Oi todo mundo! Todo bom?? Aqui
em Conilândia todo é perfeito!;) Well, that is about the extent of my
Portuguese. Haha, just kidding. This week has been really good and my
Portuguese is getting a little better every day! I also have a goal to not have
ANY of my American accent left by my one year mark. It’s hard but everyday that
gets better too!
Well P-day we went to the
Convento da Penha! This is a HUGE Catholic Church on top of one of the Morros
here in Vila Velha! When you are on the top you can see the Third Bridge which
is AWESOME!! It is the thing to see when you are in Espirito Santo! The HUGE
Chocolate factory here in Vila Velha is another big tourist attraction and we
are going to visit it on the 2nd of December.
This week was awesome though!!!
We didn’t have any baptisms but we have 3 marked for the 7th of December! Their
names are Lucas, Daniel, and Gabriel! These are 3 young kids that we met on the
street. Daniel was the first that we contacted and we went back to his house
and his mom was really interested in our message as well! We want her to be
baptized but she smokes so that pushes her date back just a little bit. But
while we were teaching Daniel and his mother, Gabriel shows up. Daniel and
Gabriel are twins so it was kind of funny when he came in! But then he started
to listen and really liked the message. Then Lucas came in. He is very timid
and didn’t say anything the first visit but when we went back he came and sat
down by himself and loved the message!!! We went back a third time and they had
all read the Intro to the BOM but Lucas read up to 1 Nephi 2! When he got to
the pictures he read all the descriptions as well as the scriptures!!!! He is
VERY Bible smart and when we talked about everything in the bible he knew all
the answers but accepted the "new" doctrine. He says that he LOVES the BOM!
That is amazing!!! They are great kids and will be even better
Missionaries!!!
We were supposed to have a
baptism this week but it fell through because the Lady says she isn’t quite
ready. We have done everything we can with her and the spirit is so strong when
we teach her but Satan is working on her NONSTOP!!! It is really frustrating
working with someone to the point of baptism and then have it fall through,
especially when they have a testimony. I guess this is just one of the
frustrations of being a missionary. We are going to continue to work with her
and I know that one day she will be baptized.
I wish we were given more time
to email. There is so much more I
would like to share with you all but I am out of time. I would like to thank
those of you who have written me! You really have no idea how much those
letters mean to me and how some of the simple things you have said have meant
the world to me. I love reading your letters and if you have time, please write
a little note about how your family is doing when you send your Christmas card
so I can have something to write back!!!:) AND DONT FORGET THE CHRISTMAS
CARD!!!;) Haha well I love you all so much. God speed be with you!
One more quick thing, this
Saturday and Sunday we had an opportunity to hear from Elder Môroni Torgan of
the 70 and he talked a lot about missionary work with members! Missionary work
is so hard sometimes. 90 percent of our success comes from member referrals!
SOMEONE you know needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They either need a blessing
or prayer or service or SOMETHING! Please share these people with the
missionaries! Even if you are afraid, talk to the missionaries, they will be
able to help you. We don’t want to push people away. The missionaries don’t
even have to talk about the Gospel in the beginning. Just having the opportunity to meet with
them and find things that they need is the perfect way for the spirit to reach
these people’s hearts. Have faith!! And if you have wavering faith as Peter did
while walking on water, or the un-surety of the man who brought his son to
Christ, do as they did!!! Pray to Heavenly Father and ask him for faith to be
able to reach out to these friends and neighbors! I have a testimony about
this! It is so hard to approach random people on the street every day. I ask Heavenly Father to help me with my
faith to be able to overcome this and talk to everyone!!! HE WILL HELP YOU just
like he is helping me!!! In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
LOVE,
Elder Stilson
Elder Stilson
No comments:
Post a Comment