It's the Lord's time!!

Feb. 20th 2012

 I am doing great here in the land of Paineiras Sorocaba Brasil. I am loving this work and with every coming day I am loving the hard things about this place more and more and the people too. I secretly hope that when I get back Joseph and I get called as home teaching companions and we get to teach all the inactive families or families that arent members. Ahhh.. my dream to do that!

 Wanna be home teaching companions 

I know that the skills I learn as a missionary are not only for the people of Brasil. 

Well its Carnival here so things are... interesting... but surprisingly enough my area is good cuz a lot of people don't like it.  I was able to give a blessing to the bishops wife cuz he is gone on the campout the youth do during carnival and I guess she is all better, it was really awesome!! 
We met two news at English class one which I think we might get a date for next week and the other lives in another area... :( I hate passing references of goldens ha ha.
 Elder Guthrie and I were walking down this street after lunch and I had to use the restroom VERY bad, I told the Lord listen I am going to need your help to make it home dry.  Then as if to say listen your on MY TIME here not yours, he sends E----(the fellow that dreamed about us.) walking up the street. He runs up to us yelling "I can't believe it, I can't believe it so much has happened to me since I last talked to you guys. Come back to my house! ANYWAY.... we taught him the restoration and got him to pray at the end and he was crying when I bore my testimony it was pretty tight. AND I made it home dry, cuz the lord kept his deal with me but it was close though. 
I got to bless the sacrament and I said it in Portuguese.. obviously ha, it was scary though but it was tight. I flippin love this! ALMA 29:9 the scripture for this week!!!
Oh we were eating dinner and this lady choked and it was scary and crazy ha but that's another story.       Elder Vincent (adam)

I have feelings that protect me.

Feb. 13th 2012 

You would be surprised how many times I feel feelings of what to do and not to do. Feelings that tell me to look over my shoulder one more time to see if the road is clear and just in time to stop myself from getting hit. The streets and drivers here are a little crazy, when I get back I will show you a scuff on the back heel of my shoe from a car tire. Ha ha.  My spirits are great.  I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the Book of Mormon!! I literally pour myself over it.  

My hair :(  yes sadly ... I AM GOING BALD. Ahhhhhh!!! :(

I gave my first full (1st and 2nd part) blessing of healing a few days.  I was afraid to heal him cuz he was having this problem for years but the spirit kept saying just to heal him and tell him he would be healed like three different times so I did and when it was all done he looked at me with tears in his eyes and was like Thank you so much, I can't feel it anymore I was like... whoa... your welcome! and he just sat down on the couch like it was nothing. 

    My Portuguese is great-people have told me that my accent is gone, however I do not feel fluent yet but blessings and confirmations aren't a problem anymore for me.

     We are now teaching an English class-it went great! Its weird to speak two language.

Feb. 6th 2012

     Well folks, I weigh a whoppin' 175, and I am gaining weight, I don't know how that's happening.   I walk like 5 miles a day. I think it's all these baptizing muscles... sigh...

Yes I baptized G------ on Saturday, our golden. Sad that he isn't our investigator anymore, he's a member now but still way cool. I baptized him and he was crying! In the service we watched the restoration, then the first counselor J----,played a song on the guitar for g------ about the first time he was baptized it was like no other baptism I've ever been to! He played the song he wrote and at the end instead of sitting down looked at everyone and said in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.  I realized the song was his testimony! G------ gave me the biggest hug and he said thank you so much-just lookin' at me.... I felt really mature, it was weird... I'm not used to that feeling!!! haha just kidding. 

    We are going to teach an english class! What a blessing to know two languages and this will bring us MANY news (new investigators) Thats what's up Brasilian missinoaries!  I know English!!! Muah ha ha!!.

