Monday, March 17, 2014

I Guess I Have More Time Than I Thought


Well this week was good because we had a lot of really good lessons with our investigators. 

Italo still doesn´t have a desire to get baptized!!! He believes in EVERYTHING, but he says that he just doesn´t want to get baptized.... We taught him almost everyday this week and he just keeps becoming more and more converted.... 

We are helping a few less active families come back and it´s great to see when they too progress, but sometimes it seems harder than even teaching investigators.

Friday was the leadership meeting. It was a greet meeting. I felt the spirit SOOO strong and it made me want to be BETTER than I have ever been. I also got to bear my farewell testimony and of course I cried!!!!! It made me think back about all the experiences that I have had on my mission and think how grateful I am for each person I have met here!!! All of my investigators, recent converts, companions, members!!! EVERYONE!!!! 

Saturday was an emotional day.. First an investigator, who we have been trying to decide whether or not to cut, CUT US!!!! It was wierd. He called at 7 am and told me that it was better for him to stay far away from us because he said he was starting to ``like`` me and he knew that it was not allowed. UGHHHHHH it made me sad because I never did anything to make him like me.. I think its just because he is so lonely and we actually cared about him and he felt the spirit and confused the feelings. I don´t know..... I just hope that Heavenly Father gives him humbling experiences that will help him accept the gospel ASAP!!!! 
 
Then at night we had an open house at our chapel. It was good because 2 friends of a member came and they really liked learning about the church, but me and my companion tried really hard to get people from the street to come and see what it was like, and NO ONE would... :( But one girl that we talked to came to church the next day so that was AWESOME and we´re going to start teaching her on tuesday!!! Woohoo. 

These Last 4 weeks I just want to TRY my hardest and see MIRACLES!!!!!!

Desi 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Road Rage Kindness

THIS WEEK WAS GREAT!!!!!

On thursday we had mission conference with Elder Costa from the quorum of the seventies!!!!! He is sooooo awesome..... He shared so many awesome stories. My favorite one goes like this. He had just moved back to Brazil from são paulo when he got called to be the presiding seventy of brazil and his wife asked him.... you´re going to have to learn how to have patience in the traffic of São Paulo... andddd he said his first day driving to church office building he entered a lane in front of a little red fiat and the little red fiat gotttt SUPERRR mad and started honking and following close behind him. When he came to a red light she pulled over next to him motioned for him to roll down his window and started cussing him out.... He remember what his wife said about patience... Nodded his head and said have a good day... god bless.... and went his way. He said the very next day the very same thing happened with the exact same lady. and he gave the same response. Then a few days later they just happened to be in the same spot again.... And a few days later again.... And before he knew it she was smiling and waving back at him... The next week he decided he was going to give her an invitation to stake conference and a book of mormon. And that sunday she went to stake conference and then was eventually baptized.... Hahah it was great to hear all of his little stories.. It made me realize that heavenly father really puts us in the right places at the right times. And we have to take the opportunities that he gives us!!!!!!!

On Saturday We taught an awesome lesson to our investigator Italo who has been saying that he knows the book of mormon is true and that joseph smith is a prophet, but doesn´t feel ``vontade`` Wich is like will or desire to be baptized. We taught him the plan of salvation again and taught him about the importance of faith and repentance.... He was super interested in the repentance part and  he committed to repent and be baptized on saturday.... but then he didn´t go to church on sunday so we have to move it to after he goes to church one more time, so maybe sunday.

We also taught 6 new investigators this week, and 2 of them went to church. We were super happy about it!! ANDDDDD big surprise they also have word of wisdom problems: cocaine... dang it. But one of them is SUPER smart. He read almost 40 pages in the book of mormon after we left it with him. And he remembers like almost every detail. 

Alexandro and Sandra are doing A LOT better. This week we went to the place to mark their wedding, but unfortunately their birth certificates were too torn apart... So we have to order new birth certificates and go back this week. BUT they will get married, and I hope I´m here to see it :)

Hope everyone has a great week!!!!

Sister Bruno 

Monday, March 3, 2014

Persistence in the pursuit of righteous desires can help us develop talents, attain our spiritual goals, and serve others.

Tomorrow are transfers!!!! and that means.... just 6 more weeks of me... wearing this name tag.. 6 more weeks of me being this cute sister missionary. 6 more weeks to do my best and help as many people as I can!!!! This week was good. After Elder Evans visit, we worked hard and saw some great results!!!! ANdddd this week Elder Claudio R.M Costa is going to come give us another mission conference. Two members of the 70s in Two weeks... WOOHOOO :) It will probably be my last mission conference. We started teaching a few new investigators. We are helping reactivate a few less actives. The family whose dad is a drug addict didn´t use crack this week. He just used marijuana instead.... Not as bad.... andddddddddd HE WENT TO CHURCH!!!! finally :) :) It was the cutest thing ever to see their family sitting on the church bench all together. It truly was a miracle. They called sunday morning and said they weren´t going... and I kept saying yes you are. YES YOU ARE. Someone will be at your house in 15 minutes to pick you up. AND THEY WENT :) and he loved it. and their going to get married this month and it´s going to be great!!!!! Italo went to church as well, which made us really happy!!!!!!! andd the family that we are helping reactivate...which also made us super happy!!! Sunday we had a weird experience.... We were walking home to do our weekly planning and some ladies from another church stopped us and invited us to go into their church to visit and to talk to their pastors... I´m not sure why I accepted the invitation. But we went in... and just stayed for a few minutes, and prayed with their pastor. It was sad. But I shared some pass along cards with them and invited them to come to our church. Who knows? Maybe they´ll call for the free dvd :) What did I learn this week? Righteous persistence pays off. Alexandro always says that were are persistent and that's why he went to church. When I think of persistence I think of Jesus Christ. He persisted day after day to follow the will of Heavenly Father. And he inspires us to do the right thing in our own lives. To be persistent in our righteous desires and actions. Because one day we will receive a reward for it! I´m pretty sure I will stay in my area with my companion for my last transfer, but If anything happens I´ll let you know tomorrow....

Sunday, March 2, 2014

"It's not enough to wish, it's not enough to dream, it's not enough to promise. We must do."

TUDO BEM??? This week was an eye-opener. We are still working with our investigators to help them obey the word of wisdom. Unfortunately we made the decision to cut a few of the investigators that we had that were not interested in changing or even wanting to know more about the gospel :( BUTTT we are going tomorrow to mark the wedding of one of the family we are currently teaching! woohoo. I´m so excited for them. Sandra is SO awesome. She has the biggest desire to change. ANDDDDD she is pregnant. So she will be married before the baby comes. Saturday I had the privilege to go to a meeting that had the zone leaders and sister leaders from the 5 missions in the huge city of São Paulo. We got to hear from Elder Evans from the seventy who works on the missionary executive council. It was an awesome experience. He talked so much about our true purpose as missionaries. A lot of the time missions focus on the one thing that is easiest for them to do. Here it is baptism. In some places is less active work. and we forget that we should be helping in all areas of the doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, receive the gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end. Heavenly Father has great expectations for our generation. He wants us to be obedient so that he can bless us. He wants us to help him with his Purpose: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. He also talked a lot about the importance of families. There is nothing more important than our families. We can only get to the celestial kingdom when we are sealed together and enduring to the end as a family. This morning he came and talked to our whole mission. It was a very humbling experience. He was very inspired and hit the key points that our mission needs to be better at. It was one of the best mission conference I have been to. He also told us that Heavenly Father gives us our desires. If we desire good things and good results he will give them to us. and how do we show our desires? By the things we do. So we have to do GOOD things. I know that this really is the work of salvation. Sister Bruno