Learning to Love

 1. How´s The Language Going Elder?
Hello everyone! I've gotten this question a lot lately, and I'm happy to say I´m doing very well! The Lord has blessed so many times and  filled my mouth with words to say! I realized this week that I don't have to use my English Book of Mormon as a reference when I read in Portuguese so that´s pretty cool! Since I'm not a native speaker you never will be totally fluent, and everyday I´ll hear words or phrases that I don't totally understand, but the Lord helps his servants in the moments that matters but I feel confident talking with people now!


2. The Cancelled Meeting
This week we had a meeting set up with our trusty Ward Mission Leader, and 2 minutes before it was supposed to start he cancelled on us! I was bugged at first because we had planned our whole day around this meeting, but then I realized the Lord just needed us somewhere else! Well we decided to visit a young man in our ward, and when we got close to his house he was pacing outside and was clearly stressed! We talked to him and were able to help him through some trials in his life right now! He´s fluent in English so I actually was able to bear my testimony to him in English! It was actually so hard and it´s much easier in Portuguese, but I was glad the Lord put us there to help him!


3. Splits
We had splits this week!!! I love my companion and all, but it´s good to spend some time with someone else. We worked in our area so it was my first time as Sr Comp and being in charge of the whole area! Elder Rodrigues and I set some goals to work as hard as we could, and then we went out and did it! We got 13 addresses and had 5 lessons, which is like crazy high for our mission, and talked to everyone!!! It really showed me that if you set goals and work as hard as you can to get them, the Lord will help you achieve them!!!


4. Loving others
The biggest thing my mission has taught me so far is just to love other people! We spend all day everyday thinking about how we can help people and it´s amazing! Even trying to be Christlike in our house does wonders! Doing the little things like washing your comps dishes or hanging up his laundry or leaving him cookies goes a long way! God´s second greatest commandment after all is to love everyone as yourself! John Bytheway said "In the end, what we've learned from books, how many scriptures we've memorized, or how many callings we've completed will all be secondary to how much we have loved!"


Love you all!
Elder Rawson

 Had a 1 year party for the comp and roommate! 

My little friend insists on holding my hand when we walk to church!

Blessings of the Missionary Calling

I caught a frog the size of Goliath and threw it into the other companionship's bathroom window this week:)))

1. The Investigator We´ve Been Waiting For
Our purpose as missionaries is to bring souls unto Christ, but most of the time it feels like we´re dragging souls unto Christ! Well Dica, the woman I found singing in the rain, met with us, read the Book of Mormon, and came to church and everything!!!! She has a ton of faith and she said she wants to come back every week! She has a smoking problem that we´re helping her with, but it´s exciting to see a someone who felt the Spirit try and change their lives!!!

2. "Why did you do it??"
During one of our lessons this week we were explaining how missionaries leave their houses and their families and everything to be representatives of Jesus Christ! The teenager, Bruno, asked me a question that I´ve been pondering... "You left your country, your native language, and every single person you know to be here.. Why did you do it?" I was able to bear my testimony of my desire to serve because I love this Gospel and all the blessings God has given me! Even though what I´m doing is hard, the Lord is blessing me and the power of the missionary calling is the greatest!:)

3. When Things Go Wrong
Last Wednesday we had the perfect day lined up, had everything planned out perfectly! Well every appointment fell and by 3o'clock we had nothing to do! I said a prayer that we would be guided to do something productive and not long after a member called us and wanted to go visit people!!! Someone calling us to go on a visit is basically unheard of! The day ended up going great and I am glad God answered my prayer!

4. Plot Twist
A big part of missionary work is just trying to talk to people on the street and seeing if you can visit them in their house! Well people aren´t super excited to talk to us, so you could say I was surprised when a teenager came up to us and started talking to us! He was interested in why a gigantic American was walking down his street, but we talked about the NBA and the Gospel and he accepted a visit!

Mosiah 5:15

Elder Rawson

SLAYING GOLIATH

I had my first dream in Portuguese this week:)))) #blessed

1. Overcoming your Goliaths
This week was Zone conference!!! Sounds boring, but we had half our mission together for a training from our President and it was amazing! He talked a lot about David and Goliath and one thing that I loved that he talked about was how David knew the Lord would help him, but he prepared and polished 5 rocks to go to battle! When we decide to prepare with all our might the Lord will deliver us!!! Our president is a little man but boy is he mighty in words! Check out the photo of the poster he made below.

2. The Answer
A zone leader also gave a really cool training where he said that we need to pray every single day to know again that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is the true Church! We challenge people everyday to do this, so we need to as well! I´ve been trying to include this in all my prayers to strengthen my testimony! Then on Friday I was studying as normal and I felt such an overwhelming feeling of peace and pure joy! The Lord answered my prayer and I know he will answer yours! I encourage all of you take up this challenge as well! :)

3. Finding Marthian 
Our main investigator is a 16 year old futebol all star, and he´s impossible to find cause he's so busy and doesn't have a cell phone! Well it's been dumping rain since Saturday and motivation to walk to the end of our area to talk to him about church was low, but I made my comp go with me in the downpour to try and find him! Well he wasn't there, which was a real bummer, but the Lord noticed our efforts! That night we were walking home, far from where he lives, and he randomly was on his bike on the same street and we were able to talk to him!!!:) It would've been easy to been bummed at first, but having patience in the Lord's timing will always bring the blessings we want!

