Bazinga!
Random Thought: It is 48° today. Something Asa never experienced on the mission.
Well it was a great week! On Tuesday we had a good day and at the end of the day we took one of our recent converts (Samara) to seminary. While we were walking I stopped talking and Samara asked,"Why aren't you talking?" Before I said anything Elder Groff jumped in and said,"He has this weird disease that sometimes his voice shuts off because his vocal cords won't move." He said it really serious so I decided to go along with it, just to be funny! She ended up believing us and asking Elder Groff how to sign different words to me. It was pretty funny.
On Wednesday we had our zone meeting in the morning. We heard about some problems with gossip going on in the zone so we decided to ask each Elder to come and talk to us one by one in another room and we ended up clearing up the situation. Words of advice to EVERYONE reading this. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SOMEONE OR SOMETHING SOMEONE IS DOING, TALK TO THAT PERSON DIRECTLY. DO NOT SPREAD RUMORS AND GOSSIP! As humans we have this nasty habit of telling everyone else what is going on EXCEPT the person who we need to talk to about it and it causes so many unnecessary problems and hurt feelings. This is one of satan's tools to cause contention and divide us. DO NOT LET IT HAPPEN!
On Quinta (Thursday) we went to do a service project at a members house. There is a really cool guy there named Junior. He has this little train that he made out of a diesel truck and for work he takes people on tours, or people pay to have parties on the train. Well the train is also his normal car. He is the one who asked us to help him in with the service project so he picked us up in his train! I love this guy he is super cool and always gives rides and buys food for the missionaries. The next day we continued with the service project and then he took us to burger king! It was great.
On Saturday we did divisions and this time I went with Elder Paredes. It was really fun! We bought chocolate, we spoke English Spanish and Portuguese together, and I met some really great investigators too. One of their investigators is training and studying for a career doing the same things as CSI. She is specializing in the bugs that eat the body after someone dies. The next part of her training she has to kill a pig and do tests with it. Very interesting!
Speaking of pigs we also met a little pot bellied pig this week! I decided to name it Rodrigo, but then I found out its a girl...but I still want to call it Rodrigo.
I was missing the states this week and I was praying for a little boost from the Lord. Well that night with Elder Paredes we decided to stop and get a little dinner. So we walked in this little tiny restaurant and sat down and the first song that started playing was "Africa" by Toto! Elder Paredes knew the song too so we started singing at the top of our lungs and just laughing at each other. Then to our surprise then next song was "Love isn't always on time" by Foreigner! They played a bunch more familiar songs after that too and I was cured of missing the states. It's funny how the Lord works sometimes. Tender mercies!
On Sunday we were invited to give a training to all the priesthood leaders in Ponta Porã! It was really fun. The Stake President spoke, then Elder Groff and then me! The spirit was really strong and we all learned a lot. I hope we made an impact.
3 Nephi 30
Com muito amor,
Elder Roman Laws
Monday, August 26, 2013
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Week #59
Bazinga!
Random Thought: Yo hablo un pocito de Español.
Hey everyone! This week was a little packed.
The first part of the week was just normal missionary work, so I'll start on Thursday. I we went to the other district on the other side of the city to sit in on their district meeting and then I stayed there to do divisions with the district leader there. He's a good guy and it was a fun day. First we went to lunch and the lady who made lunch asked me where I was from. I told her that I was from Argentina and she was shocked! She said,"But you have such an American face! Don't you speak English?" I told her no and that I speak Spanish. Now because I have been learning Spanish I spoke Spanish a bit with her and she believed me! After about 3 more minutes talking, I admitted that I am American. What's funny is there was an Elder listening in only for the first part of the conversation so after lunch he came up to me asking where I was from and what it was like in Argentina.
The rest of the day was good. We did a lot of contacts but we weren't finding any "elect" families so Elder Elizeu (the other missionary) said,"Man I'm tired of this, I want to find an Elect Family!' The next house we went to had a family that was ready to hear us and even said they wanted to be baptized. It was awesome. After we left I said,"Didn't you say something about an elect family?" We joked a bit and had a good laugh.
