Semana Cheinha!

Hello everybody! Our week was pretty full of stuff! We made 30 new investigators this week, so I won´t go detail by detail in everything, but I´ll share the details of the best parts of the week.

So I am part of the new mission that will be officially new as of the 1st of July, just to clear that up.

So Monday, we had a family night with Matheus, who I saw come home from the mission. The phrase of the week was ´´Elder, you look familiar.. have you been here before???´´ There was supposed to be an investigator there, but she didn´t show up... we spent the whole week trying to talk to her!

So we started just looking for references that were in the house and we contacted them and some of their neighbors as well. We also have two more neighborhoods that were added about two months ago.

Tuesday, our highlight was meeting a couple De Assis and Cintia. De Assis´ brothers and mother had been receiving the lessons, and he got to know the missionaries there... but this was five months ago, and the missionaries never went to house. But basically, he has been to about everything you can call a church, looking for the truth. All of the other churches he went didn´t completely agree with the bible, or missed something, and he didn´t believe that to be right. So on Saturday, we gave the first lesson to them, and they were very interested, made many questions, and their beliefs lined up with our message perfectly. The Book of Mormon, which normally is a stumbling block for people, he understood perfectly and could see the need for it in our days. As we finished the lesson, he gave the prayer, and asked that he could know the right path, and by the end of the prayer, he asked that his family members could also find this path.

Wednesday, we had our district meeting, that got us totally pumped up for this month! Afterwards, we tried to find a less active. We ended up meeting José, Alison and Marilene. Marilene actually lives in a place where the church hasn´t been established yet. She has a church that runs in the front of her house, which is much more common than it should be here. Anyways, we gave the restoration, and she understood it as us being sent to show her where the true church is. She had asked for this exact thing the night before we came, and she dreamed she was at her church and two men (dressed like us, she said) came and said everybody was under arrest, and all the members claimed their innocence for being part of a false ministry. AS she was leaving, the two men stopped her and told her to stay because ´´her work was not yet done, and she would find the true ministry´´. The next day, we showed up and gave her the message of the restoration of the true church of Christ. 

As we headed back down the street, we overheard a group of people talking about us and our work, and we felt impressed to go back and talk to them. We ended up meeting three men named Luis Henrique, Davi and Jonas. More on them a little ahead.

Thursday, Elder Cruz wasn´t feeling very good, so we spent the afternoon resting, but we managed to talk to Luis Henrique in the morning. He said that he felt the Spirit when we talked to them yesterday, and told us about the life he has led, and his desire to continue changing. 

Friday, we talked to Luis Henrique, Jonas and Davi. We gave them the first message as well, and there was a very strong Spirit. They are active members of another congregation, but they were very interested in our message and the implications that it brings. Davi was very touched and we felt that he received his confirmation already.

Saturday, the ward did an activity were the ex-missionaries went out and contacted people for us to teach. So, 8 in the morning, we were at the church already to take part in a devotional that they gave, and then we headed out to go to work ourselves. We headed home at 9, only with an hour for lunch, so we worked 12 hours straight... and I was exhausted!

Sunday, we did the normal church routine, and I gave some English materials for a young man who is becoming active again (he went inactive way back when I was in the area for the first time). After lunch, we went to contacts some of the references we had received. We met a mailman named Francisco that in said he wasn´t religious, simply because religion was full of confusion. He believed that God would come to take his people, but who would be those people? Once more, his doubts and beliefs were supplemented by the message of the restoration. He really liked the message, and agreed with the necessity of a restoration. Now all he needs is to pray and know that the message is true for himself.

Well, that was my week! I think my letters will be like this until the end of my mission. The members here are so excited to work with us!

Love, Elder Cornwell