August 29, 2016 - Sete Lagoes

I see a Belo Horizonte

Well this week I will focus on two investigators; Márcia and Paulo.

Márcia is progressing really well and has the desire to be baptized!!! She has already been to church many times and is natural with the members. Before church starts we are out front inviting people to enter and almost every time we enter the chapel she is already there and we didn´t even see her walk in. This means that she´s arriving more than a half-hour early. Right now we are working with her to give up coffee so that she can be prepared to be baptized. We were explaining the Word of wisdom to her and her mom and the understood all of it, except the coffee. We explained that many members say it is because it has caffeine and is habit forming, but the real response is that we do not drink it because God asked us not to. In the scriptures God says, 'my thoughts are not your thoughts.' He knows better than us and wants to help us. Also, it is a test of obedience. To see if we will be obedient to God´s commandments even if we do not understand them.

The other is Paulo. He has been coming to church for about two months now and we were teaching him. When we came to baptism he told us that he didn´t know if God really exists. We asked him if he had been reading the book of Mormon. He responded one time per week. We invited him to read and pray everyday for an answer. He told us that he still doesn´t have a certainty, but he wants to believe. That is the first step, to have the desire. We are trying to help him see how his life has changed since he started coming to church.

Everyone passes through trials and doubts in this life, but we are not alone. When we turn to Christ we have a power that is beyond our own. It can help us overcome our weaknesses and face the unknown.....that rhymed....

Elder Quain

August 22, 2016 - Sete Lagoes

I see a Belo Horizonte

This week was pretty good.

To start off the week we had a family home evening with one of the investigator´s families in the second counselors house. We decided to watch the Restoration video with everyone. It made me remember when I used to watch it with English subtitles to try and learn Portuguese. Now I can understand it easily. The FHE went well and the investigators really liked it. It is a great tool to help the investigator gain friendships with the members and feel comfortable at church.

We went to teach a lesson to Márcia this week and her nephew was there. He was practicing guitar and started playing American music. He actually sang fairly clearly. I decided to sing along as he played some Ed Sheran and made them laugh when I tried falsetto. Márcia hummed along too. My companion sat there a little awkward and Márcia´s nephew decided to play a Portuguese song so he could sing along, but my companion declined.

We also had a recent convert receive his mission call this week. He will be serving a mission in Cuiabá. He is super excited and the missionaries that taught him are excited too. Knowing a little bit of what he will experience, I know that he will grow and enjoy the mission and helping other. He is a little shy, but will lose his timidness fast.

Teaching a lesson this week I had a shock. We have an investigator that has been coming to church for two months and has received all of the lessons. He had even accepted a date to be baptized, but during the lesson he told us that I doesn´t really believe that God exists. I had not been expecting that. My companion and I were lost for a moment until we thought of the story of Aaron and the King. We read it with him and invited him to act like the king and pray to know if God exists and be willing to give up all to know him. I really hope that he will act to be able to receive a testimony.

Randoms:

* We have a Mexican in our house that is teaching us to sing in Spanish. Baile tu cuerpo alegría   macarena.

* We had a week where another elder was pooped on by a bird and I wasn´t.

Elder Quain 

 FHE from last week at the Paixão family house

Juliano and his mission call

a monkey in the street. It´s fairly normal for me now, but I thought you would like to see it.

August 15, 2016 - Sete Lagoes

I see a belo Horizonte

This week, like many others has gone by really fast. I feel like I don´t have anything super interesting to say right now.

This week we continued to work with Márcia and she has progressed a lot. We have taught her almost all of the lessons and she is learning rapidly. We were teaching her about temples and family history and she had her computer out. I decided to use the opportunity to set up a family search account for her. I realized that I really should use genealogy more as a tool to help my investigators feel the spirit. I also realized that I don´t have patience with computers. I have gained more patience with people, but I haven´t quite mastered slow Internet patience.

One of the great things about teaching there is that she gives us cake every lesson, and it is quite a bit better than the exploding cake that I make. She even sent us home with cake one time. 

This last week we did a family home evening and taught the plan of salvation. It was going well until one of the members decided to talk about deep doctrine and the lesson got derailed. I can talk fairly well in Portuguese, but I haven´t figured out how to stop members from saying things that will just cause confusion. It is just due to the fact that everything is new and we don´t want to overload people. Luckily, we finally gained control of the situation and finished the lesson, but it was about 30 minutes longer than expected.

Randoms:

• This Sunday was Father´s Day here in Brasil...parabéns pra você
• Everybody that sees me asks if I´m watching the Olympics
• Everybody tells me that America is stealing all of the Medals
• I drink Chá Matte here

Elder Quain

August 8, 2016 - Sete Lagoes

I see a Belo Horizonte.

This week our house dynamics changed a bit. Elder Buchanan, the other American moved and Elder Gutierrez moved in. He is from Mexico. This is my first time living with a Mexican, so it should be a good experience. During the mission we are able to have contact with many other cultures and see what is good in each of them.

We had a good week of missionary work. Unfortunately, we had one of our worst week in teaching lessons, but we had three investigators that came to church. They are all progressing very well and really enjoyed church. Last week we did a contact with a woman named Marcia and she came to church. She liked it so much that she made cake for us when we visited (if people make food for you that means they really like you). She also invited her mom, Laura, to listen to the lessons. They both came to church this week. After church we heard Laura say that she liked church so much that she will come every week. They are super prepared and responded rapidly to the Savior`s call to come to the fold.

The Lord prepares his elect that they might be ready to respond. The Lord calls to everyone, of all ages, color and class. It is our choice to make; if we will respond. The scriptures state that everyone that accepts Christ will be called by his name and if we are not called by Christ we will be called by another name. Let us be prepared when he calls.

Elder Quain

August 1, 2016 - Sete Lagoes

I see a Belo Horizonte

This week passed an important date on the mission. This last Friday marked one year since I left home for the MTC in Provo. This year has gone by real fast and quite a few things have changed for me.

This past year my spiritual knowledge has grown, but not as much as my faith. I was raised in the Church, so I knew quite a bit before coming on the mission, but during the mission I have really put it into practice for the first time. I have learned to trust in the Lord and the fact that he knows what is best for me. I have learned about the Atonement that he preformed for us and the power it gives us. The greatest power that it gives us is the power to change. To really change our lives, habits and attitudes. This is the process of repentance that we all need and I am grateful for this, because it is only through this process and baptism that we are able to return to live with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and our family for eternity. The greatest gift he has for us.

It also gives us the ability to do things that would otherwise be impossible. One of these things for me was learning to speak another language. I always had the desire to learn another language, but never thought that I would be able to achieve that task. It took quite some time, study and prayer, but I finally started to adapt and talk. I really started to improve when I started to trust that I would be given what I needed to say.

So, do your best, read the scriptures, pray, go to church and trust in the Lord. He will make everything possible.

Elder Quain

I play piano almost every week for the baptismal reunions and I sing in the street, but I haven´t had a lot of time to play guitar.

4 months ago in Pedro Leopoldo

 Family Home Evening in Adailson's house

Family Home Evening in Bishop Abreu's house

 Family Home Evening in Joaquim's house

 Family Home Evening in Luiz and Rosa's house

Family Home Evening in Simone's house (leader of RS)

 Family Home Evening with Lucimario and family

Elder Ribeiro and me with Joaopaulo 

 Zone Conference

Zone Conference