6/2 Letter

6/2/14

Hey momma! 

So my new missionary is a Brazilian! He is from the north and is not really accustomed to the cold climate here :P it is really funny actually I am walking around with a short sleeve on and he walked with a long sleeve shirt and thermal underwear! It is pretty funny! I asked him what was the coldest winter that he ever past through and he told me that it was like 28 Celsius which is like way warm! Right now it is like 18 in the morning but warms up a lot during the day! But don’t let the 18 fool you it is actually really cold because of the fact that it is super humid. 

Ohhh his name is elder Silva but he is going to be changing his name to elder William because Silva is super common.

Ummmm so yeah the language! I am super comfortable with the language....I could actually write this whole letter in Portuguese and really there are actually few words that I have a lot of trouble saying. I still have an accent but I am working on it.

This week was really fun! We had a bunch of cool things happen! President finally came to our house to give us our beds (it was because elder Silva came to the house :P)

So this week I was preparing training for our district about testimonies. I started with a prayer and immediately I thought of testimonies and what we need to do to receive them....and how our investigators need them as well. It was a great feeling to receive the inspiration and I went with it! I started studying and I ended up at the central point of the testimony....the Book of Mormon and then we all bore our testimonies on the Book of Mormon and we practiced teaching about it! It was a very cool feeling because honestly I was super worried about it before hand but when I was teaching about it I felt the spirit very strongly! I am super glad for the Holy Ghost and how through him we can receive direction in our lives. 

Another thing that touched me during this week was when we were able to listen to the testimonies during fast and testimony meeting. I heard something that really touched me. A woman was talking about callings and she said that when people asked her how she was feeling because of her calling she was say ´´The body is tired but the spirit is strong.´´ Truly this is how I feel on the mission! I am super tired all the time! But there has never been a time in my life when I have felt so in tune with the spirit! I feel like he is truly my constant companion! 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Elder Pachner

5/26 Letter

5/26/14

Okay so hopefully you received all the different pictures from me! I was at the lan house with the zone leaders this morning and all I did was send pictures for like an hour so I am just going to write you now..... So how was your week??? Ohhh in reference to theI have a son thing I am going to be training and I am going to go pick up my little one at the mission office tomorrow! I am super excited! Also I got called as a District Leader.....I am really nervous to give all the different trainings but it should be a good experience! I am really happy to have Presidents and the Lord’s confidence! So this week I had some really cool things happen.....unfortunately I forgot to write them down in my planner so I don’t remember them ;P     oh here is one....we had a exhibit about the Book of Mormon the other day!! It was super cool!!! We set up banners by the access to the ferry boat and then we talked to everyone!! It was pretty cool! We were able to do some 400 contacts which was perfect! I had a boat load of fun! I had been feeling kind of unexcited to do contacts but this truly helped me feel much happier about doing them! I had a bunch of fun just talking to people and explaining about the Book of Mormon and watching people understand :) It was truly a super day!!! It was super funny as we were there working a group of teenagers came up and started singing, ´´abraço abraço abraço é de graça.´´ which is like say hug hug hug is for free! and they came up and wanted to give us all hugs.......hahaha it was pretty funny we told them that we couldn’t but we all just started laughing because they stood like at the end of our banners and tried to give the people getting on the ferry boat hugs :P it was actually really funny! In the end we took a photo with all of them and I invited them all to English class!! Not one of them came but still it was pretty fun :)

What other things are happening with the work....I am feeling the spirit stronger and stronger. My prayers continue to become more meaningful to me and I am truly loving the work! The other day I was at the church just looking at the pictures. I saw a picture of Christ and I looked at it and I silently prayed. I asked if He was happy with my work on the mission and I felt a peace come over me. I know that God has accepted my work thus far and will continue to accept it as long as I am trying my best and working with the spirit. The other day I was teaching about repentance. I was teaching and I was telling the kid that I was teaching about the 5 steps...then he asked what happens if we make the same mistake twice. I told him this, God doesn’t ask us to be perfect he just asks us to be willing. I felt the spirit really strongly during that! I know that truly God does not ask us to be perfect he only asks us to have the desire to do what is right and when we fall down to get back up!

