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