VINHEDO! WOOHOO

Dear Beloved Family and Friends, I write you on this lovely day from a Japanese LAN House drinking a banana and chocolate milk shake. Life couldn´t be much better than that. And to make me even happier, we had another wonderful week. My last email from the area was quite superficial so I will try and get yall the inside scoop. First things first, my companion had only 27 days in the field when I picked him up so I am back to training again. YEAH! It is super fun having three hours of study every day. He is a big, happy Brazilian who never complains about anything so we get along great. He is eager to learn and has a lot to learn. My district here is pretty spread out. One of the areas is like three hours away by bus which totally stinks for meetings and interviews, but I will survive. Everyone in the district is American except my companion :) so we end up speaking alot of English. I am in charge of two wards here which is a whole ton of work. The area is huge. Anyways, when I got here they had one investigator who had been to church twice so I invited her to be baptized that very Sunday. And with some teaching, helping, and some power from on high she was! It was truly a miracle. This last week we had many elects placed in our path who went to church and are preparing for baptism. I am really excited to see what this transfer brings and am praying for large amounts of success. The members help a ton and give lots of references. Two families just brought friends who we will hopefully baptize in a week or two. Only downer, they give us so much food here that Im gonna turn into a whale. Come on really, Elder Healy

Transfers

Dear People, So I am being transfered after 6 1/2 months. That is a looong time. I have loved all the time I have had here in Sousas and all the people here. They have treated me so well and helped me so much and it will be truly difficult to go. I am going to a near by city called Vinhedo to finish the training of another Elder. That will be exciting! I cannot wait to get to work and get back to baptizing. Next week will be better... sorry! Love, Elder Healy

Good Day

Dear Family, This week was challenging and a great learning experience. I learned why planning is so important, how to do contacts even better, and more about the great love that my Older Brother has for me. Have a great week. Come on really, Elder Healy

The Road

Hello my fellow travelers, I felt inspired by my father to talk about the road that each one of us will follow in life. In this last bend of my life there were ups and downs, highs and lows, triumphs and failures. My companion and I started the week slowly. We had some long lunches, bad lessons, and weak investigators. By Thursday we were feeling pretty down. And then it all turned around. We decided to plan more effectively, we taught more efficiently, and we were blessed because of it. We were able to bring several new people to church and I believe at least one of them will certainly be baptized this week. We also were able to follow up with Tiago and he was baptized on Sunday! Every time we asked him how he was feeling or if he had questions, he just said he was peaceful and ready! What an elect! I am excited to see where that couple goes in the years to come. In the last couple of weeks I have been receiving praise from the members, leaders, and president that I feel completely unworthy of. I just am doing my best and trying to follow all that Preach My Gospel and the Missionary Manual teaches. I feel like I am being congratulated for paying my tithing or something. What makes me so happy to realize now is that I am not doing this for them, or for me, just for the wonderful people of Campinas and the Lord. That is why I serve and that is why I work. As I said before, we all have a road in front of us. We don´t know where it goes or what will happen along it. But to a degree, we either control or are controlled. We can choose left or right, forward or backward, fast or slow. But what we can´t control is the consequences of those choices. So let´s think and plan before we go, but not be afraid to change if needs arise. Let´s choose our destiny and not let it be chosen for us. Every moment is a choose. So let´s take advantage of every moment. Come on really, Elder Healy

