Monday, April 28, 2025

4/28/25 - Interviews and Poker

This week wasn't anything too special.

We had interviews with President Moura this week and it was super cool to talk with our new mission President 1 on 1. 

This Saturday we did a family home evening at the house of 2 recent converts in the ward where we played poker and whoever didn't win had to drink a dried egg powder mixed with water. I did not win.  It was disgusting! My comp ended up throwing up! These recent converts are super cool and we'll be going back this Saturday to make Buffalo wings!

The Book is blue and the Church is true! Read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and you can know for yourself!!

Have an amazing week!
Elder Bliss

Here's the google photos if you want to see photos of my adventures!

Monday, April 21, 2025

4/21/25 - Feliz Páscoa!!

Helo friends and family!!

This will be a quick one cause I have to go to bed soon.

This week it started cooling off and we had a lot rain. One of the days, we were walking down the road in the rain and a city truck passed by with a rescue boat on top of it.  I dont know exactly why they had a boat, but I think one of the roads got so much water piled up they had to bring boats out to get people out of their cars. We live nowhere near any body of water. So that goes to show how much rain we had.

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter! Easter is such a special time of year to commemorate the atonement, death, and ressuection of Jesus Christ!  It is because of Jesus Christ that we can repent, be resurrected and live with our Father in Heaven again.   He knows our pains, our dificulties, our struggles, our temptations, all of our bad days amd everything to come.  He knows it because he lived it. He lived it because he loves us. Because he loves you. And because he lived your struggles he knows exactly how to help you.  I invite you this week to think how the atonement of Jesus Christ has helped you in your life, and how he can help you in the future.  Open your heart and let the atonement of Jesus Christ help you and heal you!

Have an amazing week!
Elder Bliss


Here's the google photos

Monday, April 14, 2025

4/14/25 - Division, Wedding, and Baptism!

Olá, tudo bem?

This week wasn't too crazy. 

On Friday the couple who has been being taught since before we got to the area, João and Eliana, finally got married!! So yesterday on Sunday they got baptized!! Me and my comp, Elder Atkinson had the opportunity to baptize them!

Getting married in Brazil is a pain.  Here's a little backstory from last week. Last week this couple had to go to a government office to set up the wedding date cause they have to do the leagal part of the wedding in the office. For the wedding they need two wittnesses, who have to have a Brazilian ID card.  Elder Atkinson and I were going to be the wittnesses but I haven't gotten my blue card yet and Elder Atkinson was assulted a few months ago and lost his, lucklly there is another dupla in this ward. The only problem was, one of the other dupla is a greenie and also doesnt have his card yet. Lucklly, we had just finnished a division and one missionary in that dupla had his ID card (Shout out to Elder Wright). So, out of the 6 Elders that were there at the time only 2 of us had their Brazilian ID card.  So Elder Hild and Elder Wright signed up to be the wittnesses for their wedding.

Sorry, this part's a little confusing, please bare with me. So, back to this week.  On Thursday I did a little division with Elder Phillips cause his and my companions, the ZLs, had a leadership meeting with President Moura. So Elder Phillips and I went over to Planalto to start a division with Elder Phillips and Elder Spencer so Elder Wright could do a division in São Caetano with Elder Hild so they could be the wittnesses at João and Eliana's wedding Friday morning.  To clear things up, Thursday night Elder Spencer and Phillips were together, I was back with Elder Atkinson and Elder Hild and Wright were together.

Em fim, everything went smoothly and João and Eliana were baptized Sunday right after our church meetings!

Fun side note, my comp chapter 14nd some people at Sam's Club to let us buy stuff without a Sam's Club card, so now I am 1 jar of peanut butter and a hoodie richer.

Tonight, our wards Relief Society came in cluch and brought us some Easter candy! We'll see if it makes it to Sunday.

I'd like to talk a little bit about this season of Easter.  It's not simply a holiday of bunnys chocolate and eggs,  it's a season to remember the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us.  Elder Gary E. Stevenson spoke about this time of year last week in General Conferance.  

