This week we have been working on the transport details for the transfers so we havent had as much time in the area but we have been visiting James every day and he is going well! He went to church last Sunday but he had to leave early.
We have been trying to teach a ton of stuff to him and we knew that so we sat down with him and asked him if he really wanted to get baptized this fast and he said he was sure that he needed to be baptized.
Satan has been doing everything he can to get James not to get baptized! But the good thing is that James is recognizing that none of this is from God but simply Lucifer trying to deter him.
So keep praying for James and pray that he will be able to understand everything he needs to before his baptism and that he will desire to be baptized in the right time period.
So Elder Aidukaitis is going to come on the 22nd and 23rd of June. He is from Rio Grande so Sul, the state right below us and everyone says he is awesome! I have met various members that had him as a Mission President and said the guy was just crazy awesome! But he is tough in the sense of not afraid to say what needs to be said so it will be interesting to see what happens when he gets here!
But I am glad to have 6 more weeks here. I love President Silva! The guys just teaches us so much! He invited us the other day to study 3 Nephi 11 and find out how to only use that chapter to teach the Restoration. So I have been studying for a few days and I never realized it but it is awesome! You can teach every point from Preach My Gospel just using 3 Nephi 11. I never wanted to leave it with people because I thought, "oh everyone uses it". But now that I have studied it, I think it is the best chapter you could possibly use to teach the Restoration!
But Mazzagardi came last week for a Stake Conference because they were changing the Stake President of a neighboring stake and it was a pretty cool meeting! Elder Fortunato was there as well. He was Rebecca's (President Silva's daughter) Mission President and is now an Area Seventy.
Mazzagardi talked a lot about tithing. Tithing here isn't one of the most kept commandments unfortunately and so the Area Presidency which Mazzagardi pertains to has been trying to make it a focus in all of Brazil. To teach and to invite all the members to pay their tithing.
He said that God has mountains bigger than the Himalayas of pure Diamond so why does he need our money? He doesn't but we need his blessings.
Fortunato really got me thinking and I like his talk a lot! He talked about how we always have to put the Lord first in our life and then he will always help things to work out. He talked about the story of the mother and the son who were dying and the prophet came and asked to be fed. Even though they had practically nothing left of food they put God first and everything worked out for them in the end!
It got me thinking about Sacrifice. I love the definition given for sacrifice in the Portuguese Scripture Study Guide. It probably is somewhere in English but I haven't found it yet so I am going to try translating, "In the Eternal perspective, the blessings obtained through sacrifice are greater than those which we renounce/give up".
That phrase really got to me. Sometimes we pay the price, sometimes we work and deserve something and then God just asks us to give it up! And it is difficult!
We went early to the Church Building to get good seats to see Mazzagardi cuz we knew it would be packed. Some other Elders got there late with some investigators and came and asked us if we could give up our seats 5 minutes before the meeting was going to start. And good old Elder Keller of course was just kind of ticked at first thinking, "but i got here early just to get these seats?!" And then it hit me how ridiculous that thought was! This was a chance to give someone investigating the church an opportunity to see a General Authority up close! I have learned a lot in this time out here but I can still be pretty dumb sometimes! haha. But we gave them the seats and everything went great!
Sometimes we don't want to give that which we have up because we can't see what we will have in the future! I loved the talk by Elder Hallstrom in this last conference where he had quoted that Elder Holland said, "We can have what we want or we can have something much better." (I think that is right but I don't have my ensign with me..)
But God knows us and loves us and knows what we need and what is going to make us happy. Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
But everything is going awesome here and I can't believe how soon I will be seeing everyone! Thanks for all of your prayers! I can feel them out here! Love you all!
Elder Keller
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