President Costa

Wow, I will have to email all of you... Monday (wow I almost forgot the name of Monday)

We had a fantastic conference with President and Sister Costa, the area president and his wife. I will just send a scripture that encompassas the greatest thing I learned.

D&C 121 Verses 45-46 I think.

That we need to be full of charity. If we do this, the Lord promisses that the Douctrine of the Priestood will distill upon our souls as the dew from heaven.

I understood this promise to a new degree. It's difficult to describe but we will know the ''why'' of many things. Understanding and Knowledge are things that are a lifelong search.

I left that meeting with new purpose and determination!
(To be continued monday)
Love,
Elder Wallace

A Fuba cake Elder Ashby made me for my birthday.  Me eating it.  Zona Uberlandia.

Joseph Smith Was Almost Born In November!

Well this week was full of ups and downs!
We worked ourselves sick, literally.

Thanks for all the awesome photos, I'm sure the people in the internet cafe think I have a problem because of how I am laughing and smiling now. My computer neighbors are probably sick of me saying, "hey, look at this!" every time I open an email from mom with photos.

This first transfer with Elder Ashby has been really rewarding, I've learned a lot and I'm amazed at all the progress he's making.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I love hearing about all the great stuff everyone is doing to share the Gospel or strengthen others. It will all be worth it, this I promise you.

We're going to keep working with our family that is keeping commitments, but I think we will have to cut a few families that are not. It's hard because I know it's a hard change for them, but that's what would make the change sooo rewarding. I have to remind myself that God has people prepared and waiting for us, people that have the desire and are not baptized just because they don't know where to find the truth.

This week I was cringing in fast and testimony meeting as a few apostasies were spoken:
A lady that said she prays to joseph smith (whoops)
A man that said the Book of mormon is a new bible.... (nooo!)

Haha, I know the church is true and that the most important thing is for my investigators to feel the spirit. I just pray really hard that they aren't paying atention when those things are said!

Love you tons!
Elder Wallace

Esta Semana

Thanks for all the Emails, it's fantastic to hear from everybody.

I can tell you I will sleep a lot this pday, Elder Ashby and I are pretty beat. This week we've been filling our planners to the brim. There is literally not an empty space on there (I'll have to send a pic).

Last P-day we actually went and did something instead of sleeping the day away! (Which is probably why we've been so tired all week haha) We went to parque do Sabia. It's a lake/park that has some cool animals. We almost went to the aquarium but Elder Hayden told us it looks like the place you buy fish in Wallmart.
We walked around a bit, drank coconuts, ate mangos, and even saw a few monkeys! I took WAY more pictures of the monkeys than anything else. We almost fed them from our hands but decided it would be better to stay here in the mission than go home with some weird virus from a monkey bite.

We have a bunch of people that will come to church, but they mainly have one of two obstacles: Word of Wisdom, and getting Married!
Needless to say We will be teaching some powerful spirit-filled law of chastity lessons.

Where's the foto of your costume mom? and dad? haha.
Thanks for the birthday wishes! You can repeat them this next week too! Happy happy birthday for Jess and Tanner. Mom only needs to make two cakes in November now. haha.

So I've been trying to work a lot more with the members. We've taught a lot of incomplete families and people that have stopped coming to church. Not any success YET. We've had a couple of lessons where we are trying to rescue somebody, but we end up leaving the house a bit depressed. It is so so important to listen to the councils of our prophets about when we have doubts, I won't get into details.

One of these lessons was really great, I was talking with Elder Ashby after and we had both felt the reason that that person had left the church, it was something so very very quiet from the spirit, but we both had felt it. In that lesson I opened my scriptures to leave a part for her to read, I looked at Elder Ashby and he had already opened to the exact verse that I was going to leave. Very spiritual and I knew in that moment that we were teaching what the Lord wanted.

Have a fantastic week, send more pics!
Love
Elder Wallace

Batisamos Para Exaltar!

Oi familia!
Let's see if google translate will function.

Estou muito animado pois estamos trabalhando somente com familias! Claro vamos batisar outras pessoas, mas estamos batisando para exaltar, nao somente salvar.
Tinhamos uma conferencia muito bom com o presidente Kuceki. Eu estou orando que podemos batisar uma familia por semana, e realmente O Senhor esta cumprindo a parte dele. Encontramos 3 familias, cada um pode batisar nas semanas seguintes!

Ontem a noite eu estava muito cansado. Nos andamos e andamos e muitos comprimissos cairam. Mas Eu tinha  a sentimento que vamos trabalhar ate o po e o senhor vai nos abençoar com uma familia. 15 minutos ate 9 horas nos entramos uma casa e ensinamos uma mae e a filha dela. Encontramos batendo portas (raramente alguem deixa voce entrar aquela horario a noite). Elas sentiram o espirito e vamos voltar la no sabado. Se elas cumprem os compromissos, vamos ter 3 familias!

Eu tenho um testemunho dessa maravilhosa obra. Eu sei que quando nos trabalhamos com o espirito e planejar bem, o senhor guia cada minuto de nosso dia. Ele coloca a gente pra falar com eleitos, encontrar menos ativos, e buscar tuas ovelhas perdidas.

