Well this week has been another great week. It wasn't full of miracles or anything crazy, but I just felt good, happy, and satisfied with the work this week. I've been conducting the district meetings the past few weeks. It's a bit interesting. I had a bit of experience leading in the church before my mission, but there's definitely a difference when you are working with people who are there with a calling and a purpose. There's a lot more motivation to work here. We have a fantastic district here....a lot of missionaries with the spirit. It's a wonderful feeling. I feel at times that I am having more impact on the missionaries than on the members...It can be a bit frustrating, because you come into the mission with the mindset of helping people that aren't members of the church, but I have been learning that there are PLENTY of folks within the church who are needing some help from the missionaries as well.
We had a meeting with our branch president, Janderson. By the way, no one (unless your a stake president or general authority) uses their last name here. All the leaders and members in the church refer to one another by their first names. They all have the same last names here....SIlva, Melo, Lima, Nunes....it cracks me up to look at the ward roster and see 7 families with the same last name. Anways I wanted to know what Janderson wants us to do here. He is huge....probably 300 pounds...kind of intimidating. He was telling us how he has had some problems with some of the missionaries that served here in the past. A lot of them spent a lot of time with the members....and I mean a lot of time....a good hour or two every night in Cristina's house, one of the members here who I've talked a bit about before. We spent a lot of time there when I first showed up with Melo....and we stopped being missionaries the second we walked in that door and started becoming buddies who were there to hang out. I always felt a bit uncomfortable with it....
Some of the other missionaries too kind of ignored the members completely....just showing up there once a month to eat lunch and never passing by or including them in the missionary work. Janderson suggested that we work to gain the confidence of the members....we have about 20 returned missionaries in this branch....that is A LOT. They know when the Elders are here to work and when they are here to hang out. I think that a majority of the members have already noticed that I am a bit different than some of the Elders here. They know I want to work with them, and that I am not here to party. These last 2 weeks have been fantastic as far as our relationship with the members has been concerned. We have gotten a ton of referrals, invites to come to family home evenings, offers to accompany us with our appointments....I'm very grateful for that advice that Janderson gave to us, and I think we are going to almost completely focus on working through the members. This probably sounds familiar for some of you living in Pleasanton, but member missionary work really is the best way to go!
Things with my companion have been good. He is by far the most obedient, most willing to work companion that I have had here in Brazil. He is very, very timid however....he kind of feels like a sack of potatoes on my back when we are talking to people....luckily the Lord has blessed me with the ability to make a contact in Portuguese, because my companion does NOT make contacts. He does like to flirt a little bit with some of the girls in our ward which is no bueno. The concept of an "Elder" doesn't connect with some of the missionaries here. He left me yesterday in church. I was inside talking with the members, when I went to look for him. I eventually found him, outside in the middle of the street chatting it up with some of the young women in the ward...like I said, no bueno. I had a chat with him about that.
Well we are all scheduled up her for a baptism. It's for a lady named Dalila. She will be baptized this Saturday. She will be the first person that I've seen start to finish (knock on wood) with baptism. She has a crazy strong testimony. I'm really excited to see the kind of spiritual growth that she will have through membership in the church.
We had one of our investigators, Leomar, call us this week, wanting $300 bucks to help pay for a motorcycle that he wanted to buy. We went buy his place to explain to him that the church really doesn't do that. When we tried to teach him, he said he needed to go to his girlfriends house. We asked if there was a better time during the week, and he said that we have been taking up too much of his time, and that we are separating him from his girlfriend, and that he only wants to go to church, and not have to meet with us. Interesting relationship we have here....
Well the work goes on, and the time is F-L-Y-ING by....I don't really like it. I'm at 7 months already...I don't even remember what I've been doing these last 7 months! It feels like 10 minutes ago that I got here...I hope it's a good week for everyone! Only you can decide that!
Until next time,
-Elder McKinley
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