Sunday to go to church, and they really liked it. We have also been teaching Fernando, Prisila, Hector, Arsene and his friends. Arsene and his friends are Haitians, he is a member, he has been here in Floripa for about 5 months but didn’t know where the church was. They live on the mainland, but they are part of our ward, so they have to travel some distance and cross the bridge to get to the church here on the island. He speaks Spanish, but I have a hard time now trying to speak Spanish, it is going to be hard for me when I get back to switch over. We are doing good but we always need to be searching for the elect to teach.

Yes it was great to see that Lucas and Eli got married and were able to be baptized. Elder Choate called me on their baptism day and let me know, and then I got to see a picture of their baptism. That is so awesome, I am excited for them.

So this week I was studying Alma 50, and the importance of preparing, covenants, unity, and the importance of parents teaching their children!

I also learned 3 new words but I have already forgotten what 2 of them were... sorry I gotta write them down throughout the week. One of the words was lantejoula, it means Sequin, Ana Vitoria taught me that one hahaha.

Remember to do the small things, read the scriptures, pray, and serve one another,
Love you all very much,

Tchau,
Elder JT Moore