Thursday, July 25, 2019

Beans: 1 Missionaries: 0


BEST WEEK SO FAR. It started with this rather disturbing story...not for the weak stomach.
    
 Last week the CTM went to the Campinas temple and its 1 hour and 30 mins away. We got this like double decker bus minus the first floor so everyone was up top and it was very bumpy... While we were cruising after an hour-ish most people were asleep and during one of my tosses I hear this waterfall of chunkiness behind me. I didn´t really think much of it but then I realized, we don’t got no waterfalls on this bus. I turned around and this poor sister had spewed everywhere!! The ground was covered in a fun mess! Most people were asleep still but I legit froze and didn’t know what to do. Finally I got up and asked the leader in my broken Portuguese if she needed help. She just handed me some paper towels and sat down. Everyone just watched as I used these paper thin towels to scoop up this chunk mess that covered the bus floor. I felt so bad for the girl and most people were iffy the rest of the day to touch me haha because of my barf shoes and hands haha. But this is my testimony that God can make weak things become strong! It was a nasty experience but one of my favorites this week because God showed me how I can serve others by doing what people don’t like to do hahah.
     Second story. Amazing. I love the mission. We had proselyting this week and so they bused us down to like the Times Square of São Paulo and just sent us to get contacts. We spent the first hour just walking up and down the street just feeling so ignored and trying to start conversations in Portuguese. Finally I was like, this isn´t really working. We gotta catch people when they are at street intersections, stopped or just chillin. Right then I saw this lady with a dog picking up its poop and I decided to strike haha. I started to just ask her about her dog and where she is from and then halfway through the convo she was like, ´do you speak English? `´ And I was like yes. Then she was like we can speak English if that´s easier haha. But we just got chattin´about religion and I asked if she was religious and she unloaded! She had missionaries over when she was young but didn´t want to decide her religion that young. She believes that everyone should be loved no matter what. Love the sinner not the sin. Well I told her how much God loves his children no matter what and it´s unconditional. She then told me a story how she really liked this guy but he left her and she pleaded with God to send him back but God told her ´´I have something better in store for you.´ She met another guy right after and they are doing well but I like to believe the thing God has in store for her is the Gospel. She explained her testimony essentially of prayer and how grateful she is for the tender mercies in her life. After I got her contact info I felt impressed to just pray with her and we prayed in Portuguese and she was just so happy and content afterwards. Literally my day was made and she is Golden! Excited for the field and these experiences every day!!

Love you all!
Elder Gardanier


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