Acts of faith

Ola!!!

Well, its interesting for a second I needed to remind myself to write in English so that is pretty cool.

I am absolutely learning this language!! And so that is a major blessing! In the beginning of my mission to read a page in the book of mormon in portuguese I think took about half an hour with all the translating, re-reading, comparing with the english version and all those things. And now I can read about a chapter in 20 minutes!!!!!!!! WOW! Im telling you this is such a blessing! Also its really neat because we talked to this man while walking down the streets and he talked about different churches and things like that and then we talked about the gift of tongues and really Im a living witness that our church has the gift of tongues (well Im gainning it day by day anyways)

but yeah so that is really miraculous and its really exciting having meetings that I previously just really caught maybe a word or two but now I understand large portions of it!

So we are teaching some really awesome people right now. Specifically the girlfriend of our ward mission leader and his friend. So the girlfriend Fernanda is in church every sunday and everything so we will do our best to help her be baptized this weekend :)!! That will be really wonderful and amazing because it will be a Large act of faith on her part. What is really nice. neat and cool is that after she read the law of chastity pamphlet she said she Really liked it, and so that is VERY good. Also while I was teaching part of it to her she seemed very sincere in her desire to follow this commandment. And really it made me think that deep down all women have that desire to have a strong good family and healthy marriage with a loyal spouce and happy children (not just living with someone) but actually being married and having that family life. At least I hope they do. Or I know they are meant to have that desire.

Anyways we meet with a couple other families that need to be married and it seems like the lady is usually wanting to be married but sometimes the guy isnt. THIS is why its SO important to have standards and stick to them, TEMPLE marriage is the goal!! Because I bet in some of these cases the women thought they would get married pretty soon after being together, and then 10 years later!!!! SO that is not the plan that God has for his children, and we will do our very best to share our testimonies on the importance of marriage (in the temple) for time and all eternity.

Its pretty amazing because when Gina learned about the law of chatisty she KNEW that this church was true because no other church had taught her that.

I know with ALL my heart that THis is the true church of Jesus Christ restored to the earth through a living prophet, and is the only way for us to be able to have the fulness of the gospel and prepare to live with Heavenly Father and our families again for eternity.

Someone that we are teaching that Im really excited about is Alexandre, he seems Very open to learning about the gospel and very sincere.

He was very excited to receive the book of mormon (and kissed the cover! And then asked if that was okay to do haha, I was like YES go right ahead, while thinking that I was simply glad that he recognizes what a blessing it trulty is!! )

-------this is all in a week~~~~

He came to church

Accepted a baptism date (in 2 weeks from now)

and we gave him a book of mormon

and he read part of it already

and is eager for us to visit again!

 

So I have a firm testimony that the BEST chance an investigator has with being strong in the church after baptism is if a member is helping them along the way. Because when Alexandre came to church he came With Erlan, went to class With Erlan, learned to pray From Erlan, was shown how the hymn book works From Erlan, sat in sacrament meeting With Erlan, had the sacrament explained to him From Erlan.

Really it was SO nice and honestly super relaxing like we didnt have to do anything other than teach him and invite him to keep commitments (church, pray, read) and really that is the way I believe it is meant to be. Because these people need one on one attention and assistance because these really are NEW things and experiences.

I truly believe in the motto Every Member a Missionary,Because that is the only way possible for this work to be effective

I love you all TONS

also my trainer got transfered this transfer and is leaving tomorrow.

But I prayed about it and then read the scripture about how through Small and simple means great things come to pass, and really This is the Lords work and all things are possible with him.

So I am excited to see the Lords hand guiding me this week because really I will need it :)

LOVE YOU ALL!! I love being a missionary! For life!

Ciao!