Elder Benson Plaster

Hey everybody! I hope all is well. This week felt pretty crazy, but at the same time not a lot happened. It could really just be the Portuguese wiping out all of my mental capacity.  I got my new companion this week and we were already kind of friends, so we didn't really have the awkward first few days together that normally happens after transfers. The coolest thing that happened this week was that we found a fish head on the side of the road and the other was we saw a toucan today. I also got to hang out with 3 Brazilians the day of transfers because they were the only other missionaries staying in Anápolis.  This week I saw a little miracle. I was feeling a little alone this week and that no matter what I couldn't do enough to help the missionary work in our ward. On Sunday members in our ward were talking to the people we brought to church and sitting with them and trying to help us get other people to church. This really helped me, and I knew it was a sign from Heavenly ...

Feliz Páscoa! This week was really good. The mission continues to speed up and it feels like every week is faster than the last.  We got transfer news yesterday and I will be staying in Jundiaí. My new companion is Elder Santos. I finally will have a Brazilian companion. I was already in the same district as Elder Santos so I know a little about him and this transfer is going to be very good.  One of our lunches this week was a little sad. It was with a member whose son passed away last week. It was a good experience to be able to share the joy that comes through Jesus Christ and knowing that she will see her son again. She also had a very strong testimony and told us that she was only sad because she has to be separated from him for a time. It was amazing to hear what she had to say.  My spiritual thought today is also going to be about this. During this week I had the opportunity to study Christ's last week on the earth, and I found a scripture that I love. Jesus is tal...

This week was pretty chill. I went on a division with Elder Bryan. He only has one more transfer than me on the mission so it was good to prove that we could survive in Brazil without extra help. There were a few times that we didn't understand a thing or two but that's not the end of the world.  One of the miracles we had this week was with one of our friends. He struggles a lot with drinking alcohol so he is normally drunk when we talk to him, but we still feel the spirit really strong during our lessons. This week we talked with him about the story of the prodigal son, and he told us he had a dream about it but didn't know what it meant so we helped answer that question for him. I felt God's love for every single one of His children as we testified about how God will never abandon us no matter how far we have stranded ourselves from Him.  My spiritual thought relates to this a little today. It is Doctrine and Covenants 82:10. "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do wh...

This week went by very fast, and we were so busy. We got to go to this park in our area a few times this week and it is pretty amazing to see the beauty of Brazil even when there are still very big buildings close by. There is a giant pond there that is full of big fish and turtles that are always cool to watch.  Sadly, one day this week we got kicked out of the park because we had a table and poster about the Book of Mormon with us. They said we had to have permission to have the table there, but we could go around and talk to everyone which honestly seems more annoying than us just having a table there. Hopefully we can get permission this week so we can return because the area around the park doesn't have a lot of people that are interested, and it is easier to find people who are interested with the table than going and knocking on people's doors.  For my spiritual thought this week I want to share a talk I liked from conference. It is the talk given by Christopher H. Kim....