May 27, 2013
Alright everyone,
This week was just grand. We really relied on the Lord to bring us some new people to teach this week, and what do you know? He gave us some! We've been struggling in this area a bit ever since I started training but it isn't because were not working because we're working super hard! It's just that people say they're going to do stuff to progress but they don't do it. Kinda just breaks your heart. My companion is doing really well. I feel like I can't really help him that much as a trainer because you kind of just learn with experience out here. I try to give him good advice and answer all his questions. We also do companion study every morning which is good cause in reality most missionaries just don't do it. I just don't want to be that trainer that hindered his companion instead of helping him. He keeps saying I'm the best companion ever. It makes me want to cry. Not really, but it makes me feel good.
On Pday we went to Alto da Se again. It the prettiest spot in Olinda and there are always tons of missionaries there. It's just a Pday thing to do. There's tons of old Catholic churches and great views. We were there for the sunset and it was awesome. I realized that I'm really blessed to serve in such a beautiful place. I'll send some pictures.
Since my area is kind of struggling a bit right now the Zone Leader decided to make a visit. He stayed here for a day and we got some work done! He's been here forever so there's a lot I can learn from him. It's always cool to learn different teaching techniques. We did a ton of contacts and met a new lady. She was fun to teach. Kind of just easy and light. Sometimes you need those because there's a lot of people here from the Assembly of God here who just like to argue. My green companion likes to bible bash. He's not normal and bible bashing is not my forte. I think I'm too passive but I can be aggressive and get my point across if I need to. We did the contacts then we went to talk to one of our investigators who really wants to get baptized but needs to get married. She promised me I would baptize her before I left. So the zone is going to do a thing. We're all going to give 10 reais and pay for her marriage so we can just get the baptism done! Money is really the only issue here. I don't know why but when I'm with another American, people here always start comparing us, our Portuguese, our height, our appearance. It's kind of funny. They said I don't have an accent in Portuguese but Farrer, the Zone Leader has a big one haha. Awesome. He's been here forever! So after that me and Farrer went over to an appointment we marked. It was a girl that was a reference from Sabrina, a member who lives next door to Carla. We went there and taught her the first lesson and the problem she had was the start of our church and the catholic church. Farrer was a boss and explained the whole thing flawlessly. I can learn a lot from him. This girl is 25 and is set on doing the 7 sacraments of the Catholic church before she gets married. She just has to let it go and accept the RESTORED GOSPEL and then she can get married for eternity. What's better than that? We left her with the classic pray and God will guide you challenge.
This week we finally got a hold of Galileio. He's this 21 year old kid who called us over one day when we were walking in front of his house. He was drunk and sad and wanted to change his life. We said we were going to pick him up and take him to church. WE went and he wasn't there. Throughout the week we tried to see if he was home so we could teach him but he never was. But finally, this week we got him. We taught him the restoration and marked his baptism in the same lesson. Another day we taught him the commandments and told him he needed to let go of drinking and partying and stuff like that. Here they don't call it partying, they call it hanging out in the road because that's where all the drunk people are. They get their cars and blast music and just get hammered. We told him he can't do that anymore if he wants to get baptized. He agreed and we planned to take him to church on Sunday and he seemed super excited. We went there and he wasn't there. His sister said that he went out the night before and didn't come back. Dang it. We were super disappointed because he was probably partying and he needs to go to church 2 times before being baptized. So the baptism date we gave him will have to be set back. I was seriously really disappointed because you feel like you're progressing with people but stuff just happens. We'll see what happens with him this week.
We taught Sandro. I think I wrote abut him last week. He likes to argue about the Bible and it gets really annoying because sometimes we just have to burn him. People don't realize that we have the truth and they can't win. Arguments just drive the spirit away so we try to stay away from those. He tried to say that people speak in tongues/languages that nobody understands, and was really adamant about it. So we read Acts 2. The lesson didn't go well, but we had another lesson with him this week and it went really well. We tried to keep it under control and just testify. Amazing how it works to bring the spirit in the lesson. I also read a lot from the Book of Mormon even though he didn't really have a testimony of it yet. But he agreed with everything I said and it was just great. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ (4th article of faith) and the Book of Mormon. We said the prayer and he ended up crying at the end. Success. He was our only investigator to go to church and he came late so we were kind of bummed until he got there. I swear we invited like 7 people to go to church this week and only 1 showed up. Just gotta role with the punches and trust in the Lord.
Other than the slight disappointment this week, I'm loving the work. It's tough but I'm getting smarter and better every day! I know that this is Christ's church. I can't think of what I would be without it. I feel like I would have no hope and purpose for my life . That's how most of the world is and that's why we have to spread the gospel! It's really a great thing that brings hope and happiness to people. A lot of times, I can see the change in the countenances of people when they're listening to us testify. Something just changes in them where they want to accept Christ and change their lives for the better. It's amazing..
Well, love you all and miss you. I pray for the family everyday.
Love,
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