Saying Goodbyes are the Hardest

So it was a good and sad week this week. It was a great week in terms of lessons and FHEs. It was a super hard, really spiritually week with everything. We even had a baptism of Antonio and Girley. It was awesome to see them finally get baptized. What a great family. Then we found out about transfers, and that I was getting transferred to Guaratuba. I was super sad to leave Joaçaba because I honestly loved it there, and the members there are awesome, the area is amazing, and I really loved the people. So we spent most of Saturday and Sunday saying goodbye to everybody. It was tough to say goodbye to some awesome members, investigators, and recent converts!! But I promised them we will keep in contact!

Then Sunday night I hopped on the bus at 10:30 and arrived here in Guaratuba at 8 am. It was a 10 hour bus ride, I did sleep a good amount of the time. I am excited to be here, it is a beach town and it is flat, so now my body won’t have so much wear and tear from climbing the hills of Joaçaba. It is way up north in our mission, in fact it is in Parana and not Santa Catarina which is most of our mission area. My companion is Elder Sullivan, he is from Manaus Brazil. He has been on the mission for 3 months. He got trained by Elder Keller, who came out with me. I haven’t talked to him a ton yet, but he seems really cool. We live with two other Elders they are E. Lopes from Para and Daines from Utah. We also have two other Elders in the district in Itopa, both are from Sao Paulo. I have only been here a few hours, but I am excited to get to work here in Guaratuba.

I really love the mission, time is flying by, I have learned and grown so much. I am so thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord, I know I am where I am supposed to be at this time in my life. The mission is such a great experience.

I love all of you, remember to do the little things Alma 37:6-7!

I will write more next week. Families are eternal!

Love,
Elder JT Moore

Saying goodbye to Loren

Saying goodbye to Antonio and Dirlei!

Saying goodbye to Judite Daniel, Juliana Jackson, Ana Clara, Douglas

Saying goodbye to some of the branch members

Saying goodbye to Debora

FHE with Rosi and Joao (Heltons parents and family)

Saying goodbye to Pres Calixtos family and Miguel the little boy of Pres Arajou and Debora

Saying goobye to Edson Vanusa and David

The Mission is a Great Experience

Okay so the week was awesome! Let me tell you how the week went. On Monday we visited Antonio and Dirlei with Joel and Olga and taught about laws and ordinances! They are doing great! Then on Tuesday we started teaching Clener, Cassia, and Paola. We have been visiting with members and it is helping! Members are great here in Joaçaba! We also visited Antonio and Dirlei again and watched the restoration video and I think it totally helped them a ton! I know I felt the spirit strong watching the video. On Wednesday we had missionary correlation with our branch mission leader and then we visited Debora at Pres Calixto and his families house. It was a great visit! We also visited Judite and Daniel with Joel and Olga and talked about the importance of family and marriage. They are ready they just need to get married first and they are willing to do it, they are doing their part they just need help, but I know it will work out. We also visited Marcos and Andressa with Adair and his family and that was awesome to get them to meet more people! Then on Thursday we went over everything again with Debora, we went with Joel and Olga and Elen to see if she had any questions, she was prepared and ready for Saturday. We finished off the day by visiting Denard with Carlos and we taught the restoration. On Friday we had district meeting and also visited Clener and her family with Claudia and Manoel and taught part of the restoration. Its great having the members come with us, because it creates great friendships in the branch! We also meet with Debora and she had her interview and it went great! It rained a lot on Friday! Then on Saturday we visited Rosi and Joao B. in the morning. Then Debora got baptized! It was awesome, I was super excited for her! Her mom and one of her friends also Dirlei and 2 of her nieces went, it was great! She is really special, Pres Calixto the branch president did the baptism, and he said he never had such a spiritual experience doing a baptism before, which was awesome to hear. Then after the baptism we had a lesson with Loren and Carlos about learning in the church. On Sunday at church Edson, Vanusa, Dirlei, and Loren went. Debora got confirmed a member! After church we visited Edson and Vanusa and talked about sacrament and the reason why we go to church. Then on Sunday night we had a little get together for Debora! It was super fun and awesome. The members are super friends with her and her mom really liked the members of the church. All in all it was a great experience for all of us!

So yes it has been cold here, but not cold enough to use my big coat, so I guess it really is not that cold.

So you asked for some new portuguese words that I learned this week, they are trinka o maçaneta, I think thats how you spell it, any ways it means doorknob, haha.

So this week I studied this talk. It is really good!!
The Power of the Word
Also if you have time read this talk
When Thou Art Converted


I love you guys, Go to the Temple, Remember to do the little things, and also remember how many blessing we already have in our lives and how things are, and can keep getting better.

