Heavenly Father, Are you really there?
Hey friends! It's been another week but now we are here and we can chat! Ok, first off, the subject line, my testimony about prayer grew a ton this week. This is a line from a really good song called “A Child's Prayer.” It explains how Heavenly Father really does hear every single prayer. You should listen to it.
Food, Food, and more Food
Okay so on Thursday we had dinner with our senior missionaries! Let me tell you that the food was so good. Just being able to eat food cooked by an American was one of the biggest blessings of the week. Okay but that isn't what this section is about. This section is about Saturday, how I survived Saturday? I don’t know.
The day started off pretty normal, studies, EnglishConnect, a random problem that had to be solved, normal. After that we did some online work before making our way over to lunch. Lunch was fantastic as always and we had a great conversation. After lunch we did a few visits but no one was home so we decided to go visit a part member family. We got there and their cousin happened to be there who leaves on her mission tomorrow! Insane coincidence. We talked to her a bit then talked to the family a bunch and left a message. As we were getting ready to leave they said we couldn't leave because they had bought food and made two cakes for us. Crazy. In the thirty minutes we were there they had a second lunch ready for us. We forced ourselves to eat the food and it was fantastic. The best 30 minute cake I have ever had.
Great, we are now stuffed and running late to our next visit with some members that invited 6 friends over so the family we were with offered to give us a ride. We get there and find out that they also made lunch for us. Yeah. Even worse is that they didn't let us serve ourselves so I got a heaping plate of food. I looked at it with probably the most distraught face. I was dying inside. Yet again, I forced myself to eat it. Great, three lunches and 2 cakes down, that's all right? Nope now pull out the snacks and desserts. You lost me. I just wanted to lay on a couch and pass out. I ate a few desserts and put the rest in a box to take home. Certainly that's it right? Nopeee, the whole time they had been preparing dinner. I took a hard pass on that one. Once I got myself out of there we made it to the chapel and I just died on the couch. Did a bunch of online work and thanked God for all the food and that I survived. That was Saturday for ya. Hope you enjoyed it.
Milagres!
This week I had a few personal miracles that I wanted to share with you guys! One thing I really wanted to focus on this week was recognizing and really hearing the Spirit. I prayed pretty fervently for that at the start of this week. On Tuesday, we had district counsel and I had the impression that my answer would come there. We finished up our prestação de contas (I have no clue what that is called in English) and listened to a training given by my comp. The stuff we talked about was really good but no answer came. As we started the practice I was put as the person being taught by two Sisters. As we started I was helping the new American through the start when I was impressed to stop talking. As I stopped she started speaking pretty good Portuguese and sharing her testimony. It was in that moment that the spirit smacked me across the face answering my prayer.
The second miracle, for the past week I have been struggling to know what to study and have been pleading for inspiration. I had a few impressions that I followed through on but no profound topic or idea. That was until Wednesday when one of my good friends from BYU that I haven't talked to in a while sent me an email asking me some questions about a topic they were studying. I decided that that moment was the answer to my prayer and that I needed to study those questions. As I studied I realized that it was in fact exactly what I needed to study. Answer prayer number two!
Miracle number three, this week we were looking for some missionaries legal documents so that they could go get residency. The only problem was that we could not find this one missionary's documents anywhere. They weren't in the safe, they weren't in her folder, nothing. We went to start our work day with a prayer and as I knelt down I had the distinct impression that her documents were filed wrong. As we finished praying our senior sister missionary told me she had the exact same impression that I did and I hadn't even said anything yet. We decided we needed to look through every single missionary file. As the spirit confirmed that we needed to do that, Sister Gibson found the document. I cannot put into words how strong the spirit was in that moment.
Okay one last one. On Wednesday my comp and I did a little reflecting on our division that we had done with our LZs and why our area was struggling if we did everything we needed to. As we reflected we identified a few things we needed to improve and set some goals. On Thursday morning we put those goals into action and decided to go do our comp study and weekly planning in a park. We had a really good and inspired conversation and study and both felt really good. As we were wrapping up a guy walked up to us and handed us candy bars. He said hey and told us we could only eat them at the end of the day if we worked hard. As he walked away I knew it was God's way of telling us he is cheering us on and is seeing our efforts.
Other Stuff from the Week
We took our friend and a member to the temple/ visitors center and it was so good. It was apparently the members first time there too so it was fantastic.
Did a division with my LZs
Saved a few houses from their utilities getting cut.
Hearing a wild story about our senior missionary comp who threw his comp out a window way back in 1969.
Went on a division with our senior missionary and we just chatted the whole time about everything. Work, church, trucks, cars, logistics. It was awesome.
We had zone versus zone pday today and of course zona Ipiranga (my zone) won. Can't beat the best zone in the mission.
God's Hand
The Spirit during district counsel, a visit with a part member family, church, and the visitors center!
Talking with many friends at pday today
Finding the Sister's documents
Many many answered prayers
Buy SIM cards for new areas went so smoothly
Feeling the peace that only Christ can bring in the visitors center.
The random member giving us a treat in the park.
Spiritual Thought
On top of all this I still got a spiritual thought for y'all. I listened to maybe my new favorite talk this week. It was one that Elder Kearon gave at BYU on August 18th, 2026, called “Peace and Rest–Even Now.” All of it is really good so you should go listen to it but I wanted to call attention to one part; when he spoke about Luke 10:38-42.
38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
In this story Martha was so worried about hosting and serving that she forgot the most important part; stopping and listening to the Savior. “Slow down and wait for the Spirit of the Lord” (Elder Kearon). The Lord will give us the peace and rest we need to keep going. Give him time. Don't let everything you have to do take away from your relationship with Him.
Well now it's prep week for the next transfer! Wish me luck! Some big things have to get done in the next few days… please pray for our sanity. Okay I am exhausted so I'm gonna rest a bit. I hope y'all liked the email and felt the spirit reading about the miracles as I did writing! Love y'all!!
Tchau tchau!
Elder Urbano
