Vitora, Brazil

Vitora, Brazil

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

22. So, Carnival is quite an experience.

Dear Family,

Man this week was hard, but kinda just funny, and not discouraging. So, Carnival is quite an experience. Imagine a mix between a ghost town but and I don't know what else. Literally 98 percent of the population is at the beach right now. We knock an entire street and only talk with 2 or 3 people that don't like the beach or they didn't feel like going. Our ward of 50 actives was less that 20 by the end of sacrament as everyone was leaving for the holidays. And the missionaries just stayed on the streets trying to create potentials. We had a great idea to just visit members during the afternoon and got 6 references. But it is just so funny how empty unimaginably empty it became here. We almost didn't find an open Internet Cafe to use. But, in the midst of all the difficulties, I had some great spiritual experiences.

First, we were challenge/encouraged to pray and ask specifically what we could do to help our area progress. We prayed and a thought to do a fast on Wednesday came to mind. So, even though my companion cant fast I fasted alone and we prayed again to receive guidance. That night we had a lesson marked for 7 o'clock. We got there and our investigator had left to run errands and we thought she had forgotten about us. We left to just knock some doors in the area and 30 minutes later her daughter came running after us to call us back. The mom, our target investigator, and her 8 children were called and all of them listened intently to the Plan of Salvation and learned about how they could be reunited with their father who passed away. It was such a good lesson and even though carnival is making it difficult to teach them and bring them to church I know that we received guidance and spiritual strength during the lesson. 

Second, I was questioning my own testimony this week about is the Lord can really put a yes or no answer in your mind and heart. D&C 8: 2-3. I have definitely felt the spirit during prayers and have felt spiritual guidance help me with Portuguese but i had not as of yet prayed about a yes or no question. After, a lesson with an investigator that seems really promising but keeps creating excuses to avoid the lessons and visits in the church, I was praying a lot to know if we should cut this investigator and if we were just losing time. I felt like I went through the same experience of Enos battling with the spirit. My desires were telling me that we should try to help him but I am pretty sure the spirit was telling me a different answer. At first I refused to accept this answer. But, as a few days have passed, I know that the response was correct. I hope that as I gain more experience with this type of response I will be able to recognize it during the prayer. But, I know for sure that through all of our prayers our Father is Heaven is listening and wants to help us. 

It is hard to sit here with these two missionaries that are typing their last emails to their families. They have been making me kinda trunky. But at least they are working until the last day. I am hoping for a very energetic missionary to get me back into the running mode instead of the dragging your heals. We are definitely working but I feel like we are lacking something. Like a little fire to keep us on our toes. 

Well, that's about all, 
Until next week  I love you all soo much. 

Love, 

Elder Jacobson (Andrew)

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