Welcome Home Elder Leete!

 

The last dot is filled in.



Waiting at the airport



Looks like another Elder is also coming home- turns out he was also in Brazil.



Here he comes!
He met up with Elder Bender in route home.  They were companions in the CTM, but served in different missions.



First Hug is with Mom



Greeting the sisters



Strong Brazilian accent



Souvenirs are handed out on the ride home: Earrings



and nut rings.

 



Home Sweet Home

 

All the Leete Kids together again.

 

Very Happy and Proud Parents.

Baptism, Easter, and Itinerario

it’s a very musical time of year now it seems. . .

that’s great that everyone is being so musical, it makes a difference in society as a whole, brazil isn’t very musical. . .every once in a while there won’t be anyone in the ward that plays piano so we sing a capella in sacrament meeting. It took some getting used to.

But that’s okay because we had a BATISMO!!!!!

The grandmother of the girl we baptized a few weeks ago was baptized and confirmed! Also Elder Petersen called me (he is president´s assistant now) and said that an older couple that we found and taught in Londrina third ward a few months ago was baptized too. That made me really happy.

i can really see the hand of the Lord in the every baptismal story, everyone gets baptized exactly when they open up their heart to accept the Lord´s will and not theirs. That couple i taught with Elder Petersen in the Londrina 3rd ward probably have been attending church for the last three months and when they had a spiritual experience, when the time was right, they made the right choice.

Well, I finally got my itinerary; I’m going from Londrina to Sao Paulo to Atlanta to Portland. It will be from 2 in the afternoon on Wednesday 24th of April to 12pm on Thursday the 25th, just lots of flying and layovers. que locura!

That’s okay that I’m signed up just for fall, I just don’t want to sit around doing nothing so if you guys could ask around the ward and stake to try to get me a job that will be nice.

Easter in Brazil is similar to that in the states, but the hunt for real eggs instead of chocolate eggs and only for like organized activities in elementary schools and stuff, never in house. But, the big thing that everyone does is buys really big, expensive hollow chocolate eggs with other chocolates inside. Every supermarket will have a ton hanging on racks from the ceiling to cover all the aisles. Look it up on google you will see the pictures.

I don’t have the courage to buy these eggs, they are always way overpriced.

Speaking of buying stuff, this week I gave in and bought a suit. It was expensive, so that means no more souvenirs for me. But it is good quality so I hope it lasts a long time. I also hope that I didn’t overcharge the card. But, at least I’ll come home looking pretty.

I love you all; I’m working hard as always!

-Elder Leete

New Area and Companion

I´m liking my new area, it’s been nice and cold and rainy here, which is a good change. Good for me at least, but really bad for the branch here. Nobody goes to church when it rains.

My new companion is Elder H from  Pennsylvania. He’s really chill and a hard worker so I’m liking it.

The area where we are working is a little bit poorer, so it’s a good contrast of Londrina. a good thing is that it’s a lot easier to teach people, the hard thing is that the people have a harder time keeping their commitments (going to church, reading the BoM, Keeping commandments, etc.)

O, last week I didn’t end up buying a suit, the only one I liked was twice the price that I wanted to pay. So ill use the money for dry cleaning this week. we found a guy that likes the missionaries so it will be real cheap, like the equivalent of 18 or 20 dollars (I heard that the dollar dropped in value a little) to clean the two suits.

Basically here there are two families of recent converts, each one with like 10 kids and a bunch of grandkids, so this week we are just going to try to teach all of the various in-laws and find out who isn’t baptized yet.

I love you all! I’m trying to think of cool souvenirs to look for to bring home. I already bought a hammock (that I slept in for all of last transfer).

