Coincidence or Miracle? I Think Miracle!

HEY GUYS!! 

So this week was alright until yesterday! Man yesterday was sweet. 

But first, we did some service for an investigator which was pretty awesome. We took out some of the ground to make room to put concrete stairs for their terrace lá acima [above]. So that was pretty fun. 

But yesterday was cool. So we were going to visit a less active that we haven’t found a time to meet with them but yesterday we finally entered. BUT when we entered two minutes later another companionship showed up (there is usually just two but they were doing splits…you'll understand why I said this in a minute) to the same house and were pretty surprised that we were there. They came with a member that knows the family so we started talking. Then, five minutes after, the other companionship showed up. So we had 6 missionaries with one member at a less active house (and the dad isn't a member). So that was cool because none of us planned with one another beforehand and we just gave them a quick message and the spirit was super strong. I am glad that we followed the spirit and visited that family because apparently they needed it.

Sorry this is short, I will talk to you guys next week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Miracles and Jesus Christ

So this week I forgot about something I wanted to write about since last week but forgot until after so I will mainly talk about that but first off, this week was good. 

We had interview with Presidente Lacerda which was great. So during this one, I had a humbling experience. My president said that being the district leader for the zone leaders is a good amount of responsibility and that if I animate them, then the whole zone will be animated. Then he said something that hit me hard. He said, "Elder, the Lord has a lot of trust in you." That hit me hard because as a representative of Jesus Christ, it was humbling to hear that the Lord has faith in me, I just need to continue to do my part. 

The other thing I wanted to talk about is that we have done two family home evenings in two separate homes. The first was with Irmã Nilma. So for these special noite familiares (family home evenings but it is easier to write the former) we would show different videos of the miracles that Christ did while he was here on earth, and then after say that "…as representatives of Christ, what do you want to ask for if Jesus Christ was here?" Then, we write it down, say the prayer, and then leave them to continue feel the Holy Ghost (because it is already there.) So with Nilma, we did this and she started to cry because she thought of her husband and felt the spirit. With the other family, (Irmã Andreia) we did the same thing, she didn’t cry, but I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life. It was a great reminder of our purpose here on the mission and it was great to feel the spirit that much. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Service

Hey so this one is going to be real short because I am out of time já [already]. So first, we have a guy named Rafael that is going great... until I told him I would call and didn’t do that until later. So there’s that but I have one main thing that I wanted to talk about.

There is this family, Sara and Lenildo, who said that they didn’t like how other churches don’t really help them when they needed it (I am not saying that this is every other church I am just saying what they said) but she liked how when she entered ours, she felt welcome, and felt that they would actually help her out. I am just glad that this is a church of service. We don’t just preach it, we practice it. (Again, I know other churches do as well) I just loved that talk that President Eyring gave during conference about the yellow-shirted angels. If you haven’t read it, I ask that you go do that (or watch).

Hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Zone Conference and GENERAL CONFERENCE!

Monday, October 2, 2017

HEY GUYS. 

So we had zone conference this week which was awesome but to be honest, I won’t really focus on that too much but here we go. So our mission president talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and how we need to be doing the small things in order to have more power as missionaries. It was great. 

Then we found some families in between this and conference but OH BOY. Conference was amazing. First, I hope that the family of Elder Robert D. Hales is fine. He was an amazingly powerful apostle and was a man called from God. But this conference was so filled with good talks. I loved how they focused on having your heart centered on Christ but also I loved Elder Hallstrom’s talk on maricle (milagre I forgot how to spell that in English it doesn’t look right haha miracle?) But what he talked about that just being here on Earth is a miracle, having a body is a miracle, and through faith, small people (like you and me) can do great miracles. I bear my testimony that the words spoken in conference were inspired from God, and that everyone that talked were called of God. I sustain and love President Thomas S. Monson. I hope everyone has a good week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Oh fun highlight, I got to listen to conference in English! It was awesome to actually here the people’s voices instead of a monotone translation (although for Priesthood session I listened to the rebroadcast in Portuguese) 

Oh we also repainted our casa because we wanted the spirit to better be there. This is what happened.

Oh and that is the picture of my zone when we had that district meeting.

District Meeting and a Baptism

Monday, September 25, 2017

Hey everyone! 

So I don’t have a lot of time so this will be short. 

So the first thing that happened was that we had a district meeting and I gave a training since I am the district leader. Only thing different was that it was actually the whole zone that was there because our president has some new "rules" that he put into place that will help elevate the whole mission so the zone leaders told the whole zone the new information. So after that I got up and started my training and.... I said a person’s name wrong. It is Elder Carneiro but I said Elder Carno. Yep. SO that was fun. 

Oh and I got a new comp called Elder Henrique. He is chill and I think well will get a lot done here. 

Oh and Andre, the person that was struggling with smoking, stopped! And got baptized. When we went to pick him up I felt an overwhelming amount of peace just letting me know that this was right. 

Love you guys and I will talk to you all next week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Ups and Downs

Ai caras! Beleza? 

So this week has been a mix of ups and downs. 

So first off we have a pesquisador chamado [an investigator called] Andre and he was the one that is having trouble with cigarros [cigarettes] BUT he was progressing and was getting ready for BATISMO. Or so we thought, because he passed the interview and everything but we had an activity before he would have gotten baptized but he showed up and confessed some things to Elder Western (who gave the interview) of stuff that happened after and he then sat down with Elder Western, Elder Valdiviezo, and bishop and they talked about how he couldn’t get baptized until next week. Needless to say, he was a bit mad at them but he calmed down, and now we will work for Saturday! 

So we also had transfers and a lot happened. First, Valdiviezo and Hilario left for the mission office and house since they are going home. My new comp was someone else but then they changed everything around and now I am with an elder named Elder Henrique. Oh, and I am district leader now which means that I give training to the people in my district (which is really small. It’s my comp and I and the Zone Leaders). So that will be fun haha. I am excited and a little nervous for this new responsibility but I know it is where the Lord wants me so I will continue with this. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Miracles and Miracles That Went Bad

(Monday, September 11, 2017)

Hey everyone! What's up! So this week has been a good and hard one. 

So, first off we have an investigator that won’t stop smoking or drinking! It is frustrating because he keeps telling us that he wants to quit and we gave him a blessing (which he said worked and every time he wanted to smoke he wanted to throw up. So we thought that would end it right? No. He still continued after, hence Miracle that went bad) but we ended up just telling him that he can’t keep doing this. So we helped him with taking away chances to smoke or situations that he would do these things so let’s hope that will help! 

NEXT, we went back to visit an investigator and we ran into her son, Italo. So we started talking to him about music, cars, planes, and then we said, oh a gente vai passa amanha ta bom (or, we will pass by tomorrow alright?) He then said, “or we can just talk right now” (hmmm, alright sounds good) so we then taught him and his mom and we marked a date with him. Then we passed by again and he will be moving but it is still in our area so we will see him again! 

Then on Thursday was Independence Day here WHICH WAS a normal day. Like, no one celebrated anything. I heard more fireworks going off for Flamengo (a soccer team and my favorite team here. Vai Flamengo!) than I did for their own independence. BUT we did have a churrasco (barbecue) and it was killer! 

But then our mission president said that the missionary manual said that holidays were perfect for finding families so he said if you go out and search, you will find one family and one youth (jovem) that will go on a mission. So we went out, and...... We got a family and a youth to teach!! We just need to continue to pass by there, but that day, we got 6 new investigators. It was just a testimony to me that if you use the time of the Lord wisely, especially when you do your part, the Lord will provide. 

I hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer