We had a member of the MTC presidency in our sacrament meeting. That meant he heard my mediocre piano playing and a confused prayer in portuguese (I had forgot I was giving the prayer while I was playing and about 3 people had to whisper across the chapel to me!) He was there because the two portuguese districts are combining. It makes sense because more people are able to get their visas to Brazil and can go straight to the Brazil MTC, so it is a real blessing in the work.
We also found out that 35 new missionaries are coming into our zone this week!! 12 are sisters, so it looks like we will have something to do in our assignment. One of them is international so she is meant to be coming sometime today. We just get to live next to the phone incase front desk calls for us to pick her up and keep her with us for the day. We will get to welcome the rest tomorrow and give them a tour. We are also hosting tomorrow, which means we greet people when they arrive and carry their luggage and guide them (I had better get reaquainted with the map, as I remember my host got hopelessly lost!)
We taught some good lessons this week. Teaching the Elders is really useful because they love throwing questions at us, which means that we totally change our lessons and really trust the spirit to help us adapt. It is so exciting to have enough portuguese and scripture knowledge to be able to do that sufficiently. We have got through all the lessons with Irmao Barlow's investigator now and he is getting 'baptised' this week after getting over coffee. I am so grateful we were able to teach a full range of lessons to him, because Irmao Crestani's investigator can be like banging your head against a brick wall. It has been a blessing to though, because we've really learnt about being inspired with lessons and listening to his rushed Portuguese! He said last lesson was one of our best because we listened to him and gave his specific invitations- to read a scripture or pray each time he is tempted. I thought we had gone through it before, but something in the way we directly invited him and applied it to times in his life really clicked! Thank goodness, because I was getting into some pretty impassioned portuguese and really wanted to get through to the guy!
We got to SKYPE someone who lives in North Brazil and share a message with them on Friday. It was really scary and made more difficult because our connection was worse than everyone else's, which meant we could hear their people clearer. He gave us good feedback though, saying that we made him reflect about how he can use prayer more in his life and asked really good questions- so we must be learning, even when we are nervous!
Some funny stories- Elder Jenson is always making everyone laugh, including Irmao Crestani. Once this week, Irmao Crestani said 'te amo' (I love you) as he was cracking up and Elder Jenson repeats back 'Tiago!' (James) we were all just falling about laughing because he hasn't even realised his own mistake! Now it's our way of expressing love for each other! Also, in a mini lesson with with Elder Thomas where I had to pretend to be an investigator he asked me why I was fearful of getting baptised and I said my 'espousa' (rather than husband 'espouso') didn't like the church. It was a great moment and we almost ran with it! Glad to get some of these out of the way now, before we go into the mission field.
Today was the last day we could go to the temple (for 17 months!!! ahhh!) It made me concentrate a lot more during the endowment session though! It really struck me our our role as missionaries is just like the apostles: we are true messengers of God, here to bring more light and knowledge to people who are earnestly searching for it, just like Adam and Eve were searching for messengers from their father. That is really incredible! We have such a responsibility and I hope we are up to the task. I am so grateful that there could be nothing more worthwhile to do with my time. It was really emotional in the celestial room, because I felt like I wouldn't be returning. I have no idea what I am doing after this mission, but I distinctly heard Heavenly Father whisper to me twice 'just trust me for a little longer'.
Eu sei que esta Igreja é verdadeira. Somos missionarios de nosso Pai celestial. Ele ama todos as pessoas. Ele quer que nos voltemos de Ele e disfrutemos o plenitude de felizidade. Este é somente possivel por meio fé em Jesus Cristo e guardar seus mandamentos. Peço vocÊs convide seus proximos aprendem mais sobre o Evangelho restuardo.