Eliason heritage

Well, welcome to one of the most roller-coaster-like weeks of the mission.  Well, started off with last Sunday, having the opportunity to speak to the family, via Skype, which was fantastic.  I am currently eating uma Pedemoleke, which in the end, is just sugar, sweet and condensed milk, and peanuts.  Its incredible and extremely rich.  This one has a chocolate bar melted into it, extremely delicious. Sorry.  okay, well, last Friday, we went to lunch (lunch every day is with a member, rarely is dinner) well, and so we got there and the member just arrived from her class at the local university, and had not prepared anything, so she told us that it will take about an hour to make lunch (normal time, but to wait is a huge waste of time, seeing as how we only have 1 hour to lunch) and so we left and did contacts on the road for the next hour waiting for lunch.  Well, it was my turn to do the contact, and I saw a couple sitting on the curb outside the jewel factory.  I walked up, introduced us, and told them that we will be having a baptismal meeting on the 26th of this month, and we want to know when can we pass in their house to prepare them for this day.  They kind of looked at me funny, and told us to pass on the weekend.  Well, we get a TON of contacts, and it takes a little while to visit them all, because when you get a new investigator, it is necessary to visit them several times during the week.  Well, we visited them that Sunday, (last Sunday) and we arrived at the house, and they live in a neighborhood that I have never set foot in *(yes, I know, I have been here for 5 months almost and there are still neighborhoods that I have never tread, that's how huge our area is) They lost their only son (of 4 months old) about 1 month ago, and have been suffering a lot. Well, we taught them about the Plan of Salvation, the incredible joy that it brings to the families and how we can be with our families for eternity.  Well, they were so incredibly attentive that they stopped me every ten seconds to ask a question.  This is a signal that they are actually interested in what you are teaching.  Many times we are teaching and the investigator just says uh-huh, uh-huh, hmm.... and this really doesn't give us a read on how well they are understanding or if they are even paying attention. Well, we taught them about the Plan of Salvation, and gave them a little booklet about it *(you can ask your missionaries for one, and they would be more than willing to give one to you)*  We returned Wednesday night to check up and see if they read or prayed or did anything about it.  Well, she, Ilianie, read the booklet cover to cover, studied all of the scriptures written therein, and had been praying fervently to know if it is true.  Well, when we returned, the first thing she said is "Those Pastors have returned!!!!" and opened the door, and asked me as we entered, what more she needs to do to enter the Celestial Kingdom to be with her son.  Almost brought a tear to my eye.  Those are GOLDEN WORDS for a missionary to hear.  We taught them about the restoration and invited them to church.  Well, Yesterday, they showed up to church 20 minutes early as to make sure that they didn't miss anything.  there were 5 members in the chapel at that time, including us, the ward mission leader, the relief-society President, and the 2nd counselor in the bishopric.  We all got acquainted and gave a tour of the chapel.  As elders quorum started, our newly ordained Elders Quorum President (we have been without this entire time that I have been here...until this week) introduced himself and asked if Marcelo (the investigator) is just visiting, he responded the following "Today is my first day in this church, my wife and I are looking to find a church, and I would like to stay with this one forever."  our Elders Quorum president, Irmão Gabriel responded with a grin  looking at us "Opa!" which basically is the same thing that they say in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Opa!  It's an exclamation that means excitement.  Yeah, Opa was just the beginning of my emotions.  We visited them again last night and asked them how it was.  They LOVED it!!!!!!  Turns out that that morning, when they woke up, they were feeling the pull of the devil, tired, cold, and a little bit disanimated, but Ilianie opened her Bible and started to read.  She opened to Psalms 107, which talks about the Lord and how he is wiser than us, and that he is guiding every single on of us on a journey to the Promised land, whether we know it or not.  Well, she took this to apply on herself, meaning that all of her trials and tribulations have brought her to this point, to this local, where she was willing to accept the true doctrines of Christ, and when she went to church, this was confirmed.  About 1/3 of the ward was there yesterday, so she had a very nice personalized lesson with the Relief Society president and 2 other women, who are very dedicated to the church *(the caravan from the temple arrived at 2 AM)  yeah, so the President of the Relief Society worked with her to discern her feelings, and turns out that she decided that God sent her son, so that he could have the sickness, so that they would have to move from that small town in the middle of nowhere which didn't have a hospital, to Erechim, where he served his purpose, died, leaving his Parents there to find the gospel.  She told us this last night, and told us that she knows that the church is true and is willing to follow it with everything she's got.  There's only 1 problem, and that is that they aren't legally married.  We can fix that.   They have a couple of avocado trees....last night they gave us 10 kilos of avocado.  I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO WITH THEM, but hey :) Guac anybody?  actually, they make smoothies with avocado, which is actually terrible, they eat them with sugar and other sweets, even to the point of making ice cream out of it.  hmmm.... the other day, i had corn on the cob ice cream, it was delicious. anyways. yeah, that has been the excitement of our week.  we have 1 more week before transfers again.  OH and President Wright asked me to find a house to rent in Viadutos to put missionaries there!!!!! :D :D :D  the Elders in Erechim won't have to blow 2 hours every day and 10 Reals on a bus to get there!  wooo HOooooo!!!!!!!  I'm excited.

anyways, have a fantastic week, 

Keep your stick on the ice

Elder Eliason.