March 1, 2014 Visits with missionaries across the mission, powerful discussions, and new investigators

Hello and happy March!

This week was definitely one of the more different weeks I´ve had in the field. We spent maybe 15 hours total in Castelo and the rest on the road visiting cities kinda not really close by. The cons, our teaching pool didn´t really get the attention we wanted to be able to give them. The pros, I learned loads with so many missionaries in several parts of the mission and, in spite of not being able to serve our investigators 24/7 we were able to help out and talk one on one with a lot of missionaries who were needing it. It was a different rhythm than I´m used to in the field, but I felt satisfied after it all. Following up with the work in so many areas opened my mind up to new ideas and a new vision of everything we really can accomplish as set apart, full-time servants of the Lord. I was reading in Alma 27 today about the way that Ammon felt about the Anti-Nephi-Lehites that he served, and the way they felt towards him. They literally looked at him as an angel sent by God, and sometimes it´s easy to lose that perspective in the rush of everything going on as a missionary.

On Tuesday we participated in a zone meeting in Itatiba, a city an hour or so from Campinas. The zone leaders talked about the importance of letting each investigator know why we were there in the first visit, explaining about the commitments we´ll extend and the vision that we have for the investigator. It helped me in several lessons and exchanges throughout the week. I noticed that each lesson was a lot more effective when we left it super clear for the investigator to understand that we´re here to show him not just the path to membership in the Church, but eternal life. In one of the few lessons Elder Nelson and I had together in Castelo we taught a couple named André and Claudia and their 70 year-old, lifelong Catholic parents. I think that participating in so many meetings and talking with so many missionaries helped me feel a 100 percent confidence during the lesson that independent of their beliefs and objections, we need to be clear in showing we have something new and eternal to offer. I felt the Spirit during the First Vision in a way I hadn´t in a long time, and because of that André and Claudia accepted baptism. They were pretty reluctant about a date, but I´m confident they´ll come around. I remember André telling us "look, you´re asking us to change 45 years of tradition" and then me asking, "which change do you think would be more drastic, joining a new Church or raising someone from the dead to life?" "Raising someone from the dead I suppose." Then we testified that we KNOW Christ is the head of this Church and no other, and that by the same power He raised Lazarus from the dead He would help that family leave behind 45 years of tradition. It was a powerful experience, and it was so so good to be back in the area to be a part of it and get back into the rhythm of things. 

Other highlights of the week--we found a man named Fernando who didn´t want to go to Church but t gave us 8 referrals to contact. One of them, named Sara, accepted the baptismal invite. Goes to show anyone, really anyone, can help out the missionaries by just stopping to think for a few seconds about who needs the gospel message. Also, Igor and Daniela were married this morning! It was a little different than other weddings I´ve been a part of in that earlier in the week we had to let them go from our teaching group (they told us they weren´t willing/ready to keep basically any of the commitments), but we still were there in support and I was happy to see them start the repentance process in at least one aspect of their life. I know they´ll be blessed because of it. As for Elvis and Fábio--they both cancelled on us this week and we´re trying to remark. Sometimes missionary work has its downs and you´ve just got to keep your head up looking for more of God´s elect. Because I know they´re out there. And sometimes we (especially me) just need to be more patient. I´m learning lots of patience lately :)

But I´m doing well, and I love you. Happy Carnaval! (it started yesterday and ends next Tuesday)

Love, Elder Sears

Feb. 22, 2014 Insights from mission tour, Inspired discussions, Excited investigators

Gotta fly, so I´ll start with the mission tour with Elder Evans. Really, really cool. He spoke for a solid 3 hours straight with questions mixed in throughout the whole thing. Everything, everything was focused on the family. He talked a lot about the qualifications for baptism and made sure that everyone understood that our objective as missionaries is a lot bigger than merely baptism. One of the key phrases I wrote down: "so many recent converts are falling away because missionaries are teaching just to baptize, and not with endure to the end in mind. Endure to the "end"owment and temple sealing." So that was super good instruction. I started thinking of some of the people I´ve taught (especially Lena and Reobe) that need to get back on track towards the temple. One of my weekly goals this week is to mark a visit with them and the missionaries from Vila União. Others notes/impressions that I took down:

-Sister Evans: "I believe you made covenants between you, Heavenly Father, and your mission president before coming to this earth."

