This week was a long one!
Started off with Tuesday, I had an interview with the mission president... Wow, I don't even know how to describe it! it was awesome! He gave me great advice, advice that I want to apply to my whole life. Honestly, I don't even know how to repeat the words that he said, the way that he said them. But it proved to me that he is a man called of God to organize and direct this work here in Maceío. That being said, he transferred me! haha We received a call last night saying that my companion and are being transferred to another area. WoHoo! 4 months in the same area is a long time, but I really love the people here, I feel known, like random people that I've never talked to (usually intoxicated) that I always say hi to, HEY MORMONS haha, But I feel good about it, I feel like I left a good mark on this area, that the members and non-members will talk highly of me after I leave. But! After my companion and I talked to the president we decided together to kick it into high gear. We took the advice that the president gave us and went the extra mile. Sooo we had a great week!, which is why it was so long haha. We found a lot of people that were prepared by the Lord, in many different ways to hear our message. So now it's hard to leave this area when we just barely started working with these awesome people! We found one lady that is very religious, but in her own way, she suffered a lot in her life and has found and receive comfort in religion. She talks So much, but we love it. She asks questions, tells stories and were able to apply the gospel and everything that we know to her life. It was amazing to see the relieve in her appearance when we taught her. Love it! She came to church on Sunday with her two sons, Samuel 1.5 years and Davidly... I think, strange name haha but it was great! I think she really liked it, but it was a little long for the little ones haha. She attended the class that the missionaries teach, Gospel principles, I think, and we got there and I thought that my companion was going to teach and he thought that I was going to teach so neither one of us prepared anything HA! So I volunteered to teach, cause it was my last Sunday so I wanted to teach... So this is what I did, I opened the manual randomly and said our lesson today will be about.... Charity! SWEET! The spirit haha seriously it was an awesome lesson! And I really think it was meant for her, because we talked about how we have to have charity or the pure love of Christ to endure hard times. She ended up sharing a story of her past and how her relationship with her family is really hard. Bingo! It was really cool because the members of the ward who were in the class and were new members, reached out to her, gave her advice and... yeah it was really Great! And I went overtime by like ten minutes because they were talking and talking and talking, it was awesome! But there were a lot of angry young women in the hall, Wahaha!
Saturday we had a division between me, my comp, the second counselor of the bishopric and a member from the stake, he came to help our ward with members less active. And I knew the area the most so I went with the member of the stake. At first I was nervous, but once we got to the first house everything went Great! It felt good to have control, to be in charge :) Wahaha, So we had the division and visited a lot of the members and a majority of them were able to make it the church on Sunday. Good times:)
During the week I also had a division with my DL. I went to his area and he came to mine. It was awesome I loved it, we had a lot of success and I felt like a made a difference in the area. I really enjoyed getting to know the people in that area, I felt like I could be more outgoing :) Asking question and stuff like that. Loved it! I had some great experiences in that area.
Last night we had a meeting with all the wards in our district. President Gonzaga and Sister Gonzaga came and talked to all the wards about helping the missionaries, and then the missionaries did practices with the members. Two members from my ward showed up :( Sad huh. But the practices were great. My companion and I covered a cereal box with frosting as if it were a cake and asked one of the members to describe the flavor or the taste of the cake. We applied it to how we can't teach or talk about something that we don't know, so we all have to read the Book of Mormon to be able to tell people about it! Something like that
Well next e-mail ill be in a different area with a different companion! Oooo I'm kinda nervous!
Thank you All for All your love and support!
ELDER RALPH
