Chapter 30: The Wall of Rain

30 Second Video Clip of a Rain Storm in Santa Marta

2/11

Today was pretty fun. We had our last  zone reunion today for this transfer which means that we said "goodbye" to a lot of missionaries. The reunion was kind of sad for me though, Liljenquist will probably be transferred next Monday which means this was likely the last time LilJ, Freeman, Mickel, and I will be working in the same zone. Mickel even gave LilJ and I ties, he's been such a great friend and example to us. Lunch today was fun, we finally got cancelled on so I got to make food. When we started eating Liljenquist was like, "...this has flavor. Why  don't people cook like this here?" Work was also pretty great today, we didn't have to walk too far, which was nice, and we got to talk to a lot of our stronger investigators. So far, we have quite the group for church next Sunday so we're really hoping everything works out, hopefully, if we keep visiting them all week they won't forget about the awesome sacrament meeting that we're going to have Sunday. We also had a couple of interesting contacts today: In one of them I asked a guy walking down the street if we could see his bible for a sec, then we pulled out the verse that says, "my church" and we asked him how he knew he had found the right one. We then encouraged him to pray and ask if our church had the authority of God and if he needed to be a member. I wouldn't exactly say he was grateful for the invite, but his reaction definitely made it easy to remember him.
2/12
Today wasn't that fun. We walked around teaching lessons all day until we had our English class. Lessons were pretty good, we taught one guy who was super receptive which was really refreshing. After that lesson, we went over to a new house and knocked. Irma Isabel opened  the door and was like, "Good afternoon, Elders! This is my Niece's house, come in! Come in!" Then we taught a lesson to her Niece. At the end, we invited her to be baptized, she did the normal, "I don't know" thing, and before we could say anything, her aunt chimed in, "but the Mormon baptism is cool! I'm going to be baptized, you should be baptized with my husband and I!" and the lady was like, "hmm... well, okay, as long as it's a cool baptism" and Elder Liljenquist and I just looked at each other in amazement, that's the fastest one of our lessons has ever gone apostate before. Irma Isabel has a really good heart, she understands our messages,  she just... doesn't quite understand how to express these things. We also pretty much fought with someone today over doctrine. Not a good  experience, would not recommend ever fighting with anyone. We taught our English class again tonight and made new contacts and taught people how to pray in English, it was a good class.
2/13
Today was pretty great. I called a bunch of people in the morning and set up appointments, so we already knew that today was going to be busy, but because LilJ and I are freaking legends we still fit new, unplanned lessons into our schedule. "How is it possible to teach two different lessons marked at the same time?" I hear you asking, well it's simple, we taught multiple lessons today in about 10 minutes, really trying to talk to the largest number of people possible. We also missed our appointment with the Bishop (sorry Bishop), because sometimes 10 minute lessons turn into hour long discussions. We definitely talked to as many people as we could have today, though, so that's a win in my book. Today we picked up the Bishop's son to teach with us, that kid is awesome. We only taught one lesson  with him, to Ana, but it was an amazing lesson.  We invited her whole family to listen and  then taught probably the best Plan of Salvation I've ever gotten to be a  part of before. At first, the Bishop's son was super nervous, and then it took the combined strength of Liljenquist and I to restrain him from teaching the entire restored gospel in one night. We're becoming true apostles, though, we put Ana's daughter to sleep, our message was so full of the peace of the Spirit. That was one of our best lessons too, afterwards Pedro was like, "Man, I can't wait to be a missionary", so we did good. We also tried to teach a lesson that could have easily turned into fighting, but we learned our lesson yesterday, we bore testimony, left, and still had the Spirit.
2/14
Today was fun. We went out today to talk to our investigators and quickly found out that no one wanted to talk to us. All of our appointments fell though, so we went out to find new  people to teach. We found a less active family and an awesome lady that's super interested in the church. God knows best, sometimes all your appointments have to fall through. The other thing that was pretty cool that I got to do today was an interview for Sanchez and  Graham. Unfortunately, Sanchez  called me way ahead of time, so we wasted like, four hours of time there. The interview was awesome, though! Mentally, I don't think the guy was all the way there, but he believed every word I said with his whole heart. I taught him a summarized version of the entire Gospel because he was a Today (someone with almost no information about our church, but has a strong desire to follow the Gospel), but he really was super humble and ready to learn, and picked up on a lot of the stuff that I said. I was impressed with how much he remembered, and at the end he gave the most touching prayer, he really was an awesome Son of God. When we returned to our  area we had just enough time to do a service project for Irmao Mota and arrange a ride with him in case one of us gets transfered. It was great to see at least one person smiling so much at us, Mota's always so happy.
