Special Day!!

Yesterday, Elder Sharp had the blessing of going through the temple for the first time with Guilherme.  He had called Elder Sharp and asked if he would escort him, and the mission president gave permission for it to happen.  Guilherme was so excited and was talking with me (Mom) on Facebook about how excited he was about his special day.  He even asked me what tie he should wear (he sent pictures and we all agreed on the white one).  He left his home early Saturday morning, traveled to the mission office, then together he and Elder Sharp traveled to the temple.

 On the way back to the office, he sent me this picture:

After Guilherme got home, he uploaded the pictures from the temple and shared his thoughts: 

What a sweet spirit we felt at the Temple this morning. My first time there was REALLY, REALLY special to me, because i did my ordinances and because Elder Sharp was with me. 

I remember how him helped me with some problems that i had, how much things i learned, how my family was/are blessed with the things he did. I'm grateful because i have a brother like him. Hope we can have another moments like that. Thanks for all Don. Love u man. ‪#‎missiongoals‬ ‪#‎missionprepare

Sorry so short...

Hey so ya today we tried to take p-day but haha ya I'm never taking it on Monday ever again! haha There's too many people who want to talk to me.....it's annoying!   This week was full of Ups and Downs.  We had someone to baptize this week, but sadly she got cold feet and a member kinda encouraged to only baptize when she certain about baptism, which is wrong since she already was... she just had butterflies in her stomach. So that was disappointing, but on the other side our recent-convert was there and bore a powerful testimony about her baptism! I loved hearing it! She's was really nervous, but she was so willing to help us! It was really nice. 

We're having a few troubles finding people to teach... this area is really differente! Its got a lot of apartment buildings so we can't talk to many people on the road, so we're trying to find other cool ways to find people. If ya'll have any ideas, we're open.

Love Y'all!

Elder Sharp

Quick Email

Hey!
Guilherme tried to call me, but I hadn't answered it because I was in a lesson agh! but I'm so glad that he´s getting to still talk to y'all!

Well since I've called you guys Sonia is having an attack and wants to cut us urg! Opposition! but we have learned a few techniques to save her so we´re going to do that and pray a lot and my favorite part follow the spirit!! We also are trying to open an area in Barnabés (there's no church there now) and I'm learning how to open house haha this is great! Luckily the lawyers are patient with me and my questions. The landlords are more or less patient haha, but I see that if i just keep them informed they are usually pretty happy with me. 

That's about it this week haha sorry not much for this week!

But I love y'all!
Elder Sharp

Life is Good

Hey! I´m getting to exercise everyday too! They say there´s a curse that the secretaries get fatter! I´m like haha NO!! The other secretaries also run so we go out every morning.  It's really great!  I have more energy during the day when I workout in the mornings.  It's great! I feel healthier, too!

This week was very good! We found an elect through faith! We felt we needed to pass by a house that we saw a guy leaving for college and saw that the mother was looking toward the way that the son went and also seemed a little sad. So we went to see a less-active member, and we felt that we should go to her house, but we ignored... but then we felt it again and we thought, "alright Father, we´ll go." We got there, and she was alone crying ... I love this work! She now calls us both insistent angels and will be baptize on the 16.

Gulherme is doing great, too! He will take a while because he has many questions! But they are educated and good questions. He knows the Bible well and has some ideas coming from evangelical churches, but today we will teach the second lesson to him and that will answer many doubts he has! We're pretty excited about it!  And he will invite his friend today, who also have questions!

This week I am studying about the atonement! Bishop Caussé came to our mission and talked to us about baptisms, and he told us to study more about the atonement, so I accepted it.  Man, the Atonement shows how much Jesus didn´t have the natural man in him! He suffered all these terrible things and still consoled the crying woman and also there were people attacking him saying, "IF your the son of God save yourself then we´ll believe." and also he said "Forgive them" after all the pain and torture! It's so beyond our capacity to understand all this 100%.  I'm starting to understand just a little of what it was he suffered! It truly is amazing!