What is Brazil known for? What’s cool that can sit on the mantle for the rest of my life?

tchau
-elder Leete

Time to Transfer and How I Make First Contact

this week is transfers! i am being transfered to Apucarana, a smiller city about an hour away from londrina. its weird to think that it will be my last area. but, i have a lot of time left, i just got to find a lot of people that want to be baptized!!!

all of missionary work comes down to this, finding people to teach.

to do a contact, i will always just invite someone to go to church,

if the person says "no" or "i already go to a church so i cant visit yours" then  i dont even continue.

if a person says "maybe" or "who knows" then i ask a question that makes them think. it could be anything from "what happens after death?" to "Who is God?" to "why are there a lot of churches when there is only one God?" i just say whatever pops into my head (and hope that it was the Spirit that put it there) after about 30 seconds of conversation you can tell if someone is interested or not, when you will ask if the person wants us to go to their house on a specific date and time to share the message.

if a person says "sure" or "where is your church?" then we talk about where the church is and ask if we can mark a day to pass by their house and share the message.

if a person doesnt mark a day and hour specific then it means that they are not interested in the moment.

and thats about all i do, instead of saying like "how are you?" or "good afternoon" to people on the street we just say "wanna go to church on sunday?"

sounds a little crazy but its the best way i´ve found to filter people

i love you all! i´m a little sad to leave the city of londrina, but excited to see how Apucarana is

até mais!

-Elder Leete

New Companion/Old Companion

Hey Everyone, 

i´ve got some exciting news, the new transfer starts now and my new companion will be Elder P! i´m really excited that we will work together again, i trained him when he arrived on the mission and now we will be Zone Leaders together 8 months later!

after 12 weeks of working in this area we havn´t baptized anybody, but we have a few people that are progressing and i´m feeling like here in a couple of weeks we will start baptizing a lot! just have to have faith!

realized that i will have spent half my mission here in the Ts Stake, i´m getting to know every area pretty well.

lets see the MIRACLES happen these next few weeks!

Love you all!

-Elder Leete

P.S. for the Christmas package I could use some more blistex, and i want updated pictures of everyone! and more milky ways!

I love you all!

 

Opening a new Area in Londrina 3

Question: I hope your transfer went smoothly and that you are all settled into your new area.  So tell us who your new companion is and what you are up to.  Still a Zone Leader?

Answer:

This was a little crazy, we thought that we were going to work in the V Ward (which is the neighboring ward of were I served here in Londrina 4 months ago) but after two days president changed his mind and sent us to the "Londrina 3" Ward, so we had to pack our bags again and open this new area. so my first day of work in this new area was Saturday. We are the zone leaders of the "T" zone, which makes up about half of the city of Londrina. My companion is Elder S.

It was weird working close to where already worked a couple of months ago, I got to see people that I did baptismal interviews for and stuff. The missionaries there are going to baptize the granddaughter of an old man that me and Elder A found knocking on doors when we did a split like 6 months ago. (At that time Elder A was my zone leader, yes, the same one that was my companion in M last transfer.)

Also, now that I’m here I’ll probably do a split to see how my recent converts are doing in the S Ward; maybe a family that I tried to baptize finally got married legally.

I’m sorry to hear that summer has come and gone already, now it’s back to school for you all. I’m also sorry to say that winter is ending for me here, so it will start to heat up again.

I Love you all!!

até a próxima semana!

-Elder Leete

It is Just the Work of the Lord, Baptizing the Elect

This week was more hard work for us, we found a lot of people that had a good chance of being baptized, but every single one fell through.

Until Saturday morning at 10:30am

The bishop called us and said there was a young man that wanted to be baptized at the mutual activity that was going on!

We ran to the chapel to find C, a guy that has been dating a girl in the ward, apparently he has been going to church off and on for three years because his parents don’t authorize his baptism. But this week he turned 18! We didn’t even have to teach him anything, Elder A did the baptismal interview right then. He was baptized on Sunday by one of his friends in the ward.

It made me realize how a lot of times we, as missionaries, as much as we work and work every day in the end it is just the work of the Lord, baptizing the elect. Where there are humble people who listen and accept the gospel there are baptisms. We just have to find them.

Love you all, Transfers are this week but I don’t know what will happen because the secretaries haven’t called yet, but if I’m still on the computer I’ll send another email to tell you real quick.

tchau

-Eler Leete

Left to Right:  Elder A, D (member friend that did the baptism), C, and Me

Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 8:43 AM

Subject: transfers

I’m being transferred back to Londrina!! I’m going to work in the V ward, which is the neighboring ward of where I was working last time. It will be weird, I’ll use the same chapel and everything.

love you all!

-Elder Leete

Transfers this week will bring me a new Companion

today has been crazy, we will have transfers this week , i´m going to stay and get a new companion Elder C, he was my zone leader in m and now we are going to be zone leaders together here in m. i´m excited .

Elder s, my comp now, fell and hit his head pretty bad yesterday, so we spent last night in the hospital, but he is getting better, seems like he has a stomach bug or something that made him faint, so hes off solid food for a couple of days but he´ll be just fine.

ive spent some money in the past couple months on restaurants and grocereies but i think ive been forgetting to tell you, so should probably check to make sure its all good.

love you all,

-elder Leete

Transfer to M as Zone Leader

Mon 4/30/2012 8:02 AM

HI to all back home! This week has been really crazy; I spent Tuesday through Saturday with 5 missionaries in my tiny apartment in Londrina, 2 of them were sick and had to come here to see the doctor and we had one greenie American that just arrived from the CTM.

  Then we had the visit of Elder Cook on Saturday!!!! It was really excellent; I could feel really that he is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Crist.

 Then, on Saturday we had transfers after the meeting with the apostle.

 My greenie Elder P is going to train this transfer!! I’m really proud of him, he is an excellent missionary.   Also, I’m now here in a city called M, back in the countryside of São Paulo. It’s a nice big city though, not like P where I was like 5 months ago.  And here I’ve been called to be the Zone Leader together with my new companion Elder S.  It’s a lot more responsibility for me, there are 22 missionaries in my zone that covers M and also three small neighboring cities.

 I really don’t feel adequate for the call, but I know that everything will work out just fine. Just now I have even less time, it seems that we are always on the phone trying to resolve some sort of problem or on the bus going to another area. I don’t know when we are going to find time to do proselyting in our own area! But everything will settle down as I get the hang of things. Elder S has been a zone leader for a while so he knows what he is doing.

That’s all the time I have today! I love you all!

-Elder Leete!

Pray for everything to go well this week

Monday, April 16, 2012 7:58 AM

This week was a good week, we have been working with B and R, they are a young couple with a little baby boy, J. They, with B´s brother, A are family that wants to get baptized but the husband is having a little bit of trouble with the word of wisdom, they were scheduled to get baptized yesterday but we will have to wait for next week since everyone wants to get baptized together. Pray for everything to go well this week.

Other than that the mission is preparing to receive an apostle, Elder Quentin L. Cook, next week along with the president and another seventy too. We are all really excited to hear the words of the apostles about missionary work. When I was in the CTM it was lame, we didn’t get any apostles to speak to us.

Transfers are next week, I’ll probably get moved to another area since I’ve been in this one for 3 transfers, but who knows, me and Elder P are doing really well here so maybe we will stay one more.

Love you all! Hope you are all well! I feel bad because I’ve been way busy to write hardly anything on p-days but you guys will just have to be patient. Sewing all the holes in my pants and shirts and washing the sweat stain on the collars by hand are more important than writing right now.

Love you all!

tchau!
-Elder Leete

My District:
left to right
Elders G, Leete, T, R, B, & P

Elders T and B are the zone leaders

 G and R work in the ward right next to mine and Elder P´s

Same Address

This marks the end of another transfer and I’m going to stay here for more area to finish off training Elder P, then I’ll definitely be moved out. This will be the first time I have stayed in an area for more than two transfers, but I’m seeing the area and ward grow so I think that me and Elder P can do really well here and I won’t get too bored of the place. That means too that you all should feel free to send me packages to this address!

 All letters should be sent normally to the mission office.

Yes they have daylight savings, its turning into fall here so a couple of weeks back we "fell" back an hour. It still is really summer weather here though, everyone is holding out for the rain to start up again to cool us down

We have a ward here with a frequency of about 100 people, the meetings are exactly the same as over there, I just miss having a nice big chapel with carpet and padded pews. The chapel here is really small and has nice hard ones to keep us awake during sacrament.

I just miss carpet in general, and being able to walk around your house barefoot.  Our floor in this house we´re in is straight cement with a layer of paint over it.

I haven’t had to speak here yet, but every once in a while I will give the lesson in principles of the gospel.

Our Young Women’s program in this ward is really strong, they have been really great about integrating our recent convert from last week. She even brought her friend to church this week who wants to get baptized too! Our baptisms are multiplying!

That’s about it for now, we area teaching a really cool family but that needs to get married before they can get baptized, but they have to wait for a previous divorcement paper to go through. In the meantime, pray for the parent´s hearts to be softened to let the kids be baptized. Two  girls, one 10 and one 8. R and A C. The parents are S and D.

Love you all! Remember to send me more peanut butter! (Feel free to send that as often as you want, if I have too much I can pawn it off to others for a lot!)

tchau!

Going Senior

The package i sent was just copies of all my pictures so don't worry, and those pictures i emailed last week were just the only ones that i took that wont be on the memory card that i sent and i felt bad for not sending pictures in a while.

The Easterner is going good, but today is my last day with him because transfers are tomorrow.

That leads me to some announcements. . . .

BATISMO ESSA SEMANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we were walking around in a new neighborhood that we were trying out after praying all week for a baptism because we haven't baptized anyone this transfer.  An inactive member that we never met stopped us on the street and invited us to her house saying that she has been thinking about returning to church. we taught her family and discovered that one of her kids wasn´t baptized yet! We invited her to return to activity in the church and invited her daughter to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to see if she wanted to be baptized this week!! She accepted and we baptized her Yesterday! her name is J

Also, on Sunday i got a call from the assistants to the president and they told me that I will train this new transfer! i will pick up my Greenie on Tuesday morning! i´m really excited. it will be my first time as a senior companion too, i´m a little nervous but i know that the Lord will help my complete this new assignment. i wont know until tomorrow who will be my new comp, but it could be a Brazilian, an American, or a Chilean.(yes, we are getting missionaries from Chile this transfer!)

That's about it for me, i forgot to figure out what my address is here, but ill try to get it to you guys soon. Just send packages to my house address that i will get, letters go to the mission office like normal.

Good luck to everyone in the new semester at school!  I love you all and keep you ALL in my prayers.

Tchau!
-Elder Leete

Transfer for Christmas

I just got the news that I will be transferred tomorrow to Londrina! I'm excited to get to know a new city!  I will also be able to email you guys this Thursday to tell you if the skype time changes, but I'm excited for 7pm on Sunday!


I haven't gotten the package yet, but im excited because this next transfer I will be in L so I will get packages and letters way faster!

Christmas in Brazil is similar, everybody gives presents and stuff, but it really is just an excuse to drink and have a big party and barbeque. It's also interesting that they don't do stockings, because no houses here have chimneys.

We had our zone conference de Natal (Christmas) on Friday, it was really great, I really love my mission president, Presidente Tavares, I have a really strong testimony that he was called of God to be the mission president here now.

I'm sad to leave P, I really have learned a lot from being in a small little branch, especially from the branch president. He is an excellent example of how to be a leader in the church.

I'm learning a lot about the organization of the church, and a lot about the program MLS that the church uses. I bet dad is really familiar with it by now being the secretary (or clerk, i forget which. its the same word in portuguese).

I love you all! Feliz Natal! I gotta  pack all my bags for tomorrow!

-Elder Leete

My District: elder G, Elder C, and Elder E
Yeah its just the four of us.

The church in P, it's a rented house with a big room in the back for Sacrament meetings

Pederneiras



Elder C



looking for a house

Transfer and New Companion

Great to hear that everyone is alive and well and enjoyed conference!

i´ve been really busy this week with transfers, i´ve been transfered to open a new city that has been closed for almost a year called P, a small town about 40 minutes outside the big city of Bauru in the countryside of the state of São Paulo.

i have a new companion as well, his name is Elder C he is really great and im really excited to get this city up and running again with missionary work

the countryside of the state of são paulo reminds me a lot of the countryside of California, really hot dirt but with the occasional grove of trees,  the state of paraná where i was for the first two transfers was a lot like Oregon a little more south than where we live, less green and hotter but with a good amount of trees

this week we didn't really do a lot of proselyting, we have been combing the city for house to live in. right now we are living in B with other missionaries and are commuting 40 minutes by bus every day to p. but even though we didn't do much we have been visiting people who have been taught by the members of the branch here and we are going to baptize four of them this Saturday! a a couple and one of their kids (they  have 3 more kids but they aren't old enough to be baptized yet) and a mother of a recently converted member

the work will go really well here, the members are excited and like to help us and give us a lot of references

