Week 62 (Week 16 Back in Brazil!)

 

Walking the roads of Brás Cubas!

"Stand still and see the salvation of God" (Ex. 14:13). I have always loved this scripture, but man, it really came to my mind this week! I can't say my companion and I stood still per say, but we did work really hard and certainly saw the hand of God!

Earlier this week we were thinking of a way we could have great conversation with all of the people in our records that we have talked to in the past, and we decided to ask an inspired question. I came up with the following question, "if you could stand face to face with God and ask him a single question, what would you ask?", and man, we got so many responses!! It was so cool to talk with all these people about their various questions and concerns, and many ended up having the very same questions. Then, the next day we had 9 lessons scheduled, of which 4 happened, and a fifth simply consisted of offering a prayer over the phone. In fact, this week we had many of those phone calls, where we simply offered to say a prayer with these people and, in the mean time, explained a little bit about prayer and scheduled another lesson with them. But it was so nice to have so much contact with these wonderful people.

Burger King pitstop.

We also met a new person named Juliana who is super interested! We explained a little about the Book of Mormon, and about God's plan of happiness for his children, and then the other day delivered a Book of Mormon to her. Technically, she isn't in our area, and lives just outside in another ward boundary, but we still are the closest missionaries to her. In fact I think I'm going to talk with our mission President about adding this ward to our area, because there is another companionship that covers this area, but lives quite a distance from it. So it only makes sense that rather we would cover the area, especially considering we only cover one ward right now, and these other elders cover four. But nonetheless, we will probably continue to work with Juliana for now, and coordinate with the other elders and the members in the area as well.

Piano practice and fun!

We also had the chance to help out with a service project today, constructing/renovating a house for a member in our ward. It was so fun to do hands-on work again, and to wear the "Helping Hands" yellow vests. I've always seen members of the church with these vests or t-shirts doing service projects, but never got to wear one myself, until now! After some hard work digging up some ground for piping, and putting new roofing on the house, we all ate some "Churrasco" or Brazilian barbeque, which was super good, and then left to shower and rest a bit. Let me tell you, the next day my companion and I were very sore, but it was certainly worth it to get out there and help a little. 

Awesome ward service project

I also had a few questions for my previous companion Elder Souza, and just wanted to see how he was doing, so we had a video call with him, and oh man he got me good! Sometime in the last couple months Elder Souza smashed an egg on my head when we were taking out our trash, and I never was able to get him back. But at the end of our video call, he said he wanted to talk alone with my companion Elder Costa. After they finished talking, I went to say goodbye to Elder Souza, and my trainee smashed an egg on my head!! I just froze, the cogs turning in my head, unable to believe that Elder Souza pranked me AGAIN, using my own trainee. But it was hilarious, oh my goodness, except for the fact that my hair smelt like eggs the rest of the day.

Elder Souza's "Prank" call.

But anyways, that was my week! It certainly was one of the more productive and spirit-filled weeks I've had in a while, so I'm super grateful to God for blessing us so much!! But I pray that you are all doing great as well! Take care!

~Elder Kasey Lightheart

Our adventure to the town park :).