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| The gecko was on the wall of our house. It was actually pretty cool looking. |
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| The spider was in the baptismal font, which we were cleaning on Saturday ahhhhh!!!!!!!! It is the biggest spider I have seen in my life so far. :) |
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Creatures
Week 6 in Brazil
I AM SO HAPPY HERE. I can´t imagine being anywhere else right now, doing any other kind of work. All I do all day is work my hardest to bring happiness to others. I KNOW that God is real, and that He loves His children. I am full. I have never felt such pure joy as I have since being here and serving the Lord. I feel like the most blessed person in the world to be carrying the news of our Savior to the people of Brazil. I feel like I am holding something so amazing and precious and I can´t wait to show it to everyone! This precious thing is the news that, not only does the Savior love us beyond anything we can fathom, but that Heavenly Father has restored the complete Gospel of Christ to the earth, and we have a LIVING prophet today. Whoo! I love waking up every morning at 6:30am to share this news. We have been working so hard. Besides from 11am-6pm on Mondays, we are out doing the Lord´s work from 6:30am-9:30pm. I am lucky to have a companion who wants to work hard, just like I do. It is actually easy for us to keep pushing forward when we remind ourselves that we are doing it for our Savior. In fact, this is the ONLY thought that can keep us walking over 5 miles every day and teaching for hours every day, even being rejected quite often every day.
I promised that I would talk about the baptism(s!!!!) that we had. They are very special and I am so happy to talk about the amazing people who found their way to Christ.
The first person to be baptized that we taught is F. I may have talked about him before. F is in his 50s and was in a wheelchair when we met him. This made teaching him ideal, because he was at home for two weeks, not working. The Lord truly had a plan for him! The most amazing thing about F is his faith and love for the Lord. F used to use drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol. However, after first meeting the missionaries in 2007, he managed to quit ALL of those things. So, by the time we met him, he was ready to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ wholeheartedly. He says that God is his best friend, which I definitely believe. He is always smiling. His baptism was incredible and I know that he is 10,000x happier than he was when he first met the missionaries. He is on the path to happiness now, and there is a visible peace about him. I saw the Savior change his life; F´s faith in Christ will continue to bring him feelings of happiness and safety.
There are two kids who we got to teach who have lots of cousins in the LDS church. They are Ms, an 11 year old boy, and Me, a 9 year old girl. Their testimonies taught me that kids really do sense goodness, and that they are especially disposed to doing good and accepting goodness when it is presented to them. They literally lit up whenever we talked about Christ, and they were eager, excited, and anxious to be baptized. They helped us boost our enthusiasm for teaching people about Christ! Though we taught them very simply, they understand who Christ is and what baptism means. They are very determined to remain strong and firm on the path. Even though their mom and dad were not interested in learning more, we know that they have a great support system of family and friends in the church. It was awesome because Ms actually LAUGHED when he came up out of the water at his baptism. I loved it because I was already so happy and full of the spirit, and I knew that he was feeling the same thing - happiness and lightness. Whoo! Because of Christ, we can feel HAPPY and LIGHT.
The most recent baptism that we got to see was R. R is a 24 year old young man. We met R on the street and have been teaching him for the past 3 weeks. He is just a gem. His mom is very sick and is in the hospital right now, which I think has made him ponder on the deeper things of life. He is quiet, but when he talks about the scriptures or his testimony, we can see that he has a deep love for the Savior. R´s baptism was amazing because we knew that R has such a deep testimony in repentance. He has done some things in his life that he is not proud of, and had a lot of work to do to be able to be baptized. BUT! This just meant that he was that much more excited to be baptized! He would smile whenever we talked about it! This is how it should be! The thing that made me the happiest about R is that, after his baptism, he showed me something in the front cover of his Book of Mormon. He had written out the verse that led him to know that he should be baptized. It was 2 Nephi 1:15 - "But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love." Ahhhh!!! I was so happy to read that!!! I was so so so happy that he shared that with us because it meant that he was receiving answers from reading the scriptures! It strengthened my testimony in how the Lord speaks to us through the scriptures. It was beautiful. It strengthened my testimony that those who read the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart WILL desire to do good things, they WILL desire to follow the Savior´s example, being baptized by someone who has the priesthood authority from God, which only exists in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. R is a gem, and he has changed my life, really. It was an honor for me to see how Christ has changed HIS life.
