Week 72 famous words before the rain "Imma trust god that it wont rain"

 Mon, Jan 29

this week was kinda crazy like it was soo long and so short

starting Monday night we had a devotional about using our money correctly, and then were told we were gonna get more money for some strange reason, 

that night we just taught Diego and Lucas about the restauration of the gospel and church of Jesus Christ, and it was a really good lesson they seemed to really understand it well, they were excited to pray about it, and Diego had already read the first 10 chapters of first Nephi!, and honestly its kinda suprising how many people I've given a book to and they haven't just thought to start reading it, so that was some good news we got, it was a really great lesson where they really understood what the message is, that we are saying that The (with a capital T)  church of Jesus Christ was restored 

Lucas told us a funny story about how he would meet with the Jehovah witnesses to learn with them, but one night his sister who messes with the voodoo stuff started spasming on the floor possessed by a demon when the jehovas witnesses were there and the jehovas witness just got up and left the house, and Lucas was waiting for him to come back with a gun or something to shoot the demon, and then when he waited another 10 minutes he thought the jehovas witness was gonna come back with a sword of jehova or something to kill the demon, and still to this day he's waiting for the jehovas witness to come back, and for that reason he doesn't meet with the jehovas witnesses anymore, and he found it even more interesting that we talked about how the priesthood was restored, 

they really love talking to us and asking us questions about the united states, unfortunately its  making our visits an hour and a half if not 2 hours long, we have also found a thing we have in common that we both love clash of clans and he finds that super exciting, 

Tuesday:

the day started with an exchange, so we left the house early and made our walk to the church in the rain, and then we started our exchange with the zls, and i was with Elder Rosa it was a pretty good day of work we did some door knocking in the rain right before lunch and taught 2 people who weren't super interested 

at lunch we joked about about Elder rosa dying, which was funny for reasons that cannot be said, me and rosa were both crying from laughter

we had a visit with an inactive member family and said we wanted to give them a challenge but they had to accept before they knew the challenge, and after a battle of questions of whether or not it had to do with church on Sunday they agreed, and we invited them to do a family night and invite us and some friends and they accepted, 

afterward we tried some visits, taught a guy at a bus stop who actually lives in Sao Paulo and missionaries in his city are teaching his child sign language, but haven't taught anything about the gospel, and i invited him to ask the missionaries about their message given that they are visiting him once a week, it was a cool lesson, 

then we walked to maria do socorro and taught her, she told rosa how she eats bricks and drinks ants, and rosa was trying so hard not to laugh and he was so concerned too, it was a good visit, maria do socorro told us everyone on her street is a family member, we tried to teach some people on the street and had a tiny bit of success, we then walked back to the church to finish our exchange at 6 pm, we talked a lot the whole day about the mission and how to stay happy on the mission and keep working hard, about how we dont wanna waste any time, he gave me a nice complement about my character, 

then me and Elder Blanchard walked back to socorro's street making my total of travel time to the church or back that day 4 hours, 

that night we taught Lucas and Diego about the plan of salvation a bit, and Diego is now in 1st Nephi 13 we talked about the premortal life and the creation and the fall of Adam and eve, they understood really well how, if god is all powerful and knows all things then Adam and eve eating the fruit had to be a part of gods plan because if he's all powerful and knows all things then how would 2 puny humans "ruin" his plan, which is a very common way of thinking here in brasil, 

Wednesday

the night before the aps made the zone leaders switch they zone counsel from Wednesday to Thursday witch meant that my district counsel would be Wednesday, and we talked about asking inspired questions to help us teach, i basically played a game of headbands i told Blanchard to close his eyes and ask me yes or no questions to guess some random thing i had in my hand that i picked off my desk, and he was not able to guess it, i then did likewise with elder Burt but he could ask any question to figure it out, and he found out that it was a candle, we did another practice were i made people teach me when i had a very specific doubt and they had to teach me only using questions and it went really well, 

we had a fire lunch with kleberson, then we went to maria do socorro and ended up teaching her nephew adriano too, we taught her nephew and after we applied asking inspired questions, he started asking some as well!, when we said that the church Jesus established was taken from the earth he said " well then how did it come back?!" when we said the gold plates were hidden in the earth he asked " well then how were they found?! wouldn't god only be able to reveal them?"  so that was a good lesson about the restauration, we taught him that he can know the truth through prayer, he said he doesn't know how to pray, we taught him the 4 steps, and he asked another awesome question, "can i try right now?!" and so he did i jumped up to his feet and looking at the four steps in the pamphlet with his right arm up in a square for some weird reason, he began to pray, after he asked another awesome question " what do i have to do to get the blessings?!" and fun fact in 16 months I've never been asked any of these awesome questions before, usually i ask them and answer them, he even said he already believes the book of Mormon is true, 

that night we had our check up calls were the zone leaders burnt the crap out of elder Blanchard with a scripture our redheaded zone leader with a fever of 102 sent the flamethrower of a scripture, I've never seen anything like it, i then spent the rest of the night talking about it with elder Blanchard because he seemed pretty lost after that 

Thursday! 

