Mormon Missions See Success During World Cup Through English

Jason Swensen at the Deseret News reported on the missionaries in Salvador, Brazil who are taking advantage of the World Cup to find different ways to serve and share the gospel.

In the weeks leading up to the World Cup, Cliniriam Barroso, a Brazilian member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was asked to organize English classes for the transportation workers of Salvador. The World Cup is a world-wide event and tourists from many different country have flooded the country of Brazil. The goal of the program is to teach simple English phrases to transportation workers so they can communicate with tourists who likely speak only a smattering of English, and not Portuguese — Brazil’s national language. 

Sister Barroso is not fluent in English, and so she recruited the help of her friends: the full-time missionaries. Many Elders and Sisters have been participating in the program including the mission president, Jim Hart and his wife, Sister Lauren Hart.

[pull_quote_center]“Teaching English to the transportation workers has been a wonderful blessing for us,” said President Hart.[/pull_quote_center]

Missionaries aren’t the only ones seeing benefits of the free English program. The students themselves have felt good around the missionaries and comment about the peace they feel during English classes. Sister Barroso frequently invites her classmates to learn more about the Church with her, through formal lessons with the missionaries or participate in Family Home Evening with her own family. As a result, several students have become interested in the gospel and some have already accepted the invitation to be baptized. One recent convert, a bus driver named Geraldo, was a speaker for the course graduation.

Clearly, the excitement of the games have not hindered these missionaries from sharing their sacred message.

To find out more about what missionaries are doing in Brazil read the original article, go to deseretnews.com.