June 24, 2013

Don't worry . . . I'm still a KU Fan even though I'm wearing a Florida Shirt.

Some things that happened this week. I guess first off I'll start with the Leadership Training last night. I'm so glad you watched that because it was simply amazing! Its amazing how they'll be using the resources in social media and stuff for the missionaries. That will be super interesting. The members are going to be such a crucial help in the work. I really felt the Spirit strong in that meeting. When the Lord says "He loves His missionaries," he's talking to everybody because aren't we all? I hope that will help us in our Portuguese work because we tract too much instead of teaching. 

The work overall is good though. Sadly we didn't find anyone to make commitments this week but its okay. We still have a great amount of faith and we are still together for a whole other transfer. (Unless I leave of course!) We only taught 8 lessons this week overall so we had a tonnnnn of tracting time in the Florida heat. Water is my new best friend! 

Miracle of the Week: We decided to knock on one door at our apartment complex. We had no idea whose door we knocked on. Anyway, so we knock it and someone opens it and lets us in. Inside was like 5 adults and 4 kids all having dinner and they were super excited to let us bless their home. So I blessed the home and afterwards one of the ladies says, "Do you remember me? You said a prayer with me a couple weeks ago out in the parking lot. I asked you guys to pray that I would have a car so I could help support my family. Well I just want to let you know that somehow I got a car that same week. I don't know really how it all worked out but it did." Imagine how excited I got when I heard that. The Lord just granted us a miracle! So I don't know what will happen there but hopefully we'll go back and teach them once. After that though we need to turn it back to the English Elders.

Have you heard the talk "Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox? If you haven't you should look it up under the LDS or BYU website. It really emphasizes the Atonement and grace and it has piano teacher references also.

I also had a cool experience on exchanges this week. I went with Elder Jensen to the Lake Ream's area which is super nice. Anyway that day we biked through thunderstorms and over 100 degree temperatures all day. We biked over 40 miles. I wish I rode a bike more out here because its fun! Anyway so we did a service for a guy pulling weeds, dinner at a member's home, bike bike bike, went to some potential investigators homes, and gave a evening lesson to a part-member family. We went in their home and shared a scripture with them. Anyway so it was going pretty smoothly until the end when all of a sudden this family would argue over things like repentance, something they didn't agree out of a book, types of murder, etc etc. It was pretty ridiculous. Then some of these guys would put us on the spot. It got to the point where Elder Jensen was getting frustrated. I was too but I was in "power" which means just sort of listen and focus. It all boiled down to these people don't have testimonies. I could feel it. 

So finally I said, "OK, here's what it boils to...you guys haven't even asked God what the truth is..." I then remember just bearing the strongest testimony I've ever given and just shared Moroni 10: 3-5. The Spirit taught me a lesson on being bold. After that the Spirit came back and there was no more discussion. The Spirit made the final comments and we all left happy. The Spirit again knows how to do the work. He just needs us to speak up with humility. 

So anyway those were my experiences of the week. I had a great week! President Hall leaves very soon but its okay. We're all excited for President Berry. I'm doing alright and I'm safe. It's soccer time in Brasil. People are getting super excited. Haha

Elder Steven Untch

These little guys came up to us while we were tracting