27 Sep 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Dad)

psshh the language was easy since I got here ;) It actually isn't that hard, I need to work on things and there are some sentences in English that I haven't figured out in Portuguese yet. I just need to learn a lot of words. One of my goals is to become a master in Portuguese by the end of my mission. I want to be able to talk about anything I want. Everybody says I speak like I have been out for 6 months or more so that is good....not to toot my own horn.

Don't have many stories this week because it has been a bummer of a week. A few highlights of drunk people trying to pawn off their bikes. I have a new strategy of talking to all the houses with intercoms in hopes of rewards in the future ;) Not really it's just easier to talk to them. We usually get servants instead of the owners, which is weird here in Ceará. We have this huge house across the street that shames our humble abode. I am forced to look at it everyday so I decided I would talk to those people. They asked who it was on the intercom, and I said Missionaries of the Church..... and all they said was "Não (no)" so I decided to be bold like they tell us and I said " Que??? Você não quer?? (What? You don't want it?) in a serious tone but they beat me by calmly saying "Não"......oh ok then bye. It happened again at another house but the lady said "Tudo bem então" "Alright then" and before she opened the door I said "Que??? Você não quer??" again because I didn't understand what she said. She opened the door and just looked at me like I was crazy and my companion was laughing at me....I guess it was funny.

[Here Jeffrey shared the same story he shared with Mom in the post below.]

I am so grateful to be here. Even during the hard time the Lord finds a way to bless me. I just try to obey and become better so that I can continue to grow. There is no way this miracle would have occurred if I was being lazy and didn't have the spirit.

27 Sep 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Mom)

I have been thinking about general conference all week because we have an investigator that doesn't believe in prophets. It's good to hear your testimony and I hope with all my heart that he goes so he can see the true prophet. Its a funny/spiritual story how we found him. We were walking on Fernandes Távora where the church is and E. Alves saw him from far off. We play this game where he chooses a house or person for me to contact then I choose for him and so on. He was thinking in his mind that we would talk to the person but was going to tell me when we got closer. We had been listening to a song nonstop in our house (I can only Imagine when that day comes blah blah) and he was singing it in his head. He said he sang it out loud but I never heard a word of this. He said "we're going to talk to this man" but he didn't say it directly to me, he just said it. When we met up with the man, I talked to him and E Alves walked past him and realized I was talking to him. We marked a date to talk to him later and kept walking. E Alves said it was weird that I talked to him because I meant to say something but then I started singing that song. I was like "No...you said lets talk to that guy so I did." He was dumbfounded. I know without a doubt that it was the spirit, there is no other way to explain it. It's so glorious how the spirit can talk to us in so many different ways. We decided that we would talk to him that day because of the way we found him. We talked to him and he poured out his heart to us. He would always warn us before he said anything that might be offensive. He said some pretty blunt things but they weren't mean. He said people had always been mad at him for saying things in this manner. He cried, he laughed, he told us everything. I could understand every single word of that man. We talked to him about the 1st vision but he couldn't believe, he wouldn't believe that God needed a human. We tried to help him, we tried to tell him the importance of prophets but he just couldn't believe that there was a human between God and him. We left a little sad and depressed. This last week was horrible to the max. Everything fell, every appointment we had fell, we taught like 6 lessons all week. Even the great, interested investigators we had were gone or etc. We didn't get fed by the members a lot, the "never fail" (immortal words of E. Alves) dinner we have each sunday failed too. But Sunday was our next appointment with this investigator. We decided after study and practice to teach him about the Book of Mormon (which you give during the 1st lesson but we didn't) to show as evidence of a prophet. We talked to him for a bit then I started to explain the Book of Mormon and he just said no its a waste of time. You can explain it but I won't read it, I wont believe it. I can't explain the sadness the distress we felt. He talked more and my companion was going to say something but he said "No I want him to talk." So I just talked, talked about the Book of Mormon, talked about how I read it how I know this book is true. I talked about how every page, every verse can bring your life happiness. I told him it was written by prophets of God. I told him all that I knew to tell him about the Book of Mormon. It was another time the spirit helped me. Of course I cried, he cried with me too. The spirit exploded from the little patio that we were sitting on. I don't know any greater feeling. Then I just handed him the Book to read and by golly he took it and said he would read. I can't wait until he goes to General Conference and sees the Prophet of God.