Dear Pessoal!!
I hope yall are having the time of
your life counting down the days until Christmas, getting ready to eat
12 pounds of potato salad this Thursday and enjoying every single moment
that you get to spend together. It really is a great blessing. They
dont have Thanksgiving here in the good old Rio Grande do Sul so Im
gonna have a good time eating a papaya on Thanksgiving. I bet Im the
only one who gets that amazing opportunity :) Anyways...
Monday (November 12th, 2018)
Today
was the best P-Day that I have had here yet. We met with Elder Blanco
and Elder Chamorro in the morning, ate some of the cake that a member
gave them (part of a nutritious breakfast) then went to the stadium of
one of the local teams here!!! It was awesome! The team is Brasil de
Pelotas or Xavante is the nickname. I love that there are stadiums
everywhere. There are three in just this city. Man it was so cool. After
we had lunch, I bought a Tottenham jersey for about $10. Yes it is
completely fake, but still pretty cool. We had a little extra time after
so we went to a part and took about 60 pictures of us being strange
foreigners. And I have got to say that the pictures turned out awesome.
Tuesday (November 13th, 2018)
Today
was a really good start to the week. Our lessons were really effective
and we were able to teach a lot of people at the same time. But the best
news ever was that when we went to Zildas house, we had one of the most
spiritual lessons ever then asked her if she was finally ready to be
baptised this Saturday. And she responded with a very firm yes!!! I
literally almost cried I was so happy. It is finally going to happen.
Now we just have to pray like crazy that nothing insane happens to her
this week. The Lord does things in His own time but it is always the
right time.
Wednesday (November 14th, 2018)
Today
the most interesting thing that happened was that a lady very kindly
asked us to not visit her anymore because she is Evangelic and she
doesnt want to "mix gospels." So that was fine but then we asked her
if we could still visit and say prayers with her and her family. She said
yes. Ok, thats fine. Maybe she is just being nice. So we pushed it a
little further. We then asked her if she still wanted to visit the
church some time. She said yes again. Ok, I dont understand. What about
that whole ´´mixing gospels´´ thing? So, moral of the story, to be
honest, nothing changed. We are going to keep visiting her.
Thursday (November 15th, 2018)
Today
we met some amazing new people. A great family and an incredible young
man. This family was very receptive and kind and they recognized the
Spirit during the lesson which was absolutely amazing. I think that this
family will be amazing to work with. (Side note, the Moms name is
Salysuela, or something like that, and the sons name is Ilan. Nice.) We
also talked to a kid named Richard but here you pronounce it Hisharje.
Weird right? He is amazing. Honestly one of the most amazing people I
have met up until this point on my mission. He is super smart, super
nice and always wants to learn more. He is going to be awesome and I
hope we will get to meet with his family too.
Friday (November 16th, 2018)
Today
we visited a lot of people that have recently been baptised and they
are doing great. But the great news was that we did the interviews with
Zilda and Samira today and they both went amazing. No problems
whatsoever. I am super excited for all of this. Just pray that nothing
happens. The Lord is protecting her up until now which is so kind of
Him.
Saturday (November 17th, 2018)
Today
was one of the happiest and saddest and strangest days ever. We went to
the chapel early to fill up the font and everything went great. Then we
went out to work and it was raining like crazy which is awesome because
I love the rain. So we were soaking wet the whole day but you couldnt
wipe the smile off of my face because of the baptism that we had later
that night. We got Zilda and Samira a ride to the chapel which was
great, but when we arrived, half of the water in the font had
disappeared. I couldnt believe it. I didnt know what to do. So
apparently you can do a baptism sitting down, so we got everyone ready
for that. When I entered the water to baptise them, I realized that the
water was freezing cold. Oh boy. But oh well, just keep going. We went
to baptise Zilda first and when she entered the water she told us that
she has a fear of water, and a back problem. But we found a way that she
could do it. But, when she went to be baptised, her face hit the water
and she freaked out and pulled away before all of her body was in. Then
she left and said that she couldnt do it anymore. We didnt know what to
do. We then baptised Samira to show her how it was done but she still
said no. It was the strangest thing ever. I didnt know what to do. I
felt like I should have done more but I dont know what more I could have
done. Honestly, it was really hard. But, we did get the opportunity to
baptise Samira so that was good.
Sunday (November 18th, 2018)
It
still feels really weird today. I dont know what happened yesterday.
But we did have some really good news. Zilda came to church today, which
is really good because if she had an awful experience and really didnt
believe anymore, she wouldnt have come to church. So we just have to
work with her harder than the adversary is. And also, we had another
miracle. A woman named Luci came to church today. The missionaries have
been visiting her for about 8 months now and she has never come to
church before, but apparently something changed, and she and her
daughter (who is already baptised) came to church. It truly was a
miracle, and a good reminder that the Lord truly can do anything and
change any heart.
Spiritual Thoughts:
- Never give up on someone. You never know when they will be ready, and what is happening in their life. We need to trust that the Lord is preparing people to hear the amazing news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- I was thinking about the song "Ill Go Where You Want Me to Go" and I thought that that includes all of the places that he asks. He might ask us to do something that is really hard for us and we need to be ready for that, but he also may ask us to do something that is "too easy" sometimes we are asked to do things that we think are beneath us and we need to be willing to humble ourselves enough to go wherever the Lord asks us to go.
I love you all. Serve your neighbor, share the news of the Gospel, and never give up!
Love,
Elder Allen
