Saturday, December 21, 2013

Agua Verde Semana 9 , 10

Isn´t the gospel great?

Today we had the opportunity to teach on the temple grounds. In the middle of Paraná there´s a little city called `São Mateus do Sul` but the Church has yet to get there... From that city, a young woman named Fabiola moved to Rio de Janeiro and became familiar with the church, got a testimony of the Book of Mormon, was quickly baptized and a few years later began dating a returned missionary. A few weeks ago, the office received a call from her, explaining that she would be taking all of her family to the temple in a big van, and she wanted the missionaries to teach these relatives who had never heard about the church... on the temple grounds! I didn´t know anything about this plan, until 6:30 this morning when I got a call from a number with the Rio area code asking if the plan was confirmed! I called President right away and asked him who had agreed to/been assigned to teach this family. He didn´t know anything about it either, but liked the idea and sent me and my companion! So we got a taxi right away and went armed with a bunch of copies of O Livro de Mormon, and Joy to the World DVDs. Needless to say it was very neat. The Spirit testified to the simple truths of the Restoration in the garden of His house. Casa do Senhor - Santidade ao Senhor.

This was the second time that we taught at the temple this week. The other time, we took Celeste to the garden (he works on "the ranch" which is what he calls the little gardens that he cares for in the middle of the city, and he absolutely loves plants). He got all emotional as Brother Darlo told him about the temple and the joy we can receive entering the Casa do Senhor.

In other news, I´ve been running around like a chicken sem cabeça trying to gather up a Mission History to send off to the Church History Museum (I didn´t know that every stake, ward, mission, etc. has an annual history that is stored in SLC! But now I know, and I´m figuring out how to make one :)  ).

Looks like Christmas, is gonna be hot again. How odd, neh? But Curitiba weather is kinda like Oregon weather... you can get rain, sun, wind, fog, hail, drizzle, all within the same hour.

We´re still teaching away, and singing for everyone. The idea of caroling is absolutely foreign to Brazilians, and they get a kick out of it. If I were mission president one day, I think I would put musical street contacts as a key indicator!


Merry Christmas,

Não se esqueça o aniversariante!



Love,

Elder House

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Agua Verde Semana 8

Well I survived my first trip (yesterday) to the Federal Police office to register the new Americans and declare change of address for those who were in São Paulo. It is pretty crazy to know that having one number or letter incorrect on one of the 8 processes for each missionary, could potentially mean that someone has to go home, or having to pay fines between R$50,00-R$ 800,00 to fix the documentation. So having a member on the inside, and a box of chocolates for the grumpy PF Officers helps a bunch.

Today we went to the temple... It´s been almost exactly one year since the last time I went, so it was great to worship and learn in the temple of the Lord. The garden around the temple is immaculately groomed and pruned and cared for... including the mighty Araucária trees (a type of tree that only exists in this part of Brasil, but I swear that I´ve seen before in Dr. Seus books). We took some great pictures on my companion´s camera, but on the bus back to the mission office, he accidentally deleted ALL of his photos #nordestino

We are anxiously preparing for the baptisms of two older gentlemen, Celeste and Jorge. Celeste is a wonderful little man who is famous for saying, "the only thing I didn´t learn in school was how to be mean." Jorge is the father of one of our Recent Converts, Luiza who has been praying and fasting that she can bring her parents into the church... Jorge already knew several members, but no one ever thought that he would one day enter the church... no one except Luiza, that is. She´s also starting to reach out to many of her friends, and always calling us with references and marking visits for us. If we could just call this 15 year old young woman to be our Ward Mission Leader, I think that the vision of the Apostles in that broadcast would be easily fulfilled! 

Natal struck Curitiba. Everything is all Christmas-ed out with little Papai Noel figurines in all the stores, and lights adorning many of the apartment buildings. We are now using the Joy to the World movie to enter more homes and teach about why Christ is so important that we celebrate his birth. This movie is amazing to me, because it uses the accounts of the birth of Christ as it had been prophesied in every corner of the world in every dispensation! His birth is reason to rejoice

I love being a full time missionary. I´ll love being a missionary for all my life.



Elder House