Elder Gurksnis Goes to Brazil

Well sooo much happened this week. and lots of reasons for me to be happy. Things are going well and I just felt super glad this week for how things are going on my mission. We baptized Amanda yesterday! So turns out she came to know us from our English class! And she had lots of interesting trials that I really enjoyed helping her with. I feel like we made so much progress with her and I love to see how much she has changed. She truly seems like someone who was prepared for us at this time by the hand of the Lord.  This week I was also able to return to my stomping grounds (my first area in Freguesia) and do a split. It was the coolest and strangest thing to be back there. I was tried so much in that area and truly feel like I came to know my Savior a little bit better and trust in Him during those 4 months. And turns out the Lord is blessing all my recent converts there! Carlos (my very first baptism) is marrying a returned missionary soon, Elaine is giving freaking lunch to ...

Awesome 2nd week here in Parada Pinto. We have been teaching an English class with the assistants who share a chapel with us. They have been going soooo well. We have like almost 50 people sometimes for me and Elder Peterson to teach. Its kinda crazy haha. Buttttt a TON of them are interested in the gospel after they see the church and see the way that we teach and stuff. We have got a ton of them to visit this week and even have a baptismal date set with a girl named Amanda who has always been in our classes. Praying everything works out with her this week! She came to church and yesterday and loved it. She has said that ever since we started to teach her, she has felt the Holy Spirit have a huge impact in her life. The spirit is always strong teaching her, and she has a great desire to get her life back in order spiritually.  The streets are pretty crazy here and sometimes very packed. We have been approached by so many drunk people its crazy. One of them was walking dizzily...

So....I went to talk with President last Tuesday and was told I was being transferred here to an area called Parada Pinto as a Zone Leader! I was super pumped. So pretty much this means that instead of taking care of 2 companionships, me and my comp take care of 8 or 9. I was super humbled by the call and know there are things I will learn here because of it. I am with Elder Hequer. He is a cool guy. 26 years old, born here in Brasil but lives in Portugal, and was baptized only 1 year before his mission! He is super knowledgable and ive loved the chance to teach with him. We have lots of work to do here in this area and am excited to tackle it with him. This week we had meetings and stuff but were still able to get out in the favelinha and work a little bit. It is totally different here than my last area, but im getting used to it. SO many people in the streets. We were able to find a cool RECENTLY MARRIED couple (of 2 months) this week and they liked church yesterday. Something te...