Power of prayer... I love miracles!!

"Although we had a bit of a rough week, it wasn't without miracles or positive events.

Going to the Temple was really refreshing for me. There is just so much peace inside that building! I love to do Endowments! But I have to admit that most of the time, what I am looking forward to, is that peace, quiet and love which can only be felt in the Celestial room. As I think about my feelings and desires, it also makes me think of it as a type for what life is truly about.
As we go through the temple we are reminded of what it feels like to live with our Heavenly Father, it increases our desire to return back to Him. As we go about our lives, there is nothing that we want more than to feel that sense of belonging that come from feeling God's love. Although we have ups and downs, joy or pain, what we cannot wait for is the love, peace and quiet that we will feel when we return to Heavenly Father one day.
I think that one of the reasons why the Temple had to be built, aside from the fact that in there we receive saving ordinances, is that God wants us to keep on having high hopes. He wants to remind us of why we are here, and where we are meant to get to.
I love the temple so much!

The other miracle is something that I am actually quite glad it happened as it didn't actually start as a miracle.
You see, after going to the Temple, the trains to Shrewsbury were all messed up and so we ended up staying the night in Crewe. That was a very long and cold night! I kept waking up because I was cold and because I was sleeping on an armchair. The following day, due to such a terrible night, I was in a bit of a grumpy mood, had a headache, and could not wait for 10:30pm to arrive so I could get to bed.
As we were street contacting, I approached a man in the nicest way possible despite how I felt, however the man took offense for some reason and started cursing at me. Because I was slightly annoyed I was annoyingly persistant even though I knew perfectly that he wouldn't accept the Gospel. After I left the man I just felt anger and tiredness. I'd let the natural man take over, and for that I felt terrible. I felt horrible for the way that I had acted! Whenever I wasn't talking to someone I'd be praying for forgiveness. At night, during my personal prayer I also added the plea that if I ever met the man again, that I would remember him and have the courage to apologise to him.
On Thursday, I was on exchange with Elder Bunker and we had a great day. We spoke to a lot of people and were having a lot of fun. At 9pm, as we were making our way to the flat, Elder Bunker stopped man ahead of us in the middle of a tunnel even though it was dark and noisy. When I finally got close to them, I realised that the man Elder Bunker was trying to speak to was the man who I had enfuriated the day before. God gave me my chance to apologise to him, so I took that chance. After all of that, it felt like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders! The man actually told me he forgave me and even shook my hand - something he had denied to do the day before.
I just love the power of prayer SO MUCH! I love Miracles!

I am excited for this week! I am hoping to see a lot of changes happen."

Crazy tranfer's week!

"I realised at the beginning of this last week that all the District Leaders I’ve had so far have gone home! What a scary thought! Just shows how quickly a mission goes! But now that I have Elder Bunker as my District Leader, I know he will be here until two transfers before I go home!

Elder Desir and I had a great weekend! We have been trying to be more ourselves, and try different ways of doing missionary work.

On Saturday, we played some basketball with a recent convert and a load of his friends. They are all from the Philippines, and are really nice. Most of them had also met missionaries before in the Philippines so they kept asking us “Do you speak Tagalog? Because the missionaries in the Philippines do, and they are really good at it!” It was fun. We are hoping to play again with them this week, and while one of us plays, the other will be sitting down and teaching whoever else is sitting down. All of them also have families, so we really want to get teaching them and their families! It would definitely help the ward here in Shrewsbury to grow!

Then yesterday (Sunday) we had tea at our Italian Investigator’s home! There are ALWAYS other people there too! Now, everyone there was catholic besides us 2… But I think we did pretty well! At one point they were arguing about the big Cathedrals that the Catholic Church has, some of them agreed that they were necessary and some of them thought they were pointless. The investigator's son, asked us if we had any big buildings, and what our view was about it. I explained about how just like in the times of the Old Testament we have Temples, the House of the Lord – we even showed them pass along cards of the Salt Lake and the Preston Temples – and that the reason why they are so beautiful is because as an offering to the Lord from us, we build it with the best materials we can. The investigator then asked us if we really thought that God wanted such a building, so we used the Bible to reply to her question. I mentioned about how Jesus Christ, during his Ministry, drove the money changers out of the Temple because it was his Father’s house, and so we know for a fact that it is something that is important to God.

