Feliz outubro!!

So this is going to be really short since I'm running out of time, but this week was great! General Conference, exchanges, and some unforgettable days.

Last Monday night our Branch President called us with some good news that we will probably have a chapel built in Janaúba!!! The leaders of the church aren't letting us renovate the house we are at because they will send in a request for a chapel. It was awesome. I got the reaction of the other missionaries on film. I'll send the video!

General Conference was super awesome!!! It was great to hear those great men speaking. I felt like they really focused on the doctrine of Christ (a lot on repentance), the day of the Lord, and missionary work!

We need to get going. I hope everyone has a great week! I love you guys!!

Elder Searle

116448

Happy General Conference week!!

This week was amazing. Zone Conference was a great experience and I learned a lot! And on Saturday Matheus was baptized! He is super excited to finally be able to prepare the sacrament and be a member of the church! His mom came to the baptism and the confirmation! And we started teaching his sister, Eduarda, as well. She is coming a long pretty well.

Some crazy stuff went down yesterday in Janaúba. Prior to this week, the highest attendance the church has ever seen in a sacrament meeting was 120. Yesterday that record was destroyed with an attendance of 180 people! Many people had to stand because of the lack of space in the church. The meeting was super awesome!! Our mission president basically made everyone laugh, cry, and repent all at the same time. Matheus convinced him to do his confirmation as well which was super sweet. I was able to participate in the ordinance and I felt the power of the Priesthood flowing through our hands. Plus, for the first time since I've arrived here, it actually rained yesterday. I think the Lord is really pouring out his blessings upon us here.

I'm excited for General Conference this week! It should be awesome. We are working with quite a few people who are progressing as well. There's this family that we're teaching that is coming along really nicely. They are doing everything we ask them to. The only problem is that they are super involved in another church and have to make the decision to change. But I believe it will all work out since they have a huge testimony about the Book of Mormon and know that the church is true. And I know that they really felt the spirit during Sacrament Meeting yesterday.

Our mission president talked a lot about being obedient for the right reasons and doing things out of good will. I learned a lot and have rededicated myself to the work. I want the world to know that I know this gospel to be true. I know Jesus Christ is my saviour. I know that His church is newly on the earth and that the priesthood authority of God has been restored. I love this work and the joy it brings!

Elder Searle

114207

Matheus Baptism

Greetings!

This week was very good. We have an investigator that's progressing really well and found some great investigators as well. We also held a talent show at the church on Saturday, which turned out really well. I will try to send the video of us singing at the show.

Matheus is very excited to be baptized this Saturday! He even came to church with a white shirt and tie yesterday. Thankfully, his mom is really supporting him even though his grandmother is going a little crazy about the baptism. We are working with his mom as well, but she doesn't have too much interest as she is already active in another church. 

It will be an exciting weekend because Friday we have Zone Conference in Montes Claros with our mission president, Saturday we have Matheus's baptism, and Sunday our mission president will be in our branch for sacrament meeting!!! It's going to be awesome. We have a goal as a branch to bring at least 150 to the meeting on Sunday. I think it's very possible and we are working hard to get everyone there.

We also found some other young people who made it to church. Thaís, Marta, and Douglas. They are siblings. And Thaís played guitar at the talent show as well! She is the only one who has received an answer about the Book of Mormon so far. She said that when she prayed it felt like someone was giving her a big hug and and she felt really peaceful! We will be teaching and helping them this week.

Well that's about it for this week. I love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Searle

133048

Good morning!

Well, this week was transfers. Thankfully no one is leaving my District so we will all stick together for another 6 weeks!​ It will be a good transfer. A few weeks back we convinced our Mission President to come and talk in Sacrament Meeting here, and he will be here in two weeks to do that!! It will be his first time visiting Janaúba since he was called as it is the farthest area from the mission home. I am super excited and so is the Branch here!!

This week we found a golden investigator. His name is Matheus, which is Matthew in English. He is a referral from a young woman in the ward. He arrived at church on Sunday early to watch the young men prepare sacrament and is already wanting to do the same thing. He's 14 years old and will make a great contribution to the branch when he gets baptized. The coolest thing that happened with him this week was when he prayed to know if the book of Mormon is true. When he was praying a wind came in through his window and opened the book. He said that he knew it was true because he felt the spirit burning in his chest when it happened!

