Best Week Yet!

This week was amazing. There is a girl Julia (who I thought was a member) who comes with a family that is a member to church like every week. We ate lunch with the family on Sunday and they were like, no go visit her and her family this week, they aren´t members.  The missionaries met with them some time ago & nobody knows why they weren´t baptized. Long story short, the whole family came to church, Julia was baptized this Sunday and her brother Matteus will be baptized next Sunday. The parents have to marry first. 

Keila and her family returned home this week, we learned on Tuesday and visited Wednesday and the dad talked with us.  They are such a great family. Unfortunately, a poisonous caterpillar burned Edinai this Saturday and he was having an allergic reaction so they had to go to the hospital for him and the rest went to a cousins house so no one came to church this Sunday.  This week we also painted the outside of a members mom´s house which was easy.

One family we work with is having a lot of financial and health struggles and just going through a really rough patch right now with everything.  We visited with them one day this week and found out they didn't have any food. Elder Favoretti says, "Don´t worry, we´ll be back by 8 tonight and we´ll have food for y’all to eat". As we leave, Elder Favoretti says to me, "I´ve got a crazy idea". We knocked the doors of members nearby, asking for a little bit of food like rice or beans or something and also passed by in our own house because members always give us food and we cleaned it all out and returned with a good deal of food for them. It was amazing. It reminded me of how we are often answers to others prayers when we are in the right place, doing the right thing and listening to the Spirit. Anyways, doing that for this family was really touching.

I did give a talk in church yesterday. I started off with Revelation 12:11, that we overcame Satan by the Atonement of Christ and the word of our testimonies then in the Premortal life and that we came overcome him again here in the same way, that I already had talking about the importance of using the Atonement in our lives and that I´d be focusing on by the word of our testimonies, talking about gaining a testimony of Christ by reading and studying the Book of Mormon every day, but that the scripture didn´t say by the power of the testimonies that we had, but by the word of our testimonies, that we have to share. Then I read in 3 Nephi 18 how Christ says let your light shine, that He is the light within us, and that we let it shine through us when we do the things which He did. Then I talked about Light the World and invited everyone to participate this year. That is cool that you have the ability to talk with people in my ward and had already heard that I had spoken in church!

Zone Conference was good, interview with Presidente was good. In zone conference, I remember that Presidente talking about improving our acompanhamentos, to not only visit daily but have them feel the Spirit that is with you every day. In my interview, he gave me some tips for improving my accent that the vast majority of Americans mess up with. I´m feeling great. 

This week was definitely one of my favorite on the mission!

Love, Elder Trevor Mangum