25 February 2013

Hello family Dearest!

   This Week... Hmmm it was a weird week, but good. Started off with a normal P-Day filled with Volleyball, basketball and a little bit of Soccer with our Zone (except the sisters haha). And the best part was that it was dumping rain almost the whole time, so I didn't get sun burned! AND I got a haircut! I'm bald now, but its way cooler YES!   
   Tuesday was Zone Conference, all the Zones in the State of Sergipe went to this Zone conference so I was able to see a lot of the buddies that were with me in the MTC, and I was able to see my trainer :) That was way fun! The Assistants, secretaries, and the president all gave a talk or presentation, it was good. I love our president he is such a great guy, he really cares about us. Every time you talk to him you can just feel the authority that he has, that love that he has for you, it's such a great feeling. One part that I didn't like about the conference was watching the elder that I live with give his farewell testimony, Ah it was a killer but it was such an amazing thing to see the affect that a mission has had on his life. That's one thing that I've learned this week, from talking to my Zone leader and Elders that I've met, is that you can always learn something from every missionary and every companion, the mission really has power to change people for the better, I learned that every missionary, every companion has some attribute or characteristic of Christ and we have to learn from each and every one of them. The Conference was great. :)
   Wednesday we moved houses. We moved about five minutes away from our old house but the difference is huge. Our house is way nicer than our old one, we had rats, cockroaches, and the water and electricity stopped working at times, yeah we're living the life now :)
   Thursday and Friday were normal days, we found a number of new people to teach that were really interested in changing their lives. One lady really wanted to be baptized, but perceiving her circumstances we taught her the word of wisdom.... She openly told us all the things she was using and the amount, everything, I was kinda surprised. I found it interesting how much people trusted us, basically two random strangers that showed up at her front door. Then I got to thinking that it really wasn't to us that she was confessing her problems, but to God, not saying that I'm God, but she really trusted us and knew that we can help her. One afternoon we knocked on a door and a lady answered and said that her son was searching for a religion but he wasn't at home. Pity.... But the next day a man stopped us on the street and said that he wanted to know more about our religion.... alrighty tighty :) He ended up being the son of the lady that we talked to the day before! Amazing how God can put us and the people who are honestly searching for the Gospel in the same place. LOVE IT!
   Saturday we had a baptism of a friend of a recent convert, he is cool and we're pretty good buds, he keeps calling me Sir! makes me feel really old. Haha But it was a great meeting. After the meeting was over the bishop said a few welcoming words and the boy that was baptized stood up and gave the bishop a very tender hug. It was a moment that I realized or saw the difference that I made in his life, showing him the straight and narrow path and bringing him to a family with open arms.
   Oh my Goodness you have to hear this story... So we had arrived at lunch and were waiting for that father of the family to arrive so we could all eat together. He arrived and when everyone gathered around we counted twelve heads. For those of you who don't know I have a rather large awesome family, so twelve people is a normal head count, but for this family, no. So the wife decided to bring a table from the dining room into the kitchen, alright lets go elders! The table had a glass top and a younger boy in the family was trying to take it himself, so I offered my hands of delicacy to take the glass. I took it into the kitchen where everyone was waiting, watching.... I decided to set the glass on my foot rather than the ground while I waited for the elders to bring in the table. As I bent over to set the glass carefully on my foot, the glass exploded, seriously EXPLODED, into many tiny bits of glass. The whole thing in one instant scattered and flew everywhere! In the sink, in the table, in the food, down my shirt, Everywhere! Poof!. My heart stopped.... And everything went silent... then everyone started laughing and asking if I was okay.... I just stared at my hands in disbelief in what just happened. I seriously didn't do anything the glass literally exploded, like someone threw a rock and shattered the glass. After cleaning up for about half an hour we finally settled back down to eat, I was too embarrassed to eat and had lost all my words, and of course the father asked ME to bless the food (that the glass wouldn't hurt us, hahaha) They said that they would tell everyone what happened and that they would never forget me haha, "RaLpH the table breaker" haha
   Tonight we are waiting for the call for transfers, who will go and who will stay, during the week the president called and asked our LZ about me and my companion, everyone says that I will train, and to be honest I think I'm going to train too. oh my gosh!..... I'm super nervous, training basically means you have to do everything by yourself and teach a "greeny" what to do ... and around 7 months is when most of the other American missionaries trained... PRAY FOR ME. I actually want to train to be honest, to see what I can do, to do things my way haha and see how they turn out haha, but at the same time I'm super, super nervous. AHHH We shall see. And during the zone conference the president came and talked directly to me... hmmm suspicious ;) We too are having a tidal wave of missionaries coming into our mission, this transfer 18 will arrive and in May around 20! And lots and lots of sisters too....
   I'm So happy to be here serving my mission! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, I know it.

I love you all so much, thank you for all your love and support. :)
ELDER RALPH