Conference Week

 Hey guys, so conference was a blast wow! All the talks were amazing that I listened to. Third hour didn't start here until 9, so the other elders didn't watch it until Sunday. I was really confused about why they were all watching the women's conference session until afterwards they told me that they didn't do women’s and men’s separate anymore at third hour. Whoops. But I'll get around to watching it tomorrow. 

 

The big theme I focused on was on not judging others, learning to rely on the Spirit, and having charity for all those around you. I had an especially strong reaction to one talk on Sunday afternoon. It struck me on the importance of obedience in the mission field combined with charity. It was Bishop Budge's, and it struck me powerfully. 

 

I was thinking about the nature of the mission and its relationship with happiness. I wrote in my notes that we can have 100% obedience/diligence, but if we are doing it, because we want pride or glory or any reason other than because we have charity, it's the same as if we have 0% obedience and diligence. Something the Spirit added to his words that I really liked was that if you're a consecrated missionary, then the mission isn't a sacrifice; it's a pleasure. Now let’s add onto that a little bit. The mission requires sacrifice; that is fact. We sacrifice our time, our health, our desires, our dreams (sometimes) and our plans. That is not happy in and of itself. But discomfort comes from sacrificing that which you love for that which you don't. That's just a bad deal. It’s a value trade. If you don't love the people you teach, if you don't love the members, if you don't love the Lord, there is no ultimate reason for you to serve a mission. You will sacrifice your might, mind and strength, but not your heart. You're trading that which you do love, (yourself) for that which you don't. Now that might be obvious to some, but it didn't always click to me. 

1 Corinthians 13:2-4

2 And though I have the gift of ^aprophecy, and understand all ^bmysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the ^apoor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 ^aCharity ^bsuffereth long, and is ^ckind; charity ^denvieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

This really puts it into better words than I could. It doesn't say that it’s not possible to do good without charity, it says that it profiteth you nothing. Mormon took this to the next level and said if you have not charity, you ARE nothing. Turning the phrase of Gordon B. Hinckley, "There is no point of doing missionary work if we don't hold onto the fruits of our labors." No point, 0. That's because baptism without persevering until the end is nothing but a checkmark in a missionary’s to-do list: a statistic, nothing more nothing less. You can baptize without loving, and maybe it will work out well for the people you teach, but the harsh truth is that at the end of the day you will still be nothing. Now all this isn't a cry to stop being obedient and diligent because if you don't have charity there's no point. The opposite, "pray to the Father with all the energy of thy heart, that ye may be filled with his love," is Mormon's simple invitation. Once you have charity, you will want to be obedient, want to be diligent, and want to be humble. Your might, mind, and strength will follow your heart. 

Or in summary

If, Love of things sacrificed > Love of Lord, then missionary = sad

If, Love of Lord > Love of Self, then missionary = Happy

... that simple 

And guess what, the scriptures say it, too!!!

1 Samuel 15:22

"To obey is to better than to Sacrifice"

Why is obedience better than sacrifice? Doesn't obedience denote sacrifice? Yes, but obedience is a measurable effect of our love of God. Christ said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." He didn't say if ye loved me. Love comes first, then obedience, which will lead us to willingly sacrifice to Him. God does not need us. Sorry, that's the unfortunate truth. He is capable of doing His own work. He doesn't just want us to sacrifice our time and our talents because He needs Elder Bassett to help Him out as He is just WAY too overwhelmed. He wants us to fulfill our callings out of love, and He wants us to do it with a willing heart, because we need it.

It says in 2 Nephi that Nephi lived "after the pattern of happiness," not a happy life, but Nephi followed a pattern. Alma says that the two times where the Nephites were the happiest were when they followed Nephi, and when they followed Captain Moroni. (Alma 50:23) The people who followed Nephi were at war against their brothers and nephews and cousins. The Nephites at the time of Captain Moroni were in a constant state of war and bloodshed. Surely happiness didn't come from their circumstances. What then? Well, when Moroni called the faithful to fight for their God, what happened?

Alma 45:15

"And those who did belong to the church were FAITHFUL; yea all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them, GLADLY, the name of Christ...the people came RUNNING together with their armor girded about their loins, rending their garments in token, or as a covenant, that they WOULD NOT forsake the Lord their God." 