Laughing myself to death

Thanksgiving is what I love to do! This years thanksgiving turned out to not be all that special. We were super pumped to be going to eat at an older couples apartment in the temple, but when we got there we found out they had to work and just wanted to give us money. So we ended up eating our Thanksgiving feast in the temple cafeteria. Rice, beans, beef and potatoe Suprise!, fruit, and a cup of juice... but we made some cookies to make ourselves feel better. I still need to make the pumpkin pie Mom sent em materials for. I am still in Sousas with another new missionary, Elder Hale. It is his 2nd transfer on the mission and had the first part of the training done by one of my friends, Elder Heilner. Elder Hale and I have hit it off great. He´s from Bountiful Utah, and is fresh out of High School. He is a pro golfer and ping pong player, and has the cutest dimples ever. His Dad was a mission president in Florida and is personal friends with President Uchtdorf. Our mission president called me on Teusday and said that I will only be here for another 4 weeks and will be emergency transfered before Christmas because of flight problems for the Elders going home. So now I have only three weeks to finalize the investigators for baptism. Speaking of which, Tiago marked his baptism for Sunday at 5 pm! (Air Punch) So that will be cool and we have a bunch of others for the weeks to come. This week we did a whole bunch of tracting and contacting. We entered a ton of houses, but than every person either was soft in the lesson or in follow-up one, much to our disappointment. We had some very entertaining lessons to say the least. One of our investigators has had some serious problems with the law of chastity in the past, like five children with five different people, and was telling us about it in front of his 9 year old son who just looked at him in horror. We were cracking up afterwards. Another investigator told us that she had been rebaptized in the Jordan River. My companion is still learning the language and understood this as Jesus was baptized there so just kept on teaching. I looked at the member, Kaie, who was with us and we both just cracked up and the Spirit just went right out the window. We were practicing using a video camera this week to give better critiques, but we could not look at one another without dying. Its gonna be a great transfer. I love you all and miss you all and hope you know I am healthy, happy, and hard at work. Hope your holiday season is full of love and laughter as I know mine will be. Who can´t be happy making cookies and gingerbread houses? Come on really, Elder Healy P.S. I´m gonna be in a choir and I can´t sing!

Im pretty much a member now...

Hello, So last night I was informed that I will be staying here for another transfer. And my son, Elder Barros, will be leaving. That was a definite suprise for me. Did not see that one coming. So by the time I leave I will have been here for a good 7 months... NBD. I will be sad not to continue with Elder Barros and I dont really know what will happen to me here. But the Lord and President know what they are doing. Larissa decided to be baptized this week and the service was simple, but special. Her member friend/co-worker came to see which I think really helped her. Her husband, Tiago wanted to see a baptism first and we hope to baptize him Saturday. We found a very rich lawyer recently and taught him a quick plan of salvation. We invited him ti church and he went by himself! Nobody does that! We are tying to help him understand the gorspel after losing his wife and he truly seems interested. The rest is pretty much same old, same old. I will be making cookies (Thanks Dawn and Dad!) so that will be great. We are doing okay here and will keep baptizing. Come on really, Elder Healy

Hotels and Happiness

Dear My Wonderful Reader, I thank you so much for dedication in following my humble mission here in Campinas, Brasil. Much has changed in this last week that I just cannot wait to tell you about! So let´s dive right on in! A week ago we found out that Elder Bryan would be transferred and that I would be staying here for at least 6 more weeks in Sousas. When I first heard this I was of mixed emotions. I knew that the work this next transfer would be harder as we had already hit the majority of the doors in the area, and I was selfishly afraid this would negatively affect my repetion here among the members. But I had prayed beforehand asking for humility to do go and do what I commanded and so was able to accept the decision with ease. Monday also happened to be my birthday and was able to make funfetti cake with funfetti frosting! Thanks Mom! It was just a whole bunch of fun and diabetes. Elder Bryan and I then played some ping pong at the church with one of the youth from the ward and ate bunch of ice cream. We then went to work. We stopped by one of recent convert´s house and another investigator, but they didn´t answer so we rushed to another recent convert´s house who said that her son wanted to talk us. Turns out that was a lie and that several of our recent converts threw me a surprise birthday party. It was really touching of them. Especially when one of the people I baptized shoved cake in my face. But then another person helped me to return the favor so it was all good. I have to say it was absolutely delicious. They all thought it was funny when I was scraping it off and eating it. I thought it was cake and frosting. I received a big old box of fancy chocolates and a tie from the relief society president. We had another appointment that night so we had to announce that Elder Bryan would be leaving the area. Definite buzz kill. One of our recent converts is a lady of about 55 years and went in to give Elder Bryan a surprise hug. Too bad he is ninja fast and just stiff-armed, back-stepped her. He apologized explaining he couldn´t. I just thought it was funny. We got up early the next day to go to transfers which is pretty much a giant mess at the bus station where missionaries seem to slack off for hours on end. Saying goodbye to Elder Bryan was sad. We had been within sight and sound of each other for more than 4 months! Later that day, I met my new companion, a missionary from the Green Cape in Africa who had only 19 days in the field. He is a really special guy who has a humble will to serve and learn. He also has the strongest legs ever and can outrun a horse. So that made my self esteem nose dive a bit :P I have been practicing with him quite a bit to bring his techniques up to par. On a side note, we got to stay in a freaking hotel! The training took two days with him so I had the best nights sleep and shower in over a year! It was simply amazing. We had a miracle this week when an investigator finally went to church after a month of work. Hopefully she is baptized Sunday! Prophet Joseph Smith: "Happiness is the object and design of our existence, and will also be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it, and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. But we can not keep all the commandments, if we do not know them, nor know them all, or know more than we know, unless we keep or fulfill what we have already received. " Come on really, Elder Healy

