January 13, 2014

In the June 2013 Ensign (or at least in the Liahona, which is what we get in Brazil), there is a talk by Elder Pearson called "melhorar suas orações pessoais" (make your personal prayers better). He has some interesting points in the talk that I liked. I studied about being better at praying this week. I liked how he said we need to prepare ourselves to pray. He talked about how usually we pray first thing in the morning before we wake up completely. To really pray and feel the spirit, we need to be prepared and awake. I also really liked his point "a oração tem menos a ver com mudar nossas circumstansais e mais com mudar a nós mesmos" (prayer has less to do with changing our surroundings and more to do with changing ourselves). He quotes the Bible Dictionary on Prayer saying that praying in the name of the Lord means that our desire is the same as his. What I learned is that prayer is something that is guided by the spirit, that as we pray, we will find his desire and then pray for that desire. This has changed the way that I pray, and I find the change has helped me be more in line with the Lord.

So last week I think I forgot to talk about our baptism. Oops, I was a bit frazzled last week. We baptized Tiago and Gabriel. They were confirmed yesterday. Their parents need to get married before they can be baptized, but they have the desire. This family lives in some of the worst conditions I've seen yet. They want to move because the area where they live is getting worse (more violent), but they can't. Their house is worth R$600, and they can't find a house for less than R$3000 (a brick house with three rooms and a bathroom is generally R$20,000). It's really humbling to see the struggle that they have and the faith the use to push through. We didn't have a way to pick them up in a car on Sunday, so we asked them if they could walk. They said they would. On Sunday it was raining, but they walked anyway, even though they had to walk the entire length of Av Dique (a dirt foot trail) that gets super muddy, and even though they don't own any umbrellas. This family has truly been touched by the Gospel.

On Pday last week, we got to play soccer. We played with some of the men from the ward. Thanks to all that "Saturday soccer" I used to do, I had a great time. It was really fun, but super tiring and for the rest of the week, we had sore legs. One cool thing we learned is that Brother Jorge used to play soccer professionally.

Tuesday night, I did something new. We did a division with Brother Ravasa and Thalis. Elder Soares went with Brother Ravasa to teach some of his friends and I went with Thalis. It was cool because they got to "relive" parts of their missions, and also share the gospel with friends. I taught Paola and Rodrigo with Thalis, some of his old "childhood" friends. Paola lives in a huge house because her parents own the factory nearby. (It's more normal to live with your parents here). That's the kind of house that we can't enter without a reference (because the people will say no). This proved to me that the best way to find people to teach is through members.

A member asked us to try to find new people in a rich neighborhood this week. So we set aside some time to knock on doors there (clap in front of the gate). It was raining, so nobody was in the street, and we passed 2 long hours of rejection. (Funny how sometimes the people in the best conditions are the most revolted against life.) While most of them kindly turned us away, some of them even yelled at us! So we decided that working there was a waste and were leaving when we passed some teens trying to catch their pet bird that had run away from home. 

The bird couldn't fly very well, since its wings were clipped, but it had managed to get up into a tree. They had a ladder, but couldn't reach the bird. Since I'm tall, we offered to help. I managed to shake the bird out of the tree without shaking myself out and we returned the bird to them. It bit my finger like a million times though. Anyway, getting up in the tree got my shirt really dirty, so we asked if we could pass by their house to clean up. They let us in. And through service, we found a family of 10 that has interest in the church :) So we didn't waste our time in that area after all.

Before telling this last story, I want to warn all readers that THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS PICTURES THAT ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 10. (mom, put the hair cutting pictures here (: )

So this week I picked up the scissors again and gave myself a haircut. It's a great way to save money, but I don't recommend it for those with faint hearts. Elder Soares didn't help much, gasping every time I cut more hair and telling me that I was making bald spots. But I think it all turned out good :)

Have a great week and stay warm! I've heard (from the people here who watch the news) that it's getting pretty cold up there!

Elder J

João was baptized in Osorio the week after I left

having a snack