Or Nephi, "I did persuade my brethren, that they might be FAITHFUL, in keeping the commandments." He didn't convince them to keep them, he convinced them to keep them faithfully. What’s the difference? Have a fun personal study. 

This didn't make a lot of sense. If I write a talk, I'll work out the thoughts a little better, I'm just in a hurry. Gotta go, a lot happened this week, but it’s kinda the same old stuff. Bye!

 

 

Tuesday:

So, an exciting thing today, Devanir is an older guy we are teaching. We are on a timeline to teach him fast, because he's in ill health. Unfortunately, he's almost impossible to contact. He's really elect but is constantly in the hospital. We've called him over a dozen times and sent texts and no response. So we decided to mark him as stopped teaching. But as we were doing it, I got a bad feeling, and Elder Bodily said he felt it too. So we decided to call one more time. And guess what! He lives with his brother in law, and he said his brother in law didn't want us coming over and "mixing things up" as he put it. His brother in law is a very prominent religious leader in Boston, but Devanir said he didn't see a reason why we couldn't drop off a Book of Mormon. He gave us the name of his street, but his accent was so thick that we couldn't understand him, and he didn't know how to spell it! So we wrote down a couple versions of the name before he had to go. Bodimer, Bolderler, Boldier, etc. Then Bodily and I zoomed in on the map and went street by street through east Boston until I found a street that seemed close. Elder Bodily said it out loud but saying the name in a Brazilian accent. We decided that was the one! Then we didn't have a house number, just the description that it was a green house. We were praying there was a green house on that street. And guess what? There was. So we dropped off the Book of Mormon and are praying he got it. We haven't been able to reach him since, but that is the way it goes with him. 

Elder Bodily was Facebook finding later and talking to a guy who asked him how he could know his purpose... which is an amazing question! I made the comment, "I wish I could get questions like that, all I get are pro-debaters trying to tear into me about why my beliefs are wrong!" We cracked up about that, then moments later I had the opportunity to respond to a similar question haha! From there we had another amazing lesson with Francis, and it ended with him asking if we could meet again on Friday. I love him so much. 

Wednesday:

Today Elder Bodily and I got ready and dressed for an interview with president. We were waiting for the zoom link for about ten minutes of silence before we realized our meeting was tomorrow, haha. Anyways, after that we had some service to do. We were working on giving out food baskets. The way it works is the people go to the counter, say how many people in their family, then get a ticket for the appropriate amount of food, and finally Elder Bodily and I get it for them. The largest food package is for 7 people. Along with the other volunteers were cracking up a bit at... how big the families were today. We had about 50 people come through in a row all with 7 people in the family, which was weird because all of them were elderly and alone! No harm no foul though, haha. It mainly is funny, because the food pantry is open all week and never has a long wait, so if you are running low on food you can just come back. Oh well. Maybe they don't like going out. We stayed a little longer than normal, because there were some shortages, and they needed our help. Then rushed home for a lesson, and an English Class. Brother Horta called and said he has some stuff to give us. You see we, had mentioned we were going to give gift bags with invitations to to some families in our ward for our new family home evening idea. He had some stuff for us to put in the bags. 

Thursday:

We went over to get the stuff from Brother Horta. We were thinking it would be some candy or mints, but we should have known better, haha. This is Brother Horta. Instead, he gave us a giant duffel bag of water bottles, about 100 pens, a bunch of mints, and some pill counter containers. We needed bigger bags after that! Elder Bodily and I turned to go to the store to get some but on our way out he asked us if we wanted some more apples. When we went back, he asked if we drank milk. When we said ya, he brought a gallon of milk and asked if we liked ribs. Then he brought us three things of pork ribs and told us how to slow cook them properly!!! He is just the best, no other word appropriate. 

After that we had a lesson with Augosto and marked a day to meet him at the chapel next week, which will be my first in person lesson! Actually my first time seeing a person we are teaching, haha. After that spiritual high, we had weekly planning and interviews with president. From there we started the Pork Ribs and had a lesson with a guy I met named Roni. It was an ok lesson, but there was a party or something in the background 'cause it was SOOOOO loud. Elder Bodily and I were basically yelling for the entire hour it lasted. But he's a great guy and has a beautiful family. After that lesson we were exhausted, so we made some hot chocolate and took the ribs out of the oven. Thank you sooooo much brother Horta cause they were BOMB. 

