Week 64 - September 28, 2015

         

The district

I missed my glasses!

Cookies I made...

Cinnamon Rolls...#talentsineverknewihad

Monday: Totally made bomb cinnamon rolls…and peanut butter cookies! I almost cried! We made one visit to a less active family in the dark and then it started raining super hard so we went home! #itscoldouthere

Tuesday: So a big problem we have been having in our area is retaining investigators and finding people at home when we go back for the second visit. So Tuesday we literally knocked doors the entire day looking for someone to start teaching. When we got to the end of one of the very last streets there was a house all closed up, so looking at the house my brain automatically thought that nobody was home. So I started walking in the other direction when my companion, who obviously hears the Spirit better than me, told me to turn back around and go knock on the last door. So we did and we found a woman to teach! She has a husband and two little girls. And she received us well (outside of her house because we aren’t allowed to go in). We taught her about the Church of Jesus Christ. It was a super good lesson and she prayed at the end! Rare.

Wednesday: We did a split with the other elders in our area so that they could help us with the group of people we have in this one neighborhood, which was cool. We did some damage :) 

Thursday: We went back to the same area we were in on Tuesday (trying to open up a solid teaching group there) and we returned to the house of the one woman (Rosineide) and finished up the lesson on the restoration. The cool news is that she remembered where I’m from! And my name! So that was way cool. And she’s making and keeping commitments, which is cool too! We visited Raul as well and he’s doing a lot better with things. Looks like something we have been doing is working! (Finally) 

Friday: The amount of contacting and knocking doors we do is ridiculous.

Saturday: It was relatively slow which was a bummer, but we were able to make a visit to Valdomiro, who is doing well. We also visited Leonir who has been making a ton of progress with the reading of the Book of Mormon. We just got to get him to church!

Sunday: Raul went to church again! And we had one of the best lunches ever. Meetings. Rain. Yeah!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Buck

Week 63 - September 21, 2015

Just Workin'!

New cut and frames!

The gifts from Mama B were a hit!

Someone keeps trying to break into the church building #brasilproblems

Monday: We were able to visit Raul and we decided to take a different approach when we teach him. We downloaded the church library app on his phone and we watched a Mormon message and conference talk with him instead of using the scriptures (which we have tried). We have been using more modern technology and the words of the living prophets to help him and its been working! We had made a goal the week before to get Raul going back to church and starting the whole process again.

Tuesday: So we decided to dedicate our day to knocking doors on a street where we’ve had the most success and we found a couple of people to teach. It started to rain and kinda killed our whole knocking doors idea and so afterwards we went to Raul’s place again to teach him again. (He lives alone and doesn’t work so he is always home.) After that we had a family home evening with a less active member who is super depressed and sad because her husband is making very bad decisions that hurt her a lot. It has been good being able to help her out a little bit.

Wednesday: We had a crazy day visiting some investigators and found two new people to start teaching, which was way cool. That just means that our Wednesdays and Saturdays are just gonna get crazier! We taught Roberson the rest of the Restoration and he has been reading the Book of Mormon.

Thursday: We went back to the same area that we were on Tuesday and found out that one of the families of whom we taught do not have any interest in learning more about the church, so that was a bummer. But we went back to the house of a kid we talked to on Tuesday and we spoke to him about our message and who we are and everything. He was super receptive and willing to listen. We also went back Raul´s house and he was feeling sad about his parents and his life and stuff and we helped him again using the Mormon messages and conference talks. After we went to a family home evening with another less active family and we ate so much food.

Friday: We had conference with president the whole day and we talked a lot about how we can work better with the members. Exactly what I needed to hear and learn about. 

Saturday: We visited a bunch of people and everyone is pretty much on the same page as last week...BUT we visited Raul again and he had shared with us a spiritual experience that he had with the Holy Ghost and how He spoke with him. He committed to go back to church. Earlier that day we visited Luciane and she committed to go to church again too. 

