Oi!
I feel like every week is just a flood of personal
revelation where I learn so much more about the gospel and people and myself
and then I get on email and there is SO MUCH that I just don’t know where to
begin!
Right, with my investigators :)
So, Damião is our friend that was baptized last week, in
between sessions of General Conference. He is the SWEETEST man I have ever met.
Basically the literal definition of Mosias 5:2 - a mighty change of heart that
leads to CHANGE. We contacted him on the street over a month ago. We invited
him to be baptized right then and there and HE ACCEPTED! We taught him that he
needs to stop drinking and smoking to follow Christ and he said, Okay. We
marked to come back.
BUT he was never ever ever at home. Flash forward 2 weeks,
we finally see him again and since that first meeting with us, he quit drinking
and smoking. He just...stopped. He said that he felt so good when we said a
prayer with him that he just remembered that feeling when he was tempted to
drink or smoke.
Flash-forward to this morning. We were teaching in Damião´s
neighborhood and a man stops us in the street and says, I want to know about
your Church. You´ve been visiting Damião and he is a completely different
person! What did you do?
Wowwwww. What a powerful experience. The gospel changes
lives, in small ways but let’s not discount the incredible change that can
happen in just one month :)
Stefany, Emily, and Vivane are all sisters that we´ve been
teaching and meeting with. They are so pure and so happy and so SMART!
Seriously. They came to church on Sunday and basically ran the whole youth
class, they were participating, they already understand the gospel so well :)
The YW President is in love with them haha we´re finally revamping the YW
program here! We invited Stephany to prepare for baptism and she had some
doubts because she was baptized in the Catholic Church. We taught about the
importance of authority and following the example of Christ, and how the Holy
Ghost will always tell us the right path. I asked her, What are you feeling
right now? And she said, Hope. That this will really be the path that brings me
closer to Christ.
AHHHHHHH. I am so in love with these girls :) We are
preparing them for baptism in the coming weeks, so prayers would be appreciated
:) I can’t WAIT to teach about temple work. The reason we are teaching them is
because the missionaries taught their dad about a year ago. He was preparing
for baptism and everything but passed away unexpectedly. Now, Stefany went
looking for us to find out what the missionaries were teaching her dad before
he passed away. I have no doubt that with her baptism; the doors will be open
for a lot more missionary work on the other side of the veil :)
Running out of time, so really quickly.
This week is Easter. What does that mean for you? It’s
Semana Santa, Holy Week, here and I feel especially blessed to serve a mission
right now. I get to represent Jesus Christ, and celebrate and proclaim the
glorious news of His Ressurreição to everyone, every day. It’s incredible.
I know that He lives. I know that He loves you, and loves
me. I know that He loves to smile. He is a happy person! Remember His suffering
on the cross, but remember more the promise of life that He gives. We will live
again with our families forever. We can overcome our own weaknesses, every day.
This gospel is a message of hope :)
Love always, Sister Carroll
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