It Rained Buckets (Week 79)
Mother mercy this week everything just flooded. The city was attacked by a mob of mad clouds. Luckily for us in every single corner of our roof panels there are holes, so the water from outside could sneak into our house and take shelter from the angry cloud mob. Also our washing machine decided to take a vacation and so we've been paying our neighbor's machine overtime to wash our clothes too.
This week the work was so good we are seeing so many miracles! Julia, who is a less active member's daughter is gonna get baptized this week! We are so exited because her dad, Gledson, has been coming back to church and loving it. He's gonna be getting the Aaronic priesthood this week and so next week we're going to have 2 more baptisms of his younger two kids! It's been so amazing teaching them. His daughter, Alice, is such a special lil tot. We were teaching her and we asked her what she knew about Jesus and she goes "I don't really know anything my mom never took me to church or anything". Then I asked her if she thinks that Jesus loves her and she looked at me with the biggest smile and just goes “I don't think He does, I KNOW He does!" The Spirit was actually really really strong and it strengthened my testimony a ton about our Savior's love for children. Also it was amazing to see how she knew nothing about Jesus Christ but her 8 year old testimony of the Savior's love confirmed by the Spirit of God made it undeniable that she knew Jesus loves her. It was very special.
I have really been learning the importance of having good relationships with people and being a friend to the fine Brasilian folk. I've been trying to be really nice to the members for the last 8 weeks I've been here. I've washed cars, dogs, I even cleaned a whole house. There was this one Sister in the ward who got really mad at me for trying to wash her dishes haha. It's been really beautiful to see how service has opened up the members' hearts, and it has really accelerated the work here. I have come to really know that when I am serving those around me I feel God's presence way more in my life. I come to see the good in others because of service. It's lovely.Elder Ciocia and I have been really thinkin a lot these days about what we can do better. On Thursday we decided that we needed to get better at making Christ the center of our lives. As I tried my very best to put Christ at the center of what I do, I noticed how gnarly Satan's attacks became. Since Thursday temptations have flooded and it was really good to see how the enemy fears those who are fixed on Christ. I know that my Savior Jesus Christ lives, that He grew day by day and was strengthened through hardship and trial and temptation, and that He loves me. He's always willing to forgive and forget and accept you with open arms.
My camera still hasn't come back. The high road is a dangerous one to take. But my comp has some pics I think.