Love,
Elder JT Moore

Our elevator, District meeting pic

Baptism of Debora

Baptism of Debora

Baptism of Debora

Elder Choate and I outside of Church

Get together after church

Look Justin I found you a Kinder Egg!

And here is the toy inside!

Members and Missionaries, Unity

What a great week this week. I love this area. We have so many people coming out of the wood works right now and the members are awesome and bringing us investigators and helping us with the work. We had 13 member present lessons this week, which is awesome. The members are building great relationships with the investigators. Sometimes we have stopped by some of our investigators and members are there helping them with fixing things at their house, or just stopping by and visiting them. What I have realized about this work is that when missionaries and members work together in unity, good things happen. The working is going great and we are planning to have some 15 investigators at church this coming week!!!!!!

So this week we had district conference in Videira, which is like stake conference, except we are not a stake yet. Videira is a little over an hour away by car. I was asked to give a talk on missionary work at the conference. There were a lot of members there and I definitely nervo

We had a lot of our investigators go to the conference both days which was awesome. Debora went to both of bot days of district conference and loved it and is super excited to get baptized and made great friends with a ton of the members. Oh another awesome thing that happened this week is Antonio has stopped smoking cold turkey!!! We started a 7 day program on Wednesday and as of yesterday night he is going strong! I know he’s done smoking, it is awesome to watch him have a desire to change!! We have visited every night to see how they are doing with members and its great!

So I also was able to buy this super awesome bible that our branch president uses. It is a huge help and is super awesome with footnotes and everything. One of our investigators, Barbara, makes leather scripture covers, so I am getting another and then there are a bunch of other Elders that want them to, so we will be getting a bunch made.

I stinking love Joaçaba! Truthfully I don’t want to leave, but everyone here has started saying that I am leaving on the 11th because of transfers and because I have been here so long. Honestly I love this area, the people we work with are great. I love doing this work!

It is cold here, which is so weird to think that it is in the 50 and 60’s and we are at the end of June. I know you guys are in the 100s and Justin is probably dying in the heat at football. Work hard Justin and do big things.

Here is the talk that I want you to read this week by President Monson, “Blessings of the Temple”
English and Spanish

Okay I gotta get back to work,
I love you sooo much thank you for the emails and the encouragement you guys give
We are really excited about this week!!
LOVE YOU GUYS, Remember to do the little things!
FAMILIES CAN BE ETERNAL!

Love,
Elder JT Moore

The new bible I bought

It is awesome with footnotes and everything

Yes, I am in Brazil where everything grows big and green

The circus is in town

The Circus

The awesome meal that I made

Dinner at members house

Week of Lessons and Miracles

So this week was a good week, although I had a stomach ache on Saturday, but thank you mom because the Moore’s pharmacy you have sent me solved it hahah. I am out of shape because at times we have to run to get to another appointment and let just say I am not in football or basketball shape haha. The members here help out a ton, we have had 8 member present lessons this week and 9 last week. Having members helping out teaching is paying off! Our investigators now have friends in the branch that come by and help them, so it is not just us doing the work. So we have a lot of investigators marked for baptism, there are just various things that have to happen so they can get baptised.

So this week we had some good lessons. The first one I want to share about we had with Debora and Donatan, they are two young people in their 20s that went to church last week. This week we were going to have a lesson with them on Saturday, but they called to change the date, at first I thought they were going to cancel it, but instead we got a nice surprise and they asked if it could be earlier. So on Thursday we had a lesson with them and with President Araujos family. It was awesome, before we even started they came prepared with 25 questions!! Then on Saturday we came back and taught them the restoration. On our visit on Thursday we had given them the pamphlet, they read it and they took notes in it and underlined parts in it and did the extra study stuff it was awesome! They are amazing. They said they were tired to get up to go to church, but they came, and at the end of church they didn’t want to leave because of how great it feels! How awesome is that? We also taught another awesome family that are ready to be baptized we just have to get them married first. Then later that week we had another amazing lesson with member present with Luciane and Jessine a reference of Daniel and Judite (reference of investigators! How neat is that to get a reference from investigators that you are teaching. So we had a lesson with them, Luciane is in her 30s and Jessine is 8. During the lesson we were talking about a lot of different things at first, but last week on Saturdays baptism of Renan we gave Luciane a blessing because she was having pain near her heart. Then after that she went to the hospital to take some test and came out that she had a nerve muscle strain and the doctor sent her to get some meds. She ended up not buying them and by Tuesday she had no pain whatsoever! And then she was like yeah this week went great after going to the baptism and then church on Sunday, everything went well, work went well, and at the end of the week I had a little extra money in my pocket that never happens, I always make it but with barely just enough. It was awesome to see! We have a FHE with her at Helton's house tonight! She also read Ether 12 in one night and loved it and loved how much it talked about faith. We also had a lesson with Hobson and his family which was awesome. You could see them light up when he was like oh so there are apostle and prophets on the earth living today! This week was filled with great lessons and miracles. On Sunday we had lunch at Helton and Concei hous,e and then after that we ate lunch at the house of Urlick he is from Haiti and he is super awesome! He made us a bunch of great food! He is going to the FHE that we have planned also. Then Sunday we had a great lesson with Antonio and Girley marked them for baptism, it was awesome. She said she sees satan trying to tempt the family and knows she needs to set the example. We also taught them about tithing and fast offerings and she loved that our church shows where the money goes and was super impressed and excited. She was like I gotta start paying tithing. Then we had a lesson with Judite and Daniel with members Helton and Concei, and we talked about the commandments and specifically about the Word of Wisdom and Daniel said they finished drinking coffee and are going to buy this other thing that members drink here. He also asked Helton about tithing and how it works and was really impressed. I love Joacaba!!!

