My most powerful weapon in teaching is testimony

So this week was probably the funnest week ever! And the fastest week ever! It felt like about two days.

   The language is getting better and better.  It's a slow process but it'll happen. I'm just glad I'm not Colton learning Cambodian. Whenever I am frustrated with the language I just think "It's not Cambodian. I can do this." Oh and I pray too! It's not just that. 

 

 

   Teaching went super well this week. So Tuesday, Elder Rangel had a meeting in Piracicaba, so I was in a trio from Monday night to Wednesday morning. I went on splits with Lucas for the night to teach ______ and ______. After we went and knocked doors. We normally don't knock doors after dark because people don't like to open the gate for strangers at night. But we didn't have any other visits to make, so knocking we went. Made two appointments for later in the week, then we got an unexpected surprise. We were just making appointments because it was late and I didn't have my real companion. Then one guy (he's not more that 20-21 and lives alone) says that he's really busy with work so he doesn't know when we can come back, so we could come in and teach then! We taught the first lesson and it went super well! He was super receptive and said he is looking for answers in life through church. He wasn't lying when he said he's busy. It's been hard to meet with him again but we'll get there.

 

 

   We taught __________ and ________ every night this week and on Friday we met with their parents. She said she has noticed how ______ (the older brother) has changed and she is fine with them being baptized if it will help them!!!!!! So I had my first baptism yesterday and now all the kids except for the baby are baptized in that family. The parents are super nice and love the Elders.

 

    On Thursday night the Bishop showed us a family he is friends with for us to teach we got to know them and just talked a little bit about how the gospel blesses families and our purpose in serving a mission then set an appointment for the next day. When we returned, the mom had her sister's family over, so it was the aunt and her two kids as well. We taught the restoration and as I was bearing testimony about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith at the end, I looked over and both the moms and the oldest daughter where crying!! It was an amazing lesson and I can't wait to teach them more!

 

   Then _______ is an investigator of many sets of missionaries. His wife is a member and he comes to church every week. We visit him often and share messages. On Saturday we decided to teach him the Gospel of Christ lesson and ask him whats keeping him from baptism. For the second day in a row as I was bearing testimony at the end of how the steps we make through the gospel make the last step of enduring to the end possible, he started crying too. But... he said he is not ready for baptism yet and he just needs to wait for the right time. Then the next day as we were preparing for the girls' baptism, we walked in and the bishop was talking with _______and his wife. With the bishop, and his wife, and the spirit as backup, he said he wants to be baptised Saturday!! So we will have another this week!

 

   So what I learned this week is that  my most powerful weapon in teaching is testimony. After those couple of experiences, I remembered a line in my patriarchal blessing that said I would bless lives through my testimony. I also read a letter that Ashley wrote me that said testimony is the most important part of teaching. It is the cue for the spirit to come and testify of my testimony and nobody can dispute pure testimony. So in these first few months as I may not have all the words to teach with the power and grace I would like, I do have a testimony that doesn't need grace or beauty. It's my testimony of the things I teach and the spirit gives it all the power I need. 

Love you more than calda de cana,

Elder Cam Little

 

PS.  Calda de cana is like drinking tears from an angel! Changed my life!! This lady has a volkswagon hippie van with a sugar cane crusher machine thingy. For 2 real we get a pitcher of sugar cane juice with lime. SOOOOOOOOO good. 

Then there's this other fruit that is equally scrumptious, but in solid form. I can't even compare it to anything we have in the US, but its incredible. It's kinda tart and has theses pearly brown seeds inside. They don't stick to the fruit at all. Ease of eating adds to the wow factor.

There is nowhere I would rather be than right here!! I love this work , I love the People , and I love My Savior!!

 

It's been a long time since my last P-day!! I absolutely loooooove it there in the field!! I have an awesome trainer so thanks so much for all the prayers for my trainer as well. We arrived here last Tuesday and had a lot of meetings and training stuff go on with the Bangerters then we got to meet our trainers about 3:00. All us greenies were in the local chappel singing "called to serve" and when we got to the chorus all of our trainers opened up the curtain in the back and came running in. My companion's name is Elder Rangel. He´s 19 and has six moths in the missions and this is his second time training but I'm his first American. He's super cool and patient with me and the language. 

 

 

We didn't get out to my zone until like 8:00 because of all the bus and logistical junk. I'm serving in the São Carlos zone in the Aracy area. My area is huge and we've split it with the other companionship in our house. Aracy is the very outer part of São Carlos and has cliffs and bluffs on one side and huge rolling open hills and farm land on the other. It's beautiful. The actual area is just lots and lots and lots of houses and lojas (little shops) all smacked together. The average house would easily fit in our main hallway. They're all skinny and long and everything is attached to the house next door. 