"We now enjoy a mix of decorations. What was once almost exclusively bunnies and Easter eggs is now balanced with the Christus and images of the empty tomb, the resurrected Savior appearing in the garden outside the tomb, and the Savior’s appearance to the Nephites. We are also striving to make Easter a season rather than just a day. We are trying to be more conversant, thoughtful, and celebratory of Palm Sunday and Good Friday and of the sacred events that took place during all of Holy Week." And We Talk of Christ April 2025

I invite you to make Easter a season, not just a day.  Study the scriptures, eat a little candy, and Remeber Christ! Maybe you should read his talk again, it's realy good. 

Have a good week!
Elder Bliss

Monday, April 7, 2025

4/7/25 - Conferência Geral!!

Opa! Tudo bem? I hope y'all had an amazing General Conference weekend!

This week was pretty busy for me.  We did 2 divisions this week and one of them ended up being hijacked by another elder in my ward who had a reference for us, so I went with him to meet our new friend.  

The best part of this week would definitely have to be General Conference.  We watched the first session on Saturday in our chapel, and the second we watched part of it in our chapel again, till we got called out for my comp to do a baptismal interview in another area, so we spent a while on a bus that night. Sunday we watched part of the first session in a members house right after we ate lunch. We left early to go watch the baptism (the work of the Lord never stops!) My comp actually did the baptizing.  After the baptism we watched the last session in the chapel where the baptism was.  General Conference is always so special to listen to.

When the recordings come out, I invite you to go back and watch those talks again and really study them there is so much to get out of the words of our modern-day prophets and apostles.  

Have an amazing week!
Elder Bliss

Sorry for not responding to some emails yet, I promise I'll respond soon.

Monday, March 31, 2025

3/31/25 - President Queiroz Emergency transfer??

Bem-vindos para mais um e-mail!

So last Monday we got a message that we were going to have a meeting with Elder Koch the President of the Brasil area. So Tuesday morning we all showed up to this meeting not knowing what to expect.  Elder Koch got up to open the meeting and said, "Welcome to the going away of President and Sister Queiroz." President and Siter Queiroz are switching places with one of the councilors in the CTM presidency.  So President and Sister Queiroz are now serving in the CTM presidency to help with President Queiroz' health issues.  I'm sad that we are loosing Presendent Queiroz, but I'm also excited to see how Presendent Moura does things.  I am really glad Presendent Queiroz now gets to serve in the CTM or, in the words of Sister Queiroz "Ceu do trainimento missionário" (The heaven of missionary training). It will be an amazing experience for them and President Queiroz will be able to take better care of his health. 

On Wednesday we all got together again for the welcoming of President and Sister Moura! They seem to be really cool people and it will be so good to work with them.  There will probably be a lot of changes in the mission in the next few transfers, but no one knows exactly whats going to happen. 

Yesterday I did a division with Elder Phillips, the comp of the other ZL, so our companions could go do some ZL things.  We taught 2 lessons in Elder Phillips area.  We showed up to the first and the lady we were teaching brought us into her house and there was another guy there, so we did the common greating in Português and he just replied something about Americans.  It took me a sec to realize he was saying he was American and didn’t speak Português. So we sat and talked with him for a while.  He has been in Brazil for about a year, living on Google translate.  So, during the lesson we did a lesson in English and Portuguese for the 2 people we were teaching.  It was a very interesting lesson, to say the least.  And, teaching in English is really weird. I'm so used to teaching in Portuguese. 

These next few transfers are going to be a season of change in Missão São Paulo Sul. But whatever changes is the will of the Lord so all will be good in the end.

Have an amazing week and wear your seatbelts!
Elder Bliss

As always here's the google photos album of pictures I've taken

Monday, March 17, 2025

3/17/25 - One Long Week

This week has been one of the longest weeks of my life.  So much has happened this week.  This week has felt like at least 3 weeks for me. So get ready for a long email.

So,  this week started off with Elder Christensen going home to serve a service mission. So on Tuesday me, Elder Wright, and Elder Spencer got to be in a trio and take care of 2 areas. It was pretty fun actually and we got a bunch of work done. 

Wednesday morning we had a lesson in Elder Spencer's area about the restoration.  In the middle of the lesson we got a call, so I just ignored it cause we were in a lesson.  But they just kept calling. Elder Wright checked the phone and it was the APs. So, I excused myself to answer the call, stepped outside side, leaving the other two to continue the lesson(perks of being in a tro😄).  They called us to say, "Pack your bags you're all getting emergency transferred.  Head home after the lesson, pack, go to your lunch then head back to your house and wait for our call." I had to ask, "All 3 of us?" Just to make sure. So after the lesson we headed home to start packing.  And the APs texted and said to be ready by 2:30. So we packed as much as we could before lunch then headed to our last lunch in Jabaquara.  We ate some really good Venezuelian food with a Venezuelian family, said sorry we had to go so soon and headed home to finish packing.  We finished just after 2:30 and just sat there waiting for the APs till 4 when they showed up.  It was then when we finally learned where we our going.  I headed to São Caetano A (in zone Rudge Ramos) with Elder Atkinson.  Elder Wright and Elder Spencer are staying together heading to my old area of Planalto A (which is also in Rudge Ramos so I still get to see them). Also, regular transfers are in Monday, so there's a chance that I'll move to another area next week again, but we'll see.

So now I'm in São Caetano A, one of the richest areas in the mission.  We have seen a bunch of really cool cars, A bunch of Porsches, some Camaros, some Mustangs and some other really cool ones. 
There is no poor area in our area.  There's an area where all the crosswalks have lights in the ground for pedestrians to show if the light to walk is red or green. It's a really nice area.  Also all the busses here are free.

Also, I really like my new comp.  He was in the zone Mauá while I was there so, I've talked to him before and know him a little bit, so it'll be nice to get to know him better! He's also one of the new LZs in our zone. I'm definitely going to learn a lot from him. We are also living with Elder Hild and Elder Phillips who are in São Caetano B.

On Saturday our day was pretty much spent completely in other areas.  We did some street contacts in the morning, then after lunch we went to one of the sisters area to give a blessing to one of their friends. Then we went back to our area visited 2 people, then went to another are so my comp could do a baptismal interview. 

Our ward is really big and nice so we used our suits on Sunday, but it's nice that the weather has cooled off so we weren't dying in our suits.  Our ward had a special class specifically for new converts and visitors which is really nice to get to know the new converts and people who are visiting. 

After church one of the ward missionaries grabbed us and took us to give a blessing of health to one of the members. And then he took us to the house of the member who we were eating lunch.  During lunch the member brought out a Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants that he got on his  mission.  They were some of the first editions in Portuguese the BofM was from 1939 and the D&C 1950. It was really cool. 

Today we did a churrasco(barbecue) as a zone at the Planalto chapel. It was really cool to hang out with the new zone today in a familiar chapel. Also some members showed up and it was amazing to hang out with some amazing members (especially now that I can actually talk to them).

Spiritual thought:
I've been reading the Book of Mormon all the way through and this verse stuck out to me.
2 Nephi 10:23 Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.

The one thing that we have control over in our life is our agency.  It is a God given gift and it cannot be taken away. Use your agency to do good things.  It is already written that we have two choices when it all comes down to it. There are a lot of choices on the way, so we need to make the right small choices so we can be in the right place to choose Eternal life and not everlasting death.  It's your choice.  Make sure to choose the right one. It's already written who will win, you just have to choose the right side so you can have eternal happiness. 

Thank you to all who made it through the email.  This week may have been long but, it wasn't a bad week there was a lot of really good things that has happened and a lot of work done.

Untill next week
Elder Bliss 

Here's the google photos

Monday, March 10, 2025

3/10/25 - Zone Conference

This ones going to be extra short, my bad. Im going to try to get better at writing emails sooner.

We had zone conference this week! It was pretty good! Sister Queiroz spoke for 2 straight hours then we ate lunch there and then we listened to more people talk for a few more hours. There of good things talked about, I'm just writing this very late.

This week has been cooler than the last few weeks and there have actually been clouds. Today it actually rained for the first time in 4 weeks.  

I hope you all have a great week! I'll make sure to write a better email next week.

Tchau
Elder Bliss 

11/24/25 - Temple P-Day!

I didn't send an email last week cause we went to the Temple on Friday! Highlights: The Temple! I love every time that I've been abl...