April 28, 2014 - The Week of Learning

Dad and Mom,

You said that sometimes this happens because the current stuff I am working on is hard and I don't know what I need to do next.  Remember the great example of Nephi in 1 Nephi 4:6 "And I was ^aled by the Spirit, not ^bknowing beforehand the things which I should do."

Pray and know that the Lord is on your side ready to help. 

Well,. this week wasn't exactly what I was hoping for at all for my first whole week in Registro.  My district leader here in Registro is very one-way minded and the sister missionaries here didn't have the best impression of him, so we basically had 4 - 5 days where the Elder was being really really difficult with everyone. If anyone did anything he didn't like, he refused to participate.  When I tried to talk to him, he didn't answer back and the sisters didn't want to talk to him very much because he treated them badly. They called me to ask for help and he freaked out because they didn't call him.  Freaked out to the point he called President.  Now he will not help the sisters with anything; the sisters are supposed to call him about how their day was each night and that's it.  I got stuck in the middle of it all.  Never have I been so frustrated on my mission.  I think I fasted 3 days this week to make sure I would make it out alive. haha I prayed a lot and read a lot of scriptures.  I definitely learned about how to use my social skills in different ways and how to talk to different people about the same topic differently.  

On Saturday, we ate lunch at the branch president's house and he asked if I could give a 20 minute talk on Sunday.  You can't say no, so I gave a 20 minute talk about reverence and how reverence allows us to receive personal revelation.  I really got a lot out of it even if it only was Saturday night that I prepared it. 

We had no food for two days and no gas for our oven so, I microwaved a potato and put cheese on it. Yep, I hit that level of hunger

Our family hasn't always been the best at missionary work but I read a book this week that I thought was so amazing about member missionary work: The Power of Everyday Missionaries by Clayton M. Christensen. I read it in one day. Even if it was for members, we as missionaries need to understand the role of members and help them fulfill their responsibilities.  It had some great things that I took and have already put into use.

I can understand Spanish so I'm reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish to be able to talk to Spanish speakers when I get back hahahahah.

One scripture that really helped me this week or that hit me spiritually was John 7:17. We have to put into action certain things before we will gain a testimony or know if they are of God.  We used this with an investigator about baptism. We will talk to her this week to know how it affected her.

I also liked a scripture chain about the charity that Christ showed in his Atoning sacrifice for us and all people:

1 Nephi19:9

Mosiah 14:7

Luke 23:9

Answers to questions from Dad:

1. What is your new area like?

Lots of hills very humble, but doesn't like commitments.

2. What is the ward like in your new area?

A branch that is learning how to be a branch.  You know the red manual about instructions; they didn't know what that was until I asked if they had one. So our job here is going to be to teach the the proper order of these things.

3. Who are you teaching?

Leila and Larissa  We had just gotten done having a district meeting where neither the district leader nor the sisters participated. I sat up there and talked the whole time, asking questions with no responses.  I was super frustrated and frankly ticked.  We were walking up a hill and a young man was working on taking roof tiles down to the back of a woman's house; he looked exhausted. We asked if we could help; he accepted and we hauled about 400 roof tiles ( the big orange ones they have here) down to the back of a woman's house in our proselyting clothes. The owner asked who we were and why we were doing this. We told her how we are missionaries and what we do.  Fortunately, she had a neighbor there also named Leila.  We told them how we teach people about Christ and how He can help us in our lives.  The owner of the house didn't want to hear the lessons and kind of didn't give Leila a chance to respond, but the owner wanted our telephone number and address to send us a box of fruits and food because we helped her out, but we didn't know either of them.  So we passed by the next day and we didn't know where Leila lived and gave our info to the owner.  The owner called Leila, gave her our number and 20 minutes after we left, Leila called us and asked if we could talk with her that night. She now has a date of baptism for this Sunday!  The power of service and the happiness it gave me was ridiculous! It changed my whole day around and was exactly what I fasted for - that I could find happiness through the trials in life I find through service.  The church is true.

4. How's the health? Toe? Shoulder?

Health's fine. I feel like I'm losing weight.  The members don't feed us here very much, so I'm learning to not eat quite as much.

5. How do you get around?

Walk a lot haha.

Mom, my companion is from Missouri and has 5 months on the mission. He served in Louisiana for a transfer then came to Brazil

love you guys