This last week I also had an opportunity to see the power capacity of the Atonement in my work. A normal day for me here is stay in the office calling and receiving calls from landlords and missionaries about problems in houses, receiving references to give out, and in front of a computer screen till 4 o´clock.  By about 3, I'm about ready to just crash and curl up and go crazy, but I get help to push through till the end. Then I get to go work and when I know I´m about to leave for work all that energy I lost just appears out of nowhere again, and I'm more ready to do Missionary work than ever! It's so crazy! I love it! I've never wanted to do missionary work so much in my life, and I know that that energy isn´t mine, but from my Heavenly Father! 

I love y'all!

Elder Sharp

This week!

Hey, so this week was great!

We´re opening an area! And man these members are great! We had to run back and forth from the office and our area during the week and surprisingly with less time in the area.  We were greatly blessed and helped many people! It's really cool how the Lord really helps after all we can do. For example, this week we found a man about 23 or so and he was at less-active/part-member family that we´re working with. We talked to a him bit. He had left his church he had been going to because the Preacher was really trying to get some more "tithing" out of his congregation. But it's interesting that he didn´t just go away from all church, but went to another and we felt,  "Let's ask what he's looking for in a church." He said that he was looking for a change in his life to get away from his past!  We were like,  "Ok... here's the gospel that asks for a change and we can help you be born again (baptism)."  He's really interested!  My companion and I are hoping to baptize lots and also bring a lot of member back to church, too! We want to divide the Ward or at least start the process of them dividing since I'll probably be finishing my mission here or at least almost finishing it here (the side-effect of being a secretary)

I love this gospel and love you all!

Elder Sharp

To answer a few questions I got:

No, I'm not close to the temple.  That's the old mission office address. so no the temple is still every other transfer.  I had a wonderful experience in the temple! Thanks, Jonathan, for finding that family name and Grandma, for sending me that name.  You helped me have a stronger testimony of the work in the temple! And I felt and still feel the spirit testify stronger then ever when I testify of the life after this life and temple work! It definitely has helped me a lot! 

And this week I traveled to Embu Guaçu! But sadly I was umable to visit any one :/ but next time we go I'll be asking permission to see them, because I'll have to give the keys to the house to the landlords and do the final walk through. 

And my job is basically talking to the Lawyers and the landlords helping get the information we need for the contract and also household maintenance (Which is what I use to do with Smitty!) I actually knew how to fix something, so we didn´t have to send the man that works for the mission and save about R$300 that would've been a waste for the mission cause it was something real simple to do! I was really excited to see that gift I had to be able to see what needed to fix and more or less know what I need to do to fix it come to use!

I am actually considering a career in counseling now because of the experiences I had with Elder Richins. I really loved being able to help him. It didn't matter that I'd lose nights of sleep and hours of precious proselyting time. I know, especially now looking back, that the Lord's hand was in there with me, and He was helping to be that instrument He needs!

I cant think of just one thing that reminds me of São Paulo, you know?!

ROOTBEER!!!

My new companions.

SAYING GOODBYE....

Changes...

HEY!

Well, I´m in the Office now! Yup I am officially the next House Secretary. So My P-day´s won´t be so predictable anymore haha. I only got to [write home] today because tomorrow we (my new companion Elder Ferreira and I) are going to be going to an area that was white washed, so the earliest time we can get there is tomorrow! It's actually the richest part of the mission.  It´s called Indianópolis and, well, it's gonna be a whole new experience here! I´m not really sure what's gonna happen, but all I know is that me and Elder are pretty excited! The ward mission leader actually asked for elders (the sisters were there), and President said that he's really excited for us to come! I'll get to go to Santo Amaro Ward Sunday (I hope) and I´m gonna try to see the Nelson's (Brother Nelson is the brother of a good friend in Murfreesboro).  I´m hoping to see them at lunch, too, if they haven't yet. But ya, it's pretty exciting here! I´m learning a lot about working with other people, and the thing I really don´t like to do ... talking on the phone. It´s really interesting, because as a Secretary we don't work as much in our area, and we have many distractions, but Pres. expects us to be examples of the mission. The cool thing is that as we are diligent in our work, He will help us and bless us! They say that Indianópolis is hard because of distractions.  There are so many members there that want to help and you get LOTS of referrals there, but there's a lot of stores that don't exist in other parts of the mission - hence the distractions. Luckily, my comp is real diligent, so I´m excited!  We should be able to get each other be focused!

