Perseverar até o fim!! [Enduring to the end]

Saying good bye to a family of recent converts
that moved to a near-by ward that I served in recently.

Hey y'all!!

Another good week! Lots of great stuff!

Os Barracos [The Shacks]

Thank you all for your prayers on behalf of some of the families that are members of the church that were going to be taken out of their homes this week. After quite a bit of excitement they were given more time to find a place to stay. One family already moved to the last ward I was in so it's good to know that they'll be in good hands with some good missionaries that I know there.

Pancakes

Pancakes

What's a selfie-stick?

Confirmations

The Sunday before this one was stake conference and so nobody that was baptized that week was confirmed and so this week was cool because there were 6 confirmations all on the same day. This ward is growing a LOT! There is so much work to be done here!

We also had a good time going to a member's place this morning with the other Elders to eat pancakes, I'll attatch some pics.

Have a great week y'all,

See you soon!

Elder DP

A Full Week!

Yet another action packed week here in São Paulo! We had interviews with presidente, I got to do a few baptismal interviews again, we had a mission conference with Elder Schmiel (an área seventy) and we had stake conference with our mission president and another area seventy present. It was cool to have so many learning experiences with these great men.

Tereza

Tereza was baptized this week! Before her granddaughter's baptism last week she was saying that she only wanted to be baptized at the end of the year. After the baptism her granddaughter had such a great experience that she decided to be baptized this week with five other people from all the wards in our stake. It was a really cool baptismal service.

Os Barracos

This week we got some bad News for many of the recent converts in our Ward. A small community found out thursday that they will have to evacuate their homes by tomorrow when a bulldozer will come in and level their homes. It's a complicated story but in the end please include them in your prayers because there are more than 30 members of the church living within this community, several being our recent converts. Keep them in your prayers please!

Purification Project

Our mission president gave us a new challenge so that we can be more worthy of the spirit and teach with greater authority. He taught us a lot about the enabeling power of the atonement so that we can make changes from good to better. The challenge is called the "Purification Project" where we are suposed to fast for 24 hours and write down all the things that could drive away the spirit in any manner. After the fast and writing the list we are supposed to promise the Lord that for the next 45 days we will fast from doing those things (not do them). Obviously we won't be perfect but each day we are supposed to Wake up and pray and promise that we will obey and ask for the strength to overcome, and every night review the day and see what we were able to overcome and what we didn't manage to. I'm really excited for the challenge, I've already got a good list to improve on!

Hope you all have a great week,

see you soon!

Elder DP

Brasilândia Miracles weekly

One more week, one less week. It's amazing how entering into my last transfer of the mission is such a whirlwind of emotions. Excitement to see my Family but sadness to be leaving the mission. The good thing is that all the emotions are a better reason to finish Strong!! We're having tons of miracles here and I'm sure they'll keep coming.

New Converts

This week we had the baptism of Amanda which was really cool. When we knocked her door her grandma tried to make excuses for us not to come back and she came to the door and kept taking away all her excuses. After the first lesson we got back and she had already read 14 chapters in the Book of Mormon!! Her baptism was cool because she was super prepared to receive the gospel. She already lived many of the gospel principles, she even already fasts!

Reactivation

We're doing a huge Project to visit all of the recent converts from the last 2 years in this Ward because there are a lot that are less active. We met one Family that received us really well and accepted easily the invitation to go back to church. It seemed as though they were just waiting for the invitation to go back to church. They went to church and one of the members of the Family even went up and bore her testimony.

Pure Love of Christ

I got to see a miracle this week in sacrament. A less-active member walked in a few minutes late after not having gone to church in a few weeks. One of the members behind us yet out what was nearly a yelp and ran the isle to give him a huge hug and welcome him back. It was cool to see that kind of love.

Hope you all enjoy the stories and have a great week!

Elder Della-Piana

We Broke the Transfer Streak!!!!

Transfer call number 16 is in and.... WE STAYED!!

For the first time in Brazil I will be staying with a companion for two transfers. Elder Caldas will be my last companion and I'll finish the mission in Brasilândia. It will be wierd to work as if it were a normal day on transfer day and not have to go to transfer meeting or wait for a new companion. We're excited.

ZONE PICTURE

Resgate

This ward has baptized many people in the last two years but unfortunately many of these recent converts have fallen away from the church. This week we organized the list of recent converts and began the process of visiting each one, which will be a large task to say the least. We're planning a big group exchange with the ward to go out with 6 different companionships to go visit all these people all on the same day this month and so we're excited to go about that.

We already had some cool miracles with reactivation in this area. We baptized three young men whose sister was already baptized and she began to return to church and is preparing to go on a mission! We're excited about all the miracles that the Lord is performing here in our area.

Well yesterday I lost my daily planner and now I realize how lost I am without it because I feel like I don't remember anything that I did this week hahaha. I guess I really am getting old...

The church has a really cool biography for Elder L. Tom Perry who passed away this weekend. I recomend it to anybody that wants to be inspired: Elder Perry's Biography

Have another great week!

Elder Della-Piana