It was great! Whenever they were talking, there were multiple conversations going on at once, however, when we spoke, there was absolute silence, and it was almost unnerving to speak up because of how much silence there was!

When we were leaving, the investigator told us that she would like to come to our church in two weeks as she has never been to a “Mormon Church” before but ‘…would like to know what it is all about”.

This week should be really amazing! We are packed with things to do today – from spending time with one of the Priests, to an appointment-packed evening tonight – then there is the temple tomorrow!

Elder Desir and I are so excited to go to the Temple! It’s been so long since we have last gone in! I miss it so much! And now I definitely have a LOT more questions to take in with me than last time!

Can’t wait to feel of that Spirit and Love which can only really be felt at the Temple."

Staying in Shrewsbury with..... Elder Desir! :)

"What a wonderful surprise to be serving with Elder Desir for another transfer!

On Monday, after transfer calls, we went out to do some finding. What a wonderful day it was! We decided to pray and ask God to lead us to families. As we were street contacting, this man walked past us, with earphones in his ears, and Elder Desir spoke to him. We found out that he actually had a partner and 2 daughters. As we kept speaking to him, he told us that it would be a huge feeling of happiness to know that he could be with his family forever, and he set up an appointment with us, for the very same day. We taught a really wonderful Restoration lesson to him and his family. He accepted to read the book of Mormon and pray about it, and he told us he wants to read the whole book before we go over again. Thankfully he is a quick reader, so he told us he will have finished reading it in the next two weeks! We will keep popping by though just to see if we can help him receive the Restored Gospel into his life ASAP.

Praying for families has definitely been a huge help this last week! We have been seeing a lot of success from it! Prayer is the best thing ever! So simple, and yet so powerful! Elder Desir and I are really excited for this transfer, and we know that some good things will happen here in Shrewsbury!

I love being here in Shrewsbury! The people we work with are great! I love them to bits! And so does Elder Desir. I think that is one of the reasons why we have such great expectations for this transfer! These people will feel our love, and hopefully we will be able to feel their love too!

I am so excited to go to the temple next week! I miss it so much! It is such a special feeling to be inside it and feel of God’s love for us. Cannot wait!"

I love being a missionary!

"I love being a missionary so much! You just see so many miracles! It’s wonderful! Let me tell you about a couple of miracles we were able to see today!

So, on Wednesda, we had about 30mins to do some proselyting before our flat inspectors came to see how our flat was looking, so we decided to go out, into town – which we never do as town is always too crowded of “busy” people. Anyway, it was evening time, so there weren’t as many people out!

As we were walking through town, I saw a young man, with really long hair, Punk-ish look who looked sort of familiar, and both Elder Desir and I were certain we’d spoken to him before. However, I decided to approach him anyway as there is nothing wrong with a second chance! Turns out we had never actually spoken to him before. We had a really nice conversation with him about the Gospel. As we were trying to set up an appointment, Elder Desir said “I am sure you are very busy…” to which he replied “Not really… I have about 10 more minutes…” We were both shocked! But of course took this opportunity to sit on a bench and teach him the First Lesson. He was GOLDEN! He understood the need for baptism, and when I felt inspired to do so, I invited him to follow the example of Jesus Christ which he accepted! The only sad thing about it: He is from Yorkshire. We left him with a copy of the book of Mormon which he actually asked for, and a pamphlet of the Restoration. I am very confident that he will read and pray about it.

