Caro Americanos!

Caro Americanos,

This week has been very eventful! I'll try to hit on everything important, but I could probably write a novel about this week.

I made a goal to read the whole Book of Mormon in Português! Reading aloud has really been helping me with the language. At the beginning of the week I was feeling pretty discouraged so I prayed and felt prompted to read 5 more pages during language study. The very last verse of those 5 pages gave me so much comfort. (3 Nephi 13:27). The Lord is truly looking out for me and I´m so blessed to have this opportunity to serve Him.

Jaime gained a rock-solid testimony Friday night!!! This is one of the parts I could write a novel on. In short, we assigned him to read Moroni's promise again and pray again to know the the Book of Mormon is true. I told him to ask very directly and with faith, and that God would answer his prayer. That night he had a dream (he likes to refer to it as a vision, which may be more correct) where he was preaching the gospel in a great city with lots of gold. When he woke, he opened the Book to Helaman 6 and the first bit of the chapter explained perfectly what he had seen in his vision. He bore his testimony to us yesterday without being prompted to. He said Joseph Smith is a prophet and that this is the Lord's church! It was more than a miracle. The Lord truly answers the prayers of the faithful.

Many prayers were answered yesterday in regards to Jaime, and also in regards to our new investigator Karen. On Wednesday I felt a strong prompting to knock on a door while walking down the street, and I'm so glad I followed that prompting! She is progressing really well and came to church with us yesterday. Yesterday afternoon we taught her the Plan of Salvation and holy cow the Spirit was so strong. Her father has passed away and when we told her she would see him again and could be with him forever through following the gospel of Jeus Christ, she cried. A lot. She's 17 years old and has been struggling with the death of her father for years. It made me so happy to share God's plan with her.

Yesterday I came to know for sure that I am supposed to be here in Montes Claros serving with Elder Vieira. I need the people we are teaching, and they need this message. Sometimes I'm stressed about logistics or language, but I truly don't need to be because as long as I have the Spirit with me, everything works out.

We haven't quite moved houses yet and our house has been without water for 4 days now. We've had to get water from the chapel, which has been a little difficult. It's making me realize how spoiled I was in the U.S. haha! But this morning I was able to shower from buckets of water and I've never appreciated a shower so much in my life. I'm thankful for the trials I have because they're making me grow so much.

I love you guys!! So much. I love hearing about how things are going for you and thank you so much for the kind words of encouragement and the prayers. Enjoy General Conference this week!

Love,

Elder Searle

Weekly steps: 128,791