´´Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written´´

OIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!

So.... This week was a another GREAT WEEK. It started out pretty slow and we had some major bumps in the road, but the bumps hardly matter because it ended so good. Yesterday was the baptism of Raquel. Raquel is a 15-year old young woman. Who is SO awesome. A couple of weeks ago we met her because we were looking for a different investigator who lives in the same divided house. Our other investigator wasn´t home, but Luis (Raquel Dad) opened his door and told us that she wasn´t home and asked who we were. It just happened to be really outside this day, and he invited us in and told us that his teenage daughter was home, so we took advantage of the situation and asked if we could share a message with him. He accepted even though he wasn´t very interested. As we were teaching Raquel left her homework to start listening. She told us that before we had showed up she had a feeling that she needed to find God, a path to follow, and that all that faulted was us knocking on her door :) She and her sister Rafaela and their friend Geiza went to church with us for the last two sunday´s. We always invited them for baptism, but they always felt like it was too early. This week as we taught Raquel we invited her for baptism and she told us that she knew that it would be something good, but that she was SCARED. We shared the scripture in Alma 7 that says not to fear baptism, and we felt really prompted by the spirit the whole entire lesson. She is such a good example of courage to me. I know that she was scared because her sister and her friend thought that baptism was way too early, and that she was CRAZY for wanting to be baptized. But she decided that it was necessary for her. She has a desire to follow Jesus Christ and she didn´t let fear get in the way of keeping and doing all that is written in the scriptures. She didn´t let it get in the way of following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. ANDDDD because of her example Rafaela and Geiza felt the spirit so strongly during the baptism that they want to be baptized next week!!!!!! The baptism was such a spiritual experience for me as well. I LOVE Raquel and Rafaela and Geiza so much. They are such beautiful daughters of Heavenly Father and I know how much happiness the gospel is going to bring in their lives.

Sabrina, another investigator we have been teaching for a long while now, has also decided to be baptized on the 14th!!!!! Announced yesterday during Sacrament Meeting. She is also a great example of courage to me. Her mom is dying of cancer and she feels so helpless, and yet she still has the courage to put her faith to test and follow the savior Jesus Christ. 

Courage is to not be afraid, especially of doing what is right. I know that it is necessary to live the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I know that all of us can apply this principle in our lives. As a missionary, I know that sometimes it´s hard to have the courage to go up to random strangers on the street, sometimes it´s hard to have the courage to commit investigators to baptism on the first lesson, sometimes it´s hard to have the courage to always follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I also know that when my heart takes courage and I keep and do all that is written, the Savior blesses me. I feel so blessed to be having such great experiences on my mission. I feel so blessed to be in such a great area with such a great companion. I feel so blessed to be seeing so much success on my mission. I know that I am helping the Lord help and touch the lives of others. 

Never Fear. Be of good courage.

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!!!!!

Our Desire to Share the Gospel Takes All of Us to our Knees, and It Should, Because We Need the Lord's Help.

Something I learned this week is that a testimony truly is powerful!!! We have been teaching a man named Jefferson from Bahia, and it´s been hard to get in contact with him because he works so much, but this week on friday he called because he needed help with his living situation because he lives in a place where people are always drinking, swearing, and doing bad things. We called the bishop to help him, and the next day when we called to see if we could meet with him he told us that we could, but he didnt feel like studying and that he just needed a friend. Hmmmm...... Ok I thought let´s go be his friend, and we listened to him talk about his life and things that we´re going on, his goals and dreams in life, and I mentioned something about my family and showed him a picture. He asked me, So if you have such a pretty family why did you leave them to come here??? When he asked me why I left my family it made me really reflect, why am I here?????? I thought for a second and what I came to the conclusion to is that I´m here because the Lord has given me everything that I have, it was the Lord who gave me such an awesome family, it was the Lord who has given me the gospel and I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know of the importance of the gospel in my life and in the lives of other people. I know that Baptism is not an option, its necessary. So I shared my testimony with Jefferson, he said he didn´t want to study but I shared a scripture anyways. 

 

1 Nephi 9: 6 `But the Lord ^aknoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all ^bpower unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.´ I felt like I was actually being prompted and inspired by the Holy Ghost, it was the best feeling I had all week. And now Jefferson wants to become a member of the church and be baptized!!!!  I was really happy to see the message that he sent us saying that he wanted to be baptized.  

I hope everyone has a good week, and don´t forget to write. It makes all the difference

Sister Bruno 

Sucess is Going from Failure to Failure Without Losing Enthusiasm

Dearest Family,

This week I learned that God is truly involved with the details. There happened to be many instances this week that bore testimony of this to me. He answers prayers and helps us when we need him the most. 

This week was bittersweet because an investigator who we have been teaching for 4 weeks now said he got an answer that the Catholic Church is true. HOW??!?!? I don´t know. It makes me sad because I think he´s just scared to give up the foolish traditions of his fathers. I know the Spirit doesn't give different answers to different people. It made me really sad, but I know Heavenly Father won´t give up on him!!!! 

This week we started teaching a lot of great people and we had 3 investigators at church. It was a very spiritual fast and testimony meeting. All 3 of our investigators said they felt very touched and felt something different. We are hoping to work hard with all 3 this week to help them understand the importance of baptism. 

Today in the weekly letter to the mission the president encouraged all of us to tell our families and friends that we will commit to live all the rules of the mission and be exactly obedient in all that we do to see for the least 2 baptisms every month. So I thought I would tell you all that I am committed to live every rule and commandment so that every month I can see at least 2 baptisms. Continue praying for me and for the people in the world who still don´t have the gospel in their lives. Pray for the people who are ready to receive the missionaries that we can find them!!! Pray for the people who already know the missionaries that they can find answers to their prayers!!!!! 

This week I will be out for 9 months. Time flies when you lose yourself in the work. This week I want to invite all of you to pray for people that you can share the gospel with. If you pray for an opportunity I know Heavenly Father will put faces in your mind of the people you should share it with. 

Love,

Desi

Sister Trainer

Today I start training a new sister, Sister Amaral from the North East of Brazil!!! Hope everyone has a good week :) Desi

Elder Atunes Encourages Missionaries to Teach with Scriptures

Minha Querida Familia, Today is the last day of my fifth transfer!!!!! This transfer was really good. We met our goal of 5 baptisms, 2 of them being men. This week was a good week, we had the opportunity to start to teach the cousin of Brandon, Marilia, and she got baptized yesterday. Really it was a miracle because every time we went to their house before she didn't want to know anything about anything because she already had her religion. I´m catholic is all we heard. But after she went to church and watched Brandon's baptism everything changed. She asked me on Sunday if we were going to visit them that week, and visit is what we did. She wanted to keep going to the catholic church and our church and didn't want to get baptized so soon, but by the second time we visited she had such a desire to be baptized. And Sunday Brandon received the priesthood, and he is already wanting to serve a mission!!! It was the first time that I saw someone receive the priesthood (do we say receive the priesthood in English? I don't even know anymore) And guess who baptized Marilia? Fabio, the baptism we had the first week of the transfer!!!! It was awesome to see the progress of all of our recent converts!!!! This week we had a mission conference with Elder Antunes of the seventy. He is SO AWESOME. SO EXCITED AND HAPPY. It was pretty funny because he pretty much told us all that we needed a lot of improvement, but he did it in such a fun, happy way. This week we had a lot of fire to do our best. A big point that he made is that we need to start using our scriptures, and its something that is so true. I wasn't using the scriptures a lot, and this week I used so many scriptures and they really helped invite the spirit to teach. When we teach without them we are teaching solo, but when we use the scriptures we let Heavenly father, Jesus Christ and the holy ghost teach because we use their words. Every lesson I taught this week I really felt the help I was receiving. Reading Franny´s emails makes me really grateful to be in Brazil. This week Brazil is going through a revolution or something of the sort, all the members are enjoying going to the protests because they say the government of Brazil is really really corrupted, but no worries, nothing too extreme in Vila Prudente. Hope everyone has a good week!! I bought a new camera this week!!! THANKS TO EVERYONE who helped!!!!! I´ll be sure to take lots of pictures and send them to all of you!!! I´m happy to see that all of you are good. Give away a Book of Mormon this week, I promise you won´t regret it!!!!!!!! PS- Is it true that missionaries can really use Facebook now?!?!?!?! Desi

Using Soccer as a Finding Tool

 This week we had DIVISIONS..... I stayed in my area with Sister de Jesus it was fun, we laughed a lot!

