Week 53 the amount of possible funny good titles for this week is crazy

 Mon, Sep 18, 2023

The second half of the mission begins

Monday happy one year to me we ate pizza that night to celebrate, Almeida informed they have an amazing dessert called "Vaca preta" or black cow, which is coca cola and vanilla ice cream floats, I still haven't tried it and I do want to, but Brazilians are def missing out because they don't have root beer, or sorbet to go with the sprite they have, maybe I'll show them Yoda soda if I find mint ice cream, 

That night during planning I decided we would visit the address of an an inactive family in our records, and we did, a woman answered the door, and she was unfortunately sleeping when we knocked but we got to talk with her and mark to visit her on Wednesday, 

Tuesday is gonna be a lot

I really focused on studying to be prepared for zone conference I studied about obedience that night as president Harker asked us to do, and man it was awesome this study, there are just so so so many great verses about it and it's promised blessing. And the consequences of not bring obedient, I also decided to read the book of missionary standards we have to see where I can be better that led me to a few questions, "why don't we as a mission have our studies throughout the day like the standards say?" "Why don't we leave the house at 10?" I also felt really strongly that other things needed to be clarified, such as the standards of music and use of headphones, and standards with social media and watching videos, I also studied alma the part about amon and the sons of Mosiah teaching the lamanites, and preach my gospel i felt the spirit strongly as i studied all these things , I really liked studying about amon and his missionary example, and the new revelation of preach my gospel is always very welcome, I decided I would do a fast after lunch to prepare myself for zone conference

Lunch was at an inactive members house, and at the end he asked us an awesome question, "how can I after having left grow my faith again and come back?" I was excited to use what I had studied in preach my gospel, I explained that when we aren't growing our faith it's declining, and I explained that our faith grows every time we pray, study the scriptures, and follow one of God's commandments, (this next part I didn't say but its true) because faith requires action, we cannot have faith when we do that which is contrary to God's will, he said he would try to start habits of prayer and study again, 

We then decided to work in another far away neighborhood and visit some gray dots on our map, we didn't find anyone with our crappy records and super messed up addresses in the neighborhood that jump from 14000s to 103 in a blink, but I did feel like we should knock a door, and so I did, because it doesn't matter what god reveals to us unless we act on it, because the act is faith, (not that I'm perfect on acting on spiritual prompting I'm far from it) and a woman answered the door, , we shared a message about Jesus Christ and his atonement with her l, it turns out she's struggling with a lot of things and taking care of her incredibly old mom has been really hard on her it was good 

We then visited an active member, she's really funny and old, makes amazing food, she told us she had been burned really bad because while she was cooking boiling water fell on her, it was an ugly burn she showed us, we gave her a blessing, and I used my insane mosquito killing talents I've gained on the mission to prevent her from. Getting dengue for the third time, 

We visited dhemirus and there's this one super super loaded rich lady in the neighborhood who just walks around buying beer, and also just food for people like dhemirus and us when we are there, we kept seeing her throughout the whole day, I wish I counted, because there is no way she drank less than 20 cans, and then she starts saying and doing the dumbest thing, the word of wisdom isn't a list of things we can and can't do, but rather we came to earth to get a body one of the best gifts we can have, and Satan's followers who are spirits will never have a body and are eternally miserable for that, so they do everything they can to take our body from us using things in the world, such as beer, drugs, black and green tea, coffee, and smoking, because they make our body's dependent on them, and our body ceases to be ours it's becomes the world's, 

That same woman bought us acai and coca cola, and sandwiches even though we told her we weren't hungry, she probably would have paid for dhemirus's rent too

It turned out that I had forgotten to start my fast after lunch, so at dinner time I started my fast to prepare foe zone conference, but I'm stupid forgetful, and ate a banana after i started I'm sure God understands, 

