Maria's Baptism and Mission Tour

Hello all you lovely friends and family!  Here is another amazing update here in Rio de Janeiro Brasil.  

Firstly, immediately after sending my last email, the next day was the baptism of Maria!!  It was so amazing, and she was so happy.  She has since been reading the Book of Moromon every single day, and asking us SO many questions!  So we have been doing our best to keep up with her.  But she is already making a lot of good friends in the church, so she is going in the right direction.  Our next step is to help her receive a temple reccomend and go the temple with her.  She is so excited, because she has a lot of siblings that have passed away.  She wants all of her siblings to have the same experience that she had of receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ!  

Another very very cool lesson we had this week was with a very famous Brazilian.  His name is Carlos Wizard Martins, and he is a billionaire, and a member of the church.  We had a friend named Pedro who basically began searching the church just becuase of him!  And so we have a lot to owe to him.  Our president of the mission, being an absolute beast had the contact, and made the connection.  So one day we received the contact of CARLOS MARTINS in our phone, saying that we could call him during our lesson.  And guess what?  It was an amazing lesson, and Brother Carlos really had a lot of great things to say and we marked a baptismal date with Pedro.  Brother Carlos even invited himself to the baptism through Zoom.  

We are working hard though with 2 of our friends, Anna Clara and Pedro.  They are both amazing people who have been spending a lot of time knowing about the church and studying, and they know it's important and that they should be baptized.  But they also have something holding them back.  They need to make the next step in Faith.  I would like to ask for your help in praying for them, that they can really act in faith and be able to make the next step of baptism.  We know that it is exactly the step they need in their lives to be closer to Jesus Christ.  

This last week has been a pretty busy and crazy week for me and Elder Reis, as well as President and Sister de Oliveira.  We had our annual Mission Tour!  It means we got a visit from Elder Marcus B. Nash of the 70.  He is also the executive director of the Missionary Department.  So it means that missionary work, he is kind of the pro.  He came in on Sunday, and basically from Monday to Thursday we were all involved with that process.  We got to have a meeting with just him and President and Sister on Monday, and it was competely in English was a strange experience.  And Elder Reis was able to pray in English and talk it was a very cool example of the gift of Tounges.  

We had about 6 meetings in total with him and his wife.  They gave SO much understanding and training to the mission and what we can better as missionaries and servants of Jesus Christ.  The best part though, was the spirit that he brought.  It was so tangible you could almost feel it when he talked.  It was very clear that he was sent here for a reason.  He said a lot of things that really stuck in my mind, but there was 2 that were quite clear to me.  

The first was about the location where we are serving.  Rio de Janeiro.  It is a city that is the equivilant of Las Vegas in terms of how other brazilians talk about it.  You know, a lot of drugs and firearms and, just sin happening you know?  But Elder Nash pointed out that the Lord is very interested in Rio de Janeiro.  He put a temple here, and he brought 2 Apostles of the Lord, and then brought Elder Nash.  It is not a coincidence.  It means that God has some BIG plans here in Brazil.  And guess who gets to the people to put in action those plans?  That is right, US!  

The second thing he spoke a lot about was our purpose and how to come unto Christ.  In essence, they are exactly the same.  As we think of bringing others to Christ, we can think of going to church and praying and all that, but the steps are very very basic, but so powerful.  

1. We have faith in Christ and step forward towards him.  

2. Using that faith, we cut off the things keeping us from walking to the Holy Spirit and Christ.  That is called repentance.  

3.  We are baptized to make covenants with God to be able to help him LIFT us and be HIS people. 

4. We receive the Holy Ghost as a witness of our baptism and as a gift to always be with us.  He will help us understand more about faith and when we need to repent.  

5. We do it again. We have faith, repent, take the sacrament, and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  

If you have questions about coming unto Christ, send me an email!  How are you doing in your path of coming unto Christ?  Are there things lacking in your life that we need to do better?  I know I had a few things come to my mind.  

As we look at this process, we have 2 of our friends who are following these steps and tomorrow will be baptized.  Dilia and Fatima.  Dilia is a great example of faith even later in life.  She is 91, and she will be entering in the best decision of her life!! We are so excited for her!!  

I love you all and hearing from you! please send an email to keep in touch and if you want more stories!  

Until next week, 

Elder Moss, Copacabana, RJ