Week 49 Joel

This week was a challenging week.  Every day we fought to mark things
with investigators and with members and every single day without fail
almost all of our appointments fell through or the member could not
come which made our plans impossible to fulfill on foot.  So that was
really frustrating but also humbling and I have never gotten contact
information from sooo many new people in one week in my entire
mission.  We are changing how we work.  We have had lots of trouble
getting people to the church and so we have decided that we are going
to focus all of our efforts close to the Chapel and our home so that
we can take really good care of them and get them ready to be
baptized.

One really bright spot is a guy named Joel.  He is about our age and
he lives in his home with two older brothers but his mom lives in
texas and his dad and grandmother who raised him have already died. He
is a really special person because he is super independent and
responsible and is really good about communicating with us.  It is
like texting a buddy back home and i think that it is makeing a big
difference the friendship that we have with him.  We haven't been
pushing that hard still because he has not been able to get to church
because of previous commitments but this week is looking good and he
texted us saturday night that he thinks that his decision is getting
clear so we really are hoping that that is good news.   He is a really
awesome kid that has to really work to even have food to eat and
listens and understands the lessons better then pretty much anyone
that I have worked with.  We have high hopes for Joel.

To answer your question dad.  I didnt really wright out anything for
my talk I just got up with a couple stories in mind and a list of
scriptures and the order I wanted to present the information.  I used
the examples of King noah and king Lamoni to talk about humility.
also I am officially sustained now in the branch presidency. And as
far as the language there are still lots of random objects that get me
and I am trying to work on my translation skills but yeah I do not
have troubles with understanding or expressing myself in diverse ways.
I only read Portuguese scriptures and we study 30 min per day the
language.

Estou a fortalecer meu testemunho das coisas pequenas  e como elas tem
grande influencia em nossas resultadas.  A cosia em particular que meu
colega e eu estamos a melhorar em esta semana são nossos pensamentos
seja durante exercícios, almoço, ou a noite depois de planeamento  e
antes de 11h00.  Não importa se nos nem estamos na rua nosso chamado
nunca tem descansa.  Durante esta parodio de dois anos para realmente
cumprir com nossos chamados sabemos que não temos tempo de deixar
nossa mente de voltar as coisas de mundo mas sim precisamos sempre
ficar com nossos olhos e mentes fixos na gloria de Deus.  Eu quero
mostrar para o Senhor que ele possa confiar em nos para cuidar dos
eleitos, os querido filhos escolhidos dele aqui em Angra.

So we had an experience with an investigator that was getting brain
washed by some people from the universal church that we had to talk to
to help him not fall into their trap but they are really truly
confused and even after he called me a sinner and a laier and
basically spat in my face telling me I dont know Christ, we tried to
help them understand authority but they do not have open hearts to
hear anything and ended up ending our night praying for them so that
one day they could be prepared to here the truth. I am so glad that I
am not lost in such confusion and I really do feel terrible for them
because I think they are honestly convinced that what they are doing
is right but unfortunately they are sadly confused.  I want to help
everyone but unfortunately and thankfully we have to want to be
helped.  I think it is interesting the things that we have to go
through to  understand the atonement and what Christ did for us.  I
know that it is not even close to comparable but we all need to feel a
little molecule of those pains to really come to see how he sees.

Anyways I love you all Have a marvelous week!