The Raleigh Family

Dear mom,

This past week has been kinda CRAZY! I have a new companion now whose name is Elder McGill. He´s from Utah so it’s kinda nice to be able to speak English again. But he is an awesome missionary! I’m gonna learn so much from him.

Also this week I got sick and there was blood in the vomit and had to go the hospital in Campinas but I’m better now so don’t worry about it. They plugged me into an IV and it was all really confusing cause I haven’t studied words in Portuguese that have to do with being sick and stuff and I thought someone would speak English in a hospital but no one did. Haha but they gave me a prescription and I got better. The doctor on the mission thinks that it’s just that my throat ripped a little because I was throwing up too hard I guess. But everything is good now I think it was just food poisoning. So don’t worry.

But me and Elder McGill are gonna destroy this area! We've already started finding lots of people who are very good. And on Monday we tracked into an English school and we’re going back next Monday to teach at it and meet people who will want to learn about the church. It’s gonna be awesome!

Sounds like everything is going well at home. The house is gonna be so different when I get home! And that’s too bad that Maddi’s graduation wasn’t as cool as mine haha :P

So on Monday we had a miracle. Our lunch had fallen through so we were gonna have to spend the little bit of money we had to buy some so we went out to find a restaurant and we went in one that was near our house and they were all excited to see us there cause I guess other missionaries had already made friends with them before so we loaded up our to go dish and it was packed full and the total value of our meals together was R$18 and when we went to pay they said that someone paid for us and they couldn’t tell us who! It was literally manna from heaven! Haha

Anyway I gotta go now but I love you guys and always keep you in my prayers.

Love,

Elder Raleigh

Dear dad,

This week was crazy! You’ll have to read moms email. But tell everyone thanks for all the letters. It’s nice to know people still remember me haha. Any way I got a new companion because of an emergency transfer so I’m gonna send you a pic.

Also there is a picture of our manna from heaven haha

Also this is an artsy picture I took of my old companion I just liked it and thought I’d share it haha

Love you and hope everything is going well with work and stuff. Me and my comp are gonna demolish this area! Serious were on fire.

Love,

Elder Raleigh

Dear mom,

This week was good; it was full of a few ups and a few downs but overall was miraculous. You’ll have to read the email I sent to dad about the miracles this week. But that’s an awesome story! I love hearing about people’s conversions. It sounds like you had a crazy busy week as well haha. It is true there is something very different about our church, and I think that it is the overall involvement of all the members. It’s something that we live by and not just something we go to on Sundays. And that's how the church of Jesus Christ should be. Everyone should be actively involved with something good that’s going on. Our church truly lives the principle that `if ye lose your life for Christ sake ye shall find it´ and I think that’s what is so interesting to people and the fact that we all look so happy about it all the time haha. Anyway I gotta go. Read dads letter!

Love you guys, stay strong, and keep praying.

Love,

Elder Raleigh

Dear dad

This week was good. We had a miracle happen in the sister’s area which we were able to be involved in a little bit and yesterday we had a miracle in our area, but I’ll start with the sisters...

So the sisters met this woman (about a week and a half ago) who had just lost her mother and was crying so hard she could barely talk but she was really sad because her mom was gonna tell her something but died before she could so they promised her that if she prayed that god would answer her prayer and she would know what it was her mother was gonna tell her. So she prayed and that night she had a dream and her mother told her that she and her sister needed to make up and stop fighting. It’s crazy! Then after that she completely turned her life around. In a week she stopped smoking and drinking! The gospel of Jesus Christ works! She was baptized this past Sunday and now the missionaries are meeting her sister too and she’s starting to turn her life around too. I had the opportunity of helping teach her a few times and her sister too. It really was a miracle! We got to meet with her this past Monday and taught her about eternal families and she and her daughter were both in tears during it, and the spirit was very powerful. It was an amazing experience.

So yesterday was transfers and my companion was gonna get transferred but last week he wrote the president and said he wanted to finish training me. So also yesterday he found out he was actually gonna be a zone leader and it’s something he really wanted to do his whole mission but never had the opportunity yet. So he was feeling kinda bad because he gave up that opportunity, so he had been praying a lot about it I guess, then later that day we went to the house of a man who was a reference. When we got there he said he had been waiting for us for a long time. And he had visited the temple and he felt something. His wife died 6 years ago and he lives with his child now who is 30 and has Down’s syndrome. But we started by teaching him the plan of salvation and he was very interested and the spirit was strong too and we committed him to baptism. He already had a book of Mormon and had been reading it. He seems very excited to learn so much about the truth. We’re going back on Thursday. But after we left the house my companion said he knows now why he needed to stay here in this area. So this past week has been a lot of ups and downs but these past two days were awesome! Its days like that that makes it all worth it to be here.

So we haven’t really cleaned the apt a whole lot I just sweep it and keep clean the sink area and the fridge and where we prepare our food. We get fed a lot every day. When I first got here the hardest part of my day was lunch because they would make me eat sooooo much! But I think my stomach has stretched and I can just eat for days now and I crave rice and beans. I can understand pretty well most everything that people are saying now; I just need to work on my speaking. Overall I’m doing very well. I’m getting used to the culture and the food. I think that American food will probably make me sick when I return.

Anyway I gotta go but a canoe trip would be sweet to do right like on the northern Delaware river. Love you guys and pray for you all the time.

Love,

Elder Raleigh

Dear mom,

That’s awesome that you guys bought kayaks! It sounds like you guys had a good day at Lake Redmond. I’m kinda jealous haha. It’s crazy that Maddi’s done with school! If it hasn’t hit her yet then it’ll probably hit her hard when she goes to college next year and not school haha. I know it was weird for me for the first few months that I was just working at Powell steel and I would see people walking to school and stuff.

This week has been pretty good. We met 3 different people who are very good and I think they’ll all be baptized. One is a girl in college and another is a guy who’s 26 and lives with his wife (which is kinda a big deal b/c no one in brazil gets married before living together) and the other is a guy in his 30s and he has a few kids and a wife as well so I think we could have a lot of baptisms soon!!

I think I’ve heard that quote before! I’m not sure when, but I know it was in the MTC. We visit a lot of inactive people hear. The other week we were visiting with one that we had visited with a few times before but she hadn’t come to church. It was my turn to share a message and so read in 3 Nephi about when Christ established the church in America and how one of the first things that was done after he established the church was institute the sacrament and I asked her if she a had a testimony of sacrament and to bare it, and the spirit was strong and then I bore mine and invited her to come to church and to grow her testimony of sacrament. It was a very good lesson. I think a good way of reactivating people is asking them to share their testimony. B/c when you share your testimony it makes you stronger, and for less actives it reminds them of their original conversion and begins to grow their desire to return.

Anyway I gotta go. I love you and pray for you guys every day.

Love,

Elder Raleigh

Dear dad,

Here is a picture of me and my current companion.

It’s sweet that you bought kayaks!! We should take a river trip when I get back.

So I’m not so sure about the family of José, they all are kinda soft. But the kids are all super excited when we come and are always wanting to pray and stuff and they read the BOM but I think the parents didn’t cause when we asked what they read all they could say is words of god. But chapter 11 of 3 Nephi is pretty memorable. So I don’t know how that’s all gonna turn out. But we found three new people this week who all seem very promising. And they are all very interested. I wrote about them in my letter to mom so you’ll have to read that. It’s sweet that you guys are having baptisms in the ward!

Sounds like everything’s going well with work and stuff. I pray for you guys every day. I gotta go now.

Love you,

Elder Raleigh

Dear mom,

It’s sweet that Maddi got a hundred bucks! That’s sweet! And that’s sweet she gets to go to the beach! I miss the beach a lot cause the weather here is always perfect for swimming! Haha I’m definitely going to the beach when I get home! It’s cool that you got to visit with Ally. That’s awesome she’s sharing these experiences.

The house is gonna look way different when I got home! It sounds like it’s gonna be tight though!

Good to hear that you made everyone cry in relief society. It sounds like it was an amazing meeting. And hearing about all that good food that people brought makes my mouth water! Haha I’ve had banana bread once while I’ve been here, but pretty much all the desert foods here are way different.

I liked that quote. Especially the part about having an eternal perspective. Cause whenever we have an eternal view it makes life seem so simple and easy to just to do everything right all the time, but the hard part is to always remember to have this perspective. This is really hard for us because we are human and the world is full of distractions. Luckily we have the atonement of Christ to save us, and that is what we are trying to share with the whole world as members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ. Every week we have the opportunity to be redeemed again.

Everything is going good here. I wrote to dad about the work I’m doing right now so you’ll have to read that. Anyway I gotta go. I’ll pray for your health and I’m sure Trek this year is gonna be sweet! Just have faith and everything will work out.

Love,

Elder Raleigh

Dear dad,

That story was pretty funny! Haha the work was going kinda slow until this week. We got a man named José to come to church. We thought he was soft until he just showed up this Sunday. It was very exciting. We went to visit him last night and there was another man there in addition to the ten other people who are normally there. (they’re all family but I’m not sure how they’re all related exactly) but he started talking to us and we invited him to be baptized as well and talked a little about why you need the proper authority for baptism or else it is no good and he agreed and before we could even invite him to church he said he was gonna visit and he’s gonna bring pretty much everyone in the house with him haha it was awesome! We’re going there tonight to teach the first lesson to all of them and were gonna invite them all to be baptized. Also while we were talking to José one of his family friends came up and we talked to her and invited her to be baptized as well and were going this week to teach her. It’s very exciting! If all goes well, we will baptize about 10 people.

That’s sweet you got to visit all those people in Texas!

Serving a mission is one of the best decisions that you can make in your life. I can already see how it is going to benefit my future life. As it is with all other commandments and sacrifices that the lord asks of us, you really are getting a lot more than you give. I don’t know anyone who regrets being here.

I’ve been in the field for about a month now, and my language is really starting to come. I can understand, most of the time, everything people are saying. And I can teach people on the spot according to the questions they have. And people are starting to be able to understand me a lot better. It’s been a while since someone told me they don’t understand what I’m saying haha. But everyone still knows I’m an American, which isn’t bad cause about 90% of people here like to talk to Americans for some reason.

Maddi looks good at prom, I can’t believe she’s gonna be graduating in like a week or so! And henrys boy looks good! He starting to grow! It’s crazy that his gonna be able to talk when I return!

Anyway I gotta go. Love you. Keep praying and I’m sure everything will go well for Trek.

Love,

Elder Raleigh