Let's Eat Pasta

 All right! *cracks knuckles* Let's do this. 

The District!

Tuesday:

We had a lesson with a new guy, Algace, and it went AMAZING. It might have been the best lesson we ever taught. He was asking questions and engaging. It ended with him agreeing to read the Book of Mormon and pray about whether it's true. Then, immediately after, we had a lesson with Devanir. The lesson was another great one. It lasted about an hour. We covered the plan of salvation, the restoration, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was so interested, and said he wanted to come to our church. He pointed out that our church was different from others; it has actual doctrine to learn. We asked when he gets out of the hospital and... he got out two days earlier!!! Which means we can drop off a Book of Mormon. We are so excited to talk to him more. He loved the lesson, and said he believes there is more that God has prepared us to learn. We spoke about baptism and covenants as well. From there, we went straight to get flu shots, and that was the day. 

Wednesday:

When we got back, we had a lesson with Augosto, and it also went great. We asked him about his experience reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. He told us that his faith was growing, that he felt better spiritually, and that he found himself drawing closer to God in his desires. It was an awesome experience, and we invited him to attend church. He wasn't able this week but wanted to next week. After that lesson, we went to the Hortas to get back a plate we had given them and drop off more cookies. We left with a bag of apples, peaches, two cases of wet wipes, two slices of cake, a guitar, and our plate. They are just the best; there is no other way to put it. We have a hard time getting in contact with the members over here, but when we do, it's such a fulfilling experience. From there we went to a food kitchen to offer service for a couple hours. It was there that I got Bible bashed for the first time haha. An older guy was talking to me while I filled bags. He asked why I was there, and I responded I was on a mission for my church. He was impressed and asked what church. I responded "The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints"... "some people call us mormons." He wasn't that happy anymore, and he wanted us to go with

Cookie Grease stains on my journal.
Whoops!

him to his church. I asked for his number so I could get the address, and he said he would just show me. He gave us the most Bostonian directions you've ever heard of. *in Boston accent, "All right, so what you're gonna want to do is take this street right here; this is called main street. And you're gonna drive it that way until you get to a stoplight and turn right. From there you'll follow the road until you see an old building with a sign called the foundry. If you get to the train station you've gone too far." After that, he left us alone to go back to doing service. All in all an interesting experience. When we got home around 3 hours later, we ate some of the peaches the Hortas gave to us. They were AMAZING. I walked around the apartment with a peach in each hand, cause ya, I'm living the high life. After that we had some time to exercise, so I asked Elder Bodily I'd he wanted to do it with me. He responded "Naw, I'm just gonna go eat pasta." We both started laughing just cause he said it completely unironically. And that was our day. 

Thursday: 

I know what you're thinking, weekly planning. Actually, no. Not at all this week in fact. We never ended up having time. What we did do is give the Haitian Creole elders our car. They share one with the Zone Leaders but can't always use it. So they always need us to drive down, pick them up, drive home, then give them the keys. We finally got home and were gonna call Devanir when the fire alarm went off! It was nothing, but 20 minutes later we got back and the unthinkable happened, it didn't ring. Just went straight to unavailable. This is what happens when you're blocked, so we were kinda sad. During our last lesson I had a STRONG prompting to ask for his address to write it down, but ignored it because I didn't want to interrupt Elder Bodily. He has a brother-in-law who is a preacher for another church. We are afraid he made Devanir block us, as that's something that happens. We found out later when we tried to call on a different phone that it did the same thing, which means that actually his phone is probably just dead. We hope we can get back in touch with him. 

Friday:

100 days as a missionary! 

Started off with District Leader council, which is where the District leaders in our zone meet with the zone leaders to coordinate the efforts in our areas. From there, we went to district council to relay the information back to our district.  After that we had a call with Deborah. When we called and said it was the missionaries, she immediately hung up. That stung a lot; I can't lie. We spend so much time preparing and talking about how we can help each person, praying about it as well. And we've been building a relationship with her for months. Then out of nowhere, she starts ignoring us the past couple weeks. It's a part of the missionary experience though, patience and faith. 

Saturday:

Naturally, I woke up and made cookie dough, because why wouldn't I. We then had a lesson with a member named Ana Maria, which I'm only bringing up, because it's so hard to get in touch with members; so it's always exciting. From there we had a normal day, until our devotional on facebook with Brad Wilcox. It was AWESOME! I learned a lot about my own life, and how I can be a better missionary. Anyone who wants to watch it is welcome to, it's on my Facebook profile. From there, we had an interested woman that we called to see if she wanted to meet. She said she was busy, as her mother was having an operation on Monday, and she had to take care of her at home. That's when we thought of a good idea for that cookie dough, haha. So we brought a plate of 15ish cookies to her house and apparently they liked them cause they asked for the recipe. The only problem is that I do not know how to convert recipes from English to Portuguese, haha. It's a lot harder than you'd think. 

