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| Kenia w/ Elders Dawson and Singelo in Porto Alegre |
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| Cevanir in Porto Alegre |
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| Brother Manteigas |
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| Elders Lindsey and Dawson writing letters home |
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| Best Friend Lucas Castro in Porto Alegre |
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| Mateus (in sling) and not sure about others |
Querida Família,
We are great here in Pelotas!
We spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Porto
Alegre, but the rest of the week here was great!
Monday evening we got a bus to Porto Alegre, we had zone counsel on Tuesday
morning until afternoon and then we had to stay one more day for Elder Lindsey renovate
his visa. We got the first bus back to Pelotas
to not lose any time. The only person that I got to see while i was in Porto Alegre
was Mateus, that young man that always did splits with us, he is awaiting his mission
call!!! But the baptisms of Cevanir, Kenia were great and they are now teaching
several of Cevanir´s friends. I am still waiting for the pictures that Elder
Singelo promised me...
Claudio and Caia are doing great!! This week we did some follow-ups
and taught the plan of salvation for them. We are now teaching by drawing it
out...well neither one of us is a very good artist but they are understanding
so we will continue to teach this way :) We then leave the paper with them.
Caia is a very sweet person and is LOVING going to church and learning
everything. Claudio is very funny and is very "manly". He doesn’t
like to converse about God or religion a lot but he is becoming very much more comfortable
and paid a lot of attention when we taught the plan of salvation. Caia is
reading a lot of the Book of Mormon and is marking what she likes and is
learning, Claudio says he is reading very little but we will see. It is a very
good experience teaching with Elder Askonavieta. He teaches a lot sometimes but
we understand that this is his calling too and this should be a very special
experience for him. We talked to Claudio and Caia about baptism and they are
thinking about it. Got to love this family.
At the zone council in Porto Alegre President Castro talked
about some of the things that Elder Bednar, an Apostle, taught the mission and
some other subjects. President asked Elder Bednar how the mission would be able
to baptize more. He said that the missionaries need to understand that they are
literally working to save these people. That is our work, salvation; now you
know why I wanted to stay an extra month on the mission :). Elder Bednar taught
how we must be "agents", in other words, we must act! If we are not
doing something and being an agent, we are being an object! One receives the
action and the other just receives. When Israel
was passing the Jordan River they acted and
the river stopped, they passed on dry ground. But we are not working with
trees, rocks or inanimate objects, but with other sons and daughters of God
that are capable to act, react, make choices and progress. So we must help
these people to act, read the scriptures, go to church, obey the commandments.
We only invite others to act. In the Pearl of Great Price we read about Adam
and Eve hiding themselves from God because they were naked....Did God not know
where they were when he called for them? Of course he knew. He invited Adam and
Eve to ACT, to be AGENTS. When they presented themselves, we read that God
asked them to explain what happened. In not one moment did God "point
fingers". When we help investigators to act they are using their faith and
they will gain a testimony.
Another thing real cool is Elder Bednar´s personal library.
He has many copies of the Book of Mormon that he has read and studied, every
book with a subject. He chooses a subject, then reads and marks everything to
do with that subject and then rereads to understand all of the parts and the backgrounds,
he then writes a resume of everything he learned in one page. He said that doesn’t
let anyone, not even his kids, touch those books. Elder Bednar shared a
few other things that are in my study notebook.
Tell my other family, Lundbergs, hi!
Wow, Tell Jordan Abner hello! And that he will not be able
to wear his skirt to church anymore :) haha...did I say skirt, I meant lava-lava
or whatever you call it. But seriously tell him hi.
Hey, I am wanting to see pictures of the temple!!! Could you
send me some updated pics, let me know how it is going.
So there are a ton of older ladies that love the
missionaries here and they are always calling us and inviting us to eat cake,
pudding, sandwiches, pastel, it is great haha. We can’t always go, we rarely do
actually, but I am going to keep running in the morning to not gain a ton of
weight!! ha. Yesterday we got a call from Tia Nana who when we walked in had sandwiches
ready, followed by some cake and everything with a big glass of cold Coca-Cola,
haha.
This week all of the youth were at the campout. During
Carnival they all go out of town, the church is very smart to do this. So
yesterday at church it was very, very different, not that I don’t like the
youth, but it was way good!! We had the sons in law giving lessons and it was
all really, really good! All of the investigators loved it!!!
So I am sending pics of Mateus, Kenia, Cevanir, Elder Lindsey, and the baptism of Kauane.
This is the best time of my life and I am so glad that I am
here.
Love you all!
Elder Bradley Joseph Dawson
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