its almost kanishmash!

updates:

i have been called to be a  Zone Leader in POA

 we had a very special White Christmas and we baptized Angela (shes super awesome and special)

....

yaaa thank you all for the love and support!

<3 u all

Elder Maynez

11.25.13

1. our baptisms of this week 

   Euclides and Conceição  they are soooohoooo awesome!  i love them so much.  they are Elder Buhler´s first baptisms!  He´ll be able to watch them get sealed while he´s on his mission!  lucky

2. temple trip.... whoa it was sooohooooo awesome.... i loved it so much!  i am so stoked for everything to come... i learned that the only way to come back to the presence of God and become more like him is through trials.... if we dont have tests we wont learn.  so im grateful for my trials and difficulties because i know its making me stronger.

3. i bought a 45 lb watermelon.... it was HUGE!!! her name is melanie... or melony.  hehe

wellll this week is thanksgiving!  i invite you all to think about the blessings you've received... trials, support, etc.  i think of trials as hidden blessings.  we all go through hard things . . . we just gotta remember that we signed up for this in the premortal life haha.... but its alll good turn out fine.  

the other part of the invite is- in your prayers just express thanks... dont ask for anything.  if you do that you´ll see how blessed youve been and you´ll develop humility.... #learnit #applyit #liveit  

well be good and i love you!

Elder Maynez

{pics are coming}

11.4.13

sorry about the lack of emails.... i havent really had time to write an email to everyone lately.... lack of time equals lack of emails.  

lack of time + lack of emails = angry crowd

Anywhhhhayyyys im sorry angry crowd that i havent updated you about my adventures here in Brasil.

The latest things that have gone down are the following:

 - a hurricane . . . i killed that desire i had to go swimming.  I was soaked head to toe.  my bones got wet thats how much rain was dumped here in Butiá.

- I´m loving the mission more and more and sorry mom that i might not come home because the mission is the only time where i wont have any responsibilities.  No job, no wife or children, no studies to do, etc just me the Lord and his people.  One thing that im learning is that when you´re out and about solving other people´s problems (serving your fellow man: caring, visiting, loving etc) you forget about yourself and your problems. So God can use you to solve his other childrens problems.  and while youre doing the Lords will he´ll solve your problems .... its simple.

We had a conference with Elder Mazzagardi... wow i fell in love with that man haha he´s so spiritual and smart... imma be like that one day.

wellllll after that conference idk what happened but i started to feel like i wasnt the one teaching anymore.  i felt like the Lord has really been using me lately.  I dont teach anymore.  i just testify of what i know to be true and let the spirit do the teaching.

Wellllll thats about it....

any questions comments or concerns talk to my secretary about it.

XoxoxoxoxXOoOXoXOXOxOXOXOXOXOXoxox

Elder MAynez

#thisiswhyimfat

#phat

1 YEAR!

highlight: 

      i made one year!  whoo hooo!  its all downhill from here

      im still in butiá and im loving #mcdonalds

      the members here are awesome, the investigators are very special and yaaaaa

       the biggest challenge here is that all the families im working with are baptizable buuuuuut they are getting baptized because they arent married legally!  so that takes about 1 month (minimum) to do.  so i guess the work i have to do here is marry everyone here.  Then if i stay another 2 months that means ill see the fruits of my labors. so i hope i stay :)

      we ´ve had a bunch of inspirational things happen, general conference zone conference and yaaa i did a division with the zone leader.  Elder Alves.  he´s the most spiritual missionary ive ever met.  he inspired me so much!   ill never forget the things he taught me.

lowlight:

     pulled a prank on my comp.  i bought a fake poop and he almost died from the scare..... but ya that was sooohoooo funny

      we found a turkey that speaks with us.   gift of tongues.  i speak turkish too.

anywhayyys i love the mission and im blessed beyond measure :)

if i could stay another year i would.think about it. haha

but ya....

i love being in the service of the Lord

Love Elder Maynez

Picturesque

yaaaaa i went to the beach the other day 

haha the first thing im gonna do when i come home is dive into a pool

anywhayyyyys this week flew by but it was super tiring. we had to get up at 5am erday and catch a bus to go to another area so i could do the interviews baptismals.  That is the coolest thing ever.  I loved it.  I did 4 interviews and wow the spirit was so strong.  to top it all off we were able to watch conferencie geral.  wow sorry i forget how to speak.  anywahyyys we just watch sunday morning and afternoon. it was sooohooooo gooood! 

wellll in the words of our prophet beloved 

let us always be found doing the lords work.  our biggest responsibility is to build the lords kingdom in preparation of the 2nd coming

love ya! 

