Monday, January 27, 2014

Great Power through Small Means

Oi família!

Well, another week has rushed by and I feel like I was sitting in this chair just yesterday writing this e-mail.  I´m more and more grateful each day for the power of goal-setting and how it´s helped me so much to use the Lord´s time effectively as I truly focus on the most important things.  We had a number of appointments and plans fall through this week, but we perservered and were able to teach 25 lessons to investigators with a member present!  This required a lot of finding and contacting, but I´m improvig rapidly at talking with random people.  Que ótimo!

I feel like this week, instead of my usual grand experience, I´m just going to talk about mini miracles, because we were blessed with many this week. One of our investigator couples marked their date for marriage (big hurdle down here.  Practically no one is married) for February 7th, so we marked them for baptism February 9th!  They have a little bit of reservations about it, but I know they can do it.  We taught the husband about the Word of Wisdom last week before we were able to teach the restoration because of his crazy work schedule.  We testified that it is a comandment from God that we don´t partake of coffee (everyone here drinks coffee, everyone) and he committed to live it.  We came back this past Saturday and his fiancé said "Well, Mateus gave up coffee cold turkey.  He quit Monday and hasn´t had any since."  So awesome.  Right after she said this he walked in the door and we were able to have a great Restoration lesson with them.  Every time I have the privelege of hearing the First Vision the Spirit always testifies of the truthfulness of the message.  So awesome.  Then, guess who came to church yesterday?  Well, Mateus didn´t, but Sara did!  So did our other person on date, her friend, Socorro.  And another investigator, Irecelia.  We were very blessed yesterday.

Another number of miracles have been happening in the lives of Aluizo and Redilane.  Remember them, from my experience with Elder Rector?  Well, we´re still teaching them.  Their progress is slow, but only because we only get to see them about once a week because they work long hours (they both have their Ph.D. in Chemistry and they´re professors.  Yeah.  Legit).  This week we went over and taught the Word of Wisdom to them as well.  We reviewed the 5 things we can´t partake and Aluizo said "Well, that´s not a problem.  I don´t have a problem with any of these things."  I almost jumped off the couch with excitement.  Then Elder Tribino and Elder Lemos (divisão = exchange) went back Wednesday and taught the Law of Chastity.  Again, no problems.  But even better, at the end of the lesson Aluizo asked "So, The Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity are commandments to prepare me for baptism, right?"  Yeah, he brought up baptism without them saying anything.  Then, we went back Friday to visit, though they had to leave when we got there.  But what were Aluizo´s final words to us?  "Oh we´ll be at church on Sunday too!  I need to prepare to get baptized!"  YEAH!!!!  They were unable to make it because of an unexpected travel incident, but we´re planning on inviting him to baptism tonight and having the service this Saturday or Sunday.  What blessings.

But here´s the moral of the story.  I was reading this morning in Ether 3:5 which talks about how the Lord shows his great power to us by small means many times.  Sure, altogether this has been a week of mini miracles, but grand things have happened.  I testify that our Father in Heaven is truly a God of miracles.  And small means, in many instances, confound the wise.  This is His work.  I am His servant.  And more than anything, I love being a missionary :)

Até mais!  Vos amo!


Elder Evans

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