Suzano, Week 6

Well, this transfer has been the absolute best! I have learned so much. Elder Pereira and I have been able to do a lot of work. We have worked so hard to find new people to teach every day. I kept track of how many New Investigators we found and how many Books of Mormon we gave out. We found 83 New Investigators to teach and we gave out 113 Books of Mormon. I have been able to have such a great friendship with my comp. I have loved every moment of this transfer. Suzano is such a cool city.

I found out yesterday that I was transferred for the fourth time in five transfers. I will be training and opening an area in Caiuby, Itaqua! I´m super excited. I´ll go to the mission office tomorrow to pick up my new comp. 

Here is what happened this last week:

Carnaval started this week. So far the craziest thing I have seen is a parade of little kids. Most of the really crazy stuff is in the center of São Paulo. I have to go to the Mission Office in the center of São Paulo tomorrow, the last and biggest day of Carnaval. It might be pretty crazy.

 We changed the tire of a lady on the road. She didn´t know how to, so we helped her. Elder Pereira didn´t know how, and I had only tried one time before, but I was able to successfully change the tire. It was awesome. She said she had been praying for God to send someone to help her, and that we were the answer to her prayers.

Adriana went to church again. We taught her a couple times, and she keeps on progressing. She is reading the Book of Mormon every day, and is ready to be baptized. I think she will be baptized this next transfer.

 Last week, we found Antonio. On Sunday, we went back to teach him. We started teaching him the Restoration. He asked us in the first couple of minutes how he could receive an answer from God. He said that he has been searching for the true church his entire life, and has switched religions a ton. We were able to focus a ton on personal revelation and prayer the entire lesson. He thought that the First Vision was really cool, and that the Book of Mormon makes a lot of sense. He understands what he needs to do to receive an answer.

We found some cool less active members of the church this week that we started working with. Jefferson lives in a super rich neighborhood. His house is the nicest I have been to in Brasil. It is a mansion. He has a huge wall around his house, and the walls of his house are pretty much all glass. He is super rich, and also the highest level of Mason you can be. He´s pretty cool, but he hasn´t been to church in a while, and has a lot of doubts. He really loves the missionaries, so it was super cool to be there. 

We also found a guy named Rafael another night this week. He is 21, and has an absolutely crazy life. He was baptized when he was 8, but shortly after, his dad abandoned him. His brother and he lived alone growing up. When he was 15, he started to sell things on the road. When he was 17, he started selling cars. Now, he works in a huge shopping mall. He was super happy to see us because he forgot all about the church. We taught him the Restoration of the Gospel, and he went to church on Sunday.

We had a couple of really cool contacts this week. The coolest was when we rang the doorbell of a house. A lady came to the door a minute later. We taught her the Restoration on her doorstep, and gave her a Book of Mormon. She had some great questions. At the end of the contact, we asked her which doorbell was hers. There were two doorbells, and we rang them both. She told us that neither work, nor that she just had a feeling that she should go to the door. She says that she thought it was God that gave her that feeling. It was super cool!

I gave a talk in church a week ago. I spoke on why I believe in Christ. It’s pretty crazy that I can talk for 15 minutes in church IN PORTUGUES!

Scripture of the Week: Alma 26

I love teaching the Plan of Salvation. There are so many differences between the Restored Gospel of Christ and other religions, and one of my favorite differences is this. Because we have a living prophet that receives revelation from Heavenly Father, we know where we lived before we were born, why we are here on earth, and where we are going after we die. We are literally children of a loving Heavenly Father, and we are here on earth to learn to walk by faith and learn for ourselves how to choose good instead of bad. Because of the Atonement of our Savior, we will all be resurrected one day, and return to our Heavenly Father. We will inherit a degree of glory fit for us. I love that the Plan of Salvation explains why Christ is important. Every one knows he is important, but it is only when you realize his role in the Plan of Happiness that we recognize that without him, we could not progress and that there is nothing else for us.

Suzano, Week 5

Iai bom dia a todos!!!

 Hey what´s up everybody? I had another great week here with Elder Pèreira. We're working like crazy! It´s pretty tiring, usually we spend 5-8 hours in the sun walking each day, but I love it. We try to talk with everybody, but we never have enough time in the day.

We had some pretty great street-contacting this week. Here are the top three:

3. I gave someone a Book of Mormon while carrying half a watermelon that was bigger than my arms could fit around.

2. I had the longest street contact of my mission. We started talking to this guy on the street corner about what we believe, and he started talking and wouldn´t stop. We wanted to be polite so we could give him a Book of Mormon, but he talked for an hour and forty minutes. It was so long!

1. We knocked on a door, and a guy came to talk with us. The first thing he asked is if Ronald Reagan sent us. I love Brasil!!!

The best thing that happened this week is that 7 people that we are teaching went to church!!!

