#81 March 26, 2016 Zwick- Establish our Foundation Now!

Alright so I promised I would tell more about what Zwick talked about with us. 

The 2 biggest things he talked about were SIMPLIFY, INTENSIFY AND TESTIFY with respect to teaching and then ESTABLISH OUR FOUNDATION NOW. 

He said we have been complicating our teaching for a long time. And a lot of words doesnt let the spirit be the teacher. To really let the spirit be the teacher creates awkward situations at first. We all have this curse of the natural man so spiritual things sometimes are very different to us. 

For example something simple silence in a lesson. You think it would be easy but in the moment it is so awkward! But when we let silence happen in a lesson we let the spirit teach. 

We also cant be afraid to let the investigator discover for themselves the truths by the power of the spirit. And sometimes that is hard. It is way easier to tell someone that they are feeling the spirit than to create a great lesson and do good questions to help them recognize that in fact they really are feeling the spirit. And the spirit doesnt testify when we teach in a complicated and confusing way. Christ was the simplest teacher. He taught in the most simple way. 

Now that doesnt mean that in order for him to teach that way that it was easy. He could teach that way because he knew the doctrine. 

He also talked about foundations. He talked a lot about how we can make sure now that we will never become less active after the mission. Because tons of returned missionaries come home and then just let go of the iron rod. And this visit was 100 percent for me because it made me realize that just saying that i am going to keep reading my scriptures doesnt mean that i am going to keep reading my scriptures. 

His visit made me reflect and think what do i need to be doing right now differently to make sure that i stay strong at home and i got some really great answers! 

One thing that came to my mind is study the scriptures more. That sounds funny cuz I am on my mission. But there sometimes passes days out here when we never had a personal time with the scriptures. 

For example on transfers we usually go to bed at 11:30 and then wake up at 2:30 or three to take missionaries to the airport and then the whole day is super busy and then we get home and just totally crash! And then the next day it hits me that i didnt do a personal study of my scriptures. 

And at first there are the excuses of "i read them in the training" or "we were doing mission stuff and so we didnt have any time" but that is all wrong! After my mission i am going to be way busier and way more stressed out! So if i give into those excuses now i am going to give into them in 6 months as well. But it cant be that way! If there is no time, then make some! 

They have a great saying here, "quem não tem cachorro caça com gato'. Meaning "whoever doesnt have a dog hunts with a cat." Wanting to say, make the best of what you got and get done what you need to get done! 

So on those days with no time it doesnt matter, i am not an exception, i have to make time to study! 

Zwick also talked a lot about true virtue. He testified that president is a man of true virture and that is what we need. If you are a virtuous person it means you are really just a good person. You do all the things that arent seen or given glory by man. And it is the same way with the foundation of a temple. It is the most imortant part but is the part no one can see. The work that was put in that no one can see. ]

But i gotta go! I lvoe you guys! have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#80 March 19, 2016 Elder Zwick

Alright I dont have a lot of time but Elder Zwick is just a powerful man! It was so awesome having him come here to visit the mission! He and his wife are just really great examples of Jesus Christ it was so good to have them here! 

I will write more next week about them because we have to go because our meeting was today on p day! So we aready have to go back to the area. But he talked about one big thing that they as the missionary department are trying to change. 

SIMPLIFY, INTENSIFY AND TESTIFY. He says those are the keys. We are really just complicating things out in the field and we gotta change that! It was really great! We did practices of how to simplify and one comp could only use one short sentance from preach my gospel to introduce the principle, then the other comp tells a very short and quick personal experience that backs up the principle and then testifies of it. Then it goes back to the first and he/she could only read one little part of one verse of scripture and wasnt allowed to try to interprety or explain any of it to them, you just had to immediatley testify of the truth of the scripture to the person. 

The point was to let the spirit be the teacher. Use less words and take yourself out of the picture so that the Holy Ghost could be the main part of the act. And as a weak human I am horrible with that! I think i can teach more than the spirit but that is a lie! The Holy Ghost is a God! He knows everything! So he definitely knows the people I teach a lot better than I do and will teach there spirits that are confined to these mortal bodies and have passed through this veil forgetfulness. There was a lot of other stuff that he talked about as well that was really just great but I am totally out of time! 

Anyways simplifying is the key! I love and miss you all so much and hope you are doing great! Have a great week! 

#79 March 12, 2016 Rodolfo & the Soccer Parable

This week we have been super busy! I am writing super late cuz we literally cleaned our house to the point where i dont think it could get any cleaner! Next week Elder Zwick will be here and said he is going to come visit the houses so it has gotta be super chique (nice)! 

