Another Week in the Books!

This week I learned a ton about diligence and hope. In my last letter, I wrote a lot about faith, and after studying Moroni 7, I have noticed the importance of having hope along with your faith in Christ. On the mish if you don’t hope to witness to people to come unto Christ then you clearly aren’t fulfilling your purpose and won’t see results. Because in hope we have desire to work and achieve what we hope. Verse 41 of Moroni 7 is excellent. “And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.” Having this faith, hope, and desire allows us to see daily progress in ourselves and others or what I like to call mini miracles. I was reading in John 2 this week when I was struck by Christ’s first miracle, turning water to wine. Yes, I have always been baffled by Christ’s extraordinary miracles, but sometimes forget to look at the symbolism of his many miracles. In that very moment, Christ changes water to wine he showed us that he truly has divine power to change us through hope and faith in his infinite atonement we can truly be perfected in him. The atoning sacrifice of Christ is marvelous because we all can be purified even as he is pure. I love teaching about Christ and his pure love for us to the people in Brazil.

As I mentioned in the start of the letter, I also learned a lot about diligence. This Saturday, my comp and I ran around Taquara personally inviting 25 of our investigators to church the following day. It was awesome cause I was completely dialed into my purpose.  I had faith and hope and we were seeing many mini miracles happen. I went to bed dead tired. Haha. I was stoked for Sunday to reap in the rewards of our work. We got to church after trying to wake up a couple investigators, and we found no one who had promised us a church appearance. At first, I was bummed, but then I started to notice people who I had never seen at church before. Four families in the ward brought friends to church. It was truly awesome! I can’t wait to get out and teach these awesome people. I know faith, hope and diligence are all Christlike attributes that we need to develop to return to his presence. I love this work and how it changes who I am and who I am becoming. Have an awesome week! Pray for miracles! And know that I love you all!!!

Dave

Happy Easter!!!

This week I learned a lot about faith. I’ve learned on the mish of the importance of putting our faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and trusting them. They know what’s best for us so we really can’t lose when we believe and follow them. This week, I witnessed countless blessings come from demonstrating faith. As I have been studying this principle, my eyes have been spiritually opened. I love the section, Pray with Faith, in Preach my Gospel. I love Gordon B. Hinckley’s words as he invites missionaries to fervently pray to bless the families/people we teach. And if we do so a view of light will be brought into their eyes, they will see we are Heavenly Father’s servants, and respond under the influence of the sprit. I took up Gordon’s challenge and saw marvelous results. My comp and I found numerous people to teach and several families who really seemed interested. We found a family of 5 who had received the missionaries 14 years ago and showed us their old Book of Mormon. I asked if they had completed the invitation to pray about the things the missionaries had taught. They replied, “No,” but we invited them to pray again and be baptized like our Savior. They all accepted. As we left, their youngest boy, Pedro, asked if he could give a prayer. As he started, his words stumbled but then his mom began to whisper words into his ears. When he finished the prayer, I opened my eyes to see the two parents and three boys with huge smiles. It was a sweet experience. The other experience that has built my faith happened yesterday. Here in Rio Grande do Sul, Sundays aren’t the most effective days to work, cause everybody is with visitors, sleeping, or partying. Holidays don’t help either. With Easter in full swing in the 7^th Day Adventist community, nobody was letting us teach. At about 7:00 pm, I felt guided to say a prayer with my comp. I prayed for the Lord to guide us and I knew he would put us in the right place. After the prayer, I felt that I needed to let my comp find who we needed to teach. I remained in silence as I let him guide us through the spirit. We finally got to a house after many twists and turns, and my comp clapped at the door. An old man came out and willingly let us in. My comp, who has two weeks on the mish and is American, gave a powerful lesson on the gospel of Christ. As we taught the old man and his family, the spirit filled the room. They accepted all our invitations and asked us to come back ASAP. As I left the house I thanked my Heavenly Father for increasing my faith. I encourage you all to read Hebrews 11 and Ether 12. Both chapters have helped me comprehend and understand a little more the deep power of faith. Trust in the Lord. He knows and loves each and every one of you. Thanks for all the love, support and prayers.

