Noah's Ark and Missionary Work

Well our ward is doing really well, but our investigators....

So we have been spending a lot of time working with members, less actives, and recent converts. It's been leading to results! A lot of members and reactivations, for example. The only thing is that we aren't having much luck with our investigators.

This week we started working with a less active member. During the week she had two days in which she didn't smoke, dropped from smoking two boxes a day to two sticks, and went to church! 

Also this week we started asking for referrals in a new manner. We tell the story of Noah (how he saved people from the flood) and ask them:  "If you were Noah who would you want on the bark? Then we write down all the names, and show how they can be like Noah and invite their friends to get in the old boat of Zion and to be safe from the deadly sins of the world. We then work with the person to visit all of these people and get them to church, (but seeing how we are in phase two (contatcting people) we have yet to see a lot of results).

I love you all! 

Elder Lindsey

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

Mission Tour--1 Year in the Mission

So this week we had mission tour. 

We had P-day and this week almost everything fell through but we found a family of 8 (6 above 8 years) 

We went to Juiz de Fora, and prepared for mission tour.

We had Mission tour and returned home (and I completed one year on the mission)

This week was hard. I think because it's winter break no one is home, so its hard to find people and hard to teach them. But despite the difficulties that made the work hard we did well.

We learned a ton in mission tour!  It was more or less follow the spirit, be humble, follow the spirit, work effectively, follow the spirit, increase your testimony, and whatever the spirit says... DO IT. Oh and did I mention follow the Spirit?

Elder Costa talked about his conversion and his testimony and how important it is to follow the Spirit. He talked about the power of the Atonement and how hard it was for Christ and how we rarely understand exactly what happened or exactly how perfect Christ is. He also told us that we through the atonement may be as Christ is. Perfect. We may be clean. He is the Savior. We may be saviors on mount zion. He has become as the Father, and so may we, through the power of the Atonement. Christ has overcome the world, death and sin, and so to may we. 

Even though we are nothing compared to God, we are not nothing to him!  Your worth to Him is great, and He loves YOU. He loves you enough that He sent His Son. He loves you enough that he restored the Gospel of His Son. God is watching over each and every one of us, and with God on our side how can we fail?

Now is the time to chose whose side we are on, and if we aren't on the side of Christ--get there now! Put both feet on His side and run to Him with everything you have, because it is hard, and there are those that would destroy us.

I know that God loves me. I know that he cares for me, and wants me to succeed. and so that I may succeed He send His Son.

Elder Lindsey

1st Week in Barbacena: Faith in Jesus Christ Leads to Eternal Life

Well another great week in Barbacena. The people here are considerably more open than the people in Rio, The Catholic church is considerably stronger here, so we are having success. The only problem is that the chapel is in a rather inconvenient spot, and we didn't have investigators at church.

But, hey! This week we are going to do a big event in the middle of the city with a bunch of members and we will be handing out pamphlets, copies of the Book of Mormon, pass along cards, and talking to every one who passes by.

This week we taught one of our investigators the Word of Wisdom, and he has simply vanished. We aren't able to talk with him, as he isn't picking up the phone. When we go to his house his father says he isn't home. We are praying that we can encounter him again and that his testimony will out weigh his desires to continue smoking.

This week we had several of those days where nothing happened, but while walking one street we felt like we should start knocking doors, and on that street alone we started teaching and gained baptismal dates with three families. Now we have to see where this leads and pray hard for them.

Thursday we were heading to lunch when we had a man stop us and try to burn us using the bible, and I decided rather than burn him like I usually do to try and speak with love. It didn't make that much of a difference for him, but for me I felt considerably better then I usually do after something like this happens.

Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and more or less tied everything to two points: Everything starts with faith in Jesus, and leads to eternal life.  

Also Sunday we had a M.M.T.C. (member missionary training center) where we talked about how the members can better fulfill their part and help the missionaries. 

