"Don't Let Things Get Out of Perspective..."

Sent: Monday, June 3, 2013 10:20 AM
Subject: Time flies

Well, I am sometimes a little bit of a fubeca with my emails and for that I apologize. But since I know you are all dying to know, I will tell y'all a little bit about my past few weeks! I have made it through another transfer and we are in week 2 of my third transfer here in Brazil, I am still in São Gonçalo with Elder B. Carvalho, we have a new Zone Leader living with us, and this transfer is going to be FILLED with success! I cant begin to tell you all how excited I am for what these next few weeks hold for us. We are working with some incredible people that we have found recently, and still working with the amazing people!

We have Edilene/Denise/Edilmar, a family we found as a result of a referral, and we committed Edilene to baptism yesterday since she was the only one of her family to go to church. We are going to baptize this family soon!

We also found Erica and her daughter Isabela who went to church yesterday and we taught them for the first time last night and brought Erica to tears. She has had a rough life and is a single mom, so she is in desperate need of the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in her life. We committed her to be baptized on the 15th and we are going to be working very hard with her until this date to prepare her in every way possible!

Joares was traveling this weekend, but he is preparing to be baptized this Sunday. He wont admit it, but he knows this is the true church of Jesus Christ and he is going to be a great member! In fact, he taught the Gospel Principles lesson two Sundays ago about repentance  and did a great job.

We also have Denise/Douglas/Nicolas who were out of town this week and will be baptized this Sunday! These two kids are studs. Haha the day after we taught them about the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, they went to school and taught all their friends and their teachers! What great missionaries these guys are going to be! We are just working with their mom to help her see that delaying baptism isn't going to help her solve her problems and shes just delaying the promised blessings that Heavenly Father has for her!

Please keep these people in your prayers!

Other than that, we have some other people we are working with that aren't progressing so rapidly, but I know Heavenly Father is preparing a very special path for them to receive His blessings one day soon.

I want to share something we learned in our last training of new missionaries here with President Lima. He was talking about how we use our time and work with the members and said that it is more important that we gain their confidence than their love. With their love, they will encourage us to stay just a little bit longer after lunch to chat and relax. With their confidence, we will gain their trust and respect and they will recognize our true purpose as missionaries.

It's a principle we can all apply to life! Don't let things get out of perspective for you. Remember what your must do to return to the presence of Heavenly Father and don't let the love of people keep you from getting things done! As missionaries, we don't have any time to waste and as we have applied this counsel from our president this week we have seen results and been blessed incredibly more than in weeks past!

I know that Heavenly Father has blessings prepared and waiting for each and every one of us, but we must be obedient in order for Him to give them to us. Prioritize your life and He will be there to help you all along the way. This is the true Church of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and has ALL the answers to ALL our problems! I love you all and look forward to your emails next week! :) 

Com amor e fé,
Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

"We all make mistakes... but what separates people is how they change."

Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 10:19 AM
Subject: Trabalhar com Alegria e Cantar!

Bom dia meu amado família e amigos! Como vocês estão esta manha maravilhosa? This week has been crazy! We had Zone Conference on Wednesday (during which President Lima burned just about everybody in the room), and it was such an awesome experience!

Can I just say that I'm glad I didn't have this during my first transfer when I didn't understand a word anybody said? To be honest, I still didn't understand everything, but I was able to understand enough to see where I need to improve as a missionary and how it will bring me more success!

This is something we should all be doing each day in our lives. We are constantly reminded of things we are doing wrong and most of the time we don't want to hear it so we tune out the people who are helping us become better. DON'T DO THIS! There is a big difference between people criticizing you because they have low self esteem and have to put others down (which is dumb and wrong), and when people criticize you to let you know you have made a mistake, but do it in a loving way that they want to help you become better.

We all make mistakes whether you want to admit it or not, but what separates people is how they change. If we keep making the same mistakes over and over again without looking for a way to fix it, we aren't using our potential as children of the Almighty Creator to learn and become like Him.

President Lima is really good at pushing us to become better and many missionaries don't like him because of that, but I take it as an evidence of love. He really wants us to be the best we can be! And even though he has accomplished his goal of getting a temple built here in Rio, he expects even more of us now.

We are living in times where it is necessary to bring families to this wonderful gospel! We are building temples like crazy throughout the world and this is a sign that the Second Coming is near. The saving ordinances of the temple are necessary for Exaltation, and when we don't do our part to allow others to have these blessings, we are held partially accountable for them not having made the covenants. GIVE REFERRALS TO THE MISSIONARIES IN YOUR AREA!!! Missionaries LOVE referrals and it will bring some of the richest blessings Heavenly Father has for you!

Think about how much this gospel message means to you, and how blessed you are because of it. Now, think of the scripture that says when we serve others we are only serving God. Share the gospel. Share your testimony. Do everything you can to help the whole world hear the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

We found a family this week from a referral that is absolutely golden. They have their flaws like all of us, but we are going to work ardently with them to bring them to the greatness of this gospel.

Denise, Douglas, and Nicolas weren't baptized this week because Denise had to work in Rio, but we are baptizing them this Sunday!

Joares is going to be baptized on Saturday, too!

Please, keep these people in your prayers that they are able to withstand the temptations that are thrown their way by Satan during this week to keep them from entering into the waters of baptism.

Also, if there is anything at all I can do to help anyone of you, let me know!
richard.le.sueur@myldsmail.net
Now you have no excuse! Haha, I love you all so very much. Stay obedient, stay happy, and stay classy. The Lord loves you!