Friday:

Started off with district counsel. The meeting went a little over and the Zone leaders came to talk to us and told us we shouldn't be talking to people any longer than district counsel because of corona. That was disappointing, but it's also life. We went home and made some mac and cheese for lunch. I wanted to grate some sharp cheese they gave us at service, but I may have grated too much, because it made the macaroni sooooo gross. While we were sick from that, I made cookies for the gift bags and Elder Bodily wrote the FHE invitations. 

Saturday:

Started off interesting. I got poked by a bodybuilder on Facebook. I was excited to talk to someone who shared my interested, so I responded and asked him how he was. He said ok just a little sore. I asked how his quarantine was going and he blocked me. 😅 Interesting to say the least. Elder Bodily and I dropped off the gift bags after that. At one of the houses, we walked by the kid who lived there. He's around 6. He said hi to us, and we said hi back and asked how he was. He was really cute, but we thought it was the next house over that was the member's house! So we walked over, then Elder Bodily said, wait, I think that was him😅. So we hurried back and gave him the gift bag and waved at them through the door. When we got home, I was talking to Roni about our love for Churrasco, and he invited me to come over and have one. He said he'd do the meat if I'd bring the pão de açucar. It broke my heart to politely decline, but I promised as soon as I was allowed to I'd let him know.  

Sunday: 

Sunday started off with Elder Bodily and I making a video for the zone page, which I would then post on my Facebook. Elder Bodily had a disappointing start. He made a plate of bacon and eggs and was walking to the table when he remembered it was fast Sunday. Heartbreaking, but it happens to the best of us. When the time finally came for us to break our fast, we were starving! As we were getting ready to eat, the phone rang, and the member on the line asked where we were and said she was at the park waiting. We were very panicked, especially because she was speaking in Portugese, and we are the only Portuguese Elders in the area. But as it turns out she was meeting with the Zone Leaders, not us. So crisis averted. From there we went to the park to grab the keys to the church from the Zone Leaders and that member was the member from earlier! She said when we were leaving she was waving at us and telling us to stop but we couldn't hear. She said she had a pizza she wanted to give us. Needless to say we were broken hearted, haha. After that, she went calling a bunch of missionaries trying to figure out who gave her the gift bag. (Didn't see that we left our number in the bag) How funny that when she finally did call us it was by accident, haha. Anyways, once we got the keys, we went to the church to use the computer to look up games to play over zoom for our FHE. We worked with the Sisters to plan the rest of our FHE which happened Monday. 

Monday: 

Not much to talk about other than the FHE. There were only two other member families other than us and the sisters, but it was a blast! We hope it grows and turns into something they can invite friends. We all got to know each other, played two truths and a lie with the kids, then had a spiritual thought about General Conference. It was incredibly spiritual. One of the members shared about her son's medical problems and the stress of knowing he could die any day. She talked about the peace she felt throughout as she listened to general conference and bore her testimony that she knew it would be ok. It was so powerful!

First baptism date, kind of

This is what a typical
day looks like

Monday:

Monday we had a lesson with a lady named Andrine. She had said her goal with meeting with us was to learn how she could draw closer to God. We decided to share James 1 and 2 with her. We talked about how faith without works is dead and about the ways we show our faith. It was an AMAZING first lesson, and a great way to start the week. The next fun thing included a guy named Jay-Ar. He wanted to hear a message, but because he's in the Philippines, we wanted to refer him to missionaries over there. So I used a Facebbok group I'm in whose purpose is to find missionaries all over the world and shared the situation. Within seconds, I had a ton of missionaries helping me. Someone responded and said that was their old mission, then he tagged some other missionaries and said some stuff in Taglog, tagging the appropriate missionaries. All I could think of was the scene in Lord of the Rings where they light the beacons and you see a bunch of lights go on through the skies and Eragorn yells, "The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid." 