Have a happy Monday (and for you missionaries happy p-day) 

Stay firm in the faith!

Moroni 7

Corinthians 13

or just go do a thorough study about Charity.

Elder Lindsey

Sempre Fies 

New Area: Barbacena

Welcome to my new area!
 I'm in a small ward that has a lot of problems, but they are working hard to overcome.

Barbacena is even smaller than my old area Barra Mansa and is extremely Catholic. Every day at six o'clock you can hear "ave maria cheia de graça... " being announced throughout the whole city sounding from every single Catholic church (which aren't few)

The city here is a bit cooler than Barra Mansa, and I pulled out a long sleeve shirt for the first time since Petropolis.

Saterday we had a "festa junina" and had a good number of non-members show up there and we had our own "barraca" and were giving out pass along cards, pamphlets and copies of the Book of Mormon. 

This week we will be doing an exposition in the city to do the same thing with everyone else but it might be a little hard as we wont receive materials and will more or less be handing out pass along cards.

So this week we are teaching a man 22 years old who is really awesome. This week he went to church (at 9 AM), and took his girlfriend there (we didn't know he had one). 

The last time we visited him he started saying that he didn't doubt, but that he didn't yet know, so we shared with him Alma 32 where it talks about the seed.

We were then talking to him about baptism, and he talked about how he felt that in order to be baptized he should be free of addictions (he smokes, and we haven't yet taught him the word of wisdom!!) 

Also at the end of priesthood meeting we asked the men in the ward if any would be available to do some visits with us this week, and two men, the bishop, and this investigator said they would be available, but our investigator said he would like to know a little bit more first. (yeah he is really awesome)

We are also teaching a young woman, who at the "festa" saw that the people serving food were behind, so she jumped in and started helping. She also has introduced us to her mother, grandparents, and her mothers boyfriend (her mom is separated). She goes to all of the activities in the church, and is making friends with the members of the ward.

Well I love you all and pray that you are blessed, and have the stregnth to resist temptation.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Elder Lindsey

Prayer is Real

Transfers are this week and I am being transferred!


This week we spent plenty of time in a neighborhood which has rarely been worked by the missionaries (that same one that we started working in these days). We have been having a lot of success there, as of yet we have worked on only 2 streets and gained 5 baptismal dates with these people. 

     So this week we had divisions on Tuesday. We worked to contact the people we had already contacted and  we succeed in finding several new investigators.

     We taught one man whose family is against the church, his mother took the Book of Mormon from him and hid it, and gave it to us as we were leaving-- but we saw him on the street and returned the it to him.

     We found a man who lives in humble circumstances who doesn't even have a chair in his house, but is receiving the lessons. Though he has little time, he seeks to complete the commitments we leave with him.

     We taught an elderly woman who doubts that God calls prophets again, but managed to convince her to plant the seed, and if it grows let it bear fruit. (aka read and pray)

     We had an elderly woman go to church this week who we had been teaching about 3 months ago. She told us that she felt like she needs to get baptized, but is still a little uncertain.

     This week we visited a member and had a family home evening with them, and her friend passed by as we were starting and was invited to enter and hear the message. We briefly resumed the Restoration lesson(she has already received the missionaries) and talked about how we, like captain Moroni, Amon, Alma, Paul, Peter, (Alma Chapter 48) can build our foundations on Christ (Helaman 5:12) by faith, hope, charity, love, humility, patience, virtue, diligence, knowledge, and obedience. At the end of the message she asked to come to church with us (sadly this week she had promised a friend that she would go to church with her) but this week she will go to church.

     This week I had a cool experience with prayer. On the mission I have learned to be direct, as when we are direct we act with faith and authority.I decided to pray by being direct. I decided not to ask for vague things like bless me that i can find people to teach, but more about where should I go to find those who are prepared to hear. Also with questions about the gospel, for example, "what does this investigator need?", or  "what will this help this investigator, and satisfy his needs?". 

