Took this picture today for all of you!
Joinville Sun!
I had a fantastic week and hope I can put it all in this one Email...
Monday: It was an awful start to a good week - EVERYTHING fell through! But we did talk with a drunk guy on the street and he said we could pass by his house that doesn’t exist. We tried hahaha.
Tuesday: We had a lunch appointment with a less active member (Maria) who lost her mom this past week. We had the opportunity to talk to her a little more about the plan of salvation and how God’s plan for us is perfect and how He has a perfect love for all of his children. She wanted to quit believing in God and one of the Elders said something really interesting. "Do you think that not believing in God will make your life better?" And it is so true! We can never stop going to church, reading the scriptures, and praying daily. Our situation may be a lot different than hers, but we never really know what life has in store for us!
Wednesday: We had a lesson with an inactive member and he was struggling with some of the same things as Maria (minus the loss of a loved one) and wanted to stop believing In God. He is a member who almost went on a mission and didn’t because of some worthiness problems and now lives with his girlfriend. He has no job, doesn’t go to church, has a baby boy, and is super lost and far from the Spirit. Luckily, I learned a valuable lesson from my dad when I was a small boy. I asked him to imagine that I was the Spirit and he was himself. I asked for everyone to start talking at the same time and then I quietly started trying to talk with him. I started to move myself into other part of the house, and every time he "sinned" placing myself farther and farther away from him until he couldn’t hear me anymore. As we taught this super cool lesson about God and the Spirit, he remembered how he felt as a little boy and he understood very well the principle we were teaching! Thank you Dad hahaha. We also taught a lesson with Leonir and his wife about families and it was way cool! Also taught a girl who smokes a ton and her boyfriend about the Word of Wisdom and she has been trying to stop little by little.
Thursday: We dedicated this day to just knock doors to find new people to teach. When we approached this house, we saw this young man sitting in the doorway and before we could say anything, he went inside and a woman from another part of the house told us to enter (we were super weirded out because nobody ever does that...) We went inside and there was a huge family inside a dark room and on the wall was a picture of the temple in Curitiba. The dad introduced himself and they were a less active family from Rio de Janeiro who had been looking for a church the past 2 months and haven’t been able to find one. It was like God placed us at their doorstep and they ended up going to church and it was crazy! They have 3 sons, Israel, Mosias, and Moroni. Yeah!
Friday: Was another day dedicated to knocking on doors and just before we were finished we saw a woman closing her window and decided to talk with her. We asked her name and she got all weird and asked us why, so we told her who we were and she seemed super uninterested. We went to leave and just then she said, "Wait! You know, God answered my prayer... I just received an answer." We were kind of confused…but she asked us if we could return the next day and we said YES! (see Saturday)
Saturday: We returned to this woman’s house (Edisangela and Diego) and got to know them. She explained to us that she was sitting in her window asking if God could give her an answer to know if He really exists. Right then we sort of popped in and she was super shocked. When she was telling us what happened she got super emotional and was so happy to know that God really does answer us when we need Him the most. It was super cool! Her husband didn’t seem too interested but I’m anxious to see what will happen!
Sunday: We went to church and the meetings were awesome. Afterward, Elder Coelho and I had a lesson and since everything else kind of fell through we did some contacts and nothing was really working out…BUT Bishop did realize that the missionaries need help in this ward. It was just such a great and awesome week! That’s all!
Tchau,
Elder Bailey Buck
