November 2nd, 2011

Hey Family,

We just got back right this instant from a zone conference way on the other side of the mission and I'm sooo tired.  It was a great trip and I learned a bunch.  This last week flew by really quick and we had some awesome stuff happen.  We are about 7 weeks without baptisms in this area and last Sunday a girl came up to my companion and told him she was going to be baptized this weekend.  No complaints.  I also did a division with one of the members and he told me he served in rio de janeiro north mission.  After talkin with him I found out that he lived in the same house as Elder Hodgson.  I saw a picture of a little skinny sun burnt Jared!  That was pretty cool.

Tomorrow we've another training to do and we have about 1 hour to plan it tonight if we get lucky.  We like to live on the edge.

This week was pretty hard for my companion because he's been here for a while and has been working like crazy but having zero success.  I was grateful that I could do something to help him for a change and not feel like the noob for a little bit.  It really is inspired that we work in two.

Mom I watched a conference on genealogy today and it's like completely opened my eyes.  I want to know my family history!  What do ya got for me? 

Well I love y'all and I don't have anymore time, maybe I'll have to revert to using letters to send more information.

Have a great week!

Love you Brad have a great mission! (Ask the MTC President if i can come see you before you fly off to wherever that place is!)

Elder Romm

October 26th, 2011

Olá Family,

This last week was pretty intense.  I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting this week.  It was interesting because I didn't have any time at all to prepare during this week so it was weak sauce.  I just followed the spirit and it turned out okay I suppose.  I'm getting used to this whole 'on the spot' recruiting deal.  Sometimes we don't even know what we are going to do but when called upon its go time.  I think that maybe that is why scouting is so important.  It teaches the physical principle of always being prepared and then we go on a mission to learn the spiritual side of the importance of always being prepared.  I've been learning how to treasure up many things in my mind because we never know what we'll need.

It's almost Halloween!  It's not a very popular Holiday here in Brazil. 

How is everyone doing?  Brad, you have to send me a copy of your talk, I wanna read it.  I've been telling everyone my brother is going to the Philippines.  When they ask where it is located I tell them that it is right next to the ends of the earth.  Partly because I don't really remember where it is.  Close to Thailand and Japan and the ocean right?  I don't even know.

Well i love you all and hope you have a great week and a happy Halloween!  Choose the Right!

Elder Romm

October 19th, 2011

Mom, Dad, and Family,

How is everyone doing?  This last week flew by and at the same time was a million years.  I know that doesn't make any sense but just pretend you know what I'm sayin.  Lots of things to do with what appears to be an ever shrinking space time.  It's a good thing my companion is who he is because i think without him I'd be completely nuts by now haha.

I'm convinced that my companion has some kind of chemical imbalance in his brain.  I've been trying to keep track of the symptoms to make an accurate diagnosis but its been difficult.  Imagine someone that is bipolar but that never goes on a low.  He's running on 110% overdrive all the time haha.  He's super funny.  And he is learning English and actually speaks fluently already.  So we just walk around and sometimes he just randomly starts scream/singing primary hymns like popcorn popping on the apricot tree.  And since i don't want him to look like a wierdo by himself i start singing also.

We have found some really awesome people lately too.  We found a family that is legally married with two kids who all accepted baptismal dates and another young college student who is super smart.  We are seeking out the families in our area with all that we've got.  I want to baptize another family here before i leave so its getting intense.

Curitiba is very different from Paranaguá.  I've noticed that everyone here just wants to fight us.  I've never used the Book of Mormon so much in my life. 

Today we are going to the temple, I'm stoked!  Alright i have to go, man i need to plan better what I'm going to write.  My brain is like a blender put on high and being rolled down the stairs!

Love you all !!
Elder Romm

October 5th, 2011

Hola Família,

I love conference.  These talks were so helpful to so many of our investigators.  There were so many authorities that spoke about missionary work and the Book of Mormon.  I loved the talk by Elder Holland.  That was the most motivating priesthood session I've seen yet.  Things definitely are getting near the end. 

