26 August 2013 - Semana de Milagres‏

   This week we were able to see miracles in the missionary work.
   Tuesday we received a call from the Mission President explaining that sister missionaries received a reference for a man who lived in our area. The sisters taught the man and he had a strong desire to be baptized. Turns out this man went to his friend's wedding and baptism at the church and really loved the church, the structure and the baptism. He talked to his friends who said he would send the missionaries to talk to him. But the man who was baptized put it off. So this man went online and searched about the church. He ended up on the church website and started reading about the church. And he ended up reading the Book of Mormon, in English, online..... WoW. So he called up his friend that was baptized and said that if the missionaries don't show up before Friday he would go to the church grab the bishop by the tie and say. I wanna know more about your church... Hahaha. So the friend finally contacted the mission and we received the reference. This man and his wife are both biologists so we went to his work with the sisters and started teaching him. He agrees with and believes everything that we teach him. He said he felt inside of him that our church is true. And he didn't have a single problem with the commandments. When he went to the baptism, his friend explained about coffee, that it's bad for our bodies so he stopped drinking it. He had a lot of headaches the week that he stopped, which showed to him that the Word of Wisdom was really inspired of God to the prophet Joseph Smith. We taught him with the sisters at his work then two days after we went to his house and we brought the big guns with us.... We called up the Mission President and asked if he could teach with us haha.
   That was the most nerve racking lesson that I've ever taught on my mission. But he helped So much. This man and his wife came to church this past Sunday, and I have never see investigators be so integrated by members in my whole mission. He will be baptized this Saturday. It's funny we were planning on baptizing him at the stake center because the baptismal font has stairs that go down into the font, and the font at our chapel, which is a house reformed into a church, has stairs and then a ladder that go to the font. So we thought it would be hard for him to get into the water. (he's 67). But when he came to church he saw the font and wanted to be baptized there at our actual church! We explained our concern about the ladder and he said jokingly. "Well if I fall, I fall into the water right?! Haha he's a great guy! Right now we're working on his wife. His wife is a little more resistant than him and hasn't received her answer yet. But we´ll help her get it:)
   The work is going great. I'm loving teaching these people. I love my mission.
   This church is true and God really is preparing people to hear His gospel.
Miracles happen!

ELDER RALPH

19 August 2013 - Semana de Amor‏

   Well one thing's for sure this Week went by super fast. It's almost hard to believe. This past Tuesday we had a Zone meeting and me and my comp decided to flip it into high gear and destroy this week. We decided to work more with a list of less actives that we have at home and went street by street talking to them and trying to help them come back to church, while at the same time trying to find new people to teach. There were a number of people that we got to know that live where a member used to live. And we were able to teach them! It's like their house has a spiritual bug, haha One less active that we visited was really special. They were a couple that was trying to return to church and for this visit we brought along the Stake President, haha. We brought the big guns, haha. So we got together and planned a great lesson. And at this couples house was a friend of theirs who wasn't a member and she stayed for the visit. After the message she said that she needed to hear what we said and that she was feeling something really powerful inside her. HOLY GHOST! So the less active member invited her to church and this Sunday she came and really liked it and the less active couple came. Now we arranged another visit with her and this couple together to hit two birds with one stone. It'll be great!
   So one of our biggest excitements is working with a couple that recently were married and are working together to be baptized on the 31st of August. I don't think I've ever been so excited for someone to be baptized. Last night when we were teaching them they asked if we were going to be here in November for the BAPTISM of their baby boy..... Uhhh instead of answering we took the opportunity to teach about baptizing children and read a little bit of Moroni 8 with them. While we were teaching they both felt the spirit and understood the principle and now... I don't think there with be a baptism in November, hehe. :-)
   Little things are changing in the mission. No, we don't have ipads or iphones, unfortunately but our president is changing things so that we can have more time to work and so that things run smoother. And this week was proof to me that it was really inspired from our Heavenly Father. We had so much more time. I'm so thankful that I'm a missionary working in God's kingdom. It is such a great opportunity. I'm so thankful for my family, especially my parents and all that they have done for me and taught me.

