Monday, October 24, 2016

Another week

Okay, another week! So I'll go through some of the big stuff that happened.

On tuesday, we did splits with the ward mission leader and one of the secretaries in the ward. Elder ONeill and the secretary went to our appointments, while the ward mission leader, Andre, and I went knocking doors. He gave us some ideas for contacting and a small lesson we could teach in ten mins, and we did super good! we got 6 lessons in 2 and a half hours! It was a good learning experience, and since tuesday Elder ONeill and I have been using that lesson plan to get lots of lessons. Its a really good way to determine who is going to be willing and ready to hear our message and who isnt.

I know I keep saying this, but this week was hot. On wednesday my comp and i thought we might pass away from dehydration and heat stroke. One of the things about Aracatuba is there never are any clouds, so were always in direct sunlight. you can see us going from side to side in the road wherever there is shade! Anyway, we were walking and we passed by something beautiful: A little stand that sold cold coconut water. nothing in the world coulve been as good as that coconut water was. my companion is one of the people who doesnt like it, so he chugged a little more than half of his and gave the rest to me because he couldn't drink the rest. Definitely a highlight for me!

So a little update on Portuguese. This week was good! During a lesson with a new investigator, I was actually able to understand everything that he was saying, and I was able to have a normal conversation with him, it was so fun! I am slowly able to understand and speak more. But one thing that's interesting is that somedays are better than others. For example, Saturday was worse with the language. For some reason I couldn't really understand anybody that well! I guess that's just a part for learning, somedays i can understand better and others I cant. I just need to keep reminding myself that someday Ill get it, and Ill be able to speak with everyone! 

So with Mourilo (that's how to spell his name I figured out), he has a testimony and likes to read and pray, but he has family that was baptized and I don't know if they're active anymore. Because of this, I'm pretty sure hes being told by more than one person that the church isn't worth the time. Because of this, its been pretty much impossible to get him to church. He always has other things that he needs to do. We even got a member to pick him up! But he still hasn't come yet and I don't know if he will. Alex is pretty much dropped, we've tried to visit him 10 or so times and he never comes to the door. Super sad, they both could totally use the gospel but I guess they just aren't ready right now. Were going to keep trying for Mourilo, but I'm not sure whats going to happen with him. But, this week we did have a really fun good lesson! I cant remember if I've talked about Juliana or not, but shes an investigator that's been taking missionary discussions for almost 6 months, and wont be baptized. Shes the hardest and most stressful investigator Elder ONeill has had on his mission. About 2 months ago she has going to be baptized, and then a day before she decided not to go through with it. She keeps saying that she hasnt recieved an answer, but we know she has. Shes been told about all her answers but she still ignores them. So, this week we taught her about prayer. She thinks God doesn't answer prayers. Out here on the mission I've discovered that I actually enjoy planning lessons, and during planning Ill go on a roll and rant for minutes at a time talking to my companion about what we could teach. Its funny because when we plan ideas just come to my mind and I know what to say. But here's the problem... I cant speak Portuguese good, so I cant give the lesson the way I want to! So i just wrote down everything I was thinking and we formed a lesson plan then I figured out ahead of time how to say the things that I needed to. The best part of this lesson is that, Im sure through the Spirit, knew exactly how she was going to respond to every single question we asked, and which direction the lesson would go. So, we were able to plan exactly what we needed to say. So during the first part of the lesson we read Helaman 3:35. What happens when we pray: Then we read 3 Nephi 18:19-20. To receive answers to our prayers we need to have a righteous reason, and believe that we will receive an answer. Elder ONeill talked about this, and eventually he said "So what you're telling me is that you don't have enough faith" then she said "Êxactly" with the smirk on her face. She thought "ah ha! I got them! Ill never get an answer because I don't have enough faith!" But then she looked at me and I had an even bigger smirk, because we knew this would happen. So I asked her if she remembered the last scripture we just read. She didn't so she read it again. He face was priceless.  She says shes scared of praying and being baptized because she only sees unhappy religious people, and if she starts to do these things then something bad will happen to her kids, or something like that. She is living a pretty bad lifestyle, and even though she knows its true she wishes it wasn't, because it means she has to change and she doesn't want to. So that's our guess at why shes not praying or coming to church. Shes stressful, but all we can do is keep trying our best and if that's not enough then maybe it isn't her time to join. Through this lesson I was taught about the importance of having the Spirit when we plan. We knew what she was going to say, and which scriptures to use, because of the Spirit! Its so cool to know that we have an actual member of the Godhead with us wherever we go to help us out with anything we need.

But that's pretty much it for me, nothing super exciting! Have a good one!!

 -Elder Odom


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