Training, Round 3

Elder Heidenreich and I, doing our Stripling Warrior pose

Hey Family!

Since we have transfers this week, lots of crazy stuff has happened, which I´m excited to share with you all. My prayers go out to Grandma and Grandpa. I wish them the best and hope that the visit this week goes well. Sorrry that this letter is showing up a little later than usual. Like last week, I had to travel to Rio on our p-day today, but this time, in stead of getting a new companion, it was because Elder Heidenreich and I went to a training for the trainers this transfer. Wait, what does that mean??? That´s right, I´m training again! I´m pretty excited, now being my 3rd time training in my mission, my hopes are high and I´m priveledged to have the oportunity to once again, welcome one of the Lord´s newest missionaries into this wonderful force of good. I´ll find out who my companion is tomorrow.

Elder Heidenreich, my companion for one week, will also be training and Marica will have two companionships!!!!!! This is WONDERFUL NEWS!!! Now that we have a new branch presidency that´s all geared to work miracles, as well as twice the workers to carry on the workload, we´re sure to have some incredible growth in Maricá! I´ll be here for probably another 3 months while I train my new companion, and I´m very excited. 

This is actually a huge answer to a prayer I had sunday of last week (the 25th) I remember Elder Porfirio and I returned back to our house, but he didn´t want to plan since he knew he would be going home. I was feeling ver y frustrated, a little helpless and didn´t feel completely satisfied with anything going on. I decided to have a true Enos-like prayer and, in a way, wrestle with the Lord. That night, I went into one of our rooms, closed the door, and gratified and pleaded for what the spirit guided me to ask for. One thing I asked was for a miracle to happen the following day. I wasn´t sure why I asked that, but I felt inspired to do so. I begged for a miracle to happen the following day, and that´s when I found out Elder Porfirio was going home. That wasn´t the miracle I was hoping for, but what was impressive was I discovered that Maricá would have two companionships. Although it will require a lot of planning, especially with regard to lunches which was already difficult to arrange with one companionship, I know that this branch is ready for the workload.

With the world cup around the corner, we´ve already been notified that some days will not include us working at all: Each day that Brazil has a match, and each game in Rio in the Maracanã stadium. We´ll be able to have lunch, but after that, we´ll come back home and clean and study and do whatever is necesary so that we can still have the spirit with us. People here get crazy during the world cup, and even more so now that the cup will be in Brazil.

Sorry I don´t have much time since today was super rushed with the trainer training we had in Rio. I still have lots of people to write back, but I´ll do that next week. I love you all, I love this Gospel. There is nothing more rewarding in my life other than that of dedicated service, and there´s no other place I want to be than right HERE!!! 

Love,

 Elder Braun

The last sunday that Elder Porfirio was here, we had luch with a member who lives on the BEACH. 

Here´s a cool photo there.