Wow, thank you to everyone who sent me an email for my birthday. It helps a lot. It´s interesting how on the mission you encounter the lowest of lows but the highest of highs. The mission is hard but the good moments and miracles make it all worth it. So for a while now I haven´t baptized anyone. In my numbers I haven´t actually had a baptism since December. Some missionaries plant seeds and others collect the fruits. I´ve been planting lots of seeds. And the work of preparing people to be baptized is amazing. But it´s even better to be able to see someone follow the savior´s invite being baptized. Lately I´ve been praying that the Lord could do a miracle and that we might be able to find someone ready to be baptized. The Lord heard my prayers. I just have to say that I would be totally lost without the Lord´s help. I´ve never been robbed or assaulted here in Brazil, and I haven´t even been bitten by a dog(yet..) Somehow I´ve been able to communicate in Portuguese, and cause others to have the desire to follow Christ. This is not me. I testify that a greater power, being a power from God is helping every day. I´ve seen that success can simply come by following the promptings of holy ghost and take advantage of certain opportunities. But many times these promptings will come at a time that we´re tired or not ready to follow. I´m so glad that a few times this week I followed promptings from the holy ghost and saw miracles. It happened 3 times from what I can remember.
1. So getting back to the prayer I talked about that God answered. It started last Saturday when after lunch a very humble sister in our branch told us that she knew a friend who was dating a young man preparing to go on a mission in 3 days. She told us that her friend is going to wait for this young man to get home from his mission to marry him and wanted to become a member of the church. Woooohoooo! Luckily that same day, Saturday, there was a ward activity that would happen in the afternoon. This humble sister invited her friend to go the activity. She went. At the activity they spent awhile talking, and I´m pretty sure it was about the gospel, because the next day this friend came to church! Woooohoooo! She told us that she really liked the church and had actually been to our church in other cities many times before. She invited us to come over to her apartment to do a family home evening with that humble sister and her family. Well I accepted that. (So let´s resume here, this lady has been to the church many times, wants to be a member, has a boyfriend leaving a mission in a few days, and invited us over to her house to do a family home evening. Wow! I think God basically just gave us a baptism on a silver platter.) The family home eveing monday night was amazing and very spiritual. My companion and I didn´t have to say very much. This lady just started talking with the members and her boyfriend who was there and came with the idea that she should be baptized by her boyfriend before he leaves on his mission the next day. I was shocked and couldn´t believe that she could be baptized the next day, but the spirit confirmed that I needed to invite her to be baptized the next day by her boyfriend. My companion had told me before walking into the family home evening to not mark a date with this lady to be baptized because it wouldn´t be the right setting. I knew that my companion is very experienced and has baptized a lot of people on his mission, but the spirit made confirmation very strong that she needed to be baptized tomorrow. I had never made an invite so direct. In the middle of all the talking I called the lady´s name and invited her to be baptized the next day. Without even thinking she said yes. I called up our Zone Leader and told him we have a baptismal interview. The next day we interviewed her and baptized her. It was incredible. Just a few hours after the baptism the young man left for his mission. God answered my prayer.
I won´t have time to explain the other miracles that happened this week but I can tell you that God has people prepared for my companion and I to teach and baptize.
My Birthday was cool. No one will call me a teenager anymore. The sisters in my district called me and sang happy birthday in english for me. That was awesome, even though they didn´t know all the words. That was very nice of them.
I´ll keep working. I´ll do my best. I´ll help everyone I can to follow Christ.
Vou trabalhar. Vou fazer meu melhor. Vou ajudar tudo mundo seguir Cristo.
