Stake and Zone Conference and Transfers

This week we are treated to a lengthy letter from Elder Monzingo. Today's weather conditions in Obidos 79 degrees, feels like 85 and thunderstorms:

Alright. So this week was kinda busy and truthfully I half feel like
it was spent more out of the area than in. But firstly we had our zone
conference this past week in Santarém. We took the boat got there
and then had a zone ``council.´´ A little like Elder Ballard talked
about in conference. (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/family-councils?lang=eng) But it was a lot about how we can get better and work more with the members and was really cool. It was really a good
idea to make sure that everyone got their own little bit of input. I
think that´s definitely important for any type of council. Otherwise
it´s more of a...I don´t know, dictatorship, maybe.

We then returned and the next day went to the stake conference in Oriximiná.
That was pretty cool, we had a boat ride that was during the day for
once and got to talk a lot with the members and such while we were out
there. But we had the temple president from Manaus there with his wife
and they are pretty cool. They´re also rather funny. But it went good
overall the conference in general. 

We also got transfer notifications on said day. My companion, Elder S. Oliveira, has been
moved. He´s going to Barcarena, close to Belém, and is actually going
to be a zone leader. So it should be a pretty cool experience for him.
Truthfully I´m a little weirded out cause it´s the first transfer that
is actually in some way affecting me, as in different place or
companion. I know it´ll all be fine but first times for just about
everything are a little weird generally. 

Overall this week has gone rather well. We were going to have a baptism this Saturday, but
when we got back from Santarém that day and went to go talk to said
person and then go to the baptism with her she was running and hiding
from us. Apparently someone told her that we are members of a demon
church and baptism involves blood sacrifices or something along those
lines. And I really don't understand why people make up things like
that. We think we calmed her down and hopefully she doesn´t think that
anymore. I hope it doesn´t really change too much the direction
she´s going. She was really excited for it and she´s been going to
church and reading the Book of Mormon and everything. She has felt the
spirit if it was even just a little bit. 

When people say something that is offensive or bad talks the church or whatever about the
church don't just believe it. If it places some doubt in your head
pray about it. Heavenly Father loves you. He wants us all to be happy
and the only way to, as the scriptures say, a fullness of joy, is
through the church. The whole purpose of the gospel is happiness. The
scriptures call the gospel a plan of happiness. If you really follow
the plan, do what is right, and keep the commandments, really life can
be even happier than you can imagine. I love all you guys. Don´t
forget to pray, a lot. ``Pray always that ye may come off conqueror,
yea that ye may conquer Satan, and that ye ma escape the hands of the
servants of Satan which do uphold his work.´´(D&C 10:5) Pray always
and really nothing can prevent you from being happy.

Conference

No pictures this week but he is obviously doing well. Weather conditions in Obidos today, 80*. Light rain with thunder:

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There´s was some exciting news when they announced a temple in Belém.
I was really happy. Above can be considered my shout of joy. The only
iffy part about it is that it still won´t be built for another couple
of years but it´s all good. 

But conference was really good. I enjoyed
it. We were able to bring a few of our investigators to some of the
sessions but not all of them. I really enjoyed Sister Bonnie L.
Oscarson´s talk. It was very direct, to the point, and this is how it
is. And it happened to be the session that we were able to bring in
Bruno, the Pastor. So, that was rather interesting. I really think that
he´s at least starting to and realize how things are. So it´s really
kinda interesting. I hope he decides to follow what he feels. 

As for other talks I rather liked Elder Stevenson´s and
Elder Ballard´s. Elder Ballard´s truth be told was kinda funny. Cause
towards the end of his talk I guess something happened in Salt Lake
cause the translation for him cut out and so we were left with just
the English transmission and I was the only one who understood. But I
looked around and Brother Cardoso, the elder´s quorum president, was
motioning for me to get up and translate. And I just kinda sat there
laughing like, uuuuhhhhhhh. Although truthfully It probably wouldn´t
have been that bad, just, rather jumbled and behind. Maybe. I hope.
It´s what i´d like to say. 