Elder Maynez

I'm Quote-able

wellllll im still alive. i stressed out the first week but everything is going really well,.  time just flies when ur having fun.  i remember when i came on the mission and i would look at my trainer and be jealous because i wanted to make the members laugh with my jokes.  now im the senior that gets along with the members and makes them laugh.  

there are lots of dificulties and challenges but its good because it makes me work harder and learn more.  i study alot and i am learning so much.  i know when i think and when the spirit helps me think.  

All the members here quote me.  its funny.  im quoteable.  sweeeeeet

well my comp Elder Buhler is still alive.  He´s learning how the mission really is but its alright because i already went through that so i know how to help him not get bummed out, we´re good friends.  he always talks about home and how there were a bunch of cool new songs that came out while i was on my mission.  . .. wow i feel like an old man next to him. its funny

but ya

life is good

mission is better

Love you all!

Elder Maynez

I Almost "Fell" In

1. Serli is the best person ever.  Shes a prophet.  She´s had so many revelations about the temple, baptism, baptisms for the dead and ya.  We baptized her this week. it was awfully special.  the power went out. we sang A LOT of hymns and ya.  it was super special.

2. Just a couple of kids that are extremely hard to take care of in sacrament meeting.  my planner is all marked up with their drawings and yaaaa. . . its a fight but it will all turn out well.

3. there is a lake in my area and the other day there were a group of kids jumping off a bridge.  i almost "fell" in.  ahhhh it was torture!!!!

PS i cut my hair.... never am i gonna cut it again like that.  ahhhhh

love you all!

if you have questions comments concerns or jokes email me!

Elder Maynez 
elan.maynez{at}myldsmail{dot}net


 pps
This is the closet that takes me to Narnia. 

Fiesta Del Taco...

1. smores party with Laurinha!  haha shes so cute! she´s addicted to hersheys chocolate.  its gonna be my fault if she grows up and becomes obese.  

2. We had an activity for the youth and young single adults. . . mhmmm fiesta! del taco. . . it was super good.  my comp made the best guacamole ever.  PS did u know here in brasil they eat avocados with lime juice and sugar?  weiiird but in a good kind of way.

3. Butiá!  this is my area as of now. 

4.  We donated a box of book of mormons or books of mormon. whatever.  we donated a box to the public library.  so theyre gonna the dirty work for us (theyre gonna give the books away to people who come into the library!)

there was a parade.   for brasil independence day.  it was cool. i had to take some pictures.

the first 2 are of a cake.  it looks like he lost a bet and had to walk around in that cake costume.  poor guy

the next 2 are of a kid that got picked to be a horse or donkey idk.  he didnt look too happy to be there.

the last one is a kid dressed up as a devil.  idk why.  i dont know what the devil has to do with brasil´s independence.   

that was my week basically :) 

Picks

family nights

motorcycle made of wood

chimarrão partayyyy

My Favoritest of Scriptures. . .

alma 36:3 has become one of my most favoritest scriptures.... it says
  

"And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day."

We, missionaries, are so blessed because we have 2 years where we can learn to have confidence in the Lord.
 I don´t know where or when else i would have learned that.  we have to learn wisdom in our youth because when we´re old farts or foggies or whatever you wanna call us we are going have our habits developed and from what i´ve learned on the mission you can´t teach old dogs new tricks....  when we learn to trust in God when we´re young laddies we will be able to know where to look for support in our darkest hours of desperation.  

other than that i am still alive and still having a good time... this week was challenging because it rained A LOT. and the roads are made of dirt so we were covered in mud.... we tried to teach but to no avail because who would let two muddy strangers in their house?  haha yaaaaa

its all good though.... its a part of the mission i was the one who signed up for this....

we had stake conference.... our branch rented a huge black spy bus... that was cool..... but ya on the way home i dozed off and next thing i know the kid next to me started a puke fest.... thank goodness he didnt get any on my suit.... haha but ya it was really really chunky.... i hope u guys are reading this as u eat lunch.... but ya i helped him out and then after a few more minutes he was at it again.... yaaaaa..... poor kid.... then after that his sister decided to join the party.... that family has weird genetics... they shouldnt get on buses.... and i feel really really bad for the people that have to clean that bus up afterwards.... one thing i have certainty.... that company is never gonna rent a bus to the Mormons ever again.;... hahaha 

welllllll be good i love you all and thanks again for the support!

