September 23, 2013

Well this was another historic week. Elder Cooper and I are getting home DEAD tired every night. Ha-ha it’s a great feeling. 

So we have been working with this family that was baptized in another city like 15 years ago. The husband has been going to church every Sunday, and the mom started going these past 2 weeks. We are teaching their 16 yr. old daughter who will be baptized here soon, but the best part is that they have 2 older children who were baptized when they were like 12 and 10 yrs. old... they now have their own families.  We met one of their sons Cledson who recently got Re-baptized in the Catholic Church.  Meeting him and his wife Socorro turned out to be the best thing EVER!!!  We went and taught them about the family and the importance of it and she loved it... like L O V E D it.  She hasn't stopped talking to her family (brothers, sisters, parents and neighbors) about it.  We literally began to teach her whole family (which is really easy because they all live right next door to one another).  And then we even began to meet like the families of her brother-in-law and it just hasn't stopped. Elder Cooper and I said a specific prayer about a week ago, to find a HUGE family that will make a difference in the branch... looks like we found it.

So story time: We had a meeting in Teresina this week on Thursday. me and elder cooper were not too excited to go to it... we wanted to stay and work in our area, but at the request of the zone leaders we went... when the meeting started our mission president greeted us and then asked " Why are you two here?" ha-ha he wasn't expecting us to come to the meeting, he thought we would stay and work in our area... so we participated in the meeting and everything and then we ate lunch as a zone.  I got to see my old comps the elders I trained (oh cool fact elder De'Olivetti the 2nd one I trained is now my zone leader) it is so cool.  Then as the meat of the meeting was about to start for the afternoon our president said to us, " you guys can go back to your area and work if you would like." me and Elder Cooper jumped from our seats grabbed our bags and left, (we left so fast I forgot my bible hahaha) We then began the journey back to our area, a long taxi ride and even longer and hotter cramped van ride got back in our area... at 6pm we had marked with Socorro (the one in the previous paragraph to meet) so we left to go there. We arrived and she said I would really like you to meet my sister... she took us to her sisters house Lucieila and Ribomar. WHAT AN ELECT FAMILY!!! they are married (a real miracle just like Socorro and Cledson) and they don't go to any church so we began to teach them and another family (ribomar´s brother in law showed up with his wife (another family that is Married) like the fact that we had 3 married families in the same room is a HUGE miracle... it's like when you order a 4pc. nugget and you end up with not just a 5th, or 6th, nugget but a 7th!!! like seriously CRAZY!  We then watched the film Together Forever and tied it with a Gospel focus on BAPTISM!! As we finished teaching about baptism my heart was in my throat, because I knew it was time to invite, as elder cooper invited them one by one they accepted, they all accepted to be baptized! Then we invited them it be baptized on the 12th...and they all accepted!!!  As we finished the lesson and walked home Elder Cooper and me were shocked that we had just managed to mark 3 families for baptism before we leave!!!  What joy and happiness. That was just one of the stories from this week.

Another is that we decided to rent a van to go around the city before sacrament meeting to help members and investigators go to church... last week we had a frequency of 37, that is including the stake leaders who were visiting and teaching the classes... this week the lord helped us get 69 people jammed into our little house. Ha-ha it was so crazy!!  Everyone was there the only thing was there was no organization... the branch was not quite ready to have a frequency that high, so we rounded everyone up and did a giant Sunday School Class then sacrament mtg... Only 2 hours of church. The thing that amazes me is that even though it was crammed and hot and the most un-organized I have ever seen our church, THEY ALL LOVED IT!!! The only answer is that this truly is the church of Jesus Christ. We are going to rent out a school for next week and also have meetings with our branch president to help get things more organized for next week.

Elder Cooper and I are having a ball here. Never have I seen so much success in such a short amount of time.  The lord is truly amazing and his work is full of miracles.