Oi família!
Well boy do we have news this week. I have about a million things running through
my head right now and I have to write down the most important ones. But it´ll all work out. I´m finding that it´s becoming more and more
difficult to write in English now (seriously, who ever would have thought that)
but I´m managing.
Remember when Élder Andersen came and visited here? Well, the church newsroom has an article
about what happened on the link below.
Enjoy!
But this week has been a set of ups and downs. Wednesday was our farewell conference for
President and Sister Souza. They bore
testimony, gave hugs, gave ties (I got two!), and it was generally a super
awesome spiritual experience. They gave
some good parting advice to everyone and we got to meet the missionary that
baptized Sister Souza. It was cool to
hear his testimony because he said "You don´t know who you baptize"
and then went on to tell us about how cool it is that Sister Souza is the wife
of a mission president. Then Sister
Souza got up and explained about their family that is all active in the church
with many serving in prominent leadership positions, all of the 620
missionaries they cared for (and I was one of them *swelling with pride*) and
all that good jazz. In general it was a
really good meeting even though I cried a little. I really don´t like crying. But then this morning I saw President Bonini
in the office when we went by to get materials.
We shook hands and then he headed into his office with the assistants
for a meeting or something. Sister
Bonini seems super cool, but we´ll have a little more time to get to know them
in the conference on Wednesday.
Remember the woman from last week, Rosa? Yep, she´s doing awesome. She said that the first day without coffee
was like death but after that didn´t have anym more problems. She is truly an elect of God. We were so lucky to find her.
But the big news of the week is that the Lord qualifies the
called. He does not (and I can testify
to this) call the qualified. The past
week my companion and I closed our area for a day and a half to head down to Canindé,
which is a city about 2 hours south of here, to do exchanges with the
missionaries there. One of them is my
good buddy Élder Lima (remember him? I
wrote about him December 16th last year.
I love that guy) and Élder Tamanho said I should do an exchange with
him. We had a blast. It was good to do some good work with Élder
Lima again and to see a more experienced missionary do work. We taught this one lady, Leda, who said she
had read and prayed the same day that Élder Lima and his companion had passed
by. Élder Lima asked her how she had felt during the prayer and she responded
by simply saying "better." As
missionaries this is the sign that the Spirit has answered but instead Élder
Lima asked "do you believe that this was an answer from God?" and she said, "yes". I was super cool to see that the Spirit
doesn´t need to shout at us to get our atention. If we´re listening and seeking for what the
Spirit has to say, we will be guided.
Which was one thing that I learned personally as well. It´s interesting to see how things change on
the mission. Élder Lima was my leader
for such a long time, and now I´m his leader.
As such, we talked as we were walking about his difficulties and his
challenges. The problems they´re facing
in Canindé and how he can help his trainee become a better missionary. The miraculous thing for me was that as Élder
Lima was talking to me, I was able to come up with something to say! What was even better was that it helped
him! It showed me that the Lord always
prepares those he has called. I had no
desire to be a leader, especially over someone who was already my leader, but
the Lord made me capable. Am I
perfect? No. But the Lord has magnified my talents and
abilities in ways I never thought possible.
This is the Lord´s work. Were it
now, I would not be here. I testify that
Christ lives. He is our Savior. This is His church.
Até o próximo,
Élder Evans
P.S. The photo is the
last day I saw President and Sister Souza
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