ELDER MAYNEZZZZZZZZ

Don't Run with Scissors!

this week was good.

not many things happened that are worth mentionin

just the same old business... that is teaching and preaching the word to all the creatures of the world

more than that idk what you want to hear.

im still alive...... we´ve been visiting schools and teaching lessons there (we teach the first vision to 20-30 kids) its super cool because now er´body knows who were are and what we´re all about....

the time is flying by

my companion is still chilean and hes doing great in case any of u were wondering

we´ve been studying the pre and post mortal life alot lately.... theres alot of unanswered questions.... but its all good... we´ll know one day.

Be good!

Dont run with scissors!

Dont talk to stranjers!  

love you all!
ELder maynez

Some Pic-a-lics

No email this week, but Elder Maynez did send some pics!

And we all know that pics are worth a thousand words...

so ya....

worn out shoes

giant pig....no seriously it was ginormica!

giant pineapple hehe jk

uhhh and a bat that attacked me one night... had to kill it... then i thought about giving pilo wings. haha

Send letters or emails! :) 

A Joke and Some Growing Up

so ya... ive got 9 months on the mission.... im learning so much and im realizing how fast the time passes by.  I´ve changed so much in just 9 months.  my priorities have changed and im living a new reality where im putting God in the first place.  It´s amazing the experiences ive had.  

I see differences in the lives of people, between those who put god first and those who trust in the material things.  Unfortunately there are so many ppl who think they have faith in God but when tried their faith crumbles... like a cookie :)

i had the coolest experience this last week... we are working in a new area called minas do leão and as well in butiá. we have 2 towns under our responsiblity.... anyways in minas theres a man (70 yrs old single) we´ve taught him several times, he has never been baptized and he wants to be but he wants to wait a little more.  He is really cool and intelligent. he studies the scriptures a lot.  But the other day he talked with us and said "i think i´ll just stay here in my church, but i enjoyed the time we had together."  i thought that was it, but then he looked at me and asked "you are always looking at me so intensely, what do you see?"  i responded "what i see is," paused and thought... "i see a man who is good, who loves god, but he is missing something.  theres a vacancy in his heart and he doesnt know where to go to fill that hole.  He searches but to no avail..." when i said that the spirit came and testified so strongly... i felt that God had just used me to speak to his child.  sooooohooo cool

it was one of those "you had to be there" experiences....

i made a grown man cry @lex... 

but ya i love the mission... the mission loves me.

it truly is a good preparation for the life post mish... i council people and i see them as my family foreals

well bye...

heres a joke u guys deserve it for reading this email,

whats black white black white black white black white black white black white black white red?

.....

a penguin falling down the stairs... haha

l

love ya!

elder maynez

The Lions Mine: July 8th

Wellllll another week went down... i cant believe how fast it went by

so this week we´ve had some major success.

we´re teaching several families that are progessing greatly...

im so happy for their progress.... we have been working on having the spirit present in every lesson... so far its been working very well... the spirit is the greatest teacher and without him theres no way the people will convert...

we´re starting to open another area called Minas do Leão.;.. the Lion´s Mine!  haha we are received there very well;.. we went to a high school and the principal gave us tons of students addresses so we could go visit the families..  ITs really neat because the town is so small every one knows each other... We´ve met tons of new people and its cool to bring the gospel to people who have never even heard of it.  The only downside is that in the next week or two tons of pastors will be showing up to bible bash with us because we´re taking their congregations away hah its ok ill destory them with my scripture knowledge!

haha #nerd

I love the people here.  there are some real warriors here... people make some amazing changes to accept christ in their lives . and when they forget about the material goods and think about spiritual blessings the change in their lives is incredible.  The church is true.  Joseph smith is the prophet of the restoration.  He translated the Book of mormon.  Thomas s Monson is the ´prohpet in these latter days and i know God lives... he loves us and is always listening to our prayers

Love you all thanks for the support

for any questions, comments, concerns, jokes, or childhood traumas you can contact me at elan.maynez@myldsmail.net

# churchistrueandthebookisblue

Love ya,
Elder maynez

I've Got Juice in My Blood...

