News from Beira Mar

Hey, everybody!

This week was a good week. We were able to start teaching a few new
people who have real potential, and continue working with those who
were progressing. One of these people is Kailanny, the granddaughter
of Fátima, the same Fátima who was baptized and confirmed last week.
Kailanny is nine years old, and very smart. She understood all of the
lessons, and she loved church when she went the first time. On Friday,
she was baptized! I had the privilege of baptizing her, and I am
grateful to have been a part of helping her to learn more about the
Gospel, and to enter into the strait and narrow path that leads back
to our Heavenly Father. She was confirmed and received the gift of the
Holy Ghost yesterday during sacrament meeting.

Something kind of cool happened this week. My companion and I were
walking to an appointment, and as we were walking, there was a man a
little bit further down the street from us. He looked at us, and
smiled at me and nodded his head. (As I have often said, a nod of the
head is a universal male signal of acknowledgment, whatever part of
the world you are in, and being here in Brazil has only solidified my
theory of this.) I smiled and nodded back, and he motioned toward us.
His name was Vernon, and he asked me if I knew of another missionary
that he had known a long time ago. I didn´t even understand the name
directly, but I said that I didn´t know of him. Vernon knew him a long
time ago, and he started to tell us about how he knew about Joseph
Smith, and about the gold plates, and how he tried to explain it to
his landlady once and she said that he was crazy. He said to her,
``Let me get in touch with the Mormons, and they can explain it to
you!´´ She was sort of appalled and even offended at the notion:)

Anyway, I wrote down his address and phone number, and we invited him
to Church. Sadly, he works every Sunday morning, and so he got our
number as well, and we said that we would try to stay in touch with
him when we can. (He still lives in that same apartment, so teaching
him there probably wouldn´t be a good idea with his landlady) So, we
will have to see what happens!

I know that the Church it true, and that Heavenly Father really is
preparing people to hear the message of the Restoration, that they can
be ready and willing to act upon the message that we have to share to
the world. And that message is this: After having the divine truth and
authority of the Gospel of Jesus Christ been lost from the earth for
centuries, our Loving Heavenly Father has once again extended His hand
to His children through living prophets, giving us the light and
direction that we need to be happy and joyful now, and to return to
live in a fulness of His light and love in the life hereafter, with
our families being united for eternity to live together in His glory.
What a message this is! I know that it is true, and that we can truly
receive these blessings in our lives.

I love my family:) It was so good to talk to you all yesterday, to
hear your voices, to joke around with you, and to feel truly grateful
for the wonderful family that I have been blessed to have. I also feel
grateful for all of my extended family and friends. I have truly been
blessed to know you all:)

Have a great week, everyone!

With love,

Elder Reid Powell Empey

This Week in Short: Beira Mar

Hey, everyone!

I hope that everybody is having a good May so
far......wait.....MAY?!!?!! Already?! My goodness, time flys by!

This week was good. I am getting more familiar with our area, as well
as with the members of the ward. The people here are very open and
loving, as are people in general here in Ceará, Brasil (the state
where my mission is). They are generally very friendly, and willing to
talk to us. It is a very different culture and dynamic than most
places in the world, as well as many of the other missions in the
world.

On Saturday, one of our investigators was baptized. Her name is
Fátima. She is an older woman who had been an active member of an
Evagelical church for nearly 25 years, and who said this about being
baptized: ``I accepted Jesus 23 [or so] years ago, but now I´m going
to follow Him in the correct path.´´ She is very kind, and very sweet
to us. Elder Call and Elder Baptista started teaching her before I
came to the area.

One of the things that has most interested her is eternal families:
that through the priesthood authority of God, we can be sealed
together for time and for all eternity, not just ``until death do we
part.´´ Even more than this, she was very excited by the doctrine of
baptisms for the dead, which she heard about in a Relief Society
lesson. Baptism is an essential ordinance, and without being baptized,
we cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven (see John 3:5). Yet, we
know that millions, even billions of people have died without an
opportunity to learn about or accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, our Loving Heavenly Father provided a way that they may
have the opportunity to receive all of the blessings of the Gospel
that they did not have the opportunity to learn about or accept before
they passed on.

Fátima was really excited about this, because her mother passed away
when she was very young, 9 years old I think. She had wondered for a
very long time what would happen to her mother. Because of this, she
was very interested in learning more about the Church, and coming to
know more about the importance of vicarious work for the dead.