I love to hear the testimonies of all the speakers at conference, I always get stoked to bear my own testimony to anything that moves.

The spirit was so strong. You know that feeling that you get when you just are happy.  You feel like it's possible to succeed and you have a peaceful and calm feeling towards the future.  I like that feeling and i like helping others feel that. 

Well I haven't got a lot of time today, but I love you all, have a great week listen to some conference!

Elder Romm

September 28th, 2011

Hey Family,

So this weekend was intense.  We got a call from our APs and they challenged us to baptize this week.  We didn't have any baptismal dates for this Saturday and we were a little frustrated by their invitation.  But then my companion and i learned a very important lesson.  A few actually.  We decided that we did indeed want to baptize.  We believed that it was possible.  If it weren't then our leaders wouldn't have challenged us to do it.  We had the desire and the faith we just needed the works.  We decided that yes, we were going to do it.  Then we went a little crazy running after some people.  After we found three of our investigators that could be baptized we did everything possible to help them be baptized this last weekend.  Everything turned against us.  Our water heater at the church never worked.  All the youth would be away at an activity or in another state.  The parents of one didn't authorize it.  The other parents were upset because they thought it was too soon.  Both of the two young women we were going to baptize were passing through that time of the month and were nervous and didn't want to be baptized.  The young woman's president was going to be out of town.  The member that they wanted to baptize them would also be gone.  We didn't know why but we just knew that the Lord wanted us to baptize them this weekend.  We went to our baptismal font, cleaned it out and kneeled to say a prayer.  We prayed for hot water.  The two girls passed in the interview and were actually excited to be baptized sooner rather than later when they stopped to think about it.  The parents understood that we were just trying to do a good thing that would change their daughters lives forever, we filled up the font and the heater....turned on.  The bishop told us later that it had never worked since they installed it.  The baptism ended up being one of the most spiritual of my mission.

Woohoo!

I love you guys!  have a great week!!!
Elder Romm

September 20th, 2011

Dear Family,

The work continues and the weather is hot.

These last two days we have done some serious walking.  We did a division with some missionaries in our zone and with the absence of my comp i was a little lost haha.  It's so great to have a companion who works and loves to work.  It makes all the difference.

This weekend we didn't baptize but the week before we did, I didn't have to time to write about that, it was awesome.  This weekend we did a fast with two youth so that they could be baptized and they told us yesterday that it worked!  Its actually a funny story because it's been 6 months since they first came to church and have never had permission from their parents to be baptized but when they fasted and their parents found out and they got mad and told them that they could be baptized if they stopped fasting.  woohoo!  Now we have them and two other young men that are super excited too for the 30th of September. 

We've started to read the Book of Mormon again and we are marking all the parts where it talks about any principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I'm finding a lot of details that I've never picked up before.  The Book of Mormon really does have the fullness of the Gospel.

The tender mercies and little miracles continue to happen and i just love that.  We never feel worthy of them but we just keep on keepin on and doing the best we know how to do, and praying for guidance.  I think my favorite scripture this week is D+C 64:25.  Our whole life is made up of a bunch of todays and if we just focus on making our sacrifice for today then that's sufficient.  A few minutes in the scriptures and prayer, a few kind words (in my case a few more contacts) and we're set. 

Well this work is great, I don't know everything about doing it but I do love trying.  There's just something about the Gospel that keeps you pumped.  Maybe its the unlimited re-dos you get or the promise of divide assistance or maybe the eternal perspective that it gives me.  Its just amazing.  And whats best is that its true.

I love you guys, have a great week!
Elder Romm

September 14th, 2011

Alright family here's the deal.

So last week was independence day in Brazil and nothing was open so my bad on the whole cliff hanger deal.  And now I have two weeks worth of updating to do and it just so happens that these last two weeks were two of the wildest weeks I've had on the mission. Let me make an attempt, if you guys just end up with a half of an e-mail you'll know I tried but failed.

This is the Lord's work and all who deny it will be left kicking against the pricks for eternity.

