June 17, 2013

President & Sister Hall

It's transfer week here! Can you believe it?! 6 weeks! The Portuguese Elders are staying together for this next transfer... I'm excited for that. I've said this plenty of times but I have absolutely no interest in leaving this place. I love it too much. It is getting really hot though. Everyday is at least 95 degrees or higher with a ton of humidity but I do drink plenty of water and stuff. The work itself though has been pretty rough. Sadly, Alexandra just dropped because of some reasons which us Elders can guess. And also we have had 3 others do the same thing. We're pretty desperate to find people who 1) Want to hear the message and 2) Want to COMMIT to anything such as baptism, attending church, etc. Its been pretty hard on our companionship but we've been deep in prayer and have the faith that good things will happen. A new transfer feels like a new life and a new opportunity. 

We did however have one miracle with one investigator. Our investigator Cris and her boyfriend Leon were about to be dropped because she wouldn't commit to anything including reading 3 pages we assigned in a months span. We went in and starting talking and all of a sudden I just remember that the Spirit took over. It was the coolest thing I've seen on my mission. We asked them what they expected of us and stuff and somehow the conversation went into the topic of family history. Somehow that sparked the interest in Cris. She asked questions like "Can only Mormons use the programs online?" and "Where are the places to find family?" We talked about eternal families and the true importance of why we need to know the Restoration is true. What made it even better was the fact that the Spirit was so strong that I could understand at least 80% of the Portuguese. I'm struggling with the language still but it was clear as day at points during that lesson. I'll never forget that. 

We've also had people placed in our path that now have a totally different insight of Mormons than they did before. We ran into a single mother who was moving in while tracting so we offered to help. She was super nervous but we told her we would just help her do that. She accepted and then afterward she was almost in tears. Service goes a long way! 

Elder Costa, Elder Delgato & Sister _______  ??

We also had Zone Conference last Wednesday...its President Hall's last. :( He is so amazing. We talked a lot about repentance! All the leaving missionaries gave their testimonies and there was over 20 of them. That was crazy.

Funny story of the Week: If you yell at 3 Spanish dogs by saying "Silencio ye beings do inferno" then they'll be quiet. It happened to me! Haha

Miracle of the Week: One of the best experiences of my mission. We were on the way to tracting an area and we drove past this one complex. All of a sudden the Spirit hit me like a truck and told me to go back. So I told my comps and we went. We did have a referral there so we knocked on the door but no one answered. We were walking back to the car and we run into these three girls. They accepted the opportunity to say a prayer with us and listened to our message for a bit. We ended up with no returning appointment but we did give them a card. I don't know why we needed to be there but we needed to see them. It feels so wonderful to be a tool in the Lord's hand!

Elder Steven Untch