"I'm Ready" -Valderes

Hey y'all,

An exciting and eventful week here in the Brazil Teresina Mission in the area of the Taquari, Uruguai, and Cidade Leste Wards. This week was chalk full of miracles and changes, so I'll try to talk about all of that as quickly as I can.

MIRACLE TIME!!!

Actually basically everything I will talk about was pretty miraculous, so I'll get to it quickly:

Do you all remember Antônio? The guy that we tried to baptize 3 or 4 weeks ago but wasn't quite prepared? Well thanks to all of your thoughts and prayers he was finally able to enter the waters of baptism on Saturday and cleanse himself of all of his past transgressions! It was such an incredible, spiritual, meeting. There were quite a few people who were able to make it (including all of his children this time) and after the ordnance was performed, he said a prayer in the baptismal font after calling all of his kids to walk up and join with him. It was pretty darn incredible because he was usually very timid when it came to that, even during our lessons when it was just us. What an incredible, strong, spirit, we were able to take part in.

Bruno, Fabiano, and Yonnara were also baptized yesterday morning! We passed by their house during the morning to make sure that everything was a-go and they told us that their mom wasn't going to be able to make it. We were pretty bummed about that, but when we got to the chapel she pulled in with an Uber all decked out in her Sunday best. She was just pulling a little prank on us I guess. They all loved it, Fabiano and Bruno received the Aaronic Priesthood, and now Fabiano will be helping his brother get ready to be baptized this next Sunday (along with his sister Letícia that I will talk about now.

Pedro's parents told us about their daughter Letícia (Pedro is Yonnara's cousin that she introduced us to and who also wants to be baptized this next week) who actually lives right next to the chapel. After Antônio's baptismal service on Saturday, we went over to her house and shared a message with her. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and taught her about baptism. She accepted a baptismal date for this Sunday and will be baptized with her little brother. We asked her to give a closing prayer and she said in that prayer that we were an answer that she had made Saturday night. Just cool to know that people really are praying to know the truth and the Spirit somehow manages to guide us to them so that we can teach them and help them follow Christ. Speaking of which, I have got to talk about one last miracle here.

Francisco Valderes had visited the church a few times before in different chapels and had visited our chapel during my last transfer. We tried setting up a time to swing by his house and teach him, but basically told us that he had no interest. Yesterday morning, out of the blue, he sent us a message and asked us if we could go to his house to share a message with him. We told him that we would be at the church until 6 because of the different meetings we would have. He basically told us "well I'll just go to that last sacrament meeting, then!" and following a spiritual prompting I asked him to stick around after the Sunday school class so that we could share a message with him. I asked him what made him send us a message that morning and he just looked at me and said "I believe it was God." I told him I had no doubt it was and we shared a message about modern day prophets and the restoration of Christ's church. I had been practicing baptismal invitations with my companion Elder Oliveira and looked over at him when the Spirit was feeling strong and was very surprised when he just said the following:

"So we had a question for you.. will you be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ?"

I almost died of fear because of the directness of it, but staring into our eyes this guy said "yes, I will." I invited him to be baptized this Saturday and he accepted, saying that he'd prefer to do it sooner rather than later and is already asking us to give him a calling. He really is one of the Lord's elect that he had been preparing long before we came to know him.

Those are just a few examples of the ways the Lord showed His hand in the work down here this past week. Something else fun that happened was yet another emergency transfer! Man, I seem to be involved in a lot of these, but I guess that's a good sign. I've been wanting an American companion for a while now and I'm excited to say that Elder Hurst is now here in the area and we are now a trio! He served in the California Los Angeles Mission for about a year before coming down here and is going to be completing his mission here in December. He's a great new addition and I can honestly say that being an American has met all of my expectations. It's just nice to be able to regularly talk to somebody in my own language about things that hit a little bit closer to home. 

"For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul...

Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen."

Doctrine and Covenants 4:4-7

Sure love all of you guys and I sure hope that life's still going well for you all. I found out today that my recent convert Bruno just got in a motorcycle accident and ask that you all might keep him and his family in your prayers. Satan must know how much of a strength he's going to be for the Lord's church and is already trying to take him away from the straight and narrow.

Please shoot me an email when you get the chance and let me know how life's going! I don't even care if you think that your life is boring, I want to hear from you!

Also, wanted to thank Brother Peterson and the teachers quorum of the Cowley 2nd Ward for the care package! It got here safely and hope you guys noticed that I was wearing that tie in the baptismal pics from last week!

Keep up the good work wherever you all are! God loves you and wants to show that love for you! Just let Him, alright? It makes life so so much better!

Let me know if there's anything I can do for y'all!

With lots of love,
Élder Lindsay 







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