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

Dude

First of all,

Dude they planted triploids behind Grandma Romm's house?!?! Pois é. Right as I leave the country. So I got the picture you sent mom, but you only sent one old one that he took before I left, I don't understand lol. Tell Elder Clark I say hello and I love him. Oh and this is how it works I guess, you guys have to call me on mothers day, but on Saturday I'll call you and tell you the phone number and for sure what time, but right now I'm like 83 percent sure it'll be at 8 A.M. your time 2 P.M. my time. I guess they used to use skype to talk on mothers day but the president kiboshed it this month, that would've been sweet lol. So things have been pretty sweet, we found 2 families and a few other people that we are going to baptize - (I think it has a z....Batisar...batizar...baptise...baptize.nem sei) because the Lord just handed them to us lol. We went to the temple today! The Curitiba temple is huge and way, way cool inside. Pretty amazing. I had another firs time experience this week. I was doing contacts in another city because my comp had a leadership meeting and we walked into a store and we met one of my investigators that worked as manager there. She saw us and came up to us. Only i noticed that she was coming a little fast...She kept getting closer and hadn't slowed down...still not slowed down. So I stuck my hand out to shake her hand but she kinda blew by that ploy. Then she went in for a hug and kiss like is common here. I had to do some very quick thinking so I kinda did a sidestep stiff arm in panic and so she only got like a half hug / awkward pose thing...and I just said "oh we cant really do that..." People I'm telling you it was so awkward that it tasted bad when it came out of my mouth. The taste stayed for at least 6 hours afterwards too. She hasn't come to church yet and we went by last night to see if she would come this week and she said for sure that she was gonna go this time because she was really curious. Maybe that was the awkward moment she had been needing to make her wonder just what the heck is wrong with these Mormons. We'll see =] Other than that its been more of the same. I'm starting to teach better. Slowly. But its an improvement and Im soooo thankful for it. And I think Portuguese is finally taking over my brain because I've really struggled to write this letter; like seriously its been tough to decide how to word things. And I never could spell so there's that too. Mas eu amo vocês!! E boa sorte com as coisas la gente =] Paz e amor

Elder Romm

Oh ps I never got a camera chord so I'll just send the chip home =]

Feel the Love

Holy emails today, suffice it to say I feel the love =P You guys are the best!

So yea I guess I'll be calling the day before Mothers day to set up the time and all that for when i call for reals, it'll be nice and quick so I don't cry. Yea mom I cant find the pics that you say you sent to me, idk but they aren't there =/ Elder Clark is back!!!??! Sweet! That guy is the man! Brad, go on splits with him and teach Spencer mmk? =] Sounds like things are going well at home, that makes me happy. Things here have been getting better too. We've been working harder and I've been owning my contacts. Our Zone leaders said they would make a huge breakfast for the district that earned the most points for baptising and teaching lessons. My companion wants to win. Its been good. Portuguese still kicks me in the face repeatedly at various times during the day, but bit by bit I'll get it lol. The other day I was teaching and testifying about the authority to baptise and after I got done the sweet old lady smiled and looked at my companion and said what did he say? Terrific!

We have this mission choir and they did their first fireside this last Sunday and it was epic. We had like 4 people come up to us and say "I want to go to Church now, heres my address, come after 6." Aw yea. I'm really trying to learn to teach, I feel bad for my companion, but I just cant quite get it lol. So just before I came to e-mail i was on my bed like half asleep and you know when you like half dream and you do like a full body spasm jerk and if there's somebody close by then you scare the crud out of them? Yea that happened. My companion almost died he was laughing so hard lol. Also something happened this week before we went to teach one of our investigators, I was thinking about how I am supposed to be given what i should say to people when I teach and then as I was walking I had these random principles popping up in my mind about teaching about how everything the Lord did for us was because of his love and how he answers prayers and also how we can't pay him back for what he gave us, and so I started working out the sentences in my mind and stuff because Portuguese takes me a sec to think about, and then at the end of the lesson we went to teach the investigator said, but I feel like Ialready done my part and was just saying how she doesn't feel like she needs to do anything different. I was like "wo wo wo missy. Hold on a sec" and was prepared to explain a little bit about the atonement and how everything we're asked to do is really for us. It was really, really cool. I love 1 nephi 10:19 and Moroni 10:19 because the Heavenly Father really is a God of miracles and He's the same yesterday, today and forever and his love and willingness to help and bless his children is never lacking, and its just as strong today as it was when he guided Moses and his people out of Egypt. The Scriptures own any movie out there man; especially because its true! Love you guys!! Talk to you later!

Elder Romm