We had a conference this past week. We were told that the end is getting closer and we can no longer hang on the fence. You have to decide who's side you're on. Elder Nelson gave a POWERFUL blessing to all of us at the end. He talked about how this is the last time the Lord is sowing his fields.
Our mission president said we will have a world wide mission devotional on the 20th. It's going to be about baptizing people who are truly converted.
Sister Nelson gave us a question to think about to do a self evaluation. She said what if we told you that the Savior is already here on earth meeting with his true followers in preparation for his second coming?
The mission has had some turmoil lately. The assistants have been doing splits with the zone leaders all week and there have been several emergency transfers. But everything has been going well overall.
Elder Marques and I were contacting referrals we got from mormon.org this week. We received ten. Only two really existed. One was a person who didn't want to be contacted but he ended up taking a Book of Mormon anyways. He is part of a religious group from Kentucky. Elder Marques got into this huge bible bash with him and I just sat there listening to them argue for an hour. Elder Marques tried getting out of it (Contention never produces anything good) but the guy kept poking him. The man kept sayings things like "You can't defend yourself because you know I'm right."
On the way back this family stopped us and asked if we knew where a church was. They are from the favelas (shanty towns) in Rio. Rio's accent is really funny! It's a ton of "ssssssshhhh"-- almost like a lisp. The man received a job offer here. He brought his family but it ended up being a scam. They lost everything. He has three kids: One is five. One is two and the other is a new born. They were living in the streets because the homeless shelters don't accept families. They would split them up if they went to a shelter. We gave them some clothes and I cooked them dinner that night. The bishop talked with them and the next day he helped him prepare a job resume. That same day he was hired! I don't know where they are sleeping, but they are super cool and are going to come to church on Sunday!
We should have a lot of people come to church tomorrow! Elder Marques and I are going to give talks. He will talk about how members can do missionary work. I'm the last speaker and was asked to talk about serving with love. I've already started working on my talk. I'm going to talk about what is service and the difference it makes when we serve with love. I'll also talk about the blessing we receive through service.
