His Work Continues!!!

                                                                                                              May 16, 2016

Hello Beautiful Family!

 

LUCAS WAS BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!! SURPRISE!!! 

During the week, we asked him how he was feeling about his baptism, and he said that he really wanted to be baptized soon. Due to his busy work schedule, we had set his baptism back a week, but my companion and I worked out a way to move things up. We decided to teach him a lot of commandments in one lesson in order to teach him almost everything he needed to know.

By the end of the week, he was ready and it was a great baptism!!                                                        

 

A lot of the instructors of the CTM sang, "I Feel My Savior´s Love, (in português) and he had the chance to pray at the end of his baptism. I just remember his thanking our Heavenly Father for so many blessings in his life, and I´m not sure if I heard him ask for anything. I realized that when we are close to our Savior Jesus Christ in our lives, we already have everything.

  

Lucas was beaming from head to toe at the end of the baptismal service. the gas wasn´t working to heat the water, so he was unfortunately baptized in ice cold water, but he endured to the end.

 

He is one of the investigators  we have taught who has had the strongest testimony of the Book of Mormon. That book really helped him gain a testimony of his Savior Jesus Christ. Before his baptism, he was really worried about having to work every Sunday, and not being able to keep the Sabbath day holy. He has been trying to get his ´´day off´´ every Sunday, but he hasn´t been able to trade with a coworker. We promised him that if he really asked for the Lord´s help in sincere prayer that eventually he would be able to rest from his labors on the Lord´s sacred day. It is amazing how pure he is, and how ready he is to serve a mission because of the little things in his life that he wants to mend to obey all of Heavenly Father´s commandments. 

This week we are going to have another baptismal service (Saturday night) of a 10-year-old boy named Matheus who is the son of a member named Quiteria. The last time he was baptized, he had a lot of fear of the water, and his brother had tried to baptize him, but he wasn´t able to be baptized because he wasn´t taught well enough how to bend his knees and such. I told him about Emily, now a member in Cotia who is 9 years old, who was baptized about 8 times in order to fully be baptized by immersion, and who she was super scared of the water as well, but how she told her mom, I want to be like Jesus, and because of this faith, and this just desire, she was baptized completely by immersion. He found a lot of hope after this first visit when we taught him, and now he will be baptized this Saturday.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

The Joy of Baptism!!

                                                                                                                    May 9, 2016

HI FAMILY!!!! 

 

Wonderful News!!!! 

Leticia was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!! 



We are so excited for Leticia and the wonderful blessings the gospel will bring!

Leticia was baptized at noon on Saturday morning this past weekend. Although it was a little crazy due to a time change from Friday evening to Saturday morning, Leticia was super calm and very happy to be baptized.

I had the opportunity to give a talk in the baptism about leaving behind an old life, and being born again in baptism. I felt so much of Heavenly Father´s love for Leticia, and because of this, cried with her telling her that her Heavenly Father was proud of the decision she made.

 

Leticia's younger sister and her grandma (Donna Ester) were able to attend her baptism. 


With the quick time change she had to endure cold water, but the Spirit took over and Leticia couldn´t have been happier.  It was a wonderful day!





Sis. Cellurale was able to come celebrate!

Sis. Cellurale soon joined us to celebrate Leticia's big day.
Afterwards, we celebrated by eating Mr. Cheney´s cookies, and tonight, we are going to celebrate more with her with some sweet treats :)

Beautiful Leticia wearing her first dress to church

This last week, Lucas came to church for the third time. He has been reading the Book of Mormon so much--he recently finished second Nephi, and he has such a strong testimony of it. This week, we are going to teach him with the young men´s president, and we are going to help him see the importance of serving a mission. He is 18 years old, and puts Heavenly Father first in his life, and I know he will be a great missionary.


To talk a little bit about him, he is a member of the Church called the Assembly of God, and one day we were talking with some people on the streets when he came up to us and asked us if we were missionaries, and that he was looking for a church because he wanted more direction in his life. He is truly elect, and was being prepared by the Lord for a while. He works in a Japanese restaurant, and only has one day off per week, so it´s a bit hard to teach him frequently throughout the week (because of this, we have to move his baptismal day one week back (May 22) so that he can be taught everything he needs to be taught. He recently said that he drinks coffee, but he said that it wouldn´t be a problem to quit. We testified of what Nephi said, that the Lord doesn´t give us a commandment without providing for us a way to obey His commandment. He said that he would stop drinking coffee, and this week we are going to finish up explaining to him about the commandments. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!! You are role models to me, and I love you all so much!!

Health Challenges... Blessings of the Temple!

                                                                                                              May 3, 2016

Oi Família!!! Well, I don´t have much time to write, but I will tell you all that I have been really sick these past few days. I´m not sure from what, but I think it was a cause of dengue--a mosquito bit me that carried an illness, and I have been almost bedrest because of how much pain I have been in each day. Literally, I didn´t have any strength to walk or stand up, and I had a high fever, and chills consistently that didn´t seem to be going away. Yesterday, however, we called the President´s spouse, and she told us to buy a certain type of medicine, and the medicine has been helping me so much that this morning I woke up only with a bad stomach, but the pain in my body completely went away.

 

I was able to go to the temple this morning because of this miracle. I know that the Lord has been humbling me because of this tough trial, and there is a reason that I had to pass through this pain in order to Remember Him. 

 

I'm so grateful for the blessings of the temple!



The temple truly blesses our lives!

Sis. De Oliveira and I at the temple

I was shocked to find out that Ben had to get his appendix out this week. I can´t imagine the pain he must have gone through. It is in tough times like these that we remember who is in control of our lives, and we remember that we are filhos de um Pai Celestial who loves us very much.

Sister De Oliveira has only two transfers left before her mission ends, and so she will finish her mission here in Casa Verde. She is super experienced, and teaches by the Spirit with a huge smile on her face, and is a delight to work with. I have never had a companion who has worried about me and my physical health or emotional health as her. While I was sick, she served me, and kept asking me how I was doing. She taught more than necessary in lessons when I really didn´t have the strength to teach. She was truly a angel to me as I passed through this difficult experience. She also knows a lot of English, and has passed through Chicago briefly, and has eaten Chicago popcorn! She wants to study in BYU after the mission. She is super cool, and you all will get to know her this Sunday!

As for Leticia, she is super happy to be able to be baptized this weekend! We are still figuring out what day works best for her--Saturday or Sunday because Sister Cellurale wanted to see her baptism, and Leticia really wanted her to be there too. 

I´m not sure if I have already told you all about Lucas, but he in another investigator who will be baptized on May 15, and is progressing a lot. He attended Church these past two sundays, and he was a miracle investigator (is 18 years old). I´ll tell you all more about him this Sunday, tá bom? Love you all!!! 

Boa Semana!!!