Semana 38
Olá família!
Lots of people wonder, what is a
missionary? This week, I really discovered the answer.
A missionary is a therapist, a
doctor, a friend, a shoulder to cry on, a listening ear, a teacher, a preacher,
a guide, a support, a light in the darkness, and a rescue. A missionary enters
lives and fills the gaps of peoples´ souls. A missionary represents the One who
embodies all of these responsabilities and attributes and more - Jesus Christ.
I eralized that what we do on the mission is more than just preach the gospel -
but we really are mirroring and reflecting the very work that Christ did in His
earthly ministry. Christ filled all of those roles because of the LOVE that He
has for us. And as I learn to have more Christlike love, I will attend to the
needs of people better. And that´s why Christ understands us so perfectly,
because "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son",
and through the Atonement itself.
As for this week -
We gathered some references of
relatives of a family in our ward - after visiting them and teaching them all
the Restoration, we discovered from a ward member that they are drug
traffickers and like sort of brazilian mafia.. which would probably keep any
other person away other than the missionaries right :) The mom is inactive, but
after our lesson she really felt the spirit and told us that she would come to
church with her family. She´s not married to her husband but he has already
visited church a few times and they had some other friends living in their
house who said they would come as well. Well, they all showed up to church
yesterday! And wouldn´t ya know, the gospel principles class was on eternal
families and marriage - exactly what they needed to hear. Their two twin sons
(who were neighborhood gangsters) were murdered a few years ago and the dad had
real concerns about if his sons were lost and if he could see them again. The
lesson on eternal families really touched his heart, and all of them loved
church. We visited them after church and taught one of the most powerful
lessons I have ever taught about what role baptism plays in reaching our
eternal goals. The mom had told us earlier in the week that she had goals of
entering the temple to receive her endowment, to be sealed to her husband, to
raise her family in the chuch, to avoid all evil things and have a happy
family. And their hearts were ready to hear what we had to say! After all was
said and done, we ended up marking their MARRIAGE and BAPTISM of the husband for
this month!! What a miracle. On top of it, their friend Marcos who is living
with them commented that when he was at church, he felt a light and peace that
he has never felt before, and when he got home it all went away and he felt
darkness. I have never seen a grown man cry so much in a lesson - the spirit
truly touched his heart as we talked about repentance and the opportunity to be
baptized. He accepted a baptismal date as well, and everyone is going to come
back to church next week. I left that lesson knowing that the spirit can touch
ANYONE and change ANY heart, no matter how horrible someone is or whatever
horrible things they are doing. I have high hopes and faith to change the lives
of this family and seal them in the temple!!
This week we worked SO hard but were
SO rewarded - remember what I wrote about a few weeks ago when I talked about
just being diligent in our work and not worrying about the measure of our
success (the anthill analogy)? Well we did just that, and wouldn´t you know
that we DOUBLED our weekly pattern (more than 20 lessons with member, 30 other
lessons, 30 new investigators, 6 marked baptisms, and 6 people at church), we
had 8 INVESTIGATORS at church AND.....
we baptized Moalisson!!!! Truly
looking back, it is a miracle that we baptized him. He didn´t want anything to
do with commitments and was just interested and curious about the church, but
he truly experienced a conversion himself and was baptized! Sister Gallo and I
sang a duet, I´ll try and send that home to you guys. It really was an awesome
week. The Lord blessed us immensely. And I have never been happier!!
The church is true, the book is blue,
and being a missionary is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me! I
can´t believe that next week (?) I´ll be halfway done with my mission! Wasn´t I
home like just 2 months ago?
With all my love,
Sister Brown
PS to answer questions mom - yes
Mossoró is burning everything and I have lost about 8 kilos - we´re on a good
streak! I didn´t get your package unfortunately and I´ll have to wait until
transfers at the end of October. YES I saw the picture of Elise and Sister
Baker´s brother at Homecoming!!! She´s gorgeous and so grown up! I got sick
frequently in Natal but haven´t been sick since I arrived in Mossoró.
tchaus!!!
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