Hello there. This was a busy week with transfers. Last week I said I was staying in Indiana and we would be getting a new Elder. He is from North Carolina and he is learning Mandarin Chinese. He was originally called to Taiwan but not sure when that will happen. When we went to Pittsburgh we also picked ourselves up a new car! Apparently we had the oldest car in the mission with the most miles. It was a 2017 haha. That’s fairly new to me. The mission gave us a 2020 Equinox that is pretty sweet. I’d rather drive a Chevy than Toyota, plus it has on board wifi so you can watch movies while you drive I guess! When we were coming back from Pittsburgh to Indiana there was a big cardboard box on the freeway with a bunch of stuff in it and the truck in front of us destroyed it. Debris went flying all over the 3 lanes of traffic. Then we went right through it all. It was just trash and plastic buckets and stuff. Luckily we went through it without any damage to our brand new car with 25 miles on it. The car behind us caught one of the boxes right on the grill and had to pull over. We don’t get to much excitement like that anymore when we’re inside all day so that was pretty fun. We had some cool lessons this week. We taught 2 people from Africa and one of them wants to get baptized. We also taught another guy here in Indiana who accepted the invitation to be baptized as well. We have only known him for about a week. He was a referral from Sisters at the Laie Temple. Miss you all, keep being safe. Have fun. Love Elder Souza

Hey there everybody! This week is transfers. I am staying here in Indiana, PA again. One of my companions is staying and the other is going to a new area. We are getting a new missionary this week so we will go back to Pittsburgh to pick him up. He is brand new and I think from North Carolina. I’m still DL and will be training my 5th elder?! It think this transfer will go well. I’m getting more used to the members and people in the area. As I’ve probably mentioned in the past it takes a little longer than normal to get familiar with new areas in quarantine but things are going good. Because of our new Elder we will be in 14 day isolation again haha. Not much will change other than no in person church for us and no in person lessons. We will do a lot of driving these next few days all around the mission and have a lot of meetings again this week so it will be fun and busy but I’m looking forward to it. Miss you all, be safe. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hello everybody. This was probably one of the busiest weeks I’ve had since quarantine started. We had a mission tour this week. Normally for a mission tour, a general authority comes to the mission and speaks with us just one day for about 2 hours and then that’s it. However this time because of the virus it was all online, and spaced out over 4 days. Elder Randall Bennett from the quorum of the 70 met with our mission and it was really awesome. He spoke to the whole mission Tuesday-Friday and then there were seperate meetings for new missionaries that will be going to the temple soon, reassigned missionaries, and District Leaders. So between my companions and I, we participated in those as well. So it was a week full of meetings but it was great. I learned a lot and our mission got a lot of high remarks from Elder Bennett for the things we’ve been doing these last few months so that was cool.

