Letter #71

Dearest Family,

Here in Brasil we did not have Thanksgiving but we did have a day of profound thanks and I feel a deep gratitude for this past week.

This week I was thankful for the members, for being able to make some ground with them. Here's some of what happened: I presented a fifteen minute training on the function of the ward counsel and how it works together with the missionaries to accelerate the work. It was well received and has brought us the further approval of the bishop, his counselors and also the other leaders. It felt good. As a direct result I think the bishop approached us, telling us that he would soon clear up one night during the week and wanted to leave with us every week to visit families. BINGO! bishop converted.

We also spent a large portion of the week helping other missionaries in the zone, which resulted in the baptism of a few very cool people, one being the woman from last weeks' interview. I interviewed her again on Sunday morning and she is now a member of the church. It was a special baptism, her being a former Buddhist, a staunch intellectual and having to endure strong opposition from her family. I have no doubt that they will soon accept the gospel because of her testimony. It was amazing to see her diligence in keeping with the goals I had set with her relating to the Book of Mormon, and when she entered the interview there was no longer any doubt, just testimony.

Last week I had begun to work on a list of member references and this week I was able to go a little farther contacting these people close to the stake president's house with his wife and son. We visited, invited and marked future lessons all the while encouraging them and reminding them that success is in the invite and that they were doing that intrepidly : ) We now have about five or six families happy to do a Family Home Evening in their house and help us teach during the week. This has been some of the most rewarding progress in member missionary work I have had in my entire mission and it feels so good! The spirit confirmed our first efforts to contact these references with a sweet satisfaction even though it was variably raining hard and evaporating the water off of us. This was during a division I did with a new Peruvian elder who had been passing a hard time in this beginning of his mission. I felt it my duty to metaphorically take him under my wing. It was a privilege to tutor him and resolve some of his concerns. This leads me to my next acontecimento (event), the mission tour with President Costa.

We left Wednesday afternoon with ours and one more zone on a rented "country bears" bus, which broke before we left the parking lot! Everyone got out and we waited till the replacement came an hour and a half later WITHOUT air conditioning. As a certain uncle would say, DINAH! And there was no price tag negotiation either. Then we found out that the bus driver didn't know how to get there or anywhere in between so for much of the journey I stood on the front stairs taking on full sun, directing our bus full of missionaries through side streets and back alleys and one way intersections to get to the outlying chapels where other missionaries waited. To say I sweated would be an understatement. I made a new Gatorade commercial and it looked like someone painted my front half red and left the back half of me white, We arrived two hours late in Londrina safe and ready to sleep. . .with the rest of the mission in the zone of Londrina, 8-12, in a house built for two : ) Adventures aplenty : ) So we got pizza and threw the mattresses on the ground and slept until four when we woke up and caught the city bus for an hour to get back to the chapel in time. (This trip was actually hassle free, and the shower was much better than the one we have in our house - plus my former district member Elder Crowther made brownies for us so really it was a wonderful success overall.)

We had a meeting with all the zone leaders and district leaders before the general meeting and question and answer session with President Costa. Dynamic is the word I'd use to describe him, in a well cut suit. When that was over we moved to the general meeting downstairs where he continued his theme of faith. We can do anything by faith, if you believe. He remarked that Brasil is the whitest of all missionary fields in the world and that as such we are not here to plant except as occurs naturally with our efforts. We are here to reap and reap a lot! That's fantastic news to us : )  I will not share everything he said to us but needless to say he responded to many questions I had been pondering recently, ALL of them, which was a marvelous answer to my prayers. And he did so in a way that cleared my vision to what should be done here in the work, in our field. Which was ironic because later I was called to a personal interview with him, one of ten and honestly didn't have a single question for him! It was a privilege to speak with him personally for a few minutes and share what I had learned. We spoke of my family and the work and that was it. It was a capstone to the conference and the final trowel of mortar came on the bus ride home. In Uncle Aaron's letter he stated that to minister is more important than administer and that in some way sealed my conference experience.

I hope that's not confusing, I know that it is really just a lot of pieces, but it was fantastic and I take all these things as spiritual for nothing is temporal, and for me they were inspired threads woven into my tapestry this week.  I have sought and will continue to seek to minister as our Savior would to all who are in need. I did so ending this week and have felt the confirmation of the Spirit telling me that indeed this is the Lord's way and there are many many people to be helped, one by one by one.

Sunday briefly we had several special experiences, including being asked to sing a duet in the ward's Christmas concert, in addition to playing the piano, which we now play every week, frequently switching off to the amusement of the ward. We also received, as a result of our being in the chapel for this practice, a golden reference from one of the other bishops in the stake, a man who would like to be baptized this week. I'll be more than happy to oblige : ) We also entered in to contact with some leaders we had not been able to reach, small branches we are planning on visiting soon  to baptize the investigators that are waiting for us : )

Life is splendid, of course plenty of challenges but when the day ends we don't really think about them. I hope this letter that is a little longer can bring you a spirit of the work. I love you. I count my many blessings daily, they are so very many. May we share this greatest blessing of all, our testimony of the gospel with everyone.

Love,

Tanner