Bring an Umbrella

Here we are- the Elders serving in our ward.  We make a nice stair-step, haha.

9/29/14

Well I think down here in Brasil we are in spring. Around lunch time it's always sunny and hot but then the wind starts blowing and it rains and is cold in the afternoon. But we have a rule of thumb that if we bring our umbrellas, it won't rain while we are out walking. And of course the day that we didn't bring our umbrellas it started to down pour. So my opinion is just always bring my umbrella. 

On Thursday our ward had a Family Home Evening event and the scheme is that we go around and invite all of the less actives and such on the list who have their birthday in the month. So we invited a ton of people from the list (almost none of which came, joy of being a missionary) and there was a cake and a big balloon arch and pictures and music and it was pretty fun.

Ward Family Home Evening Event

the Bishop's family 

A note from my studies: I am reading the Book of Mormon all the way through in Portuguese for the first time! I calculated that if I read 2 chapters a day I should finish by the end of the year. Reading in another language is interesting but seeing as I've read the Book of Mormon before, I know the stories well enough to keep it all together even if I don't know what a word means (which thankfully isn't too often). Although I do have to confess the Isaiah chapters in 2 Néfi were a bit torturous and less productive. But I have faith in the "Book of Mormon Promise" and that after reading it all, my Portuguese will be on a new level! 

As for Elder Gois and I as usual at the beginning of a transfer we have great plans and goals to have many new investigators so that means we talk with a lot of people. Here is a list of some of the stuff that we get all the time in our contacts: "I already have a religion" (most common) "I'm catholic..." (like that means we´re not going to talk to you) "Ive already learned about you all" (and still call the Book of Mormon "your Bible") "I respect your work" (but no way I'm gonna listen to you) "There's just one God" (in the sense that whatever religion you follow it leads to the same place) "Just do what is good" (because any obligation is way too much). Or the various excuses that people give because they don't want to flat out say no like: "I have work tonight..." (when its 3pm) "I'm about to leave" (and we pass by the house 30mins later and they´re still there) and so much more.  But my favorites are when we talked with pastors of other churches. I've had one try to convince us that we are allapostolos and another who testifies that we (E. Gois and I) were prophets and that in his church there was a child prophet and that his wife has the tendency to prophesy (its hard not to laugh sometimes the way that people say things) and another who would say nothing more than we all as a collective are God... yup, so we just say "tchau boa tarde" (bye, good afternoon) and keep on walking.

Gotta love the gaúchos, have a great week everybody love you all!

Elder Pierce

Crackers I like to eat (customized to the name of my Mission)