23 Nov 2015 - LAST EMAIL FROM BRAZIL

Dear mom,

This week was good and sad at the same time.. I know it´s gonna be great to be home, but I will miss these new people I´ve met. It seems I´ve known these friends for years and yet it´s only been months. 

I can´t wait to see you all and see the changes that have been happening! It´ll be great to see you all in person!

I love you all!

I´ll see you in a bit.

Tonight is the dinner with president, but tomorrow L´ll be leaving...

Love,

Elder Padilla

16 Nov 2015 - Last P-Day...

Dear mom,

It´s been a great week. I thought that it might have been a new grandson that came into the world..for what other reason would a mother abandon his son by not emailing him...hahahaha joking.. 

I´m doing great. today is my last p-day. so odd. This week we had another baptism! 2 weeks ago we baptized 2 rapazes quem são os sobrinhos da pessoa quem nós batizamos! A tia estava vencendo um vício, mas no final ela conseguiu!! 

Nós, Elder Jardine e eu, fomos ao aeroporto duas vezes esta semana para tirar dinheiro e comer na praça de alimentação porque um dia recebemos $ por almoço....compramos Dominoe´s!!

Foi muita boa esta semana! trabalhamos muito. suamos bastante durantes estes dias! Tudo está bem! Nem consigo imaginar que a missão ia passar tão rapidamente assim...

Amo vocês!

Até Já!!

Google Translate:

guys who are the nephews of the person who we baptized ! The aunt was winning( fighting) an addiction, but in the end she got (overcame it) !!

We , Elder Jardine and I , we went to the airport twice this week to take money and eat at the food court because one day we receive $ to buy lunch for  Domino's !!

It was very good this week ! We worked hard . sweat a lot during these days ! Everything is good! I can not imagine that the mission was going to happen (complete) so quickly so ...
I love you!
Up already !!(Until then)

"Yours truly"

"This week´s baptism!!!"

"on the bus in Fortaleza!"

"last week´s baptisms!"

"Last p-day..."

Elder Padilla 

9 Nov 2015 -Hard Work Pays off...

Dear mom,

This week was an inspiration to me! We´ve been working with a family so that they could receive an answer to know if the Book of Mormon is true. The two kids believed in the Book of Mormon, but for the mother, who waited 10 years to be baptized in the Adventist church, she didn´t accept it so readily. We went back this week to share scriptures and explain what we knew while bearing testimony. She said that she couldn´t accept it and that she needed time and us to go away for a bit. She said she wasn´t sure if she was ready. In that moment my companion opened to Alma 7:15. He asked her to read. After she ended she thought and exclaimed that she knew this to be true because she had already read "that book" 10 times from front to back. She thought she was reading the Bible...we replied with happy faces that she just said that she believed in the book of Mormon now!!The Spirit entered the room with a great force. She saw what had just happened and in a humble voice she responded that she now knew this book was true. We burned with the spirit afterwards and she agreed to be baptized this Sunday (yesterday) with her two daughters!

I have seen the rewards for being completely obedient. John 15:4-5

Two nights ago we were walking home and we took a path which we usually don´t take. We found a man who´d fallen straight on his forehead on the sidewalk and was bleeding pretty bad. He was drunk and could barely walk, but we helped him to sit on the curb and got help from others passing by since it was already close to the time we needed to be home. They took care of him, but it was nice to be used as an instrument in the Lord´s hands for the well being of his children.

I love you all,

Elder Padilla

2 Nov 2015 - Conference with Elder Campos

Dear mom,

This week was great!! We had two baptisms this week although we were trying to have 5 ...but this week we´ll throw it into high gear and do all we can! I´m loving this last comp! he´s keeping my focused on the work! He´s from Idaho e ele é a caçula da família dele. tivemos uma conferência da missão juntos com Elder Campos, um setenta da área. Ele falou muitas coisas boas para nós, mas também disse aquilo que precisava. Ele contou a história de pedro, tiago, e joão...quando Cristo, um carpinteiro, chegou até eles, quais estavam pescando a noite inteira, disse-lhes a jogar a rede na outro lado do barco. Fiquei impressionado que em vez de ficar chateados, eles obedeceram-lhe e receberam dois barcos cheios de peixe. Imediatamente, eles deixaram os barcos cheios de peixe para segui-lo. Imagine! Eles podiam ter sustentados as famílias para muito tempo. teriam sidos ricos, mas deixaram tudo para seguir Cristo!

Estou tão feliz que eu posso ser um instrumento nas mãos de Deus para que eu pudesse-lhe trazer alguma alma perdida.

Estou muito, muito, muito, muito, muito, MUITO feliz que Ricky se batizou! Ele é um grande amigo meu!