 

 

 As for language ability and all that mess, going incredibly well!! The first two days I barely understood anything and wasn't super functional speaking either. I've got a tiny notebook I keep in my shirt pocket and write down new words I hear or words in English that I need and want to find in my dictionary. The third day I took a huge leap and I can understand almost everything people are saying as long as their accent is reasonable and I can talk waaay better. It's definitely not easy but hard work pays off. Any spare moment I have I pull out my notebook and keep reviewing so I can make the words usable. And in the mornings I start off by defining any words I need to and writing ones I think will be useful then I review a grammar principle to work on during the day, then I either read my scriptures or other books in Portugues. 

 

I got a Gospel Principles book in Portugues that is awesome! it explains important gospel topics in simple language I can understand and learn new words from while looking for the grammar principle I'm working on. I read more at night after we get home. I'm learning the language SO fast out here in the field. I'm writing and retaining 50 words a day and that's just what I write down. I'm able to make a contact or door approach from start to finish by myself and I teach and share in all the lessons.I'm gunna admit that I could've worked a lot harder while in the CTM. I was learning well and got comfortable and I was to worried about not studying too much because I was going crazy being cooped up all day. I talked about how the gift of tongues was real in the CTM but I had no idea. When you are doing everything you can 24/7 and serving the Lord when you're not studying, that is when you receive the gift of tongues. 

 

   We've got a pretty good teaching pool and there's really only two people I haven't been involved with from lesson one.  One of our investigators is 11 years old, and she's one of the smartest people 

I know. she asks the most intelligent questions during the lessons and never bats an eye. She pays all the attention in the world. She reads her scriptures in between visits and asks questions about it when we come. All the kids here think its awesome that I'm an American too. I brought my pictures to show her and she ran around and gathered all the other kids  and I sat there with like six kids while they looked at my pictures and asked questions about the US. Yesterday she came to church and after we showed her the baptismal font and I committed her to be baptized. She was so excited she went to tell all the kids in primary right after. 

 

The food here is amazing and so much better than the CTM. We get lunch everyday at members' houses and the other two at home. We just work through dinner every day and eat when we get home at 9. The house is too far away to take a break, plus you can really only teach after dark because people won't open the door for you if they don't know you when it's dark. I love cooking my own food everyday too!! I eat a lot of eggs and a lot of salad. Pretty much all I make is some variation of egg or salad. It's pretty scrumptious. I got stuff to make tacos today. It's hard to find stuff for that in Brazil. For tortillas I had to buy mini pizza crusts so it's gunna be more like a chalupa but it'll be great.

 

Well everything is going really well and I'm enjoying the heck out of the field. I had a moment as I was sitting in the favelas teaching after dark, and I looked around and there's all these houses made of scraps and stray dogs and trash, there's a whole bunch of random noises going on , then I look forward and there's a little girl hugging her Book of Mormon hanging onto every word my companion said. I just had a super strong witness from the spirit that that is what I was supposed to be doing. There is nowhere I would rather be than right here!! I love this work , I love the People , and I love My Savior!!

 

  Oh and I love you tons too.

  -Elder Cam Little

A Visit from an Apostle - Last Email from the CTM!

So this week was pretty killer sweet!! Last Saturday we had proselitismo day out on Paulista Ave. in Sao Paulo. Last time we went out I placed 3 Book of Mormons in an hour in the rain. This time went a little differently.... We placed 7 BOM´s in an hour and got 5 references of people that wanted to meet with the missionaries!! It was amazing! We were able to understand EVERYTHING people said. The gift of tongues was in full effect during that. I wasn't able to say everything quite how I wanted to, but they understood everything and it was enough.

We talked to these two girls probably in their late twenties. One wasn't really religious and one was an evangelical. They had heard of Mormons but really didn't know much. We explained the Book of Mormon and showed them Moroni 10:4-5, which we had marked. Before we even asked about the reference they said they wanted to learn more. They continued to ask questions about the temple and said they wanted to go there. They asked about our name "elder" and we explained the significance of not focusing on ourselves but that we were just representatives of Jesus Christ. They were super interested and we were given all the words we needed to communicate.

There were a number of other cool experiences, but I think the one other that sticks out is there was one guy that said he didn't believe in God. He told us that too many bad things happen for there to be a God. We showed him the Book of Mormon and explained that it was a record about Christ and his teachings. We showed him Moroni 10 as well and promised him if he did what it said in those verses and really wanted to know if God was real, he would. We felt the spirit super strong and he accepted the Book and seemed interested. I can't wait till I'm doing this work all day, every day!! ONLY 4 MORE DAYS!!!

 The language is coming faster and faster. We have learned all the verb tenses now.  There's like 6 that don't exist in English, so it was pretty hard to figure out when you couldn't even explain how it worked in your language. I found that you won't learn Portugues if you think like an American. You have to think in Portugues if you want to understand. In my last 4 days here at the CTM I'm feeling pretty confident in my language  abilities. There is a TON still yet to learn but I know enough now to be able to talk about all the gospel lessons, and hold a normal conversation. The biggest thing is that I understand enough to be able to continue to learn from listening and my own study. And its a good thing I feel ready because I'm starting to go stir crazy in this compound! I'm not exactly a big fan of sitting in a class for 13 hours a day. I couldn't even make it through school and I've been LIVING in a school. Its a good thing the Spirit helped me stay sane. I've loved it here at the CTM but I am just itching to be serving for real.

