August 25, 2018 -- Salvador (Ondina)

monday we had an early morning picking up some missionaries from the interior that were coming to the capital and a nice meeting with president to plan for the zone conferences! we were able to get some lunch with vitalina and her son before we completed some more office work. everytime i see vitalina she tells everyone we are with about 'elder cruz and elder prince are the elders that studied with me. i love them" its so uplifting to see her and how the gospel has blessed her life. we had FHE at Diego's home and we took Matheus with us. Elder sorocaba gave a nice message about parenting and how important fathers our in a childs life, just like Our Heavenly Father is so important in our lives!

Lunch at Vitalina's house

Irma Telma

 


[a note about the photos--Vitalina sends me photos on Facebook anytime she has Sam over for lunch. I'm very grateful for how kind she is to the missionaries!]

tuesday was a looong day. We had our zone conference (v good, nice spirit) and a trip to the airport. the trip to the airport ending up being alittle bit of a disaster because one sister forgot her passport (missed her flight but she got a later one) and the other sister almost wasnt allowed to board the plane! a stressful few hours. 

Salvador Zone at Zone Conference

wednesday our zone had interviews in the office so it was a bit wild here during the morning but we were able to accomplish some good things without getting distracted. Elder Gray and I made a run to the post office to mail some documents to some church lawyers in another state. super fun. At night we visited Dalva, one of our investigators, and talked to her about church and how she liked sunday. she said she loved it and wants to get baptized! but because shes a little older and she fell down some stairs and got hurt last week it probably wont be for a month. She is awesome and has given us all nicknames (elder isn't that hard to remember??). Elder Gray is "21" Elder Sorocaba "16" and I "17". Where she got these numbers is yet to be determined. After we visited a few investigators to mark other visits this week. 

thursday was a real nice day. mostly the part at night when we got to leave the office and go teach!! We had a lesson with Antonio, Luciana and Suelen about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. right when we got their we started talking to them about their reading and what they thought of church on sunday and they said they loved it and started talking about their marriage and baptism!!! without us asking!! usually when we tell someone they need to get married they start kinda shying away but we got there and they just started "well yeah we talked about the marriage and thought it was a really good idea for us so that when can be baptized." I kinda sat there in shock, oh how the Lord blesses us. we then proceeded to have an awesome lesson about baptism and the sacrament. and after they gave us hot dogs hahah. i dont think i have ever been fed so much by strangers like I have here in Bahia. and yes mom my stomach is holding up just fine. We also visited Douglas and he said he would like to come to church on sunday, if the water isnt too rough for fishing... oh well.

Friday was extremely uneventful until about 5 in the afternoon. The assistants called us and asked if we could do a division with them because they had double booked their night (we are in trio) so i got myself over to their area for the lesson. once we got to the investigators lesson it fell thru because of some certain circumstances that i wont mention or mom will get scared. but also right at that moment President called us to run some important errands for him so it was a successful night after all, just not exactly how we expected.

today i have gotten my hair cut. thats about it. 

Elder Prince (with haircut), Elder Sorocabo, Elder Gray

this week i finished the Gospel of Mark. I have been reading books in the new testament lately and it has been so cool for me. I love the story of Christ's life. "tell me the stories of Jesus, i love to hear". There were a few different stories and parts that stuck out to me but one that i truly love is the story of the young rich man. I think i have written about this before, but i think its so important that we realize what Christ responded and how he responded. before he told this rich man to give up his life, he loved him. "Then Jesus beholding him loved him," (Mark 10:21)  Most days we can probably find something in our neighbor that we don't like, or a certain manner a member of our family acts or does things that might be wrong. The people around us are able to see lots of faults and mistakes we make without us ever noticing them. The most important thing we can do to help ourselves and others is be loving and humble in these moments so that we might improve and they might improve as well. God's plan for us is about growing and becoming better, not being perfect right now, so its important that we look at the world through a more loving lense. there is good in everything and everyone

Elder Prince