     Doing this I received clearer answers, and had an immediate knowledge that God had heard my prayers. We teach our investigators that prayer is a conversation, and I have learned it is.

     I know that Jesus is the Christ, that He lives, He has restored His gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith. He guides us today through a living prophet. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints is the true church, and the Book of Mormon, as surely as if it had been writen by the hand of God is true.

     And i know that God loves me.

     May He bless you all

-Elder Lindsey, your brother in Christ

Progressing Investigators and Mission Council

So this week we had a really cool experience! A man showed up at seminary and the teacher took his address and passed it to us. We visited him the next day, and he has a baptismal date! The next day he went to institute and he went to church! He understands the lessons well, and is excited to learn about family history work.

Right now, with the exception of the investigator mentioned above our investigators are progressing slowly. We encountered an investigator who we haven't been able to talk to for a while, and he said that his work is short several workers right now so everyone is working double and he hasn't been able to go to church because he is currently working Sunday morning.

Since Elder Dias was temporarily out of commission this week, I went to mission council in his place, and I learned a ton there. All of the stuff that the zone leaders tell us is little compared to what they talk about in mission council. Then again the next day I had to pass a part to the zone which really wasn't too bad.

Elder Dias is doing a lot better, and is back on his feet working hard, but we have another missionary in our zone that has caught dangue. What fun.

Well another normal and wild week in Brasil

Elder Lindsey

He's Training!

Well this week was great! Elder G Correâ was transferred to Novo Friburgo, which is in Teresopolis. I had to go to Juiz de Fora to pick up my companion and receive a training then we came back home (about 9 hours of traveling.) We started work on Thursday an all if our plans fell through, but we managed to knock a few doors and find some new investigators. Elder Cruz (my new companion) assigned a baptismal date in his first lesson in the field!!

Friday was weekly planning and a little less successful than Thursday (we still had 4 lessons but we cut a lot of investigators.) 

However, we did teach one man and his girlfriend and helped them learn about the Restoration.

Saturday was pretty normal (except taking an Elder to the hospital) but we did have several drunkards stop us on the streets.

Sunday we walked clear out to a neighborhood called Km4 (because it is at kilometer marker 4 (I'm pretty sure its already in São Paulo) then headed to Ano Bom where we went to the house of a member and talked to our families for Mother's Day, and then headed home.

I've returned to be Assistant to the Zone Leaders because one of them is sick and the responsibilities is way to much for one Elder. I will therefore have to journey all the way to Juiz de Fora again tonight.)

This week I have started asking a lot more questions and now I'm getting good at having the investigator let himself be taught by the Spirit. It's a much more effective way to teach! The sad part is that several times I have seen the investigator know that it is true, or at least know that he can know and still turn down happiness.

Our efforts have been exceedingly more effective and we have been spending more time on lessons and walking a lot less!

We have also had the opportunity to give several blessings this week and it is amazing to feel the Spirit guide the words that come out of the mouth of the person giving the blessing.

The new elders in my district are pretty cool, we have two in training, and a pretty awesome new Zone Leader

well I love you all and I will write to y'all again next week!

Ask and ye shall receive knock and it shall be opened unto you.

Elder Lindsey

Happy Mother's Day Next Week!

Sorry but again I am running out of time (I've been using more time to talk to individuals and as such my main letter is suffering...)

This week was great!

Yesterday we were looking for a less active, and it appeared that the address didn't exist. As we were going to leave a set of staircases looked familiar and we saw the right number (530 came after 532 instead of before)

 We then had an amazing spiritual lesson with a woman who accepted our message and looks like she has great potential in being baptized! She also told us where her son (less active) is living Agora.

This week we started getting crazy amounts of referrals and we don't have the time to talk with everyone! But hey I've learned it pays to work with members. Visit them, share a quick lesson, help them with something, and then they help you!

Anyway I love you all!

and I will talk to my family on Sunday (and they can tell you more)

Also this transfer was only 5 weeks so-- new transfer! I will be staying, but Elder Correa is being transferred!