Conference and Confetti

Happy Day! As many of you may know today is my 21st birthday and the last I will celebrate on the mission. My last birthday seems so long ago. I remember that it happened during my first week in the mission field. I did not speak the language well, I was tired because the people in the house had woken me up at midnight and I didn´t remember a thing, and I was upset because I believe know one had thought to make make a cake. But my companion had rallied together the ward and they suprised me and turned everything around. I can´t help but look back and where I was a year ago and feel happy to see a difference. I am still not perfect and I still have a long way to go, but I am improving and happy. This last week was a little harder to work because of conference and city elections here in Brazil. People put up signs everywhere and paper litters the streets. Because voting is a bit of a chore people, used that as an excuse note to go to conference, members and nonmembers alike. But we still were able to bring several people there and hopefully they will be baptized in the near future. I watched the conference with Elder Bryan in Portuguese which was a new experience for me. I loved the talks, but during one session I was pretty much falling asleep so I splashed water on my face, doused the fountain, and took off my jacket. I can´t wait to get the Liahona for the Conference. There were some heavier themes discussed to truly establish where the church stands and what we believe. I was very Happy to eat an omelet and pancakes furnished by my loving companion Elder Bryan. He will be leaving the area tomorrow and I will begin training most likely a new Brazilian Elder. I am worried because we have already knocked on 95% of the doors in the area and have began to start over so I hope we can make productive use of our time and I can truly help this Elder have a wonderful initial experience. To celebrate my birthday today, we will make cake, receive more cake, and make some milk shakes as well. There goes my health. Fun fact: We fasted recently and drank a bunch of water to prepare. I lost 9 lbs in 24 hours! I would like to thank my mom, my dad, my step mom, my step dad, my siblings, and Brother Israel my MTC Instructor for all the thoughtful cards and gifts I received. I am wearing the tie and using the pen right now! Come on really, Elder Healy

Hunger Pains

Hello my beloved brothers and sisters, This last week was one of learning and growth for me and my companion. We set a goal to not let any new investigator fall as a result of our own neglect. We went to every appointment, called, and made it clear when we would return. But the people we have been finding did not hold up their end of the bargain so one by one they fell. This left us temporarily discouraged until we taught a couple eager to be baptized and keep the commandments. We marked them for the 14th of October and I am certain they will enter into the waters of baptism on that date. We have one funny recent convert who is very excited about the gospel. He wants to bless the sacrament, to visit other investigators with us, and wants his whole family to be baptized. He always is inviting people to be baptized and Elder Bryan and I can´t help but chuckle a little. When we were at his house this week, we were waiting to say the closing prayer to leave for another appointment and he just calls out,´´Josi, we are all in here, can I help you with something?´´ You know, just politely burning her to pray. And then he looks at us and cocks his heads and grins. It is the best. We have one recent convert who we had a tough time bringing to church this week. She said she wouldn´t go. So we convinced her via telephone. Then when we were at church and said she had to leave because she was dieing of hunger. So I gave her one of my ever so precious CLIF bars and she settled. Then an hour later, she said she had a headache. Good thing I had Excedrin with me. I felt so prepared. Boy Scout Power! She told us after words that she was feeling uncomfortable about her clothing and we helped her realize that the Holy Ghost was trying to show her what is appropriate and what isn´t, but that doesn´t mean you need to stop going to church because of that. Come on really, Elder Healy

