The big news this
week is that the mission is spliting in half and
will become the Porto and the Lisbon mission in July. They are doing
it with the change of the mission president and both of the new
presidents will be Brazillian I am pretty sure. So I don't know how
it is going to go down exactly because I have just glanced at the
letter and don't know much yet but I will end up serving the majority
of my mission possibly in the Porto mission or possibly never go up to
the north half of the country. The split will be in July.
Saturday night we had a compromisso appointment with a brazillian
couple that had set up this time with us over a week ago. When we got
there they had all the chairs in their house set up in a circle around
the room like they were going to have a party. We quickly found out
that the party was going to be a church meeting for Deus é Amor or God
is Love. Not wanting to be rude or hypocritical for not being willing
to investigate their church, we decided to stay for the meeting.
There was about 15 people that showed up and filled the room then they
went into the crazy yelling and singing praise the lord, while the
pastor who was very loud, played the guitar for the whole thing. It
was pretty wild and really loud. The meeting consisted of members of
the congregation getting up to share a scripture and their
interpretation of it and then lead the congregation in singing (more
like yelling off key with no beat). So after the meeting to make the
visit worth our time we got up and in a much more reverent manner so
that the spirit had an opportunity to be there thanked them for their
hospitalty, then I asked them if we could share a scripture before we
left. They accepted and I talked about baptism and essential
ordanances then Elder Alves took from the nessesity of autority to do
covenants to teach the restoration concluding with a testimony that we
have been called by a prophet of God to teach these things and that
this is the only true church on the face of the earth. I then
testified of the same things and invited all of them to be baptised,
come to church and pray to know if these things are true. We then
taught them how to pray propperly (instead of one person yelling while
everyone else is chanting satanically) and left them all with our
cards. They liked it fed us soup and stuff invited us to a party and
the family that we had showed up to teach invited us back to talk more
another time and have cake. They talked about friends and family that
some of the people have that are converts to our church and it was all
very positive even though we had just stood up in front of them, 3
young boys (because we had a member from the teachers quormn with us)
to straight up say that their church was not God's church. Haha it
was way fun and way cool to see the power of the spirit and to have
the confidence like abinidi that our church is true and the spirit can
testify of its truthfulness even through the weak ones like us. We
are just trying to fulfill the commandment in D&C to teach the
congregations of the wicked. It was one of the most fun and
spiritually exciting things I have ever done. Hopefully some good
with come out of it and we can baptise a preacher.
So when we went to pick up Maria this week for church she was all
dressed and ready to go half an hour early. when we started to leave
her house she grabbed a huge bag all full of the clothes that she will
need, towels and stuff to take a bath because she thought that her
baptism was today. haha We felt bad and thought about just going
ahead with it but we want her to be a little more ready first because
she has a desire just still has a hard time remembering things. I
think that our visits are really good for her health because as she
talks to someone who is teaching her it is keeping her brain a little
bit more focused. We have her marked for this week and all she needs
is the interview so it should go through before the next report which
should include a picture of a tiny 87 year old lady in white!
That is awesome about the Cowboys. It makes me sad that I am not
there to enjoy the cowboys while they are actually good with you. I
have always wanted to watch the cowboys with you when they were really
good back in the ninties like it was watching BSU back in the mid
2000s. But it has still been fun to get updates from you about them.
As for BYU wow. I heard a little about that from the Phippens because
their daughter is a public representative of BYU and on the executive
board and stuff so they were down at Miami for the game still when the
Phippens were skyping them. But I didnt get the good details from
innocent old little Sister Phippen.
So this week I gave my first ever talk in sacrament meeting in
Portuguese on one hour of preperation. But it wasen't a big deal
becuase Sister Camacho took up the time that was alotted for both of
us so I had to be really quick and didn't really even get to give my
talk more of just a testimony so that the Bishop could have his time.
But the one scripture that I decided to still read, I read the wrong
one I wanted Alma 5: 14-15 and read 16-17 which has a lot of words
that I could not pronounce in Portuguese but it is all good because I
didn't have time to say more about it anyway and it is still a
scripture either way. Hopefully the next time will go better.
And Mom as far as you worrying about me being safe I am glad that you
are getting some comfort about my safety. Today I was studying the
story of Abinidi. I love how his words are so powerful to King Noah
and his preists becuase of the spirit that was with him. I feel some
of the same comfort that I think Abinidi must have been feeling when I
am out and about here. I know that as long as I am doing what I am
supposed to be doing and trying my hardest to give as many people
opportunities to accept the gospel in their lives as possible, then I
will be protected. Because I know that I still have a lot to get done
here and the Lord will stop take care of me so that I can keep doing
his work. Of course after Abinidi had fulfilled his purpose he was
killed but hopefully I still have a little time before I have
fulfilled my mission here on earth. ;)
As a mission this week we read the talk about haveing confidence in
front of God talk and it is really powerful and I would recommend it.
It is from last conference it is really good. And everyrthing here is
going great I am loving life and having a blast serving the Lord.
have a good rest of the year. Love you all get healthy and talk to you
in 2015!
Elder Hobson
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