Buenas Dia!!!
Minhas queridas! This week was soooo good! Let me tell you what happened.
So
the first week here was ridiculous, we were cutting all of the
investigators that the elders had and we were teaching about two or
three lessons every day which isn't very much for Brazil. And it seemed
like everyone we talked to had already received the missionaries and
they were super rude etc etc. It was rough. So to start off the week
last week, I did a special fast and prayed my guts out after lunch to
have Heavenly Father bless me with a family or at least one person. I
explained to Him that my mission was coming to an end and that I was
willing to work really really hard until the very last day, but I would
like to find someone somewhere that needs our message. And I told Him
that I had no idea where they were but I knew He did, so I told Him that
I would talk to every single person I felt a prompting without a
hesitation and I would try even harder to step up our pace here and
beat down every single door here if I had to.
That day I did exactly that and it was amazing. It
was raining and usually it is kind of annoying to work in the rain
because you are up to you knees at times in rain and you are wet all day
etc. But I decided to be happy about it. And it was actually a very fun
day. Every single person we passed in the street that I felt the
prompting `talk to him`I did it without hesitation and the results were
amazing, we found people that had actually never heard of the church
before and marked times to meet with them. The end of this day we picked
a street to clap doors and the first door we came to a woman answered
and she let us in. We left a message about family prayer and marked a
time to come back. We came back and she and her husband and her two
little girls and her mother in law were there too. We taught the first
lesson and after the woman her name is Naiara said that the first day
that we knocked on her door she had just finished talking to Andre her
fiancé about religion and everything and how it was weird that there was
so many churches and then bingo! we showed up. And she felt a feeling
to let us in. They had some doubts about the Book of Mormon and André who has a lot
of knowledge about the Bible understood everything really well and it
made sense to him, but he had a doubt about the Book of Mormon because
there is a verse in revelation that talks about you can't add anything to
the Bible etc. I explained about that he was only talking about the Bible only and that the Book of Mormon is here only to add to the truths
it is an additional testament of Jesus Christ. And miraculously he
totally understood it on a level that he himself recognized the spirit
was confirming that John was really only talking about the Bible. After
that he was sold. And he wanted to get baptized Monday, but we explained
that there are some things that need to happen first. His wife was
still a little skeptical and after we left she looked up Mormons on the
internet and got all scared but when she told her husband her husband
(hallelujah) showed her that you cant trust the internet. He looked up
things about Jesus Christ that said Jesus was a demon. And with our next
visit she said that she felt the spirit enter the home as we entered
and she too wants to get baptized. The grandma doesn't really understand a
lot but she feels the spirit and felt the spirit during our visits and
she too is determined to stop smoking and get baptized too. The just
need to get taught the commandments and get married and this will add one
more family to the Lord. I didn't expect God to answer my prayer so
quickly. But I am so grateful for this and so grateful that Sister
Moyano will be a part of this. Actually it was probably her faith and
prayers that got us this family too. She is a great little missionary a
little nervous when teaching but she is really sweet. She will get to
practice teaching all the commandments and all the lessons. Something I didn't get to do until six months in the mission. Haha - vitória definitely was a lot harder than this area. but that is the great story
of the week!! They are an amazing family Naiara, Mara, André, Dafne, e
Jenifer. The cutest little girls in the world.
other fun things that happened.
- It has been raining a ton and when it rains it pours and at times were are up to our mid calves in the rain.
-
We talked to a homeless guy on the street- I actually got a really
strong prompting to talk to him, and he walked with us for a bit, and as
we were walking he shouted to a bunch of men he knew as we passed. Each
time he called them by name and told them if they ever saw people
messing with us that they should help us. And that they should keep an
eye out for us. So now we not only have the angels with us we have an
added protection of the local city gang. It is kind of funny the respect
people here have for missionaries and people of the church. I have
heard several stories of missionaries getting robbed and when the
robbers realizes they are missionaries he gives them their wallets back
and lets them go. Brazil has really strong roots in Christianity. kind
of cool.
- This area is great. It is in the city. We have really nice
neighborhoods on one side of the train tracks on the other side there
are ghettos. The worst ghettos I have ever seen in all of my areas. We
avoid those areas.
- We went to Walmart today - bonus of living in the city they have fun stuff like that
- Some man shouted super duper rude things at us shaking his Bible at us
int he hand as we walked past and he invited us/told us to come study
the bible with him. I walked past him two times on purpose just to be
really nice and say hello good after noon super sticky sweet just to
make him mad. I kind of wanted to ask him if he believed in the same Jesus Christ that taught us to love one another. But I am not sure if he
would know who I was talking about.
But that is about it for the week. Love all of you
so much thanks for your prayers. And have fun with Thanksgiving. Eats
lots of yummy American food. And know that I am so thankful for every
single one of you and for this Gospel. It is true and I know it.
love you
ky
