August 26, 2014

Week 51 (4 August 2014)


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,
Sister Phelps


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