One cool experience was when Elder Ashby (who is learning very quickly) stopped a man that was entering his house, that I would have let pass. Turns out he was baptized a long time ago, we had a great lesson with him and called him and his wife to come back.

Amo voces MUITO!
Elder Wallace

Treinador!

Wow. Where to start.

So this week has been fantastic. Elder Castro's prayers were answered, and he was transfered on tuesday haha. There were two pairs of missionaries here in Planalto, but now it will be just me and my companion, Elder Ashby.

They don't come much greener, haha. He is fantastic, fresh from the US where he was waiting for his visa in Sandy, Utah. By the way, he is from sandy, Utah.... He served there for 1 transfer, kind of funny, but he didn't run in to anyone he knew really well.

I was suprised when I found out I will be training an american. I was super super excited but I was praying the whole day before I went to get him. I know I will need the Lord's help. A Lot. I trust in him completely, and I feel like we're going to have a lot of success because we'll be compelled to rely on the lord!

We met quite a few people this week and three of our investigators went to the church. We'll have two baptisms in the beginning of october, which is awesome because that will help Elder Ashby expect that we baptize every week (that's also my goal from now on).  I'm pushing him really fast. I already lived with someone training an american and they didn't let him do anything because they didn't think he could.
Elder Ashby is growing really fast because he will DO everything that he doesn't think he can do. haha. This is his first week, and he is talking to people in the street, teaching a little bit too. He even invited two people to be baptized, and we will mark a date with one of them this week!


I feel like a proud father... haha.
I'm really excited to be here in Planalto because now that there's just one pair of missionaries I'm teaching everyone that I was teaching with Elder Castro, AND all the people that Elder Peterson was teaching. pretty fantastic because I love having a planner jam packed. We're going to need a lot of help from the members to visit everybody.

Love you tons!
Elder Wallace

Cansado, Mas Feliz

If I could choose one word for this week it would be tiring. There are lots of days that I am tired, I've never slept so solidly in my life as I have during the mission. But this week I was WAY tired. We fast pretty often here and it's getting pretty hot outside! funny how the weather gets hotter in winter here.

I've been tired but always trying to be happy. Some highlights of my week are when Elder Castro and I are teaching and I can see when the person we are teaching doesn't understand and I used examples to help them understand. I've got some pretty awesome examples I like to use for the lessons. (do you remember Jilo? that nasty veggie? I like the parabola of the Jilo and cake to teach about the fall)

Another thing I love doing now is talking with people in the street. I've gotten way better at that, but this week I learned that I should listen to the spirit even in street contacts. For example usually a third of the people we talk to give their address to us, but when we go to their house they don't want anything. This week I learned that if I pay attention, the spirit helps me know who has real intent or not. This is awesome because we don't waste time chasing people that just give us an address and don't have desire to hear.

I've also been changing up the contacts I make, usually it's something about the restoration or gospel, but The plan of salvation is fun to talk to people about too. I'm amazed when I stop to make a contact and the words just flow. Really my prayers have been answered in this aspect.

This week we had Stake conference, held in our chapel. It wasn't made to hold that many people! haha. I wish I had my camera with me at the time, there wasn't a single empty seat.

Some cool things that our inspired president has done:
1. Established a goal of talking to 100 people per week in the street. (I got about 65 this week and I'm determined to get 100!)
2. removed the "Introductory lesson" So this was a lesson that you memorize almost word for word. We always used it in the first visit. It was great at the start of the mission because I could teach without knowing much portuguese. But I'm LOVING teaching more freely now. There are some missionaries that have taught this lesson their entire mission!

Anyway I'm doing great. Elder Castro is crazy to be transferred! haha he has 6 months here. I hope everyone is healthy and well and always looking to do more than we think is necessary.

This week I read alma 2, where alma leads the nephites to battle the wicked lamanites and anlicites. Alma finds himself fighting for his life against Anlici, and he starts to lose... He cries to lord, 'have mercy on me and spare my life, so that I can be an instrument in thy hands to bring this people to salvation'. And he is strengthened, slaying Anlici (name in portuguese)

We have times in our lives that we start to lose 'the battle'. I love when Book of Mormon heroes pray to be instruments in the lord's hands. I know that if we give our life to him he will make more out of us than we ever thought possible.

Love you all,
Elder Wallace

Fotos:
I spent last pday in division with Elder Daniel (from Sao paulo)
We made pizza
3. Elder Castro eats tons of eggs because he wants to get buff before he gets home. I doodled on them. Kinda weird, I know. haha.

 

We ate lunch at Carmens house, a member that has 19 exotic birds, very cool.

Pictures!

Wow, so a picture is worth a thousand words, that's why it takes so long to upload!
This week was great, I had splits with other missionaries two times, both of which I decided to go big and mark baptismal dates, I marked 4 for the 5th of October!

We met some people that have really been prepared by the Lord. It's amazing how different people can be but when they hear the message of the Restoration and the spirit touches their hearts. They don't know why but they want to know more.

Elder Castro (my companion) is pretty much fasting to be transferred, haha. He's been in this area for quite some time.

Love you all tons!
Elder Wallace