There was a wedding in our branch this week as well! And guess what? Elder Carvalho and I were the testimonies of the wedding!! We had to sign a document so it was pretty legit. I'll send a picture of us and the couple. The husband teaches gospel principles and the wife is in the young women's organization.

That's about it for this week. I hope this week is a good one for everyone. Love you guys!

Elder Searle

126463

Wedding

A bird almost bit my finger this week. Here's a picture of him.

Happy Pday folks!

This week was a blast! Both companionships in the district were able to baptize and it was a really good experience! We missionaries sang a special hymn during the meeting where we sang in both English and Portuguese "Come thou fount of every Blessing." It was a great meeting!

I am so proud of Erica and her decision to be baptized despite all of the opposition she has to overcome. It was also a privilege to interviw Gentil and watch him being converted to the gospel. They are both people who took a good time to investigate the church and are very converted. Erica will probably finish the Book of Mormon soon! And they are both excited to get their endownment in a year from now.

I've been working on memorizing the Sermon on the Mount this week. I'm about 7 verses in and it's proving to be a little harder than I thought haha! But I'm learning a ton and it's good to have the words always running through my head.

Other than that, we had a good week of teaching. Unfortunately, many of our investigators bailed on uson Saturday and only a few came to church. But this week we have a good plan to fix that.

Sorry I'm short this week! I'm short on time. I love you guys!!!

Elder Searle

129193

Erica's Family

Daniel baptizing his sister

Elder Searle with Honorato and his friend Edivan

Adrien drew a picture for me

​Elder Carvalho speaking English!

The other elders trying to scare us, but we ended up fooling their plans

The Group

Good morning! This week was a good one.

We had our greatest turnout yet at English class last Tuesday! I think in my class there were somehwere around 30 people. I teach the basics of English which is good because everyone is starting from the same level. We make up a hand action for every verb that we learn which makes things fun. I tried to take a selfie with everyone after the class, but some people had already left.

​

During the week we started teaching Josilaine. Her sister, Gislene, is the Relief Society President. Josilaine is 19 years old and is finally thinking about joining the church. She has known about the church for a long time, but has never wanted to become a part of it. But we left a Liahona with her that talks about temples this week and she loved it! She is now reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if she should join the church. The cool thing is that I have actually known hewr ever since I got to Janaúba and it's great to see how the Lord prepared people to recieve the gospel.

Also, Erica is doing pretty well. She is actually having a ton of opposition. She has a 2 year old son named Daví, and his dad is really opposed to her being baptized. And he is trying to convince her family to disapprove of it as well. But Erica is pretty awesome because even with all of this she is very determined to be baptized and change her life. She is a great example for me.

The Lord blessed us with a new family to teach this week. They came to church yesterday and that was great! We just have to help´them gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon now.

I have been studying 3 Nephi 12-14 this week and decided this morning that I'm going to try and memorize these 3 chapters during the rest of my mission. In my opinion, the Sermon on the Mount is basically the best piece of council that the scriptures contain. There's a lot I need to work on personally in these chapters and I believe that if I memorize and ponder them in my heart every day I will be able to become a better person.

I will send a picture of the district on Sunday morning as well. I love you guys! I hope you have great weeks!

Elder Searle

122894

Good morning gente!

This week was quite the experience. Lots of miracles happened in our area and I was really able to see the hand of the Lord.

We did an exchange with the other Elders and that was good. I was with Elder Bishop and we were able to teach and practice a lot together.

Erica is coming along really well. We will hold a family home evening with her in our Branch President's house tonight to help her get to know more members. She told us that she wants to be baptized on September 3rd! In our plans we would have tried to baptize her a little bit sooner, but it's all good. Also, an investigator of the other Elders in my District also accepted to be baptized on this date so it should be a really good day!

It is starting to get really hot here and I'm actually getting a little tan.

Our English Course begins to grow and now Elder Bishop is teaching an advanced class while I am teaching the beginners. It has been a really fun experience teaching English. And we might have to open a third class as well and have a Brazilian Elder who knows a little English teach the beginners. We are starting to get official and tomorrow we will have everyone fill out an enrollment form.

The members of our branch here left for the temple yesterday! They are going by bus and will return on Saturday. It takes 19 hours by bus for them to travel there.

Well I'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff, but that's what I remember from this week. I love you guys and hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Searle

118657

The day of the exchanges