Nova Transferência

Hello fam and friends... This week was funny. My new comp is Elder W. Santos. He is from Sergipe Brazil and is hilarious. He has 1 year and 6 months on the mish... so I got some more experience with me now.. haha. He is a convert of 4 years and loves to joke around. But he is by far my most diligent comp that I have had yet, so I'm feeling confident that miracles are going to happen this transfer. We had two baptisms prepped for this week of Jennifer and Terezinha. Jennifer fell into temptation in the last moment, and Terezinha is just needing some patience. She is a senhora who has been to the church many times.... She says she has recieved a answer to her prayers and knows it's the church of Christ. But she has a major, I mean major, difficulty of understanding the importance of baptsim. We tried to help her understand the importance of baptism through experiences, scriptures, testimony, and prayer.... but she stayed pretty focused on her idea of the matter. But I know that in a couple weeks she will be on her path to baptism and the celestial kingdom. We are also teaching a teenager named Junior who is awesome. He is a little crazy, but he is super interested and loved church this week. He has been telling us that he has a huge desire to be a missionary... so we are trying to get him on the path to help others. It was funny this week we taught about 8 of his friends who are super religious... We started to teach the restoration but a bible bash started. In the end, it was all chill but they asked me if i could speak some things in 
English... just to hear English. So I bore my testimony in English that I knew the things that we had said were really true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, Jesus Christ is our Savior, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only perfect church here on this earth. It was one of the coolest experiences of the mish. Testifying in very broken English, the spirit was incredibly satisfying, and it was awesome seeing them feel the spirit through English which they didn't understand. I loved a scripture in Omni 23-25 where it shows the importance of the Book of Mormon. Also, it let me know that I need to dedicate myself completely to this work and glory, through prayer and fast. I know that this transfer will be amazing through the dedication of my comp and me. We have so many goals and plans established to find that family who will stay firm in this gospel and raise a generation to the truthfulness of this gospel... I know this church is true, we are all children of God, he loves and knows us, Christ is our perfect brother, Joseph Smith is a prophet of the Lord, and families are forever. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Dave

Transfers!!!

Haha the news is in..... and I am not being transferred. I will be staying a little more time in Taquara. My comp, Elder Pena, is heading to Passo Fundo (an awesome zone where the members are amazing), where he will have lots of success. Overall, I dont have much to report on this week other than we are preparing some awesome people for baptism. We are teaching a woman named Elizangela, who is awesome and wants to be baptized so bad... but first she needs to seperate or get married to her boyfriend. She is so awesome that she invites friends to church with her. So now we have a pool of people who want to be baptized because of her invitations. Two of these people are Robson and Jennifer. Jennifer said it is her dream to be baptized so we will work with her to get her on the strait and narrow path. We were also working in one of the sketchy bairros this weeek when a teenager called us over and said, "What's up mormons?" He then proceeded to teach us all about mormonism... it was pretty classic. But he really wants to investigate the church so let's see if we can get him to go to church next week. Also, we got a reference from the other missionaries of a women named Susana. We went and taught her the restoration, and she cried throughout the message. She explained how her life was not easy. But this message brought her peace and comfort. Being a missionary is awesome!!! Everyday I can see improvement in myself and miracles. Thanks for all your support and prayers... I hope and pray all is well with you guys... 

Love 

dave

Taquara sunrises

My two comps that i trained Elder Pena e Soares... Pretty simlar if you ask me

So happy 

Brazilian churchs... translates to Ball of snow shurch (we are a ball of snow) There pulpit is a surfboard...

Zone t-shirt

Our branch's mission leader

Trust in the Lord

Fam

Was up!!!! This week was awesome. We had a lot of work and had a bunch of investigators at church! So overall, awesome because we can start preppin’ our investigators for baptism.

