WEEK 3
WEEK 2
WEEK 1!!!
Hey!!! If you see the Leandro's tell them
that I love Sao Paulo! People are way nice, they drive like within
inches of each other---CRAZY DRIVERS---and everyone knows how to work it
seems. There are so many people that are grateful for their jobs here. I
try to practice my portuguese--especially with those that cook food
here becuase most of them are Catolico and so I have to get to know them
so that I can give them a Book of Mormon before I leave! We went to the
Police Station to register on the records of Brasil so that we are
official with the government and all and I kept trying to talk to
people. The MTC rule is that the first few weeks since your Portuguese
is not amazing you can talk with people and be friendly but no
proselyting for right now--unless of course someone asks you about the
gospel----SO---I always try to get to know them and then talk about
where I'm from and what I'm doing--and talk about the gospel in the end
anyways!! The first guy I got a good conversation with was from
Finland--I didn't think he looked Brasilian but I figured that if he's
in Brasil then he ought to speak Portuguese so I wipped out a Portuguese
phrase and he was like--"What? can you repeat that?" I was like---HEY I
SPEAK ENGLISH! We talked for probably a good twenty minutes about his
job and the church and the Book of Mormon--he had already read like 3/4
of it but seemed to have some doubts. I was able to share a small
testimony that in order to know the truth of the Book it is often from
feelings and comfort and peace over time. He was a really great guy and
it was awesome to talk with him and I hope that he will go find his BOM
and read it again because it seemed that he had kind of given up on
knowing whether it was true or not. You can't receive an answer or
direction in anything unless you pray with sincerity every day and
excersice some faith.
The next guy was from Sao Paulo and so I finally got to speak
Portuguese! It is really easy to talk about Flamengo and Gremio and Sao
Paulo FC and high school and all of the getting to know you stuff with
the Brasilian missionaries in the CTM but out in the real world it is a
bit harder--he knew some english to though so that helped. We probably
spoke 60 percent Portuguese and 40 English. I got his contact info and
he sounded pretty interested in the church--I'm going to give it to the
Sao Paulo North missionaries--there are six, or maybe five, missions in
Sao Paulo by the way--it's HUGE! The first thing this Brasilian asked me
was whether we were allowed to drink alcohol or not--he was 24 years
old and worked for a pretty nice company here in Sao Paulo and was going
to school at the same time. He told me a bit about his family and it
was very fun---sharing the gospel with others is so much fun--even more
when the are willing to at least listen and especially when they are
interested. Sometimes in Utah there aren't many opportunities to share
the gospel but have faith and make a committment to the Lord to
accomplish something--SET A GOAL--I know that when you write things down
and look at them often and REALLY PRAY, sincerely pray to do God's will
that you will achieve much more than if you just keep things in your
mind and think about them every now and again. Don't be scared to let
your conversations at school and work turn toward the gospel--practice
not being scared to share the gospel--one of my favorite scriptures in
high school was Romans 1:16 at least I'm pretty sure that is where it's
at---be not ashamed of the gospel. What are we on earth for? Play sports
for BYU, go camping with cousins, watch Clone Wars??--Sure all of those
things are fun and have their place but we are God's because he has
given us the gospel and so remember--you are a missionary. You guys are
all great examples but sometimes you have to do a bit more than BEING by
SHARING and then you can BECOME even more like Christ. I know that
Christ is our Savior and that we are all beggars to Him--it's so
wonderful that he showed us how to live, how to die and how to live
again. I remember when I was younger especially 12-17 that I would feel
impressed (usually that means the Spirit) to say hello to an elderly
person in the ward or to go visit someone at their home but would be
afraid to do because I didn't want people to say oh--you're trying to be
a goody goody or look like I was trying to be something special and I
would worry about how others would feel, etc. Forget all that--there is
something that affects us all from doing what the Spirit
whispers--whether bad things from Satan or good things that he turns
bad. My advice for this week would be--Sunday morning--wake up--pray to
God to know your standing before him--look at your past--can you
honestly carry a loving conversation with anyone, ANYONE in the
world--those around you, in your ward, etc.? If you can't then pray for
Christ like love and go talk to that, those, person(s) and tell
them--hey I want you to know that I haven't always had the kindest
thoughts about you but I want you to know that I am grateful
for.....find something they do that it good.....and then pray to have
Charity from there on out. Once you are clear with all men on earth and
in good standing with your fellow men--you will develop Charity and your
life will be more joyous and wonderful. Second, look at your past, is
there someone you need to ask forgiveness from? Is there some
thing--even super small that you could repent of? Often times we don't
remember all of the small things that have happened in the past--ask for
forgiveness from God--over everything--even the things you don't
remember--make amends and then reflect on you past week and take a list
of committments to sacrament meeting--things you could do better on that
you did not do great on the week before. As you take the sacrament pray
HARD to be able to listen to the Spirit the same way Nefi did, the same
way President Monson does--really do it--be bold and ask God for faith.
Faith is amazing and it can change everything. When ever a doubt comes
to your mind--fight it and then do everything that the Spirit prompts
you to do--follow up on those good thoughts you have, those impressions,
talk with Pedro on the soccer team about why you love your
family--because you know that families can be forever, give a
pass-a-long card to the guy you buy chicken feed from, etc. If you can
listen to the Spirit every time then it will come more often and soon
you will be able to hear it more and more and more!
Well I'm out of time--God lives and if you can just simply have
faith then you will be able to leave your comfort zone and DO MORE! I am
so grateful to be a missionary it is amazing. Read the Book of Mormon
every day--just one page AT LEAST!
Love you all and thanks so much for your prayers and letters and
thinking about me--it MEANS SO MUCH TO ME! Thanks--and pray for the
people in Teresina and for my faith and ability to listen to the Spirit
to GROW. We must grow every day! Love you all! Tchau.