Obedience brings Happiness!

I used up most of my time sending individual letters but here is a little about my week

 Obedience is the first law of heaven. also see D&C 130 (i think 18 and 19) There is a law irrevocably decreed.... upon which all blessings are predicated, and it is by obedience to that law that we receive any blessing of God (sorry if the quote is not perfect, I am trying to translate into English) 

As we obey we are happy!

Wednesday we had Zone Conference (President and Sister Cascardi came and talked with the zone) President said that if we are happy in the work he couldn't ask for more because of this principle. He then went on to tell us some rules the mission needs to improve on obeying but hey if you're happy you are obedient!

Sunday evening we passed by the chapel and saw a member sitting outside waiting, so we stopped to talk for a little, and ended up receiving a boatload of referrals (members kept showing up and everyone ended up knowing some less actives who strangely aren't on the ward list, or had a referral  for us so we have our work cut out for us this week)

Well sorry I didnt write much, but I love you all

Dog vs. Hand

I had a very angry dog try to get a piece of me.... and well thankfully I managed to move my hand, but my pants were a little too slow (he didn't get flesh, just my daily planner)
Anyway Fora Disto this week was awesome.
We didn't exactly have stellar numbers, but there were a lot of random miracles (like the fact that I felt like I should look at the dog a half a second before he went to bite me).
Hey could everyone pray for elder Cordeiro, he is in the hospital right now, and it is unlikely that he will be able to return to the field.
We have been teaching an investigator who is really close to being baptized! He wants to be baptized, but he thinks that since he has only known the church for 5 weeks it's a little fast for baptism.
This week we had a really cool experience, when we had 8 appointments and their alternate plan fell through we went and were passing to see if we could move an appointment forward an hour to try to move to another part of the neighborhood, when I stopped in front of a street and asked my companion if he had ever knocked doors on this street. He said no, so we went and knocked the first door and to our surprise we found the son of an investigator (who had never taken part in the lessons with his parents)  and his friend! We had a highly spiritual lesson and gave them baptismal dates.
We had a lot of people want to have appointments with us on Wednesday with us and of course Wednesday is zone conference so we will be in Petropolis.
Well I love you all and remember you often in my prayers!

avante avante meus irmãos 

Insert Subject Here

**His letters are getting to be a mix between English and Portuguese..so good luck reading this. :)

Well this week was awesome!
We had a lesson with a referral, and that went well but the only problem is that she works for "carama" and only has "fogo" one Sunday per month, so it is hard for her to be able to go to church.

We spent almost the entire week in Vista Alegre. We dropped an investigator who lives on a farm another forty minutes walking, so I'm not going to die this week.

We now have a ward mission leader, so I finally had a reunion with our LMA (ward mission leader) and it's great because his wife is the Relief Society President so she helps us a lot too (and made dinner for us). 

This week I talked with three types of Jehovah's Witnesses. First, the type that rudely says no.  Second, the type that will talk to you for a while and then politely say no. And last, the type that lets you teach them. (sadly they didn't accept any challenges or commitments so if we return it will probably be our last lesson for a while with him.

My English is terrible, but I'm trying to teach my companion English, so we are usually talking in the streets in Portuginglish.

Sadly because I'm out of time I've gotta log off!

Te amo!

Para frente e para alto

General Conference

General Conference

Well this week was a little slow, and we had some divisions but GENERAL CONFRENCE WAS AMAZING!!!!

So Saturday was pretty cool.

We went to lunch with a member who lives way far away and rather then have us be late to conference we watched with them. Also they are way rich, like their house is bigger than mine, they have a swimming pool, four cars, and tal. but anyway we watched conference with them, then worked in the neighborhood then watched conference, then came home.

Sunday we went to the stake center and watched there (and since i was watching in Portuguese my. 

Sunday morning was awesome, the spirit was strong, and it was cool to hear about all the temples.)

