Wednesday, March 28, 2012

That's too bad that the missionaries are not there anymore. It is far better too have missionaries in a members home. I learned this last week that we almost lived above the ward mission leader who is really great and there family is wonderful, I saw the benefit of this but the missionaries refused to move there because they can't do anything they want without the members knowing a little bit. I liked the missionaries there in our house, the missionaries that were great, not perfect, but we didn't get on their tail hardly at all.

This week has been one of the best weeks here in Perdoes. Last week to tell you the truth I was feeling a bit unexcited and discouraged because we didn't have a lot of success the last transfer and our area of strength wasn't progressing and our investigators weren't progressing too. One thing we changed a lot was our work, I learned a lot how to really work this last transfer and at the end we were hitting almost all of the mission goals, we were doing our part.  I knew that I needed to work on my faith and this week we are receiving the blessing with many good reference of the members, we found a family really good to teach and baptized and everything is looking up. My goal I want to reach is to be way more exciting in teaching, interaction with everyone and especially with the members to really get this work going here.

we are racing to plan rides for all of our investigators for general conference so that they can progress to baptism and help with their conversion and tonight we will have a great family home evening with the family of the ward mission leader to help Caio be baptized this week if we shoe forth our faith and do our part.

Thanks for all of the advice and council, it is always welcome!

Love you all

Elder Sands

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

It sounds like everything is doing well at home, Acea is having a wonderful time and that Ryne has put in his papers, maybe he will join us in Brazil in one mission here, but let me know where he is going.

We had transfers yesterday, my companion left and went to the other side of the mission and I stayed here in Perdoes with Elder LeGrande an American from San Diego. He is great, a little quite but he has a desire to work and we will do many great things this transfer. We had the baptism of Tais last Saturday it went very well. we did it in a pool of a member , because the pool at the church building is falling apart and we asked for a new one but I think is will delay a bit.

What are the top blessings of serving a mission; I thought about it a bit and here are couple of things.

1. The greatest blessing I have received is the blessings my family has received. It started from day one with Levi's marriage I was jumping with joy to see how well the lord is taking care of my family. One thing I heard a General Authority say, when you are on your mission most of the blessings are received by your family, only after the mission is when you receive the personal blessings the Lord has promised for you.

2. The other greatest blessing I have received is helping people change their lives and to see how the gospel changes everything for the better. it is amazing to see how people change, it brings me great joy to see them progressing the gospel and receive these blessing and this is why we are out here to to help our brothers and sister return to our heavenly father through baptism and enduring to the end.

Thank you very much for your love and support

Love

Elder Sands

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

How are you all doing? I am glad that Acea had a lot of fun with this date. How is she related to us? And what is her name?

The work is coming along, it is truly amazing how much things we learn in such a short amount of time. I have learned many things with Elder Inácio who will leave to another part of the mission because his training is ending. I have seen everything I did well, and everything I didn't do well and with the help of the lord we learned together.

This week has been great. We are trying our best to work to find, teach, and help our investigators prepare for baptism this week. We have seen a great increase in the work the members have been doing to invite people to church and helping their friends in their conversions, the work is progressing great. I have learned a lot this transfer with how we can work better and more effectively, and work with the members to share the Gospel. We will have the baptism of a reference a member gave to us whose name is Tais. She has a great desire to change her life for the better and a sister in the Branch has almost adapted her into her family. we will be using a pool in a members backyard because the pool in at the church building isn't very good.

Tchau tchau

Elder Sands

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Dear family I am doing great

I am just having a wonderful time here in the wonderful country of Brazil. The days are hot but it gives us more excitement and energy to work. We are helping two people to be baptized this next week. One is a reference of a member her name is Tais and she will be baptized the 15 of March, she has been prepared for a long time now, it was a matter of inviting her to be baptized and she accepted the date of 15 which is her only day off. The other person is Caio I think I told you about him last week, he is wonderful, he loves the church and is reading and praying and the his baptism will be on the 18 which is that Sunday. We are very excited to have this kind of Success, we know that we have been doing our part and I know that the lord was strengthening our patients, ability to teach better, and strengthening our Faith to help preach the gospel.

This week  President Tanner has been focusing on the Standard of Excellence for our mission which is 1 baptism per week, 6 baptisms marked, 10 investigator in the sacrament meeting, 20 new investigators, 15 lessons with members, 40 lessons in all. In the beginning we had some troubles with reaching this standard, but with the help of the lord and the leaders we are showing our offering to Christ with our work. Many people think that worrying about this is only worrying about numbers and not the people, but one thing that President Tanner has been teaching is that when we work our hardest and reach this standard the lord will put the people that are ready to hear the gospel n our way, and to reach our potential.

This is a wonderful work and we are the workers in the Field with just a little sacrifice and effort we will do miracles

Tchau, Tchau

Elder Sands