  So normally my P-day was yesterday but we got bumped out a day. It was ok though because it was Elder Neil L. Anderson himself that came and moved our day. We got to have a devotional with him yesterday morning! I have never heard an Apostle in a setting like that before and it was absolutely incredible!! He talked about the gospel of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end.) It was amazing to hear the insights he had on the doctrine I will be preaching every day.

 

 I think the thing he said that stood out to me the most was when he talked about repentance. He said the people here in Brasil are a people of great faith. When we run into people like this we tend to skip the important step of repentance. Without a true sincere experience with repentance, the people we teach will not truly understand the significance of baptism. Repentance and a personal experience with the atonement of Jesus Christ is what truly converts. We need to focus on teaching people about repentance and not just focusing on the baptism. Repentance comes first for a reason. I took a ton of notes and I'll probably share more in the future when I have time. And we got to sit in the front row and shake his hand.  Keeler and I got a double meeting with Elder Anderson. When he walked out we were right on the corner and he came over and patted us on the backs and said Bye.

 

 It was a great week and I've only got two more days of classes before we prepare for the field. Next email I send will be from Piracicaba (and I'll have more time!!) Love you guys and thanks for all your prayers! Ive truly felt them and have received a ton of help here.

 

Until next week, Elder Little

Good Changes and More Help from the Big Sis

Hey Momma!!

  This week was a biggun! So last p-day I didn't write it in my email but I had just started to feel like we were not working hard enough as a district. I was learning Portuguese well, but I couldn't help but feel like it wasn't as good as it could be. Then that night right as the teacher was getting ready to leave, I was just talking with her and she started telling me how she felt the same way. She expressed how it hurt her that we were speaking in English during class because WE are the people with the black name tags. WE are the people with the priesthood authority and a Call to serve from the prophet, yet we were living below our privileges. As she said this she started crying and this conversation was just between me and her but the class got quiet real fast. She left right after and no body knew what happened.

 I explained what she had been telling me and then talked about how I've felt the same way and think we need to be doing a lot more than we were. About  half the district felt EXACTLY how I did and wanted to be doing things differently, and the other half didn't see anything wrong with it and said it was necessary to talk and goof off if we wanted to stay sane in the CTM. We had a good long talk and everyone came to a pretty good understanding of how people were feeling so we decided on some things to change. It has made a HUGE difference this week!!

   After that I was really excited to get studying , but about Sunday I was still feeling like I could be doing more. As I was writing in my journal that night, I wrote down how I was feeling and just wrote that I was going to pray to try and figure things out. Right then I felt I just needed to open a letter Ashley had written me. On the envelope it said '' open on the day and time the spirit tells you''. Inside was her favorite talk  "What lack I yet".  It was perfect!!! Through reading and studying that talk I learned that I needed to be spending more effort on reading my scriptures and the words of the prophets. I thought it was kinda weird because I was thinking about the language but I have had some amazing personal studies this week!! 

I was spending some personal study time before writing and translating lessons or looking up vocab I was going to need for a lesson that day. I have enjoyed personal study so much since I stopped that and have learned some amazing things!! I barely have any time to prepare my lessons now so, I just write a super rough outline in English then go for it. Since I've done this the quality of my lessons has gone through the roof!!! Because I have nothing in Portuguese everything I say is formed on the spot and I'm not bound to some pre planned lesson I made. I can just follow the spirit as directed and I've been changing the flow and adding random scriptures that I read during personal study that mesh perfectly!! When I use that time to obtain the word than when the time comes that I need to share it, I am given everything I need to say. I always felt like I didn't have enough of a vocab to teach these lessons how I want but I'm given all the words I need when I do it right!! And I feel like I can finally be myself when I'm not trying to teach a pre scripted lesson. That's why the lessons are the way they are now!! I love this stuff!!!!

    At the same time all that was going on I got another fun surprise. It's gotten kinda warm here (it's really actually super nice. The Utah boys can't handle the heat) so they wanted to sleep with the window open last week. I started feeling super crappy on Thursday and went to the doctor Friday when it got really bad. And guess what !!! I've been in Brazil for a month and got ZIKA!!  Not really, I lied. And the window doesn't have anything to do with this. Utah boys are heat wimps though. That's true. I just got a super nasty cold. I took two different decongestants (not together. Don't worry mom) and afrin and something the CTM doctor said would kill it fast. Nothing even touched it!! I'm doing good now but I thought I was going to die for a few days there. It has now infected 7 out of 10 in the district. Some people got it a lot easier than others, and half the CTM has it. It's craziness down here!!

   

Unfortunately I don't have many cool stories other than just what I learn since I'm still in the CTM. Not a whole lot happens besides classes and my own personal learning stories. Only one more P-day here in the CTM then I'll be a real missionary!! 

Love you all tons!!,

Elder Little