 Teresina Brasil Mission   |
| Mayza´s house with Teresa Cristina and a few others |
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| bus ride to Teresina |
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| Helton came to say hi while we stayed overnight in Satélite |
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| We had a quick stop in Campo maior... and as we (with Iverson) were there i saw Eliane and Raimunda passing on a motorcycle! We took a quick pic then we had to head back to the bus |
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| bridge in Parnaiba |
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| ...just climbing some rocks! |
Companion: Elder Arrant
on the mish. it is pretty tough at the start, but you get used to it
and learn a lot with time. I hope you enjoyed Cali dad... that looked
like a little fun.. and i do know what you talk about when you talked
about the peace you feel in the temple.. in the mtc that really helped
me. Well keep me updated on mike anderson and whatever else is going
on... and i loved the pics! thanks.
This week we had a great experience to see Elder Bednar. We had
district meeting on tuesday to talk about that a little and we focused
on two talks he gave us. one was a leadership conference he did in
2006 called learn by faith or something... the other was a conference
talk called Ask in faith.... They are great talks if you wanna look
them up. Anyway, we went through the daily routine of lunch, then we
went to visit Brendon and Beatriz... they are brother and sister and
are 14 and 16 years old... decent investigators, but they havent gone
to church recently so it has been tough. We then visited Ribamar, a
less active, and we taught him about prayer, scripture study, and
going to church will help him get back on path... we ended up going to
get Nonato, raimundo, and joão and brought them back to ribamar´s
house to watch the joseph smith movie. . it was awesome... Nonato bore
a very simple, but awesome testimony and it was just very...
peaceful.. i dont know. i liked it though. To end the night we went to
Antonio and Osailde´s house and we talked to their son Neto a little.
I guess their daughter is in Teresina living with her boyfriend....
Neto is a free mason and i dont know what else he does... but he has
some pretty insane stories haha. It was a lot of fun there.
Wednesday we visited João paulo and we talked about scripture study...
something that Elder bednar said is that we are preparing our
investigators, as a parent prepares a child, to leave them.. so that
they dont depend on us as their testimony, as we dont depend on our
parents for everything anymore. i just feel that joao paulo isnt there
yet... which makes me nervous. somehow we need to help our
investigators use their own agency to gain a testimony and maintain
it... it´s tough work! But it is good. We had lunch that was far and
then some... then we had to go all the way back. We visited William,
someone that visits our english class, and we asked him if he knew
there was a prophet today, what he would ask him... he said ´i would
probably ask the lottery numbers so i could win.´ Yeah not the
greatest investigator. His idol is 50 cent... and he is a skronny
little man haha cracks me up. he is the opposite of 50 cent. Anyway,
we then went to Mayza´s house to teach Teresa Cristina. We taught a
little bit of english, then we watched the joseph smith movie with
them and a few others. The girls were pretty much crying by the end,
but it was good because mayza talked about her own baptism and how it
helped her.... when we were leaving, teresa said that she wants to get
baptized before elder arrant leaves.... it was awesome! just that she
needed to tell her family who probably wouldnt like it... We had one
more visit with Lester who is about 40, divorced and really wants to
follow christ... he has been to many different churches so we taught
him a little about joseph smith and all.. it went very well.
Thursday was went back to brendon and beatriz to watch the joseph
smith movie with them... so far it has worked everytime. they
understand what is going on a little better and it just brings a good
feeling into the room... awesome movie. We invited them to get
baptized and they said yes... but they still didnt go to seminary, nor
to the church so its gonna take a little more time. We got a call
later from our investigator lester that said he had feelings he
shouldnt talk to us anymore... we just told him to go to church on
sunday and see how he felt after that.
Friday.... 11/11/11. Cool. We tried to visit in the morning... but
they werent home. we pretty much got lunch, came home, went to the bus
station, and headed to teresina. We ended up staying in Satélite for
the night! good memories but i was missin my right hand man elder
bailey.
Saturday we got up early, got all ready and i called up my friend
Helton! He came and said hi and rode the bus with us to the center...
He said that he is going to conference this spring... so he´ll
probably stay at our house FYI. He is an awesome guy and it was good
to catch up with him. We went to the stake building to wait for elder
bednar. I saw a bunch of people that i hadnt seen for awhile... for
example elder robertson, elder martinez, elder larsen, elder
stewart... ah man it was sweet. i´ve made a lot of friends out here.
Elder Bednar and his wife came as well as Elder Godoy and his wife...
and if im not mistaken i saw Rasmussen (the presiding bishopric)
sitting on the stand... he didnt say anything though. It was a great
meeting. We all left feeling a lot better. He talked about those two
talks that he sent to us. He let us ask questions and everything... it
was awesome. he said that teaching is more than just standing up and
talking. we need to listen, observe, discern, and then as guided by
the spirit, we should talk. I dont know how to explain everything he
said, but it was 3 hours of just awesome. We had lunch, then we headed
home on the bus.... We had a quick stop in Campo maior... and as we
were there i saw Eliane and Raimunda passing on a motorcycle! We took
a quick pick then we had to head back to the bus. Made my day! We got
back to parnaiba safe and sound and got home at about 11 30 ish.
sunday i was pretty tired. church was good though. lester ended up
coming and he was very happy. He said he always feels good in the
church and had a good time. Teresa was there as well and was excited
and nervous to tell her parents her decision about baptism... We
talked to joão and Raimundo in their house... they werent able to go
to church so we went to make sure they were good. We also visited
Nonato down there... we started teaching his new friend Moisés... he
seems interested, but most of the people around there have drug
problems so it looks like it might be a little difficult. We had
teresa cristina call us and.... her parents pretty much rejected her.
she was crying on the phone a little and was very sad. I dont know
what to do now cuz her mom doesnt want us there.... We had our next
appointment fall through so we went to another house, but we ended up
just talking to this lady we met in the street. Her relative was there
and was all drunk haha it was funny. he gave me i think 3 cups of
coffee while we were there, Water, and Guaraná Soda, but i was too
scared he spiked it or something that i just handed all these drinks
to the lady we were talking to... she thought it was funny too. the
guy kept giving me head buts and telling us to bless him.... and he
went on doing a bunch of funny things.. never gets old. And that was
the end of our week.
today is my comp, elder arrant, last p day here... so we went to the
center to buy some stuff.... i got some stuff that ill send home with
him so if you want to go to his homecoming, i know its far, but he
will have some stuff for you guys... probably just another hammock and
some other stuff haha. But it will be on the 27th. So, he´s pretty
much the excitement recently... my comp leaves next week and i will
get a new comp during the next week..
Well thanks again for the updates... hope you have a good one.
Love ya,
Elder Tanner Smoot
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