Sunday: 

Woke up with two referrals for interested people! However one of them spoke English, and the other one lived in New Hampshire so we sent their information to the appropriate missionaries. To this day, out of the dozen or so referrals I have received, they've all been for other areas, haha. Sunday we had normal church services, and ended with a devotional by Elder and Sister Rasband. After that we got a text from the Assistant Missionaries that our Districts Pday, the day once a transfer that we are allowed to hang out in person other than district council, was gonna be Monday. We were pumped, but had to figure out what to do. Planning transportation and activities was a bit of a chore, but we figured it out.

Monday: 

And here we are, district p day. We went to the park, ate, and walked around. From there we went to a bowling alley for a bit and just talked and got to know each other. It was great, and a much needed chance to get some fresh air haha. 

I'm a chef but I'm not a baker. Left them in the oven for 2 hours. It's not chocolate. 

Elder Bodily and I out for a walk at night. Not a bad view!

One of the best

So before I start. Really eventful week, one of the best of my mission. I had so many spiritual experiences, and the Spirit was present in so many of our lessons. It was a lesson to me that if we can do our part, the Lord will take care of us  

Tuesday:

So today started off really well. We had a lesson with a guy named Willian. I can't recall if I had met him last week or this week, so I'm not sure if this is a recap. But he's awesome, a really special guy; just going through some rough times. I was so glad to get to know him, and we were able to drop him off a Book of Mormon. I went through and highlighted and annotated a bunch of up lifting scriptures for him. Those scriptures proved useful again later in the week, and he said he went through and read them, and they helped him out which is really awesome. After that, the Haitian elders asked us for a ride to the church, and to chaperone a chapel tour with them and one of their friends. When we got there, the zone leaders told us that in a meeting with a member of the opposite sex the meeting has to include a member of your own sex. So instead, they stood out in the sun and had a lesson. I got to watch them invite her to be baptized, and it was so awesome to see. After that, they had some lessons, so we couldn't take them home. We had to wait for them at the chapel... we ended up being there 11:00 to 6:30, haha. But after they finished all their stuff, we were able to go home and eat lunch/dinner after a quick lesson. From there we just had English class with a member named Deborah. 

Wednesday:

Started off by going to a chapel to pick up an english connect book. (The book we use for English class.) Transfers were going on, so there were a ton of missionaries which was awesome. Always nice to see real life people, haha. Then I shared a post on my story, with a picture of Jesus and a scripture. And someone messaged me and said (roughly translated), "Do you really think Jesus was white? And that he was blonde? He was from the middle east." Which was even more confusing because in the picture Jesus had brown hair. Anyways I just said, "Well, I don't know exactly what He looked like, but we know He was Jewish, and this artist's interpretation is more focused on depicting the care of Jesus towards His children." Then I asked him what his relationship was with Christ and how it had affected his life. We talked about that a little, and I introduced the Book of Mormon and promised him that if he read it and prayed, he could know it's true. He was curious, but we'll see how that goes. Later, we had a lesson with a woman named Adrianna. This was an interesting experience. We shared the message of the restoration, and it was a super interactive lesson. I have NEVER felt the Spirit stronger during a lesson than there, and yet it ended with her saying, "Church isn't a place; it's in us." We could tell she wasn't interested. It kind of showed me, that no matter how much testament we receive that something is true, if we aren't receptive, then the Spirit can't help us. After that, we had a lesson with Debora F. We invited her to be baptized; she said she wanted to think about it and told us she was gonna give us her answer next time we talked. One little miracle; the connection in that lesson was awful; we could barely hear her and vise versa. Three times we had to hang up and call again. We knew this was an important lesson, and needed to call her. The last time I said a prayer, and simply asked that God would strengthen the signal, so that we could communicate with her. As soon as we called back, like flipping a switch, the connection was perfect, and the rest of the time it never even so much as flickered. This may seem small, but it was the most instant prayer I have ever seen in my life, and more importantly, goes to show that 'by little things, do great things come to pass'. Anyways, after that we studied for a bit. Suddenly, I remembered I had put cookies in the oven, and they were gonna burn. That made me remember that we were late for a lesson with Jorge. And so once again, cookies save the day! 

Thursday:

You know the deal, weekly planning. A lot less to talk about these days. My Portuguese is getting a lot better, but I need to work on the formal version you use in a prayer. I was asking for help for Willian and said... "Você pode ajudar...... Você pode ajudas..... Tu pode ajudas..... Tu podes ajudar" well, at least I notice when I use the wrong form now, and I got there eventually. After that we spent 3-4 hours writing a lot of letters to members with unlisted phone numbers. 

