Dear Mom and Dad,
I have not been as excited as I am right now for a while. I AM TRAINING AGAIN!!!! Yep I will finish my mission as a trainer. The Missionary department has started a new training program and the programs requires the trainer and the trainee to stay two transfers together, or three months. The missionary that I am training is named Elder Da Rosa ( or Elder of the Rose), fancy huh? He is a Brazilian from Ponta Grossa, a city in the state of Paraná.
He is a great missionary with a lot of desire and he works hard to involve himself in the work. When he was fourteen years old his father died. His father was playing cards with his brothers and then out of nowhere he had a stroke and died instantly. Elder Da Rosa said that nobody was expecting it, it just came out of nowhere, it was extremely difficult for his whole family. At fourteen years old Elder Da Rosa took upon himself a full work load and school. He worked with construction and has worked with construction ever since. He said that what happened with his dad made him grow up quick. He also said that it helped him discover what occupation he would have, due to his experience with consruction he wants to be a civil engineer.
We get along great and we are enjoying eachothers company.
Along with my new companion we are opening up an area. São Geraldo is it´s name. It is far far awy from the mission office. Actually, it is in another state. My whole mission has been in the state of São Paulo, but I am know in the city of Pouso Alegre in the state of Minas Gerais. They say that Minas is like the hillbilly state of Brazil, so I am feel at home. Everyone tells me that Mineiras (women from Minas Gerias) make the best food, so I am excited for that. It is the farming capital of Brazil so the cheapest cheese, milk, and homemade sweets are all within my reach.
The hard part is that the church is extremely weak here, it isn´t a stake, it is district. Whixh means that there are no wards, only branches. Also the city is famous for it´s ´´Catholic Roots´´ so I hear. Nevertheless, notwithstanding, we will labor dilligently. I know the Elders that have been in this area for the last year. And there has been many baptisms, but also many people have gone inactive. The number of people in the branch dips down to 32 people a week some times.
We have high goals and we are sure that with Heavenly Father at our side we can make a big difference here. We wnt to baptize families, future church leaders, we want to leave this place a heck of a lot stronger than we found it.
I feel like Ammon when he started his mission among the Lamanites, I work to have the same amount of success that he did. I love you so much and I can and will wait to see you in three months, but right now that is the last thing on my mind. Keep the faith.
Abraço,
Elder Nothum
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Hey fam,
When we teach the first lesson in our mission there is a basic lesson plan that almost everyone follows. It involves a flip chart of pictures and we explain as we flip the pictures. We don´t use repetition, but we always follow the same principles pretty much. Well the first part is God is our loving Heavenly Father and the gospel blesses families, this part doesn´t have a picture. The next part is God calls prophets in each dispensation, we use a picture of Isaiah receiving reveltaion about the birth of Christ. Then we talk about the Savior and his ministry. We use first a picture of his baptism and we explain how Christ was baptized and how we must be baptized.
This past Sunday we were teaching the first lesson to a family. They were all Catholic and when we got to the part about baptism the husband of the young couple got a little irritated. He stopped the lesson and said ´´You two can teach whatever you want to me about how Christ was baptized, but you won´t change my opinion. In my church I was baptized and it was different and don´t need to baptized this way. That is my opinion and I am not going to change.``
Usually at these point I think in my head ´´these are not the elect, or, they are not ready for this message yet.`` And I try my best to blow through the lesson so we can find people who want to hear the message. But this time was different.
I suddenly felt the great need to bear a humble testimony. I don´t remember word for word what I said. I do however, remember what I felt. I felt as though the Lord was putting those words in my mouth because they were the words that the family needed to hear. They all felt the spirit and they just stared at me when I finished, they didn´t say a word. They seemed perplexed, I sure was.
When we invited them to baptized in the end, they all accepted. I know that when we bear humble testimony, without pride or arrogance, but with compassion and love, the Lord puts those words in the hearts of others through the spirit.
We went to the home of this couple to follow up and see how the reading of the book of mormon went. THEY READ! And more importantly they felt something different. We will visit them tomorrow. They are a great young couple with a beautiful young daughter. Their names are Jailson and Aline.
I love you all and wish you the best.
-Elder Nothum
When we teach the first lesson in our mission there is a basic lesson plan that almost everyone follows. It involves a flip chart of pictures and we explain as we flip the pictures. We don´t use repetition, but we always follow the same principles pretty much. Well the first part is God is our loving Heavenly Father and the gospel blesses families, this part doesn´t have a picture. The next part is God calls prophets in each dispensation, we use a picture of Isaiah receiving reveltaion about the birth of Christ. Then we talk about the Savior and his ministry. We use first a picture of his baptism and we explain how Christ was baptized and how we must be baptized.
This past Sunday we were teaching the first lesson to a family. They were all Catholic and when we got to the part about baptism the husband of the young couple got a little irritated. He stopped the lesson and said ´´You two can teach whatever you want to me about how Christ was baptized, but you won´t change my opinion. In my church I was baptized and it was different and don´t need to baptized this way. That is my opinion and I am not going to change.``
Usually at these point I think in my head ´´these are not the elect, or, they are not ready for this message yet.`` And I try my best to blow through the lesson so we can find people who want to hear the message. But this time was different.
I suddenly felt the great need to bear a humble testimony. I don´t remember word for word what I said. I do however, remember what I felt. I felt as though the Lord was putting those words in my mouth because they were the words that the family needed to hear. They all felt the spirit and they just stared at me when I finished, they didn´t say a word. They seemed perplexed, I sure was.
When we invited them to baptized in the end, they all accepted. I know that when we bear humble testimony, without pride or arrogance, but with compassion and love, the Lord puts those words in the hearts of others through the spirit.
We went to the home of this couple to follow up and see how the reading of the book of mormon went. THEY READ! And more importantly they felt something different. We will visit them tomorrow. They are a great young couple with a beautiful young daughter. Their names are Jailson and Aline.
I love you all and wish you the best.
-Elder Nothum
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