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| Got the shirt from the Family Reunion 2013 - Thanks!!! |
This week went by extremely fast. First I, my companion and the other zone leaders in Sergipe traveled to Maceió to have a council meeting with the president, his wife, the assistants and the secretaries.
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| My companion, Elder Gubler and me |
They passed a lot of information to us on how we can help our zone improve. The material that they passed was very helpful and I believe that it will help our zone. The president talked about changes, and real repentance and when he talks he lets any one make a question to him and the other missionaries, and I was able to ask a few questions and make a couple comments and I felt really uplifted after the meeting. After the meeting we headed back to Sergipe.
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| Elder Ralph & Elder Novaes |
In total I spent about 20 hours on a bus this weekend and I feel like sitting on a bus is more tiring than working from 10:30 to 9 in the sun. When we got back, my companion and I had to get straight to work on our zone meeting that we would have on the following Thursday. We had to pass the material that we learned at the council in a reduced specific manner to our zone. And guess who decided to come and watch our zone meeting, my first zone meeting, the mission president and his wife. Man, he won't leave me alone, haha. Talk about great pressure, haha, he came to see if we were paying attention during the meeting or not, haha, and how well we help our zone.
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| Zone Meeting |
But even with the pressure the meeting went well and we were able to pass everything right on the money. The president in the council talked about statues and how they are made from big blocks of marble that has nothing special nothing significant and the artists turns it into a beautiful masterpiece. And he related it to us and how we need to take out or break off all the parts of us that are bad or not like Jesus Christ. So to simulate this I put a big tub of water in the freezer to make an ice block and at the meeting I had one of the elders try and carve something out of it. It was fun!
Before we knew it Saturday and Sunday came along and we spent a great deal of our time running around inviting our investigators to the conference. We were able to get a couple people to come but not as many as we wanted. I LOVE the conference. My favorite talk was Elder Uchtdorf during the Saturday morning session because he talks about a number of things that missionaries hear on a daily basis. LOVED IT. Conference sure did give me a fire, and energy, I don't know why I was just hyper and excited all day! I couldn't stop smiling or talking!
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| Happy 50th Birthday President! |
Love it! I'm super happy for everything that is happening to me, all the things that I'm learning. I'm so happy to be a missionary and to be serving the Lord here in Brazil! I couldn't have anything better. Of course I miss my family like crazy and I can't wait to see them again, but I know that the Lord will bless all of them for the service that I am rendering for these two years, thank you all for your support! You guys are the best! :)
ELDER RALPH
