First Week of Transfer 2!

What is up people of earth! 

This week was straight fire! As well, however, our train ended up crashing and burning a little at the end...

We started out pretty strong, finding a bunch of people and even had 5 investigators lined up for baptism. Then, all of a sudden, our STRONGEST investigator cut contact with us almost entirely and was not at the church this last week. We are very worried but are praying that there was a good excuse for no contact and not being at church. 

But anyways, this week was good.

Interesting experiences:

Almost all our lunch apts with members fell through so we ate at home quite a bit this week. Well that actually isnt that interesting, sorry. This week actually didnt have a lot of interesting parts. On saturday we were stopped by 3 different drunk guys each wanting to go to church the next day. We gave them the address and even taught a lesson with one of them. One guy asked me about 4 different times how old I was and another one of them asked me if I served in the military abut 5 different times. Each time I responded with no the guy would act like he is in a turret and start shooting at me then at people walking by. So that was interesting. 

We passed by a potencial investigators house only to be told by the investigator, face-to-face, that she wasnt home. I wanted to say, "Thats weird, I must be seeing the spirit of you, then." But I restrained myself. Finally got a new camera after my old one was broken by a 6 year old. Bought it from a potencial investigator. 

Elder Zinn

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Well, my companion finally has his fire back! I was filling out reports one day and he was not helping me. My hand was hurting so I stopped to take a break. I looked up at my companion and told him that I needed help and that he needs to focus. He got mad a little but snatched a report and started filling it out. Once finished we did our weekly planning and all of a sudden he started making goals for himself and for us as a companionship. And now he is on fire! And we are getting along a lot better because of this!

This week was hard but fulfilling. We gained a lot more new investigators but, sadly, our strongest investigator (Adrielly) has not been answering the phone and did not show up to church yesterday. We are very worried because she was very excited, was talking about going on a mission, and being baptized this week. But NOW!! Yeah... I dont know what happened.

But anyways, Life is moving still. We are working hard and I know the Lord will bless us for the work. From what I heard, the US is under North Korean rule (thanks father for this useful information). Stay safe and remember to get the approved haircut ;p

Love you guys!

Elder Zinn.

The boy who broke my camera.

 This photo was featured in the mission newsletter.

A Rash of Good Luck

Wooooooow what a week!

This week went by super fast! We had a very interesting week...haha

I don't have very much time to email today because we have a lot of stuff to do today! So sorry if I am brief.

On Tuesday we had a meeting that lasted allll day!

We had mixed success this week as far as missionary work goes! We found three new investigators this week! They are all YSA age though, so we wont be able to teach any of them. With school starting up again, we are always running into college students! It has been fun to talk to people my own age though! I think generally, they have been a lot more open than the mid-aged people we usually teach! We are still teaching Antonio and his family. They weren't able to come to church this week. Hopefully we will be able to get them there next week! Elder Milligan and I are focusing this week on FINDING! I am honestly really excited for this week to be able to go on the hunt for some of God's prepared children. This week is pretty open for once, so hopefully we will be able to do that!

Something funny that happened this week is that I got rash and hives all over my legs and torso. I went to the doctors and they think it might be poison ivy. I don't know how I could have gotten Poison ivy on my legs and chest when I wear slacks and a shirt and tie all day. The medicine I have been taking for it is clearing everything up nicely though!

I hope all of you are doing well! It is awesome to hear about all of you who are preparing and leaving on missions! My mission has been the time of my life so far! It hasn't been super easy, but it has been soooo rewarding! I love you all! Have a killer week!

Elder Zinn

 The Most Lit companionship in the mission!

 A cicada killer. Literally the most terrifying thing in the world!

These 5 Words

Not a day goes by without me hearing these 5 sweet words whispered in my ear by Daveo:

"You're the best mommy ever!"

1st Transfer in the Field

WOHOO! My first transfer while in the field! I cant believe how fast these 7 weeks have gone! I will write this email a little different. First I will give my resumo (Yes, I forgot the translation for resumo) of this week then after I will give a brief resumo of the things I learned from this transfer period.