     I almost fell into a cement hole! Here in brasil instead of manholes in the street they have these cement squares on the sidewalk to get in the sewer, anyway I stepped on one and it was crooked and I fell in but caught myself with my other foot and I was walking so fast I kinda just fell in front of it.... it was pretty lucky ha ha.  I just kept on walking almost without a break cuz I was reading something interesting to elder guthrie.. I met this guy named A------- that I think John baptized or taught, he stopped the car and yelled at me.  It scared me. He was like I know your brother really well but I'm way inactive! (people here sometimes don't act like its a bad thing at all cuz the church is still new)  

Elder Vincent

Blessings of musical talents. :)

Jan. 30th 2012

Adam writes that Mom is on the same spiritual wave because she tells him all the stuff to do and he's already doing it.  :)  He feels better about the language.  Says he hit another bread through because he's starting to talk in his sleep.  Portuguese.  He says that he knows that it is a miracle and that he is not smart enough to learn this on his own.  

He said that it rained straight for 24 hours and he has never in his life seen so much rain.

This is Joseph showing you what Adam eats every day.

He was amazed that Joseph eats the same diet as him.  WOW.  Except that a sweet Sister in their ward brings them food.    

"Had the opportunity to do some solid contacting this week ha ha. We were walking by one house and there was music playing way loud and it was a song I Iliked from home so I said aww elder lets knock this house- turns out it was a woman with two kids who wants to hear more ha ha. YES!! Man I miss music."   

     "I almost had to play the simplified version of Ye Elders of Israel this week for sacrament meeting I'm like, 'hold up, I don't know how to play!' ha ha it was scary, but sometimes I lead the ward, which is crazy, they seem to think I am musically talented. I was very thankful for the little musical skill I had."

Thanks for all you guys do. Love you so much!

"I learned a lesson I will never forget"

I played frisbee the first time on the mission! Yeah it was not as fun, I played with Brasilians who didnt know the difference from a frisbee and a rock, and some noob Americans but it was WAY fun! And that same day I made mashed potatoes for the Zone. :) I learned a lesson I will never forget Sunday. It was fast and testimony meeting and during the meeting there was a lot of open time. So much that the bishop got up and had to give a little pep speech to everyone to bear their testimonies. I felt like I should go up but was afraid to with my portuguese. Anyway, after the meeting was over, ******* said to me, "Elder Vincent! Why didnt you bear your testimony??' Here I am a missionary, with this elite, and he was expecting to hear my testimony and there was a lot of open time and me being the missionary of the ward didnt bear my testimony. He was sad! He said he was almost going to bare his. It was his first sunday! Anyway I will never forget that and learn from it :) No worries though. At testimony meeting ***** (the family in the fight) got up and bore her testimony and said she was so greatful for the missionaries and started crying! (from when we helped her) It was very humbling but made me so happy! We had many investigators at church this week it was awesome. And some that said they weren't interested but now want to hear more. I climbed a Jaca tree to get a Jaca fruit for a member! they called me a macaco (monkey) haha they were like Elder are you sure you can climb this tree I was like oh please look at me. I didnt even get my clothes dirty! Jaca are bigger than watermelons and taste like watery bananas and hang from trees. The rain hits you like walls here, its sunny, and then you see a cloud and LITERALLY a wall of rain, it is sooo awesome that all you can do is stand and stare not caring that you will get drenched. Its more beautiful than almost anything in nature even rainbows. I never have time to get my rain jacket out before it hits thats how fast they are. We made some great head way this week with ****(the street contact with the dream) and Maria and Lucia (the references from Ana Sara) so that is really cool! This is the list to pray for:

EIGHTEEN FOLKS AND WHAT WE SHOULD PRAY FOR

now you see how my prayers go every night :) thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUUUUUUUCH.

Elder Adam VIncent

Home, Power of one testimony and Defend the church!

