Tuesday pday 07.17.2017

Hey everyone,

    This last week was a lot of work. We have been working a lot with 2 families that we have and if everything goes well there will be 3 baptisms this week. It will be of Daniel, Lara, and Ianca. They are the children of Ronaldo and Fabiana. We are working with the whole family, but the parents aren't quite ready to be baptized, but the children are more than ready! This week we watched the church film "The Restoration" with them, about the story of Joseph Smith and it brought the spirit really strong. We then bore our testimonies and answered a few questions that they had. 

    The other family is Jerson and Leonardo. The mom isn't interested, but the dad went 2 times to the church and the son once. They are liking the church a lot, but just think that they need to prepare more to be baptized, and so we are helping them to feel prepared. They should be baptized this next week as well.

 

    This week was also Zone Conference. Zone conference is always great. We slept at the house of the Zone Leaders and then got back today early. At the zone conference we talked a lot about our purpose here on the mission as well as how we can better let the spirit teach our investigators. That we don't convert, but the spirit converts. It was really great and as always motivational. If we are keeping all the commandments and the rules of the mission we will have the spirit with us more and will baptize more converts. We also talked a little bit about how having a clean house, keeping things organized and being financially safe helps us feel the spirit more. The house of God is a house of order and if we keep our house in order we will feel the spirit more. Things that i hadn't thought about before. Even having a dirty room makes it harder to feel the spirit. I have a lot to learn still on the mission and plenty of time to learn it. 

Elder Smith with President Lacerda....on Facebook messenger.

And as for how we trust God, literally all we have to do to trust in Him is to keep the commandments. If we are doing everything right then we know that God will keep his part of everything. Obedience is the best way that we can show trust.

We ate this huge snack at a food truck getting back home Wednesday. We cut it in half and ate the whole thing. I wasn't strong enough to eat my whole half so I brought back a small piece home, but Elder Cruz ate the whole thing. This was after splitting that pudding that you are seeing in half at lunch and eating the whole thing. It was a great day.

Questions:

Are you taking good care of your teeth?  Any problems.  Do you wear your retainer at all?

I am taking good care of my teeth yes. I wear my retainer maybe 2 times a week.

Do you feel confident as a missionary now?  How do you help others feel that?

I feel confident as a missionary. I know how to help people and what I need to do during the day, but I am always improving my teaching and the way I work.

Have you formally "trained" a companion yet?  Are you preparing to?

I haven't trained anyone yet. Elder Cruz is on his third transfer and so was Elder Papalino, so I have worked with greenies, but I haven't trained. To be honest I don't want to train very much. It is a lot of responsibility and if the companion is estrangeiro I have to do a lot more work teaching and making contacts.

What brand and size are your shoes?  Do you think you could get good shoes there, or should we send some soon?

I think that I use Johnston Murpheys size 10, but 10.5 in other brands. I haven't looked at shoes here, but I think that if I buy new shoes it will be from here. For 30$ I can get decent shoes, I would buy more insoles to put in them. Shoes here are a lot cheaper, the quality isn't as good but it works to use. I am not looking for new shoes yet. I might here soon because the backs of the black shoes are socks. 

Until next week!

-Elder Smith