2 Nephi 22: 2,3

Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation. Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

January 10, 2010 Somewhere Over the Rainbow


Hey Everyone!

We didn´t have P-day this last week because we had so many during the Holidays so this week definitely was rough. I truly have a testimony of the importance of practicing P-day because I was really feeling it during the week.

Anyway, a lot happened this week so let´s get started!

We found a really interested family this week. A member, Jorge, had been asking us to visit his family for a while so we finally marked a visit and went there. After the visit he said he had a family he wanted us to visit on his street. They lost their daughter a few weeks ago and are having a really tough time so we went to their house. Josefa is the dad of this huge family. They have already received the missionaries but said they weren´t really paying attention in the past. We´ve visited them a few times now and it is going well. Josefa is an amazing musician too. He plays the guitar for us and we all sing together, it´s cool.

Another one of our invesigators Valmir really opened up to us this week. We´ve been visiting him for the past few weeks but it´s always been a little awkward cause he didn´t really want to tell us much about himself and he has us visit him in the back of his grocery store. This week we went there with the intent to gain his confidence. We sang a hymn for him in front of the store and showed him our photos. Then we taught him about Dia do Senhor (Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy). When we invited him to come to church again he really opened up about his life. He cheated on his wife and she left him, then he lost his job. He´s rebuilding his life right now and said that now he realizes that Christ comes first, then family, then everything else. He won´t be able to really progress til February because of his work schedule but I have hope for him. Funny note: he said he gained interest in the Church because of the Masons (?) interesting...

This week has been raining like crazy. Almost everyday in the afternoon it just pours. One of these days it was raining and the sun broke through in the west while it was still raining so it was way bright. A huge rainbow appeared right above us. It was amazing. I started thinking about Alma 30 when Alma is testifying against Korihor, saying that all things testify of God. It was such a cool experience. Little things like this really get me.

We had lunch with a really poor family in our ward this week. They live in a clay house. Both the parents had to work so it was just us and their kids. All they had was rice, beans, and a few pieces of meat. It was way humbling. One of the daughters drew a picture of me and one of the sons drew a car and gave it to me.

Antonio is another investigator and he´s way interesting. We´ve been teaching him for about three weeks now and he is already in Ether in the Book of Mormon. During our last lesson with him he stopped us and said, "Can I be frank? If I´m understanding the doctrine in the Book of Mormon, you´re church is the only church that has the authority to baptize right?" I almost started to laugh because this is what we were trying to explain to him and he finally got it.

We´re having lots of difficulties with finding new investigators right now. We´re marking tons of visits with contacts but for the most part they are all falling through. The contact with be really awesome then the day of the visit there is a problem. Either they aren´t home or we can´t find their house. When we try to call them the numbers usually don´t work. We´re trying really hard to find the elects here so we have to just keep working hard.

I was volunteered to teach the English class in our chapel every Saturday. This week I taught them how to introduce themselves and pray in English.

I also had to speak in this Sunday during Sacrament Meeting. Last week the Bishop asked me to speak for 20 minutes about missionary work so I spent a ton of time preping and wrote an awesome talk. When we got to church they told me I only had 10 minutes but I spoke for my 20 darn it! haha It went really well and many members complimented me. A few members even came up to us and told us they´re going to find some references for us.

Well that´s the week! Any questions? haha feel free to write me with the goings on back home and aroud the world. Love you all and thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Até Mais!

Elder MacLane Taggart

No comments:

Post a Comment