Hey friends! I got to go to the temple today! For the first time in 4 months! I love the temple, it's my safe place. So yeah I am doing good now that I got to go. Now you get to read about my lovely week. Highkey don't have too much to talk about, it has been the most uneventful two weeks of my mission; made for a long lot of days but it was worth it.
My Grandpa!!
I think the biggest highlight of my week was meeting my financial grandpa, Elder Snyder! He was the financial secretary that trained the secretary that “trained” me. We were at the chapel on Friday night to give seminary class (which didn't even happen) and two guys walked in the gate. One of them I recognized, Elder Moraes–who was a secretary a long time ago which I only know because he comes to visit all the time–and the other, Elder Snyder! I had heard about him but I had never met him. It was so cool to meet him, we chatted it up about mission and office life. It was fun to compare and contrast the mission then versus now. Outside of that we chatted a bit about real life and life after the mission. He was super cool and chatting with him was definitely a pick me up after a long week.
Oh yeah I never told you why he was here. He baptized one of the newer members in the ward and that member was going to the temple for the first time so he came down to support! It was dope because it is one of the members that I love and always chats with us. Elder Snyder ended up coming to our ward and the two baptisms on Sunday. This was the really cool part to see, there was a friend at Church and the baptism and Elder Snyder stayed by his side the whole time, answering his questions, understanding what was happening and being said, and just being his friend. His example showed me what it means to really be a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ; to represent and minister as he would no matter the place, language, situação, etc. Even as a returned missionary he continued doing missionary work, ministering as the Savior would. That will be an example that I remember for a long time.
But, the People?
Yeah that's an excellent question. We are trying I promise, with our little time in the area we are not having too much success. We are trying so many different ways to find people so that’s good! We visit members, knock doors for hours, make millions of phone calls, teach English, teach Portuguese, and host activities. Nothing has been working too hot, but it's okay we press forward (we are running a lil low on energy though so please pray for us).
But, the Miracles?
Well of course there are miracles. We have miracles everyday, let me tell you about a few of them. First, we have our friend that will be baptized on Sunday. It has been an incredible journey teaching him and just seeing how ready he is for baptism. It has been just over a month since we found him. His brother, who was baptized but moved to Brazil and lost contact with the Church, saw a Church ad and contacted us so that he could come back to Church and help his family feel the same peace. As we have taught him, his brother, and his sister-in-law, they have been able to understand all that we taught him, learned how to pray, and read the Book of Mormon! There was one problem, they hadn't come to Church yet and we really wanted him to so he could feel the Spirit there.
Last week we taught about the Restoration of the Gospel and the Spirit was so strong. As we taught you could see a light in their eyes as the Spirit testified to them that it was true. We left them on a spiritual high with the reminder to come to Church and, low and behold, Sunday morning they were at Church with us! I was so happy. One of my favorite things as a missionary is when we take a step back and let the Spirit do its work. If there is something I have learned it's that we need to be simpler in our teaching and leave more room for the spirit. That is exactly what happened in this case. It works I promise.
The other awesome miracle from this week was with this cute little girl that we found while visiting inactive members! Every single time that we visit this family there is some sort of miracle. When we found them we were visiting some members but this family lived in a gated community and would not answer the intercom meaning we had no way to get in until an angel opened the door and told us to come in and told us exactly where the family lived. We got to talk to them and they came to church with a member the next Sunday! We went back to visit them a few days later again with no way to get but after waiting a few minutes a car pulled in and we slipped in the gate and got to talk to them again. Every single time that we talked to them I could see a light in this little girl's eyes that I have not seen in a long long time. The next time they went to Church we invited her to be baptized and she wanted to so badly but her mom wasn't quite ready. Later in the week we got a text that she wouldn't let her daughter be baptized.