Bruna, Adriana and her family (Junior, Agata, Diego, Erik), and Felipe. We were so happy to see them all in church. We have been trying so hard to get them there, especially Adriana and her family. Adriana told us that missionaries have been trying to teach her for years, and that we are different from all of the others. I think that we are getting close with her!! It is really incredible to see people gain testimonies, not because of what we say, but because of what the spirit testifies as they read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Jose and Norma are also getting closer to getting married and baptized, which is exciting. We have some other people that we are teaching that also seem genuinely interested.

On Wednesday, we had to go to the hospital. Elder Pereira was having stomach pain, and he noticed that he had a weird bulge above his stomach. We thought it was a tumor or something. He did an ultrasound, and it turns out that it's just a ball of fat. It was pretty funny! Unfortunately, we were there three hours to get that diagnosis.

We also did an act of service this week. We saw a guy carrying a big sofa on the street by himself. We offered to help. We ended up helping him deliver the couch to a bunch of drug addicts. We had no idea beforehand, but I thought it was pretty funny when I realized who we had delivered the couch to.

Scripture of the week: Alma 32:1-2

1 And it came to pass that they did go forth, and began to preach the word of God unto the people, entering into their synagogues, and into their houses; yea, and even they did preach the word in their streets.

2 And it came to pass that after much labor among them, they began to have success among the poor class of people; for behold, they were cast out of the synagogues because of the coarseness of their apparel.

I love representing the Savior in Brasil, I love my companion, I love the Gospel and Atonement of Christ, I love my family, and I love my Redeemer. I am ready and excited to work harder, learn more, and love better this week!    

Love,

Elder Warren Matthew Dudley 

Pictures:

#1 - We found this logo of a local soccer team. I thought it was pretty hilarious because the team just copied the Celtics logo.

#2 - Studying English in the park 

#3-12 Proselyting in Villa Fatima

#4, 5, and 9  Elder Pereira really didn’t like the sun. He always used an umbrella, rain or shine. He used this flowery looking umbrella that was super goofy because he had lost his black one. Luckily, a couple weeks later, we found his black one at the church, and he gave the flowery one to somebody in our ward.

#3 Me on the streets

#6,7,8 Views of the favelas in Vila Fatima

#10-12 Having fun on the job!

Suzano, Week 4

Well, I had another fantastic week here with Elder Pereira in Suzano. We are starting to get a pretty good teaching pool going. We´ve got about 8 people that are progressing. It only took 60 or so contacts to find those 8 LOL. It's definitely worth it. 

We have been working a lot with a family that has been going to church for two years. The Elder that started teaching them was in his training, and he is going home this transfer. They haven´t been baptized because they are not married. Lots of other Elders have tried to help them, but it has always fallen through. This week, we successfully went with Jose and Norma to get the documents they need for marriage. They have a super strong desire to get married and get baptized. It´ll probably happen next transfer. I´m super excited!

All of the other people that we are teaching are really great. This week, I think that we will see who is ready to progress and make commitments.

We also had zone conference this week. It was the best zone conference I have been to. I loved being there with all of the other missionaries. We got some great training, and really felt the Spirit. I really learned a lot. I was asked to bear my testimony on contacting people for part of the meeting. The training by President and the assistants (Elder Moreno and Elder VanDerwerken) was really great. They talked a lot about how important our testimonies are to invite the Spirit of the Lord. Elder VanDerwerken gave a really great training on inviting people to be baptized and the specific invitation.

Scripture of the Week: Moroni 7: 16 

16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for everything which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

I love representing the Savior in Brasil, I love my companion, I love the Gospel and Atonement of Christ, I love my family, and I love my Redeemer. I am ready and excited to work harder, learn more, and love better this week!    

Love,

Elder Warren Matthew Dudley 

Pictures:

#1 Zone Conference in Mogi das Cruzes

#2 Elder Pereira and I in the park in the center of the city

#3 On the bridge, overlooking the city

#4-6 On the way to the Venezuelan refugees’ house for lunch 

#7 The rich part of town

Susano, Week 3

I had another great week here in Brasil! Man, this transfer is sure burning by! I feel like I just got here in Suzano. Actually, I still feel like I just got to Brasil, but I´m sure that´ll wear off in about another year and six months! I had some great experiences and funny stories this week. Here is the list:

5. Elder Pereira and I did another activity last Wednesday. It was pretty awesome! Every activity is better. I feel like we are successfully reanimating the ward and getting everyone here excited. For this activity, we used cardboard boxes to make giant cutouts of the Book of Mormon and the Bible. We cut holes for our heads and we wore them for the activity. We shared a message on the importance of scriptures and then played a trivia game. The game involved answering questions or getting a pie of whipped cream in the face. It was pretty hilarious! Brasilians really get into stuff like this.