Here are the talks I want you to read or listen to this week
Bearing our Burdens with Hope
Finding Joy in the Journey

I love you all! Remember to do the little things for one another!

Love,
Elder JT Moore

Add caption

Churros filled with chocolate

Yes its June and its cold in Joacaba

Everybody from our apartment

District meeting

Birthday party for this cute little girl

Dinner at members house, kind of like paella without the seafood

No caption needed, FLAN!!

The leather scripture case Barbara made for me

Eating ice cream again

Doing the Little Things

This week I was just thinking how much I love you and how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you. Remember that! Also, I want each of you to reflect on each of your lives and see if you are doing with the small things; daily personal prayer, scripture study, and doing the small things. When things get hard and difficult we just need to remember two things pray and scripture study.The Elders in our apartment were talking the other day and Elder Cardenas said that he has learned a ton here on the mission and honestly the mission was the best thing for him. That is the truth the mission is the best thing for us young men at our age. Read Alma 32:41-43 it is a great scripture. Just remember be patient, diligent, and have faith and it will happen. Also read 1 Nephi 3:7 and Alma 37:6-7. I never realized how much our investigators love when we just hide a note or pass by and say hi. Same thing within a family say I love you more, do something without being asked. Do something special for one another. The small things are what God uses so I think that we should be doing the small things too.

This week I did a lot of praying and scripture study, and one thing I learned about a question someone asked Elder Zamorano was what is the distance from the earth to heaven and his answer was it is the distance between your knee and the floor. Praying is very real. It is amazing how prayer works. We can talk to our Heavenly Father who literally created everything and he can talk back to us through feelings, promptings, and the scriptures. We need to dedicate time during the week to prayer and just talk to Heavenly Father and open up, I know he listens and answers us. We need to be diligent in prayer.

So this week we found this super awesome family. Hobson, Marizete and Joao we are super excited to teach them. We shared the plan of salvation with them and they had a little baby that died and talked about temples too it was a good lesson. We also taught this young man Igor who was super cool! We had a FHE tonight with Edson and David (the lil boy of Vanusa is going). We have been teaching some other really awesome families and the work is going good. I am so thankful for those that we have been able to share the gospel with. We are learning so much from each other.

Remember to say I love you and do the little things for each other.

Love you all,
Elder JT Moore

The FHE on Sunday with Peres family about Families can be Eternal

The lesson we had with Carlos and Loren when everything fell through

The city of Catanduvas

Walking the streets of Campos Novos

A giant chimarrão cup

The half bear half dog we found on divisions with Elder Pelaez

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!!! It was so goood to see and talk to you all yesterday. It it was muito legal (very cool) to see and speak to all of you. I love you all so much. That was the fastest hour of my whole mission. I was looking forward to it for a long time, then it was there and over so fast. It was good to see Grandma and Grandpa, and that you are all doing good. I can’t believe I am half way over with my Skype calls home, only have one more Christmas and Mother’s Day calls left. It makes me muito happy!

Well another week of ups and downs, but I do honestly love it here in Joaçaba, I could stay my whole mission here. The people here are great, especially the members in the branch. Joaçaba is super safe it was actually rated the 2nd best city to live in Brazil for quality of life. No one messes with us, not even the dunks and the crazy people on the street, in fact when we walk by them, they are like oh hey Mormons say a prayer for me, it’s pretty funny! So this week we had some more awesome FHEs, and had investigators at some of them. Elisa went to one and really liked it and came back and told her sister how great it was. At one of the FHEs I taught the lesson that you shared with me dad, about priorities in our lives, using the golf ball, pebbles, and sand as the object lesson, except I had to use other available objects, so I used little oranges, pasta, and rice. If we put the most important priorities like family and God (little oranges) first in our lives (the tub), then the other priorities like work and school (pasta), and the other small things (rice) then our lives are full. However if we have our priorities mixed up, and we put rice and pasta in first, then we won’t have enough space for all of the oranges (the important things) in life. It was a awesome lesson!

