Um Apóstolo do Senhor

So, this past Saturday we had an amazing day. Our mission received a visit from one of the twelve apostles. It was absolutely amazing. I had the honor of conducting the hymns. I was kind of nervous. I conducted the special musical number that our whole mission sang too. (By the way, Sister Dias told me I was to conduct the musical number the day of the meeting! Good thing I´m pretty well rehearsed in that kind of thing... But nonetheless I was a little nervous and shaky...)
It was really uplifting. I learned a lot and I can´t really share everything that I learned. But I´ll share with you some of the high lights.

So, first off he started with a greeting from President Monson. President Monson told Elder Bednar to tell us that they love us and pray for us. It was a really nice thing. He said that as he was leaving his meeting with the 1st presidency and the quorum of the twelve President Monson stopped him and told him to give us that message.

He said that the Book of Mormon has two underlining themes.

1st - Come unto Christ
2nd - In the Strength of the Lord

We all like to study by topic, which is a good thing, but when we see how topics are related we will truly understand things better. He also said some interesting things about faith, and a praying in faith.

We´ve all heard the prayer at church "please help those who are not here this week that they can be here next week," which he said is a nice and sincere prayer, but is completely lacking in faith. Faith leads to action, so he gave an example like "we´ve noticed that there are many of our brethren missing here today, and we pray that after we leave this meeting to go out and find them and bring them back even though we may be hungry. please help us to have the inspiration to not all end up at the same person´s house." That´s praying in faith.

He also shared some interesting things about the future for when we are parents. It´s interesting to think that as parents your responsibility is to raise our children to leave you, and if they leave you and are unable to fend for themselves you´ve failed as parents. It´s the same thing as missionary work with the people we teach. The people we teach need to learn to rely on the Lord and not on us as missionaries. (you know teach a man to fish verses giving a man a fish) We just show them the way and how to do it.

Missionary work is not so much what you do, but who you are. Be what we preach. Have clean eyes. The natural man is selfish, but the saint turns outwards.

Anyway, there is more that I learned, but as I was learning from Elder Bednar, teaching is more than just talking. It´s 1- listening 2- observing 3- discerning and 4- talking. Those are the steps of teaching.

I´m really grateful for the opportunity I had this past week to learn from an apostle of the Lord. It was truly amazing. We live in a period where prophets and apostles are on the earth. What a blessing it is to have them to guide us and teach us. It´s just one more thing that strengthens my testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ´s true church. God will always guide His people by prophets, because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

I love you all. Thank you for all your love, support and prayers. Have a great week.

-Elder Samuel H. Chiba

Milagres Acontecem de Vez em Quando

I got back to Açailândia on 4:30 am Thursday morning. Our week of missionary work was a few days shorter than normal, but a miracle happened. We´ve been teaching some families and some people recently, and about 90% accepted our invitation to church on Sunday. We had a total of 16 people visiting church on Sunday. I hope they all liked it. We´ll be following up with them this week.

As of the third of November, I will be home in less than two months. Yikes! Time sure is flying fast.

My companion looks more American than I do, and I look more Brazilian than he does. It´s pretty funny. My two previous companions were both American but, like me, don´t look like a "typical" American. You know, blond with blue eyes. Irony.

The whole mission will be going to Teresina this Saturday to have a special meeting with Elder Bednar. I´ve never actually met an apostle before. I´m excited and nervous at the same time. It will be nice though. I look forward to seeing an apostle of the Lord. I´m sure it will be amazing.

I´m grateful for this church. It´s amazing. I know that Christ lives and that only through Him, we can once more live with our Father in Heaven. I hope you have a great week. I´ll tell you about our mission conference next week.

Love,
Elder Samuel H. Chiba

O Último Treinamento

Well folks,

I was traveling all day long yesterday, so I wasn´t able to email you guys. I left Açailândia at 9am and got to Teresina at 9pm. It was a long bus ride. I went all by myself because the Zone Leaders missed the bus that started in Imperatriz and passed through Açailândia, but I made it safe and sound.

So, I´m here in Teresina for the last leadership training of my mission. The trainings only happen once every two months. And two months from now I´ll be home... But they are really nice. It´s an energy and moral booster.

It´s started to rain a little bit lately in Açailândia. It´s been nice. The weather has been cooling down a little bit.

Anyway, my comp and I are making a change in our approach to preaching the gospel. And we´re a lot happier and feel like we´re being more successful. We´re teaching a great family and taught them about temples. How families can be sealed together forever in the temple, as well as baptisms for the dead. We felt the Spirit really strong that day. We also found another nice family recently. Teaching families is the best. Teaching in general is great, but it´s especially nice teaching families. I´m really grateful for this gospel. I know it´s true.

Have a great week. Love you all.

-Elder Samuel H. Chiba

Maribondo

We got two new elders in our district and the sisters were transferred out two weeks ago. Elder Eberhardt and I were working hard and on Friday he got stung by a wasp, which didn't turn out too nicely. But don't worry! He's ok! Well, this week was good. Or it started out nicely. It started to rain a little. It was nice. It´s been very hot lately and the rain cooled the weather down a bit. We woke up in the morning and it was raining and the weather was cool. It was great!