Here in Brasil everything is concrete. Carpet or wood floors are very rare and only with the richer class. I have seen carpet here three times until now. Wood is a little more common. But the floors are usually just concrete. So the clean here just flooding the house with water, soap and bleach and then scrubbing everything with it and then pushing all the dirty water down a drain that all the houses have. 

So that is what we did today! And it worked out pretty well! So now our house smells really good (: 

We had a really awesome lesson with Odair and Denise. We took Bishop with us there and he is awesome! He is a convert and a really good guy and really studies his scriptures. And he testified very powerfully of how the gospel blesses families which is what we are really trying to get all of our investigators to see! And Odair and Denise liked it a lot! Denise came with all the kids this last week except for one. Odair stayed home to make lunch so we are going to have to teach a little bit about the Sabbath day haha. 

Rodolfo is doing really good! I had a really cool experience that taught me a little more about how to listen to the holy ghost this week with him. So we are climbing the big hill to get to his house and i am thinking about how we are going to teach him and help him really understand dispensations. Adn that day in our district meeting we talked about parables and president invites us to alwasy be trying to make up modern parables and anologies to use with our investigators to help them understand better like Christ did. 

So I am thinking what could be a way to apply it with Rodolfo? And I think, "Alright he loves soccer and is really good at it. So maybe we could do something with dispensation being like a soccer team. Sometimes they are really good and sometimes not so good..." and it was way more complex than that but I ended up thinking no that is just a dumb idea lets just try teaching him because that parable wouldnt make any sense! 

So we get there and we get done explaining a part and ask him what he understood and he says, "so it is a lot like soccer and a team when they are good..." And then continued to explain and compare it to exactly what I had been thinking about! hahaha... I really gotta learn how to better recognize and follow the spirit! 

But it was a cool testimony that the Holy Ghost really knows all things! (Alma 7:13)

But things are really going great here! I dont know for sure but this week or next week we could already be moving over to the center which will be a little bitter sweet! But we are going to see if God really wants us to move right now and if he does we will do it! 

I love you all so much and hope everything is going great! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#78 March 5, 2016 Discipleship isn't Easy

This week was really good. We were walking home last night and Rodolfo found us on the road and yelled for us to stop. He came running over and told us that he and his "girlfriend" had sat down and talked and she decided that they could get married! 

The problem with him was that he is living with this girl Suelen who doesnt want anything to do with the church but they a little daughter names Lindsey who isnt even a year old. Rodolfo really wanted to get baptized but his wife didnt want to get married because getting married here is really complicated and no one believes it will last more than a few years. He has been being taught for eight months on and off and it came to the point where we had to say we cant keep coming by if there was no more progress. We told him we didnt counsel him to seperate from his wife just to be baptized but at the same time he couldnt be baptized living with her while not being married. But his prayers were answered and she agreed to get married! So in a month or two he should be getting baptized! (: 

Rubens and Flavia are doing alright. They are really struggling still in their relationship but we are going over there on monday morning with a member family who are their friends and we are going to see if they can help them out. 

Odair and Denise are all starting to really read the Book of Mormon now and doing good! They just need a little extra push to have everyone go to church together! Last week Odair went alone. But what is interesting is that in the beginning he was the least interested and now he is the most progressing! He is ahead in reading and understanding the best! He really wants to prove that he wants to stay with Denise and the family so that was really cool to see this past week! We are going over their tonight and they said they wanted to make a big cake and food tonight for dinner so i am pretty excited for that! 

We were teaching this less active the other day and the poor guy has had a lot of trials in his life. And so he tries to say that it is just too hard and that is what is keeping him away from the church. 

So the next day Elder Sierras comes up and gives me a great talk to read called "The Inconvenient Messiah" by Elder Holland as Byus president in 1982. It is on LDS.org and a really awesome talk about how it was never easy for Christ. And Elder Holland uses the examples of Christs life and then applies it to our own to show us that we are gonna have it rough at times and that is just how it is gonna be! But that is why we have the atonement! And we gotta use it! 

He talks about in discipleship we cant just take the easy or "convenient" path. We always have to take the harder one just as Christ did. He gaves a few examples of when Christ could have used his Godly powers to make things easier for him but he knew that that is not how it works. Life has gotta be hard! 

But anyways everything is going awesome here! I love you all and hope everything is going great! Hope you feel better Luke! Talk to you next week! 

Elder Keller