September 6, 2011

Here is a letter received by Elder Jolstead dated August 22,2011:

Oi Familia!
So this week was a lot better than last week, but we still need to do better. My companion has a problem with speaking to members for a long tome, but we're going to fix that this week. So I found out that I'll probably be training next transfer. I know its crazy. 2 months in the field and I'm alredy going to train, our Father in Heaven doesn't always call us when we think we're ready and usually He calls us to positions that stretch and grow. I know it'll be difficult, but once again, like always, I'll just need to trust in the Lord for help. So this week I gave my first talk in Portuguese. It went well. It was on missionary work and while I was preparing I came to the conclusion that there is only two reasons why we would ever not want to share the gospel or be afraid to. 1. We don't completely understand the message of the restored gospel; 2. We don't believe it's true. There's no real reason not to share. The message we have is one of and happiness and peace that can help everyone and for us to be afraid and not want to share it we either don't understand this or we don't believe it. Anyway, I would like to share an experience that happened this last week that was very humbling and really boosted my testimony of missionary work. Last Tuesday, I think, the night before when we were planning, Elder De Oliveira Silva said after teaching Alex Sandro, our recent convert, we should contact his neighbors, because he thought that they were a great family living there. So the next day we did and a woman in her late twenties came out and let us in. After talking a while in her house we found out that her father(who she lived with) was very sick and she was as well. We found out she had depression and I think something else. She cried alot. Then after she said something that was very humbling to me. She said that she had seen us many times when we went to teach Alex and she told her mother that we had a message for her and that we knew the things that would help her. When I heard her say that I was extremely humbled. The Lord had really prepared her to hear our message and the fact that we were the ones to give her the message that would help her was incredible. The spirit was extremely strong there and we taught a great lesson to her and also gave her a blessing. Unfortunately two days later after teaching a second lesson she left in a message on our phone that she didn't want us to come back. I honestly don't know why, probably because of her mother who had a other religion and didn't like us very much, but I was really sad after that. That just goes to show you that even after feeling the spirit some people won't accept the gospel. Anyway thats my story. How are all of you? How was the family reunion? Have a good week! Love you lots! Tchau!
Love,
Elder Jolstead the younger