 |
| Our mission logo-the symbol of our mission that President Bonini chose. |
 |
| I included a picture of what I drew that the elders want to put on their zone T-shirt. I thought that it was pretty funny, because the theme of the mission is "Start with the final result in sight". I feel that my drawing shows how an Elder feels about this theme. |
May 17, 2015
Today was stake conference and we had an area authority
talk. He was a lot like the pastors from
other churches here in Brazil. He talked
really loudly, used hand gestures, and cried a lot. Everyone really loved it cause that is just
the way Brazilians are. To tell the
truth, it was a really good talk about faith.
He talked about how when you are rich, material things seem inexpensive
and then are not a concern to us. If we
compare our faith to wealth and become rich in our faith, then our problems will
not concern us because we will have the resources to handle them. The cool thing about stake conference was
that I had 7 investigators come to church.
Wooohooo! Afterwards we visited
with everyone and they are all excited about their upcoming baptismal
dates. Another one of the cool miracles
that happened today sortof by accident was that R. (one of our investigators)
was dropped off at church and was told to get a ride home with us. He forgot to ask us, but amazingly enough we
found out later that he showed his ability and independence by walking home by
himself. (This is our special needs
investigator who is surprising everyone with what he CAN do!)
We had a great lesson with A. and his family. While we were there, the family that referred
them to us come over to talk with us.
They were very complimentary when they heard that the wedding and
baptism were all arranged. They were so
supportive of their friends, it is great!
May 18, 2015
Something kind of funny happened last night while we were planning
we had a bunch of stuff to do today and we almost didn’t plan time to email
home. Haha! We were so focused on
everything that we need to get done that we forgot it was p-day. I don’t know what was the highlight of toady
because we taught three great lessons on p-night. Yep, we are super busy. The best lesson was family night with A. and
T. It ws bades on faith and M. (our recent convert) gave the message. The
daughter of the family is the same age as M. so she is helping befriend
her. M. asked people to give examples of
faith and the daughter told us the story about the first time they went to
church. Their member friends had already arranged to take them to church but
they couldn’t find the key. They looked
everywhere, but couldn’t find it. The
daughter decided to say a prayer and in her prayer she asked that if God wanted
her family to go to this church, would He please help them find the key, and if
not then the key would remain hidden.
Just as she finished her prayer, the key was found and they all made
their first visit to church. In the end
of the lesson we sang “Families can beTogether Forever”…but in Brazilian it is
translated “Family is Forever.” I
thought about how great it was to bring an entire family to Christ, and then I
thought about my own eternal family that I will be with in just 3 short
weeks! #TRUNKY!
May 19, 2015
This morning we found a man who accepted our message about
the restoration. He is the first person
in a long time that we have successfully contacted. We are so busy with teaching our great
investigators, that we are having a hard time finding time to contact new
people. We have been visiting with G.
and R. every day in preparation for their baptism this Saturday. The two couples are preparing to travel to the
wedding office this week to sign the final paperwork. Everything seems like it is going to work
out.
 |
| My last zone training!!! I took pictures with all of the other elders who are finishing their missions with me. Yep, everyone was pretty trunky. |
May 20, 2015
My last zone training! Weird. In our zone, we have 3 missionaries going
home and we have 3 brand new missionaries.
Everyone was joking with me about going home, even the other elders who
are leaving. They like to mess with me
more.
I haven’t been feeling well for a couple of days. I have really serious diarrhea…like every
hour on the hour. It is super hard to
teach and gather the will power to contact people when I am so sick. But, I only have a short time left so I don’t
want to waste it at home.
 |
| The two lucky women! (I forgot to take a picture of the men...) |
May 21, 2015
The couples signed their papers for their weddings this
morning. We were walking to J. and J.’s
house to walk with them to the train.
But they had already left without us.
Then we met up with A. and E. and
walked with them to the station. One of
the trains broke down so we had to wait 2 hours for the next train. But everyone started talking and getting to
know each other. They are all super
happy to be getting married. I had
enough time to read a good chunk of the Book of Mormon on the train rides. My goal is to finish it one more time before
my mission ends.
