October 7, 2013

Well this last week was good, hard at times, but definitely good! It was hard last week as it felt like so many of our appointments with people were falling through, that was discouraging because we so badly want to help these people and help them be able to progress. I also found that as we worked with the time we had to find people on the streets we met success and were able to meet people we never would have otherwise. So that was nice to see that even when that was discouraging we were able to do that and be of service to the Lord.  

But teaching has gone well besides a lot of appointments falling through, I am getting more confident in Portuguese and it is pretty easy to approach people or at doors haha it is just difficult to understand what they say after that. I was having it kind of tough at the beginning of the week but I decided to just change my attitude, think positive, hum some hymns, and that night I asked E Mussin to give me a blessing which was way nice. I didnt understand all of it but I understood what I felt through the Spirit. This whole last week I was so incredibly excited for General Conference and we seriously invited everyone we talked to to it. I was trying my best to prepare for it and had questions in my heart that I wanted answered. Well come to Saturday, we get to the church and find out from the ZLs who are American that they cant find the cord they need to watch it... I was literally heart broken. I was so wanting to be lifted up and edified and instead it was going to be a translating experience, not a really spiritual one. Well I prayed my guts out, we kept looking, and a couple minutes after it started I opened a drawer and found it!!! Haha we were so exited and I got to watch all the sessions except for priesthood because it started at 9 here in English! So that was definitely a little miracle. Another cool ting is how missionary oriented it was! It was so great, I absolutely loved it and loved hearing such wonderful talks. Then on Sunday between the sessions, we went to contact people and invite them to the last session because our area is too far away to walk there and back and be productive in between sessions, well we met this guy who was a part of another church and didn't really like ours, kind of yelled at us a bit but when asked if he knew anyone who could benefit from our message he said his brother who had converted to Judaism and lived down the street. Well we go, he comes to the gate and immediately opens it which was strange, then he invites us in and when we tell him we wanted to invite him to something he was confused and said he thought we had a message for him and a booklet about families. Turns out he had gotten a pass along card from a member friend, wants to start a family and requested a book the church has on eternal families, spoke with the missionary over the phone and said he would accept a message as well, but the area hadn't gotten this referral from the church yet. Well we shared a quick message and then invited him and he said he would really like to come to conference but needed to change and shower first! So we went contacting for 10 more minutes, he comes out in a suit and is super excited and he watches conference with some Brazilian elders in our zone. Haha it was so cool to be a tool in the hand of the Lord and randomly meet him before we even had gotten a referral to go see him from the Church and for him to have a great experience at Conference, something he would not have had if the referral was what had first contact with him. But that was way cool.

Conference was such an incredible boost to me. I seriously felt so re energized and really felt the importnace of covenant keeping and being patient and enduring al things in life in order to receive blessings from our Heavenly Father. Overall it was way exciting! I had a rough week but it ended in an incredible way with little miracles and Conference. 

Mom, the mission address is the same!

 R. Dr. Rui Batista, 165

Jardim Caxingui

15507-080 Sao Paulo, SP

The home will move sometime in the future, but for now send away! Haha I had the thought that my church music on CDs would be wonderful. We actually are allowed to listen to music but not with ipods, maybe booboo could do that. I dont need all of it,just a couple with some really good songs. Also maybe some ibuprofen, like a bottle of it, it is really really expensive here. But also no pressure with a box or anything, that can wait until whenever!! And I got to buy nutella!! Haha they don't really have peanut butter here which I was sad about but one day I saw nutella and it is pretty expensive but i had to buy it so I did! We get plenty to live off of and yes i am eating enough, don't worry, a lot of the Americans here are fat, haha so I don't want to become fat! The weather is pretty cold right now, colder than it was in Montana when I left, but I am dealing with it and Elder Mussin lets me use some of his sweaters. I will deal with that eventually but summer is on it's way so not now. Also I need help on my credit card, what are the rules and charges and things like that right now? I haven't used it and don't really need to but just in case I would like to know. Elder mussin is doing well, hahaa he actually said and members have said that I have a better accent than he does because spanish makes him say a lot of things like he would in spanish, so thats good that english and portuguese are so different I guess, although he has been teaching me a ton so that is nice! I am sorry, I dont really have a lot of time, but dont be afraid to write stuff, I love hearing from all of you, and I am keeping all of you in my prayers! Booboo, good luck this week! Kill it and I am praying for you!  Love you all!!!!!!!!!