That night we taught sebastião and josepha and Raquel, but to me it was different, they just wanted to jump directly into the message, so we did, we taught about the gospel of Christ, and read most of 3 Nephi 27, I felt like I needed to testify of Joseph Smith that god through him restored his church and gospel, and while I testified I felt the spirit, but I don't think they did, the topic switch to Joseph Smith and we talked about a lot of stuff but it didn't avail anything sebastiao told us that he admires our work and what we do, and likes and agrees with what we teach about Jesus and his gospel, and the plan of salvation, but when it comes to Joseph Smith he just doesn't comprehend and doesn't think he can agree, because he has read so many negative things about him on the internet, we have invited them to pray for the answer many times, but I don't think they have real intention to act on the answer they would receive, and if not this, they simply don't believe God will answer them, 

Josepha told us it's just all so new and that she feels like she could even believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet but that he saw God she doesn't believe it, because she believes in the Bible verse that says and never again did anyone see God (translated from Portuguese to English for this email by elder bremner) to me I think it's a pretty minor doubt, but her and the rest of the family won't do anything sebastiao doesn't do first, Raquel told us her head was full and confused, 

After all these saddening responses, we told them we would leave them with a prayer and the spirit in their house for them to ponder and converse among themselves, and I quickly told josepha that In acts which is after said verse about no one seeing god again, Stephen sees God and Jesus, something to ponder about, and the. We said the prayer asking for god to leave the spirit in their house, and I have seldom felt the spirit so strongly than during that prayer, I hope they felt what me and almeida felt 

Wow I finally made it to Wednesday I could probably write just as much if not more about zone conference i wrote 4 and a half pages of notes and should have written more it was long and heavy, doctrine filled so we could understand the basis of the changes to come, and my studying and preparation payed off because I was able to understand and even know what would happen and what would be taught really it would hard for you guys to understand the experience I had,

sister Harker shared a message about letting God prevail something I'd studied a lot about before zone conference and shared with my district because the spirit showed me it was important for the district to know

She shared that the church establishes standards that *garentee* our success something I was hoping to hear,

It really was an amazing spiritual experience full of learning that I don't think words can describe some things though

The doctrine was taught and clarified so we could understand some changes, 

1. Now we will be spreading our studies throughout the day and leave the house each day at 10 am. 

2. Rather than the old rule of no music other than that which was produced by the church, we can listen to any music that builds faith teaches the doctrine, and invites reverence, as is said in the general manual

3. A reminder that headphones can only be used to study church material, (and not to listen to music,

4.videos are authorized to watch, but remember does it invite the spirit?, does it keep us of out of the world if we watch? (Basically instead of just saying no more videos, such as Facebook watch, he taught us why, and left the choice to us 

And a whole lot of other stuff 

I was unfortunately not able to apply everything we learned that night at the end, 

We grabbed a box of fat books of Mormon, and after walking circles in the city with this super heavy box, and almeida forgetting his suit coat back at the office then walking back to the bus stop, the box falling apart, in the end we made it back home and and box fell apart with all the books in our front door, 

Thursday I had an amazing experience doing a baptism interview, this man even knew everything and it was engraven In his heart his greatest desire was to follow God and be baptized he shared his testimony of why he is willing to make and follow his baptism covenants, and I felt the spirit so strongly, I also felt the spirit when I told him it's all good he can get baptized, and he cried from joy and told me it's the best thing he could have heard right then, it's awesome

Friday, god prepared the way for us to follow his commands given through revelation Through zone conference and we taught Lucas and explain why the next step for him I following Christ is. Baptism, and he agreed and feels that he needs go be baptized telling us that his baptism in an evangelical church he doesn't feel good about and that he wants to do it right, 

I think the best blessing through all the tribulation from these two transfers has been that I have been able to make a real difference in helping the members of my district and that I've been able to each day receive revelation to help them and that it has helped them, and it brings me so much joy to see that,

Saturday my back gave up I think I might have had 4 rib outs at the same time, it hurt way bad, that night I slept bad, but walking up in the morning everything Popped and cracked and I felt way better but I still had one Rib out, we had an awesome activity that day about the iron rod, few people showed upbut those who showed loved it, 

Sunday 

Was great we had 3 people at church which was amazing they are all preparing for baptism, we also had some other inactive members who we are working with come back

I'm tired of writing and exhausted in general

So that's this week, I took some photos