One Year Of "GIGA-ELECTS" -Romero, Elder (Oct, 2021)

Bom dia pessoal,

I wrote an email this morning nice and detailed and well thought-out, but Google decided to delete it whilst in the process of sending, so I'll give it another shot.

What a quick, stellar, week! 

It's crazy how quickly the weeks really do go by down here.

"What is a 'Giga-elect?'" you may be wondering after reading the subject.

Basically it is Raimundo Nonato, the man we had the opportunity to baptize yesterday; somebody who the Lord has been preparing to receive the message of His Restored Gospel. It's a term that Elder Romero taught me almost a year ago as we were serving in the Portuguese Wards of Orem, UT (holy cow, that's seems like a while ago).

Like I said in my last email, it was really out-of-the-blue that we came to find him; we were running through the streets like always when we felt that we needed to switch over to a different road. We took a little dirt alleyway and tried to talk to a couple of rapazes who ended up not really not having a desire to progress. Whilst talking to them, Nonato stuck around, covered in paint and stucco as he was working on building a house, and joined in when we said a prayer. We taught a brief lesson and ended up invited him to be baptized on the 31st of July.

We didn't have much faith that he would progress as he lives out of town, but when we got a call from him saying that he had gone to the church early and was waiting for us to get there, we instantly became very excited.

Thanks to the miracle of technology, we were able to teach him all of the necessary gospel principles and commandments over the phone before he passed the baptismal interview with flying colors on Friday. 

With every new principle and every new commandment he showed more interest and even more excitement. He went on to tell us that he had visited some churches but was just waiting for that invitation that felt right. When we showed up and talked to him, he said he knew that was what he had been waiting for.

Yesterday he was baptized on a beautiful morning and said he was just so happy and excited for reading future. There is no doubt in my mind thatvhe will go on to be an incredible lider of the church here in Tutóia.

So yeah, that's a "giga-elect."

After activities with the young men, young women, and a family home evening, we had 24 people in our sacrament meetkg yesterday (not that it's about the numbers, but that's 15 more people than last week that with go into this week with renewed vigor and the companionship of the Holy Ghost).

We also had the first "Munch and Mingle" which was an incredible sucess. The favorite was by far the chocolate chip cookies that I brought, but I don't want to get prideful over here.

Oh yeah, I also hit 1 year of being a missionary this week. That's kind of weird.

Love you all lots! Hope you're doing well! Thanks for your emails! I read them even if I didn't respond. So so grateful to have heard from y'all.

Have a great week and keep let nome know what's going on in your life!

Love,

Élder Lindsay

Also just wanted to share a quick scripture with you that I shared in sacrament meeting yesterday:

"And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;"

Doctrine and Covenants 59:9

I love this scripture just because of the plain truthfulness of it. By the time I get to Saturday night, I really am "jonesing" (is that how you spell it?) for the sacrament on Sunday morning. The world really does have a tendency to rub off o us as we go throughout the week.

While it is just a little piece of bread and a tiny cup of water, what they symbolize is something much much greater and significant:

"He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled."

3 Nephi 20:8

So if you took the sacrament yesterday, I'd like to invite you to think about that meant yesterday and what that will continue to mean as you go through this week.

If it's been a while since the last time you took of it, I'd like to invite you took take advantage of the wonderful opportunity you will have this coming Sunday!

If you've never tried it out, why not give it a shot this week? I can't tell you the blessings that you'll receive!

Actually I can! And I'm always if you want to shoot a message and know a little bit more!