We had an awesome lesson with Elisa, and taught her about the restoration, and why it was needed, we talked about Prophets and apostles, and also the temple. The spirit was really strong, so we asked her if she knew the things we were teaching her were true, she said yes, so then we felt the impression that we should ask her to be baptized, we did and then there was a long pause. We just sat there and waited for the spirit to work, and then she was like yes I want to be baptized! It is awesome to feel the spirit and watch as they feel is testify to them.

One thing I realized this week is that when we truly focus ourselves on the Lord he will bless us. Even though we had an up and down week, with appointments falling through, I realized that when we focus on the positive things that happened, then the rest of the stuff doesn't affect us much at all.

Oh we ate burritos the other day, that we made. It was the first time I ate burritos in Brazil haha. They were super good! We also went to this one supermarket that has this bakery in the back. It is super legit, you get to make your pizza the way you want it, it reminded me of Subway, except for pizza. We also had some great dinners with the members, so feed us so good here it is unbelieveable.

I love and miss you all, remember JESTO!

Families podem ser eternas!

Love,
Elder JT Moore

Happy Mother's Day!! I love you mama!!

Eating at Bob's (like McDonalds)

Make your own pizza, subway style

We made Rootbeer, No Bueno!

Burritos in Brazil!

Irma Daiany makes waffles for us when we go eat lunch there because she knows we love them

Joel and Olga the ward mission leader and his wife they have a son on a mission and spoil us with steak and bunch of food!

 The FHE we did about priorities

My book bag that we bought at the missionary store

How can it be getting cold in May?

So this week was another good week. I love Joaçaba! and the members are great here! Some of them that we have been working with are Helton, Conceiçao and Laviana, they are awesome and are helping a ton, they have 3 families we are working with them. We had 5 investigators at church on Sunday, so it was awesome, like you said we were on the down of the roller coaster and now we are on the way up! We had some great lessons where the spirit was super strong.

Elder Choate and I are getting along well and having fun, he is getting a lot better with his Portuguese. So yeah I thought on Friday about you guys at fathers and son. I cant wait, only one more and then the crews back together! One of the members here Guilherme told me about the NFL draft, he told me about the first round picks, and I didn't even know most of the names. Oh well I will have plenty of time to study sports when I get back.

One thing I have really realized out here in the mission is that Satan tries to use all his tools available to discourage us. He knows my weak point and tries to put doubt and fears about myself and what I am doing. I have learned to strengthen this by looking at how far I have progressed and how far I have come in such a short time. I know it is because the Lord is helping and watching out for me. Whenever Satan tries to discourage me, I start writing down the many areas where I have progressed, and I realize that I have been very blessed and have grown so much from where I started, or I write down those that I can truly see that we have helped and done "some good in the world today" it makes it sooo worth it. :)

The other day we were over at the branch President Tiago's house, and he was sharing his Bible with me, it was super awesome for a Portuguese Bible, it has footnotes and everything, so now I want to get one like his. He also had some really great pages of scriptures with references that I copied to use.

It is so weird to be in May and it is starting to get cold instead of hot. We are actually starting to use sweaters in the morning and the evening. It is still raining two or three times a week, but the weather is nice to be out working during the day.

Here is a good talk I found by Elder Perkins called “Go Forth in Faith” have Justin and all of the youth read it, it is a great talk for us young people.

Tell Yayo and Grandpa I love them very much and I am praying that they heal and get better quickly.

I cant wait to talk to you guys on Sunday for Mother’s Day. I am more excited then a child losing all of his teeth at once and waiting for the tooth fairy to come, more excited then a child on Christmas Eve, just can’t put into words how excited I am. I love and miss you all, keep doing the little things because from those the great things come to pass, remember JESTO!

Families podem ser eternas!

Love,
Elder JT Moore

Wearing my sweater vest in May, this is weird!

The Kinder Egg for my bro Justin

and the toy inside.

Awesome meal the members made for us

Sunday was super windy and rainy cray cray

Sharing the Book of Mormon

Missionary Selfies

District Meeting

President Tiago reference page

My planner Elder Choate made me, he is funny!

We got IPADS our sick new Ipads haha jk it is our DVD player