4. We had a family home evening on Saturday night with Jane and Anderson´s family and some of their friends that were being taught the lessons. It was pretty awesome. That day, it was raining, and we were working in a neighborhood super far away from the family home evening. We had to book it in the rain. We did a 1 hour to 1.5 hour walk in 35 minutes in the rain. We got there just in time. Their friends’ names are Bruna and Jefferson. They are a young couple, and are super cool. Bruna is halfway through the Book of Mormon. They aren´t being taught right now because they had a bad experience with missionaries before I got here. I´m hoping we can change that. We read the Family: A Proclamation to the World for the first part of the Family Home evening, and then we ate and played some games. It was super fun. Jefferson has a pretty crazy life story. He shared it with all of us, and got pretty teary while he was doing so. He grew up in a favela, was abandoned, adopted, and had to drop out of school at age 10 to work to feed his family. His brother got addicted to drugs, but he left cause he didn´t want to do anything to do with drugs. He never learned how to read and write, so his wife taught him after they got married. He works super hard because he never wants his family to experience what he experienced. After the Family Home Evening, he gave us a ride back to our apartment. Before we got out of the car, I told him how impressed I was with his life story. I told him that there are few people on the Earth that would have been able to do what he did and make the same decisions. He teared up again after that. It was a really neat experience.

3. Well, once we got home after the Family Home evening, we realized that we had lost our cell phone. We had no idea where we left it. The next day, after church, we ate lunch, planned for the week, and went back to Jane and Anderson’s house to see if we had left the cell phone there. It wasn´t there, but Jane called our phone. Someone picked up! Turns out it had fallen into the road when we were booking it to the Family Home Evening. Someone picked it up and took it home. It was the first time I felt glad that we don´t have smartphones yet, because if we did, they would have sold it. We drove with Jane and Anderson to this old, abandoned factory where the guy was living. We got our phone and left a Book of Mormon with him. It was a pretty good adventure. It took us like two hours to find the place, and the whole while, Anderson was kind of freaking out cause the registration of his car was expired and we were on a freeway with a lot of police.

2. I had a pretty neat experience listening to the promptings of the Spirit. One night last week, I was lying in bed thinking, which is not normal. Usually I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow cause I´m so tired. However, this particular night, I was wide awake. I felt prompted that we should use the Area Book the next day. Up to this point, we had just been knocking doors and contacting in the street. Elder Pereira said that it sounded good to him. The next day, I looked through our Area book, and found a woman that was baptized four months ago. Elder Pereira didn´t know who she was. We decided to visit her. She ended up being super happy to see us. Her name is Cristina, and she hasn´t been to church the last couple months for a couple reasons, mainly because she received a calling  and was super stressed out and didn´t know what to do. She wants to come back to church. We are going to start helping her and visiting her. It was really cool to see how the Lord works through us.

1. Well, the crowning moment of this week was about the funniest thing anyone has said to me since I´ve been in Brasil. We were teaching Victor. He is 18 years old, married, and is about to have his first kid. He is super cool. We contacted him and his wife a couple weeks ago, and he was really excited for us to come back. He thinks my accent is super cool. Saturday was the first day we went back there and they were actually home. He had and accident at work, so he is going to be there a lot now, so that good for us to teach him. A metal bar the weight of ten cars fell on his hand. He didn´t lose his hand, but it completely pulverized some bones in his hand. Like, they are literally destroyed. He is on some pretty heavy meds. Well anyway, we were teaching him the Restoration of the Gospel. I was explaining to him about the Great Apostasy, and I was talking about how tons of churches got started. I said, "So Victor, all these good people wanted to follow the Gospel of Christ, but they didn´t know the will of God. They began to start their own churches, but the churches weren´t the Church of Christ, they were the churches of men. So, Victor, what do you think these churches of men lacked?"  He responded, completely seriously, "women?"  It was so funny. I started dying. I was trying not to because I didn't want to offend him, but I couldn´t help it. It was ok because he started laughing too. I´m still laughing about this.

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 33: 6 and 7. I love these scriptures. We should all delight in the clarity that is the Plan of Salvation. We know where we are going and what we need to do to get there. We have guides in the scriptures, prophets, and the Holy Spirit. The world can be confusing, but we have a light set before us. We can have hope for ourselves and our fellow men because of the Atonement of Christ. All is possible. We don´t need to give in to despair, gloom, and confusion that the world presents us. Happiness in this life is achievable through Him.

2 Nephi 33: 6-7

6 I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.

7 I have charity for my people, and great faith in Christ that I shall meet many souls spotless at his judgment-seat.

I love representing the Savior in Brasil, I love my companion, I love the Gospel and Atonement of Christ, I love my family, and I love my Redeemer. I am ready and excited to work harder, learn more, and love better this week!    

Love,

Elder Warren Matthew Dudley 

Pictures:

#1-6 Our apartment 

#7 Elder Pereira and I as the Bíblia and O Livro de Mórmon

#8-9 Our awesome activity

#10 Elder Pereira, Cristina, and me