October 1, 2018 -- Morada dos Passaros (Vitoria da Conquista)

monday was a chill p day. we got elder machado's hair cut at a members house and then slept all day. also got MCDS. we spent the night following up some people that missed church on sunday and we visited Luceni. she is a lady that is trying to quit smoking and has been enjoying church. Her kids moved out because she was smoking so much but now she has cut down her habit a lot. we used to go to her house and not be able to breathe becasue it was so bad and her fingers were all burned from the homemade cigarettes but its getting better! she has been trying to memorize the restoration pamphlet and tries to repeat it to us everytime we go there. She is learning a lot but still has a while to go!

tuesday we found an awesome family! Cleiber Lucitana and their children welcomed us in quickly after we knocked on their door and started to ask us who we were. we taught them the first lesson and right as we got to the First Vision they started telling us about how Cleiber´s uncle had the same questions and he had prayed and had share these questions with the whole family and they have been searching ever since! it was a cool lesson but lucitana doesn't know how to read and their children "don't have time" to help her so we hope we can have some good visits to be able to help her read and gain a testimony of the Book of mormon. we also spent the day following up with some people and reminding Maria of her baptismal date. she was all for it and super excited but her mom was visiting from the farm and she didnt think that these little missionaries were all that. She is a longtime member of an evangelical church so we sat down and went thru the 3rd lesson with her explaining the doctrines and importants of faith repentance baptism and the gift of the holy ghost! it was a nice lesson and we got her approval. the funny part is the maria is 50 and her mom is like 80 hahaha. 

wednesday we had a bunch of lessons fall through so we did lots of contacts and asking our contacts for references. and it worked out! we had another awesome lesson with a family in the neighborhood we have been working in and they asked lots of questions. but the whole time their little 2 year old was screaming his head off so it was kinda annoying. we also taught stella and thabata about family history and helped her to start her family tree! we were able to do up until her grandparents but then she didn't have enough information to continue. she has been having some persecution from her family who are in other churches and she has been kinda down this week so it was really nice to have a good lesson with her! she was all smiles on sunday and loved church even though she is passing thru a few problems. We were also able to get out and do some visits to less active young men with the young mens president and we found some less active families that we are visiting now! we came up to one house and were asking about the young man and he said " you're looking for victor? that's me" then went inside and called his mom. while his mom came out and talked to us he got on his bike and rode away as fast as possible hahaha. gotta love it.

thursday we had weekly planning and a really distant lunch so it kinda shook up our day. but we were able to teach some lessons and a few of our investigators went to the branch activity at the chapel! it was a good night!

saturday we had a really far lunch again but we were able to have a super cool lesson with a reference that we got from the sisters. Sara lost her mom a year ago and stopped going to her church becasue she was so hurt. we had a really nice conversation with her about the plan of salvation and she just about told us her life story within 15 minutes of meeting her. it was cool becasue she alrady had a solid knowledge of the scriptures so when we outlined the plan of salvation for her she just started asking questions about her mom. i felt like for every 3 sentences i spoke she asked a question about her mom! it was a cool experience!

sunday i gave a talk in church (yes i still hate public speaking) and it was so fun to sit on the stand and watch 3 less active families walk into sacrament meeting! it put the biggest smile on my face. they told us that they all really enjoyed being in the church meetings again. we visited some references with a member on the other side of our area and did a good amount of walking in the after noon. this week i have been thinking a lot about the blessings we receive for living the gospel. they're big and they're real! all we need to do is put the teachings of Christ in pratice in our lives and we can see the huge effects they have! John 7:17

love you guys

Elder Prince

[Sam's travel plans came on Thursday! He returns to Salt Lake City on Friday December 7! Mark your calendars! His homecoming will be Sunday December 16.]