Another good, fast week for me. This week was the last one of the transfer, and I got some news. I'll be training another missionary here in the mission office and then I'm heading back to the field! I'll have the whole transfer to train him, and it'll end here in 6 weeks. It's crazy that I'm already going to be leaving the office soon... I got here at the end of last May, but it sure doesn't seem like it's been that long! The missionary that I'll be training is Elder McLean from Illinois. I've known him since he's arrived on the mission, so it should be a fun transfer. Another thing that happened though is that, sadly, I won't be companions with Elder Dantas anymore! President decided that he is going to have one of the financial secretaries train as well, and so instead of having 2 trios we'll have 3 groups of 2. I'll just be with Elder McLean. I only got to work with him for one transfer, but it was a good one!
In the field, our investigators are slowly progressing, in the office we just planned for the transfer, etc. Although something cool that happened is that the Sister's had a baptism and a wedding for a less-active and her husband, who was the investigator. They've been teaching him for over 4 months, and finally he was able to be baptized and get married. It was a real example of perseverance and patience to me. The wedding that they and the members put on was awesome! It was on Friday night and all the planning that went into it really payed off. I realized that it was probably a good thing that the sisters were teaching him, because if it were my companion and me that had to plan the wedding, we'd be toast! But I also had the privilege to interview this investigator. His name is Jorge. He really is an example of a convert. He just has so much faith! He told me that one of his biggest concerns was not being able to pay tithing. He doesn't make a whole lot of money and doesn't want to have to choose in between giving his baby food or paying tithing. We talked for a long time about how the Lord will bless him for his efforts, and in the end he said "okay, I'll never miss a month paying tithing, even if I don't know what's going to happen". He hadn't even been baptized, but he has that much faith! He has a stronger testimony than lots of members even have. Super cool experience!
We found a couple this week that have already been taught by missionaries a few times, and it was a really fun lesson. Their names are Jessica and Pablo, and they know a lot about the church! When we asked about what they remembered, they explained the entire Plan of Salvation and all about Joseph Smith! What's good is that even though they've researched the church a lot, they haven't gotten into any anti-mormon stuff, and if they have it seems like it hasn't effected them in any way. They just had good things to say about the church! Jessica even said that she was grateful for Joseph Smith and the vision he had (the First Vision). They even listen to church EFY music at home! But, when we talked to them about baptism, they were hesitant and said that they were already baptized in another church so they didn't see it as being something necessary... Even though they understand well, they still can't see the importance of being baptized in the right way, so there's a bit of a disconnect somewhere. Usually when people understand our messages so well like they do it becomes clear that they need to be baptized again, but we'll keep working with them to find out what's missing!
On a side note, I was able to make a cool connection with Pablo. He really loves basketball (pretty rare here in Brazil) and when I walked in I couldn't believe what I saw... He was playing NBA 2K18! I've never seen someone play NBA 2K on the mission before! It was pretty cool to talk to him a bit about the NBA too. Pretty sweet!
But, that's my week! Have another great week and until next time.
Elder Odom
Spence upload a bunch of pics - here's a few:
Spence upload a bunch of pics - here's a few:
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