Semana 20
Oí família,
One year ago from
this week I received my mission call - can you believe all that has happened
since? I sure can´t - life has taken some unexpected turns, but I am eternally
grateful that through the craziest year of my life I ended up here, on a
mission, happier than I have ever been :)
To comemorate my one
year....I had another baptism! We baptized Adriano at the ward activity on
Thursday. I feel like I´m making a difference in this ward, and in the lives of
other people. It´s the best feeling in the world. Speaking of baptism... our
mission baptized a new record last month: 246! And.. our zone alone baptized
54! And we can do so much better, too. It gets me so motivated to see our
mission making such great progress in helping people come to the knowledge of
the restored gospel.
Adriano was also
confirmed a member and received the Holy Ghost yesterday at church - he is so
much happier of a person from when I first met him! He bore his testimony in a
lesson this week, and shared that he felt like he had a family at church, and
that he knew he was loved. This gospel is more than just saving ordinances
restored upon the earth, it saves FAMILIES. We are all a part of God´s family,
and in turn we are blessed within our own families on the earth.
This week Sister
Lopes and I studied about how to help people recognize the importance and NEED
for a restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. After studying for some time,
we found some critical points we needed to emphasize more in our teaching, and
adjusted our teaching plan. What we realized is that people need to understand
the role of prophets and dispensations, what a prophet really is, and that the
prophetic dispensations in the Bible prove that God is the same yesterday,
today, and forever, and that He LOVES His children so much that He restored His
authority and gospel again on the earth. Hopefully we can see more of a difference
in the effectiveness of our teaching with this new focus, and we can do a
better job of CONVERTING people to the gospel through the power of the Holy
Ghost, not just convincing them.
As for
dissapointments of the week (they always exist, right?), we had been teaching
and preparing 2 families to bring to church and baptize, but this week one of
the families moved to another neighborhood and no one knows where, and the
other family is traveling to the interior for some family issues and don´t know
when they are going to return.... man. Satan works hard sometimes.
I don´t have
anything else to report, other than I can´t believe all my friends are coming
home from their missions these next few weeks.. and Bennet (Emily's cousin) too! Wasn´t it like
last week that I was working with Randy and Quinn in Boston, talking with
Judianne about "that day" when Bennet would be coming home? I can´t
believe that is this week! Hope it´s one huge party in the airport and Peterson
home this week :) That just means that I´ve been out for a long time too -
1/4th of the way done, people!
I am gaining a
testimony of eternal families, and this week I am especially grateful for mine.
I love you all, and I will talk to you next week :)
Com amor,
Sister Brown
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