Closer and Closer to Baptism

Oi Familia!                                                                                 Monday September 9, 2013

Come vocês estão?

I´m doing great here in Brazil.  We found a lot of people to teach this week, now we just need to teach them and baptize them.  I´m looking forward to a great week and only hope the Lord will bless our efforts.

The highlight of the week was definitely taking a couple families to see the temple here in Campinas.  We took Raimundo e Josali e sua familia, and surprisingly they invited a friend, Lela, and her daughter to come along too.  All of them felt the Spirit a ton and told us they had never felt anything like it before.  It was especially a big step for Raimundo.  He has never liked going to Church or anything like it, and Josali told us it was a huge that he came, so that´s a great sign.  However, it´s going to be a process with them. They aren´t legally married yet, and have some problems with the Word of Wisdom.  This week we are hoping to teach the O Plano de Salvação e talk about eternal families, so hopefully that should get them excited.

Lela has been a huge highlight as well.  She is totally ready to be baptized, but the problem is, she´s moving to another city tomorrow.  Things are still kind of up in the air, so there is a chance she will stay.  If not we gave her the address of the Church where she is going and will talk to the missionaries there as well.

It was kind of a downer when we talked to Vandersson again.  He didn´t read the Book of Mormon, didn´t pray, and didn´t want to come to Church with us.  He is a great guy and really spiritual and sincere, but maybe a little to converted to his other church.  He expressed a desire to read the Book of Mormon, so we´ll give him another shot this week.

I´m learning to love Brazil a lot more this transfer.  I´ve gotten to know the neighborhood a lot better, and a lot of the kids love talking to the American who is learning portuguese.  Yesterday I had a couple dozen swarm after me all with a gazilian questions like ´Do you know Justin Bieber` or ´How do you say moon in English`,  and a thousand others.  I´m loving getting to know the people here better.

It´s amazing to see how far my Portuguese has progressed.  It´s still a struggle but definitely better.  Some days I feel practically fluent, and others I feel like I just got to the MTC, but I´ve definitely seen progression.

And one last thing that I almost forgot.  The box you sent got to me last Tuesday!  Pretty quick huh?  Thanks so much.  Especially for the English hymns.  The hymns have really become a comfort to me here on the mission.  When I feel down and out I love singing about Christ.  It really is a lift to the soul.  I´m memorizing some hymns in Portuguese as well.  So far I have the first verse of How Great Thou Art, Called to Serve, and How Firm a Foundation.  Love it.  The food was delicious as well, especially the Reeses, but it disappeared kind of fast in a house of four hungry missionaries.  Those word puzzles have been kind of fun as well.

And one last spiritual thought to close things out.  Just want to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  There really isn´t any other book out there as powerful.  I´m in Mosias (Mosiah for you Englsh readers) and am just devouring the words of King Benjamin, Abinadi, e outros tambem.  They all have such powerful testimonies of Christ.   I really love the last testimony of the prophet Nephi in 2 Néfi 33:10-15 but will only quote part here for you.

E agora, meus amados irmãos, e também judeus e todos vós, confins da Terra, dai ouvidos a estas palavras e ^aacreditai em Cristo; e se não acreditardes nestas palavras, acreditai em Cristo. E se acreditardes em Cristo, acreditareis nestas ^bpalavras, porque são as ^cpalavras de Cristo e ele deu-as a mim; e elas ^densinam a todos os homens que devem fazer o bem.

Eu amo vocês!

Evan