Howdy! This will be my last email. I thought I would kinda wrap everything up. It’s been a pretty crazy last 2 years. Definitely didn’t see any of what happened coming. It’s been trying in so many ways and not just for me but the whole world. As I look back I got to be a missionary during a pretty unique time. I have served during a global pandemic, during the 200th anniversary of the first vision. A temple was announced in Pittsburgh. Technology became one of the main sources to find and teach. So much has happened and I feel like I have grown more, learned more, and experienced more than I ever could have imagined. I know a lot has gone on back home too. It’s just been a crazy 2 years but I think it was the most perfect time to be a missionary. A perfect time to learn more about my savior Jesus Christ and to share his love and light with a world that seems so dark. However I know and have seen that there is just as much light in this world as there ever has been. It might be hard to find sometimes, but it’s there, and it’s real, and it changes lives. Its changed mine. The Lord sees you, we just have to run towards his light and we will have all the hope, peace, faith, love, and joy we need in this world to be what he wants us to be. I’ve met some of the most amazing people. People who have found there is joy in living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don’t even know how to express my gratitude for the opportunity I’ve had to meet and build the relationships with the people I’ve met here. Missionaries and the people here. It hasn’t been easy. It’s actually been very difficult. But I’m grateful for that because it’s allowed me to grow and change. Hard things help us do that, and although I feel inadequate and sometimes don’t have much confidence, I trust in the Lord, and know that I can do whatever he needs me to do. I have many flaws and weaknesses. There are a lot of things I don’t do well. But Christ has helped me and and has turned many of those weaknesses into strengths. Despite all the trials and challenges, it has also been fun. Once I allowed myself to enjoy it and let myself have fun, it became fun. I’ve loved my mission. I’ve made memories and made friends I will have for the rest of my life. I’ve had some of the sweetest moments of my whole life. I know from experience and from the Holy Ghost that God can make much more of our lives than we ever could on our own. I know that the Lord called Joseph Smith to be the prophet of this dispensation. I am so grateful for what he has done. His obedience to God has blessed countless lives. He is a good man and the Lord gave him the power to translate the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon. If we live the principles it teaches we can grow closer to God than by any other book. It contains the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it to be true, and you can to if you pray about it and live it. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Gods kingdom on earth today. I know God is our loving Heavenly Father and that his only begotten son, Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He is the good shepherd and will lead us along. He invites us to be of good cheer and to live with a grateful heart and we will be blessed. I’d invite myself and you all to never hold anything back from the Lord. Give it all to him. It can be hard to do that, but in order to learn how to trust the Lord, we have to give him things that we love and care about. I promise he will bless you for that sacrifice. I have a very strong testimony of that. I have given up things that I love to him because I want to love him more and he has never forgotten me and has always blessed me for it. I know that our service to God and his children will bless everyone we love. I don’t know when those blessings will come, they happen in the Lord’s time, but I know they come. I hope that when I go home I can continue to grow in faith and learn to love God more every day. I will miss it but I know this is only a stepping stone to the next part of the journey. It is a sweet thing to love and serve others. That to me has brought the most joy I think. When I can be an instrument in the Lord’s hands to help one of his children. I guess I’ll end with one of my favorite scriptures,

“Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel” (Alma 26:16).

I could say a lot more but that would be too much, when I’m home you can ask me about it sometime. I am so grateful for you all and your examples. I love you and thank you for your support! Have a great week! I’ll see you next week😉 Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun, and for the last time, Love, Elder Souza

Hello! Good first week of the transfer we had here! It was a super busy week. We’ve been teaching a lot. This whole transfer will be jam packed because we are trying to do pretty much 6 weeks worth of stuff in 4 weeks. Both Elder brown and I could leave the same week. He will be going to France, so we’re trying to fit everything in. Somebody we’re teaching had a pretty crazy story from this last week. Someone broke into his house and was trying to rob him at 2 in the morning. The robber saw him and fired 2 shots at him, luckily he missed. Unfortunately for the robber, our friend that we‘re teaching happens to be a marine sniper and didn’t miss when he was defending himself. The cops arrested the man and he is in big trouble. Our friend is doing all good and wasn’t even phased by it. They crazier part is he’s been battling cancer and is going through chemo and radiation so he wasn’t exactly in the best shape to defend himself but he held his own. On the topic of cancer, this week one of my favorite missionaries (also named Elder Brown) his mother past away from breast cancer this week. The kid has so much faith and is just so inspiring. We’ve gotten pretty close over the last few months and it was really hard news. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. He is set to come back out after the funeral service. His faith in the Plan of Salvation and prayer has strengthened mine. Obviously it is hard and he is emotional but he said he felt peace and it surprised him. The scriptures say “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). I’m not sure we will ever fully understand how merciful the Lord is but I’m grateful for his mercy and peace. Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza

