Final Email

Today we´re going to be visiting our old areas. Man, it's strange being on my last week already and the opposition seems to be harder and harder for me to keep working hard... but then I think of my mission and I think of how disappointing it would be to relax now with just 3 and a half days left to actually work! AGH! Me and my Companion are making goals, and we´re going to make our area explode so that I don´t leave a dead area for my Comp and his new trainer.  We have high goals, but they´re attainable!

Well this week we were fighting a lot to find people to be able to baptize before I go home, but none of them were home... but we were teaching one lady who was progressing really slowly, but she was progressing (She talks A LOT)  We talked to her and told her we wanted to help her get baptized this week, and she just started to cry! I shouldn´t be excited about this, but they were good tears.  She´ll be my last baptism as a missionary.  We also taught a South African this week.  He's cool.  He doesn't speak much Portuguese and so I try and teach in English, but haha it's almost instinct now to teach in Portuguese - but it's working out!  He´s marked for the 25 of Oct.  That's about it this week.  I did a few divisions with Elder Richins this week, too.  He seems to be improving a lot everyday.  It's really great to see that, too! 

Well, since this is the last time I'll probably be able to write you.... I know that this church is the true church here on earth.  Heavenly Father is our loving Father and He loves us so much that He has given us His son as a sacrifice so that we could be in his presence again.  There is nothing that I can possibly do to repay for that wonderful sacrifice.  I am a changed man because of my Savior, and I know that there´s no way I can go back.  Joseph Smith restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness through modern-day revelation!  We have a living Prophet today who holds and exercises all the keys of the priesthood! The Book of Mormon, along with the Bible, is the word of God! 

That's about it - I love y'all! 

Elder Sharp

Finishing strong!

 I'm really glad I'm here.  I'm right next to the Elder that really helped change me, my Mission, and my life! I would have to say the person that helped change my life would be Elder Richins.  He help me see what person I could be with the Lord's help.  He also has given me strength, seeing him fight as he kept on working, even though he was feeling so bad!  I also saw that the Father know us and He loves us so much and lets us go through the difficulties that we go through because we can make it through and become a better and stronger person through these trials! 

I'm trying to remember the talk that touched me the most, but sadly I'm not able to remember anymore the one that I think touched was also from Elder Hales.  He helped answer a lot of the questions I had for Heavenly Father. I forgot to bring my notebook to write notes for both Sat. and Sun. so I'm not able to remember.  Well, I'm going to have to study it better after at home! 

Presidente really is inspired to know where I needed to be.  There are 2 missionaries here that I needed them and they needed me, and we´re ending our mission together! It's been great!  When we had 2 yrs on the mission, we ate 3 pizzas! haha I love my new area and, again, my new son (missionary that I'm training) is pre-trained haha! But it's OK because I'm able to focus on helping my zone and Elders Richins and Ward finish their mission strong! 

We baptized this week, but I forgot my camera! agh sorry but the man we baptized had depression (again haha), and he was so happy after his Baptism he was a different person.  He has a lot of need the Church will help him.  Then when he's self-sufficient, he'll be a strong holder of the priesthood! It also looks like we'll have another baptism this week!

I love you all so much.  I can´t wait to see y'all, but I'm also pushing through till the end.  I have 2 weeks to be a representative of Christ, and I can't waist the Lord's time!

Elder Sharp

Final countdown!

Agh! I already have my topic for Sacrament Meeting!?! Ai ai this mission is too fast! 

I love Sis. Dalton.  She is like my "vicarious" mom. haha She really is loving to us - her and Pres. Dalton.(that doesn´t mean I don´t consider you a good mom - it's just how I think of her.) 

So this week we were working really hard to help Weber and his family be baptized! They're progressing great and will be baptized next week. Sadly, though, I was transferred.  President called me on Saturday and said,  "Well... you're going to be a bit busy for your last few days......"  Arrrgh haha...  So with 3 weeks left on my mission I will be a Zone Leader and a trainer in a new area.  I entered into a bit of a panic the first minute, and I almost cried because of the baptism this week, but I had told President that of course I would accept that the Lord has given me an assignment, and I cannot deny Him."  And luckily I had told president about my baptism and he said I can go back! I am really hoping to go back to Embu Guaçu! It's very possible that it will happen!! But I don´t know yet, we´ll have to see. :)  

Anyway, that is about all that was exciting for me that happened!  Oh, we´re teaching a man called Francisco that has a really bad drinking problem that we are helping.  He´s doing well.  Sadly his family (Brother and Sisters) don't really support him, so we're working hard to help him, too.  

The last family we´re helping is a young couple called Taina and Paulo.  They really want to learn, but sadly her husband works then goes straight to college so we couldn´t talk to them until Friday, but when we taught them they were really curious and wanted to hear more about what the church thought of gay marriage and, well, marriage in general.  It was a really spiritual lesson!

There's more people, but these are the ones who are progressing most! 

I love Y'all!

Só Famílias Eternas!

Elder Sharp

September 21, 2015

This week we found several families, and two of them were married!  One actually was already praying with his family everyday BEFORE we found them! We are also helping another family who wants to be baptized the first Sunday of next month .... We actually don´t know if we'll be able to because it will be conference, but we will talk to the bishop and see if he´ll let us ... agh forgot about the conference.  Oh well, everything will be OK.  This family is very good!  Saturday we had a lesson with them to fully understand our purpose, because we wanted so much to see that they are in the church.  He understood that it was because we want to help him be an eternal family!  And they were much more firm and went to church at last!

I'm using the time I have left to get references from people and help people get baptized.  It's really funny, but really cool because it is working.  This week was a really challenging week.  I have to work to relax and not stress myself out because of everything that's happening with my mission ending.  I hate when things end-_- Oh well - it'll all be great! I talked to my Father in Heaven, and He's helping me out.  I know it'll all be okay!

Só Famílias Eternas!

Elder Sharp

Baptismo!

Something I've learned about prayer is we need to tell the Lord why we want a specific blessing and what we'll do to receive it and also what we'll do when we have it.  Not that God doesn't know, but it helps to realize that our desire is just! And we realize that we have more faith to receive the help from God. I´ve seen this helps me a lot.

It surprisingly cool down a lot here!!!  It's weird because it's suppose to be getting warmer here, haha, but it's the coldest it's been all year! It should warm up this week with lots of Sun!!!! Yesssss! haha! I gotta as much heat as possible... there's not gonna be a summer this year for me!

So Anderson was baptized, but we found out this week that he does not live in our area, but in the area of ​​other the elders.  It was a challenge not being able to count it as our baptism, but I prayed a lot and calmed down enough to remember that he was baptized!  It's a child of God who entered into His herd.  I realized that I was focused more on the numbers than these souls behind the numbers.  Elder Rose was not helping much, throwing in my face, but it's alright.  It was still an amazing baptism. Anderson told me when we were changing our clothes, "The next one [baptism] will be in the temple right?"  It was exciting to hear that he had this vision, and I knew that no matter where that number was, a soul was saved!  He is already well integrated with the members.  He also had a lot of opposition, but we had warned him that the week before baptism would be a test... And man did he have opposition!  But he won!  He will get the priesthood next week!

That's about it as far as huge things.  We're having trouble following up with people we find, but we're now knocking on doors again! It's funny, because I started my mission knocking doors then I got here and learned that it doesn´t work here... but now we're doing it again!!

That's about it!  I love y'all. Trust me - I'm fighting strong until the last minute!

Só Famílias Eternas!

Elder Sharp

Baptismo!! 

Some one knocked over the hive and gave us some of the honeycomb!

PIZZA!

My comp had a little speaker and it exploded! 

The other elders got a mask haha we had some fun

It rained A LOT

Salgadinhos!

September already!

So this week we did some of the best work we could´ve we really tried really hard to do everything we could to help this family (Weber's family) go to church but they didn´t go -_- I got super stressed because this Sunday was the last Sunday so now my last transfer has started 0.o agh!!!  I'm really wanting to help as many people as possible before I go.  I know that I am, but I still wanna do more, but then another Elder in our house, Elder Rosa, (he'll be writing you today - He's got one less transfer than me) helped me remember that this is the Lord´s work and that as I try hard, I will be blessed and everything thing will be according to the Lord's word.  So I'm going to keep going and learning - and I know that it'll all be ok! :)

Anyway, the miracle of the week! This week was a miracle! We taught this guy in church and then found him there on Saturday, but it was locked.  So me and Elder Maciel ran to pick up the key to the church of the other elders and came back, but then the door was locked and we didn´t have a key. We were leaving and just marcing for another day, but I decided before he left to ask if he had any doubts, and he said,  "Yes!"  It surprised me because he usually doesn´t have questions, but then the question was "How long will it take to be baptized after I decide to be baptized?" WOOO What a miracle! I've tried to mark him before, but he never accepted!! Now he was marking himself!  He's already gone to church for four Sundays now and will be baptized on Saturday!

I love this work!

Só Famílias Eternas!

Elder Sharp

Multizone conference!

Frustrations and Joy

I heard Bruno is home the young men brought him the sacrament Sunday.  I want to visit him. I don´t have much time during the day, but I'll go there for sure. 

So this week was really frustrating we had worked really hard and did our best to help these families Sadly, however, the opposition was better this time so they didn't go to church, but its not over yet! We're having a lot of help from the Lord and we have a possibility of teaching 4 new families along with the other 2 families! I'm super excited about this!!  We're really gettin' a lot of help from the Lord. 

This week I had many experiences with the Atonement! I love testifying of the power of the Atonement! We´ve been using Alma 7:11-13 a lot and every time we testify of the power it has to change our life and make us have peace, the people change almost completely! 

This week we talked to Vanessa and she started crying (I hate seeing women cry [edit: Get used to it son - Dad]) because of her situation she has a husband that sometime doesn´t even come home from work but goes straight to the bar and drinks and never leaves for, like, 3 days. And she works all day everyday except for Sunday and has no time to rest but as we told of the suffering of Christ she seemed to feel better and it helped her alot! She'll be at church next week for sure!

My comp is doing great he's really learning a lot! He's really shy but is starting to open up more! We're great friends! I want to write more but the computer is being dumb this area is really bad about that remember?

That´s about it! Sorry its short but this key board is terrible!

Só Famílias Eternas!

Elder Sharp