I am serving a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Brazil, Porto Alegre North Mission. I post on this blog every week, so check it out to hear about my life as a missionary!

Monday, February 9, 2015

Week 23

After a long and tiring battle against the adversary, Marli was baptized this week! It was quite a surprise for us actually. We went over to her house last Monday to see how she was doing and as always, doubts and tempatations had crept into her thoughts. With the Spirit´s aid we swept them away and replaced them with a conviction of what she needed to do. To our surprise she walked into the back room and returned seconds later with all she´d need to be baptized (towel, sandals, and extra under clothing). We organized a service immediately and I baptized her the same day. The next challenge will be confirming her in church, the adversary certainly hasn´t stopped fighting against her.

This week we focused mainly on Wesley and Christorfer, 2 brothers (13 and 15) that attended church last week. They are very intelligent, already having read parts of the bible on their own. They´re hard workers, assisting their mom and dad build an extension to their house. Christofer has already said he wants to serve a mission! We had to tell him to slow down and focus on baptism first. During one of our lessons with them we asked, as we do every lesson, if there was anything we could do to help them. The mother of the 2 boys jokingly responded that her walls could us some washing. On the way back to our house Elder Garcia and I reflected on how the lesson went. While we discussed our future plans with them and how we could best aid them in coming unto Christ we received a distinct impression to take their mother´s offer, even though it was only a joke on her part, and show that members of Christ´s church practice what they preach. 

We put our plan into action the next morning, showing up on their doorstep ready to work. The surprise on their faces was pure gold! After insisting that we wouldn´t leave without doing some work, we started off by mowing and trimming their lawn. Luckily due to years of practice at home, I was able to teach Elder Garcia how to work the mower and trimmer and we made their lawn look  better than it ever has before. To finish off before we had to catch our appointment with lunch, we washed their car. That was one of the best service projects I´ve done. We felt so accomplished for doing that simple act of service, and we witnessed the results the rest of the week. They opened up and the dad began joining us each time we came over to teach. In a private conversation with us he teared up as he expressed his gratitude for what we were doing (really it´s the Spirit but he doesn´t know the difference yet) for his sons, something he said he lacks the knowlege for. He wants them to take this opportunity that already passed him by. We assured him that it hasn´t passed him by and that he is still very able and qualified for eternal life with his small family. We want to batize the 4 of them together in the near future. For now we need to work on getting them married, which can take a lot of time unfortunately.

So we just received the transfer email and I will be staying in Vera Cruz for the next 6 weeks with a new companion! The time is passing by so rapidly.

--
Elder Joseph Andrew
Missão Porto Alegre Norte
Caixa Postal 13008
CEP 91010-971
Porto Alegre - RS
Brasil



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