Thanksgiving in Brazil

Hey family

   I almost forgot it was thanksgiving this week but remembered in time to try to eat as much as i could and send you this picture. i hope all of you had the best thanksgiving possible and don't miss me to much. 

   My good news for the week is that we were working really hard this last month and not getting anything but the last two Sundays we had awesome people just walk into Church. last Sunday was that couple and there kid and this week was a 24 year old girl. they both are looking for a church and already have been to others they didn't like. the lord really does bless us for good work. also the little things we tell people about church really make a difference. the couple and this girl both heard about the church from someone and decided to give it a try.

      I'm super happy about that box you mentioned! Elder Cleveland got two huge boxes this last week but there is for sure not as much love in the boxes so i feel bad for him.

     How is the snow situation back home? how is everyone doing? here in brasil we are just doin the work. things are getting better and I'm still with some great kids and one or two really difficult ones haha but its all good. I'm now getting a little scared for the next transfers on the 11th of December.

  Well i love you guys and all that jazz. rock on ---

Baptism, Farewell Tour

Greetings!
This week’s letter will be short, because this is the third time I have had to restart writing an email because dads laptop keeps doing weird things and deleting what I have written, the keyboard keeps on causing me to mess up, and I only have a few minutes.
Tuesday was my last normal day of the mission. We worked hard, talked to some new people, did a bunch of contacts, and then to end the night we had the baptismal service. She chose me to baptize her, so I had the privilege of performing it. She was so happy, and shared with me how clean she felt as she left the water. Many members attended, and have helped a ton in her conversion process. Her husband and convert of mine, was excited as well and told me that in 1 year, they will be sealed in the temple! I am so happy to see their deep conversion to the gospel.
Wednesday, I went to the mission office to have my final interview with Pte. Madariaga. We talked about what I had learned on the mission, and made goals and plans on what I will continue to do forever to stay strong. It was one of the highlights of my life. I also had the grand reunion with Dad, and to my great surprise, with Jake as well! I am sure you have all seen the video. It was so surprising! I could not believe it. It was really exciting. We went to the temple with all the “dying” missionaries, and had a fancy dinner.  A family who I had baptized early in my mission, attended the temple session with us, they are awesome.
Thursday up until today have been days dedicated to saying goodbye to converts, members and friends. I have gifted many things, and have been gifted even more things! It has been really exciting. We have all felt very very happy and positive in the farewells, which is what I was hoping for; I didn’t want it to be a “cry-fest”. I got permission from Pte. Madariaga to play a soccer game with the guys from Bella Vista. They are good and play rough, but my team won, and I scored a few sweet goals. Yesterday we attended church! Oh, what a special special day it turned out to be! Jake bore his testimony, which I translated for them into Spanish. Dad gave a small, powerful message. Alex, someone who I had baptized there, expressed his gratitude for me and the changes he has made due to finding the gospel. Then I closed the meeting with a simple message about happiness, missionary work, conversion, love and enduring to the end.  The Spirit was so strong in the tiny chapel there, with basically every seat occupied. I felt so much love for those sweet people, who I do consider some of my very dearest friends.
Today we got to see the Iguazu Falls, they are one of Gods many beautiful creations. We are heading into Asuncion tomorrow, then to Argentina until Sunday, when we arrive back home.
I feel like ending this letter with how the Book of Mormon ends. In Moroni 10:32 and 34, it says, “Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourself of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny
yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then his grace is sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace in God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. “And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth riumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen.”
It’s message is simple: Do your best. Give it your all. Make and keep
covenants. Be perfected in Christ, and love Him and His Father with
all your heart. And if you do it, you will be perfected and cleansed
of your sins through the Atonement of the Only Begotten Son of the
Father. That is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is
what it is really all about. Do your best, and live to see the
miracles and tender mercies of the Lord.
I am so sad my mission has ended, but I am looking forward with faith to the future, and cannot wait to see, meet, talk with, and serve each and every one of you. I love you all so much. I love this gospel, this mission, and my Lord and Savior. Keep us in your prayers.
- Elder Babcock

Until We Meet

Greetings-
Well...it looks like this will be my last official letter home as a
missionary in the field, so I will try to adequately share my thoughts,
experiences, and feelings from this last week.
First things first, we had a really hard working week. Elder Sorrell and I decided that for my last week we would try our best to achieve our daily goals for each daily key indicator, which in our mission is called 7/7.  After tons of miracles, smart planning, and hard work we were able to achieve it every day! It was one of those small miracles that made us feel really happy. It required a lot of diligence, including when I was pretty sick yesterday, and a lot of faith, but we did it!
On Saturday, a convert of Elder Colligan and I was married to his
girlfriend in the chapel! We ordered a special cake, and I lent him
my suit. They looked great. They were so happy. It was a special night. She has also come to know the truthfulness of the gospel, and will be baptized on Tuesday, my last night here! I feel so happy that I will be here to participate.
Yesterday was my last Sunday, and last minute I was asked to give a
talk/final testimony. As you all probably know, this has been another
very very special place for me. I felt so overwhelmed with feelings of
gratitude, happiness, and a little bit of sadness as well. I went up and
decided to share with them what has become my favorite missionary chapter from my favorite book, The Book of Mormon, in the 29th chapter of Alma.  Everyone near a Book of Mormon, pull it out and read it with me! Here, Alma  the Younger shares with us how he felt while serving the Lord, and repeatedly uses the work joy, which is one of the best descriptive words of the mission: joy!
For my last letter, I don't want to write some fancy big letter, nor something over the top. I just want to say that I feel exactly like Alma the Younger in saying that I feel so much joy..."*my soul is carried away, even to the separation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my joy." *(verse 16). Alma said it best. I really cannot describe how I feel...but I feel so happy. I am going to attach a letter that I wrote to give out to my Paraguayan brothers and sisters here. Thanks for all the support over these last 2 years. I am grateful for what the mission has been. I am nervous for the future, but I know that good things still lie ahead for me. I know that God lives, that Christ is our Savior, that the gospel is once again on earth.
Keep us in your prayers. Love you all!
Until we meet,
Elder Babcock

