Adventures of a Canadian Missionary: Brazilian Soup

Week 24

Hola mi familia!

How goes it? This week was a lot more productive than last week I feel like. We were able to have a few lessons, and we got dropped... in the nicest way possible (including soup). I'll explain in a bit.

So apparently, the Elders who were in Leduc before us met with a gentleman named Tony from Egypt like three times, but didn't bother to make a record for him, and forgot to tell us about him. So we found out some information about him and set up an appointment to meet. When we arrived, he told us his background and what not, and then we started our lesson. We explained the Book of Mormon a little more in depth, and talked about the priesthood and where it comes from. The spirit was really strong, he really wants to go to a family oriented church, and at what felt like the climax of the lesson, Elder Woodruff invited him to be baptised. We expected him to say yes, because the way the spirit had worked upon him understanding what we taught, and he said no. So that was a little disappointing, but we will still meet with him tomorrow to teach him a bit more.

We had a sweet lesson with our buddy, Braydon, where we explained the big picture and the reason he should be baptised. I should have taken a picture of the picture I drew for him, but I forgot. Next week I'll send it. We told him if he wants to be happy, live with his mom and God forever, he needs to be baptised, because "strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to eternal life". He was still really squirmy, but he did say he wants to be baptised. He and his mom have been praying to find out a specific day. To be continued...

At our district meeting on Thursday, in a role play with the Sisters, I know the spirit was there. One of them had a question about why we need the Book of Mormon if we have a Bible. Out of nowhere, this analogy came to my mind, which I'd never heard before. Imagine you're standing on one foot. See how off balance you are? That's what it's like to only have knowledge from the bible. Now, if you have both feet, or in other words the Book of Mormon AND the Bible, you are able to stand, walk, run, jump, and do all sorts of things. The two compliment each other, they aren't used to find fault. So that was pretty cool.

So now to the story of the drop. There is this amazing Brazilian couple who we have had a super hard time meeting with lately. The other night, we stopped in just to see if hey were home, and they were! The husband, Moacyr (MoyseeAy) invited us in and we talked for a while. He told us they are ok with their religion now, and they love us to death, but they just don't have time to sit and talk about religion because she has to go back to Brazil and he needs to find a job. So in a way he dropped us, saying they're not quite interested. The wife, Marcella came around the corner and talked and explained a little bit of of what he had said, then said she had been making some Brazilian soup and wanted us to have some. (We had just eaten a hefty meal of sloppy joes, but they wouldn't let us leave until we had some.) it was probably the best soup I've ever had. We ate soup, chatted with them, laughed a lot, ended with hugs, and then we left. That was the most upbeat drop in the history of dropping.

This is going to be a long email, but at least that means it was a great week! Saturday we moved a bunch of belongings for an older lady from Fort McMurray, with The Nesom boys. They're the most redneck bunch of kids ever. I love em. In the process, we got a 15 passenger van stuck in two inches of snow, loaded up 4 vehicles with totes, took like 12 trips in the elevators to get the belongings up to the 7th floor, and then sister Nesom bought 8 pizzas and we ate basically all of it.

Later that night, we went to a baptism for a man Elder Woodruff taught in his last area. Braydon and his brothers and mom were able to go to it, just so Braydon has a better idea of what baptism actually is, and that it's not so scary.

Our mission has been doing these fire sides throughout this month and last, called "His Hands". It's a musical journey through the life of Christ. Through watching the missionaries sing and feeling of the special spirit there, I felt like I understood more of what Christ went through for us. Before we went to that, we had a lesson with Aaron, and he has been thinking a lot about baptism. He really wants to know the truth, and as soon as he knows, he wants to be baptized. As we answered some of his questions regarding the Priesthood, I felt the spirit tell me to say, "Aaron, you know you could hold this priesthood one day." That made a big effect on him.

At one of our dinner appointments, the members dog, (huge German Shepard) chewed the crap out of one of my church shoes.... Sister Hinman said she'd buy me a new pair. Gotta love dogs.

That's it for the week, I hope you all know that Jesus loves you! The church is true! Love y'all!

-Your Friendly Neighbourhood Elder Wells