Friday I went back to my own house and did another division with Elder Pereira. We had a great day! He just completed one month on the mission and he is really smart. I learned a new technique to teach the about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At 7:30pm we had an appointment at a school called FISK. They teach other languages and one of them is English. We were invited there by a man in our ward who is taking classes there. It was really cool! I felt like a celebrity. Everyone was a little nervous but wanted to talk to me in English. We had a few practices and at the end they asked me to introduce myself in English and talk about why I am here. The teacher was a little funny because he said dude a lot and he has a Canadian accent because that's where he learned English. We got a few addresses and found some good people to teach! We are going back there on Wednesday! After the class, the guy who invited us took us out to grab something to eat before going home. There are some really cool members here.
Saturday we got to go to the chapel after lunch to do a baptismal interview and then watched the baptism. This boy was super excited and said that one of the reasons he wanted to be baptized was to make his parents proud.
Sunday we had meetings with the stake president, the bishop, and the ward mission leader. A few weeks ago the stake president asked us to make a training to present at a meeting that will happen with all the leadership here in the city. So yesterday we showed him what we are going to say and he was happy with it. He is a really good guy and we are happy he likes us. The bishop didn't really schedule a meeting but just grabbed us in the hall to talk to us. He is the best! He taught me a lot and after we were done he looked at me and said,"Elder Laws, you know I love you right?" I kind of laughed and said yes, but then I looked at him and he wasn't joking. It was a weird moment because I truly believed that he was being 100% sincere! I was really thankful that he did that because it is one of the only times I have felt that someone truly loves me who is here on the mission.
3 Nephi 12
Com muito amor,
Elder Roman Laws
Random Thought: Yo hablo un pocito de Español.
Hey everyone! This week was a little packed.
The first part of the week was just normal missionary work, so I'll start on Thursday. I we went to the other district on the other side of the city to sit in on their district meeting and then I stayed there to do divisions with the district leader there. He's a good guy and it was a fun day. First we went to lunch and the lady who made lunch asked me where I was from. I told her that I was from Argentina and she was shocked! She said,"But you have such an American face! Don't you speak English?" I told her no and that I speak Spanish. Now because I have been learning Spanish I spoke Spanish a bit with her and she believed me! After about 3 more minutes talking, I admitted that I am American. What's funny is there was an Elder listening in only for the first part of the conversation so after lunch he came up to me asking where I was from and what it was like in Argentina.
The rest of the day was good. We did a lot of contacts but we weren't finding any "elect" families so Elder Elizeu (the other missionary) said,"Man I'm tired of this, I want to find an Elect Family!' The next house we went to had a family that was ready to hear us and even said they wanted to be baptized. It was awesome. After we left I said,"Didn't you say something about an elect family?" We joked a bit and had a good laugh.
Friday I went back to my own house and did another division with Elder Pereira. We had a great day! He just completed one month on the mission and he is really smart. I learned a new technique to teach the about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At 7:30pm we had an appointment at a school called FISK. They teach other languages and one of them is English. We were invited there by a man in our ward who is taking classes there. It was really cool! I felt like a celebrity. Everyone was a little nervous but wanted to talk to me in English. We had a few practices and at the end they asked me to introduce myself in English and talk about why I am here. The teacher was a little funny because he said dude a lot and he has a Canadian accent because that's where he learned English. We got a few addresses and found some good people to teach! We are going back there on Wednesday! After the class, the guy who invited us took us out to grab something to eat before going home. There are some really cool members here.
Saturday we got to go to the chapel after lunch to do a baptismal interview and then watched the baptism. This boy was super excited and said that one of the reasons he wanted to be baptized was to make his parents proud.
Sunday we had meetings with the stake president, the bishop, and the ward mission leader. A few weeks ago the stake president asked us to make a training to present at a meeting that will happen with all the leadership here in the city. So yesterday we showed him what we are going to say and he was happy with it. He is a really good guy and we are happy he likes us. The bishop didn't really schedule a meeting but just grabbed us in the hall to talk to us. He is the best! He taught me a lot and after we were done he looked at me and said,"Elder Laws, you know I love you right?" I kind of laughed and said yes, but then I looked at him and he wasn't joking. It was a weird moment because I truly believed that he was being 100% sincere! I was really thankful that he did that because it is one of the only times I have felt that someone truly loves me who is here on the mission.
