Thankfulness and A baptism!

Hey everyone,

It is definitely raining here a lot and guess what..... I have two infections in my toes. It turns out that my ingrown toenails did not heal haha. But I have to be super careful. My week was super good! It was super tiring and super painful because of my toes but it was rewarding in the end! 

This week we really focused on helping others arrive in sacrament meeting because we needed more investigators in sacrament meeting. We taught a lot of lessons and we met a lot of people!! We have two new investigators named maria ludia and angela. They are not progressing a lot because they wont come to church, but we are helping them! I am excited to teach them anyways. We also were able to help the sisters this week in their area and no one accepted us hahaha. It was very hard because we were rejected so many times. After that we taught maristella and natasha, but we found out that maristella and her boyfriend are living together and so we have to set a date for marriage with them, for her to be baptized. But we know that everything will be fine!!

I was able to experience something amazing this week too. Afonso was baptized on saturday and confirmed on sunday!!!!! It was so amazing to see the change and to see how happy he was. What made it even better was that I got to help him and I was the one who baptized him. It was the first time I had ever baptized anyone or helped someone to be baptized. Wow, what an experience. I will never forget the feeling that came from just helping him. I cant imagine how he felt haha. But it was super cool especially in portugues. I am so grateful for Afonso too. Wow he has a powerful testimony already and it was amazing to see the gospel change his life. He is super awesome and I will never lose contact with him! He is definitely like my brother now! It was such a cool week and super rewarding because we worked so hard and just to see him make this powerful step made all the difference! It was super cool. I know that baptism is such essential in our lives and that through the gospel and through our savior Jesus Christ we can do all things!! I love the gospel so much! The power of the atonement is real and the power of the priesthood changes lives.

I love the work and I am excited for more. Yes ofcourse it is super hard when you arent having lots of success but I learned something super powerful this weekend. Alamo, the first counselor to the bishop spoke with us about motivation. He said that we as normal humans look at things or look at the future and tend to say, No i want to stay in my comfortable zone. But he said that true disciples of christ look at the future or look at a challenge and say, Yes it will be hard but i have god on my side. And they continue on. How powerful. Sempre fique firme nas coisas que nosso pai celestial nos deu. Temos ele em nosso lado!! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!!

 I am grateful for you and for our family. For my savior jesus christ and the love he shows me every day. For my Heavenly Father, and all of the gifts and counsels he has given me! I love this gospel and the book of mormon and I am so grateful for everything in my life. I will look towards the future with god on my side. Love you so much!!

Elder Bestenlehner

November 13, 2017 The power of the Book of Mormon

Dear Everyone,

This week was absolutely amazing. I saw the hand of the savior in my life and in the lives of others more than ever before!! This week was amazing because Elder Graça and I fasteed with Afonso on tuesday so he could recieve an answer about the book of mormon and about this path for him. It was very brutal because its super hot here and we wanted to eat food ha but it was so amazing because we fasted with strength and we didnt complain. Afonso remained strong too. And blessings definitely came after that. The night that we ended the fast with him, he told us that every time he is around us he can feel the light and he can feel the spirit testifying to him. He said that he is reading the book of mormon every day and trying to read with real intent. He loves the book of mormon. He also told us that he wants to serve a mission too. He is 23 years old and that night he was struggling so we asked him if he would like a blessing of comfort. I gave the blessing and in that blessing I could feel the spirit so strongly, and then all of a sudden I dont know why I said it but I did, I told him that he would serve a mission and ended the blessing. After that blessing he said, Wow I love this feeling. It was so powerful and so amazing to see him changing. I have been teaching him and visiting him for two months now, he is more like my Brother than anything else right now. 

Then on saturday we visited him and he brought a friend. We taught his friend and Afonso testified to her about the book of mormon and how the book of mormon brings paz and it is truly an addiction to read. I started to cry when he bore that testimony ha. But after that he watched a Baptism of another person in the ward Barroca, and he told us that he had something to tell us on Sunday, yesterday. Elder Graça and I were very excited and we waited for him in the church because he was participating in the choir. After that we sat down together and he began to draw for us. When he finished drawing, it was a picture of his baptism and confirmation, and it had him becoming a member of the church!! He is going to be baptized on Saturday! He bore testimony to us and he said that no matter how many temptations he has this week he will be strong. I cried then too. The power of prayer and of fasting is real and I have a strong testimony of this now. I remember when he didnt believe in the book of mormon, but now he does and he has a testimony, he loves this church and he loves everything about the testimony and answer he recieved. How amazing is the gospel of jesus christ and the book of mormon. Wow. The book of mormon is powerful and truly is the most amazing book we have on the planet right now. I know for a fact that the book of mormon is true and has the power to change lives. What an amazing experience that I will never forget. 

