Homecoming talk
It seems like only yesterday I was standing at this same pulpit trying to come to grasp with the fact that in just a few days I would be leaving my family and friends, studies and even my country. I was nervous. Really nervous. I knew that I loved the lord. I knew that I had been oh so blessed in every sense of the word and wanted to do something to show my gratitude to Him. I recognized that I was happy and my family was safe, protected and blessed in large part because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Family home evenings, scripture studies, and weekly church attendance had made a huge difference in our home. I could not deny that. I knew that I have always found pure bliss in service and wanted to find some way to serve more than the average 21-year old busy college student is able to. But, that is about it. I had uncertainties and fears. But at one moment, I decided to put my faith before my fear and it made all the difference.
So, after a teary goodbye, I got to Brazil just one week before Christmas. Determined to be the very best missionary possible I studied and studied, practiced and prayed. A lot. But on my third week I had an unforgettable experience. Courageously, my professor took our district of 10 to one of the busiest streets of São Paulo, handed us a box of copies of the Book of Mormon and invited us to use our new language skills to get these books presented and handed out. And we accepted the challenge. Surprisingly we were able to get our message across. Logically through slaughtered Portuguese, but I think the people understood so we felt accomplished.
But imagine our pure joy as we found some guy who spoke perfect English which allowed us to have a more in depth conversation as we could deviate a bit from our five-phrased scripted discussion. As he saw how hard we were trying to give out these books he asked a sincere and simple question... "Why are you doing all of this?" As we tried to explain that we had the truest of true messages and that we just wanted to make a difference and help people he pointed out that there are a lot of great ways to help people. Non-profits, prayer groups, and a never-ending list of churches. Why had we chosen to do ALL of this. I thought for a minute and came to my own conclusion. I told him that I had participated in lot of alternatives. In one highlight of my life I even traveled to India to work in leprosy colonies, but these 18 months would be a different sort of mission. I planned to cure wounds alright, just that this time they would be spiritual wounds. Satisfied with our answer, he accepted our Book of Mormon, promised to visit church, and left. I have no way of knowing if that conversation left a lasting impact on his end, but it surely did on mine. "Healing spiritual wounds actually became my mission's mission statement.
I got to the field and soon realized that this mission thing was not a piece of cake. Actually it's called missionary work for a reason... it is a lot of work. At times I felt overwhelmed and even alone, I tried to never forget my mission statement as I searched for those who were suffering. I also soon learned that I could not do this work on my own. It just wasn't possible. Fortunately, as set- apart representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ, we were equipped with some of the most powerful tools that exist. I would like to talk, specifically about two of these... The Book of Mormon and the atonement of Jesus Christ and the role that they played in fulfilling my mission statement.
First, my new favorite book... O livro de Mormon. As missionaries we are pretty limited in our entertainment options. No movies. No novels. No music. But honestly, I became completely enthused with this book and almost forgot that all the other stuff even existed.
For those of you who don't know, the Brazil population is 65% Roman Catholic. To say they love their bible would be an understatement. In most every house I went I'm, I saw a great big bible propped open in the living room. But you didn't have to get close to see the thick layer of dust over each one. I began to notice that while the people wanted to learn about Jesus, they didn't exactly know how. So our job was to show the people who we could get the Book of Mormon and the Bible to work together. I love the Book of Mormon for many reasons. I learned about courage from Nephi, the importance of prayer from Enos, the power of true repentance from alma the younger and unconditional love from his father. I gained confidence to open my mouth and speak the truth, even when I knew it would be hard to hear from abinadi. Most importantly, I learned about my savior Jesus Christ. About half of the scriptures in the Book of Mormon mention Him and while the Bible tells the life of Christ, the Book of Mormon explains the importance of that life.
I quickly learned that only when we read and study the two hand-in-hand can we receive all the blessings that the gospel offers us. In fact, I like to liken the two books to our two hands. The two are similar, but different at the same time. And one thing is for sure.... We are much stronger with the two. Those who only study from one of the two books don't have the power and ability that they could have had. And I saw that time and time again during my mission.
