Hey everybody!!!!!
Well. First off, I cant believe it is pday again!!!! Seems like the
weeks are flying by now...... Did I mention that I´ve been on my
mission for 7 months now????? yep. Time is flying.
So..... about the week..........
Last monday, we had an activity with the elders-------- churrasco
(brazilian bbq), and some futbol. Yep. And Sister Feistner and I both
came to the realization that we do not know how to play
soccer.............. yikes. hahaha. I need a LOT more practice
apparently...... How are these brazilians so talented with their feet??
holy cow.
Tuesday, we had our zone meeting in the morning and then it POURED
almost all day..... Makes it great fun to work in the rain...... No
people on the street to talk to, no one wants to open their doors, no
one wants to let dripping missionaries into their house..... hahaha.
ALSO, we have a little "quintal" in front of our house (just a little
cement area where we have our washing machine and clothes lines... We
found out that when it rains a lot, that little area becomes a LAKE.
hahahaha. It´s a really good thing that our house is just a little step
up from the level of the quintal because if not, our house would have
been a lake as well...... hahaha.
About Rodolfo---
He is really working hard and progressing!!! He has a lot of desire
to do whats right and to learn and wants to understand EVERYTHING
completely..... We are having to really work hard to help him
understand, and trying to break up our lessons more and focus on smaller
topics. Things like prayer are just completely foreign to him and
really hard for him to do..... He also starts to get way overwhelmed
when we are introducing new topics and he doesnt get it yet..... He is
making a lot of progress, and reading a LOT in the book of mormon, but
it is going to take him a while to learn everything.
This week, he didnt come to church again!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO. He lives
about 5 blocks from the chapel, so it was really frustrating that he
stood us up again... We got to his house to pick him up and he had just
left us a note on the gate that said he "sister ward and feistner. I´m
not coming to church today" AGHHHHHHH. Turns out, he just stayed home
and did nothing all day!!! Last night we were bummed that he had just
stood us up for no reason, and didnt know what to even teach him or say
to him..... He also hadnt read the chapters we marked for him the night
before. So, we ended up just turning to one of the chapters that we had
marked--- Alma 42 and read it with him. As we were reading about adam
and eve, the fall, our purpose in our lives and the atonement, we would
stop and talk through what was going on every couple verses. At one
point, Rodolfo stopped us and was just like "wow.... wow. I think that
if I had read this yesterday like I was supposed to, I would have gone
to church today....." It was awesome, because as we were reading with
him, the chapter was answering a lot of his questions..... he kept
having little moments of revalation while we were all sitting there
reading around his kitchen table. Towards the end of the chapter, he
started to get stressed and overwhelmed with all the things he DOESNT
know or understand yet..... Sister Feistner was just like, its okay,
lets just keep going.... AND, what do you know, the next verse was alma
telling his son to not worry. To not worry about the things that he
doesnt understand, but to just trust in the lord and leave his sins
behind and repent. Afterwards, Rodolfo was a little taken aback and
just started laughing..... It is amazing how the scriptures can answer
our questions!!
Thursday this week, we were able to have a lesson with the lady
that I talked to at the little restaurant last week--Edilma......... She
is way cool. We taught about the restoration, and it all went really
well, until we got to Joseph Smith and the book of mormon...... That
really freaked her out for some reason. You should have seen her
face..... Sister Feistner was tempted to stop the lesson just to take a
picture.... (dont worry, we didnt of course. ). It was frustrating that
it stressed her out so much, because she is really an AWESOME
investigator. She wants to find a church to be baptized in, but has
never found a church that she completely agrees with. She studies the
bible and has a lot of faith in God..... But the book of mormon
especially weirded her out.... She was like "why werent the book of
mormon and the bible just written together??" ahhhh. But, she was very
nice and said that she would read it and pray about it. So hopefully she
does.
That was also a frustrating lesson for me, because some how in
there, I got way nervous and uncomfortable and just lost it.... couldnt
teach for almost the entire lesson. Then when I tried to talk about the
book of mormon and bear my testimony, it was like I couldnt speak
portuguese at all and had just arrived in the mission field all over
again. AGH. Those moments are the worst!!!! Hopefully it goes better
when we meet with Edilma this week....