Tuesday:

We forgot to take the car in to get the oil changed, so we made plans to do it next week. Skip to Monday to see what went down with that cause it's interesting. We went to the Horta's to borrow something. There was no-one home, so we got to eat the cookies we made them which is a plus. We have plenty of work to get ready for General Conference. (This week had a lot of work under the scenes that I won't talk about.) We drove to the Zone Leaders' apartment so they could borrow the car. A sister in our ward gave us money last week to go out to dinner, and we went to a churrasco called Oliveiras. It was so good! We also had great member lessons with brother Wright and Sister Barros. A guy we were talking to asked if we could have a lesson at 9:30. We weren't excited about having one as we had been getting ready for bed, but decided that we needed to meet the schedule of the people whom we are teaching, not the other way around. And I'm glad we did. He started off by asking about 3 Nephi 11. He asked about baptism and how when Christ arrived He gave authority to the apostles. We shared the importance of authority to him and extended the invitation to be baptized, and he accepted. I'm very excited to get to know Francis more in the future and love seeing his relationship with God growing. He's already been baptized two times; first when he was 3, then when he was 18, he wanted to be baptized again because it didn't make sense that he had been baptized before he knew what right and wrong was, not to mention the fact that it wasn't by immersion. So when we explained the importance for authority, he was excited. 

Wednesday:

I talked a little with Jay-Ar, and he had questions about why missionaries can't hold lessons after 10:30. I explained that it was to make sure we were getting enough sleep and talked about the importance of obedience. He responded "Ok, I'll go to bed now to be obedient." Haha. I told him that was a rule for missionaries and not a commandment, and it was all ok. That day we went to pick up our car from the Zone Leaders; while we were there; they gave us a slice of pie, some cookies, and some biscuits. All in all, a fair trade. We also went to do service at our food kitchen. As always, it was great. We have good relationships with all the people there, and it's nice being outside. Once people pick up their food bags, there's an area where they bring out trays of extra fruit they have. 

Thursday:

Nothing much to say here. We had a weekly planning session where we coordinated our efforts and talked about how we would get ready for general conference. We had am amazing lesson with Augosto, and he said he couldn't wait to go to church with us. 

Friday: 

I made good use of the steak from
the members!

We went to district counsel. While we were at the chapel, we got some meat from the fridge. A sister in the ward had accidentally ordered a ton in excess and gave it to the missionaries to share. Man, I didn't mind that at all haha! I made a nice thick steak cooked in mustard and garlic. While we were making the steak however, another member came by and gave us a pizza. No complaints here. We dropped off some cookies to our friend Carlos and went home just in time for a lesson with Pedro M. It was a great lesson, and we helped him download the book of Mormon app on his phones, and showed him how to listen to it. Plus we invited him to general conference, and he was really excited to see what it was all about. 

Saturday:

So funny story from today: we went on a walk to get out of the house, and were waiting at this big intersection. Across the street, there was this old lady with a walker. She decided not to wait for the go sign for pedestrians. She just went for it. As you can imagine, cars had to slam on their breaks, the intersection got clogged up, people started yelling at each other, and slowly but surely, she crossed the street. Finally, the second she made it to the other side, the pedestrian light turned on. Patience isn't for everyone, haha. We have been talking about Augosto and how awesome he is. I went back to look at what our first messages were like. He was the first person I ever talked to on Facebook, so as you can imagine I was pretty new to missionary work. The conversation was as follows (translated) 

"Hi, is everything good?"

"Everything is good" 

"I'm good too, and how are you?"

"Very good also"

"Awesome, so I'm a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of later day saints, and I'm sharing a message...."

Elder Bodily and I laughed about my lack of tact; he made the comment that I basically just said hi then slapped him in the face with a Book of Mormon. But it seems to be working, haha. We also had a lesson with Willian, but he canceled. We think he might be avoiding us. It's always sad when that happens; you build relationships with people then all the sudden they ghost you out of nowhere. It's definitely going to take getting used to. This week was a very busy week. We did everything we needed to do and worked hard, but we didn't have very much success finding people to teach. Other weeks maybe we do less work and find more people. Sometimes things aren't going to go exactly the way you would hope, circumstances change, and we live in a dynamic world. But as you press forward with faith and trust in God, He will bless you. 

Sunday: 

Big day, we finally got to go to church in person with Augosto, except for the fact that he never showed up. We were on the phone with him before, and he said he was waiting on a call from his boss before leaving. Turns out his boss called him and told him they were understaffed, and he had to come in. He was super apologetic, and we understood, but it was still disappointing. Especially because church was so awesome. One of the people who gave a talk was an old guy whose been a member here for a long time. He shared that it may be his last talk before he dies; he shared his life story and experience with the church. It was so powerful, and I'm so grateful I could be there to listen. At home, I attempted to make Brigadeiro which is a Brazilian dessert that is essentially chocolate balls. The only problem is that they never solidified, so instead I was left with brigadeiro soup. Oh well. We finished the day with a lesson with the Vandanburgs and talked about the upcoming conference with them. They shared that sometimes it could be hard to focus on listening to the talks with so many kids around, but they did their best. We were reading in Jacob, and I remembered that there was a scripture that talks about our intentions and actions being reflected in our work. I decided to read that on the next page. I thought it talked about how we are blessed for bringing forth good fruit, and I wanted to talk about how God just wants us to do our best. BUT, the one I was thinking of was about how if we bring forth evil fruit we are cursed. So essentially they said they were having a hard time focusing in conference, and I told them they would be dammed. Luckily Elder Bodily saved it, and I corrected my mistake, but still pretty funny. 

Monday: 

So, the car. We took it in to get the oil changed, thinking it would be about 30 minutes. The guy in the Firestone was rude, and we could tell why for some reason he didn't like us. We assume it's because we are missionaries. He asked when we need our car by, and we said however long they needed. He responded, "OK. Come back here at 7..." It was 11 in the morning. We didn't need our car; however, so we weren't too worried about it and asked another pair of elders to bring us home. Here's the kicker. At 6:30, we checked and found at their hours are from 8-5; this guy was just trying to get us to come back when they were closed to be a nuisance. I don't know why. We haven't done anything to him, but it's the way of the world, haha. Before my mission, I would have gotten real angry, and probably tried to get him in trouble. As it is right now, I'm trying to remember that I'm a representative of Christ. The people who tortured and killed him showed no mercy, no love, and no kindness. Yet He forgave them anyways. Who would I be, if I took my anger out over something as petty as needing to come a day later to pick up my car. If I go in there and get mad and talk to the manager, all I'm doing is affirming whatever he thinks he knows about me, but maybe if I act with civility and kindness, I can give him a different impression. Then maybe next time he won't act the same way. 

Best Week

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 this might be 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. 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 another 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 waited for them at the chapel... we ended up being there 11:00 to 6:30 haha. 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. After that I shared a post on my story, with a picture of Jesus and a scripture. And someone messaged me and in 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 haha. 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 with Christ was, and how it had affected his life. We talked about that a little. 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. Then, we had a lesson with a woman named Adrianna. This was an interesting experience. We shared the message of the restoration; 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," and we could tell she wasn't interested. It 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. Later, we had a lesson with Debora F., and 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; 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 on my life, and more importantly, goes to show that by small things, do great things come to pass. Anyways, after that we studied for a bit, and 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. Afterwords, 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 roleplay from the Haitian Elders on the importance of bearing our testimony during lessons, making invitations, and promising blessings. This was by far the best roleplay I've had while on my mission. Later in the day, it would completely change my experience in 2 lessons. From there I got home and made some cheesy eggs.... (well, I got the proportions very wrong so more like eggy cheese), and 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.) 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 roleplay 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 a 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 a lot easy 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 no where 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. haha 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 on 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." 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 don't 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 (at this point we aren't allowed to eat with members in order to respect health and safety regulations), 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 it's 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 are cancellations, it leaves you with an unplanned hour and nothing to do. In this case, 3 of them were canceled. Leaving us unscheduled for 3 hours. Oh well. 

All in all, an 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 God's love in their life. And I promise that with patience and faith you will receive this confirmation. 