For those of you who haven´t watched conference for whatever reason I would highly suggest that you do.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng&_r=1 You can get there
through this link, which you may need to copy and paste. I dont really
know. But if nothing else I would suggest watching the 4 main sessions
of Saturday and Sunday morning and afternoon. There is a lot that you
can learn from these people. Just choosing to watch the 4 main ones is
about 8 hours of your life. But I can promise you all that it is 8
hours that you will absolutely never regret. 

I love you guys.

UnEaster

From Elder Monzingo:

So I got to admit that yesterday was rather strange. Not cause like no
chocolate bunnies or eggs or whatever, which they do that stuff down
here still but yeah. But I guess it´s just this ward that I´m in right
now or maybe the town in general but like Easter passed like it was
just some other regular Sunday. Like no classes about Easter, no talks
about Easter, I think I was actually the only one who even said
Easter. Friday one of the larger catholic churches in town had
this presentation about the life of Christ or something that was
essentially from what I´ve heard a large play in the streets starting
from temptations in the wilderness to some point after the
resurection. But apparently its like 4 or 5 hours and we didn't watch
it at all. But I heard that at the part where Christ resurected it
wasn't him that did it. An angel, after they rolled the stone away from
the tomb told him to arise and walk. Which is honestly rather funny I
think. But yeah. One of the strangest most unEastery Easters. Not sure
what I think. But I did buy some chocolate for us the day before so
that was good. But anywho this week went rather well other than this.
As I think I might have said before we are teaching a pastor of
another church who is honestly one of the most intelligent people that
I have ever met. Also it appears as though he has the entire bible
memorized which is rather cool and he really actually seems to
understand just about everything correctly. But he´s excited about
conference this week. We told him about it and were like, We just ask
that you go to one, and he said, I want to go to all 4 sessions I just
don't know if I´ll have the time but you guys told me a week in advance
which means I have a better chance. So yeah. It´s really rather nice
having people to teach that understand the message, want to learn, and
have questions. Wish we had more people like him. But other than that
the week was rather straight forward. Anywho, love you guys! Happy
(late) Easter!

Zone Conference

News from Elder Monzingo:

We had our zone conference with the mission president this week. That
was preceeded by a split with the assistants. They had a split with
the zone leaders and then had to pick another place to go do a split
and they chose Óbidos. Probably because one of them had his first area
here. But that was pretty cool. And anyway, I got my patriarichal
blessing again! Really happy about that. But yeah. Anywho I also met
Elder Smith who earlier in the transfer he told my companion that he
knew me and I´ve been trying to figure out from where. Turns out that
it´s just by association and that he actually was friends with a
certain Sister Ruiz during their MTC time. So that was pretty cool to
be able to talk with him and stuff. But this past week we started
teaching a pastor that actually made the contact with us. But he is
actually very recpetive he wants to learn and understand our messages.
And on a lot of different doctrinal points and stuff he says, makes
sense. Not just that but when we talked about the fact that the church
today is the same as it was when Christ was on the earth he pulled out
a scripture that said something along the lines of the ways of the
lord are ancient or something. So yeah. But there´s a little bit
between my companion and I that´s like, Hopefully he doesnt just want
to preach this stuff in his church and is actually looking for truth.
Which I think he is but then again, you never know. Love you guys
Elder Daniel Monzingo

Jacob sent Daniel a Star Wars Valentine with a Yoda tattoo. Here is the tattoo. It is supposed to be Yoda. Good thing it will wash off.

The Prophet

Letter from Elder Monzingo:

Well this week we had an interesting thing happen. This one family
that we started teaching we taught the restoration up until prophets
then returned and finished the lesson another day. Well we were
finishing with "and we have a prophet today, his name is Thomas Spencer
Monson." My companion had a picture of him on his planner so we showed
the picture, well Lucinalva?(I think  that´s her name) the mom of the
family said, "oh I know this guy", and we were thinking, oh shoot, what
anti-LDS propaganda is it likely that she viewed, and she said "a
friend showed me a video of this guy speaking one times and his words
comforted me and helped me a lot in a time of need." That was awesome!
Always count on the prophet. He helps and prepares without you knowing
and seriously is the person through whom our Heavenly Father speaks.
But in other news I ate cacau this week. Cacau is more commonly known
among those who speak English as cocoa. I don't have pictures of it but
my companion does so I´ll try to send them later. But it´s kinda like
a pomegranate in that it´s eaten in the same manner. The part you don't
eat is the actual bean that they use to make chocolate. But its fairly
sweet. I like it. Also last night I got a little taste of home, we had
family fight night. We went and visited the family of Josiel, who is
the father of the 3 girls that we baptized this week, and they have 6
kids 2 of which are under 3. So it was very remniscent of family home
evenings past. But like I said we had the baptisms of the 3 oldest
girls in that family. Josiel and his wife have been members for about
4 years I think but became inactive. Then they moved here and are
coming back to activity in the church and their 3 oldest daughters,
Yasmin, Bia, and Laticia, were baptized this past Saturday. So that
was rather cool. My companion has more pictures than me cause his
camera is better so later I´ll try to send some more of those. But at
the very least I do have a picture of the family. But that really
seems to be mostly it I think. Oh this coming week we have our Zone
conference with the mission president and the assistants are doing a
split with us on Thursday. So that should be interesting. But yeah
that´s really about it for this week so yeah. I love you guys. Stay
safe.

Acabo

News from Elder Monzingo:

This week was interesting. At the beginning of the week we found out
that Patricia is moving out of Óbidos to Curua. It´s a town that´s
somewhere around 4 hours of a bus ride away. But because of that all
is done as far as Patricia and Edson go. They left yesterday. We
talked with Patricia for the last time 2 or 3 days ago. Read some
scriptures with her. But I don't even know if it really had much of a
chance to make much of a difference. But we were actually finally
ready to send the marriage stuff too and now she´s gone. It was like
literally everything that could have gone wrong did. That sucks. But
hopefully they´ll get another chance. They should they are our age.
But other than that the week was fine. We are entering into winter
now. They don't have winter in Para. They just have this one period of
time where it conveniently rains just about everyday to some varying
degree of intensity. Ranging from a light drizzle to most all of the
roads have rivers on their far sides and others become rivers. Like
this morning the sides of the streets were rivers cause we weren't in a
section with river roads. But on the bright side (unintentional irony
there) there is like no sun throughout the day and so it is a very
nice temperature usually. I find that generally speaking I am happy
with days that its just a light drizzle at times. Although some days
the sky is for the most part blue with this one cloud that is raining
in one specific place but there´s only the one cloud and so it´s
perfectly sunny out. Its kinda strange. But yeah. That´s pretty much
it for now. I love you guys.

The Transfer

Latest news from Elder Monzingo:

I am safe! I'm still here in Óbidos and so is Elder S. Oliveira. I
wasn't really expecting to move, for one its my first area, for 2 our
mission president sent out a thing that people are going to be
spending a bit longer in each area than they were. He´s actually about
 months in to being a mission president so now he is making the
changes after reviewing everything I guess. But this month truthfully
looks like it will be rather good. Patricia and Edson should have be
married by the end of this week or next week and thats really the last
thing they need before they can get baptised. We also met these less
active members who I think just moved here recently, but the dad and
mom of the family are both members and were baptised in Manaus, but
they became less active and now they are here. But Josiel, the dad,
says that he wants to stay here and be able to stay active because
when he was inactive everything just went wrong and he knows that if
he moves back to Manaus he´s much more likely to go inactive again.
But 3 of their 6 kids are old enough to be baptised and we are
currently teaching the lessons for them. One of them, once she figured
out we are serious when we say if you have any questions ask, started
asking different questions and thinking of others. We think we might
have a list when we go back there. But that's good. Really its better
when people ask questions because then we can teach more to what they
need to learn to progress and whatnot. But so yeah. Also my companion
at the moment is not feeling great. It appears that he has some sort
of illness but hopefully it will pass in a day or two. But any and all
prayers that you guys could maybe send this way to help him feel
better would be greatly appreciated. But I am really thinking he´ll be
fine in a day or 2. I already said that but whatever. But Anyway that's
about it for this week. i think. Hope you guys are all doing good. I
love you all.