It all Worked Out in the End

Dear You, We had a wonderful week hear in Sousas. We were able to bring investigators to stake conference, were able to find several more elects, and were able to see three more people be baptized. So that was all good. Two of the people that were baptized are a couple. They were probably our first reference from when we arrived, but they really had little interest when we first attempted to contact them. But they were able to see the changes in one of their friends who was baptized, among other spiritual events, and this helped to spark the desire to learn more. They started keeping every single commandment immediately and marked their married when invited to. Both their parents came up afterwards to thank us. The other person who was baptized is a youth who is the smartest I know for his age. He read the Book of Mormon we left for his Mom without being asked, read every pamphlet we left in 5 minutes and then could tell us everything about it. When he first saw someone be baptized, he really wanted to as well. So we prepared him and he was. We are truly being so blessed in this area I find it hard to describe. We are trying our best to do our part and pretty much collapse when we get into our chairs to plan, but it is wonderful! I am learning so much each day about the gospel and love sharing it with others. I apologize for the length of this email but will do better next time! I love you all and hope the best for you. I studied about the importance of charity and love this week in the work and wanted to share a scripture with you. ´´And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity preventeth a multitude of sins´´ 1 Pet 4:8. When we truly love God and our neighbor we will have no desire to sin and our love will help other to not as well. With love, Elder Weston Healy

Down to the Wire

Dear Wonderful Person, I have had the privilege of seeing another week of miracles here in Sousas. We had our weekly English class on Tuesday and several of our investigators went. One, whose name is Fernando, is nine. When we asked what they wanted to learn about for the next class, he said prepositions. Nobody else knew what those were :P He is the smartest child I know. He does Judo, Math competitions, is learning English, and studies botany in his spare time. What the heck? Also this week we had lunch inside of the temple. Thing was that another mission was visiting. So it was me and Elder Bryan among about 60 other Elders we didn´t know. I couldn´t help but feel a little competitive. They talked a lot about video games which made me feel more dedicated to the work. I felt so proud of myself because I did not get involved. One of them had painted fingernails... yeah. We had a super powerful lesson to help a man keep the Word of Wisdom to be baptized. He was able to stop drinking coffee and smoking for over a day when his headache got so bad he fell. We will keep working with him. On Thursday we were teaching one of our investigators named Monica. We had done the contact with her months before hand but had never found a good time to teach her. She always reads what we mark for her and always puts in practice what we teach. She was worried about not being able to follow always and having a good place for her children. She was unsure if she was ready for the associated responsibility. We had a powerful lesson talking about how she would be able to be an example for her children and how the church would not be a burden but a source of support. She called us later that night asking to be baptized as quickly as possible. We were blessed with the opportunity of baptizing her, with two others, Carlos and Terezina on Sunday. They all were nervous and worried, but the members helped calm their nerves. After church, we prayed and asked for help to find new people to teach to close our numbers and we were blessed more than I can count. Come on really, Elder Healy

Save He Shall Prepare A Way...

Dear Reader, I am happy to inform you that we had yet another wonderful week! Yesterday was a special day for me because we were able to see our recent converts be confirmed. When the time came during sacrament meeting to have them be called to the front, Bishop just called us up there to do it without telling us before hand. The first confirmation was done by one of the counselors, and then Bishop asked me to do it. I had not studied the confirmation for a while, but I was able to do the blessing almost perfectly. I truly felt led by the Spirit. When the next person was about to be confirmed, Bishop asked Elder Bryan to do it, but he didn´t know how so I ended up doing it a again. It was wonderful to be a part of seeing a family enter the church. The son of he lady who was confirmed went to church for the first time this week and really hit it off well with some of the young men and wants to be baptized next week! YEAH! Also, several of the family of Marcos are preparing to be baptized this week as well! One said she is anxious to be baptized! Our goal as a mission is to have 10 investigators at sacrament meeting. When it started we only had 5, but then 3 old investigators walked it without us even inviting them and a family who arrived late so we made it! We are truly being blessed. This last week we have been running from one commitment to another, but tried to make time to do contacts along the way. And the Lord has really placed elects in our path. We did a contact our first transfer here with a single mother with two children. We passed by several other times and it never really seemed to work out. We then began working in that neighborhood again and decided to pass by one more time. We were able to teach her the first lesson and she was at first resistant to the idea of baptism because she had decided to be baptized on her own at the age of 10 in the Catholic church. So we explained more about baptism by immersion using Christ´s baptism and Col 2:12 and then marked for her 2 Nephi 31 at a later date. When we began to explain about the great apostasy she became very interested. Our next visit she started telling us how she had shared our message with a friend because it made so much sense. She turned from thinking that being baptized was unnecessary to feeling unworthy for it! She feels the Book of Mormon is true and her only doubt was being about to go to church on Sunday because her ex-husband´s day was Sunday and she had to wait for him. So we shared with her 1 Nephi 3:7 which states that the Lord never gives commandments without first preparing a way so that the might be fulfilled. We challenged her to pray to God with earnestly to go. Her ex-husband came by early on Sunday and dropped off the kids early enough so that they could go to sacrament leaving. The Lord really does touch and change lives if we let him. Come on really, Elder Healy