Google translate

(and it is the youngest of his family . We had a mission conference together with Elder Campos, an area seventy . He said many good things for us, but also told us what he needed. He told the story of Peter, James , and John ... when Christ , a carpenter , came to them , which were fishing all night, told them to cast the net on the other side of the boat. I was impressed that instead of getting upset , they obeyed him and received two boats full of fish. Immediately , they left their boats full of fish to follow Him. Imagine! They could have sustained families for a long time. They would have been rich, but left everything to follow Christ !

I'm so glad that I can be an instrument in God's hands so that I could bring HIM some lost soul.

I am very , very, very, very, very, VERY happy that Ricky was baptized ! He's a good friend of mine !)

I´ll be looking for that Nativity set this week ..they should have it now that its a month before the month of December.

Love Elder Padilla!

"Our drunk neighbor bought us a pizza!! he´s soo funny!"

"Funny how Jessie got the memo right?"

"yeah we may have had some battling..."

"Gabriel and Igor!!"

26 Oct 2015 - Great Week of Work

dear mom,

this week was great!

We did 4 baptismal dates everyday this week!! This was probably the best week I've had on my mission. We just saw miracles happening this whole week! We tried to be super obedient and follow the counsels of Presidente Fusco. So Monday night we talked to 2 friends of a recent convert, Francisco who we baptized 3-4 weeks ago, who went to church this past Sunday and we invited them to be baptized this Sunday(yesterday). I´ll send you the Pictures of them along with a super awesome woman who looked up info about the church on the internet and found us wanting to be baptized! She´s truly a great person!

We took 14 people to church this week! It was a great feeling to have these friends and families gathered together in the church! we were walking on the street and earlier I had refused a ride from a member to go to where we were going and my comp had complained a bit to why we didn´t grab the ride when a man rolled up in his car and asked what he had to do to go to church with us. We were astonished! We told him how and we´ll be going to his home this next week. He went to church!! We quickly thanked God for the reason to why we don´t have cars in our mission. Had we had cars, we wouldn´t had been able, perhaps, to find Júnior.

So we hit on a random door with Rayssa and Tayssa, our recent converts, and the woman let us in quickly telling us that she had prayed that we´d come to her house because her aunt had the missionaries visit her house and her life was changed!!!

The two friends of the Francisco who were baptized were baptized by Francisco. he received the priesthood in the morning yesterday and at 7:30 pm he baptized his two friends!!!!!

So happy to be here working my bootie off!!

With Love,

Elder Padilla

Baptism

Cool pose

19 Oct 2015- I'll stay Safe...

Hey mom,

This week there were so many things that happened! We Got on a bus to come home after Elder Rowell went home and an evangelical man starts preaching on the bus. It´s a normal thing here....but then he gets about half the bus to start to sing with him! It turned into a church in a few second! then he returned to preaching in a yelling voice..it hurt my ear for over 45 minutes while on the bus.

Then I got my new comp.! His name is Elder Jardine. He´s from Idaho and he is 6`6"....he´s huge!!!! We went to a house and found out that it´s a casa de macumba...Dark magic house..where they worship the demon and his fallen spirits..It was kinda cool...like a scare house, except real..kakaka the lady there was cool, but after a few minutes we decided not to stay..

We found this drunk guy who said he´d knock us down, but then didn´t because "Deus é Maior." kakaka and pointed to the sky! then he gave me a bro hug and kissed my shoulder...yuck

So our time on the internet was cut a bit, but I´ll still write as much as I can.

We went to a lesson with our recent convert, Rayssa, and she kicked Satan out of the lesson with her new power called gift of the Holy Ghost!"!! The lesson after she described her experience on her conversion was sooooooooo spiritual!! Then she gave her first talk on sacrament meeting about Faith!!! I´m soo proud of her! she´s awesome! 

So this week was pretty cool! 

I´ll stay safe

Love you all,

Elder Padilla

12 Oct 2015 - Mission Conference

Dear mom,

This week was pretty funny and a little sad...sad because my comp. is going home tomorrow (Real sad for him right? hahaha) and funny because of our sacrament meeting...

Apparently there are funny things here too!! An ex-evangelical woman got up to bear her testimony with shut eyes...fine. but, then she went to the stake president behind her and she started to yell really loud "God is soooo Great!!" and then she gave the air a huge hug!! hahaha Everybody died laughing!

I had a division with my old comp from Montenegro (Elder Amaral!) He´s the Greatest! I´ll send a picture...Not sure if you can see the difference , but I´ll send a pic from when we were comps...

We also had a great mission conference that came out of nowhere! President Swensen, the Brasil MTC President AND ex-president of my president´s mission, was there and it was a conference super spiritual!  He had a presentation about José Smith and his story! He made tons of sacrifices and did it for Christ!

I´m still astonished? from the conference general we had for the world! I´m wowed by the talks given! Still trying to take it all in!

So this is the START of the END. My last transfer! I´ll be staying in this ward! So glad too! I love these people! I´ll send photos of our families we helped!

Love you all!

Elder Padilla

P.S.- can´t wait for that cross country trip! The Record is 32.5 hours , right dad? Let´s try and beat it??? hahaha

Before

After

Bobby

"Bezerra Family!!

"Gonna be a family when we get em married!!"

"Quick pose!"

"Quick! Act like cabinets!"

5 Oct 2015 - Conference Weekend

Dear mom,

This week was inspirational, to us all of course...

I absolutely loved the talks...I watched the Saturday sessions in Portuguese including the priesthood, but that was Sunday morning because it started at 9 here...So we had to get up at 4:30am to watch the rebroadcast in the chapel in Portuguese. Fun. The whole zone was there, except for the sisters, and the joy in our faces that early in the morning was so overwhelming that we couldn´t express it....kakaka

Sunday we got to listen in English. That was good! We got worried about president Monson! He´s literally wearing himself out. 

We got to help a member paint their garage! I was sooo happy to give some service in regular clothes! My comp is an american and we´ve been trying to speak one with another in one language, but sometimes we speak something that is a phrase in Portuguese, but doesn´t work at all in English...yeah it´s difficult to talk. 

It´s super great here in Brasil! It seems that the days are eternities, but the weeks are a wink of an eye. Just 7 more winks...kakakaka

It seems that it´s been getting more difficult, but I´m sure that  Celestial Father who protects us knows it´ll be good for us to take on things which are pushing us to the limit...and who knows where our limit is? Basically, if we put off the natural man there is nothing we can´t do!  

Have a great week!

Love from

Elder Padilla

P.S.- don´t worry about the car. When I get back.....hahaha 

"#Shortsaresoooooooogreat!"

"Apart from conference, this made it worth it waking up sooo early!"

"The American Room!"

28 Sep 2015 - We just need to go with all we got!!!!!(for 8 more weeks!)

Dear Mom,

This week was good. It was actually really rushed. We were trying to do our best to help our investigators and many of the Elders and Sisters in our Zone. We had some battles with some of the parents who don´t want their children to be baptized. There were two in specific which were being used as Satan´s tools. Just as the scriptures say, we withstood her words and she- the grandma of a baptism- was confounded. She literally had no reason that he shouldn´t be baptized and it was kinda sad because in the end we had to bear witness to her that what she was doing was not of God and he didn´t get baptized in the future, it´d be on her head. So it got a little heated here in Fortaleza...kakaka

We had Three baptisms...yah! we actually were supposed to have 4, but the forth had to go home to open the door because her son was locked in the house...but next week she should be in the water! 

President Fusco pretty much burned some of the wards in our stake, but it was hilarious for us missionaries! He said that if they weren´t happy then it´s their own fault. The only true happiness comes from preaching the gospel/sharing the gospel with others. Things will still happen in our lives to make it difficult for us, but if we´re telling others about the gospel we´re not gonna be shaken in our testimonies nor depressed thinking about things we need to be happy....

I´ve been studying the scriptures and teaching and have noticed that these really are the last days (Latter-days). We just need  to go with all we got!!!!!(for 8 more weeks!)

Love Elder Padilla.

"We baptized the brother!"

"Look at the happy peanut gallery...hahaha...they´re great! The friend baptized his buddy!"

"8 weeks! I´m pumped!"

21 Sep 2015 - I hope I´m being a good son.

Dear mom, 

This week was good. It was full of trials. It was full of opportunities to grow. I was reading the insert the church sent out in with the Liahona about President Packer passing the pages, I saw something that he said that I desire too....

"The second goal that I had was that I … wanted to be good—Good for something. Mostly I wanted to be a good son, to both my earthly father and my Heavenly Father. I 

have never thought that I deserved to have good children unless I could be one myself. I’ve had an idea that we contribute to the glory of our Father in heaven when we add in our own person one more worthy individual.

 I’ve felt that I wasn’t worthy to get what I wasn’t willing to give."

I hope I´m being a good son.

I love you.

Elder Padilla

Elder Rocha Baptizing!!!!!! (LUCAS!!!)

https://www.lds.org/church/news/president-eyring-announces-great-blessing-for-portuguese-speaking-saints?lang=engI´m soooo excited!!!!!

15 Sep 2015 - return home flight info for Elder Padilla

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Wednesday 25 November 2015
										Terminal: S
			Arrival	25 November 09:04 AM				Dulles/Wash Dulles Intl (+)
			Duration					01:38 (Non stop)
			Booking status					Confirmed
			Class					Economy (X)
			Baggage allowance					2PC
			Seat					Matthew Ryan Padilla
			Equipment					BOEING (DOUGLAS) MD-88
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