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

The Power of Fasting

This week was great. We had the baptism of Brandon. Everything was so inspired and prompted by the Lord. He is the son of a member from Bolivia who moved back to Brazil a couple of weeks ago. The Saturday before he went to church with his mom all the people we had confirmed to go to church with us cancelled the last minute and when we told our LD he told us that we should pray for an elect to be at church the next day, and that we did and Heavenly Father truly sent a true eleito. The first time we went to visit him after we saw him at church he didn´t even want to listen to us. He seemed very closed off and said he was leaving so he couldn´t talk to us. Later his mom told us to back off a little bit because he told her that it seemed like we were exorcists and that we wanted to remove the evil spirits from him hahahahahaa. But this week I felt a strong prompting to go back and talk to him and when we got there it seemed like a completely different person, very open to everything. Brandon is a very intelligent young man, who knows a little bit about everything. The first time we truly taught him I felt the spirit so strongly, and decided to fast the very same day, and everything that happened afterwards with him was truly inspired from Heavenly Father. Sister Moura our sister leader felt like she needed to do splits with us, and teach him about the plan of salvation, the next day a member called  and told us that he felt like he needed to help the missionaries and he went and visited Brandon with us. The baptism of Brandon was so spiritual too. Bishop Marcelo said that he saw in the eyes of Brandon that he was going to be a great leader one day!!!! I´m so happy to have helped the Lord bring another sheep into his flock. We are also helping a single mom, Luciene, stop smoking to be baptized. She went to church this Sunday and loved it, and can´t wait to be baptized. It´s been really cool to work with her too. I know that through faith she can stop smoking soon!!!!!! Tomorrow is mission conference, and I`M SOOOOO STOKED because a general authority, Elder Antunes from the seventies is coming to speak. President Ferrin asked us all to start a fast right now so that we could be prepared to feel the spirit and learn things that will help us with our missions. I know it´s going to be an awesome experience Next week is also transfers, but I´m hoping that me and sister Lima get to both stay because we have been getting a long so great and she works hard!!!!!! I know that Heavenly Father blesses us when we are obedient and truly trying to serve others. Love you all, sorry for being so whinny last week. Hope everyone is doing good and trying to share the gospel!!!!!

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

Count Your Blessings on a Mission

Hey everybody! It was SOOOOO good to talk to everyone yesterday! It made me feel more excited about my mission and the experiences that I´ve been having.

Something that I´m learning here is to appreciate the things that I have. I have been blessed with so many good things in my life. I have been blessed with a good physical body, a good mind, a good family. And I have the gospel in my life!!!!! I have so many blessings in my life. One of the greatest blessings that each of us have is the Holy Ghost. When we listen to his voice we are always led to make the right choice which will lead to eternal life. When we stop to really count our blessings is when we see how much heavenly father has truly blessed us with and how much he truly loves us. Then we want to share these things with other people, not just with the people we know and like but with everyone!!!!!!  I have been blessed with a mission here in Brazil to share the gospel with a lot of people who have never even heard of the church. People who stop to talk to me and try to understand what I´m saying. Sometimes people don´t always accept to act on what we teach and when this happens it´s always sad to see because we know how much joy and blessings the gospel bring. But I know that Heavenly Father loves them and that he will give them many chances to accept the gospel. 

I love you all and I´m glad for everything that you teach me and show me through your examples. Don´t let little things get you down. Keep going strong in what you know is right. Walk by faith!!!!!!! 

Tomorrow are transfers and I´ll let everyone know what happens!!!!!!!!

Love,

Desi

Missionary Receives Answers to Questions in Brazilian Temple

HELLO EVERYONE!!! I can´t believe Michael got his call, already!!!! Where is he going??? When is he leaving?!?!?! How exciting :) This week I went to the TEMPLE!!! It was cool to watch the session in Portuguese. It made me pay attention and it was cool that I actually understood what they were saying. It was a really great day. I was praying that I could have a spiritual experience and I had a lot of questions that I wanted answered and I had exactly what I was needing and Heavenly Father answered ALL of the questions that I had written down. It was amazing :)

This week was good and frustrating at the same time. Good because I feel like I´m really gaining confidence in my teaching and my ability to speak in portuguese. We found a really awesome kid named Erick that accepted our invite to be BAPTIZED and he went to a yw/ym activity and really liked it. I´m excited to work hard to help him enter into the covenant of baptism with Heavenly Father. This week I had another pretty cool experience. Once on my way to a lunch appointment I saw a man sitting outside his work on his lunch break. I had seen him many times before always in the same spot same time of the day, but never thought anything of it. This one particular day I had a prompting to talk to him, but we were running really really late and I ignored the prompting :(.... But afterwards I felt really guilty and I prayed and prayed and prayed to have the opportunity to talk to him again, but everytime we passed by this spot he was NEVER there again. But.... the very next day after I had gone to the temple he was sitting there in his normal spot and I had the same feeling, and this time I had no fears I just went. It was an easy contact and he gave us his address and I´m not sure if we will even see any success, but I´m glad Heavenly Father gave me another chance. I´m learning the importance of always following the spirit even when its not convenient or easy. 

I´m excited for the Transfer next week. ReALLY REALLY REALLY hoping for some changes.... 

I´m excited to talk to everyone on Mother's Day this week. I will be on Skype at 4:00 PM my time. I´m not sure what time that is for everyone else.... Hope that everyone can make it!!!!!