Eai (what’s up) family!
So this week
was the week da chuva (the rain) – I don’t think
I’ve ever seen it rain so hard with such consistency in my entire life! It was seriously RIDICULO how much it rained
(especially after everyone said that it NEVER rains in Mossoró). Everyone dropped everything they had to run
out and “tomar banho” na chuva (take a bath in the
rain). Darn my current and ever
present skirt/dress combo that makes running and frolicking in the rain a bit
more complicated. But I did have some
pretty fun and interesting moments this week – so ‘bora la a gente’ (let’s go people).
This week we
had the privilege of meeting and teaching two completely different pastors rounding
my total number of interesting pastorly encounters up to five, two of which came
to church with us.
The first
one of the week was Nosso Irmato Igor, a fresh new graduate from the 4 year
seminary who’s about 26, bald with a healthy growth of beard and the longest
eyelashes I’ve ever seen. But how we met
was so crazy. We were walking in the
street and stopped to talk to this woman sweeping out front. It turns out her son had been baptized in the
church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints many years ago but had stopped
going and apparently lives in Fortaleza, but she goes I have the biblia de
voces! And quickly ushers us in where we meet her 2 grandkids who are 16 and 17
years old.
So we’re
sitting there teaching about how Christ was baptized and this guy appears in
the doorway and everything just gets super tense and awkward like IMMEDIATELY
right? And he goes….”opa. Oi.” (Hi…. "opa" is a greeting indicating
slight surprise: you didn't quite expect to run into that person where you did) “And I’m like who is this guy? A neighbor/friend/relative that had marked a
commitment with this family and is slightly miffed to find them already with company? And the grandma just gets a little frantic
and goes “oh yeah, these girls were just passing by and my son was baptized
first in their church before the second baptism – in your church, (enter even more intensity because we’re
starting to understand who this guy was) and they were just sharing a
message with us about the gospel of Jesus and why don’t you sit and
listen?” (Super breathless and feeling like – oh shoot – somebody save me.) So with little grace he sat down and we began
to teach the rest of the lesson on Christ and His baptism and the symbolism of
being baptized by immersion.
We talked
about how important it is that the person who baptizes has to have the
authority and power given by God and not by man to baptize. (Which
once again gets slightly tense because this man baptizes probably on a weekly
basis right?) So we finished our
lesson and my companion was rushing, trying to get one foot out the door, but I
just could not help myself and threw in the one thing that makes our church
different than any other church. How we
know that this authority to baptize by the power of God has been lost for a
long time since the death of Christ’s apostles (who all had been given this
priesthood power by Christ). And how
with the death of the apostles, the people became super confused and argued
over what was true or not. Many churches
began to arise with different beliefs and different baptisms because there was
no one around with the priesthood power and authority to answer questions or
disputes that arose. But because God
loves us, He has called a modern day prophet and apostles to restore the power
of the priesthood to baptize as well as to restore truths that have been lost
over the centuries. And boy did the ball
start rolling.
Question
after question. Scripture after
scripture discussing and bearing sincere testimony. We didn’t have time to talk about everything
but marked a different day to answer his questions a little better. I can’t wait until he reads just a part of the
Book of Mormon (aka the book that changes lives), it’s all the proof he could
ever need that it’s all real. I don’t
know how receptive he’ll be with it all but it still was way peaceful – the
spirit testifying the truth of it all with every word. #Missionsaresogreat.
But on
another note, we also met this youngin Juan (pronounced hoo-waw) that was so
sweet and also super intelligent with his 13 years of life. After meeting his whole family we were able
to teach them a little, and learn more about the Presbyterian church and meet
his grandpa (also a pastor of said church) who is seriously the sweetest old
man in the world. They love talking in
English and so I got to help them practice a bit. Good people with good hearts making the world
a better place. But Juan just gets so
excited and says I have a surprise for you guys but waited restlessly until the
end of the lesson – finally bursting that he (and his grandma) would go to
church with us on Sunday, but that if his grandpa couldn’t (because they ALSO
have church at the same time) he would walk there on his own later. And in the end just goes wait, wait, wait! Grabs his phone to take a picture of the 3 of
us and goes directly to the computer to print out 2 full sheets, color
photograph and signs the bottom – DE:
Juan Pablo Para Sister Staheli com Carinho.
And guess
who arrived early with his saint of a pastor grandfather on the 2nd
row? J
Getting to
teach and share with people something so important and a part of me like the
gospel (every day) has really made a
mark on me. God is real and I know that
this is His church. I Love YOU ALL. Thanks for all the support even if I don’t
have time every week to respond. It
means a lot!!
Sending my
love,
Sister
Staheli