Fernando---
So last week, I was all excited because Fernando just appeared out
of nowhere and came to church. We marked to meet with him this past week
in the chapel, but he ended up never showing up.... Later, he called us
and apologized and explained how he got a job and was working every
day.... Sundays as well. NOOOOOOOOO!!! And he didnt really have any time
to meet with us... even though he had read the chapter in the book of
mormon that I marked for him!! ..... It is the worst when AWESOME,
prepared investigators drop you!!!
BUT, thankfully, the story doesnt end there....... Sunday, we went
into the chapel for sacrament meeting, and Fernando was standing there!!
I was like "you´re here!!" Turns out, he worked all this past week, and
just didnt feel good about it and decided to quit and look for
something else. He said it didnt really make sense, cause it was a good
job, but he felt like he should quit..... WHAT??!!! We of course,
jumped on that one to explain how important it is to come to church on
sunday, and maybe God was leading him to something better that would
make him able to come to church each week.... We marked to meet with him
at the chapel after church in the evening. And he really is as prepared
and awesome as it seemed!!! Wow. We started talking to him about
everything.... He walks past the church fairly often, and saw the sign
saying "visitors welcome" and just decided to come check it out one
sunday. When the sisters before us where still here, he came a few
times, and came to watch general conference, but they were never able to
teach him because he had a different job and was too busy.... He
started telling us how much he likes church and how he always HAS to
come back because of how he feels at church. He told us that the feeling
doesnt last throughout the entire week, and by the time the next
weekend rolls around, he is just dying to feel it again. AH! We
explained how he was feeling the spirit and talked about baptism and the
gift of the holy ghost and how when he is baptized and receives the
gift of the holy ghost, he will be able to feel that feeling ALWAYS, as
long as he lives worthily. Then we were like "is that something you want
to have?". YES. AHHHH!!!!
We ended up just talking with him and answering his questions for a
good 45 minutes..... He understands SO MUCH!! It was amazing! He would
bring up a topic, and then basically answer his own questions before we
could explain it!! He also BROUGHT UP the topic of tithing (a sometimes
iffy subject) and was like "so, can I start paying my tithing right now?
or do I have to wait till I´m baptized??" WHAT??!! This guy is
amazing!! So we explained all about tithing as well....
Then we taught him about the restoration. As we taught, he was just hanging on every word.... SOAKING it up.
We invited him to be baptized, and he said that he wants to!! He
just wants to prepare and think about it a little more first.... But we
marked to meet with him and help him prepare every night this week.
WOOO!! and he was excited about it!!! hahah. MAN. I am SO excited!!!! It
is so AWESOME to have people to teach!!!! YAY!!
OH. And this week, we were able to find people to leave and work
with us!!! MIRACLES!!!! Seriously though, it was so great. We were even
able to do a division for an hour because we had TWO people that we got
to leave with us. !!!! Yep. Slowly winning over the ward here. No big
deal. =]
But we had about 4 people tell us to make sure and mark with them
to leave with us again this week..... Wooo!! Its gonna be a blast.
Funny story:
At church on sunday, one of the speakers started quoting that song
"walk tall you´re a daughter" in her talk.... In portuguese, the chorus
goes something like this: "levanta cabeça, és filha de deus..." When I
heard that, I didnt quite hear it right and thought she said "esfiha"
instead of "és filha"..... "esfiha" is the name for these little
mini-pizza things that they make here, so I couldnt help laughing.....
right in the middle of sacrament meeting. Woops. "lift up your head,
mini-pizza of god...." yep. You all would have laughed as well. Just
admit it. I then decided to share the joy and wrote it down on my
planner for Sister Feistner to understand as well.......... So we had
two immature, disruptive sister missionaries in our sacrament meeting
this week.... Oh well.
SOME AWESOME NEWS---
So, this week we got a phone call from our old district leader in
Araras. He was calling us on his way back to their area after doing the
baptismal interview of one of the investigators that we taught- Larissa.
She was planning to be baptized this past sunday!!! WOOOOOOOOO! So
hopefully, all went well and she was baptized. She is Guilherme´s(who
got baptized there in july...) little sister and we taught her for the
entire time Sister Feistner and I were in Araras. She wanted to get
baptized while we were there, but her mom wouldnt let her. This last
week, the elders went out there and talked with her and took a member
from the ward with them. Turns out they were like long-lost cousins or
something, and now her mom wants to come check out the church, and
decided to let Larissa be baptized! AH!!! WE GOT SO EXCITED!!! =]
Have the best week!!! Love you all so much!!
Sister Ward
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