We're teaching a great family! They are really awesome. We gave them a Book of Mormon and they´re reading it! Domingas, the mom, was having a rough day or she was feeling irritated or something, and she decided to read the Book of Mormon. When she read it she felt a lot better! Her husband and two children are great too. They are a very receptive family.

It´s great to see how when people decide to actually read the Book of Mormon it makes a difference in their life. I wish everyone would read it. It truly testifies of Christ. I know the Book of Mormon is true. It´s the proof that God gave us to know that Jesus Christ lives, that we have a modern living prophet, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. I hope you're all doing well. I love you all.

-Elder Samuel H. Chiba

Sushi and Onigiri

Today Elder Eberhardt and I made some sort of sushi roll and onigiri. A member in São Luís gave me some nori, that I´ve been saving, and we used it today. It was a great lunch. My companion discovered he really likes onigiri. He said that he is really lucky because he´s one of the few people in this mission that gets to have a Japanese companion.

This past week was "Childrens Day" here in Brazil on the 12 of October. So, happy Children´s day to everyone! or Feliz Dia das Crianças para todos!

Yesterday, was the confirmation of Senior Martins. It was interesting. He´s hard of hearing, and when the bishop called him up to be confirmed he didn´t realize he was being called up, so my comp and I went to get him, and tried to tell him he needed to go up to the pulpit to be confirmed, but you see we tried to do it reverently. So he, being hard of hearing, says "What? I´m half def, can you speak up?" Anyway, you can imagine it was kind of funny. But we brought him up to the front and the bishop confirmed him. It was a really nice confirmation. The bishop here in Açailândia is great! He´s really short, but he has a huge spirit. You can see in his eyes. He´s a really good example of a good church leader. He loves the people and loves the gospel and is really excited about doing the Lord´s work.

Anyway, things are starting to pick up here. We´ve been find and working with some really good families! It´s really nice. We've been teaching a lot about eternal families lately. Families can be together forever. It´s one of the greatest blessing that our Loving Father in Heaven has in store for us. If we are faithful and live His gospel we can live with our families forever. This blessing was restored to the earth once again after the restoration of the gospel and the church of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith.

I love you. I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Samuel H. Chiba

Entrevistas Batismais

So, as a district leader one of my responsibilities is to interview the people who are preparing for baptism. It´s a blessing to be able to do these interviews. There are some people who are really ready and anxious to be baptized others who don´t know that they´re ready and I help them realize they are and then there are others who aren´t ready yet. But it´s been really nice to be able to do this. This past week I was able to do about 4 interviews for the sisters in my district, and 3 people were baptized. All 4 of the people are really great. Anyway, it was a nice week. I hope you all have a good week too. Make sure you read the Book of Mormon this week. I know it is true. I love you.

-Elder Samuel H. Chiba

Sapatos

General Conference was greatly rewarding. This time we didn´t have the opportunity to watch it in English, but that´s okay because I understand Portuguese well enough to take notes. I prefer the natural voice, but I was still able to learn a lot. The conference was very spiritually rewarding.

During the break in between the sessions on Sunday we had a baptismal service. An old man whom we have been teaching was baptized, along with a woman and an 8 year old boy that the sisters were teaching. It was a very special day. My companion, Elder Eberhardt is farely new in the field, and it was the first person who he found, taught, and baptized. Everyone was very happy. Senhor Martins, who we baptized on Sunday, has problems in his legs and walks with a cane. Sunday morning he woke up dizzy, but got himself ready and got on the bus to go to conference and his baptism. Talk about an elect of God. We walked him home afterward, and he told us that as soon as he was baptized he didn´t feel dizzy anymore and that he felt great. His wife passed away about 5 years ago. We´re also teaching his daughter and her family who also went to conference and are really liking the church and the gospel. Actually, we´re helping her husband build they´re new house. But they are waiting for the next load of bricks to arrive before we can help out more.

On another note, the shoes and package still haven´t arrived, but good news! A sister here hunted down new shoes for me, and found some in my size. (all the sisters in the ward here were worried about my shoes....) I tell everyone the story of the confusion with the postal service and how I´m just waiting for my new shoes to arrive, but I guess that didn´t work. Anyways, the members here are very supportive and love the missionaries. They take good care of us. I´ve been lucky. All my areas, all the members are really great!

So, it´s been a really good week. Today we made hamburgers(like legit burgers), as a farewell for a sister (Sister Matos from São Paulo) in our district who will be ending her mission next week as well as another elder (Elder Bailey from Salt Lake) in our zone. I really love the missionaries in my mission. I love my mission and the missionaries here too. It´s hard sometimes but, looking back the only things that I really remember are the good moments. I´m learning a lot. A lot about life, a lot about marriage (weird right?) and a lot about the gospel. It´s really a blessing to be here. The world is a lot different than I once thought. My perspective has changed a lot.

Anyway, I´m really grateful to have a modern living prophet. That´s one of the greatest things of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The knowledge that God loves us enough to call a prophet in our day to lead us and guide us. I´m also really grateful for the Book of Mormon, which is the proof of the truthfulness of the gospel and the restoration thereof. I hope everyone is doing well. I encourage you to read the Book of Mormon everyday and find a way to share the gospel with someone. How great would it be knowing that we helped someone else find their way back to live with our Father in Heaven? I love you. Have a great week!

-Elder Samuel H. Chiba

Baptism from conference

Guaraná Jesus (a soda that only exists in Maranhão Brasil)