Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Thank you very much Levi for sending the invitation it looks very nice.

This week has forever changed my life and even the way I think. On Monday we went to Campinas to receive training and interviews with our new mission Presidente Pizzirani. He is wonderful, not very hard on the rules but very excited and really got me motivated to really work and baptize. He mostly talked about how to really set goals and plans to make our goals a reality. 4 things a goal needs to have, first very specific, second is it measurable, third is it realistic, and forth is it a challenge where you stretch and grow and rely on the Lord for help.

He gave an example of these 4 principles with a question a Brazilian had with learning English. The goal specific is to learn in one year, every day study 45 minutes; this is both specific and measurable. every day learn 10 different verbs with is very doable, if you learn 10 verbs in English for one year you will know 3,650 verbs and you can speak any language fluently with that many verbs.

He really inspired me to set these kinds of goals and a desire to fulfill them. One last story he told us that change the way I look at preaching the gospel. One Elder in Brazilia, where President Pizzirani served as a mission president, arrived in an area that was the hardest in the mission, the ward didn't help the Bishop didn't care, and that area is very nice and no one had success there for over one year. The first thing that Elder did was pray and made promises with the lord that he will not return to the house until he found one of the elect (a person that is prepared to receive the Gospel). Every day we went out and talked with people, not made contacts with people only for the numbers but the goal to find the elect. every day he found one, every week he started out with 3 investigators coming to church , next week 6, next week 10, 13, 15, 20, everyone in the ward was surprised, and he was baptizing every week. 2, 3, 4, people every week.

This got me thinking and changed how I find, teach and feel about this work.

This Gospel and Church is the church of Jesus Christ, he is our Savior and redeemer of the world and he guides this work. Joseph Smith really saw Christ and Heavenly Father and restored the fullness of the gospel on the earth again. only by living the gospel and be baptized can we truly have never ending happiness, there is no other way, And if you read the Book of Mormon with a desire above all else to know if it is true, you will receive that answer as it will change your life. This is my testimony that there is no other way, only through the Church of Jesus Christ with authority of God on the earth.

Tchau, Tchau

Elder Sands