3 Nephi 12
Com muito amor,
Elder Roman Laws
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Week #58
Bazinga!
Random Thought: If you had to choose a scalding hot shower or an ice cold one...which would you choose?
This week was great! We've been working more with the people we baptized to get them confirmed. Last Monday night we had a family night at the house of a really cool lady in our ward. She invited her friends and we taught them about The Book of Mormon and the restoration a little bit. Then for a little activity we played a fun game. Each person has to write down a color on their little piece of paper and then we went in a circle taking turns asking the next person to guess which color we had written down. If the other person guessed correctly you got to throw a tiny cup of water in their face. It was super fun!
Throughout the week not too much happened. Just the normal stuff, I played with a dog, a bird bit me, we tied up the greeny in our house... HAHAHA!
So the new missionary in our house decided he wanted to mess with me and my companion while we were reading our scriptures before bedtime. He put on my boxing gloves and started punching us. My companion and I looked at each other at the same time and he said,"Vamos?" or "Let's go?" so we jumped up at the same time and pinned him down on my bed. I grabbed a rope and tied his legs together, tied the rope around his waist and then tied his hands behind his back (not very tight). Then we found his camera and took a picture. It was really funny and we all had a good time.
Now I have some sad news...in one of our houses in the mission, about six months ago, I found a plate with Santa's face printed on it. So naturally, every single time I've eaten since then I have eaten off that plate. Well Elder Paredes was washing the dishes the other day and used a little more force than he should have and my Santa plate broke. To be completely honest I was seriously sad. I loved that plate. So above the eyes on one piece I drew angry eyebrows and told Elder Paredes that he has to keep that plate forever now to remember what he did. It was a sad day indeed. These are the days in the life of a missionary.
Sorry for the short letter. I'll write more next week!
Helaman 5:30
Com muito amor,
Elder Roman Laws
This week was great! We've been working more with the people we baptized to get them confirmed. Last Monday night we had a family night at the house of a really cool lady in our ward. She invited her friends and we taught them about The Book of Mormon and the restoration a little bit. Then for a little activity we played a fun game. Each person has to write down a color on their little piece of paper and then we went in a circle taking turns asking the next person to guess which color we had written down. If the other person guessed correctly you got to throw a tiny cup of water in their face. It was super fun!
Throughout the week not too much happened. Just the normal stuff, I played with a dog, a bird bit me, we tied up the greeny in our house... HAHAHA!
So the new missionary in our house decided he wanted to mess with me and my companion while we were reading our scriptures before bedtime. He put on my boxing gloves and started punching us. My companion and I looked at each other at the same time and he said,"Vamos?" or "Let's go?" so we jumped up at the same time and pinned him down on my bed. I grabbed a rope and tied his legs together, tied the rope around his waist and then tied his hands behind his back (not very tight). Then we found his camera and took a picture. It was really funny and we all had a good time.
Now I have some sad news...in one of our houses in the mission, about six months ago, I found a plate with Santa's face printed on it. So naturally, every single time I've eaten since then I have eaten off that plate. Well Elder Paredes was washing the dishes the other day and used a little more force than he should have and my Santa plate broke. To be completely honest I was seriously sad. I loved that plate. So above the eyes on one piece I drew angry eyebrows and told Elder Paredes that he has to keep that plate forever now to remember what he did. It was a sad day indeed. These are the days in the life of a missionary.
Sorry for the short letter. I'll write more next week!
Helaman 5:30
Com muito amor,
Elder Roman Laws
Week #57
Bazinga!
Random Thought: I love Pavé!
Well another fantastic week here in Brasil! We had two more baptisms this week and our zone is doing fantastic!
Monday we play a great game of soccer and I am terrible. I played hard though! Only to find out that I'm getting old :P. I payed for that game for about 4 days afterward. We also whet to this GIANT bigger than Costco place, called Shopping China. They have EVERYTHING there. Everything we have in the states and more! Peanut Butter! They have Peanut Butter! Everything is priced in dollars as well! It was pretty cool!
