Awesomenesses

The past week was very very difficult for Elder Lindsey and me. We had to do a lot more walking then was necessary. 

The immense amount of walking began with Wednesday, when we went to work in the Bom Retiro area. 

Thursday, President Prieto came to conduct interviews with the zone. The interviews started at about two and didn´t end until almost seven. I really enjoyed the interviews. While other missionaries were having their interviews we heard a number of inspiring stories and experiences from Sister Prieto and the Assistants. 

Friday we once again had to leave our area to work in Boa Vista, so we only had about three days to work in our area and we got a lot done. 

This week was our stake conference. We were given a couple hundred fliers to pass out to people. Since the stake center isn´t that big, the stake rented a theatre to house the conference. The conference was inspirational and the speakers were great.

Last P-day I was feeling a little excited, so I made a purchase and now I´m the happy owner of a hammock.

We have a lot of work ahead of us this week.

Love,

Elder David Short

Pictures

More Shtuff!

Dearest Familia,
I´m happy to report my latest dealings in this marvelous work in the Lord´s vineyard.
Firstly, last P-day after emailing, Elder Lindsey and I went to eat açaí and do some shopping. I finally was able to find post it notes. No matter how many times I explain it, no one understands when I describe ´´those little square papers that you can stick to things.´´ We also found a thrift store and we went fox crazy on the tie bin. I am now the very happy owner of a zipper tie. Please don´t judge me. Our last discovery was a chocolate store, so we bought some forms and chocolate and tried our hand at making chocolate eggs. They didn´t turn out pretty, but they were delicious.
Brazil has the tradition of breaking an egg on your head on your birthday, in the spirit of this tradition Elder Lindsey and I made brownies for a member´s birthday, because she helps us out a lot. We wanted to keep with Brazilian tradition, but we didn´t want to get yoke everywhere, so we made a confetti egg and used that instead.
We didn´t find a ton of new people to teach this week, but the people we did find were awesome. We´re teaching a family of four, where only the wife is member and the husband and two sons want to get baptized.
We were teaching a member´s sister this week when she asked why she hadn´t gotten baptized. We told her that she has to go to church at least twice to get baptized and that she has to live the law of chastity (because right now she´s living with her boyfriend.) We taught the law of chastity, and when we finished she said that she could move in with her mom, so that her and her boyfriend could get baptized and then they´d get married in the church. I´m learning more and more everyday that you have to be a desafiador!
We had a good number of investigators church this week, but they can´t get baptized Saturday, because it´s stake conference :(
A recent convert had his birthday yesterday, so we reenacted the egg trick, but afterwards someone jumped in with a real egg.
Love,
Elder David Short

PS Write me a letter

Stuff!

Dearest Família,



We were greatly blessed this week.
Firstly, we´ve been teaching a member´s next door neighbor. As we´ve been teaching her, she has received a spiritual witness of the truth of the Book of Mormon, and Saturday she was baptized. We now are teaching her younger brother and we are helping her mom to quit smoking.
We finally came in contact with a less active sister. She had lost contact with the church shortly after she had gotten married to a nonmember, and had moved. She´s back in Uberaba now and she wants her husband and two sons to get baptized! We invited them to the baptism this weekend and they came! I think that one of the hardest areas of our work is finding men and families to teach and now we´re finding both.
Something that I have gained a testimony of this week is; that people usually won´t change unless you invite them to. The member, who is the neighbor of our baptism, has been a member for about a year, and has had a nose piercing this whole time. I asked her why she had it, and she said that she liked it. I read her 2 Nephi 13 and then she went to the back room. We continued teaching her neighbor and about a half hour later she came back without the piercing. She said that it had taken her awhile to pull it out and that she had to use a clippers to cut it.
We were walking to an appointment, but couldn´t find the house, so we decided to visit a less active family that lived nearby. The family consists of the mom and her two small children. Apparently, she´s been saying for years that she wants to come back to church, but no one has seen her promises come to fulfillment. The members had lost faith in her, but this Sunday as we were going to get our investigators, we were met with the beautiful site of this less active sister and her two children walking up the hill to church.
Yesterday morning I completed our zones challenge to read the Book of Mormon in five weeks, which is really hard when you only have one hour of personal study time. This book is true!!! If you haven´t read it, read it!
Today is the start of a new transfer and I´m really hoping that I stay in the Vallim de Melo ward.
Life is great. The gospel is true.
Love,
Elder David Short

My mission address is:

Elder David Short

Rua 18 No. 110 Sala 1105 a 91107

Ed. Business Center Setor Oeste

Goiânia - GO 74120-080

Feliz Pascoa!!!

Dear Family,
It is a great joy to celebrate this time of year that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I have to been led to reflect on his sacrifice for us, that makes us at-one with God.
I especially like the scripture in Alma 7:11-14.
This last week was incrivel. We worked our ties off teaching people and when Sunday came around there were those who broke our hearts, by deciding to play in the river, rather than go to church. I imagine that river to be like the river of sin in Lehi’s dream. When we got to church, we saw that only two of our investigators had come, but then we were thrilled to discover that many members had brought their friends. We had seven investigators in total at church. I love our members here. We’ve starting to have so much success, because of the help of the diligent members in the ward and stake.
Last P-day we decided to enjoy our lunch, so we made pizzas.
Our slightly interesting experience we had this week, was that we were given money to buy our almo on Friday, but Friday was
Sexta do Paix, which meant that everything was closed. After food hunting we found a mini-mart that was open, so we bought cold cereal and milk. We felt American eating cereal for lunch.
The tradition in Brazil is, instead of giving jelly beans and chocolate bunnies, they give each other chocolate eggs. Last year I wasn’t very good at economizing my finances, but this year I felt like splurging a little, but that’s when I found out that the egg I wanted was 30 reais ($17). I will forgo the chocolate egg once again. One of our recent converts did give us a box of chocolate.
We a funny experience the past week. We were asking a member for referrals, when she responded: “I don’t have anyone. I asked all my friends if they want to get baptized, and they all said no.” We explained that she was skipping a couple steps that lead to baptism, but we liked her enthusiasm.
Time is running out.
I loves yous.
Elder David Short

PS Write me a letter peoples. You know who you are.

My mission address is:

Elder David Short

Rua 18 No. 110 Sala 1105 a 91107

Ed. Business Center Setor Oeste

Goiânia - GO 74120-080

We Came, We Saw, We Listened to a Prophet´s Voice

This last conference was amazing!
The first thing that popped out to me was when President Monson said that in this conference we could receive answers to our questions. As I listened to the talks, I found my questions answered.
We were greatly blessed as Americans, because the stake president let us use his office to watch the conference in English. So during conference the seven of us Americans in our zone watched conference in an air conditioned room. Conference was paradise.
We were fortunate to have investigators at conference, because the stake center is 45 minutes away for those who have to walk, and they all walk.
We had ward family home evening this week and I made brownies. I think that I should stop making things for the activities, because now all the sisters in the ward want us to come over for us to teach them how to cook American desserts.
We held a zone blitz in our area this week. All the other Elders came to work in Vallim de Melo for a day. Everyone was assigned to a neighbored and we tracted the frosting out of our area. A lot of the elect were found including: Less active families, a man whose been reading the book of Mormon (without anyone telling him to) and many others. We´re worried that the church won´t be able to pay the water bill.
Joking set aside, we shall be greatly blessed.
Loves you all.
Love
Elder David Short