If Ye Have Not Charity

This week was a really really really BUSY week. We had so many things to do and so many people to teach. We have been seeing a lot of work here in Vila Prudente. 

Tuesday was Zone Conference. It was a good conference. We did a lot of practices and studied a lot from preach my gospel. It made me remember how important the basics are in missionary work. 

This week we worked hard to prepare Valmir and Vinicius for their baptisms. They both were already SO ready for baptism!!!!!  

This week I learned a lot about the importance of charity. If we truly love the people that we are teaching we will do anything to help them. We put our own comfort aside and SERVE. This week we learned some really bad news, our investigator, Sabrina, whose sister I met in the MTC during TRC, called us and told us that her mom was back in the hospital and the doctors only gave her 6 months to live. After hearing this news I didn´t know what to do, or how to help. I felt like I couldn´t even breath. But Sister Amaral and I talked about things we could do to help and we decided that we just really needed to be there for her and show her how much we loved her. We bought her a get well kit because she was sick this week with a video of the church and a magazine with tea and soup and earrings and chocolate, and just listened to what she had to say, and taught her about the gospel and how much it was going to help her in her life. Her sister that lives in the US is going to fly down this week. As a result of listening to her and her feelings about everything she seems to be realizing the importance of baptism and she feels a lot better about the date we had set as a goal for her. From this experience I really learned that Charity is everything. When we have charity we do everything that we can to help others recieve the restored gospel. 

Would love to hear what´s going on in everyone´s life... Even if it´s just the latest picture you posted on facebook. 

Desi 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

"Life by the yard is hard; by the inch it's a cinch. Each of us can be true for just one day--and then one more and then one more after that--until we've lived a lifetime guided by the Spirit, a lifetime close to the Lord, a lifetime of good deeds and righteousness."

Every day that passes I love my mission more and more. Sometimes when I look at all the things that I have to do, the people I have to talk to, the things I have to remember I get really stressed out. But as I remember the little things and try to do things slowly but surely, I feel better and I see a lot more success!!!  I´m learning how to take life one day at a time.

This week was a great week. We taught Valmir a lot, and he has decided to take a step of faith by marking his baptism for Saturday the 24th. We had marked his baptism for yesterday and we kept insisting. We know your baptism is going to be on Sunday, and we made a circle on his calender at home, but the only thing he ever answered was I want to be baptized before the end of the year. But as we taught he said look on Sunday I´m going to meet my sister (because he´s never met her before) but let´s mark it for Saturday the 24th!!!!! WOAH we are sooooooo happy for him and his FAMILY. We know that he doesn´t have 100% surety of what he is doing, but he decided to take a step of faith. We read the baptismal interview questions and he has a testimony of Joseph Smith and of the church. He wanted to feel 100% sure, but we explained that many times we aren´t going to feel 100% sure. What Heavenly Father really asks for all of us to do is to go on faith. This week I started to see this in many instances of our investigators and recent converts. Sometimes it may be about leaving something behind or about having the courage to act, or it may be about breaking barriers (Improve what we already are doing) Whatever it might be we have to do it because of the faith that we have. I know that Heavenly Father is willing to bless us and help us in every aspect of our lives when we are willing to show our faith and do the things that he asks of us. 

Whatever may be happening in your lives, GO BY FAITH!!!!!!!!

Love,

Desi

"Answers will come in the Lord’s own way and in His time."

A BIG HELLO from Sao Paulo!!!!!

This week was a good week. This week in our ward we had the opportunity to watch the baptism of a man who has been attending the church for 26 YEARS and finally decided to be baptized. His wife and kids are such a great example of faith and prayers. They have been praying for this for a really long time. It really puts into perspective the phrase: Patience is a Virtue. It made me think of some of my investigators. Some that I have been working with for a good while now who go to church every week and are reading in the Book of Mormon and still don´t want to put a date on baptism. I know that the Lord is listening to my prayers and their prayers and that he is answering them in his own way and in his time. If I have patience and trust in his timing I know I will see the blessings that he has promised. 

This baptism was a great teaching tool as well. We started teaching another man whose wife and daughter are members of the church who saw the example of Carlão and was really touched. We have been teaching him this week and he told us that his desire is to be baptized!!!!! He wants to be able to baptize his daughter who is 6 right now, and wants to take his wife and daughter to the temple!!!! We challenged him for baptism for Sunday and he´s about 50/50 right now. But with patience and faith I know that the Lord will grant this miracle to us. 

Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious. It is the ability to do God’s will and accept His timing. When you are patient, you hold up under pressure and are able to face adversity calmly and hopefully. Patience is related to hope and faith—you must wait for the Lord’s promised blessings to be fulfilled.

Never lose Hope. 

Sister Bruno

``And by the Power of the Holy Ghost ye may Know the Truth of All Things``

Minha Querida Familia,

This week was the last week of my 6th transfer!!!!!!. A lot of great things happened this week. Me and Sister Amaral have been teaching some great lessons, and have seen a lot of results. This week it was evident how much the Holy Ghost helped us.

This week we had the baptisms of Rafael and Gustavo. Rafael is an investigator who we have been teaching for a couple of weeks now. We met him pretty coincidentally. We were walking in the street and out of nowhere I tripped and almost fell. Graceful... I know :) And Rafael was sitting on the other side of the street and saw and started LAUGHING. So of course I started laughing too. We approached him and started talking to him and turns out that it happened to be on his 21st birthday!!!! July 16th. We had already gave him a goal to be baptized on the 4th of August, but he just said I don´t know... Let´s see..... But this week on Wednesday we got to our teaching appointment and noticed that something was wrong. And when we were all sat down he told us that he didn´t want to be baptized. We were in SHOCK.... Wait... WHAT?!?!? So we asked him why and he started explaining that he wanted to enjoy life that he liked going to dance and what not. We explained that he could still dance, and that through the gospel he would enjoy life even more, and read a scripture

  14 Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. 15 Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism.

After we read this scripture he said he wanted to be baptized, but that he wanted to wait more time. When he said that we didn't even know what to say, but in that exact moment we had realized that we hadn´t even prayed yet, so we said OK let´s start with a prayer, and we invited Rafael to say the prayer. And as he started to pray he thanked Heavenly Father for everything, and said Heavenly Father I decided that I want to be baptized. And after he said the word Baptized, he paused for about a minute and said `Lord, I´m going to be baptized this Sunday`!!!! When he said that I felt the spirit so STRONGLY, and when we asked him what had changed he said that the minute he said baptism he felt like something was alive inside of him a burning in his heart. He explained the feeling of the spirit perfectly!!!! 

THE HOLY GHOST IS KEY IN CONVERSION!!!!!!!!!! 

The baptism on Sunday was such a great experience. Gustavo and Rafael were both so happy. The water was freezing cold and after his baptism Gustavo tried to swim in the water. It was funny. President and Sister Ferrin attended our ward and baptism :) Rafael said that he felt like he now had complete joy in his life. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE AND CHANGES LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!! 

This week in Sunday School the teacher said that it doesn´t matter what we are in life. It matters that we are the best of what we are. I am a missionary and I want to be the best Missionary. I hope you all can adopt this into your life. BE THE BEST STUDENT, BE THE BEST MOM, BE THE BEST DIRECTOR OF LIBRARIES, BE THE BEST AT SHARING THE GOSPEL!!!!!!!!!! 

Até Mais!!!!!

Sister Bruno  

PS - This week we had a contest between the districts in our zone who could eat the most pizza and my district won!!! I ate 9 pieces of pizza :)  Sending a pic!!!!!