I had the privilege of baptizing her, and she was confirmed yesterday
during sacrament meeting. This week, we are going to help her
granddaughter, Kaylanny, to get prepared to be baptized, too!

Anyway, my time is long gone, but I love you all, and I hope that you
have a great week! I am excited to talk to some of you on Mother´s
Day! I can´t believe how fast 5 months has past since the last call on
Christmas....it seems like forever ago and like yesterday at the same
time!

Love you all tons and scoops!

Sinceramente,

Elder Reid Powell Empey

Lots of Walking, Lots of Work, Lots of Blessings, Lots of Love:)- Beira Mar

Hello, all!

This week was crazy. I have learned so much in this past week, and I
am learning more and more every day.

My companion, Elder Baptista, is a very hard worker. He walks with a
purpose, AKA ``very quickly,´´ and I have felt more sore from just
walking than I have ever felt on the mission so far:) But, it´s a good
think, and I am glad to feel that we are putting in all of our might
and strength that we can to do the Lord´s work.

Last P-Day, at night, we went to the house of Suely. Four of her
children were taught and baptized by Elder Call and Elder Baptista,
and she had not yet been baptized. But, when we got there, her
daughters answered the door, and then she came out, and said that she
wanted to be baptized! The situations impeding her from being baptized
changed, and she didn't want to hesitate at being baptized now that it
was possible for her. So, we re-taught and reviewed the lessons and
the commandments for her, and she was baptized this past Saturday!

Also, a girl who has been going to church for a long time (she was
considered an ``eternal investigator´´) decided to be baptized as
well! Her name is Thatiana, and she told us when we got to church on
Sunday, we called the zone leaders, they conducted her interview
during Sunday School, and she was baptized after church.

I am out of time! This week has been full of experiences and things
that happened, and I am so grateful to be here. I am excited for the
weeks to come in this area:)

I love you all so very, very much! Keep moving forward, and keep on
praying! One of my favorite sayings is, ``Pray as if it were all up to
the Lord, then get up off of your knees and work as if it were all up
to you.´´ When we remember Him, and to ask for His help, it isn't
always so much that the things we need or want to happen just happen,
as much as that we put forth all of the effort we can, He augments
and expands and exponentializes our efforts to the point that they are
sufficient to achieve what is needed. It is His grace that saves us,
``after all that we can do,´´ as well as THROUGH all that we can do.
And as each day passes, and with each effort we put forward, we draw
closer to Him as we act with His help, His support, and His love.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Sinceramente,

Elder Reid Powell Empey

A New Chapter: From A New Area, Beiramar! (I think that´s how you spell it....)

Hey, everybody!

So, here! the news: I got transfered! I was in Parque das Na珲es, and now I am in Beiramar! It's a little bit cool, because my cousin, Elder Call, was in this area for his last transfer! So, I am taking his place, and his old companion is my new companion, Elder Baptista. I am excited to work in a new area, and for the new experiences and adventures to come.

It is incredible to me the wonderful blessings that we receive through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was reading in Enos this week, and he says that he was pondering about what his father said about eternal life, and also ``the joy of the saints". I love that phrase, the joy of the saints, because, when we are truly living the gospel, and trying our very best to keep the commandments, serve one another, and remember and follow Jesus Christ in our daily lives, we find a joy that cannot be found any other way:)

How blest we are!

I love you all very, very much!

Love always,

Elder Reid Powell Empey

Mission Brasil Fortaleza

PICTURES!!!!!

Juazeiro do Norte Monkey on a Wire!

Finally, some pictures! 

I remembered to bring my camera this week:)

Enjoy!

District Elders in the newly remodeled Juazeiro do Norte Building

       

Elder Call and me.

Everyone thinks that I look like Harry Potter and that Elder Call looks like the kid from Home Alone, so this is us, in character...

Elder Empey with one 

of the shovels that was

used at the groundbreaking 

of the 

Fortaleza Temple site

March 5, 2012

The baptism of 

Ivis and Lucas

Elder Empey and

Elder Moreira Santos

   

Me and my companion. He doesn't usually look like that, we were at a members house and the wig was there.

It´s a Long, Long Trail A´winding here in Parque das Nações

Hey, everybody!

 

I´m really short on time (surprise, surprise), but let me tell you a little bit of what happened this week:

 

Catherina was baptized! The baptismal service was great, and I was reminded of my own baptism, the feelings and love that I felt. (It was a month after I had turned eight, and it was the Sunday before our Powell Family Reunion in La Wiss Wiss, Washington. So, there was a lot of family there. It was July 9, 2000, if I´m remembering correctly. The year 2000 seems like such a long time ago....12 years since I was baptized.....man, I´m getting old!)

 

(Also, the subject of this email is the title of a traditional Powell Family song. I have a copy of the family songbook with me here on the mission, and I cannot believe how much I love and miss singing together as a family. Those songs are more a part of me than I ever imagined, and remind me of the wonderful heritage that I have been blessed with:) )

 

We met an incredible investigator this week as well. We received his name as a referral, and he went to his house to talk to him. His name is Samuel, and he is 20 years old. He was in the house of a member some days ago, and the missionaries were having lunch in the member´s house that day. They talked to him, taught him the first lesson, and said that we needed to bring a Book of Mormon with us. When we went over to his house to talk to him, he happily invited us in, we were all really comfortable talking, and we explained to him about the Book of Mormon. He loved the concept that we have a record of the teachings and doctrines of Jesus Christ, but from a different perspective, the perspective of the people living here on the American continent. The teachings and the gospel of Jesus Christ are the same, just that the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together to help us see and learn more about how to apply the gospel in our lives.

 

We gave him a part in 3 Nephi to read, because he wanted to know more about what the Savior taught to the Nephites while He was here. When we came back two days later, he had read that chapter, the following chapter, and had begun reading from the beginning of the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi! He said that the pictures made him curious, and so he went and read the references that are connected to the pictures. He said that he thought that it was really interesting, the story of Lehi and his family, living in Jerusalem, and that they eventually ended up the Americas as the Nephites and Lamanites. He understood the first few chapters of 1 Nephi and the other parts of 3 Nephi better than some members of the Church! And he started reading the beginning on his own. We didn´t even ask or invite him to start there after reading in 3 Nephi, he just naturally did it out of curiosity and desire to learn. He is incredible, and I am so excited to see what will happen this week. I hope and pray that he can truly gain a strong testimony that these things are true, and that he can become a member of the Church, and receive all of the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that he can eventually serve a mission! What a blessing that would be, in his life and in the life of his family, now and in the future.

 

I love you all so very much! The Gospel is true. Jesus Christ lives. Our lives are not perfect, other people are not perfect, and we are not perfect; but, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be cleansed of our sins, be filled with hope, and, because of that hope, we can live our lives in joy and happiness, knowing with a certainty that we truly can live with our families forever in the presence of our Eternal Heavenly Father. What a joy, what a blessing, what a privilege we have to partake of the grace and the love of God:)

 

I wish you all the very best, and hope that you have a wonderful week!

 

Love always,

 

Elder Reid Powell Empey

 

P.S. I know that it is finals time at BYU, and so for all of you BYU folks, I wish you good luck on your tests, and hope that you look back on the past two semesters as time well enjoyed and well spent:)

Hot Days, Rainy Days, and the Work Moves Forward

Hello, all!

This week was hot (like it is today), and it was rainy as well. Last P-Day, we went to the Center of Fortaleza because I had some things to buy. It began to rain as we were on the bus. When we got there, the roads were full of water, and we were getting poured on. My companion had some things that he wanted to get as well, but the only difficulty was that as we headed to the store, we entered a road that was impassable because of how much water their was. I didn't want to completely ruin my shoes, and he didn't either. So, we had to find another way around, and even them splash and navigate through a bunch of roads simply overflowing with water. It was crazy:)

We are preparing a young girl named Caterina to be baptized this coming Sunday. She is the daughter of a member, but she is adopted, and has not yet been baptized. So, we are teaching her, and the baptism is set for this Sunday. She is a very nice girl, but she is a little bit afraid of water. So, we will fill up the font just enough to baptize her, so that she won't be worried or afraid:)

I love you all so very much:) The Church is true, and Jesus Christ really is our Savior and Redeemer. As we follow Him, I know that we will find more happiness that we can ever imagine. We truly have a living prophet here upon the earth, a modern-day Moses or Abraham, to lead and guide the people of the Church, under the direction of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. President Thomas S. Monson receives revelation not just for the Church, but for the whole world. What a joy to know that Heavenly Father loves us so much that He has ordained men as prophets, seers, and revelators, to lead and guide us on our path back to Him. As we follow their teachings, we will find the strength and capacity to move forward, and we will feel the love of God even more in our lives along the way!

I love you all so very, very much! Have a wonderful week, and remember that Heavenly Father wants you to be happy:)

With all my love,

Elder Reid Powell Empey