Well these past few days went great for me It was nice to talk to family. It just made me wish they were here with me working. I am so happy that everyone was there,I was very happy I could talk to Joseph too, I don't think you guys know how happy I was cuz I was crying the whole time. HAAA but I was so happy, I didn't think I would get to talk to him for two years let alone yesterday, and when you guys asked me if I wanted to my heart stopped! I was holding together (for the most part) talking to you guys but when I talked to him it was game over and I lost it, ha ha. It felt so good to cry with him, I think I was able to say like five words we just kept looking at each other and saying is that you!!

(This is way cool) There is a family in the ward....one of the families that's a friend to missionaries. They always hook us up with stuff, anyway her name is ***** and she is a convert and their family of five is all baptized! John doesn't know her, but she knows him! He is the first missionary she ever talked to and he contacted her but she rudely turned him down, then later thought about it and felt bad and after some time when different missionaries knocked, she let them in to hear the message!!! Now she is baptized and active ha ha how funny! I bet poor old John thought she was a lost cause but what he did changed her for the next time missionaries came knocking!

Real quick, an update on mission life! Mission life and the work is great! I have had some pretty crazy experiences this last week, we are working with some great people but for Brazilians the season of Christmas is one of the hardest times you can teach poeple. Cuz they party and it's just really hard to get in to some people, it's good with all the members though cuz they know the true reason of Christmas, so we did a lot of member and inactive work this week, we did however meet and teach a lot, a certain family I call --------(names are left out on purpose.) It is a family of 6 that are very poor they do not have running water or a fridge or even a house for that matter they live in this make shift shelter that's open to animals as well ha ha. When we went over there one time this week there was a guy we met from an unkown religion (all i know is that he wasnt catholic) and we had a run-in with him... OR SHOULD I SAY he had a run-in with us. This was all in front of our investigating family too. Anyway he said some very rude things that he didn't know what he was saying. It made my testimony really strong defending just about everything in our church. It was VERY HARD not to get upset and pull out some good bible bashing scrips I knew, I just kept thinking about Christ and smiling, I corrected him. At the end he wanted to give us a hug before he left cuz it's normal here and he said trying to be nice to us "just forget Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and we´d be all good if we did". I looked at him in the face and said "I´ll give you a hug if you want but I will NEVER forget Joseph Smith, and the words of God he helped translate and what he did for this earth, and if only you knew or had half the knowledge I did of the Book of Mormon or let alone had read part of it you would take back those words" It was awesome and he didn't say much after that but as he was leaving he said "if you guys don't change while you have the chance it will be too late" and then I said "I couldn't agree with you more and that's why I hope God forgives you for saying the things you did to, and about, his servants" then he was quiet and left. He had said some pretty rude things, anyway it just makes me so thankful for knowing the true word. It was sad for him. Anyway the family believes us which is cool and we turned what happened into a learning experience for them about finding out for yourself the truth of the Book of Mormon. Three of the six were able to make it to church yesterday for christmas which was great cuz they met so many members who they made friends with and they got to hear Elder***** and I speak in church (yes I gave a talk in church for the first time of my mission, and it was on Christmas, and it was in front of some of my investigators) what a perfect opportunity!!!
I got sprayed with a hose by a guy....yeah, long story. But his wife is way interested and we'll see how that goes!

Some more good news, the family who we interrupted a fight with, are now happy and on their way to celestial status once ********* parole runs out and is baptized! They were beaming sitting together at church! If nothing else happens on my mission I will be content knowing I helped my favorite family stay together.... well unfortunately my time is up and I have to go! (walkey-talkey sound) beep. Elder Vincent is out!!! ~static~ :)

Eternal Families are really important. Listening to the spirit.