This week was also really awesome because Arthur, a teenager, who we are teaching he decided to be baptized saturday too. And we had lots of people in sacrament meeting and we have lots of people to teach. I can truly see the blessings that the lord gives us when we work hard and trust in him. Pray for Afonso, Arthur, Maristella and Natasha. So they can feel the desire to join our church and gain a testimony like we have. I am so grateful for the Atonement and for the opportunity I have to teach the people of brazil and see the change in their hearts. Sei que esta igreja é verdadeira e que meu salvador Jesus Cristo, ele vive. Ele nos ama. Ele vai proporcionar milagres em nossas vidas se nos confiarmos nele!!! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! Dont forget to always pray, read the scriptures, attend church, and be Happy!!!

This week was amazing! The miracles that I saw and the things that I experienced I will never forget. The language is getting better and I am super excited for the future and for this week. I know that Heavenly Father will help me and will help you too!! Love you!

Elder Bestenlehner

Hard work and obedience

This week was very tiring but super awesome. I learned a very important thing this week. 

Elder Graça is super awesome and he is a super hard worker!! We worked so hard this week and we have 7 people with a date for baptism. But our main investigators are having difficulties with some things that I cant tell but they are trying to do better and I love to see them working hard and preparing for baptism. This week i learned an important lesson about teaching through the spirit. It is important that we are constantly guided by the spirit so we can know what to say and how to say it. I had two experiences this week where I didnt follow the spirit and I said something that didnt sound right or was offensive in some way, and we almost lost two of our investigators. It was supér hard for me especially because I was honestly trying to help them, I just said one little thing wrong. But right now I am learning how to listen to the spirit fully when teaching. It was just two little but big mistakes.. Other than that I listen to the spirit and so say things that the Holy Ghost can testify to them!! But We always need to start with a prayer too, prayer is essential and it brings the spirit in the room more than any other thing. It was a good week to learn new things and to work super hard in this hot weather. One funny story that happened this week was that I was sitting down with Elder Graça between two buildings, and a bunch of little kids ran up to me and said,, Do you speak english!? Speak English for us!! it was so funny and super cute, but then a man in an apartment came out of the window and said oh look its the mormons!! Ha and all of the little kids started to call him Santa Claus..... It was so funny and super strange too. but in portugues it is funnier because Santa is Papai Noel! He looked nothing like santa claus but the little kids were just pestering him haha. But Other than that we are struggling a little bit here in Gutierrez because the work is really hard and super slow, everyone else is baptizing and so it makes it hard for us. Our ward is super weak and needs llots of help. So we are trying to help them and trying to teach at the same time. We are fasting and praying a lot for the ability to do both of those things. But other than that this week was super good. Elder graça likes to work hard and to joke around, but he said that he likes to be super obedient and so do I! I learned a great lesson too about our savior Jesus Christ, We were teaching with Afonso the other day and he was talking with Elder Graça, and afonso told me to pick some song to play for us. And I saw "You raise me up" By Josh Groban I love this song so much, and I started to cry when we listened to it beacuse he truly raises us up to do marvelous things in our lives. He will raise me up to move mountains to walk on stormy seas and to love the people of Brazil. Sei que meu salvador Jesus Cristo vive e que ele nos ama. EU AMO VOCÊS!! Tenha uma boa semana!! 

The package arrived on monday and I basically ate everything in the package already because I miss american candy hahaha. But thank you so much, it helped me a lot!!! And I am trying to find batteries in brazil but I havent found good ones yet ha, but the fans are great, I just need to find batteries for them. Love you! Thank you for everything you do for me and all the prayers!! LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I probably wont send pictures this week.. sorry ha. 

Elder Bestenlehner

Transfers!

