Alex is now working in the Office as an Assistant to the President. Here is an exert from an email explaining what his new duties are and here is an example of the news letter he is in charge of:So basically, the main change is that on Mondays, instead of having p-day, we go into the office. The Zone Leaders send us all the numbers of their zones, and commentaries about how stuff is going, then we get that all together. Then we have lunch, then we come back and have a meeting with President Ribeiro about how everything is going, good things, bad things, concerns, all that stuff about all the mission of 150 missionaries. Then we take care of that stuff, make sure everything is going good. We call the Zone Leaders talk to them, and also on Mondays we make the mission newsletter, called the Bah-tché-zar.
Now for his weekly email:
A week ago, on Saturday we organized a ward activity in which we simulated the Plan of Salvation, we did the same activity in Cruz Alta, I don't know if I told you all about it.
We came back to the house of this one lady with whom we left the Book of Mormon, and she said, ´´You´re bible is really good´´ haha!
On Sunday we brought to church a lady named Gladys and her 2 kids. Gladys we found one day walking on the street. We saw a gate that led behind the house that was on the street to a different house behind it (this is common here in Brazil, basically on the same address, two houses, one in front, one in back, very weird). So we decided to go back there, we knocked, and talked to this lady. she came out, and said she was in the middle of cleaning, but that she would like us to come back later, so we did. The next week we came back, and found out that she had actually been baptized as a little 11 year old in Quarai like 25 years ago. We taught her and her daughter Kesse, her son is about 5 and is a bit crazy, like Boone, and we invited them to church. They came to church which was Stake conference, the Porto Alegre Temple President even came. They absolutely loved it, and basically Gladys decided she was going to be active in church. So that was a really cool experience. We will most likely baptize her daughter Kesse soon.
Also another weird experience- we visited an inactive guy who has no job, just stays at home, and basically reads the Book of Mormon a ton and does a ton of family history. He said that he guesses that he has read the Book of Mormon around 200 times. He reads it in like 7 days usually. And then when we taught him, we taught him about covenants, because even though he was doing all that stuff, he was still not keeping his covenants, so I shared a message with him about the Anti-nephi-lehites and about how they layed down and died to keep their covenant with God, he then quoted to me exactly how many had died and what happened afterward and all that stuff. Crazy. He has also done about 1000 names of family history or something.
Two days ago we had a really good morning. We taught 2 good lessons. We were going to this apartment building of this guy I had done a contact with, Antonio, we arrived there, and there was a teenager in front of the building, we talked to him, ended up going in, teaching him and his dad, and then we went to our original contact, Antonio. He was really good, a college student, he already knew a lot of stuff. He is catholic, but as he said to us, only because of ´´tradition´´. He liked it a lot. His dad didn´t though. His dad came into the room towards the end. Basically the conversation went like this:
Him: Hey you guys are some religious people?
Me: Yes sir we are missionaries!
Him: We´re Catholic! And we don't go around annoying people! If you´ll excuse us, my son has to go to college right now and I´m leaving!
I gave Antonio a look and he gave that ´´yea my dad´s crazy´´ look, haha well, we had to leave, but we got Antonio´s phone number and we´ll go back later.
Then that night we went and did a few visits with President Ribeiro, that was pretty cool.
The first was this guy named Diego. We had left a Book of Mormon with his girlfriend, and we marked to come back. We came, and she wasnt there, but to our suprise, Diego was! We had never met him, nor heard of him. He was visiting from Recife, the northeast of Brazil. So we taught him with President. It was really good. He is a religious person, but a really cool guy. He thought it was very interesting.
We came back to the house of this one lady with whom we left the Book of Mormon, and she said, ´´You´re bible is really good´´ haha!
