Last Posting from BMTC!

OI! 

So I´ll start off with a couple funny stories that happened this last week, and then I’ll share what I learned here, and finish it off with my testimony.

Last week, my two companions and I were praying before a lesson with a “fake” training investigator, when I felt something on my head and then my neck and all around.  I thought it was a mosquito or fly because that´s what it felt like and I just kept brushing it off during the prayer.  Right after the prayer I turned around and there was a cockroach scurrying away from me.  I was uncomfortable the whole lesson knowing that thing had been crawling all over my head and neck.  

Last Saturday we went proselyting at some downtown square in São Paulo.  Our goal was to place 15 copies of the Book of Mormon.  We approached these older ladies who were wheeling around these carts and started talking to them about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon.  We asked them If they wanted one and they looked at each other, laughed, and removed the covers from their carts.  They were Jehovah’s Witness missionaries!!!! We all just kind of laughed it off and stayed away from where they set up.  Their carts were full of JW propaganda. We ended up placing 16 copies of the Book of Mormon, which beat our six the first time.   

Anyway, as my time here is quickly coming to an end, I´ll share what I have learned here, besides the language.  

In my notebook, I have a page dedicated to my metas (goals).  Every once in a while, I would write down something I should start doing or stop doing. Here is my metas:

Don´t Complain - 

No one likes someone who complains.  It takes the Spirit away and distracts you from the task at hand, and it weakens your will and strength.  One way I learned this is through fasting.  Besides the two fast Sundays I had while here, I felt the need to fast three other times, usually the day I went to the temple.  I learned that to be dedicated to your fast, you need to be focused on your reason always and know that through your fast you become strengthened the gospel and as a missionary. I can’t stand when the other elders would always complain how hungry they were on fast Sundays.  Blessings require sacrifice and complaining takes that away.  Not once did Christ complain during his mortal ministry.  So, that is something I worked to gain as a trait.

Don´t talk bad about other people, always show Christ-Like love to others-

This was a hard one.  There were a couple missionaries here who would get on everyone´s nerves. I realized that talking about someone behind their back drives the spirit away instantly.  My district would talk about the missionaries who came from Provo and how they thought they were better than everyone else.  I made it a district goal to not do that, no matter how much we thought they deserved whatever we had to say about them.  Whenever my first companion would get on my nerves (which was quite often) I would try and serve him in some way.  

Try and serve each person in your district every day-

This kind of goes with the last one.  Every time I felt any negative feelings about anyone in my district I would try and serve them.  Serving people is the best way to be their friend and have them know you care about them, especially as a leader.  

Take upon yourself each attribute of Christ and walk how He walked-

The more I tried to do this the better I felt.  All I want to do is be a powerful instrument in God´s hands and there´s no better way to do that than to be like Christ.  Last night we were given a talk to read by Spencer Kimball called “Jesus Christ, the Perfect Leader.”  I highly recommend reading it.  

Meu Testemunho-

Eu sei que esse trabalhar é dedicado de Deus, e que Jesus Cristo estendeu meu chamado para servir através de seu profeta, Thomas S. Monson.  Eu aprendi a seguir o passos do melhor missionário que andou na terra, Jesus Cristo.  Élder Holland disse que trabalhar como missionário não é facil, porque salvação não é barato.  Nós (missionários) temas obrigição andar os caminhos que Ele andou.  Quando nós somos desprezados, rejeitados, cuspes, e sozinho, nós estamos lado a lado com Cristo.  Eu sei que esta igreja é verdadeira.  Eu sei que a profeta Joseph Smith viu Pai Celestial e Seu Filho Amado, Jesus Cristo.  Eu sei que eu cumpre endo as profecias preditas nos Testamentos e no Livro de Mórmon, trazendo a ovelha perdida para o Senhor. 

See Alma 26:28-30

I love you guys and I can´t wait to get to the field in six days.  I hope everything is going well and it’s nice to see that girls still like Reuben,  Find someone who knows Portuguese or just use google translate for my testimony. 

Love,

Elder Cash Holdaway