Week Twenty-Five

"Finally progress! Oneidas baptism fell through again (suprised?) but we´re feeling things turning around here in Niló. we´re really struggling with the spirit as described in Enos, and the lord is manifesting his hand-

Our listening campaign is really working! we´re spending much more time probing for the needs of our investigators, its been paying off. but because of this im really getting to know the darker side of Rio. I heard too many sob stories to count, almost everyone here has a son deceased son or brother due to gang violence, police brutality, or other tragic deaths. its made me really look at my life and the inumerous blessings that i have, principally the gospel centralized family that i have. so many blessing fall upon the righteous! Its really been driving me to preach this word, this message is a cure for the sick in spirit.

We´ve been doing a lot of service as well! The miracle this week was with an investigator called Andrea. we contacted her in the street with her daughter Rafaela, but in our initial contact they seemed less than interested. but they live near the church so we decided to stop by anyways. we passed by but only Florlinda, the mother of Andrea was home. we asked if we could share a quick message but she declined, describing to us some major renovations going on in their house. We offered to help out with the work, but when she said no something told us to push the subject. She finally accepted, frustrated that we wouldnt accept money so we settled on having lunch with them after the service.

we arrived the next day early and got to work. we helped them demolish a wall that needed to come down, but they were lacking proper tools so we went at the wall with hammers! reminded me a lot of my breif ´´deconstruction`` work with ben a while back. it was thouroughly enjoying! we worked quickly and efficiently, blowing away the other hired workers (who actually showed up drunk). by midday the work was completely done, and as we lunched with them the family had changed. Andrea was soon laughing and joking with us, the at first reserved husband was opening up about his work, beliefs, hobbies etc, we were in! we then shared a quick verse and invited them to church. the husband responded, ´´i cant believe your guys willingness to serve without anything to return, if only the world worked this way! church starts at 9? you can count me there from now on.`` the next sunday we arrived at church to find all of them already seated and ready to learn! we´re heading there tonight in hopes of setting a baptism date, miracle happen when you srtive to live like christ!!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen, October 29, 2012

Week Twenty-Four

"This weeks been a roller coaster! Huge ups and downs. We´ve had to cut a lot of investigators again, our biggest challenge right now is helping our investigators have a spiritual change, like in Mosiah 5:1-2. They just aren´t getting it! Our entire district is having struggles, we´re really having to analyse our teaching approaches because the people arent eating what we´re feeding...

we´re really concentrating on listening to our investigators. all of missionaries have the bad habit of giving a memorized lesson and then taking off. Something that we´re putting more into practice is the uasge of our ears! If someones just lost a son to gang violence, theyre going to have little or no interest about Joseph Smith and the line of authority. Theyre going to want to hear about the plan of salvation, and how they can not only see their son again, put that they can help him here in this life through vicarious baptism. teach people, not lessons!

Something we´re also focusing on is obey the letter and the spirit of the law. We´re obeying the letter by keeping with the missionary standards: each missionary contacting more than 10 people in the street. That number usually ends up to be 150 or more street contacts each week. the blessings we´re manifested one night when we were heading home: my companion had his 10 contacts and i had 9, but no one else was out in the street! i prayed a simple prayer, that i would complete the commandment we were given, when from behind me a man said,´´hey i was baptised in your church twenty years ago!`` the mans name was marcelo, a single guy from portugal with a funny accent. he hadnt attended church in many years, and said,´´ya i think coming back to church is a good idea.`` how golden! we´re now visiting with him and preparing him to come back to the fold. it´s my tesimony that we were blessing because of our strict obedience!

We´re striving to obey the spirit of the law as well, or in other words- listening to the spirit instead of the manual! we´ve recently picked up Oneida, the wife of Álvaro, again as an investigator. manual says that our visits should pass over 45 minutes, but one night we were invited to eat some pizza with the couple (Álvaro is a bit of a cozinheiro). After the grub and some good jokes, we had felt that we really won the heart of Oneida, so we dove into some deep religious discusion. We cast out many doubts and disagreeances that she had about the church; our visit with them lasted over 2 hours. She now has the desire to be baptised this sunday, so you be the judge!

My companion and i are doing everything to listen to the promptings of the spirit. some of the most life changing lessons happened this week. I know that thought the Lord we can save this dying area! In striving every day to cast out my pride and fill my soul with the spirit. i am purifying my heart so that i can be an instrument of the lord!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen October 22, 2012

Week Twenty-One and Twenty-Two

Week Twenty-Two:

"I dont know where to start this week! The companionship change has thrown me through a loop. 5 months with the same person was pretty strange, i wonder what marriage will be like! 

Élder Carvalho is awesome though, he possibly the most humble person ive ever met. Hes and Indian guy from Belém(Northern Brasil), he doesnt have much but what he lacks in temporal blessings he balances with spiritual ones. He´s constantly giving service. We spend a lot of time just listening to our investigators and establishing relationships with them, rather than just giving a spiritual message and leaving without progession. He has an open heart wand hes ready to work. We´re determined to revive this dead area! One of our goals is to reestablish our relationship with investigators who have fallen off the radar.

One of the investigators that we´ve picked up again is Patrícia. She is a single woman with one daughter, and a ton of potential. She remembers all of the lessons we´ve tought and really loves the church videos since she cant read at the moment(shes due for surgery). the only reason we discontinued our work with her is because she was in the hospital for a few weeks, but shes still wanting to learn more so we´re there for her!

We reactivated another family this week! Our search for the lost sheep has been pretty sucessful. Our baptism number isnt too hot but its not about about the numbers! Working with the less actives is just as important as our work with investigators. Im glad we were able to a fallen away family return to the fold and renew their covenants with God.

How great was Gen. Conference? I dont think ive ever been so spiritually filled in my life. While i wasnt able to race offf after preisthood session to Red Robins and grab a bite, i was able to recieve the strength and knowledge necessary to continue the work. My favorite talk by far was given by Jeffery R Holland. SO powerful! I asked myself the same question that christ asked peter- do you love me? Its something we should ask ourselves every day. Do we really love Christ? Our desire to follow him will increase when we look deeply in ourselves and ask this question. If ye you me, Keep my commandments(john 14:15). Im so glad i chose to answer the call and represent Christ. sweet is the work!"

Week Twenty-One:

"Transfers! Big changes happening here in our zone, including here in Niló! Elder Rumsey will be transfered to Petrópolis, the coveted interior during the summer. While he labors in the mild temps and scenic mountains, i get to melt here in the favelas of Niló! Im excited though, my companion will be a Brazilian! Élder E.B. Carvalho is coming down from the interior as well, i hear hes a way good missionary so there should be good work up ahead.

By the end of this coming transfer i will have served 6 months here in Nilópolis, and its been overall a great experience. Elder Rumsey and I have gotten pretty settled in to our routine, we´ve been working here as if Christ will come tomorrow. i hope Élder Carvalho is just as animated.

Our area is needing a new element. earlier this week we had 6 baptism dates marked for the 14 of october. that number has now cut in half, and the three remaining investigators have been evading us it seems! we´re struggling to find people who are capable of making the necessary changes in their lives to live the gospel. Its become extremely apparent how wicked the culture is here! Satans got grip on the hearts of the people, its been a pretty dificult task finding the elietes. I havent lost hope though! Faith and obedience are our tools and we´re going to have sucess through the Lord!

Diana and Flávio, the family we´ve been visiting with frquently, have lost their progression. They related to me that they feel content with the faith they have now (evangelical). I asked them if they read from the Book of Mormon and prayed about it, and of course the answer was no. I explained to them that no matter what we do or say, we cannot gain a conviction of the validity of Book of Mormon without reading, pondering, and praying about it. I gave them Morôni 10:3-5 (Morôni´s promise) to read and asked them if they would recommit to read and pray to recieve an answer about the BoM. They then told me that it would be dificult to squeeze 3 VERSES into their busy schedule this week. How lazy! Our week was filled with many more annoyances and derailments, but i´ll save my breath for now. I have big hopes for this coming transfer, Im way excited for General Conference! Maybe they´ll announce a tample here in Rio? I sure am praying, cross your fingers!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen