"I learned a lot about the role of testimony in our work this week..."

Date: Jul 23, 2012 7:40 AM

Ola Família,

These are some pictures from ''Mãos que ajuda'' (Helping hands). It was fun, we were putting rice and beans in 2 liter soda bottles. There were alot of rice and beans there! Afterwards they did a soccer tournament thing in that stadium, it was cool.

That trampoline looks awesome! I can't wait to test it out, cool birthday present. The backyard looks way different nice work dad. Do the preschoolers get to play with the tramp also? We have had a tramp at every house since vintage! Happy Birthday to you all Paige, Jake and Natalie! Sounds like everything is going well back home. 

Well the weeks are seeming to fly by! Last P-Day was pretty fun, we went to an all-you-can eat BBQ. They had meat on these big shishkabobs and they would come to your table and you would just say how much you wanted and they would cut it for you. They just kept coming the whole time with more meat. And I ate... chicken heart... on purpose! It actually tasted good, just weird texture. I think I am starting to adapt well to the culture. The other day we were teaching a man in his garage thing and during the lesson a chicken randomly came out from behind his chair. It actually took me a little while to realize that that isn't what I am used to. 

I learned a lot about the role of testimony in our work this week. We were teaching some people who are ancient investigators, but we thought we would give it a whirl again. They don't really believe much in a God. More of just a greater spirit that is kind of just present in our world. Long story short we were using our knowledge alot trying to convince them using logic and what not, but it wasn't going very far. I finally just slowed down the lesson, bore testimony and shared a scripture, and my companion bore testimony aswell. The whole lesson changed. It is easy for people to deny your logic and rational, but it's not easy for someone to deny your testimnoy of what you know to be true. I am grateful for the spirit that was there and the prompting I had to just bear simple testimony.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! Thanks for the pictures, they are awesome. I think about you all and pray for you. I am grateful to be here on my mission, it is such an awesome oppurtunity and I hope I can be the kind of missionary you all are thinking I am.

Tchau, 

Elder Smith