I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thank you for sending me all the emails :)

Love, Elder Pachner

5/12

5/12/14

So I am trying to send you guys a bunch of pictures if it doesn’t work I am super sorry :P Anyways by reques,t I will retell the Abinadi story :P So The other day I was reading in Mosiah chapter 18. I started off by asking the Lord to help me learn something that I had never thought of before and as I was studying I realized that Alma and Abinadi had been teaching at the same time to the exact same people so the thought came to my mind....why did Alma have so much success (450) and Abinadi had so little (1)? This caught my attention and as I was thinking about it the answer was given to me....It is because Alma was the friend of the people.  Yes he had been wicked for a long time but the people still knew him very well and they trusted him. Abinadi was just some stranger who came to them telling them that they needed to repent, whereas Alma had once been their leader and teacher. Abinadi are the missionaries, strangers that come up to your door and tell you to repent and members and like Alma, trusted friends who have much more power of friendship than the missionaries ever will! 

I went to the beach today to run with my companion and it was beautiful! I am super duper excited to be here ;) I cannot wait to see what this next week has in store for me :) 

I love you all and I hope that you guys have a great rest of the week :)

I love you, Elder Pachner

5/19 Letter

5/19/14

It´s my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well it will be on Saturday! :P and you know what president got me for my birthday????? A bed, closet, and study tables!!! and a new companion!!!!!!! I am going to be training!! Whaooo!!!!! I am super excited!!! So yeah! I am super excited for that because you know it is just something new to do and I am happy that I am getting more responsibilities! The only thing I am worried about is the fact that I only have about 2 weeks in the area and that means that I am going to have to try and remember everything this next week!!! I will be getting the new missionary this next Monday!!!!!! :) or Tuesday i really don’t know but anyways it will all be good with me! 

Oh yeah and I am going to turn 19 this week....no biggie! I am just going to do something fun....I have no idea what yet but I will find something to do!

Ummm I had a really cool experience this week! I was sitting and thinking during the sacrament and I was looking at the family in front of me. They had a child that looked a lot like Chase when he was younger. He was squirreling around and messing but at the same time it was really cute. And when I looked at him I started to think about you guys and then I started to think about my future family and how much I want my family to be like that and as I was thinking about that and my mission in general the spirit came to me and the words came to me ´´It will all be worth it´´ Truly I know this! I know that my mission has a purpose and I know that truly one of the most important things that we learn here on the mission is how to grow up and coexist with other people! I am very glad for my mission and for that fact that I am serving here in Brazil!

I love and miss all of you! I hope that you all get the chance this week to think about someone that you would like to see in the gospel and then talk to them a little about it :)

I love you!!!!

Love, Elder Pachner

4/28 Letter

4/28/14

So this week we had some two investigators come to church!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) They were not the same investigators that were there last week but still we had some there which is awesome :) I am feeling very hopeful for the growth of this area  :) We have some amazing people that we are teaching and I am really hoping to help here :) 

So about the transfer there was one last week but both Elder Schoen and I stayed in the same area which is awesome! I really like him! He is like a brother to me! We are getting to the point that we can already anticipate what the other will say in lessons! We are really having a great time here!

Okay so about the title I will explain :) so the other day we had an English class and we had this new girl come. We had actually contacted her on the bus about 4 weeks before and we had called her to remind her about the English class that morning but she had rejected our call soooo we were like okay she isn’t ever gonna come so we decided to not to call her again. But then during the English class who should show up but her! The first thing she says is okay so after the English class we can talk about religion right? It was amazing :) So we had our English class and then we had a member who goes there stay with us so we could teach her right there in the chapel. 

So we started to teach her and the lesson was going great! It was a very spiritual lesson and then we got to the first vision! The Holy Ghost testified very strongly and I just felt extreme peace. We told her that what she was feeling was the spirit.  She accepted to be baptized! Hopefully it will happen :)

Overall it was a good week! I love you guys so much! 

Love, Elder Pachner

Pictures From Elder Pachner 6/6/14

      From left to right Elder Silva (Elder Pachner's new companion), Elder Pachner (Distric Leader), The Zone Leader, The AP