Elder Gurksnis Goes to Brazil

Wow what a week! But honestly the adventure is just continuing! So much great news! The fiancé of my recent convert in my first area was baptized this week and they will be married this next weekend! My son on the mission (Elder Jairo) will train a new missionary already starting this transfer and I'll already be a grandpa haha!  So this week we had the chance to baptize Alessandra and Lucianno after their wedding on Saturday! It was a super special baptism! The ward was super helpful and has really taken them in as part of the family. They are a couple of gold and I'm super excited to see what will happen with them in the future. The next goal is the sealing in a year! I will put photos in the email as well. The wedding happened in one of the really nice neighborhoods here in São Paulo and the place was super nice.  Also, me and Elder Rodrigues will be staying here as zone leaders in Parada Pinto for another transfer! We were super excited with the news that we are st...

Well this week was crazy busy, but we ended up having some good success. I felt a sincere answer to my prayers on Monday night. We were a little worried about Alessandra and Lucianno and wanted to firm up their baptism. I was praying/sweating during the lesson thinking about what I would say to them in the end. I started to talk about how their marriage would help them obey a commandment from God. Out of nowhere she goes "Oh, is our baptism gonna be on Saturday night?" I felt the spirit so strong in that moment and feel like the Lord was just telling me "I got this one." They are all set for baptism this Saturday!!!! It's gonna be a super special day. Since then, they have been doing sooo great. They talk about raising their family in this Gospel, sealing in the temple, and even serving a couples mission! I am so extremely proud of them and don't know how I was blessed with such great people to help on my mission.  This week, we headed up to the Campinas...

Oh what a week! We were able to baptize 4 people this week! Maria is the daughter of a less active that was baptized over 25 years ago! She is super awesome and a really special girl who has a desire to choose the right in the mids of a struggling family. Wesley, Natalia, and Sarah are brothers/sisters/cousins who have been coming to the English Class for a while now. We went to their house and they have been super receptive about the idea of being baptized in the Lord's restored church. The elders that interviewed all them said they were super impressed with the knowledge they had of the gospel already. It was a very happy moment to help them get on this right path. They all are around 12 years old, so we will already start helping Wesley receive the Priesthood and become a Deacon and the rest get into the young womens program!  In other news I loved General Conference this weekend! I am more and more impressed with President Nelson every time he talks. He truly is an inspired...

Well this weekend ended in the happiest way because we baptized Lúcia! She is a super sweet older lady who has an incredible story really. She came to our English class and was convinced that she needed to visit our church on Sunday. When she came, she said she was better recepted than in any other place and that she felt a strong presence of the Holy Ghost there. She was baptized and is super well integrated in the ward with the other irmãs in the Relief Society.  Other than that really bright spot, we had lots of difficulties this week. We just seemed to get out of our groove a little bit and had trouble teaching lots of people. Saturday was a difficult day for sure and I was just feeling down with our work. But on Sunday we were really blessed. We brought 11 PEOPLE to church! Idk how it happened but o Senhor abençoou. It was pretty awesome to see all them happy and enjoying the meetings.  After a few tough days, we still saw the Lord´s hand in our work. We have 4 brothe...

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...