Wow, what a week! Elder Tolentino and I are dead tired. There have been so many miracles here! I will tell you all about it at the end of my email. But I will just say that us two are both dead getting home everyday, haha it is actually very nice! This is the best thing in the world!
So we do alot of planning for leadership conferences, zone conferences(usually there are two, one in porto alegre and one in pelotas, with half of the mision in each), special trainings, exchanges, emergency transfers, and much else. On the 22nd we will have a big leadership training here in porto alegre with all of the zone leaders, district leaders, and trainers and then on the 30th we will have the same training for all of the leaders in the southern half of the mission in pelotas. Unfortunately, we will have an emergency transfer for one elder monday night.
I am loving working so close to President Castro and his family! President Castro is a very wise, but humble man. This past monday we went to his house to have lunch and do several things related to the transfer that we had this last week. Sister Castro knows how to make a good lasanga :) That was very neat being at his house and seeing his family. We got to play a little bit with Lucas, his son with 7 years. And the other day when we came into to our office, we saw in a 7 year old´s handwriting on our white board, AMO VOCÊS or in other words, I love you two. :) Got to love Lucas!
This Tuesday night we had a ward family night about the missionrary work where we were able to share a message with the members to recieve references and play some games and eat some brasilian hot dogs. It was fabulous. There were many that were complimenting my portuguese, ha. Some asking if i was really an american. That was cool :) Especially because i don´t remember the last time that I had time to study portuguese in the morning.
Right now we are looking for more to do to help the missionaries, we don´t bombard them with a million meeting and trainings because there is something much more important they need to be doing, working! ha But we are having the chance to help many. Right now in the mission we have very very good missionaries. Many of the more or less missionaries (I don´t like to say that there is such a thing as bad missionaries, they are devoting 2 years of their life) have already gone home. Right now our focus is to help many of the new and young leaders on the mission to know how to do their job, how to acompany their missionaries and their missionarie´s investigators to baptism.
Right now there are 2 missionary couples serving here, the Burnetts and Dornelles, Both brasilian, but we should be receiving another couple here in a few weeks. But only the burnettts are here in the office, and sometimes only.
I have not been able to speak with Leonell but I have talked with the missionaries there and he is doing very well, and is ready to baptize his son and daughter coming up in a few weeks. The good people of Tunel Verde are missing me, and i am missing them, but work is work, and i am working :) So i am doing fine.
We have aton of investigators right now. We have plenty of time to work in our area actually. We mostly leave right after lunch to work all day! And no, President Castro and family live a little farther away and frequent another ward.
So let me tell you a little about our street contacts, there are a million people here in the city, and we do several street contacts for many people that don´t live in our area, but we pass their address for the missionaries that work in their nieghborhood. But we have been tearing it up with street contacts, talking to everyone, especially families. We already met the weekly goal of street contacts yesterday. But we have been praying alot recently to meet those that are ready for our message, especially those famileis that are ready. And this past week we have done several streeet contacts with several families that were very excited and anxious for our visit, we will try to visit many tonight and tomorrow.
Emerson and Bruna, We are helping them to get married and baptized on the 29th of september, this is an awesome couple, the two of them in their twenties and very cool. They have a little Herbalife store where the sell and make shakes for pepole, when we get money or don´t have lunch we always go there. They give us a price very cheap. Emerson is very intelligent, and very spiritual. He loves us missionaries and is trying to get us to join Herbalife and sell, because he knows taht we have communication skills. It is pretty funny. But there is a big difference in his desire to get baptized and him trying to get us to sell. Bruna, Is the same, but it is a little harder for her to understand the spiritual things, but she believes.
Ricardo...he should have about 28. Thursday night we were walking home and this guy started to talk english to me in the street and asked if we were the mormons. We talked to him, from a little farther away he looked like a normal man, but when he got close we could tell that he lives on the streets. Recently Elder Tolentino and I have talked about the people that live on the streets and their conditions, so this was interesting. We have many oopportunities to talk to homeless people that always ask things of us. But Ricardo is different, we were able to see it in him, and the spirit was able to tell us this. He had a succesful life, a family, work, education, but drugs took it all away. He has been living on the streets since march. I was able to give him a Book of Mormon that was with me, when i gave it to him and testified, i fealt like it was my first day on the mission again. The Spirit, the excitement, the joy in his eyes, he valorized the Book of Mormon for what it is really worth, he cried, i wanted to cry. We were able to help him stay in a hotel of two reais(money) an hour with a plate of food and shower. As promised, he showed up yesterday night at 7:00 at the church. He already looked like a new person, just one night of good sleep(showers were broken in the hotel) was able to transform him a little more. At the office we helped him to cut his beard and gave him sanitary things. A few white shirts, slacks, shoes, normal clothes. He looked a new man. But we are expecting a greater change. He understands the Book of Mormon, loves it, and is determined to change his life, please pray for him. We were able to get a job reference for him and he should be passing by there today. The first night we met him and helped him(completely guided by the spirit to do this), when he told us he misses conversing with people and friends, we told him that we are his friends, he cried and cried. Yesterday night he did a closing pray, the first prayer in his life. The Spirit was so strong, he finished and started to cry, excused himself and went to the bathroom, Elder Tolentino, Kunzler, Fernandes, and I just sat there enjoying the presence of the spirit. Great things will come, just wait. But please pray for him.
There are a few other miracle stories that i would love to tell you, but i just don´t have time. Ask me about Thiago this next week.
I love you all. I know that there is a great power in fast and that this is the work f the Lord. That a consecrated life is happy life.
Elder Bradley Joseph Dawson
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