-Elder Costa: "I know with perfect knowledge that Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration"

-Elder Evans: "We need to teach repentance so that investigators understand that it is not just a list of administrative tasks like stopping smoking and getting married; it is a change of heart that prepares people for covenant keeping"

-Elder Evans: "The greatest gift of God is eternal life, and eternal life is only available to families. We need to bring families into the Church."

-Elder Evans: "Our stand for the family is what will separate us from the world going forward; it may cause some to fall away, but because of it thousands and maybe millions will join the Church." 

--> then he read through The Proclamation to the World and talked about the nature of our eternal family, emphasizing the fact that we have heavenly parents in whose image we were created

It was a really neat experience of personal revelation for me, because I came into the mission tour with 2 questions in mind. I´d read in Alma 23 about the people of Ammon and how they never fell away and wanted to know what missionaries need to do better to help recent converts stay strong. Elder Evans answered that focusing on families and the temple in our teaching. I also wanted to know how to help me and the mission have greater success in terms of people being brought to baptism, and Elder Evans quoted Elder Nelson promising that there are thousands, even millions of people waiting to be drawn to the Church because of it´s focus on and defense of the family. God always answers questions. It´s impossible to serve worthily for 2 years seeking His help and not come to that conclusion. 

Other cool things that happened this week--coming home from a family night with Elvis, he himself started talking about baptism and said, "you know the only reason I haven´t gotten baptized yet is because I want to participate more during Sunday School and Priesthood." "Seriously? Well then are you willing to participate this Sunday?" "Yeah." "And afterwards do you think we could mark your baptismal date?" "Fine by me." It was so out of the blue that I just kind of laughed to myself at the way God manages to touch people´s hearts. Elvis went on to tell us that he knows the Church is true because he felt it during that lesson that I marked his baptismal date on his birthday and it´s a feeling he can´t deny. Boom!

And a quick excerpt from my journal: "I´m feeling good. I think I was able to turn a page with my level of commitment over the last week and I´m managing to lose myself in the work. We had a super good exchange with the zone leaders from Zona Campinas. I stayed with Elder Riquerme in Castelo--plan A through G fell through I think but we had 2 super good, spiritual lessons at night. Our first was with an inactive couple named Junior and Larissa that have been going to the Catholic Church for the past 5 years. It became clear really fast that the key to getting them back to Church would be focusing on eternal families. They were a bit iffy on the fact that family relationships can continue after death. A few questions came to mind that I asked them--" Who is the only perfect Father? Who is the only perfect Son? Did Christ cease to consider God His Father after His death? Isn´t He the perfect example in all things? Why then would He continue to be His Father´s Son and we not continue to be our father´s children?" It was a line of reasoning that wasn´t my own, and Junior and Larissa just looked at each other and had nothing to do but agree. They said they´d come to church on the 23rd."

Oh, and that lesson with Rogério and Andreia...we brought with us a small tupperware, some rocks and some sugar all measured out. The sugar represented worldly priorities, and the rocks heavenly ones. We explained that their goal was to fit the sugar and rocks inside the container and be able to close the lid. That represented the goal of eternal life. When they tried to put the sugar in first, the rocks didn´t fit. With the rocks first, everything did. Then we applied that to marriage--how a party, money, friends, popularity and all that were good reasons to get married but they were earthly priorities that would wind up slowing them down from keeping a commandment. They seemed to like the analogy and accepted to go to the cartório with us this week. Unfortunately we found out Rogério´s involved in some pretty heavy stuff and we may have to stop teaching them. We´ll see....in that sense this week´s been a tough one. Igor and Daniela went soft on us too. They´re not keeping commitments and are planning to visit family this Sunday instead of going to church. People are frustrating sometimes. But it´s all good. We´ve got a good teaching group and I´m excited for the transfer.

Love you!

Elder Sears

Feb. 10, 2014 Baptism of Raphaela

 Baptism of Raphaela (9 years old in blue dress, front row) by her recently re-activated Grandfather, Marcos Domico (third from right) with  Brad and Elder Chagas (far right).

Feb. 10, 2014 New companion, New members, New commitments

Oí! Today and tomorrow we have transfers so unfortunately this is going to be super short...Elder Chagas was transferred and I´ll be companions with Elder Nelson for at least the next 6 weeks here in Castelo!! He´s a really good missionary and I´m pumped for the new energy and vision he´ll bring to the area. He´s been out for a year and 2 months--ish and is from somewhere in Utah, I´m forgetting the name of the city right now.

