11 Oct 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Mom)

[Mom mentioned that she had started reading the book, "Jesus the Christ," by James Talmadge.] I like it, it's not that hard for me ;) The beginning isn't so exciting but when he talks about the parables and things in Jesus's life it gets more exciting because you get to learn things you never knew. I'm almost done now, but I have been reading since the MTC. I really just read it because I wanted to hear what he had to say about Pilate but I ended up reading the rest of it.

[Mom talked about difficulties we all have in changing behaviors and why that is the case.] I guess it's because people don't want to be wrong and they think they are right. The easiest way is just to apply everything to yourself. When you hear a person say that people in general should be like this or that, stop and think about yourself...am I that person? That's also one way to study the scriptures too. Just apply everything to yourself. You can read to learn about history, you can read to learn doctrine, or you can read to apply everything to yourself so you can change. In my scriptures in Alma 17 I have tons of notes. It talks about Ammon and the beginning of his mission and cutting off arms. I have tons of notes that apply to life today (with help from my MTC teacher). You can always apply the scriptures to yourself. I have a lot of things I want to change to and I was thinking it would be helpful to study about that for a week. If I want to be more patient I should study patience for a week, just a bit everyday, and pray about it to ask for help. It will be easier the more you know about it and the more you understand the principle. After all, we should obey because of understanding etc. not because of fear or promised blessings. Like you said if we knew these things we would be exalted. We can know these things on earth though, and we need to know these things. We can even receive the blessings and promise of exaltation while we are still on the earth. It's something you have to work for and you have to study and pray to know and understand.

4 Oct 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Dad)

[General Conference was, of course, very good. As I listened to the messages, I kept thinking how if any sincere and humble individual who is not familiar with the Church were to watch and listen, how could they not see how different it is in key areas and how much substance it offers as compared to the teachings of man? But, of course, it isn't that simple. The Spirit is the key, and listening to the Spirit doesn't necessarily come naturally.] I didn't get to watch much of Conference and it was all in Portuguese so it was a lot harder to understand. We didn't watch the Priesthood session and during the break in between morning and afternoon on Sunday a truck destroyed the telephone pole so we didn't have electricity for the rest of the day. I don't know whats it's like for others who aren't familiar because none of our investigators went....

 

Things didn't go well this week either. They seemed better at first, but they were just as bad by the end of the week. All of our good investigators didn't go to church, and we were sure that's all they needed to start the conversion. I guess we will have to wait until next week. It's hard though knowing that probably nothing will happen this week as we make return visits, knock on doors etc., but that is the work of Satan. We have been thinking of what we can do to be better. I guess that's why we have hard times so we can look at ourselves and change. Hard times aren't just there because everything can't be perfect all the time. They are there so we stop and look around and change so that things can get better. I'm here to change though I guess. It's not just about the lessons and baptisms. It's about the drunk people on the streets, the old ladies that tell me to go home, kicking rocks into the rain gutters shouting Pelé, tripping all the time, being soaking wet with sweat....these are the things of missionary service. I will remember the lessons and the baptisms but all the other things too. I think that Paul didn't just write about all the sermons in his diary. He wrote about that one time he was eating the nastiest thing ever and was [putting?] pieces in his pocket to finish faster...well maybe that was me. But the point is a mission just isn't about teaching, it's about the experiences, feelings, etc.

4 Oct 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Mom)

[Comments from Mom about a good General Conference.] Everyone has said that so far, but I didn't get to watch much. Only an hour of Saturday and part of Sunday morning. A truck smashed into the telephone pole so we didn't have power for the Sunday afternoon. I feel like the people that Paul wrote epistles to; not knowing what the prophets are doing. For all I know Pres. Monson could have said chocolate is necessary in church meetings. So we will just have to start making up our own rules now ;) [I liked in Sunday's 2nd session when Mervyn someone talked.... Anyway he was teary eyed almost his whole talk.  He reminded me of you.  I told dad that would be you, sniffing your entire talk.  I hoped you would be comforted by him.] I might have been comforted by him, but sadly enough a crazy truck driver took that opportunity from me. It wouldn't be the same anyways because I doubt the Brazilian translator would be teary eyed and sniffly. I'm pretty sure he winged it too because the translator wasn't just reading the pre-written talk he translated what he said. It was kind of cool because Neil. L. Anderson and Richard G. Scott prerecorded their talk in Portuguese so we listened to their own voice. 

 

I sent some pictures but I didn't have time to send more.

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.

