Chapter 35: It's The End of The World As We Know It, And I Feel Fine (Mostly)

The Elders at Henrique's baptism!
 






Elder A's long grocery shopping receipt.


























 
3/17
Well today WAS great. We had a district but it was a super small reunion, just the four of us. It was still a great, uplifting experience and helped us all to bond more, so I'm glad we did it. Then everyone else found out that I like to draw which somehow bonded our district more than the interviews or  anything else we've already done. Interesting. After the reunion we had lunch with the sweetest family ever. The wife is the ward's relief society Pres. and the husband disarms bombs. Another classic example of a great husband/wife duo. They have the sweetest daughter, Laura and a little baby boy that's super chubby. They were such a good family, they gave me hope for the people  of Manaus again, since we mostly just talk to people who don't understand all day. After lunch we had some interesting lessons, we taught Renata and Camille together today which didn't go that well. Renata seemed like she was trying to impress her friend  with the "I'm  too cool for salvation"  attitude, which I'm worried will corrupt Camille. Camille was still pretty interested though, so I was glad things worked out for her. There was a lesson that went far better though: We taught Henrique today, turns out this kid  is the golden child. We taught him and his brother tonight and after the first lesson we taught, he invited us to stay and  teach another lesson to his  brother. During the lesson Henrique was  like, "one thing you guys explained really well for me was apostasy, but I don't  think my brother understands. Do you understand what apostasy means Gabriel? *Gabriel shakes his head no* Could you guys explain it again for him?" So yeah, we're going to really focus on Henrique this week. Today WAS great until they reduced our proselyting hours tonight. Now I'm not freaking feliz [happy].
3/18
Today was the first day of working our new, horrible hours for proselyting, Presidente purposely chose hours when  he knew there would be minimal contact with  people on the street,  thereby  drastically  decreasing the chance  of  us getting  the  Coronavirus; That's a good  thing, until you consider how  missionary work  is a social work and actually completely dependent on talking to other people. Needless to say, work today was very annoying. We spent a long  time walking around  but  not as much time actually talking to people. We did  get Henrique's  baptismal interview done  today, though. He  passed with flying colors;  the interviewer  said that Henrique taught him  during the interview,  so I'd consider that pretty  prepared. We also shared the lesson "The  Gospel of Jesus  Christ" with a family today. During that  lesson we always pause when we get to the part that talks about baptism  because the part about authority  is  always difficult for people to understand. Well, Kawany took  over and started explaining. Then she  told a dude that his baptism wasn't valid.  Kawany  barely opened  her mouth  the first  time we  taught, so to hear her explaining  the hardest part of the lesson with ease, as well as taking the courage to call someone to  repentance was great, it made her trainers (Young and I) very  proud. Young, Kawany and I are super excited about Henrique's baptism, our first success in this area!
3/19
Today was awesome! Despite the lack of work we were  able to do today, we prepped Henrique for his baptism,  which left us feeling great. Another son of God will enter a divine covenant by  the  authority of the Priesthood. We also taught Henrique about the plan of happiness today. Lessons  with Henrique  are always  the best because  he understands so much, it's kind of weird to go from slowly explaining every concept one by one with all of our other investigators to flying through the  whole lesson and finding out that somehow Henrique's retained all of that  information.  We also kind of have a dilemma  about  Henrique's baptism: We're not supposed to have more than five people, but his family wants to see the baptism  which is really  important  for both building trust with them and for  missionary work because 100% if they're there they'll  feel  the Spirit. The other fun thing we had to  do  today was to buy  our  food storage. Caetano gave all the missionaries extra money  to  buy our food storage. Caetano seems to be expecting that we're all going to be stuck inside soon because of this horrible virus, so  today we were told to go stock up on food. We went to the Brazil version of Costco today and spent a ridiculous amount  of money on food (almost 500 reais which, sure, is only $100 but food is cheaper in Brazil, so it was a LOT). I was proud of our receipt, it looked  like one of my  mom's receipts (shoutout to my mom for shopping for our small army) and now I can cook food, so hopefully  the apocalypse won't be too bad for us.
3/20
Today was probably one of the best days on the mission so far.  We didn't really have time to do anything  but Henrique's baptism, but  it was worth it. The first thing we did when we woke  up was to go clean and fill up the font. We messed around a bit, but where's the fun of  janitorial work if you don't? After a rushed lunch we ran back to shut off the font. It was good that we hurried back to the chapel because this is  the first font I've used that has really  worked; The font was almost  overflowing when  we arrived. Normally we have to  wait  for ~1/2 hour for  the font to finish filling up but this time  we had to  use that half  hour to wait for the water to drain back to  a normal level. Then we  ran over and I did an interview for a Venezuelan lady for Parque 10. parque 10 probably isn't very happy  with me  because I didn't pass her, but she didn't meet the time requirement for church. After  the interview we  ran  back to our  area  as fast as we  could  ( we did actually run which  probably scared a lot of people to see two Americans trying to  spread the Coronavirus as fast as their legs would carry them) Henrique's  baptism was amazing,  the Spirit was  stronger there than  any other baptism I'd ever been to. I even got  to confirm Henrique  which  was an  incredible experience. Afterwards I also got to be the mouthpiece  in a blessing for Tiago. The ability we've had to touch people this transfer, this week, has been greater than any other time in my  mission so far.
3/21
We're kind of freaking out; Today amidst our attempts to  work we  heard from the members that the missionaries of Mozambique went home. That kind of put a damper on the whole "mission" thing. Young and I started freaking out: "They can't just send  home missionaries, what are they going to do? Pull all the missionaries in the world?" It didn't help that we talked  to Kawany and she gave us more information on what was  going on in the missionary world; She told us that the CTMs are completely closed  now and they're considering doing online prep  for missionaries. She has no idea how she's going to prep for her mission  now. Between  making food since we can't go to restaurants and a Trump  questionnaire we had to do listing  out where we're serving at, we had a solid two hours to try to work and prep people for Sunday even though we aren't  having  reunions anymore. We  were able to talk to  Irma  Solonge which was  good to  establish contact with her.  We found  out  that  yesterday was her birthday  and  she  informed us  that  she  had a "mountain  of cake" We found out just what  kind of  excess of cake she  had when  she brought out the fourth  cake  in a row and demanded that we eat. Then Young and I went home and felt bad for ourselves (because proselyting is over, not because of the cake).
3/22
The missionaries here are now officially on house arrest.  We can't leave, and we're all  without  hope. We aren't allowed to work with the members at all. The mission is  saying  to make the largest reserve of food possible so that we can stay in quarantine for an extended period of time. Today the President of  Brazil informed everyone  that  all public places (restaurants, shopping centers, super markets) would  be  shut  down because of the spreading Coronavirus. Earlier this week there  were two cases confirmed, Thursday it went up to about four, now we're up to 26. I've been downloading  a plethora of  general  conference  talks, and today I was very glad for them, since  we're now  locked inside. The members have been very sweet, still trying  to bring us food, and  we  have a small food storage, so we'll be fine for a while. The  most devastating part of  all of this is that we really aren't supposed to be working during this time.  We were told by our ZLs today that the ideal numbers for us to pass next week would have 0s for everything; No contacting, no  meeting new people, no helping people get on date for baptism, no preparing people for sacrament, and  no baptisms. We were able to  take the sacrament today, so  that was a positive. As a side note, we just got a call that we're going home so that's errado.