We woke up early and walked to the church to have zone counsel and the topic was about inspired questions which made me feel more inspired about my district counsel, 

After we started and exchange and I was with Elder Burt, it was really fun and I made some funny videos, a random member girl wanted my email, and we had some awesome lessons, one old couple spoke with us and told us that the person that we were looking for maria Doce doesn't live there then after 15 minutes said "oh I thought you said maria doke" they asked us where our church started in the United states and I said It actually didn't start there, he was super surprised and then I told him it actually was back in Jerusalem during Jesus life, Adam and eve kind of thing, 

We made stroganoff for lunch that day and at night dipped Salgado in the stroganoff sauce, 

Friday:

we ended the exchange in the morning and we then went back to our area, and studied had lunch, then did weekly planning, we also then taught maria do Socorro, and then hunted down Adriano and we taught him again about how he can get an answer, 

we then taught Lucas and Diego about the plan of salvation up until the resurrection, they have a funny dog that i am best friends with now, 

Saturday

we taught Bruna and her family in the morning and invited them to church, 

and then later in the afternoon we taught a guy named Carlos who said he has no time to meet with us again, 

afterwards we got dumped on by the rain, and i talked with the zls about how i can help my district that's not doing so well, 

later we taught maria do Socorro with her brother and Adriano again, we taught them with lurdres and cido on the phone, 

that night we taught Lucas and Diego about the judgement and kingdoms of glory and finished the plan of salvation, 

Sunday we had church which was good, except no one came, right before leaving our house to walk to church, i said i didn't need my rain jacket because i trust it wont rain, well i got rained on the whole hour walk to church, so that was funny, 

after church we had lunch which was churrasco which was delicious we left our area and went to eloy chaves with some members for lunch, and it was really really long, but really good because i stood next to the grill the whole time, i made everyone laugh a lot, and it was super funny

after we went and taught Adriano, who asked us some more inspired question's i asked him if he had prayed about the book of Mormon, and he said yes, and i asked him how he felt after, he said he felt in peace and joy, and i asked him where he thinks those feelings come from, and he said "the spirit?" yes what do you think the spirit was telling you then? well i think he was telling me it was true then. so we taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized on the 24th of February and to pray to know if he should. after we talked about his first baptism and how we want him to be baptized so he can have priesthood authority in his baptism, 

we taught Andre after and he told us he wanted to go to church, and that's why he asked for a book of Mormon on the internet,  so that'll be fun to teach him next week

we then went and taught Lucas, we probably waited an hour if not more waiting for his family and they never came so we taught him about the gospel or the path to go to the celestial kingdom, and then we invited him to be baptized, and he said it couldn't hurt, we then asked the inspired question of given that you have already been baptized in another church, why do you think we want you to get baptized? and he was like idk i was gonna ask the same thing, so we reminded him that he used his faith in being baptized, and we aren't here to take that away but we are here to add something that wasn't there before, and we reminded him of priesthood authority and shared several scriptures were priesthood authority was used by the apostles to baptize and to give the gift of the holy ghost, and he said it made sense, and we invited him to pray to know if he should be baptized on the 24th of January and he said he would, he said it already makes sense because what are the odds that we would have ran into each other and helped him push his car up the hill a few weeks ago, he said it has to be gods plan that we are meeting with him, 

that night we had an open mic with all the leaders in the mission where president Harker burned us all saying we are doing 15 percent of what we could be doing and that according to not him but those above him, any mission in brasil that isn't baptizing ( a certain number that our mission isn't close too) monthly than they aren't working, and that there was gonna be changes this next transfer, he talked about how you will remember the last three months of your mission the most, and that its terrible that some missionaries relax towards the ends of their missions, he read a scripture where Jesus is the only way back to heaven and god, and then asked us who do we represent, which is Jesus Christ, and that if not through us no one can go back into heaven, 

so yeah burned, but I'm excited,