HOOOOOOOLA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS
This week has been a rollercoaster .... ha-ha So Monday night we
had a family home evening with some members and it was basically a big birthday
party :) there was cake and everything! But Tuesday morning I had transfer :(
We were in the terminal waiting for the bus and some of my members and
investigators came to the terminal to send me off! It was probably the most fun
part of my birthday ha-ha it was just a 45 mins ride to me new area San Martin.
My new companion is Han Assis that´s from San Palo, Brazil!
She’s super sweet
and has such a big heart! But once I got to my area the problems started
rolling in. I´m pretty sure I’m not even allowed to talk about what´s been
going on in this little branch but let’s just say it´s a complete mess. 2 years
ago, San Martin used to be a ward with about 150 people attending every week,
and now we´re just a little branch, with 40 attending, if we´re lucky, and a
billion less actives and some people excommunicated ..... ya. We don´t have
many investigators and they haven´t had a baptism in a year and a half. It´s
gonna be a lot of work in this area.
My area is SUPER big and a lot of dirt and farms. We don´t even
live in our area so we have to walk at least 30 mins to enter our area and then
another 20-30 mins to our closest investigator. Let´s just say I’m crossing my fingers
that I drop weight this transfer! Every day when we leave in the morning, it´s already like 100
degrees at 10 in the morning but for the past 3 days we come back to the
apartment at night drenched because there´s these HUGE rain storms we´ve been
having!
We have this investigator named Nicholas. Last week he just showed
up in church! He works with one of our
inactive members and came to church with him. After church, we had a little
lesson with him and he loves the gospel! In the first lesson, we set a
baptismal date for the 18th of February and he committed to stop smoking! IN
THE FIRST LESSON! We then had a lesson with him on Wednesday and talked about
Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and invited him to read the introduction
and the testimonies of the witnesses and Joseph Smith. On Sunday, he came to
church again but alone this time!!! And he`s slowly smoking less and less and
is already half way through with reading the Book of Mormon!!! He comes to
every activity we invite him to! He lives an hour away in bus but he absolutely
loves the church and the people. The poor guy has a terrible situation at home
and he says when there`s people drinking and fighting, he goes to a park near
his house and prays and reads the Book of Mormon!!! AHHHHHH isn`t he
awesome!!!! We`re really excited for him!
This week I read a talk that`s called ¨Loving Others and Living
with Differences¨ by Elder Oaks and it`s one amazing talk! Right now, we`re
having a lot of problems with members that don`t get along so I’ve been
studying a lot about charity and love and patience so that I can help them
better. This talk is very inspired and I hope you can all take some time to
read it! Here`s some quotes from the talk that I love ...
¨Seek to be Meek and avoid contention¨
¨Loving-Kindness is required, but a follower of Christ - Just like
the Master - I’ll be firm in the truth. ¨
¨Kindness is powerful, especially in a family setting¨
¨For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of
contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention,
and he turnth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.
Behold, this is ... my doctrine, that such things should be done away¨ 3 Nephi
11: 29-30
I love you all till the worlds end and more!!!!
oh, and thank you again for all the birthday emails! I’m sorry for
those of you that I still haven´t responded!!! I´m getting there I promise :)
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