At one point, I taught a 15 year-old girl named Gabrielle. While her mother was baptized in our church when Gabi was a baby, she ended up giving up when Gabi was still really young, and as a result, she grew up in the Catholic Church. However, there were many things said and done there that she just simply didn't agree with. At one point, in pure confusion had her own personal Joseph Smith experience as she decided to have a sincere conversation with her Heavenly Father. She pleaded for guidance as to what she should do to find the true church. And soon after, the missionaries ran into her in the streets. While that was a huge miracle, her conversion actually did not come from that moment but rather as she began to read the Book of Mormon. We gave her a Nephi chapter to read and in our next lesson, she bombarded us with all sorts of questions. Turns out, she had been dreaming for years of a mysterious, brave, strong young kid called Nephi. She had always wanted to know who he was and why he been such a prominent part of her dreams. And as she read and re read the Book of Mormon, she got her answer. Suddenly everything made a bit more sense. Soon after she was baptized and has since become one of the strongest, most diligent of the young women in her ward. Recently, I had a chance to visit her ward and her this beautiful, strong young women bear a powerful testimony in front of the whole congregation. A proud parent moment for me for sure.
In my last area, we taught an incredible couple with two young kids. They wanted desperately to be baptized but needed to be legally married in order to be able to do so. While they did love each other, and had already spent 7 years together, they lived fighting and threatened separation basically since the beginning. In fact, the night before we were to go mark their wedding in the registry office, the had a horrible fight. Actually, when we arrived, the husband Diego had his suitcases out and a mountain of clothes that he folded, unfolded and then refolded the entire conversation. He was planning on moving out. We tried everything we could think of to help them... Bishop and mission president interviews, family home evenings, goals, and plans. We watched all sorts of church movies, and read about every conference talk about happy families that we could find, and when Diego traveled for work we even did conference calls so that we could talk and pray together. But, despite all this, I felt like something was missing from their home and their conversion process. We prayed and fasted along side this family that we loved so much and we started to feel like we needed to put a lot more emphasis on the Book of Mormon.
Preach my gospel has a cool list of about 20 questions of the soul that can be answered just by reading different chapters, so we made a copy and decorated it really cute. It’s a sister thing. Upon delivering it, we made a goal with them to read a question and the corresponding chapter whenever they felt like fighting. As they did, it was incredible to see the difference we saw, heard and felt in their home. They were able to apply those inspired words into their own lives to find solutions to their complicated problems. To me, the fact that a book written so long ago in such a different era could have the power to completely change that family is a complete miracle. The last Saturday of my mission, I had the privilege to see my own dad dressed in white along side this special family. When I told my dad that he would have this opportunity, he practiced and practiced the baptismal prayer in Portuguese. So much so that I’m sure that if you ask any one of my siblings, they’ll be able to recite it to you by heart. But his practice payed off and their baptism was a day that I will never forget, nor they.
We also taught another darling family called the Ganzarollis. They owned a beautiful, quaint little restaurant with real banana trees right by our house. As we passed by there multiple times per day, I started to get very curious. If you know anything about my family you’ll know that we are total foodies, so without even knowing anything about them being the owners, I developed a sort of fascination for that place.
Much to my surprise, the parents had been baptized a long time ago, but when their three children were still very little, they ended up falling away from the church because of misunderstandings. That was ten years ago, and during that time no one from the ward was allowed into their house. Not missionaries, nor members. Finally, their home teacher gave us their address and told us a bit about their story. Were we intimidated? A little bit. Did we lose hope? Absolutely not.
We tried and tried and tried to get in to their apartment building with no luck. We even left little notes with their security guard and tried to call all the numbers that we had been given. If there is anything I have learned from my mission it is how to be extremely persistent so we just kept trying. And finally, one beautiful day we heard that wonderful click signifying that they had actually let us in!!
We met the family and instantly became good friends. By the end of our visit they told us that we were welcome to come back whenever we wanted. And we took them up on that offer, teaching all the lessons and having incredible, spiritual moments together. They started going to church together as a family again and loved it. But we became a bit perplexed because every time we mentioned the word “baptism” to the kids, the parents got all tense on us and changed the subject. And we simply couldn’t figure out why. Their little 10-year old son Joao started to show exceptional interest and really, really wanted to be baptized but his parents were just so reluctant. One day, I had the feeling that we needed to do something to make the Book of Mormon a prominent part of their home so that they could understand the importance of Joao’s baptism. We went about the ward choosing a young kid with each of their ages to write a special dedication inside a different Book of Mormon copy. We wrapped each in colored celephane baggies and gave them with all our love saying that it was the best present that we could have offered. To teach Joao the importance of this precious book, one day we gave him a chapter and told him to get out his colored pencils and mark each step of the gospel of Jesus Christ…. Faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end all with different colors. He said that he liked this new method because it looked like he was having “carnaval” in his scriptures. Then we invited him to re teach this lesson to his parents, show them his marked little book and ask them one more time for permission to be baptized. And this time, it worked. Touched at the faith of this sweet little boy, they finally accepted.
