Elder Jonathan Engle 08/06/2014 Puocos Mas Fortes

Puocos Mas Fortes

Dear People of Earth,

Funny Story:

I´m happy to inform you all that I´m becoming well-known for my very big eyes, gollum and yoda impersonations, and ability to eat ridiculous amounts of food. After a recent fast, I was very hungry. I ate at Fabio´s, where they have a burger called the Big Fabio, which is 17 reais. I ate it in 15 minutes. Fabio himself was so impressed that he challenged me on the spot. He said if I ate 2 Big Fabio´s with 1 Liter of Coca-Cola, it´s free. If I didn´t eat it, I´d have to pay for three. I accepted and completed it. Afterwards, I then threw it up. He played dirty and made it a lot bigger than the original that I ate. He was incredibly surprised that I beat him. Free meal anybody? That was a classic, Brazilian eating challenge right there.

News:

These past two weeks have brought many changes! I wasn´t able to email last week because of these changes. I´ve been called as District Leader and as a Trainer here in Cidade Operária. Last week we had meetings all week in Teresina. After a few days training, my companion asked to leave the mission and went home. I´m working with the Elder Polson and Elder Pires, who make up my district and house-mates. For now, I have no designated companion and they are my companions. It´s been crazy but I´m very happy to serve my district, despite the crazy challenges from the past two weeks. I´m a little under the weather right now, but I´m a very happy person right now.

My brief spiritual thought for this week is to look upon our foundation. Be it our first experiences with the church, or a life-time as a member of the church, what is our foundation built on? What makes up our foundation and what keeps it strong? What would it take to shake it? Is there anything that could shake it? If so, which is generally yes for all of us, then what are we doing to fortify our foundations? I´ve thought about this a lot, because it´s such a big aspect of our conversion to God. Helaman 5:12 still proves true, even after Seminary. It must be founded in Christ. We need to be willing to change in any way so that we can receive these blessings. I´ll be talking a lot more about Conversion and planning these next few weeks I feel. We are using a Conversion Planning in our mission that´s changing the lives of everyone.

I´m happy to be a missionary. I´m more than happy to be a missionary. I can´t imagine life not being a missionary, with or without a tag on my shirt. The Church is true and the book is blue (usually)!

Love,

Elder Engle

Elder Jonathan Engle 07/24/2014 Zum Zum Zum!

 Zum Zum Zum!

Dear People of Earth,24

This week´s letters is fast and furious (yes, one of those films was in Brazil too!).

This week I began learning Capoeira, an ancient dance/martial art form of Brazil that is the coolest thing you´ve yet seen! The slaves disguised this martial art as a dance so that their owners wouldn´t stop them. This is how they learned to fight so they were prepared for revolutions they would do. It involves a lot of kicking and flips, etc. A less-active member brought a friend of his and we trained together. I will train with them every P-Day now! It´s a huge upgrade for P-Days, instead of sleeping in a net all day, but I´m incredibly sore to say the least. It´s great!

Zun, Zun, Zun Capoeira Mata um. Isso é música de Capoeira. Chiquezão!

Spiritual Story:

I was on a division with a member named Cristiano. We were walking in the street when I felt a name come to my mind of someone that we needed to visit. I instantly knew where to go, so we went there. When we arrived, not only was a woman we´d been looking for there, but her friend was there too. He talked with us for a bit, obviously incredibly intelligent. When I asked him if he´d seen the Book of Mormon before, he said he´d already read it, and then referenced many prophets and elements of the Book of Mormon. It was awesome! We´re teaching him in his home every day now. He´s incredibly intelligent, which is his triumph and downfall. He knows everything is true but is looking for a sign. Don´t look for a spiritual confirmation when you already have it! It´s incredible how The Book of Mormon was miraculously placed in his home. He just found it in a box and read it. He doesn´t even know where the contents of the box came from. God truly prepared a way for someone who would read his book to read it. I simply exhort all of us to exercise more faith, like this man needs to do right now. Ether 12:6 proves true time and time again. We receive a witness after the trial of our faith. For him, reading the Book of Mormon wasn´t a trial of faith. His trial of faith now is baptism.

I know that God is preparing people every day. Let´s go find them!

Love,

Elder Engle

Elder Jonathan Engle 07/16/2014 Milagres

Milagres

Dear People of Earth,

I have to confess, the scale that I used to weigh myself was broken. Either that, or I´ve gained a lot in my new area. I currently weigh 163 pounds, so I only lost about 10-15 pounds instead of 20. It´s still a good chunk.

Well, the World Cup is over, thankfully. That was embarrassing...

This week has been miraculous. One of the many miracles we saw this week was a woman preparing for baptism. She wasn´t really sure if she was ready, so the missionary taught about the spirit in the work. He testified of things that are true and explained the spirit that was there, then he testified of thigns that aren´t true and how the spirit left, then invited the spirit back with more testimony. It was cool to see how that helped her to resolve her concerns. As members of the church, we become too accustomed and comfortable with having the constant companionship of a member of the Godhead. One of the members of the Godhead is not to be taken for granted. It is a marvellous gift.

