January 7, 2009
(answers to questions)
The meeting was only with the missionary ward leader and the ward missionaries, as of yet we have never met with the bishop, but I plan and hope we will be changing that soon. He has been out of town for a couple weeks but will be returning before this Sunday (I think. The ward missionary leader has chosen to focus on retaining the new converts that are still active and those we are baptizing each week rather than reactivation. We have our second meeting tonight, as of yet I haven't seen a whole lot happening, but as its been only a week and we'll be giving our first report to them tonight. It's not that surprising. We'll also be doing a couple training sessions with them to help them prepare to teach the lessons to those recently baptized. As for the home and visiting teaching, not sure how those are working out at this point, plan to talk to the relief society pres. tonight at the meeting and also hope to see that begin with the male end of things, though at this point we are lacking an elders quorum president/quorum, and as this is under the responsibility of the bishop, we'll have to talk to him but I trust the Lord will prompt him how to figure that out as we don't have to keys to revelation on that end.
Thankfully I have been blessed to have been prepared relatively well on the topics of the missionary lessons and have been able to dig a little more into the Atonement of Christ, and also His attributes. More recently I've been studying humility, chapter 1 in Preach My Gospel and am working on a plan to have consistent well rounded growth in knowledge. I have been somewhat categorizing it into a couple diff. categories:
Things I need, to know to be a better missionary (teaching techs doctrine etc.) Things I need, to have greater testimony and be a greater tool in the hands of God, Atonement, Christlike Attributes, praying and listening to and recognizing the Spirit etc. and also just a greater grasp and familiarity with the scriptures, knowing of various stories that could be used in teaching, scriptures to memorize etc.
Recently I've begun reading the Book of Mormon marking examples of different Christlike attributes in specific colors, and also taking note of Christ's names, and the prophecies of Him. It's been interesting to note just how many there are, but I thought today to look into when certain names are used and perhaps the significance behind why they were used in certain points of time. I've gained a greater appreciation for the Plan of Salvation in my life as well, and in teaching it especially. In fact, in the teaching of all these aspects of the gospel points I hadn't thought about before have been brought to my attention, and just in speaking of them many times a day helps to learn more about them as well, and develop more questions as well to direct study to learn more about them.
Well, the work continues on here in Itapetinga. I'll be staying here this transfer. It's been a little interesting teaching recently as we've been out of materials, (haven't had any Books of Mormon) for maybe two or three weeks, pamphlets for Restoration or Gospel of Christ as well) but we've invited people to pray, and as promised by the prophets of old and in our days, the Spirit will and has testified. That's something I've come to think a bit about recently, having the Spirit with us in the lessons and living so that we can be guided by it throughout the day. Something I used to do, and have been doing at times here on the mission was worrying so much about checking the state of my worthiness, that I divided against myself. I kept myself from doing the things I could and was supposed to be doing because I was so often looking inwards. The way we come to have have the spirit with us as our constant companion is by righteous living, actions, doing our best each day to do as the Lord has clearly commanded us, and trusting that as we do our best, the Lord will "go before us".
Jacob
Sunday, January 11, 2009
December 31, 2008
The work here is going well, we've recently had our first meeting with the up and coming ward missionary group in the ward here. If things go according to plan there will be a big jump in the retention rate. Home teaching is a mystery, though I hope to talk to the bishop when he gets back about it. Had two baptisms this morning for two great guys here. Leandrew 13 and Alisandro 16. They've both had a rough time with life and Leandrew has a lot happening in his family right now. It looks like his parents are going to be separating, his siblings and mom are interested in the gospel as well though and I hope we'll be able to help them out here . Alisandro has had a rough time as well, he's had several family members murdered and when we met him he had many questions about life, and what happens after. His mom seems interested as well and hope to make some progress there as well. We also have another family who as of yet aren't married, but it seems they are willing, or rather I should say the mother is more then willing (she's been a great ally in the home,for example with the word of wisdom, she decided not to make coffee (a big thing here) and as such pretty much eliminate the drinking of it as I got the feeling she was generally the one who made it) and Marcus her husband is more a bit hesitant as yet, but I'm not sure why as they've been living together for many years now and have two kids around 10 years old . This Sunday they will be coming to church and their two kids will be baptized .
Happy new year,
Jacob
The work here is going well, we've recently had our first meeting with the up and coming ward missionary group in the ward here. If things go according to plan there will be a big jump in the retention rate. Home teaching is a mystery, though I hope to talk to the bishop when he gets back about it. Had two baptisms this morning for two great guys here. Leandrew 13 and Alisandro 16. They've both had a rough time with life and Leandrew has a lot happening in his family right now. It looks like his parents are going to be separating, his siblings and mom are interested in the gospel as well though and I hope we'll be able to help them out here . Alisandro has had a rough time as well, he's had several family members murdered and when we met him he had many questions about life, and what happens after. His mom seems interested as well and hope to make some progress there as well. We also have another family who as of yet aren't married, but it seems they are willing, or rather I should say the mother is more then willing (she's been a great ally in the home,for example with the word of wisdom, she decided not to make coffee (a big thing here) and as such pretty much eliminate the drinking of it as I got the feeling she was generally the one who made it) and Marcus her husband is more a bit hesitant as yet, but I'm not sure why as they've been living together for many years now and have two kids around 10 years old . This Sunday they will be coming to church and their two kids will be baptized .
