WEEK 36: The Demise of Leite Condensado

TUESDAY

We went over to a lady's house that was in the area book and finally taught the first lesson. The lady was baptized about four year ago and went inactive for the past three years. We invited her to the general conference broadcast at the church and she went with her daughter and boyfriend and they loved it. Tonight she bore one of the most beautiful testimonies I've heard. She talked about how she left the church she once loved and reverted back to going to parties and drinking and smoking for the past three years but then remembered the goodness she felt when she was baptized and wanted that back. So she moved here to Araguaina and the missionaries before us found her. Now she's relearning everything and firmly stated tonight through tears that she's here to stay. We're really excited for her for her huge change of heart and for her boyfriend & son that are getting baptized soon.

Also we found two frogs inside our house. We put the big one outside and we have the tiny one in our sunroom. We named him "Leite Condensado" and we made a little house for him and gave him plenty of bugs to eat.

WEDNESDAY

Usually in the morning it starts out all rainy and dark then randomly after lunch it throws a curveball and the sun comes out and scorches everything. So I have ill-fatedly been trusting the morning rainy weather and neglecting sunscreen and I've gotten pretty sunburnt to show for it.

THURSDAY

Most of our lessons fell through today. It happens.

The family I mentioned Monday is progressing so much.

FRIDAY

Leite Condensado died today. He was a good man.

We're gonna hold a little froggy burial service for him.

SATURDAY

We found a suuuper good, suuuper cheap frozen yogurt place not too far from our house. It's game over.

SUNDAY

Today we started teaching a really friendly chap named Edson and his 97 year old grandma. 

Also we had a huge lesson about the Book of Mormon with an investigator that's teetering on joining the church. She said she doesn't know if she's received an answer yet on if the church is true. I asked her how she expects her answer to come and shared 2 Nephi 28:30 with her ("line upon line, precept upon precept") and later testified about the Book of Mormon. I said it's a fruit of the truth, each page is a testament of Jesus Christ, and by reading we can know if the things we're teaching are true. We read Lehi's vision of the tree of life with her, and she and her sister seemed really interested, and they have a baptismal date marked for when she receives an answer, so hopefully all goes well. 

Using the Book of Mormon like that really made a difference. President Nelson challenged us to use it more in our teaching and I can tell it's a powerful witness to the people we're teaching that these things are true. The Book of Mormon is another piece of the puzzle to understanding our grand purpose. It's actually more than a piece... more like 3/5 of the puzzle itself, but I'd say its importance is often understated. If the book's a true witness of Jesus Christ, then Joseph was called of God, then the church is true, then we have to abide by its precepts, then we have hope after this life and this life has purpose, and therefore it should be the most important thing in our lives. There's a lot of power in those pages. If you haven't opened up the Book of Mormon before, or maybe if it's been a while, there's no better day to change your life than today.

Elder Young

PICS:

1) A bigole froggo in our house

2 & 3) Leite Condensado & his food

4) I found out how to make this fry/cuscuz plate. Wife me up

5) And I demolished it