On Sunday we brought to church a lady named Gladys and her 2 kids. Gladys we found one day walking on the street. We saw a gate that led behind the house that was on the street to a different house behind it (this is common here in Brazil, basically on the same address, two houses, one in front, one in back, very weird). So we decided to go back there, we knocked, and talked to this lady. she came out, and said she was in the middle of cleaning, but that she would like us to come back later, so we did. The next week we came back, and found out that she had actually been baptized as a little 11 year old in Quarai like 25 years ago. We taught her and her daughter Kesse, her son is about 5 and is a bit crazy, like Boone, and we invited them to church. They came to church which was Stake conference, the Porto Alegre Temple President even came. They absolutely loved it, and basically Gladys decided she was going to be active in church. So that was a really cool experience. We will most likely baptize her daughter Kesse soon.
Also another weird experience- we visited an inactive guy who has no job, just stays at home, and basically reads the Book of Mormon a ton and does a ton of family history. He said that he guesses that he has read the Book of Mormon around 200 times. He reads it in like 7 days usually. And then when we taught him, we taught him about covenants, because even though he was doing all that stuff, he was still not keeping his covenants, so I shared a message with him about the Anti-nephi-lehites and about how they layed down and died to keep their covenant with God, he then quoted to me exactly how many had died and what happened afterward and all that stuff. Crazy. He has also done about 1000 names of family history or something.
Another guy that came to church on sunday was a guy named Antonio. He is from Peru, is now living in Chile, but was studying in Argentina, and is now studying in Brazil. He has been investigating the church for like 4 years or so. He is 23 and started learning Portugues 2 weeks ago when he got here. He came and showed up at church on his own. So we marked to teach him on Tuesday, and we did. He really likes the church a lot but hasn´t been baptized because he doesnt feel like he has really received a spiritual confirmation for himself. It is due mainly to the fact (I believe anyway) that he has not really searched and studied the Book of Mormon.
Two days ago we had a really good morning. We taught 2 good lessons. We were going to this apartment building of this guy I had done a contact with, Antonio, we arrived there, and there was a teenager in front of the building, we talked to him, ended up going in, teaching him and his dad, and then we went to our original contact, Antonio. He was really good, a college student, he already knew a lot of stuff. He is catholic, but as he said to us, only because of ´´tradition´´. He liked it a lot. His dad didn´t though. His dad came into the room towards the end. Basically the conversation went like this:
Him: Hey you guys are some religious people?
Me: Yes sir we are missionaries!
Him: We´re Catholic! And we don't go around annoying people! If you´ll excuse us, my son has to go to college right now and I´m leaving!
I gave Antonio a look and he gave that ´´yea my dad´s crazy´´ look, haha well, we had to leave, but we got Antonio´s phone number and we´ll go back later.
Then that night we went and did a few visits with President Ribeiro, that was pretty cool.
The first was this guy named Diego. We had left a Book of Mormon with his girlfriend, and we marked to come back. We came, and she wasnt there, but to our suprise, Diego was! We had never met him, nor heard of him. He was visiting from Recife, the northeast of Brazil. So we taught him with President. It was really good. He is a religious person, but a really cool guy. He thought it was very interesting.
Then we went and taught a guy named Juliano. I think he is the richest guy I have yet taught on the mission. We found him a few weeks ago knocking doors. He was in his mother -in- law's house, and it's a good thing we found him there, beause we would have not found him otherwise. He lives in this really big and fancy apartment building. To get in you have to go to the guard, give the name and apt number of the person you want to visit, and then he calls them to see if you can go in. Then you walk in and they have all these security cameras. No chance of knocking doors there. We went up to the 9th floor, and went in. He is a Radiologist, and his wife is a Dentist. Juliano´s sister is a member and a returned missionary that now lives in Canada, but he has never had missionaries at his house before! I couldn't believe it! So yea, it was a cool night. President Ribeiro liked it a lot.
Lately I've been studying some super interesting stuff. Like about how we have to become just like God to be saved. We really are in a journey of self-perfection.
Lately I've been studying some super interesting stuff. Like about how we have to become just like God to be saved. We really are in a journey of self-perfection.
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