10/15/16

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October 12, 2016

Up here in Danbury, CT almost everyone is an ethnicity other than American.  And these poor people who've immigrated here (most of them illegally) don't know any English! So the missionaries here teach English classes every Wednesday-Friday. We just teach vocabulary for specific things, like this last week we taught what to say during a doctor's appointment. It's super cool to see about 30 Hispanics show up and about 5-10 Brazilians (that's about right on part with the ratio of Hispanics to Brazilians in Danbury). 

Teaching about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is kind of really cool. Everyone in the world could have a better life if they worshiped God more (that includes me!) And it seems like most people know this! When we go around to talk about God and be examples of Him, it's so cool to see people's reactions. Some people think we're annoying preachers/salesmen and they hate talking to us and say mean things, but other people say things like "I'm a preacher over at that church right there. Gentlemen I just want to tell you thank you for what you're doing.  We have different beliefs, but your church is going around everywhere just teaching about God. That's what God really wants. Thank you for worshiping Him, and helping show others how to worship Him too." Seriously, how cool is that?  And he's so right. We aren't here to force our religion on anyone. We teach people about our religion, and if they're not interested, that's okay! We've taught them the importance of praying and how going to church can change their lives.

So.....Portuguese. learning a language is hard. It's so frustrating to study so much and practice so much and not be fluent after an entire week!!! My poor companion. He knows Portuguese and Spanish AND English. And I just sit next to him with the most concentrated look on my face, trying so hard to figure out what everyone's talking about! It makes the days super long. But sometimes, I can understand a whole conversation! I can talk waaaay better than I can understand haha, which is so frustrating because I know that if I understood what everyone was talking about I could talk with them just fine! So I need to work on that this week.

We go on missions because God wants us to. Why does He want us to? Since we are all sons and daughters of God, we are all brothers and sisters.  How scary is it to think that your own kin is going to be trapped somewhere with a guy like Satan?! Maybe they don't realize that,  or they never thought about it. But that's our job as missionaries. I'm here to save my family from that! I wanna be with them in heaven! So I'm here to teach them about it and make sure they realize that it's so important to live so we can be in heaven.

From the Elder who's so glad Dick doesn't translate to Portuguese!

Elder Dick

Elder Dick's district

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