Happy new year,
Jacob
Friday, December 19, 2008
Mission Christmas Party
Dear Azalea Mommy and Family, Friends, etc.....
Life on the mission is good, just got back from a huge Christmas conference with the whole mission (around 80 to a hundred missionaries I think) where we had a good time eating McDonalds (yesss!!! so good) slurping milk shakes, playing soccer (1st time with Brazilians, good time) a little basketball, a little time at a gaming area (not really that great, pretty bad actually) and Madagascar II, (also pretty bad) but it was good to see friends from the MTC again. President Silva also spoke a bit about temples and the significance found within them now and in the days of the Old Testament, when I get the time I think it would be really cool to study the Old Testament symbolism end of things. Met another elder who went to BYU-I and lived just two doors down from me at Viking, though at diff. semesters, small world eh? Not a whole lot to report other then that this week, we had a Monday and a bit of Tuesday to work, and tracted into a family, Francisco his wife and I believe it was four kids, he was drunk at the time but seemed to have a sincere desire to change, and his family was open to the message, we'll be heading back there today so we'll have to see how that goes. Also have another family with a similar problem, drinking father, but he honestly seems like he wants to change as well, and has def. been prepared for the message, allot of people drop the church after the 1st or second time we meet with them after they hear some sort of crazy story from a neighbor, that we worship Satan or the like, and so we make a point of telling them that Satan will try to work against them in their decision to follow Christ’s church, the same way people persecuted Christ and His apostles when they were here, and while many seem to set that aside, as we talked with Hamilton this past time he told us that Satan had already started working against them by the words of others, but he recognized it, and is still coming along strong. That’s the amazing thing about it, people accept a message from two strange nineteen -20 year old guys, half of which are from another country and speak with funny accents, and set aside family traditions, and the words of friends and neighbors to follow. They give up things they've done all their life (coffee is huge here) and in this case are willing to go through the hassle the state puts people through to get legally married, because they feel and come to know it is of the Lord.
Also on the big side of success we have a web of sorts forming through novo Itapetinga which is sweet, this past Sunday when we passed by to bring people to church, almost all the people wed invited from the neighborhood that week and then one or two were ready and waiting in the street. (one family which we passed by planning to grab them on our way back apparently had been watching out the window and so when we walked by ran out and asked if we'd forgotten about them, twas an amazing feeling that morning having them all there and ready. This included Clemer btw and his inactive brother. There are some really cool things happening over there.
Jacob
Life on the mission is good, just got back from a huge Christmas conference with the whole mission (around 80 to a hundred missionaries I think) where we had a good time eating McDonalds (yesss!!! so good) slurping milk shakes, playing soccer (1st time with Brazilians, good time) a little basketball, a little time at a gaming area (not really that great, pretty bad actually) and Madagascar II, (also pretty bad) but it was good to see friends from the MTC again. President Silva also spoke a bit about temples and the significance found within them now and in the days of the Old Testament, when I get the time I think it would be really cool to study the Old Testament symbolism end of things. Met another elder who went to BYU-I and lived just two doors down from me at Viking, though at diff. semesters, small world eh? Not a whole lot to report other then that this week, we had a Monday and a bit of Tuesday to work, and tracted into a family, Francisco his wife and I believe it was four kids, he was drunk at the time but seemed to have a sincere desire to change, and his family was open to the message, we'll be heading back there today so we'll have to see how that goes. Also have another family with a similar problem, drinking father, but he honestly seems like he wants to change as well, and has def. been prepared for the message, allot of people drop the church after the 1st or second time we meet with them after they hear some sort of crazy story from a neighbor, that we worship Satan or the like, and so we make a point of telling them that Satan will try to work against them in their decision to follow Christ’s church, the same way people persecuted Christ and His apostles when they were here, and while many seem to set that aside, as we talked with Hamilton this past time he told us that Satan had already started working against them by the words of others, but he recognized it, and is still coming along strong. That’s the amazing thing about it, people accept a message from two strange nineteen -20 year old guys, half of which are from another country and speak with funny accents, and set aside family traditions, and the words of friends and neighbors to follow. They give up things they've done all their life (coffee is huge here) and in this case are willing to go through the hassle the state puts people through to get legally married, because they feel and come to know it is of the Lord.