Last Zone Leader Conference

Yeah so this week was still super crazy... It was a wonderful experience to go to Monterrey and to my last Zone Leader Council, It didn’t hit me ‘til the end but we were singing the last song, our mission’s song ¨faith in every footstep¨ and I kind of broke down. I couldn’t really sing very well but I don’t think that was the problem. The problem was that after I had to say the prayer. It was probably one of my favorite prayers ever offered. It was interesting to be with some other friends that will be coming home with me and with Mom’s testimony it almost sounds like it’s my last week! No really thanks for your testimony Mom. 

Our work has been going wonderfully here in our area, we will be baptizing next week and I think my last week here as well, it crazy to think that there are only three more Sundays left in the mission. It’s weird. My comp and I are getting along pretty well, I gave him a new look and were doing a lot of exercise. I know that our prayers are answered and many nights I find myself just grateful to talk to God in prayer, what would life be like without it...

 Have fun this week and know that I Love yall.

Elder Rhodes

The Tongue of Angels

Greetings-

We had a great wedding this last Saturday. It was a smooth wedding, thank goodness! Many members of the branch attended, along with a few friends and investigators. They had an 11 kilo cake, fancy decorations, chicken and rice dinner, and even a little party afterwards. I lent him my black suit, along with a white shirt, sweet tie, belt and shoes. He looked great. Even though they were stressed beforehand, they were so happy during and afterwards. He is great friends with all the branch, especially the Branch President, so he baptized him. It was a very special Sunday.

Today we had our big Zone Training meeting here in Santaní, all the elders came and we talked a lot about our attitude as missionaries. We had assigned them to read two of my personal favorite talks before coming, which were "The Tongue of Angels" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as well as "Lift Where You Stand" by President Dieder F. Uchtdorf, and to come prepared to discuss what they had learned and what they could apply. The meeting was guided by the Holy Ghost, and we were all edified. Some of the highlights were that the Gospel is optimistic, it uplifts and inspires, never weighs us down, has negative feelings, etc. It is to be talked of with a smile! Also, that it does not matter what calling, assignment, responsibility, duty that the Lord calls us to do, all we are asked to do is to do our part as best as we can, and the work of the Lord will go forth powerfully. I encourage all of you to read those to talks, meditating what you have learned, how they can apply to your lives, and what you will change. I was able to set some great goals today on things to improve on in my last week here officially in the field, and what I can take with me into the post mission life.

I wanted to end today with a story of a great experience we had today. Even though it is P-day, we had some appointments of people to teach, and we went to teach one of our investigators who has attended church these last two weeks. She is progressing towards baptism and is loving the message. We got there, and she said that she wanted us to teach her 20 year old daughter, who showed very little interest before. So we got to know her, and she shared a little bit about how she feels really angry, depressed, sad, lonely, and that she has no purpose in her life. She said that she always fights with her mom, does not get along with anyone, and wonders if there is any hope for her future. She even expressed that she has a problem with cursing, yelling, and using fowl, harmful, hurtful language. I felt so happy to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly what would solve all her problems, resolve any conflicts, heal any wounds from the past, and would provide for her the "Tongue of Angles" of which Elder Holland had taught. We were able to build her trust and confidence, feel inspired to read in Mosiah 27 about Alma the Younger, and apply coincidentally what we had learned that morning in our conference, which is found in 2 Nephi 31:13, where as we are baptized and confirmed upon us the Gift of the Holy Ghost, the Lord blesses us with a new tongue, even the tongue of angels. We felt inspired to promise her that if she would learn more of the Savior, read and pray about our message, and prepare to be baptized, that in this whole process she would be blessed to overcome the obstacle of harmful language, as well as forgiveness of past sins and a renewed outlook on her wonderful future ahead of her. I felt so happy to be a missionary, and for the opportunity I had in that moment to see the Spirit working in her and in us, and seeing the change in her from the beginning of the visit to the end.

Well, this will be my last week as a missionary, and I plan on giving it all I have, working even harder and harder, and finding more investigators, so that it can continue like it is right now...exploding! I want you all to know how much this mission continues to mean to me. Pray for me and for the people here.

Love you all! Until next week,

Elder Babcock

New Area Casa Blanca

Best Taco's Ever!