GEN CON, QC TEMPLE

What's up guys??? Hope you all had a great week and an opportunity to watch General Conference this weekend!! It was INCREDIBLE!! Tell me about your favorite parts!! Tell me about your miracles this week! 

Here's a brief summary of my week!

Tuesday

PDAY!! 

Cleaned the house and got a haircut! Super fun!

Helped an Irmão put away tables from his wedding back into the church and he gave us the leftover strawberry cake and a 2.5 Liter bottle of guaraná!!

Had a lesson with Tayná. Pray for her to have a desire to feel the Holy Ghost!! 15 year old girls are emotional messes (I love my sisters)

Wednesday

Got up early to head to Cotia because our Zone had interviews with President Hunt!! He was stuck in traffic for three hours so we got started super late. Its always amazing to talk to the President!! I love him so much. 

After our interview we headed home and it took wayyy longer than it should have, and it was so hot and humid so I almost died of drowning in heat. 

Had an amazing lesson with Regina and Guilherme about the Plan of Salvation! It's always a difficult lesson because it is very different for these Christians who believe in a heaven/hell situation. For us, it's more of a hot/cold situation. The closer we are to God, the warmer we feel! The three degrees of glory all have heat, but depending on which one you go to, the absence of His heat is noticeable.

Had a horrible lesson with Tayná because she decided to take a shower in the middle of it, and it took forever for her to get dressed, but it turns out she fell asleep in her room. Oh man teenage girls.

Thursday

Had lunch at a member’s restaurant, Rob’s Burger's. I had the X-TUDO. cheeseburger with egg, bacon, ham, etc. Literally tudo. So good. I shared a message with them, and we were able to give them a Priesthood Blessing of Health because she has a bad knee.

Reencountered Gabi, my first ever lesson, and we hope to meet up with her again next week!

Found a new person, Fábio! He's Met with missionaries before, so I hope we can get with him more. He is very very shy.

Had dinner and lessons with recent converts Karina and Reubens!

Friday

We contacted TODO MUNDO on WhatsApp hoping to rekindle the interest of people!

We tried contacting through all of our bairros without much success

Elisângela ghosted us all day

Met up with Wellington, a removed member, who had us in his home to give a priesthood blessing to his wife who gave birth a month ago. He has a huge testimony of the Church and the missionaries. He confessed literally all of his sins to us, which are the reasons he doesn't feel comfortable coming to church. We assured him that Repentance is possible and available to every child of God.

Had an amazing lesson with Tayná! She was awake and listening, so we hope she facts in faith and prays and reads!

Saturday

Conference day!!! We met up with Elder Madsen and Crow and made a ton of Stroganoff to eat while we watched the first session!

Between sessions we had a goal to find at least 1 new person to teach. We need to do this more often because we found 5!!! 

The second session we were a little late to but it was incredible também!

We had family night with Guilherme, the husband of Maria Eduarda and their extended family it was so fun! We taught about the 5 principles of the Gospel of Jesus Chirst. They had made cake and bought tons of pastries as well as Cachorros quentes for us.

We got home and watched the evening session as much as we could before we had to go to bed.

Sunday 

We took an hour-long bus ride to our lunch at Irmã Rose's house to watch the General Conference there! Had a mini churrasco which was delicious!

We got home just in time to go straight to Tayná and Josefa's home to watch the second session! Tayná didn't join us until the prophet spoke so it was alright. We had three of our pesquisadores watch general conference which counts as going to church so we are so happy!!

That night we had training on how to manage our online references (if we ever get any here in Caucaia)

Monday

In the morning we went to visit one of the people we met on Saturday, but his grandma was super protective and said her family had been in the Universal Church for generations. Dead end with a brick wall.

Did our usual contacting and accompanying with our pesquisadores and Irmã Fatima saw us walking on the street from her house perched on top of the rest of the houses. I've been kind of avoiding her bc our purpose is to baptize people, not spend two hours sipping chá talking about politics in America that I have no way to know about lol. But she was nice and gave me a banana and we were able to leave after 10 minutes. 

we had a great lesson with shy Fábio! He is super shy, but he let us into his house and we met his daughter and his father. Hopefully we can keep working with them!

We recieved a reference!!! Que milagre!! But he works 7-19:00 on Sunday as a security guard so there's no way to get him tô church 

Had an AMAZING lesson with Tayná reminding her about the Restoration were she was attentive and participated! Hoping for more days like that.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT!!

WHAT AN AMAZING CONFERENCE!!

What specific themes stood out to you? 

I felt they talked so much about Repentance, Conversion, and Covenants! President Nelson spoke so very briefly but so directly. Our Savior is coming very soon. We need to do the best we can to follow Christ in the way He pioneered. There is only ONE correct way to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. Make and keep covenants with God, keep His commandments, love God and your neighbor, be a disciple of Christ in your daily life. Share the Gospel by living it. I will put down my favorite phrases from some of the speakers Saturday. Forgive me, I still need to watch/read the talks guven on Sunday in English hahah. 

PLEASE REWATCH OR READ THIS CONFERENCE AGAIN!! 

THESE SPEECHES WERE DIVINE REVELATION GIVEN FOR OUR DAY IN EXACTLY THIS MOMENT BY PROPHETS AND APOSTLES OF GOD!! 

DON'T TAKE IT LIGHTLY!!

Favs:

Neil L. Anderson:

"Hope is a living gift that grows as we strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ"

Karl D. Hirst:

"Wrap [yourself] tightly in the Baptismal Covenant" and "If Jesus could pick a place..."

Dale G. Renlund:

"Interpretation and application needs authorization of Jesus Christ" and "The Lord's church is it's people, disciples of Jesus" and "Church offers an authoritative way to make covenants with God"

David P. Homer:

"Boundaries between right and wrong are not for us to decide" and "Submission of our will is the only unique thing we can sacrifice on the altar."

Dallin H. Oaks:

"PEACEMAKERS" and "Contention and Reconciliation are choices"

Gerrit W. Gong:

"7 C's: Communion with God, Community and Compassion with each other, Commitment and covenant with God, family, and friends, Centered in Jesus Christ."

Kristin M. Yee:

"Repenting allows us to feel God's love and to know and love him in ways we would never otherwise know"

Thats all for now!

ALSO!!! A TEMPLE ANNOUNCED IN MY HOMETOWN OF QUEEN CREEK, ARIZONA!!

If anyone has info on WHERE please let me know!! I almost burst out crying. Trying my hardest to understand in Portuguese the speech of our Prophet. When he got to the Temples, I was relieved because I could understand that with ease haha. Then he said frickin QUEEN CREEK, ARIZONA!! O QUEEEEE??? Eu quase morri de INFARTO

Love you all so much!!