Bringing the Gospel to Brazil: September 2016

Roney Jr and I preppin for church

Eu sou grato por provações e milagres. This week was filled with trials and miracles. Pretty normal for a missionary to witness trials and miracles in daily life, but for some reason this week had a ton. Let’s start on a light/funny note:

Milagre: My brother in law Andrew inspired me to always be looking for money in the streets. He told me how on his mish he found spare change every day and eventually it built up to be quite the stash of cash. Believe it or not I found my first treasure in the streets --- 10 cents or about 3 pennies. I was still pretty pumped though.

Provação: I got another prison break haircut. This time from a member, but it’s all good because it was free and it is starting to get quente (super hot). Please enjoy the ridiculous photos of me getting my haircut.

Milagre: I made my first street contact in English this week. We were walking down the street when a woman pointed at me and said, "Do you speak English". I quickly replied yes. Turns out she was an English teacher at a local school. So I took advantage of the opportunity and talked about the church in English. Surprisingly, it was super difficult. I think prefer Portuguese. It was strange because I was translating Portuguese words to English... Now let’s move on to the more spiritual/heavy side of miracles and trials.

Provação: This week was pretty crushing because we had a baptism marked for last Sunday with an awesome teenager that we have been teaching for about a month. She was interviewed on Thursday and appeared to be soooo ready and excited to be baptized. Friday night, she called us and told that she didn’t want to be baptized and she didn’t want to hear any more about the church. My comp and I were crushed to say the least. We were friends with this investigator, and we knew that by being baptized she was preparing for a better life now and for eternity. But we knew we had to keep working so we fasted the next day.

Erechim crew at a bus stop lookin fresh with new cuts

Milagre: The next day during our fast we had some great lessons with investigators. It was about 7 and we were getting ready to head to the house of an inactive member to teach. We were walking when all of the sudden Elder Muller suddenly turned and walked towards a random house. I was kinda frustrated cause if we taught a lesson we were going to miss our next compromisso (appointment). But we found a giant family. We entered the house and walked into the living room. Let me tell you this house was not big. 2 or 3 rooms maximum. People started to flow into the room. At one point there were 12 adults and 13 kids listening to our message. All of them were super receptive and want to attend church. It was quite the experience teaching a small congregation of investigators. The spirit was super strong.

Milagre: The final milagre that I want to talk about this week is the family of Roney. Roney is awesome we have been teaching him and his family for quite some time. The only problem for Roney is that he works on Sundays so he hasn’t had the opportunity to go to church. This week he decided to cancel work and go to church. So on Sunday we woke up super early, walked to his house, and helped him and his family get ready for church. Unfortunately, we had to get other investigators so we had to put our faith in the Lord and trust that they would walk to church. None of our other investigators could go to church so my comp and I work panicking a little bit, but I had faith that Roney and fam would go to church. When we were about a block away from the church, we saw Roney and fam walking together in their Sunday best. I was thrilled with joy. Best part is they loved church.

Sorry for this mini novela, but I just want to say that miracles and trials are a part of everyone’s life. We need to constantly be searching for miracles in our lives, because if we focus on the trials, Satan will drag us down a road of sorrow and depression. Always look for the light of Christ and pray for miracles! I know that because of your prayers for me, I see miracles in my everyday life. Thank you for all the prayers, support, and love.

Dave

P.S. Milagre - General conference this week!!! (and in Portuguese)

Ping pong master with Elder Pereira

Chop shop novamente

This week was a blur. I honestly can’t remember a ton that happened. To put things in perspective, I only went proselyting with my companion for two of the days last week. You are probably wondering... Is David being a fubeca (lazy missionary)... Nah, we just had divisions for pretty much every day. We also ventured to Porto Alegre for mission tour: a giant meeting with every missionary in the mission with a member of the seventy. It was super cool seeing the people I arrived with, meeting new Americans to ask questions to, and hearing an inspiring message. We focused on how to convert families. A family is the central unit in this gospel. Through a united, gospel-oriented family, many miracles and blessing can occur. I realized how fortunate I am to have a family that is sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. The three other missionaries that I live with in Erechim (Elder Muller, Pedraza, and Pereira), all are converts to the church. All three only have one or two other family members that are members. They always ask me questions about how having a family in the church has affected my life. Elder Pedraza was amazed that my family had family home evening every week. He also always says that one day he wants a family like mine. This hit the heart pretty hard. I thought, "WOW how lucky am I to have a family that is active in the gospel and supports me in all my endeavors." There are so many families here in Brazil who need this gospel. It’s amazing seeing the effect our lessons can have on a family. Right now we are teaching three different families. We hope to get them all to accept a date for baptism... but more importantly prepare to enter the temple and be sealed together for time and all eternity. That’s my message for this week. Make sure to show extra love and care for your families this week. Do an extra act of service, give a compliment, write a note, say a prayer... anything helps. Also, be quick to forgive. This gospel is awesome. I love preachin’ it cause I know through it I can have an eternal fam. Thanks for your prayers and support...

Dave