Transfer to Nanuque

Hi everyone, well I have been transferred. I am serving in the Zone NANUQUE in the area NAKNUK.  My new companion is Elder Martin and I have been assigned to be his trainer.  He is from Sao Polo Brazil and has been out of the CTM for about a week now. I am excited about my new area but unfortunately Nakuque only has morros (hills) where we are serving.  I was hoping to give my knees and ankles a little break but I guess I am needed here. So Tuesday night we took a bus drive 8.5 hrs to Mines Gerais. I am no longer in the state of Espirito Santo, I am in the most NORTH part of the mission. I am excited to see how these next 5 weeks go.

So the area I am in has just been reopened so we are starting fresh. We have old investigators in our area book but there are no more than 20 names listed so we are going to be doing a lot of tracting and talking to new people. We did meet one lady who seemed very interested when we talked with her and we even marked her on date for baptism this week! Her name is Maria, she is really funny and she tells a million stories over and over and over again but we love teaching her. When we got to her house we opened with a prayer and I had a strong impression to share Alma 7:11-13.

When I shared this scripture she started to cry. She told us that this was the only comfort that she has heard! In between sobs she asked where our church is, “I need to go there this week!”  The next day we went to visit with her again. It went so well that we were able to mark her on a date for this Saturday.  She really wants this so we are excited to see how things go. Last night after church we went to visit her again, we taught her about the law of chastity. All of a sudden she put her head down and said I can’t be baptized anymore. She told us that she lived with another person and she is a sinner and can’t be forgiven right now. We were able to have some good discussions with her and asked her to continue to pray. We are hoping that she will continue to do that and will receive answers to her prayers just as she had before. I think it will be good and she will still be baptized. Please pray for her this week.

This week we also ran into our first Buddhist family. I don’t know why but I was not expecting that here in Brazil. We had a great discussion even though it was a little weird. We were able to talk to the daughter who believes in Christ and hopefully we can continue to teach her. I can’t believe how hard it is to teach someone who wasn’t raised with a Christian background or belief.  It is a great opportunity and we are working hard with her.

Yesterday we were knocking on doors and were invited into a man’s home. He is a pastor for the Assembly of God. It was really hard because he wanted to preach to us.  When we realized we weren’t going to get anywhere with him we decided it was time to go but he didn’t want us to leave he wanted to continue to preach to us.  He told us that he would only learn things taught from the Bible.  We didn’t accomplish much there but it was a great learning experience for me and my companion.

Well, I want you all to know that I love being a missionary and love serving the Lord.  I am happy that I am sharing the Gospel with the people here in Brazil and hope that I can continue to have success in this area.  I really appreciate all of your prayers, love and support.  I miss you all.
Love,

Elder Stilson