Com amor e fé,

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

"...Almost a quarter of my mission already gone and I have only just begun here in Brasil"

Sent: Monday, May 13, 2013 11:02 AM
Subject: Caraca! O Tempo Está Diminuindo!

This week was the first time I have really felt like the time is going by quickly. Yesterday was my 5 month mark! Seriously?! That's almost a quarter of my mission already gone and I have only just begun here in Brasil! Its time to put my shoulder to the wheel and get work done.

This week was different. We had Zone training on Tuesday until 2 pm, 12 weeks training in Rio on Wednesday until 4 pm (training for the first 12 weeks a missionary is in the field), Thursday we went to the doctor until 5 pm to find out my companion has blisters in his throat, Friday was more or less normal, Saturday was solid, and Sunday was great.

We have been losing quite a bit of time due to sickness within our companionship and its beginning to be depressing because I'm developing love for our investigators and feel awful when we don't make it to our appointments. I'm not sure how much longer my companion will have to take it easy, but he doesnt want to sit around the house and neither do I, so we still try to work as much as possible until his throat cant take it anymore.

We had a really good day this week when we went on splits with a couple members of the ward where we taught a bunch of great lessons, solidified some testimonies, and got a TON of references. We did an activity with some members where we sang hymns for them while they thought of friends, family, and neighbors who needed to hear the gospel message and now we have a great lot of people to visit!

We also marked three baptismal dates with a woman named Denise and her two kids Douglas and Nicolas. They were the first family that I had a solid lesson with my first week here and they are growing tons! It is so amazing to see a family grow together in the gospel from the first meeting to the point that they are ready for baptism!

I know this work is the Lord's work and I see His hand in the things we do each and every day.

So this letter didn't send last week because the internet went out, but I'll just add a little bit of what happened this week.

We didn't have the baptism of Denise, Douglas, and Nicolas as they went into Rio for Mother's Day, but we plan on having them baptized this Sunday!

Joares was interviewed for baptism and passed, but still doesn't know if this is the true church... Its a little frustrating because he has a testimony of everything we teach and of the Book of Mormon being the word of God, but he has yet to put it all together and realize that this is the Lord's Church. We will keep working with him though!

Iolanda (Yolanda) is golden. She has come to church the past three weeks and loves it! We are trying to figure out whether to baptize just her, or wait for her husband Aridio to gain interest again. He is very Catholic and when we teach him we have very spiritual experiences and feel like hes growing, but then other lessons he is drunk and fights with us about everything. So we are going to teach the Word of Wisdom this week and hope that gives him some incentive to look a little harder at what we are teaching him.

We also found a new family! Marcia and her son João are a contact we made a couple weeks ago, and when we returned and taught the Restoration they were very interested. We are going to teach them with their husband/dad on Sunday because that's the only day he is available so please keep this family and all the other investigators we have in your prayers!

This week as I was studying the first chapter of Preach My Gospel, I was reading about power and authority. It says that, as missionaries, we all have the authority to preach and teach the gospel as we have been set apart to do so. But the only way we can gain the power (as mentioned in the story of the Sons of Mosiah) is by being exactly obedient and keeping our covenants. I have a strong testimony that we are able to witness miracles as we are exactly obedient.

"Obedience brings blessings; EXACT obedience brings miracles." 

Look for ways that you may be slacking with your covenants or even the commandments you might be breaking and strengthen them! The Lord has prepared things for us that we cant imagine in the Kingdom of His Father, so why are we wasting our time with these trivial things that bring "happiness" that can only last a few minutes/days/years? Eternity is a much longer time than we all give credit for... Re-evaluate what you're doing each day and LOOK for ways to improve!

We all have areas in which we can do better. Heavenly Father loves and blesses us when we are striving to become like our Savior, Jesus Christ and I know that it is only through the incredible Plan of Salvation that we are able to return to live in His presence one day.

We must live the gospel of Jesus Christ: having faith in our Savior, using that faith to induce repentance, being baptized by someone who has the proper Priesthood authority of God, receiving the precious gift of the Holy Ghost, and living in a way that is pleasing to God until the end. I promise that this is the only way. But you will never know until you pray about it and ask the Creator of the plan if it is right. Ask Heavenly Father for absolutely anything! He loves us and answers our prayers!

He sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay for our sins if we would accept Him and become like Him through repentance! This is His Church! The Book of Mormon explains this plan perfectly and it doesn't matter how many times you have read it before or if you have never read it before. Give it a chance and tell me if it doesn't make you happy.

I know this work is the work of the Lord and He is making it possible for me, a lowly American, to change the lives of all these Brasileiros. I love you all and wish all you beautiful awesome mothers out there a happy mothers day! Be obedient, read the scriptures, and be happy!

Com fé e amor,

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

Mother's Day

We had the awesome opportunity to skype with Elder LeSueur today, and he is doing great! He looks wonderful and sounds great. He spoke in Portuguese with us and we think he sounds like a native! Here are a couple of screenshots from the big event:

Mom & Dad, The Jensens, The Johnsons, and both grandmas were able to connect on the call!

A good time was had by all (:

Trevor and his companion, Elder B. Carvalho

...And here's the audio of Elder LeSueur's testimony in English and an account of The First Vision in Portuguese. It got cut off at the end, but Elder B. Carcalho told him that his Portuguese was spoken without an accent! 

In Case you want the English text to what exactly he is saying in Portuguese:

" I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me I saw two personages , whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other-- This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! "

Mormon.Org

"...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