Wendel's baptism
God is Good All the Time!
This week was chalk full of highs and lows, trials and tribulations.
We had the baptisms of Renan and Wendel this week. Wendel was and is still a
bit shy, but he said he was glad he made this decision. Yayy! We also had a few
faltering investigators, and some who gave up due to fear and peer pressure. We
do have one new investigator who talked to the missionaries a while back, an
Elder Camargo from Rio Grande do Sul and an Elder Lambert, if I´m not mistaken.
Anyway, she reads The Book of Mormon
every night and believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet, yet never
got baptized, so we´re trying to see if she wants to make that next step now
and be active in the church
or not. She is a senior citizen, and is hilarious. She loves the missionaries,
she said to me, you know, the people who are rude to you guys and don´t receive
you deserve the eternal fire of Hell, alright, continue my child. She, like
many a Pernambucano,
likes to go out on tangents, she began talking about who the United
States is a country filled with crazy, sinful youth, but then you have a few
chosen ones, like this angel here, who escape from the fires of sin. She also
went on to ask me about why we observe the Sabbath on Sunday, interrogated me,
and then at the end said, that´s alright my child,
I too believe the Sabbath is now on Sunday. I think she was testing
me, but I´m still not sure haha. She also asked me about Joseph Smith was
persecuted and then went on to say, ´ta vendo?, how the servants of the Lord
are treated by this world, etc. Anyway, we´re hoping she and others will
progress.
Jessina, the investigator that´s older, also said to me that English
is beautiful, and asked what I thought of Portuguese. I said I thought it
pretty, to which she was all, Huh, really? It´s the ugliest thing in the world haha
Cleyton and Glaucione came to church this week! Yayyy!! They both
have really strong testimonies so it´s nice to see them returning. Raphael, a
youth that was inactive for awhile has been coming back to church and starting to
read the scriptures more faithfully, so that was nice to see.
Unfortunately, the Adversary has been working hard here in order to
stop
the work, a few investigators homes had totally different
environments this week when we entered their homes and we´re hoping we can
continue to accompany them and help them continue on the path. One of our
investigators that gave up that seemed interested in the beginning, when we
asked him if he had read and prayed, replied no, combined with a bunch of other
words to divert attention from that. However, Elder Russi bore his testimony
and I told him that if he didn´t want to search, he didn´t have to, that we´re
not here to convince or force anyone to do anything. That if he didn´t search
the Lord won´t reveal it unto him, and then bore my testimony that The Book of
Mormon is a sacred record and we left. Hopefully one day he´ll overcome his
fear.
We are teaching one lady here in Jordao who´s kids are active
members in the church, however she is really timid and afraid of making the
next step. She said she believes that the things taught are true, especially
seeing the good it´s done for her children, but when we asked why she didn´t
want to make the next step, she replied, It’s difficult to explain. We´re
hoping that we can help her with the adjustment, along with the help of Gabriel
and Thais, her kids.
We have one investigator who was pretty great, who has tremendous
interest
in The Book of Mormon and some contact with members of the ward here
in
Jordao. He easily understood the principles we taught, and is very
emotionally oriented and motivated by his sentiments, which should help.
Hopefully he continues in the search. He also explained how he feels the Holy
Ghost to us, he told us that when he prays he feels really good, and that´s the
main example he gave us (which we didn´t ask for, he offered it to us). He
seems pretty great, we´re hoping he progresses.
We had one person here in town who told us he wanted to learn more
about the church, etc. However, when we got there, just wanted to Bible bash
and to deny the veracity of The Book of Mormon, a book which he had never
studied or read. Elder Russi got a bit emotional, spoke a bit, and bore his
testimony, and afterwords I bore mine, but the guy there didn´t want to listen
so we moved on.
On the positive side, we had two women this week that stopped us in
the street and told us that they wanted their son/grandson to be missionaries
one day. One is getting married and has a baptismal date, (she said in the past
she was weak, but now she´s ready), and the other is inactive, but has a great
desire to return and raise her daughter in the church and asked for us to send
the missionaries over where she lives, in Ibura. We also found a new area
that´s in our area, if that makes sense, it feels like we´re in the interior.
We stumbled upon it while looking for the address of an investigator, hopefully
we can do some work there!
We also taught one inactive member, who doesn´t seem to have a testimony, at least not anymore. Her name is Luana, and in a sense reminds me of a character that would be in The Fresh Prince of Bel
Air. We asked her if she believed, or knew about this doctrine, etc.
(She was baptized when she was 13). She replied, in that era I knew, but now I don´t remember. She was nice and very friendly, but seemed extremely sad, as if she were wearing a mask of happiness but you
could sense the sadness underneath. She asked for a copy of The Book of
Mormon, which we brought, and hopefully she´ll search it more, but she told us
that now she doesn´t think the concepts of authority, etc. really matter, of if
a church is true or not, as long as she feels good in that place. She also said
to us that we would only change a small portion of the world, but that the work
we do is very good. She is quite an interesting person.
We have another guy who was baptized, and years ago was the Youth
President/Presidente dos Rapazes, he also asked for a copy of The Book of
Mormon. We asked him if he had a testimony of it, he didn´t say yes or know,
but he seems interested in knowing now. He also gave a prayer and said Heavenly
Father, I believe these are messengers sent from you.
Lukas and Leonardo showed up to the English class this week! Lukas
really wants to be fluent in English, he was asking for daily English practice,
which I´m trying to figure out haha. Anyway, hopefully some seeds will be planted that will bring them to the
Gospel,
there are so many evangelical churches here in Jordao it becomes
difficult for people to take the steps necessary to enter into the restored
gospel of Jesus Christ.
We also had a lesson with a youth named Jeremias, who´s house seemed
like it was straight out of Louisiana, haha When I said we were there not to
fight or argue with him, but to show and help him with his search, he replied,
Ámen.
Demetrius, part of the family of Junior and Priscilla, is still
progressing, but unfortunately the environment there seemed to be different,
we´re hoping to help them continue to progress even so. We also had some pretty
great almocos with the members this week, conversion stories, etc.
One sister told us that she loved the missionaries because she
prayed and prayed to find a church where she could truly serve the Lord, and
the missionaries showed up at her doorstep!
I am truly thankful for all the love and support from you guys! I
love the gospel. Families can be eternal, the gospel is true, and The Book of
Mormon is a sacred record.
Love,
Elder Talentino
Renan's Baptism
Chocolate, a gift from the District Leader, Elder Waters, with reference to my name:
(Matthew 25:14-29 For the kingdom of heaven is a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods).