Sunday: Me and Coelho were walking on the street and we saw one of our old investigators walking with her two little boys. We stopped her on the street and asked how she was doing and she said," well not too good, my husband died." We were shocked because only a month ago we had talked with him and took the Book of Mormon back. We asked her what happened and she said ,"Yeah two men broke down our fence and entered in our house and shot my husband twice in the head." We weren’t really surprised because we kind of had the feeling that he wasn’t only washing cars to support his family...but what she said after that was crazy. "It happened the night after you guys came and took the Book back...." Honestly I have learned to understand and appreciate our mission rule of taking back the Book of Mormons when progress with the investigator stops. I think it gives the Book way more value. And really God just protected us by being obedient to that rule. Its better that someone actually used the Book of Mormon to read it and study it, than leave it on the bookshelf to collect dust. So we had to update their information in our area book...BUT we did mark a day to teach her at her mom’s house! Later we went to church and Raul was there! Bishop talked with him and the classes and everything were perfect! And Luciane went as well with her daughter (who we found out is not baptized), which was cool to see. We went to lunch and it got super hot out, but we visited Naor who didn’t go to church because he didn’t wake up on time to go. After that Elder got super sick so we went home. 

That’s all for this week!

Elder Buck

Week 62 - September 14, 2015

Just to make mom happy hahaha

Brasilian missionary style.... NO!

Thanks mom!

Monday: Nothing much....

Tuesday: We were able to return to the house of a person we taught and his mom and sister were also there to listen. They accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon and ask if it is true. Later we visited a less active member and he’s doing good...then we visited a guy from the Congregação Cristã do Brasil. He was willing to hear what we said but he did not listen and it was kind of frustrating. Then we tried visiting Anderson and he wasn’t able to listen to us. BUT we did talk to this lady (seated on a chair on the same property) who was crying. She told us a bunch of bad stuff that happened with her and her husband, but in the middle of her telling us these things, her husband shows up and says, " Are you guys Mormons?!" and Coelho said yes... and after the man proceeded by saying, 'Then GO AWAY! LEAVE my property or I call the police!" So we left... It was weird.

Wednesday: We visited Wagner and we are trying to get him back to church, but he’s just kind of being lazy and making excuses not to go. Afterward we were able to talk to Erica about prophets and apostasy. We visited Luciane (less active member from Curitiba) and her boyfriend listened to our message and everything! It was cool to see him open up a little bit. Then we visited Leonir and talked a bit about the Catholic Church and testified to him that only Church of Jesus Christ has the fullness of the gospel. After that we visited Valdomiro and seriously this guy is so cool! He just knows how to listen, it is good teaching him. Then we made a visit to Sandro who is a referral from the mini MTC thing that the ward did with the youth where they did contacts on the street and gave us the addresses. We were able to talk to him about prophets and apostasy. Finally we visited Carliane and Davilson and talked about things that will strengthen their relationship (prayer, scripture study, etc...). She is a lot more receptive than he is.

Thursday: We visited Raul and he is really struggling. Then we visited Anderson and asked him if he had heard his neighbor Tuesday night and he said yes. Then he told us how the Neighbor went to the side of Anderson's place and said that Anderson can’t let us in anymore because he hates Mormons. So he told us that we wouldn’t be able to visit him anymore. We took the Book of Mormon back (which is what our Mission President has told us to do) and lost our progressing investigator. After that we went to the house of a referral from one of the members and we showed up and met this 16-year-old kid named Gabriel. We started talking with he and his mom and the same time and when we asked him if he believed in God he said no. We then spent like 30 minutes trying to get more information out of him and tried to give more incentives for him to continue searching. He really didn’t want to hear anything we had to say and we left feeling a little frustrated. Our day was kinda rough...

Friday: We visited some less active members and afterward stopped by a house where we had recently knocked doors. There we met Jaqueline and Edipo. They were a little weird and asked a billion questions and seemed like they wanted to prove us wrong more than they wanted to listen... Later that night I was able to do my first baptismal interview ever which was cool! It was for an investigator of the sisters in our District. It was awesome.

Saturday: We visited Wagner gain and found out that he broke his foot. We visited Luciane again too and taught her and Roberson again. It was a super good lesson! We visited Leonir again and talked more about Gods plan and everything and it went relatively well! After that we went to visit Tulio and Tayane (of whom we marked their baptisms a while ago...) They are uninterested and are dodging us so we unmarked their baptisms. Then later that night we had a super good lesson with Ronald and Silvana about the Atonement.

Sunday: We went to church and Luciane and Roberson went! Yay! And Naor! Yay! But afterward we ate lunch we went to visit Naor and he’s doing good and is healthy enough to go to church (so he says). We visited Jacques and he wasn’t reading the Book of Mormon and he doesn’t want anything to do with the church either. So we took the Book of Mormon with us and went to the house of Raul...He was asleep o his bed, hung over from the party he went to Saturday night. We decided not to teach him because he has serious listening problems. We went to Maria´s house after and she fed us and we finished our week.

Love y’all! Tchau!

Elder Buck

Week 61 - September 8, 2015

Rain Rain Go Away...

The (new) district...

Crazy Caterpillar...

Monday: Mondays are pretty dang slow we just taught a less active member...

Tuesday: We knocked on a lot of doors. We taught some pretty cool people that let us in. We had a lesson with one of our investigators named Anderson who has read the Book of Mormon and accepted a date to be baptized, but he wasn't able to go to church so we'll see what happens there. We also had a family home evening with the old Bishop of this ward and his family and he made some really good food!

Wednesday: So normally Wednesdays are really good days for us and this Wednesday was too. We have taught Wagner about the importance of going to church (because he is not going) and he still seems pretty unexcited about it. We returned to the house of Erica (a girl who we talked to and taught knocking doors) and she wasn't there... BUT one of the people she is living with answered and we were able to talk with him, so that was cool. We taught another lesson in between, but afterward we returned to a house were we had talked to a man (Valdomiro) in the front, knocking doors. We entered and we started talking about what we do as missionaries and talked a little bit about the church and just got to know him a little bit. It was one of the calmest lessons I think I've ever taught with my companion or ever while on my mission. We talked about the organization of the church, about the Book of Mormon and the Gospel, and Jesus Christ. In the middle of the conversation he stopped and said," You guys are so calm when you talk about the Gospel and the things that you believe. Normally when I talk with missionaries from other churches, they always force things on me and its annoying, but the way you two talk is really different." Afterward we asked if we could say a prayer before leaving, and he accepted, and after recognized the spirit super strong and it was super super cool to see that happen on the 1st visit. So that was cool.

Thursday: We got to knock a ton of doors and try to teach people about the church of Jesus Christ. It was a long day, but we were able to talk with a handful of people...

Friday: Was a super long day too...but we were able to talk with Anderson again, but this time about the plan of salvation and he had a lot of good questions. It was a really good lesson.

Saturday...was busy! We taught someone we had done a contact with about the restoration and families. Afterward we decided to stop by Erica´s house again to see if she was home and she was. We began talking with her and she was texting someone at the same time, and we ended up asking her who she was talking to, and she said "do you guys really want to know?" And we said sure... she said she was talking with her girlfriend. It was one of the strangest lessons to teach. After that we visited some less actives and then went to Leonir´s house to see if we could have a Book of Mormon back and fortunately he has been reading it...so we are kind of unsure at the moment what to do with him...

Sunday: Church! Testimony meeting didn't involve anyone speaking apostasy or anything, so it was good! We taught Raul and he's kinda in the same boat still...its been a work in progress. And we visited Ronald and Silvana (less actives) and it sounds like they haven't been going to church because they've been feeling guilty.

Monday: Brasilian Independence Day...If you were wondering, this is why I'm writing on a Tuesday...it was as rough!

Tchau!
Elder Buck