Miracles in São Bento

Hey Y'all!

Elder Soares and Elder DP

Well transfers came around and Elder Paixão went off to Itapetininga (that's a mouthfull) and I'm sticking around. My new companion is Elder Soares! He's probably about 5'4 and we checked our weights and we weigh the same hahaha I saw our reflection in a window walking the streets the other day and it's a sight to see this tall, white American and a little, round Brazilian roaming the streets. He is seriously a great companion. First of all he already served here a little over a year ago so he already knows the members as well as I do and he has tons of less actives to visit that I never knew existed. He showed up and we automatically gained a ton of trust from the members that we didn't have last transfer. On top of that he's a great teacher and he makes food all the time. 

Transfer Pizza

So, this week was awesome. Last week I mentioned Andressa, a young woman we found the week before that came to church that Sunday. Well we visited her this week and she accepted the 22nd as  her baptismal date!! She seems really solid to be baptized on that day and we're super excited. Her Mom also accepted baptism but won't be baptized on that day because she hasn't made it to church yet. 

Another Miracle - Tuesday Night a young woman that left Thursday to serve a mission brought us to a friends house to introduce us. We taught him and his mom and went back and taught again Friday night. Both lessons went really well, he's reading the Book of Mormon, he had a great experience at church and last night he accepted the goal to prepare for baptism on the 29th!!!!!!! 

I'm loving the mission, watching miracles unfold. It's great. The language is coming along still. Another sweet thing about transfers is Elder Johnson (my MTC Companion) is part of my district now! 

Love you all!

~Elder Della-Piana

Transferência 1 Terminado

Well, Brazil Transfer #1 is in the books. Super hard but I can see myself growing so much.

So this week we had 3 exchanges. For two of them I stayed here in São Bento and the other I went to the Area of the Zone Leaders with one of the missionaries that has baptized like crazy in the mission. He is one of the best teachers in the mission, uses the scriptures, helps people think about things in a different way, inspires them to action and a bunch of other stuff. I learned so much that day. The other exchanges I had to lead in our area and I gained a ton of confidence from those days. I had to lead out on all the teaching because the elders there with me didn't know the people and I was pretty nervous about it. After those days I had so much more confidence, even though I ran into challenges with the language the Lord blessed me so I could help everything run smoothly. 

We had some sweet experiences this week. A family that wasn't very firm (wow I just had to pause to remember how to speak english) came to church and was super excited!! There kids loved it and the dad went from super quiet and not responding during lessons to the point where I could tell he had a good experience at church and will come again next Sunday. We also had two other investigators that we found this week come to church. They both had friends as soon as they showed up. One is 14 and the other is 18 and super intelligent. She's going to Institute this weekend with a member!! It was such a blessing because that had been the hardest thing for us is bringing investigators to church and even though we had a bunch of other that were supposed to come this was cool to see. 

Well we get transfer news tonight but we got a sneak peak and it looks like Elder Paixão is out and I'll be sticking around. President emailed him and said he'll be in another area. I'm pretty stoked, this area hasn't had much success in the work of salvation in a while but I feel like a bunch of things are coming together for miracles to happen here. 

Love you all!

~Elder Della-Piana

Trabalhar com alegria e cantar!! “Work with joy and singing”

Beleza!

Man, are we working here. We are talking to so many people every single day. We have a given space at the back of our daily planner to write down when we meet a potential investigator and get an address to go visit another day and I already ran out of space and we still have a week left in the transfer. I remember when I was serving stateside looking at how many pages were back there and thinking to myself "Wow, that would be hard to use all of those pages." Oh how little I knew then.

This week was good. We went to São Paulo to the Federal Police department to take care of visa stuff and we got lost at 11 pm trying to find the apartment we were supposed to stay at. My companion had no idea and I was no use because I thought I knew something but I couldn't communicate it. We finally wound up there and the next morning everything was smooth. Because of that trip the week was kind of slow at first but then this weekend we taught a ton and found a bunch of new people to teach and we're excited here!!

Like I mentioned last week we're trying to work with the ward here. We had a family home evening in the house of a member this week and were able to bring a man we're teaching and also a family. The family had been kind of wishy-washy before and a little downhearted but after that activity they were excited and they couldn't come to church this week but they  

[Adam's dad here... his ending of the email shouldn't be too alarming. I clearly means he started a conversation with a chance to share the gospel or it just means someone offered him food.  Still, that is the abrupt end of his email.  I'm sure he's fine because he responded to another email after this one was sent.  Kinda comical.  Ciao!]

[THIS CAME IN THE FOLLOWING WEEK!]

are going to come next week!! They're kids were dying laughing during the activity and they were able to bond a little bit with the members that were there. 

It's an adventure here in Brazil. Nothing like I could have expected and every day I have a new challenge and every day I see the hand of the Lord lift me through. Like Alma I know this Gospel blesses lives and want to declare it to every creature so that there's no more sadness on the earth.

Sincerely,

Elder Adam Della-Piana

PS. Sorry that didn't all send last week, not sure exactly what happened.... 

Trabalhando Com Membros

Well these past few weeks we've been trying to work more with the members of the ward. We invited a member to come with us to a teaching appointment tuesday night to visit a family that is progressing but is having trouble making it to church. That appointment fell through but the member had a less active in mind that lived close by so we went to visit. It is a young woman in the ward who was baptized less than a year ago but something happened a few weeks ago that offended her and now she doesn't want anything to do with the church. We had actually gone over there earlier that day but made no progress. That night the Brother we brought helped her remember the joy she had felt at church, the friends she has there that love her and all the other reasons why she had joined the church. The next day she hung out with his daughter and came to a church activity and Sunday she came to church and was cheery as if she hadn't left. It was cool to see the good influence that truly caring friends can have within the church. 

Caldo de Cana or Sugarcane Juice

We also had interviews with President Martins this week. I had some questions about promptings of the spirit and he taught me that the word "Constant" actually means closer to "Reliable" in the time the scriptures were translated/written so we won't necessarily have the Spirit with us always but we are promissed that when we need it we can still rely on it. That was cool. 

I still love being a missionary. I think I say it every week. Even though it's hard it feels good to be on the Lord's errand. This week I read D&C 1 and it talks about how the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith is so that men don't have to trust the answers of the world, they can have God's answers through a living prophet. I like verse 26 "That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and simple unto the ends of the world." It's humbling to try to speak Portuguese and still help people with their lives and sometimes I feel week but I know that this message is of great importance so that every person in the world can rely on the Savior's guidance and not just follow the paths of the world. Love you all,

~Elder Della-Piana

São Bento

Beleza!

Well another week of challenges and blessings in São Bento. I had a couple firsts this week. My first time in charge of the area on exchange, my first time understanding someone while talking on the phone, and my first time being chased down by a drunk and having him explain Joseph Smith's first vision to me.

So last week before Sacrament Meeting our Bishop pulled us aside and asked us to give a talk the next sunday (yesterday) and informed Elder Paixão that he would have 10 minutes to speak and me that I would have 5. Since we had just been told by our Mission President to focus on Baptism that's what we talked about. I got up there and explained that we were passing on the message from President and how Baptism and the Gospel of Jesus Christ helps us improve our lives and enter the Kingdom of God. Then Elder Paixão got up there and talked about miracles of baptism to help the members understand the focus President Martins has given us. 

Anyways, so the drunk guy that one night. So when he first saw us I heard him say "Look it's the elders" to someone else and I didn't relize he was THAT drunk so I said, "Oh, have you talked to missionaries before?" And he went at it talking about the hundreds of missionaries he knew and Elder Hunt and how much he helped him 12 years ago and how many times he's gone to the church. It was all the more exciting because it was pouring rain and we were literally treading in ankle deep water at several points in our journy and I was on exchange with another American that isn't fluent yet in portuguese. After he taught me how to pray and then knelt in the middle of the street to show me we finally dropped him of safely home. We went back the next day and taught his family. Turns out he was a former investigator that just keeps drinking and smoking and hasn't shown desire to stop. I could see how bad he needs the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his life and I hope with all my heart that he will embrace it this time because his family needs it. 