But this change only came at the end of the week (Friday) so before that me and Elder Richins just spent the week helping the other elders get to know the area and finish saying good-bye to all the members and less-active members.  It was a really great experience with Junior and Melissa! We left them a picture of us at the temple and left them a note.  There were tears and many smiles AND best of all, we set a date for them to be married!! 11/14/15! So that was great! I'm really sad to leave there, but I truly am excited to be here and helping the mission be stronger and more organized. I can't wait for the future, because here in the office everyday is different!

That's about it! 

I love you all!

Elder Sharp

PS:  (My duties will include helping with houses and supplies in the houses.  I'm actually here to help the mission save money on rent and a maintenance man.)  

Elder Sharp and Elder Richins with Izabela

Getting Transferred

It's been a weird week. Presidente let us stay in the area another few weeks to show the new missionaries around so all the work we did was for them! We did helped Junior and Melissa go back to church! We also took them to the temple, and there was a family there that had just gotten sealed! It was so cool!!  We talked to them and  they bore a powerful testimony about sealings.  It was truly a miracle! We also saw Pres. Pinho at the temple (1st mission president who is now area seventy).  It was really cool to see him again!

This week we also did a lot of service projects.  We helped a man who has depression clean his house. It was super bad, like the dishes had a layer of mold and there was food and trash EVERYWHERE, so it was definitely needed! It felt good to help him, though, cause he lives alone and I've seen what depression does to someone so it's not good to have trash when your with that. We also went back to that house that we´re building, and we helped get it ready to put a floor in and a roof on! I almost got to build a wall but sadly time ran out and we had to run to lunch. :/ haha I really wanted to build something but oh well.  The rest of the missionaries in the ward are going to be going back to finish it all up this week!

This week I gave a blessing to someone, and I learned something very interesting. Heavenly Father told this man how much He loves His children and that what He does is to help them always! Everything He does is to help His children! And as I said that, I felt the love He had for me and for everyone I pass! I felt guilty because I had let His children pass me without even giving an invite or felt impressed to help someone but didn't because we were late and didn't have time.... but now I understand why I'm here, and I am going to do everything I can to follow His guidance so that I can help His children be closer to Him or even meet Him for the first time!

Sorry there isn't much but it's about 5 here and we have to finish packing -_- I hate packing!

Love y'all!

Elder Sharp

With Junior and Melissa at the temple.  

Elder Richins, Junior and his son.

Rosalie Alves posted this picture on Facebook 04/13/2015 

"Mais uma despedida amo vocês! 
Depois do almoço mensagem e fotografia de despedida.

Sou agradecida ao Pai Celestial por eles em minha vida e minha casa todos os dia me ajudando com tanto amor representando em minha vida Jesus Cristo estou muito feliz por me mostrar esse caminho maravilhoso sentirei saudades eu e minha familia meus filhos amamos muito todos os Elderes que frequentaram minha casa!"

"One more farewell love you!  After lunch message and photograph of farewell.

I am grateful to Heavenly Father for them in my life and my house all day helping me with so much love in my life representing Jesus Christ. I am very pleased to show this wonderful way. I will miss my family and my children loved it so much that all elders attended my house!"

with Janaina and Juliana Oliveira

On 04/13/2015, Janaina Oliveira told
 me on Facebook that the elders were at
 her home and getting 

ready to go to a family home evening 
at the Bishop's home.  

Next thing I know, there is this video posted....