Elder Jonathan Engle 09/12/2014 Round 2, Ah Yeah!

Round 2, Ah Yeah!

Dear People of Earth,

After this last transfer, I stayed in Cidade Operária and will be training again! This week I´ve been traveling to Teresina to pick up my new companion that I`ll be training. His name is Elder Caetano, who is from a city close to Porto Alegre in the South of the Brazil. He´s awesome!!! He has 1.5 years in the church and is incredible. I´m so incredibly happy to have a companion now. This last transfer´s been an incredible period of growth for me, which I will never forget, and I´m so thankful to our Father in Heaven that I can simply have a companion. The simple things in life really make a big difference.

While we were in Teresina, me and Elder Robb had the chance to eat dinner with President Siedschlag and Sister Siedschlag, which was cool and extremely weird at the same time. It was pretty cool, but then we went back to the missionary apartment where no one had eaten dinner, so they gave us a hard time about it, but it was still pretty cool.

Scripture for the week will have to be Ether 12:18. Faith is something we can ALWAYS improve until we nolonger need faith and simply have a knowledge of the truth.

Love,

Elder Engle

Elder Jonathan Engle 09/03/2014 Just a quick one this week folks

Just a quick one this week folks

Dear People of Earth,

Just a quick one this week folks. I still have a temporary companion, but next week I should receive a normal full-time companion. My health has been up and down a lot, but I should be getting better. I´ve lost 12 pounds since arriving in Brazil, making a grand total of 160 pounds. Attached is a photo of Rosangela, who was baptized 3 weeks ago. She´s incredible and showed one of her rare hidden smiles in this photo.

This transfer has been full of many trials of my faith. This last Saturday was the baptism of Cristianey. He overcame mountains of opposition this last week so that he could be baptized, including 100% opposition from his family, depression, etc. Despite it all, he made it through. It was a lot of work for us too, but miracles don´t come for free!

The scripture I leave with you all this week comes from Doctrine and Covenants 4, which speaks of the field being white and ready to harvest.

 4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in storethat he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

I testify that this is true. Even as I was sitting here in this LAN House writing this email. A 12 year old boy came up and told me that he´d already read The Book of Mormon with his family and that he wanted to be baptized. The field is white (especially in Brazil), but if we don´t labor in the vineyard, it´s to what good? Our law is to work! Let´s get to work folks!

Love,

Elder Engle

Elder Jonathan Engle 08/27/2014 19 Going on 20

19 Going on 20

Dear People of Earth,

That´s right folks, my 19th companion arrived name Junior. He´s with me only for a week or two it seems, but it´s good to have a companion again, short though it may be.

Unfortunately, this computer in this wonderful LAN House isn´t accepting my camera, so I´ll have to send photos in the future. I´m very short on time this week, but wanted to say at base level that the this work truly is fueled by miracles. We did a planning session for an investigator who wants to be baptized this Saturday, but still isn´t quite ready. This week we´ve been applying these plans, and yesterday we had an incredible lesson with them. Not only did he progress a lot, but now his mom wants to be baptized and they want us to teach the rest of their family.

This work is simply only done by way of miracles as we open the windows of heaven in our lives. It´s the only way it works. If we want miracles in our lives, we need to be worthy of them, understand them, and ask for them with real faith. We´re not talking about any old faith that your regular Christian folk will claim in the streets, but the kind of faith of power to see miracles. I´m learning so much more about the power and principle of faith.

May we all continue to grow in faith that we really do believe in an All-Powerful and All-Knowing God who is the literal Father of our Spirits is my humble invitation to all.

Love,

Elder Engle

Elder Jonathan Engle 08/20/2014 Bom Demais

Bom Demais

Dear People of Earth,

As always, this week has been another wild one here in Cidade Operária em São Luis, Maranhão, Brazil. Yesterday I received a new temporary companion from Codó, who I actually already met from when I served in Caxias. He´s incredible and it´s nice to have a companion after two weeks without a companion, because I´ve had so many changes of companion, he´s my 19th companion and I haven´t even hit one year in the mission!

We´ll be moving our house soon, for many complicated reasons, which will be a ton of work, but it´ll be worthwhile in the end.

Next week I´ll send the photos, but we had another baptism this last Saturday. Her name is Rosangela and she´s been trying to get baptized for almost a month now. This Saturday was her third attempt to get baptized, and each time, something went wrong. This last Saturday, half an hour before the baptism, her son broke his arm skating and went to the hospital. Unperturbed, we picked her up from the hospital, left her son in a relative´s home and baptized her in the church. The meeting was very spiritual. Ths experience of baptizing someone is something I would never trade for all the riches of the world. Her purity as she came out of the water is something I will never forget. It was absolutely incredible. My testimony of baptism is growing more and more.

Today and yesterday I´ve had an awful migraine that´s been killing me, but I´m very thankful for this challenge that the Lord´s given me. He´s been giving me many lately, but not coincidentally, I´m growing a lot lately as well. These challenges really are for our benefit and growth.

I´m reminded of the last verse in Doctrine and Covenants Section 123, which talks about doing everything happily in the church. It really is true. If we´re not happy with our work with the Lord, we´re not doing it right! We´re supposed to be happy because of the Gospel! We have every reason to be the happiest people in the world, so let´s be just that, the happiest people in the world!

Love,

Elder Engle

P.S.
D&C 123
 17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

Elder Jonathan Engle 08/13/2014 Free Bird

Free Bird

Dear People of Earth,

I feel like the Lynyrd Skynyrd song Free Bird as I´ve been a solo missionary this week. I sitll don´t have a designated companion, but I´ve been doing a ton of divisions. The rest of the time I´m with Elder Polson and Elder Pires, my wonderful District. The word is that I´ll get a new companion tomorrow. Since there aren´t any missionaries that can serve with me, for the time being they´ll call a young man from a ward within the mission boundaries to serve for 3-4 weeks with me until the next transfer. I´m excited to return to having a companion and it shall be an adventure for sure.

This past week I saw a giant miracle. I´ll keep the story very simple because it was very special (and I don´t have much time). Werberth came to church for the first time two Sundays ago. The very first visit with him I started teaching the Restoration and realized he didn´t need any of that. That moment, I interviewed him and found him worthy of baptism. He was baptized this last saturday and is going very strong. It was the first baptism in this area since last December. It´s been 8 months since a baptism here. Without a doubt it was an incredible miracle. He will be a leader in the church and is an elect of God.

The path is simple. Obey God and walk in the footsteps of His Only Begotten Son. Life is hard, but the Gospel is easy. Want to be happy? Life the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Werberth was prepared and he read and prayed. It was a miracle that he decided to have in his life, using his faith and acting. I know this is The Church of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.

Love,

Elder Engle