Miracles

WHOOHOO! I am so happy to be writing you and sharing a little of my mission experience. P-Day moved to Monday, I am sorry for any mix up or complications this may have caused. This last week was heavenly. Elder Bryan and I have been doing our best to do our best and we are really being blessed for it. The Lord has really touched the hearts of the members and investigators in this area. Last week I wrote about a family and a man who accepted to enter the waters of baptism. This week they decided to do it! Marcos is so special to me. He has such a sincere desire to follow the Lord and to do what is write. He said he doesn´t want to miss even one Sunday and already is gun-ho about paying tithing! His family also went to church this week and loved it as well as the baptismal service. At the end of it, the father came up to us and said, ´´We will start paying tithing and will all be in the church before you know it!´´ That is one of the best possible phrases to hear as a missionary. We stopped by their house later and marked them to be baptized in the upcoming weeks. The family that was baptized was really nervous, but excited. We had to work with them when they started hearing things bad about the church, but it all worked out. There is another teenager who lives in the same house who is really excited to learn more and will be baptized here in two weeks. Sunday was definitely one of the best days of my whole mission. Two of our investigators who attended the baptismal service and are marked to marry asked us very earnestly afterwards,´´When can we mark our baptisms?´´ We answered, ´´´Let´s go for the day after the marriage!´´ We ran into a member on the bus this week who used to live in our area and he gave the address of his uncle. We stopped by there and the family accepted baptism whole-heartedly. They were only unable to go to church this week because of a death in the family. We will teach the plan of salvation tonight to help them get through this difficult time. I have progressed leaps and bounds, but still have a long way to go. I have come to love the scriptures and how we can apply them to our lives. I know that the Book of Mormon, the Bible, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price are the word of God and teach us all the things we need to do to be saved at the last day. I love this church, this gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, and everyone of you and wish you the best! Come on really, Elder Healy

One More Time!

One more time! We´re gonna celebrate! Oh yeah, alright, I feel like dancing! I am with Elder Bryan for one more time! This will be our third transfer together which will bring us to a grand total of over four months together by the end of this. I will probably never ever be in sight and sound of someone like this for the rest of my life, but we are really excited to keep at it. Across the mission there was very little movement, our zone for example only had five leave. The Lord has been really blessing us this last week with many people prepared to hear the gospel. We are tracting farther and farther every week because we have already tore through everything around the church. We were walking down a dirt road near pretty much nothing and we decided to knock at the only door in sight. A man answered and the second he started talking, I felt the Spirit flow over me. That happens very rarely to me in just a contact, but through the gift of the Holy Ghost, Brigham Young taught we are apply to determine who is righteous and prepared just from being near them. An apostle once said that he could know everything about someone from just a handshake. Anyways... he let us in and we began to teach his family. They were receptive to the message and will go to church this week. One of them, Marcos, works as security from midnight until 8 in the morning. He got of the bus this last Sunday at 8:30 and went to church without sleeping and then went to work immediately afterwards! And he loved it! He said he hard never felt so much peace in his life and accepted to be baptized this Sunday already! We are so stoked. Another lady named Josi also went to church this Sunday with her two children. They loved it as well and the ward as already started integrating her with a family night and with moral support. She as well wants to be baptized! Another investigator we had recently returned from a trip to visit her sick grandmother. She was being a little weak about our messages, but decided to take the Book of Mormon with her. Her uncle is an active member of the church and was really happy to hear that she was thinking about becoming a member. Her grandmother asked her to open the book and read from it to her. Marcia opened to a chapter that talks about war, mourning, and the spirit world in Alma 28. Her grandmother and her began to cry and she this really impelled her to secure her place in paradise. She is preparing to be baptised in a week from Saturday! We were going to show her the baptismal font, but there was a dead cockroach and a giant spider in it so we decided that wouldn´t help so much. My companion, Elder Bryan, is pretty dang funny. He come from a small town in Nevada where hunting is the thing to do. He said they have killed hundreds of bunnies, but never eats them... What a waste. There is about 15,000 people there and a bunch of desert so I guess they are limited on what they can do. He cracks me up when he starts talking in a hick accent or almost hits his head on things because he is 6´6´´. Here´s some pictures of our area, my meat meal when food ran out, etc. Well that´s all folks. Come on really, Elder Healy

Marriage, Marriage is what brings us together today!