Hi everybody! This week we have transfers and I will be staying in Altoona for my 6th transfer!! That’s a long time to be in one area. I’m staying with Elder Brown and we are getting Elder Allen back so this will be a fun one and my last! Today for pday we went bowling because it was inside. It’s getting cold here. It snowed today, which was cool. I bowled better than I have in a long time. I’m not a bowler but I got 145 today so that’s probably the highest I’ve ever gotten other than Wii sports bowling, haha. I’m looking forward to the rest of my mission! Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza

Hello! This week was really great! So much is moving forward with the work in Altoona right now. Not just the area but the Stake. It is so cool to be apart of. I got to go to Indiana again this week. Everytime I go back, the more I miss that area. I had a lot of really good experiences there. I got to see Patterson, one of the guys that was baptized when I was there. He is doing so good. He went to the temple for the first time last week. He said he loved it and that he wishes he could just do the work for everyone. Also within the last 6 months his sister, son and girlfriend all got baptized. And now his mom, after not being interested the whole time, said that she is thinking about baptism now. It makes me so happy! It just shows what happens when we let our light shine on others and invite them to receive that light through the life you live. The gospel of Jesus Christ really does change people’s lives. They are happier and have a purpose and you can see it in them. For pday we hung out with our good elder buddies in Bedford. We went to the driving range and went fishing. It’s been getting cold here but today we got lucky and it was like 65 the whole time so that was nice. One more thing while I was in Indiana. We got to give a blessing to someone and the Elder that gave the blessing said something that I think we should all hear. He said “right now the Lord wants you to know that He sees you.” I love that. Just think about that. I think God wants us all to know that He really does love us. And that we can have access to his blessing when we are obedient. He sees you, He knows you. Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza

Hi there! Hope you all had a good week! This week was a pretty busy and normal one for me. Nothing too crazy. We did have zone conference and it was virtual. That was the first virtual zone conference we’ve had since last January or February. That was kind of weird and the only reason we did that was because of the general authority meeting we had a couple weeks ago. It went well though. Its definitely easier to have it in person but it was still good. I studied a talk from Elder Neal A. Maxwell this week that I thought was really good. It is about the savior and how much he just really understands the world we live in. You should read/listen to it, it’s good. Another thing is this week in our zone we had a meeting and all we did was share experiences where we witnessed or were ourselves, a Christ like example of love or service. It was really cool to hear all of the experiences from everyone’s lives and how it has impacted them. I think its important to think about and reflect on those times because they can really motivate us to be and do better. You should all do that this week too 😁! Think about those experiences when someone was loving and serving you or you might’ve done some good for them. Reflect on the feelings you had and how you can serve and love more. I promise it will be a positive experience and you will be happier as you love others. The Lord is good and He is in the details of our lives. I’m grateful for the light he has been in my life and for people that have also been examples of that light that have touched my life. Happy Halloween!!🎃 cant believe its November already!?! Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza

Hi everybody! This was a pretty normal week, just keeping busy. We had some pretty awesome lessons this week. We had quite a few scheduled everyday and a lot of them fell through, unfortunately, but the ones we did have were pretty awesome. Those are probably my favorite times of the day, when we get to teach. It’s pretty special to be able to see people’s faith grow and invite them to come unto Jesus Christ. When they act and allow the spirit to speak to them you can just see the change and it’s so cool. I’m grateful I get to do that everyday.

Since I’ve been in Altoona we have always had this kinda cheap grill on our back patio. We’ve never used it until this week. We were given two Wagyu steaks and a Porterhouse steak and decided to cook them in the grill. But instead of using it the way we were supposed to, we just turned it into a smoker, haha! We built a wood fire in it and smoked our steaks on it. It turned out so good! I totally forgot to take pictures and I’m pretty bummed so I’ll have to take some next time we do it. Things are still going great over here. I really love this mission and we’re trying our best. God really does love his children. I see it and feel it everyday. I hope you all can too. It makes life more enjoyable. Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza

Hello! This week was pretty wild! So I told you all we got a third comp, Elder Allen, well I guess it was too good to be true because he already got transferred 😥. There was an elder in our zone that had some health issues and had to go home so he is taking his place. He is still in our district though so that is good! We also had the opportunity to go to a mission wide meeting in Pittsburgh this week. All the missionaries in our mission were there and we got to listen to Elder Cook from the 12. It was an awesome meeting! It was so cool to see an Apostles of the Lord testify of Jesus Christ in person and to hear him testify of Russell M. Nelson being the Lord’s prophet. The spirit was so strong and it was very memorable. I want to share my testimony that I know that Elder Cook is an Apostle, and has been prepared to serve in the position he is right now throughout his life. I also know Russell M. Nelson is the Lord’s prophet today. He speaks with the Lord and receives revelation on behalf of the whole world. If we follow his counsel we will have peace in this life and joy. We will not be lead astray. And we will experience for ourselves that when we apply his counsel from the Lord it is good and it is from God. All it takes is action and you will receive a witness. I’m grateful for Jesus Christ. I have felt his love over and over. I know he loves you too. Trust him, believe in his love, and things will be better. As I’ve gotten older in the mission I’ve been getting more and more tired and it’s been a challenge to stay moving all the time, but my love for the Savior and desire to love and serve others has never been stronger. I’m grateful for that love that keeps me going even when it’s hard and I’m tired. Love you all! Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza

Hi! This was a really good past week. It was our first week back in the trio and Elder Allen brought a good energy to our companionship. Sometimes towards the end of the transfer we get a little tired and he helped keep things going good so we really have appreciated that. We got to help move our bishop this week. He hasn’t left yet, he still has about 2 weeks left in the ward but they are getting everything ready. We loaded one of them big U-haul trucks to the brim. They were pretty surprised how much stuff we fit in there haha so it went well. The rest of the week was pretty normal and busy. This weekend we are also getting the chance to have Elder Quinten L. Cook from the quorum of the 12 come to our mission and speak!! We are pretty excited for that. It will be really cool to see him in person so close. We had a cool experience today. We decided for part of our pday to go to a local motorcycle store. While we were there one of the salespeople saw our tags and asked what they were. We told him we were missionaries from our church and we were just going to the motorcycle store on our day off. Then he said “that’s awesome, pull up a chair and tell me about Jesus!” So for the next 45ish minutes we taught him a lesson on the Restoration and part of the plan of salvation. He had a lot of really good questions. We ended up giving him a couple pamphlets and he said that he would read them. He also said we can come back anytime and share more. So that was pretty cool to be at a motorcycle store and to teach him, not even expecting it. It’s funny how the Lord puts people in your path or leads you to other people’s path. Just keep your eyes open. You never know when you might be the one who can help someone out, or help lift them in some way. Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza

Hello! Next week is transfers so yesterday we found out the news. Elder Brown and I are staying together in Altoona. So this will be my 5th transfer here. We are also getting an elder named Elder Allen, which is so cool. We both requested to have him with us because we aren’t sure when Elder Brown will be going to France so until that time Elder Allen will be able to learn the area and then be the next ZL with whoever stays. He is also the one who is in Philipsburg who we play golf with a lot so it will be a fun transfer for sure. General Conference was this weekend and I really enjoyed it. I think it was pretty powerful overall and I’m excited to continue to study those talks in the coming months. Probably right now my favorite talk was the one by Elder Ballard and also President Nelson’s talks. We got to watch the Saturday sessions with the other missionaries in our district and the Sunday one with some ward members. It was a really good week overall. I’m excited for this next transfer. It will be a lot of fun and I can’t believe I only have 2 transfers left🤯. Anyways I’m grateful we have a prophet on the earth today along with the other apostles. They will never lead us astray. They are called by God and they are here to help us have peace and joy and stay on the path that leads us to becoming more like Jesus Christ and returning to our Father in Heaven. Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza

Hello! This week was good and pretty tiring. A few of the people we are teaching haven’t been progressing as well as we’ve hoped and we have had to stop teaching quite a few. Also different members in the ward have been going through some things and some missionaries in our zone as well and it’s all kinda happened all at once. So it’s been interesting having to help out there and we’ve just been really tired from it. But there was a lot of positive things that happened this week too. I got to do an exchange with one of my trainees, Elder Speakman who is now old and the Assistant to the President. It was cool to see how much he has grown over his mission since I served with him over a year ago. We had a lot of fun reminiscing and I’m really grateful I got to serve with him. Other than that we’ve just been working away and staying busy all the time. This coming week we will be out of our area a lot just because of how some things lined up. But we will make the most of the time we have in our area this week. I’ve been really grateful to have been able to serve a mission and to have made it this far, haha. I say that a lot, that I never thought I would make it this far but I’m grateful I have. I have learned so much. More than I even thought possible and about things I never really thought about. I’ve been given so many opportunities to grow and improve its unreal. I feel like I’ve really been stretched these last 21 months and am thankful the Lord has strengthened me through it. It is a happy life serving the Lord. He blesses us so much and allows us to help others. Not only that but sharpens our tools so we can help others better. I don’t have all the answers, not even close, but I do know that serving the Lord brings happiness, joy, peace, comfort, strength and freedom, which is lasting and what everybody wants and needs. I hope we can all learn each day to love living the gospel and that we can follow Christ’s example in what we do and say and I think more importantly the why behind those two things. Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza