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,
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
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