Week 80: March 1, 2019

Hey there Family!!!

We've been super blessed and we've been having lots of neat experiences here in the office with the other missionaries and with people we've met along the way.
The missionaries are so awesome!! Elder Doughman and I always talk about how blessed we are to be able to get to know such amazing missionaries!

Elder Doughman sharing a snickers dipped in Peanut Butter with me;) snickers and pb satisfies!!!!!

Elder and Sister Moura giving us Amazing Brazilian food!!! And yes...it's gluten free!!!

Elder Goff, on the right, with is companion Elder Bohorquez, gave me a delicious snack;) It's nutritious and delicious!!!!

The missionaries here are super nice!!!!! Love them all!!!!
We had a lot of work to do this week with helping people get Portuguese drivers licenses. That was basically most of the week!!! hahaha

There was a neat experience I had with the drivers license process. We were sitting in a waiting room and a guy sat down by us. The couple missionaries started talking to him and getting to know him. I intervened a little and started talking with them. Ive been praying to have more missionary opportunities while being here in the office, and I felt strongly that I needed to talk to him about the gospel. President Fillmore has been showing us a new way of contacting people, and I thought I'd give it a try. I sat down next to him to show my family tree on my smartphone with the family search app. He seemed a little uncomfortable when I talked to him about it, but when I was talking to him, I knew what I was telling him was true and would be super awesome for him and his entire family! When we finished talking, he ended up not being interested, but I think it was an important moment for him, letting the spirit touch his heart. People never forget the moments when they feel the spirit.

The couples told me I did well, even though they were the ones that started the conversation and helped with explaining about family search. I feel like I could have done much better. Ya, it was awesome that I talked to him, but there is always a better way. I've noticed when I talk to some people on the phone and explain things to them, it sounds a little confusing sometimes. I feel like I could have done better. There are a lot of things where I feel like I could have done better. But, I know that dwelling on thoughts like that just bring me down. I can't live in the past.

There was a training that Elder Bednar gave about technology that I watched, and he said how when bad things pop up on the internet or stuff like that, its only a sin if we dwell on it or invite it in. If it pops up and we exit out right away, we shouldn't dwell on that. We should just cast it away and keep moving forward, and he said that we'd be ok. To me, there was another principle in that. It sounded like he was talking about casting the things away that add extra weight to our journey that we don't need, things that bring us down. In other words, if we want to keep moving forward or rise up, we need to cast away the things that bring us down. And not only that, but one thing that would have helped a lot with my contact and talks on the phone would have been more confidence. If I am more confident, I feel better and more relaxed, and I feel like I end up doing a lot better in the end.

Basically, move forward, don't beat yourself up, and have confidence. If we didn't have setbacks, where would our growth come from and how could we enjoy our successes? How could we relate to others and be more sensitive to their needs so that we could lift them up? I feel like setbacks can also be a way of God blessing us with more opportunities to serve others more effectively, one by one, and with better stories to enjoy to ourselves and with others in the future.

To conclude, here are some pics of our pday we had today too:)