I love the example in acts of Baptism in CH 19 when some Apostles teach to a multitude and 3000 people are baptized that day. This is basically what Elder Paixão wants to do here. He is definitely excited about baptism.

Anyways, the work is hard but I'm still loving it. I'll write again next week

Love you all!

Elder Della-Piana

Ópa!!! (Wow!!!)

Boa tarde família e amigos!

What a week! All kinds of ups and downs. First, Sunday night last week we were running home (literally running, our appointment went late and we wanted to get home before 9:30 to be obedient) and a little girl hollared after us. We stopped and she directed us to a lady that wanted our attention. Turns out the lady was a former investigator that hadn't been baptized because she was drinking coffee and some other things but we went back monday and had a great lesson and since the ward already knew her and she'd already been to church and was now choosing to keep the commandments she accepted to be baptized on Saturday!! It was a miracle! Then came the day of the baptismal interview. We got there and the house was wild and kids were yelling and her boyfriend showed up and chewed her out for meeting with us and the interview didn't even happen. So tough. Then the last few days her boyfriend has stood guard at the house so we couldn't go teach and answers the phone for her to say she's not there just to keep her from being baptized. It was rough but it was still cool because she stood up to him and told him why she wanted to be baptized so I think she still will join the church it will just be a harder road.

This week was also cool because a young woman in the ward invited her friend to meet with us and we taught the Plan of Salvation and it answered the questions she has about life and then she came to church and after church asked us for a Book of Mormon!! SO SWEET. Elder Paixão will teach her tomorrow with our Zone Leaders while we are on exchange so hopefully that will be sweet.

We also had a mission-wide conference this week and got to meet with our Mission President, President Martins. He is way funny. I still didn't understand everything he said but he talked a ton about baptism. Baptism is our focus because baptism helps people progress and grow. It was sweet.

As far as the language goes it has it's ups and downs. We were with an investigator the other day and he didn't even look at me because he assumed I couldn't say anything after I stuttered over a sentance but then a member asked me if I was from Rio de Janeiro and said I already speak awesome!!! hehe I had her fooled.

I love it here, the language is hard but I'm growing and learning and starting to see blessings unfold.

~Elder Della-Piana

FINALLY IN BRAZIL!

This week has been a whirl! I guess it's been two weeks since I've gotten to write so first I had a great last week in Colorado. We went to some caves for our study one morning with the Spanish Elders and that was way cool. Hopefully I'll get some pictures off of that. I got to say goodbye to just about everyone since I had such good notice but it was weird because all our investigators acted like I was leaving for a vacation, "oh you're going to Brazil! It's going to be so warm there! Plus you'll be close to the beach?!" If only they could see me walking and sweating in the heat now. It was 36 degrees  the other day and the Brazileiros were making a big deal about it so I am guessing that was really hot in Farenheit as well (that's 97 F).

New missionaries Elder DP came in with

President & Sister Martins

 Missionary work is so different here. We literally talk to every single person we see and nearly everyone invites us back because we talk about Christ and they like that because they already have their church they're comfortable with. We teach the restoration and invite them to prepare for baptism right off the bat everytime because we have so many people that we need to weed out who is really interested and who is just being courtious. It's sweet though, my new companion Elder Paixão is a boss. He is SO bold with everyone and it's kind of wild to watch.

Elder DP & Elder Paixão 

Anyways, the language is coming surprisingly well. Either people look at my companion and say, "Wow, 6 six days and he already talks like that" or they look at my companion and say "He doesn't speak much does he?" so it's still hard to guage where I'm at but I'm loving it. Bishop had me start of Testimony on Sunday and I hope they laughed at my joke to start it off and not at me bearing testimony of the book of monkies or something like that. I had to stick to the basics for that but it was good.

Well I'm loving it here. It's hot and the language is hard but the people are amazing and it's still the same gospel so it's great. 

Falou!

Elder Della-Piana