Well this week has been really good!
To start off I have to tell yall about an investigator that we started
teaching this week that is so awesome!
Her name
is Cassia. We met Cassia about 4 weeks ago. We were just walking down
the street and a younger lady stopped us after we passed by her and
said, "hey wait! Are you mormons?" And we responded "Yeah, have you met
with Elders before?" thinking it was a former investigator, but she
responded saying no, but that a lot of members of her family are members
of the church, and she just moved back up here from São Paulo. She
promissed her brother that she would make a visit in the chapel her in
Vilhena once she got settled down, but she couldnt find it. So obviously
we explained that it was not far away at all. She was excited to know,
and said she would make a visit in 2 weeks. FAST FORWARD 2 WEEKS.....She
came to church! But because we have sacrament meeting last here, we
didnt see her, because we were in Preisthood. She thought that church
was only for 1 hour so she left after Relief Society before we could
catch her! It was so depressing, But I called her later that day and
asked if we could visit her and share with her a little more about the
church. She graciously accepted and marked it for the next Saturday, as
it was the only time she could meet with us. But come Saturday 30
minutes before our appointment we were trying to find her house. She
didnt have a number of her house, just the road and the discription of
where it was. But we could not find it. We tried calling like 100 times
and she didnt answer her phone. We probably asked 15 people that live on
that road if they knew a Cassia that live close by. No one knew her.
After looking up and down this big street for almost an hour, we decided
to call it quits.
The next day she called us back...what had happened was she thought we were coming 7 oclock
in the morning, and we thought at night! We felt so stupid but we
marked it for Monday evening (One week ago) after our p-day. We told her
we were having trouble finding her, she described it again to us but
still had trouble finding her! But this time we invited a sister of the
branch to join us that talked with her in Relief Society that day she
came, and she is one of the Counselors in the presidency. Then without
us knowing she invited the president of the relief society too. So with
them we found Cassia's house and got to know her a little better. She is
about 28 years old has a 7 year old daughter, and its just them that
live together here. She is super sweet and again she explained to us
about her family in São Paulo that are members.
Then
we started to the lesson. It went so well, we were able to switch off
teaching different principles and have both of these wonderful sisters
testify and explain so clearly as they could speak the language and
relate to her even better than we could. We got to the part about the
Book of Mormon and challenged her to read it she accepted but really had
a lot of questions of how she would receive her answer. Both my
companion, and these 2 sisters gave thier stories of conversion and how
they received their own answers. It was really powerful and it helped
her realized that each one of us is different, and receive our answer
different. She felt good about it and said she would read and pray, and
this included praying about the date we set with her for Dec 7th. for
baptism. She said if she receives her answer, she would be baptized. The
spirit was really strong, and I know it was because we had members with
us! What a powerful spirit they were able to bring to our lesson, and I
don't think they even recognize that! But we had her give the closing
prayer, she wasnt confortable with it, but because we followed the
pattern of having a kneeling prayer, she did it. It wasnt perfect, but
it was soooo good! It was sincere!
But in this
past week we have met with her 2 other times and she came to church
yesterday for ALL 3 hours! Not just the first one! haha But she is doing
so well. The second time we came over she said she had read, and that
she had called her brother, who has 19 years, and asked how he recieved
his answer about the book of Mormon and baptism. And then she asked him
what she should do, and he replied, "Do what they asked, pray. But
really, sincerely pray to know!" What a good brother right?!?! It was so
cool she said she has been praying and that she feels good about
everything, but that she wants to keep reading and praying. She did
exactly that and read all of the introductions, testimonies, etc. by the
next time we visited her. She said she had a hard day the day before we
came. She also explained that she often feels really alone, and that
its really hard for her sometimes. But she said that night she said a
prayer asking for help and to know the right path, and she said she
heard a little voice whisper to her saying, "My daughter, be calm. I am
with you, and continue strong." (Thats the best translation I can give,
its not exactly what she said) But she sarted to cry as she said it.
Elder Neyra testified that Heavenly Father is reaching out to her and
answering her prayers. That he is really there for each one of us, and
testified that this is the right path that she is starting to walk. She
then gave the closing prayer, kneeling again, and mentioned baptism for
the first time in her prayer. She is really progressing well, and
starting to know how the spirit can talk to her!
Well
I didnt know I was going to share that much about her, but you can just
imagine how excited we are about her! We hope all will go well this
week too to prepare her for baptism. Its not super firm for this week,
but if not this week next week for sure!
But
in other news, President Casto came to Vilhena. It is a long trip down
here and so it not very often that members here get visits from leaders
of the church. Our 2 Branches here are not even part of a district. They
are part of the Manaus Brazil Mission. So President Castro holds the
keys to proside over our 2 branches here. So he came to train the
leadership, preisthood brotheren, and hold a Branch Conference for both
wards! It was really cool!
We also had
interviews with President Castro. It was a lot faster than my interviews
with President Stoker in my other mission. It was still good, but I
still miss my very personal and spiritual interviews with President
Stoker, starting with a kneeling prayer, and ending with a prayer by him
pleading the Lord for success on my behalf, followed by one of the
warmest, sincere hugs you could imagine! But even though we just ended
with a handshake with President Castro I could still see the love and
felt the sincere support and trust he has in me. It was really good!
I
wish I could explain more about what I learned with President here, but
a lot of what he talked about will be applied to the missionary work
here, and so I hope to talk about how things are will change in the
right direction in my future letters!
But I
know that my Mission President is inspired by God, He as well as I put
full trust in the Prophet and leadership of this church, Which really
leads to trust in our savoir Jesus Christ! I know he lives and guides
this church and especially this work, because it is HIS work!
I love yall!
-Elder Swalberg
PS Photos arent working this week again. I will try agian next week!
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