Gynormous email from Brazil

Família!

Another week has flown by!
Thanks for all of your letters they touched my heart!
Well, our prayers have really been answered! Right now we are teaching a few families that really have potential.

The family of Alei and Laura and their two children. They are really intelligent and very scincere. They are in there 40's and they are recognizing that the church is really professional. They have recognized the spirit and now all we have to do is help them come to church with us. I have been very impressed with the simple way that the spirit works through us and how insensitive I was before my mission; because of everyday life. What a blessing it is to be able to serve a mission.

I have had the opportunity to recognize many of the different ways the spirit can answer our prayers. The other day we were teaching a woman named Fatima. She works in her house most of the day, sewing and cleaning cloths; and we taught her about the restauração(restoration) of the gospel. We recognized the spirit during the message but then like usual we challenged her to pray about what we taught.

We returned the other day and as we were talking, we asked, "how was the response to your prayer?" She said that for her, "she hadn't received an answer yet." Then we explained that responses to our prayers can come in all sorts of ways; and then my companion started listing some of the ways; burning feeling in your heart, dreams, but then he said one that neither he or I had thought of before, a recurring thought. That you just couldn't stop thinking about that thing. In that moment, she said that, that had happened to her. She was working and couldn't stop thinking about the restoration. It was simple, and if the spirit hadn't identified it to my companion perhaps it would have slipped by.

This has happened to me many many times! I can remember now with the clarity of the spirit into my past and I know that our prayers are always answered.

BUT, we need to be sensitive to the spirit to recognize it.

I'm so grateful for the gospel. Now at our lunch appointments I am sharing a thought by President Ezra Taft Benson, I will try to translate...

"We are ordained by God to bring this gospel to all the earth. That is the cause that must unite us today. Only the gospel will save the world from it's own destruction. Only the gospel will unite all races and Nationalities in peace. Only the gospel will bring joy, happiness and salvation to humanity."

It's not only the responsibility of the missionaries.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting two weeks ago about missionary work. The church has always been a missionary church. Just think about when Christ organized the church, with 12 apostles and the quorum of the 70. He gave them the power of the priesthood and said, go teach! What a great and marvelous responsibility we have, to share the gospel. I hope none of you let it pass you by!

Thanks everybody for the cards in the package! I really enjoyed getting something tangible.

Until Next week!

Love, Elder Z the 3rd