NATAL(IE) IN BRAZIL: Week 22

New years we spent the night in Alecrim with our sister leader treinadoras and we had a dinner together and we heard all the fireworks and we counted down the new year!! It was great...a little trunky, but it was awesome!!!

So this week was just a little rough cause no one is home because of the holidays, or people are just visiting and aren´t in our area...so I knew this was going to happen and Sister Leal and I worked really hard this week to find new people to teach and always try and share and invite people conhecer the church or the messages we have!! but yeah I’m going to focus on one story and miracle that happened this week!!...

BATIZMO HAPPENED THIS WEEK!!!! WAHHOOO, first Sunday of the year!! YEAYYYYAAAA

So we baptized a cara names Thiago.he has visited the church a couple times! I met him the first week in the mission field...muito tempo né haha!! but yeah anyway, we started teaching his neighbor...he lives in a villa so literally everyone can hear us teaching so we just invited everyone to listen to our message! But yeah, we were a guy named Lennon that lives in front of thiago and we were sitting outside in this villa and thiago shows up, he starts to listen too! WE were teaching about the restoration...we invited him to pray about the things we talked about and that we would come back the next day...This happened a week ago! Thiago went to church last week, and we invited him to be baptized in the street Saturday or Friday before he went to church too! WE also invited him to be baptized again Sunday during church, when we showed him the baptism font..but NOTHING!! he said no all these times because he was already baptized when he had 19 years in the Assembly de DEUS! UGH so frustrating!!! but anyway...sister leal and I went back Tuesday morning before lunch and literally soo many people were there..like all of our investigators in the same spot cause they all live there haha, but this time was a little different! We went up to talk to Thiago, ask how was church, what he though, did he pray and what not about the church about baptism...and when we mentioned baptism it was like ohhh boy haha He started to ask, `why do you guys keep asking about that, like why is your baptism different than mine...`and then everyone else was like YEAH..How come you guys are sempre inviting us to be baptized (LOL) but seriously I just felt like they were attacking us with questions and doubts. So sister leal and I started to explain again about the baptism of Jesus Christ and about the Poder and autoridade that we have in the church, but they didn’t seem to understand completely about poder so we started to talk about the Holy Ghost, the Gift of the Holy ghost por meio the imposição das mão (forget in English)...and this is when it started to go really bad!! Meanwhile I see Thiago flipping through his Bible trying to find this scripture...and after awhile he pulls out Acts 2:1-4...it talks about the Gift of tongues...I was like ummmm yeah no, I don’t know a whole lot about this subject so I´m just going to bear my testimony and to say that the gift of tongues is not that we can talk and speak in strange languages, but that we can understand! For example, (I only have 4 months in brazil and I understand majority of what people say) so yeah in fim, WE just said that we weren’t going to argue and that we were going to study in the bible and the book of Mormon to help them understand more about the role of the Holy Ghost! but yeah.it was just terrible, I felt horrible about the lesson. Kind of like they only wanted to argue and Bible Bash, sabe!!

anyway...we went back and visited Thiago Thursday I think and we asked him if he prayed about joseph smith, he said no... we taught more about the restoration and joseph smith and prophets and outoridade, and in the end we asked if he would pray about joseph smith and the book of Mormon and really ask if the church is true, he said yes! and then when he received and answer, what difference would it make in his life to know these things are true? He said it would change everything, and then after that we said that when you know these things are true, will you follow the example of Jesus, being baptized como ele foi?!;;;HE SAID YESS!!! we marked his baptism dia 10 of January!! BALEZA!! MILAGRE!!!.....but just wait...the next day we went back to keep him firme for church and baptism and to teach some commandments!! we were with him and a recent convert, Adriano, and all of a sudden Thiago asked, `can I be baptized this Sunday;;;?` hahah Sister Leal and I looked at each other and we both responded, `PODE!!, COM CERTEZA` hahah it just happened so fast, it was such a miracle!! tipo Tuesday he was trying to argue with us and bible bash with us and then 2 days after he’s like can I be baptized this Sunday...!!! hahah it was just soo perfect!! So we taught him the commandments and went through the entrevista with his, and then the next day he was interviewed by Elder Troncoso, our District Leader!!! It was just so perft!!!! I feel so blessed that I can help others come unto Christ and to help others follow the example of our Salvador so they can have the same happiness that I have because of this gospel, and with my family too!! It´s just sooo perfect!!!

I love being a missionary...I feel so blessed!! Sometimes I have my difficulties, and with each day I feel like a missionary more and more because I’m getting more comfortable with all the things we have to do, with the language, the food and what not!!

but yeah...ugh I just have so much to say but not a lot of time!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL...keep serving and helping others!!

BOA SEMANA

-Sister Talentino

P-day Picnic