Gringo Bed

Dearest Family,

So I was messing around trying to send something to you guys but it didn't work out so I’ll have to make it quick lol. This last Sunday we baptized Cezar, he's a funny old guy and his wife is already a member. It’s that family I wrote about last week I think. This week passed really fast, we taught quite a few people, we're trying to find our next group of people to teach because we just kind of baptized all of them lol...I went on splits by myself with a member last week. It wasn't so bad because the kid I was supposed to go with didn't show up so I went with the gospel principles teacher and he speaks fluent English. Blessing? I think yes. So earlier today I made pancakes with the muffin mix Sarah sent me, it was amazing. Then my comp was like " I think I’m gunna take a nap" then he climbed in my bed and when I asked him why he just said "Your bed is better, I think is the 'gringo' that makes it softer." Our beds are exactly the same lol. I just thought about all the times brad snuck into my room to sleep in my bed and how brad said I would have companions on the mish who would do the same thing. I laughed really hard. And all I have to say to brad is at least my comp kept his clothes on. That’s about all I’ve got for news this week, sounds like its getting really hot there already, the weather here has mood swings and I always guess wrong lol. Alright, I love you all!

Elder Romm

My First Baptism

Boa tarde Todos!

So I’m emailing a little bit earlier today so some of you haven't e-mailed me yet, so I’m sorry if I miss you =[. This past Sunday I baptized somebody for the first time! We baptized the Mom of Sheina that we baptized about three weeks or so ago, Claudia. It was way awesome. Except that only the 5th time counted. It wasn't my fault though lol, there was like barely any water in the baptismal font so we had difficulties, i said the words correctly and everything. The hardest part was remembering her name, Claudia Maria Dos Santos Viera. It was another miracle that this baptism happened too, she has been looking for a job for 5 months and 2 days before her baptism she gets a job that works from Friday night until Monday morning. The enemy is a punk. My companion and i just ran after every option we had and it turned out that our ward mission leader had connections and he helped us free up Sunday for her so she could be baptized, we called our ZL's and they were like "You gotta be kidding me, why can't you people just baptize people that don't have problems?" - Ha. Then we all had a laugh because there is always a problem lol. Now we are teaching a guy who is married to a member and he will be baptized this Sunday. It was cool how I contacted them. I did a contact with the Member in the street and she just stopped and said, "Who sent you? Heavenly Father sent you huh?" She has been looking for the church in our area for like 3 months because they moved here a while back. I wrote down their address and said we would go talk with them during the week and show them where the church was; we thought they were both members. Then a few days later everything fell through. Nobody was letting us in and even our most firm investigators stood us up. We had no idea what was happening, I was like Oh C'mon! Then I told my companion that we should go talk to the members we met in the street and he said that was a good idea and so we headed to their house. We got there and the member was all excited and we talked with them a little while then we found out that Cesar wasn't a member and that he wanted to be baptized. So we taught him the first lesson, ate some cookies and left. Then it hit me, no wonder everything fell through, the only way we would have gone to their house that day was if it was a last resort. It was pretty cool. I just wished I realized that before I walked like 4 miles though lol =P Any ways tonight I’m going on splits with a 16 year old less active priest, we're going to teach two lessons, by ourselves. Yeesh, I think I might die haha. Alright I love you guys! Have a good week; say hi to the high docks for me!

