28 October 2013 - Uman Semana Cheia‏

  This week we have been family hunting! Two families were given to us by members of the branch. These families are great; lots of kids, willing to go to church hear our lessons and the parents want to give a good example to their children. Golden families haha, There is only one problem, the parents aren't married legally, ahhhhh man! So this coming week we will be going to the courthouse to help these couples get married.

One of the things I love about being a missionary is when people pray for you, or when you're at someone's house and they thank our Heavenly Father for sending you to their house. They call you angels or servants of God. The feelings you get when you hear those words are so gratifying. You really feel like your fulfilling your purpose, helping other to come closer to Christ. And another indicator is when the investigators receive answers. We were talking to one of the fathers of a family and he bore his testimony to us that he had received the answer to his prayers and knew that the church was true. He felt it. Man I just wanted to give him a big hug but he would've been all weirded out because he's a man's man, hahaha.
   We found out last night that neither my companion nor I will be transferred this coming weekend so we will both be here for when the wedding papers finally come through. :) This whole week everyone was saying that my companion would be transferred and I would be left to fend for myself as a zone leader and I really started to believe all the talk. So now I'm back to normal and not worried so much. I will be the last companion to Elder Gubler who will finish his mission in December. To tell the truth it's really annoying watching people finish the mission because they always put it in your face or try to make everyone in the house trunky. This last transfer a missionary that was living with us finished his mission and tried to take us with him... figuritively. He didn't really affect me but he sure did affect his companion, And now the companion of the missionary that went home is trying to go home, not only because of his last companion but for other reasons as well. The real reason that he wants to go home is that on Monday he got a gun put to his head and now he thinks he's going to get killed if he stays in Brazil.

   By the way, mom, if anything extremely dangerous and life threatening happens to me, I'm probably not gunna tell you till I get home, just to let you know. :) So this past week has been nothing but trying to persuade him to stay on the mission and it hasn't been coming along very well. We hope that the transfer and his new companion can help him get focused on the mission again.
   I'm super excited to see what God has in store for this next transfer, I'm so excited to get to work and baptize EVERYONE! This past week I dreamed in Portuguese about baptism... it was great, haha.
   I know this church is true and I'm so thankful for it my life. The Holy Ghost is real and testifies of this work.
   I'm so happy I'm here on my mission, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
ELDER Ralph