2/15
Today was good. We worked as hard as we possibly could have, but it was still a more fubeca day than normal because today was the day  that we got calls for transfers. Liljenquist and I were the only people who didn't receive a call, so everyone else is changing in at least a small way except for us, which surprised me since Liljenquist already has so much time here, but at least we're going to have an awesome next transfer! Liljenquist is my hardest working comp yet, so I'm kind of happy he gets to stick around. I think he was kind of hoping to go, so I feel bad for him for that, but really what's most important is that we get to work. The most notable change from transfers is that Elder Kenison, my friend from the CTM is going to be in my district! Work today was like, well, running around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to get everybody ready for church tomorrow. We made a contact that turned into a lesson and we gave him a Livro de Mormon, which is pretty unusual for a contact. He was just passing through Santa Marta for work, so we don't expect to ever see him again. We also got the lovely call saying that EnglishConnect needed us as teachers since their teachers had cancelled, so we had to drop work and go hike up to the church to teach out of a manual neither my comp nor I had ever read before. It was a good activity to try out, but Liljenquist and I made a blood oath to not go back. Then we ran out, trying to catch up on lost time, only to get dumped on by rain immediately, so we took shelter in a nearby Irma's house, or rather, we took shelter on her porch, since she wasn't home. We had lots of people promise to come to church, so it was a good Saturday. Then, Liljenquist and I finished the night by showing him how to cook meat. There's a new Master Chef in Brazil now.
2/16
Today was great! We woke up early today to try to get all of our investigators to church. We had 15, great people, who seemed set on coming, and none of them came. That was kind of sad, but the members who are way better missionaries than we are invited their neighbor to come to church with them, and now he's interested in taking the lessons from us, so things are definitely looking up now. We had a great time learning about the atonement in our gospel doctrine class today, we studied 2 Nephi 9, which is such a well written chapter about the Atonement. Bednar made a really good point about the Atonement (no, I did not have David A. Bednar in my class today, I was just reading one of his books), Bednar showed how personal the Atonement is when he called it the "At one ment" when we accept the Atonement into our lives, we are literally becoming "at one" with the Savior. Work today wasn't very fun, and our last appointment of the night was talking to this awesome RM, so when we went and talked to him, he showed us this awesome video about the Atonement and missionary work. I have a lot to learn about the effects of the Atonement, still. This is the link of the video I saw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6FKiNVbw3Y it explains the roles of the Savior, Missionaries, and Salvation incredibly well. After seeing that, I was ready to go out and deal with another unsuccessful week. It really should be a good week though, we'll have a new district, new missionaries, and lots of great things to look forward too.


Something that we've been learning a lot lately is how to work with the Lord. One of the verses on the mission that I've found I'm sharing most frequently with our investigators is Isaiah 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Frequently we share this verse with our investigators to show the need for us to change our ways, but as missionaries we frequently forget that we aren't perfect either. Any of us, full time missionaries, member missionaries, everyone in the entire world, have to be ready to accept the will of the Lord, and to work with him. Frequently in trying to do the will of the Lord I'm reminded of Peter talking to the resurrected Lord: So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

There is no work that is more important than missionary work, nothing more dire, nor more consequential, both to us as well as to the rest of the world. It's my prayer that as we become more immersed in the work of Almighty God we'll come to know His thoughts and ways, and that we will truly come to love Him, the Light, and the Truth that He represents.

Muito Amor,
Elder Anderson