SOOOOO!!!!! This week, for the first time in my life, I got to meet a General Authority sister! Her name is Sister Aburto and she is part of the Presidency of the General Relief Society! She talked a lot to us about our responsibility and how important it is to spread the gospel to everyone! Not only to spread the gospel, but to spread the love of Christ. It’s weird to think about, but I really have grown a love for the people here in Brazil and a love for Jesus Christ that I never thought that I would have. It was pretty awesome to be able to talk to her! She is a Hispanic, but spoke to us in English, but then she translated into Portuguese! It was pretty funny because she would occasionally slip back into Spanish and then apologize because she spoke Spanish, but it was all pretty funny to me. Also the elections of Brazil just finished up and the new President, Bolsonario, was elected. It interesting to see how politics work in another country, but it’s cool to compare! Anyway, still training out here and working hard that’s for sure!

 Love you all and have a great week!!!  Also like 2 weeks ago it was Elder Pace´s b-day so here are some pics of that too! (He got a little bit burned when we played soccer oops!) 

So this week it’s been pretty awesome to see the work moving forward and seeing some of the blessings that come from hard work! This week Elder Pace and I went out, making contacts like crazy! Which was awesome because every day I really got to see his Portuguese improving, step by step! My son is learning pretty darn fast, this whole Portuguese thing. (I think he gets it from his father).

But, yeah we made contacts a lot lot lot this week. We made some appointments that fell through, but at the end of the week we had planted so many spiritual seeds, I just know something had to sprout by the end of the week! We went around and confirmed like 10 people who were going to come to church and 4 of them actually came! WOOHOOO!!! All of our work paid off with these 4 people! 2 of which were seeds planted by previous sisters. One 4 years ago and the other 1 year ago. Now we are truly seeing how missionaries who are already back at home are affecting the mission today! It’s been an awesome experience this week! Sorry for the lack of photos I’ll be better next week!

Meu Filho Amado!

Olá! Espero que tudo mundo está bem! The tranfer started this week and I am training a new missionary out here in the field! WOOOHOO!!! (in missionary terms: now I'm a dad and he is my son). I am helping Elder Pace learn Portuguese everyday! He is from Arizona and is already speaking pretty well for only having a week out here in the mission field! Its weird being on the other side of the training... Its going super well! We get along pretty well and I know how he is feeling right because I was there! Lost and confused and trying to understand whats going on around you. Its a hard life being a new American. My life now is all about training and teaching Elder Pace how to be the best missionary you can be! Its a huge responsibility and a lot of work, but hey thats why I'm here! I'm excited to see his growth through the transfer and to see how fast my son is going to grow up! It's going to be a great transfer I know it! We also sent off another member of the ward to the mission this week. Fabricio going to Curitiba, Brazil! Love you all and have a great week!

Famílias Poderão Ser Eternas

Coulson didn't have enough time to write a letter this week...but he ENJOYED conference! We shared some personal applications regarding the conference talks and, as usual, I learned so much from Coulsey <3 He did attempt to make Polychinqua (family tradition...crepes) this week and said, "I tried making a Brazilian version of crepes and was alright. It wasn't super good, but not bad either which was cool!"

He also said to have a great week and will write more next week!

Man, oh man how the Lord blesses his missionaries! This week was AWESOME! It started off by receiving a lot of emails from all of you guys for my birthday, which was a great way to start off the week! So, thank you very much! Now I am Elder Rich 2.0, one year older and wiser too! It was an awesome birthday, that is for sure! The day wasn’t that much different from any other…we went around talking to everyone we saw, we taught a couple of investigators as planned and overall it was pretty normal until that night. The stake had a seminary activity that was super huge and they had an inflatable soccer field-bouncy-house thing, so we brought some of our investigators to the activity (so did some other missionaries). It was an awesome activity and everyone loved it! The other missionaries left a little earlier than we did, but we didn’t stay too long after them. My companion said lets go visit Adelma, one of the members of the ward, and I said alright lets go! So we left! BUT, when I got to the members house, SURPRISE!!! My district was there waiting for me with coke and a birthday cake (gluten free of course)! It was an amazing surprise and really I couldn’t thank them enough for it. It really was a great week and a great way to celebrate my 20th Birthday, and my 9 months on the mission!

I guess more on the spiritual side of things, I have really grown to love the scriptures and have been reading a LOT! It’s amazing how my love for the scriptures has grown in the past 9 months. Also, this next week we have a thing called general conference for the church. For those of you who don’t know, general conference is a time where all of the members of our church tune into a program through youtube, through a TV and through various other devices too. But, it’s a time when we get to hear from our prophet. I want to invite everyone to watch it because it truly will be very special! It’s this Saturday and Sunday! So, go to lds.org to find out how and when exactly it is because I only know the broadcast times in Brazil lol!

Have a wonderful week everyone! Thanks again for all the Birthday wishes!!! Oh e também Rich para AP 2019! Sua vota faz a diferencia!