Semana 12--end of Transfer #1
Oi família!
Can´t believe I
finished my first transfer in the field.. crazy. The
mission really does
fly by. Did you all realize that Mother´s Day is
less than a month
away?! Not sure if I´ll remember how to speak
English by then but
I´ll do my best ;)
This week I want to
talk less about what I did, and more about what
I´ve learned on the
mission so far and share my testimony of what I
have learned to be
true.
I have come to know
more powerfully than ever that God is our Heavenly
Father, and he
absolutely knows us, knows what we are doing, where we
are, and loves us
perfectly. He loves us so much that he gave us this
world to come to -
to learn and grow together as families, to have
experiences of
happiness and joy, and to have experiences of pain,
trial, and
sufferings. I often think of the experiences that we have
had as a family that
have shaken us but have brought us closer to God.
I am so grateful
that this Earthly experience gives us the opportunity
to really SHOW our
Heavenly Father our love for Him, and to prove our
faith through our
actions. I am learning now more than ever the
importance of
putting our faith into action. In portuguese, the word
fé (or faith) is a
beautiful acronym for the word itself. F- fazer (or
to do something),
and E - esperança (or to hope/wait/wish for). Faith
isn´t about just
having a belief. Faith is the expression of our
belief. And how do
we show our faith? We follow the restored gospel of
Jesus Christ here on
Earth. We follow the 5 principles and ordinances
of the gospel -
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by
immersion and
authority for the remission of sins, laying on of hands
for the gift of the
Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. What another
wonderful gift that
our Heavenly Father gave us the gospel to follow
as part of His plan!
Without the gospel, we really would be lost. I´m
so grateful that we
have commandments to follow, that we have PROMISED
BLESSINGS from
keeping them, and that we have scriptures to be our
constant guide. I
know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and
was translated by
the prophet Joseph Smith. I didn´t always know that.
But as I have
developed my faith and received a clear witness from the
Holy Ghost I cannot
deny what I am teaching to the people here is
absolutely true.
Every time I teach the Restoration and the first
vision I am hit with
the power of the Spirit that Joseph Smith really
saw God the Father
and Jesus Christ. I am grateful to know that if I
faithfully follow
the gospel and perservere until the end, proving my
faith through my
actions and works here on Earth, through the grace
and mercy of Christ
I can overcome both mortal and spiritual death and
live with my Father
in Heaven once again.
How do I know all of
these things? Because of the confirming witness
of the Spirit which
is in me. I am so grateful to have the opportunity
to bring this
knowledge to my brothers and sisters here.
In other news for
this week-
I got really sick
Wednesday, with the same thing that I was really
sick with in the
CTM. I don´t know what it is but it was absolutely
horrible, we had to
cut our work day short and I slept the evening
away. Don´t worry I
was back to normal after a few days, but I think
it´s because of the
sun and the heat. I´ve been more careful to drink
more water and stay
healthy!
We had several
miracles this week, I´ll tell you one. We had a baptism
planned for a young
man we´ve been teaching named Hugo. All was going
well, he accepted
the date for yesterday, has been going to church
every sunday, going
to institute, took out his earrings that he had,
reads the Book of
Mormon and prays, everything. So, we brought our
District Leaders
with us to our appointment with him so they could
give him his
baptismal interview. However, as we talked with him and
he opened up to us
he said that he has his answer but is afraid he
won´t keep all of
the commandments after he is baptized. He has a
problem with the
word of wisdom when he goes out with his friends on
the weekend and he
said he has a hard time saying no.. so the baptism
fell through but his
testimony is strong, we just need to replace his
fear with faith!
However the real miracle is what happened
afterwards... our
appointment with him finished at 9:20, and he lives
all the way in
Candelaria, which is an hour by foot from our
apartment. We were
with the elders, so we tried to go to the houses of
two members in the
same neighborhood but no one answered. At this
point we didn´t know
what to do other than just walk home, so as we
headed out and made
it to the main freeway, we were all just praying
that someone would
offer us a ride or a miracle would happen. Not two
minutes later, a car
stopped by and it was a member!! I don´t know how
they saw us from the
freeway, but it was a testimony to me that
Heavenly Father
truly knows where His children are, what they are
doing, and has all
power to help His missionaries and His children.
Don´t worry, I´m
fine and protected daily :)
I´m out of time, but
know that I love you all and can´t wait to see
what the next
transfer has in store! I´ll most likely stay here with
Sister Carvalho, but
I think we will get another companionship set in
our apartment to
take over the other area that we are covering right
now! Both Sister
Carvalho and I feel that this past transfer together
has been a transfer
of planting seeds. We were blessed this week and
have several
baptisms marked and we WILL baptize this transfer! It´s
time to harvest from
our labors.
Talk to you all next
week <3
Sister Brown
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