Elder Gurksnis Goes to Brazil

We are halfway through the transfer here and working so hard. It feels good to get up every day and give 100% to the Lord. I know I wont have another chance to do this again. Im loving the hot, sweaty, long days that we have. There are times when it feels tough, but more times when I feel so extremely blessed and happy to be doing this.  This week we continued working with Junior. He amazes me every day. Him and his girlfriend need to decide what they will do cause they are living together unmarried right now, so i dont know how it will all work out. It will probably take a little time whatever they decide, but im hoping i can come back to this area and get the opportunity to baptize him!  We are still working with that big family too. They are all making progress towards baptism and are gathering documents together to be married! It broke my heart when the wife approached me after church this week telling me they need help with food. Its so sad cause I know how good of ...

Holy cow this week was super super good. Me and my new comp elder Aguiar worked our butts off this week and we saw it pay off. I watched as we worked hard and left nothing behind, the Lord took away any of my problems or worries. This Sunday in church I was able to see it all come together. We brought a 25 old or so guy named Junior to church. He seemed to be progressing well during the week. During the sacrament, I said a little prayer and asked more than anything that he could feel the spirit during this meeting. About   10 minutes later   as one of the speakers was talking, he leaned over to me and said 3 words i dont think ill ever forget for the rest of my life. He simply said "Eu quero isto." or "I want this." I was absolutely blown away. He told me that whatever it was in this church that he had felt, he wanted it. He wanted to be baptized and study the Book of Mormon every day. I was sitting there trying to act tough for him, trying to hide th...

So this week is the start of a new transfer (6 week period with one companion in an area). Lima da silva has officially finished his mission and will fly home to Maranhão tomorrow. He was a good companion and a good friend but im excited for the new opportunity with a new companion coming up. I will stay in Freguesia do Ò as expected and will start with Elder Aguiar. I actually still dont know him because hes been in the interior of the mission. But what ive heard is that he is Brazilian, has about 7 months on the mission, and works really hard/is super obedient. Im excited for the opportunities we will have to work hard together and will meet up with him tomorrow, but for now im just with some other guys from my district.  This week while on division with another elder, i had a feeling that we should visit a past investigator that really wasnt progressing at all. She welcomed us in like always but this time she had lots of questions for us and was much more attentive. I think ...

This week started with interviews with the mission president! Everything went good with him, and now that my Portuguese is improving so much we are really creating a good relationship i think. Everyone who i hadn't seen in a few weeks commented on how much better I am talking. My companion even told me that the Mission President said something in their interview together. Its definitely a confidence builder to be at this point that I've been trying to get to for a while. I contacted a lot this week knocking doors and out on the street. I feel much more comfortable doing it now and its just a happy feeling being able to talk with everyone about the gospel in a completely different language!  We have continued teaching Rafaela (the pregnant lady) who we have been working with for a while. It is Elder Lima da Silva's last week on the mission and he challenged her to pray and think about baptism again. She seems to be understanding the gospel a lot better at this point. I t...