I don't remember which day it was but while talking to a few of our recent converts they teased us because they didn't get any presents from us after their baptisms. SO we decided to make a cake! Elder Groff made the cake and we he pulled it out of the oven it had only risen on one side because our oven is not level. How do missionaries fix that? We grabbed four of these little snacks which are like the equivalent of a Hostess Ding-Dong, crumbled them up a bit and then put them on the side that wasn't risen and then we put frosting on it! NEEDLESS to say that family loved our cake. haha!
Wednesday we had our zone meeting and it was my first time talking in front of the zone as a zone leader but it went well and I think I got the message across I wanted to share. I talked about confidence in our work. I suggested 5 things that we need to trust in. The Lord, The Spirit, our companions, ourselves in our callings, and our testimonies! There were a bunch of scriptures I used as well and it was fun to share with everyone.
After our meeting we had lunch and then I did divisions with the Elders in another house for two days. One day with one companionship and one day with another. We had some good talks and some good times. On the second day while walking with Elder Martins, a man stopped his car right next to us, stuck his head out the window and said,"Hey do you see that red house right there? Can you go there and wait a few minutes? I'll be right back, I'm just going to buy bread." We accepted and he left. Just like he said, about 5 minutes later he came back and invited us in! We sat down and he said,"Well what do you have for me?" Ha, we were surprised and talked a little bit and then just dived into the lesson. Him and his wife were super curious so we ended up teaching about baptism, the restoration, and The Book of Mormon! It was super spiritual and they said they'd go to church, and they did! I saw them at church and said hi. I really hope they decide to get baptized. Please pray for them!
These are just a couple of the good things that happened this week but I want to say that I love you all and that I feel so loved and special that people would actually take the time to read my letters. Now if you could ALL write me it would really be appreciated. You can use email! roman.laws@myldsmail.net
Alma 53:2
Com muito amor,
Elder Roman Laws
Random Thought: I love Pavé!
Well another fantastic week here in Brasil! We had two more baptisms this week and our zone is doing fantastic!
Monday we play a great game of soccer and I am terrible. I played hard though! Only to find out that I'm getting old :P. I payed for that game for about 4 days afterward. We also whet to this GIANT bigger than Costco place, called Shopping China. They have EVERYTHING there. Everything we have in the states and more! Peanut Butter! They have Peanut Butter! Everything is priced in dollars as well! It was pretty cool!
I don't remember which day it was but while talking to a few of our recent converts they teased us because they didn't get any presents from us after their baptisms. SO we decided to make a cake! Elder Groff made the cake and we he pulled it out of the oven it had only risen on one side because our oven is not level. How do missionaries fix that? We grabbed four of these little snacks which are like the equivalent of a Hostess Ding-Dong, crumbled them up a bit and then put them on the side that wasn't risen and then we put frosting on it! NEEDLESS to say that family loved our cake. haha!
Wednesday we had our zone meeting and it was my first time talking in front of the zone as a zone leader but it went well and I think I got the message across I wanted to share. I talked about confidence in our work. I suggested 5 things that we need to trust in. The Lord, The Spirit, our companions, ourselves in our callings, and our testimonies! There were a bunch of scriptures I used as well and it was fun to share with everyone.
After our meeting we had lunch and then I did divisions with the Elders in another house for two days. One day with one companionship and one day with another. We had some good talks and some good times. On the second day while walking with Elder Martins, a man stopped his car right next to us, stuck his head out the window and said,"Hey do you see that red house right there? Can you go there and wait a few minutes? I'll be right back, I'm just going to buy bread." We accepted and he left. Just like he said, about 5 minutes later he came back and invited us in! We sat down and he said,"Well what do you have for me?" Ha, we were surprised and talked a little bit and then just dived into the lesson. Him and his wife were super curious so we ended up teaching about baptism, the restoration, and The Book of Mormon! It was super spiritual and they said they'd go to church, and they did! I saw them at church and said hi. I really hope they decide to get baptized. Please pray for them!
These are just a couple of the good things that happened this week but I want to say that I love you all and that I feel so loved and special that people would actually take the time to read my letters. Now if you could ALL write me it would really be appreciated. You can use email! roman.laws@myldsmail.net
Alma 53:2
Com muito amor,
Elder Roman Laws
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