We were blessed to be part of another baptism this week :) The special part wasn´t the baptism though, but who did the ordinance. Brother Marcos Damico was inactive and smoking 3 packs a day a year ago when his granddaughter, Raphaela, asked him to baptize her. She was eight at the time, and over the past year Marcos stopped smoking entirely, returned to church, was called to be the 1st counselor in the Elder´s Quorum Presidency, and last month was sealed in the temple to his wife Isabel that he married 30 years ago. He´s also the member who has recently given us 3 referrals--whole families--to teach in the past weeks. It was so, so cool to see him walk into the water and baptize his granddaughter. So many people were there in support, and several investigators (including Elvis!!) too. I´ll send a picture in a sec.

Another cool experience really quick with Rogério and Andreia. We finally were able to teach them the restoration this week and I invited them to be baptized. The date March 15th came to mind and I invited them. It was a replay of what happened with Elvis. Andreia looked at me a little shocked, asked what made me say March 15th, and told me it was Rogério´s birthday Bingo! The Spirit really is a wonderful thing. I need to do lots better about not taking it for granted.

I love you all. Seriously. Happy Olympics!!

Elder Sears

February 3, 2014 Elizabeth's baptism and outing with investigators

                  Elder Chagas, Brad, Elizabeth, her son Fabio and husband Hernesto
                 at Elizabeth's baptism

                      Brad with investigators Igor, Daniela, Luna, Ioria, and Ian
                      and Elder Chagas at the cartorio

February 3, 2014 Miracles with baptisms and atheists

Hello everyone!!

We have a baptism to report :) Elizabeth was interviewed on Saturday and baptized at 8:30 before church yesterday morning. She asked me to do it, and made me promise the water would be warm. It wasn´t, but it´s been getting up to 95 degrees down here so the chill was a welcome relief :) Her story is yet another example of a pure miracle, and the blessings of a missionary-oriented ward. Silvana (the member who talked to her waiting in line at the mall) was there in support. For me though, the bigger miracle has been with her family. Fábio, her son, considered himself an atheist when we met him 4 weeks ago. When we were going through the baptismal interview questions with Elizabeth he wasted no time in telling us that he didn´t believe/agree with the 1st, 2nd 5th and 6th questions. I told him we´d start small, and work with his belief in Christ as our Savior first. I marked 15 scriptures in The Book of Mormon testifying of that truth and committed him to read them (at least one per day) and pray after reading each one. Saturday, when Elizabeth showed up for the interview, I pulled him aside and we started talking. He said he hadn´t read, but he´d asked God on Monday and Tuesday if Christ really did die for our sins. He said he hadn´t received an answer, although he did mention he felt a little bit of a "heat" when he asked the question on Tuesday. We got to talking, and all of the sudden he cut me off and said, "I think I can say yes to the first baptismal question now." I looked at him a little confused and asked him to explain what made him jump to that conclusion. He said that while we were talking it he had goosebumps come over him for 5 seconds and a flood of thoughts confirming to him that Christ really is our Savior. It was so out of the blue that I laughed. Seriously--the miracles do NOT stop! Mall customers are getting baptized and atheists are confessing that Jesus is the Christ. How could this not be the true church?? What´s more, Fábio went on to say that he now believes in and agrees with all of the baptismal interview questions aside from the one about Joseph Smith. I promised him that if he´d read The Book of Mormon and ask God, multiple times if necessary, he´d have the same feeling he felt while we were talking about Christ as our Savior. He said he´d be baptized if he felt that way again. Seriously, God is a genius! He lives and He is the most effective missionary imaginable. What´s more, Elizabeth´s husband Hernesto, also atheist, came to support her during her baptism. She told us she NEVER imagined that would happen. We have an fhe marked for tonight with him and Fábio and are super optimistic about the whole thing. Yes! :D

Let´s see what else...we went to the cartório with Igor and Daniela and officially marked their marriage for March 1st!! I´ll send photos in a sec. They didn´t go to church though :/ It´s going to require a lot of prayer and fasting and following up but it´s going to happen. 