This week Elder Young and I listened to a talk from Elder Bednar. Because it was so applicable to us, I decided to share some parts of it today:
"Each mission call and assignment, or a later reassignment, is the result of revelation through the Lord’s servants. A call to the work comes from God through the President of the Church. An assignment to one of the more than 400 missions presently operating around the world comes from God through a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, acting with the authorization of the Lord’s living prophet. The spiritual gifts of prophecy and revelation attend all mission calls and assignments.
Bednar then shares a section from Doctrine and Covenants that talks about the specific assignment of one of God's missionaries:
D&C 80:3 "Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss."
I do not believe that the phrase “it mattereth not” as used by the Lord in this scripture suggests that He does not care where His servants labor. In fact, He cares deeply. But because the work of preaching the gospel is the Lord’s work, He inspires, guides, and directs His authorized servants. As missionaries strive to be ever more worthy and capable instruments in His hands and do their best to fulfill faithfully their duties, then with His help they “cannot go amiss”—wherever they serve. Perhaps one of the lessons the Savior is teaching us in this revelation is that an assignment to labor in a specific place is essential and important but secondary to a call to the work.
When a missionary is reassigned to a different field of labor, the process is precisely the same as for the initial assignment. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve seek inspiration and guidance in making all such reassignments."
Elder Bednar spoke to the hearts of my comp and I, when we heard this talk we knew the Lord was mindful of our fears about being transferred into another mission. The Lord cares deeply for our personal interests and for His work, and His work will continue.


Muito amor,
Élder Anderson