Oi família!
Wow. This week was
full of ups and downs and very few in-betweens.
I guess you could say that things are getting harder in the work as many
of the people that were progressing lost interest and desire. While the week was a little more sad, we had
some amazing things happen with a family that we´re teaching that will be the
theme of this e-mail, the Week of Miracles.
Let´s backtrack a little.
Two weeks ago, we were preparing a young girl named Vitória to be
baptized. We had initially be teaching
the family, but all of them decided that they didn´t want to participate for
now, except Vitória. So, Vitória has
been faithfully reading the Book of Mormon, stopped drinking coffee, and has
attended church every single week for over a month. We were talking with the family and
everything was going well. They said
that Vitória could be baptized without any problem, even though they didn´t
want to be at the moment. We were so
pumped. The day of the baptismal
interview, we passed by to go to the interview when the father answered the
door and said "well, we´ve decided that we´re not going to let it happen
anymore." We entered and began
discussing with them what was happening what they were feeling and for what motive
they had suddenly denied their daughter the opportunity to be baptized. It was a super powerful experience for me
because as a missionary sometimes it´s hard to be bold and straightforward
about some things. But as we were
teaching and explaining that Vitória wants to be baptized in the only church
that has the authority of God, the Spirit was very strong. He testified that
this was truly the way that Vitória needed to follow and that her parents
needed to let her be baptized to obtain the fullness of our Father´s blessings. One way or another, her parents decided that
they would have to think about it and that we could return the next week.
That weekend, we did a fast with our zone that we could have
more baptisms and that they people we´re preparing could be baptized during
this month. The day that we marked to
return to speak with Vitória´s family, we (well, I) approached the door with
aprehension, praying that we would have the Spirit. We knocked and he father opened the door. The conversation went something like this:
Us: Hey, do you have a little that we could talk to you guys
some more?
José (Vitória´s father): Yes, is it about Vitória being
baptized?
Us: Yep
José: We´ll allow it.
No problem.
I almost fell over backwards. The week before had been a battle just to get
a return appointment and now they would allow the baptism? They sure did.
This past Saturday was Vitória´s baptism. The Spirit was so sweet as we were at the
baptismal service. The young women sang
a beautiful number that filled the chapel with the Spirit. What was even more amazing, all of Vitória´s
family came to watch the baptism. They
all enjoyed it. We invited them to come to church the next day to witness the
confirmation, but they all said, "I don´t know. Probably not, but we´ll see."
The next day Élder Tamanho and I were walking to
church. We looked in front to see Rosa
(yep, our recent convert) with Vitória walking to church. I saw another woman with them too, that I
though was a member that lives close to Rosa and Vitória. Then as we got closer, I realized that it was
Fransisca, Vitória´s mom!! It was awesome!
We had almost no investigators with us in chruch yesterday, but the
simple fact that a mother and a daughter could be there together for that
special moment was everything. The
meeting yesterday was so full of the Spirit and was very powerful. We passed by their house afterwards and
Fransisca said "one of these days I really want to stay for the classes
afterwards, but if I have the courage next week that I had this week, I will go
to chruch with you next week."
I´ve seen a large number of miracles on my mission. Most of them were small, little things, like
the tender mercies of the Lord. But what
I saw and witnessed this past week was nothing short of a miracle. My God is a God of miracles. He has never ceased to be one and will never
cease to produce such wonders in our days.
As we exercise our faith, the Lord will work miracles in our lives.
Amo vocês. Até o
próximo milagres
Élder Evans
P.S. Have I already said that I love being a missionary?!?!?!?!?
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