Heading to São José do Rio Preto

March 17th

 Well, this is my last week in the office. Can you believe it? I was cleaning my stuff out of the office this week and counting my daily planners I realized that I have had 7 here in the office. 7 transfers in the field (including the MTC) and 7 in the office, half of my mission I've been here! I have to say though, even though my whole mission has gone by really fast this second half of my mission has definitely gone by faster than the first part! I'm so grateful for the opportunities I've had and the things I've learned during my time here.Even though at first I didn't understand exactly why I was called to work in the office, I can see now that there were things I needed to learn, people I needed to meet, and experiences I needed to have, and I wouldn't have had all these things if I didn't get called to the office. Getting to know President so well and working close to him has been a huge blessing for me, and the things I've learned from him I know I'll never forget. I'm very blessed to have such a good mission president like President Scholz!

Even though it's over and there will for sure be people and things I'll miss, I'm looking forward to these last 4 months I'll have in the field. This week has been pretty busy with finishing up everything for the transfer and with Elder McLean's training. He's ready though, he was able to pick up everything pretty fast. It was a great transfer with him, we got to be pretty good friends over the past 6 weeks. In the field, it was actually a bit slower as we had to stay after hours in the office getting things ready.

For my studies I focused and thought a lot about faith. I decided to study the Book of Enos again, and this time where I studied it I got more out of it than I ever have! Verse 8 is really interesting: "And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole." But the interesting part is the last part when the Lord says "made thee whole". In Portuguese, the translation says "wherefore, go, thy faith hath saved thee". Because of his faith, Enos was saved! He then tells Enos later on that "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it." I think that is one of the hardest things for us a lot of times, actually believing that we'll receive. It goes back to that quote I shared by Elder Antunes; "Do you have the faith that The Lord can do miracles or will do them?" Knowing, as Enos did, along with doing our part is when the Lord will grant unto us what we ask for. I'm very grateful for the scriptures and all that we learn from them.

 Last Thursday, we got the transfer and I found out where I'd be going. I'm going to a city called São José do Rio Preto, and the area/ward I'll be serving in is Anchieta. I've been to the city before, but never have served there! I'll be "opening" the area, which means that neither me or my companion have served in the area before, so we'll be starting from scratch learning the area, we won't have too many investigators, etc.

Also, I'll be training a new missionary! His name is Elder Silva (if he doesn't decide to change his name when he gets here on Tuesday) and he's from São Paulo. I'll also be serving with Elder Pinheiro as a zone leader which should be fun. He's from Fortaleza! We'll split the area once I get there I think. I'm really looking to put into practice my faith with this assignment that President has given me, I know there are people in this next area that are ready to hear the gospel, and the Lord will lead us to them! There's my week though, last P Day on Saturday!

Thanks for all the support I get from back home, I'm really grateful for it! Love you guys! Elder Odom

 

Last Week in Mission Office

March 10th Hey! I hope you guys had a good week! So because I didn't have enough time to write last week, I'll talk about an experience we had 2 weeks ago. Elder McLean and I were out on the street and all of our appointments had fallen though. We came to a spot in the street where we could go left or right. I wanted to go right, and he wanted to go left. We had said a prayer a few minutes ago asking to be led to the people that need help or the people that would accept us. So then Elder McLean said "Well, let's just play rock paper scissors real quick to decide which way to go. Let's use revelation." I decided why not! I ended up winning and so we went right. Less then a minute later we were passing a little square with benches and trees, etc. and we heard someone say "hey, help me, help me..." It was pretty quiet but we both looked around to see where it was coming from. We saw a lady laying on the ground in the square and she was in a super weird position. Normally we don't pay a ton of attention to people laying/sleeping on the streets, but this time we both looked at each other and went over to see what was going on. She was just looking up without blinking. We made sure she was still breathing (she was, phew) and asked her name, but she was pretty out of it and wasn't really answering our questions. I went to call an ambulance when all of a sudden she started to have seizure and foam was coming out of her mouth! It was crazy! I called and then we gave her a blessing. Right as we got done someone driving by stopped to help us out. In the end, the ambulance got there and took her to the hospital. Another lady that was working in a building close by said that she'd been there for about an hour but didn't do anything because there are always people sleeping in the square. But my comp and I were super grateful that the Lord was able to put us in the right place at the right time in order to help her out. This week I got to go back to the last city I served in, Franca. It was good to be there again! On Wednesday morning, President called and said that Elder Cardoso (financial secretary) and I needed to go there to give a cell phone chip to the zone leaders there because the assistants forgot to bring it on splits. So, we got to spend 4 hours on a bus just to bring a tiny phone chip! Haha pretty funny but that's what president wanted us to do. We also had a service project to help a member move which was cool. Our investigator Cesar is still a work in progress. If he goes to church on sunday, he's going to get baptized the next saturday! It all depends on if his daughter goes. We fasted this week so that she would go and everything would work out, so keep them in your prayers! But that's about it for me. I'm entering my last week in the mission office!! It's been such a great blessing and experience working here over the last few months. I'm excited for what the next part of my mission brings as well! Until next week! Elder Odom

Another week come and gone!

February 24th This week was pretty sweet. We had the opportunity to have Mission Tour with Elder Antunes, an area 70. Mission Tour is when you have a general authority come to the mission to talk to all the missionaries. I was able to learn a lot from him and wanted to share a few of those things with you guys. Elder Antunes got here on Tuesday right around noon, and after talking to us in the office for a little bit we went out to lunch with him. he's a really funny guy and it's pretty cool that he wanted to come and eat with us. We then had a meeting and he used D&C 81 starting at verse 3 and really went into detail. He talked about the importance of being "faithful in council". We need to always make decisions in council; with our leaders, spouse, friends, etc. and then with this council, pray always! Like I mentioned before, this is something that I'm working on. The final step is proclaiming the gospel. And if we do these 3 things, the Lord promises us that we will do the "greatest good" to our fellow beings. Simple things, but super important. Then when we read verse 5 where it says "Wherefore, be faithful" he stopped the person reading and repeated super loud and excitedly "BE FAITHFUL!" We have to "faithful until the end"! We can't do these things only somedays but when we get tired take a break. It was a super cool example to me of how much we can actually get out of just a few verses if we really study them. When he was talking to all the missionaries, he focused on the importance of faith and miracles. He said something that I'll never forget; "Many have faith that the Lord can do miracles, even devils know that. But... do we have the faith that the Lord can do miracles or that he will do them?" I've been thinking a lot about that since then... do I really have the faith that the Lord will actually do miracles in my life? Then he said "Faith is a present the comes from righteousness. The more righteous we are, the greater our faith will be." So many people don't know what they need to do to have more faith in Christ, but the way that Elder Antunes said it pretty much sums it up. We just need to be righteous! Just follow the commandments! If we do, the faith will automatically come. I was able to be around Elder Antunes more because I'm in the office, and I'm super grateful for that. I noticed though that I really have a loooong way to go before I get to his level... if I ever do!! He just has so much faith and knowledge, it's really inspiring to see and to be around him. I'm very grateful as well for the leaders we have in the church, I have no doubt they're inspired. In the field, one of our "eternal investigators" (Marcos, 17 years old been going to church for a year but doesn't want to get baptized) went to youth conference and now he's finally excited! We're going to visit him and mark a baptismal date with him. Speaking of miracles, the Lord have given us one with him! We're still working with Cesar (his 10 yr old daughter refused to wake up to go to church and he couldn't leave her at home alone) and Leila and her daughter Letícia. It's a slow process, but we're making headway, slowly but surely! That's it for me though. I hope you have an awesome week! Love you! Elder Odom

Taking Advantage of Every Moment

February 17th One more week down! So this week actually wasn't too eventful. We had leadership council with all the zone leaders on Tuesday and I got to see Elder Vilas Boas again, so that was pretty cool! In the office I'm just continuing to train Elder McLean. There's still a lot more to cover, but we have one more month until he needs to be ready! He's picking it up quick so I'm sure that he'll be good to go. With our investigators we're making headway. We're still teaching Leila and her daughter, and then we also have Cesar. It was funny because last week we invited Cesar to go to church, but then he didn't show up. We were pretty bummed out about that becuase we were sure he was going to go. But then after we visited him during the week he said "I went to church on Sunday". We were really confused because we waited for him and didn't see him. But what ended up happening is that he went to a different ward! Our ward starts at 8:30 with the classes and the other ward starts at 9:00 with sacrament meeting, and Cesar got to church at 8:45 and just went to the other ward! He stayed all 3 hours of church too which was pretty cool. So this week we made sure that he knows where he needs to go. But, his baptism is going to be on this Saturday! His only problem is coffee, so if he can stop with that he'll be good to go! So far he's been able to not drink it, but it's been hard for him, but I know that he can do it! Keep him in your prayers!! Something that I studied about this week was prayer. When I was trying to think of what I needed to talk about in my training with my district, I got a prompting that it needed to be about prayer. It was a really good meeting and we were all able to learn a lot together! 2 scriptures that I really like about prayer: 2 Nephi 32:8-9 and D&C 42:14. In the verse in 2 Nephi, something that really stood out to me was "ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee". We need to pray before we do anything!! It really hit me that I'm not valuing the gift of prayer as much as I should be. I've been making a more conscious effort to always say prayers before I talk to someone on the street, go into an investigators house, etc. even if it's just a quick mental prayer. I've also been trying to make my prayer more meaningful. As missionaries we pray so much that it ends up being just another part of our routine and I've noticed that lots of times i'm not as sincere as I should be. I think we forget too often that we're actually talking with Heavenly Father! I've felt a difference in my day as I've done this. Like it says in the scripture in D&C 42, prayer is how we can get the Spirit to be with us! I'm very grateful for all the experiences I'm having to grow and help other people here on the mission. As I get more and more time out here, I'm really starting to realize that this really is a one in a lifetime experience. Once I'm home, I won't be able to be a missionary like I am now ever again! But all I can do is keep learning and taking advantage of every moment I have. Until next week, love you guys!! Elder Odom

Right Place at the Right Time

February 10th Hey! This week has been pretty busy! Now that I've gotten started on the training, I'm starting to realize just how much stuff that I need to pass on to Elder McLean. Like you said Dad, you don't realize how much you do until you have to teach someone else, but it's going good! This week we got more new missionaries. In the group was another Elder from Draper, Elder Swanson. He went to Alta and we have a few friends in common so it was fun to get to know him a bit more. Aside from the training, there hasn't been much else going on in the office. But, this week we actually moved apartments! Elder McLean and I will now be living with the assistants and the other secretaries will be moving into another apartment in the same building later this week. It's a much bigger apartment than our last one and I really like the assistants, so it should be pretty cool. Something random that I was pretty happy about though is that I was bale to get all my stuff into 2 suitcases! I remember the first time I was transferred, I almost didn't get all my stuff into 3 suitcases but I put the medium sized one inside the biggest one and between that and my carry-on I was good to go. I got a box from the office and put a bunch of stuff in there that I want to take home but don't want to take to my next area, like letters, a few souvenirs, etc. and I'll leave the box in the office until I go home. In the area, the work's going good. Our main problem this week was that a bunch of stuff in the office kept popping up that we needed to do and it made us get to the area late. Because of that, we've had to remark a bunch of appointments. With less than 3 hours in the field everyday, it really just isn't enough time to do everything that you want to! We really have to make sure that we plan well so that we can take advantage of the time that we have. Our investigators Leila, her daughter Letícia, and then Cesar are our main focus in the field right now. We had a great lesson with Cesar this past Tuesday. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, and he just took it all in. One thing that I really like about him is that he asks good questions because he actually wants to understand and learn more. Teaching investigators like him is super fun! Now we just need to work on getting him to church. He also has a 10 year old daughter named Luana, but she's super super shy and quiet, so we decided that we're going to work on getting Cesar ready for baptism and then once he's baptized we'll focus more on Luana. Leila is still in the same spot as she was... Her main problem is her husband. If it wan't for him, she'd be baptized already! Every time she doesn't go to church it's because he does something to make her not go. Sometimes he takes the keys to the house and leaves her there, other times he just straight up tells her that she's not going to church. It's been pretty hard and I've been pretty worried trying to find out how to get around this situation. Last Sunday during ward council I talked about her and said that in order for her to be baptized, she's going to need support from the ward. The Relief Society president said that she was going to visit her this week so we'll see how that will help. Leila has been going to all the activities that the Relief Society has every Wednesday as well, so that 's been great! She's already making a lot of friends in the ward and so when she's baptized it's just be that much easier to stay active afterward. We had a really cool experience with a less active member. We were in the area on our way to an investigators house when we heard "Hey Elders!". A boy came up and started talking to us. He said his name is Filipe and is 14 years old, and he was already baptized but wanted to start going to church again. So we went to his house to talk to him and his family, and during the lesson he started crying because of some hard things he's going through right now. He and his family are super poor, they live in an area called a "favela" which is basically a slum. We talked to him about the importance of putting the church and gospel as your number 1 priority, especially during hard times, and he and his family promised they'd go to church. On sunday, Filipe showed up! He walked to church by himself, even though his family didn't go. We told the young men's president and the bishop that he was there and they talked to him and helped him out. The ward now has helped him out to go on "acampamento", which is what they call youth conference. he's actually there right now! The ward was able to pay for him. I was super happy that the ward was so quick to help him out, and that we were able to be in the right place at the right time in order for him to find us! That's all for me though. Have a great week, love you! Elder Odom