Obedience Brings Forth Miracles (Week 21)

Hello everybody!

Time is speeding by, I can't believe I have 5 months on the mission already! So this week was really really good, we learnt in our companionship that being obedient and following the counsel of the Mission President brings many blessings and miracles.

On Monday President Farnes came to the Mission Office and me and my companions had a meeting with him to discuss the effectiveness of our work both inside and out of the office. He taught us the importance of daily planning so that we can have priorities and not do less important things before the most important. We hadn't been planning very well and I didn't feel as productive as I wanted. So we followed his counsel and began planning better. Although we were opening area and didn't have many appointments marked, we planned each day and as a fruit of that we were able to do more in less time and have success in our work. President said to us in the meeting: "Failing to plan is planning to fail" and we really learnt the importance and truth in that statement. Man, office stories are so boring. I'm sorry!

Let me tell you of this awesome family we found in our new area of Horto Florestal. We went to our area this week and we were a bit lost, with an old map we tried to choose where to go. We walked for a while and then decided to stop and look at the map. We looked and read: Favela. "Let's go there!" Some of the neighbourhoods in our area are quite rich and we didn't have much success there as the people tended to be more prideful and didn't feel they needed the gospel to better their lives. So in the favela, people tend to be more humble and teachable, looking toward God to find hope of a better life. Off we went to the favela!

There was a bunch of kids playing football in the narrow streets, some suspicious looking guys standing against the walls and a lot of lovely people too. We walked in an alley where there were a lot of houses and began knocking. We knocked on a door and after no one answered, a girl ran down the alley, walked in the house and called the lady again. The lady inside didn't want anything but we talked to her and she took us to meet her family. We walked in and there was about 9 people. We made a few jokes and got to know them first and then we began teaching the Restoration and everyone was super quiet and attentive. As I spoke the words of the First Vision, the spirit filled the room and in the end I asked the girl "What do you feel?" Trying to be funny she said: "Honestly, I feel hungry!" We laughed but I asked again: "What did you feel as I spoke about Joseph Smith?" and she replied that she felt goosebumps all over her body. We explained that was the spirit testifying to her of the truthfulness of all we had taught. In the end we taught about prayer and receiving an answer. We knelt down to pray and asked the man of the house to pray to know if all we had said was true. He said: "I already know it's true." It was an amazing moment and after the prayer everyone felt the same spirit. The whole family, from oldest to youngest accepted our invitation to go to church and to be baptised. We have gone back several times this week and they are super excited to go to church. Pray for Josy's family! :)

In the same alley (viela) we contacted a couple who at first didn't seem very interested. When we kept walking, we heard the woman shout: "Do you want some water?" About 10 minutes later, we were sitting in their house eating an amazing dinner. I love Brasil!

Well, a lot more stuff probably happened but right now I'm very hungry and about to have lunch so my mind isn't functioning properly!

I love you all and I'll update you better next week!

Hugs,

Elder Torres