Received 6 New Missionaries this month.  These 2 from Brazil, 3 from the US and 1 more sister from Brazil.  Receiving New Missionaries is one of my most favorite days!  I love to see these new faces, feel of their love and energy!  We love them even before they arrived.

Interesting to note -  We currently have 31 Americans waiting in Missions in the States, for their Visa's.    Receiving Visa's continues to be a problem in this Country.  Thru out the Country of Brazil and the 34 Mission's here we currently have 1000+ Visa Waiters.  Many prayers are offered daily by us, families and church members throughout the World.
Elder Wrights, one of our New Missionaries had this experience with receiving his Visa.  His Mom wrote this to us 
"When Brody was reassigned to Nashville, Tennessee we were told that he may be there up to six months, however as a family we all just knew that it was part of the plan and how exciting for Bro to have the experience of a state side mission as well as Brazil.  Two weeks before his visa arrived Brody met a man who ask him why he was in Kentucky. (That is part of the Tennessee mission).  He explained about his visa and how he was waiting for it.  The man then told him, that he could get help him get his visa so to give him all of his information and he would go to work on it, he would make a few telephone calls.  He worked for the Government in a office where he could pull some strings to help him get it.  Two weeks later his visa arrived.  Brody saw him before he left, and he told him, "See, I told you I could help you".  He was serving with a Sister missionary who had been waiting for 7 months for her visa to go to a different mission in Brazil.  I know that he was supposed to meet that man, so that he could get into Brazil quicker."
One by one, experience by experience we are affected by the stories that we hear from our Missionaries and the experiences we witness here.  The Lord is answering prayers.  They might not all be answered in one day, week or month but your/our prayers is/are being answered.  Your prayers are felt here.  Thank you so much.  Keep them coming.  As we say here in our Mission "Fica Firme",  Stay Strong.  We need to continually exercise our Faith and Prayers for all aspects of our lives.  Your lives will be blessed if you ask,  You will receive answers if you ask.

 Arriving in the Airport 

 New Missionaries with their Trainers

Our Mission has a Total of 134 Missionaries - 24 Sisters and 110 Elders - We are praying for these #'s to increase.  The # of Sister Missionaries has tripled in the last 1/ 1/2 yrs but the # of Elders has decreased.   The Sisters are doing Great and we love each one of them.  We just want more of all of them! 

October 2013 Departing Missionaries

 Lunch in the Mission Home with our departing Missionaries - We will miss them!

Primavera

 Baptism of a 17 year old youngman. 

The church in Primavera is smaller than a Branch.  It is called a Group.  They meet in a classroom of a school who graciously rents it to us free of charge.  The group was originally formed when we found 3 families living there that were members.  They originally was meeting in the house of one of the members!  There is currently appx 35 attending now in this Group.  This is a picture taken after Sacrament meeting October 13, 2013

We had a "Group Activity" Saturday evening.  For this Group it was the first time ever having an activity together.  What you can't see it that it was 'pouring rain' outside the pravilon.  The rain didn't stop us.  A good time was had by all! 

Son and Mom.  His Mom and Sister are currently taking the Missionary lessons.

The ym that was baptized is in the green shirt -  These people are Beautiful!

October 3-14, 2013

 Our cute daughter Julie and husband Brock came to Cuiaba - The 11 days they were here were wonderful, so fun, busy, eventful!  They attended with us a special Fireside, met many of our wonderful friends here.  She even celebrated her 29th Birthday with us.  The last Sunday we attended a little Branch in Primeravera.  It is small than a Branch,  so a Group.  They got to witness a Baptism done in a nearby lake of a 17 year old ym.  It was a sweet experience! 

Out to a Churrascaria  l-r  Alici, President and Sister Reber, Julie

Ponta Pora

While in Ponta Pora we came across two of the Paraguay Missionaries.  Only a street divides the Brazil and Paraguary Missions.  It is unique here

 Then we traveled back to Campo Grande with a loaded car.  Our 2 sets of Ap's

Boarding the Plane back to Cuiaba - We access 60% of our Mission areas by plane!

White Shirt Smiles

We have so many Elders that come out on the their Mission with 4 white shirts.  The collar get frayed and shirts yellow from the sun.  Many of our American's give shirts away to others that need them more.  Our Ward back home donated money to send over White Shirts.  We distributed according to needs.  Then they send over ties.  The Elders went nuts of the ties.   Our ward again did a used tie drive and everyone donated a tie from their closet.  Some thought the ties were ugly but our Elders loved them.  Ties that we think are ugly, they think are awesome.  Antique is making a come back.  

Thank you Morningside 1st Ward - You're the Best!  Our Elder's Thank you too.

Zone Conferences

 Practice Workshops

 We love our Sisters

 More Practice Workshops where the Missionaries role play with eachother

Zone Conference 

We love this time with our Missionaries.  There is a lot of preparation that goes into each conference.    We do 2 Zones at a time.  This week we covered the North part of Mission.  To give you a little idea of what we do in our Conference.  Missionaries are given assignments from Scripture, PMG and Missionary handbook.   Sister Reber gives remarks, Zone Leaders report on their Zones.  President Reber gives remarks.  AP's do a training.  Break for a nice Lunch.  The afternoon starts with celebration of Birthday's, a segment on Health and activity with Sis. Reber.  We do a lot of role play and practice during this time.  President goes over the Mission Reports and closes the conference.  It is a fun time with our Missionaries too.
To date we have 134 Missionaries, 23 Sisters and 111 Elders.  Currently we have 20+ Missionaries in the States serving in other missions waiting for their Visa's.  We have Missionaries from Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Paraguary, Brazil and the US!  We love each one of them!  This is a Great Mission!

Zones in Cuiaba, Sinop, Sorriso, Lucas

 Varsea Grande, Rondonopolis and Caceres

 This group are Elders who have served in the office the last year.

 We love our Sisters!