Happy early independence day :)

 im gonna download the american anthem and blast it on july 4th at 630 am

thatll make my chilean comp happy haha

no but seriously i will

well im all transferred to BUTIÁ... a small town in the middle of nowhere.;..its a good thing that i have learned german because the majority of these people are german descent and the gpas and gmas are german!

haha welll nayways i had a good week.... we had a party at the "chapel" (a little house with a podium)  it was fun .... before i had to help prepare a drink called quentão... genereally its made with wine but they decided to make it with grape juice and natural orange juice.

they appointed me as official juicer... so they gave me 400 oranges and a little electric juicer... i cut all the oranges in half and started my job.... i juiced about 3 oranges and then yaaaa the juicer decided to take a break.... so i was left there by alone with my two hands.... never again will i juice something.... it took forever! i had so much juice on my shirt, tie and in my blood... all that juice diffused through my skin into my blood stream... whoa.... yaaaa...
then the party started i got to know tons of people.... then ya we were having a good time... then all of a sudden there was a lot of hub bub.... 

apparently some hoodlums entered without being detected and stole a few things from people....

we had to go search them out in a car and ya long story short the cops got involved... wow so much drama.... then ya i gave a talk the next day about charity... so ya good stuff huh?  

i cant think of much more of what happened bc so much has happened... and my fingers are cold i cant type fast...
well love ya all and take care

Elder Maynez

#churchistrue

Rainbow...Inspired

well ive been working harder than ever... its awesome i got into missionary mode its awesome... 

the only downside.... we had lunch with some members in their apartment complex and as we left the daughter left with us to unlock the door for us.... unfortunately we had to take the elevator,,, 4 guys one girl... lemme correct that 4 missionaries 1 girl and 1 tight elevator,,,, we all squished in reluctantly and ya.... she literally had a 1 foot personal bubble while the rest of us were smashed up against the wall hahaah.... then the door opened and we exploded out like a can of soda.... #girlaphobia #daaaangit

well that was the funny story,... as for the Lords work its rolling.. This area was dead sauce when i came in... now we´ve got tons of baptisms marked.... it seems like we´re never stopping its awesome.... the more i work the faster time passes its crazy.... but ya we´re working with a family right now and everything is going smoothly its awesome.... im so stoked for everything.... i hope that all goes well and that i dont get transferred. we´ll see :)

ill go where the lord wants me to go

Pics:

 "IMAGINATION"

 "Fam Bam"

 "I´m on a tree... YAH!"

Cya laters

ELder Maynez

Shawty

Well this week was alright...

things didnt go 100% right but they still went pretty well

i bought a little soccer ball that i would kick around on pday and walk around the sidewalks with... but my comp kicked it into the street into oncoming traffic.... but thankfully we are in brazil!

there was a huge semi truck coming to run over the ball buuuut he swerved in the name of soccer.  HE cut off another car to avoid running over the little ball....

im happy to see that brazilians are considerate enough to put their lives and other peoples lives in danger to avoid running over a ball that has gone astray.  

I love brazil

The mission is amazing

im here for the Lord and not for anyone else,

I am learning almost too much ahah

Love you all,

Elder Maynez

Tea N' Reflections

Just a random Grandparent shoutout...  I love you guys thank you so much for finding the church and staying strong in it so we could enjoy these blessings :)

so this week bascially i went to the temple this week that was ahhhsum

the session was in portuguese! it was so cool except for the fact that all the voices were lame sauce.... thats all ive got to say about that...

i bought a book of mormon in german... so i may or may not start learning some german ya know to convert those people that speak german....  i´ll probably give up in a week.

Welllll i have been a little sick lately so every night before sleeping i sit at my desk and drink tea while gazing at my bonsai, Taiwani.  I usually feel better after that meditation time.

We have been contacting tons of people lately and we´ve found a bunch of new families to teach.  I decided to be more like Jesus and invite everyone to baptism whether or not they want it.  So ya we had tons of marked baptisms for this week,

next step is to weed out the non-believers... 

