Dec. 19, 2016
Hi Family,
So, this past week, I lost my voice again (I think it´s the third time in the mission) because I think I´ve been working too hard that my body can´t take anymore, and my immune system shuts down. However, I learned a lot after losing my voice. 1) I can sing a lot lower when it happens, and 2) I can´t stand not being able to talk in the mission.
I feel as though I´ve changed a lot from the beginning of my mission, because I normally didn´t say anything at lunches to get to know the members, but at the end of the mission, it´s such a burden to lose my voice and not be able to share the gospel with others like normal, or find out more about their personal lives. I don´t think I´ve realized how much I´ve changed until now.
Also, please pray that I´ll be able to sing well this Wednesday in the
mission talent show and regain all of my voice back. It´s almost completely
healed, but it could be better.
This past week, I saw so many miracles. I think that it´s only when we are
most weak in our lives that we see Heavenly Father´s hand constantly extended
out to bless us. This week, because I had a small cold, I really depended a lot
on my Heavenly Father for strength. I saw so many miracles because of it. I
could feel the Spirit testify to me of the love that He had for the new
investigators we taught, and I could see them as He sees them.
One new investigator we are teaching is Francielle, a young woman who is 22
years old. She was a contact that we made one day on the street, who happens to
be the friend of one of our past investigators. One day, we hadn´t planned to
visit her, but we had planned to visit someone near her, and she happened to
live right next door. We clapped our hands and called out for her neighbor, but
she told us her neighbor wasn´t at home. She then said, but if you want to visit
me, you can. We then marked a day to visit her (this past friday) and walked
away, knowing that she was prepared to receive the gospel. On friday morning
before lunch, we visited her, and she told us that she was looking for Heavenly
Father in her life because her mom had passed away suddenly in January, and her
dad had passed away when she was 13 years old, and she was wanting to make
things right with God in her life. From her appearance, she doesn´t look like
someone who really wants to obey Heavenly Father´s commandments. She has a lot
of piercings on her ears and nose, and mouth, and you can tell she smokes
because she has really large bags under her eyes. However, the Lord doesn´t look
at our appearance, but looks at our heart.
We taught her about the plan of salvation--how one day she could reunite
with her mom and her dad, and how Jesus Christ knew exactly what she was going
through. At the end of the message, she accepted baptism, and she said, with
certainty, that she would prepare to be baptized on the 7th of January. She told
us that the message we shared brought a lot of peace to her heart, and she gave
a sweet closing prayer at the end of the lesson. She told us that she was
anxious to go to church on Sunday.
After walking away from her house, I felt the Spirit confirm the truth that
she was being prepared to receive the gospel. Her brother is evangelical, and
had been telling her that the only way to find hope in her life was to look for
Heavenly Father, and gain a relationship with Him. She had humbly asked for our
help to search for God´s love the day that she asked us to visit her. She needed
to know that she was not lost. That there was hope. Natalia, her friend who was
a past investigator of the church, had told her about our church and what a good
place it was, and her friend had planted another seed in her heart.
After many seeds planted, she had decided to change. She had decided to
turn her life around, little by little, and depend on the Savior for strength.
It´s the only option that gives us hope.
Unfortunately, Francielle wasn´t able to come to church this Sunday, but we
have hope that she will come this next Sunday. We are going to visit her soon to
discover why she didn´t come because she had promised us she´d be there on Saturday night.
Also, this past week we had a wonderful Christmas Ward activity and a lot
of less actives came!! Bruna, and her whole family, including her Dad, who isn´t
able to come to church on Sundays because of his job, came to the activity.
We were able to get a picture with Aurea, Bruna's mom, who looks so beautiful and modest in her new dress.
Here is a picture of our Ward Christmas activity, where we are doing a skit. The Bishop's wife, Leticia is in pink and the man sitting near the pulpit is the Bishop, Bispo Oliveira.
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Also, Cida, another less active member who hasn´t been to church for 6 months, came to the activity. The family that we have been integrating with Bruna´s family (Alessandra´s family) came to the activity and came to church this Sunday as well. Alessandra´s husband hasn´t been very active in the church, but he came to the activity, and then came to church on Sunday in a tux, and talked with Rogério, Bruna´s dad, in the Christmas activity.
Here is a picture of me with an Irmã in the Ward named Marlene
who has such a strong desire to share the gospel with others.
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Unfortunately, Ernest and Eder won´t be able to be baptized because they
really want their soon-to-be-wives in Haiti to come to Brasil so they can get
married, and then be baptized. This is what´s truly right, and this is what
means true conversion. Technically, if they commit themselves to living the law
of chastity and getting married as soon as their ´´girlfriends´´ get here to
brasil (because it takes a long time to receive a passport), they can be
baptized, but this whole time we´ve been teaching them, I haven´t felt right
about this. I´m glad they made the right decision to be married before getting
baptized so that they don´t fall away from the church. They both have one
4-year-old daughter, and they really love their families.
UNTIL SUNDAY!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!
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