Friday:

This was a crazy day. It started off with district counsel, where we had a lesson and role play from the Haitian elders on the importance of bearing our testimony during lessons, making invitations, and promising blessings. This was by far the best role play I've had while on my mission. Later in the day, it would completely change my experience in 2 lessons. After I got home and made some cheesy eggs.... (well I got the proportions very wrong so more like eggy cheese), we made some calls. One guy we talk to keeps saying he's interested, but when we call, every single time he puts his phone in his pocket. We finally realized, it's so we don't call back. We got the message after the third day this happened and decided to stop talking to him. This does raise the question of, instead of ignoring us and telling us to call again... why not just say no when we ask if you want to hear a message??? Oh well. After that we made some decisions to stop teaching some people, one of whom was a man named Devanir. We had tried calling him repeatedly, but he was always busy. About twenty minutes after we made this decision, he called us for the first time and said he wanted to talk to us. We had a lesson later, and he shared that from the moment we opened our meeting with a prayer, the Spirit confirmed to him that we were sent from God. The role play we had earlier was fresh on my mind, and I shared my testimony throughout the discussion, and he shared his. He is an old man who is having medical problems. Because of this, we can't visit him as he's in the hospital. But he's such a special sweet man, and I know he is loved dearly by Heavenly Father. In that lesson, I felt that love as we got to know him. Immediately after that, we had a lesson with a man named Junior. We shared the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him. He was an awesome guy, close to our age, so it was easier to connect with him and become friends. I ended up inviting him to make the covenant of Baptism. He responded positively, and said he'd like to learn more about our faith before making that decision. He then asked "What's the name of your church exactly?" I may have jumped the gun on that invitation. Oh well, haha. He then asked if we were the people who had a little blue book, and we said yes. Then out of nowhere, he held up a Book of Mormon and said, "Like this?" It was really funny at the time, and all three of us laughed about it. He said he had been given it years ago, and that he wanted to read it and meet with us again. We set up a time next week to talk to him and gave him some stuff to read. It was a great discussion, and we look forward to talking to him in the future. 

Saturday:

So Saturday. I did as I do... and made more cookie dough. This time I used some gluten free flour for Sister Lawlor, and they turned out super dry. I was upset with this, because we had had a conversation with Sister Freire where she said chocolate chip cookies weren't that good, and I did NOT want dry cookies to represent why I know that she's wrong. Oh well. After that we had another lesson with Willian, and got to know him. The more we talk with him, the more I love him. There are so many people in this world who feel alone; it makes me realize how much I've taken granted going to church in my life. Most people don't have a community they can enter into and be cared for. I hope we can create a feeling like that for Willian and everyone else we come into contact with. More and more each day, I realize how much this church has blessed me, and I just want to help other people get that as well. At the end of the lesson, I turned to Elder Bodily and said, "Man, the Spirit takes care of us dude." As we sacrifice to make God a priority in our lives, He will make us see how we as individuals are a priority to Him."

Sunday:

Started off with Elder Bodily and I sleeping through our alarms and waking up at 8:00. Then we did our personal studies. The night before, Elder Bodily had told me a story in which a priest of another unnamed religion had come up to him and said "you know where you people got it wrong? Laying on of hands. At no point in the entire Bible does that occur." Now I know the bible well enough to know that does occur, and so does Elder Bodily. But at that point in his life he didn't know the bible well enough to find that. And the guy dismissed him condescendingly. I was thinking about that during my personal study, but decided to put it off my mind and continue reading where I had left off in the New Testament. I opened up and started reading, and almost immediately came across Acts 6:5-6, and you can guess to what happens there. It helped to alleviate my concern, and strengthened my testimony that we can find the answers to any questions we need if we look to divinely appointed sources. God has given us so much to testify of the truth, too many people these days focus on what they dont know, and they lose out the opportunity to learn from what they do know. From there we went to church, there were 9 people in total because it was the 1:00 session. It was a great experience, and it's so nice seeing members in person. Speaking of Members, let's talk about Brother Horta. He is AWESOME! No other word for it. It's such a blessing to have him work so much with us, when we've had so much trouble getting in touch with other members in the area. He wants to have a barbecue with us and the Sisters so bad. We've tried to explain the situation to him, but he wants to meet with us. It's so hard for us because we feel like we are rejecting his love, (especially when juicy steaks are involved) but rules are rules. He asked at one point, if he could call our mission president and explain the situation to him. We explained that it comes from the area seventy, and its outside of President Mavromatis's control. One day I hope, sadly not today. From there we had 4 lessons, each one with 30 minutes of wait time until the next time. That's the worst kind of day, because when there's cancellations, it leaves you with an unplanned hour and nothing to do. In this case 3 of them were canceled. Leaving us bored for 3 hours. Oh well. 

All in all am amazing week. This week especially I've seen the benefits of trusting in the lord. I would encourage anyone reading this to get on their knees tonight, and pray in humility, and ask to feel Gods love in our life. And I promise that with Patience and Faith you will receive this confirmation.