I was getting updates about the fires in Oregon this week. I hope everyone is safe and okay now. It is sad to see it affecting so many homes and people. 2020 just seems to be getting crazier and crazier but this is just another opportunity to show your love for the Savior by helping your neighbors! Miss you all. Be safe. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hi! This was a fast week. Nothing too new happened this week. We’ve been doing pretty much the same stuff. Lots of phone calls and Facebook posts and teaching lessons over the phone. We were able to do service for a few hours this week at a community garden. We have been making compost and also got to plant lettuce and green onions this week. We also picked jalapenos and tomatoes, it was pretty fun. Gardening isn’t usually my most favorite thing but under the circumstances it is quite a bit of fun. We were also fed on fast Sunday. A member brought us parmesan chicken, mac n cheese, a salad and some type of peach/pecan cobbler! It was really good and my companions and I were super full afterwards, haha. I have noticed throughout the course of my mission and looking back on my life that the Lord has shown me over and over that he loves me and my family. As I’ve tried my best to trust him everyday, things work out better. We are much more capable with him by our side. The only way to build trust in someone is to let them hold the things you care most about in their hands. As I’ve done this the Lord has shown me I can trust him. If we trust the Lord with the things that matter most, he makes it better and he makes things work. I think it is important to take the time and make the effort to notice how much He has blessed us all, and He will make it known. Miss you all, be safe. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hello everybody. This week we had Zone Conference again in person. It went good. Then we had interviews with our mission President right after so it was a long day of meetings and stuff but pretty enjoyable. We got Chick-fil-a for lunch, which was good. I haven’t had it all that much in my life but it’s good and I can’t wait to try the one in Medford now. This week was really busy like last week with teaching and what not but unfortunately a lot of the people we were teaching we had to stop teaching them for one reason or another. Almost immediately after we dropped them, we found a new person and got 3 referrals this week! It’s kinda funny how that works out but it just shows that the work doesn’t stop even when we are inside all day! We also found out this week that all the missionaries that didn’t have the opportunity before their missions will be able to go to the temple starting in about 30 days. That’s exciting for them, but there is also a slight chance that I get to go if my companion at the time needs an escort! Right now they will take a group to the Philadelphia temple or the Detroit, Michigan temple. Either one would be great. Things are good here though, I’m hanging in there and having fun. Thanks for reading, have a good week. Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hey everyone. We had a pretty crazy week this week. We have been teaching a lot and finding a lot and its been busy. We had the chance to teach a lady from the Philippines over messenger. We also got to teach a lady in Birmingham, England as well. Those were cool lessons, the lady from England had a really cool english accent haha. It’s pretty cool that even though we are in our little apartment here in Indiana, PA we are still finding and teaching people not just in our area but all around the world. I think things are finally working pretty smoothly with this whole Covid thing. We have figured out how to be effective and productive almost just as well as before I think, so that’s cool. Things are just moving right along. I feel more comfortable as a District Leader now. I actually got to meet my district and hold district council in person, and after getting that first one out of the way I feel a lot better. I’ve been a lot more busy personally because of the added responsibility but it’s been good and I’ve enjoyed the challenge of being District Leader. My focus is on the members in my district a lot more now and helping them as well as still focusing on the people we’re teaching. Hopefully all is well with whoever is reading this. Enjoy your week! Have fun. Love, Elder Souza

Hello! So this week we had transfers. I got to see a lot of missionaries and say goodbye to my district in person so I really enjoyed that. I’m in Indiana, PA now. It’s about an hour away from my last area. It’s a bit bigger, there is a College campus here so there are more people and younger people haha. I think I mentioned last week but I’m a District Leader now and training 2 missionaries!? One is from Phoenix, Arizona and was called to the Pittsburgh mission. He has been here for just over 7 weeks. The other is a reassigned missionary. He is from Thousand Oaks, California just north of LA. He was serving in the Belem Brazil mission for about 8 months. So he’s not actually new to mission life but this mission has been quite different than his last mission so that’s why he is being “trained”. We have new missionaries coming in 2 different weeks in the next 6 weeks, so things are still pretty crazy. We are at about 240 missionaries now I think, and are still going until somewhere around 300! Thanks for all the support. It means a lot! Have fun. Love Elder Souza

Hello. So this week we got our new Elder, Elder Gatherum. He was reassigned. He was at home for 4 months before coming back out. I got news this week that I will be moving to Indiana, PA. I’m going to be a District Leader and a trainer and in a trio. So things will be different and I’ll have more responsibility but I think it will be good. Things are moving so much here so we never really know what’s going on or what will happen. I’ve been in Philipsburg since the beginning of April and it’s been good. The members are great, I’ve gotten to know them pretty well now. We were teaching 2 people that accepted baptism this week but unfortunately I won’t be around to be a part of it so that’s kind of a bummer. It will be good to be in a new area though and meet new missionaries. We also drove past a Buffalo farm today. It’s about 20 mins from our apartment so I took some pictures of that. I move tomorrow morning so I’ll let you all know more next time how things are going in the new area. Have a good week! Have fun! Love Elder Souza

Hello everybody! Thanks for all the Birthday wishes this week. It was really awesome! This week we had Zone Conference in person for the first time since the beginning of my mission. It was fun and good to see other missionaries. We are also getting a 3rd Elder again tomorrow. All I know is he’s from Herriman, Utah and he is reassigned from New Zealand. Because he is coming from Utah, which is considered a high COVID case state, we have to go back into isolation😂 Not that much changed for us, but we can’t meet in person with anyone anymore and we can’t go to church. We were so close. We have been pretty busy lately with lessons, contacting people, making Facebook posts, and delivering things to people. It will be interesting when we can go proselyting again because we have plenty of things to do that fill our days. We also got to make a blanket for a service project this week. Thanks again for all the Birthday wishes. It was a good day. Have fun! Love, Elder Souza