4. "Ja foi batizado!" (already was baptized!)
A major problem we have with the progress of people is they don´t think they need our church cause they were already baptized. There is literally 45+ different church buildings in our area, so everyone already had some goon on the corner pronounce them baptized! We teach the whole first lesson and how the power of God is needed to do this, but people don't exactly understand. If anyone has any ideas on how to help them, let me know!

Tchau Amigos! (Bye Friends!)
Elder Rawson

"Always cheesin'"

MOTHS HERE ARE TERRIFYING

American Elders at Zone Conference

Mega churrasco!

Brazilian sunsets are the real deal

With the APs and President Louza

Ward Activity: "Festival de Bolo" (party of cake)

Fun postcard from Brasil

Not sure who the artist is, but this came on a postcard in the mail today!

** We found out later that the artist is David's companion, Elder Prata.

Singing in The Rain

Three months down this week! Time flies when you´re on the Lord´s errand!

1. Starve Yourself to Save Yourself
This is a common phrase among missionaries that makes me chuckle. Fasting sometimes gets a bad rep, but some of the greatest blessings can be received through fasting! In Brazil you fast lunch to lunch starting Saturday, and this principle is hard for Brazilians cause they enjoy their munchies! But I fasted earnestly for the work here and we got TWO people to church and we probably will baptize them at the end of the month! God is good to all those earnestly try to live the Gospel!!!

2. Singing in the Rain
So we got out of a lesson this week and were disappointed to see that the clear skied day had turned into a rainstorm... Typical Brasil! We didn´t have our umbrellas and it would of been easy to sulk, but I was trying to keep our spirits up by singing a happy tune. I thought we were alone on the street, but a woman actually heard me and hollered out "God is clearly with you!" I went and talked to her because I was joyous she agreed to meet with us and now we´re teaching her! God is good to those who seek to be happy!

3. Teaching Interuptions
We teach about 12 lessons to investigators a week, and literally everytime that we talk about the First Vision or have them pray or have a really good Spirit in the room a dog will appear and start barking, or someone will drive by blasting music, or the phone will ring! It´s crazy! The adversary is there trying to break up their conversion, but God is good to those who ignore the sounds of the world and follow Christ!

4. The Good Samaratin
Super cool experience this week. I´ve been reading the Bible so I can better relate to people here who know it so well. Well I read the story of the Good Samaritan and that night we were walking home and I almost stepped on a guy sleeping on the sidewalk! My comp was on the phone with our District Leader and wasn´t interested in stopping for 'some drunk guy' but I insisted! I gave him a Livro de Mormon and I could tell he was hungry so I went and bought him bread! He was very grateful and I was sad we couldn´t do more, but it made me grateful for what we have! Hebrews 13:2 has a cool promise that we should always remember! God is good to those who strive to help others!

That´s all folks! Have a good week:)

Much love, Elder Rawson

CONFERENÉCIA GERAL

1. Conference WeekEnd!
Hellooo everyone!!! We were blessed to have so many great talks about the Book of Mormon and repentance. I found out a week ago that I would have to watch it in Portuguese, and I was pretty nervous about how much I would understand, but I prayed hard and trusted the Lord would help me! Well the first 20 minutes of the first session they accidentally were on the Spanish channel. Well I didn't know till this till after the session, so I literally was hating my life cause I was not understanding a word! LOL, after that it was a blessing to listen in Portuguese! I understood basically everything after so it was an answer to my prayer!

2. The Minister
We've been teaching a minister of some Evangelical church, and it's been interesting! We'll be teaching and he'll be like "That makes sense I guess, cause 1st Corinthians 15: 29 says ____" He´s a straight bible wizard! I got roasted for not knowing the story of Jonas and the destruction of Nineveh, so pay attention in Seminary kids!

3. Brazilian Doctors

This week wasn't great cause my comp had a wart thing removed from his foot so he couldn't walk for a few days... Sitting around in our apartment doing nothing is the worst. Ha, but the doctors office here made me grateful for American doctors! Mid operation the doctor gets a phone call and casually sets down the tools and goes to the hall to take it...

4. The Power of the Missionary Calling
In my free time this week I was able to study a bunch and work on memorizing scriptures for our training! I was able to memorize D&C 4 and the last two paragraphs of the intro to the Book of Mormon in record time! And in a different language! I know the only reason I was able to do this was because of the power of the missionary calling! The Lord blesses his servants!

Well have a good week everyone! When things get hard, remember Luke 5:16:)

Much love, Elder Rawson

Anyone who can guess the age of the guy in this picture wins a free santa maria postcard!

 Irma Eva!  A less active member.  Not sure how many teeth she has,
 she´s mostly deaf, lives alone in a shack, but has a heart of lion!

Sister Eva again

Basketball in Brazil is great!

We actually played once with a member

Do we have a pet? Of course not!!!! He´s our landlords:)

Roommates enjoying Otter pop thingys?

American Zone Leaders: Studs! 

Average Meal