Hello! Today we went to West Virgina for P-day! Because we are in the YSA Ward, our area is really big so we were able to drive over there. It was only 45 mins away. We went to a Cabelas and also got Chick-fil-a. It was pretty fun.
This week was also really busy! We had a lot of meetings and Zone Conference. The theme was mostly about recognizing the Spirit and to act on those promptings. I would invite you to think about and recognize the ways that you all feel and hear the Holy Ghost. I was also thinking about how the Holy Ghost is our guide but most of the time for me I don’t get any impressions until I put my faith into action. I have to be “moving” so to speak for anything to happen. I thought of this cheesy quote that some of you might appreciate. It goes, “Twist the throttle of your faith, the Spirit will come, the Spirit will guide.” If you think of it in terms of a motorcycle, when you’re sitting on it ready to go, you’re all geared up everything ready, but nothing will happen until you twist the throttle. President Wright asked how do you invite the Spirit into your life? Live worthy, pray fervently, and learn to recognize and follow the Spirit courageously. Don’t wait for a better day, today is the better day. Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hello! This week also went by fast! We had another good week of finding. The Oakland area has 2 sets of missionaries as I’ve said before and the work is going really well here. I think a big part of that is because of the members. Members make such a difference with finding and retention of members. We had Stake Conference this weekend and it was really good. President Wright (our mission President) spoke on Sunday and that was fun to listen to him. Also on Saturday night the YSA had a valentine’s party. We were invited to stop by and grab some pizza and snacks. They sent us home with about 2 pizzas worth of pizza and some brownies and chocolate, haha! It was pretty fun. Pretty short this week, sorry. Next week will be a much longer email because we have Zone conference and I want to share some more stuff I learned. Happy Valentine’s day!! Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hello! This week went by pretty quick it seemed. We had a pretty successful week setting up lessons and finding people. So next week all those lessons will happen. We are having fun here in Oakland. We have a lot of laughs and stay busy. We attend church in person every 1st and 3rd Sunday so we went yesterday. There were I think 38 people there which is the highest attendance of people in a sacrament meeting I’ve been a part of since the pandemic started! It was really cool to see everyone and meet all the people we talk so much with over Zoom. The first counselor in the bishopric told us he was going to get us some food. We were very happy and grateful of course. Then when we showed up to the church to pick it up he had a whole week’s worth of food from Costco for us!! (Picture below) That was a real treat! Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hi everybody!

This week was pretty eventful. Like I mentioned last week we had transfers. I drove all day Tuesday. My new companions are Elders Occon and Sullivan. Elder Sullivan is from Hurricane, UT and is originally called to the Pittsburgh mission. Elder Occon is from Park City, UT. Both his parents are from Sao Paulo, Brazil so he speaks Portuguese fluently. His original assignment was Macieo, Brazil. Most of our lessons fell through this week so it’s been kinda slow in that department. On Tuesday, one of the Elders that lives upstairs was finishing up his mission this week so we went to Primanti Bros. It’s a pretty good restuarant with really big sandwiches. It was yummy. Jimmy Fallon has been there and we took a picture of his picture when he was there! I also saw my MTC companion, Elder Hampton, at transfers for the first time since we left the MTC over a year ago! That was definitely a highlight!

Also as many of you probably know, my Grandpa Souza passed away this week. He went peacefully with all of his family around him. I was able to be there via FaceTime. Thank you for your prayers for my family❤My entire mission has been praying for them as well. Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hello There! This week is transfers. I will be staying in Oakland again. I’m happy about it. The ward is fun and things are going good. My 2 companions right now are being transfered so I will get 2 more elders. This will be my 12th and 13th companions so far!! Tomorrow I will be driving all day with transfers picking up missionaries and dropping them off and stuff. We have access to a minivan we call the space shuttle so that’s why I’m in charge of moving a few companionships. We went to the Steelers Stadium today (Heinz Field). Walked around it and went to the steelers store they have. They also have a cool Mr. Rogers statue outside of it because he is from Pittsburgh. Things are chugging along here. It’s been cold, I’m ready for the sun to come out but that will be awhile?! Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hi everybody! This was a good week. Last Monday we had a fun activity with the ward. We played a get to know you game over Zoom. Like I’ve said before we have 5 Elders in the ward so they just came with a bunch of questions that we answered. Then the ward had to guess if our answer was true or false. It turned out to be a lot of fun and I think it really helped us to get to know the members better which is helpful. We’ve been teaching pretty consistently these last few weeks. We don’t have that many people to teach but we have a good group that we enjoy working with. Transfers are next week, so on Saturday I’ll find out if I stay in Oakland or not. I’ll most likely be staying which I’ll be happy with. We also got to visit another set of elders in Pittsburgh who actually live right in downtown. We live just outside of it so it is really exciting for them! I took some pictures from the roof of their apartment. They can see PNC park (pro baseball stadium) from their roof! Also we found another Pitt Panther. Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hello. This week was good, we were able to meet in person with our district for a meeting and for pday today! We went to Point Park. It’s pretty cool! We had quite a few lessons this week which was good. No one was really being taught consistently when I first got to Oakland but we’ve been able to find a few people and things have been picking up. The members are great too. The YSA really likes working with us and the other Elders in the ward which makes things a little easier and more fun. I guess I don’t have much to write this week but I’ll send some pictures. Things are good here. I’m doing good and learning a lot each day. Miss you all! Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza

