Elder Gurksnis Goes to Brazil

Well, this past week I started my last transfer here on the mission. We got a new companion and we are gonna be in trio so I can train the next financial secretary. His name is Elder Sandberg. He's from Utah and he's a cool guy. I already knew him from when I was his zone leader like 9 months ago. But I'm excited to be able to train him and help him out in the office and in the field.  I feel like so much has happened in this week! Here is a miracle from our week: This past week we had the idea to send a text message to ALL of the people who were once taught by missionaries in our area looking to respark the interest of someone. We sent a message to a woman named Claudia who we were teaching about 2 months ago. We ended up not teaching her anymore cause she never went to church. But after all this time, something changed. She asked us why we had dissapeared haha and asked if we were gonna have church on Sunday. We told her yes and she ended up going with her 6 year old ...

This week we were able to baptize Odair! He is a great guy who we found knocking doors about a month ago. We had a little bit of a scare this week, cause we showed up there one night and he said that his son had been put in prison for robbery. He had second thoughts about the baptism just cause he feels his like will be much more complicated now. But we were able to relax him and show him the kind of example he can be to his son. He has made some great friendships in the ward and we are super happy for him. There was a talk given on Sunday about sons helping fathers and fathers helping sons and he went up after the meeting and asked the speaker for his notes he took on the talk. It was a special moment as he said he would put it in use with his son. I wanted to tell a story this week that was told by a member in Odair's baptism that I thought was really cool. He told about a father and son who were out walking one day and they both saw an airplane. After the dad asked if the so...

this week our hot water/electricity stopped working exactly in the coldest week of the year hahah. But its mission memories so I was all down for it. When you get really hyped up its not even that cold. Hahah sometimes in my prayers I just ask the Lord for experiences. I dont specify the kind of experiences I want, but I know the mission is all about experiences so I've been able to have all kinds of experiences while here in Brazil. Thats what I love so much about the mission is you really never know what your day is gonna be like and who you will end of meeting, etc.  This week our focus was marking a date with Aldair. He has already been to church 3 times and had already accepted baptism, but we werent able to mark a specific date with him. When we went there on Wednesday, he was super firm in wanting to be baptized on this next sunday the 15th. We feel that he really was an elect from the Lord. He's a 55 year old man, he doesnt smoke, doesnt drink, doesnt drink coffee, ...

This week has been a fun one with lots of experiences. First, we have been so happy with our recent converts here. Paula, my first baptism in this area, was able to go to the temple!! She said she literally fell in love and every time we visit her she just has the biggest smile on her face. She has really jumped into the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it shows on her face. Im so happy for her and how she is progressing. The couple that we baptized, Paula and Cristiano, have been really well integrated in the ward. They are good friends with lots of members and the members have done a good job of bringing them in. They even went to the baptism of another guy who was baptized by the sisters this week! Today for our Pday we asked President to go to the temple as a staff and he let us and even decided to join in and pay for out BBQ lunch ! Its so special to be able to go to the temple. I always have a spiritual experience and get answers to my questions. Today, I had an overwhelming feeli...