“I’m Hungry” in Portuguese

Hi Everyone!

Things are starting to happen quickly here, with the energy and spirit that my new companion, Elder Alvarez has brought, we've been able to find some new investigators that are starting to progress, and at the same time our branches are getting more organized and structured and are gearing up for some big things!

The ward mission leader that was covering both the Glenwood ward (English) and our little Spanish branch just got released and will be able to dedicate all of his time to the Spanish, and he's getting meetings and correlation organized so we can be efficient with forms and keeping track of the reactivation/proselyting efforts!

This motivated me to spend a few hours spitting out all of the information I have in my head about the less actives and members onto the Branch directory, so there'll be a major update and we'll have current info on almost everybody.

I've been here a really long time now, I have a lot of knowledge about what's going on here and I'm starting to transfer all of that information to the area book so that if I get transferred in about a month the new companionship can keep going without missing a beat.

Records are really important, I've been starting to appreciate that aspect of the Lord's Kingdom as I've had to almost completely restructure everything organizationally in my time here! If nothing else, I think the Lord put me here to build the foundation for the area so that others in the future have a plowed, fertilized, cultivated field to harvest. I think we'll see at least the beginning of that though in these coming months, and I'm really excited about it!

3 of our investigators committed themselves to a baptismal date a couple weeks ago, and although they haven't been able to come to church because of work, they're still committed to progressing towards that as they give their 2 weeks notice and will be able to progress easier!

We'll be visiting them several times a week to keep them motivated and learning, they're starting the Book of Mormon from the beginning and you can see their lives starting to change!

It's wonderful to see people who are really committed and willing to follow the Lord's will, and as they feel the spirit directing them in their journey are becoming better people! I'm really excited to have them as part of the branch, they'll add a lot of strength and energy there I think, and their level of commitment already is something that'll help the branch a lot!

We found a new investigating couple, the husband is from Portugal and his wife is from Brazil, they both speak broken English and broken Spanish but we can communicate decently in Spanish!

It's been so cool to teach Portuguese speakers, we'll be ordering some copies of the Book of Mormon in that language so they'll understand better, and I'm hoping to take one also and learn some Portuguese from it!

The only things I remember are the words "paralalipipidu" which is "cobblestone", and "yo estoy con fome" which is "I'm hungry" if I remember right. It's been about 10 years since I learned those things, but for some reason they stuck! :)

They're amazing people and just welcomed us right into their house, where they talked for a long time and then we had a really powerful lesson! I have a lot of hope that they'll progress to baptism, we're hoping to bring them to the Aspen branch in English because they'll probably find more support there and will motivate the branch to start work in earnest to find people for us to teach.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary right now, I love the Lord and I love His work! The field really is white ready to harvest, and I feel blessed to be counted among the laborers.

My testimony of the gospel grows all the time, this really is the Lord's true church, restored through a living prophet, and led today by that same authority. Things are going great here, I hope that all of you are doing good as well wherever you are!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis