Changes

This week was changes, and I received my companion Elder Lomeu... and well it is a little weird having him as my companion, because he looks like a latino, but he isnt a native spanish speaker... so sometimes he doesnt understand spanish exactly perfect...  (for those who are confused, he is from Brazil, and they dont speak spanish in Brazil they speak portuguese)  So along with that I am learning portuguese, and it is a lot easier than it looks...  or sounds... im not sure which is more gramatically correct...  But anyways, I can basically understand everything he says now when he talks in portuguese, but I still have a lot of work to do before I can speak it...  So yeah that is pretty exciting!

Also this week we had some ups and downs...  some of the downs were that we walked a lot because a lot of our appointments fell through, but something good that happened, is that because we walked a lot we contacted a lot... so now we have a ton of investigators to teach so we are super excited for the next week...  But my legs are the most sore right now then they have been in all the mission...  I have walked so much this past week... but it is great..  Because I was able to talk a lot with Elder Lomeu and we have learned a lot about one another...

Also this week we had an investigator that we had been teaching for a little, named Alma, and she and her family had always said that they didnt want to come to our church, but they loved our message...  So that was a little bummer, but this week we were teaching her, and she said that she would like to come to church with us... So last week she was going to come to church, but she didnt end up coming because saturday night every person in her family got sick!  So that was a bummer, but she said that this week she would like to come with us if she is feeling better... So I am super excited for that!

A to finish my scripture is in Alma (i dont remember what chapter but it is 30, i think)  verses 15-18... This talks about the conversion of king Lamoni... It is a great story and his conversion is great... so yeah you guys should read it... 

Elder Stuart out...

The Book of Mormon is Key

This week was an interesting... We had a lot of success in finding new investigators... That is the great thing about my area right now... we can find tons of investigators and teach tons of lessons, but at the last moment when the people want to get baptized, well they dont end up doing it... whether for laziness and not wanting to go to church, or just a lack of understanding...  or things like that....  But we have faith that the new investigators that we found this week are going to progress... This area is one of my favorite areas, of the two that Ive had... in my mission and I have learned a lot of lessons from it.. One is patience and the other is that people have their agency.... Bummer right...  But It is something that we cant really control as missionaries... We can visit the people a ton, but if they really dont have this desire to be baptized and do the things necesary to be baptized... well they arent going to be baptized...  But yeah it is something that I have learned a lot...  And It is something that Elder Falcon taught me a lot is that we need to baptize converts and not just people... Because a lot of missionaries baptize just people and these  people become inactives in like 2 days... and that we need to focus on baptizing the people that are going to go to church on their own without help....  It is a really great lesson that I have learned in this area....

Also something that I have learned this week is that the scriptures are important...  The book of mormon is the key of our religion!!  IT IS IMPORTANT!    For those that arent currently reading it... READ IT!  You can learn a ton from it!  I have learned literally a ton this week from the scriptures.  One thing that I found that was interesting is the story of Nehor and Amlici in the book of Alma...  And well they went to war with the Nephites because of the church... And this happens a lot in the book of mormon... and there are many times where it says that the nephites put their faith in Christ and won the battles...  This happens a lot with us in the church, and when it gives a description of Nehor it says that he had studied and worked hard to bring down the church but he failed...  We need to prepare ourselves spiritually so that we can overpower (teach the truth) to the people who arent members of the church... And the only way that we are going to have sufficient knowlege to do it is through reading the Scriptures!  So that was something that I learned this week that I wanted to share with you guys!  And that includes my scriptures for the week!  (Alma 1 and 2)!  Good luck!!!

Love Elder Stuart