I loved reading 2 Nephi 29 for a short study this week, which talks about why we need the Bible and The Book of Mormon. They both bring us unto the truth and light that we´re looking for. Something very interesting for me is my growing testimony in the Bible on my mission. As I´ve had time to get to know it better, it´s interesting how passages that were once mysteries are opened before me as I study these things out.

Also, here´s another gospel video about Brazil!

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/the-gospel-in-brazil?cid=HPFR071114320&lang=eng

Love,

Elder Engle

Elder Jonathan Engle 07/09/2014 A Tearful Day Indeed

A Tearful Day Indeed

Dear People of Earth,

Naturally, we must begin with news about the World Cup. If you haven´t already heard, Brazil lost against Germany, 7-1. I was a humiliating defeat and embarrassing to say the least. Now, imagine with me, how Brazilians feel about anyone who looks German (me). It´s not the kindest of feelings. We´ve been yelled at a lot in the streets ever since that game. Actually, the World Cup interrupts the work a lot, which is quite frustrating. It was really quite sad when Brazil lost. Everyone was and still is very very sad. Brazil put all its eggs in a very big basket, which fell horrifically. It´s a huge bummer, but they´ll play again this Saturday for 3rd place.

Miracle Story:

This past Sunday was one of those miracle stories that end up in the Ensign. Two Sundays ago, we had 67 people in Church, which isn´t very much for a ward. The following week, we worked like crazy and saw a lot of success. Ironically, on Sunday, hardly anyone we had commitments from came, but the Lord blessed us greatly, with 130 people in church. Our Sacrament Meeting attendance doubled, which I believe was a new high. Also, the Fast and Testimony meeting was very powerful. I found myself crying as I realized that after hearing miracle story after miracle story after miracle story of all the amazing things missionaries do in Brazil, I was sitting there experiencing it. It felt amazing and helped me to better understand God´s plan for us. He didn´t bless us as we originally thought He would, but He blessed us nevertheless.

Also, someone we taught this week for the first time with us committed to read the entire Book of Mormon this week, surprising his less-active wife, him only beginning to investigate. It was funny how spooked she was. She didn´t want to commit because it´s so much reading, but he was very firm about reading the Book of Mormon, which was very cool. He knows a little English too, so he´s going to read my copy of Our Legacy as well. It was really cool to see such enthusiasm for the book.

Anyway, things are good in this Brazilian neighborhood! Here´s an awesome video about missionary work in Brazil, which is totally true. The work´s going crazy over here! Brazil really is changing the world in the eyes of the Church.

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/missionary-work-in-brazil?cid=HPFR062714283&lang=eng

Eu amo todos de vocês. Todos nos somos imperfeitos, mas Deus nos ama e tem um plano por cada um de nos. Tchau meus amigos!

Amor,

Elder Engle

Elder Jonathan Engle 07/03/2014 Weight a Minute!

Weight a Minute!

Dear People of Earth,

Please forgive me for my lacking of emails lately. I don´t have any excuses, but sorry!

In other news, the US lost in the World Cup... That was really sad to see. It was actually pretty funny what happened that day. We recently met a family that lives on our street that´s really pretty cool. The other day they stopped us in the street and marked an appointment with us. Another important fact about them is that they´re extremely fanatic with soccer, coloring their house after their favorite brazil soccer club team.

When we arrived for the appointment, it turned out that he had marked for the exact hour that the US vs. Belgium game started. It was pretty sneaky, putting us in an awkward situation, wanting to teach with a big ol´ soccer game going down. I taught his mother instead, which turned out very well, but it was sneaky nevertheless.

I know this quote is much more profound than usual, but I´ve really enjoyed my occasional reading of Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage. He said the following about the need of a redeemer, Jesus Christ, "Such then is the need of a Redeemer, for without Him mankind would forever remain in a fallen state, and as to hope of eternal progression would be inevitably lost. The mortal probation is provided as an opportunity for advancement; but so great are the difficulties and the dangers, so strong is the influence of evil in the world, and so weak is man in resistance thereto, that without the aid of a power above that of humanity no soul would find its way back to God from whom it came." I really liked this quote, because it truly emphasizes our need of Jesus Christ. Without him, we would truly be lost. Without Jesus Christ, nothing we do is of true value, for it is only in and through Jesus Christ that we overcome the weight and destruction of sin and became saints, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Him who suffered all, an infinite suffering, must be he central point of our lives, the source of our strength and our true saving grace.

I´m so thankful to understand, a little better, the joy of living a Christ-centered life, and I invite each and every one of you to learn to do the same, regardless of where you´re at in life.

Love,

Elder Engle

Photo: A member family in Caxias from mid-June. It´s not the most recent possible, but my camera´s a little hungry for energy at the moment.