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

Great Week!

Man, Dustin is a "natural missionary!!" If he keeps up this courage, he will go far in the mission and the church, too! 

We´re doing great in our area! We are seeing many miracles ! This week we met two families! A young couple who have two young children and another family that the man said he would leave his work if he had to travel far from them, so he definitely wants an Eternal Family! They both are golden! This week we had to work from 9:30 am til 19:00 hrs because the police did something dumb, and we had be home earlier (don't worry I'm not in danger :) everyone knows the missionaries and respects us) but we are super excited to be able to work in the afternoon because these families can only be taught TOGETHER at night.  We forced ourselves not to get discouraged and just keep working hard and not lose faith that obedience will bring blessings from the Lord!  And man, has He blessed us with a lot of strength and energy!  One thing that we started praying for is to have a greater force than our opposition, and He blessed us with this strength for sure! 

This week we also saw an Apostle!! Yup Elder Anderson visited us! I have gotten to see him personally twice now on my mission! It was really great! He gave an apostolic blessing! He explained about the Atonement of Christ and how little we are able to do, but that doesn't mean we are helpless because His sacrifice helps us to be better instruments in His hands! As always, with something as powerful as this, we have more opposition, so we´re already feeling more opposition today - but we cannot and will not let it drag us down!

I love y'all!

Só Famílias Eternas!

Elder Sharp

My Last Area

I`m back in Riviera!!! Wooo! And even crazier, my new companion has 3 weeks now on the mission!! It's so great to be back here! Sadly, it's not Embu Guacu, but I still am super excited.  This area is so great, and the ward is awesome, too! My companion is really cool! He is the only member in his familia (that's active) and he really is learning well!  He has a desire to talk to those around him and preach this gospel, but he's a bit shy. So I get to be an instrument in helping him be less shy! :D

Well, I got here and this area didn't have anything!  No one was marked for baptism and no families to teach yet.  So we went crazy looking for new people to teach and, well, we're finding FAMILIES!! What we´ve started doing is ask for references LIKE CRAZY!! And Heavenly Father is helping!  Until now I've only been finding families and not just individuals! It's so great.

We sadly got so wrapped up in finding people to teach that we hadn´t really focused on getting people to church! URG!  Really dumb mistake... but it's ok.  We're gonna get better this week.

It's really crazy that basically I finish his training, then I'm home! But really I don't feel any trunkiness.  I think that's why I was given someone to train, so that I don´t get trunky. Haha I don't know, but I'm super excited for the future!  I made a plan with Hheavenly Father, and I know that as I do my part, He will do His.  I will find and baptize these families!!

I love y'all! Keep up the great missionary work!

Elder Sharp

Ps. There's a great book I was given permission to read called "The Power of a Member Missionary" that's really good and would be excellent help!

Work is Great!

The work is going great here! This week we had a great miracle!  We had someone to baptize, but she had not gone to church last week.  We ran after her, but unfortunately we could not talk to her Wednesday through Saturday night. Certainly much we tried really hard to find her at home, call her, or anything, but nothing. We thought "Okay, it's only opposition.  We will keep praying and trying to find her." Then, Saturday we did a division for me to interview an investigator of the Zone Leaders, and Elder Córdova and Elder Escajeda stayed in the area.  They tried to go to many people's houses, but simply did not have anyone at home. So they went to Rose (the lady that was to be baptized) and miraculously was home!! She passed the interview, and she was baptized!  Now her son wants to baptized next week !! What a blessing! Unfortunately, I am being transferred and will not see their baptism, but I know I'm being transferred to help other families.  Surely this means that my new area has these three families who I have to find and save!! 

I'm working pretty hard and pushing myself to not let the thought of going home mess me up.  It's really hard because no one lets you forget it... but I'm getting a lot of help from the Lord and learning, too! I'm really learning a lot with my weaknesses, and that I won't get better right away, but only as I keep working diligently.  It's hard to remember when you feel like there's no time left. 

Thanks!

Elder Sharp 

This Week

So, I got a trunky phone call.....they want know which Airport I'm coming home in.....It's the Nashville International, right?  

This week was pretty cool.  I had set some really high goals for myself to do before I get home, and, well, they were kinda unrealistic, so I was stressing myself out because of this.  I was getting reminded how much time is left. (The members are great with that haha), but other than that, we had a great week! 