Dear Family and friends

This week was super great! My last week with Elder Dedeco! So Transfers came this week and Elder Dedeco is leaving for Montes Claros! The hottest area in the mission haha, he is going to be a Zone Leader there! I am going to be staying here in Gutierrez and my new Companion will be Elder Graça! He is from Africa!! From what I have heard he is a super cool person but not a hard worker, I am going to use your advice and be exactly obedient in all things. I am excited though and I know that the Lord has plans for Elder Graça and I! This week was a little bit hard for us too because we honestly thought that Alfonso was going to be baptized but he didnt pass the interview. So we need to wait more time and he told us that he wants to make sure that he is completely ready for Baptism. Elder Dedeco wont see him be Baptized but thats ok! It was cool to actually have one of those missionary experiences where you think everything will be perfect and that all will work out fine but then all of a sudden everything falls. I honestly was sad for a hour because I wanted him to be baptized on sunday or saturday but I know that everything will work out in the end! 

We had a couple of Family Home Evenings this week to and it was super cool to feel the spirit. One of our other investigators, Italo, he was with me at one Family Home Evening and he honestly wanted to learn more and change his life!! It as amazing to testify of the power that the Atonement brings and that we can all be saved through our Savior Jesus Christ!! Elder dedeco and I also found a group of 5 teenagers, all boys, and when we were teaching them I could just imagine all of them in church as a quorum strong and ready to serve. It was super cool and I want to visit them again this week. It has been hard to contact Jorgina because she doesnt want to see us anymore. We are still praying for her though. Maristella wasnt in Church on Sunday but we set a date for her for Baptism on the 18 of november! I am going to visit her more with Elder Graça. We have another investigator named Valter and at first he didnt want to change at all and wasnt really open to many things, but then on sunday he told us he is reading the Book of Mormon and he believes that the parts he is reading are true! It is amazing to see the difference that the Book of Mormon makes in the lives of others!

Most of the week was just anxiety for Transfers ha, It is normal for everyone to be nervous the last week of the transfer! I am excited for more to come and I have so much faith that everything will be ok! I love you all and Hope  you all have a great week!! 

Thank you for sharing all of those things with me. I needed to hear those things especially since I am super nervous for this next transfer. Because I need to explain everything and take control on some things here because Elder Graça doesnt know the area.... But I have faith that the lord will help me with the language and with what will come. I am getting better though and learning more and more that I have my own experiences and I cant compare myself with others. I just want to feel the spirit so strongly every day and be guided by the spirit too. But I know that through exact obedience and my faith that miracles will happen. I am always praying for the family and I am so grateful for you all! I am happy to know that through my service here you will all be blessed. The people that will be living in my house are: Elder Graça, Elder Tenorio, and Elder Keim. And you dont need to do anything special with the notebook, it will be fine if you just send it here please ha! Thank you mom. Love you so much and if I need anything else I will let you know! LOVE YOU! oh and I dont have pictures right now but I will try and send some later haha I don't have batteries for my camera...

Love,

Elder Bestenlehner

Happy Feet happy missionary

This week was super good, and super spiritual for me. Our investigators are doing great. Alfonso lost contact with us for a couple of days and we were worried but he came to church on sunday and said that everything was ok. He will probably be baptized this week. Since transfers are the week after this week we want to baptize him because Elder dedeco and I started to teach him and found him. He is super awesome and already is gaining a testimony of the church! Maristella is doing good but it has been a hard week for her because a member of her family passed away and she is having some doubts about the priesthood authority in our church. We dont really get the chance to teach her much except for on sunday in church ha. We also met a new man called Valter this week. He is super old and is evangelical! But he is super nice and he likes it when we talk to him. He came to church and during the classes he shared his opinions, it was kind of awkward for everyone but everyone just loved him anyways. Jorgina is hard to reach now. We actually taught her yesterday because she let us in but I will talk about that later because its a funny story.