Elder Romm

Miracles

Hey Fam,

So this week I made 5 months on the mish, I told my companion that I only had one more month until the "I don’t speak Portuguese" excuse doesn't play anymore. He said "oh now what are you gunna do?" I told him that we have to speak Portuguese everyday lol. He said that wouldn't work because then you wouldn't understand anything. haha. (He doesn't speak anything other than Portuguese) So this week I got a big nasty blister, I took a picture, it’s awesome. Oh and we baptized a young kid that we have been teaching for almost 5 months this past Sunday!!! It was amazing. My comp just said that we were going to exercise our faith and baptize Gabriel this week. His mom is a JW and already knows the church really well and was NOT wanting Gabriel to be baptized in the least bit. I had already gone to his house to talk with his mom three times about letting him get baptized but every time she just got more and more angry with us. This last Saturday I told my companion that Gabriel’s birthday was Sunday and that he told me he wanted to be baptized on his birthday when we first started teaching him and he just said "Oh! That’s perfect! We better mark his baptismal interview." Then he called the ZL's and marked the interview. I was like uh, what. Then after that we went to Gabriel’s house and to ask permission again. Yeesh. A very clear no. Then the next day our Zl arrives and we do a division. And I’m supposed to take him to interview Gabriel. I knew that it was possible but it didn't look good lol. Elder Dos Santos came to do the interview; he is so cool. We talked to Gabriel and he didn’t even want to be interviewed because he knew what his mom would say. So Elder Dos Santos was like "Come on man where is your faith!" Then he promised him a box of chocolate if his mom said no to him being baptized. Then we headed to talk to his mom. I was like what are you going to do? And he said, "I have no idea, but I know this boy is going to be baptized tomorrow, Heavenly Father won't let me say anything stupid. I think." Elder Dos Santos has a way with people but Gabriel's mom was tough. He got her to the point where she would let him be baptized only if he was truly prepared and if she felt it when he told her he wanted to be baptized. Elder dos Santos took that as a yes. We ran to take Gabriel to the Chapel to interview him and Elder Dos Santos told him his mom allowed it. Which was kind of true. While he did the interview I went into the baptismal room and got on my knees and just prayed. I prayed in every language I knew and just pleaded for the heart of this woman to be softened. When we arrived at his house with the paper for her to sign Gabriel walked up to his mom and said, "Mom I want to be baptized, and I want to be baptized tomorrow." It was like she turned into a different person. She almost broke into tears and gave him a hug and he was baptized the next day. Boom. That was pretty amazing. I love you guys and can’t believe you built a pond without me! What the heck!

Elder Romm

Chuck Norris

I love good news!

Wow, lots going on at home, that’s awesome! I'm glad to hear you guys got to see some pics ... finally lol. This last week with Elder Mendes has been intense. He's the man. We taught in two days the same amount of lessons i used to teach in a week. And the girl we baptized two weeks ago is doing awesome! We went to her house after email last p-day and talked with her and taught her mom the first lesson. At the end we talked about how she could know for herself that the church is true and she just said, "its just got to be true" then we asked her if she would be baptized when she knew and she said "Yes!" and she said "Sheina got to chose who baptized her, would I get to chose too?" and we said yes, then she pointed to me and said "You’re going to baptize me! You’re not gunna run away like the other missionary right?" It was so amazing. She never had even listened to a lesson when we were teaching Sheina. In that moment I felt a pure joy that I had never felt in my life. It was a feeling of pure joy that didn't have an end! I don't even know how to explain it. I could literally feel my happiness exceed past the point that it usually reaches. Now I understand what the sons of Mosiah were talking about when they finished their missions among the Lamanites. Also a couple that i met a few weeks ago in a contact and that we taught two times walked in the doors of the Chapel last Sunday. We promised them they would feel something totally different in the Chapel if they would go with us, and they did. It was fun to see the whole ward just explode with excitement to see them, they were very impressed with what they learned. My comp is sooo focused. He doesn't even email his family it looks like. He just looks at the numbers from the mission and plans his next move. He's like flippin Chuck Norris if Chuck Norris had the priesthood! Oh and i got a package today with gellac and old spice! Woohoo! I'll try and send another pic or two, I love you all!

Elder Romm

Winter Weather

Hi Mom and Family,

So transfers were today, Elder Gomes left and Elder Mendes is my new comp. He has a year and three months in the mission and he´s a stud. He's way excited about the work and we are going to baptize a lot of people this transfer. We baptized a young girl named Sheina last Sunday and I’m going to try and send pics =/. I'm the only one in the area now that knows anything so I have to show my companion everything and now I have to speak Portuguese because he doesn't speak English too. I have to try and remember where all the members live and where the busses stop and everything lol...It’s going to be interesting for the next little while but I’m excited. Elder Mendes was the trainer of an Elder in my District in the CTM. Elder Mendes said that he is fluent already. I've gotta be close haha. The weather is cold and they say that winter here will last until October. Not stoked for that. I have to go now but I’ll write more next week, Love you all!

Brazil Brain

Dear Family,

Wow Aunti Shell! You're so pretty! Those pictures are amazing! And the weather was perfect for bass fishin! I got to see them all and the pics of brads bulk. Brad you flippin exploded I can’t believe it. Has jess been hittin the weights too? Oh and did you guys get the pics I sent last week? I want to make a request; I need to have that picture with brad and Dylan where Dylan has his arm around brad, and brads giving the camera the fizzle face. Scratch that I want all those pics, minus the bulkin ones...that'd be weird if my comp saw my album with those in there. Eh?! So you guys are going camping at the Tucanon? Sweet love! I don’t know what it is but my brain doesn't know it’s in Brazil, it feels like it should be going fishing everyday! In a way it is...but only in an extremely more stressful pond lol.

About the wedding:

Jani's yard looks amazing and a half! That rock wall just screamed hard work. Why didn't I ever get a sweet cowboy vest? Our family is to cool for school. My brothers are big enough that I think I can finally start my private army of giants using only members of my family; they will carry me around on a big chair and we'll throw boulders off cliffs and other manly stuff. Somebody (I think Sarah) snuck in a picture of Sara W. at the wedding, yes, I caught that; what are your trying to pull lol =P Jabali rocks a suit like a stud. What’s the name of Shellie’s husband? Jk Nate. Dylan needs a haircut. haha just kiddin. But seriously, looks like the wedding went well!

Transfers are coming up and my comp is very certain that he is getting transferred. Idk what will happen. We had a baptism for this past Sunday but he decided not to go through with it because his parents asked for more time. He's been going to church for like a year already =/.

Also i started bible bashing my companion this week lol. As we walk around all day I decided that I would just practice teaching so I started teaching my companion principles and he would through down some pretty tough questions and doubts that I have to prove with scriptures. He's such a punk. The first three times I taught him he always ended up with the same problem. Chastity. I’m not gunna lie it’s a tough one to teach but now I have the scriptures to teach it lol. The funny thing is that I started teaching him about tithing.

Well that’s all the excitement for now =P lemme know if you guys are getting my pics, peace out. Love ya’ll!

Elder Romm

Familia

Mãe e Familía

Como vocês estão? It was way awesome to talk to you guys on Mother's day!!! And today I got the other package! With the fishing license and fish love letters! It was so cool because this morning I woke up and I was like dude I can’t take this anymore I have to go fishing before these two years are over, and then the ZLs called and said I had a package and they were bringing it to me, which never happens, and inside were all these fish! Swedish fish especially. Sooo awesome, muito obrigado. I’m going to try and attach pics today so we'll see how it goes. Oh speaking of pictures, i got the ones in the package; my pictures are like my most prized possessions here lol. And Sarah, can you shrink down the pics of brad and send them to me? I still can’t see them =[

So remember when i called you guys, idk who I was talking to but i told you we talked to a Leader of some evangelical church and he was way receptive? I was way excited about starting to teach them because they were an awesome family but two days ago we went to teach them again and the Wife threw the Book of Mormon in our faces and said she didn't want anymore...I was pretty bummed...My companion started talking to her and she just kept going on about how her vision was not our vision and that kind of stuff and told us she wasn't going to read anymore of that Book. My companion just stopped for a sec and said i cannot accept this Book of Mormon, so do this, hide it. Hide it in the bottom of your closet. Save it somewhere it doesn't matter where you put it because I can tell you that he is the best missionary we have and one day i promise he's going to do his job. He's going to do his own work. She agreed to keep it. I was a little hurt afterwards but my comp just put his arm around me and said welcome to missionary work, he can't count how many times he's taken a BOM to the chest on his mission. But i realized what we really accomplished; we placed the most powerful book on this earth inside the house of that family. Hundreds of years worth of Prophets of God bearing witness of Jesus the Christ and the true path to salvation which only comes by the authority and grace of the only begotten of the Father. The pages of the Book of Mormon are covered with the information that family needs to receive peace in this life, and eternal happiness in the life to come. I feel pretty good about it now. I received a blessing from my mission president yesterday because he is leaving in June and I’ll probably not talk to him again, it was a really cool experience. Well I gtg if I’m going to figure out these pictures. Love you guys! and thanks so much for being so legit lol.

Elder Romm