This is Cory's new companion that is a "Greenie" He is from Brazil.
February 2, 2015
This week started off
with a long bus ride to Santa Maria to meet my new companion. My new companion
is from Feira de Santana in the Bahia (close
to Salvador Brazil). He is the only member in his family is 22 years old and
was a PE teacher before the mission.
When we were there and
staying at the hotel I was praying and felt the spirit tell me that I need to
be my new companion's companion, that was cool to feel.
Also I saw McDonalds,
the only one in our mission, but decided not to buy anything because it was 20+
reais (around $7.00)for a big mac. On p-day we play basketball now which is fun.
When we returned from
Santa Maria it was another 7 hours on the bus but we
arrived Wednesday night and went to a Book of Mormon study group that
we started.
Deise would have been
baptized by Alberto but it did not work out because the baptismal font broke;
she will have her baptism this week and is super excited! :)
I am running out of
time at the lanhouse, so I do not have time to write more! :) I would like too,
but we have to be obedient.
February 9, 2015 :)
During the week one
interesting thing was that we said a prayer with a group of pastors in an
evangelical church and then traded pass along cards. Also during one lesson the
investigator just wanted to argue with questions about tiny details that are
answered by simply reading the scripture that talks his little questions, so we
bore testimony that the only way to know if the Book of Mormon is true and if
the restoration of the gospel is true is to pray, read the Book of Mormon,
think about it, and then try it out (go to church and live the commandments).
It was cool because the spirit was there and the investigator accepted what we
said.
Thursday was Deise´s
baptism! She was sad that it wasn´t last Saturday but because the baptismal
font was broken it had to be on Thursday. The best part was that Alberto was
able to baptize her and when he did the ordinance he did it perfectly the first
try. I felt the spirit when Deise entered the water. Their whole family is super
happy with going to church and doing what needs to be done. We had lunch with
them Sunday after church and Deise´s confirmation to receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost, so I shared the family tradition of everyone sharing something that they
learned at church as we ate.
This week on Friday we
had mission tour with Elder Mazzagardi (he is in the Brazilian area presidency
of the seventy). It was cool because he talked about how we are doing really
well with lots of things but we simply need to invite people to be baptized
more often and also more directly.
February 16, 2015
This week lots of good
stuff happened. Good stuff like eat pancakes and invite people to follow the
savior´s example by being baptized, and we had a good meeting with Bishop. :)
:) :)
One cool thing that
happened was that during one of our companionship studies Presidente Parrela
called us and said that we would have a companionship study together with him.
We read Doctrine and Covenants 31 over the phone and talked about how our call
as a missionary is super important and that the Lord makes sure that everything
will work out even though we need to do our absolute best. After wards we
studied Jacob 5 in the book of Mormon. It is amazing how the scriptures always
have more hidden treasures in them that we can find in uncountable ways.
I had an exchange with
my district leader Elder Matoso on a day that rained a lot. Stuff fell through,
but at the end of the day there was an amazing family home evening that we had.
The message we left was the cross paper that Elder Sol taught me and during the
family home evening I made American pancakes. In Brazil everyone eats salty
pancakes, but at home we eat them with maple syrup and stuff. After we left the
family home evening one of our investigators forgave one of the members about
something that had happened years ago and then they hugged each other. It is
cool to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ changes people to be better, more
forgiving, and more loving. :) :) :) :)
Feburary 23, 2015
This week was great
like every other week, but a few of the great stuff that happened are the
following:
We had weekly planning
and our Zone Leaders showed up to see how we plan. It was good because as we
followed what preach my gospel says they also gave us ideas about how we can do
even better by creating extra goals that use numbers.
Irmão Cézar had the
addiction of drinking coffee, but when we invited the spirit to teach the word
of wisdom he liked it. He said how coffee is the least bad of the things we do
not consume for our health but liked how the word of wisdom helps us to be
healthy and receptive to the spirit. Also we gave him some cevada (barley) to
start drinking instead of coffee and he was excited to try it out. It reminded
me of how at the start of the mission teaching Aúreo and Sam that the Lord
prepares the way so that we can live his commandments.
There was also a
family that returned to church this Sunday. We started talking with them
because another member was on the street talking with them and then we started
talking about the church and now everyone is a little bit happier!
Com muitos sorrisos! :) :) :) Elder Cory Vernon