I have attached pictures; you should be able to tell who is who.
My favorite scriptures that I read this past week were in Romans chapter 5. Verses 7 and 8 basically say that most people would not die for a good man. Even less would die for a righteous man. However, Christ died for all of us, and we are all so imperfect. We did not deserve his sacrifice for us, and yet, we are everything to our Heavenly Father and Christ. So, it was worth it for them. Now, we just need to do everything we can to accept this sacrifice, which includes faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Spirit, and enduring in Christ´s name to the end. Because of these four baptisms and so many other things, I know, I KNOW that this is what brings us lasting happiness and joy in this life. I want this for everyone. I want everyone to find as much happiness in reading the Book of Mormon and Bible as I do.
Thank you so much for the prayers. :)
Love,
Sister Williams
Week 2 in Brazil
"Blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land. Now my bretheren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever."
I think the biggest change from the first week I was here to this past week of being here is that my feet and ankles have finally stepped up to the plate!!!! Pun intended! I got new shoes that are super squishy, comfy, and UGLY. Needless to say, I have been much happier and much less tired because I have good shoes.
The highlight of this past week is teaching one of our investigators, F, who has a baptismal date for this Sunday. F is an amazing person who has made so many drastic changes to embrace the Gospel and truly follow Jesus Christ. They have quit smoking, drinking, and doing illegal drugs. When we met them on the street for the first time, they had been clean from these things for a month. It was God´s timing that we met them when we did, because they were just ready to hear about the healing that the Savior offers. Now that we are teaching them the Gospel, they have visibly gained an inner light of hope. It has been amazing to see. This Sunday will be an amazing day!
The low points of this week have been when we have had to stop teaching two of our investigators. They are C and A. Both of them come from very different circumstances, but neither of them were ready to leave certain things about their old life in the past and take the next step necessary to follow Christ´s example for us. Since there are people who are ready to be baptized, we need to spend our time teaching them. I cried both times when we walked out of their houses for the last times because I knew that I probably wouldn´t ever see them again in this life. I cried because of the happiness that they are keeping themselves from, and I cried because I just grew to love them so much, even though we had only known them for a week. However, I know that not everyone we teach will be ready to accept the Gospel, but I have so much faith that these amazing people will one day choose to follow the Savior and therefore find complete joy. I just have to add them to my list of people to pray for.
Even though I´m still really struggling with the language, I am feeling the Spirit all the time. It is a testimony to me that we do not need to understand everything or have a great knowledge of deep principles in order to feel God´s love. You don´t even have to speak the same language as someone! When we are teaching people about the Savior, I feel the same feeling of peace, love, and hope that the Spirit always brings. Seriously, Heavenly Father is amazing. I know that He loves His children and I know that He wants them to know that. My trainer told me that even if I can´t say something perfectly, say what is on my heart, because the people will be able to tell. They will be able to feel God´s love for them through my sincerity and the Spirit that I have with me. It is not hard to love the people here anyway.
The funniest thing that happened this week was teaching a family with only young kids in the room. Their four year old cousin came into the lesson right when we were asking the kids if they wanted to follow Jesus Christ. All of the kids said yes besides the little four year old girl. To help her a little bit, we asked her if she wanted to live with God and she said yes. We then asked her if she wanted to follow Jesus Christ, but she shook her head again. We found out a couple of days later that she thought that we were KIDNAPPERS and that we were asking her to follow US. It was actually pretty dang funny. She´s our little buddy now though.
Another really funny thing that happened was when we were talking to this 50 year old man on the street. He was going off about all kinds of different religions and I couldn't understand even a tiny bit of what he was talking about. He was shouting about Bible related things, and it didn't help that he was slightly drunk as well. Anyway, he started talking about something really fast, and then he looked at me and said, "explica para ela..." Which means "explain to her," as in, my companion is super white and so people assume that I´m the one who knows what´s going on. HA! It is REALLY amusing for me. I have to tell people, ``No, I have only been here for two weeks!´´ And then they look a little confused but Sister Corbitt quickly gains their trust. :) One time we were talking to twin teenage guys and both of them were giving me these little knowing looks on the side as Sister Corbitt was talking to them. I just gave them the knowing smile back like I had any clue what anyone was saying. It´s really funny. Sister Corbitt thinks it´s pretty funny too because she is obviously way more fluent than I am. Ha ha.
