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
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