Well, after last week being somewhat of a struggle, all of our efforts
paid off this week. We didn't have a baptism or anything, but our
numbers were great, the spirit was strong, and we met some golden
investigators [people ready to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ].
Our biggest problem was finding people to teach who were willing to make
commitments and change their lives for the better through the gospel.
On Segunda we met J~. It was a miracle that we met her. Sister
A~ [her companion] needed to go to the restroom and we were far from all of the
member´s houses and didn´t know what to do. I remembered that we had a
former investigator that I taught with Sister L~ who lived close.
We went to her house and she and her neighbor (J~) were there. While
Sister A~ was in the restroom I began to talk with J~ and got to know
her a little better and we marked to visit her another day. We went back
Quarta with Sister S~, a sister training leader and had a wonderful
lesson. We taught her about the importance of prophets and she understood
everything. She even asked about how the sacrament works in our church
and said that the things we said made lots of sense about needing a
prophet in the last days and all that jazz. It was really special and
the spirit was super strong.
We
also met D~. He lives in the same house as his niece who is a
less-active member. We went to visit her, but she wasn't home so we
taught him instead. It was wonderful. He showed so much interest in our
message about profets and truly wanted to know if we have a living
profet today. We left him the challenge to ask God if we have a profet
today. [Sarah's misspellings, but I left it in because I'm guessing it is a symptom of thinking in Portuguese instead of English]. Unfortunately the rest of the week he wasn't at home, BUT on
Sexta we found him at home again. When we got there he got super excited
and was so happy that we thought he was drunk. We sat down, said a
prayer, and then I asked, "so, did you pray like we asked you?" He said
yes and then I asked what question he had asked God in his prayer
(because lots of times they forget the specific question that they
needed to ask to receive a specific answer). He said "I prayed and
asked if we have a living profet today." We got super excited when he
said this and then I asked, "and do you feel like God answered your
prayer?" He paused for a minute and said, "I feel calmer and safer now
that I know that we must have a prophet today." We just sat there with
our mouths wide open in shock. That was the answer we wanted, but not
the answer we expected. He said that this entire week he had been
thinking about what we told him and that he prayed 4 times to get an
answer and that he felt super happy all week. He thanked us at least 5
times for talking to him and it was great. We taught him about the first
vision, left him with a book of Mormon and asked him to say the closing
prayer. In his prayer he thanked God for sending him two angels to help
him change his life and find the right path. It was a very special
lesson.
This
week was full of experiences like that. I am so happy to be a
missionary and feel the pure love of Christ working in the lives of
others. This work is truly Christ's work and as a missionary I am trying
so hard to do Heavenly Father's will and bring his children to the
truth. I know this is the Church of JESUS CHRIST. It can bring us a
fullness of joy that we cannot find anywhere else.
Com muito amor,