Happy New Year!! This week was pretty good for us. More people were answering our phone calls and responding to our messages. Christmas and New Years kinda slowed things down but they are starting to pick back up now. We were also able to go to church this week. It was the first time this Oakland area has gone in awhile. We had 9 of us there and 5 were missionaries, lol. Pretty much the whole YSA is out of town until this coming week so numbers have been small. So since the middle of November, as a mission, we had a goal to baptize 22 converts from mid November to the end of the year. It was about 45 days. In that time we have been working everyday with members, non-members, and social media to find and teach as many as we could to reach our goal. Now for some missions 22 baptism is not that much in 45 days. But considering that our mission and this area of the United States has an average of about .5 baptisms per one missionary, that was a pretty lofty goal. It takes an average of talking to 16 people to find one new person to teach, and 32 people to teach for every one baptism (roughly). This didn’t stop us from baptizing 20 converts by the year end. We were just 2 short of our goal but that was pretty darn good. We had more baptisms last month than any other month in 2020. The work is still moving forward. People are still willing to let God prevail in their lives even when it seems all the odds are against them. I’d encourage everyone who reads this to stay true, to love God, and to lend a hand. You can have a part in the greatest cause in the history of the world. Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun & Happy New Year! Love, Elder Souza

Merry Christmas! This week was good with Christmas and everything! It snowed on Christmas eve and through Christmas day so that was exciting! Not a whole lot of action happened with the work this week because of the holiday. So hopefully things will start picking back up here soon. Technically this was my second Christmas on the mission but first in the field. Apparently I have one more just before I come home. I forgot to mention last week that I hit my 1 year mark! Not sure how I forgot to mention that?! One year ago on December 18th I arrived to the MTC. I would have never guessed my mission would have gone the way it has haha. Thanks everyone for your emails and support this past year, it’s been a big help to make it this long👍 Anyways Christmas was good and I really enjoyed being a missionary during this season. Being able to see the gospel and the Light of Jesus Christ change people’s lives first hand is very special. I’m in a YSA ward so member meals are pretty much non existent. So the mission gave us some money to get a Christmas dinner. Also one of my comps mom’s sent us pizza so we were taken care of. Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas! Can’t believe it’s almost 2021! Miss you a bunch. Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun & Happy New Year! Love, Elder Souza

Hi! My first week I’m Oakland was good. There was a winter storm this week called “Gail.” All of PA and the Northeast got hit with a bunch of snow. The eastern parts of the mission got 2 1/2 ft of snow! My old area Indiana, which is in the middle of the mission got about 12-15 in. And us over here in Pittsburgh got about 8 in. It was fun, we got to shovel snow a little bit, but PA works pretty fast to clear the snow so there wasn’t much to do. It is kinda weird teaching people and meeting with members that are all right around my age?! When I was in Philipsburg, the youngest member was the Branch President, and he was 56. The Elders quorum President there was 92! So the age demographic has changed quit a bit. I like it though. My two new comps are Elder Snedaker and Robinson. Elder Snedaker is reassigned from Brazil, so this is my second Portuguese speaking comp. Elder Robinson was called to Armenia and is still in training. I’m excited for Christmas! Hope you are all safe and enjoy this time of year. Don’t forget to Light the World around you! Have a good week. Read the Book of Mormon. Have fun & MERRY CHRISTMAS! Love, Elder Souza