I had lots of cool experiences this week. I was able to see the power of the restoration once again in the lives of others. Elder Dedeco and I were walking and a man who was drunk stopped us and said he needed help and that he had been searching for us. So we sat down with him and we started to share the restoration with him. It was so amazing because he really listened. When I explained what the book of mormon was and how it can help others he started to cry, and I bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and he said "Bacana" which means amazing in Portugues. After that Elder Dedeco invited him to be baptized and he accepted. He doesnt live in our area but it truly testified to me that the lord is preparing people for us. Another cool but funny experience that happened was that the other day we were walking and two ladies that were also drunk stopped us in front of a bar. One said "OH its the mormons!!" In portugues and we taught both of them. But it was so hard because it was in front of a bar and they were drunk ha, when we gave one of them a pamphlet, the other screamed at me and said "why didnt you give me one!?" It was funny but I told them that god loves them and that our savior jesus christ loves them too. We were there so to listen and talk to them about Christ. 

Sunday was super hard to teach and to visit people because Atletico and Cruzeiro were playing each other ha. In soccer. I am an Atleticano! I like Atletico! But so many others like Cruzeiro. It was funny because we started to teach Jorgina during the game because we couldnt really turn off all of the tvs ha. And you know how hard it is for me to avoid soccer, it is impossible. I started to say the last prayer and the game ended and Atletico beat Cruzeiro 3-1 and everyone started to scream and go crazy with fireworks and all sorts of things ha. So i hurried and ended the prayer because no one could hear me! It is crazy because it is truly real when they say that in brazil during the game everywhere is dead silent and no one is on the street. But when someone scores or when the game ends everyone goes crazy!!!! Atletico and Cruzeiro are the teams that live in Minas Gerais, the state that I am in, so ofcourse everyone went crazy ha. The language is coming along slowly, I am corrected over 100 times each week but I have faith it will come for sure. This is my last week with Elder Dedeco probably since transfers are on the 1 of november and he will leave since I am finishing training. But I love you all and eu sei que esta igreja é uma igreja verdadeira. Eu sei que meu salvador Jesus Cristo vive e que nosso pai celestial nos ama muito!! AMO VOCÊS! Tenham uma boa semana! 

Caden will do such a great job next sunday, I am excited to hear how it went.  I can't wait to hear where Camron is going! I love both of those guys ha. and michael but I havent heard from him in ages. Love you!! Thank you for everything you do for me. Miss you so much and I am always praying for you dad and our family! The one picture is of me and Elder dedeco. I bought a flag of Atletico for me and to play a prank on Elder Coutinho because he loves Cruzeiro and so we hung it up in his room and the second is this cool view that I saw at lunch the other day. Love you!

Elder Bestenlehner

A Painful end to a great week 10/16/17

So this week was really awesome and really painful haha. I will explain later. The language is coming really slow but I have faith and I understand a lot more so I am grateful for that. But First of all our Investigators are doing great, Alfonso is progressing and his baptism is this saturday. Maristella finally accepted to visit with us again because all she does is attend church, she has a fear of baptism. Jorgina is practically not wanting anything anymore. At one of our home evenings for elder coutinho she was there and I talked to her and tryed to regain her trust but when we tried to visit her the next day she would not accept us. But this week we worked really hard and found lots of new people and set some others with a date for baptism. We are hoping to have more baptisms soon but the next transfer is two weeks away and either I or Elder Dedeco will leave. 

This week we had a lot of family home evenings with members and it was so fun!! There was so much food and so much laughter. We had a home evening in the area of our sisters in our district and it was fun because the lady we visited was a boxer and so Elder Coutinho and I we boxed ha. The other Home evening we had was in the home of Rosalia and Alfonso was there too! It was so spiritual because Elder Coutinho bore his testimony since he is leaving for home this next transfer. And I made everyone laugh with something strange I did with my throat that sounds like a turkey. Alfonso was laughing so hard that he couldnt breathe. We also had a lot of opportunities to serve other people this week which was so awesome. We taught a lot of first lessons and we hope that the people we taught will read the Book of Mormon. Without the book of mormon, we cant teach very much. It was just a good week to work hard and help others. I also played soccer with some kids on friday because every friday night we share a message at the chapel for soccer. It was super fun!

