This week was very exciting.
- First off it
was an emotional roller coaster. Every day was very different. One day
everything fell and nobody wanted to listen to us and then the next
would be filled with lots of lessons and lots of people with potential
and the next day everything would fall again. but such is life... God
gives us the bad days and it makes the good days even better.
- I got in a bike accident. Don't worry I am totally fine, I was
riding home really fast to get home within the hour and I hit this guy. Actually we hit each other. He was riding his bike too. And we crashed,
I bruised my knee and demolished his bike. It was really weird, God is
watching out for his missionaries. Because my bike was perfectly fine
and I was fine too, but his bike took a beating. I helped him pay for a
new wheel and everything. haha, makes a good story.
- This week I was able to see the fulfilling of Gods promises to
his missionaries that in the very hour you will know what to say. We
were teaching a man (turned out to be a pastor) on the street and he was
asking us a whole bunch of questions trying to trip us up--things like
what we would say if I came upon a drunk man, and about the doctrines of Cristo etc. etc. And it was the coolest experience looking back at it.
At the time, I just said the things that came into my head, but looking
back Heavenly Father was really helping, because while speaking to him, I
knew exactly what he was thinking and knew exactly what answers he
needed to hear. And I just opened my mouths and let the words come out. He is a pastor that doesn't want to read the Book of Mormon, but he has
one and maybe one day, he will soften his heart enough to read it. But
he was impressed with our responses. And I hope we helped change the
image he has of the Church of Jesus Christ.
- We visited another church last night. We were supported a few of
our investigators that sang in church and we wanted to watch. We went
and listened to 2 hours of really, really loud prayers and singing. I
have listened to these churches outside, but inside is almost
unbearable. I had to fight the urge to cover my ears. But all in all it
was a very moving experience, and to my surprise I felt the spirit.
Looking at the pastors with all their nice clothes and sheeky cars, I didn't feel the spirit as they were speaking and praying and doing their
thing, but I did feel the spirit clapping and praising god with the Brazilian people. They really put their heart and souls into their
praises. And I felt the love of God for these people and I felt the love
of God that they had. Yesterday morning I got really
sad/discouraged/annoyed with all the people, what we call here in Brazil
mole (pronounced moley). Mole is a word that
captures all of the people we teach that don't keep commitments, and don't
really do anything about the gospel. Anyway, I was feelings these things
yesterday morning about these people and just sad that they don't have
that thing deep down inside to act and to do something about their faith
in God. But in that little church singing and shouting praises to God, I
felt the spirit whisper to me, that these people will be happy in the
after life. They will continue praising God and they will be happy in
their own way. So I decided I am going to stop feeling sad about the
people who don't want anything to do with the Church of Jesus Cristo and
just remember that in the end everything will turn out right and they
too will be happy. Of course they all have the potential to reach a
bigger and better happiness, but maybe I think these people wouldn't be
happy in the celestial kingdom...who knows; we each have our free agency
to choose what we will.
-We have some potential baptisms this week. I hope everything goes
well with them. They have been really hard to get a hold of, they have
been traveling. But they are an awesome couple, really young, but very
mature. Manuela and Marquino. We´ll see how this week goes
- and the elect family, is going really really slowly. But I am hoping that the Book of Mormon will do its magic.
thanks for your emails, and prayers
good luck with school
and remember someone in Brazil loves you
sis p
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