The second Miracle that amazed me happened on Friday. After we got out of the house, as we were going up the road, a man crossed the road to meet with us. So I approached him and told him about our message. He told us that we’d tried speaking to him before, but he’d been having a miserable day so just brushed us off, however, as we were walking in the same direction, we could share with him our message."

We ended up walking with him all the way to his house, he invited us in, we sat down and shared with him about our message, and before we left we set up a return appointment. He is a Baptist and so he kept asking us about being saved by grace and not works. He also spoke about the dead not having a second chance after this life, and when we mentioned 1 Corinthians 15:29, he said that he had never come across that scripture before.

 

I love being a missionary and meeting so many different and nice people! It’s one of the things I love most! Shrewsbury Ward truly is a great Ward! I love it! The members are really nice, and they really like the missionaries. There is nothing I love more than when members and missionaries work together!"

Following the promptings of the Spirit!

"What a week it has been!

It started with an exchange with Elder Coomes on Tuesday through to Thursday. Elder Coomes and I really had a great time! That was the third opportunity to serve with someone from my MTC group while out here in the field. What made it even more special was the fact that Elder Coomes and I were actually in the same MTC District! We were able to see a couple of Miracles while we were together, as well as some hard times, but I loved every single second of serving with him.

First Miracle was on Wednesday while we were finding. We were tracting a road, up to the point where we actually had knocked at all the houses on the left side. Also, we were running short on time as we had an appointment in 30mins. However, as I looked to the right, the last door jumped out at me and I thought “maybe we should try one last door…” Now, something that Elder Matute taught me, is that if we give ourselves time to rationalize, we will ignore promptings of the spirit and say they were our own thoughts, so as soon as I thought that – to try one last door- I did what Elder Matute told me to do, I turned to Elder Coomes and said straightaway “Let’s try one last door!”

What a miracle it was to follow that prompting! When we knocked at the door, a man opened the door and invited us into his house. He introduced us to his family and invited us to sit down in his living room. We had a very chat with this great man and his wife, and although they were not interested at all, it was a great opportunity to share our testimonies and invite them to get even closer to Jesus Christ.

The second miracle came on Thursday. It was about 2pm and we hadn’t had a single QGC yet! Everyone was being really rough with us. Throughout the morning, I’d at times thought to myself “Perhaps we should pray…” so I brushed that thought aside. However, when we finish tracting half the street we were on, in my head the thought “Pray!” just kept on popping up. So I told Elder Coomes we needed to pray. We moved onto a quieter street and quickly prayed for Faith to see miracles, and love for the people we were going to speak with.

After our prayer, we knocked at a door and a lady opened it. We had a great QGC with her, and we set up an appointment with her for next Thursday! She is married and has a daughter. Before we left, she also asked us if we had a Book of Mormon that we could lend to her, so Elder Coomes gave her his last copy.

I love the power of Prayer! I know that there was a reason why I was being prompted to pray. Maybe if we had not prayed we would have knocked at this lady's door expecting rejection, or maybe she wouldn’t have felt the love from her Heavenly Father as we spoke to her. Whatever the reason it was why we had to pray, I know that it was inspired of God, and that it increased both mine and Elder Coomes’ testimony of Prayer!

During our Companion Study, Elder Desir and I have been talking a lot about the fundamental “The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion”. I really believe that that is one of the most crucial fundamentals there are. We may be the best at quoting the First Vision with a lot of feeling! But if we have not the Spirit with us, or if the investigator does not feel the Spirit, nothing is being taught to the Heart of the Investigator.

We visited a Part Member family in the evening. They are from Romania, and so the lessons with them are usually a bit of a process as we try not to get lost in translation. We were able to recognize and rely on the Spirit as we taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The wife told us, in her broken English, that she wants to make a change as she has seen the blessing that the Gospel has been on her husband, but first she wants to read and know that the Book of Mormon is true. I love weeks like this! I love it when it becomes so easy to see Miracles even though there are also a lot of trials about! I love how much the Gospel changes people’s lives. I can’t wait for this brother to see his dream (his wife and son being baptised) come true."