We started the week off with an awesome interview with Presidente Campos in our apartment. He reminded me of some of our stories back in the staff in the start of the year, and we laughed a lot. I learned that I really need to have more faith and and confidence in those I am teaching. So, of course, I studied about confidence. Some of my favorite scripture finds were Job 13:15 and Daniel 3:17. I love the stories of Job and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Their trust and confidence is so great in the Lord that they would lose their own lives before losing trust in the Lord. These scriptures and Presidente’s counsel helped me see that if I can continually trust in the Lord, then I will trust in my investigators as well to say prayers, read the Book of Mormon, go to church, and be baptized. My gramps helped me realize the importance of trust and being trustful. I remember a quote that he told me of Prophet David O. McKay, “to be trusted is higher than to be loved.” I know our Heavenly Father loves all of his children, but trusts in his children who are always seeking to keep His commandments, improve, and serve others. I want to be trusted by the Lord because with His trust, miracles will happen. The second counsel of Pres. Campos was to visit inactive members. He promised us if we tried our best to edify this branch through serving inactive members, many blessing would come.

So we focused our week on finding new investigators and teaching inactives. Man this week was awesome. So much work. We found tons of people who were wanting to go to church, know if our message was true, and inviting to come back to their houses. We also had the wonderful pleasure of seeing inactive members feel the spirit and remember the blessing of having a trustful relationship with God and Jesus Christ. I’m not gonna lie, this week was kind of ridiculous with members and inactives. Let me give you some examples. We were walking on the street, and a man working construction left the sight and presented himself as Jogo. He said he had been inactive for 8 years but had been praying to go back to the only true church. We gave him a Book of Mormon and marked a day to teach his family. Another day two teenagers passed us, and one said, “Hey, my friend wants to go to your church.” Of course I thought he was joking, but he was serious and explained how he was an inactive member and his friend was looking to get out of the bad life (drugs).  And the stories go on and on. Haha. Real blessings. At church, we had 2 families and a member inativo with his daughter who isn’t a member. Overall, awesome week, and my faith and confidence and testimony have been fortified. Thanks for the prayers and support.

Love, Dave

Week of the Selfy

This week was funny. As you may have guessed, more rain. This week, I studied and learned a lot about faith. Because I finished the Book of Mormon of late, I decided to start studying the New Testament more. It’s always good to study the New Testament here in Brazil because the majority of people know their Bible scriptures. So you always got to provide evidence. Haha. For example, I had a nice Bible bash with a Jehovah’s Witness discussing whether Jesus was crucified on the cross or on the wood (with his hands above him). Eventually, it got heated so I just bore my testimony and told him that the answer to the question wouldn’t help us achieve salvation. It’s more important to recognize His atoning sacrifice and apply his sacrifice to become perfected in Him. These debates happen on the daily so you always got to watch out for the people who are just looking to argue. Anyways, in my New Testament studies, I was trying to learn about and comprehend faith. I loved reading chapter 10 of Romans. This chapter gives great insight into salvation, righteousness, and faith. As missionaries, we need to desire, pray and help others be righteous and develop faith. We also have to be examples of these principles as well. Verses 8 and 9 show us what is faith in Christ. We learn that faith in our Christ is a surety that Christ has risen from the dead, and through his sacrifice and resurrection, we have the surety that we will be saved as well. As I pondered these verses, I could reflect on how I personally felt about my own faith. Am I bold or am I ashamed in my knowledge of Christ? (verse 11) In verse 14, we learn that we need preachers and missionaries to help everyone develop faith in Christ. Verse 15 lets us know that we are called of God to preach and announce to the world of Christ’s saving grace. We are also shown the great blessings of missionary work and how God delights in those who share this gospel. Overall, Romans Chapter 10 helped me see the importance of an unbreakable, bold faith in Christ and using this faith to bless others through sharing the gospel. I encourage you all to share this gospel with anyone, stranger, family and friends. And through sharing the gospel, I know your faith in Christ will always be strengthened. At times it’s scary, or we don’t want to break out of our comfort zone, but through all the rejection and success I have seen on the mish, there is nothing to lose. It really is our job as members of the church to bring the good news of this gospel to every corner of the earth. So get out there and share, and blessings will be seen in your life and others.

My week was funny as I said in the start. We got the chance to discontinue a lot of the people we are teaching. Please pray for Christian and Raphael/Adriano, and that we can find new investigators prepared to be baptized. Thanks for all the love, support and prayers.

Dave