Great things are happening because of our faith and diligence.... dont worry im still alive but im barely breathing... mostly because i have to climb a cliff every day and my comp has freaking long legs so me and my stubby legs try to keep up with him.... it gets tiring.. haha

but ya be good i love you guys thanks for the emails and support.

if you write me a letter im sorry but im really slow to respond... but dont worry it will come back some time... 

Love yous guys

Elder maynez

Love, and a Side of Fries

so whats up?  im alive and i am doing good

i hope all is well back in the US of A...

so this week i did 140 contacts and got 140 addresses to visit.  

its the one thing my whole mission i havent really been too good with.  I mean i did contacts but not like a mad man.

we have a goal for every companionship to do 140 per week....

i did 100 by myself and my comp did 40.  All i know is that i found 3 new families to teach.  ahhh its so cool.

today im going to the temple after this email time :)

welllllll i think thats about it bubby

my knee is fine

im still chubby

but im beautifuller than ever

haha buh bye

with love and a side of fries,

Elder MAynez

New Companion in the House!

welllll this week was crazy,

got a new comp. Elder Gull from Parowan, Utah... hes pretty legit he wants to work hard and thats what i want to do as well so this team is going to be a dream team.

The only downside is that when we´re in the house we tend to speak english because we´re in the house with another companionship that are americans.... its gonna be a mess

4 americans in one apartment = mess

the first night our food cabinet fell off the wall... its situated 2 meters off the ground and in the middle of the night it came crashing down.  we lost a lot of flour and a box of milk was crushed...

yes i said a box of milk.... the milk here comes in boxes... it doesnt go bad after 3 months... cray cray 

but ya we still gotta give the apartment a deep clean

we did some work and some contacting and that was good.... 

i dont know if i ever mentioned her but this woman i taught just got baptized in pelotas!  i was overjoyed when i heard the news

the other greatest news i can tell you readers is that i bought a bonsai tree.... in the middle of city sometimes its nice to see some nature... so ya thats why i bought the tree.

the last highlight was we met a man who plays the accordian.... wow.... i love the accordian i wanna learn that insturment maybe when im back home haha

well be good

do your prayers

never say never #jbeibs

love you all

Elder MAynez

Grandparent Shoutout

Just a random Grandparent shoutout...  I love you guys thank you so much for finding the church and staying strong in it so we could enjoy these blessings :)

so this week bascially i went to the temple this week that was ahhhsum

the session was in portuguese! it was so cool except for the fact that all the voices were lame sauce.... thats all ive got to say about that...

i bought a book of mormon in german... so i may or may not start learning some german ya know to convert those people that speak german....  i´ll probably give up in a week.

Welllll i have been a little sick lately so every night before sleeping i sit at my desk and drink tea while gazing at my bonsai, Taiwani.  I usually feel better after that meditation time.

We have been contacting tons of people lately and we´ve found a bunch of new families to teach.  I decided to be more like Jesus and invite everyone to baptism whether or not they want it.  So ya we had tons of marked baptisms for this week,

next step is to weed out the non-believers... 

Great things are happening because of our faith and diligence.... dont worry im still alive but im barely breathing... mostly because i have to climb a cliff every day and my comp has freaking long legs so me and my stubby legs try to keep up with him.... it gets tiring.. haha

but ya be good i love you guys thanks for the emails and support.

if you write me a letter im sorry but im really slow to respond... but dont worry it will come back some time... 

Love yous guys

5/13/2013

well it was good to see u

and as u can tell im a man of little words

but ya im alive and everything is good

im happy and ya.... im turning weird as u guys saw

i no longer stress out so much

i love where im at

its transfer time and im getting a new american team mate

i feel bad because after i talked with u guys i remembered tons of other things i couldve talked about

here are some pictures of that praying mantis

and ya the PIZZA HUT

mhmmm good stuff

well this week was alright

the transfers been kind of a blah... my comp keeps getting sick and not much is getting done but whatevs we´ll see what the new transfer brings

love ya

Elder Maynez

Mother's Day 5/12

It was so good to see Elder Maynez on Sunday! :)

Here are some pics of us Skyping him (+ a video)

Pic Overload!

yaaa i have some pictures of doing some service projects... canal cleaning, lots of mud 

painting... i dont even know how my hair got painted white

and i got certified at the school of chimarrão... im certified yo

check out the chique computers i use ... pretty cool huh? touch screeeen

Don't forget to email Elder Maynez at elan.maynez{at}myldsmail{dot}com!!!!