Bit of a different week!

"This week was very different from the usual! Why? Because I pretty much was on a week long exchange! :S

On Monday we had a pretty normal P-Day. Tuesday was when we started our exchange! Elder Tellem and Elder Coomes came to Shrewsbury for us to start the exchange. We all had lunch together, and Elder Tellem and I left to Wrekin. When I was in Wrekin I had a bit of a surprise... Why? Because Wrekin is actually in the town of Telford. Does that name sound familiar at all? Well, it didn't to me until I got to the town centre and I saw the "International Centre" or whatever where we went to watch Carina's Cheerleading Competition! :O Haha! It was so strange to be walking around there! xD But, their chapel there is BEAUTIFUL! :O Anyway. On Tuesday night I had my first opportunity while out here in the field to bear my testimony to a portuguese man! Tuesday night was a bit of a crazy night to do proselyting! :/ We literally met every kind of person: Very nice military man who thanked us for what we do, crazy drunk lady shouting at us and threatning to throw a picture frame at us, polish man who could only swear in english, a crazy man, etc.

The members however are great! I only had the chance to meet a couple, but apparently a high percentage of the ward are RMs and they are so good at helping the missionaries out! The ones that I met were super nice! :) Wednesday was a bit of a wasted day really... We had to stay in from 3:30 till 5:30 waiting for the plumber to arrive and fix the shower. :/ In the end we had to get permission for a member to stay at the flat there and wait for the plumber. Apparently he only arrived at 6pm in the end (almost 3 hours late), and he only left at 8:50! How mad is that?! On thursday we made our way back to Shrewsbury for Weekly Planning. After weekly planning I went out with the DL again. and we worked until 9pm. Elders Tellem and Coomes stayed over the night and then we all travelled down to Manchester together. We had to wake up at 5am -_-' Soooooooo early! haha But it was worth it!

 

Zone Conference

So, the missionaries all got inside the chapel and sat down reading the scrips until Pres Preston and Pres Kearon arrived.

Pres Kearon spoke a lot about not being Robots, and how we should be ourselves. The whole reason why we have PMG is so we are no longer robotic but are natural instead. I thought it was a great training! We should be able to pick up on the things people are telling us to befriend these people.

 

On Saturday we finally exchanged back!

 

But yesterday, Sunday, we had our talks! There were 3 speakers. Elder Desir, Sister Jones and myself. All three of us got 10 minutes assignements. This is how it went. Elder Desir did a great talk on Loyalty and Dependability. He linked it to Basketball, and said that we have to be loyal to our Coach so that on Game day we will be ready to suit and he can call upon us and trust us. I really liked it! And he opened it up with a great joke which made everyone laugh: "Since I have been with Elder Pereira, he keeps telling me how terrible I am at spelling... He caught me out again yesterday when I wrote 'Armaggedon'... But come on! It's not the end of the world!" Everyone loved it! :) He did his talk in 11 minutes.

Sister Jones she had four pages to read out! :O Mine and Elder Desir's first thoughts, that's going to be one long talk! I only had a page with bullet points, and he only had two written out pages... Turns out she was done in 4 minutes. I still cannot believe the speeds she was speaking at! :O It was quite impressive :P hahahaha

And then it came my turn... I ended up speaking for about 14 minutes. Church can't just end 10 mins early :P haha I spoke about Kindness. Try giving a talk on that! :/ Haha But I think it went pretty well! At the end I was like "My invitation today is for you to examine yourselves and set goals that can help you develop kindness. One way that you can do that and that I can think about is by feeding the missionaries. That would be very kind. ;)" I think I did actually wink... hahaha!"

Shrewsbury is gorgeous!

"Oh my days! I love Shrewsbury so much! xD

Miracle Tuesday

Last Tuesday was SUCH a miracle day! Wow! So, the average QGCs/Appointments here in shrewsbury is 10/2. However, on Tuesday we were on FIRE! We had 19/5/3? I think that was it! :D Wow! Such an amazing day!