Disappointed, we decided to go visit them to emphasize the importance of baptism to her mom and her. As we were on the walk there I said “well what miracle is gonna happen this time so that we can talk to them” and my comp responded with “I don't know but there always is one.” At that moment I had a feeling that we needed to walk a little faster so I said something along the lines of “well we better walk faster to see it.” After about 5 minutes of speed-walking we got to the gate and about 15 seconds after that a car opened the gate and once again we were able to walk right in. I don't know about you but those miracles are pretty undeniably real to me. As we were talking to them I saw a look of anxiety and stress come across the mom's face and I had the impression that everything we were saying was going in one ear and out the other. I abruptly cut off the conversation and asked what was worrying her. As she responded I remembered a few times in my life that I had felt the same way. As I talked to her and shared my experiences she visibly opened up and we were about to set realistic goals with her instead of inviting her to do something that brought more stress to her.
As I bore my testimony I could feel the Spirit testifying of the words we said. It reminded me of something one of my close friends said to do, “get on their level.” Like I explained with our other friend, sometimes (actually many times) we over complicate the Gospel and our teaching which leaves people confused and stressed but when we “get on their level,” physically and spiritually, we are able to understand them so much better and teach in a way that they understand and feel the Spirit. For those of you wondering, after the conversation, the mother realized that her daughter needs to be baptized and told us she would talk to her spouse about it. Another miracle.
Other Eventful Things
Last pday night I got hit with 6 fraud alerts and ran over the office to figure out what the heck happened. Then the next day President's card got locked. Let me just tell you I was a lil stressed.
Hit up the Peruvian Consulate again
The power went out in the secretaries’ house. Of all people you'd think the secretaries would have power but nope (the transformer exploded at 10:22pm). Along with that I woke up at 4am to the most obnoxious alarm… after about 5 hours of the alarm going off I found out it was the fire alarm in the chapel… whoops, sorry neighbors. I went over and discovered how to shut it off.
Tapped into my appliance buying skills yet again (it's becoming a weekly habit). Oh yeah then we walked into our store and my comp went “give us 10 of those mattresses” to the clerk and then we left. We are really good at buying things
Made my kindergartens’ snacks again! (Shout out my beloved LZs and SLTs)
Made 72 journal entries (financial transactions within the mission general ledger)
I got to review a giant stack of expense reports one by one.
I got called Sister Urbano by President's wife that was pretty funny. She also told me that while she was away I would be the emergency contact for people and that she trusted me to get them to the hospital if needed. I basically became the mission's mom for a week.
Had to call someone's mom and explain a bunch of medical things that I did not understand at all. I didn't understand in Portuguese nor in English. It was infrequently.
God's Hand
Peace.
Being prompted to call Elder Allen to get into the credit card account.
The miracles of the week in our visits and seeing our friends at Church.
Running into someone from my first area at the temple!
Coming across “The Christ Child”
There were no huge medical emergencies while President and Sister were away.
Not falling asleep during the day.
Getting to sit in the Celestial room for a long time in silence. It's incredible, the temple is the one place that I am able to sit still.
Spiritual Thought
This week I was pretty stressed and anxious. I didn't sleep well, I wasn't able to focus much on my studies, everything was pretty unorganized in my head. As I sat down to study on Tuesday I had no clue what I would study. I tried reading the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, Doctrine and Covenants, and nothing was clicking. I decided that I would watch a video titled “The Christ Child.” As I watched it my mind calmed, I felt God's love for me. It was incredible. It seemed as if everything just went silent. In the video I could see the light of the Christ on the people's faces. I could feel that this moment, Christ's birth, was a real life moment that happened to real people. It is not just a story that happened in some book. It is real! I felt joy and comfort in knowing that He understands me, He set the example for us, He came to Earth to save us. I know He suffered for us. I know He overcame death for us. I know He lives. In His name, the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I said I didn't have much to write about? My bad. I hope you liked my stories and I'll talk to you all in a few days. Love you all and miss you! Say your prayers!
Muito amor,
Elder Urbano