20 Sep 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Dad)

[I regret to report that BYU football had another poor performance ... Air Force nearly beat #7 Oklahoma (etc.).] Well it would have been good for BYU if Air Force had won. At least I'm not missing too much while I am here, it's no fun watching BYU lose :) They should be ready to go in 2 years. Is Heaps going to serve a mission? Eastern Carolina was supposed to be good, or at least they have been doing well. Would have been bad for Michigan to lose again to another Div II-A school. Doesn't BYU play Oregon state? Good ole Notre Dame hogging up NBC with their sub par teams :)

[Lauren called late last night ... She said they went to Brick Oven Pizza for dinner ... and saw Jimmer Fredette and Lamont Morgan there and ended up getting their picture taken with them ... I've attached a picture from one of Amanda's friends as proof.] Well too bad he has a girlfriend :) The picture looks questionable, there is no definite proof that Jimmer is there! I'm sure Lauren is happy with her pose too.

[Based on your description, I think I located your place on the map ... I don't see any guys in white shirts sunning themselves on a porch though. Hm, I see cars here and there, but oddly enough not a single person. I guess the photo was taken during the lunch/drunk part of the day.] Yeah that's the place. The porch is under an awning so you wouldn't see us fool. Probably is during that time...

[(Excuse the extended quotes from my letter here. I'm including them to provide context for Jeffrey's response.) Brother Hanson came over for a home teaching visit tonight ... He talked about the plan of salvation. A thought that came to me as he was talking about how the plan, the Church, the gospel, etc., all have Christ as the center ... One reason Jesus Christ is the central focus of and key to the plan of salvation is that He is the only one who could make it happen in the particular sense that only He could bring to pass our immortality and eternal life. No man can conquer physical death. Only the begotten Son of God has power over death, the power whereby death cannot befall Him without Him voluntarily giving up His life, and the power whereby that choice redeems others from death. No man is without sin; no man can take upon him the sins of another and take those sins away from the other. Only the begotten Son of God can do it, both because He is without sin and because He is God ... the basic point is that without Jesus Christ there is no plan of salvation and only Jesus Christ could make the plan of salvation come to pass.] I don't fully understand it. Often I have pondered if the killing was necessary. Could Jesus have just died or did he have to be crucified? He had to pay for our sins before he was crucified in amongst the trees, but did some nation have to be cursed to kill Jesus? Was it essential that someone betrayed him? He could have been tempted by satan, paid for our sins and then given up his life when he was 33 because he just had to conquer death. I don't know. Jesus the Christ talks about how he died was prophesied and symbolic. He was raised above all others after he was brought to the ultimate low. He was higher than the people that killed him, physically and in every other way even after that humiliation etc. All I know is that He indeed died for us. He truly prayed for each and every one of us, perhaps by name, in the garden so that we might not have to feel that pain. I know that He lives again and that He conquered death so that we can live with our Heavenly Father again. There was no selfish motive, no attempt at glory. He loved us so much that He was willing to suffer indescribable pain so that we could live again and receive the glory of God.

We had a baptism this week. It was the same family I talked about earlier. We just baptised the son because we still have to get the parents married. So many miracles have happened with this family. We cast out the devil, they didn't have any money at all to pay for the marriage but their uncle gave them some money as a present for something so they have money to pay, we tried dozens of phones (public phones on the street here) to call the marriage office to get the paper work done but none of them worked or they were busy but we said prayers like none other and it finally worked. So many thing have happened so that they could be baptized and I can't wait for the rest of the family to be baptized too. Transfers are this week and I am staying here for another 6 weeks so I hope they can get married by then.

20 Sep 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area (Mom)

[In response to Mom's email which discussed the parable of the prodigal son.] I was reading in Jesus the Christ the other day about the Prodigal son. The parable was to teach the hard hearted Pharisees about the Publicans I think, because they were hated by the Pharisees. The Pharisees preached that they were always righteous and they always kept the commandments and how is it fair that other sinners can still inherit God's kingdom. The 'righteous' son wasn't entirely righteous in this story and Jesus was comparing him to the Pharisees. I think the key is being righteous and holding on to the rod like you said, but accepting our fellow brother's return. In that way we too can experience great joy. The scriptures say how joyful it is to bring a soul unto/back unto Christ, so we can have joy when our own brother repents no?

[In response to question about whether he has materials for teaching English classes.] They don't give us anything to help us, we just plan and do whatever.

We had a baptism this week, it was part of the family that I talked about earlier. It's cool because they have had so many miracles occur so far. We just baptised the son because we still need to get the parents married, but they come to church on their own and the son will get the priesthood in a month. I'm staying here for another transfer, which started today so we have a lot of work to do. However, things started changing for the better so we should see a lot more success if we work hard and follow the spirit.