Hey everybody!?!
So this week was pretty tough. We tried to get a lot of less active members, and a lot of new people to go to church, but most people made the excuse that it was too far... Im really sad, and wish that we would have tried a lot harder to get people there, because the Prophet spoke! It was broadcasted in from Salt Lake City, and it was amazing. We had one person there that I´ve talked to a few times at a grocery store by our house, but he lives in the other Elders´ area. Ele é um dez. haha, he is awesome! He came up to us and asked us for a book of mormon, so we gave it to him. The day after, I saw him at the store and asked him if he read it, he said yeah, its hard to understand, there are different prophets! haha, we talked, then he talked to the other elders too, and the day after he went to Stake Conference and got to see the Prophet speak! I didnt get a chance to talk to him, but I am really excited to when I get the chance.
Conferência da Estaca was sooo awesome!!! First Elder Gonzalaz spoke to us in Portugues, which was amazing, but a little hard to understand because of his thick Uraguayen accent. He talked about fortalizing our families in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then Elaine S. Dalton spoke, which I could barely understand her interperator. haha, then Neil L Anderson spoke. In portugues! It was an amazing talk, and his portugues is soo good! He has an accent, but he was very easy to understand he said that Him and Thomas S Monson talk alot about Brasil and they care alot about the people here. He gave 3 ways that parents can help their children grow, 1. Fortalizing their education, 2. Teaching about work 3. Bringing them to the knowlegde that Jesus Christ is the only way to bring us back to our father. I loved these 3 points. He talked about how it is hard, but not impossible to give our children opportunites to work. He talked about how he lived on a farm, and he was paid 50 centavos to milk the cows each week. He learned about tithing, and saving money that way. He talked about how even though we may not live on a farm, we still have many opportunites to help our children learn how to earn money, save money, and pay tithing.
Thomas S Monson spoke, (through an interperator)
and talked about loving God with all your heart, soul and mind. He talked about how this is the greatest and first commandment. He also talked about how the second commandment is like unto it, to love your neighbors as yourself. I didnt hear much of his talk, because the interperator was very fast. But i remember he talked about following the savior, and how the saviour to everyone extends the commitment, follow me. He also said, we need to ask our selfs often the question. What would the saviour do in this situation.
He also talked about a beautiful story about one a day he felt inspired to visit a less active family in which ward he was the bishop. He knocked on the door, and someone said bishop, how did you know it was my birthday? haha, So he came in and they sang happy birthday, and there was one girl there with a beautiful voice, and he said, You have such a beautiful voice, you should sing in church this week. You could sing in the conference, you could even sing a solo? She came to church, and sang, and then the family started to go to church again:)
I Love listening to the prophet. We need to read the talks of conference over and over and over again. You will always find a message that will lift you up. We were at a persons home who the week before asked us to go to there house. They have 2 boys with severe mental disablilities, who are both in their 20s the whole family was baptized 10 years ago, but havent been back since. The 2 boys in their 20s kept asking for something that i didnt understand, finally on the 2nd visit to their house, I realized they were asking for the Liahona! haha, so I am going to bring on over that I have next time. We need to value the words of the prophets like gold! It is my testimony that Thomas S Monson is a true prophet. Em nome de Jesus Cristo, àmen.
Élder Halls
