Questions

The latest from our missionary:

This week was good. We had some people disappear and others that surprised us, or at least me. And we´ve been making different foods and things too. Saturday night I made pancakes except they weren´t thick cause they don't like me. And I discovered this thingy in our house when I got there that has some recipes on it for different things. But it has this one for syrup that I was like, eh why not try it out. Only, I realized after I had made it and put it on the pancakes that really it was a recipe not for syrup but for caramel really. So yeah. It tasted good, just that it stuck to your teeth a lot. So if some feels like tossing some sort of syrup recipe or something in an email and sending it in this direction I would with certainty greatly appreciate it.

We had a lot of people in church this week it was rather cool. But there´s one family we´ve had for a
while that should hopefully get baptized this week if nothing goes crazy on us or them. But We also met some other people that are really awesome. Some people may think that it´s annoying or something alike when people ask questions but the truth of the matter is it is way way way better when people have doubts and questions and actually ask them. Because then you have the opportunity to respond to them and such and really the whole helping them works better. Things work
better with questions. Like really. Always have a question about things that you want answered. Then find where the answer is, scriptures, prayer the like. You learn a lot more and can really progress if you question things. Now I´m not advocating skepticism or anything like that, theree becomes a point when questioning everything is just unhealthy but having questions and not knowing everything is
OK. If you don´t know something then go and ask people about it or look it up in a book. Not necessarily the internet, you never know what odd thing you might run into there.

But yeah. I love you guys. Stay safe. Send syrup. In emails. With instructions on how to make it.
That´s kinda my question right now. That´s probably gonna go unanswered for a week. So yeah.



This is the syrup recipe I've used for years. I can't believe I never taught him to do this. super easy. I sent it to him right away.

Brown Sugar Syrup

1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup water

Combine water and sugar in small pan. Heat to boiling over medium heat. Boil for 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat. Add 1-2 tablespoons butter and 1/4 tsp maple or vanilla extract. The butter and the extracts are not strictly necessary, but it makes the syrup tasty. Maple is my favorite.

The Transfer

Always glad to hear from Elder Monzingo. Especially when there are pictures!

So truthfully I wasn't here in Óbidos for most of the week. Cause of said transfer. We left for Santarém on Monday and got there Tuesday. Tuesday Elder S. Oliveira left for Belém and then I went on a division
with the people there in the zone leader´s house which went well. But my companion for the day was somewhat new in the area so directions at times were a little bit iffy.

Wednesday Elder Borges got to Santarém and then we left for Óbidos that night. So really we´ve only been here
3 or 4 days but it´s been good. Elder Borges is awesome. I like him quite a bit. He brought some ideas that I hadn't necessarily thought of doing before that I think will really be able to help us
work a lot more with the members and to not just help our
investigators but the members as well. 

We also had a service project Saturday that has truthfully been going on for a while I just don't know if I´ve mentioned it. It´s this project to clean up the different neighborhoods here in Óbidos. But we filled up this dump truck thingy with trash and different tree bits and whanot 3 times I think this time around. It was a lot. But it was good. I rather enjoyed the opportunity to do it.

But yeah. That´s about it for this week I think.
Everything is going well. Really being out here to do what I can for
people is great. I love you guys.

Oh I forgot. We made lasagna for lunch yesterday. It turned out really
rather good. And I took a picture with said lasagna that looks
somewhat terrifying in my opinion but also really rather funny. So
yeah.

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.