General conference in a few words: fasting marrage easter Atonement

The Work is Growing Fast!

Well February flew by, and at this rate I feel like I'll be home in another month or two.

This week I literally walked through the entire city, from one end to the other, and out to a farm nearly in Bananal. Nothing to worry about but one of my pairs of shoes already has holes in the bottom of them (as in my socks were destroyed by the pavement) but thankfully it doesn't cost too much to get them repaired, only about twenty dollars. 

Anyway, this week was great, and we are preparing a white Saturday.We have 11 baptisms planed for the 21st. We are mainly working in three areas right now, Sinderlandia, Vila Independencia and Villa Maria. Sinderlandia is where about 8 of our baptismal dates are, so daily someone is there visiting all of them, and somebody else visits Vila Maria or Vila Independencia. (in case you were wondering its really easy to do divisions with ward members in a trio because we only need one member in order to do the divisions so we do them almost daily) Vila Maria is a area that has no members, and records of missionaries working there are non-existent. I have yet to talk to someone who has seen the missionaries in Vila Maria, so we are all but opening there.

On Friday we were working in Vila Maria, and for a while nothing was feeling right. We were talking to everyone but not giving any lessons, and I had a feeling that the next person with whom we should talk would recognize us as ministers. We walked for about 10 minutes, and due to the heat we stopped to eat some açai (its like ice cream, but without cream and açai flavored) and the woman who owns the shop asked us if we were from the church, we responded yes, and she accepted a lesson.

Yesterday I was with a young man in the ward when he said his grandfather had just gotten out of the hospital and I asked him if he would like to visit his grandfather. We went there and briefly shared the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation, and the young man asked if his grandparents would like blessings, so I had the opportunity to give them blessings of comfort. Afterwords they warmed up a lot and we were able to make an appointment to return and visit this week.

Here is his testimony of the gospel in Portuguese :) 

Sei que Jesus vive, sei que ele é o meu Salvador, e que por meio dele podemos ser limpos, e livres. Sei que a Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias é a igreja guiado por Deus, e Seus santos profetas. 

I love you all. 

-Elder Lindsey

Barra Mansa

Well this semana foi ótimo! I am currently in a trio with Elder Conceção and Elder Dias, which is pretty awesome because it makes it easy to do daily divisions. I have worked several times with members in the ward, and other times with one or two Elders. 

Yesterday we were knocking doors in a neighborhood called Villa Coringa, and we started teaching a man who seriously appeared interested, but we weren't able to finish the lesson because his uncle came over (who is a deacon in a nearby church) and talked to us for an hour plus about how our church is wrong. We simply bore testimony at the end, and invited him to humble himself in prayer and ask God which church is His. It was really hard to see a man with such potential have to hear someone talk in such a manner and not be able to hear the message of the Restoration.

This week we spent a lot of time knocking doors, as we have had several investigators tell us that they don't want to get baptized, so we need to start finding a lot more people to make up for the lack that we have right now. It's really interesting to know that you are in the area that God wants you to be and some days you can knock every door on a street and not have anyone accept the messages. and other days you knock four doors and have four lessons with four people who become new investigators.

The other day we had a lot of commitments in different parts of the city, so we went to centro before lunch (not too far) then to Colonia (far away) then to Sinderlandia (really far) then to Villa Coringa (again really far) then to Cutiara (not too far) before returning home (again not too far) and we totaled it at nearly 30 km) 

This week I went on a division with a recent convert, and since he doesn't know too much about the church, during the lessons he only says that he knows the church is true, so I had to give the entire lesson the whole day, and we had lots of lessons that day. It helped me feel more confident that I know enough that I can speak and not have to rely on the other missionaries.

Well I love you all

and yall are in my prayers

Remember, the first four principles and ordinances of the gospel are Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Daily strive to increase your faith, repent, and better listen to the Holy Ghost

Weird weather and Zone Conference. Prayers Needed.

Zone Conference! We woke up at 04h00 and got ready, and we all had to shower really fast because there was 8 of us in the house and we had to leave by 05h00. We got into a van, then went and picked up 4 sisters (making 13 in the van (with the driver) and drove to Petropolis. We were supposed to arrive there by 8, but because a truck turned over on a 2 lane mountain highway, we were stopped for over an hour, and the next hour was stop and go. We didn't arrive to conference until 09h30.

We had a little bit of extra time at the end and president talked for about 10 minutes about how awesome the sisters in our mission are (our mission is 1/3 sisters) and about 30 seconds saying that the Elders aren't too bad.

Yesterday I had the misfortune of being on the streets during a rainstorm, and the wind was so powerful, it was almost closing my umbrella. After about 2 min the streets were flooding, and the sun was shining????

 It then dried up then started raining again. The weather here in Brasil is weird.

It's weird thinking that this transfer is already almost over. I feel like I've been here in Barra Mansa for almost two weeks, even though it's been 5. I guess I got lost in the work.

This week we worked a lot in Vista Alegre, because all of our baptismal dates for this last week and this week were there. James and Caroline (names have been changed) did really well, and were baptized this week. After the baptism, their 3 year old son was taking off his shoes and socks because he wanted to get baptized too. 

Oh and the bishop brought cake.

The brother of James was sick this week so we are pushing his baptism forward another week, and we have started talking with basically the entire family of Caroline (several cousins, a brother, her mom)

We also have been working with an elderly lady who is the mother of a member. She got really sick this week, and we were really concerned, because the other Elders in our ward have a similar experience, and for them, they may not be able to baptize her. Anyway we gave our investigator a blessing and the next day she was better!

This week we also had two investigators tell us that they know that the church is true, but that they won't be baptized. It is really hard for us to see them take truth and reject it.

We also had troubles finding new investigators this week, and because we have been baptizing or cutting many of our old investigators, the number of people we are teaching has dropped, so if y'all could pray for us to be able to find people to teach this week that would be great.

I love you all.

Remember that the Lord often has his hands in small things, that we may not understand, but some day they may bring forth great fruits.

Ate mais

Elder Lindsey

God Blesses us Through Our Efforts

It's true! As we do our best, God will help us. 

Last week we had some time where everything fell through. (8 appointments in 1 day) so we resorted to knocking doors. We ended up teaching one lesson to an elderly man who wasn't all that interested.  He did give us a referral, and when we went to go visit that referral we found the elderly mans son who was an extreme alcoholic and smoker, but stopped just a little while ago. His wife (a less active member who was baptized 22 years ago) and their daughter were also there. We went in and taught the Restoration and marked a baptismal date with him, and before we could ask their daughter she said she also wanted to be baptized!

 We should be having 3 baptisms this week, they are referrals from the family we baptized a little over a week ago who are legally married. They have two sons, one of them is 8 months old and is really chubby.  Since we started teaching them they have read a large part of the Book of Mormon, stopped drinking coffee, and are ready to get baptized!!

Our other investigator who has a baptismal date this week is an 85 year old woman who has trouble hearing and can't read, so it has taken a lot of time to help her come to a knowledge of the truth. It got to the point where we were about to stop visiting her, but we invited her to pray and at the end of the prayer she decided she wanted to be baptized.

Right now the vast majority of our investigators live in Vista Alegre we have been grabbing plenty of buses to get there quickly and to get home quickly.

Also this week was the first time I did a division with a member, which was kind of cool! I now feel confident that I could train a new missionary, after having to carry the majority of the lessons and contacts with a member there to be a second witness.

I want to express my thanks for all of the prayers that y'all have been giving on my behalf, and want you to know that the Lord is watching over me.

I love you all.

I testify that this is the true church, guided by prophets. I know that we may be saved by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that by living his commandments we might have peace in this life and joy in the world to come.

