Elder Benjamin S. Smith

One of the Areas of our mission is called Angra dos Reis and I have always wanted to serve there because it's name sounds like anger of the kings and because it's more out of the city. Kind of like an out cast area with a lot more nature. So, when I got moved to Santa Cruz I ended up in the same zone as Angra dos Reis and this week we got to go on exchanges with them and another area even further out, Parque Mambucaba! The only problem is the distance. To get there, we go from Santa Cruz to Itaguaí (1 hour) then after two more bus rides we get to Angra (3 hours) then you can get on a bus to Parque (2 hours). So on Monday we traveled out to Angra and spent Tuesday with the Elders there. We were looking for a miracle with their friend Hernane - a young man who wants to be baptized but his family has some doubts. His story is a lot similar to my companion's, so we sent my companion out to talk with the family. The Elders in Angra were planning on visiting him at 3:00 but weren...

President decided to split the Santa Cruz ward between two companionships and so he sent Elder Matos and I there with Elders Turner and Boxer. It's been a blast to work together with 3 other Elders and I am loving the new ward. This week we taught Wanderson and his family. Their children wanted to be baptized but were feeling shy and nervous about the baptism. But after they had their baptismal interview they realized how much they know and how ready they are. Their baptism was special and set an example for Ray and his mother who were also feeling nervous.  After the baptism we had a huge barbecue with Bishop. During the barbecue, Ray sent a message to Bishop and said that he decided to be baptized!! So we are more than excited here in Santa Cruz! Also, we had a birthday party 😁

I ended up needing to stay with the Zone Leaders for the last couple of weeks and we worked in both of the areas together as a trio. It was tough to stay in contact with the people from Curicica, but we were able to keep up with some of the best ones. Márcia is super excited to be baptized this upcoming week. She explained to us that she was not at all expecting to accept a baptismal date but when we invited her something inside of her just shouted yes! Vitória is super cool as well and I was excited to work with her more. She has a lot she wants to change in her life and feels too inadequate to be baptized. But when we said that she could be baptized and that we would help her prepare her face lit up with hope. So then I was transferred to Cesário de Melo with Elder Grimshaw who is also new here... So we have no idea what's going on but it's going to be a great week. Elder Smith

We were able to teach Gabriel and Theo a few times this week and had some solid experiences. Gabriel has been reading a ton of the Book of Mormon, and he sent an adorable photo of him reading with his 2 month old. We prayed with Theo to know if the Book of Mormon is true and it was a powerful experience. We also visit Barra Shopping which is a super fancy mall with beautiful art! And along the way we found massive lizard with a shiny green back. Yesterday we tried to contact some people on the street but no one was out. So we decided to check out the park. And it turns out that there was a community soccer tournament going on with hundreds of people playing in the rain. There were huge barbecues and fireworks with a couple hundred people watching. We walked around and talked with a few people about who was playing and found out that this tournament went from 9 in the morning until 11 at night. Curicica, where I'm serving, already lost. But there was a team from "WaterBox"...

We took a big trip to the airport to do some more immigration things and I got my Brazilian ID card! So now I'm officially Brazilian. Until 2023. There's been a lot going on. We've had some exciting P-days with the district, some fun pizza nights with my new companion Elder Cox, and work on the streets opened up. The last couple of days we've been walking a ton to get to our in person lessons and talking to a bunch of people along the way. It's been fun to talk to all sorts of different people here where the streets are always busy. Edilson was someone we met on the road the other day. He walks a lot for his work as well, so we were able to walk and talk with him. He told us that he's always been curious about our church but friends/family discouraged him from visiting. We talked about his doubts/concerns and gave him a Book of Mormon to start reading. Another great guy is Theo. When we started talking with him, he wasn't the most interested but was willing ...

From time to time, people ask what "group" I am in, or who arrived in the mission with me. And it's always kinda tragic because I arrived alone BUT recently Elder McArthur from my MTC district arrived in Brazil and so I had a group! It was great to talk with him again, gotta love that man. But yeah, these weeks have been good. We've been able to talk with tons of people. One of the people we are teaching had a birthday but didn't have any time to celebrate it. So we showed up to her house with a cake and threw a little birthday party. Her young children thought that my Portuguese was absolutely hilarious XD Something I've seen these weeks is how important daily activities are. It's little things that prepare us for big moments. Elder Smith

  So... I'm serving in Jacarepaguá at the moment. We were returning home and I noticed that one of the tree roots had scales. I couldn't believe it but I was 50 feet from an alligator! I felt like I was in Florida. Then my companion informed me that "alligator" is "Jacaré" so I am literally living in a place named after alligators and never realized that they live here. So basically I almost died.  Also, I tested positive for covid this week so we got put in covid jail 😕 my symptoms weren't bad but it wasn't super fun. We started wearing masks inside and couldn't go to church with our investigators. The good thing is that the members here are amazing. So we had two people going to church for the first time, one returning member and one new investigator. We did a video chat with the returning member and Sister Ytailandia so she'd have a friend at church and she loved it!  And we shared the number of a member with our new investigator and they...