Another thing that we did today was have a special training
for the youth. Almost all of the youth here want to serve a mission one
day. They are very helpful with
missionary work and they know a lot more about the work than I did before I
came out on a mission. But one problem
that they have is that they ALL date at a very young age, some as early as 12
years old. We decided that the best way
to approach this was to have a fireside about the importance of the “For the
Strength of Youth” pamphlet. We compared
it to the missionary handbook because the same way that the handbook is a
guideline for obedience to the missionaries, this FSOY is their handbook. We left each couple of youth a topic to read
and explain. We left the sexual purity
and dating topic for the bishop.
Everything worked out great except for the bishop’s part when he taught
stuff that definitely isn’t doctrinal to a group of young kids, investigators,
and recent converts. Ugghhh! Then after his strange ramblings he turned
the dating talk over to us. Like the
Elders are experts on dating.
R. and G. are scheduled to have their interview tomorrow and
they are both ready. I am going to
baptize R. and Elder Ribeiro is going to baptize G.
May 22, 2015
We had another division today and I went to the other area
with Elder G. again. I titled the last
division with him “Getting lost with a crazy Chilean 1.” Well, this division is
called, “Getting Lost with a Crazy Chilean #2.”
I thought that the other time was just because he was new in his area,
but it had been over a month and he still doesn’t have a clue where anything
is. It’s funny because he always walks
as if he know where he is going. Also it was weird because my planner given to
me by Elder R. O. was a lot different from his companions, Elder G. I am seriously thinking that he has a couple
of screws loose. My companion told me
that his divisions didn’t go much better.
He is concerned that Elder O. only contacts girls and women because he
said, “Why would I contact men when I like women, not men.” When I got home I
found out that Elder O. had searched through ALL of my stuff looking for
anything that he could take with him.
Ughh, what a terrible example of a district leader! BUT, it doesn’t
matter because we got our baptismal interviews done and the baptism is ready to
go for tomorrow. My companion and I made
special desserts and they are so beautiful!
 |
| The jello is acually super easy, it just takes a while to make. Every 1/2 hour or so you waste 10 seconds to pour on another layer. Brazilian jell-o also isn't all that great, so it didn't taste nearly as good as it looks. |
 |
| I made the jello, but Elder Ribeiro made the cake. He worked in a bakery for a while, so he knows how to make a ton of stuff. |
May 23, 2015
Yet another day that we wasted getting the dirty water out
of the font by hand. All of the youth
were there helping us, so we were able to get it done in just over an hour. Then we had to wait for it to fill up. The baptism went down without a hitch. R. was a little scared that he was going to
drown, but he got in the water and was baptized! The bishop gave his usual unusual baptismal
address. The coolest part was that all
of our other investigators who have baptismal dates came to watch. It was great!
After the baptism, we had a “family night” with some members who live
close to J. and J. and we invited the two of them. It was very nice and cozy
because it was just the two couple and us.
I did that tape object lesson that Mom sent me that relates how keeping
the Sabbath day holy helps to keep us on the right path to our Heavenly
Father. J. was the example and it
worked perfectly. When she was
blindfolded she couldn’t make it to the end of the tape, but when she could
open her eyes on every seventh step to regain her direction, then she was able
to reach the end of the line. Everyone
loved the example and the sister said that she felt the spirit very
strongly. I hope that our investigator’s
also felt the spirit of the message.
Keeping the Sabbath holy is a very difficult challenge for most
Brazilians.
May 24, 2015
Well, J. must have felt something last night because she
came to church today even though she told us yesterday that she would not be
able to go because she had to pick up her son in another city. We asked her why she was able to come after
all. She said that she realized that she
should come to the Lord’s house first and then search after her own interests. We gave ties to both J. and A. so that they
could have them for church. They were super happy about that! Our gospel principles class was FULL today! We had 7 investigators, and 2 new member
confirmations, and 2 recent converts.
Seriously, I am so stoked about how well things are turning out for the
last part of my time in Brazil. I am
seriously also wiped out every night.
One night this week, we literally were so tired that we could not sit at
our desks to plan. We just had to lay
down on the floor to get it done. It is
good to be drained because we use our energy and time well. I think that my misison president is going to baptize one of the people my last week here. On my last Saturday on my mission, we're going to baptize two families, and President Bonini is going to come here be part of the baptism! It's super exciting.
 |
| Jerry-rigging a straining system for cevada which is a roasted ground barley coffee substitute...no caffeine! |
No comments:
Post a Comment