This weeeeeeek we had awesome expierences. First things first, I baptized a young woman named Esther yesterday and my companion baptized a young man named Lucas. These two are siblings and were investigators of Sister Missionaries (Sister Centurion and Stister Erikson) in our district. Since my companion is the district leader he interviewed them. E aí, after the interview they asked if we could baptize them. Obviously we agreed! We said paraben to the Sister missionaries for the awesoe work in finding these awesome youth prepared. 

Yesterday another awesome expierence happened, our progressing investigator Adrielly asked us how she could be a missionary as well after she is BAPTIZED!!!!!!! I almost fell over in surprise! We explained to her that she will need to wait 5 years (As she is 14 years old) and then she can start the process. She will be baptized next week! WOOOHOOO!!

The friend of Adrielly, Leandra, is beginning to progress as well. We ran into her on the street while walking home after a long day and she began asking us about the Pre-Existence and The Fall of Adam and Eve. It was very spiritual and fantastic. She agreed to go to church this week and has been praying almost every night.

Finalmente!!! An update on the man I talked about last week that we found on the street when asking about the potencial investigator. His name is Filip and he is... AWESOME. He has a huge desire to learn and follows through with every invitation! 

Things I learned from this transfer:

1. Everyone here already knows my name. The motive for this: Because I appear and even have a slight accent of a german (in portuguese Alemão) and I am small. Combine these two things, the brazilians here call me = Alemãozinn... Very times here random people have called me this without even seeing my name tag or knowing about me. It was really confusing at first.

2. Always look where you are walking or you will walk into dog poo.

3. Lots of words and phrases that are considered bad in english are perfectly acceptable in portuguese.

4. I am allergic to cilantro for sure.

5. My stomach does not agree with the milk here. Not. at. all...

6. When learning a new language, pay attention to how they use words and phrases. Because more often than not, the phrase or the way they use a word will not make sense in english but yet makes perfect sense in said language.

7. I AM VERY EXCITED FOR THIS TRANSFER!!!

Me and my companion, no surprise, will stay together this next transfer! 

Until next week!

Love you guys!

Elder Zinn. 

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Vamos começar uma outra transferência! 

This transfer was both AWESOME and, sadly, lazy... My companion will die this next transfer and is being really lazy. He makes close to zero contacts cada dia now and doesn't have the will to walk long distances when required. This is getting really anoying for me. I even found out he downloaded some rock music for the flight back home already. I dont know how I feel about that because  fear it will be a temptation for him. I am having to babysit him this last week. I am praying this week will be better after a good rest today.

Buuuuuut! I have been having some awesome experiences with my testimony, language, and investigators. I have felt the Lord work miracles within my heart, mind, and body that I have never felt before. It brings me sorrow that the time here is already flying by and I am afraid that I will blink and my time will be up here. 

A funny experience, we were walking on the REALLY long road. We came across a street sign that said "Texas". I took a picture of it but I forgot my camera today... It was funny joking around about it.

Until next week, I love you guys!!

Elder Zinn.

The Dream Happened!

Greetings Everyone!

The Dawn of a new transfer has begun! On Thursday, I said bye to my bro and homie Elder Cook :(. He flew back home on Friday. I was STOKED to find out that my new companion would be Elder Milligan! We served around each other in my last area and we kept joking around that we would eventually be companions! Well it happened! I am super excited for this transfer to serve around him! Elder Milligan is from Eagle Idaho and came out into the mission the same time as me! 

We had a really busy week for us again! On Tuesday, we made a two hour drive to Des Moines to pick up our new car! We traded in our Nissian Frontier for a 2017 Toyota Corolla!

As far as missionary work, this week was kind of disappointing. We lost contact with Rita for most of the week. We spent a lot of time finding this week and found four new investigators! That was nice. It just seems like everyone we find goes into hiding whenever we try to contact them again haha!

The weather has been soooo nice lately! It has cooled off a ton! The humidity has completely disappeared! In general, this summer has seemed very mild. Maybe it's because we have had a car this whole summer.

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Zinn!

 BYE ELDER COOK! <3 span="">

 The LINEAGE! From Right to Left in Mission Lingo! Elder Leavy (my dad), ME (awesome), Elder Schoenfeld (my son), Elder Barney... I think (my grandson), Elder McCain (my brother), and Elder Householder... I think (I don't know what he would be).