Nature Cults, Madagascar Cockroaches, And Jejum - SEMANA DEZESSEIS
GOOGLE PHOTOS
One of my top 5 favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is Mosiah 2!
King Benjamin is probably the best king that has ever ruled on the earth. King Benjamin was one who served God by serving his people and teaching them to serve one another. When King Benjamin was nearing the end of his life, he asked his son Mosiah to call the Nephite people together so he could speak to them. They gathered in families at the temple to listen to King Benjamin.
One truth we can learn from King Benjamin is that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”
"We look to the Savior as our example of service. Although He came to earth as the Son of God, He humbly served those around Him. He came forth from heaven to live on earth as mortal man and to establish the kingdom of God. His glorious gospel reshaped the thinking of the world. He blessed the sick; He caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear. He even raised the dead to life. (Thomas S. Monson, “The Joy of Service”)
Also, another amazing scripture I love sharing is Mosiah 2:41. What would you be willing to do to receive never-ending happiness? King Benjamin invited his people to seek this happiness through righteous living and devotion to God.
One of the promises made in Mosiah 2:41 is if we keep God’s commandments, God will bless us both temporally and spiritually. However, there is much more we can learn from this verse by studying each phrase separately. Temporal blessings may include things like physical health, prosperity, or other blessings related to mortal life. Spiritual blessings are things that are eternal. These include our testimony, our relationship with God and our families, forgiveness of sins, guidance through the Holy Ghost, and so forth. We will be blessed with NEVER-ENDING HAPPINESS!!
I encourage you guys to read this chapter!! Study it!! Look for all the different topics and promises that Mosiah talks about in just one chapter!!
Weekly Conference Talk!
The Joy of Service - Thomas S. Monson
Love you guys! Here's my week! Tell me about yours!
Tuesday
PDAY!
As a District we hung out at the Propriedade de Presidente James E. Faust here in Brasil, which is a HUGE camp and activity ground of the church. They have lots of super fun stuff to do such as fields for all kinds of sports, rooms full of table tennis, air hockey, billiard ball, all kinds of things. My favorite thing to do is to relax in a rede (hammock) and sip on some soda.
It was super chill, we made American barbecue because my poor companion is the only Brazilian in our District haha. Made some burgers and hot dogs
A service missionary joined us for the day, and his situation is super interesting. He entered the military when he was 18, but Stake President Almeida really wanted him to serve as a missionary, então he pretty much made this Elder his personal assistant (he likes to say bodyguard). He assists with stake and ward activities wherever the Stake President goes, while also serving as a veterinarian in the military. And when I say veterinarian, it's not just dogs and stuff, no. To our horror, he brought Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Barata sibilante de Madagascar) and let us hold them hahah. He also went around the property catching those massive spiders I put on my Google Photos with his bare hands. Ughhh. Anyways, he was there to give a presentation and a spiritual thought which was about everything on Earth that has a purpose and a job to do. Jesus Christ created the world with order and purpose. I forgot the scripture he shared mas foi ótimo!
We headed home and had a lesson with Victor, and after the lesson he wanted to see my Instagram so I got roasted for about 15 minutes about all my school dances and sports pics haha. I love the memories.
Wednesday
Dia de Divisão!!
I LOVE division days. They are so much fun!! Started the day early by heading to Elder Madsen and Crows house where we did our personal studies and went over our plans for the day. Afterwards, we headed to their recently baptized member, Daisie’s house. She lives in the favelas of Caucaia 2, but she's like the queen of it. Anyways, we had a great lunch and were able to give her friend's daughter a priesthood blessing of health! Daisie kept calling me “bonzinho” which I'm grateful for, haha I try.
We left and separated, Elder Crow with Elder Ferreira and I with Elder Madsen.
Elder Madsen and I took an ônibus to the northernmost part of his area to visit a guy named Jefferson and his brother who was interested. Unfortunately, he wasn't home and after we called him a bunch of times, he texted saying he forgot that he had a new job and work that day. Bruh. So we walked about 45 minutes to another reference of Elder Madsen's.
