Monday, January 19, 2015

Finding Families

This week has been tough but rewarding. What I mean is that the sun is killing us but we are getting bronzed. Just kidding. The sunscreen helps a little but I'm still looking like a little tomato out here.

This transfer we have six people that could be baptized. Three are pretty much set. The Lord has been blessing us with families. Many of the doors we are knocking/ clapping are full of families. I feel like a true Brasilian missionary now because we are teaching a bunch of families with little tan kids who run around shirtless in their board shorts. 

Funny experience:

We were striding down a steep "hill" (*cough* mountain) and we starting chatting with some teenage kids who were playing a Brasilian game called "bats". It's like cricket/ baseball and suicide all together. Actually, they stopped us because they started screaming, "ELDDDERRRS!" In Brasil, almost everyone has been taught by the elders. It's because we knock so many doors and contact a lot of people. They told us that they all had Books of Mormon and wanted us to come back. It was a Saturday and we didn't have much time because of our next appointment so we invited them all to church. They all said they wanted to check it out. Some of them had already visited the chapel but never progressed with the missionaries. It's funny to see these kids talk to older guys, us, because they start deepening their voice and say more slang words, cuss words, or they just get all goofy. I was the goofy one as a kid. Sorry, to all of my brothers and their ex- girlfriends. And maybe some of my sisters-in-law as well. 

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about the sacred calling of a missionary. The bishopric asked me to make it like a recruitment call. I imagined Jesus with an uncle sam hat saying, "I SAY UNTO THEE,  SERVE THOU MY BRETHEREN." The talk went really well. I really did feel the spirit using me to reach the hearts of the ward and to get the youth exited about missionary work. After the talk Grandma Eva (ward chorister) came up to me in tears and said that my talk answered the prayers of her grand daughter. I saw her grand daughter crying behind her.She slowly walked up to me and said thank you. It was a great feeling. She said she had been praying to know if she should serve a mission or not. Lots of job opportunities have been popping up and she could get a lot of money out of them but she felt the strong desire to serve a mission. 

Elder De La Rosa made a miracle contact late last night. We saw a group of people hanging out by their gate and he contacted all of them. Stud. He´s super new in Brasil but his Portugues is picking up. By the end of the night we were teaching a young woman and she was really interested in the restoration. 

We are also teaching a guy in English. He lived in England for 4 years and we've met with him twice. He likes reading the war chapters of the Book of Mormon because he hates terrorists. Hopefully we can get him to go to church.

Yesterday we brought 9 people to church. It was fantastic. It was the first time for 6 of them and they all loved it, participated in the classes and hung out in the parking lot with a bunch of members afterward. I´m seeing and hoping for a lot of progress. It´ll come.

In one of our lessons we were teaching a father who has a tough time finding out what is truth. Not if God exists, but what is He made of and what does He do daily. We watched a sweet Mormon Message with him: Heavenly Father, Earthly Father. The sound was pretty loud because of their speaker and his wife who WAS kind of against our religion walked into the room half way through the video and sat down next to her husband. She never listened to our lessons. It was strange. At the end of the video she quickly turned her head and started asking us a ton of questions. We talked about the plan of salvation, church dances, barbecues, youth programs for her kids, For the Strength of Youth, etc. She randomly looked at all of her family members and decided the following, "We are going to visit your church tomorrow. I´ve always found your denomination loving and family oriented but never had the courage to leave my church to visit yours."  I was just thinking, "wait...what just happened."  She changed. Instantly, it seemed. They went to church and she felt super open to participate and make comments. It was awesome. 

Love,
Ian

1 comment:

  1. I LOVE this! I just love reading about all the success he is having and the great experiences. You can tell he loves what he is doing and loves the people he is serving. I think I'm starting to fall in love with the Brazilian people too! What a great mission and missionary!

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