This week was really good! We worked a whole lot, never stopped for dinner and hardly even talked normally because we were talking to other people, or about our investigators! I am dead tired so that's why I'm writing early today, its been too long since I took a nap.
This
week was weiiirrd because we were walking with this member- Carol to an
appointment and she asked how much time I had on the mission and I
stopped to think and was like- OXENTE hoje eu fiz 18 meses de missão! I
had forgotten that it was so close. Its weird to have already served the
full 18 months. I am just so glad that I'm still here and can keep
working one more month. Everyday is more and more terrifying because
every day is closer! But I really don't think too much about it, just at
the end of the day when I think- ohhh nooooo one more day already
passed. I'm not scared of going home I'm just scared of how close it is
now.
I know you are all anxious to hear about church since I
said it was a strugg and I have good news! Our prayers were answered!
This week we worked a lot with a man named Roseval. He is about 34 and
smart but doesn't know how to read. So that's hard. But he already went to
church once with his daughter, hes to the point that he believes Joseph
Smith was a prophet but still believes that his baptism was enough...
Last week he didn't go to conference, so this week we talked about church
allll week to make sure he would go because we would have to drop him
if he didn't. Saturday we stopped by just to remind him and he was like- well now i have to work tomorrow, I'm the father of my family ya know? i hardly made any money this week, i
have to provide. I tried to stay calm and started explaining to him
about the Sabbath day, and promised him that he would have way more
success this week if he was put God first and went to church on Sunday. He looked at the sky and said- if it rains again tomorrow
(becuase he sells ice cream by the beach) I'll go to church. We took it
as a deal, and reminded him of the blessings we had promised.
Sunday
we were soooo happy because we woke up and it was raining! But when we
passed his house to make sure he was awake and coming no one came to the
door. Also everyone we looked for that had given us their word that
they would go had excuses because it was Children's Day (yeah, a
ridiculous national holiday!) or weren't there. So we went to church real
sad. But about 20 minutes later Roseval showed up and just went into
the Elders quorum all by himself! Then when we went down to the chapel,
another investigator had come all by himself! And then a member brought
her little brother so we had another! It was a lot of miracles one after
the other, and now we have more people to work with. It's really
humbling that we called and looked for at least 20 people and showed up
with no one.. But the Lord brought 4 all by himself. It really is allll
in his hands, I cant learn that enough.
The other interesting
thing that happened is I convinced Afonso to bear his testimony! But he
got up there and started and then said- I cant do this and almost fell
down and limped out of the chapel looking like he was in a lot of pain
and about to pass out. Considering he has had 5 strokes I was really
worried! He was ok but having real problems with his legs and hadn't
eaten or taken his medicine so he was having issues with blood pressure
:(. It was really touching how concerned everyone was. I think nowww the
ward will help him have food to eat. His family later that day wasn't
concerned either, some even laughed about what happened.
Well.
kind of a sad note to leave off on but on a happier note i thank the
Lord everyday for having a family that supports me so much. Thank you
soo much everyone for helping me be here.
AMO VOCES!!!!
Seester Stevens
ps heres a pic of me on my 18 month mark with a goiaba beiju yummm
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