Today's Letter

(In reference to finding out about Jessica's Senior Prom:)  

THANK YOU, ZACH!!  I was praying for Jess to have a great friend/senior prom/year. I´m glad to hear that she´s doing well. It's great to hear about college! Can you guys can kinda see why she wasn´t accepted yet to BYU?  Have you seen any blessing that came? I hope she has fun in college (but not too much ;P)

That's awesome of Dr. Peltier! Dues Abençoe ele! (a phrase in Portuguese: God bless him basically) I hope dad is doing well.  It's great that he não has this time to rest and read the scripture *cough* *cough* ;) 

My normal day is like this:

6:30 wake up and pray

6:45 Exercise

7:15(or so): Iron my shirt and wait for the shower (and other prep stuff)

7:45 Put on my shirt and tie and make breakfast (usually cereal or hamburgers)

8:00 pray and start personal study - right now I´m reading the New Testament and Book of Mormon.

9:00 pray to end my study and pray with my comp to start study with him

10:00 study Portuguese and teach English for my comp...or try to 

11:00 start working and contacting people on the road and stuff

12:30 eat lunch with a member(biggest meal of the day) 

1:30 work (lesson, contacting, talking with member, praying and lots and lots of walking)

9:30 (more or less) return to casa and pray for guidance for planning and plan

10:00 prep for sleeping (relax, write a miracle in my miracle notebook)

10:30 pray and sleep

That's about it for my day.  Try typing Santa Isabel, Embu Gauçu, Brasil. That's where we mainly work that area. 

I love it here, though this week we experienced what happens when you have the pure love of Christ for an investigator and they start drinking again. It was really sad.  My comp started to cry and I was tearing up and it just wasn´t a great night... but then on Sunday he repented and asked for forgiveness and all the anger and sadness disappeared.  It's helped my testimony grow a lot about repentance and charity for my investigators. 

That's what I learned this week, and a great way to develop faith in a commandment is by obedience (John 7:17).

I love you guys and honestly only think a lot about you at night and on P-day (sorry it's the truth).

Elder Sharp

Wooo Batismo!!

These past 2 weeks have been so awesome! We had a Family get baptized! Only one wasn´t baptised but we´re working on him! This family is a great example of how the gospel blesses our families. We found the Rainha Bueno Family through the dad, Erasmo, he was baptized 25 yrs ago! but left the church after his mom died. We saw his name on a list of inactive members and decided to go visit him see what's up. When we first met them the mom and dad were great together but the kids didn´t really have much respect and the dad was really serious, didn't really smile much... but after we started teaching them the kids didn´t fight as much and they listened to the parents better now. They all laugh more and the Husband makes jokes now! He´s actually pretty funny! I don't know if you all understand, but this family now has a Spirit of Love in their house, and it's awesome that I get to see it! 

This week ends another transfer, and I´m staying in Embu Gauçu another 6 weeks with Elder D.Silva! Three transfers is a long time together, but I think we can make it!

Wow!  I think Dustin is as tall a me now! When I left I think Jess was at my nose too! He´ll be taller then me for sure! And I´m doing great! I can't think of anything really that I need.  My companion has a really cool ring from where he lives and asked his mom if she could send me one with CTR (it's the same here Conserva Tua Rota) But if I think of something, I´ll let you know.  

There's a lot of rumors about Mormons here.  I think Pastors here are starting a lot of them.  People are being less friendly to us now.  Normally we can say "oi tudo bem" (hi all well) and they say something back, but recently no one has been answering on the road - just makes me laugh haha.  

Thanks for the email I loved the update! Hope all is well! General Conference is coming! Can you believe the last one I was starting in The MTC?! AND it's here again already! I can´t wait!!  It also means 6 months on my mission! It's going way too fast!

That's about all this week.  I´m doing great with my Portuguese! Thanks to My Heavenly Father I´m teaching and speaking really well.. or so the locals say haha! I don't know if they´re being honest or not haha.

Chião!

Elder Sharp

We cut the grass with hoes here!  

 An inactive family that we brought back to church (only the women)

 the family we baptized yesterday and the week before

 Baptism yesterday

Elder D. Silva with Dauva

Me with Kleiuson

The last one is with the baptizees with us and the family that helped us a lot!!

This Week

Wow!  That's awesome! Para Bems Dad!!! (like happy birthday). 

This week was really interesting.  We had a whole bunch of investigators new and had to cut all of them but a couple families (From Mom: Wish I could have asked him to explain this!). We had a baptism, too! I want to send pictures but this computer is being stupid! 

