Learning Curve (Week 69)

Hello everyone!

Christmas is just around the corner and so is 2017. But the end of this year has been an incredibly character building one, particularly this week. This blog will be a bit longer than usual as this week was more eventful than usual too!

We began the week by doing a division with a couple of areas in Itapeva, the most distant zone in the whole mission. At one point, I had to travel alone in a bus for 1 hour and a half to get to the area of Capão Bonito. After travelling the whole morning on a hot bus with no air conditioning, we got there and I spent the day working with Elder Klein. It was a really busy day, we worked a lot and found very good people for them to teach. Elder Klein arrived on the mission field the same day as me so it was good to get to know him better.

On Thursday, the assistants and the secretaries had the privilege to go to President and Sister Farnes' house for a Christmas Lunch. It was so awesome to hang out with the Farnes family in a more relaxed environment. We had beef wellington for lunch, which Sister Farnes excitedly told me is a traditional plate from England (I had no idea what it was).

We talked about our family traditions and I couldn't help but mention our yearly Christmas Torres Talent Shows and grandma's hilarious joke telling talent! Gonna miss that this Christmas! They were kind enough to gift each of us with the book "The Infinite Atonement" by Tad R. Callister. From what I've read so far it's an incredibly insightful book about the most important event in all history. Before we all left, we sung a few Christmas carols and even did the "mannequin challenge". Watch this space, the São Paulo North mission is about to go viral.

Towards the end of the week we were very busy with important teaching appointments and teaching new investigators who we taking to church that Sunday. Whilst I was on a division with my zone leader, I received a call from a young man in the ward. He asked us if we could go over to his house to give his mother's friend a blessing. I looked at our busy schedule in my planner and said that if were able to we would pass by that evening. With the rush of the work and a baptism at the chapel that same day, we weren't able to go and give the blessing. I couldn't get this young man out of my head until the time we got home at night.

I decided to call his house number to apologize and ask if we could go early the next day to give the blessing. The mother of this young man answered the phone and I began to apologize for not being able to help that day. With a sad voice, the mother replied: "Thank you for calling Elder, but my friend just passed away". I was speechless."She passed away about 1 hour ago". A knot seemed to appear in my throat and nothing came out. I inadequately attempted to give my condolences and then ended the call. I felt like the worst person on earth. I knew that if I were to give this woman a blessing perhaps it would been to comfort the woman and her family in her last moments. What caused me to feel so bad was the missed opportunity to bless the life of a family at such a difficult time in their lives. For a few minutes I was feeling sad, regretful and even a bit guilty.

Elder King thought it was best for me to speak with President to talk about what had happened. President Farnes listened to me speak for a little bit and then, in his kind manner, he opened my eyes to the life lessons that God was giving me at this particular moment. He said that in a way he was grateful that I had experienced this and felt the way I did. He said: "You have a loving Heavenly Father who is very aware of you. Use this experience to shape who you become in the future and how you serve throughout your life. He is preparing you for great things in the future." He reminded me that a similar experience had happened to President Thomas S. Monson. (President Thomas S. Monson: Always “on the Lord’s Errand” by Jeffrey R. Holland, Liahona, October 1986). President warned that while I could benefit a lot from this experience I shouldn't let any feelings of guilt or thoughts of "what if" to enter my mind. As I reflected on this experience, I recognised that I should always have my priorities in order, to follow the Spirit more and that there is nothing more important than service and charity, the pure love of Christ.

This week we received a referral from Ederson and Josielle, recent-converts in our ward. He invited us to go teach his brother and his family. We drove a little while to get there and when we arrived we entered into their humble brick house and began to teach. We taught the message of the restoration and they paid close attention to every word we said. The most special moment was when Ederson and Josielle asked to bear their testimonies. The spirit testified the truths in theirs hearts in a way that perhaps our words didn't do. In the end, I helped Rafael, Ederson's brother, to pray. During his prayer he welled up with emotion and the spirit filled the room. It was the first time Patricia heard her husband pray out loud. They accepted to go to church and be baptised! Please pray for this wonderful family!

Yesterday we had the baptism of Nicolas! We faced a lot of obstacles on the way but in the end God's will was fulfilled and this young man entered the Lord's kingdom on earth through the waters of baptism. His mother was going to take him to the capital for the weekend but we spoke with her and showed her how much Nicolas had learned. She was very impressed when he recited to her the 10 commandments, including the word of wisdom and she asked: "Do you want to stay here for your baptism?" He nodded his head in a solid YES. Two of his cousins also went to church and the baptism was joyful and spiritual!

With Christmas coming up, we are getting in the spirit of the #LIGHTtheWORLD campaign made by the church or as it's called in Brasil, #SEJAaLUZdoMUNDO.

On the bus on the way to lunch today me and Elder Fly sang Christmas carols and gave away pass-along cards. It was a really cool missionary experience and people responded well to it. Can't wait to see all your beautiful faces of Christmas day!

Love you all,

Elder Torres