Elder Gurksnis Goes to Brazil

WOW soooo much has happened and sadly i have such little time to write. But i will give the main stuff. So we marked a marriage date with Lucianno and Alessandra for October 20th! I loveeee being able to bring families into this gospel. Nothing that makes me happier. The baptism will probably be that same day. We started teaching their neighbors and 2 of them already went to church and have baptism dates for next weekend!  We have another miracle from our English class. We taught this woman on Saturday night, and even though her son tried to bash on us a little, she was super firm and loved church on sunday. She said that she told herself a couple years ago that she would never enter into a church again. This week she entered and said she felt something completely different than anything she has ever felt. We told her this was the spirit testifying to her that she was in the right place. She has accpeted a baptismal date for THIS sunday! Today we went to the temple ...

Well this week I got my new comp who is Elder Rodrigues! He is a Brazilian, but from the south which is a little different from here. So I'm at 6 companions now, all brazilians, all from different states haha. But he is a cool guy. He is a little shy but I feel like we fit each other well and have been able to teach a few really great lessons. We are happy with our work here and ready to get lots done this transfer.  This week we were on Cloud 9 when we taught Lucianno and Alessandra. We were about to talk to them about marriage and how it is a commandmant of God, when they started to say stuff like, "If we want to be baptized, do we have to be married?" hahah it was so great and we explained it all to them and they are super down to get married and baptized! We need to finalize the details tonight, but we will try to get to the place that marks marriages here in the next week or two and pray they have a spot open during this transfer. They are truly amazing people. T...

Well this week I hit the big 365 mark! It was a good day and it feels super weird knowing Ive got less than 11 months left here. It will fly by so fast, so I'm just looking to take advantage of this time while I have it! Probably was the fastest year of my life.... So this week was also transfers! Elder Hequer is leaving to go train and I'll stay here and receive my new comp tomorrow who will start his first transfer as Zone Leader with me. I'm super pumped to show him the area and set good, smart goals with him for this transfer.  This week we found an awesome couple that came down from the land of my boy Elder Opfar in Bahia to São Paulo. The girl always looked down at the floor in our lessons and I thought she wasnt paying attention at all, but she started to ask some amazing questions that we were amazed by. It was an awesome experience to teach them this week and to see their excitedness about the Gospel. The guy told us one night that even though he hasn't...

Another week out on the grind. Our goal this week was to do 20 contacts every day and Elder Ballard promised us that we would be blessed and see our teaching groups grow. We have totally seen that promise come true! We met lots of great people this week. Even one (its crazy this has happened a couple times on my mission) where she said she was praying literally THAT DAY to find a new path in her life. Its crazy how the Lord prepares His children for our message. But certainly like there always are, we faced some trials this week. We had a tough time following up with these new people that we found and on Sunday we didnt see the results we wanted in church. Its tough to see cause as a missionary, I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ will help peoples lives. But the IF is that they have to allow it to affect their lives. Just gotta trust in the time and plan of God for His children.  Something cool we got to do this week is as Zone Leaders we are meeting with the stake president...