July 11, 2011

well the weather over here is good. it was super hot but this week has cooled down so hopefully it will stay that way. its still all sweaty but we get a nice little breeze every once in a while. well the conference was good. we just learned a lot of stuff about being missionaries and discipulos de cristo. it was way cool. we had trainings from president torgan and his wife as well as the aps. they each gave two sometimes three trainings each day. so it was a ton of information and a spiritual feast which is why i was a bit flustered when i emailed. it lasted from 1030 to 630 on monday and tuesday was 10 to 530. so it was a lot but it was good. a lot of it was stuff that i already knew and how we can be better missionaries. it was great and there was an awesome spirit there and i could just feel the love of that man. but there was also alot that is a little different that now we are going to change. just little things like district meeting eating lunch and dinner at different times. the way we follow up with other missionaries which we now do every day. we also learned about different ideas that their mission used to get more investigators and ways to contact and things that we need to do. it was way fun and like i said a lot of information. but it was good and we have been doing them this week.

lets see as for our lessons and things. one of the invites of president torgan was to make a list of everyone who has gone to church twice and pray over them and ask god who we should baptise this week. so we did it and we both thought of fatima that one lady who we had stopped teaching a while ago. we felt like she was ready and could be baptised this week. so we went and it was actually really cool to see the things she told us about how the lord was preparing her and she was truly ready. she just was lacking a little trust and faith i think so she didnt do it. but i think we will be able to baptise her in the next week or so. she is so nice and i like her a lot. we taught her quite a few times this week and she made us dinner one night. shes brazilian if you dont remember so it was good food. ha

we kept praying and felt like this one guy named manuel was also ready and could be baptised. so we went over to his house to talk to him and his doubt is that he just doesnt feel like he has received an answer about joseph smith and the book of mormon. and he thinks some of our apostles are linked into politics with religion. but we kneeled with him and prayed and he said he felt good but he still isnt sure. so we are going to work more with him this week and get him to church and into the water.

cristiana is doing really well. i like her a lot and she is just a way cool girl. she is just really nice and is already making friendships with some of the members and they all love her. shes very outgoing so its definately good. we had english class with her and some other members this past wednesday that went really well and then on friday we had a chapel tour with her and explained some stuff of our religion. she seemed really interested and said an awesome prayer at the end in which she said thanks you for letting me know the elders and i want to learn more about this church so that was cool to hear. she came to church as well this sunday and liked it again so tomorrow we are going to teach her the first lesson and invite her to be baptised. she told us that she was one of those girls who made fun of the elders and the only reason she opened the door was cuz she thought it was her mom and she didnt look through the peep hole. haha it made me laugh but you can see how goofy people are, they reject what they dont even know and if they would just give it a chance they would see that its the true church of god. olha paciencia! so im excited for her. this week we are having a mutual night which should be fun this friday. we are going to play games and eat some food with a spiritual part of course. so cristiana is going to invite some of her friends.

so ya it was a pretty good week with a good amount of lessons. i was happy and we just were trying to do what god wants us to do. lets see my comp is good elder ruesch. he is still super quiet and kind of shy but he is a little better. but we are doing good. we only have one more week together so we will see what happens. either one of us could leave but for sure one of us will leave cuz torgan wants to combine the missions completely. so they way he does transfers is crazy he calls on monday night and tuesday morning you are already gone. and i think you travel alone so thats a little different but we always have the spirit with us. so we will see.

as for irma mortenson i havent heard anything else from anyone. i saw her at the conference and talked to her quickly and she seemed fine but i know it has to be hard. she is an awesome girl though and a great missionary so ya she is going to stay.

well i think i got all the questions and everything so thanks i like questions its a little easier to write back. it seems super weird i thought the other day if i had chosen three weeks shorter instead of three weeks later i would be in my last week of my mission. crazy im glad i chose three more. well i love you and have a great week. until next time.

love
elder abreu