And if you were wondering, I finally did get to eat at their restaurant one day and it was well worth the wait.
I love the Book of Mormon and the powerful role it has played in my mission.
The other incredible tool we had was the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ both in our own lives and the lives of those whom we taught and helped.
I learned that this power truly helps bad men become good and good men become better. My very first area was an interesting place called campo limpo or translated…. Clean field. I spent those three months trying to find at least one clean field but I was completely unsuccessful. For times sake, I will stop there, but if you would like more in depth-description of Brazilian favelas or slums, you can ask my mom and I’m sure she would be willing to fill you in. But to give you a hint, they are not pretty.
But we taught and baptized a sweet woman named Joana and through the process I felt time and time again that we needed to try to teach her 25-year old sun named Anderson. We learned that he was an official tattoo artist who even had business cards. We caught a glimpse of his friends and let’s just say that they weren’t following practically any of the standards listed in For the Strength of Youth. Regardless, we taught and testified and it was incredible to see the difference in his life. He ended up abandoning his profesison and was baptized. Recently, more than a year after the fact, I received a letter from Anderson thanking me for all that we did to help him. He is now studying to be a pilot with hopes to be able to buy his mom a house one day and start a non-profit organization to give back to his Heavenly Father for the marvelous opportunity that he had to get to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. Last week, I went by his house once more with my parents to drop off a few gifts for them and I noticed a huge paining of Jesus Christ on the wall in their living room. It was clear to see that he let the gospel change him and it has made and will continue to make all the difference in his life for forever.
About two years ago, around the time that I decided to serve a mission after about a year of thinking, pondering and praying my dad decided to take us to hike Lone Peak to prove to me that I was able to do hard things. Long story short, we got lost… Terribly lost and ended up spending about 18 hours scaling mountains and trying to hold on for dear life. We got done all cut up, sore and exhausted. I looked at my dad and said, “if this is what a mission is all about, I’m out.” My dad reassured me that most of the things worth doing in life require some sweat blood and tears. And I can honestly say that in my sunny Brazil, I had my fair share of the three. Through disappointments never ending mountains to climb both literally and figuratively, dog bites, and more hospital visits than I have ever had in my life, I learned what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It can be summed up in one word… Sacrifice. But as we sacrifice our time talents and all sorts of worldly comforts, he is able to bless us and strengthen us more than we could ever imagine.
Throughout most of my mission I suffered from a really annoying ear infection. In the worst of moments I even lost the ability to hear and spent my time reading lips in a foreign language…. So not fun. My ear basically closed off because of so much dried puss. The whole side of my face hurt and hurt, and though I went to a number of specialists and took 6 rounds of 10-day antibiotics, nothing seemed to cure my problem. Finally, I called the MTC doctor who was an ear, mouth and throat specialist. When I explained my problem he got scared. Real scared. He informed me that my problem was in no way, shape or form normal and that it would probably be best if I came home a bit early. He told me that I would not miss much, that I only had 2 months left and that I had served well so I shouldn’t feel bad. But, I was not satisfied with that response. We were actually in some little town called Caucaia helping our president give a special training the the other missionaries when I got the call. I gracefully slipped out of the training, found a little class room across the hall, knelt down, and began to sob and sob. Through tears, I conversed with Heavenly Father and pleaded with him to let me finish. I just wanted, so badly, to remain a full time representative of Christ for as long as possible and told him that I was willing to do anything, and endure anything to make it to the end. And, like he always does, he gave me a strength far beyond my own. I trusted in the doctrine and covenants promise from the lord… “Be of good cheer, my little child; for I am in your midst and I have not forsaken you. And I can honestly say that he has never forsaken me. Never.
At times of trial, when I wondered why I had to go through such hard times as I was working so hard to build the kingdom of heaven, I took solice in my heroes who also had to shed their own share of blood sweat and tears. Among those were my scripture heroes like Nephi, Abinidi, Mormon and Moroni, our early pioneers and more than anyone else, a sinless, perfect man who lovingly took upon himself the sins and heartaches of the world. In one of the hardest moments of his mortal ministry he knelt in a garden and prayed fervently and cried in agony as great drops of blood fell to the ground from every pore of his body. Though he felt alone, his father had not forsaken him. Actually, though he couldn’t be there physically, he sent an angel to strenthen him.
And I can say that I have also felt angels around me as I struggled to serve that wonderful Brazilian people. As Paul was ending his own mission he bore a powerful testimony that I will echo at this time… I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I will be eternally grateful for this knowledge and the peace that it brings in my life.
PORTUGUESE TESTIMONY
