I have been called to serve in the Brazil, Curitiba Mission. I leave December 13, 2011, and will be speaking Portuguese.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Helping Others

August 5, 2013

Bom dia!

This week was really good. We hardly had any time to work in our area but we were able to find some people that will be baptized. We dont have a lot of time to serve in our area so this week we will officially become traveling assistants. its going to be really good and we will be able to focus on the areas that are struggling. I still feel a little strange being assistant because I always looked at the assistants like they were perfect. But now I know that the key is to be obedient and just work your tail off. We were able to go to Ponta Grossa this week with Pres. Monteiro and his family to give a training to the missionaries there. Ponta Grossa is a city about 2 hours outside of Curitiba. It was my first time leaving Curitiba and it went really well. We gave a really good training. But I learned one thing while I was there. One of the new sisters that got here on the mission 2 weeks ago is an american that was serving in the USA for 5 months before getting her visa. She got here and didnt remember a word of Portuguese and we knew that things would be a little rough in the beginging. Well, her companion turns out to be one of the proudest and most impatient people on the mission and things were not going well. They both talked with Pres. Monteiro and the Brazillian sister said that she would do better. Well, this morning Pres. Monteiro asked me to call them and see how things were going. I spent 40 minutes on the phone with the American sister while she cried and told me that she was almost ready to go home. She was trying her best to work and give ideas but her companion would just get mad and tell her that she knows what she is doing. It was really sad listening to this sister cry and say that she was just about ready to give up. I helped her to realize that the Lord could help her and that things would be ok. What I learned from this is that we really need to look at people from their point of view. We need to step in their shoes and see how they are feeling. The Brazillian sister didnt even try and she was ruining the other sister. We ended up doing an emergency transfer and they will be a lot better off. But in marriage and in other things in life we cant just do an emergency transfer. We need to be humble and just try to help other people. I hope that that is one thing that I have learned on my mission.

I just want all of you to know how much I love you all. I am so grateful for the family that I have. Everyone says that I must have been a really good kid in the pre-existence to have this family but I think I was just a huge rebel and i needed a good family to whip me into shape :) I love you so much and I know that this is the work of the Lord. I love being a missionary and I love this gospel.