6 October 2010

It was good to hear that my last email was so well received. I think

I’m finally getting a hang of this missionary email thing!

I have not been transferred as I had thought. Elder Treasure and I

will both be staying together for another six weeks. The next transfer

will happen a week before Thanksgiving. I’m really happy to be staying

here in the center, though. It is a great area, and Elder Treasure and

I will see a lot of the fruits of our labors over the next six weeks.

General Conference was awesome! I really enjoyed President Monson’s

last talk on gratitude. It made me think a lot more about the

blessings that I have here on the mission. How many others don’t have

the opportunity I am having right now!

Yesterday we had another amazing experience: We had a pretty full day

planned: lesson in the morning, lunch, service in the afternoon,

lesson at 6, lesson at 7:30. While we were waiting for lunch to be

served, we received a call from the assistants asking us to go to

Barigüi to help organize the new trainers (missionaries that would be

receiving companions from the Missionary Training Center in São

Paulo). So, we planned on shortening the service, ate lunch, and

launched off to Barigüi. We called the sister who we would be helping

that afternoon and told her we would arrive about 4:00.

Well, after all was said and done we didn’t even leave Barigüi until

4. We didn’t get back to our area until 5:00. For some reason, I felt

impressed to get off the bus one stop earlier than usual, thinking it

would be faster for us to get home. The decision was made at the last

second, so Elder Treasure got attacked by the bus doors when he

followed me off the bus. He’s okay.

While we were walking up the road, we deduced that there would no

longer be sufficient time to serve the sister, and we planned on

stopping by her house to remark. As we were contemplating this

failure, who did we happen to pass on the street that we had never

passed by before? Our appointment for 6:00! We were able to invite him

to go to mutual that night with a member that lives close by him, and

we decided to teach him at the church before mutual started.

So, with a little extra time, we went and served the sister who needed

us. While we were there, we received a call from our 7:30 appointment

who told us our appointment wouldn’t work out and we’d have to remark.

Well, we got to church at 7:30 anyway to meet Adilson (our original

6:00 appointment), and we were invited to share our lesson for him

with the whole mutual group, thus helping him to make a lot of

friends. Because our appointment at 7:30 had fallen, this was quite

easy to do. The kids participated, and many of them bore their

testimonies about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the best of all:

Adilson bore his testimony voluntarily at the end.

At that’s how Adilson was introduced to the church for the first time.

We hope he’ll be there on Sunday to assist Sacrament meeting. Even

though things often looked like they were disasters, it all worked out

for the better in the end.

Remember: Even if the bus doors are closing, it’s not too late to

follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

I love you,

Elder Floyd