Fast, Amazing Week (Week 86)

Hey all!

What a fast, amazing week it was! I am really tired today but very happy and excited! I am very grateful to be a missionary of the Lord!

We had a counsel of the leadership of the mission on Tuesday which was really really inspiring.  Elder Lima gave a training about planning and I gave one about doing divisions with the missionaries.  Presidente Fortunato taught us a lot about vision, faith and what we believe that we will accomplish.  It was great to talk with Elder Stadler, Elder G. Almeida, and a lot of other friends from the mission and see how they are doing. 

On Thursday, we woke up at 3 in the morning, got dressed and went to the Presidents house.  There was a girl from one of the branches here on the mission that was going to the CTM in São Paulo to serve a mission.  Since the mission president is responsible for the branches in districts, the President hosted her in his house and asked us to take her to the airport. So, we picked her up, took a taxi to the airport, got her on the plane and then went to to the train station where we got a train to go to Ipatinga, a city 5 hours away from BH.  That was a really cool train ride.  It was so smooth and quiet! I like trains, better than buses. We went to Ipatinga and did a division with the Zone Leaders there, Elder Carnaúba from São Paulo e Elder Sonnefeld from Virginia.  Elder Sonnefeld was in my zone when I was in Três Corações and he´s been a great friend to me ever since.  It was a great division and we learned a lot together.

The next day we had a zone conference with the whole Zone of Ipatinga.  I gave a training about finding new people to teach and Elder Lima gave a training about planning.  The Spirit was very very strong while we were there.  The President talked a lot about the Atonement and we all were taught by the Spirit.  It was such a blessing.  During the conference, we left and did street contacts for twenty minutes which was really fun.  I like doing street contacts - you never know what is going to happen! 

After the conference, we were leaving the church when a man came up to Elder Carnaúba and Elder Sonnefeld and started talking to them.  They offered to show them the chapel and they gave him a tour of everything.  When they showed him the baptismal font, he started to cry and told them that he felt like he needed to be reborn, that he had been to 25 different churches, already been a deacon, a pastor, an elder yadayayday in a lot of them and yet, felt like he was missing something.  The zone leaders invited him to be baptized, he accepted and he will baptized next week! They called us after all this happened and told us the whole story and it was really excited.

We got back to BH last night and now we are having our PDay.  So that was my week! I am really excited and grateful to be a missionary!

Love you all!

Elder Jacob