Thursday, July 31, 2014

Accelerando a Obra

The work is going great here. The week was a little weird because I got to do a bunch of baptismal interviews in other areas but that was a great problem to have haha

The 'At Will' Restaurant
This week we ate lunch at a restaurant in another area so we could have time to make it to do interviews for the Sisters. In portuguese they say "at will" instead of "all you can eat." We went and after 6 plates I was feeling pretty full. As I got up to pay my companion said "You're done already!?" and I said "Yes, I'm stuffed" and he said "You won't get another plate." "You're right, I won't, I'm stuffed."  That's when he said, "Don't be a girl" - I ate 7 times...

Baptism!!
This week we baptised Elvis and his brother Ruiz (no I haven't heard him sing yet). They are Bolivian and the rest of their family doesn't speak much portuguese but is super supportive of them joining the church. Elvis has already read the entire Book of Mormon and is participating in and loving Seminary. 
Elvis told my companion "I'm going to stump you right now with a scripture" and read Moroni 7 about Charity and showing love to others and then asked "So if you have a plate of food in front of you and you see a man walking past in the street that is clearly homeless and hungry and needing a bath, what should you do?" Elder Lene replied, "I would give him the food and let him take a bath and help him out." Elvis replied, "Wrong! You should have invited him to church" haha Elvis will be a great missionary someday.

Church
Our president told us this week that we're not here to sit in church meetings by ourselves, we're here to help people come to church, if we don't have investigators at church, we should go get some! We had one person in church but she went to Relief Society and so we were alone for the first hour. After waiting to see if people would show up late we left and started calling everyone to come. We finally woke up an investigator that wanted to come but forgot the alarm and she came and had an awesome experience. It was something small and normal that we did but to me it showed how those little victories we have every day make all the difference. 

Something I learned this week to help notice the needs of the people around us is to observe, listen, discern and then act on the things we notic about other people. As I've been more observant I've been able to have more effective lessons and feel like I'm helping people more individually as I seek to serve and bless them. I love the work here!! Being a missionary is hard but it's also freaking AWESOME!!

Fiquem firmes,
Elder DP



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