Week 82 (Week 36 Back in Brazil!)

 

 Pizza time!

"Just do it, make your dreams come true, just do it, nothing is impossible". I just wanted to take a moment and quote my guy Shia LaBeouf, specifically from a motivational video he made a long time ago, which became a bit of a meme. However, I love motivational speeches like this, because it reminds us of our incredible potential. I can testify to you all that that potential comes from our relationship with our Heavenly father, the God that created us, and loves us unceasingly. If you all have dreams and righteous desires, choose today to make a change, and give your all, because the grace of Jesus Christ is what lifts us beyond our normal capacity, "after all we can do".

I wanted to share this counsel with you all because, if there is anything I've learned in these last 2 years as a full time missionary of the lord Jesus Christ, it's that repentance is possible, meaning that we don't have to stay how we are, but we can change and become more like the savior Jesus Christ. 

This week was a blast, and reminded me of how grateful I am to be a missionary of the Lord! On Wednesday, we had our zone conference, in which we learned a lot about the new mission culture of "excellence" that our new mission president is installing. It was a very spiritually powerful meeting, in all honesty, and I learned about the importance of inviting the Holy Spirit in each and every one of our lessons and contacts with people. I also learned that God expects excellence from us. Does that mean when we falter that he stops loving us? No, but with that love, he still doesn't want us to stay where we are at, but to change for the better. 

"O melhor distrito do mundo!"

We also had the chance to visit our other areas, Itaqua and Vila Virginia, and visited a couple of members, as well as a guy named Joel from Pakistan. He doesn't speak much Portuguese, but he speaks good English, and Urdu as well. He showed us his Bible, which is written in Urdu as well, which was super cool to see! But he's a really sweet guy, just trying to start a new beginning here in São Paulo, but he came to know the missionaries through Facebook, and until now was speaking with missionaries from Germany. 

We also had an awesome family history activity this week, in which we helped 2 recent converts make church accounts, and create their own family trees! I was never much of a guru for family history, but lately I've realized just how cool and important it is to come to know our ancestors. If you haven't made your own family tree yet you can go to familysearch.org now and get started!

Fun family history activity of the Poá ward

Today as well, while visiting another mall in our area, we talked with 3 awesome workers at a sweet polo store, one of which, Anatriz, told us that she had already talked with missionaries about 8 years ago and was almost baptized, but decided not to a little bit before the date. She's a really cool individual though, along with Erik and Beatriz who also worked there. We grabbed their phone numbers, and hope to get to know them better and strengthen their faith in the savior!

Boy do we love Itaquá!!

But anyways, that was my week! I hope you all had a miraculous and wonderful week, Love y'all!

~Elder Kasey Lightheart