This is David; we taught him twice. So awesome, and we loved teaching him. He lives far away so we introduced him to some Portuguese elders in his area. He posted on Facebook about his experience with them, and went on to send someone in the comments a link to the Book of Mormon. It's awesome to see how he's progressed, and what a valiant man he is, but I still wish I could have gotten the chance to teach him more haha. He's such a special person, and I would have loved to interact with him more. 

I'm a chef now, btw, but I guess I still need my mom to make my shopping lists for me; too much meat.

Still a chef in case you forgot. Creating new recipes all the time.

Game Time!

So, first day in the field. I simultaneously have a ton to say and nothing at all. So I guess I'll go over the basics and talk about what each day has looked like so far. 

My mom thinks I can't cook anything except taquitos, but check out this feast!

I left home Tuesday the 14th, I believe, and arrived the same day. I was the only new missionary in my group of 8. I'm not positive, but based off my experience so far, I think I'm the only new missionary in this mission, haha. Probably not really, but everyone seems really amazed to have someone coming in who wasn't already serving somewhere else. My companion is Elder Bodily, and he is awesome. We have a ton of fun together and both share similar priorities and interests while in the field. I'm not quite sure to say about him, other than that he is crazy good at accents and has such a solid understanding of the Bible and Book of Mormon as well as how they support each other. He's the type of companion I can just be like "hey give me some scriptures in the New Testament about God calling prophets," and he just goes for it. I couldn't ask for a better companion to start off. 

My mission home is fantastic. We are actually, I think, the first pair to spend a transfer in it as it was opened just before Corona and immediately closed. Elder Bodily and his old companion had been here for two weeks after they opened it again when I showed up and kicked Elder Neilson out. 

Now as far as what our day looks like. We get up and get ready between 6:30 to 7:00. During this time we shower, eat breakfast etc. Next, we plan out our day and spend the next 3-4 hours doing personal study, companion study, and language study. From there we spend some time finding friends on facebook to talk to about the gospel and see if anyones interested in hearing our message, as well as making phone calls to people who have been referred to us or members in our area. We have lunch and do more of the same; then we have time to eat and exercise. Through out the evening we try to schedule people to talk to. We've started teaching four new people this week. From there, we get ready for bed around 9:30 and are in bed by 10:30.

The people in this area are great; I'd love to get to know them, haha. But unfortunately, because of Corona, Elder Bodily and I are confined to our apartment most of the day. But the limited interaction we've had has been amazing. There are so many Brazilians living here in Boston as well as other people from all over South America. Of the people we've started teaching, one of them is Pedro. He was preparing for baptism when Corona hit, so now we are just helping him to review and prepare etc. When we called him, it was awesome because when he saw it was the missionaries his face lit up, and he got so excited. He truly is an awesome guy and has such a strong testimony that the feelings he has received have come from God. The other person who had already received some lessons was a woman named Deborah. She had lessons with the missionaries a year ago, and she remembers how kind they were. We are so eager to teach her family. Her family is so tender, and it's going to be a pleasure getting to know them better. The other two people we've started teaching are Wagner and Adeir. Elder Bodily and I came into contact with them over Facebook; we are excited to get to know them as well and share with them our message. 

I have seen so many blessing and miracles already, and I've only been here a week. One specific instance stands out. As you can imagine, we come into contact with a lot of people over facebook, and we want to give everyone the opportunity to hear. But a lot of the times you are having a great conversation and someone says they want to hear more, then the second you ask if you can call them sometime they start ignoring you. This is extremely frustrating and disheartening, especially because it can make you feel like you are doing something wrong. So, when one guy responded to my message, I said a prayer, "Help me know what to say so that I can communicate with this person. Help me to know if he's ready for this message, and if he is let me know what I should do to help him receive it." And after that I responded and had a super meaningful conversation, and had probably the most success I've had so far in terms of talking. He said he wanted to know more, and we set a date for a lesson. Seconds after I finished sending that message, we had our first lesson with Wagner planned. Elder Bodily and I both hadn't been sure he would answer. But we called, and he did while I was hyped up on the Spirit. We had a lesson about the restoration, and he was active and attentive. That experience taught me the lesson that if we rely on the Lord, He will help us to find the success we need in our lives. If I can learn to rely on the Lord, then maybe one day every hour of every day of my mission can look like that.