My new favorite food in Brazil is the linguiça. It is an amazing kind of sausage that I think they only have in Brazil. I love it though! I´m hoping that the hills here will help me not gain too much weight! Ai!
I love all of you and I hope that things are well with you in the states. Please let me know what´s new with your families!
Com amor,
Sister Williams
I think the biggest change from the first week I was here to this past week of being here is that my feet and ankles have finally stepped up to the plate!!!! Pun intended! I got new shoes that are super squishy, comfy, and UGLY. Needless to say, I have been much happier and much less tired because I have good shoes.
The highlight of this past week is teaching one of our investigators, F, who has a baptismal date for this Sunday. F is an amazing person who has made so many drastic changes to embrace the Gospel and truly follow Jesus Christ. They have quit smoking, drinking, and doing illegal drugs. When we met them on the street for the first time, they had been clean from these things for a month. It was God´s timing that we met them when we did, because they were just ready to hear about the healing that the Savior offers. Now that we are teaching them the Gospel, they have visibly gained an inner light of hope. It has been amazing to see. This Sunday will be an amazing day!
The low points of this week have been when we have had to stop teaching two of our investigators. They are C and A. Both of them come from very different circumstances, but neither of them were ready to leave certain things about their old life in the past and take the next step necessary to follow Christ´s example for us. Since there are people who are ready to be baptized, we need to spend our time teaching them. I cried both times when we walked out of their houses for the last times because I knew that I probably wouldn´t ever see them again in this life. I cried because of the happiness that they are keeping themselves from, and I cried because I just grew to love them so much, even though we had only known them for a week. However, I know that not everyone we teach will be ready to accept the Gospel, but I have so much faith that these amazing people will one day choose to follow the Savior and therefore find complete joy. I just have to add them to my list of people to pray for.
Even though I´m still really struggling with the language, I am feeling the Spirit all the time. It is a testimony to me that we do not need to understand everything or have a great knowledge of deep principles in order to feel God´s love. You don´t even have to speak the same language as someone! When we are teaching people about the Savior, I feel the same feeling of peace, love, and hope that the Spirit always brings. Seriously, Heavenly Father is amazing. I know that He loves His children and I know that He wants them to know that. My trainer told me that even if I can´t say something perfectly, say what is on my heart, because the people will be able to tell. They will be able to feel God´s love for them through my sincerity and the Spirit that I have with me. It is not hard to love the people here anyway.
The funniest thing that happened this week was teaching a family with only young kids in the room. Their four year old cousin came into the lesson right when we were asking the kids if they wanted to follow Jesus Christ. All of the kids said yes besides the little four year old girl. To help her a little bit, we asked her if she wanted to live with God and she said yes. We then asked her if she wanted to follow Jesus Christ, but she shook her head again. We found out a couple of days later that she thought that we were KIDNAPPERS and that we were asking her to follow US. It was actually pretty dang funny. She´s our little buddy now though.
Another really funny thing that happened was when we were talking to this 50 year old man on the street. He was going off about all kinds of different religions and I couldn't understand even a tiny bit of what he was talking about. He was shouting about Bible related things, and it didn't help that he was slightly drunk as well. Anyway, he started talking about something really fast, and then he looked at me and said, "explica para ela..." Which means "explain to her," as in, my companion is super white and so people assume that I´m the one who knows what´s going on. HA! It is REALLY amusing for me. I have to tell people, ``No, I have only been here for two weeks!´´ And then they look a little confused but Sister Corbitt quickly gains their trust. :) One time we were talking to twin teenage guys and both of them were giving me these little knowing looks on the side as Sister Corbitt was talking to them. I just gave them the knowing smile back like I had any clue what anyone was saying. It´s really funny. Sister Corbitt thinks it´s pretty funny too because she is obviously way more fluent than I am. Ha ha.
My new favorite food in Brazil is the linguiça. It is an amazing kind of sausage that I think they only have in Brazil. I love it though! I´m hoping that the hills here will help me not gain too much weight! Ai!
I love all of you and I hope that things are well with you in the states. Please let me know what´s new with your families!
Com amor,
Sister Williams
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