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