27 January 2014

1-27-14

Dear Family,

Wow what a great week! Absolutely crazy but so great! The Greatest blessing this week was being a part of seeing Denise´s family change their lives and choose to be baptized. I really just love that family so much and I have so much respect for Denise. They were so firm to get baptized on Saturday but when we arrived on Friday Denise told us they couldn’t get baptized anymore because the Pai não deixou - he said they couldn’t get baptized. We tried to visit the Dad but it didn´t turn out too well. He lied to us about who he was so there wasn’t much we could do. We found out Denise has custody of the kids, but the dad pays for the agua e luz and the little bit of food they have and he told her if she gets baptized he won’t pay for anything anymore and he won’t talk to them and she was scared of what he might do to the kids. After much prayer we went and shared some scriptures with her about when we put God first he takes care of everything else. After a minute she just looked at us and said “okay we´re going to do it”. I wanted to cry because I knew what this meant for her. She was risking going without a home and without food or clothes for herself and her 6 children, but she just said if that´s what God is asking of me right now, that´s what I am going to do.

We arrive on Saturday to pick them up and the dad was out front in his car. My heart dropped, but he just said a few choice words and left. So they went forth and had, I think, the most beautiful baptism I have ever seen. One by one the 3 baptismal age children, (Chaue, 11, Taynara, 10, and Chaun, 8) got baptized with their mom and walked to the other side of the font. I could just see them going thru the temple to be sealed already and being the most stellar future missionaries. They really will be such awesome missionaries. Even though they literally have nothing, they never complain about it and love each other so much. And rather than sit and watch tv or get into trouble, they love to read the Book of Mormon together and the Liahonas we give them and they play together. They are all so smart! It was cute; 10 yr old Taynara told us about how  their dad was telling them all kinds of awful things about the church. (He´s the son of a pastor and has a lot of misconceptions about the church). The mom testified to him about the difference she could feel at church. When he told them how stupid it was for them to get baptized Taynara proceeded to tell him how he needed to get baptized too because the bible says you need to get baptized by water and the spirit and, he never received the Holy Ghost: :) Too cute. We were pretty excited to hear that they understood what we were teaching so well ;) It was also cool to find out how clearly the Lord was in the work of their family in so many ways, but one specifically - the first week we taught them they didn´t go to church and we were pretty disappointed. But that week she had a dream that she needed to go to church and take her 6 kids with her, so she was firm the next Sunday and has remained firm ever since.

The confirmation was beautiful as well. We had 10 Confirmations in Sacrament meeting!!! It was crazy and our mission president and his wife and the Stake President and counselor came to our meeting to see what was going on here and "find out about this onibus thing."  One of the challenges has been that Piriquara is waiting for our chapel to get built so we have to drive to another city for church and it has been a huge struggle for the ward but over the past month the numbers have been growing like crazy. I think the frequency is almost double what it was in some meetings when we got here and we´re working on the stake and mission helping us get an onibus every week so we can get some of the menos ativos there too. Anyway it was a pretty incredible meeting. The Spirit was super forte!

Another quick miracle this week was finding Nelma. One of the most beautiful first lessons I have ever had - she was so prepared!!! We were teaching about prophets and she was like "Yeah but today there are all kinds of people that say they are prophets but it just doesn’t feel right because they don’t have the authority to just say they´re a prophet". Then as we taught about how Christ established his church she said - "yeah but today in this world, where are these 12 apostles now?!"—(music to a missionaries ears). :) As we testified of the restoration and the prophet Joseph Smith she started to cry and just said "Eu creio. Eu creio." This is a Perfect example of how the Lord prepares people and then the Holy Ghost converts and we get to be the ‘in between’ factor giving the information.

The Gospel is true and I love you!
Love, Sister Lewis

Photos:
Batismo de Denise e Familia

Pintando a casa do Denise