FINAL EMAIL!!!

June 7th

Well, this is it! My last email out to everyone.

This week was tough with a lot of things not going as planned with our investigators and stuff, but at the same time it was full of small miracles. Elder Niedert and I were out in our area and all the investigators we had planned to visit weren't at home. So we stopped and decided to say a prayer to know where we should go, because we were out of ideas! Right after that, we just decided to knock on the door across the street from where we were, and we ended up finding a man named Paulo. He lives alone and his house is also super close to the church building. The first thing he said was "I've already gone to a bunch of different churches, but in every one I find something a bit different. Shouldn't there just be one right church?" How cool! Yesterday, the exact same thing happened, and so after we said another prayer we were walking down the street and I felt like we should knock on a specific house. Right after I slowed down to go, Elder Niedert stopped and said that we should knock on the same house. So we went over there and we were answered by a 20 year old guy named Marcos. He said he used to be super active in his church and has always been super into religion and had even done missionary work, but recently he had fallen "back into the world" and had desire to get back on the right path. He knows the Bible a bit and is smart so it was a super cool lesson. It's cool to see how fast the Lord answered our prayers this week with these two experiences. It doesn't always happen like that in life though, and I'd say that the majority of the time it doesn't! It's always in the Lord's time, He does things knowing perfectly when in order to bless us the most. But, when it does happen immediately I'm grateful!

So we're going to have Milton's baptism tomorrow! After not being baptized last week because of smoking, it was a miracle that he is ready. Even though we had to travel this week, we used the ward to keep him ready. We had members go to his house every single day in the morning to help him not smoke! It was so cool to see how the ward helped him, and now he's more than ready for his baptism. His conversion taught me that really anything is possible if it's God's will. After smoking almost his entire life, he was able to stop in just 3 weeks and give up all of his old habits to follow Christ's example and be baptized. I also say the importance of doing it as a team, without the ward I don't think he would be ready by now. When we have problems in our lives, we need to get help from those around us! It's much easier going through the journey of life with as many people helping us as possible.

So, to end, I'd like to thank everyone so much for all the support I've received over these last months. Every prayer, thought, all made a difference. When times were tough for me, it always brought a lot of comfort thinking about all my family and friends praying and rooting for me back home. During these 2 years I've had the opportunity of a lifetime to learn and to give everything to do the will of the Lord. Although it's impossible to write down every little thing that I've learned, one thing that I feel like sharing from what I've learned is that life is what we make of it. No matter what the situation, if we sincerely want to we can get something out of it. Something that my Dad told me over a year ago that changed my perspective is that "The Lord gives us all the opportunities we need". And it's true! God knows us perfectly and because of that everything that happens in our lives can possibly be something that we can use to grow and become more the person that He wants us to be, but it depends on us and if we really want it. I'm grateful for everything that I've experienced on the mission, especially the hard moments. I'm grateful for knowing that I can always trust in the Lord and knowing that it will turn out okay in the end. And I'm especially grateful for the opportunity He gave me to serve a mission and be His representative, they really are the best 2 years! Once again, thank you all for everything! And well, see you soon!

Elder Odom

Banana Bread, Travel and Splits

June 30th

Hey there!

So this week we had some ups and some downs. We spent a lot of time traveling again which was a lot of fun.  Our first stop was in a city called Jaboticabal. It was cool to go there because I've already sone spits there 2 other times! I was able to spend the day with and Elder named Elder Do Carmo. His story is actually really cool. He's from a state called Rodônia and is the only member in his family. He used to be super active in his old church and even played in the band there! Then a friend of his started to talk to him about the Book of Mormon and so he started to read it. He actually read the whole thing in just a month! He said that after he finished it, he knew that the church was true and against his family's wishes he decided to get baptized, and just 1 year later went on a mission. Whenever I hear about stories like his, I just get so grateful for everything that I've been blessed with. If the start of the mission was hard for me, imagine someone who's only been a member for only a year!

On Wednesday, we went with President and Sister Scholz to a city called Araraquara because interviews for the missionaries started this week. It's always super cool traveling in their car in the morning with them because Sister Scholz always makes us banana bread! Sooooo good. I was able to do a split with Elder Leão. We had some cool experiences together! One of them was with their recent convert that's 15 years old that has stopped going to church because of other members/drama in the ward. We went to her house and just talked about the importance of reading the book of mormon daily. We also asked her what has changed in her life since she has stopped reading everyday and going to church each week, and then she started to recognize the difference the gospel makes in her life. She said she'd go to church this week, so let's hope she does!

Reeally early next morning we had to wake up to get the bus to get back to Ribeirão Preto, so we woke up at 3:30 am, got a taxi at 4:15, and left in the bus at 5:00 and at 7:45we were going with Pres and Sis Scholz to Franca in their car again, and with more banana bread. We got there and then from there I got to do something that I've never done before on the mission! We decided to do splits in a city called Passos, which is actually outside the state of São Paulo in a state called Minas Gerais, so I got to work in another state which was really cool. The people there aren't too different or anything, but it's greener there and the people have a slightly different accent. I was with a missionary named Elder Alan, I was actually his district leader when he got to the mission. We had some really cool experiences that day. We were on our way to a lesson when an older lady stopped us and asked what we do. So, we took advantage of the opportunity and taught her! She was there with her husband and they talked about how their son is in a lot of trouble with drugs and now he's currently in a rehab facility. It was funny, because as we was listening I kept changing my mind about which lesson we were going to teach. First I pulled out the Restoration pamphlet, then the Gospel of Christ one, and at the end I just had a feeling to give them a book of mormon. But instead of explaining about it and where it came from I just told them that it would help them get through all their challenges, the blessings they'd get from reading it, etc. The lady who stopped us's reaction was really interesting. She got the Book of Mormon and held it to her chest as if it were something super special to her and she thanked us so much for coming. How cool! We sometimes get caught up in the little details, but in doing so we often times take focus away from the main point. Then later in the day, we went to contact a referral they received from a member. We actually stopped by the member's house and had her come with us to the lesson, which was just down the street. When we got the house, Ana Paula (the referral) answered and said that she was actually on her way to the hospital because she'd had severe stomach pains all day. Her life is super tough too. She's a mom on 3 kids and her job is really hard and she gets paid very little, and on top of that her husband is in jail. So we offered to give her a blessing on the spot and then we had a little time to teach. We had a very spiritual experience talking about the importance of daily prayer, scripture study, and weekly church attendance. We had the member bare her testimony about how the church has blessed her life. It was super cool and Ana Paula promised she'd go to church on Sunday!

So, something that Elder Niedert and I have studied about is the brazen serpent that Moses used to cure the Jews, and how lots of them didn't look to be cured just because it was too simple (in 1 Nephi 17:41). Sometimes we think "Wow, I can't believe they just didn't look! How could they not do something like that!" But when we stop to think about it, we are the same way with small and simple things that the Lord asks of us. Whether it be doing our visits, reading daily from the scriptures, or whatever it may be, these are the things that we often times don't do because maybe we don't believe it will make that big of a difference. But as we learn from the scriptures, it's these very things that can save our lives!

But, that's it for me. This next email will be my last because on my last saturday I'll be in a few trainings for returning missionaries. It's all gone by so fast! But, I love you and until next saturday!

Elder Odom