Hey ok so it was a crazy week and a good one too!
So Elder M. from Brazil is super great! He has a nickname in the mission that is "gringo falso" or fake American in English hahaha. He is super white and blue eyed for a Brazilian. He kind of looks like a soldier from the hunt for Red October or something like that. We are great friends and doing great. Ok so D. disappeared completely again this week so that was a pretty huge bummer. We think he's gone for good this time. Pretty sad. Good news is that other than that it was a really good week, mostly because the family of S. is super interested and progressing right now and should be getting baptized in June if all goes well which will be like the biggest event in Puren for like 10 years I bet. if the dad P. gets baptised it will totally rock Rama Puren's world and he'll prob be branch president in not very much time. They really started to progress when we stopped focusing on the doctrine almost entirely (other than repentance and baptism) and just really focused on inviting the spirit to the lessons through testifying about the Book of Mormon. L. and S. came to church and P. whould have but they have to take turns Sundays taking care of their son who has some pretty tough special needs. That family is dominating like 80% of my focus right now because it will be a huge blessing if they get baptized. S. and the mom L. pretty much already have their spiritual confirmations (also a dream again lol) so the main challenge with them now is help them stay convicted and to recognize the answer they have recieved. I suspect P. also has his answer but we just need to bring it out of him a little hahaha. I think the Book of Mormon will be really important to him as he reads it. We have had some seriously crazy dynamic dramatic lessons over there including a family prayer to ask if they should get baptized in June with a pretty positive response. It's kind of crazy how blessed we are to be teaching them. I just really really hope they'll get baptized this transfer. Pray for them by name please! We will be dedicating a lot of time and thought to them this week and for the next several. They are super awesome and S. already wants to be a missionary. Other than that we have been super blessed while looking here in Puren. The guitar is so effective I feel like im cheating. It just invites the spirit so well it's hard to say no. I think we have had more fire this week than in all my mission and we just need to keep it up and keep working crazy hard. We are teaching a lot still with the Book of Mormon. Hna M. and the food is getting to be too much. I think I might go on a hunger strike until she accepts my terms of like 1/2 portions or even 1/3 of what she usually gives me. She's our ear on small town missionary gossip and from what she tells us the people here are starting to take note of our new attitude of service and music and we have a way better reputation now. It shows too. People are all of a sudden way nice to us. Elder M. has a ton of faith too, so that is helping. He is totally awesome and his trainer did a great job so he can do pretty much everything he needs to do. We are great friends now to boot. I'm learning so much about following the guidance of the spirit here in Puren. It really is everything in missionary work. Doctrinal knowledge and arguments are like the biggest teachign pitfall missionaries have by far. No one gets baptized for doctrine. If you can find me one convert who got baptized because the doctrine made sense, I'll eat my gross missionary shoes. Everyone you ask will tell you they got baptized because of the feelings they had as they learned and prayed and went to church. Actually P. and his famliy were investigating more than once with other missionaries before but never even touched baptism or going to church and now they are totally all excited to keep progressing, and I know it's because of the focus me and Elder M. have on teaching by testimony and challenges. I want so bad that they get baptized I'm going crazy. I can really tell that God wants them in His church really bad. Shoot I dont have a ton of time to write again today I'm sorry I'll do better next week! I love you all and I'm doing great here and I'll be a better letter writer I swear! Keep writing and thanks for the emails! Trevor
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Elder Trevor SmithElder Trevor Smith is a Mormon missionary in the Chile Concepcion Sur mission, the same mission where his dad served. Although this is Trevor's own mission, he grew up hearing about the beautiful land of Chile and the loving people that inhabit it. These are the letters from his experience there. Archives
July 2017
|