Matthew 28:19 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Week 42 - Viru

This week was a pretty good week. Last Monday we went to the Castillo de Tomabal. I included the picture of my district at the castle. It was a pretty good pday.
This week we have continued to work with the members a little bit to move the work forward here. One night we found one member in the house of one of our investigators and we didn't even know they were friends or knew each other. The member didn't know that her friend had listened to us either. It was pretty funny. Anyway, the member has gotten super excited and has been visiting her a ton. It is such a blessing to have members who are willing to step into the work and help their friends. The members name is Hermana Olivia. She is like 65 and so funny. The other day we were in her house teaching her family and in the end of the lesson we knelt down to say the pray and as we knelt down she said ¨esta es una prueba de la vida¨ it was so funny. She basically said ¨this is one of the difficulties of life.¨
We have also been working with Monica and Manuel a little bit and they are doing really well. Yesterday we went on a little walk with them to their friends house to visit them, but their friends were home. It was cool to see them walking all together as a family though. That is why we are here. So that families can be more united today and forever. 
This week we also had a little training with President Rios again. It was a training for the new missionaries and their trainers. He started out by telling us that we are part of 77000 young people who the Lord has called out of the whole world to share the gospel. That really motivated me and helped me realize the importance of this opportunity. 
I know our callings come from our Father in Heaven. 

Elder Miller & Elder Cruz

By the castle that we visted.  El castillo de tomabal

Elder Miller & Elder Cruz 

Elder Hart and I
His dad is going to be a mission president in Brazil here soon. What an adventure that will be for his family! They are from Utah.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Week 41 - Viru

This week was a great week here in Viru! My companion and I are learning a ton in our studies and we have had some pretty good success this past week. I cant believe how fast this change is flying by. I remember my first change in the mission seemed like it was going to be an eternity!
We had a really awesome multi zone training this week with President and Sister Rios and two other Zones from Trujillo. It was an awesome experience and we learned a lot. We also got to eat pizza in the end! Score! (There are pictures from the multi zone training on the mission blog)
This week we worked with a few families that are part member families and we worked quite a bit with the family that I talked about last week, Carlos and Elisa. We had a really awesome lesson with them yesterday. We talked about prayer a lot and the lesson went very well. They are very willing to learn and to progress. In the end they told us something interesting, however, that when we are there they feel super excited to study the Book of Mormon and to pray. When we leave, however, they get busy doing things and don't really give much thought to doing these things. What they said made me think a lot about the talk from Elder Holland this last conference that we had. We all get excited when we learn things about the gospel and when we hear a powerful testimony, but a lot of the time we fall back into old habits and the feelings don't really stick. My homework on the side for this week is going to be this talk by Elder Holland. It is a real barrier for just about everyone I think, but I know we can overcome it. For the meantime we left a small picture of The Savior with this family, so that they can hang it up in their house. Hopefully that will help them remember the small things like praying and reading that are so important.
We also started teaching a young man this week who has a really strong desire to be baptized. He has come to seminary for quite a while and has a ton of friends in the Church. His family isn't really super supportive and we don't usually baptize people in our mission that are younger than 18 years old without their parents too in an effort to help them stay active for their whole lives. This boy may be an exception, however, he has desires to serve a mission and to lead a good life. Who knows he could end up being a mission president someday or a Branch President. Everyone's got a divine potential.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord as a missionary. I know this is the Lords work and he is directing it.
I have included a photo from last week at the temple. This is the Viru Zone.