The work is going, we had a hard week not gonna lie but I am excited as always. Yours truly is finally a man, yes I did contacts for a whole day, my feet were sore and I clapped doors, I have done them before of course but not this many, we actually met many people and are way excited to teach them this week. Sao Paulo isn't as nice to people at doors as is the rest of Brazil, the people here kinda slam their doors too. haha but oh well we met some awesome peeps and it was only cuz we had revelation where to go. The spirit works! The language is going great it is hard as usual to write in English but that’s fine I still have English in my head thanks to my companion. But I can say or communicate almost anything regularly I want to which I am happy about. My dreams consist of Portuguese tambem. Thank you for your prayers, needed them I was very sick this past week which was very hard, and I was away from home too so it was kinda hard but now all is better I am very excited to start a new week fresh and clean! I had a life changing experience this week to say the least... One day I had a thought that I should go and visit my favorite family, (Reginald and his family, the man that needs to wait to be baptized, but his kids and wife are members) anyway when we arrived and clapped I felt dark, like something was wrong so when Selma (the wife) strangely invited us in I entered cautiously, my comp and I walked into a very intense fight between them that had been going on for about four days. It was started over something small but now they were talking about separation and how they needed a divorce now and their two adorable kids were staying with their grandma that’s how bad it was, my comp and I were sitting on their couch in between them as they both very meanly towards one another were filling us in, not gonna lie I didn’t understand a lot but I felt random pangs of bad spirit and I knew they were saying terrible things about each other. I had no idea what to say and my comp who speaks better was kinda floundering buying us some time to talk, it is crazy how life can throw you into situations and you have to be ready with the help of the spirit for anything. An eternal family is the most important thing on this earth and here was my favorite family in Brasil, right in front of me, about to break, and be ruined. It was so scary. I didn’t know what to say, anyway, I thought back to my PB, after that the spirit filled me in with details of what I needed to say. I waited for a moment and when there was a pause asked if I could speak. I told them that I do not know Portuguese that well, I don’t know any phrases or special scriptures to help them, but that I know two things, that the first time I met them I felt a spirit between them that was not fake and could not be duplicated. This was why they were my favorite family, because I felt something between them all that I knew had the ability to be a powerful eternal family of happiness and something that only the spirit of the lord could make me feel. That I knew that what they were doing(taking the discussions, Reginaldo) was true and right and the Lord was pleased with them. The second thing was that the family is the most powerful thing that we can do on this earth and the center of our church. I talked about the devil and everything happening then was of him and only cuz he knew that they were doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. This was why he(the devil) was trying at them so hard, also that they have to hold on, and that it was always hard in the beginning but we need to first show our faith, I talked about holding to the rod and that the power we have are to do the LITTLE things everyday as a family like read and pray together. It was very spiritual, Selma was crying and so was I. I said many things I can't write down today and some of which I don’t remember learning words in Portuguese of.
We returned the next day to check up on them and Reginaldo was smiling, he was cooking dinner, ha ha I was like whoa.. he called Selma and was so respectful and sweet to her it was so awesome, then we sat down, us three to his dinner he made... (which he made from his heart but wasn’t good at all) ha ha but he was doing it cuz he loved Selma and wanted to serve her. He told us how what I said changed their marriage and that when I was talking to him the day before he felt the devil running out of the house, he said that things were much more tranquil and happy and he was very grateful. It was very life changing for me the whole experience but I could not have done it without the spirit, it is so cool that the spirit can save families like that, I am just glad I was waiting and listening for it to help me and tell me what to say! We all need to remember to listen to him, he knows what he’s doing! tell David thank you SOOO MUUUCCH!! for the money!!
Mother there are MANY vehicles here... hahahah it's Sao Paulo, a ton of buses, small cars, and motorcycles, but it rains a lot so we don't have any smog... the air is clear.
My package has arrived! I will receive it this Tuesday at district meeting! Sorry it takes time to get out to me from the office! Joseph was right mom(about the package that was mailed to him), pray and don't doubt or WORRY cuz whatever happens is the will of the Lord and rest well Mom, I have my package I will get it Tuesday :) I am so excited, thank you! haha well i love you guys!
Dad haha dont get rid of McGHEE (his enormous fish) until Christmas at least if you are going to i want to see him.