Nov. 28, 2011

Dear famliy,

Another week has gone by and mom yeah it was a pretty fast week for me. I can't believe how fast it went. Well we got a call yesterday for transfers and I and my companion are going to be staying together for one more. (I think he wanted to train) but oh well, he will have that chance some other time. I'm glad you had a good Thanksgiving. It was a regular day for us. Brazil doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving.  So it was good.

Christmas is coming up here pretty soon. We don’t know what we are going to do. President has planned a huge party in Manaus and he still isn’t sure what will happen with the people that aren’t in Manaus. He said that maybe he will bring everyone in to Manaus only that we would have to ride on the bus for 18 hours. I’m not a big fan of riding for long distances, but it is president that decides and I just have to obey.   We will see what will happen.

This last Saturday we had a musical that the district of boa vista put together it took them more than a year to put this together and it turned out great! They made these convites two weeks ago and since then everyone got together and just started handing them out inviting everyone to this musical. It was great we had a lot of people that weren’t members. We put up two tables with material, Book of Mormons, pamphlets, videos etc. everyone was excited to share what they know about the church. It was great.

Well I better get going now. I'm sorry this is a short email, a sister made lasagna for us so we are going to go eat now.

Jane thanks for the email. I love you too. I will be able to talk to you in 25 days…I cant wait! Are we going to get a dog Jane? That would be soo cool huh? Rose is a cool name and if it was a boy what would you name him? Love ya Jane- I gotta go

Love you all

Elder Ontiveros   

PS Thanks for the work out plan mom and I could use some of your cookin right now. Why aren't you guys going to Scipio? Grandma and Grandpa got home and you arent going? and oh I think I might need some new shoes for christmas and maybe some socks. 

Nov. 21, 2011

Dear família

Well another week has gone by and I have made it. I didn’t really think that I would make it, but after the zone conference was over I felt a lot better. I had to conduct and share a training with the zone this last Friday. I think it went ok I could have talked a bit more, but I think the spirit was present and he was able to teach our zone something. President is a good guy I really love him and I have felt his love for me and the other missionaries he talked about the importance of doing our best and working hard and we do this because we love God.

He put a small table and chair in the front and put a greasy bag with a breakfast sandwich and asked us what we thought. ´´ Are you willing to eat this?´´ while he asked us that he ran his fingers through it ´´and what about now?(The only person that was willing to eat it was an elder that is a little bigger than us) He then put another table with a white cover, a chair that was very comfortable, the finest utensils a sandwich with tomatoes, lettuce, meat, cheese and a white chocolate cake with cherry on top and a  fruit salad- just everything and he said ´´what about now? Would you give this to The Lord? You have got to think about what you want to give to Him on how you want your life to be. How you want your family to be.´´  Afterwords he showed a couple of pictures of missionaries and after their missions and their families and how a mission changed and blessed their lives. It was really good I loved what he said. He also said that we have to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I am in Alma right now, so I have got some reading to do.

I love you guys very much. Thanks for the pics. Hope you all have a great week.

With much love,

Elder Ontiveros    

November 14, 2011

Dear family,

Well this week went by sort of. After I got off of the phone with you guys everything went ok. Everyone started laughing and joking. When we were waiting for a taxi on our way to go to the stake center so that I could call you all. A member, who loves the missionaries, was passing and was actually heading to same exact place that we were going to. This member is also pretty crazy, but he makes us laugh. He dropped us off at the stake center and picked us back up after I called you guys. On the way to our house he bought us dinner and just him being goofy made me feel a lot better. So, yes I am being watched over. Angels are on our shoulders and I don’t have one doubt! I know that grandma is helping me. Something is inside of me, I feel it. It makes me want to be a better person each and every second it shows me what I should do in certain situations. It is the Holy Ghost and I am very grateful that I have it.  

This week we have zone conference. Here in boa vista president didn’t put zone leaders just two district leaders and since I am a district leader we have got to put this conference together. And we have to give a training. I sure hope that it goes well. I will be training on the importance of working with members. Members are part of this work, it is important to have a member present in every lesson and to work and share with them how this work is coming along, who we have that will be baptized, if they have anyone that we could teach..etc .Wish me luck.

I love you very much. Tell grandpa o that I love him too. 

I want to show you guys some pictures of our house,but like I said I left my charger in acre and i think I will be getting it around December, but it is a really nice house! We have four trees a tree of mango two fruit trees that I forgot the name of and a lime tree. It´s pretty cool we make all sorts of juices.

Well I better get going. Love you until next week.

Elder Ontiveros  

November 7, 2011

Well 
I think everything will be alright. One of the things that president said is that we all go through these experiences. He shared a story with me and told me that his companion (who was one of his friends that he baptized into the church) had a brother die on the mission and he then knew that the Lord put them together for this reason. He was able to comfort him and everything went well afterwords. Just look upwards all is well all is well- Tudo bem tudo bem. After a lot of sobbing I feel a lot better.  Really peaceful. I feel like I need to study the plan of salvation a lot more. So that is what I am going to focus on. 
I love you guys
iz thanks for the email I will try and write a bigger email this next week. You rock
Love you all,
Elder Ontiveros