Hi family!! So, this past week was wonderful!! I was able to feel
the Spirit so strongly in a mission counsel we had that spoke of how every
single thing we do in the church and in the mission requires our faith.
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| Our leadership group met together for a wonderful mission counsel! |
Yesterday, I had the chance to bear my testimony about faith, and how, if we just had the desire to chance or to improve, we could see miracles as long as we nourished and took care of our faith with a little bit of work on our part. As I bore my testimony, I said that we had found some really special families in this area, and I immediately began to break down in tears. I had felt a piece of Heavenly Father´s love for these families as I was bearing my testimony, and the whole chapel got super quiet as I tried to compose myself and speak. I said that these families need to know that they can stay together forever, and there is a way by which that is possible.
I remember we were sitting by Elis, in church yesterday, and after going
back to sit down after bearing our testimonies, she had been emotional, and her
eyes were red and full of tears. I´m so grateful to be able to know her. She is
practically a member of the Church already. She is quitting smoking right now,
and we made a calendar for her for the whole month of September to be able to
stop. Every three days, she decreases the amount of cigarettes that she smokes
as a goal, and she has to plan out her day to know how many she can smoke. She
is completing her goals already each day, and she feels so good about herself
when she does so (normally Marcos and Natasha fight, or something goes wrong
with Marcos late at night so she gets pretty stressed out). She just wants
what´s best for her family, and she has been reading the Book of Mormon each
day, and falling asleep with it open every night because it gives her strength
to stop smoking and press forward.
This past week, on Saturday night, we went to
visit Natasha, Junior, and Elis, and we ended up sharing a video with them of
´´Our True Identity´´ by Elder Uchtdorf, which talks about how at times we don´t
think we are beautiful, and we are the ugly duckling, but when we truly see our
reflection one day, we recognize that we are swans, and we are truly beautiful
because of our divine identity as children of God. Shortly after the lesson,
Natasha began to cry. She was feeling the Spirit, and she has been having a hard
time finding self-worth and feeling loved and beautiful. The Spirit was so
strong in the room as we testified of how our Heavenly Father loves each one of
us for just how we are. Just because we are sons and daughters of Him, He has an
infinite love for us. Unfortunately, the next day, she didn´t come to Church
with Junior. They chose to go to a Catholic Church they were attending in the
past. We think that it may be because she feels as though there are too many
restrictions and commandments in the church--that it´s too big of a commitment.
We´re going to teach her tonight, and we´re going to try to bring so more young
women in the ward to get to know her better, and help her see that the
commandments help keep us free.
Yesterday, Valéria and her boyfriend came to church, and felt the Spirit.
They absolutely loved it, and the bishop talked to them afterwards. They want to
get married, but Fábio, her boyfriend, who doesn´t live in this area, needs to
find a job. The Bishop has helped us a lot take care of some of our
investigator´s needs.
Here are a couple of pictures of us yesterday at Aparecido's house having fun with some cool instruments. Aparecido is the dad of Leandro who is soon to be married to Aline, who we have been teaching.
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| Picture of Sis. Hall and me with Leandro and Aline. Aline made us yummy homemade bread. |
Have a wonderful week family!! I´ll tell you more next week.
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