ELDER RALPH

12 August 2013 - Semana de Loucuro‏ (Crazy Week)

   This week was insane! I've never been so tired on my mission. Last night I said a 45 minute prayer because I fell asleep! Let's get started here. Monday the secretaries called us and told us that the President wanted us to go to the Stake Center on Tuesday to help with a Humanitarian Aid project that they were just putting on for doctors and nurses. Thought of you, mom.
   So we had to get up at 5:30 AM to go to the Stake Center by 6;30 AM. We got there and went straight to work. They asked my companion and me to go there because we were American and they had some American missionaries that didn't speak Portuguese who needed our help. Basically what we did was, guide all the nurses to where they needed to go, hand out tests, collect tests, grade tests, hand out more tests, correct more tests, answer questions, and a bunch of little stuff. And it was super tiring. We destroyed the work. Everyone was calling us "machines"! We did such a good job that the humanitarian workers called the secretaries and asked for us to come back and help them the next day.
   And sure enough when we called the secretaries they asked us to come back. Wednesday was a crazy day. We had over 135 nurses and doctors at the church AND the bummer of it all was that we were not allowed to proselyte unless someone asked us. And boy did they ask. We brought a whole box of Books of Mormon and they ate them up SO fast. We saw ladies taking three copies home. It was great. One cool part about working there is that we go to work with a man who is the translator for the prophets and apostles! He just casually said! oh I was talking to Henry B. Eyring the other day and he said this"....", it was great. He liked us so much that he took us out to dinner Wednesday night. It was an awesome two days.
   Thursday was our only normal day for work. We then come to Friday and my companion had to go to the mission office to renew his visa. So I stayed in the mission office all day putting in baptismal forms into the church system. Super Fun. I hope I messed up or did something wrong so I won't be called as a secretary, haha.
    Friday night we were able to get a little work done in our actual area. Then came Saturday. Saturday we got up at 4:30 AM to marry a couple that we have been teaching. We got up and a member took us to a college where they were doing marriages for free. It was weird but super cool. It was the first time I've married someone on my mission. Basically my companion's job was photographer and my job was babysitter. The couple had an 8 month old baby that loves me haha, so I played with him. The process took forever but the marriage ceremony finally arrived. The judge called out to the whole group. "Men will you take these women to be your lawfully wedded wife" and they all yelled "YES" and he did the same thing for the women. And then everyone started going at it, kissing like they've never kissed before. Yeah, talk about trunkyness, haha. I just looked at my companion and he looked back and we just started laughing. And to top all the hard work off with a cherry, the couple came to church yesterday. :-) All that hard work paid off, all those lots hours of lack of sleep paid off. :-)
   And while we were at the humanitarian aid project we were on TV. :-)
  
I LOVE MY MISSION, I LOVE SERVING MY FATHER IN HEAVEN. :-)

5 August 2013 - Somos juntos ainda! We're still together!

   Alrighty. This week was good. We were able to find a lot of new people this week. It almost seems like luck how we were guided to knock on certain doors or talk to certain people on the street but we know for certain that it was our heavenly father guiding us with little promptings from the Holy Ghost, pushing us here and there. Unfortunately one person who was an elect that was super interested in our message lives in a different area but we were still able to help find her. The hardest part about this week was finding all the people that we had already found for the second time. It was way frustrating. One day we counted 11 fallen appointments. That was a challenging day.. But were still kicking and we will keep trying to find these people. 

     This coming Saturday the state of Alagoas will have a free marriage day where anyone can go and get married for free and they will even help to do some of the identification for people who don't have it. So we have two couples that are lined up to be married. Everything was dandy and they were for sure going to get married but then the devil came along and messed everything up!. The couple got in an argument and the man left the house and came back that afternoon completely drunk. For those of you who have been reading all my emails I have a talent for handling "drunk" men, haha. But this situation was way calmer than the other. They were just having difficulties and needed to talk to each other in a calm relaxing controlled environment. They needed to listen more to each other, a lot of little things that make a big difference. But everything cooled back down and they love each other again. Awww, keep your fingers crossed for this coming Saturday and pray that nothing else happens.

   My companion and I are trying to step up our teaching especially with the investigators that we already have. Making more physical examples, situations, videos or games we are trying to help our investigators understand more fully the principles of the gospel, and so far it seems to be working. Instead of us asking if we can come back, people are starting to ask us to come back and marking the day in the near future rather than the next week, haha. But we're slowly running out of ideas. If you guys have any tips send them my way!
   The mission president came to our ward for the first time on Sunday and he, his wife, his son and me and my companion bore testimony. It was great! I love testimony meetings especially when they don't have pauses, haha.

   I'm so happy to be serving a mission and I wouldn't trade it for anything!
Thank you all for your love and support. :-)
Oh we passed transfer day and my companion and I are staying together! Woot Woot! 

 

 

Temptation?  -  NOT, it was a mess.