The last "3" were people we taught on the Spot. It was incredible! 2 of them were in the morning between 11 and 12. We went out and everyone we spoke to was incredible! But yeah! This week we have a few appointments set up, so it should be GOOOOOOOOOOD! :D

Zone Conference

This week we had the Newcastle Zone Conference! :D I love Zone conference so much!Because they aren't really a "Lesson", they are more of a council. We all gather in a semi circle, and even though there is someone who has prepared a training/instruction, we all participate. Something that I have been able to learn from the APs is that "when the spirit gives us a thought, it often is not for us, it is for someone else in the room", and because of that I always try to participate as much as possible! :) I know that mum now is probably thinking "Bless him, he probably speaks twice and he thinks he participates a lot!" Well, it's not like that! haha In fact, the other day I was talking to Elder Desir about how I used to be quite shy back at home and he said "Shy? You're not shy. You may be a little reserved, but youre not shy. And if you were back at home, you've been able to overcome that." So yeah, you better be proud of me! ;) hahaha

During the zone conference we also had an interview with President Preston. When I got to the office he was in, he was like:

"Haha! Elder Pereira, I love your letters! Do you keep a journal?" "Yes" "I thought so... but let me ask you, how much time do you spend writing to me?" "About 30-40 mins" "Elder Pereira, I give you permission to write to your family and just send me the same email you send to them. You are spending too much time writing to me!" - Hahahaha! xD I thought that was pretty funny :P But I am still going to write to him individually, because he is my Mission President, he deserves that! :)

Terrible Close to our Wednesday

Our Wednesday didn't end so well though. :/ We had an appointment with our dated Investigator. We confirmed the appointment earlier that day with him and everything, for 8pm. His girlfriend wouldn't go because she had a bad back, he said he would be there but he wasn't. The next day we tried to call his girlfriend to see if she'd be there at church and he was shouting "I AM SMOKING A CIGARETTE!" :'( It's so sad! And the biggest problem is that his girlfriend has been baptised, but her boyfriend has a hold on her so she isn't coming to church or meeting with us now. :( :/

 

Sunday

I love Sundays! And yesterday was one of the best Sundays ever! I'll start from the beginning!

It was Primary Presentation day! :D What a laugh xD hehehehehe I love how something always goes wrong! xD One of the kids didn't want to read his scripture or whatever so he pretended to be asleep xD And then there was a kid that would only whisper and so you coulnt hear anything. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!

I also got to pass the sacrament with the YMs President, and his son, the Deacon's Quorum President .

After church, we went around a Ward family for dinner. They live about 20mins away from the church by car. However, we biked there... And it was all uphill... And if that wasn't bad enough, the bearings on my bike broke so I couldn't pedal. -_-' So we locked our bikes to a post and started walking. Now, to get to their house, we had to walk through a rocky road. The problem was that it had rained the day before and so there were massive puddles from one side of the road to the other and so we were stuck. -_-' haha! So we called the family and told them everything that happened, and the brother came to pick us up.

The dinner was a good ol' Sunday Roast! :) YUM! And for dessert we had Lemon Merangue (???) and ice cream. It was really nice! :) When they asked me about Portuguese food I of course mentioned fish! Especially jaquinzinhos. Their different reactions were hilarious! xD The parents were like "Wow! That sounds delicious. The son and the little girl just kind of looked at me in unbelief. And one of the daughters and Elder Desir were just like "You ate the head?! Even the eyes?! That is disgusting!" xD hahahahahahaha! xD

The lesson was pretty good too! :D Although I am still very quiet at the dinner table, during teaching situations I feel at home, and I just kept making the whole family laugh which was great! :D Their family kind of reminds me of ours when we had missionaries over! :) It was good! I wish they lived closer so we could go over more often! :)"