Oi! Long time, no see. And it will be like that for another year :) How are you doing? I am so glad that you have taken a couple of minutes out of your busy week to find out more about my mission experience. So let´s get started! This week has been pretty dang good. Last P-Day, we marked the marriage of two investigators who have relatives that are members. They are super excited to be baptized, but it wont happen until a month from now because of the required 30 day wait time. Without us even teaching the Word of Wisdom, they started trying to keep it on their own. We also had a division this week where I went to another area to help train a missionary called Elder Willits. It was kinda funny because we were teaching a family who couldn´t really understand his accent so I had to re-teach alot. We missed the bus after the division because we were waiting at the wrong spot so we were late to the marriage of an investigator with a member. This was a really special event for me because we found this giant less active family just hitting doors and now all of them are firm in the church and preparing for marriage in the temple. They already received temple recommends to go into the baptismal font in the temple tonight! We then had some nice barbecue Brazilian style (called churrasco). It is pretty much different kinds of meat grilled over charcoal, rubbed with salt. We left Alma 40 with the family which talks about resurrection and the Spirit world, among other things, and the seven year old girl in the family started crying because she really did not want to go to hell. Thought it was kinda funny... We are still working with Carlos to stop smoking so he can be baptized, but he is being a tad resilient. He has progressed immensely and we will try to help him stop by tomorrow. While we were contacting someone in the front of his house, his phone rang and he answered saying ´´Yeah, I'm here in the front with the apostles.´´ We thought it would be too much work to correct him. We have a Missionary of Well-Being in out ward who helps us immensely. His name is Elder Dobre. After our English class yesterday, we said that this Sister could carry him and he weighs about 260 lbs. I misunderstood and thought he wanted me to flip him from back to back with intertwined arms to in the front of me. So he wasn't ready when I just bucked him over mustang-style. He almost hit his head on the ground but is fine... I probably will explain it better next time I do it. Elder Bryan cut my hair and I his which was fun. I think they turned out pretty well for a first try. On Sunday, the Bishop pulled me into his office and said, ´´Elder I need you to give a 10 min talk.´´ Problem was, I had to go and get investigators by car with a member and didn't have as much preparation as I would have liked. I talked about how the Lord calls each and every one of us to the work. I felt inadequate and unprepared when I went into the mission field and incapable of having much success. But what I learned is that many of the greatest prophets and missionaries came from humble, or even sinful backgrounds. I shared the stories of Enos, the Sons of Mosiah, and Enoc. Enos had never really put into practice the gospel before in his life and felt touched to pray. It was a great fight to receive a forgiveness of his sins and only later did he receive joy from preaching the gospel (Enos 1:3-4,26). The Sons of Mosiah had such faith and such desire that they baptized thousands and could not bear the soul of one to be lost, yet they had been the vilest of sinners and enemies of the church just years before (Mosiah 28: 2-4). Enoc was hated by the people, and like Moses, was slow and untalented at speaking. But the Lord told him to essentially ´´Just do it´´ instead of addressing his fears (Moses 6:31-34). The Lord calls the small and simple to the work (D&C1:23) but through them the great and marvelous things come to pass. As I said on Sunday, I reiterate today, you are called to the work and through the work you will find more happiness and forgiveness than in any other task. My mother shared an experience she had with bearing her testimony this Sunday for investigators that brought her to tears and I know you all may have experiences like as well. If you truly desire to serve God and have faith in Christ, the Lord will ´´grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of they faith´´ (Enos 1:12). I love you all and wish you the best. Come on really, Elder Healy

Temple

GOOD DAY! Elder Healy once more writes you from the Zion of Brasil, the area around the temple in Campinas. I have alot to write and not much time to do it, so come on now and let´s get right down to it. In the last week or so we have several different people talk to us about why they are frustrated that they cannot enter into the temple. They cite various reasons such as the Lord´s house should be for everyone, we shouldn´t hide things, churches are for the sick, not the healed, you think you are better than everyone else, etc. So I decided to do an extensive study of the temple in the Bible and through conversation with Elder Bryan. We reached the conclusion that these people don´t really know what they are talking about. In the Old Testament it talks about the Tabernacle being built (Exo 36:5-7) and then how people where unable to enter when the spirit of the Lord entered (Exo 40:33-35) people could not anymore. The Lord went so far as to kill a man unworthy (1 Chr 13:9-10) and an elaborate sanctification process was necessary (1 Chr 15:12-14). The Lord purified the temple on two occasions (John 2:14-17, Matt 21:12-13) because it is the house of God (2 Sam 7:5-6). The temple is not an ordinary building, but the place where the Lord may dwell. The impure afast the Spirit of God and negatively influence the Spirit for all. We do not go to the simply to worship, but to learn (Isa 2:1-3). If you do not understand the basic principles of the gospel, you cannot hope to understand the complex. You teach calculus AFTER arithmetic. We go there to make covenants or promises with God. If we are not worthy or ready for these promises and we break them, we only bring condemnation on our own heads. I hoped that helped to clarify why only those who are baptized, worthy, and prepared should enter the temple. Rant Complete. We had a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader this week. We was an assistant on his mission and taught us a ton of techniques. Because of him, we are now planning and interacting with others better. The ward has really started helping us with the work. We have people leaving with us almost every night, more references, and houses to do family nights. They even went with us to set a marriage date for investigators today. We are trying to baptize a man this Sunday who will marry with a member on Saturday. He just needs to stop smoking. We have a lady we met Sunday night who has been church hopping most her life and loved our lesson and the members. We hope to help her be baptized here in two weeks. Another man´s brother is a member and is sincerely preparing to be baptized on the 26th. We just need to teach him more! The final is a family who I talked about last week. We will teach the mother and son tomorrow. The son has already received an answer about the Book of Mormon, we just are having trouble finding him at home because he lives a bagillion miles away. That´s all folks. Come on really, Elder Healy

HUMP DAY

Yes, it has finally arrived. That pinnacle moment in every missionary´s career, Hump Day. The 3rd of August marked one year from when I was dropped off curb side at the Missionary Training Center, one year from when I have seen family and friends, and one year until I see them again. It was a day of mixed emotions, of highs and lows, hopes and memories, but most of all, gratitude. I am so glad that I have been able to serve thus far and that I still have one more year to serve. I am glad for the friends I have made, the people I have met, and the lives I have touched. I am thankful that the Lord has given me this time to give my all. I know that I haven´t been a perfect missionary and I know I can improve, but I am amazed to look back and see how far I have come from and how little it seems I have to go. To commemorate this important event, I decided to burn a shirt I had that was destroyed due to an ink pen explosion. The only problem was that the video camera ran our of battery part way through so the movie did not save. But such is life. The photos of before hand are attached. This last week has been great. We started really starting to work again on Thursday, but we are already recharged and ready to go. We had an interesting, and wonderful day yesterday. We did a contact on Monday night with a man who told us to stop by his house the next day at 10 AM. It was like a 45 minute walk. And the number didn't exist. So we were a little upset, but decided to keep going and tract along that street. several rejections later :) we knocked at a door and a woman answered and almost immediately invited us in. She had moved to Sousas with her two sons and husband recently and had almost been baptized in the church 18 years ago in the Amazons!!! So we taught her and her 19 year old son the first lesson and she was bearing her testimony of its truthfulness all throughout. It was nuts. Most of our investigators don't remember what we taught after two days and she remember after two decades. She said that she could remember why she wasn't baptized, but thought it was because she didn't understand our views on the afterlife which we explained and she agreed with. We will go back there on Friday to teach again, but she travels a lot so it will be a little hard to teach her. Her son doesn't seem to like the Church he is in and is excited to visit ours! The Lord prepared someone else for our message nearby. A woman stopped us and asked us to explain what happens in the temple and had a million other questions about the church. She has changed religions at least once and does not like the pastor where she goes and is really open to hear more. We will teach her whole family tomorrow. Elder Bryan and myself have been praying and fasting for someone to baptize and these I believe are the answer to our prayers. I hope you all have a wonderful week and stay classy. The Lord really does answer our prayers if we ask with faith for something just. Come on really, Elder Healy