Also on the big side of success we have a web of sorts forming through novo Itapetinga which is sweet, this past Sunday when we passed by to bring people to church, almost all the people wed invited from the neighborhood that week and then one or two were ready and waiting in the street. (one family which we passed by planning to grab them on our way back apparently had been watching out the window and so when we walked by ran out and asked if we'd forgotten about them, twas an amazing feeling that morning having them all there and ready. This included Clemer btw and his inactive brother. There are some really cool things happening over there.
Jacob
Saturday, December 6, 2008
P-day today! did a lot of cleaning (not sure it would pass your inspection yet, mom, but its a whole lot better then it was, I wonder how many missionaries have gone through this place and not cleaned a thing... and I'm only kind of kidding...
Este semena nos tivemos uma boa experiencia com um rapaz cujo nome é C.O.P. Eu vou descrever em inglese porque eu não tenho muito tempo para escrever a minha familia depois isso, On Sunday, Elder S. was thinking about who we might baptize that day as all our investigators had fallen through, and as he was looking through the area book he came upon a name, H., a now inactive member who I believe was baptized about 8 months ago. The name stood out to him, and as he thought about him, trying to remember who he was, it was brought to his mind that he had a younger brother that wasn't baptized. So that afternoon we headed over, and the first time we passed by C. wasn't home and so we tracted through the surrounding area, then returned to grab a drink of water from H's house. This time C. was there so we began teaching the first lesson, After Elder S. made the baptism challenge, and C. accepted with a big grin on his face, his mom was a little hesitant about the whole thing. She liked the church, and felt it was a good thing, but she didn’t know that C. was ready for baptism, thinking and saying to us that is only 12 years old, and that he may want to keep the commandments today and be baptized, but that tomorrow he might have a change of mind and decide not to. But Elder S. kept on going, during this point in time I was a little mixed about the whole thing, being the anti confrontational being that I am, but I prayed, I prayed and told the Lord that I knew He could make this happen if it was his will, and that if it was his will, that C. mom would let him be baptized, and she did, we left the house, walked to the church... and found that someone had pulled the plug on the font, which takes about 4 hours to fill. So, we did what we could, turned on the faucet in the font, and just about every other faucet we had a bucket for.... 5-10 min later the water pressure began to go, and I prayed, I prayed and told the Lord that I knew HE could make the water flow to fill up the font so C. could be baptized, and that if it was His will, that he would make it so, and the water flowed a bit stronger. Then after an opening hymn, “Come Follow Me”, a prayer, and a short talk by Elder J. , C. was baptized by the power of God, in a cold little font in the Itapetinga ward building. Deus Vive, Cristo é nosso Salvador, este é o trabalho dele, O obra e gloria dele, Ele vai ajudar nos se nosso mostramos nosso Fé em Ele, Em nome de Jesus Cristo, Amém.
Your son, friend and brother,
Jacob
Este semena nos tivemos uma boa experiencia com um rapaz cujo nome é C.O.P. Eu vou descrever em inglese porque eu não tenho muito tempo para escrever a minha familia depois isso, On Sunday, Elder S. was thinking about who we might baptize that day as all our investigators had fallen through, and as he was looking through the area book he came upon a name, H., a now inactive member who I believe was baptized about 8 months ago. The name stood out to him, and as he thought about him, trying to remember who he was, it was brought to his mind that he had a younger brother that wasn't baptized. So that afternoon we headed over, and the first time we passed by C. wasn't home and so we tracted through the surrounding area, then returned to grab a drink of water from H's house. This time C. was there so we began teaching the first lesson, After Elder S. made the baptism challenge, and C. accepted with a big grin on his face, his mom was a little hesitant about the whole thing. She liked the church, and felt it was a good thing, but she didn’t know that C. was ready for baptism, thinking and saying to us that is only 12 years old, and that he may want to keep the commandments today and be baptized, but that tomorrow he might have a change of mind and decide not to. But Elder S. kept on going, during this point in time I was a little mixed about the whole thing, being the anti confrontational being that I am, but I prayed, I prayed and told the Lord that I knew He could make this happen if it was his will, and that if it was his will, that C. mom would let him be baptized, and she did, we left the house, walked to the church... and found that someone had pulled the plug on the font, which takes about 4 hours to fill. So, we did what we could, turned on the faucet in the font, and just about every other faucet we had a bucket for.... 5-10 min later the water pressure began to go, and I prayed, I prayed and told the Lord that I knew HE could make the water flow to fill up the font so C. could be baptized, and that if it was His will, that he would make it so, and the water flowed a bit stronger. Then after an opening hymn, “Come Follow Me”, a prayer, and a short talk by Elder J. , C. was baptized by the power of God, in a cold little font in the Itapetinga ward building. Deus Vive, Cristo é nosso Salvador, este é o trabalho dele, O obra e gloria dele, Ele vai ajudar nos se nosso mostramos nosso Fé em Ele, Em nome de Jesus Cristo, Amém.
Your son, friend and brother,
Jacob
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