 Lets talk about Saturday.... So this week I found out that I have two ingrown toenails and it turns out that the smaller one was infected and was bleeding a lot and was hurting so much!! So I called Sister Fernandes and she told me to go to a lady in the area of Elder Coutinho. So I went with Elder Coutinho yesterday to the lady because no one was there Saturday. And she works with these kinds of things and so she had to remove it herself. The one on the right or the smaller one was more infected and a lot harder to pull out, it was at the very bottom of the nail. So she started to work on it and wow.... It hurt so bad. She was working on it for over ten minutes and so I had ten minutes of pure pain. I was grasping the side of the chair so hard and I started to sweat too. Ha it was terrible. The bigger one wasnt that bad. But she taught me more how to cut my nails and keep them safe ha. It was crazy. But this week I learned a lot about Patience and how not everyone will accept our messages. Its so hard because you just want everyone to be baptized and see the beauty of the gospel but since in the lords plan, people have agency, and so we have to accept that and juse love and serve. Love you all and I am so grateful to be on the mission here in Brazil. Sei que o evangelho de Jesus Cristo é verdadeiro e que o Livro de Mormon é essencial! 

Oh and I need you to get on Facebook and change things about my profile and stuff like pictures the name and put some pictures on my profile because some of the members here want the photos! If you can that will be amazing! And if I need anything else I will let you know! 

Elder Bestenlehner

October 9, 2017

Hey Mom!! Sorry I sent you a new one but it was hard to respond because of the pictures haha I loved the pictures though!! Mainly because we dont have anything like the trees and mountains here in Belo Horizonte, just a lot of houses, buildings, and hot weather ha. I am glad to hear that your week went well and that is so cool that Hailey had her baby!! I forgot she was going to be having a baby soon. Camrons call will come for sure haha but I definitely would not have lasted. I love brother Danley so much and he is one of the reasons I am out here too, he has inspired me with his love and his example in all things. Braelyn is still super cute and I loved all of the pictures ha.

This week was definitely hard and really slow. Mainly because Elder Dedeco, my companion, is having trouubles with his back so it was really hard for us to really work hard this week. But I still had some amazing experiences. For example, I was able to give him two blessings of healing and I did it all in portugues and it was so amazing. I love the opportunity I have to give blessings and bless the lives of others through the priesthood. Wednesday was a super cool day because we had splits with our zone leaders. I was with Elder Bishop, he will end his mission in December but it was awesome to work with him, he is from washington dc. But it was cool because we ended up teaching a family of 7 people the restoration and you could just feel the spirit so strong!! I was able to quote the first vision and it was amazing how the restoration brings the spirit and testifies to all people. It was even more cool when I found out that three of those seven people live in our area. So we are going to teach them this week!! One sad thing this week was that Jorgina doesnt want anything more from us. Apparently she heard a rumour from a friend that the missionaries just want to eat and not teach. So she has stopped coming to church and other things like that. We want to keep teaching her and are not going to give up! Our other investigator who is really strong is Alfronso. He will be baptized this saturday we hope!! He is awesome and he has told us that he wants to work in the church and be apart of what we do. He is a professional singer. Wow the other day he sang andre bocelli for us and it was so amazing. I have a video that I will send another week ha. And after that we taught a lesson about the gospel of jesus christ and the spirit was so strong during that too. I was able to testify about the holy ghost and about the gift of tongues because he asked about it. He will definitely be baptized, he just needs to obey a couple of commandments first!! Other than that this week was just a lot of walking and helping others which is totally ok, I was able to talk to some of the presidents sons friends at soccer on friday night about my past life with soccer and other cool things too. Sunday was super amazing too. I was fasting for help with the language and for our investigators and wow does fasting help. I bore my testimony in almost perfect portugues and it was so amazing. And in front of president fernandes also because he lives in our area!! Some of the counselors and leaders joked with me afterwards and said that I dont need to talk in church again because I basically gave a talk for my testimony. It is true sometimes I dont see that my portugues is really good or not but I definitely recognize the gift of tongues in my life and the miracles that my heavenly father has provided for me. I love to see how the gospel changes lives, I have heard so many stories in our ward already. So many people love the missionaries and tell us their experiences and it warms my heart and gives me energy to serve our heavenly father. Love you all and I am so grateful for all of you!!

Thanks for sharing all of those things with me mom. It really helped me and I am super excited the day when I become fluent in portugues, I know that heavenly father with help me and that I will help his children through his blessings. Sou grato por este evangelho de Jesus Cristo, e a oportunidade eu tenho ser um missionário. Estou animado a servir meu salvador Jesus Cristo e ajudar outras pessoas em todas as lugares!! Eu te amo mãe!! LOVE YOU