Elder Córdova is my companion now! He's been helping me calm down and remember that having fun is important in the work! He's going home in December, so we're both really dedicated at finishing with a bang! 

This week we went to Sylvana´s house and helped her through the hard times.  She's such a fighter with her husband in the situation he is. Her life is hard, but she's fighting.  She really wants to find peace, and she knows we can bring it. We are trying to help her 13-yr-old son, Miguel, but he's kinda rebellious, so he said he wasn't going to go to church and that he'd go ride his bike with his friend. -_- So Elder Córdova cursed his bike!  He said, "If you ride and you don´t go to church, your wheel will break."  haha It was funny because he and his friend got really worried and said, "Alright!  We'll go!  Just take off the curse!" ... but they didn't go, so we'll see about that bike.

We also were SUPER close to baptizing this week, but sadly our investigator slept with her "member" boyfriend. So she was suppose be separated dele buuut she decided that they should get married. So at least she wasn't baptized, and then went back to him.  That would've been really bad... but still it was really sad because she REALLY wants to be baptized, but can't because she has to divorce from her EX to be able to marry her boyfriend. 

That's about it for now! 

Love y'all!

Elder Sharp

Lots of pictures!

Thanks for the all the emails! And cool beans.  Help with missionary work is really good for feeling the spirit.  You get to feel the same spirit i feel here...or at least for a moment but it's really good "spirit food!" 

This week was really stressful and hard, but we fought hard and I survived the week!! hahaha My Companion was transferred and President said I'll love my new comp so I'm pretty excited! We tried really hard to help a lady get baptized this week (She would've been a miracle!) but she disappeared Saturday and we couldn´t get hold of her-_- but we have people who are getting ready this week.  One is Rose.  She's super golden sadly her daughter was ran over by a car and she was sad/mad at Heavenly Father and she says that everyday we come by she feel like she's getting better and feeling more and that she's going to work hard at talking with heavenly father better. But sadly she didn´t go Sunday - Arrg. It's all gonna work out in the end, though!

We´re also teaching a family that is really wanting to learn but is having a lot of difficulty fighting off opposition but this week We'll be able to be closer to them to help them be baptized sadly the husband is having a difficulty with Alcohol and when he drinks he get a little mad (he doesn't hit or anything just threatens) and so we're getting him to stop.  He drank about 3 out of 7 days last week so that's an improvement, but he's not willing to do what we ask him to to help stop, so it's hard but other then that the rest of the family is really interested in our lessons! There's a kid there that's 13 yrs old and he is really interested. Which surprises his mom a lot. So that means the spirit is helping him a lot!

Well that's about it this week I love you guys!

Elder Sharp

One of the photos is of our bishop and his family and the other is the family I was talking about.

My view from my apartment

We put something in our hair. I dont know what it is in English, but it did some cool stuff with our hair.

Some cool things I saw

Pastel with icecream and chocolate!!

I bought A&W cream soda and bought a frozen pizza for lunch - I was in heaven!

My comp ate food from his culture, too. Cuscus with feijoada! It's really good, too.

New Area

Sounds like fun!! Glad to hear it was all fun for ya'll at Chattanooga its a cool thing to travel for July 4th! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM, by the way (I hadn't forgotten).  Sounds like it'll be fun!

My week went great! It was for sure a challenge. And I know why I was called to help this Elder and sadly lost a little focus this week. ARGG but we asked our bishop where he thinks we should work where there are families for us to baptize, and oh ya my comp suddenly remembers that we needed to be working in a different part that bishop had already indicated-_- but it's ok.  We're going to be doing great this week! We don't have anyone to teach yet, but on Thursday I had to go to a meeting for District Leaders argh again haha, and so I went with the other District Leader from my zone and on the way back a member called Elder McLaren (other District Leader) and said that we had to come to a Syrian friend of her´s house....So we ran there and we taught them in English....It was actually really good.  There was a spirit there that was so strong that they could feel it. They are Orthodox Christians, and they loved the idea of one true church, and since they grew up near Rome and Jerusalem they knew a lot about Christ and His life.  They walked where He walked and that seemed to help them have a lot of faith,  It was really cool to see!

I love y'all

Elder Sharp