How you doing?
I hope you all have had a wonderful week and learned something new. I know I have. I just wanted to let you guys know that I always pray for you and am so appreciative of the letters, packages, and emails I receive from you. There really is nothing like hearing about what is going on with you guys or getting some sour patch kids. It just feels great.
I really enjoyed writing my last how to guide so I think I am going to try and write them as much as I can.
Elder Healy´s Guide to Contacting (Disclaimer: I am pretty bad at contacting so take my advice with a grain of salt :P)
1. Call to them from about 3-4 meters away so that you don’t stiff arm them when you go for a hand shake.
2. Offer your hand to function as an anchor and have your companion move into wall formation. This makes escape near impossible.]
3. Ask them how their day is going. This breaks the ice.
4. Introduce yourself, ask for their name to make it more personal and not a verbal assault, and ask if they have spoken with missionaries before.
5. If they respond yes, see if they have been visited before.
6. If yes to line 5, ask if we can visit them again. React accordingly to response.
7. If no to line 5, ask if we can share a message with them. React accordingly to response.
8. If no to line 4, explain that we are here to share a very special message. Our message is about:
1. Jesus Christ (Default)
2. The love our Heavenly Father has for us (if they seem discouraged)
3. Families can live together forever (if they have kids with them)
4. The true church (if they are adamant about all Churches are equal)
9. If they say they have their religion, explain that our message is independent of religion and is going to bless them.
10. Get their address and promise to visit in the future.
*These guides are just my personal guidelines that I use unless otherwise directed by the Spirit. They are not to be taken out of context.
Also, in case you are wondering what my diet is going to be every day.
1 liter milk
2 eggs
2 pieces of whole wheat bread
2 bananas
1 apple
1 kiwi
1 carrot
1 Popsicle
1 cup of yogurt
1 cup of juice
3 spoons of protein powder
1 multi vitamin
Lots of water
Rice
Beans
Beef
1 treat
1 bowl of oatmeal
This week was stellar and jammed full of spiritual experiences. It solidified for me where I need to improve and why I need to be here. We worked really hard and taught a lot of lessons and helped a lot of people. I am improving in my teaching skills tremendously and have started reading Preach My Gospel out loud in Portuguese to improve my accent and learn new words while reviewing important topics. This week, we have been challenged to have 100% obedience which I realize we haven’t been doing. Sometimes we have gone to bed at 10:40 instead of 10:30 and started study at 8:05 instead of 8:00 and we have been disobedient by doing so. I have just rationalized, ´´What’s ten minutes going to do?´´ and besides the fact that you will feel the spirit less, 10 mins/ day x ~720 days on the mission is 120 hours. That’s a whole week if you sleep less than 7 hours per day. In other words, a lot of time. I am striving to obey with exactness every rule to try and improve even faster. Sorry for the math...
One experience I had this week that was special for me happenened on Sunday. We were going to eat at a member’s house, but she didn´t know we were coming so we agreed to return in about 90 minutes for lunch to give her time to prepare. We were in the church van dropping off investigators and members at their respective houses and we just decided to randomly get off in a neighborhood we had never worked in and work our way back to the member´s house by contacting (see about ^.^) Within a couple of minutes of getting out of the van, a random guy biked over to us and asked if we would visit him! We said we would be delighted to and started making our way to his house. Apparently missionaries had talked to him before and he was really interested to hear our message. When we got to his house, the roof had sprung a leak so his whole floor was covered with water. He quickly squigeed a path for us and we sat down on his slightly damp bed. As we began the lesson, he asked if we were Americans and we said we were. He then started talking to us in English! He had apparently studied English for several years and was pretty dang good at it. We taught the lesson in on and off Portuguese and English and I was able to bear my testimony in English. It was so good feeling. We had a second lesson where he said he had only read a little, but what he meant was that he had read what he had marked for them and other random parts of the book too. He is now preparing for baptism and will go to Church for his first time on Sunday.
Something interesting I have noticed is that my companion often gives thanks for this moment in prayers, and I have been thinking about this quite a bit. ´´Thank you for this moment´´ is such a beautiful phrase. We need to give thanks for the time we have, for our joys and our pains, for the opportunity to learn and grow. I remember hearing once that each moment is a choice. We can continue with what we were doing before or do any of a million different things. We don’t have to continue doing things that don’t bring us happiness or that aren’t for our benefit; we can choose to change right now. I remember a riddle that I used to love to say when I was younger. ´´What is always coming, but never gets here?´´ ... Tomorrow. This riddles implications are far more reaching than when originally looked at. Tomorrow never arrives, so the day to change is today. We need to always seek to improve. So this week try and give thanks for this moment and remember that every moment is a choice.
Come on really,
Elder Healy
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