WEEK 2
Nathan--you scored 2 goals and won??
Nice--that is awesome--I have to admit that I am suprised at how many
goals you are scoring this year--take that same kind of attitude into
the high school season!
I wrote a letter to you all but our p-day is Wednesday and so we
can't really send anything besides on Wednesday's and last week's p-day
went by super fast and we were getting use to everything and just didn't
get to send it but--that letter explains a lot so hopefully you get it.
I didn't get a chance to read all of your e-mails and this computer
kicks me off after 30 minutes, we can't print them off and I can't get
my camera to focus in well enough on it to take a picture so I don't
know what to do--but it's all good--at least I get to read some of them!
I'll have to figure out something.
Mother--I did not receive Amber's letter--did you send it to
Teresina or Sao Paulo. Also what did you think of the cool story in the
GA airport?--You did get that letter right?
The CTM/MTC here in Brasil is a lot different than the one in Provo
but it is awesome! This week our CTM President Degn shared an awesome
devotional speech. The keyboard here is weird and I have no time so
forget all the bad punctuation and all--HAH! He spoke of the Savior's
atonement and how we can do better at repenting by reviewing the things
we have done wrong in the middle of the week and then again on Saturday
evening and go and take the sacrament with a resolve to do better on
Sunday--it was a great talk! He then shared his testimony by playing a
medley of three songs on the piano for us. He is an amazing piano player
and the Spirit was TANGIBLE!
The food here is great! We get to go out of p-day around in a super
small radius--up and down a few streets and stuff--I try to speak
Portuguese but I still need a lot more practice to carry on a good
sentence. The prices are really high though because people know that
there are rich Americans close by and stuff!
This week we continued to teach our practice investigator--Ana! She
likes to fall asleep during our lessons and so we always have to get
her to read scriptures and ask here questions. A big part of missionary
work is asking good questions and being patient. You can never get
discouraged--after all it took the Mueller's three years to get baptized
and they are amazing members of the church so don't ever give up on
anyone.
I'm glad the cruise is looking nice! Thanks for signing up for the
mission ties thing--I think that it will work better--I just really
don't know what to do with the whole letter thing--we are super crammed
for time.
The Sao Paulo temple is in the middle of the city! There is a lot
of wood on the interior--it is very pretty. Elder Adams--told us some
awesome stories on how President Hinckley aquired some land for the
building of temples and things.
We sing hymns in Portuguese every week--I love singing in a different language--it is awesome!
Have a fun trip mom and dad! That stinks--about Taysom Hill--I'm
glad they beat Utah State though. I still need to get better at
organizing my time while doing e-mail--my mind is just all over the
place and I want to read what you guys have to say but don't want to
break the time limit rule either.
God lives, this is His church and families are forever. I love you
Amber, Nathan, Spencer, Rachel, James, Luke and Hyrum! See you all!
Elder Gregg Benjamin Allen!
WEEK 1!!!
Our prepartion day at the CTM (it's backwards--if you didn't know) in Portuguese is on Wednesday! I've been here for one week and I feel like my Portuguese is coming along pretty good. There is one guy in our district that loves eating meals with Brasileros and learning the language every second of the day like I do. He is not my companion but he was called as our District Leader so I'm glad that we are good friends because I try to tell him that he has to make a rules or set goals that our whole district has English fasts every day for as long as the rest of the district is willing to do and stuff like that. It is important to still speak some English though--I realized--because we need to have our personalities, time to laugh and the ability to get to know each other--but I do wish that we would speak Portuguese more often because we would learn it faster BUT--it's all working out just fine--our district is super awesome! My companion is Elder Cliff Larsen from Steubenville, Ohio--he was a swimmer in high school and loves to share his testimony--he can always just share a testimony right on the spot. I am working to have more love and patience--especially with Americanos--hah--there just seems to be too many people in this world that complain about the smallest things and don't know how to work a full day--but then again we all have weaknesses and I know that there are days when I didn't complete my chores when I was younger and forgot to do homework and all that--so be patient and love those around you--truly care about them and look for things that you can do better--look at it as a puzzle--and things will go much better. Prayer and fasting has also helped a lot. We were able to fast last week--LEARN TO FAST PEOPLE--Nathan always says that this is the least obeyed law and it is totally true--I can't believe how many missionaries I heard say: "Oh man I'm hungry, this is gonna be hard" and all this junk. Be strong and trust in the Lord--the first law of the kingdom is obedience--obedience brings so much joy and when we learn to obey with exactness our lives go much better. I need to work on being more obedient as much as any one else though. I can't believe I've been here for one week! I've learned a lot of Portuguese--tried--really tried--to give a full first lesson and challenge an investigator to baptism this last week all in Portuguese--my goal is to beat Elder Acosta with all the Portuguese skills--don't worry--it's a good competitive race! It was pretty hard though to find the words I wanted--creativity and the Spirit and remembrance always kicks in though. The Sao Paulo temple this morning was sooooooo awesome--I loved it. Nathan, Spencer, James, Luke: I loved the BYU story--I will write a letter though to answer your questions--they give us literally no time to write things. Hyrum--I'm glad you had fun with dad at the campout. I love you guys a lot. Mom thanks for your prayers--I've been blessed with so much confidence and the Spirit has been with me. Dad--you have no idea how much it means to me that you sent that letter to Rishi thanks a TON! Well--I'm out of time and I didn't tell you about half the things I wanted to but set goals and have no regrets at the end of the day. Thanks for praying and fasting for me--I love you and pray for you guys all the time--keep praying for me please. Love you all--Brasil is awesome! Tchau--bye!
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