This week will go down in history!!! It finally happened!!! The Portuguese group was finally officially organized. It was absolutely incredible!!
Eleven Months after being called to try and start up Portuguese work for the first time ever in Seattle, we witnessed the creation of the first official Portuguese group this Sunday. We have had unofficial group meetings every Sunday for Sacrament during the last 9 months, and it has been incredible. We have typically had anywhere from 25-45 in attendance. Due to some weird issues regarding boundary lines, they have not been able to officially organize the group and call a group leader, which would put it on track to becoming a branch.
When our coordinating council and mission boundaries changed to include the Bothell stake three months ago, that resolved a lot of the problems. This week, Eric Santos was called as the group leader and the group moved up to Bothell. The plan is to fast track it to becoming a branch.
This has taken such a huge weight off my shoulders. For the last 9 months, we have been trying to do everything we could to help local and stake leaders figure this out. I have been assigning the sacrament meeting talks and topics for the last 9 months and just trying so hard to keep everything going. It has been really challenging because none of the members have understood why this is happening. They have had to stay on the fence between committing and not committing because they didn't know if it would work out or not. Most of them kept going to their English wards and serving in other callings. Now, they have some certainty. Eric Santos was called as the group leader, and he has started working with all of the Brazilian members to try and get families to commit to coming and supporting the effort to make this branch. There is some incredible potential. Within these four stakes, there are 12-15 Brazilian families. One has already been a stake president, two were bishops, and another couple are high priests. Their wives have served as stake and local relief society and primary presidents. There are some of the best member missionaries ever!!
The meeting was so incredible. We moved from the Totem Lake Kirkland building chapel to the Westhill Bothell building primary room. It felt really good. The stake president started off the meeting with a 5 minute talk in english. I then spoke on how by small and simple things great things come to pass. I didn't have time to type up my talk this week (I got the topic on Friday night) so I will have to include it in next week's email. After I spoke, Eric Santos (the new group leader) spoke. The Spirit was incredibly strong. Many of the members were teary. It was definitely one of the highlights of my mission and my life.
There have been some incredible miracles happening with our friend Savia that we are teaching. She is progressing so much!!!! So, she has become best friends with one of the members, Elisangela (to no surprise, Elisangela did the same thing with Rita, Liv, and Luiza when they got baptized). They talk every day for a super long time about the gospel. This week, Savia said that her husband had said something about the word of wisdom. On Tuesday, we taught her the word of wisdom. She has been drinking coffee 3 or 4 times every day for years. I never realized how bad coffee truly is for you until this week. After we taught her the Word of Wisdom, she tried just to completely and immediately stop drinking coffee. She managed to go 4 days without it!!
We had a cool lesson with Savia on Thursday with Rita, Liv, and Luiza on the call. She just asked them questions about how theri baptisms were and what the difference is before and after. THey shared their conversion story and testimonies, and it was awesome!!
On Friday, Elisangela called us and told us that Savia's husband was a member. It was crazy because Savia had no idea!! Elisangela had the prompting to tell Savia to ask her husband. She did, and found out that he is a less active member due to a disagreement with some ward members a long time ago. Elisangela was freaking out because she had seen a picture on facebook of a super tattooed man baptizing his wife. She said that is the exact same thing that is going to happen with Savia!! Her husband also hasn't been to church in years and has tons of tattoos.
Elisangela set up a lesson with Savia and us in person (cause she lives far away, we usually teach her over zoom) at Fatima Cristina's house. Elisangela, Fatima's, and Savia's husbands (who are all Americans) went to a pool tournament while we were doing that. Elisangela had been with Savia for several hours that day, and Savia had no idea what was going on. Her body was having such bad withdrawals from coffee that she had no idea where she was. Elisangela had to buy her starbucks before our lesson, otherwise it would have been impossible to teach her!! We had a good lesson with her, but she was kind of confused and out of it the entire time. At the beginning, we had a hard time starting because she kept on having laughing fits. We had to say three prayers to start the lesson. It was kind of funny!!
We ended up teaching her a lot of different things during the lesson. At the end, we told her that the next day at church, we would give her a priesthood blessing. We didn't explain what that was because we had already taught her so much. On the way out the door, we pulled Elisangela aside and asked her to explain on the car ride to church the next day, because she picked up Savia.
The next day at church, I went to talk to Savia after the meeting. This is the third Sunday in a row she has come, and she loved it again. Then, she told me the miracle that had happened. She told me that during the night, she had a dream that after church, one of the us placed their hands on her head and all of the bad things in her life left!!! This is incredible because Elisangela had not yet explained about priesthood blessings yet!! Savia had no idea what a blessing was, but God gave her that vision. After church, we went to a room in the building, adn Eric gave Savia a priesthood blessing. It was incredible. He blessed her with many things, including the ability to overcome all the challenges she is facing. The Spirit truly confirmed the blessing. It was an incredible moment. I definitely believe it was a miracle. I am excited to see what happens with her this week.
Savia's completely inactive husband also told her that he has no problem with the church, that she can keep going, and if she keeps liking it, he will come too!!!!
It has been quite the week of miracles!!
I also went on two exchanges this week, one with each of the district leaders, Elder Depew and Elder Robb. They are both awesome missionaries. I learned a ton. I got to give 2 priesthood blessings with Elder Depew. It was really neat.
These next three weeks are going to be the most incredible weeks ever!! I am excited to grow, learn, consecrate and dedicate, and sacrifice with more faith every day!! I truly love this great work!!
Moses 1:39
39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
I love representing the Savior in Brasil and Washington, 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
Photos 1-2 Exchange with Elder Depew
Photo 3 - It’s a beautiful world
Photo 4 - Exchange with Elder Robb
Photo 5 - Elder Almeida tried Sunny D for the first time this week and is now hooked! He also loves Dollar Tree
Photo 6 - Rita, Liv, and Luiza made us some awesome food!
Photo 7-8 - I love Washington
Photo 9 - Elder Almeida wanted to buy us McDonald’s ice cream
Photo 10 - First officially organized group