Dave

Church

First day together

Return to Gramado

Taquara Week 1

Well, I wrote a huge email with tons of sweet details, but it got deleted, and I am too lazy to write it again... so here goes a simplified version of my week. The first half of the week I passed the keys on to Elder Emerick and finished my training with him to be the next secretary. Then i got my new greenie.... Elder Pena from Brigham City, Utah. He is 18, Filipino and knows nothing about Portuguese... but he is trying which is what counts. Fun fact, he speaks Arabic and Tagalog and lived in Saudi Arabia for 12 years.... Also he was baptized in the Red Sea... so that is pretty dope. Overall Taquara is super cool. The members are sweet. They want to help us. The people are pretty receptive, and our first week we had 4 people at church which was awesome. Overall, I'm super happy to get back to the normal missionary life and can't wait for another busy week of knocking doors and finding the Lord's elect. I love you all and thank you for all your support. 

Dave

Transfers, Conference and Baptism

This week was crazy. As I mentioned last week, there were a ton of meetings. Literally all the meetings that are in a mission has happened this past week. So we were busy beyond belief. The biggest surprise for me came Saturday morning. President suprisingly passed by the office and said we need to talk... Which is completly normal in the mission office. He then sat me down face to face (not normal), so I knew something was up. We said a prayer, we talked a little, and then he said I was being transferred... I was like this must be April Fool's or something, but I guess it doesnt exsist here in Brasil. Well with only two transfers in the mission office, I'm on to a new chapter. President told us at the begining of our adventure in Porto Alegre that we wouldn't stay long... so I guess he lived up to the promise that I had totally forgotton. I have come to cherish this wonderful experience getting to know President and Sister Campos and their family, all of the missionaries in the mission, and the ward members here in Porto Alegre. That's what really got me bumbed out about leaving... I won't see president as much, and we have some awesome ward members and investigators that I was looking forward to work with. But all in all I'm excited for the new challenge of training an American and working in the marvelous area of Taquara (a small district close to my last area). 

Conference was absolutely amazing. I loved all of the talks and how they focused on Jesus Christ our Savior. I loved Elder Holland's thoughts on staying permanently and faithfully in the eternal choir singing and savoring the precious chorus of eternal blessings. God is really determined to make us more than we think we can be. I loved Elder Hales' thoughts on being a genuine disciple of Christ and how it is a state of being. Neil L Anderson´s remarks on how we need to overcome the world by turning ourselves outward opened my eyes and answered one of the questions I brought to conference. I loved Elder Bednar's priesthood talk about how we were not called to an area but called to serve. Thomas S. Monson, our beloved prophet bore powerful testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon and having our own testimonies rooted in this gospel. D Todd Christofferson´s thoughts on warning because of love changed the way I will teach investagators, and treat those I am with. Jesus always warned so we must warn as well. Joaquim E Costa gave the perfect talk for all of our investagators so shout out to him. I also loved S Mark Palmer's final thoughts of, "think of the Beholding, Let it go and follow home". Gary E Stevenson gave a wonderful talk on the Holy Ghost and how through staying close to the spirit he will stay close to you. My fave talk was given by Elder M Russell Ballard. I felt the spirit so powerfully as he testified of creating plans and goals in our lives. If we create these goals, we will be more successful. Simple goals can be more powerful. But what struck home for me was the two words he used to describe our eternal plans and goals. RETURN and RECEIVE. We must do everything in our power to return to our Heavenly Father's presence, and when we do we will receive his eternal blessings. I challenge you all to make goals and plans to return and recieve.

The icing on the cake this week was having the awesome and spiritual baptism of Henrique. He was truly a super miracle. It was awesome getting to know him and his family. Watching him quite drinking and smoking in a matter of weeks so that he could follow his Savior and be baptized. He is now prepping to receive the priesthood, and we hope we can baptize his awesome mother Michelle. Thanks for all the love support and prayers. General Conference really stregthened and fortified my testimony of living prophets and apostles. Have an awesome week and do your best to study the marvelous lessons that our prophets, seers and revelators left with us this weekend...

Love 

Elder Bodine

I love to see the temple

Burger King District run

Office Grind

Our church

Enrique's baptism