Work hard my friends for salvation is not easy, and there are many needing to know the truth!

The Work is Moving Forward!

Well it is hot here. 
I have only been slightly impeded by the extreme heat, but hey its not like I died. (although I'm pretty sure that Elder Calvacante was thinking that i was dying) but I got a blessing and after a blessing I headed back to work.

This week we worked hard. I love the members here, we had very few lessons without members this week because we always had members saying stuff like "yall are going to visit this person this week, call me and I'll go with you" or "hey could I go with y'all today" or "hey I have a friend I want to visit with y'all" 

The members here are member missionaries, of all of the people i have taught here, 3 have not been referrals

. 

We are teaching a woman and her children, we want to baptize them together, but seeing how the mother is still having problems with the word of wisdom, and the children have gone to church upwards of six times, we are planing on holding the baptism this week. The mother is working hard to stop smoking and using drugs, but it's slow going because she is constantly surrounded by other people using them. We have encouraged her to get away, but she is really poor and so its hard for her to move.

We are also teaching a couple whose children are grown up, and the youngest (20) is the only one at home. They are doing really well, they have worked out all of their problems and are ready to be baptized this week.

We are also teaching their sons, the younger one we just started teaching this week, and he is doing well! He has yet to have any problems with any of the commandments we have talked about with him, and he is liking church.

the other son is legally married! He has two children, he is doing well, but isn't yet as firm as his parents, even though he is starting to have a testimony, and his wife has a firm testimony of the Book of Mormon.

The Lord is reaching to lift us up, if we will but take his hand we can become more then we ever could on our own.

I love you all

Elder Lindsey

1st Transfer! Elder Lindsey Headed for Volto Redondo, and it will be HOT!

Well transfers have arrived. This morning at about 8 Presidente Cascardi called and said Elder Lindsey you are being transferred to Volto Redondo your new companion is Elder Spears.

So I am leaving the Royal City to head to the hottest zone in our mission (and its during summer!!!) 

This week was pretty slow. There were few people on the streets so it was hard to do contacts, and since everyone was partying all week knocking doors wasn't all that fruitful either. 

So on Tuesday at night  we went to Amazonas to talk with some investigators there, and since we had spent the day in Independencia we grabbed an onibus so we could get there without wasting an hour and a half walking, and crossing the highway in the dark is always sketchy. As the bus pulled up to the first stop in Amazonas I noticed that it had started sprinkling, and by the time the onibus arrived at our stop (the second) it was raining pretty hard. We got out of the bus and ran to the covering there at the bus stop, and waited there for about thirty minutes for the rain to pass.

I will start with the wind. 

Even standing up on the benches, the wind drove the rain into us and we still got pretty wet. It was raining so hard that the street next to us looked like a river, and the current went about 2/3 of the way up the wheel of a car.

And I can't forget the lightning.

The wind was bad the rain was awful, and  the lightning made me feel like I was in a castle under siege. Looking out, there was two directions I could see the sky. and there was always lightning visible in them. The thunder didn't stop for about 15 minutes, and there were several blasts that made me feel like I had been shot. Then they echoed in the valley like a machine gun for about a minute.

It also rained every other day, but nothing like Tuesday.

We had several investigators at church, and we had more contact with an investigator that lives in Cremerie. He is a professor in Rio, and he is a spiritual. Generally missionaries don't get into the house of spirituals and less often in the houses of professors, but he invited us in (even though he had several guests over and was having a churrasco. We had previously talked to him on the street, so he recognized us and invited us in, and we talked a little about religion and he invited us to eat some barbecue with him. It is really interesting  many of the views he has about God and religion, and I often learn more about my own as I talk to him.

It's amazing to see the perfection of the plan of salvation, there are no holes, nor fallacies,  It is designed to bring as many of us back to the Father  as possible.

Remember that the Lord is forgiving, that He wants us to repent, even if it takes several tries, or several hundred. And He will help you.

I love you all,

Elder Lindsey