This has been an incredible week. General Conference was absolutely incredible. I think that this conference was my favorite and most revelatory out of all that I can remember. But, I’ll talk about that in a minute.
It is still a little bit slower than last transfer teaching wise, but we usually teach about 2-3 times a day still. We are trying hard to completely fill our teaching pool out. We were able to find some cool new people to teach this week. We had our first lesson with Rodrigo and Andrea. They are a super cool couple from Rio de Janeiro and have been living in the US for about a year. Rodrigo is about the happiest Brazilian I have ever met. He has the funniest hysterical laugh. They are so friendly and are really grateful to be learning English with us. They had acai waiting for us to eat! At the end, we gave them a Book of Mormon and taught them about it, which they thought was super cool. I think that we will definitely be able to get them to come to church for us.
Speaking of church, the stake president, President Sowby, officially gave us the go ahead to have our first Portuguese Sacrament meeting on the 18! We are so excited! We have the next two weeks to get ready for it. Hopefully, we will be able to get a lot of people to come.
We had two incredible miracles with Gabb this week. Gabb has a baptismal date for the 25 of October. This week, we started teaching her the commandments. She has a super solid testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, and she understands things really well, but we were still pretty anxious going into the lesson. We knew that Gabb had a very specific problem with part of the Law of Chastity, and we were really anxious about bringing it up. We were praying very earnestly beforehand for the Lord to soften her heart. We taught her a few other commandments, including the Word of Wisdom, and then we taught the Law of Chastity. Our prayers were definitely answered. Not only did Gabb accept to live the Word of Wisdom and the other commandments that we had taught, she agreed to live the Law of Chastity! It was definitely very uncomfortable, but she said that she would obey the Law of Chastity and all that it entails. It was such a huge miracle.
That was just the first miracle that we had with Gabb. During the lesson that we had on the commandments, we also invited her to watch General Conference with us. She said that she would, so we ended up watching the morning session on Sunday with her - at some Brazilian’s member’s home! The entire morning was full of tender mercies. Two Brazilians spoke, Elder Soares and Elder Godoy. Elder Godoy’s talk was absolutely perfect for Gabb as she is completely changing her life around. President Nelson also spoke, so she got to hear the prophet speak. Afterwards, The members had some awesome Brazilian food prepared for us. It was food that Gabb hadn’t eaten since leaving Brasil. It was just the best. It really showed us that Heavenly Father is looking out for her and is involved in her conversion. The only session that she watched was the only session that President Nelson gave a full talk at, and two Brazilians spoke at. It was incredible. We are so excited for her to get baptized.
We also had another really great tender mercy when we were at a park this week. This super nice Chinese mom came up and started talking to us. She ended up giving us two huge plates of the most amazing home-cooked Chinese food - egg rolls, noodles, and chocolate chip cookies! It was so great! We tried to give her a Book of Mormon because she said that our work as missionaries was something she is really appreciative of, but she wasn’t interested. It made our day, though
General Conference was unforgettable. The counsel that we received is perfect for the times that we are in. Here are some of my takeaways:
We need to be prepared for the Second Coming of the Savior
Things may get worse before they get better
We must establish Zion in our hearts, homes and communities
The power of our prayers is real
We have a living prophet that receives daily revelation to guide the Lord’s people
Specific things that I am going to study that were mentioned repeatedly: Zion Societies in the scriptures, Joseph Smith’s time in Liberty Jail, Preach My Gospel chapter 6, References to Israel in the scriptures, study of Jesus Christ in the topical guide
Scripture of the week: 3 Nephi 20:21-22
21 And it shall come to pass that I will establish my people, O house of Israel.
22 And behold, these people will I establish in this land, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob; and it shall be a New Jerusalem. And the powers of heaven shall be in the midst of this people; yea, even I will be in the midst of you.
I loved representing the Savior in Brasil, I love representing Him in Seattle, 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
Photo 1-2 - Tender Mercy in the park. A Chinese mom gave us some picnic food
Photo 3 - Cool car at the Fred Meyer parking lot
Photo 4 - General Conference from the hotel!! We watched it on our phones