I loved conference as well, I got to watch the priesthood session in Portuguese (understood 90% of it) and the two on Sunday in English (they gathered all the English missionaries in the zone and had another room set aside for us to watch). in português they are dubbed over by live translators.

i Loved the spirit of conference this time around, there were so many powerful testimonies. I liked the one by Jefferey R Holland, the one by Tad Callister about the book of Mormon, and the one by the guy in the presidency of the Sunday school about teaching by the spirit. the book of Mormon and teaching by the spirit are the two most important things for me right now to learn about

I love you all so much, Parabéns Rachel no aniversário!  

i got the letters from the family reunion, the package with the pictures in it, and the letters for my birthday. (dont worry i have not opened any of those letters yet) thanks Everybody! i really appreciate all the letters and support!

it keeps on getting harder and harder to speak in English, i hope that my grammar isnt getting too terrible. . . today i tried to bear my testimony in English and i straight up couldnt do it until after i started talking in english for a while.

Love you all! i will try to send more pictures!

-Elder Leete

August 22, 2011 New Companion

wow, its already halfway through august, the time is flying really fast.

my new companion Elder P is really cool, not crazy like Elder F but its a nice break. there is also a big difference in accents, he is from the northeast so he pronounces all his "s"s like "sh" and "r"s like "h". its interesting and only leads to confusion every once in a while

we have been working hard to find new investigators, at the start of this new transfer we cut all of the old ones that were not keeping commitments to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and who weren't going to church so we have to start all over again. its sad to see how people can be disinterested in the single most important message they can ever hear, but if they aren't reading and praying or going to church they will never receive a testimony from God and will never get baptized so we just have to find someone else.

it also is really hard when members don't give us references! so as a present to me, I want EVERYONE who reads this letter to write down the name and address of a friend who you would like to see in the celestial kingdom and GIVE IT TO THE MISSIONARIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO IT!!!!!! you will never ever ever regret it!!!!! us missionaries are wasting our time and your money when we have nobody to teach. there is nothing more frustrating than trying to find people in the street or knocking on doors, it is about half a step up from laying in bed dreaming of teaching lessons to people who really want it

 well that's my little rant for the week, we have one investigator that is progressing and has hope of baptism, we just need to get her to church on Sunday.

all is well here, sickness went away by Tuesday now I just need to remember to not eat fish from Paraguay

love you all!

-Elder Leete

August 15, 2011

another week gone by, everything's going good, we found some more people who really appear like they are ready to hear the gospel.

I would be really jealous but right now I can't even think about going on rollercoasters, I spent last night throwing up and today I'm really happy it is p day so I can sleep. don't worry, its probably just a combination of eating weird things yesterday and not drinking enough water. The weather here really stinks, its winter and its like 90 degrees all the time. walking around all day every day in this heat really gets you. but when it rains here it gets really cold, last week it got down to 30 because it rained for like three days straight, and houses in brazil are built to have just about as much protection from the heat and cold as a cardboard box. last week I was under my one blanket that I have wearing two pairs of pants and my winter coat shivering , and this week I've been sleeping with the fan on full blast with maybe a sheet.

but that's the life here, ill get used to the heat eventually, hopefully before summer rolls around. . .

this week was the last week of the transfer and tomorrow I'm getting a new Brazilian companion, Elder P. I'm staying here in M  and Elder F is getting sent to F  to be a zone leader

that's about it for me, i'm going to go back to the house and sleep now

-Elder Leete

fotos dessa semana

me and elder f in flamengo (meu time de futebol) jerseys. I look ridiculously skinny in this picture I don't know why

a puppy that wandered into our house Saturday night, we found him sleeping on elder f´s backpack in our study room. we named him Poopinho, the old guy that owns the house took him, I hope he´s not dead