This week my companion and I have seen many, many miracles.

1. A man who has been coming to church with his family for a year felt the spirit in a gospel principles class and told us that he felt the desire to be baptize.  All doubts disappeared.  Later in the other week we returned to his home and told us that he was incapable of quiting cigarettes and felt that he needed to something else.  After 2 and half hours of battling in the spirit I followed the prompting i had been receiving for quite a while in the lesson.  As I said the words 'I suggest a priesthood blessing' he stopped dead still and said that after all the words we had said this phrase seemed to cut him to the core didn't know why.  Then he got all pumped and said "That's it! This is what I like about this church! Nobody else can do what you guys do!"  We gave him then a powerful blessing, however not removing his personal responsibility.  He will quit.

2.  We visited an English teacher who had a daughter suffering from brain problems and we felt prompted to share a message with him.  In the top floor of his school we taught him the plan of salvation in English.  We sat talking with him a while and the question, "what are you afraid of" kept popping into my head.  Finally I asked him and he stopped and looked at me and said ' you guys are the first people to ask me that question'.  We explained that even if his daughter were damaged that none of it would be permanent and passed to him the hope found in the plan of happiness.  Afterwords he prayed and he asked Father in Heaven to help his own daughter, something he had been struggling to do.  Then he looked at us and said man, I feel something really different.  Do you guys do this with everyone?  Yes.  He told us that something deep inside him told him that everything we said was true.  His daughter is back home and her illness is treatable.

3.  We did a contact with a MMA fighter in the street and set a time to return and teach him.  He's a big tough kind of guy but very humble.  As we shared the story of the Restoration of the Gospel he listened intensely and as we handed him the book of Mormon it was obvious to see the goose bumps shoot up his arms and tears fill his eyes.  When he looked at us with a surprised look he said, when I touched your book I felt something different,  I invited him to be baptized by one hold the priesthood authority of God and he said "yes" Then as I went to mark a date his cell phone began to ring loudly, but he didn't pay any attention.  The timing was to perfect to be a coincidence, but the spirit overpowered the distraction.

4.  While doing contacts in a division a young man who had visited the church Sunday night stopped to talk to us and asked if we were on our way to the chapel, we said yes even though we hadn't really planned on it.  We walked with him talking about what he has been thinking about the church.  He said that he started going to seminary everyday that week and that something in his life was changing and that he was even sleeping better.  We taught him about the restoration and invited him to be baptized, he accepted and after the lesson showed us the goose bumps on his arms and with teary eyes only said "thank you"  that was the best feeling I've had as a missionary.  Last night I talked to him and he is already in the 20th chapter of 1 Nephi and his grandma told him that if he wanted to be baptized that he could.  He then brought three more friends who also loved how they felt when they were in the chapel.  We will teach them later tonight.

5.  While walking on the street a 24 year old guy walked by me and I just stuck out my hand and said ' hey, how's it goin."  We started to talk and discovered that he had talked with a missionary on a bus 4 years ago while he was traveling, he invited us to go with him to his house to show us where he lived so we could come back and teach him and his girlfriend.  We're going there tonight. 

6. Yesterday we traveled to Curitiba for a training and in the crowded bus I felt like I should talk with a young man seated in front of me.  There were many people surrounding him and I thought to myself, if those people leave then I'll talk to him.  Not 3 seconds passed and all those people got off at the bus stop.  I said a prayer and just saw myself standing in front of him shaking his hand the the next thing I know I was actually shaking his hand.  I don't know where the courage came from.  I taught him the Restoration and gave him a book of Mormon.  I don't know if anything will happen, all I know is that the peace that I felt after having taught him with something I would go to the end of the earth to feel again.

My companion and I have decided that we like to be used by the spirit and every single day we get to experience these miracles.  This is the work of the Lord and his only true church, anyone who doubts it needs to take their blindfold off and spend a day with the missionaries.

When obedience has become a quest, confidence and testimony in the things that are true become immovable.

I love you all and I'm out of time!
Elder Romm