That's a really big trampoline y'all got! I hope it still works when I get back haha!  That's cool about Davin and learning piano! I hope he keeps at it!  That's something I learned this week is we learn and improve by doing the same things that´re right over and over again. 

I hope Dad will get better...Has he recieved a blessing of health yet? 

I´m doing great here and always have you guys in my prayers!  My Portuguese is improving so fast this week, too!  It's crazy what God gives with a little faith and confidence! 

Fico Firme! (Stand Firm!)

This week we learned a lot about being diligent in our work.  We walked to a lot of appointments and 2 out of the 6 we try to visit are home - and this is normal, haha!  But it's a different story when you walk a long way for each one and there´s no one in the road to talk to. My companion has a cold and I hadn´t slept the night before so we were really tired and just didn´t have energy.  Another one of our appointments fell through, so we sat down and drank some water and decided we gotta do something different, so we prayed and asked for help with our energy and that we could keep working.  At first nothing happened, but we kept walking towards our next appointment, and then I started getting more energy and was more awake!  We passed a house and talked the people there and taught a great lesson about the restoration then kept going towards our appointment and people were on the road!  (That's not normal in Itararé) and we talked to them.  None them accepted, but it was great!  I know this story sounds dumb, but it truly was an answer to our prayer!  I know that when we pray with real intent Heavenly Father answers our prayers!  But only after we start doing something and working for what we pray, for because "faith without works is dead." 

That's what I learned this week - keep working diligently and Pray for help then work some more and God will help with the rest!

I´m doing great this week.  Everyone in our apt. has gotten the cold but me (knock on wood).  I hope I don't get it! I´ve been drinking more water and some Emergen-C - so far so good! 

Congrats on the Missionary moments, Mom!  Every time we teach any lesson we always say, "Don´t believe in our word because we´re just men with a beautiful message and we´re imperfect but read this pamphlet and pray on your knees to know this is true  and you will receive an answer." Its really crazy but we seriously are just vessels.  We really don't do anything but guide people to the gospel and the after that we just answer questions and love the people. It's really all about God and the Investigators -- we just introduce them to each other.  However, the investigators have agency, too, so there's always that frustration because people won't read or pray.  It's like Moses with the brazen serpent. 

So that's something else I learned this week haha ;)

Love y´all and thanks for the prayers and support!

Elder Sharp

Isaiah 41:13

This week was pretty great.  We´ve started working in areas farther from our house, which makes curfew really annoying because we have to leave for home sooner, but it´s worth it. We found a family of 8 (with SIX KIDS!) that we are working hard with the father is an inactive member and the mother is being difficult but the kids are really excited and the father is getting more excited after we had talk with him. Super excited about that!

We had a baptism too.  Well not me and Elder D. Silva, but we taught them first and decided to let the sisters teach them because they have more patience with people who live together for 10 yrs but don't want to get married. But the son was baptised yesterday and he chose me to baptise him! It was really exciting to see him get baptized.  I was a lot happier since when we last saw him. 

This week I read Isaiah 41:13, and it really helped me realize the I don't need to fear about my language or anything because My Heavenly Father is on my side and loves me and the people I´m teaching and won't give me anything I can't handle!

The temple was really good.  I didn't understand all of it, but I understood a lot!   I got to focus on the Spirit better! I´ve decided to start memorizing more scriptures to be a better scriptorian. Teaching WITH scripture, not using scripture to prove my words. It's a difficult route, but the spirit testifies through you better because your using the words of the prophets. I found a lot of comfort in Psalms 91:2 and Isaiah 41:13 they´re really good for understanding that God is with us always! 

Embu-Gauçu is on the outskirts of São Paulo.  It has a lot of trees and well it's kinda like Murfreesboro actually...huh never thought of that.  It's basically a Brasilian Murfreesboro. There are a lot of poor and rich and working class people here.  It's all kind of mixed up - kinda cool! This weekend started carnival, so a lot of people are resting during the day, so we don't get to talk to people on the road.

Sorry I don't have more to say but that's all the excitement from this week haha. We´ve decided to work in Val Flor and Santo Isabel which is really far from our house (about 30 min walking there directly) but there are so many people there and so much work we can do there!  Elder D. Silva and I are trying to make a Val Flor Ward, which will be really nice for the members that live there and the recent converts that don't have cars.

I love you guys! Glad to hear all is well! I hope dad is doing well and that the neurologist will know what is going on!

Com Carinho

Elder Sharp