Jason's letter (Jason's subject line is referring to Ryan's subject line from a couple of weeks ago about who hid the ice cream under the bed this time. Jason hid it there several years ago so he wanted to make sure we knew it wasn't him this time.)
Subject: It wasn't me this time! I promise!
Hello Everybody!
We just got back from doing a barbeque with the other Elders in the district for Elder T. Ribeiro's birthday. We played basketball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee.
We finally found the golden family that we were praying and fasting to find: Ricardo, his wife Simone, their daugter Ana Carolina, and Simone's two sisters Sheila and Samara. They have all been reading the Book of Mormon and are really interested. Samara told us how she received her answer that the Book of Mormon is true. She read 3rd Nephi 11 and Moroni 10:3-5 and asked Heavenly Father if it was true. She then went to bed. While she slept she dreamed about Joseph Smith going to the hill Comorah and getting the plates. Then she woke up in the middle of the night with the desire to read more of the Book of Mormon and she happened to read the Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smoth that tells of the same story she dreamed about. We invited them on Saturday to come to church, but because it was at the last moment, only Samara was able to go. We were praying and fasting that everything would go well with the meetings and classes (specifically that nothing weird would happen as does every once in a while because everyone over 20 is a convert, including the leadership). Answering our prayers, a 22-year old lady just moved into our ward and made good friends with her. Samara is now planning to go to institute on Saturday and then to a Single Adult church dance.
Monday: During our lunch appointment at the house of Norma (Recent-convert, current seminary teacher) I started having a lot of stomach pains. Luckily I got through lunch without having to run to the bathroom, but it did take me 2 hours to get the food down. I couldn't tell her I wasn't feeling good enough to finish because a lot of times, the sisters in the ward can take it personally.
We had a spiritual experience at Margarida and Alexandre's home. They just hit the one year mark after baptism and were planning to go to the temple when the opposition took force to stop them. They had got offended this last week and decided to never come back to church. We felt prompted to not try to take sides or defend, justify, or accuse anyone. The thought came at the very moment that we should teach them our message in the context of the Plan of Salvation. We talked about how they had already passed their first estate and are taking the second test in this life. We talked about how we were created to act and not to be acted upon. I quoted Pres. Packer, "We must be thermostats and not thermometers." They shared with us all the trials they overcame to prepare for baptism, and they themselves recognized that there must be more trial to prepare for the temple. We ended the message singing the mother's favorite hymn and invited the father to pray. From what he said in the pray, I have no doubt that they'll make it past this obstacle.
Sunday: In all we were planning on 31 investigators at church. 27 of them fell through.
Saturday: The Reactivation meeting I planned with the ward council was supposed to be at 7pm, but only our Ward Mission Leader showed up. Luckily our integration night we planned was a great success. A few inactive members and investigators had a blast with Sheraids (Ok, I have no idea how to spell that), Missionary Tag, Circles, and hotdogs.
Because of baptismal interviews, Elder Beal had to stay both Wednesday and Thurday in other areas. I spent Wendesday with Elder Ferreira and Thursday with Elder W. Nogueira. I´d only been in the area for 2 weeks, but I didn't even get lost once. Ok, it's not to hard because I think we have the smalled ward in the mission (geographically speaking). It might even be the smallest in Brazil. The only challenges are the hills.
Thursday we had Conference of the Zones (They combined 7 zones in total because we had a visitor). Elder Araújo, an Area Seventy, came and spoke with us. He's the kid that would go out surfing on Sundays and his Young Men's president would walk out in the water to go get him (remember the story in Conference a few years ago?). He motivated us a lot.
Well, Goodbye for now!
--
Elder Jason Morgan Allred
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment