"...Hungry for the truth"

Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 10:08 AM

Subject: Uma Transferência na Cidade Maravilhosa

Well, I apologize for not having sent an email last week, but things were very busy and I had a lot of people to respond to and not very much time to get it all done... but, as you might have guessed from the title of this email, I have completed one transfer here in Brazil and am currently in the second week of this five week transfer!

During these seven weeks here, I have: walked 456398363746 miles, met some awesome people, met some interesting people, taught some great people, taught some hard-hearted people, learned how to speak Portuguese, learned how to understand Portuguese, nearly died of an asthma attack, read a ton, learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube, become more patient, become more humble, become incredibly skinny, and probably a lot more other things that I cant think of at the moment. But, needless to say, I have been sufficiently busy here in São Gonçalo!

What are all of y’all doing? I really am interested in hearing about your lives so write me emails!

This week was especially awesome in that we got four of our investigators to church. Joares, a 78-year-old man who has been to nearly every church out there, has missed two baptismal dates we set, but we fasted with him Saturday night until Sunday afternoon so that he will receive an answer that this is truly the Lords Church.

It was a cool experience because he isn’t in very good health, but was willing to sacrifice food and water for a while so he could find the truth. Its moments like these that make me realize that there are people out here who are hungry for the truth and when we find them we need to do everything possible to give them what they need.

In my training this week we studied the importance of the Book of Mormon in the conversion of people. Truly, everything goes back to the Book of Mormon. If someone gains a testimony that it is true, then Joseph Smith had to have had to power of God to translate it from Reformed Egyptian to English. And if he had that power of God, then he had to have received it as it says in the Bible "by the laying on of hands". And if he received that power, then everything he says has to be true, because a man with that power cannot lie or destroy the plans of God.

I know Joseph Smith restored the Church of Jesus Christ again on the earth so that we could have everything necessary to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. The Book of Mormon has the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and is our guide to know exactly what we must do to have happiness in this life and eternal happiness in the life to come!

Read the Book of Mormon, ponder what you read, and pray to know if it is or isn’t true. Heavenly Father will tell you the truth! My testimony wont do anything for you until you have gained your own.

I want you all to know that I love you so very much and feel your prayers every day, as I am able to meet the physical and mental demands of being a missionary. Be happy, be loving, be charitable, and you will never go wrong!

Love,

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

"...They don’t have much, but share what they do have"

Sent: Monday, April 15, 2013 10:49 AM

Subject: The Rest of the Story

So, since I sent out an email only 5 or so days ago, I figured I would give y’all the rest of the story for this week! Okay, here we go:

Things were really slow and we only got to really work for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday because I was mandated to rest so I didn’t push my luck with my lungs. But things are going well!

We are coming really close to baptizing one of our investigators, Joares, if he would just come to church! Gosh! We have taught him so many times and he is loving what we teach, and said it just depends on how he feels when he goes to church, but every time we make the 45 MINUTE WALK to his house on Sunday, he has an excuse as to why he cant come with us. Given, he is 78 and has some trouble walking long distances, but I just don’t understand why it is so hard for some people to keep a commitment so simple as coming to church!

All in all, I know he will be baptized and I think that is a big part of why he is still alive. To be honest, but he’s not doing very well health-wise and this is Heavenly Father giving him a chance to receive the blessings of baptism by proper authority in this life.

We are also teaching a woman named Denise and her two sons, Douglas (10) and Nicolas (12). They are such awesome people! We have only taught them a few times because Denise works in a different city and our schedules don’t match up except on a couple days of the week, but the lessons we have taught them have been so powerful!

The two boys are studs. They love to read and were absolutely thrilled when we gave them a Book of Mormon to study. They don’t have much, but share what they do have. I love that about some of the people here in Brazil.

To be honest, Rio isn’t the friendliest part of the country (according to the natives) and because of that we have a hard time getting return appointments. But I know that regardless of the culture, the Lord is preparing His elites to accept His Gospel and its up to our diligence to find them!

Elder B. Carvalho and I set goals last night to strengthen our work because we haven’t been working as hard as we should be. This proves that the Lord will only bless you as much as you work for. We have been working hard to teach the people we know, but not hard enough to find those who are ready to accept our message and to baptize these people!

Lesson of the week: You get out of it what you put in. If you aren’t getting the results you want, make the necessary changes! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. Don’t go insane! Study your scriptures, ponder the words you read, pray to Heavenly Father for understanding, and you’re good to go! He really has given us all the tools we need to be successful on this planet and accomplish our purpose here: to return to His presence and live with Him and our families for eternity!

I know that Christ lives and that His gospel is perfect. I know that faith conduces repentance which helps causes us to want to be baptized for the remission of sins, which allows us to receive the precious gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us throughout this life of confusion. The final step is to endure to the end and do the things Christ did and set an example of. Heavenly Father loves us and is rooting for us! Do His will!

I love you all so very much and look forward to getting emails from you this week! :)

Love,

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

"...Everything is okay and things will get better!"

Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 10:36 AM

Subject: Great Weekend!

Hello wonderful family and friends! I sure hope life is going as great for you all as it is for me right now! The past four days have been absolutely hectic and made me realize how blessed we are to be alive in this world with a loving Heavenly Father looking out for us above!

To start off, I almost died Friday night as we were out teaching a solid investigator about an hour from our house and I started having trouble breathing. I left my inhaler at the apartment and I didn’t want to leave this lesson early and mess up the day, so I pushed through it and endured the pain. It took forever for a bus to pick us up and get home; all the while I was breathing less than is probably humanly possible.

We got home and I used my inhaler and felt better, so we went back out and taught another one of our way solid investigators. (I’m willing to give my life for this work, in case you haven’t figured that out yet).

So I couldn’t really sleep that night because I exhausted the power of my lungs, and the next morning we went to the hospital to get a breathing treatment. We waited FOREVER to get in because they have socialized healthcare here and everyone was getting treated for free... VOTE AGAINST OBAMACARE! I promise it’s not worth what they say it is...

Anyway, to make a long story short, I missed a couple General Conference sessions because I was in and out of the hospital getting treated and having medicine prescribed for me. So I am extremely thankful for what I have in this life! You should be too!

On Monday, we went to the airport in Rio to get our Visas taken care of and now we have identities in Brazil, so that’s good.

Tuesday we had our first four weeks training with the assistants and president Lima and that was amazing! We learned a ton about how we can improve our teaching and it really calmed me down. I have thought for the past four weeks that I was the most worthless missionary ever because I cant speak or understand the language, but being with the other Americans and seeing that they’re at the same spot as I am helped me realize that everything is okay and things will get better!

We didn’t really have much of a busy week with lessons because of conference and everything, but I want to share my testimony with you all that I know this gospel is true. It blesses people’s lives! I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ helps us physically and spiritually. I testify that He does love us and wants us to be happy 100% of the time! But in order to do that, we must be wiling to keep the commandments He established for us. They set us free from the pain and suffering we experience when we sin and we are so much happier when we are obedient! Remember, wickedness NEVER was happiness!

Keep being awesome people and share the love with everyone you know! Read your scriptures and seek the guidance of the Lord in all that you do! I love you all more than you could ever possible know!

Love,

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

"...You can literally be the difference in someone’s life! "

Sent: Monday, April 1, 2013 10:35 AM

Subject: Another week for the record books!

Hello my amazing family and friends! How in the world are you all doing?! I have had quite a crazy week and for some reason can’t remember a lot of what happened... I guess I should start bringing my journal to email with me?

Anyway, things are getting better here in São Gonçalo! Don’t get me wrong, its still incredibly tough and I am being tested to my limits each day, but nonetheless things are getting better. I am able to understand so much more of what people are saying and that really helps me out a ton! I still have to pay strict attention to people when they talk and have ZERO background noise if I want to be able to hear Portuguese instead of gibberish, but that will change eventually.

Speaking of Portuguese vs. gibberish... We were teaching an investigator last night outside of his house on the street when this guy in his late teens walked by and stopped us asking for money. He said he was homeless and only wanted 1 Real from each of us so he could eat because his family lived outside the hospital and had no food. He proceeded to tell us his story when our investigator went inside to get him some change and that’s when we started trying to teach him about the gospel and how it could bless his life.

When we started teaching, he started quoting scripture (I think some Psalms?) and then knelt down and put his forehead to the ground to pray. In the middle of his praying, I lost all ability to understand him and started to feel an evil presence. I looked at Elder B. Carvalho and gave him the look of ‘I don’t know what’s going on’.

It turns out the guy was “speaking in tongues” which was really confusing for a poor Elder such as myself who already has a tough time understanding the language!

He got up and we started teaching him again, but again he interrupted and talked about how he’s homeless and needs money for food. It was really sad! But the weird part was when we all said a prayer together and then he wanted to say a prayer holding hands... so we let him and he began speaking gibberish again, and the bad feeling I had earlier returned.

At this point I was starting to get freaked out and wanted to leave. So my companion looked at him and commanded, by the Power of the priesthood, for the evil in his life to leave. Exactly after he said this, the kid looked as if he was about to pass out and fall over. I felt the evil leave our presence and it was the craziest experience I have had over these past 4 months.

I know there is legitimate Power from God in the Priesthood and that it is a privilege to be able to be bearers of it.

In other news, we are still walking thousands of miles a day and its surprisingly not too awful! There are some times when I’m walking up a hill that seems like its going straight for Heaven that I think “ugh I love how flat Texas is” but when I get to the top I feel so accomplished!

A little tip for weight loss- Eat nothing but a ton of rice and beans for lunch and don’t eat other meals throughout the day except for snacks. Then, proceed to walk around from noon to 9 pm and you will be amazed at how in shape you are! I don’t know if I’ve gained or lost weight, but I definitely feel a ton skinnier than when I left the MTC...

We also had some cool experiences with lessons with some members present this week. We are teaching this girl named Larissa. She is 14 years old and has a 14 month old and a 4 month old. She needs the gospel in her life more than anyone I think I have met so far but she is reluctant to accept some of the principles we teach such as the Law of Chastity as she is living with her 22-year-old boyfriend.

We taught her on Saturday with two of the ward missionaries and a recent convert and the lesson was a thousand times more powerful than any of our others with her! It made me realize how very important it is to bring a member to each lesson whenever possible because they bring a different aspect that helps the investigator feel more comfortable and accepting of what we teach. So, please be willing to go out and teach with the missionaries in your area because you can literally be the difference in someone’s life!

I also want to talk a little about the importance of families. Families are our mode of happiness and security in this life. It talks about how everything that is good comes from God in Moroni 7 and clearly families are GREAT! Therefore, they are of God.

With that, how do you think He wants us to live within our families? In my opinion, He wants us to love one another and ALWAYS be happy. And to accomplish that, He provided us with a plan that allows us to live with our family forever in His presence! What more could you ask for?!

Love your family and forgive one another for whatever way they have offended you! It’s a Commandment that we forgive everyone for EVERYTHING! Be obedient and the Lord will bless you. I promise :)

Anyway, I love you all and I hope life is treating you amazing!

Study your scriptures DAILY and pray for the Lord to guide you in your lives. He Lives and answers prayers! Go out and make the world a better place!

Com muito amor,

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org