Oi gente,
This week has been another trial, but a better one than some of the other weeks here. Yay! We are reeeally learning about patience here. I have learned that the most important thing is just to focus on your work and your focus. The baptisms will come and the "success" will come too.
The most exciting news that we have for this week will be 5 BAPTISMS!!!! It has been an extreme act of faith but I think we´ll be able to pull it off, with the help and mercy of the Lord. I´ll explain about each person and what we´re doing/we´ll do with them:
1. Paulo . He smokes, but he really wants to be baptized and knows the church is true. Needs to get married to Daiane and quit smoking. Before the missionaries came to his house he hated church and never, ever went (not even to the Catholic church). Now, he´s been over 5 times and has been to several great activities and knows lots of members. He stopped smoking for a week and then was lying to us after another week, because he gave in after that week and smoked. He doesn´t want to stop because he doesn´t want to fall again, but we´re doing our part - leaving spiritual messages with him that are targeted to give him a chance to feel the SPirit and strengthen his faith. We brought macacão de batismo (baptismal giant monkey, er clothes. Crazy P-guese.) and gave it to him to try on, and practiced the baptism and took a picture. He liked it and we´ll keep up with that for this upcoming week. Our job: get him married and firm to quit smoking, then interview and baptism! He is the man!
2. Daiane. She is sooo strong. I´m pretty sure she´s the person who most wants to be baptized in the whole world, and she´s continuing to help Paulo (her fiancé) quit smoking. She will be baptized for sure and will help Paulo be baptized too. She prays with power and every time she prays we feel her sincerity and love for the church. Awesome.
3. Vanessa. Daiane´s sister, 17 years old. She´s kind of a "doido" (ditz, etc.), but she is really smart and is also ready to get baptized. Stopped drinking the dreaded coffee last week and never looked back. Ready!
4. Jônaton. Son of a less-active member, Irmão Anastácio. Irmão A. served as a missionary here in Autódromo many years ago and baptized a lot of people in the ward, and then married a non-member and became a little less active. She was baptized and then they were more active, but now he started a hot dog stand in his house (it´s cool) and has no more time, so he decides to work on Sundays. Jônaton was reeeally shy when we started with him, but now he´s way more open and responds well to our questions, prays and reads the BM almost daily. We finished teaching him everything and now he´s ready to be baptized! At first his mom was a little hesitant to let him be baptized (even though he´s 9 and is smart) and his Dad wanted to make sure he was doing it for the right reasons, but after we showed him the baptismal clothes and practiced baptizing, his dad said "he´s ready". It was a miracle! Baptism this sunday, too.
And 5. Ziza!!! Irmã Ziza, who is 4,579 years old (actually just 79, but we love to mess with her because she messes with us) has had a date marked and been interviewed 3 times, and each time something happened and she didn´t go to church/wasn´t home/got sick, etc. It´s been a severe trial of patience but now (or never) she´ll be baptized. She´s been ready for a long time and sincerely wants to be baptized - she just forgets about certain things sometimes. We´ll pass by every day to talk to her and she´ll DO IT!!!
These are the people, and now the request: please pray for these people, daily, by name. If you do that, I know that Heavenly Father will hear those prayers and bless them. They will be baptized!
I love you all and wish you all well. Hope you all know that I know that this church is true and real. Miracles happen every single day. I love the Lord, and He loves us more than we can imagine.
Great week! Let´s pray and baptize these children of God!
Elder Brown
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