Ola amigos!!! Only two weeks to go. Its kind of crazy and also pretty scary but the Lord has prepared us and will continue to work with us and shape us if we submit ourselves to His will.
Also, most of you are
about to start, or have started school and thats crazy. You all will do
amazing! Even if youre scared or nervous or excited, just be yourself
and only care about the opinion of one person. Heavenly Father. If you
are acceptable before Him, then it doesnt matter what other people
think. And you can ask Him if your offering is acceptable to Him. He
loves you. Never forget that. That is the one big truth in this Gospel.
Anyway, here was my week.
Wednesday (August 15, 2018)
I
feel like today was a mission changing day for me. Our devotional was a
video of a talk given by Elder Holland a while back. It was a plead to
all missionaries begging them to work for the people. Watch it, or read
it, or something. This Gospel means everything to him and it should mean
the same for us. The name of it was an MTC Broadcast given on May 6th,
2014 to all MTCs. Anyone who is on a mission or planning to be should
watch it. He said, dont be the type of missionary that sits in your
apartment hoping that the investigators come to church. Go with them on
the bus. Be at their house helping them and reminding them to do what
they need to. Be a representative of Jesus Christ because on your name
tag it is your name and His and that is how it should be in the field.
Him and you.
Thursday (August 16, 2018)
Nothing
super exciting, in terms of the Spirit, today but heres a fun story. So
technically you arent supposed to take food out of the cafeteria but
two Elders somehow got a combined 22 bananas out and into their
classroom. They each had seven in the pockets and four in the socks.
That is a feat.
Friday (August 17, 2018)
Today
was mostly a normal day. Im feeling really good because I am able to
understand the general idea of almost everything people said. But its
not because of me. Im just trying to do my part, and God is doing the
rest. Which is most of it. :)
Saturday (August 18, 2018)
Today
was absolutely amazing. We went proselyting for the first time and it was
an amazing experience, but there is one experience that I really dont
want to forget. We had about an hour and a half and as we were nearing
the end of the time that we could be on the streets, we started talking
to a woman who had two kids. We asked if we could practice our
Portuguese with her and she said yes, kind of reluctantly haha. So we
just started asking her where she was from and stuff like that. We found
out that they lived in Sao Paulo and her two kids names are Victor and
Guillerme. We then started talking about why we were in Brazil, and our
purpose. We asked her for her address to have the missionaries visit her
but she said no. But only because her husband is a Pastor of a
different church. But the crazy thing is that we talked to her for 15-20
minutes after about miricles, faith, God, angels, and the blessings of
prayer. She shared this story. When her youngest son, Guillerme, was two
years old, he had some health problems and eventually passed away. She
was distraught and had enough faith to pray to God. She said to Him, "Right now, there is nothing that I can do. I cannot bring him back, but you can. Please help him." Such a simple prayer, but through her faith, and the Will and Power of God, Guillerme came back. What
a powerful story for me of both the Love of God for all of His children
and also the power of prayer and faith in God. When we were about to
leave, I told Guillerme that he was a miricle and he gave me the biggest
hug. And at that moment I knew that God has a special love for little
children. It was, and still is, amazing to me that in the middle of the
most crowded street in all of Brazil, I could feel the Spirit so
strongly. I am so excited to be in the field and do that all the time.
Andrea, Victor, and Guillerme were angels for me today.
Sunday (August 19, 2018)
Today
was great. The Spirit was really strong during the Devotional and
throughout all of the day. The Devotional was on obedience and love.
On
a side note, I made Elder Abbot laugh while drinking soda, and a whole
ton of it shot out of his nose. There was at least a 10 foot circle of
soda so that was pretty funny.
Monday (August 20, 2018)
Tomorrow,
our Brazilian roommates, Elder Santos and Elder Salgado are leaving for
Curitiba. They are amazing. Elder Santos is always smiling, always
optimistic and is such an example of Christlike light and love. I strive
to be as patient as he was with our broken Portuguese. Elder Salgado is
so funny. He always made me laugh, even on the hard days. He was also
so generous. He gave each of us a tie before he left. I love them both
and am going to miss them in the room but they will be incredible
servants of the Lord. Godspeed Elders!
Random Thoughts:
- One of the candy bars here gives you the nutritional facts if you were to eat 5/6ths of the candy bar. Make sure you stop with 1/6th left.
- All of the books in the Book of Mormon and the Bible have different names in Portuguese. The new name for Revelations is Apocalipse.
- A grilled banana sandwich is much better than a grilled ham and cheese sandwich we found out.
- Also, Nutella is apparently not allowed in the cafeteria.
- On P-Day we accidentally talked to a very drunk dude who asked us why angels couldnt carry guns (I think).
Only two weeks left in the MTC, then it is off to Porto Alegre. You all are so great and I love hearing from all of you.
Love,
Elder Allen
