Hey friends! Another week, a few lingering financial issues resolved, a few meetings with Presidente, work done, tan lines coming back, family home evenings, baptisms, lots of rain and lots of laughs; it was a good week. Coming up this week we have zone conferences, a possible side quest, and a long week in front of us because we are going to the temple next Thursday!
The Office
My week started off right away, Tuesday morning I got a nice little email about some things that were out of compliance from way long ago. I ran out of the meeting I was in so fast and dug into it a bit. It ended up being not too serious and I was able to justify it but it gave me a nice little scare. Then as I was digging through a few other lingering problems I kept finding more. After a little bit I finally got some people from the area on a phone call between Elder Allen from the Guarulhos Mission and I. You would think all our problems would have been solved but they had no clue what they were talking about so it ended up falling back on me and Elder Allen to somehow figure it out. It was incredible. Thanks to Elder Allen’s smarts he was able to figure out why we (MSPL) kept paying for their (MGRU’s) utility bills.
After that I had more old problems to finally catch up on, and like always, as I kept digging I kept finding more. When I finally finished I decided I would give it one last look and make sure it was good. Sure enough, I found one more thing but I decided it would be a “tomorrow problem.” Whoops. I remember explicitly saying to Elder Gibson, “I don’t know how in the world _______’s card is not blocked yet but I’ll go with it.” Sure enough, the next morning I got a lovely email that the card had gone out of compliance and was blocked until it was normalized. My first ever blocked card. The good news is that I had found the problem the day before and was able to fix it in a whole five minutes. Lesson learned, we don’t do “tomorrow problems.”
Outside of that I had some other fun moments. There was some interesting stuff that went down this week and there were some emergency transfers to be planned, the only issue is that no one knows all the parts of the story, every single one just knows a little bit. The APs and Presidente tried to figure out the transfer and didn’t know what to do so they called me in, then they called Elder Gibson; the six of us staring at a transfer board trying to piece together what to do. Outside of the “oh that is interesting” factor it was actually an incredible experience; the Spirit guided all 5 of us to conclusions individually and then when we shared our thoughts, everything lined up. It was pretty cool. A little later I got called back in to be a translator while Presidente met with a stake president… except the stake president never entered the meeting so Presidente and I just sat on the couch chatting for 30 minutes. It was chill.
The Area
This week we had some good things going on! Elder Berry made his first baptismal invite and she accepted! As we have been teaching this older lady the adversary has really been going after her, so much so that she is starting to feel like now is not the time for her. Please pray that she will have the faith she needs to continue pressing forward. The funny part about marking her baptism date is that I looked at Elder Berry for him to do it and he couldn’t get the words out fast enough so she started blabbering. After I got us back on track he made a very spiritual invite. He later told me that he couldn’t get the words out because he had forgotten them and was saying a prayer to remember them. A funny but also really genuine experience.
On Friday we had a family home evening with the Gibson’s which was so good. We talked about the importance of testimonies and how every single one has immense value, no matter how big or small. One of our friends explained how she didn’t think she had a testimony but then explained the ways she feels joy. As she was explaining you could see her realize that she does indeed have a testimony. It was very special.
Saturday. Oh my gosh, Saturday. Saturday we left the house bright and early to go to a visit that didn’t end up happening. On Saturday, we walked a million miles and knocked a hundred thousand doors and nothing was working out. I was pretty happy all day but when I hit about 40 no’s I started getting pretty discouraged. My comp looked at me, grabbed and shook me by the shoulders and said “só alegria Urbano.” I smiled and I realized he was right. I felt that I should ask my LZs what to do and they gave me an idea. I put that idea into practice and we went to knock on 5 last doors before heading home. Of those last 5 doors we met 2 amazing people that were willing to talk with us. Can’t deny the moments of inspiration in that one.
Domingo!
On Sunday Alessandro was baptized! Alessandro was such a miracle. About a month ago he rang the doorbell at the chapel on a Monday night and asked me how he could be baptized. Taken aback we met with him the next day in front of the baptismal font, taught him everything he needed to know (ok well the basics) and marked his date. The date was approaching and nothing. Where was he? As we got ready to stop teaching him we got a phone call from the Guarulhos AP saying that this guy named Alessandro was hospitalized and trying to find our number. How in the world? We talked to him again but he no longer had a phone so we lost contact with him again. A week later our AP walked into the office and told us he had a referral to us; he turned around his phone and it was Alessandro. Elder Corales and Elder Ramos talked to him again, taught him some things, scheduled his interview, and on Sunday he was baptized with an incredibly strong testimony. Just his efforts to keep finding us even after everything was going wrong in his life demonstrated his faith and desire to us to truly come closer to Christ and be baptized. It was a miracle.
Also our family that we have been teaching that has a son applying to BYU came to church and they accepted to be baptized as a family. We still have a few things to figure out but they have such strong faith. On top of that the APs had a baptism and some other friends showed up to church out of nowhere. There is also a youth that has been coming to church with his friend for about two months that is starting to grow his testimony in Jesus Christ and has accepted to talk to the missionaries where he lives! There were a lot of miracles on Sunday!
The Happenings
Called the police because someone was on our neighbor’s roof and they were not happy about it.
Shout out to Sister Perez for keeping the office busy… jkjk
I hit six months in the office! Crazy!
We had a family home evening with Elder and Sister Gibson!!
I had my first interaction with the Guarulhos Mission President… an interesting one. I love you, Elder Allen!
Just did the saddest part of my job and sent someone their flight plans… the hardest part about the office.
Quotes
“If you give me white monsters, net think you know it, Brazil will be baptized. If you give me caffeine in general, the world is going to hear all about the Savior.” [Elder Simons, 10/27/2026]
“How many times have you seen me think this week? Actually I got revelation today to not gamble. I actually thought that time.” [Elder Berry, 10/29/2026]
“I have like a four step process of getting rejected” [Elder Berry, 10/30/2026]
God's Hand
Joy throughout the week and the work
Being able to talk to our friend that is on baptism date even though all her hardships
See all my friends come through the office, even if they got free lunch from the Gibson’s and I didn’t
Random conversations and laughs with Presidente
Being able to quickly resolve the lingering financial issues
Getting a surprise phone call from Sarah and Jacob, I love you both!
Infinite joy and laughs this week. In the moments that I think I couldn’t possibly be happier, I get even happier. It’s crazy.
Spiritual Thoughts
Two things:
1) The joy really does come from the work! It is incredible.
2) This week I studied Matthew 26 and 27 a lot. It has been so incredible to get to know my Savior, reading about the miracles he performed, the things he taught, the love he showed, and everything. Matthew 26 and 27 are all about his crucifixion and I wanted to put one verse that sums up everything in here but it is impossible. The Savior suffered everything. Everything. All because of His love. He may not have wanted to but He did because of His love for us and His love for our Father’s plan, knowing this was the only way for the plan to be carried out. I love my Savior.
I close with that. Now I am going to cut my AP’s hair. I love you all! Have a great 10 days! Until next Thursday!
Muito amor,
Elder Urbano
