Dear Family,
This week went well. So
this area isn’t close to my first area its actually in a different state. Its
closer to my second area but it’s still pretty far from Tobias Barreto which
was my second area. This area is SOOO small. we can walk from one side to
the other in 20 mins easy. It’s very small.
 |
| Mission Leadership Training |
Our baptism didn’t go through this week, there was a holiday
called São Jão so church was pretty empty and we didn’t have any investigators
at church this week. But we are looking at 2 baptisms for next week. We
received some references to and it’s so nice to work with references. I was
missing it for a while because my last area was harder.
This week was spiritual for me during an interview. So
we went on splits last week and taught a returned missionaries mom. She told us
that she wanted to wait for her husband to come back before she would be
baptized. He would only be getting back at the end of the year.
I'm not going to
lie, I had no idea what to say. It was just silence for a while. Then I said
"just pray about it" only our Heavenly Father knows what is the best
for us. She agreed. But we were still afraid that she wouldn’t be baptized. Her
son who just returned from his mission helped a ton. By the end of the lesson
we asked how she was feeling and none of our words saved her baptism but the
way the Spirit touched her saved it! I thought that was amazing how
sometimes we don’t have to say much but let the Spirit do his part.
I also did her interview which was one of the most spiritual
interviews that I have done. It’s amazing to watch someone go through the
process of conversion, it’s just something so amazing to me.
She would receive the lessons and then pray and then receive
an answer. During the interview she bore her testimony saying that her neighbor
tried stopping her from being baptized in the Church because the Mormon church
is a "cult". She said "anyone or anything can try and stop me,
but nothing will because I can’t deny that answer that God has given me during
my prayers"
This Saturday she was baptized, and everyone cried.
This week was a good week even with the world cup
going on and São João.
I’m starting to really like it here, Sergipe is a good
place.
This week I won’t be able to send pictures because of the
computer that I am using but next week I’ll send more.
I hope everyone has a great week.
Love you guys
Elder Toma
Our investigator Flávia didn’t get baptized because she is
afraid of her grandmother and family who are all really catholic. She is 19
years old, but she still wants her families support. We have been praying and
trying to help. I think that we are going to help her by doing a family night
with a bunch of in the ward that are her age. 
I’ve been reading the Book of Mormon and it’s been the best
thing ever, I never did read it before the mission alone all the way through. I
remember that when I was in my second area I still was only a little way
through in Book of Mormon but then it hit me that I haven’t read the Book of
our religion! It was the first thing that Joseph smith did, God commanded that
he translated the Book of Mormon before he restored anything else! and I didn’t
even read it yet! I never felt so sad and I got on my knees that night and
begged for forgiveness and I promised that I would read the Book of Mormon every
day since then. My first time reading it all the way through was in Portuguese
about a few weeks later and now I’m on my fourth time reading it and it really
does help us through whatever we need. Its helping me finish this mission and
use these last 7 weeks to do my best. 
It was my second to
last conference and Elder Jensen´s last conference so when we are going home
they call us up to bare our testimonies so my 
