Week 63: If God Brings You To It, He Will Bring You Through It.

  This week was a great one. Nothing super exciting happened. We closed out the 5th week of this transfer and we are beginning to prepare for transfers next week. The highlight of my week was all of Thursday. On Thursday Fredy Svendsen from São Paulo came to the office to give a financial training to Elder Costa e Silva. When lunch time came around, President Bangerter drove us to lunch. He took us to a nice restaurant in the Pelourinho. Since Fredy Svendsen has never been to Salvador, President Bangerter drove around the city a little to show him a few points of interest. On the way to the restaurant we drove past the famous Soccer Stadium. Then we went to the Lacerda Elevator and went up it to the Pelourinho to eat lunch. We ate a wonderful meal, then President drove us to the Farol da Barra lighthouse. It was a fun quick tour.
   When we got back, we had appointments that afternoon starting at 4 pm. and my companion needed to stay in the office with Fredy, so I went on a division (splits) with our ZL  Elder J. Silva. I had forgotten my tag, so I found a spare tag and I was Elder Roberto for the day. It was pretty funny. We taught a lot and had an incredible division. We arrived at one road in our area, stopped, and prayed for direction. From there we felt inspired to knock on certain doors. Every lesson we taught that day was in that same road and they all went really well. By the end of the day, we had made 6 new investigators, and of those 6, five of them accepted a baptismal date. Some were for the 9th of September and others for the 16th. It was really awesome! Now we have more people to teach and follow up on. It will be fun. I really hope that all of them will actually get baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
   Now we have 10 people with a baptismal date. Diego, Michelle, Lenilson, Joelma, Clara, Kailane, Romilda, Lucas, Luana, and Helena. 10! half of them are for the 9th of septemeber and the others for the 16th. All of them still need to go to church twice.  Lenilson and Joelma need to get married so we will have to reset their date. I´m not sure if Romilda is married to her husband either. But despite all the obstacles, all of these people are progressing! its been very satisfying and fun to teach them!
   On Friday we taught Clara and Kailane. To our delight, they both had read 3 Nephi Chapter 11, the reading we left with them the day before. They both understood the chapter and learned more about baptism. We had a good conversation about the privilege of having the gift of the Holy Ghost, and what someone needs to do to receive the gift. They understood that in order to receive this pure gift, someone needs to be pure. They understood that to be pure to receive this gift they need to be baptized. They both accepted the invitation to prepare to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a great lesson. On the other hand, their mom didn´t accept. She wants more time.  In the end I believe that all three of them can be baptized soon. Diego is still progressing like normal. He goes to church and is working on his papers to be married. His baptismal date is the 9th of September. We are super excited for him to get married and be baptized. It will be an awesome day!  Helena is a single mom with one daughter. We taught her the Restoration and about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. She accepted to prepare to be baptized on the 9th as well! We are super excited for the 9th, because multiple people are preparing to be baptized on that day. We are going to do all we can to follow up with our investigators, so that they can make these ordinances on the 9th.
   I know that the Gospel is true and that all of us can follow it. I know that repentance is an essential part of the Gospel. It is a joyful choice. I love Dale G. Renlund´s talk about repentance. He said, ´´ The fact that we can repent is the good news of the gospel! Guilt can be “swept away.” We can be filled with joy, receive a remission of our sins, and have “peace of conscience.” We can be freed from feelings of despair and the bondage of sin. We can be filled with the marvelous light of God and be “pained no more.” Repentance is not only possible but also joyful because of our Savior. ´´  This is true! Repentance is possible and it is joyful because of our Savior! He takes our burden and weight that is on us, and puts it on his yoke. He willingly does this for us, and we don´t need to ´´feel bad´´ handing it over to him, because he has already paid the price for our sins. We just need to recognize it, respect Him and use His atonement! The gospel of Jesus Christ is wonderful. It´s somethings that everyone needs in their lives. We change for the better with it. We become more. US + CHRIST = MORE. I´m grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary, teaching these principles to people. I´m grateful for my Savior´s example. Sometimes i think, why was I called to serve? Why was I sent to Brazil, of all places. Why was I called to be the secretary of the mission? All these questions came to my mind. Then i realized that if God calls us, we must answer and what he brings us to, he brings us though.