Sunday, September 20, 2015

9-14-2015

Things are going pretty well. This week was good because we had a baptism yesterday. She is an awesome investigator! We have been teaching her and her family but she decided to get baptized this Sunday. One of her biggest concerns was a testimony about the Book of Mormon. She read and prayed every day until she felt that it was true. 

On the day of her interview we decided to pass by her neighbor's house. But as we left because her neighbor wasn´t home we passed by her house. As we stopped to think about where we would go next before the interview we heard a few familiar voices and names. It turns out she and her mom were watching a movie. We didn´t know what it was until we heard "Irmão Joseph, eu não creio em sua religião." It turns out it was the Joseph Smith movie! They were watching it without us even telling them it existed. So that was cool.

I had the opportunity to baptize her because my companion was sick and apparently the water heaters here are just for show. So the water was pretty nippy. 

Oh so we went to the temple on Tuesday. I am not sure why but I was put in charge of leading a group to the temple. Well it started out as just me and my companion but then we met another companionship along the way. So they all followed my lead. Sadly we left a little late from our city. In the end we ended up running late to the temple. We got off the bus and then we had to climb this giant hill that the temple sits on. We came running through the doors hot and sweaty. Only to see the temple worker change the session time from 1:30 to 3:00. We arrived at 1:35 and missed the session. I thought that the rest of our zone already arrived but it turns out 15 minutes later our district leader showed up with the rest of our zone. So we all did baptisms for the dead. I had the opportunity to be one of the testimonies. In the end it was pretty cool even though we missed the session. 

This week we also had a zone conference Canoas and Canoas Norte. The President showed up and gave a training meeting. In the end he did some practices to tryout what we learned. First our zone leaders went up and did a practice with the president and his wife. After we talked about what happened what can be better what was good. After he said lets end with one more practice. The whole room fell silent because no one wanted to do it. No one except my companion. So we ended up doing it. Luckily it went pretty well and I was able to speak. Usually under pressure I lose the ability to speak in Portuguese but it all worked out. 


-Derek 


_________________________


This week was pretty great because one of our investigators got baptized! It was pretty funny though when we came to pick her up and take her to the chapel. One of the brothers in the ward offered to give her and her family a ride because he has a van. It turns out this van is one of those 60´s vw van you know the one made by the Nazis. After we got everyone in the van the van wouldn´t start. So me and my companion got out to push. There we were pushing an old sixties hippy van down the street to try and start it. I felt like I was in that movie Little Miss Sunshine except without Steve Carell. It had the same metaphorical meaning though.

Even though me and my companion have different opinions about things, in order to keep the lord´s work moving we have to forget our differences, push with all our might, and work together to help our investigators sincerely follow Christ and his gospel. 

After running about 20 yards with the van it started up. Luckily unlike the movie he was able to stop the van to let us get back in. 


-Derek




9-8-2015

Temple Trip

8-31-2015

Hey,

Yeah so we are heading into spring what is another way of saying entering the surface of the sun. It is getting pretty hot here. I am being reminded of how hot and humid it was when I got here. But that´s just a part of the fun!

The senior companion thing has been a learning experience.

Anyway I got a new companion Elder Tavares. My other companion Elder Robert was called away to work in the mission office.

Oh I wasn´t transferred, still in Esteio. The president also said that we will be having fewer and fewer transfers. So I will probably stay for awhile. 
So we will see how it goes!



-Elder Stevens

8-18-2015

Como vai?


We did receive a great referral from some other Elders. His name is Leonardo and he is really great. He told us he wants to be baptized. So we are teaching him about eternal families. 

We also met João (John in English) he is also really cool. He has already had the missionaries in his house before. We met him in a weird way. One day we were walking down a street and we had planned to knock on doors but we were kind of un-excited I guess you could say. Until I had a thought that this was ridiculous and that we should just work. I said No matter the house we are going to knock on every door. Then when I turned around I was faced with a very dead looking house. I couldn´t be a hypocrite so I knocked on the door and João came out and invited us in without asking who we were or why we were there. So we entered and started talking. We found out he knows a lot about the church and believes the doctrines are just. But we don´t know why he wasn´t already baptized, so we will have to go back and see. 

Love you,

-Derek

7-27-2015

Hey so I got a new companion from Chile. He knows how to speak Spanish German and English. And yes somehow I was made senior companion when I am pretty sure he knows more than I do. Anyway, this week we met a nice couple and we are helping them get married. 

-Derek