Elder Gurksnis Goes to Brazil

It was a fast week in Brazil! honestly my first week here that felt like it flew by. but i know pretty soon most weeks will feel like that. i felt like my speaking improved a lot this week. me and my companion contacted a lot on the streets. we recieved cards this week to give to people about seja a luz do mundo (light the world). the church always has a message for christmas and this year its pretty much how we can bring the light of christ into the lives of other people this Christmas season! i would invite you guys to check it out on  mormon.org ! through this we were able to talk with lotssss of people and teach lots of lessons. We also had a reference this week that we went to teach. His name is Daniel. We had one of those AWESOME lessons with him  on Saturday  and he came to church  on Sunday ! A cool experience happened to: so we sat with Daniel and we were close to this family with two little kids. they were so loud the whole sacrament meeting and the par...

Pouring and pouring rain this week...luckily we only got stuck in it once, but it just comes down so hard here. even hailed one time! ill attatch the picture from when we got stuck in the rain, we were a solid 5 miles from our house haha. i also played the beloved game of soccer here for the first time today.....geez these brazilians just showed me up... this week we were able to continue teaching a lot of investigators. after this week. we taught alexandre and his family again and it went so well. he knows the bible super well and every time we bring out a verse he knows exactly what we are gonna say. the gospel just seems to make sense to him which is such an exciting feeling as a missionary. i walk out of lessons with them so so excited and happy. we teach him again on tuesday and i think he will be at church this week! we are teaching another lady that has 16 cats, no joke. she also has like 5 kids and her husband passed away last year. she has her hands full and they dont ...

Another week down here in Brazil! The work was a little tough this week. We lost some time cause I had to go to the Policia Federal again for a day because it didn't work last time and then we had to pick up our stove and microwave for our house. But that was actually super nice cause it was a struggle without them for 4 weeks. Gabriel, the 12 year old that has been coming to church every week that we wanted to baptize, was awesome again this week! But sadly we went to his house to talk to his mom who isn't a member about baptism and she turned us down real quick. He still comes to church and all the activities but there just isn't much we can do at this point with him. Rafaela, the pregnant girl, was sick this week and in the hospital, but i think she is doing better now and we are planning on teaching her this week! We have a full week planned including lessons with a guy named Alexandre and 2 of his kids. He is super solid and already sounds like a member of our chur...

This past Saturday, I was able to baptize Carlos! It was such a cool experience that i really had no idea what to expect from. my companion decided to tell me an hour before the baptism that i would be doing it haha. I freaked out a little bit cause i needed to memorize what to say and get Carlos´ full name right. But everything ended up going super well and we had lots of support from the ward for him. he seemed pretty happy and I'm hoping we can continue to help strengthen him in the gospel. we have an investigator that has also accepted a baptismal date for this Saturday! her name is Rafaela and at church this week i could just tell how interested she was in trying to learn as much as possible. shes actually pregnant right now, but it would be so cool if everything works out and her baby boy could be raised in the church.  The funniest thing that happened this week was in the middle of church this older (slightly crazy) lady came up to me and my companion. She looks at m...

Hey everyone! Week 2 down in Brazil! Its a little easier every day and i learn every day. I can say a lot of things, but understanding is still hard. I know the more words i learn, the more i will be able to pick them out in conversation. I've talked to some american missionaries and they said it took them 9 weeks in Brazil to be able to understand most of what people said. Which seems like a lot but i know the lord will bless me if i rely on him and keep doing my best every day.  Funniest things i saw this week was we were standing outside the church one day and two police cars were chasing something and right in front of the church is a big speed bump. the cops hit the speed bump going a solid 50 mph at least and caught air. it literally happened right in front of my eyes and i just couldnt stop laughing. The other thing from this week was when we were walking i saw a word and looked it up in my dictionary. The word was "padaria". turns out the word has two meanings...

oh wow i have so much to tell you guys and not enough time but i will try my best! so i arrived on monday and it was a long day. the flights were long and i was just super tired. but we went to the mission office and it was so cool. it is beautiful and you can see the city in the distance. the city is absolutely insane. i think it has around the same amount of people as new york city but honestly way more buildings here. it just goes on forever. im not directly in sao paulo but im close enough to see it a lot. the language has been super tough this week, it has been my biggest struggle. but obviously i know it will come with time. im learning a lot every day. my companion is elder lima da silva. he is from brazil and knows almost no english haha so that has been a challenge. he is actually an awesome guy though and a super good missionary and we are definitely friends. we have been house hopping a little bit because the house in our area has no electricity right now. so as of now we ar...

Wow I actually leave for Brazil monday morning! There has been a lot of build up but it is finally here. I have loved the MTC and the many experiences it has given me. I've learned and grown in so many ways. I definitely feel like I could use another week or two practicing the language, but obviously I can't expect to be any sort of expert after 6 weeks. Can't wait to find out about my first area and companion! I had the awesome thought this week of how simple what I am doing is. Our church's message is so straightforward. Come unto Christ. Have faith in Him and pray and read with real intent, and you can have the immense happiness the gospel brings people. I didn't come here to learn the secrets or the "tricks" of missionary work. I know if I work hard and rely on Heavenly Father, he will work through me to get to the people of Brazil. Ok so my pics are of Irmao Regehr and Irmao Nickell. These guys have seriously been heroes for me. They both serv...