March Madness

- March 28, 2023

Good morning friends and family! Here has passed by almost another month since I've written, so I'll try and be thorough without writing too much!

Let's jump into the adventures that have happened over the last couple weeks!

First off, we had a kind of punch in the gut shortly after I send my last email. I talked about Joelma right? Well, we had a lesson super spiritual where we marked a baptismal date with her...and then the very next day she sent a message to us saying that God had reaveled to her that she didn't need to go to our church. We were like, WHAT? It was really out of no where, and we had her member friend send her some messages and try and help her, but in the end Joelma ended up just blocking us. That was an unfortunate thing, and it really opened my eyes to how much I love the people here in Brasil, cause I did get really sad after she said no, after she had already received her answer.

But the work of the Lord never stops! So a few days later we did have a cool experience where me and Elder Serafim were walking to our next appointment. Normally we would take the right at the bus station, but for whatever reason we went left. Neither of us said anything, but we just continued to go to the left. Shortly after we turned on the road, a man stopped us and asked if we were missionarys of the church. We said yes, and he explained that he just recently came to Macae from another brazilian state, and yesterday when he was sleeping on a park bench, all of his things were stolen, so he ended up sleeping on the street that night. He asked us if we could help him with money to be able to stay in a place for the night. He said he took the lessons when he was in Bahia, and he wants to be baptized, and had already read until Alma in the Book of Mormon. Okay...so normally we as missionaries can't really give anything to people in this way, becuase of various rules and possible misunderstandings. But when he said Alma, something clicked that he must be serious. But we couldn't give money, so we called Bishop, and Bishop was so kind and generous as to give the small amount needed for him to sleep in a room. We invited him to church after he had sucessfully found a place to stay, and gave him our number for when he got a phone.

I kinda forgot about him because he never sent a message. But then on Sunday, who shows up? Marcio! Now he has a house, and a job, and the sisters in the other ward marked a baptismal date with him yesterday!

I had another miracle happen when I went on a division with Elder Rosa. Elder Rosa is brand new, and is on about week 4 of the mission. They are teaching a girl called Beatriz, who is 13 and is really cool. They invited her to baptism, and she was on the fence about if it was the right thing or not, even though she felt good about the things the elders were teaching. Elder Rosa in previous lesson made a promise with her, that she would pray, open the Book of Mormon to ANY page and the FIRST thing that she saw would be the answer to her prayers. As I talked to the trainer after this lesson, he was SHOCKED! Anyway, Elder Rosa and I went to the lesson with that context in mind. We asked her if she prayed and marked a scripture. She said yes and passed it to us. We searched a little bit in the scriptures, and as we passed it I thought it was in Mosiah 18, which talks only about baptism. I got so excited and then realized that it was a little bit more to the end. She marked Mosiah 21: 35 which says.. "35 They were desirous to be baptized as a witness and a testimony that they were willing to serve God with all their hearts;"

I mean, C'MON!! How cool!!! We kinda just looked at her and said, "Well, you know what you gotta do now right?" She said yes, and I got to do her baptismal interview which was such a spiritual experience. I already asked her if she has thought about serving and mission, and she says she thinks it would be cool.

Another highlight of this month was our temple trip with our ward!! We got to go in a caravan with our whole district and the two wards to go to the temple!! It was such a fabulous experience, especially to be able to go with some recent converts and some less active members who have since returned to activity. I was able to help do proxy baptisms with a man who was baptized last month in the other ward! What a special experience that was. I love the temple! I was very giddy on the day that we went, you can ask all of my district. I just feel a spirit so strongly there that it's impossible to not feel giddy! I was able to understand a lot more this last time about covenants and the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. If you haven't been to the temple recently, GO!! Even if you can't enter, go to the grounds and feel the spirit that is there. It will change your life.