Olá família!!
Okay so I LOVED the Thanksgiving
pictures!!! The food looked delicious, I could almost taste dad´s turkey and
stuffing right through the computer monitor.. also loved the
quotes\commentaries from the Motto Family on the email chain. I miss you all!!!
So to celebrate Thanksgiving here, we went to the church early thursday
morning, watched "Charly" (that LDS film that doesn´t leave a single
eye dry) with the district, and me and Sister Thomson made ourselves a
makeshift American football and played around in the hallway. It sure wasn´t
anything exciting, but I spent the day reminiscing on past memories and
expressing my gratitude to the Lord for what I get to spend my time doing here!
Sousa has heard your prayers - we got
water a few days this week! I don´t even know how we get water because the
ground hasn´t seen rain in like 5 years but I think it´s getting piped in from
the coast.
I want to share two experiences from
this week - Saturday night there was an activity in the church and at about 8
pm the Primary President came up to me and said "hey you know how to play
piano right?" So we went upstairs to the chapel where I discovered that
the next day was the Primary Program and they didn´t have a pianist. I sat down
to look at the 6 songs she wanted me to play and I said, "look, I don´t
think I´ll be able to play tomorrow because we have to go home in one hour. But
I´ll do my best to work it out and see what I can do." So for about 20
minutes I played through a couple of the songs she had given me, the whole time
stressed about a meeting we had the next day and I had a lot on my mind. Things
didn´t seem to get a whole lot better when I was playing. She could tell I was
stressed and said, "why don´t we do things the right way and say a
prayer?" To me that was exactly the wake up call that I needed - that
woman had faith that a prayer could change everything and give me strength and
capacity to play for the Primary Program. I was humbled in that moment and
realized that it was my faith that was lacking, and that this woman trusted in
me and trusted in her faith and in the Lord. The next day I didn´t play
perfectly, but everything went well and I knew that I had been an answer to her
prayers.
The other experience is an addition
to last week´s baptism concerning the brother of our ward mission leader. We
had the opportunity to baptize his other brother, Wellington this week. It
wasn´t all that easy, however. Up until Saturday night everything was clear,
and sunday he came to church. But something happened that afternoon and
his baptism fell through, he had changed his mind. Us and the zone leaders went
to his house, tried to talk him into being baptized and had a "lição de
fé" but nothing we did seemed to change his mind. After an hour we decided
to go back to the church. Moments like that are really difficult on the mission
- you do all that you can, you teach the lessons, you pray and fast, you
promise blessings and exercise your own faith, but then the adversary wins. As
I thought about what I had done, I knew that I had done everything in my power
and that I would not be held responsible for not having done my part. A few
hours later, we got a phone call from his brother Francisco who was baptized
last week. He had talked to Wellington and changed his mind, and they were on
their way to the church! We had a beautiful baptismal service, and on top of
that our mission hit a new record this month of 247 baptisms! Our zone baptized
51, not a zone record but we really worked hard. The Lord rewarded us for our
labors and I feel so grateful to take part of it!
I don´t have much else to report for
this week, but I am feeling the time start to fly by as the year closes. I love
you guys and am anxious to see your faces. Thank you for the continual updates,
and I´ll talk to you next week!
Amo vocês!
Sister Brown
