Another Jungle

I seem to have found myself lost in another jungle. The trees are all concrete, the roads almost all paved, and the walking distances just get longer and longer.

Hello again my friends, as we begin another adventure with Elder Angus, this time lost in the wild city of Gravataí. With him on this journey is the powerful Elder Quiroga, of Argentina, talented guitarist and expert at testimony bearing. The only needed change is his accent still needs a little work, but he'll get over that soon enough. Here in Gravataí, I continue as a district leader, but now I'm over three companionships, in which all of them are training. That basically means that we'll have the added help of renewed motivations and new ideas to help this district get up and moving again. This is gonna be good!

The area we're working in has had a lot of difficulties the last few transfers, so now it's almost like opening a new area, spending almost all the time making contacts and looking for new people. Although we started with almost no one, we've already got plenty of new people to teach. Even on the first day, we had such a good day as to find many elect investigators, simply waiting to understand and learn. One of them in particular, made me feel even happier then the rest.

This young man was about 18 years old, and was a good friend of a church member. He was already given as a reference from that friend, but  the other Elders never caught him at home. Finally, as we passed by in the front, we caught him just as he was walking in. So, he invited us in, we sat down, and began to chat. He began to explain about his life, the difficulties he'd past, and then how he found a church that helped him out a lot, and all the people that supported him each day. Because of this he already had a great faith in God. So, we began to teach. We taught the restoration, and the gospel of Christ. We taught of God's love and the desire for us to be clean and return for him, and for this he established his one true church. We talked for a while, and when we stopped, we asked him how he was feeling. He paused a little, thought, and then said simply "A peace. In fact, I'm a little nervous because I'd never felt like this before. It's almost as if God just took everything bad out of my soul and replaced it with good. Is this supposed to happen?" To this we responded, smiling ear to ear, "Yes, this happens whenever God testifies the truth of his message. He is helping you know that truth for yourself." 

After so much time in the mission, you learn to trust in all of the Lord's promises. Whether great or small, every single promise the Lord makes, he will fulfill if we do our part and keep our side of the deal. If we testify of truth from our very soul, we have the Lord's promise that the Holy Ghost will testify of that truth, and unless that person rejects the feelings he receives, he will know and recognize that that truth comes from God. Testify, and know that the Lord thy God is with thee, confirming every word of truth in the heart of every listening ear. 

I'm glad for this opportunity to work, and although the time I have is running at a cheetah's pace, I'll try to do as much as I can. Thanks for the prayers and the thoughts, I couldn't get by without them. So, until next time,

Elder Angus

Phrase of the week:

outro lado do céu (oh-troo lah-doo doo seh-oo) The other side of heaven.