All the interesting things happened at the end of the week so i´ll start on Friday.
I went to the hospital early Friday morning after vomiting all Thursday night. I must´ve eaten something bad, but the IVs they put through me helped and I am feeling lots better.
On Saturday we taught Manoela about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she accepted a baptismal date for the 29th of August. She just needs to go to church. Also we are teaching her older sister and their mom. We would like to see them all get baptized together. Saturday night we were walking to the church to watch the other Elders´ baptisms when we were were stopped by a man on the road. He is traffic guider and helps people park in a popular part of Rio Vermelho by the ocean that we walk by everyday returning home at night. He shouted at us, ´´hey Elders!´´ and motioned for us to come over. We ended up talking with him for a while. He recounted his whole life story about how he grew up in church, how prayer plays a role in his life, how he is less-active now, etc. His name is Vinicius, but he goes by his nickname Capenga. He is in his mid-twenties. He told us a story of when he was accidentally shot by a bandit while on a motorcycle taxi. It happened in the interior city of Bahia in a rural arera. The bandit was chasing the motorcycle driver and wanted the driver, and not Capenga. First the bandit accidentally shot Capenga and the driver crashed. While Capenga crawled away to hide in a field he looked back and saw the bandit shoot the driver. He then went on to tell how he almost died while hiding in that field because he was bleeding out, and how he was rescued and went through therapy to regain use of his right arm. All the details of his story and him acting it all out was funny and crazy.
On Sunday Diego came to church! He didn´t come the last 2 Sundays so we were happy to see him. After church and lunch we did an exposição in our area with the Santa Cruz elders and some members of our ward. It turned out to be great! Elder Nascimento did an incredible contact and began teaching two people. By the end they both had baptismal dates marked! I have never received such a great reference! haha. I plan on quickly returning to them to follow up well on that date that he left with them. I have quickly noticed how many less-actives are in our area. It seems as though a large percentage of the people here are less-active members. We find them all the time and they even find us. Everyone knows the Elders. We have some very golden investigators in our area that sadly won´t be baptized this transfer, but I intend to do all I can with Elder Costa e Silva to assist them in their progression to baptism and conversion in the next transfer.
Elder Costa e Silva is a great man. I absolutely love his attitude about the missionary work as well as his work ethic. It motivates me. He shows that he really cares for me and is excited to work together as companions. He teaches very well and i can tell that he has the spirit. Not only does he have the spirit, but he LISTENS to it. We shared with each other our goals for this next transfer and we are feeling good about them.
I am enjoying learning how to balance my time wisely, and use it efficiently while here in the office. There are always things to get done and tasks to accomplish. President Bangerter has lots of things for us to do! There also seems to be a mental division in the calling of a secretary . My mental state feels different when we come into the office, than when we leave to our area ; but not in a negative way. It´s all work, work, work, but it´s a different type of work and a different stress. About Elder High. I love him too. I will be honest that I am not 100% comfortable with the fact that he will be leaving soon. He still hasn´t showed me all the things i need to know. I don´t feel like i´ve learned everything concerning all my responsibilities as Executive Secretary. I also know that it is normal to feel like this. No one is 100% prepared for anything. We just do our best and learn as we go. I believe i still have lots to learn and I will give my best effort to be the secretary and the missionary I need to be to help this mission and serve the Lord in my callings.
These last few weeks our mission has received quite a few trainings on teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We all have stains, but they can be washed white. I know that there really only exists three basic qualifications for someone to enter the Church of Jesus Christ. First, you need to have stains. Well that qualification is easy! Second, you need the desire to be cleansed from those stains, and thirdly you need to be willing to make some small adjustments.
I know that God can purify us through ordinances. An ordinance is a sacred act made by the power of God. He gives us the privilege to follow his Son by participating in an ordinance called baptism, then receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Of course after we makes these ordinances with God we won´t be perfect. Everyone messes up. No one is perfect. That is why I am very grateful that God gave us another purifying ordinance called the sacrament. For me taking the sacrament is an opportunity for me to remember Christ´s sacrifice as well as a reminder that he lives. I am grateful that through this ordinance I can become clean again and prepare myself to live with him again. I know that all these blessings are available to everyone, independent of who you are, or where you have gone in your life. The atonement of Christ reaches out to everyone who lives, who has lived, and who will live. His love and sacrifice is infinite. I gives thanks to God for his love for us. I know this is Christ´s church, restored on the Earth.
Its seems as though serving in the office we hardly ever take pictures, so i went ahead and took some. We work work hard and play hard. Hopefully soon I will have more pictures of my area.
No comments:
Post a Comment