Testimony meeting was pretty sweet. Igor, Ricardo and Sheila´s son, bore his testimony about the importance of the Holy Ghost as the comforter in our lives. He started crying when he said his family had to sell their dog, but that when he went to mutual that night he forgot all about it and was able to focus on the positive side of things. By the amount of water in people´s eyes I think the congregation was pretty touched. During Sunday School, Isabela (the 3 year-old daughter) pulled my pant leg and, pointing to the font, said, "Uncle Sears, when is it going to be my turn? I know how to plug my nose and everything." I just about died :) 

On the fun side of things, this past week was Elder Lukas´ birthday (one of our mission´s financial secretaries). He´d gone to bed when I woke him up to tell him something was wrong downstairs with the finances and he needed to sort it out. I´m not sure he entirely understood what I said but he woke up and started heading down the stairs. In the meantime the rest of the crew (me, Elder Chagas, Elder Toebe, Elder Zacheu, Elder Doman and Elder Frutos) got ready a bunch of water balloons and absolutely drenched him when he rounded the corner. Hahahah :) He was a good sport about it and we all had a good laugh. Every once in a while you´ve just got to destress a bit.

Time for pictures now! Love you all,

Elder Sears

January 27, 2014 Temple Sealings

So we had a zone activity today and time is super short, but I've got one of the highlights of my mission to report so here goes...

Who remembers Douglas? He was one of our miracle baptisms in Vila União that showed up to church and a week later asked to be baptized before we could even make the invite. He was baptized on January 6th, 2013, one day after Elder Alcantara and I had finished a fast to help see someone join the church. I was thinking about him towards the beginning of the week and had heard rumors through the city that he'd be getting married soon. So I called him Wednesday and.......he said he'd be getting married Friday and SEALED on Saturday!!! I got President's permission to be there and Elder Chagas and I went and had one of the best afternoons of our lives. Douglas married Barbara, the "friend"who talked to him about the Church for the first time a little over a year ago. They weren't even dating at the time and he didn't even know eternal families were a possibility, and now he has one. It was beyond a miracle to see him. We got to the Campinas temple at 1ish on Saturday and were able to sit in on the sealing ordinance at 2:30. Both he and Barbara had already received their endowments, so the sealing itself was short and simple, but really, really, really meaningful for me. Elder Chagas described the feeling in the room as if the air conditioning had suddenly stopped working everything was so warm and radiant. I'll never forget the sight of him walking in in his temple robes and just beaming from ear to ear. The promises made in a sealing are amazing, particularly so because Saturday was the first time I ever witnessed one. You just get the feeling that that moment is what the gospel is all about. Everything points to it, and afterwards the only thing left is enduring to the end. After the ceremony I gave Douglas a huge hug and whispered to him with a grin, "you're one step ahead of me now mister." He laughed and looked me in the eye and thanked me for what I'd done. Which wasn't much. Barbara had him convinced from day 1 I think :) It's the first time I've seen the whole process firsthand: non-member to investigator to recent convert to engaged recent convert to sealed for time and all eternity, active, covenant-keeping member. I wrote so much about it in my journal. How grateful I am for the way God's blessing me on my mission. It really is surreal. The timing of it too--the fact that I felt I needed to call him this week to see when he was planning on getting married and all. The Spirit is a wonderful thing. Pictures are soon to come!

One more little tidbit really quick...Igor and Daniela and their 2 kids accepted baptism for March 1st!!!!! We're going to the cartório (marriage place thingy that I never remember the name in English....) on Saturday to mark their wedding. It's been 3 years since they've met the missionaries for the first time, and after a message and role-play that President showed everyone during the multi-zone we felt like we just needed to be really direct with them and ask really inspired questions. Igor helped Daniela realize she's already received a testimony and Elder Chagas asked Daniela why she thought we as missionaries were so focused on baptism. She said she didn't know, so he opened up to 3 Nephi 27:16 and we talked about the promises God makes to us when we're baptized. She went ahead and read 17 without being asked and finished and said "right then, I'm willing to be baptized." So we marked a month down the road leaving time to get the wedding marked. We walked out of their house super grateful, high-fiving our way home. This IS the true Church, and there are millions of people waiting to know and accept it. We just need to invite them. How I love being a missionary! 

Oh, and Elizabeth is golden for being baptized on the 2nd. We went to the temple with her and some recent converts (Adrianna and Kevin among them) on Friday and the Temple President did a fantastic job talking about what temples are for. She loved it.

I love you all super muito much, hope you know that. Love,

Elder Sears