Ok ok lemme tell you about this guy. He's the guy in the blue shirt in my Google Photos. He requested for a Book of Mormon online, and that's always a great sign. Our job is to bring it to him and leave him with a short lesson explaining what it is and share our testimonies. I had just explained where the Book of Mormon came from and asked him what he thought about it. We were sitting outside his house, and he sat back in his folding chair. He closed his eyes and stayed that way for almost a minute until he said “Pode cantar”, with his eyes still closed. Elder Madsen and I were so confused. This means “you can sing”. Elder Madsen asked him if he wanted us to sing. He opened his eyes somewhat blearily and pointed up to the sky. He asked us if we could hear the birds… ohh. Yeah we hear the birds. Then he started talking about how nature is peace and power and how it controls everything, how when we die and are resurrected we turn into energy “just like Jesus Christ” he said. The people who saw him in flesh and bones only saw what they could understand, but really he was pure energy. While he was talking, Elder Madsen and I looked at each other, pretty much telepathically saying that this guys crazy hahah. The man explained that he was part of the Cultura Racional, or Cultura de Natureza. Pretty much this means he is part of a nature cult. He doesn't believe in God, but he believes that Nature controls everything, including God. He expressed whenever someone tells him “well who created nature?” he's like “O quê é isso, rapaz??” Hahahah. The only reason he wanted the Book of Mormon was because he believes that he will be eventually reborn on Earth with all the knowledge that he received in his life right now. He told Elder Madsen and I that we were very old and experienced Spirit's and we're preaching at such a young age because our souls were very knowledgeable from past lives. Woahhh. Anyways, we gave him the Book of Mormon, and he wanted to prove that this was the same as the Bible. He asked if we had “Apocalipse” aka Revelations, which is the last book in the Bible. We said no and he was so taken aback. But still determined, he opened up to the back of the Book of Mormon and asked Elder Madsen if he could read a part of the chapter called “GUIA PARA ESTUDO DAS ESCRITURAS” I almost burst out laughing. Elder Madsen told him that this was like the dictionary or appendix of the Book. He said: “yes, of course, i meant to turn to this page”. Undeterred, the man pointed to a random bolded word on the page for him to read. Of course the work turned out to be “Condenação, Condenar. Ver também Diabo; Filhos de Perdição; Inferno; Juízo Final; Julgar; Morte Espíritual”
He also had us read the description Oh man I could barely hold in my laughter. He was like “Exatamente isso!!” and he went into his house to get some water. Hahahahaha. We drank his water and left him with the Book. This conversation took 2 hours. During the time he also spoke about the 7 seals, introduced us to his cult’s book, and gave us a history lesson on who were the first people on Earth and evolution. But that's so much to put on here. Holy moly.We left to go to another guys house, on the way we decided to pass by the Shopping (the mall), to use the restroom. As soon as we entered the mall, rain started POURING. Elder Madsen didn't have a jacket or umbrella. I had both. We decided to wait a bit, eat some Açai, and before we left we said a prayer to ask God to calm the rain. We cleaned up and headed outside, which miraculously had turned from a torrent to a pleasant drizzle. It remained this way for the rest of the day. I gave Madsen my umbrella and I wore my jacket. I felt bad because umbrellas barely do anything here, you practically run into the rain it's so humid.
We finished up our work in his area, and He came home to sleep in my house, while Elder Ferreira slept in Elder Crows house. We ordered some pizza and chilled until bedtime 
Divisions are always memorable.
Divisions are always memorable.Thursday
Chill Day, we had no compromissos marked. We had lunch at Irmã Maria da Gloria's house and started teaching her Granddaughter Leticia, who is about 15!
Later that night we had a lesson with Guilherme who finally came back from his trip, we taught him the third lesson, and played Troque, a luck card game similar to war but can be played with lots of people.
Friday
Taught the third lesson with Victor at 10:30 in the morning, which went well. I tried to mark a date of baptism with him but he said he needed more time. Instead, I invited him to go to the Visitors Center with us sometime next week so we'll see how that goes.
Met 7 younger boys who we played some street futebol with for a bit and taught all of them how to pray and invited them to church!
Met with Leticia again, and bore our testimonies about Jesus Christ and left her with an invitation to read 3 Nephi 11.
Checked up on Irmã Arlene who just had a baby and they're all doing great!!
We went to Josefa's house and talked with her for a bit. Talked with Tayná a little bit too, it was her birthday two days before so she seemed a bit happier. Still, we won't push her into a lesson.
That night we had a video call with Florisbela, Wellington, and their family, including Wellington’s sister Ester! Was amazing!
Saturday
We attended Seminary!
We had no compromissos so we went looking for people who were taught a long time ago and we found Ana Luiza! Taught her how to pray and we'll go back sometime.
We spent some time at Irmã Fatima’s house because her husband almost died this week. They're all fine, it just scared the crap out of Irmã Fatima. Went as usual
We had dinner with Irmã Arlene because she couldn't make us lunch today so we switched it for dinner! Played some dominoes with their kids!
Sunday
Church was AMAZING! WE HAD 9 PESQUISADORES THERE!! Doubly better it was the Ward Conference so both Bispo William AND Stake President Almeida spoke! Bispo spoke about Love and service and Presidente Almeida spoke about marriage and eternal families! These talks were PERFECT for our Pesquisadores.
We spent lunch at Casa de Bispo where it was his moms birthday! So we had delicious food and a really awesome cake!
We went back to Irmã Fatima’s house, this time with a member to take the brunt of the attack. She was calmer, and she had a good time talking to Irmão Marcos.
Monday
We had the usual District Meeting where everyone's numbers were incredible!! Jejum e oração work!!
We had to leave early to take an ônibus all the way to James E. Faust where we had lunch with the Senior Elders and Sisters. We stayed there and did our studies and preparation there because we would spend the whole day in the Grilos (which means Crickets hahah).
We walked to Rose's house and later that night had a lesson with Florisbela and her family with Wellington’s sister Ester! Wellington is working, but we're not worried about him too much, he already asked Irmão Marcos to baptize him haha. Now we are just waiting for the family to feel comfortable and every one of them has been to church at least two times. It's tough, but they'll definitely be baptized next transfer.
Speaking of, this next Saturday is Transfer news! I'm in the last week of my training and will no longer be a junior companion! So excited!
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