This week we made a lot of contacts because we were needing to increase our group of teaching. Our district leader gave us some advice. He told us that whenever we see kids playing on the street soccer or something like it to start playing with them and then ask them to meet their parents. Seemed ridiculous to me. But when I saw kids on the street I thought I´ll never know until I try right? We started playing this wierd game they play here called taco in our skirts it was fun and the kids loved us, and they all want to go to church now. Unfortunately their parents werent at home so we marked to visit them during this week. Let´s see what happens? 

This week we started teaching a man named Elineu who seemed really receptive, but after church yesterday he wanted to talk to us outside of the church and basically told us he wasnt going to come back because he didnt agree that sex was a sin because the talk in sacrament meeting was about the law of chastity... It was a wierd situation. He says he wants to find a wife and have kids and have a happy family. As I explained to him that only through the gospel of jesus christ is how he can have a truly happy family that will live together forever and how he will return to live with heavenly father I felt a firm assurance that the things that I was saying were true. I felt really really really sad afterwards, but I know I can say without doubts that I did my part in teaching him about the gospel of jesus christ.

The mission is passing by fast. Tomorrow I will be out for exactly 8 months!!!! Can you believe it???

Hope everyone has a good week!!!

Sister Bruno

Premortal Promise to Brazilians

Minha Familia Linda!!!!!!

I´m loving serving here in Vila Prudente. Living in São Paulo is surreal, its HUGE!!!!!!!! So much commotion.My companion Sister Lima is great, we frequently get asked if we are sisters!!!!  

My recent converts Debora and Carlos received the Holy Ghost yesterday, and I couldn't be happier for them. They both are so special and I know that the Lord will find many ways for them to serve. 

 This week was a good week, but a hard week as well. We taught a 40 year old women named Lucia who had gone to church last Sunday. It was interesting because even though she´s 40 years old she has a hard time understanding a lot of things so you have to teach her like you would teach a child, but she was really receptive and I felt like the spirit helped me SO MUCH while teaching her and when we invited her for baptism she accepted right away, but when we returned she told us that she could only get baptized in her mom´s church, Deus e Amor. But it was hard because she wants to get baptized because we put it in her head, but her Mom would only let her get baptized in her church, but shes 40 years old!!!!! It was discouraging to try to help her understand that only baptism with the priesthood authority will value in the eyes of god and sad to see that she didn't even want to understand. And as the week went on the same exact thing happened again. We invited for the baptism they accepted and got excited about it and the next day she didn't want to because her husband is Buddhist and said she couldn't. These situations are always hard because you don´t want to stop visiting them, but you have to be careful because their are more people that want to hear the gospel and are willing to go to church and progress and have situations that allow them too, but it still always leaves me sad to have to cut people from our group of teaching.

 This week my companion is going to another area because of a fight that another group of sisters had, so this week should be interesting without her, but I´m excited because we are going to start teaching the son of a recent convert who just moved here from Bolivia and only speaks a little bit of Portuguese, but he seems really awesome and I´m hoping that we can help him feel the spirit and accept to start a new life centered in Christ through baptism.  

I´m loving the mission and I´m having great spiritual experiences. It´s not always easy, but it´s definitely been worth it. I know that the Lord sent me here to Brazil with a very specific purpose. Perhaps before this life I made promises to some people here in Brazil that I would find them and help them understand the gospel of Jesus Christ so that they too could return and live with Heavenly Father and their families forever!!!!! I´m happy to be serving and to be meeting so many special sons and daughters of God. 

EU AMO MINHA FAMILIA!!!!!!

Sister Bruno

Two Baptisms in Vila Prudente Ward in Brazil

I didn´t have time to get online this week, but this week was really good we had 2 baptisms, Carlos and Deborah!!!! It was a really spiritual experience for them and for me. Hope everyone has a good week!! I promise to write more next week!!!!!!!

Desi