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| Typical encounter during the day. Donkeys just roam the streets here. |
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| Friendly little donkeys, Usually they are afraid of people, but we got along great! |
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| A giant icecream cone |
March 9, 2014
We ended up playing a lot of basketball with some Brazilians
who actually know how to play! Elder
Andersen and I were still the best, but there were some guys who weren’t too
far behind. During the game, one of my
glass lenses popped out, but I was able to put it back in. I ended up playing most of the game without
my glasses, which was a challenge. In
the end, we had what we called “a religious conflict”, missionaries vs. home
team. We won! With Elder Dorneles playing it was a big enough
handicap that it was actually hard to win.
We had 4 appointments marked for tonight, but not a single
one worked out. That is totally normal,
but a really frustrating start to our week.
March 10, 2015
So last transfer I asked President Bonini if we could have a
special training about planning more efficiently. Today he sent the mission assistants to train
us on this topic and it really helped me and my district. We had a bunch of good lessons today. One of our couples read about Lehi’s vision
of the tree of life in The Book of Mormon by themselves. They had many good questions and are
progressing a lot, but it is like pulling teeth trying to get them to go to
church.
We also had a good lesson with another couple about the law
of chastity and they both said that they would live the law in preparation for
baptism.
March 11, 2015
Elder Muniz was at my district meeting today. Today was his last day on the mission, so we
trunked ourselves out a little bit. He was with me in the very start, and now
he is leaving. It is kind of scary how
time flies by. He is planning on
studying at BYU so we will definitely see each other afterwards. He speaks English really well. I am going to miss him a ton. He has been a great friend and zone leader.
We taught M. again today ad she is so hung up on the whole
marriage thing. She already lives the
law of chastity and the word of wisdom, and she attends church meetings
regularly. She is sure that she wants to
be baptized, but she is still holding off.
We took a member couple there and it worked out really well. They have a pretty strong relationship and
they definitely helped to settle her fears.
March 12, 2015
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| Most streets here are either dirt or cobblestone. |
I don’t know why, but for some reason we started teaching
people who live right next to the canal (ie. open sewage drain). I found this one road while out working one
day and it turns out that several families live there. They are very poor, but very nice people. This one little family that we are teaching
lives in a 12X12 brick box with their 3 little girls. There is nothing in the states that compares
to the poverty here. It is humbling.
We had another appointment with a woman whose husband
greeted us by shouting, “Did you come to hear the word of God?” and a bunch of
other stuff from his church. All the while he is yelling a the top of his
lungs, and I am just like, “oh brother.”
Then he asks us for our Bible to read a scripture and I he read:
John
3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
We explained that scripture a bit to
him, but he just kept yelling . So then
I showed him
Ephesians
4:31 Let all bitterness, and
wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with
all malice:
In Portuguese ‘clamour’ is
“gritaria’ and it was super funny because once I pointed out that he had done
nothing buy yell at us, he toned his voice down to almost a whisper.
March 13, 2015
Today
I went on splits with Elder T. Anderson and it went pretty well. A ton of appointments fell through, but we
managed to teach some super cool people.
There was this one family in particular that stood out. They have a 6 month old Rottweiler and I have
decided that I love that breed. The
lesson went smoothly and they accepted the message of the Restoration
readily. They even committed to
baptism. When we got back together with
the other missionaries, we asked how their lesson with M. went and it went
really well. We studied this morning for
her and picked 5 talks specifically for her to read from the last general
conference. I hope that it will help
her. The other elders only did 10
contacts today. It is hard for them
because they are both junior companions and it is a skill that you just get
better at with practice and time. Also, neither one of them are all that
excited about the work. This week I have
been working hard to contact and we average about 16-17 per day. That is pretty good. One of the interesting things about trying to
talk to absolutely everyone is that we find a LOT of inactive members who are
not on the membership list from church.
Well this week just flew by.
Tomorrow we have very busy day
planned with appointments schedules for every half hour of the entire day. It
is going to be crazy if everyone keeps their appointment.
March 14, 2015
I
am tired of appointments falling through, but on the bright side, only half of
them fell today so that still left us with plenty of work to do. First of all we taught the English class. Right now we have 3 students who are
regulars. None of the members are
interested at all. We worked really well
today, but we only had a couple of good lessons. We taught a less-active member’s daughter’s
boyfriend and he really liked the lesson. We invited him to be baptized and he said
really softly, “I think so, maybe.” He
said that he would come to church tomorrow, so we will see about that.
Also
we taught another less active member’s girlfriend. This kind of thing happens a lot. This couple is progressing a lot. They have quit smoking, they are reading and
understanding scriptures, but they are not coming to church. They always have plans for Sunday. What can we do? It is odd that it is easier for people here
to give up a serious addiction than it is for them to keep the Sabbath day
holy. They already told us that they
won’t be there tomorrow because they have plans to celebrate a birthday.
March 15, 2015
Ever
since we contacted M. she hasn’t missed a single Sunday! We haven’t had to go and get her a single
time. She even showed up in the pouring
rain when half of the members didn’t even come.
I hope that she decides to get baptized soon because I will really feel
sad if I get transferred and miss being there for that.
Today
we brought a 13 year old investigator to church along with her 10 year old
cousin. I really hate bringing kids to
church without their parents. On the
plus side, when we got to church, two f the young women basically took care of
them for the entire church block. The
young women were so amazing, they even set up for the 13 year old to attend
mutual with them. This was a little miracle for us.
Then
we had a real miracle happen when we were teaching. and L. C. is very serious about studying the Book of
Mormon. She takes it to work with her so
that she can read on her breaks. L. has been inactive for a long time, but with
the energy and enthusiasm of C, he is coming along. She has told us that she is praying for an
answer about whether to get baptized.
The next lesson will be on the law of chastity, which will be hard since
they are not married and living together.
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